The first Recipes I Actually Couldn't Wait to Bake. (Baking)

Member Name: katygriff

Product:	Baking
Date:	21/12/05 (456 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Yummy, Very Easy.

Disadvantages: None.

I hate cooking and although I have now learnt quite a few neat, easy recipes in the past couple of months I have decided I still hate cooking. My Mom has got it in her head that she will convert me into the perfect cook so she decided to teach me how to bake some fun things. Here is where this review comes in because I am not sure where these recipes came from as my Mom has had them in a folder for quite a few years so I decided to share them with you because they are very yummy.

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The first is Rum and Raisin Cookies:

If you are like me then you are already salivating a little at hearing the name because one it contains a bit of alcohol, to it contains fruit which is good for you so sort of balancing out the alcohol and then finally number three, it is a recipe for cookies.

So you need the following ingredients;

* 225g / 8oz butter.
* 200g / 7oz caster sugar.
* 200g / 7oz light brown sugar.
* 1 egg.
* 16oz flour.
* 3 tablespoon of rum.
* 250g / 9oz plain flower.
* 1 teaspoon salt.
* 1 teaspoon baking powder.
* 150g / 5oz seedless raisins.

As you can see the ingredients will not cost you that much apart from the rum and you can always buy a small bottle for a few pounds.

With the ingredients you have to do the following;

* Crack the egg and beat in a large bowl.
* Soften the butter which I usually find is easy to do by just leaving it at room temperature for about half an hour before baking.
* Add every ingredient into the bowl with the egg.
* Mix until the whole mixture is quite doughy looking.
* Separate mixture into mounds and shape into a circle.
* Bake in the oven for twenty minutes or until golden brown on a baking tray on gas mark four which I think is about 350°C.
* Serve on a separate plate after allowing to cool for around five – ten minutes.

Make sure every single ingredient is measured as close as you can get it as you will end up with an uneven mixture. If this does happen and the mixture is too dry then just add a little milk to make it go doughy. If the mixture is too wet then add a little more flour to make it doughy. When you are baking the cookies, do please keep an eye on them as the cooking time will depend largely on how large you have decided to make the cookies.

With the mixture above, I usually find that I can make around ten to fifteen cookies, half of which I usually make myself. I always think the mixture is nice to eat as well so a bit of advice is after you have made the cookies, do scrape the bowl clean and eat the remaining mixture as it is yummy. The cookies when they are cooked should look just very slightly golden and sort of cookie shaped but when I tried this recipe they came out kind of all stuck together so I would recommend making sure they have some space between them on the baking tray.

Now these cookies taste exactly as you would expect them to so sort of like the ice-cream you can get. The taste of the rum is not overpowering and the raisins give them some lovely texture. When you bite into one they are lovely and soft and honestly they are so full of flavour that you cannot just have one. Just warning you before you make them because I do not want you all to blame me for some weight gain because of this recipe.

So I hope you enjoy this gorgeous recipe and always be glad in the fact that if you do not like the cookies then you can just drink the remainder of the rum.

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The second recipe is cinnamon and peanut cookies:

Yes I know I am giving you two cookie recipes for the baking section but I told you I was having some fun with my cooking at the moment.

The ingredients for this one then;

* 4oz butter.
* 4oz soft brown sugar.
* 1 egg.
* 4 tablespoon honey.
* 9oz wholemeal flour.
* ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon.
* 1 teaspoon baking powder.
* Pinch salt.
* 3oz shelled peanuts.

This is what you do;

* Soften the butter as in the above recipe.
* Mix the butter and the sugar together until it looks quite creamy.
* Beat an egg and add to the butter and sugar.
* Add the honey, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
* Grease a baking tray and just place heaps of the mixture in piles on the tray again making sure they are separated well.
* Place peanuts on the top of the cookies.
* Bake in the oven for about twenty minutes on gas mark four.

Again the ingredients need to be measured well and make sure the cookies are separated well so to allow for them spreading a bit while they are baking. These cookies do appear to look the same as the ones above when they are cooked apart from the fact that the raisins are replaced by peanuts. I should tell you at this point that although I made them with peanuts, I think they would be nice with other types of nuts such as pecans or even with raisins and I am sure that there are other things that would be nice to mix with cinnamon.

Now I love nuts so these cookies are my favourite out of the two and I find that they are really soft but really crunchy at the same time. The cinnamon is not too overpowering so people who are not a huge fan may still enjoy these or simply just cut own the amount of cinnamon in the recipe. Again I will warn you that I personally can not just have one of these as they are that yummy.

The recipe makes about ten cookies at a reasonable size and they are best eaten when they are still slightly warm after coming out of the oven.

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So there you go, a couple of interesting, fun and really yummy recipes. I certainly needed to know these after doing really boring main meals for a while, (remember I only write down the odd recipe but my Mom has started making me make meals all of the time) so I actually enjoyed cooking these and they are very easy to do.

Have some fun cooking.

Thanks for reading.

xxx

Summary: I do Love Cookies.