Birthday biscuits

In honour of my Father-in-law's birthday I tried out a new recipe this morning. I've been looking for a good peanut cookie recipe ever since trying some given to my Mum which were divine. I keep meaning to ask my Mum to see if she can find out the recipe but in the meantime this recipe was pretty good.

Jo Wheatley's Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes about 15 (although depends how big your spoon is!)

Ingredients:
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 100g peanut butter, either smooth or crunchy
- 60g demerara sugar- 60g caster sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 100g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 60g salted peanuts or chocolate chips (I used plain chocolate as this is my father-in-law's favourite)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
2. Cream the butter, sugars and peanut butter together until light and fluffy.
3. Gradually add the egg and mix thoroughly.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl and mix until the dough comes together. Add the peanuts or chocolate chips and mix again.
5. Place scoops onto a prepared baking tray (lined with parchment) allowing plenty of space inbetween for spreading in the oven.
6. Bake for 5 minutes in the middle of the oven, remove the tray and give it a sharp bang on the work surface to deflate the cookies.
7. Return to the oven for 5 more minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly on the tray and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Recipe is taken from: http://www.recipesfromanormalmum.com/2012/06/03/jos-peanut-butter-cookies/

However I liked the recipe so much that I bought the book it is from which is A Passion for Baking by Jo Wheatley. It is currently available for only £5 and free delivery from Sainsburys here:
http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Books/Hardback/Jo-Wheatley/A-Passion-For-Baking-Sainsbury-s-Exclusive/product.html?product=E11076373

I'm looking forward to trying more of her recipes.

Anyway here are the finished cookies:

We took some over to my father-in-law and he liked them so much he even phoned to tell me! Praise indeed! We enjoyed ours too, very light and you can really taste the peanut butter. Next time I make them I shall give them a try with peanuts rather than chocolate and really must track down that other peanut butter cookie recipe :-)

Testing new baking pan

I have a slight addiction to buying new bakeware and new gadgets for the kitchen. My latest purchase is a baking tray for individual traybakes from Lakeland - http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14230/My-Kitchen-Individual-Traybake-Pan. So perfect for brownies. My first attempt wasn't great as they were a nightmare to get out of the tray. Reading feedback on the Lakeland site it would seem I wasn't alone in this experience. I had found that the brownies that hadn't spilled over the edges of the individual trays came out the easiest so I had another go, this time only filling each tray half full. This time the results were perfect. So this is the recipe I used (a family recipe we first found on the back of a Sainsbury's chocolate chip packet and which I've adapted over the years).

Chocolate Chip Brownies

130g (5oz) butter

350g (12oz) caster sugar

130g (5oz) self-raising flour sifted with 30g (1oz) cocoa powder

100g (4oz) plain chocolate chips

100g (4oz) pecan or walnut pieces (optional)

4 medium eggs (beaten)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (fan) or 190°C (conventional).
2. Grease the individual traybake pan.
3. Melt butter and stir in sugar.
4. Beat in remaining ingredients and put into the greased tin. (I tend to use an ice cream scoop as it's easier to get into the pan). Make sure you only fill each compartment half full. Better to underfill than overfill!

5. Bake in a preheated oven 170°C (fan) or 190°C (conventional) for 15-20 mins.
6. Leave in tin to cool, then carefully place a palette knife down each edge and carefully lift out of the tin.

If you need to re-use the tin then you can lift the cakes out warm but do so very carefully. 

And the final result:

This recipe made about 15 pieces so you can do the last 3 in the tin again or do the remaining ones in a standard cupcake tray. I suspect cutting the recipe down to the quantities below would fit 12 exactly but I've not tested it.
98g butter
263g caster sugar
98g self-raising flour sifted with 22g cocoa powder
75g plain chocolate chips
75g pecan or walnut pieces (optional)
3 medium eggs
0.75 tsp vanilla extract

Next time I shall try this recipe to try and find an exact fit for the tin, and would welcome anyone elses recipes to try.