Crisp choc and raisin biscuits

As biscuits go these ones are easy to make, so how about letting the kids give you a helping hand for a special treat. As with all biscuit/cookie recipes you can change a number of the ingredients depending on what flavours you fancy.

This makes roughly 14 biscuits:

Ingredients

120g soft butter

160g soft brown sugar

210g plain flour

1 egg

1 tbsp syrup 

1 tsp ginger powder

2 drips of vanilla essence

50g raisins

50g chocolate pieces 

Method

• Start by creaming the sugar together with the butter.
• Add the egg and whisk and then repeat with the syrup.
• Mix together the flour and ginger powder before folding it into the mixture.
• Mix in the remaining ingredients and then roll the dough into a rather thick sausage.
• Cool in the fridge until firm and then cut into slices.
• Put the slices on baking paper and cook in a pre-cooked oven at 170 degrees with 15 minutes.

Eat warm while the chocolate is soft, or wait for a very crispy biscuit. 

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Quick Banana Bread Pudding

This is quite possibly the quickest and easiest sponge pudding I have ever made. It doesn't look fantastic, but it tastes great, while it is almost impossible to ruin. Get the measurements wrong, or the cooking time wrong and it just creates something different, but still lovely to eat.

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas
100g butter
100g muscavado sugar
100g self-raising flour
2 tsp of cinnamon powder
25g sultanas.
2 eggs
a splash of milk


Method

Start be melting the butter and then mash in the bananas (ripe is best here).
In a bowl mix together all the other ingredients and then mix it in well with the banana mush.
Place the mixture, which if too dry can take extra milk, in a 6inch squared dish.
You can either cook this in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or in a microwave on full power for 10 minutes.

Cook it too much and it can turn crispy, which I love. Cook it too little and it can still be runny in places, which I also love. So all in all, you can not go wrong!

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Lemon ginger crunch cheesecake

This lemon cheesecake has a strong and smooth lemon flavour, which is supported perfectly by the ginger base.

Serves 6
Preperation: 30 minutes plus time for freezing.

Ingredients:

300g of ginger crunch biscuits
75g of butter
300g of philadelphia cream cheese
200g of icing sugar
100g of mascarpone
100ml of double cream
3 lemons (jest and juice required)
1tbsp on caster sugar

Method:

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin, or your method of choice, until they resemble crumbs with the occasional bigger piece perfectly fine.
Melt the butter and mix together with the crushed biscuits.
Place in a round cake tin and push down to form a smooth base.
Put the tin in the fridge while you make the cream.
Add the icing sugar, philadelphia and mascarpone and whisk until it becomes a smooth cream - this is hard work at first but persist and whisking will become easier.
Seperately whisk the double cream and once thick add the jest and juices of two lemons.
Now fold this in to the cream cheese mixture until well combined.
Take the cake tin from the fridge and add the lemon cheesecake mixture - smooth the top and place in the freezer.
Finally, over a heat use a small amount of water to melt the caster sugar. Add the juice from the remaining lemon and heat until the mixture begins to caramalise. Take off the heat and allow the mixture to call.
Briefly take the cheesecake out of the freezer and using a teaspoon drizzle the cooled lemon mixture over the surface.

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Rich Rocky Road Recipe

At Christmas you are allowed to indulge on treats such as this rocky road, which has been adapted from a recipe by the delightful Nigella Lawson.

Ingredients:

300g of good quality chocolate - as dark as your tastes dictate
125g of softened butter
2 generous tablespoons of golden syrup
100g of fruit soaked in brandy (sultanas and cherrys for example)
100g of small marshmallows
150g of roughly crushed biscuits (ginger crunch and digestives work superbly)

Method:

Place the butter, chocolate and syrup in a bowl and place on top of a saucepan of simmering water. Mix together until a liquid. Now add all the other ingredients and mix together until all is covered in chocolate.

Now pack together in a foiled tin. (The foil will make it easier to remove the mixture for cutting into desired pieces when chilled)

Place in a fridge for at least three hours. Once chilled dust with icing sugar for presentation.

If kept out of the fridge this biscuit will not melt, but it is nicer to be relatively chilled.

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