Baking is my main form of stress relief, or as I like to call it, procrasti-baking. I basically put everything off until after I've made some yummy goodies and feel a lot more calm and less anxious. So, because I bake once a week usually as part of my self care routine, I bring my bakes into work and we all share them on a Sunday shift. I don't know what it is about eating roast dinner that brings out the worst in people, but Sundays always seem to mean that we have our grumpiest customers in.
These were possibly my most popular yet, and they were definitely something I could eat a whole tonne of. Because of the oats and the use of dark chocolate, they weren't overly sweet, so you never got to a sickly stage of consumption (which has both pros and cons, hehe).
As always with my bakes, they didn't go quite to plan. BUT, I did actually use ingredients that made a perfect recipe this time. What went wrong was my baking tray size: it was too big so the mixture didn't end up going all the way to the edge. Thus, instead of coming out of the oven as a perfect rectangular bake, it looked more like a giant cookie. And god was it a tasty one.
Ingredients:
225g butter (softened and unsalted)
175g light brown sugar
110g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
225g plain flour
280g oats
300g dark chocolate chips
Method:
1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease your pan with some butter and lay a sheet of baking paper in it.
2.) Cream the softened butter and both types of sugar together.
3.) Add the eggs individually, stirring after each one. Add the vanilla essence.
4.) Stir in all of the dry ingredients, including just 150g of the chocolate chips .
5.) Press half of the mixture into your baking tray. Cover with the remaining half of your chocolate chips, and then cover this with the second half of your mixture. Think of it as a chocolate chip sandwich *drools*.
6.) Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and leave to cool for 45 minutes.
What's your favourite thing to bake at the moment?
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We all love a bit of festive cooking right? I've prepared this uber quick recipes for you guys to get in the spirit of things towards the end of the month!
Jelly-filled Oranges
Jelly sachet (flavour of your choice)
Oranges
Create and set the jelly.
Slice the top off of the orange.
Using a knife/fork/spoon/your fingers to scoop the insides of the orange out.
Carve an image of your choice in the skin of the orange.
Cut the jelly up into cubes and fill the orange up with it!
Oat and Honey "Scab" Cookies
I used the recipe from my Great British Bake Off book, featured here, as a base. My hatred for cinnamon led me to leave this out however, and I replaced the dried fruit with mixed red berries.
To create the topping I warmed up 100g of frozen blueberries in the microwave and then mashed them. I spooned the warm gooey mixture over the cookies.
What are you cooking up this halloween?
