Sunday 4 August 2013

New Favourite Recipes

It's no secret that I love to bake but I am definitely guilty of sticking to a rather narrow range of recipes.  It's not that I'm worried about trying new recipes, it's just that more often than not I don't have a lot of time to bake so it's much easier to stick to what I know.  To try and break myself of this I added 'try new recipes' to my 30 things list so that I would make a little more time to be adventurous. 

Anyway, after trying a couple of new baked goodies and posting pics on Instagram, a couple of people (both called Lou, incidently! Hi Lou & Lou!!) asked me for recipes so I thought I'd post them on here.

The first is a Nigella one that I stumbled upon whilst perusing Instagram.  They are mega easy and totally delicious.

Sweet and Salty Crunch Bars

You will need:
300g chocolate (I use the 30p a bar supermarket stuff!)
125g butter
3 Tablespoons golden syrup
200g salted peanuts (again I used the 'value' type ones)
4 normal sized Crunchie bars

Melt together the butter, chocolate, and syrup.  Put the peanuts in a bowl with broken up crunchies (I chopped them rather than 'bashing' them as you want them to be chunks).
Pour in most of the melted mixture, I save a little back to pour over right at the end.  Press into an 8" tin lined with cling film and pour over the rest of the chocolate mixture to give a nice smooth finish.  Refrigerate and enjoy! So easy!

The second is something I tried today after finding on Pinterest (so it also ticks my 'make something from pinterest each month' on my 30 list!)

Bounty Cupcakes

To make a dozen of these you will need:
110g Caster sugar 
75g self raising flour
35g cocoa powder
110g butter
2 eggs
8 mini Bounty bars (or 4 of the two part ones!)
For the topping:
Icing sugar
Coconut milk
Desiccated coconut
Butter

Mix together all of the ingredients apart from the Bountys until light and fluffy.  Chop the mini Bountys into thirds.  Divide the mixture between 12 cake cases (small ones rather than the muffin sized ones) I usually fill them around 2/3 full, and press a chunk of Bounty in, pushing down well.  Bake at 175 degrees until they are springy to touch (sorry I can't be more specific, I never time cakes!!)

Make a buttercream using coconut milk instead of water.  When the cakes are cool, spread a little on top of each cake, press into desiccated coconut and add another chunk of Bounty.  And that's it!!

Happy baking peeps xxx

P.S if you try these recipes do share your piccies!