All That I'm Eating

Recipe ideas for budget meals, everyday cooking and a little indulgence. Travel inspiration and restaurant reviews too.

Oat and Raisin Cookies

By 23 Comments

Oat and Raisin Cookies close up

I had such a craving for some proper oat and raisin cookies. Ones which are crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle and about the same size as my face. I’ve tried several recipes in the past and they’ve tended to be not quite what I’m after in my perfect cookie. Until now. If you’re after a healthy cookie I wouldn’t read on any further.

ingredients

You will need (for 10 cookies):

  • 225g unsalted butter, softened
  • 200g light brown sugar
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 190g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 240g rolled oats
  • 140g raisins

Method

I made these in a food mixer but you can make them with an electric hand whisk, or by hand if you prefer. read more

Store Cupboard Shortbread

By 16 Comments

Shortbread in tin

I often find that I buy nuts or seeds to make something particular and I get left with a few grams of them here and there. That’s where my store cupboard shortbread comes in. This year I am attempting to use up ingredients in my cupboards and I thought I would start by using the last few dregs of cocoa powder and some leftover hazelnuts; I am so glad I did.

Ingredients

Makes 12 pieces of shortbread:

  • 175g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 150g butter, softened
  • 50g chopped nuts, chocolate or seeds

Method

Grease a loose bottomed tart tin, mine was 20cm. Preheat an oven to 160C.

Add all of the ingredients to a bowl or food mixer and beat together until you get a ball of dough. read more

Strawberry, Basil and Shortbread Mess

By 11 Comments

strawberry and basil mess

When there’s strawberries in the house that’s how I know it’s summer. I never eat them out of season; I feel like it’s worth the wait to abstain from eating strawberries for nine or ten months of the year and then gorge on them from late May until they disappear again. Mostly I just eat them as they are but sometimes I like to make something a little more interesting. This Strawberry, Basil and Shortbread Mess is exactly that. Something that doesn’t take long to make but turns a weekday evening into something a little more special. And it does look rather lovely if I do say so myself.

Ingredients

You will need (for two small puddings):

  • 1 shortbread wedge – see recipe below
  • Handful very ripe strawberries
  • 100ml double cream
  • Few sprigs fresh basil

For the shortbread:

  • 225g salted butter
  • 100g sugar
  • 275g plain flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

There are two ways of making this. The first, and the best in my opinion, is to make your own shortbread. The second is to use some shop bought shortbread or other biscuits.

To make the shortbread grease a 20cm tin with a little butter. I used a round one for this but I have used a square one for the same recipe, it just needs a slightly shorter cooking time.

Beat the butter until pale and creamy then add the sugar and vanilla and beat again until very pale, smooth and creamy.

Add the flour to the bowl and gently mix it in.

Tip the dough into the tin and then press it down with the back of a spoon. Prick the shortbread all over with a fork and mark into wedges.

Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for an hour or so or until the shortbread is golden brown.

Leave to cool and then re-mark the lines for the wedges before leaving to cool completely and then removing from the tin.

Marking and then re-marking the wedges will make it much easier to cut into pieces when you take it out of the tin.

Whip the cream until you have soft peaks. Finely chop three or four big strawberries and some of the basil leaves and then stir this through the whipped cream.

Divide the cream into two glasses or bowls then add some slices strawberries, crumbled shortbread and a little more basil.

Strawberry and basil is one of my favourite flavour combinations; I love the sweetness of the berries with the aromatic flavour of the soft basil. There’s just a small amount of cream in this, it would be a little heavy otherwise. The buttery, crumbly shortbread adds a fantastic texture to this little pudding and it would work really well with other summer fruits too. Trying different biscuits is certainly something I’ll be trying too! And if you’re after some more really easy strawberry recipes you can find some here!

Granny’s Oat Biscuits

By 18 Comments

Granny's Oat Biscuits - pile

When I was young I baked with my Granny at any opportunity. She’s got mad cooking skills and will beat anything together that looks like it’s not going to work, portion up a raw chicken to freeze in the blink of an eye and somehow manages to produce amazing food from seemingly nothing. Safe to say, she knows what she’s doing. However, we made these biscuits once together and, thanks to a timely phone call from my Mum, somehow both forgot to add any sugar to the dough. We made some very successful crackers but it wasn’t quite what we were aiming for. Almost 20 years later I thought it was probably time to give Granny’s Oat Biscuits another try.

Ingredients

You will need (for 16-20 biscuits):

  • 125g margarine
  • 80g sugar
  • 80g oats
  • 175g plain flour
  • Pinch salt

Method

Start by putting your oats into a food blender and blending them to a coarse powder; a few big bits are fine.

Beat the margarine and sugar together then mix in the flour, oats and salt. Mix everything together with all the strength you have in your upper arms. It will look like a bowl of lumpy powder but keep on mixing and you’ll get a dough.

Preheat an oven to 150C and line two trays with baking paper.

Roll the dough out until it’s 3-5mm thick then cut out with a biscuit cutter. Re-roll and cut until you run out of dough.

Pop all the biscuits onto the prepared trays and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven then take off the trays and leave to cool on a cooling rack before storing in an airtight container.

Success! All the ingredients were added in this time; Granny was very relieved to hear this news. I planned on taking some round for her to try but we accidentally ate them all. There’s something that the blended oats give to the biscuits that make them extra tasty; I’m not sure if it’s the nutty flavour or extra crunchy texture. I think these biscuits are great on their own; a celebration of simplicity and something that can be made and baked in under 30 minutes. However, if you wanted to go a bit fancy-pants you could add a little orange zest to the dough or maybe dip the biscuits in chocolate once they’ve cooled down. Delicious additions and something I think I’ll be trying with my next batch. Which hopefully some of, will reach my Grandparents.

Coconut and Lime Biscuits

By 11 Comments

Coconut and Lime Biscuits - All That I'm Eating (1 of 2)

It’s February, apologies for stating the obvious. To me, February is the interim month; not as fresh as January when I’m enthusiastic about the New Year and not as good as March when you know that spring has pretty much arrived. So as far as I’m concerned February needs a bit of brightening up to get us all through the cold, grey days. That help can come in many forms; in this case coconut and lime biscuits. This particular flavour combination can transport you to a place of tropical tranquility and for a brief moment you can forget your February woes. *see below

You will need (for around 15 biscuits):

  • 150g margarine, cubed
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 150g plain flour
  • 25g desiccated coconut
  • Zest 1 lime

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl or food mixer.

Preheat an oven to 150C.

Roll the biscuits into small balls (just smaller than a golf ball) then put onto greased trays.

Press each biscuit lightly with a fork.

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the tray and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

For a bit of baking escapism it doesn’t get much simpler than this recipe. Mix, bake, eat; all in under 30 minutes (and washing up can get done while they bake). The combination of coconut and lime is sublime; subtle but just enough to give you that little bit of sunshine. I urge you to try these and let them to take you away from the kitchen table and onto a deck chair on a white sandy beach. Mojito optional.

*February woes include:

  • Grey skies,
  • It’s always cold but it never actually snows,
  • The washing on the line is either: wet, damp or frozen,
  • Being so over wearing two of everything so as not to shiver uncontrollably for two reasons: you resemble the Michelin man and it generates more washing, adding (literally) to my previous point,
  • The evenings are meant to be getting lighter but it all just seems like a big lie,
  • Realising that any new year resolutions you had have long since been thrown out of the window,
  • And (worst of all) we’re still in the hunger gap so no matter how enthusiastic you are about Jerusalem artichokes there’s only so many one person can eat.

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    Orange and Poppy Seed Biscuits

    By 37 Comments

    orange and poppy seed biscuits

    Hello and welcome to my new website; I hope you enjoy it! To kick things off on my new site it was only right that I baked something; I had to have something to keep me motivated during the changeover! These orange and poppy seed biscuits are a recipe from Cathryn Dresser (former Great British Bake Off contestant) author of Let’s Bake and she has teamed up with Pyrex to create a series of baking recipes for National Baking Week from 13th to 19th October. See below for details of the giveaway to win lots of Pyrex baking goodies in time for October 13th.

    The recipe below is one of the recipes from Cathryn for Orange and Seed Biscuits:

    Ingredients

    You will need (for around 20 biscuits):

    • 175g butter, softened
    • Zest 1 orange
    • Drop orange extract (I didn’t have any so I left this out)
    • 15g poppy seeds
    • 15g sesame seeds
    • 225g self raising flour
    • 75g milk chocolate (I used 50g and it was just the right amount)

    Method

    Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth then mix in the orange zest and seeds.

    Gradually add the flour and mix to a smooth dough. Refrigerate for around 2o minutes.

    Line a baking tray and preheat an oven to 160C. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to roughly 5mm thick and cut out using a 6cm biscuit cutter.

    Put the biscuits onto the lined baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes before leaving to cool and transferring to a wire rack.

    Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (ensure bowl and water don’t touch) then use the chocolate to decorate however you like.

    As you can see I went for a haphazard chocolate decorating approach and I’m rather pleased with it. I think I may have inadvertently tempered the chocolate too as when it had set it still had a good shine to it *pats self on back*. Pyrex had sent me one of their baking trays to try out for myself and I really liked it. From their new Asimetria range it has a nifty handle on one side making it easy to move about without putting your thumb in the biscuits.

    Giveaway time!

    If you’d like to get your hands on one of the baking trays that I used along with a load of other goodies, please read the rules below and good luck!

  • The prize consists of: 2 x 20cm cake tins, 1 x 12 cup muffin tray, 1 flan tin, 1 baking tray and 1 loaf tin (RRP £56). The prize is non transferable and no cash alternative is offered.
  • The winner’s details will be passed to Pryex who will send the prize direct.
  • The giveaway is open to UK residents aged 18 or over.
  • Closing date for entries is 11.59pm GMT on 30th September 2014.
  • Entrants must log in using Gleam and leave a comment on the blog to say what your favourite biscuit is.
  • Optional entry methods are on the Gleam widget.
  • The winner is chosen at random from all valid entries.
  • The winner will be infomred via email within 1 day of the closing date and will need to respond within 3 days otherwise a new winner will be chosen.
  • The winner’s name will be available on request.
  • Pyrex are responsible for prize fulfilment.
  • This is a joint promotion between All That I’m Eating and Pyrex.
  • Entry to this giveaway confirms that participants have read, understood and agree to these Terms and Conditions.

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    Chocolate Shortbread with Rosemary and Hazelnuts

    By 30 Comments

    A while ago I was having some lunch in a restaurant. For pudding I had some soft, sugar covered dough sticks which were to be dipped in a well known hazelnut chocolate spread. At some point in the kitchen a rogue bit of rosemary had ended up on my dough stick. I imagine there must have been some sort of herb-off going on in the kitchen between the chefs and the remnants of the duel had not been cleared up. Unbeknown to me I submerged it in hazelnutty chocolate and ate it. One of the best accidental mastications I’ve ever made and a combination I have recreated in this shortbread. read more

    Rhubarb and Hazelnut Shortbread Crumble

    By 33 Comments

    Rhubarb and Hazelnut Shortbread Crumble - baked

    There are times in life where a great slice of cake is just what you need. A bad day at work, it’s been raining and you’ve left the washing out or unexpected expenditure all seems insignificant, smaller somehow, when you’re eating sponge and jam. These problems can even disappear completely if it’s a cake fresh from the oven. There are those other times though. When cake just can’t cut the mustard and it’s the bite of a biscuit that you need.

    I had this need, this craving for a properly good biscuit. Nothing disastrous, or even slightly unusual, had occurred but sometimes you don’t need an excuse. I had a fridge load of rhubarb that needed a good home. Rhubarb is always very happy under a crumble topping but a crumble wasn’t going to help my desire for a biscuit. I devised a cunning ensemble where biscuit and crumble would meet.  read more

    Raspberries, Elderflower Cream and leftover Elderflower Shortbread

    By 34 Comments

    Raspberries, Elderflower Cream and Leftover Elderflower Shortbread - finished

    So you’re in the kitchen feeling a bit peckish and you spot the biscuit tin. My biscuit tin had previously been looking after some elderflower and white chocolate shortbread but was there any left? Yes. Yes there was some left, but just one piece. Should I eat it myself and snub all knowledge of its existence? 

     

    Unfortunately as I was plotting how to cover my tracks my other half walked in to the kitchen with a similarly devilish plan. I think for a moment we both considered lunging for the tin and throwing all sense of caution out of the window. I’m glad this didn’t happen as one or more of us would probably have ended up with crumbs in our eyes and shards of shortbread embedded in our forearms. read more

    Elderflower and White Chocolate Shortbread

    By 30 Comments

    When you’ve gone to the effort of making elderflower sugar it is paramount that you make the most of it in ever varying and interesting ways. I thought I’d run out of sugar much sooner than I have; indeed I still have around 500g left. The sugar itself has an incredible aroma and every time you open the lid it smells of hedgerows. The little elderflower cakes I made were lovely but I wanted something a little more biscuit orientated. Not only does shortbread fill this requirement it’s also much easier to take to work; no icing to melt/squash before lunchtime. read more

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