Tomorrow is going to be mad baking day in preparation for the evening, but given that it’s only Mum and I going and Dad is staying at home, I decided to bake him a treat today so he doesn’t get left out.

I had a bar of Chilli chocolate from Thorntons knocking around (I may have bought a few too many of these once upon a time, I love it, but I’m a little sick of it) and a recipe for Chocolate Orange chunk cookies, so decided to have a play and sub the Orange for Chilli and see what happened!

The result an amazing smelling house (it’s worth making these for the smell alone), cookies with a light, cake type texture and a very happy Dad!

Look at that chunk! SO good.
And yes, they are a little anaemic looking but personally I am a fan of slightly underdone cookies…

Want to have a go at making these? Here’s the recipe, found on Recipe Network

250g butter, softened;
50g caster sugar;
100g light muscovado sugar; (I used all Caster Sugar)
300g self-raising flour;
2 tbsp milk;
175g orange-flavoured dark chocolate, roughly chopped; (subbed for Chilli Chocolate)
50g pecan nuts, roughly chopped. (Left out because I had none!)

Beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and milk, mix well then stir in the chocolate and nuts.

Divide the mixture into 18 equal portions. Roughly shape each portion into a ball. Put on lined baking sheets making sure they are well spaced out. Lightly flatten each biscuit.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180c/fan 160/gas 4, until lightly golden around the edges but still a bit soft in the middle. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool slighty before eating.

These were such a hit I’m going to experiment with other flavours of chocolate, Green and Blacks Butterscotch is begging to be tried as are some of Thorntons latest offerings (mango or banana perhaps?)

Let me know if you make these, and if you experiment with some fun flavours!

I’ll post the cheesecake recipe and malteaser cupcake recipe tomorrow

xxx

So, as I mentioned yesterday, it’s my Grandad’s Birthday today! We popped round with his presents yesterday so he’d have them to open first thing, but Mum, Dad and I are going round tonight for dinner and I want to take another little something.

First up I made a gingerbread loaf in place of a traditional Birthday cake. It is a favourite with everyone in this family, you’ll find the recipe in this post.

It isn’t the prettiest of cakes, but it more than makes up for it with yummy taste and smell!

Next up was an experimental batch of cookies. I have a HUGE box of muesli that is running out of date faster than I can eat it, so I wanted to incorporate it in baking, somehow, but I’m fed up of making flapjacks. I adapted a recipe I have for oat cookies with m&ms (posted on here waaay back!) and added in some chopped dates as they are my Grandad’s favourite.

Cookie experiment = massive success. I HAD to sample one and oh man. The dates give a toffee-ish taste and the cookie is crunchy and chewy at the same time.
They are now in a glass jar with a gift tag ready to be presented to the Birthday Boy.

For these cookies you will need:

150g self raising flour
150g muesli (I used a low sugar one from Lidl)
150g sugar (I used soft, dark brown, but caster is fine!)
150g butter
2tbsp golden syrup
2tbsp milk
Chopped dates…I used about double what you see in the picture and chopped each one in to about five pieces.

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180*c

Sift together the flour, muesli and sugar. Add in the chopped dates and mix together.

Melt the butter, syrup and milk, stirring until all the butter is dissolved.

Pour the liquid in to the dry mixture and blend well.

Shape in to rounds (I used a tablespoon for size) and place on a lined baking tray…these don’t spread too much so you can put them quite near each other.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. I have a fan oven and they took just under 10 minutes, so do keep an eye on them!

Wait for the biscuits to firm up then move to a wire cooling rack.

ENJOY

xxx