These cookies are the magical result of excess ingredients. I had a bulk buy of peanut butter that was approaching it’s best by date. And I always have plenty of rolled oats and chocolate chips – so they all came together in these cookies. I test my baked goods on a wide audience – from teenage boys and my gardeners to my fellow volunteers at Smartworks. And of course the Davinator, who’s never met a cookie he didn’t like. A European colleague said the taste of peanut butter was well balanced and didn’t overwhelm the other ingredients.

These cookies are quick and reliable – great if you realise after dinner you need to supply treats to the office the next day. My base recipe assumed American peanut butter (sweeter and higher in fat than European) and American butter (slightly lower in fat than European). I used a standard smooth UK peanut butter brand ‘Sunpat’ and unsalted butter. If you use organic or speciality peanut butter you may not get as smooth a dough because the peanut butter is less homogenised.

If you’ve preheated the oven and softened your butter – you can put this recipe together in less than 15 minutes, and each tray takes 12 to 14 minutes to bake. It makes about 36 cookies. You can make a double batch but it might challenge your mixer.

Let’s get baking.

Prep steps

• Preheat oven to 175C (160C if fan)
• Line baking trays with parchment or silicon – you can recycle the trays but if you have enough trays, it’s good for them to be completely cool when you drop the cookie dough on them

Ingredients

• 110 grams rolled or porridge oats (not instant oatmeal but otherwise tolerates most types of oats)
• 125 grams plain white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 115 gram unsalted softened butter
• 125 smooth peanut butter
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 110 grams brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 175 grams chocolate chips (your choice, milk, dark, semi-sweet, white)

Instructions

1. Combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Stir well.
2. Put the butter and peanut butter in the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on medium speed until smooth. Give this as long as it needs to be lump free and uniform texture.
3. Beat in the caster sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until well blended.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, about 1/3 at a time and beat until incorporated.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Drop by generous rounded tablespoons onto the cookie sheets.
7. Place in the oven for about 13 minutes. If you have two or more sheets in the oven rotate them half way through the cooking time.
8. Keep an eye on the first batch – if they spread out promptly take no further action. If they don’t spread out in 2 or 3 minutes, pull them from the oven and tap the top of each dough ball with a metal spoon to encourage them to flatten. If necessary for the first batch, then squish subsequent batches before you put them in the oven.
9. They will turn golden brown – move to a wire rack or laid out tea towels to cool immediately. Try to let them cool before eating – burning the inside of your mouth with a cookie is an embarrassing injury.

Thank you for reading the blog and trying the recipes. Please share photos of your baking and tag me @mamadolson on Twitter and Instagram.

Happy baking.

Pumpkin, in cans or the real thing, is widely available in supermarkets for a relatively short period of time. Americans (and some Brits) carve pumpkins for Halloween which renders them useless as food. But they can be cooked and eaten like any other squash. Canned pumpkin is hidden away in the back corner of American supermarkets except for the run in to Thanksgiving when its ubiquitous. Pumpkin pie is a given for most Thanksgiving tables.

The Davinator was very surprised that pumpkin pie is a dessert. Of course, many aspects of American food have bemused him over the years. I sympathise with his desire why pumpkin pie is a dessert and sweet potato and marshmallow casserole is not. Again, a topic for another day and another blog.

I wanted tinned pumpkin without paying for the stuff imported from the USA and sold in our local garden centre in the American speciality food section. Because I didn’t want to have to take out a mortgage to buy it. I think I may do a separate blog on garden centres because this is a retail establishment that I don’t think you find in America. Back to the pumpkin quest. I went on line and found a UK based brand. Then I had to buy a dozen cans to make the shipping reasonable. And there I was with 11 more cans of pumpkin than I really wanted.

What to do with excess pumpkin? Not a huge problem as pumpkin is lovely in bread, rolls, muffins and cupcakes. More of a storage issue as it’s not going to expire until 2021. These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were the biggest hit of the various ‘things I did with pumpkin’.

Now on to the real problem. The recipe below makes 30 to 36 cookies. Unless you double the recipe you will only use half a normal can of pumpkin. Readers will know I hate to throw out food. So, I made a loaf of pumpkin bread that nicely used up the rest of the can. The pumpkin bread is coming in a separate blog and I will link to it from here.

This recipe can be easily adapted for vegans. The pumpkin does the job of eggs so none needed. You can replace the butter with margarine or unrefined coconut oil. Both are solid at room temperature and so give the ‘spring’ that butter will.

Time to get baking.

Recipe – makes 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 225 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled (USA two stick) (substitute as discussed above for vegan friendly)
• 100 grams brown sugar (light or dark)
• 200 grams caster (white) sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 185 grams pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie filling (a bit less than half of a standard 15 ounce can)
• 380 grams plain white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice or allspice mix
• 180 grams dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 60 grams of pecans, chopped small (optional)

Instructions

1. Whisk together the butter and the sugars until lump free. Add in the pumpkin and vanilla, beat until smooth.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and spice together.
3. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add in the chocolate chips and then the nuts if using. The dough will seem very wet.
4. Cover the dough and then chill for at least 45 minutes. I left mine for a couple of hours and went to spinning. (Ignore the virtue signalling here).
5. Preheat your oven to 175C or 350F. Get your baking sheets ready. I’m newly converted to ‘silimats’ or silicone baking mats instead of parchment. They work well and seem to last for ever.
6. Scoop out the dough with a small trigger scoop or a tablespoon. I weigh mine – with each scoop of dough weighing 35 – 40 grams. Please feel free to eyeball these at about a tablespoon and a half. Precision has limited benefits to cookies – it makes me feel better though.
7. Roll your scoops of dough into balls. Place on the baking sheets and flatten the tops with a spoon or your fingers.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes. The cookies will look set on the outside and wet in the middle. Take out of the oven. Leave to cool and set on the baking sheets for another 10 minutes. Then move to a rack for final cooling.
9. If you want to make these a little more chocolatey you can press a Hershey’s kiss or a big chocolate drop on the top of the cookies when they first come out of the oven.

I really like the consistency of these cookies – I’m a chewy cookie kind of person not a crunchy cookie biscuit person.

Please leave comments, please share photos if you’re baking from the recipes: @mamadolson on Twitter and Instagram, Mama Dolson’s Bakery on Facebook. Requests always welcome.

I’ve been working on my sourdough bread recently and try to strengthen my starter (named Liz by the way after a baker and teacher who has inspired me. I also like to take a treat for the team and clients at Smartworks where I volunteer on Wednesday. These two things came together and resulted in some of the best cookies I’ve ever made.

When you’re trying to strengthen your sourdough starter, you feed your starter everyday. This means you have discard. On the one hand, it’s only flour and water, on the other hand, I don’t like to throw stuff away. I was searching for things to make with the discard and found the basis for this recipe. I did misread the quantity in the original – it said ‘makes 20 cookies’. Accurate but those would be 20 giant American cookies, not cookies sized for normal humans. Even too big for the Davinator.

In my test bake, I rashly doubled the recipe and so I had enough dough for 40 giant cookies. I recalibrated the size (made them smaller) but of course that meant we had a lot of cookies. It rained cookies on friends and family.

The recipe below is adjusted to make 40 cookies for ordinary humans. You might not be a sourdough baker today. But these cookies are so good it’s worth making sourdough starter just for these bad boys.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 113 grams plain white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda (4 grams)
• 1 tsp salt (6 grams)
• 55 grams unsalted butter, melted
• 86 grams vegetable oil (corn or sunflower)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 175 grams brown sugar (any type)
• 110 grams caster sugar
• 70 grams sourdough starter discard (can be straight from the fridge)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 280 grams rolled oats (not instant oatmeal)
• 60 grams dried cranberries or raisins
• 100 grams chopped walnuts
• 100 grams good quality chocolate chips (any variety – milk, dark, white as you like)

Method

Preheat your oven to 190C (170C fan). Cover several baking sheets with parchment paper.

1. Whisk flour, salt and baking soda (SODA) together in a bowl set to one side.
2. Chop your walnuts. You make want to rough chop your dried fruit as well depending on the size. Combine with the chocolate chips and set aside.
3. Melt the butter (microwave works well) and allow to cool for a few minutes. (Make a cup of tea or play a round of Angry Birds).
4. Stir the cinnamon into the butter. Follow with the brown sugar, caster sugar and oil – whisk until well combined. The mixture should be close to room temperature by now.
5. Add the sourdough starter, the egg, the yolk and the vanilla – whisk again until well combined.
6. Using a wooden spoon, spatula or a dough whisk (see photo below) stir in the flour mixture.
7. Follow by folding in the oats, fruit, nuts and chocolate. The mixture should be thick and stiff. Resist the temptation to eat it raw immediately. It looks yummy but it’s even better after baking.
8. Measure out your dough balls. I use a small trigger scoop (see photo below). You want about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons by volume for each dough ball.
9. Drop the dough on to the baking sheets, leaving about 5 cms between each cookie. Flatten slightly with your fingers or a spoon. The cookies will spread when baking.
10. Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes. The centre should be soft but not wet and the edges crisp and starting to brown.
11. Cool on cookie sheet for five minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Let them cool please, don’t burn your mouth like someone I know did. These cookies keep well for five days or more in the fridge. I stored mine in a cardboard box with parchment paper. Avoid a sealed ziplock or a plastic container as the cookies are very moist and will get soggy, I think.

Happy baking. Please comment, share and send requests and photos of your baking.

My homage to Paul Simon, folks.  This blog post does not have 50 recipes for your courgettes (neither does the song list the 50 ways) but it should help you use your produce.

 What is it about courgettes that make them so prolific? They must be hardy enough to resist ambivalent (and lazy) gardeners (like me).  My first year, I put in six, yes six courgette plants.  OMG – did we have a lot of courgettes.  Now I plant three.  Some bit of ancient vegetable growing wisdom I have retained says three is the minimum number for pollination purposes.   Even three produce a lot of courgettes most years.

I really hate to throw away food I grew myself.  I have therefore accumulated a number of ways to prepare, preserve and eat courgettes.

 Here’s my round up of ideas and some specific recipes to make eating courgettes a joy not a chore. Hopefully, something for everyone. All of these recipes I’ve test cooked and the Davinator has eaten. 

1.  KISS – keep it simple, spiralize.  A spiralizer (many choices for less than £10 on Amazon) turns your vegetables into noodles.  Sautéed in butter, added to soups, salads and stir fry. Cover them with your favourite pasta sauce.  This is super use of the squash, especially when you harvest early and don’t let them turn into seed filled giants.
   
2. Just eat your vegetables.  Slice into 5 millimetre pieces, then chop in half.  Cook in boiling water or steam for 2 to 5 minutes depending on size and your preferences on the texture of your vegetables.  Alternatively, cut 1 inch slices and quarter these. Sauté in butter with a few chilli flakes and salt and peppel. Divine.
   
3. Get your revenge in first.  Make fried-courgette flowers.  Pick the flowers on stems (will never be courgettes) or small courgettes when the flowers are still attached.  You can either fry the flowers with the small courgettes attached or separate them and cook them separately.   Recipe link here: <fried courgette blossoms>
    
4. Use your weapon of mass consumption.  There’s nothing like chutney to use up large and diverse amounts of fruit and vegetables.  Sugar, vinegar, spices, onions and then a squash, a vegetable and a fruit component.  Here’s my recipe – <courgette chutney>.
   
5. Do it doughnut style.  Baked chocolate courgette doughnuts are about the healthiest doughnuts you can make and eat.  Of course, ‘healthiest’ doughnuts maybe a low bar but this recipe produces crowd pleasing treats – <chocolate courgette doughnuts>.
   
6. Put summer in a jar.  Courgette marmalade with ginger and lemon tastes like summer when you open it in November or gift it to good friends at Christmas time. This is not a recipe for newbies to making jam and marmalade but if you’re not intimidated by boiling sugar go for it.  Link here:  <spiced courgette marmalade>.
   
7. Hide the vegetables by burying them in deep dark chocolate cake. It’s all in the name.  This is a favourite of family, friends and co-workers.  So rich, it doesn’t need any icing or topping but you can go wild and slather it in whipped cream.  Link here. <deep dark chocolate cake>.
   
8. Pixar it up. One of my favourite Pixar movies is Ratatouille.  And you don’t have to be a Parisian rat to make awesome ratatouille.  Most cooks have a favourite recipe but ratatouille is very flexible. The core ingredients are courgette, aubergine, tomatoes and peppers.  Here’s a basic recipe that uses canned tomatoes but if you’ve got a glut go ahead and use them.  I would peel and core the tomatoes if you’re using fresh.  Link here: easy and flexible ratatouille.
   
9. Quickly now. Make quick whole wheat courgette bread.  It’s simple and quick and makes a good on the go breakfast treat. Link here: <whole wheat courgette bread>.
   
10. Round up……. Time to use your imagination and Google: courgette fritters, courgette terrine, courgette soup, tomato courgette spaghetti sauce.  Frittata with courgettes is one of my favourites. Link here: < frittata with courgettes>
    
11. Soup it up. Here’s the best courgette soup recipe I’ve found.
    
12. Get grilling. This is my new favourite grilled vegetable recipe.
    
13. Courgette and herb pilaf, you’ll never notice the courgettes.

Hopefully, these recipes will help you mop up the courgette tsunami and dig out from under the zucchini avalanche.  Thank you for reading the blog.   Please send comments, suggestions and requests.

Ginger snaps for grown ups.

These brownies are greeted with cries of delight anywhere I take them. They look dark and dangerous and taste amazing. Made with brown sugar and whole wheat flour though, you can almost imagine they are healthy. There is a little trick to making the chocolate top shine. One of my favourite recipes from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

This recipe is quick and fairly easy. The hardest part is leaving the brownies uncut overnight to let the flavour develop. I use a loose bottomed pan and line the pan with parchment paper. There’s a couple of methods for lining; the ‘approved’ collar method which you can see at this link or my super fast ‘loincloth’ method.

The loin cloth method can result in some brownie stuck in the corners but has the benefit of speed and simplicity. Basically, it’s two pieces of parchment that cross over. Cut two pieces of parchment; one slightly wider than the width and one slightly wider than the length. Each piece should be long enough to cover the bottom and come up the sides with extra roughly 3 times width (or length) of the bottom. Lay the ‘wide’ piece in first and crease the bit of overlap in the corners. Then do the ‘length’ piece, doing likewise with the bit of overlap in the corners. Not always perfect coverage but the brownies will still come out easily.

Ingredients

225 grams unsalted butter

425 grams light or dark brown sugar

65 grams Dutch process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon strong instant coffee granules

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

170 grams whole wheat flour

350 grams chocolate chips – dark chocolate, semi sweet (for Americans traditional Nestle Toll House morsels) or milk chocolate if you’ve got a real sweet tooth

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 170C, 150C if you’re using a fan oven. If you have the option, don’t use the fan in the oven. These brownies do like a more gentle bake.
2. Line your pan or pans. The original recipe calls for 9″ by 13″ (23 cm by 33 cm). I prefer a square pan for this recipe and sometimes make a small square (15 cm by 15 cm) and a medium square (23 cm by 23 cm). If you don’t have exactly the right size pan, do some arithmetic. Here’s how to solve this equation: the area of pan (length times width) is 23 cm x 33 cm = 759 sq cms. My two smaller square pans: 15 x 15 = 225 sq cms and 23 x 23 = 529. 225 + 529 = 754 sq cms.
3. Place the butter in a microwave bowl. Melt the butter, then stir in the brown sugar. Put the butter and sugar back in the microwave and heat it to the point of bubbling. I do this in 30 second bursts to keep in from making a big sticky mess in the microwave. Heating the butter and sugar this second time gives the top it’s beautiful shiny look.
4. Mix the coffee granules with a tiny bit of hot water to make a paste.
5. Add the coffee paste, cocoa, baking powder, salt and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture. Whisk together and check the temperature with your finger. It should feel like hot bath water. If (improbably) it’s too hot, leave it for five minutes.
6. Combine the flour and the chocolate chips. Coating the chips in the flour helps to distribute them more evenly in the batter.
7. Whisk in the eggs, then add the flour and chocolate chip mixture. Stir well to combine, scraping up from the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the mixture is incorporated.
8. Put the batter in your pan or pans and place them in oven. Bake about 30 minutes until your cake tester gives you crumbs. The top should look set and start to crack.
9. Leave overnight if you can or at least until completely cooled.

Enjoy.

Home made cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies.

Or should I say ‘cream filled chocolate sandwich cookie’? I stumbled across this recipe from the amazing Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I made it and the  cookies were so delicious it changed how I thought about ‘convenience’ foods.

Note: the terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably in this blog post.

This recipe started me on my quest to re-discover food that has been stolen from us by big food companies pushing ‘convenience’.  These cookies are what the inventor of the Oreo imagined.  Then the cost accountants said ‘cheaper ingredients please’ and the marketing team said ‘must last for 18 months in the package’ and the logistics team said ‘oh and should survive a 3 story drop without crumbling’.

Nobody actually NEEDS cookies. We WANT cookies.  If you’re going to indulge in a cookie (biscuit), make it one of these cream filled chocolate beauties.

I’ve made a couple of process improvements and tweaked the recipe ever so slightly for non-American bakers.  My version of the recipe makes three dozen (36) filled sandwich cookies, 75 to 80 individual biscuits.  It’s about double the original recipe. but believe me you won’t have any trouble with ‘disposal’ of these cookies.

They are a great way to win friends and influence people.  And the 3 dozen includes ‘wastage’ like when the Davinator sneaks into the baking kitchen and steals some dough or a fresh baked cookie.  For a big man, he can be stealthy.

My instructions below include three innovations that help me get consistent results with the recipe: melting the butter for the dough, weighing the dough for each biscuit and piping the filling onto the biscuits.

Some genius at Cooks Illustrated came up with the idea of melting butter to combine it with sugar.  I tried it first in my brioche and I’ve never looked back.  Just about any recipe that combines butter and sugar (not icing sugar) works well with melted and cooled butter rather than ‘room temperature’ butter.   Cooks Illustrated is the only online cooking resource I pay for, by the way.  Love it.    Occasionally frustrating because they sell cookbooks and gadgets you can’t get in the UK.  

Weighing the biscuit dough seems fiddly but it means that you have uniform pieces when it comes to assembly of the sandwiches.  In other words – they all match.  I pipe the cream on because it’s neater (once you get the hang of filling and working with the bag),  and you can weigh the filling as you put it on.

Piping the filling is quicker than spooning it on – it means you eat less of the filling. If you bake as much as I do – it makes a difference.

There seem to be a lot of steps in the recipe but don’t worry.  It’s to break the recipe down for the less confident bakers.

Bake away people!

Recipe

Chocolate sandwich cookies

• 320 grams plain white flour (not self raising, I don’t get on with it)
•  85 grams unsweetened natural cocoa powder – I use Callebaut and get mine from Amazon
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 225 grams unsalted butter melted then cooled (see below)
• 300 grams fine white caster sugar
• 100 grams brown sugar (I find that light or dark doesn’t matter)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream Filling

• 120 grams unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 95 grams vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco), room temperature
• 420 grams icing  sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Making the chocolate biscuits

1. Melt the butter in a plastic bowl or other microwave safe container. I do 30 second pulses and it takes 2 or at the most 3.   Let the butter cool for about 10 minutes.  You can get the rest of ingredients ready while it’s cooling.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.
3. Combine the sugars in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Put the paddle attachment on.  Pour in the melted cooled butter and beat at a low speed.  It might take a minute or two but is much quicker than creaming even true room temperature butter.   Beat in the eggs and the vanilla until well combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients.  Beat slowly.  Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Beat for another minute.  Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a shower cap and refrigerate for an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.
6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator.. It should be firm and easy to handle. Divide it into four roughly equal portions.  Get your scale ready – put a piece of parchment on it, zero it.
7. Roll one of your portions into a log about 3 cms (an inch and a bit)  in diameter.  Cut off about a 2 to 3 cm piece and weigh it.  You want each biscuit to be about 15 grams.   Divide the dough into 15 gram portions.  Roll each 15 gram piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet.  You will get good at ‘feeling’ when they are right weight and your speed will pick up.
8. Fill 2 baking sheets, leaving enough room between each biscuit because they will spread.  Crush each ball so that they become disc shaped.
9. Put the baking sheets in the oven and cook for 7 -8 minutes.  You can do a test biscuit on it’s own (also fun to eat) to see how your oven is baking.   I don’t rotate the baking sheets or move them up or down the oven racks because I don’t think it makes a difference for a cooking time that short.  If you find it does, then I would do one baking sheet at a time.
10. When the biscuits are cooked, remove them from the oven, cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then move to a rack or a clean tea towel.  I use an offset spatula and move one biscuit at a time – resisting the impulse to use my fingers or do two at a time.  It’s quick enough. Cool the biscuits well before adding the cream filling.

Making the ‘cream’ filling

1. Beat together the butter and the vegetable shortening using the paddle attachment in your mixer.  This is NOT the time to try the melting butter trick.  You’ve just got to wait for the butter to soften.  Add the icing sugar and the vanilla.  I throw a damp towel over the mixer rather than rely on the Kitchen Aid splash guard (that is the most useless piece of kit ever, actually makes more mess than it prevents).  Beat until smooth.
   

   No actual ‘cream’ and should be a bit stiff.

   Now it’s time to get out the piping bag and do your assembly.

Two great gadgets come together now: disposable piping bags and the piping bag filler.  It’s a plastic cone shaped thingy (see below) and helps you fill the pointy end of piping bag.  I buy the piping bags in a big roll and use them for buttercream,  mashed potatoes, filling cookies and putting dough into things like donut pans.

A plastic gadget that should be cheaper but works a bomb.

Assembly

1. Fill your piping bag. DO NOT CUT OFF THE END – YET.  You don’t need a metal nozzle. Gather up the top and twist it about 10 times.  Then swing it over your head like a bolo or a lasso.  This forces the filling to the pointy end.  NOW cut off the end of the piping bag. Repeat: DO NOT CUT THE END OFF BEFORE THE LASSO STEP.  Learn from those of us who may have redecorated the kitchen with buttercream icing.

Lay out your biscuits in pairs and match any that may have been 14 or 16 grams.  I put the filling on the ‘smooth’ side and then put the smooth sides together.  The smooth side would have been the bottom when baked.

Lay out your sandwich pieces and improve any size mis-matches.

Put a biscuit on the scale and zero it (smooth side up).  Apply about 15 grams of cream filling to the biscuit and then smoosh another (matching) cookie on top of it.

The piping bag really helps with speed and uniformity. Also you eat less icing….

Fill away, smoosh the pieces together and enjoy.  These keep in a sealed Tupperware container for at least a week.   I’ve never had these cookies go stale – they get eaten too fast.

Happy baking!

Donuts with white chocolate glaze

Yes, it’s time to make baked chocolate courgette donuts.  Yes baked. Yes chocolate.  Yes courgettes.   And if you don’t have a donut pan – you can make muffins.

I do grow vegetables.  I’m not sure why (that’s probably the subject of another blog and some real soul searching – not sure I actually like growing vegetables other than asparagus).  Courgettes seem to like my garden though and in my worst gardening summers – there are always courgettes.  I don’t like to waste food, especially food that I have grown.

You may have a tidal wave of courgettes from your vegetable garden, allotment or in-laws.  Here’s a great way to use them and make nearly guilt free chocolate donuts – without a fryer.

Ingredients

• 240 grams plain white flour
• 150 grams white caster sugar
• 45 grams cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons /9 grams of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon / 4.5 grams of salt
• 150 grams (approximate) of shredded courgette (after pressing out water)
• 200 grams white chocolate chips (any chocolate chips work but its a good visual effect using white)
• 160 mls of milk, with addition of two teaspoons of lemon juice (curdles the milk) (or buttermilk if you have it)
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 30 grams butter, melted
• spray oil

Instructions – make as muffins

Preheat oven to 220 C (200 C fan)

1. Shred the courgette.  This is an average sized courgette, not one of those prize winning giants.  Put a piece of kitchen towel in a small sieve and press the courgette to get rid of some of the water.  After pressing it can weigh anything from 145 to 175 grams and the recipe will work.  Leave it draining while you prep the rest of the ingredients.  If you have extra courgette, fry it in some butter, add some parmesan cheese and eat with lunch.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder.  Stir in the courgette and combine with your hands so that the courgette shreds are well distributed and coated with the dry mixture.  Stir in the chocolate bits.   Add the curdled milk, eggs and the butter.  Stir until combined.  Do not over-stir and certainly don’t use your electric mixer.
3. Grease the muffin tin with non-stick spray or use paper liners (I’m a fan of paper liners).  Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 full with batter.  I use an ice cream scoop to fill them.
4. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.   The tops should spring back when pressed.
5. Optional glaze – melt another 100 grams of chocolate.  Easiest way to melt it – put it in a microwave bowl, zap for 10 seconds, check and repeat until it’s melted.  Then drizzle using a spoon, a piping bag or a plastic food bag with the corner nipped off.

Big ones, little ones, some mini-muffins as well

Instructions – make as donuts

If you have a donut pan, follow the steps above.  Grease the donut tin with the oil spray.  I have a coconut oil spray that I use for this.  Corn oil also works but I would stay away from olive oil based sprays.  You will get better results if you pipe the batter into the donut tin.   Disposable piping bags are very useful.  Filling the bag is annoying – get a tall cylinder (like the one that came with your stick blender) or a tall glass or a vase to hold up the piping bag.  Fold the edges down and fill using your ice cream scoop (see above).   Get a black binder clip to close the bag when you’re between filling trays etc.

Same oven temperature.  Place in the oven for about 8 minutes.  Tops should spring back when pressed.

These freeze well and defrost quickly.  If you want a frozen one, put in the microwave for no more than 30 seconds.  Then eat immediately because it will toughen up once microwaved.