Dulce de leche and peanut cookies

Patience has never been one of my virtues and that's an understatement. 
To give you an example, the day I decided I wanted to start cycling to work, I just had to buy a bicycle on that same day. 
When it actually took me two weeks to find the right bicycle, I felt like every day separating me from my goal was sheer torture. And that was just a bike.

So you can imagine that buying a house has been a long journey of initiation into the heart of patience and that The Man has had to put up with a few meltdowns from me. 

From finding the place, to doing surveys, researches and negotiating every single detail, buying a house is a long marathon that requires patience and detachment, which I seriously lack. As I was losing it with frustration every other day, The Man was handling both the paperwork and me, his crazy girlfriend, with his usual British phlegm. Yes, he's a saint.

But, may the house god (and Southwark council) be with us, we should get there soon. Stay tuned, you'll know everything about it, I promise!

Dulce de leche and peanut Cookies

Close your eyes, and picture yourself biting into a warm chewy cookie with a melt in the mouth dulce de leche centre...
Smile, you are a recipe away from making that dream come true!


Ingredients

makes approx 15 large cookies 
225g packed brown sugar
120g granulated sugar
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
300g flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
270g old-fashioned rolled oats
75g blanched peanuts, unsalted and very roughly chopped
2 heaped tbsp dulce de leche + a teaspoon per cookie for the centre 

Method

1/ Pre heat oven to 190c

2/ Cream the sugars and butter, and then add the vanilla extract and the dulce de leche

3/ Beat in the eggs, one at a time

4/ Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder and gently add to the mix. Do not over mix

5/ Stir in the oats and peanuts

6/ Line a baking tray with baking parchment

7/ Divide mix into thick disks between 40 and 80g depending on size preference, place a spoon full of dulce de leche in the middle of each disk and fold them so the dulce gets hidden in the centre of each cooke. Space out the cookies on a prepared tray leaving 2 cm between each one, pressing down slightly 

8/ Bake for about 15 mins until golden around the edge. Leave to cool for 10 mins before transferring to cooling wire and leave to cool completely before storing in a cookie jar.

Tips: 
Why weighing each cookie individually before baking? to ensure they all are the same size and will therefor cook at the same speed. This will ensure consistent cookies!
Why waiting for the cookies to cool completely before storing them in a jar? Because otherwise they will release steam in the jar and become soft.

Different sizes for different cookies: the bigger the cookies, the more soft in the middle. Small cookies might be crunchy all way through.  


Recipe adapted from the French Glacé Cherry and pecan cookies recipe by Anthony Kindred

Xmas # 3: My fudgy toffee Brownies

My parents being divorced, I had two birthdays, two Christmasses, and two mummies when I was a kid, which was actually pretty cool.

My two mummies did both play a key role in building my early passion for cooking: 
- my mum, who would would let me cook whenever I wanted to try and cook (or experiment) on my own
- my step-mum, who is an amazing cook and who taught me many skills and inspired me so much

One of the first desserts I made all by myself was a chocolate mousse, one of my step-mum's speciality. Since then, I also think of her everytime I bake a chocolate dessert!

My super duper fudgy toffee

 chocolate brownies

Christmas can involve a hell of a lot of cooking. So a dessert which is both delicious and quick to make can prove very useful!
These brownies have a light but rich texture (how is that possible? I don't know, it's a miracle). My dulce de leche addition make them extra special. 

I was running late for the party I was bringing them to, so I could not work on a presentation, but why not cut them in squares, pile them in a pyramid shape, and add a fine dust of icing sugar and few raspberries on top to decorate? 
This will be a showstopper dessert for Christmas or Boxing day!

You can even make them 1 day early, they will be as good as new.

Ingredients: 
375g dark cooking chocolate
250g salted butter
3 tsp cocoa powder
3tbsp instant expresso powder
500g caster sugar
6 large eggs
110g self-raising flour
2 or 3 tbsp of dulce de leche, repostero (firm) if possible

Make the brownies: 
1/ Preheat the oven to 180deg C, and line a baking tin or roasting dish with baking parchment

2/ Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl in the microwave. Mix and add the expresso and cocoa powders, and mix again until combined

3/ Beat the sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy

4/ Add the chocolate mixture, stir. Sift in the flour, stir

5/ Pour into the dish, and dot the dough all over with thumb sized lumps of dulce de leche (it will sink slowly as it cooks) and cook for 30/35 min until just done (I left the center to be still gooey).

6/ Leave to cool completely before taking cutting and taking them out of the dish

What's on the drinks menu Alex?
- a Muscat for the sweet taste, 
- a red fruit tea (not so sweet for a chocolate brownie), 
- a glass of hazelnut soy milk

Thanks Alex!

This recipe is dedicated to Cricri.