Pecan and Hazelnut Blondies

I made these with my friend Hannah after we’d finished our finals at uni – they’re very sweet but the nut content cuts through their richness, making them utterly more-ish! White chocolate has a reputation of being a bit temperamental, because of its lack of cocoa solids, meaning it can split easily, but as long as you melt it slowly, stirring regularly you’ll be fine.

Hazelnut and Pecan Blondies

 

Makes 15 pieces

Ingredients:

75g marg/unsalted butter

500g white chocolate

3 large eggs

175g caster sugar

175g self raising flour

pinch of salt

100g hazelnuts (chopped)

100g pecans (chopped)

1.5tsp vanilla extract

10 x 8 in. baking tin, greased and lined

170oC fan oven/190oC other ovens

Method:

1. Melt 125g of the white chocolate carefully in the microwave – stir regularly to prevent it burning.
2. In a separate, large bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the melted chocolate – make sure it’s not too hot or you’ll end up with chocolate scrambled eggs; leaving it to stand for 5 minutes after it’s melted will do.
3. Fold in the flour, salt, remaining chocolate in chunks, nuts and vanilla essence until everything is incorporated, but don’t over mix.
4. Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the middle of your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a golden crust has formed on the Blondies but they’re still soft underneath.
5. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, slice into 15 and turn out onto a wire rack to cool further. These are gorgeous hot, cold, warm with tea, coffee or milk – however you fancy, and if there's any left will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

These are ridiculously easy; you can change the nuts to whatever you prefer or use milk or dark chocolate chips instead of the extra white chocolate, they're a great go to bake if you need something quickly!

Happy Baking,

The Baking Ginger xx

Cheat's Triple Millionaire's Shortbread

My Gran's Millionaire's Shortbread is my absolute favourite thing (although it is a close contest with Cheese Scones...). These are a bit of a cheat's version; they're made with Dulce De Leche, instead of the home made caramel which makes Gran's extra delicious, but they're a fantastic quick fix - waiting for them to be properly chilled is the hardest part!

You can get Dulce De Leche from any good supermarket, so give these a go!

Breadcrumbs

Cheat's Triple Millionaire's Shortbread

Makes 24 pieces

Ingredients

12oz plain flour

8oz butter/marg

5oz caster sugar

450g jar of Dulce De Leche

250g chocolate (I used 75g white, 75g milk and 100g dark chocolate for the triple effect)

Baked shortbread base

9x13in tin

170oC fan oven/180oC other ovens

Method

1. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar.

2. Press the shortbread mix into a greased and lined baking tray, doing it this way makes the shortbread extra crumbly, which goes perfectly with sticky caramel.

Chocolate and Dulce De Leche

3. Bake the shortbread base in the centre of a preheated oven until very light golden brown, approx. 20/25 minutes.

4. Whilst the shortbread is baking weigh out the chocolate.

5. Once the shortbread is baked, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then put in the freezer for 30 minutes to chill properly before you add the caramel.

Caramel layer before chilling

6. Once chilled spread the caramel over the shortbread, then put the whole thing back in the freezer for at least another half an hour or until the caramel feels solid enough to spread chocolate over.

7. Melt the chocolate (in a microwave is fine if you do it for 15 seconds then stir and microwave again if needs be), spread gently over the caramel - if you're using three types of chocolate start with the white first so you don't get any colour contamination. 

8. Chill in the freezer for another hour/fridge for at least 3 until the chocolate is completely hard.

9. Cut into 24 pieces; do this in the tin as it stops any slightly soft caramel escaping out of the sides of your Millionaire's. 

These are best enjoyed with a cup of tea, perfect for elevenses or afternoon tea! They'll keep in the fridge for up to a week, if they last that long...

Triple Chocolate!

This really is a great little cheat, it's not as good as Gran's, but when is anything ever as good as when your Gran bakes it?! 

Happy Baking,

The Baking Ginger xx

Finished Trio

Chewy Chocolate and Nut Cookies

Baked and ready to be eaten!

I made these at the same time as the Salted Nutella Cookies and I've got to admit, I think I prefer these; I'm a big fan of nuts in anything...

The trick to making them really chewy is the light muscovado sugar, if you've only got white sugar that'll work too, your cookies just won't be so chewy and gooey!

They'd work really nicely for elevenses, as part of a spread for afternoon tea, or hot from the oven with loads of vanilla ice cream - yum!

Chewy Chocolate and Nut Cookies

Makes 20 large cookies

Ingredients

Mixture with nuts and chocolate

125g butter/marg

100g light muscovado sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg

2tsp vanilla essence

225g self raising flour

small pinch of salt

100g chocolate pieces (I used white and milk chocolate)

100g nuts (I used chunks of almonds and hazelnuts)

170oC fan oven/180oC other ovens

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy - once you think you've done give it another minute or so of beating to make your cookies as light as possible!

2. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence in two goes until it's all combined. If it curdles don't worry, it'll come back together when you add the flour.

Ready for the oven

3. Add the flour and salt, and mix until just combined then mix in the nuts and chocolate.

4. Put the mix in the freezer for 10 minutes or fridge for an hour just to make it easier to work with - it will be a very very sticky dough!

5. Once the dough is chilled, using two dessert spoons, put a walnut size ball of dough onto a lined baking sheet. Make sure the dough balls have at least 3 inches between them as they will spread massively whilst baking.

6. Bake in the middle of a preheated oven for 9 minutes; they may look raw in the middle still but they'll continue to cook as they cool and you'll end up with a gorgeous, chewy cookie once they've cooled on a wire rack - although as usual they're best when still warm from the oven!

Finished article!

I used the chocolate and nut combinations that I like, but the basic dough recipe can be adapted to suit your tastes, they're really flexible and once you've made one combination you'll really want to try others! You could add lemon zest to mixture to make the cookies fresh and bring out the flavour of the nuts, it really works, and would be great with other citrus fruits too!

They'll keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container.

Happy Baking!

The Baking Ginger xx

Ginger, Nut and Chocolate Slices from Mull

Thought I'd add some more recipes from my baking for Mull; this is a really simple no bake slice, if you're a big ginger fan (and who isn't?!) you can add diced preserved stem ginger for extra gingery-ness.

Gingery nutty goodness!

Ginger, Nut and Chocolate Slices

Makes 24

Ingredients:

6oz marg/butter

1.5tbsp syrup

1.5tbsp cocoa

1.5tbsp sugar

8oz chopped hazelnuts

8oz ginger nut biscuits

8oz white chocolate

Method:

1. Melt the marg, syrup, cocoa and sugar in a pan over a medium heat, stirring regularly – but don’t let the mixture boil.
2. Put the biscuits in a food bag and bash with a rolling pin (hold onto the opening of the bag, but don’t tie it up or it’ll pop and you’ll be in for a whole world of crumbs!). Bash until the biscuits are in fine crumbs.
3. Once the marg mixture has melted add your biscuit crumbs and the chopped hazelnuts. Stir until they’re all combined then tip into a greased and lined baking tin (approx. 8x12 in) and compress using the back of a dessert spoon. Make sure to get into the corners of the tin, go around the edges and get a flat top to your ginger, nut and chocolate mix.
4. Chill in the fridge (4 hours) or freezer (2 hours).
5. Once the base is chilled break the white chocolate into small pieces and microwave in a microwaveable container until the chocolate has melted (stir regularly to make sure your chocolate doesn’t burn).
6. Pour the white chocolate over the chilled base and smooth out using a palette knife. Chill in the fridge until the chocolate has set (approx. 4 hours).
7. Cut into 24 pieces – it’s very rich so you don’t need much, and enjoy! It’s lovely for elevenses with a strong coffee.

These are so easy, you can't not give them a go!

Happy Baking!

The Baking Ginger xx