Spritz cookie recipie for a Cookie Press

Just received my Pampered Chef Cookie Press and done my first batch of cookies.

Looking online at the different reviews some people seem to have had problems with the mixture and getting it to work correctly.

I printed out to recipes and did a combination of them, and the results were good. It took me a few goes to get the hang of the press. I tried doing the cookies onto a silicon sheet...bad idea! Direct to the baking tin is best. There is enough fat in the mixture to stop them sticking once they are cooked.

Here is my version (I use the American Cup sizing)


Ingredients
1.5 cups or 7.5oz margarine or butter (not the spreadable marg - I used a combination of 3oz butter and 4.5 marg)
1 cup or 5oz sugar (I used Golden Caster)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3.5 cups or 17.5oz plain flour
2 tablespoons water
Pinch of Salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375f or Gas Mark 5
Beat butter/Marg till creamy. (I used a handheld electrc mixer)
Add sugar, beat.
Add egg, salt and vanilla, beat.
Add flour one cup (5oz) at a time, beat.

The dough will be soft, this is fine it needs to be.

Fill your cookie press and follow instructions for your own press to create your cookies.

bake for 10-12 minutes until they are nicely golden.

Next time i would like to try sprinkling on some 100's and 1000's, put some allspice in the mixture and try a chocolate and a lemon version. As long as the mixture is smooth there shouldn't be a problem.

Savoury Muffins

I've sort of created it myself so that you can use it with any combi of veg/bacon and cheese.

1 cup of 80% milk or yogurt and 20% oil
2 eggs

BEAT TOGETHER

1 cup of cooked veg (spinach, broccoli, courgette, carrot, mushroom) /bacon/sun dried tomato/olives
1/2 cup of chopped or grated cheese (cheddar, feta...)
1 tsp veg stock powder
Salt to taste, especially if you're NOT using bacon

MIX IN

1 1/2 to 2 cups of self raising flour (depend how wet your veg mixture is are)
1 tsp baking powder

SIFT and FOLD IN (Should be a nice plopping consistancy, not too runny)
SPRAY or WIPE oil into a 12 piece MUFFIN tin
PLOP mixture in
COOK on GAS MARK 6/400f/200c for 20 mins (test with a knife or skewer, should come out clean)
TURN them out onto RACK to COOL

BEST EATEN WARM

Lemons and Globes

For those of you who know me personally, you have probably had a conversation with me that has inevatibly turned to food, and possibly the famous lemon icecream!

I have become an avid follower of Smitten Kitchen, a fabulous foody blog. And as a fan of all things lemony (I must post my lemon chicken recipe) I had to try this. It is currently cooling in the kitchen. The filling is already a hit with my eldest son, as I had to much mixture for my pastry shell and put the excess in a ramekin dish to cook, that taster is now no more.

The other thing that my friends know about me is that I am a Charity shop frequenter. Love those bargains! And not only that, but the randomness of what one might find. I have been thinking about buying a globe for years, mainly so I could show the children various places in the world, so that they could have a better idea of where countries are and to have a 'global' world view. Well, I finally found one today, not as big as the ones I had been looking at, in fact, just perfect for our already cluttered home. I love it. I have already shown Luke where Haiti is (I had to look it up on Google Maps myelf first!)

Now, who would like to try the easy peasy, lemon squeezy icecream? It is based on one that Nigella Lawson does, I am not sure which book it is available in, I have also seen her do variations on it. Beware, it is thoroughly addictive, and when you start you can't stop. I gave this recipe to a friend and I think she makes it once a week!

You will need...
3 juicy lemons, preferably unwaxed
175g/6oz icing sugar
420ml double cream (or whole tub)
3 tablespoons iced water
Then...

Grate the zest from two of the lemons using a microplane grater (I don't have one of these, so I use an ordinary fine grater, and am careful not to grate too deep). Squeeze the juice of all three lemons and pour into a bowl with the zest and sugar, stir to combine and leave for 30 minutes, if you can, to let the flavour deepen.

Whip the cream with the water until it holds soft peaks, then whisk in the sweetened lemon juice. Turn into a shallow container, cover and freeze - no stirring, crystal-breaking-up mixing or anything needed - until firm. This could take anything from 3-6 hours depending on your freezer.

Let it stand in its container in the fridge for half an hour or so to get scoop-ready.

Enjoy!

Slow cooker adventures

About a week ago, I decided to dust of the TWO slowcookers I have in my house, and get cooking. I had a go making a mammoth amount of curry for a friends party.

I used my tried and tested recipe for coconut chicken that is quite adaptable depending on what you have in the cupboards.

You will need... (this is a large amount, so you will need to oven bake or put in two slowcookers)

• Approx 15-20 pieces of chicken (thighs or drumsticks)
• Half a jar of Pataks Korma or Mild curry paste.
• About 3tbs veg oil
  
• A large pot of yogurt.
• Grate about 3cm off a block of coconut cream (I guess you could substitute coconut milk, but I prefer the block as it doesn't tend to have that `off' taste the milk has)
• A large onion.
• Approx 6 cloves garlic.
• Depending what you have... a couple of carrots or a small cauliflower or a couple of courgettes, you can even get away with some apple. Put in a food processor, so they're the texture of grated carrot.
• Lemon juice if you have it.
• Salt
  
• Dessicated coconut.

Then...

Skin the chicken and if you have time mix the curry paste and yogurt with the chicken and leave in a bowl in the fridge overnight.

If not seal the chicken in heated oil.
Put the onion and garlic in. Cook for about 5 mins on medium heat.
Add the yogurt and curry paste if you have not let it marinade before.
Add the vegetables, 2 tsp salt and coconut cream, give it a good stir. Add 2 tbsps lemon juice if you have it.

Put all of it in a large baking dish or 2 slow cookers, if the sauce isn't runny enough for you, add some hot water.
Sprinkle the dessicated coconut over the top, cover with foil or lid.

Bake in oven for 2hrs on Gas Mark 3 or in slowcooker on high for 4hrs or low for 8hrs.