Chocolate Orange Skillet Cookie

I have finally found the dessert that I will make if I’m ever a contestant on Come Dine With Me. I don’t think even the pickiest person could turn down this giant chocolate orange cookie. Plus, because it’s mixed and cooked in the same container prep and washing up time is hugely reduced- meaning less stress and more time to enjoy the results.

This recipe is designed for a deep, 10″ diameter frying pan and serves 2-3 people.

Before you start make sure that your pan is oven-safe and non-stick, and remember to only use plastic or wooden utensils to avoid scratching or removal of the non-stick coating.

Ingredients:

7og Unsalted butter (cubed)
1 Medium egg
125g Caster sugar
125g Self-raising flour
100g Chocolate chips
Zest of 1 orange
1 Cap vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Stir the butter in the pan on a medium heat until half way melted. Then remove from the heat and stir in the sugar. Whilst still warm, crack the egg and whisk it in. Once thoroughly combined, add the vanilla extract and then the flour. Finally mix in the chocolate chips and orange zest. (As an optional extra, lots of stirring at this point will cause the chocolate to melt more and create a marbled effect).

Put the pan in the oven and bake for about 12 minutes, until the cookie puffs up and the edges goes crispy. Use your own judgement on when it looks ready but I prefer to err on the side of gooeyness. And while you’re waiting you can eat the orange that you’ve just zested to make up for all the warm chocolate goodness that you’re about to eat.

Like normal (and now boring to me) cookies, you can eat warm and straight from the pan or later once cooled. Or for more indulgence add caramel sauce or ice-cream to serve as a truly decadent desert.

 

Double Chocolate and Caramel Cookies

I’m still trying to get through a rather large jar of caramel sauce, and since I’ve been craving cookies for at least 3 days, and because I’ve neglected this blog lately, I figured I’d put the sauce to constructive use- rather than just eating it straight out of the jar. And so these double chocolate cookies with a caramel filling came to be

These are quick to prepare and make (and eat), though the caramel sauce takes some time if you don’t have any. But if you really don’t want to make your own or go outside to the shops, these cookies are still delicious without it.

Ingredients (makes 12):

1 medium egg
200g sugar
95g unsalted butter (room temperature)
105g plain flour
65g cocoa powder
1cap vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
100g choc chips
3-4 tbsp caramel sauce (chilled)
1 pinch of salt

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and line or grease a large baking tray.

In one bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, and set to one side. Cream the butter, vanilla and sugar and when thoroughly combined beat in the egg until light and fluffy. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet and then add the chocolate chips last.

This is where it gets a little fiddly. Spoon a round ball of cookie dough onto the baking tray and press down with flat side of the spoon. then dollop on a 1/2tsp of caramel sauce and then carefully cover with a small piece of cookie dough. Repeat until the tray is filled. Bake for 12-14minutes and leave to coo for a few minutes before eating as many as you can. Or leave to cool completely on a wire rack before sharing with friends if you feel like it. Enjoy!

Marshmallow, Chocolate and Oat Cookies

This recipe was a bit of a “see what’s in the cupboard” type of recipe, yet the cookies turned out quite well! The marshmallow adds a nice chewy texture and chocolate is always good. If you’d like to make more oaty cookies, Ruby’s Cherry and Chocolate Oat Cookies are really good too.

 

Ingredients:

• 75g butter
• 75g caster sugar
• 75g soft light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 150g plain flour
• a drop of vanilla essence
• 100g chocolate chips
• a couple of handfuls of mini marshmallows
• a couple of handfuls of oats

Method

• Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 180°C, and line a baking tray with baking paper ready for later.
• Cream the butter and both sugars until it’s light and fluffy.
• Add in the egg and vanilla essence and mix until smooth.
• Next, add the flour and mix until it’s just combined. Now add in the chocolate chips, marshmallows and oats until they’re all mixed in well.
• On your lined baking tray, spoon out the cookies to whatever size you like. I made mine quite small (about a tablespoon of dough per cookie) and managed to get 18 cookies out of the mixture.
• Bake for about 10-12 minutes (depending on their size).
• Be careful not to prod them too much when you take them out the oven – the melted marshmallow makes them very hot and sticky! I left mine to cool on the baking paper for a minute or two first as this make them easier to transfer onto a cooling rack.
• Leave to cool and enjoy!

 

Cherry and Chocolate Oat Cookies

These cookies are chewy, delicious and the sour cherry and sweet chocolate compliment each other perfectly- A new personal favourite.

Ingredients:

105g butter

1 large egg                                             

150g caster sugar

100g muscovado sugar

160g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

75g jumbo oats

100 dark chocolate chips

150g morello sour cherries

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Cream the sugar and butter together, and then add the egg and vanilla extract. Then, one by one, combine all the dry ingredients with the wet. Use a tablespoon to scoop the right amount of mixture onto the pre-lined baking tray/s. Then bake for 10-12 minutes but no longer than that, otherwise when cooled they will be too hard. This mixture should make about 15 large cookies. Enjoy!

Chocolate Shortbread

This recipe is a combination of my two favourite things in the whole wide world; shortbread and chocolate. A match made in heaven. It’s a simple shortbread recipe, taken from the Great British Bake Off (a great show) Book of Baking, and I’ve also added some variations that could make it really interesting.

Ingredients:
100g caster sugar
260g flour

200g butter

40g cocoa powder

To make:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Mix in all the dry ingredients thoroughly, then rub in the butter until you have lots of fine crumbs.

Tip into a round tin and press in with a fork or spoon, so it is packed tightly. Prick and score it also to make it easier to break into pieces once cooked.

Pop in the oven til firm – usually about 25 – 30 minutes. Remove, and cut along the scored lines. Then leave to cool.

Changes:

Chocolate Orange shortbread: add the zest of an orange for a bit of a kick and crumble in some chocolate orange pieces.

Lemon shortbread: swap the cocoa powder for corn flour and add the zest of a lemon.

Double chocolate: add chocolate chips!

Choc-Chip Cookie Bars with Cookie Dough Frosting

Another post from our favourite guest poster, Hollie! This week she has made cookie bars and they are AWESOME. If you have baked something yummy and want to share your creation, just email your recipe and 1-3 photos to rubyandhelen@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Who doesn’t love cookie dough? Well this recipe is a double whammy! It’s inspired by the Domestic Rebel’s Recipe, which you can find here. I’ve added a few of my own variants with toppings and converted measurements.

For the cookie base:
9 tablespoons of soft butter
33g light brown soft sugar
100g granulated sugar
1 medium egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g of any kind of chocolate chips you fancy

For the topping:

9 tablespoons of soft butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g brown sugar
About 100g icing sugar
60 g of chocolate chips

peanut butter

1)Preheat the oven to 170 C and grease a small sized rectangular/square tin

2)Cream the butter and sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla extract till it is all combined well. Then add the flour, salt and baking powder. you should have a nice cookie dough going on.

3)Then add loads of chocolate chips!! Or perhaps there might be something else you fancy instead like nuts or fruit…

4)Pop the mixture into the tin – spread out as evenly as possible. Then put in the oven for 25 minutes, when it should be just the right golden brown.

5)When they are out the oven, leave to cool in the tin. Then when they are ready, put on the topping.

6)I spread peanut butter on half and then cookie dough on the other half (To make the cookie dough cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract, then slowly add the icing sugar and finish with the chocolate chips). A variant would be to put the peanut butter on as a first layer and then smooth the cookie dough topping on top of this.

Enjoy!!

Marshmallow Cookies

If you’ve never tried Marshmallow Fluff before then you need to immediately find a jar! Most sweet shops that stock American snacks now offer it and it’s pretty cheap. Delicious eaten alone, or when used as part of a recipe. The marshmallowy goodness makes these cookies ridiculously chewy and sweet, and the recipe is simple. So if you have some and haven’t immediately eaten it all straight from the jar, give these a go!

Ingredients:

150g light brown granulated sugar

75g butter

1 large egg

150g self raising flour

100g chocolate chips (optional but why would you leave them out?)

1 tsp vanilla extract

About ½ jar marshmallow fluff

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and line 2 baking trays. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl and then mix in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour and stir until fully combined, and then add the chocolate chips and about4/5 tablespoons of Marshmallow Fluff.

Spoon the mixture onto the baking trays (you should have about 12 cookies). With a spoon, lightly press each one down so it spreads a little. Add a small dollop of Marshmallow fluff on top of each cookie- this will crisp up, giving a delicious burnt smore taste. Bake for 12 minutes and leave to cool.

Viennese Fingers

Another guest post from our housemate Hollie 🙂

Ingredients:

100g butter
30g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
110g self-raising flour
200g plain/milk/dark chocolate
a pinch of cinammon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and line/grease several trays.
2. Stir in the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until it’s all smooth and fluffy (and yummy), then add the flour to make it dough-like.
3. I created my own piping bag with some baking paper, but it’s probably best to buy one if you want it perfect, because you want to pipe the dough into long finger shapes onto the trays. To achieve the classic Viennese shape, use a nozzle on the end of the pipe. If you’re like me just use a knife to re-create it.
4. Leave them to bake in the oven for around 15-20 minutess or until just golden. Then leave to cool.
5. Melt some chocolate and then dip in your fingers! I branched out from the typical “just ends” and went for full coverage or all the way round the edge decoration. Then enjoy!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:                                                                                                        
110g butter
270g plain flour
15g cocoa powder
250g light brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2tsps vanilla extract
1tsp of bicarb
1 large egg
300g of any type of chocolat, cut into chunks

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 and grease/cover your baking trays with baking parchment.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Then beat the egg and add in the vanilla extract, then add this slowly to the butter and sugar until all mixed together.
3. Chuck in the flour, cocoa powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda.
4. Add in the chocolate, chopped up, then spoon it all into heaps onto the trays.
5. Then pop some chocolate on top of the cookies – you can be creative here and go with bits of a mars bar or snickers.
6. Leave them in the oven for 10 minutes – you want them cooked but nice and soft. Then leave to cool before you tuck in!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Possibly the awesomest cookies that I’ve ever made- peanut butter, chocolate and caramel are all involved, plus, it’s an easy recipe with really tasy chewy cookies as the end result. And the recipe makes a lot, so theres that too. Like most of my recipes, this is another from the ‘whack everything  in a bowl and stir’ variety. The chocolate and caramel are both optional here, but what madness would you want to leave them out? Anywho, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

100g butter

1 large egg

100g caster sugar

150g muscovado sugar

160g plain flour

2tbsp caramel sauce

4 tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

85g oats

100 chocolate chips

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Cream the sugar and butter together, and then add all the wet ingredients, the peanut butter, craramel, vanilla and egg. Then all the dry ingredients, finishing with the chocolate chips. Bake for 10 minutes( you will need to use 3 baking trays, or bake in batches). They will look a bit raw even when they’re done but don’t be tempted to leave them in too long, or else they’ll go too hard.