White Chocolate and Sour Cherry Cookies + a competition with Dr Oetker!

Last week, Dr Oetker invited me to a decorating masterclass with the wonderful Juliet Sear to help launch WeBake.co.uk. I had so much fun learning from Juliet, who shared some of her favourite decorating techniques with us and was totally lovely too.

For those of you who might not know, We Bake is a brand new online platform built specifically for home bakers. It's a little like Instagram, but is also packed with recipes, tips and advice from both Dr Oetker and the community of bakers. I've found so much inspiration from all the creative ideas that everyone is sharing. You can sign up for yourself here. 

Dr Oetker, synonymous with sprinkles, essences and writing icing, sent us home weighed down with a whole plethora of goodies from their new product line to try at home. I have had a lovely few days closeted up in my kitchen and experimenting with glitter sprays, designer icings and Dr Oetker's chocolate range. 

And I'm excited to say that one of you lucky lot will be able to try the new product range out for yourself too! Dr Oetker have kindly given me a gorgeous hamper to giveaway on Pudding Lane. All you need to do is hop on over to We Bake, sign up and post a recipe or entry to one of the community competitions (why not Bake a Bauble or have a stab at winning the Cupcake Championship?). Just share a link to your post in the comments section below, and I'll enter you into the draw to win the hamper. What are you waiting for guys? 

I tested this recipe using Dr Oetker's white chocolate chips, which are specifically developed so that they chunks don't melt, but maintain their shape when baking. The sweetness of the chocolate is the perfect match to zingy sour cherries. 

THE INGREDIENTS

75g unsalted butter

40g light brown sugar

60g caster sugar

1 egg

110g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

100g Dr Oetker white chocolate chips

75g sour cherries

THE RECIPE

Line two baking trays with parchment, and ensure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature before you begin. 

Cream together the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Once smooth, mix in the egg. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just combined. Stir through the white chocolate chips. Dry and dice the cherries, then add these to the cookie dough too. 

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop 8-10 cookies onto the trays, then refrigerate for an hour. 

Heat the oven to 170°C / 150°C fan. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until they are golden and just cooked in the centre. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

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PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES {GLUTEN & DAIRY FREE}

It's Friday! The weekend is here, and I hope you're all reading this with a large glass of your favourite tipple nearby.

Most of my baking happens at weekends these days as, while I love a burst of week-night creativity, I inevitably find myself banging my head against the oven and icing morosely into the small hours. Even for a night-owl, never desirable on a school night. Leisurely weekends afford hours and hours to bake at your own pace during waking hours.

Well...that's the theory anyway. But is it just me who finds that even the weekends seem totally void of time to be spent in the kitchen? Perhaps it's the good weather, but increasingly I can't afford to spend hours by my oven.

And so, I bring you a recipe for the time-pressed. These cookies take 5 minutes to make, 10 to bake, and are totally delicious. They're also free from dairy and gluten, but taste just as naughty as your average free-from-nothing cookie.

 THE INGREDIENTS

250g crunchy peanut butter (gluten free if needed)

75g light brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

100g dark chocolate chips

THE RECIPE

Preheat your oven to 180C, and line two baking trays with parchment. Measure the peanut butter into a large mixing bowl, and beat quickly to smooth. Add the sugar, baking powder and egg, and beat until smooth and well combined. Add the chocolate, and mix well.

Using two teaspoons, place round balls of mixture onto the lined trays. Shape into circles and press down with a fork or your fingers. They do spread out a little, so ensure they are well spaced.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes. The cookies are done when they have risen a little and have a firm surface to the touch. You want them to still be gooey inside. Remove from the oven, and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Serve with a cold glass of milk (dairy-free, of course). 

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ORANGE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

This week, I turned 23. Birthdays are a funny thing as you get older. The excitement I felt as a child was almost intangible but, inevitably, the magic slowly seeped away as each year added another notch to my age and carried me further and further away from my childhood.

This year I spent my birthday at work and, mindful that Tuesdays do not lend themselves to wild celebrations, delayed birthday festivities to the weekend. Am I really a grown up now? Well, whatever the outward picture might suggest, I still feel exactly the same as I did when I was a fresh, green and often quite awkward 16 year old.

Birthdays are a good time to reflect on the year gone and, more importantly, the year ahead. For 23, I've decided to try and cut myself a little bit of slack. The plight of the perfectionist weighs heavy on my shoulders far too often, and I'm going to try my hardest not to beat myself up about the small stuff. The world won't end if a report waits until the next day, if I don't manage a run before work, if I don't blog every single week. Of course, the usual resolutions stick too, so I'll be trying hard to complain less, be more grateful and remind my nearest and dearest how much I love them more often.

A grown up I may be, but the awkward 16 year old in me is still a real sucker for sweet, chewy chocolate chip cookies. The secret to beautiful cookies is to make your own melting chocolate chips - they really are a million miles away from the rock hard chunks you buy at the supermarket. Peppered with orange zest and a hint of coffee, these cookies will bring out the child in every birthday boy or girl.

THE INGREDIENTS

125g dark chocolate

140ml double cream

440g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp instant coffee

2 tsp boiling water

230g butter, softened

400g caster sugar

100g soft light brown sugar

zest of 1 orange

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

THE RECIPE

Begin by making your homemade chocolate chips. Break the chocolate up in a bowl, and set aside. In a small pan, heat the cream until it is just bubbling, then pour over the chocolate. Stir the mixture fast, until the chocolate is all melted and you have a glossy, thick and smooth ganache. Pour into a square tin, then set in the freezer and leave to freeze solid for 3 hours. Once the chips are frozen, remove from the freezer and cut into chunks. Store in the freezer until you're ready to use them. 

For the cookies, preheat the oven to 190C. Line several baking trays with parchment and set aside. Next, cream together the softened butter and both sugars. Add the eggs, and once beaten in add the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and orange zest. In a small bowl, mix the coffee granules with the boiling water, and add to the dough, mixing well.  

Finally, add the chocolate chips and fold by hand to combine and distribute among the dough. Next use two teaspoons to spoon the cookies onto the trays. Each cookie should have about 2 large tsps of dough. Don't flatten the balls, as they'll do this themselves in the oven. It's also important to spread them out, placing just 4 or 5 cookies on each tray. 

Bake in the oven for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies have spread, risen and sunk again, and are just golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for 10 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to firm up fully. Repeat this process until all the dough has been used up - yo can reuse the baking parchment, and should get around 30 cookies from the dough. 

Enjoy with a strong cup of English Breakfast. De-licious.

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