Easy chocolate cookies (from a chocolate cake mix)

I'm not very organised, when it comes to saving recipes spotted online. Sometimes I come across an interesting recipe and bookmark it, but more often I hope I would remember where I've seen it, but of course, I don't.
Last week someone re-tweeted a recipe for quick and easy chocolate cookies made with a chocolate cake mix. I had a quick look at the recipe which was called something like 3-ingredients' cookies. Technically the name was wrong, as the cake mix includes several ingredients in it, plus she added candy of all kinds to her cookies. I knew the idea of making easy cookies from a cake mix would appeal to both of my boys.
A few years ago I asked on Facebook where to get a certain US cake mix, which is not available widely in the UK. There were quite a few responses along the lines "You buy cake mixes?", as if the idea itself was incredulous. Yes, I do, not often, but I usually have a box or two in the pantry for a rainy day, when I'm too tired to weigh and measure. I do add a few extras to jazz it up.

Anyway, back to that cookies recipe. I scrolled down my Twitter feed, trying to find if I have re-tweeted it. Nope. I knew the cookie dough was a chocolate cake mix (or was it brownies?), with 2 medium eggs and half a cup of oil (125ml). I believe the original poster added M&Ms to her cookies.

We didn't have M&Ms, but we had a small bag of Maltesers, and some packs of Sunny Fruit Mix-Ups, which were delivered with the latest Degustabox food box.

I would love to acknowledge the original poster, so if you do know who I'm talking about, please give me a shout.

You will need
1 box of chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix, but Cadbury's would be nice too)
2 medium eggs
120ml mild olive oil
+
about 25 Maltesers, halved
2 bags of Sunny Fruit Mix Ups (raisins and dried strawberries)
a handful of mini meringues

You can use any mild olive oil, but I like Filippo Berio mild and light because it's neutral in taste, unlike the extra virgin olive oil. Of course, it's a matter of an individual taste, so feel free to experiment with another flavour.

In a mixing bowl tip in the contents of the cake box, beat in two eggs and olive oil. If using different add-ons, divide the dough into two bowls, then mix in any dried fruit and berries you like, or candy.
As mentioned above, I added halved Maltesers to one part, and Mix -ups and mini meringues to the other part. Roll the cookie dough into balls, then flatten into cookies and spread on the baking sheet.
Bake for about 11 minutes at 180C. Let the cookies cool lightly before transferring onto the cooling rack, as they are very soft and fragile at this point. Do not worry, they will get the right texture.
If you keep them in the oven for longer, they will be crispy, but if you like soft crumbly cookies, don't over-cook them.

They spread quite a bit in the oven, so don't cram them on the baking sheet.
You will get about 21 cookies.

These cookies are very easy to make, so invite your kids to join in. They will have fun adding their favourite sweets.

I used Sunny Fruit Mix-Ups in one half of the cookie dough. Sweet raisins and dried strawberries work great with the chocolate base. But again, this is just a suggestion - add dried banana chips, or dried cherries, cranberries, any nuts.

The cookies will keep well in a closed container for several days.

Cookie Fries - inspired by Disney (The Big Bakes shares secret recipes)

Do you miss your favourite treats from High Street food outlets, like Gregg's classic sausage rolls, or Café Nero vegan raspberry croissants?
Just the other day Eddie and I were discussing with a light note of nostalgia how wonderful the Krispy Kreme donuts are (chocolate with sprinkles are our favourites), and how much we miss them.

As Britain remains locked down, many people miss popping to their favourite High Street food outlets to pick up a delicious treat.
To keep the nation going during this time of culinary deprivation, The Big Bakes has pledged a new secret recipe each week to help Brits replicate some of the UK's most iconic High Street snacks at home.

This week one of tasks on Seesaw (homeschooling app) was to pick a recipe, cook a dish, take photos of the result and then discuss what's the best part about being a chef.
As soon as we read the task, I knew we had to try the recipe for Cookie Fries, as recreated by The Big Bakes.
Cookie Fries are basically choc chip shortbread shapes, served with dips.

Image credits: The Big Bakes

With so many popular dishes to choose from, The Big Bakes asked baking fans for help whittling down the options. In response, The Big Bakes has created five online recipe tutorials of the most popular dishes, which are revealed each Wednesday.
These include:
- Greggs Sausage Roll
- Cookie Fries - Inspired by Disney
- Nando's Portuguese Tarts
- Millie's Cookies

Each video masterclass will offer an easy, step-by-step guide for people to follow at home, no matter what their level of experience. Lasting two to three minutes, the home baking videos will feature day-to-day ingredients and basic kitchen equipment, so everyone (including the kids) will be able to get involved.

In order to take part in these digital baking sessions, all people need to do is visit @Thebig_bakes on Instagram or Facebook, for a list of the necessary ingredients needed for the up-coming class.

The Big Bakes was founded in 2017 by Adam Chaudhri and Eloise Frank, who discovered a gap in the market for fun, accessible and affordable baking events, after taking part in a bake-off competition during a work away day.
With locations across the UK as well as online, the Bakes combine socialising, baking, and good old-fashioned fun.

Last week The Big Bakes digital co-baking sessions kicked-off with the Cookie Fries, inspired by the tasty amusement park snacks found in Disney, these chip-shaped treats have risen to legendary status almost overnight.

Now, The Big Bakes has released its secret Cookie Fries recipe, so easy to follow that even kids will be able to have a go.
Perfect for sharing, these chocolate chip cookies replicate classic fries and are perfectly shaped for dunking into your favourite sauce.

We decided to cut our cookies into diamond shapes rather than chips.

Cookies Fries (recipe courtesy of The Big Bakes)

For the Cookie Fries:
50g sugar
100g butter
150g flour
50g chocolate chips

For the dips:
20g mini marshmallows
1tbsp milk
2tbsp Nutella
2tbsp jam

Equipment:
Mixing bowl
Spatula
Rolling pin
Knife (adult supervision needed)
Baking tray with parchment
Microwavable pots for your dips

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
In your mixing bowl, start by creaming together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Stir in the flour and mix until incorporated.
Fold in the chocolate chips and then turn your dough onto a work surface and knead until it comes together in a ball.
Roll the dough into a rectangle about 2cm thick and cut into your desired chip shapes or smaller rectangles.
Place onto your baking tray a few centimetres apart from one another and bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges go golden brown.

Leave to cool before eating.

We didn't have chocolate chips, and chopped half a bar of chocolate into small pieces.

When you're ready to eat your Cookie Fries, make your dips just before:

Combine the marshmallows with 1tbsp of milk and then microwave in 5-second intervals and stir until fully combined, stop when the mixture has liquidised.

Microwave the jam for 15 seconds and then the Nutella for 15 seconds, stir and then serve with your cookie fries.


We don't have a microwave, and used some of the Marshmallow fluff instead.
We also prefer Jim Jams to Nutella which has a staggering amount of sugar. We skipped the jam altogether, as it was just too much sweet stuff together.

These cookies are super easy, anyone can have a go at this simple recipe.
My guys loved them so much that we baked them twice in two days (we didn't do the dips the second time).

Eddie has submitted his report to the Seesaw app, and his teacher commented that she'd love to try the recipe too.
What have you been baking recently (that is, if you have some flour)?

Ice cream sandwiches

It was my dearest friend Trudy who has first introduced me to Jules Destrooper biscuits. She was very fond of the almond thins. Every time I pick up a box of JD butter waffles, crisps or crocante (florentines), I think of her.
She's been gone these last two years, and I miss her terribly. How much I'd love to see her and give her the biggest hug ever, and hear her calling me sweetheart and her darling girl in her smooth American accent.
Ice cream sandwiches are an American invention. I don't know actually if my friend ever made them, but I can imagine her as a young girl, having a go at making ice cream sandwiches. She was an inspiring cook, and I still keep her letters with recipes for a fruit crisp, orange or lemon syrup loaf, broccoli salad and a curry chutney mold she's written down for me in her distinct style.

Today Eddie's off school, as he was poorly yesterday, and couldn't go to school. To cheer him up, I decided to make some ice cream sandwiches, using Jules Destrooper Butter Crisps which arrived last week in the Degustabox food box.

We do love butter crisps, and I buy them often enough.
I nicked the recipe for ice cream sandwiches with Jules Destrooper biscuits from last year's Waitrose Food magazine (June 2017). They have Meal Maths recipes in each issue, with ideas for cheats and quick meals, using a few ingredients.

I have done a few swaps: they used JD butter waffles, I had JD butter crisps. Dark chocolate was swapped for a milk one (as my kids prefer the milk chocolate), I didn't have hazelnuts and used almonds, and lastly, I used Kelly's Cornish clotted cream ice cream rather than salted caramel ice cream.
But the whole idea is totally theirs, so all credit goes to Waitrose Food mag.

You will need
1 pack of Jules Destrooper butter crisps or butter waffles
1 bar of milk or dark chocolate
30g chopped almonds, hazelnuts or any other nut you prefer
clotted cream or vanilla ice cream

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering hot water. Spoon 1tsp of melted chocolate over one end of each butter crisp, then sprinkle with chopped nuts. Place the crisps on the rack for about 5 minutes so that the chocolate would start to set.

Using a serrated knife, cut the ice cream into 1.5+cm slices. Make sandwiches, by placing the ice cream slices between two butter crisps. Eat straight away, or put some of them in the freezer inside a plastic container.

I only made 3 sandwiches as the remaining cookies were all broken into pieces. I whizzed the pieces with a blender and mixed them into the melted chocolate with the remaining chopped nuts, then spooned into small paper cases. I've got about 6 "truffles".

Experiment with different flavours of ice cream. I think vanilla or clotted cream would work best. The recipe in the magazine suggests using the salted caramel ice cream, but to my taste that would be way too sweet, as the crisps are sweet already, plus there is chocolate. But by all means, use any ice cream you fancy.

This quick dessert will appeal to both children and grown-ups.

Adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky hosted by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews, as I've used the remains of the whole almonds (chopped with a blender) and we also finished the clotted cream ice cream.

Toffee Marshmallow Crispies #ReadCookEat

School is back tomorrow. To sweeten the bitter pill, Eddie and I made a big batch of Toffee Marshmallow Crispies yesterday.
Having read Jane Linfoot's The Little Cornish Kitchen (<--- click for my book review) I've bookmarked a few food descriptions as an inspiration. If you are a foodie and enjoy baking, you will be drooling over numerous desserts featured in the book, from the pastel-coloured macaroons to a decadent chocolate roulade, from lemon meringues to berry sorbets, from the most delicious Eton Mess with lemon curd to a chocolate mousse cake with strawberries...

As Clemmie, the main heroine of the novel, masters the art of patisserie, the food descriptions become more and more sinful. I swear my waistline was expanding, just reading them.

I fancied making lemon cupcakes with blackberry frosting, but my piping skills are rather lame. I might try the idea one day when I'm feeling brave.

But it's the easy Toffee Marshmallow Crispies that I knew would be a big hit with my guys.
I've googled for a recipe, and found one for Toffeee and Marshmallow Rice Crispies on BBC Good Food.

These sweet treats appear in one of the later scenes in the book:

Jenny's beaming at us. "If you'd like to drink to that with tea back at the house, I've made some of Laura's special toffee crispie".
"You have?" Rob and I both turn together.
I'm thinking of the recipe cards. "With the marshmallows in?"
Another of my childhood favourites.
Jenny nods. "That's the one. It must be fifty years since she gave me that recipe..."
Rob's smiling. "I always licked out the saucepan for that."
"Me too." My mouth is watering as I recall the taste. There was nothing quite like that sticky sweetness.

Who could resist such a treat?!

For the full recipe please use the link above, on BBC Good Food site. I followed their recipe exactly as stated.

I didn't have soft butter toffees, and actually couldn't find soft toffees anywhere. Are soft toffees and fudge the same thing? Anyway, I bought a packet of butter toffees (Waitrose own), which are pretty hard and sticky-brittle, the type that when you bite into one, your teeth get cemented to it.

I wasn't sure if these toffees were going to melt, but they did melt.
Use a big  heavy duty pan for this job, and one that you don't worry about scratching later, when you need to clean it.
Melt 50g butter with 200g toffees, then throw in the marshmallows and keep stirring until you have a gloopy sticky mess.

Then add the rice crispies and mix thoroughly. The melted toffee starts to set pretty fast, so you need to act quickly.
Line a square brownie tin with foil or parchment paper and oil a little bit. Scoop the rice crispie into the tin and pat with a wooden spatula to flatten it.

It will be ready to cut in less than half an hour. It will be a bit soft at this point.

My boys loved it, and would have gobbled up the whole lot, if I didn't ration it.

Thank you to Laura and Clemmie for the inspiration - and of course, Jane Linfoot! - for writing such irresistible food descriptions!

Have you read a book recently which inspired you to run to the kitchen and cook to your heart's content?

I hope you are inspired by books to join in the #ReadCookEat challenge.

The idea is to choose a book, either a world classic or modern fiction, or even memoirs and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

If you decide to take part, please add the badge to your post and link up back to me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email me with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).

I will Pin all blog posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+

Limoncello ricotta cheesecake

What have you been doing this long Easter weekend? We had friends over for the Easter lunch, and enjoyed good company and good food. And whenever I had a chance during these four days, I was escaping to the kitchen to listen to the Classic FM's Hall of Fame. Last year we were in Italy for Easter, and I missed it.

For Easter lunch with friends I baked a limoncello and lemon ricotta cheesecake, and my sons helped to decorate it with  Milky Bar and Smarties Mini Eggs.
It's the first time I made a cake with gluten free digestive biscuits (one of our friends is a coeliac), but they worked perfectly well as a base for a cheesecake.

Limoncello Ricotta Cheesecake
Ingredients:
150g digestive biscuits (I used gluten free digestives)
60g butter, melted
120g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
4 medium eggs
50ml limoncello
250g ricotta
280g cream cheese (Philapdelphia Original full fat)
Mini eggs for decoration, dipped in melted white chocolate

First you need to bash the digestives in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Combine the biscuit crumbs with melted butter, and press at the bottom of the spring cake tin, lined with parchment paper and lightly oiled.
In a deep mixing bowl beat together sugar, lemon zest and eggs. Add the limoncello, ricotta and cream cheese. The cheese mix will be quite liquid. Pour the cheese mix over the crumb base.
Bake in the oven preheated to 180 C for about 50 minutes.
Let the cake cool completely before placing in the fridge to set, for a couple of hours or overnight.

Decorate the cake, when it's cold. Dip the mini eggs into a melted white chocolate and set around the top of the cake.

I used a mix of ricotta and cream cheese, but it could be swapped for just two tubs of ricotta or two tubs of Philadelphia.

Milkybar and Smarties Mini Eggs were one of the seasonal products in the latest Degustabox. It's a sharing bag of milk and white chocolate eggs in a sugar shell. A serving of 5 mini eggs contains 85kcal and 10.8g of sugar. They look pretty and colourful, and were a perfect Easter decoration.
No wonder, my guys went wild with decoration. I thought they would add just a few mini eggs in the middle, but they had the other ideas.

We always end up with more limoncello than we manage to drink, and I told my husband he should stop bringing it from his trips to Italy.
Adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky at Cheryl's Madhouse Family Reviews blog. I will be glad to see the end of that limoncello bottle, and will need to come up with more recipes to finish it off.

Marshmallow rocky road with mini creme eggs

Last Thursday our Sasha arrived from school with a package of sweet treats they've been making at the food tech lesson. There were a couple of chocolate rice krispie eggs and a few slices of rocky road with marshmallows and creme eggs.
Sasha generously shared these delicious goodies with his brother. After gobbling up a big slice of rocky road, Eddie looked at me and asked if we could make some at home.

While I don't know exactly which proportions and ratio of chocolate to marshmallow and biscuits were in Sasha's school (I must ask them), I had a quick look online, and realised there are no rules. Basically, chuck in whatever you like, from nuts to dried cherries or cranberries, use more butter or even condensed milk, experiment with different biscuits and brands of chocolate.

When I asked Eddie what he would like in our rocky road, he vetoed raisins or any other dried berries and nuts too. I would have loved both, but then it was a fun activity for him and me to do on a rainy day.

Marshmallow rocky road with mini eggs
Ingredients:
140g unsalted butter
150g milk chocolate bar
1 Cadbury milk egg - 105g
100g dark chocolate
3tbsp golden syrup
2 bags of mini creme eggs (89g each)
100g mini marshmallows
155 digestive biscuits (a dozen of biscuits)
50g white chocolate

Start by melting the butter and chocolate. You will need a pan with boiling hot water underneath a glass or ceramic container where the chocolate goes. The top container should not touch the hot water.
First goes the butter, so that it starts melting before you add the broken chocolate and golden syrup. It prevents chocolate from going grainy. Mix it all with a wooden spoon until thick and glossy.

Set the container aside to cool before adding the remaining ingredients. If you add the marshmallows while the chocolate is hot, they will melt.
Once cool enough, add the biscuits, broken into small pieces, marshmallows and half of creme eggs, also chopped.
At this stage you can add whichever other ingredients you fancy - dried berries, nuts, mini eggs, smarties etc.

Line a deep tray with cling film, scoop the rocky road into the tray and flatten with the spoon.

Melt half a white chocolate, and make the splats of it over the rocky road. We didn't go for artistic drizzle, as I was going to press it all in anyway. Add the halved mini creme eggs.
Cover with the film, and press all over.

Set the tray in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, ideally overnight.

Cut into chunks before serving.

While a satisfying sweet treat for anyone who has a sweet tooth, MasterChef it is not. We didn't aim for a perfect presentation, and could hardly wait for it to set.
I started cutting it after an hour and a half in the fridge. It would benefit from a longer stay in the fridge.

Eddie ate his big piece and then asked me: "On the scale from 1 to 10, how would you grade our rocky toad and the one that Sasha brought home?" This was his "cunning" way to tell me that our rocky road was not as good as Sasha's. Oh well, harsh critics in the family.

This is a good way to use any leftover Easter eggs. And yes, such thing does exist, if you receive over a dozen of chocolate eggs for Easter (friends, family, school).

Dr. Oetker Bake In The Box

Easter holidays are starting tomorrow, and you might be making plans on what to do with children for 17 school-free days. If you travel far to warmer climes, I wish you a safe journey. If you stay at home like us, then we have to come up with contingency plans for any weather.
On a rainy day, how about a baking session with children? Either make a cake from scratch, or take it easy and use a cake mix.

Have you seen a new range of Dr Oetker Bake in the Box loaf cake mixes?
They come in three delicious flavours - Lemon & Poppy seed, Banana & Choc Chip and Double Chocolate.
They are top notch easy bakes and cakes. You just add milk to the cake mix which comes in a pouch inside the box, and bake in the box itself, so there is no need for any extra prep or washing.
The cakes are baked beautifully inside the cardboard boxes, and it takes just about half an hour from the start to finish.
Imagine you have surprise guests and would love to treat them to something sweet. What could be easier?

The first cake mix we tried was Banana & Choc Chip, as selected by my elder son, as he loves banana bakes and choc chips too.

You don't need to add anything but milk to the cake mix, but I always jazz up any cake mix I buy.
I added 1 egg to each cake mix and 1-2tbsp melted butter or oil, and a little bit of something like a few chopped chocolate buttons.
This is what a raw banana cake looks like, just before going into the oven.

You need to take the cake out after 10 minutes of baking to score a neat middle, but if you don't mind slightly wonky, off-side cakes, then don't worry if you forget to do it.
Here is the baked result. You need to carefully open the box to take the cake out.

The banana cake was sweet and fluffy. My children loved it. I still think that a banana bread made with fresh mashed bananas has a superior taste, but don't scorn this little bake. It's lovely with a cup of tea. 

The next cake mix to test was a Lemon & Poppy Seed. I love this combination of flavours, and this cake was my top choice of the three.

I added 1 egg, 1tbsp of mild olive oil, zest of 1 lemon and 1tbsp of lemon juice.
I also made a thin icing from the icing sugar mixed with lemon juice and decorated the cake with mini jellies.
As you can see, I haven't scored the cake in time, so it split in the middle on its own accord.

It was zingy, light, lemony and with a nice addition of poppy seeds. A real winner.

And finally the chocolate cake... I've added 1tbsp of oil, 1 medium egg and 1 heaped tbsp of chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella, only less sugary).

We've decorated the cake with Dr Oetker Unicorn Chips, which look very pretty. As we were putting them on top of a still pretty warm cake, the chips started to melt.

It was a moist, very chocolatey cake. Judging by how quickly it disappeared - it didn't last 24 hours - this was the best cake, according to my family.

Have you tried any of the new Dr Oetker Bake in the Box cakes?

Disclosure: I received three boxes of cake mix for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are our own.