Malteser Chocolate Chip Caramel Cookie Bars

Last week I was heading to a friend's house for a girl's night and I wanted to bring something to show my appreciation. I was stumped, and looked to the remains of the Halloween sweets for inspiration. 

Maltesers had already proved to make delicious cookies and I thought the caramel Chomp bars would be lovely and gooey! Bonus points: these bars take less effort than cookies!

Here's what you need to make a 6x6 tray of cookie bars:
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 funsize bags of Maltesers
4 funsize Chomp bars

1. Line a 6x6 tray with baking parchment, snipping at the corners so it fits properly.
2. Preheat the oven to 180degrees Celcius.
3. In a plastic bag, bash at the Maltesers with a mallet until broken (not crushed).
4. Chop Chomp bars into small pieces.
5. Beat together margarine and sugars until combined.
6. Add vanilla and egg, and mix until combined.
7. Add the flour and mix until combined.
8. On a slow setting, add the chocolate chips and Chomp and Malteser pieces.
9. Place dough into prepared tin.
10. Bake for about 50minutes or until cooked through and golden brown in colour.
11. Allow to cool in tin before slicing.
12. Enjoy.

Come back for more Autumnal recipes this week!

Stay sweet! x

Giant Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I discovered these cookies on Two Peas and Their Pod. Maria Lichty is the undisputed Queen of Cookies, and this is yet another one of her genius brainwaves. These were perfect for last Thursday's show (mostly because I didn't have enough chocolate chips to make decent cookies!) They turned out even better than I had expected. 

Think Nutella lava cakes, but better! I hear you- how could anything be better than those sweet little cupcakes? Because the juxtaposition between the crunchy cookie, and the vanilla-sugar taste of the dough is deepened by the addition of luscious addition of Nutella... I could sit here and drool over my keyboard all day. YUM! I intend on making these again soon minus the chocolate chips but with extra Nutella, as a kind of pillow cookie... Watch this space ;)

These cookies were HUGE! I scooped them into relatively medium sized balls yet they still spread so much during baking. Here's a large baking tray that just fits my oven (as in, slots into the tray holders at the side). Yes, it only held four cookies!

I did find that my yield was a little smaller than the dozen Maria had suggested; nonetheless every morsel was delicious!

I've been saying this a lot lately, but these cookies could just be the nicest thing I've ever baked!

Apologies for the lack of 'before' shots, my brain was not in blogger mode... I made these at 8.30am last Thursday! You probably already knew that if you follow me on twitter @orlmurf. FYI, you can use your twitter account to follow the blog, so handy!

They're incredibly easy to make though, just bung everything into a stand mixer and let it do all the work! :) This is a really great base cookie dough recipe and until I find a better one (if that's even possible) I'll use it as my standard one! 

Two exceptions to the listed recipe: 

1. I didn't include any salt in the actual cookie because I used normal butter (some claim that by using unsalted butter, you can regulate how much salt you bake with by adding it in yourself after, personally I find unsalted butter hard to come by so I just used regular Irish Creamery Butter!). I did however sprinkle sea salt on top of the cookie dough mounds before baking, definitely a must-do! 
2. I only used a teaspoon of Nutella inside the cookies **Confession: this was a mistake, my sleepy eyes misread the quantity! But it worked out great, as you can see below!**

I love the philosophy behind these cookies, the same as that of a Baked Alaska, or the Mint Cupcakes I made for St. Patrick's Day... Once you seal in whatever you're hiding inside your dessert it won't melt. So the world is your Nutella-stuffed cookie! Check out Picky Palate for loads more stuffed cookie recipes!

I also compared these cookies to Subway's Chocolate Chip Cookie (all in the name of research!) and found that this is a much more similar cookie to those I made last year (however the Copy Cat Cookies have a much larger yield so might be better for large gatherings!)

Make your Monday a little brighter, and bake these cookies!

Stay sweet! x

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (May 15th) & Eurovision

Chocolate chip cookies, an absolute classic dessert! I'll be honest, I'm not fussy when it comes to these- I'll eat a store-brand just as quick as a fancy artisan cookie. You really can't beat a good one though! That's what Andrew Nestlè thought when he discovered Ruth Wakefield's recipe... Listen here to find out more ;)

These Nutella-stuffed chocolate chip cookies were incredible, the recipe is coming up in the next post!

Feeling Eurovision Fever? Tune in to hear how you can have your own Eurovision party and tell me what you think of the acts!

Update: I was really surprised by Denmark's win! I didn't hear it prior to the announcement, but I loved it!! Also, so glad Ukraine were up there- I could get a job on the X-Factor yet ;) Hard luck for dear old Ireland... Maybe next year...? 

Over- Cook(i)ed

Last Saturday I was super bored, beyond bored. Living in a house that usually resembles Grand Central Station, everyone was either out of the house for the day. Aside from walking the terriers, I had no company, wa waaah! I know this should have been the opportunity to study and make good use of the day, but with an assignment due the night before I was burnt out! My brain was fried so the only thing I could do which didn't require much thought was bake. I borrowed this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod, minus the caramel and with mini chips instead of regular. I was too tired to adapt a recipe and when this one had baking soda which I thought was a nice addition and wondered how it would turn out!

Now, this would have been good if my tired, tired mind took note of their recommended cooking time... 10 minutes. However, as the cookies still looked pale and flattened when I touched them. The cupcake-baker in me quickly snapped the door shut and left them in for another TEN minutes. BIG mistake! So the lesson here is, follow the instructions when it comes to cookies! :) Still, they weren't that bad... Just a tad crunchy! Think Hagrid's Rock Cakes! I joke I was the only person who seemed to care about them being hard, everyone else just dipped them into tea! Where there's a will, there's a way!

Lesson learned! Here are some cute photos of the cookies anyways, a feast for the eyes!

Don't forget to tune into UCC98.3fm tomorrow for the Mother's Day edition of sUCCulent! 

Until then,
Stay sweet! x

Thank You!

Sometimes the best way to say 'Thank You!' is with a cake.

For this cake I followed the same basic recipe as found here. This time I used raspberry flavour jam. As the icing on the birthday cake was too milky, and never really set properly here I used a simple buttercream frosting, directions as follows.

• One 350g of instant icing sugar
• About 100g of butter
• About 20-30ml hot water, depending on the consistency you wish
• One teaspoon vanilla essence

Beat all together until satisfactory.

I used miniature chocolate chips to spell out the message, a much easier task than piping! Simple, yet effective!

I loved this cake, it almost hurt to give it away! But the recipients were delighted and that made the cake all the sweeter!

Bake a cake for somebody who you appreciate this weekend, it really will give you a dose of the warm and fuzzies!