Rolo Shortbread and Shortbread Spoons

Sometimes when you need a little 'pick me up' you know you just have to bake something, and is it just me or does shortbread feel more like a wintery treat? I'm one of those people that love winter, I do like summer don't get me wrong but I definitely prefer the cold to the warm, big jumpers, hot chocolate and blankets appeal to me much more! So when it started to get cooler recently I decided it would be a good time to start making shortbread again.

I've got this shortbread mould I got for Christmas last year which I've been meaning to try out, it's a beautiful Mrs Beeton one from Tesco, so that when you flip it over to get the shortbread out, it comes with a pretty pattern - yay! As normal I used my grandmother's Norwegian shortbread recipe, it's just the best in my opinion, but to make it a bit more special I decided to cut up Rolos into it, everyone's a bit obsessed with them at work at the moment so I thought it'd be a good place to try them out.

 Personally I think it could have done with bigger chocolate chunks for when it gets all melty (yes that's a word...ish), also when I turned it out of the mould to fish it out I noticed the mould had a big crack in it, after one use!! I did contact mention this on Twitter and Tesco saw it and got in contact with me, only to then tell me it had been to long since the purchase...even though in my tweet I did mention it was a CHRISTMAS present, I'm not sure how they didn't notice that part before saying it had been too long - of course it had been too long, boo to false hope! Rant over. It's made out of similar stuff to tiles...so I've tried to patch it up with glue and will see if it holds out next time I dare to use it. Also the pattern didn't show up on the shortbread so it was a bit of a fail all around to be honest. I did however some of the Rolo mix left so I made some extra biscuits too.

Anyway,  I had some dough left so decided to make some shortbread spoons with a mould I bought from Sew White. I'd seen on the website that you could make gingerbread spoons so thought this could be a nice idea for coffee and hot chocolate etc. I simply filled the spoons tightly with the mixture, they don't rise a crazy amount so don't have to worry about it all spilling out, and simply take out when golden. try to them let them cool before popping out of the moulds...I couldn't!

Rolo Shortbread

Recipe:
330g plain flour
250g butter
100g icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 big pack of sharing Rolos, I didn't use all of them, it's all about preference I guess...and you can't eat the ones you don't use after!

Method:

• Mix flour and baking powder and sift into a mixing bowl.
• Cut up the butter and crumble into mixture as well as you can.
• Add the icing sugar and mix into a smooth dough.

 

• Gease the mould with butter and roll out the dough into a
  big circle about 0.5cm thick and push into the mould.
• With whatever dough you have left, roll it into a 4/5 cm sausage and chill for 30 minutes, then just slice up and bake for 12-20 minutes until golden.

• Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees (160 fan oven)
• Bake for 30 minutes depending on oven, the normal time for this recipe is about
  12 minutes but as it's in a mould it takes longer, I think mine took up to 40minutes
  in the end, you'll know when it's done as it will smell EPIC and be beautiful and gold.

• Before it cools slice around the edges so it'll be easier to get out, you'll want to get it out of the mould before it fully cools or it'll get stuck.
• Eat. Nom!!!

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My Birthday Wishlist

It's exactly one month and two days until my birthday, not that I'm counting! And to be honest I think I'm pretty easy to buy for, so this isn't a wishlist as such, in the way that I want people to buy me these things! It's more of like, in an ideal world of money and storage, I would love them :D So it's more for fun, but one day when I'm disgustingly rich and have a huge house, I can buy them all! A lot of what is featured will already have been on My Baking Wishlist, as I still haven't bought them!

One has to be the rolling pin, I think it's quite extravagant for nearly £45, from  Not On The Highstreet but it's sooooo pretty. I want to roll nothing but pastry with it, they effect would look brilliant on a pie. I just really want a porcelain rolling pin too, I only have wooden ones.

I have a bit of a mixing bowl obsession, I love them when I realised they came in more colours than just the plain brown and white, which I think it awful. I have a set of Joseph Joseph bowl which I love, and a beautiful bright red mixing bowl from Tesco which reminds me of a fireman's helmet. But the one I REALLY want is this lilac Mason Cash one from John Lewis.  It's £22 and so pretty I almost can't stand it, it just makes me want to bake a Victoria Sponge! I've seen it a few times but can never justify getting it as I already have a colourful one. But it is cute isn't it.

OK my next one is one my lust list,  I've been looking at it for ages. I'm quite traditional and even though I don't have my own place I really want my own dinner service, I think they'd be great for my baking photography too. I love this set, again from John Lewis called Pipp. It's not actually stupidly expensive, prices start from £3.49, but if you wanted the whole set...it will set you back. I just love how it's quite traditional but with a modern twist, I love the floral patterns but it's not old fashioned at all. It comes in two main colours, blue and pink and the idea is you can buy bits from each colours and mix them so it'll look quite eclectic. Love it!

I'm really into purple it's easily my favourite colour. So it's no surprise these caught my eye in Tesco . I also love Mock Croc so it's a double win. They don't look to bright in this picture but they're a gorgeous purple colour, and patent too just like a handbag. The only problem with this placemat as coaster is that it only comes in a set of four, so you'd have to buy two which is crafty as they're £10.50 a set...still love them though :)

So the last thing on my dream list, and I'm sure you're expecting it to be a mixer - but even I can't ever expect one of those in my wildest dreams! - is an ice cream maker. I know summer is over, but ice cream is brilliant all year round and it would be great to make some great flavoured ones for Christmas. This one is a Kenwood one from Amazon for £19.97 which actually isn't too bad, again I can never seem to justify it if I don't actually NEED it, and I guess I don't. I have tried making it in the freezer before but I just can't get the hang of it.


Images from:
Not On The Highstreet, Tesco, Amazon and John Lewis Pin It Now!

Fresh Yeast!

Where can I get fresh yeast in the UK I hear you ask? You can get it every easily abroad, but here it is not so simple let me tell you. I've tried most shops and places, until I did a little googleing and discovered that you can actually get it right from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's etc, but you wont find it on their shelves, you'll have to go direct to their own in-store bakery. I never even thought about it before but it is so obvious that of course you can get it from there! Most recipes need 50g of fresh yeast for a serving of dried yeast, and I get mine from Tesco for 30p per 100g, bargain! And what is great is that is freezes too so don't worry that you'll waste half if you don't need it all. Fresh yeast is crazy active, amazingly more so than dried, so don't freak out when it nealry overflows the bowl, it's amazing! Pin It Now!