Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies! A Christmassy Nigella recipe...

These are a perfect Christmassy cookie (or an all year round cookie, they are equally as yummy no matter what time of year you eat them!), it is taken from Nigella Lawson's Christmas cookery book. I haven't always managed to make great cookies, they sometimes go too flat, or merge together and generally end up a bit of a mess! However, these didn't! I'm pretty certain it's the way you make them into small ish dough balls and spread them apart on the baking tray (see further below!) I took a couple round for my grandparents to try and now they mention them every time I see them!

Makes 8-10 (or even more, depending on the size you make them!) (Nigella makes small ones and says that this recipes will make 30)

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

75g rolled oats (not instant)

125g soft butter

75g dark brown sugar

100g caster sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

75g dried cranberries

50g pecans, roughly chopped (I left this part out as I think they are better without the nuts but add them by all means!)

150g white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Measure out the flour, baking powder, salt and rolled oats and combine together in a bowl.

Mix the butter and sugars together in a bowl and mix well until creamy. An electric mixer helps here if you're able to get hold of one but a bit of elbow grease will go a long way!

Beat the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mixture into the butter mixture.


Then fold in the cranberries, optional chopped pecans and white choc chips.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls with your hands* then place them onto the baking tray and squish the dough balls down with a fork.

*This is the first time I've tried doing it this way and it is the best way. I have tried so many cookie recipes and completely failed when they've cooked as they normally turn out flat and join together! Nigella's way of cooking them is definitely the easiest way to get nice looking cookies. Also spread them out on a baking tray, I ended up using two trays for fear of siamese cookies!!

Cook for 15 minutes. They are ready when coloured nicely! Leave to cool slightly then peel off the tray and leave to cool and harden fully on a wire rack.

What I've been loving this Christmas...

My blogging has been awful during this month and I had so much planned to write about! I had a list of food that I've made going as far back as a month or more to blog! It just seems that this whole month has been completely manic, not really managing to have a rest and then when I was relaxing, I didn't feel like writing a post. However, I am still planning to cover a lot of what I've cooked this week before New Years, especially party food recipes as it seems more appropriate to cover around this time. Then when New Year hits, I plan to post about some slightly healthier meals!

I thought as Christmas has just passed, I would share with anyone who is interested a few things I have been loving this month and some things that have really got me into a Christmassy festive spirit!

We have a lovely (fake) tree that I helped to decorate. I really love the decorations we have and like that they are mostly ornamental style and larger baubles. I think it makes the tree look kind of stylish! The rest of the decorations in the house I can't take credit for, that's my mum's interior style touch! She loves buying decorations and there always seems to be a place for everything, so many corners of our house are filled with festive objects!

Something else that has made me feel Christmassy are festive candles! I love candles all year round and have a few in my room however at Christmas all these new fragrances come out and make everywhere smell like it's been infused with a large dose of vanilla, cinnamon, spice and almonds.

I also have to mention my Mum's table setting for Christmas day, it was so fun, a mismatch of different Christmassy prints and colours that in my opinion, looked pretty damn stylish!

I also have been loving Christmas style cakes. Both of which are shown below and are not ones that I have made! The first is my Mum's try at Nigella's spruced up vanilla cake, and it came out unbelievably well. It does have a mould but it is still something that looks tricky and so Christmassy! The second is a gingerbread house made by one of my work colleagues. He made it for a party he had at his house and I didn't go, however he sent me a picture of this creation and I was properly bowled over by how good it was! I did persistently ask him to bring it into work as I wanted to see it in real life! He eventually he did and unfortunately it was pretty much devoured and destroyed by everyone (including me...), but even after a week, it tasted lovely and looked like a work of art!

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

My Mum's adapted Christmas cranberry rice!

I have neglected blogging for a couple of weeks now and this was when I wanted to go Christmas mad! I have so many recipes and meals that I have made the past few weeks but really haven't had the energy to post and today of all days, when I'm tired and full of cold, I've decided to post. It's only a week until Christmas and I'm so excited (I was excited mid September...) and the best part about Christmas for me (apart from being with family, friends etc...) is food! There's nothing better than eating your body weight in chocolate, turkey, roast potatoes, delicious puddings and bread sauce!

I've decided to start with this recipe as it is such an amazing Christmassy recipe. The cranberries give it a lovely sweetness whilst the parsley and onions make it taste like stuffing! It's a great accompaniment to some leftover turkey on Boxing Day. This recipe is my Mum's adaptation of a Nigella Lawson stuffing recipe in the cookery book Feast. It originally contained dried sour cherries but my Mum put cranberries in the recipe instead and it turned into a wonderful Christmassy side dish!

Serves 4

Ingredients

60g butter

2 onions, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

200g basmati rice (or enough for how many you are cooking for)

80g dried cranberries

500ml water

4 tablespoons chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a wide saucepan. Add the finely sliced garlic and onions to the melted butter and fry gently until the onions brown.

Add the rice and dried cranberries and stir well so the rice is coated in the buttery mixture.

Add the water and a sprinkling of salt and bring to the boil. Pop the lid on and cook at a very low heat for 15 minutes.

The rice will be cooked when the water has all been more or less absorbed. Then add the parsley and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Ta-da! Enjoy this Christmassy cranberry rice with some nice roast chicken or turkey!

Orgasmic Rocky Road Crunch Bars (Nigella Christmas Style)

These rocky road bars are absolutely delish, courtesy of a recipe from Nigella's Christmas Cookbook - Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities. My mum made these bars at Christmas, and I was debating which recipe to use as I wanted to make some and then I remembered this one and remembered it being a winner! It's an extremely easy recipe, so although I have had quite a few compliments on the bars, "orgasmic" being one, I can't take credit for it as the recipe and process of making it is that easy!

Here is Nigella's recipe (again, not claiming it's my own! especially as I've copied and pasted this one from a website!) :

Makes around 24 bars

Ingredients:

250g/9oz dark chocolate, chopped
150g/5oz milk chocolate, chopped
175g/6oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g/7oz amaretti biscuits (I used rich tea as I couldn't find any amaretti biscuits in my local supermarket, but amaretti would be much much better!)
150g/5oz shelled Brazil nuts
150g/5oz red glacé cherries
125g/4oz mini marshmallows
1 tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Place the dark and milk chocolate pieces into a heavy-based pan. Add the butter and golden syrup and cook over a low heat to melt and combine.

2. Place the amaretti biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin to make crumbs of various sizes.

3. Place the Brazil nuts into another freezer bag and bash in the same way.

4. Take the pan of melted chocolate mixture off the heat and add the crushed biscuits and nuts.

5. Add the glacé cherries and mini marshmallows. Fold the mixture carefully to coat all of the solid ingredients with the syrupy chocolate mixture.

6. Pour the mixture into a 25cm/10in x 30cm/12in greased and lined baking tray and smooth the surface as much as possible (although it will look bumpy).

7. Refrigerate for two hours, or until firm enough to cut. Dust with icing sugar.

8. Remove the block of rocky road from the tray and cut into 24 rectangles.

Enjoy!

Love FF x