Biscuit

Vegan Shortbread

Whenever we start the year, I like to keep the recipes simple. January is usually the month where most people have indulged a little too much, spent most of their wages and want everything simple – so that’s what I’m, doing today.

Keeping things as simple as can be, I’m sharing the best recipe for a batch of vegan shortbread. If you have ever attempted baking at some point in your life, you have probably attempted shortbread… It’s super easy but it’s really easy to get it wrong. That’s why I’m sharing my foolproof vegan shortbread recipe.

It’s going to sound super strange but these shortbread has a very rich ‘buttery’ flavour, this is easy to achieve when you use a good quality plant based vegan spread. I gave these to family members in my social bubble and they didn’t even realise they were vegan.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

175g plain flour.

Pinch of salt.

120g vegan baking spread.

60g granulated sugar.

Additional granulated/caster sugar.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh all of your ingredients up, line a baking tray with parchment paper and get any equipment you may need ready, such as a a food processor.

Take the bowl of the food processor (or a bowl) and place in the flour and salt, then mix until combined.

Add in the vegan spread (which should be cold) and incorporate this just until its fully incorporated, it may start clumping together but you don’t want it to form a dough – if that happens, scrap the mess and restart again.

Add in the granulated sugar and incorporate it until the mixture starts clumping together, it should still look crumbly – this normal.

Place onto a lightly floured surface and briefly knead it all together, just until a dough forms. You don’t want to over mix the dough as this will result in a touch textured biscuits, which isn’t what you want.

Bring the dough back into a fat sausage shape and wrap in clingfilm, then place it in the fridge and chill for at least an hour (the dough should be firm).

Once the end of the chilling time is approaching, you can go ahead and the

When the dough has chilled, cut the dough into 10-12 rounds and place onto your lined baking tray and then bake in your preheated oven for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

As soon as they are out of the oven, sprinkle over a dash of granulated/caster sugar and then allow to cool fully before you enjoy them.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Hearts

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Left a Valentine’s Day treat until the last minute? Don’t you worry, I have you covered!

Today I’ll be sharing my recipe for a batch of chocolate chip shortbread hearts, buttery with the perfect amount of chocolate. Although what’s not to love?

These are ideal to make as a last minute snack or as part of a bigger gift. Feel free to change the chocolate, I went with milk but dark or white would work well too!

If you’re looking for other Valentine’s Day recipes don’t forget go check out macarons (Italian meringue method), pink velvet cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes and chocolate valentines day cake.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

175g Plain flour.

120g Butter.

60g Granulated sugar.

Pinch of salt.

100g Chocolate chips (I opted for milk).

Method:

Before you get into the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up the ingredients, line a baking tray with parchment paper and get any equipment you may need like a mixing bowl or food processor ready.

When it comes to making the dough, you can do it one of two ways. One will be suing a food processor and the other is by hand, I went with the food processor method for convenience and I have really warm hands, nevertheless, which ever method you choose will work just as well.

Method one (by hand) – into a large mixing bowl, place the flour, salt and butter. In-between your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until they are combined. It will resemble a sand like consistency, this is what you’re looking for.

Add in the granulated sugar and start to form dough, because of making the dough by hand you have the advantage of not over-mixing the dough.

You can then go ahead and add in the chocolate chips and work them into the dough.

Method two (food processor) – into the door processor place the the flour, salt and butter. Then pulse until they have combined and the mixture should have a sandy look about it, this is perfect.

Go ahead and add in the granulated sugar and pulse until the mixture starts to come together, try your best not to let the dough develop too much!

Lightly flour your work surface and transfer the dough onto the floured surface. Add the chocolate chips and briefly work them into the dough, the less you work the dough, the better.

Regardless of the method you chose, you will want to take the dough and get into a thick disk shape, then wrap it in clingfilm and place in the fridge for about an hour.

Once the hour is up, flour your work surface and remove the dough from the fridge. Take your rolling pin and proceed to roll the dough out until its around 1cm in thickness. It’s also the ideal time to preheat your oven to 190˚c/375˚f.

Take a 1.5-2 inch heart cookie cutter and cut out as many as possible from the first roll. I recommend that you only re-roll the dough only once, as after that the dough becomes overworked.

Now you can take your lined baking tray and place the cut outs onto it, I managed to get 15 on my tray but that amount will vary for you. In saying this, my baking tray is just a standard size, yours may be bigger or smaller.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minute or until they start to go a nicely baked colour around the edges.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.

Bread Pudding/Traditional Bread Pudding

by bakingwithelliott 11 Comments

I know this may not be for everybody but today I’ll be showing you how to make traditional bread pudding.

My traditional bread pudding contains light brown sugar, eggs, ground mixed spice and ground cinnamon alongside an abundance of dried fruit (currants, raisins, sultanas, mixed peel and glace cherries). This is one of the things whenever I make it, it doesn’t last very long.

You don’t need an awful lot of ingredients and if you have some day old (or stale) bread, you’re ready. Using day old/stale bread allows it to absorb more of the milk, which only makes this taste better- it’s moist.

I got 12 very generous portions from my 9×13 tin, but if you cut it differently, you may get more or less pieces from the bake, depending how you slice it. If you’re using a 9×13 inch tin, make sure its deep sided, otherwise it’s a waste of time.

If you like bread pudding, this recipe might be for you. I know that depending on where you are from in the UK, your take on bread pudding may vary. I’m from Birmingham and traditionally its quite light but mines a little darker from the spices and sugar I use.

Now you’ve got your bowl ready, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

1kg Bread (day old/stale white bread), chopped.

1,200ml Whole milk.

400g Raisins

300g Currants.

300g Sultanas

100g Mixed peel.

100g Glace cherries.

2 tbsp Ground mixed spice.

4 Egg.

280g Light brown sugar (plus additional for sprinkling on top before baking).

Method:

Before you get into making the bread pudding, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by getting your oven preheated to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up your ingredients and lining your 9×13 inch tray with some parchment/greaseproof.

To start on the actual bread pudding, place all the chopped bread into the largest mixing bowl you have, then add in the milk and combine the two using your hands. It may take about 5-7 minutes to get them well combined, once done it should be quite mushy and sloppy (I know, not the best words to use but it’s honestly what it’s like).

Once that has been achieved, you can then add in the raisins, currants, sultanas, mixed peel, glace cherries and ground mixed spice. Then mmix all of those ingredients in by hand, this doesn’t take too long but you want them to be equally distributed between in the mixture.

Add in all your eggs and light brown sugar, then mix it in again until they are fully worked in and you can’t see a trace of a single ingredient, if you do, continue mixing until you can’t.

Take your lined 9×13 inch cake tin and pour the bread pudding mixture into the tray and level it out so it bakes evenly.

Sprinkle over a small amount of light brown sugar, this is to add a crunchy top, so feel free to leave it out if you don’t want it.

Place into the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, you will know once it’s done as the top will look perfectly crunchy and will be firm to the touch.

Allow to cool down completely before slicing up, its best enjoyed cold on its own. Well, that’s how I choose to enjoy it personally.

That’s all for this week guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back next week with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below!

White Chocolate Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make a batch of white chocolate cookies. A baking staple, made simple.

These cookies are great, especially seeing as they can be made and completed in under 60 minutes, because when you’re craving a cookie, you don’t want to wait ages for them. I’m just being honest…

I’ll be honest, when it comes to white chocolate, I can take it or leave it BUT in these cookies, it works super well! Adding vanilla extract to the dough really helps to flavour the dough and enhance the white chocolate.

As with all my recipes, before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get your ingredients measured/weighed up, prepare your tin (if you want to, I didn’t but you know your tin) and get any equipment you may need ready. Taking these few extra steps can lower the chance of making a mistake.

Let’s get started, shall we?

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

350g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

¼ tsp Salt.

100g White chocolate cho[s (for in the cookies).

Additional white chocolate chips (for the tops of the cookies).

Method:

Before you get into making the cookies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up your ingredients, line your baking trays (if you do this, I occasionally do this) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. Get any equipment you need ready at this point also.

Into your mixing bowl of choice, add your butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix on a medium/high speed until they are well combined.

You can then add in your eggs one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. You can add in your vanilla extract at this stage as well, either in with the eggs or at the end, either way will work well, it just needs to be incorporated.

Next, you’ll want to add in the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Make sure that you pass them through a sieve first, to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix.

Add in the white chocolate chips, then mix on a low/slow speed just until a dough has formed, try your best not to over-mix at this stage.

Give the bowl a quick scrape down just to incorporate any bits that didn’t get fully incorporated in on the first mix.

Take your cookie scoop and scoop two balls of dough for each cookie, roll them together and then place onto a baking tray, then squash down using your hand and round off using a large enough round cookie cutter to help them be more rounded and that will help them bake rounder.

Repeat the above step with the remainder of your cookie dough, until you have no dough remaining.

Bake the cookies off in your preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are a golden-brown colour. Be-aware that these cookies spread while baking.

Once out of the oven place additional chocolate chips on top of each cookie. Then allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooking rack to cool fully.

You can enjoy them while they are warm or allow them to cool down completely and enjoy with a glass of milk or a mug of tea/coffee.

Vanilla Sprinkle Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make a batch of my vanilla sprinkle cookies. They are quick and easy to make – what’s not to love?

This recipe is perfect if you’re in a rush and don’t have the time to be in the kitchen for over an hour or if you want to bake with your kids, this is the quickest (and tastiest option).

I have opted to flavour mine with vanilla, mostly because it’s a flavour enjoyed by most but it can be fully customised to suit you (or whoever else may be eating them) and the sprinkles were just standard rainbow sprinkles.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

350g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

¼ tsp Salt.

50g Rainbow sprinkles (for in the cookies).

Additional rainbow sprinkles for the top of the cookies (added before baking).

Method:

Before you get into making the cookies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your baking trays (if you do this) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. Get any equipment you need ready at this point also.

Into your mixing bowl of choice, add your butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix on a medium/high speed until they are well combined.

Once they are all combined, give the bowl a scrape down to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

Next, you’ll want to add in the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Make sure that you pass them through a sieve first, to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Add in the rainbow sprinkles, then mix on a low/slow speed just until a dough has formed, try your best not to over-mix at this stage.

Give the bowl a quick scrape down just to incorporate any bits that didn’t get fully incorporated in on the first mix.

Take your cookie scoop and scoop two balls of dough for each cookie. Dip the top of eat cookie dough ball into the rainbow sprinkles and place onto a baking tray, then squash down using your hand and round off using a large enough round cookie cutter to help them be more rounded and bake rounder.

Repeat the above step with the remainder of your cookie dough.

Bake the cookies off in your preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are a golden brown colour. Be-aware that these cookies spread while baking.

Once out of the oven, allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooking rack to cool fully.

Once cooled (or slightly warm), pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy with the cookies.

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