cooking

Orange Cookies Recipe

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This is a variation on the oat, coconut and choc chip cookie, taking out the coconut and choc and using orange instead. I guess if you wanted orange and chocolate chip cookies, then leave the chips in 🙂

85g Granulated sugar

85g Demerera sugar

100g butter (at room temp)

300g Plain Flour / All purpose flour

1/2 tps salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg

125g oats (you may need to add more if the mixture is a bit wet)

1 Orange – grate a bit of rind when needed, then use the juice of the whole orange

2 tsp of orange extract

60g choc chips optional

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth (ish), add the egg, orange rind, juice and extract and mix. Then add the flour, salt and baking soda & powder. It needs to start binding like a dough, so if it’s a bit sloppy, then add a bit more flour (I didn’t weigh mine before adding, so went from 250g to 300g in the ingredients, but a bit more may be needed).

Once it’s binding well, add the oats by hand. Then put on a baking sheet and flatten out with your hand to about 1 – 2cm depth. Then use a cookie/biscuit cutter to get your desired shape and size.

Put on a baking tray either greased or on baking paper, and cook for around 10 – 15 mins or until going brown at 180 degrees.

(c) K Wicks

Orange biscuits

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A small batch of biscuits – makes about 8.

90g all purpose flour / plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

60g butter

100g sugar

2oz fresh orange juice / zest

half an egg

Oven at 180°c – baking time 15 minutes (ish)

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Seperately cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg, orange zest and juice and mix until you have what looks like a horrible scrambled egg type mixture. Then add half the flour and mix through, then add the rest of the flour and mix well until you have a creamy looking dough and pop in the fridge for a bit.

I never usually let anything rest in between, but this time I did, having ruined the first batch with lemon a couple of weeks ago, and addressed an long standing issue I have with baking biscuits and them going wrong. Turns out impatience and ignorance were the culprit! No real surprise there for me. But I gave thought to what it is I get wrong, and there appeared to be a theme with these, they spread and don’t hold their shape. So, finally thought to ask the internet, and turns out it’s the butter being too warm obviously having been a room temp the whole time (or even melted first for choch chip cookies) and then being worked on and getting warmer. The trick is apparently to put in in the fridge or freezer for a time once you have made the dough, so it can solid up again. Makes sense know I now, and it worked, obviously. It’s my own fault as the video which I got this recipe from (linked at the bottom) clearly tells you to put it in the fridge, but you know how it is, sometimes we think we know best.

After creating small balls of dough, they are then rolled in icing sugar and placed on baking paper on a tray and into the oven. I’m going to see if tangerine’s work just as well for this later, and in ice-cream, so fingers crossed for more orangey snack and treats 🙂

(c) K Wicks

Here is the link to the YouTube vid where got the recipe and method, just swapped the lemon for orange.

Homemade bread

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Thought I would give baking bread a go by hand. A very quick method and was so easy it made me feel a bit silly for not realising it was this quick and simple to do.

350g bread flour

200ml warm water

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1/2 tsp dried yeast

1 tsp salt

Mix the water, salt, yeast and oil together. Then add the flour. Work together to form a sticky dough.

Place on a mat/surface with some flour and knead. This one required being rolled in on itself a few times after a short time kneading (like you would roll up a pair or trousers for packing), and pinched in where it joins.

Then place in a tray on baking paper and cover with a tea towel for half an hour to give it time to rise.

Then score down the middle with a knife to give it room to spread. Sprink with flour. Bake for 25 mins at 190 Celsius. (Halfway through take out and sprinkle or spray a bit of water on it).

Very pleased with this, it’s very tasty.

(c) K Wicks