Sweet Marie Slices

In Canada they have these really tasty candy bars names Sweet Marie's.  They were always my favourite candy bars when I was a child.  Not only were they stogged full of caramel, peanut butter, crispy cereal and salted peanuts . . . not to mention covered in chocolate . . . but they actually named the bars after ME!  (Don't ever tell me any different!)

All in all a very irresistable combination don't you think?

 

I don't know if they have anything similar over here, but I suspect they do . . . and I suspect that it is probably the Picnic or the Lion Bars.   Or a cross between the two.



It's funny how things go . . . how when you can't get something anymore, you kind of crave it.   Things like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese . . . or Velveeta . . . All Dressed Potato Chips . . . Coffee Crisp Candy Bars . . . Lucky Charms Cereal . . . Captain Crunch . . . Sweet Marie's . . .



And the longer you have to live without them . . . the more you want them.   The more you crave them.   The more you think about, dream about, desire . . . them . . .



I find myself making lists every time I fly home of things I want to pick up to bring back with me when I go home.   Things like Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup Mix . . . Cheese Whiz . . . and all of the above . . .



I think I can cross Sweet Marie Candy Bars off my list now . . . because these tasty bars are almost identical . . .

 

They are chock full of crunchy-ness, and chewy-ness, and peanuty-ness, and scrummy-ness . . . with just the right amount of chocolaty-ness to make them incredibly moreish, can't put me down . . . addictive-ness . . .



The fact that they are named after me  is . . .  just . . . well . . . the icing on a very VERY tasty cake!  In fact the only bad thing I have to say about these is  . . . it's impossible to eat just one.   *naughty girl am I*

*Sweet Marie Slice*

cuts into 12 squares

Printable Recipe  

Delicious peanut butter squares filled with the crunch of peanuts and crisp rice cereal and topped with melted chocolate.   Scrummy yummy!  

90g of smooth peanut butter (1/2 cup)

175g golden syrup (1/2 cup corn syrup)

100g soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)

1 TBS unsalted butter

50g crisp rice cereal (2 cups)

150g of roasted peanuts (1 cup)

180g of chocolate chips (1 cup)

chocolate sprinkles to decorate  

LIne an 8 or 9 inch square pan with foil, having enough of an overhang to use as handles when it comes time to lift them out.   Butter the foil and set aside.  (If you use a nine inch pan your squares will not be as thick through, but larger in width, or you can cut them the same size and get more.  It's up to you.)    

Place the peanut butter, golden syrup, brown sugar and butter in a large saucepan.  Cook, stirring constantly, over medium low heat, until the peanut butter and  butter have melted and the mixture begins to bubble.   Remove from the heat and stir in the cereal and peanuts, mixing all in well together.  Spread this mixture into the prepared pan, and press down firmly.  I find using a buttered metal spoon the best way to do this.  The mixture doesn't stick to the spoon and it does a great job of pressing it down.  Immediately, while the mixture is still hot sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over top.   Once they have softened and melted, spread them evenly over top of the crisp rice mixture.    (If you like you can place the pan in a hot oven for a few minutes to facilitate this.)  Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles to decorate and then place the pan in the refrigerator for one hour until the mixture hardens enough to be cut into squares.  When ready, just lift out with the foil and using a sharp knife cut into squares.





NOTE: for fun today I cut mine with a sharp straight sided metal Heart shaped cookie cutter.  Of course you will not get as many pieces if you do this, but the scraps are great to snack on.  *grin*   AND, the slices look so cute and very Valentiney!

Cinnamon Roll Pretzels

I just love cinnamon.   It has to be my favourite of the warm spices.  It comes from the inner bark of a few different trees, and is great in both sweet and savory dishes.  I think the smell of cinnamon in the air makes a house smell like a home.



I was on Pinterest the other day and I found a recipe that looked fabulous.   (Don't you just love Pinterest?)  It came from a blog called Lauren's Latest.   They looked to good that I had to print it out and I could hardly wait for the weekend so that I could make them for us to enjoy.



You will want to use the small pretzel twists for these.  You know the ones.  They are about 1 1/2 inch in size.  Lightly salted.   Don't use any that are flavoured with anything else.  That would just be ucky.


 

Make sure you mix all of the ingredients together really well when you are mixing in the cinnamon sugar so that they all get coated evenly.  I found that  the cinnamon suar didn't get evenly distrubuted that easily, although to be honest the ones that the holes got stogged full of crunchy cinnamon sugar were my favourite bits!



I know my photos are not the greatest of these, but the weather was really cruddy today and the lighting was really poor, so they are a bit darker than I would like, but I hope that doesn't put you off from trying them, coz they are really, really good!

 

The original recipe called for drizzling white chocolate over the baked and cooled pretzels.  I have never been able to get white chocolate to drizzle properly . . . it usually just clumps for me, but I found dipping them worked quite well and we quite liked them.    Wouldn't they just make the nicest friendship gift for a special friend as a surprise?  I think so too!

*Cinnamon Roll Pretzels*

Makes 4 cups

Printable Recipe 

A delicious snack recipe I adapted from one I found online at Lauren's Latest.  Quick and easy to make. 

175g bag of pretzel twists, plain salted (4 cups)

60g butter, melted (1/4 cup)

95g of granulated sugar (1/2 cup)

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 ounces white chocolate, chopped (1/2 cup) 

  

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.  Set aside.

Toss the pretzels in a bowl with the melted butter.   Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and toss that with the buttered pretzels.  Spread the coated pretzels in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Bake in the heated oven for 15 minutes, stirring after each five minutes, and rotating the baking sheet.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely

Melt the chocolate and drizzle it over the pretzels with a spoon.  If that proves impossible (as it often does for me) dip one half of each pretzel to coat.  Allow to set before storing in an airtight container.

Baked Carrot Cake Doughnuts

 


We are awfully fond of doughnuts in this house.  I especially like the Crispy Cremes we can get at the local Tesco and on the Motorway.  Occasionally I will buy a box to treat the missionaries with, and  . . . we have been known to indulge in one or two when we are on a lengthy trip along the motorway.  But deep fried doughnuts are a once in a blue moon treat for us, which is as it should be.

 

I am not adverse to baking doughnuts however.  I bought myself several doughnut baking pans last year and I break them out every so often.  Baked doughnuts are still a real treat, except they are not fried.  I guess they are a bit like muffins, except they are shaped like doughnuts.  What's not to like about that?

 In the past year I have made . . .



Baked Chai Spice Doughnuts.



Honey Glazed Granola Doughnuts.



Baked Chocolate Buttermilk Doughnuts.



White Chocolate Drizzled Gingerbread Doughnuts.  




Jam Filled Baked Cinnamon Doughnuts.



Glazed Red Velvet Baked Doughnuts.

I have to say that each variety was quite delicious in their own right.   Today though . . . I baked a new favourite.   Carrot Cake Doughnuts.



How could you not fall in love with your favourite flavour of cake . . . in doughnut form???  It's not humanly possible I don't think.   Enjoy.



*Baked Carrot Cake Doughnuts*
Makes one dozen

Printable Recipe  

Your favourite cake in a doughnut.   Simple and quick to make and very tasty.  You can sub soy milk for the regular milk for a dairy free version if you like and leave out the icing.   Just drizzle with honey whilst still warm in that case.

300g self raising flour (2 cups)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

75g toasted walnut pieces (3/4 cup)

115g soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)

2 large free range eggs, beaten

200ml of milk (generous 3.4 cup)

150ml of sunflower oil (scant 2/3 cup)

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp orange extract (can use the finely grated zest of one orange)

For the glaze:

150g of cream cheese (5 ounces)

(Do not use no fat)

50g sifted icing sugar (1/3 cup)

1 tsp lemon juice
chopped toasted walnut pieces, optional

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Grease well two six cup doughnut pans.  I use nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nuts together in a bowl.   In a separate measure whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, milk, oil and extracts.   Stir in the carrot.   Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to just combine.  Spoon into the prepared donut pans.  I find 3 dessert spoons in each is sufficient.



Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until risen and golden.   Allow to rest in the pans for about 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To make the glaze, beat together all of the ingredients.  It should be thick but slightly drizzable.  Spoon over or dip the tops of the  baked doughnuts in this mixture, swirling to coat.  Sprinkle with toasted walnut pieces before the glaze sets.



Ohhhhhhhhhhhh  SO delicious!  I do hope you will give them a try!  I just know you are going to love them too!

Sour Cream and Banana Loaf

One might be forgiven for thinking that this looks quite un-remarkable . . . boring and understated . . . plain and un-imposing . . . proof positive that you must never judge a book by it's cover . . . for if you were to . . .



Judge this particular book by it's cover . . . and give it a pass, you'd be missing something quite, quite wonderfully delicious.



For underneath that plain brown wrapper, lies one of the most beautifully moist and delicious banana loaves you could ever want to eat . . . each bite is an explosion of wonderful banana flavour, all moist and rich and buttery . . . and if you have added the toasted nuts (and I highly recommend that you do!) you have the added crunch and extra texture of something decidedly scrummy!



It's delicious sliced when cold, and spread with softened butter. It goes down a real treat, I promise you this. But . . . here's a little secret . . .



Pop some into the toaster, or under the grill, and toast it until it is gilded brown and crunchy on the edges . . . then spread it with cold butter . . . the butter melting into all that golden crunch. Just look at those doubly toasted walnuts . . . oh so yummy . . .



The Toddster just loves this.   And, I confess . . . I do too.   I think I would rather have a few toasted and butteres slices of this for breakfast more than anything else . . .  even more than cold pizza.



*Sour Cream Banana Loaf*
Makes one 9 by 5 inch loaf
Printable Recipe

Deliciously moist with a great banana flavour. I like to add toasted walnuts to mine, but you can add pecans or even chocolate chips.

4 ounces butter at room temperature (1/2 cup)
7 ounces caster sugar (1 cup)
1 tsp pure vanilla
2 large free range eggs, at room temperature
6 1/2 ounces plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 medium bananas, peeled and mashed
125ml of sour cream (1/2 cup)
Optional:
2 ounces chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (1/2 cup)
or
3 ounces chocolate chips (1/2 cup)

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark4. Butter a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin and line it with baking paper. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.   Stir in the vanilla.  Whisk together the flour, soda and salt and then stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in the mashed bananas and the sour cream until combined. Stir in the nuts if using. Spoon into the prepared pan and smooth over the top.

Bake for 1 hour until well risen and firm to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Tip out of the pan onto a wire rack. Carefully peel off the paper and tip back upright. Let cool completely before cutting. Wrap airtight to store.

Note: This is lovely served at room temperature, sliced and spread with butter. Or, toast it in a toaster until the edges get crisp and golden and serve it hot and spread with butter. Delicious!

Cherry Rock Buns

As a child I used to devour Enid Blyton books.  I love the ones about the fairies and gnomes and wishing trees . . . but I especially loved the adventure books and the ones about kids in boarding schools with tuck boxes and tea time treats and picnic fare which sounded to me to be exotic.  



Sausage rolls and pork pies, cherry cakes and ginger beer.  Wobbly blanc manges.   Tinned and potted meat spread onto hugs slabs of homemade bread . . . jam sandwiches, gingernuts, fruit jellies.  Rock cakes.  It was all so deliciously tempting sounding, and I dreamt about what it might be like to gorge myself on such a wonderous feast.  Yes , , , for me it has always been a out the food.



We didn't have such things at home.  None of our meat came from tins and we were never allowed to gorge ourselves on fruit jellies and sausage rolls or wobbly blanc manges.   We were never allowed to gorge ourselves on anything.  My mother's idea of a treat was an apple.  Healthy yes . . . exotic no.



Rock Cakes.   Deliciously buttery scone like drop cakes, short and crumbly and reported to be one of Harry Potter's favourite treats.   Stogged full of candied cherries and dried currants.  I use the undyed cherries.  Not as bright, but not as bad, or at least not in my mind.



Wonderful, fresh out of the oven with a glass of cold milk.  You could split them and spread them with butter, but I like them plain.  They are a beautiful once in a bluemoon treat and whenever I bake them I think of magic wands and indulgent picnics in the woods.



A girl needs some magic  in her life don't you think?

*Cherry Rock Buns*
Makes 12

Printable Recipe 

A favourite children's snack.  Quick, easy to make, melt in the mouth buttery good, and stogged full of cherries and currants.  

250g self raising flour (1 3/4 cup)

2 tsp baking powder

125g butter,slightly softened and cut into bits (1/2 cup)

50g of soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup, packed)

100g of candied cherries, quartered (about 1/2 cup)

50g currants (1/3 cup)

1 large free range egg, beaten

2 TBS milk

2 TBS demerara sugar for sprinkling    

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*f/ gas mark 6.  Line two baking sheets with baking paper.  Set aside.  

Sift the flour into a bowl along with the baking powder.  Drop in the butter.  Rub the butter in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the brown sugar. Beat the egg together with the milk and add to the dry ingredients.  Stir in with a round bladed knife to form a stick dough. If the dough seems too dry, add a bit more milk. Stir in the cherries and currants.  Drop by heaped TBS onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving space between each for spreading.  Sprinkle the tops with demerara sugar.


Bake in the heated oven, one tray at a time, for 15 minutes, turning the trays once during baking.   These are best eaten on the day.   They freeze well however, so you can pack them into an airtight container and just take them out as you want them, reheating them gently in the microwave for about 2 minutes, or packing frozen and wrapped into the lunch bucket.  They will be thawed and perfect for eating by lunch time.

Mincemeat Snowflakes

I just love using mincemeat during the Christmas season.   It's one of my favourite ingredients and I am sure I go through several jars.  Each year I try to do something different with it if I can.  There has been a photo circulating on the net and Pinterest over the past couple of months of a nutella bread which is layered and twisted and I got to thinking that the same thing done with mincemeat would be really nice.



I decided early on though that I would use puff pastry instead of bread dough however, because I wanted these to be like mince pies.   I also decided that if they were going to work properly I would have to puree the mincemeat a bit so that it wasn't too lumpy.



As you can see they turned out really pretty.   Golden on the edges . . . lovely to look at . . . flakey and sweet and spiced just nicely.  I created a thin icing, lightly flavoured with cinnamon (if you want) to drizzle over top once baked and I sprinkled them with some white sparkle sprinkles.



I was really pleased with how they turned out!  They tasted really nice as well.   I think they were just that little bit different than the usual mince pies! In short, I fell in love with them.  Very Festive.  And no . . . they were not as fiddly as they look to make.  Trust me.

*Mincemeat Snowflakes*
Makes 8

Printable Recipe  

Created on a whim.  Pretty.  Delicious.  Festive.  Easy.

1 small jar of your favourite kind of mince meat

2 sheets of all butter ready roll puff pastry

To finish:

130g icing sugar, sifted (1 cup)
milk

sparkle sprinkles

Preheat your oven to 200*C/400*F/gas mark 6.  Line two baking sheets with baking parchment paper.

Blitz the mincemeat in a food processor until the particles in it are very small.  Almost, but not quite a paste.

Cut 16 (4 inch) circles from your sheets of puff pastry.  Place 8 on the baking sheet.  Spread each with a heaped TBS of the mincemeat. Place the remaining 8 circles on top and press down lightly.  Make four equal cuts almost, but not quite to the middle of the circle, using a very sharp knife and cutting all the way through.  You will want to leave at least 1/2 inch in the centres, uncut.   Cut again evenly in between the four first cuts so you now have 8 equal cuts.   Twist each section in the same direction without pulling them off and keeping the pastry intact.   It's not hard to do.   Just persevere.  You will only get about two twists maxium from each section.    

  

Bake in the heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and puffed.

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for just a minute or two before scooping off onto a wire rack to finish cooling.   Whisk together the icing sugar and enough milk to give you a thick drizzle icing.  



You can flavour it with a bit of cinnamon if you like.  Drizzle this over top of the snowflakes and sprinkle with the sparkle sprinkles.   Store in an airtight container.  Will keep several days.