Chocolate Moustache Biscuits for Movember

As you probably know, not only is it November, it’s Movember. Although I have a pretty impressive moustache for a girl, I don’t think growing it out would be noticeable enough to raise awareness. So instead, I thought I would bake these cute moustache biscuits. If you’re from the UK, these are actually modelled on the classic bourbon chocolate biscuit, if you have no idea what a bourbon is – you are missing out and should make and eat these asap. They are SO chocolatey without being too sweet. Perrrrfect. Plus they are shaped like moustaches, that’s just hilarious. And yes, I did hold them up in front of my face before eating them as did my flatmates… I think I would look pretty cool with a handlebar moustache.

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Hazelnut, Cinnamon & Chocolate Biscotti (!!!)

When it’s freaking cold. When you HAVE to wear socks in your house to stop from getting pneumonia – even with the heating on. That’s when I like to have a cup of black coffee with a biscotti. Hazelnut biscotti in particular – because I love that warming crunchy flavour of a roasted hazelnut!

Plus my awesome friend Teco is leaving Berlin and going back to Brazil – literally SAD times. Such sad times. He gives amazingly long hilarious speeches with very little actual message – politician worthy! So the weekend was spent drinking, eating, being tipsy, being full – and starting again every few hours. Was fab – but as you can imagine, I am worse for wear. So the biscottis helped. I woke up at about 4am – and ate some more of them… and went back to bed. Am I the only weirdo who gets up in the middle of the night and feels hungry? – not so much hungry as – “tasty”.

Rock Cakes with Jam

This is another nostalgic  (and lazy) bake. Back in school we used to have home economics lessons aka cooking and rock cakes were always a recurring theme. They were what our teacher considered easy, but many of us, at the age of 12, were simply at a loss. Too busy gossiping about what we would wear to the school disco and paying no attention to how long they had been in the oven, they came out like actual rocks. Grey and inpenetratably solid. MMmmmm.

Luckily, since the age of 12, I have perfected the art a bit more. I am not a fan of completely scruffy looking rock cakes, so this is my slightly neater … more “uptight” version. They go really well with some thick berry jam – in fact they go pretty well with anything sweet. Slap some nutella / honey / even fruit yoghurt on it and it will be a dream. And MAPLE SYRUP. Add some maple syrup to some jam and whack it on… you will literally hear a choir singing a melody on your tastebuds. LITERALLY (but not really).

Also – I have recently bought a jar of fluff. My friend Mark used to eat the stuff out of the jar with a spoon and I only bought it for some frosting… but I have to say, it gives me the heeby jeebies to think about spreading it on bread. Isn’t too sticky? Anyway, any advice on how to use fluff as a spread with the greatest effect would be much appreciated.

White and Milk Chocolate chip giant Cookie

I have been wanting to make a skillet cookie for agggges! I finally got the opportunity to do so for a movie night recently. Unfortunately, I only have one photos.. because before I could take any more.. the cookie was swept away and gobbled down like noone’s business!

As I have mentioned before, I still haven’t really perfected my own formula for a cookie recipe as I have with cakes, so I just used the trusty Hummingbird Bakery recipe for chocolate chip cookies and adapted it by adding white chocolate too! It was really delicious, my mouth is watering just thinking about the huge, slightly unacceptably big slab I took for myself. My flatmate said he knows he ate too much because he felt a bit dodgy the next day – sugar withdrawal? -.. but it was totally worth it!

Marmalade Madeleines

Madeleines are a veritable french delight but I thought I would anglicize them a bit by adding some of the delicious bitter sweet orange marmalade that my mum bought me. I come from a family of marmalade makers & eaters.. although it has never been my personal first choice to spread on a slice of warm toast…it does taste fab in cakes. It gives that caramelized rich sweetness to these madeleines and makes them nice and crispy on the outside.

I am currently lying on my bed thinking about how far away monday still is… wooo… hooooooo! My nails are chipping, my hair is destroyed by over bleaching the ends to create an “ombre” effect and my skin is like an old prune. You know what that means… MAJOR PAMPERING SESSION. I have the face mask at the ready… so enjoy your sunday! And if you have a madeleine pan, give these a go. If you don’t you can just use cupcake cases

Cookie Mania

hello Monday… it’s dreary and grey over here… and I am glad. Nothing is worse than being stuck in a concrete box of an office box and watched the last days of Summer pass you by. Over the weekend I made yet more cookies.. if I’m honest the peanut sandwich cookies tasted amazing.. but visually I felt they were kind of wack. So, I got back on the cookie horse and made these delicious chocolate and hazelnut cookies.

I spent the weekend being a bit sick and watching some Harry Potter… may sound sad but it was pretty awesome and chilled. Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince… the one where Dumbledore dies. Makes me tear up everytime. Ergh, stupid deatheaters. A favourite scene is when Ron absolutely kills it in the Quidditch trials. ahhh. good times!

For this recipe, rather than using cooking chocolate I used some old chocolate bars I had left over, but I think cooking chocolate is always the juiciest and gooeist when it comes to cookies, so I have substituted chocolate bars with cooking chocolate in the recipe.

 

Peanut Sandwich Biscuits with Custard Cream

Happy Friday 13th lovelies! I hope you had a good week… I am finally recovering from my cold. I am such a weakling! And I still sound slightly like an old man who smokes a pipe… but hey, don’t people say croaky voices are sexy or something?

So, after a long time of not posting any baked goodness, I thought the combination of peanut butter cookies and custard cream was too good to pass up. Last night I went for waffles at a place called Cassonade on Oranianstrasse in Berlin and had an amazing Lutticher waffle with apple sauce and nutella. Some people think that’s a disgusting combo, but those who think that haven’t tried it! While I am trying to cut down on my insanely high sugar intake.. yesterday was a treat day and I thought… why end there. so I baked these at about 11 pm last night and then watched some breaking bad. Thrilling!

These sandwich biscuits are actually pretty easy but after making the dough you do need to cool it in the fridge for about an hour to get it nice and stiff.

Rosemary and Sea Salt Crackers

So, this is my very first savory recipe on Sugar Thumb… contraversiiiiiall!

How did this MADNESS begin I hear you cry? Well, my mum bought me some delicious spelt crackers over from England which I was nibbling at my desk at work every once in a while. They were full of delicious flavours from fennel seeds and sea salt, pepper and other wondrously tasty yet wholesome things.

Then my colleague Holly was inspired to buy crackers too. She bought these AMAZING rosemary ones and I suddenly thought.. how hard can it be to make a cracker. Turns out, not that hard, or time consuming. And so began… the wonderful journey of cracker making.

Coconut Crumbles Biscuits

So, it’s my boyfriend and my 2 year anniversary in a few days. His favourite biscuits are NICE ones – not nice the adjective, but those delicious coconut biscuits which no one really knows if they are pronounced NEECE like the town in France or NICE like the adjective. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I wanted to make them but finding a recipe for them proved impossible. So I just made these coconut biscuits – I took a shortbread recipe and just added coconut. Worked very well and they were both crunchy and fluffy!

Ginger and Dark Chocolate Cookies

My big sister Selina turned 29, so I thought I would bake her cookies based on her favourite flavour combo: ginger and dark chocolate. I know dark chocolate is a bit like marmite, but we are a family of serious dark chocolate lovers… guzzling it down (me in particular), while reassuring ourselves that it is really healthy…because it is dark.

As far as the consistency of these cookies goes, they are fairly soft and gooey rather than extra crunchy. This is because, one thing I have often thought about traditional gingerbread and ginger biscuits is that they can sometimes lack that hidden gooeyness or creamy texture that really make me squeal with delight. So, rather than just using dried ginger powder…. I used stem ginger. If you like ginger, you will love this. If you don’t really like ginger… give it a go. It really is scrumptious.