Tag Archives: Traybakes

Food Monday ~ Coconut Lemon Bars

Coconut Lemon Bars
Preheat the oven to 170°C

Base:
6 ozs plain flour
4 ozs soft butter
1½ ozs icing sugar

Topping:
2 ozs desiccated coconut
5 ozs granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
Grated rind & juice of 1 lemon

Mix the flour, butter and icing sugar and press into a greased Swiss roll tin.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile beat remaining ingredients together.  Pour over the base and continue to bake until the top is set and a light golden brown.
Cool and slice into bars.

Food Monday ~ Apple & cinnamon Fingers

Apple & Cinnamon Fingers
Preheat the oven to 180°C
6 ozs Self raising (cake) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 ozs soft butter
6 ozs caster sugar
3 eggs beaten
12 ozs dessert apples, peeled, cored & grated

Topping :
12 ozs dessert apples, peeled, cored & grated
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
3 ozs caster sugar

Sift the flour, baking powder and ground cinnamon into a mixing bowl or food processor, then add the remaining cake ingredients except the apples.
Beat together until light & fluffy (I remember doing this by hand. 🙁 ), then stir in the grated apple.
Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 7×11 traybake tin and spread evenly.

To make the topping:
Mix the grated apples with lemon juice and scatter over the cake mixture & sprinkle with the sugar.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is firm to touch.
If the cake begins to brown to quickly, cover loosely with a layer of greaseproof.
Leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then carefully remove and strip away the lining paper. When cold cut into rectangles.

Food Monday ~ Fruity Slices

Fruity Slices
Preheat the oven to 180°C


4 ozs butter
3 ozs caster sugar
9 ozs digestive biscuits, crushed
6 ozs sultanas
2 ozs cherries
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 small eggs, beaten

Melt the butter and sugar. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Press into a greased swiss roll tin. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin.

For Icing:
3 tablespoons orange juice
6 ozs icing sugar

Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add the orange juice and mix well. Drizzle over the cold tray bake and cut into squares.

Food Monday ~ Almond Squares

Almond Squares

Preheat the oven to 190°C

Pastry to line a traybake tin.
Jam
4 ozs butter
4 ozs Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Almond Essence
6 ozs oatmeal

Line a prepared tin with pastry and spread a layer of jam over it.  Melt the butter and remove from heat.  Stir in the sugar, egg and almond essence.  Add the oatmeal and mix well.  Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden.  Cut into squares while still hot and leave in tin to cool.

Food Monday ~ Peanut Butter squares

Peanut Butter squares

for the base:
50g dark muscovado sugar
200g icing sugar
50g unsalted butter
200g smooth peanut butter

for the topping
:
100g milk chocolate
200g plain chocolate
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Line a 23 cm square brownie tin with baking parchment.
Whizz all the ingredients for the base together in a food processor until smooth

Press the mixture evenly into the lined brownie tin.
To make the topping, melt the chocolates and butter together in a bowl over hot water, then spread on the base. Put the tin in the fridge to set. When the chocolate has hardened, cut into small squares.

Food Monday ~ Cranberry stars

These tasty little numbers look festive and disappear quickly.
Bake ahead and store UNfilled in an air tight container until you need them.

Cranberry stars
Preheat oven 180°C

100g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2 egg yolks, medium size
225g plain flour

3 tablespoons Cranberry Jam *
Icing sugar to dust

Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Beat the butter, caster sugar and lemon rind in a bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg yolks then stir in the flour and mix to a fairly stiff dough.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.  If the dough is very soft, chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 6mm or ¼ inch.  Cut into 24 rounds with a fluted cutter, re-rolling the trimmings to make up the number.  Cut the centres from half the rounds with a small star shaped cutter. (bake these little stars too, children love them!)
Place the rounds on the baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes until pale golden.
Transfer to a cooling rack until they are cold.
Spread the jam on the plain biscuits, dust the star biscuits thickly with icing sugar. Sandwich together. Eat on the day the jam is added, if not they will become soggy.

* I bought a small jar of Cranberry and Port in Lidl recently, (I think it was with the sauces) I use it to fill the biscuits. Yum yum! I see it won a Silver Award at Blas na hÉireann.

Food Monday ~ Mariannas Ginger Biscuits

A few weeks ago Marianna Paulson, also known as Auntie Stress tempted my taste buds with these ginger biscuits made with grated root ginger.  They are just right for this time of year. 😀

Marianna’s Ginger Biscuits
Preheat oven to 180
°°C

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses/treacle or golden syrup
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
Sugar for tossing

Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves & ground ginger into a bowl.
Cream butter and sugar and add egg, molasses/treacle or golden syrup & grated ginger, I did this in food processor. Add the flour to the creamed mixture and pulse to mix thoroughly.
Chill dough in the fridge to for 30 minutes.

Form dough into small balls and toss in white sugar.   Marianna suggested putting the sugar in a food bag and tossing the dough balls a few at a time, it is faster and cleaner.
Place on greased cookie sheet and press each one with a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Check after 10 minutes, under-bake slightly, then leave on cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Try not to eat them before they are cold.  😉

Food Monday ~ Chocolate Orange Pinwheels

This is my hat tip to the day that is in it.  When I was a child Halloween celebrations consisted of a dish of mixed nuts, extra fruit, Tea Brack with a ring in it, and these pin-wheel biscuits.


Chocolate Orange Pinwheels
Preheat the oven to 200ºC

100g butter, chilled and cubed
225g plain flour
150g caster sugar
1 egg, size 3, beaten
2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Sieve the flout into a large bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar and egg and mix to form a dough.  Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
Divide the dough in two.  Knead the orange rind into one half and the cocoa into the other.  Wrap separately in greaseproof paper or film wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the orange dough in a rectangle 9 x 11 inches approx.  Roll the chocolate dough to the same size and place on top of the orange dough.  Roll both together from the long edge to form a sausage.  Wrap and chill again for a further 30 minutes – this makes it easier to slice the pinwheels.
Lightly grease two baking sheets and cut the dough into 24 circles.  Place on the prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until pale golden.  Transfer to a cooling rack and leave until cold (if you can! 😉 ).

Food Monday ~ Ginger Crunchies

Ginger Crunchies
Preheat Oven to 180ºC

100g butter
50g caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
5 pieces of stem ginger, drained & finely chopped

I use the food processor for these.

Whizz the butter and sugar for 1 minute then add the sieved flour and ground ginger and half the chopped stem ginger and whizz again to form a ball.
Place teaspoon sized balls of the dough, well spaced apart, on greased baking sheets.  Flatten each biscuit with a wet fork, the place a piece of the remaining chopped ginger on top.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until pale golden.  Leave the biscuits to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack until cold.
Store in an airtight tin.

Food Monday ~ Mars Bars Squares

Mars Bars Squares

3ozs Butter or Margarine
3 Mars Bars sliced
3 Beakers Rice Krispies
Chocolate to cover

Melt Mars bars with the butter or margarine over a bowl of hot not boiling water.  Remove from the heat and add rice Krispies and mix well with a fork.  Press into a greased 13in X 9in tin and level out.

Melt the chocolate and pour over Krispies.  Leave to cool and set.  Cut into squares.