Stacey's Bailey's Blondies

These Blondies are also known as "Monica Geller's" because they came to be due to my uncontrollable need to please people.

Basically, on the day of our December meeting we had a few last minute cancellations, which under normal circumstances wouldn't pose a problem, but because of the Secret Santa theme this month it meant that some bakers would not receive their "gift" (i.e. have their word baked) and that simply couldn't do.

I finish work at 5pm, and on club nights aim to get to the Friends Meeting House by 7pm to start setting up. Usually I take my bake club things to work with me in the morning, stay at work until 6:30pm and go straight from there, as work is about halfway between my house and the meeting house. This time, however, to ensure that everyone got their words baked, I left work bang on 5pm, ran to the supermarket to buy some ingredients, ran home, and started baking like a mad-woman! Anyway, I ended up getting a taxi up to the meeting house, and the brownies were still lovely and warm by the time I got there. Thankfully, Ruth had arrived before I did and started setting up shop :-) We then sat and ate some of the gooier brownies with spoons. It was a good day.

Anyway, the words that needed to be baked were Bailey's, Stars and Red. so below is my recipe for Bailey's Blondies with white chocolate stars and red edible glitter to decorate!


Ingredients:
200g slightly salted butter
100g white chocolate
2 medium eggs
135g caster sugar
100ml Bailey's Irish Cream
300g plain flour
Edible glitter and white chocolate stars to decorate (optional)

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 - 40 minutes
Makes 16 blondies

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a square tin with baking paper.
2. Put the butter into a small microwavable bowl and melt in the microwave. Place this to one side to cool.
3. Melt the white chocolate, either in the microwave in 20 second blasts, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, place to one side to cool.
4. Put the eggs and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat until frothy. Beat in the cooled melted butter, Baileys and white chocolate. Finally add the flour to the mixture and fold in until just combined.
5. Pour the batter into the prepare cake tin, then sprinkle on the edible glitter and white chocolate stars, if using, to decorate.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown in colour, and springy but still moist to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before turning out and cutting into 16 gorgeous, gooey brownies!

Tom's Piggies in Blankets

This month I went for something classic and simple: sausages wrapped in bacon.
Pick your sausages and buy lots of them; I went with full sized sausages from the local butchers. You'll also need a couple of rashers of back bacon per sausage (or one rasher for small sausages). I made some with smoked and some with unsmoked bacon. Preheat your oven to about 200°C. Oil enough baking trays to hold your sausages. Wrap each sausage in one or two rashers of bacon and skewer them in place. I used a couple of long metal skewers to make a sort of long double kebab for each tray, but anything which will hold the bacon on should work. Put in the oven for about an hour (less for smaller sausages), observing and turning every 15-20 minutes.
Eat! Enjoy!

Stacey's Ginger and White Chocolate Cheesecake

So, the word I drew out of the hat this Christmas was ginger (THE flavour of Christmas last year!!) Originally I was planning to bake a gingerbread house that we could assemble together at the meeting, but as I did the draw I knew that another member had gingerbread, so I decided to go for something a little bit different. As it turned out - Steph made a cheesecake too!! There's no such thing as too much cheesecake, though, and Steph's was baked and tasted just like gingerbread, whereas mine was of the chilled variety. 

Ingredients:
200g gingernut biscuits
100g margarine
30g crystallised ginger, plus extra to decorate
150g white chocolate
300ml double cream
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
A little bronze lustre dust
Gold edible shimmer spray

Prep time: 20 minutes
Chill time: 3 hours (minimum)
Serves 8-10

1. Crush the gingernut biscuits into fine crumbs, either by putting in a blender, or by bashing with a rolling pin the old fashioned way.
2. Melt the margarine and mix into the biscuit crumbs. Pour the biscuit mixture into the cake tin you are using (I used a 7 inch springform pan) and press down with the back of a spoon to flatten. Pop the tin in the fridge to allow the biscuit base to set whilst you make the cheesecake filling.
3. Start by chopping the crystallised ginger into teeny tiny small pieces, and put these to one side. Melt the white chocolate - either in the microwave or in a bowl over hot water - and put this to one side to cool.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the double cream to soft peaks, then whisk in the cream cheese and icing sugar. Separate 250g (approximately 1/3) of the filling into a smaller bowl, and stir in the chopped ginger and bronze lustre dust. Put this to one side.
5. Whisk the cooled white chocolate into the remaining cheesecake mixture.
6. Remove the biscuit base from the fridge and start to layer the cheesecake fillings on top of this, making sure to level the top of the cheesecake between each layer. Start with half of the white chocolate filling, then all of the ginger filling, then the remaining white chocolate filling.  
7. Spray the top of the cheesecake with the gold shimmer spray, then place one or two pieces of ginger in the centre to decorate. Pop the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 3 hours to set before serving. (It's best to leave it overnight, if you can!)

 

December - Secret Santa

Ho Ho Ho!

We decided a little while ago that we'll try not to repeat themes from last year, but we also decided that we couldn't NOT do Christmas in December, so we decided to put a Secret Santa spin on it. Each member had to put a word or phrase which made them think of Christmas into a hat, and then the words were drawn out at random for another member to use as baking inspiration.

Here are the words everyone put in:

Me - Christmas films
Sally - Tinsel
Charlie - Baileys
Steph - Mulled Wine
Joy - Red
Katrina - Praline
Laura S - Stars
Ruth - Pine smell
Angel - Bacon
Jen - sweet mincemeat
Catherine - gingerbread
Kate - candy canes
Tom - Ginger

So what did we come up with? Well, unfortunately Angel, Catherine, Charlie, Jen and Kate couldn't make it, but the rest of us were very pleased with our Secret Santa Bakes! Joy baked some Pine-infused Caramel Shortbread Tartlets for Ruth, Katrina baked some Vanilla Cupcakes topped with images from some Christmas films for me, Laura baked a big  Chocolate Cake which was iced with a Christmas Tree and edible glitter tinsel for Sally, Ruth baked a Mulled Wine Bread and Butter Pudding for Steph, Sally baked some wonderfully interesting Praline Bacon for Katrina, Steph baked a Gingerbread Cheesecake for Catherine, Tom baked some big and very tasty Pigs in Blankets for Angel, and I made a Ginger and White Chocolate Cheesecake and some Ginger Cordial for Tom, and also some Bailey's Blondies topped with red glitter and white chocolate stars for Charlie, Joy and Laura!

We had a great time, with Christmas songs, cracker jokes and paper crowns, and we all ate our fill of sweet, savoury, and sweet and savoury combined goodies - I'm sure a few belt buttons were undone when we all got home, just like the real thing!