Cook Bake Teach

Pinterest can be an amazing tool.....it can also heap the pressure on to make seemingly perfect things. How do some people do it?! They're bakes look like perfection! One case in point are these rainbow cookies. On Pinterest they looked so beautiful and effortless...and kind of not like biscuits! When we tried, they looked....rustic...to say the least! lol! We actually realised though, that instead of making them swirl cookies, more fun is had using the dyed dough to make other rainbow creations. So go where your heart takes you with them, and have fun! This recipe produces a light buttery biscuit, so whatever you do with them, they taste delicious. Here's the recipe for the swirly biscuits, but you can save yourself a lot of time by just mixing the rainbow dough up however you please. Original recipe is courtesy of TasteMade .

There were two reasons for making orange brownies. 1) We've been making a lot of chocolate stuff recently 2) We've got a glut of oranges at the moment. Oranges, like bananas, in our house are one of those things that either go really quickly, or never get eaten. And with a bowl full of oranges on the turn at home, I thought....I know....I'm going to use 4 in a brownie recipe! So thus I present the luxurious yet decidedly fresh Orange Drizzle Brownies! Are they brownies though, without chocolate in? The name seems misleading. It is a typical brownie recipe, which uses eggs for the rise rather than raising agent, but they are obviously not 'brown' :) Anywho, this recipe makes 18 small brownies and they are utterly delicious. Light and fluffy, yet a bit crunchy on the top, and topped with an orange sticky glaze for added sumptuousness. They make a lovely alternative to the rich chocolate brownie we're all used to.

Now, we haven't been the most successful in making a good cookie in our house. I had an old recipe that I thought worked perfectly to get a good crunchy cookie with a chewy centre. However, when we last made them they ended up being a disaster. We were a bit 'gun ho' with the recipe (that basically means we didn't follow it properly!) and have learnt from our mistakes. We didn't have any chocolate chips, so we broke up a bar of chocolate. However our chucks were too big, we put too much chocolate in, and our cookie mixture wasn't floury enough, so they just kind of disintegrated on the baking tray when baked. Whoops! Think floppy brandy snaps with chocolate chunks in. Despite looking awful, they were delicious, and we cut cookie shapes out of the congealed mixture with a cutter, but they weren't the cookies of our dreams. Whoops! So we thought we'd try again with another recipe. Miss L liked the look of this one from Cookies and Cups and set to work. ...

  I love #gnocchi . Little dumplings of potato-ey goodness! They're surprisingly easy to make too, but this had been the first time in ages I have rolled up my sleeves and made them. Lockdown has been great for digging out old recipes! Gnocchi is an Italian dish that is made up of plump and delicious potato dumplings. I usually serve mine lightly boiled, with a fresh tomato and onion sauce, but you can toss them in any sauce you like. Pesto is another popular option sauce wise. The traditional Italian way though if just to toss them in seasoned butter and serve with parmesan cheese. Mmmmm! It will matter which type of potato you use as to the consistency. I used Maris Piper potatoes, but King Edwards or any potato which as a medium floury texture will do. Avoid potatoes like Jersey Royals or Charlotte because they are too waxy. Now how you cook them makes a difference too. The right way to cook them is bake them in their skins, then scoop out the cooked flesh. This is because you ...