Bang Goes the Diet!

I have a very sweet tooth and when Marmalady got into her fudge making, I was sunk! I bought some vanilla fudge from her a couple of weeks ago and suggested a chocolate version at the same time. Her vanilla fudge is to die for but the chocolate version must be handmade by angels, it is so sublime. I can also highly recommend her fruity flapjacks, her millionaires shortbread and now, she's just listed coconut ice - we are so sunk!

And in the same week, my cake swap goodies arrived from Deepa at LazyGiraffe - another few slices of heavenly chocolate cake-y goodness. Now this didn't last long, once hubby started drooling, it was pretty much a-goner! Just managed to shoot them both before they disappeared although I have to admit, it wasn't just hubby that scoffed them :) LOL

Peanut Butter Scrumptiousness :)

There's a rather nice lady on Etsy called Marmalady who makes the scrummiest, moistest, most delicious flapjacks I've ever tasted. Many of the girls in the UK Street Team are, to put it politely, addicted to them and keep Marmalady busy sending out food parcels.

Well, she only went on holiday for two whole weeks - the withdrawal symptoms got so bad, I had to make my own. I dug out an old baking recipe book but before I got to the flapjack recipe, I found our old favourite - Peanut Butter Cookies. During the usual mayhem chat that is the UK thread, someone asked about them so here is the recipe I use for those who want to give them a try.

5 oz (140g) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 oz (115g) butter (at room temp)

5 3/4 oz light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

9 1/2 oz crunchy peanut butter

Oven temp. 350F/180C/gas4 - makes 24 large cookies

The original recipe says to cream the butter and sugar, then add the peanut butter, egg, vanilla essence, mix then add dry ingredients. Mix well then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to firm up. Grease up two trays and use a teaspoon to gather a small blob of mixture, roll into a ball between your palms, plop on tray then flatten slightly with a fork. Put in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool on tray for 2 or 3 minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.

I, on the otherhand, used self raising flour, no bicarb and a butter substitute, threw everything in together and left it to chill for an hour! Then I used baking parchment on 4 trays, rolled out small balls indeed and flattened with a fork as instructed.

Unfortunately, I have a narrow cooker so in putting 12 on a narrow baking sheet, I didn't leave them much room to spread even though I had made the balls smaller than last time (due to a scribbled note in my book!) so I ended up with nearly 40 smaller cookies.