Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

I hadn't made any cookies from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero) for a while and even the ones I had made were some of the more simple and usual flavour cookies in the book. As I was going to a family gathering at my Aunt's I decided to take over some cookies for everyone to try and chose these ones as with the spice in them they are a bit more "adult". You can actually find the recipe online from the Post Punk Kitchen here.The teaspoon of cayenne pepper did not seem like it would be very spicy at all but these cookies definitely had a kick and the cinnamon complimented them perfectly. I also loved how the cookies look and I definitely made an effort to make them perfectly round and uniform so they looked very professional when I brought them out at the party. I had many comments about how good they were and where I got the recipe from them. These are a must bake recipe!

Sugar rush alert: Millionaire's Shortbread!

OK, so at the moment I have a pathetic excuse for a kitchen in which I cannot cook many interesting things but because I am desperate to start posting I will share a recipe I have done many times to the delight of my friends who all love it. But beware- it is soo sweet and also addictive! I almost always end up feeling sick from eating too much. Make sure you have plenty of people to share it with or you may be working it off in the gym for the entire week after! I found the recipe on a lovely site called Parsley Soup (.co.uk).


Ingredients:
SHORTBREAD:

• 150g margarine
• 75g sugar (preferable caster) n.b. make sure this is vegan- most (or maybe all) in UK are but it's different in other countries
• 175g plain flour
• 75g cornflour

CARAMEL

• 300g sugar
• 60g margarine
• 130ml soya cream
• vanilla: if you have some use seeds from pods (1/4 pod the recipe says), otherwise a dash of vanilla essence is fine (this is what I use)

• CHOCOLATE: the recipe calls for 100g but I usually use more :). Plain chocolate is the classic but experiments are always good if they involve chocolate. My next batch I really want to try adding dark chocolate with cherries to add a fruity element. 

what to do:

• beat the sugar and margarine together (shortbread only)
• add in both flours mixing it into a dough
• press into a lined baking tray and bake for 30 mins on gas 2-3/160 C
• wait for this to be out and cooling before you start your caramel as you want it to have hardened up before you add your caramel on top
• put your sugar for the caramel in a stainless steel pan and heat over a medium flame (or medium setting) until it all melts into a lovely brown liquid, stirring all the time
• add the cream, margarine and vanilla - be careful it often spits and bubbles up at this point and it is very hot (obviously!)
• Cherry (on parsley soup) has a good tip to know when your caramel is ready- have a cup of cold water and put a drop of the caramel in. If you can form it into a soft ball with your fingers then it is perfect. Timing on this for me seems to vary quite a bit but it does take a little while to get there
• put the caramel over the shortbread and leave this to set
• once again I would advise waiting for this to cool before starting on the chocolate
• melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water
• spread the chocolate over the caramel and short bread and put it in the fridge
• cut the finished product into whatever size you wish
• PIG OUT! yummy

Sorry about the rubbish picture. I didn't have my SLR at the time! I promise future photos will be much better! You might be able to tell by the photo but on these ones I got a bit impatient with the caramel and it is a little bit viscous still. Tasted amazing though!


I hope you enjoyed my first post. Hopefully I will get better as time goes on!


Jules x