Red Velvet Cookies

WOW!!!

London you were amazing, Team GB you were completely awesome.

I’m all Olympiced out. What an amazing couple of weeks, and today it somehow seems wrong to not be watching another sport on the television.

I have well and truly become an armchair expert in loads of different sports, and have gone through a wealth of emotions whilst watching the games. I’ve been moved to tears watching horses dance to music, have sat on the edge of my seat watching the rowing and cycling, have almost been too scared to watch Peter Wilson shoot his last 2 shots in the Men’s Double Trap, have screamed at Mo Farah to get a wriggle on and turned into a scary lout shouting ‘Just ‘it ‘im son’, watching the boxing. There were low times, but thankfully there were some amazing high points. I honestly can’t pinpoint one highlight as ‘THE’ moment, because from the Opening Ceremony to the Closing Fireworks, there were just too many.

I have lived in London for over 20 years and love this city, and this year I’m even more proud than ever to call it home.

I now feel bereft that its all over and we’re back to watching The One Show and Eastenders on BBC1 again. It feels like when Chrtistmas TV is over and you have to go back to work.

We have tickets for the Paralympics and will be going to the stadium to see the athletics…..bring it on! Can’t wait!!!!!

This is my cookie homage to Our Greatest Team, and the amazing London 2012.

Red Velvet Cookies

125gms Butter
100gms Light Brown Sugar
75gms Dark Brown Sugar
150gms Plain Flour
1 egg
1tspn Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tspn Salt
10gms
20ml Red Food Colouring
100gms White Chocolate Chips

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Add the egg and red colouring and beat together.

Sieve the flour, cocoa, Bicarbonate of Soda and salt and add to the mixture. Mix to a thick dough.

Lastly mix through the white chocolate chips.

You now have 2 choices – put the dough in the fridge to chill for an hour, and then form into balls about the size of a golf ball ready for the oven. However, because you’ve chilled the dough it will be hard. Alternatively, why not form the dough into balls BEFORE you chill it? So much easier!!

Whilst the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 140c (120c Fan) or Gas Mark 2. Prepare 2 or 3 baking sheets by covering in baking parchment.

Lay out the dough balls onto the baking sheets, remembering to leave a good distance between them as the cookies will spread.

Bake for 20 – 25 mins, depending on how chewy or crunchy you like your cookies.

When baked remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before transfering to a wire rack to cool completely.

To get in the olympic spirit I decorated mine with piped Royal Icing, mixed up from shop bought Royal Icing Sugar.

Lemon Crumble Bars

If you live in the UK, There are 2 things you can’t have failed to have noticed this summer:

1. The Olympics are nearly upon us – yep, London 2012 will be opening in just a weeks time.
2. It hasn’t stopped raining for what seems like forever!!

Firstly the Olympics. Personally I’m very excited. We get TV Olympic coverage at a time of day I’m not in bed, sleeping. But then I don’t live near the Olympic Village. I do however, have a ‘proper’ job at a big Dance Shoe Company, and the factory and offices are based in Hackney.

Oh…. My…. Life…..how much things have changed in the area!!

Most of the staff live in the local vicinity and have had varying degrees of inconvenience with a few added bonuses. But I think the most interesting story I heard this week was how all the helicopters carrying the security troops make the TV satellite dishes shake so much the local residents keep loosing reception.

The company I work for are proud to be involved in the Olympics, but as we’re not ‘official’ sponsors I can’t tell you exactly how we are involved….which as the Marketing Manager is UBER annoying!!

Anyway, onto my second point…..RAIN!!!! Seriously, how much water does the sky hold? On April 5th a hosepipe ban came into force in our area, and, you guessed it, it hasn’t stopped raining since!

I’m not kidding!!

Whilst America is sweltering in ridiculous heat, the UK has drowned!!!!!!

There is one thing you can rely on with the British weather at the moment, and that is that you’re going to get wet at some point during the day! Do not leave the house without an umbrella or waterproof jacket, and preferably a pair of wellies, and in some areas canoes come in handy too!

As a nation we have the collective look of the proverbial ‘drowned rat!’.

But are we down about it? No, we have the Olympics next week, and the pesky Jet Stream that is bringing all this falling water is, apparently, moving North, so the forecast and TV viewing looks positive.

(oh and our hosepipe ban was lifted early, 2 weeks ago. Something to do with the fact that we’ve had the wettest summer EVER)

As there are all sorts of restrictions about using the Olympic rings, I didn’t want to incur the wrath of the IOC by baking something that looked liked them. Therefore, I have rather tenuously devised a baking and blogging schedule that fits with the colours of the five rings.

First up – yellow.

These are what I consider to be comfort food. Exactly what you need on a wet, miserable, cold July day!

Lemon Crumble Bars

Base and Crumble:
160gms plain flour, sifted
80gms granulated sugar
100gms butter

Filling:
110gms sugar
1 tbspn plain flour
.25 tspn baking powder
1 egg
Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon

Grease a baking tray. I used a 6″ x 4″ foil tray.

Preheat you oven to 130 c, 150c fan, gas mark 3

Place all the base and crumble ingredients into a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until it has the consistency of thick crumbs.

Take one third of the crumbs and squish it into the tray to form a base.

Place all the filling ingredients into a clean bowl and mix until fully combined.

Tip: place the tray onto a baking sheet, as when it’s filled it’s a bit tricky to carry without spilling it.

Pour the filling over the base.

Sprinkle the remaining crumble over the filling. Some will sink in, some will stay on top.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is slightly spongy to touch.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. (At this point you could, as I did, dig into the crumble and have it as you would any other fruit crumble with ice-cream or custard. However, in order to get bars, you have to resist this temptation)

Once fully cooled its best to pop the crumble into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set.

Once set cut into bars and devour!