Granola Bars

The second thing I made in my cooking class was granola bars. It was one big bar in the tin and then I cut it up into smaller pieces to eat as a snack. So, here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 50g Butter or margarine
• 3 tbsp Honey
• 100g Sugar (I used caster)
• 150g Oats
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 40g Pumpkin seeds
• 40g Dessicated coconut
• 75g Tropical dried fruit

The method is quite simple so here it is:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C or gas mark 4.
2. Place the butter or margarine, sugar and honey into a saucepan and gently heat until the butter or margarine has melted.
3. Stir in all the other ingredients.
4. Pour the mixture into a non-stick (or lined) baking tin.
5. Pack the mixture down into the baking tin.
6. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly brown.
7. Remove from the oven and cut into 'bars' in the baking tin while hot.

My tips:

• You can try using a different breakfast cereal instead of oats. You could try cornflakes.
• If you don't like any of the fruits or seeds you can swap them out for something else. Instead of pumpkin seeds, try sunflower seeds.
• Make sure you don't leave the pan alone so you don't burn the mixture.

My review:

So I think this went really well saying that I hadn't practised before and didn't really know what I was doing. It was a relatively easy recipe with the melting part being the only complicated bit. Other than that it was just mixing and there are only a couple of actual steps. I think I may have over baked it slightly as it was very hard and a bit past the golden brown stage. It did taste great though and I still have some left over. All of the fruits and seeds mingled in together made it look really nice and it would have looked great presented on a plate. I think it turned out great and I would definitely try it again and with some different ingredients.

Marvellous Marshmallows

I've made marshmallows only once and I had a lot of help. My mum practically did it. So it was quite

a big job for me to do it by myself, but I did. It was really fun and not as hard as I thought it would be. I got the recipe from the book 'Marshmallows Made Marvellous' which my mum got sent a while ago. You can find her blog at Love Chic Living.

Ingredients:

• Sunflower oil, for greasing
• 1 tbsp Cornflour
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 200ml Cold water
• 450g Granulated sugar
• 100ml Hot water
• 25g Powdered gelatine
• 2 Large egg whites
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Top tips:

• You might want to have some things prepared before you boil your syrup, because there isn't much time to do it.
• When you whisk in the vanilla, do it thoroughly, because even though it looks mixed in, it probably won't be.

My review:

Well I made these a while ago so I'll try my best to remember them. I made these more by myself this time with only a little help from my dad when there was some tricky multitasking to be done. They actually turned out better than last time because we realised we had to coat the entire things in the powdery mixture. They tasted better as well. They were really light and were so much nicer than the really gooey shop bought ones. At the point I made them it was Christmas so we had some hot chocolate and ended up dipping them in it. Absolutely delicious! Also, they lasted ages so I actually threw them away not long ago. I'll definitely be making a different flavour at some point. The Bourbon and Brown Sugar Marshmallows look amazing.

Fantastic Flapjack

Well, it has been a long time since a did a post. I'm definitely going to do my post every Monday this time. I'm definitely going to stick to my promise this time.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz margarine
• 8 oz demerara sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 10 oz rolled oats
• 4 oz plain chocolate chips

My tips:

• Make sure that the flapjack mixture is cool before you tip in the chocolate chips.
• When you are melting the ingredients in the pan make sure the heat isn't too low.

My review:
I really liked baking these. They are a simple bake, so good for someone younger or just starting out. Unfortunately, the chocolate chips melted when I put them in because we had to get it into the oven quickly and the mixture didn't cool in time. I think that might have caused them to be greasy when they were taken out of the oven. I think it's very unfair though, as I have only had 2 pieces when there was 16, and only 3 left now. Tut, tut. Still, they were very nice.

Millionares Shortbread

About 2 weeks ago I made some Millionaires' Shortbread from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book. They were absolutely delicious. I loved it.

Ingredients:
For the Shortbread:

• 250g plain flour
• 75g caster sugar
• 175g butter, softened

For the caramel:

• 100g butter or margarine
• 100g muscovado sugar
• 2 x 397g cans of condensed milk

For the topping:

• 200g plain or milk chocolate, broken into pieces

My tips

• You can always use chocolate cake cake covering
• Make sure you have the right sized tin
• A faster way to make it set is to put it in the freezer

My review
First up I had to make the shortbread, that wasn't too hard because I have already made shortbread before. Then I had to make the caramel. We only had one tin of condensed milk, we used that and it turned out very good indeed. So one tin of condensed milk does work. Last of all was the chocolate which is always going to be easy because all you have to do is melt it. By the way you have to let the caramel set before you pour on the melted chocolate. Once I had poured the chocolate on it had to set. It was taking too long so we froze it then had a piece. It was extremely nice mm. I wasn't given scores but I expect they all thought 10/10 because it was just too good for words. I only got about 3 pieces when there was 20.(NOT FAIR) I hope you will make some.

Chocolate brownies

Yum!

On Monday the 2nd I made some chocolate brownies. They are from Tana Ramsay's family kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 250g unsalted butter
• 425g golden caster sugar
• 4 large free-range eggs, beaten
• 65g plain flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 400g plain chocolate (either chips or bar broken into small pieces)

Makes 24 brownies

My Tips

• Try smashing up the chocolate before starting.
• Remember to read the recipe through before you start.

My Review
I think the Chocolate Brownies were scrumptious. Anybody would like them. Sometimes you get a really big piece of chocolate when it is melted mmm. My family thought they were delicious too, Daddy gave me a 10/10 and so did Mummy and Ruby my sister. They were so scrumdiddlyumptious they were gone in about 3 days flat!!! Do you want some?