Yes so remember I mentioned my diet was going well? I think PRs must sense this and then want to send me treats. But these new Häagen-Dazs Secret Sensations icecreams are well worth being a bit naughty for.

I was sent these new Häagen-Dazs flavours to review through the Häagen-Dazs program. It’s pretty neat actually, when I joined the program they sent me a USB stick shaped like a Häagen-Dazs tub (it’s amazing, everyone at work is envious!) and a scoop plus some gorgeous Cowshed goodies! Last week I was sent these by courier and I was so worried because even though Mr LTT works at home, he was going to be out at meetings on the day they were going to arrive. This meant I had to have them delivered to work where there’s no freezer and I thought they’d be melted by the time I got home and have good light to photograph by. I needn’t have worried! It arrived on dry ice which I’d never seen before and although I cheekily ate one of the chocolate fondant ones at lunch and opened the box, they were still really really frozen by the time I got home and finally got them in the freezer!

So the new flavours…the first is chocolate fondant. The chocolate icecream is quite rich but the mini cup is just the perfect size portion to make sure you don’t overdo it.

There’s little brownie pieces sprinkled through the icecream and rich chocolate sauce centre. I liked working my way from the outside to the inside and getting lots of sauciness at the end.

The thing I really love about Häagen-Dazs ice cream is that it’s got such a smooth flavour, the chocolate is really good quality, exactly what you want and because it doesn’t melt quickly I had time to savour every mouthful!

My favourite of the two (and that doesn’t mean that the chocolate fondant wasn’t delicious because IT TOTALLY WAS) is the Crème Brûlée.

It’s vanilla flavour with crunchy bits of caramel just like the crispy top on a traditional Crème Brûlée and then, just like the chocolate fondant one, there’s a saucy centre which in this one is caramel sauce.

Both flavours are sexy-licious. Yeah I just made that word up, but when you try them you’ll completely agree with me! They’re available now and you can buy them in packs of two x 100ml (RRP £3.29) or single 100ml tubs (RRP £1.99).

I’ve had a busy week of baking in the ramp up to Christmas. At the weekend it was mandatory to make sausage rolls, because actually no Christmas tree decoration is complete without it (and of course, your choice of alcoholic beverage). We bought a tree and discovered that whilst it was perfect height-wise, width-wise it takes up about ¼ of our living room! Plus the new baubles we bought took twice as long to attach the strings to as it did to hang them on the tree! Still, I enjoy the process and spending time with Mr Lay the table. And of course, eating the sausage rolls!

I also made these millionaire’s cupcakes at the weekend – I got the idea after making one of my colleagues millionaire’s shortbread. It was the first time I’d ever made it to be honest! There were complaints from Mr LTT that that was his favourite thing and why did I never make it for him? I swear he says this about everything I bake that’s not for him…Over the past few months I’ve been lacking in cupcake ideas, feeling a little more melancholy every time I see someone else’s blog with these amazing looking cupcakes on and feeling the green-eyed monster inside of me stir. I will not be jealous, I will just try harder next time.

So this is the frui of my labout and they’re not too hard, I think the drizzle of dark chocolate at the end really finishes the cupcakes off. Warning: extreme sugar rush!

First we make our cupcake base…

Once they’re baked and cooled, we’re going to cut a bit out, like a butterfly cake, except you can eat the bit we cut off because we’re not going to use it.

Now we’re going to make our caramel, it’s really easy! It’s just sugar, butter and condensed milk. Be sure to keep stirring, I recommend a rubber spatula as you can wipe around the edge of the saucepan much more easily (that’s where it’s more likely to burn).

Now spoon in enough caramel to fill our cupcake hole, then leave to cool.

Finally, we make some chocolate buttercream and pipe a swirl on top! Then drizzle a bit of dark chocolate on top of the buttercream if you like.

{Makes 12 cupcakes}

60mins – Prep time: 40 mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

For the cupcake

• 115g self raising flour
• 115g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla bean paste
• ½tsp baking powder

For the caramel

• 1 tin condensed milk 397g
• 100g unsalted butter
• 100g soft brown sugar

For the chocolate buttercream

• 100g milk chocolate (I used patissier’s chocolate)
• 150g unsalted butter
• 300g icing sugar
• 2tbsp milk

To decorate

• About 8 squares of dark chocolate

Instructions

Oven temp: 160°C/320°F

1. Lay out cupcake cases in a muffin bun tin. Sieve the flour with the baking powder in a bowl.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar for at least 4 minutes in a mixer with the vanilla essence.
3. In a separate bowl I like the beat the butter to make it fluffy and pale using a hand mixer (but if you’re lucky enough to have a spare bowl for your stand mixer…)
4. In two goes, add in the flour and bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed.
5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases and smooth the tops down (it doesn’t have to be perfect!)
6. Put the cupcakes into the oven for around 15 minutes until they feel spongey and the tops have got some colour.
7. Once out of the oven, place on a wire cooling rack to cool down, then cut out a hole from each of the cupcakes.
8. To make the caramel, place all the ingredients in a pan, bring to a slow boil, then turn down to a low heat for 3 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent burning.
9. Spoon the caramel into the cupcake holes and leave to cool.
10. To make the buttercream, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Once melted, take off the heat and leave to cool a little.
11. Meanwhile, take 50g on the butter and mix with the icing sugar for a minute or so until distributed. Add the chocolate and mix well. Finally add the remaining butter and milk and mix on a medium/high speed setting until creamy and smooth.
12. Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes, then melt the dark chocolate over a saucepan of boiling water. Take a spoon and dip it in the dark chocolate and swing over the over cupcakes to give them a stripy drizzle.

Cheesecake brownie cupcakes combine three of my favourite things. I found the brownie cupcakes in my Leila Lindholm book I was given recently and wondered how I could add my own touch. I’ve been making these Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies by Baking Bites for a good long while and thought I could adapt the recipe. Here’s the resulting baby!

You’re going to need to check these cupcakes regularly. My gas oven is wild and untamed – something that drives me mad because the temperature difference from top to bottom is mad and makes it impossible to cook two sandwich cake layer at once. The cupcakes sink a bit in the middle once they come of the oven, this is completely normal! You haven’t done anything wrong…

I popped some blueberries into the topping for a touch of healthy fruity flavour, but you can leave them out if you want! You could also try mixing up the jam flavours too.

Ingredients

For the brownie cupcakes (adapted from Leila Lindholm’s brownie cupcakes)

• 2 large eggs
• 180g caster sugar
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 50g butter
• 50ml olive oil
• 80ml golden syrup
• 120g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped into pieces

For the cheesecake topping (adapted from Baking Bites Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies)

• 225g full fat cream cheese (like Philadelphia)
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• ½tsp vanilla essence
• 3tbsp strawberry jam
• 24 blueberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Line a muffin tin with paper/foil cupcake cakes. I used British style extra large muffin cases (they’s be smaller than American ones but bigger than your normal cupcake cases, but if you’re using smaller ones then you will make more than 12 so you’ll need an extra tin.
2. Make the cheesecake by whisking the cream cheese, egg, sugar with the paddle in your stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer or by hand too) on a medium speed until creamy and smooth. Set aside.
3. In a seperate bowl beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy and pale.
4. Melt the butter and mix with the oil and golden syrup in a large mixing bowl then stir into the egg mixture.
5. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, then fold into the butter mix.
6. Melt the chocolate pieces in a bowl over bubbling water. Don’t let the bowl touch the water.
7. Fold the chocolate into mixture.
8. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases, and even the surfaces out with a spoon. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture on the top.
9. Using a kebab skewer, swirl jam through the cream cheese, then push two blueberries into the top.
10. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then check to see if they’re done by placing a skewer into the middle of one of the cupcakes. The skewer should come out clean. If not, check it every 5 minutes or so until done.
11. Remove from the oven, leave in the muffin tray for 5 minutes then leave to cool on a cooling rack.

I was due to write this post later this week until Mr Lay the table informed me that he’d wiped the camera memory and had therefore lost all the photos for the other post I was going to write. He is currently in the dog house! Luckily I still have lovely stuff to write about! On Thursday I will be on BBC Radio Leeds with the lovely Lynn from Clandestine Cake Club and My Secret Team Room, so if you have a chance, please listen in from around 9am I think! It’s all about National Cake Week so please bake a cake and donate some money to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

It’s always nice to get the gift of chocolates but it’s really super lucky to receive Lucky’s chocolates.

Lucky’s chocolates are like a halfway house between chocolate and cake. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, the “Mad Hatter” chocolates I was sent to review are brownie based inside, mixed with a special filling then cased in chocolate.

Look how beautiful the box is! There’s a little peep hole to let you have a sneak peek and see the surprise inside…

There’s dark, milk and white chocolates in my selection with names like “Salty Insanity” (a salted caramel chocolate), “Coco rush” (creamy coconut filling) and “Hurry Bunny” (blueberry compote). Oh, I didn’t mention it before but they’re all covered Valrhona chocolate, it’s like totes the best quality chocolate. And they’re hand made too (I do love a bit of handicraft).

They are truly some of the most unique chocolates I’ve come across. They taste divine too – honestly I had a job to keep a hold of them at work when they arrived and was sure I wouldn’t have enough to photograph! I think my favourite was the Looney Raspberry – raspberry and pistachio pieces. The only problem was I had to keep checking on the website to find out what each one had in them as there was no information card inside!

These are luxury chocolates and so they do come with a luxury price tag – the Mad Hatter 12 piece box is priced at £35 but there is free delivery. I definitely think I’d order a few of these for Christmas gifts because they’re so unusual. Who knows, maybe Mr Lay the table might get one in his stocking!

Get your Lucky’s chocolate at Lucky’s online shop

Since we had a Bank Holiday and I had an extra day I thought it would be the perfect time to squeeze in some quality baking time. I’d lined up loads of amazing treats to make from various food blogs over the weekend. Then we had a BBQ party on Sunday (which by the way I had to make the pavlova twice! Still have NOT got a hang of pavlova) and I was feeling pretty hungover on Monday. I lay on the sofa watching repeats of Only Fools and Horses on G.O.L.D and trying to recover. Time ticks away, it’s 3pm, the shops are only open for another hour. Must. Get. Fat. Ass. Off. Sofa. I go, I remember to take the reusable bags (plus point), I return with all the right baking ingredients (double plus point).

I started trying some new cupcake ideas with some roll out icing. My nails are too long for this. I search the cupboard. Royal icing time. There’s about 200g left. I hedge my bets, wash out the KitchenAid bowl. I pour too much water in apparently despite calculating how much water I’d need. Attempt three: Buttercream time. The consistency is right. I start to pipe. It doesn’t stick on the sides of the cupcake like I want. I’m tired. I’m grumpy. The cupcakes are abandoned. I go and eat Thai food and feel a lot better. I took them into work today and labelled them “disaster cupcakes” and they disappear from the kitchen within half an hour!

The other recipe I had planned for the Bank Holiday weekend was Nanaimo bars. I tried them when I took a trip recently to Out of the woods cafe and I tried some of the delicious Nanaimo bars made by Fayre by Alley. I needed these things in my life.

This is me and my friend Kim. Kim is this amazing chick who enjoys dim sum about as much as I do. We have loads of food fun when we see each other (even though she’s daaan saaarf). Kim is also Canadian or Can-asian as I like to say. Since we have been friends for like 4 years, she has neglected to tell me about Nanaimo Bars. Kim is mean.

Anyway, I decided to make my own Nanaimo bars. I’ve got a new twitter friend, Alex who has a recipe for Nanaimo bars on alex bakes. I used her base recipe, but I made my own custard and changes the amount of chocolate on the top. Thanks to the feedback on this post, the real custard makes this non-traditional (and also because it’s runny too!) so I guess this is the Lay the table take on Nanaimo bars.

The recipe is pretty easy, stir all the base bits together: cocoa powder, coconut and digestive biscuits with butter.

Check out how orange the yolks are on these Clarence Court Cotswold Legbar Eggs (the blue shelled ones) I used for the custard! I was quite impressed with my custard making skillz!

Custard made, smooth it on top! Then add your chocolate…and try not to lick too much off the spoon.

Ingredients

For the base

Base recipe from alex bakes

• 200g digestive biscuits, blitzed in the food processor to make crumbs
• 100g butter
• 75g desicated coconut
• 50g sugar/li>
• 5tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 egg

For the custard

• 120ml milk
• 1½tbsp cornflour
• 1tsp vanilla bean paste
• 3 egg yolks

For the chocolate topping

• 100g high quality dark chocolate (I used 72% cocoa solids)
• 55g butter

Instructions

1. Line a dish approx 26cm x 17cm with foil (saves on tough washing up) and grease lightly.
2. Make the base: Melt the butter and with the sugar and and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Whisk the egg and add to the saucepan along with the coconut and digestive biscuit crumbs. Stir well. Press base firmly into dish.
3. To make the egg custard: In a medium saucepan, heat the milk with the cornflour, vanilla bean paste and sugar, stirring constantly. The mixture will begin to thicken. Leave to cool for a minute or so, stirring to cool the mixture.
4. In a separate medium bowl, place the egg yolks and whisk a little. Pour half the milk mixture from a height into the egg yolks, stirring constantly to prevent the eggs coagulating.
5. Pour the mixture back into the remaining milk mixture in the saucepan and place back over the heat (low). Stirring constantly, cook for the next 5 minutes. Do not let it go lumpy! Spread over the biscuit base in the dish.
6. To make the chocolate topping: Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over boiling water until melted together. Once fully melted, leave for a few minutes to cool. Then spread on the top gently on top of custard, making sure you get to the edges.
7. Once it’s nearly cool, cover it in cling film and stick it in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
8. To serve, slice into small squares.

I’m still recovering from one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very long time! My friend Nick held a mini festival at his house for his birthday. I lived with Nick and our friend Rory for a while when I moved back to Portsmouth and they were usually the victims of my latest batch of cakes or sausage rolls. I don’t get to see much of them these days but when we meet up it’s always guaranteed good times. Whilst I lived with them, Nick worked at a boat yard, and a few of my friends went in with him and bought a run down yacht which they fixed up over the winter – engine parts, grease and bits of wood all over the front room – and our good friend Frenchie (maker of names for things) named “The Funky Floater”.

Nick wanted a phallic shaped cake for some reason but I wasn’t really prepared to use my baking skills for such a venture, so I decided a pirate cake would be a bit more wholesome and looked on t’interweb for ideas. I found this pirate ship cake and used that tutorial, but made 4 cakes so I had 8 layers. I used the eggless chocolate custard recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book and mini rolls for canons as I couldn’t get the waffle rolls.

This was my first proper birthday cake and I think it turned out ok. It sustained a bit of damage on the 5 hour journey and the back fell off! Luckily it was still well received – very glad I took photos before I left.

Macarons…the final frontier of baking, one of the few things I haven’t made before. Cherries are now in season so I bought a few from the lovely greengrocer in Headingley and wondered what on earth I could bake with them. My mum bought me Lorraine Pascale’s Baking Made Easy book and having watched her make macarons on the tv, I was sure it couldn’t be THAT hard. Four attempts later I finally had a mixture that I could pipe onto the baking sheet. Her instructions lack detail PLUS having looked up the video on Youtube, the weight for the egg whites for the meringue differs from that in the book. I adapted her recipe and I will give you more detailed instructions so that hopefully, you’ll be able to get them right sooner than I did!

{Makes about 12 macarons}

1 hour 45 mins (including cooling time) – Prep time: 30 mins – Cooking time: 15mins – Resting and cooling time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the macarons

• 125g icing sugar
• 115g ground almonds
• 10g good quality cocoa powder
• 40g egg whites
• 110g caster sugar
• 2tbsp water
• 50g egg whites

For the cherry buttercream filling

• 70g pitted cherries, sliced roughly
• 2tbsp cherry brandy
• 2tbsp milk
• 1tbsp caster sugar
• 45g butter, room temperature
• 80g icing sugar
• You’ll also need a piping bag

Instructions

1. In a large bowl mix the icing sugar, ground almonds and 40g egg whites in a large mixing bowl and make into a paste.
2. Whisk the 50g egg whites in a metal bowl until nearly stiff peaks are formed.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the caster sugar and water until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to thicken – if you take it off the heat too soon then your meringue won’t form stiff peaks, too late and you’ll get hardened sugar bits in the meringue.
4. With the electric whisk on, gently pour the sugar water into the egg whites and mix until stiff peaks form and the meringue looks glossy.
5. Gently tip the meringue onto the almond paste mixture, not the other way around as this knocks the air out of the meringue and it will go sloppy (trust me from experience here).
6. Start folding the meringue into the almond paste with a plastic spatula, then give it a good stir once it’s all started to mix in. Don’t use an electric whisk as this will also affect the consistency. The mixture should have the consistency of tomato ketchup.
7. Line 2 baking trays with parchment/greaseproof paper and fill a piping bag with a round small/medium with your macaroon mixture.
8. With the piping bag upright, pipe circles 4cm wide, 2cm apart onto the tray. When pulling up from each circle it will leave a slightly raise lump. Once you’ve finished piping the circle, lift the tray off the surface and drop down a couple of times to help smooth them out.
9. Leave for 30 minutes to stand and pre-heat your oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 5.
10. Place in the oven for about 15 minutes with the door ajar (to prevent humidity in the oven) until they feel good and crisp on the top.
11. Move the whole sheet onto a cooling rack and peel the macarons off once cooled completely.
12. To make the buttercream: In a small saucepan, place the cherries, caster sugar and 1tbsp cherry brandy and simmer gently for a few minutes. Mash with a fork and cook for a minute or two longer.
13. Remove from the heat and run the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl to extract juices, then add the bits left in the sieve to the juice too. Add the butter, milk, icing sugar and leftover cherry brandy and beat well until smooth. The mixture will be slightly runny.
14. Spoon a large teaspoonful onto a macaroon and sandwich another on top, until all the macarons are done. I decorated mine with edible hearts.

Thought I’d get round to making these this Easter, as I made them last year too but never posted them! I made the cupcakes with peanut butter but you could leave this out if you have allergies. Chocolate buttercream piped using a Willton multi-tip gives that great twig nest look.

{Makes about 20 normal size cupcakes}

95mins (including cooling time) – Prep time: 35 mins – Cooking time: 20mins – Icing time: 15 mins

Ingredients

Peanut butter cupcakes

• 6oz self-raising flour
• 6oz caster sugar
• 6oz butter/margarine, softened
• 3eggs
• 3tbsp peanut butter (preferably peanut butter)

Chocolate buttercream

• 500g icing sugar
• 200g plain chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids, I used 85%)
• 110g butter (30g piece and 80g piece)
• 70ml milk

You will also need a multi tip piping tip like Wilton #233

Mini eggs to decorate

Instructions

Oven temp: 180°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3

1. Lay out cupcake cases. If you use silicon you can lay them on a flat baking tray, if you use paper ones, I advise using a bun tin to make the cakes hold their shape
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar for about 4 minutes with an electric hand whisk and beat air into the mix so it fluffs up.
3. Bit by bit, sieve in the flour and baking powder and add bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed, then mix in the peanut butter.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases, ensuring you smooth the tops down (it doesn’t have to be perfect!)
5. Put the cupcakes into the oven for 15-20 minutes until they feel spongey and the tops have got some colour.
6. Once out of the oven, place on a wire cooling rack to cool down
7. To make the buttercream: melt the chocolate and 30g butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down.
8. In a large bowl, sieve the icing sugar and add the remaining butter plus milk and cooled chocolate. Whisk together with an electric whisk gently to keep the mixture smooth and prevent too many air bubbles getting in. It also stops the icing sugar causing a storm in the kitchen!
9. Filling your piping bag with the buttercream, use about half at a time or it’s too hard apply the right pressure. Holding the piping bag upright, pipe a little squidge in the middle, then very slowly pipe the nest, building up the side of the nest bit by bit rather than going round and round. The pressure you apply will give it the “spaghetti” look.
10. Finish off by putting two mini eggs in each nest!

For the March Clandestine Cake Club meeting the theme was “saucy sweet or sensual savoury”. I have been wanting to make caramel with marmite for a while – it was based on the fact marmite is salty and I just love salted caramel. I also recently tried marmite chocolate and absolutely loved it so much I regretted only buying bar of it! I think the marmite works wells in the caramel – I added marmite bit by bit testing all the way so that I didn’t overpower the caramel. You could add more if you want, it’s very much up to personal taste. The buttercream is adapted from Primrose Bakery cupcake book.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 175g plain chocolate, broken into pieces (minimum 64% cocoa solids)
• 175g softened unsalted butter
• 75g unrefined caster sugar
• 4 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 90g ground almonds
• 90g plain flour, sifted

For the marmite caramel buttercream

• 120g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 180ml milk
• 440g soft brown sugar
• 480g icing sugar, sifted
• 2tsp marmite
• 2tbsp milk (may be required)

Instructions

Oven temp: 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2

1. Grease and line two 17cm/7inch sandwich tins.
2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until it melts. Do not let the bowl touch the water and never melt the chocolate directly in a pan as it goes grainy. Stir well.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until frothy and light. Beat in the egg yolks bit by bit. Add the melted chocolate and the ground almonds.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a seperate bowl until soft peaks form. Do not go on beating or they will collapse.
5. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold the egg white and the flour into the mixture bit by bit until it has all been used.
6. Spread the mixture evenly into the sandwich tins and baker for 20 minutes. It’s a good idea to check them after 18 minutes, the sponge should be springy, not firm.
7. Remove the tins from the oven and leave to cool for a couple of minutes before turning them onto a wire rack.
8. Once the cakes are nearly cooled, you can make the buttercream. It needs to used almost straightaway as it dries quite quickly and is hard to manipulate. In a large pan, melt the butter then mix in the brown sugar,milk and marmite, stirring until it comes to the boil, then boil for a minute.
9. Taste test and add more marmite if desired (remember that the taste will become diluted with the addition of the icing sugar).
10. Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl and whisk in half of the icing sugar then leave to cool, checking and stirring regularly so that the consistency is regulated.
11. Once cooled, whisk in the remaining icing sugar and check the consistency. If too thick, add 2tbsp milk to loosen the buttercream.
12. Take 1/3 of the marmite caramel buttercream and spread on top of one of the cake bases. Then sandwich other cake base on top. Spead the rest of the mixture on the top and sides of the cake and smooth with a palette knife.

I spotted Toblerone cookies in the supermarket but as they’re quite expensive and I’m going through a cookie making phase right now, I wanted to make my own. Cookies are so easy to make plus you can leave the raw cookie dough in the fridge for a couple of days so you can whip up a fresh and warm batch when you feel like it (also raw cookie dough goes great with vanilla icecream!)

{Makes about 20}

1 hour – Prep time: 15 mins – Cooking time: 10 mins – Resting time: 30 mins (unattended)

Ingredients

• 300g normal-sized Toblerone, each triangle chopped in half
• 320g plain flour
• 180g light brown sugar
• 170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 120g granulated white sugar
• 70g flaked almonds, crushed a little
• 1 large egg+1 large egg yolk
• 1tbsp vanilla extract
• 1tsp salt
• ½tsp bicarbonate of soda

Instructions

Oven temperature to 190°c / Gas Mark 5

1. Beat the butter, sugars and vanilla extract together until well mixed.
2. Add in the egg and egg yolk, ensuring they have been well mixed in
3. Pour in the crushed almond flakes, then sift in the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda a little at a time.
4. Stir in the Toblerone pieces. They will all fit in and the mixture will still hold!
5. Lay out some cling film and roll half of the mixture into a small sausage shape on it. Wrap the rest of the cling film around it then roll the sausage longer (until diameter is approx 5cm/2 inches), ensuring it’s fairly even. Repeat with the other half of the mixture, then chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
6. Pre-heat the oven and remove the cling film from the cookie dough. Make slices 1.5cm apart ensuring there’s at least one piece of chocolate in each biscuit and put the cookie dough onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, spread well apart.
7. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes – the cookies will seem uncooked. Leave to cool on the baking tray for a minute or so, then transfer to a cooling rack. Try not to eat them all at once!
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