Salted pistachio chocolate cookies

Salted pistachio and chocolate cookies

I guess I’ve got bloggers’s block and it’s getting to be a real pain. When I’m not out and about with friends or pottering away in my kitchen I want to be spending my time on the right side of my brain; taking photos, trying new flavour combinations, starting to write... For those that follow thetwicebitten regularly you might have noticed that the number of posts have dropped from an enthusiastic 7 per month when I first started to a dismal 1 per month of late. At first I brushed it off as “just a bit busy at the moment” and tried to avoid acknowledging my difficulty. Quiet Sunday afternoons that I had pencilled in to write came and went with no fruits of my labour at the end of them. It just felt so forced and contrived. Anne Lammont in “Bird by Bird” beautifully captures hating what you write and it’s a book I’ve been coming back to time and time again. I’m going to plod on thanks to all the support from my lovely friends and I'm going to try to remember that the real prize is in the progress. In the meantime I’m going to  keep filling my tummy with yummy things and fill my mind with the food writing greats. Here goes nothing.

Salted pistachio and chocolate cookies

Salted pistachio chocolate cookies – adapted from the hummingbird bakery cookbook

Makes12 cookies

You will need 2 baking trays lined with greaseproof paper

Preheat oven to 170 degrees

50g unsalted butter

300g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

2 eggs

170g light muscovado sugar

¼ tsp vanilla extract

85g plain flour

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp baking powder

70g shelled pistachios - chopped

few pinches of sea salt

Melt the butter and 225g of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

Remove from the heat once smooth.

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract with an electric whisk until well mixed.

Pour in the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon.

Sift in the flour, ½ tsp of salt and the baking powder in 3 additions into the chocolate eggy mixture and stir until mixed.

Stir in the remaining 75g of chocolate.

Arrange the mixture with 6 equal sized dollops of cookie mixture per baking tray.

Be sure to leave enough space between them as they will spread during cooking.

Sprinkle the pistachios and the sea salt to taste onto the top of the cookies.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, checking after 10 minutes.

They are ready when glossy and cracked on top, they will still be soft and gooey.

Leave to cook a little before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy

Salted pistachio and chocolate cookies

Welcome 2012/Midwinter’s tart

Midwinter's tart - cavolo nero open filo tart

I’m probably a little bit late in the game but it would feel wrong not to mark the New Year with a little post. New Year’s Eve was spent with close friends at A.’s grandpa’s cottage. It was lovely being back there after years of memories; from birthday parties as children to camping there as bolshy teenagers. The gamekeeper was there when we arrived, a real character and I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of hearing about the time he shared a mars bar with HRH “Wills” or the time he drank a 2 half pints of vodka not to loose face.  People arrived in dribs and drabs, hugs were exchanged and glasses filled and emptied. Cheeses and other goodies were laid out, scoffed with more food miraculously appearing at any hint of a spare space in our bellies. Highlights include Nigella’s Christmas rocky roads and S. and M.’s amazing haggis sausage rolls (recipe to follow soon). We welcomed in the New Year with sweet Asti in glasses with little pheasants on them and sang and hummed our way through Auld Lang Syne. None of us had a clue as to the words to the second verse. As the night went on the party games got started and my competitive nature came out. We laughed and laughed. It was one of those nights where I felt just so happy to have the awesome friends that I have.

are these not the cutest glasses ever?

T. doing the highland fling

Seeing as it’s now January I guess we are all supposed to be very good and all on diets but personally I can’t think of anything worse than a calorie sanctioned soggy January. This is my toast to enjoying a little bit of the things you like to eat without the guilt. I’m not morbidly obese yet. I’ve called it midwinter’s tart as pretty much all I could see at the farmer's market was cavolo nero and onions, bring on the first of the spring veg. In the meantime i'll make do with a cheeky recipe title. 

Midwinter’s tart – inspired by Jamie Oliver

Serves 6 – as a lunch with crusty bread and salad

Preheat the oven to 180°c

1 packet of readymade filo pasty approx 5-6 sheets

30g melted butter

300ml full or low fat crème fraiche

3 egg yolks

2 small onions – quartered, then finely sliced

oil for frying

approx 10 – 12 cavolo nero leaves or kale – finely shredded tough stalky bits and all

3-5 anchovy fillets – roughly chopped

30g grated parmesan

salt and pepper to season

zest of half a lemon

Carefully remove the pastry from the packet and lay in your baking dish leaving a few cm overhanging the edges.

Brush gently with the melted butter and continue to layer up the pasty until you have finished the packet.

Mix the egg yolks with the crème fraiche, season and add this to the pastry.

Fry the onions with a little salt over a medium heat until slightly caramelised; this will take approx 5-8 minutes

Mix the fried onions, cavolo nero, parmesan and anchovy together and add this to the tart.

Brush the edges of the pasty with the melted butter and bake the tart for approx 20 minutes until golden brown.

Grate the lemon zest over the tart and leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy.

Midwinter's tart - cavolo nero filo tart

What makes Christmas Christmassy?

Gingerbread hearts

This year I have been super excited about Christmas, as in SUPER EXCITED. I’ve “stepped into Christmas” big style. Imagine a little kid running mad around her living room squealing and winding all the adults up and you are getting close. I think I must be pretty annoying right now. The flat looks like a mistletoe tree has exploded in it, there are little sprigs all over the place just in case. I’m hedging my bets. I have spent many a quiet moment drifting off into a daydream about seeing my chums, spending time with my grandparents and munching on the fabulous festive food that is yet to come . . .

our lovely Christmas tree

In an ode to Christmas I’ve composed a what makes Christmas Christmassy list.

1. Tinsel in my hair at work (a naff but compulsory accessory in the hospital at Christmas)
2. Lugging a 6ft fir tree up the 3 flights of stairs to our flat.
3. The free bar at my boyfriend's office party
4. Pigs in blankets
5. Christmas Eve diner with the Glasgow girls
6. Vacherin Mont D’Or
7. My Dad’s incredible to-the-minute Christmas lunch planner
8. Making gingerbread hearts for decorating the tree, twee moi?
9. Lazy pajama morning on boxing day 

So dear reader, tell me, what makes Christmas Christmassy for you? What makes your day?

gingerbread heart tree decorations

My lovely sister came to stay with me last weekend and in amongst the mulled wine glugging, present wrapping by the fireside and other clichéd Christmassy things to do we made these gingerbread hearts. Tasty and festive, a winning combination.

Gingerbread  - barely adapted from the Hummingbird bakery cookbook

Oven preheated to 180°

400g plain flour

¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp salt

180g unsalted butter – at room temperature

125g light or dark muscovado sugar

1 egg

125g black treacle

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Set aside till later.

Add the butter and sugar to a separate bowl and mix together with a handheld whisk until light and fluffy.

Add in the egg and mix until incorporated.

Scrape down any unmixed ingredients as required.

Add in the flour mixture one tablespoon at a time, continuing to mix throughout.

The Hummingbird bakery advises leaving the dough over night in the fridge but we didn’t have the patience. We used the dough straight away and all was well.

Lightly dust your worktop and rolling pin and roll out your dough until it is about 5mm thick.

Use your cutters to make shapes and transfer onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Make sure you leave plenty of space between them as they can spread slightly in the heat.

If you are making your gingerbread into decorations pierce the dough to make a 5mm hole. We used a chopstick to do this.

Bake for approx 12 minutes.

Leave to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy and have yourself a truly wonderful Christmas.