Some of my closest friends knew of my new habit since taking up this MA study. Whenever I am stressed or encounter writers block, I bake or cook.... well mostly baking. But as we are here on tight budget, I am always excited to try and discover new recipes that taste good, produce copious amount of delicious supply and of course on the budget. So it is only natural that I am totally up to it when one of my foodie friend challenge me to bake 2 cakes and cookies combination for under 5 pound.
It was yesterday morning. In the evening, when I release myself from Library then home to my family, I needed some stress release.. Plus Simon and Tania finished the last of our Kaastengels supply before dinner.
Thus, before dinner I took a peek of our food cupboard and spotted less than 1/4 peanut butter in its jar... Hmmm... Tania and Simon LOVE peanut and I think I have a recipe from 2 years ago. OK... 1 cookie down. Now, cake? what cake? it should be simple because I ain't standing with a hand mixer creaming butter and soft peak the egg white at this hour... I accidentally stumbled upon Yulyan Parwati, another foodie extrodinaire blog. The name catches my eye... Simple Vanilla Cupcake... PERFECT!!!
So I made the peanut butter cookie dough before dinner and it takes me less than 30 minutes from prepping to finish with Tania's 'help'. Then cover the dough with clingwrap and popped it into the fridge then have dinner with Simon and Tania. After dinner, I made the cupcake. This too is easy and quick, another 30 minutes from prep to finish and I have my 1st batch in the oven. I think it is good for 12 cupcakes baked in a muffin tin, but because 1 muffin is too much for Tania, I didn't fill it all the way to the top only 2/3 of it. It's few little bites for Tania but only 1 gulp for her sweet-tooth daddy.
Now, for the calculation. I am not good with numbers so counting is not my forte. SO here's a rough calculation
- Flour : I use the remaining 1/2 bag flour I had in the cupboard. That is the 500gr Sainsbury Basic Flour for 85p. Therefore, the amount of flour I use for the cookies and cake is even less that 85p.
- Sugar: again. it's the remaining we have in the cupboard. I bought the 200gr granulated sugar for 90p
- Brown sugar: I had this 200gr of soft brown sugar (1.20 Pound) for a while and have been using it for my 3 other baking in this 1 month time. I only use 1/2 cup of it so perhaps it's less that 50p.
- Butter: I bought 250gr of Morrisson Value Butter for 90p. and use 130gr for the cookies and 120gr for the cupcakes.
- Eggs: We bought Sainsbury Basic 18 Eggs Rack for 2.10 Pound. And use a total of 3 eggs (1 for the cookies, 2 for the cupcakes)... you'll do the math, yes?! hehehe
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda are each the 170gr tub and cost me about 1.50 Pound each. I bought this like 6 months ago. Have been using the, for countless of cooking. So it's a cupboard necessity. In today's baking I only use perhaps 1 to 11/2 tsp each.
- Peanut Butter: It's the Sainsbury Organic Peanut butter 340gr for 1.50 pound. I use not even 1/4 of it.
- Milk: We bought the 4 pints Sainsbury Milk for 1.29 pound and use just 150 ml of it.
- Vanilla Essence: I bought the sainsbury madagascan vanilla 5ml for 1 pound something last month and I use only 1 tsp of it.
OK Now the recipes...
Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup All purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Butter/margarine at room Temperature
1/2 cup Granulated sugar (Next time I will reduce this to 1/4 because It's too sweet for my family)
1/2 cup Soft Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1 egg
Directions:
- In a small bow, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside
- in a medium bowl (or your mixer bowl), beat the butter until creamy (about 2-3 minutes)
- Add the granulated sugar, mix well. Then add the Brown sugar, mix well for another 2 mins.
- Add the peanut butter and egg and mix until well combined
- Now, add the dry ingredients: the flour mix, to the sugar and butter mix. Do this in small portions so it will produce a smooth dough.
- The dough will be a bit soft but firm. Cover the bowl with Cling film/wrap. then refrigerate it for at least 3 hours.
- After, 3 hours. heat your oven to 375 C or to Medium heat. As for me, I put it on GM 4. Using a teaspoon portion, scoop 1 teaspoon then roll the dough to a ball.
- Place the ball on a ungreased baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Flattened the balls with a fork to make a criss-cross pattern
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Leave cool for a minute on the baking tray before transfer to cookie rack to cool completely.
Some useful Note:
- The dough will expand when baked so make sure to leave enough room between the dough before baking.
- The 3 hours in the refrigerator really helps the dough to firmed up and make the criss-crossing patter easier to make. I only put it for 1.5 hours and it was too soft and my fork keeps getting stuck. So I popped it to the freezer every 5 minutes to let it hardened.
Simple Vanilla Cupcake
Source : Yulyan Parwati Blog
Ingredients:
120 gr butter/margarine
130 gr Granulated sugar
2 eggs
200 gr All purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
150 ml fresh milk
Direction:
- In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients: Flour and baking power. Set aside.
- Beat butter/margarine with sugar until creamy and pale
- Add the eggs. Mix for about 5 minutes on medium speed.
- Lower the mixer speed to low and alternately adding the flour mix and the milk. Add vanilla and mix well.
- Lined the muffin tray with wax paper or cupcake paper cup. filled 1/2 to 3/4 of your liking. It will rise too.
- Oven for 25 minutes on medium heat (GM 4 or 180 C)
When it is done, topped it with buttercream (I use left over butter cream from last month's baking - it is basically you beat butter with sugar. add a dash of vanilla). Because the leftover butter cream is not sufficient to put into a piping bag, I speared a teaspoon of butter cream to the cupcakes and then sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on top. You can topped it with chocolate rice, grated choc etc.
