As we enter the December ‘limbo’ between Christmas and New Year, I have decided that now would be the perfect (?) time to put up my Christmas blog post. Admittedly, the timing was largely dictated by my almost complete absence from any kind of social media over the festive period, but who doesn’t love an extra treat in the time anyway?
My blog post this year (which happens to be the first in a few years) actually comes in the form of 6 different bakes. This is because I decided to try my hand at a few new recipes to make up my Christmas traybake box. While part of the intention behind this will hopefully be revealed soon, I thought that it would be the perfect excuse to give some of my friends a bit of a treat after what has been a questionable year (to put it mildly).
The box was made up of, not only my mince pie flapjacks and mulled wine blondies which have featured on the blog recently, but also of a baileys caramel shortbread, a chocolate orange cookie bar, a gingerbread rocky road and Christmas chocolate brownies. It’s safe to say that baking all 6 certainly satisfied my baking cravings for the season (apart from maybe a cheeky NYE offering), and while I could bore you with each of my criticisms about the brownie not having enough quality streets to be recognisable as a quality street brownies, or the rocky road being a little bit too sticky, I will instead conclude that they are all a reasonable attempt (and pretty tasty if I do say so myself) and include another recipe.
The recipe I have decided to go for is the one for the chocolate orange cookie bars. While I did have a slightly different recipe in mind for these, the one I used was a lot more simple and worked really well. I used the base recipe from Jane’s Patisserie (I would definitely recommend having a scroll through if you haven’t already) and tweaked it to include the flavour that everyone seems to be obsessed with this season. Admittedly, I didn’t include the addition of orange zest purely because I couldn’t actually get an orange, but I think this would finish the recipe off perfectly if you are able to do so. Either way, if you do decide to try the recipe I would appreciate your thoughts and criticisms, but I wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and hope you enjoy!
Chocolate Orange Cookie Bars (makes 12)
- 115 g Unsalted Butter
- 55 g Granulated Sugar
- 135 g Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 275 g Plain Flour
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Cornflour
- Zest of 1 Orange
- 200g Dark Chocolate
- 1 Chocolate Orange
Method
- Melt your butter and add the sugars. Use an electric mixer to mix these together until smooth – this may take a few minutes,
- Add the egg and mix again briefly until the ingredients are combined.
- Mix your flours, bicarb and salt together in a separate bowl so they are evenly distributed, then add to the sugars, butter and egg. Mix this until a thick dough forms.
- Add the orange zest to the dough along with the roughly chopped dark chocolate (reserving approx. 20g) and part of the chocolate orange. You will need to reserve enough pieces of chocolate orange to decorate each slice (so, in this instance, you would need to save 12).
- Mix this until the chunks and zest are evenly dispersed through the dough, then tip into a lined baking tin.
- Place in the fridge for at least half an hour.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 190C/ 170C Fan.
- Once the dough is chilled, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the dough looks golden and more crisp. Remove and leave to cool before cutting into slices.
- Once cut, melt the remaining dark chocolate, and use this to stick on the pieces of chocolate orange. If you have any left you could drizzle this over the top as well.
Cakehole Bakes - Newcastle upon Tyne 