Week 10: Sticky Toffee Flapjacks and Peanut Butter Truffles

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Jennifer and I are both with our parents at this time of year, so we decided that we would both make different bakes for our families (so that we would stick to the schedule of the whole cookbook in a year). I made a Sticky Toffee Flapjack, and Jennifer made a Peanut Butter Truffle.

So in my family things were getting a little bit tense. Harri, my brother, was leaving to go to the compulsory 6-month Finnish Military Service on the 2nd of January, and so we were double-checking that he had everything he needed: all the forms, clothing and other essentials (like protein bars). Everyone we have talked to about the army service have said that protein bars are essential for the army!! So we bought like 50 of those, I think ;)

The journey to the army base would take around 2 hours, so I wanted to bake something that we could easily have as a snack in the car. I also thought that it would be nice to make something that my parents hadn't heard of. Just kidding on the latter. I didn't know they hadn't heard of flapjacks ;)

Laying THE cookbook and the music down on the dining room table was the first step :)

I then heated the butter with the brown sugar and syrup

Actually, before heating those up I pitted and cut the dates, heated the butter mixture, then weighed the oats. In that order ;)

Mixing the oats into the butter mixture

And the dates

I had to taste-test the mixture to see if it was edible :D 

It was edible!!

Laying it out in a sandwich tin

Placing the flapjacks into the oven

Now onto the topping:

Measuring out the butter and sugar

Heating it up with some syrup

And then leaving it to cool when it was all bubbly like this

Now on to toasting the pecan nuts. It sounded like I should put the pecans into the toaster, since that is how you get things toasted ;) haha no... I wouldn't do that.. So I googled it, and it is best done in the oven on high heat.

Placing the pecans on an oven tray

And so google said to leave them in the oven until fragrant, so about 5 minutes. It started getting fragrant at 3 minutes, but I thought I better leave them in for a bit longer ;)

The toasted pecans after 5 minutes. Look at the colour compared to the last photo!! Lovely <3 This would even be a nice idea for a snack!! The toasting made the nuts softer and easier to eat 

Getting the toasted pecan nuts

And sprinkling them over the flapjacks :)

So I then cut it up, brought it on the car journey, and it helped us stay sustained for most of the time (we did have to stop for occasional tea and sandwich breaks)!!  

Jennifer's Peanut Butter Truffles :D

They look so good!! I would like to take one out of the computer screen ;) Probably in the future we will be able to do that ;) Do you think?

Till next time,

The Baking Students

xx

Week 7: Flapjack

So as we all gathered around the table for Christmas pudding last Sunday, handed out our Secret Santa presents, and asked if anyone would like a pot of tea, we explored the options that we had for dessert. The amount was beyond what we could eat in one night, just us 6 students, but you-know ... It can last maybe two nights ;) 

Sophie has a 6-foot Christmas tree that she brought to university. And so when we all gathered in the kitchen at around 9 pm we started by all garnishing the tree with firstly lights, which were a tad confusing for Pamela to remember which way to wind around the tree, then the baubles, which had to be done in the correct "balanced method" leaving no awkward gaps. I contributed by changing the location of one of the baubles to best suit the balance of the tree. I considered my move very important for the over-all look ;) 

Here we all are - gathered around the Christmas tree :)

 So the next thing we did after the photoshoot with the most awesome Christmas tree we gave out our Secret Santa presents.

Secret Santa giving ;) I was so touched with my awesome present from Pamela!! It was a heart-shaped red casserole pot (which I use for baking bread), and inside where 24 Christmas notes with bible verses on each!! <3 

After all the lovely gift opening we moved on to the all important eating and tea drinking :D The array was Christmas cake and flapjack, both made by Jennifer, Tiramisu, made by Caroline, and Chocolate tea, made by me ;) 

Jennifer's amazing Christmas cake with her's and Sophie's Christmas cards for me. 

Caroline dishing up here terrific Tiramisu!! Oh, and did you notice the bonbons? They are coming up next :) 

Here is how Jennifer made her Flapjack, which was Martha's recipe:

The final product :)

After the eating, when we were all feeling jolly and a bit full (just a bit) we moved on to the Bonbons!! (or Christmas crackers as they are called here). I pulled mine with Pamela. She really wanted to get the yoyo toy, and amazingly she got it!! She was so happy :) 

Till next time,

The Baking Students

xx