Coffee Macarons

I recently made these Coffee Macarons for friends and they worked really well and so they should have as I have practiced Macaron making enough times!  The recipe was pretty standard I used one from this beautiful book,  I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita.  I added some coffee as I was mixing the wet ingredients for a light flavour and colour.

Now it was the filling I was most fond of!  I adore Devine Chocolate, (which you can buy in Oxfam shops along with many other places) so this filling is a ganache made with the milk chocolate and coffee chocolate, the results were great.

 This is what you do....
100ml double/whipping cream brought to the boil in a pan and taken off the heat,  add 100g of chocolate and allow to melt into the cream, mix together on a slow speed until you have a pipe-able consistency.  Pipe onto the macaron half's and sandwich together. 

Granddads famous biscuits

My granddad was quite unusual for his generation and loved cooking and baking.  He was an excellent baker (although not quite as good as Grandma, but more on that at a later date!) Arriving at their house was always exciting as you would be greeted with a pot of tea (always tea leaves) and a ginger biscuit.  Now apparently the original recipe name was "Caravan Cookies" but in our family they are now just "Granddads Biscuits"  I made them for my cousin the other day and he declared they were almost as good as Granddads which is good enough for me!

They are really easy to make and suitable for people who don't eat egg.

100g Butter/Margarine
100g Sugar
1tsp Bicarbonate of soda blended with a dessert spoon of hot water
2 tbs warmed golden syrup
100g Self Raising Flour
100g Rolled Oats
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180oc
Cream the butter and sugar
Add bicarbonate and water mix
Add warmed syrup
Add flour, oats and ground ginger
Form into balls about the size of a marble, on a baking sheet (they spread so leave enough space)
Bake for aprox. 15mins until golden