Peanut butter butterscotch scotcheroos

I liked the sound of this recipe, so felt I just had to investigate further.  I had been lucky enough to receive some Hershey's Butterscotch Chips as a gift from a pupil who had been on holiday to Florida over the summer, and was keen to try them out.

This recipe is a no-bake one, and is basically rice crispy treats with added melted peanut butter and then a layer of the melted butterscotch chips on top.

It sounds a bit crazy with all those flavours, but it was so easy to eat!  We chopped it into bite-size pieces, then managed to bite our way through the entire tin in just a few days.  The Team could probably make a dessert like this themselves, with minimal supervision, so this is going into the must-bake-again folder.  

We built a house, a rice crispy house

Now that I  notice cake and baking-related things a little bit more than I used to (small understatement there, you understand) I couldn't help but notice all the mentions of gingerbread houses at this time of year.  I felt it was possibly a bit beyond me, what with the working and kids and their activities and so forth, so picked up a box kit for a rice crispy house at a local supermarket.  We waited for a suitable afternoon and all got down to the important business of house-building...

 The kit gave you all the ingredients in the right quantities, so we just followed the instructions.

They didn't mention what a mess the marshmallow made of your pots though - this looks like it's gonna take some serious elbow grease to wash!

After pressing the prepared mix into the mould, and putting it in the fridge for the required time, we had our house components.  A little bit of icing was used as the mortar, and the house was ready to be decorated! Both girls were given a side each, some extra mini Smarties and relevant sized sweets and got to it.

The line sprinkles were meant to look like sparkly snow, but kinda got stuck along the way, and all over the work area.

This was mine and Mini-1's side, fairly neat and straight.  We tried to co-ordinate our colours so they made lines along the roof panel.  It sorta worked, right?

And here is Mini-2's side.  She used some of the other sweets and went for a different pattern with her mini Smarties.  

And here's a lovely line-up of all the treats we had available to eat on Christmas day itself, made by our fair hands...

Mars Bar Slice, with added fun

I had some orange flavoured chocolate buttons and some Reese's Pieces in the baking treats bucket, and couldn't think how best to use them.  Until I noticed the Mars Bars in the sweetie cupboard - bingo!  Off to buy some Rice Krispies and it was game on...

They looked kinda silly lined up like that on the whole tray, but once cut into bite-size pieces - oh my, they looked and tasted amazing!  Lucky for us that this treat was all for The Team  :)

Traybakes a go-go

What do you bring when you want to make something to bring, but it has to be easy to transport?  Why, traybakes of course!  Silly you, fancy needing to ask that question.  We love a good traybake chez Becca and had some Rice Crispies left (Rice Bubbles for those Aussies among you) - for some reason The Team don't really fancy them as a breakfast menu item...

So, Mars Bar Slice it was.  I had been given some fancy, schmancy milk chocolate drops (possibly Callebaut, from a large 3kg bag I seem to recall) by a colleague of Mr Becca's, and a friend, and was pleased to be able to use the last of them as the topping for this slice.   I decided to try to be a little arty and do white chocolate swirls on top - what do you think?

 Here they are from the interior - just to make you drool a little more...

 And this final shot is because they make me drool a little, ha ha.

I also tried a different recipe for Millionaire's Shortbread, as I'd been disappointed with the texture of the last one.  In that I'd used crushed actual shortbread held together with butter, and upon slicing, I didn't feel that it held together too well at all.

So this recipe required you to make your own shortbread, so I did.  However I couldn't get it in a thin enough layer to fill the size of tin required (28 x 18cm rectangle) so I put it in a 20cm square.  And the darn biscuit base rose as it cooked, leaving me little room for the next layer.

And I'd love your advice on this next bit - my caramel seems to have 'bits' in it.  They are smooth to the taste, and don't detract from the taste or texture much, but I can't think why they've appeared.  They appeared as I was stirring the mix on the stove as it bubbled, and I thought they would stir in and dissolve at some point, but they didn't.  Do you see what I mean?  Any ideas?

Then after a day of cooling, as suggested, I mentioned to Mr Becca that this recipe required just a drizzle of chocolate on top, not a layer.  And how much easier that should make it to cut...  But he wanted a layer of chocolate on top, and suggested a thin one might do.  So I did as he asked, but am now scared to attempt to cut it!  What a wuss, right?!

I'll need to get back to you to let you know how I got on...

Gluten-free Mars Bar yumminess

We were out at Scone Palace yesterday, making the most of the stunning castles that Scotland has to offer and also the sunny spring weather.  We are members of both Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland, and love to visit their properties and learn a little more of the history of this small but proud land that we call home.

At the cafe they had a selection of baked treats and it was afternoon tea time.  So we went to get coffee or a juice and the girls wanted to choose something to eat.  Mini-2 picked a scone (no pun intended I'm sure) with jam and butter and Mini-1 took a little longer to decide.  She rejected the Malteser Slice and Mars Bar Slices out of hand, declaring that 'we could make them ourselves at home, quite easily'.  Good girl!!  Way to go Mini-1, love the attitude.  In the end, the only thing she decided upon was an empire biscuit.  Now whilst I do have a printed out recipe to try (from the Hairy Bikers Mums Know Best tv series), I haven't yet made them.  It was rather tasty, and we decided to make our own Mars Bar Slice the very next day.

So we did.

As it happens, because it uses Rice Krispies (or Rice Bubbles as they were known in my youth) it becomes a gluten-free treat.  And we'd recently learned that one of Mini-2's new friends has coeliac disease so can't take gluten at all.  The product does contain barley extract, and thus barley gluten but the supermarket own-brands have less, so this was on her approved list.  

An impromptu playdate thus occurred and the little girl and her sister (plus Mum of course) all came round after school today to enjoy a treat!  What fun!

Biscoff crispy treats

Have you ever heard of Biscoff?  They're the spiced thin biscuits that sometimes get served with coffee in restaurants.  In the UK they're called Lotus cookies, and you can buy them in a pack or individually wrapped (ideal for lunchboxes, or just general nibbling.  But it is a bit fiddly to get the package off when you want one quickly).  I have loved them for years, and always thought of them as coffee biscuits.    Lidl, the fabulous little supermarkets from Germany, stock their own brand of them (thus much cheaper, and you get more for your money) as a special treat leading up to Christmas.  For me, this just added to the allure because I would invariably get sick of them after a 600g packet of them.  Then a few years ago I saw them in local branches of Tesco supermarkets and was thrilled - now I could buy them whenever I felt the need.  Which strangely enough, wasn't that often.

But the point I wish to make here is that I recently saw a little sticker on the packets at Tesco, offering a new treat, Biscoff spread!  Now this I wanted to try.  I follow a few baking blogs and a couple of ladies had mentioned them too, so I was really keen and went online to try to find a local stockist.  No luck, as they are exclusive to Waitrose supermarkets at the moment, and we don't have that retailer in Scotland.

But my in-laws were due to be visiting from London, and they have a branch not too far away I think.  Just as I was considering how much of an imposition it may be to ask them to trek across London in search of a peanut-butter like spread to bring up on an airplane, I found a jar of each smooth and crunchy in a local pound-store.  Woo hoo!!  And at a little under half the RRP.  And within date, tee hee.  Score!

Now, just to find those recipes...

Then I got this recipe via Bakerella and was off.  Like her, I've never made Rice Krispy Treats before.  A lot of bakers use this as a modelling substance, to make structures on their cakes, but I feel that's a little beyond my skill set at this stage.  Suffice it to say, I found the melted marshmallow/rice crispy combination really odd.  It's an odd colour too, because the Biscoff spread is brown, and many of my marshmallows were pink.

But it smoothed down well into the square tin and I decided to cover it in a thin layer of milk chocolate, some gold sparkle and a little message to a good friend who has just given birth to a bouncing baby girl - her first child.  

She doesn't live locally any more, so I'll enjoy a slice with my afternoon coffee on her behalf.  

Congratulations L and K!!  She's a beauty, awww...