Blogmas #4: Some Baked Christmas Treats

You guys know me, you know I love to do a little bit of baking - especially for an occasion. And Christmas is such an occasion! I love baking at Christmas, and there's so much to do and there's so much stress around this time, that it's good to take some time to do something stress relieving and relaxing as baking. So here are a couple of really simple snack type bakes, quick to do and also both vegan-friendly!

Chocolate Orange & Cinnamon Shortbread

I got the basis of this recipe from Jamie Oliver, but it's super simple to make, tastes amazing and they look really professional. Here's a little secret - that drizzled topping? Easy. 

150g dairy-free butter

200g plain flour

50g golden caster sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 orange

50g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. And then put together in a bowl the butter, flour, sugar, cinnamon  and the zest of half an orange and work into a dough using your (clean) hands. Once your happy, press into a traybake type tin. Then put into the oven for 20 minutes. 

Once it's all cool, cut into fingers. And now you get to do the fun part - decorating. Melt your dark chocolate in a bowl over hot water - don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. And then, using a teaspoon, drizzle it over your shortbread fingers in any sort of pattern you fancy. Then, while it's still hot, zest the other half of your orange over the shortbread.  

And voila! Done!

Vegan Christmas Brownies

I'm not vegan myself - however my best friends husband is so when they came to dinner recently I wanted to make sure he had something tasty to have as well. Plus - they're really not to different to normal brownies, and actually these were really great. 

250g plain flour

350 golden caster sugar

65g plain cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

250ml water

250ml vegetable oil

Preheat the overn to 180 C, and then in a large bowl stir together the flour, the sugar, cocoa powder, and baking powder until it's all combined. Then, pour in your water, vegetable oil and then mix until it's all blended and smooth. I use a hand whisk because I'm super lazy and have no arm strength. 

Then, pour into a square baking tin. Bake for around 25 minutes, until the top is no longer shiny basically. Once it's all cooled, you can then decorare how you like - I drizzled some of the dark chocolate all over it (I melted way too much), and then scattered over some green, red and white sprinkles to make it look all festive. 

If you wanted, you can put some flavours into your brownies as well to make them more festive, like orange, cinnamon or even cranberries if you want to try something new. 

I hope you liked these recipes, they are both really tasty - quick and easy to do - and are just really nice little pieces to make everything feel a little more festive.

Much love, Lisa May x