There’s a chill in the air in the mornings, the trees are changing into a variety of reds and golden tones, there are tour buses full of ‘leaf-peepers’ stopping off in my historic New England town on their way to find the best foliage…and Little Miss Traybakes has been asking for some time now when we are going apple picking!
Yes, it’s Autumn again! Or Fall, if you prefer.
I know that I claim that a lot of these recipes are incredibly easy to make, but this one has to be near the top of the list of easy traybakes. It was quick to assemble and really only requires some chopping, butter melting and biscuit crushing.
Now, this is my third attempt at making a florentine style traybake. The two previous recipes hadn’t been very successful, so I was taking quite a gamble trying yet another florentine recipe! But this one worked! And they are rather yummy.
This was a new traybake for me, but at the same time there is something familiar about it. Perhaps I have eaten it in the past or maybe it’s just the combination of ingredients. Or maybe the meringue layer made me start to think about pavlova…
Ever since I started this blog, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about baking and traybakes and baking traybakes…and after a while, I began to think about making some ‘new’ traybakes (hey, the classics all had to start somewhere!)
Living in the US, we have been introduced to s’mores and they have been a firm favorite in our house ever since – especially with Little Miss Traybakes. For anyone who doesn’t know what a s’more is, you sandwich a piece of chocolate and a toasted marshmallow between two graham crackers (which are more or less like digestives) and then attempt to eat it without getting too much sticky marshmallow all over your face and hands (or is that just Little Miss Traybakes?!)
I’ve already posted my favourite Ginger Nut recipe, so when I found a Ginger Shortcake recipe in one of my books, I knew I had to try it.
Now, the recipe said to bake the base for an hour. A whole hour. Granted, the temperature isn’t set too high, but an hour seemed rather long to me, so I decided to start checking it after 30 minutes or so and take it from there. And I’m glad I did. The shortcake was starting to darken after 30 minutes and had I baked it for the full hour, I dread to think what colour it would have been. In the end it was a little crisper around the edges and softer in the middle, which I preferred.
Another unusually named traybake. It may be named after the son of Zeus, it may be named after the NASA space missions, it may even be named after the Battlestar Galactica character. Who knows?! (Seriously, if anyone does know, I’d be interested to find out.)
This traybake was remarkably easy to make – chop, crush, melt and mix and pop it into the oven.
Chocolate and coffee is such a classic combination. These Mocha Squares have a chocolate flavoured base (from the cocoa powder) and a coffee buttercream-like topping.
Now, I think these are more of a grown-up traybake, (and they did not get a thumbs up from Little Miss Traybakes) as the coffee essence does add a bitter note to the topping. And even though they definitely are sweet as well, I don’t think I could eat too many in one sitting. Which is probably a good thing!
This is another renamed traybake. My recipe book calls this ‘Economical Almond Cheesecakes’ and the look on my husband’s face when I told him this (after he had already eaten one or two, or was it three…) reinforced the need for a better name!
Now I’m no cheesecake aficionado, in fact cheesecake rates fairly far down my list of favourite dessert items, but there is nothing resembling a cheesecake in these that I can see. They are more like a Bakewell Tart, really.
I am on a roll with the ‘firsts’ for the blog. This was my first ‘try to find the traybake someone remembered their mum making’. I received a message via Facebook (thank you!) from someone who remembered a traybake with crushed cornflakes, coconut and white icing on the top.
This may not be the same. This may not even come close. But it does have cornflakes, coconut and white icing on the top. I tried!
This recipe was a first for me. Until now, the blog has featured recipes that I have either made before or eaten before. This one was new to me, but it sounded interesting, and as there are going to be many more unknown recipes as I work my way through these books, I may as well start somewhere.
My recipe book calls this ‘Chinese Chews’ but I’m rather stumped by this as I can’t see what exactly makes them Chinese. So I took the liberty of renaming them.
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