I won’t try to claim that these traybakes will transport you to a tropical island. If that is your idea of paradise. Perhaps your idea of paradise is sitting in my kitchen in the middle of a New England winter watching Little Miss Traybakes paint a masterpiece with her new watercolor set while ignoring the housework? No?! Unfortunately, that’s all that I can offer right now. That, and a recipe for these Paradise Squares traybakes.
traybakes & more
retro recipes for the modern baker
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These are possibly the nicest, most polite cookies you’ve ever met. And they love ice hockey. And maple syrup. Or perhaps they’re called Canadian Cookies for some other reason…
Probably, someone’s Aunt/Granny/neighbour got this recipe from a relative in Canada and they have forever been known as Canadian Cookies. We may never know! And, of course, my humble apologies to any Canadians reading this for the blatant stereotyping!
We’re feeling very festive here in the Traybakes’ household. Little Miss Traybakes decorated our Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago. We’ve already had a few snowfalls. And our mission to introduce mince pies to the Americans continues. It’s mostly been successful too!
So, I thought I’d try to sneak in a quick blog post before Christmas. What to make?! Then I remembered a recipe that Mummy Traybakes first made many years ago for Iced Christmas Pudding. I have no idea where this recipe comes from, but like many of the traybake recipes, it’s probably been passed around for years.
After some extensive brief internet research, I discovered that McVities’ Gipsy Creams were discontinued at least 10 years ago, so I can’t do a side by side comparison to see if this recipe is supposed to be a copy or if it’s just a similarly named biscuit.
And speaking of names, a lot of the internet seems to believe that Gypsy is spelt with a ‘y’ and my book and images of McVities biscuit wrappers spell it with an ‘i’. Either way, I’m not sure you’d get away with calling a biscuit a Gipsy Cream these days, but these are retro recipes, so the name stays.
We had our first flurries of snow in the week before Thanksgiving this year. When I’m clearing several inches (hopefully not feet!) of snow off our driveway later in the winter, I shall try to remember the look of sheer joy on Little Miss Traybakes’ face when she saw the sprinkling of flakes outside. It won’t make the snow shoveling any easier but I’m hoping it’ll make me smile!
It’s not the earliest I’ve ever seen snow over here and there certainly wasn’t enough to make even the smallest of snowballs, so I’ve been making snowballs in the kitchen instead.
This traybake was new to me but as Little Miss Traybakes pointed out, it does have a lot of the same ingredients as Fifteens (this unprompted comment made me rather proud – a star baker in the making?!)
These are very sweet but also very delicious. Coconutty, crunchy, filled with sticky marshmallows, and topped with sweet white chocolate, these are definitely not for anyone looking to reduce their sugar consumption! But like most of my other bakes, I cut these into small squares. Everything in moderation!
I’ve never been a big fan of the Mars Bar. I would never buy one in a shop. Although if you offered me a mini Mars Bar, I probably would take it. For some reason, I think they taste better than the full-sized bars.
But, the Mars Bar Traybake is a different story altogether! Somehow, a melted Mars Bar, mixed with Rice Krispies (other puffed rice cereals are available) transforms it into a very yummy, crispy, chewy treat that is hard to refuse!
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.
Another non-traybake post this week. And it does require you to make pastry. (Or you could buy ready-made pastry, there’s no judgment here.)
These are called Marshmallow Fudge Tartlets, but it’s more of a ‘Marshmallow Jam Caramel Tartlet’. But the first option is shorter and snappier, so I’m sticking with that. The combination of crisp pastry, tart jam, sweet marshmallow and caramel is a winner.
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