This recipe is a little less labour intensive than some of my other cookie recipes so hopefully will appeal to those looking for a quicker bake - though do heed my advice on the overnight chill, if you can!

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Ingredients

For the cinnamon swirl

180g light brown sugar

90g unsalted butter

10g ground cinnamon

1g salt

For the cookie dough

120g unsalted butter, browned (see detailed instructions on browning butter here)

120g granulated sugar

40g dark brown sugar

55g egg (about 1 medium egg)

220g plain flour

2g bicarbonate of soda

2g baking powder

4g flaky sea salt

3g vanilla bean paste

200g white chocolate, chopped in to uneven shards

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Method

1. Make the cinnamon swirl: melt the butter for the swirl in a small saucepan until just melted, remove from the heat and stir through all the remaining ingredients until just combined. Set aside for later.

2. Make the cookie dough: beat the browned butter, both sugars, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder together until lightened slightly, but not fluffy. Beat through the egg, scraping the sides well, and then fold through the flour. Once the flour is about 75% incorporated, add in the chopped white chocolate. By the time the chocolate has been mixed through, the flour should be nicely incorporated as well, without being over-worked.

3. Combine the dough with the cinnamon swirl: in a new bowl, add alternating scoops of dough, then cinnamon swirl, dough, then swirl, using them all up to layer up the two mixtures. It might feel like there’s too much cinnamon swirl mixture, but trust the process, this is what ensures that the cinnamon flavour is very present in the cookie.

4. Scoop the dough: scoop the layers of cookie dough and cinnamon swirl in to 10-14 balls depending on how big you’d like them. I like to weigh mine so that they’re equal (ish) in size which will mean they bake fairly evenly (something like 70g for 14 cookies and 100g for 10, but you can of course go bigger or smaller).

5. Chill the dough: chill the scooped dough overnight. It’s not essential but does improve the flavour and texture so I really do recommend it. Failing that, chill for at least an hour.

6. Bake the cookies: the next day, bake your cookies in a 200°C oven (or 180°C fan) for 8-10 minutes. They may need a few minutes longer if you opt for a larger cookie. The cookies may spread a little as they bake but don’t panic, once out of the oven just use an upside down glass/bowl or cookie cutter to shuffle them into shape.

7. Enjoy! I love these once they’ve cooled as you really notice the textures that way, but warm from the oven will also, of course, be delicious.

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A note on storage: the cookies will keep very well in an air-tight container for around three days. They also freeze incredibly well.

A note on chocolate: using white chocolate was my attempt to nod to the cream cheese frosting you might put on a cookie (totally not the same thing, I know!). I think blonde chocolate would be lovely here too.

I took inspiration from the swirl for the salty pretzel crumb on these cookies, which is made by blitzing homemade pretzel brittle into a powder and then using that as the ‘flour’ in a shortbread crumble. The result is a salty, buttery crumble that offsets some of the richness and sweetness of the rest of the cookie.

The cookie dough base is exceptional. It uses a lot of cocoa powder to create an incredibly rich brownie-like cookie, so don’t skimp on it - it makes the cookie! It’s then studded with milk chocolate chunks and the remaining pretzel brittle and then is then finished with a ball of miso caramel in the centre of each. There are lots of steps (as per), but it really is worth it if you have the patience. I hope you make them and I hope you enjoy the end result as much as I do.

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Ingredients

For the dough

70g light brown sugar

225g granulated sugar

210g unsalted butter

225g plain flour

95g cocoa powder

50g egg + 20g egg yolk (about 1 egg + 1 yolk)

3g bicarbonate of soda

3g baking powder

4g salt

200g milk chocolate

For the pretzel brittle

100g sugar

100g pretzels

2g salt

For the pretzel crumb

70g unsalted butter

50g icing sugar

40g plain flour

10g cornflour

115g of the pretzel brittle, blitzed

2g salt

For the miso caramel core

80g granulated sugar

100g cream (double, single, whipping - any will do)

5g miso paste (or more to taste)

100g icing sugar

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Method

1. Start by making the pretzel brittle: melt the granulated sugar in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until a dark amber colour. As soon as it’s ready, tip in the pretzels and salt and mix vigorously until the pretzels are fully coated in the caramel. Tip the contents of the pan on to a baking tray lined with baking paper and use a spatula to spread it out in to a thin (ish) layer as much as possible - this will make it easier to break up later. Set aside to firm up completely and then chop up in to chunks (a mixture of sizes is good here).

2. Now make the miso caramel core: like with the pretzel brittle, melt the granulated sugar in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until a dark amber colour. Now whisk through the cream and let it bubble away until slightly reduced. It will spit and steam quite a lot at this point so be careful! Remove from the heat and whisk through the miso paste and icing sugar. Add more miso to taste and then set aside to cool. Once cool, pop in the freezer to speed up the firming process.

3. Now make the pretzel crumb: blitz 115g of the pretzel brittle in a food process until a fine crumb. If you don’t have a food processor, you can put the brittle in a zip-lock bag and use something heavy like a rolling pin to bash it into a crumb. Then add all the other ingredients to the food processor and blitz until well combined (do this in a mixing bowl if you don’t have a blender). The mixture should form in to clumps by itself, but you may need to break them up a little. Transfer to a bowl and let them sit in the fridge while you make the cookie dough.

4. Make the cookie dough: in a free-standing electric mixer or a bowl, beat the butter, both sugars, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder together until lightened slightly, but not fluffy. Beat through the egg and egg yolk, scraping the sides well, and then beat through the cocoa powder until fully incorporated. Now fold through the flour and once 75% (ish) incorporated, add the milk chocolate and remaining pretzel brittle. By the time they’ve been mixed through, the flour should be nicely incorporated without being over-worked.

5. Scoop the dough: scoop the cookie dough into 10-15 balls depending on how big you’d like them. I like to weigh mine so that they’re equal (ish) in size which will mean they bake fairly evenly (something like 85g for 15 cookies and 125g for 10, but you can of course go bigger or smaller).

6. Scoop your caramel: the miso caramel should now be firmer and somewhat malleable (if it’s not, give it a little longer to cool). Using a spoon, scoop enough dollops of caramel to fill each of your balls of cookie dough and place one into the centre of each by making a small indent in each ball of dough with your thumb. Squeeze the dough back around the caramel - it doesn’t have to be completely sealed though.

7. Finish the cookie: press the clusters of pretzel crumb onto the top of each cookie. Use firm pressure here to make them stick.

8. Chill the dough: chill the dough overnight. It’s not essential but does improve the flavour and texture and also makes the baking process a little less stressful (less spreading), so I really do recommend it. Failing that, chill them for at least an hour.

9. Bake the cookies: bake your cookies in a 200°C oven (or 180°C fan) for 10-14 minutes. They may need a few minutes longer if you opt for a larger cookie. Be warned, the caramel core means that these cookies will spread a lot, but don’t panic. Let them cool for a few minutes and then use an upside down glass/bowl or cookie cutter to shuffle them into shape. If you shuffle them immediately, the caramel with just stick to your glass and won’t respond in the way you want it to.

10. Enjoy! either warm and melty, or once they’ve cooled and fully set (my preference).

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This recipe requires a little bit of preparation, as with any of my recipes, but the steps are actually very straightforward and the wait is so worth it (I promise). It’s not essential to make the rolls over two days, but I do think it makes such a difference to the flavour of both the dough and the filling.

I really really hope you make these and I really hope you love them as much as I do.

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Ingredients

For the dough

75 g unsalted butter

250ml milk (I used 20g milk powder + 230ml water)

5g instant yeast

75 g granulated sugar

400 g strong white flour

9g sea salt

For the filling

160g ripe banana (approx. two medium bananas)

+ 80g banana for later (approx. one medium banana)

130g dark brown sugar

50g granulated sugar

3G sea salt

8g ground cinnamon

130g unsalted butter

For the glaze

120g cream cheese

90g icing sugar, sifted

dash salt

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Method

For the dough

Melt the butter: in a saucepan. Once melted, remove from the heat and add in your milk. At this point, check the temperature using a thermometer if you have one. The milk and butter combination should be about 37°. The heat from the butter and the pan should help with this, but it might be necessary to pop it back over the heat for a little bit. If you don’t have a thermometer, you’re just looking for the milk to reach about body temperature - it should be lukewarm to touch.

Add the yeast and sugar: to the bowl of a free-standing mixer (you can also do this by hand, though the dough will require roughly double the kneading time), pour over the warm milk and butter mixture, whisking until well combined. Add the flour and set the mixer on a medium speed before adding the salt. Knead the dough for about 7 minutes or until the gluten has really developed. You’re looking for a smooth but slightly sticky dough that has some stretch to it when you pull a bit away with your fingers. There are so many variables that affect how long this will take (e.g., the temperature in your kitchen, the type of flour you’ve used, the temperature of your milk) so don’t panic if it takes longer to get to this stage, be patient!

Rest the dough: once the dough is ready, lift it into a new bowl greased with a little bit of neutral oil or butter, cover the bowl tightly with cling film and place it straight in the fridge to rest overnight. If you want to make these buns the same day, you can rest them in a warm place instead for about an hour or until doubled in size, but I really recommend resting overnight as this helps develop the flavour in the dough.

For the banana caramel

Make the caramel: by adding the granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, and 160g of the banana to a pan. Warm the pan over a low-medium heat while crushing the bananas with the back of a fork. Everything should melt together quite quickly but keep mashing until it’s completely smooth and then let the mixture bubble away for about 10 minutes until reduced and syrupy. Stir regularly and keep the temperature low to prevent burning. Once ready, remove from the heat and whisk through the butter and cinnamon until completely incorporated. Pour the contents of the pan into a heat proof bowl, cover and set aside to cool before placing in the fridge overnight. This will also help develop the flavour of the filling.

The next day

Whip the caramel: the caramel will have firmed up quite a bit in the fridge. Spoon it into a mixing bowl with the remaining 80g banana until looser and slightly pale. At this stage, you can also add more salt and cinnamon to taste.

Roll out the dough: tip the risen dough onto a worktop dusted with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle until about half a centimetre thick. Spread the filling across the dough in a generous layer, covering the entire surface of the dough right up to the edges. Starting at one of the long edges, roll the dough as tightly as possible, stretching outwards as you go to help create really nice thin layers of dough and avoid any thick, doughy areas that are lacking in filling.

Slice the buns: into the desired size. For this recipe, I made nine buns, but you could definitely make them a little smaller or a little bigger depending on your preference. Transfer the buns into a baking tin. I used a 20cm square tin, but used a strip of cardboard to fill about one quarter of the tin - you want the rolls to be quite close together to encourage them to rise up rather than outwards when they bake.

Rest the dough: cover the rolls with cling film and set them aside to rise in a warm place for 40-60 minutes or until the rolls have doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 200°.

Make your frosting: while the dough is rising, make the frosting by whisking the cream cheese, icing sugar and salt until smooth. Set aside until later.

Bake: the buns for 25 to 35 minutes. I checked mine at 20 minutes and then at short intervals until ready. You’re looking for all of the buns to be nicely risen and golden on top. You can also poke a knife into the middle of the tin and have a look to see if there’s any raw dough still visible. If the buns are browning too much on top, cover them with a sheet of tin foil for the remainder of the bake.

Glaze the buns: as soon as the buns are out of the oven, spoon a dollop of glaze onto each one and then spread it out using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. It’s important to do this whilst the buns are still warm so that the glaze melts over everything and in to the gaps, leaving them with a gorgeous sheen.

Enjoy: let the buns cool for 10 minutes before tearing into them. They are delicious fresh from the oven, but are also lovely cold. They keep incredibly well in an air-tight container in the fridge for two days, and freeze well too. Just make sure you let them come to room temperature again before eating.

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a note on milk: I actually very rarely use fresh milk when making dough. I’m an oat milk girly so don’t have much use for the cow’s milk that left over after baking. so instead, I keep a pot of milk powder in my cupboard, which works surprisingly well! You can use either for this recipe.

a note on four: I use the M&S Canadian Very Strong White Bread Flour which I swear plays a massive role in creating the pillowy-soft texture of these rolls, but any strong white flour will do.

These cookies are an ode to cereal milk, though admittedly there is no ‘cereal milk’ in the recipe. Instead, I made a frosted flake white chocolate as a nod to the combination of milk and cereal (white chocolate is basically milk right?). By enrobing the frosted flakes in chocolate, you preserve their crunch, so when the cookies have cooled completely, you get really pleasing pockets of crunchiness throughout.

The cookies are also filled with a miso caramel core. The miso and slightly burnt caramel flavours offset what is otherwise an incredibly sweet cookie, and also add a fantastic textural dimension as the caramel stays chewy in the middle but becomes toffee-like at the edges. Finally, the cookies are rolled in more frosted flakes which create a crunchy cereal ‘crust’ around the edge and also build on that cereal flavour.

There’s a lot going on in this cookie, but each component complements the other very well, so it never feels like ‘too much’. I hope you love them as much as I do.

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Ingredients

For the miso caramel core

80g granulated sugar

100g cream (double, single, whipping - any will do)

5g miso paste (or more to taste)

100g icing sugar

For the cereal milk white chocolate

200g white chocolate

40g frosties or your cereal of choice (coco pops would be so fun here)

Salt, to taste

For the cookie

180g unsalted butter, browned (see my recipe for salted toffee biscoff blondies for step-by-step instructions on browning butter)

180g granulated sugar

60g dark brown sugar

4g bicarbonate of soda

3g baking powder

6g sea salt

5g vanilla bean paste or extract

75g egg (about one and a half medium eggs)

330g plain flour

100g frosties (or your chosen cereal) for rolling

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Method

1. Start by making the miso caramel core: melt the granulated sugar in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until a dark amber colour. Now whisk through the cream and let it bubble away until slightly reduced. It will spit and steam quite a lot at this point so be careful! Remove from the heat and whisk through the miso paste and icing sugar. Add more miso to taste and then set aside to cool. Once cool, pop in the freezer to speed up the firming process.

2. Now make the cereal milk white chocolate: melt the white chocolate in a Bain Marie or microwave. Once melted, stir through the salt, adding more to taste, and then your chosen cereal. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and set aside to firm up completely. You can pop it in the fridge to speed this up. Once set, chop into chunks - a mixture of sizes is good here.

3. Make the cookie dough: beat the browned butter, both sugars, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and vanilla together until lightened slightly, but not fluffy. Beat through the egg, scraping the sides well, and then fold through the flour. Once the flour is about 75% incorporated, add the chopped cereal milk white chocolate, reserving a few chunks for later to finish the cookies. By the time they’ve been mixed through, the flour should be nicely incorporated without being over-worked.

4. Scoop your dough: scoop the cookie dough into 10-15 balls depending on how big you’d like them. I like to weigh mine so that they’re equal (ish) in size which will mean they bake fairly evenly (something like 85g for 15 cookies and 125g for 10, but you can of course go bigger or smaller).

5. Scoop your caramel: the miso caramel should now be firmer and somewhat malleable (if it’s not, give it a little longer to cool). Using a spoon, scoop enough dollops of caramel to fill each of your balls of cookie dough and place one into the centre of each.

6. Coat your cookie dough: tip your chosen cereal into a shallow bowl and roll each ball of cookie dough in the cereal, using your hands to really press the cereal in so that the entire ball is coated. Top each ball with a chunk of white chocolate from your remaining stash.

7. Chill the dough: chill the dough overnight. It’s not essential but does improve the flavour and texture and also makes the baking process a little less stressful (less spreading), so I really do recommend it. Failing that, chill them for at least an hour.

8. Bake the cookies: bake your cookies in a 200°C oven (or 180°C fan) for 10-14 minutes. They may need a few minutes longer if you opt for a larger cookie. Be warned, the caramel core means that these cookies will spread a lot, but don’t panic. Let them cool for a few minutes and then use an upside down glass/bowl or cookie cutter to shuffle them into shape. If you shuffle them immediately, the caramel with just stick to your glass and won’t respond in the way you want it to.

9. Finally: finish the cookies with a final sprinkle of flaky salt and then enjoy either warm and melty, or when they’re cool and fully set (my preference for maximum crunch and chew).

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A note on freezing: you can freeze your dough and bake them straight from frozen. They may just need a few minutes longer in the oven.

A note on storage: these cookies are always best on the day of baking, but will keep perfectly well for a few days in an air-tight container. They also freeze very well.

A note on miso: you can leave this out of the caramel if you’d like to, leaving it as is for a plain caramel, or adding salt for salted caramel. The miso is delicious, but if you can’t get hold of it, or it’s not for you, the cookies will still be great.

There are a few steps to the recipe (as per), but they’re truly worth enduring if you have the patience. Make them, eat them, enjoy them, and let me know how you get on!

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Recipe

Yields 12-16 brownies.

Ingredients

For the cinnamon blonde chocolate

200g blonde chocolate

4g sea salt

3g ground cinnamon

For the caramel stroopwafel slab

1 x packet of stroopwafels (approx. 230g)

230g granulated sugar

100ml double cream

20g miso paste (optional, but highly recommended)

For the brownie

150g unsalted butter

300g granulated sugar

4g baking powder

3g salt

135g eggs (2-3 depending on size0

90g good quality (this really makes a difference) cocoa powder

95g plain flour

Method

1. Make the salted cinnamon blonde chocolate: melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Once melted, stir through the salt and cinnamon, adding more of each to taste if desired. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and spread it out a little (thought not too much as it’s nice if it’s thick). Set it in the fridge while you make your caramel stroopwafel slab and then chop into chunks ready to go in to the brownie batter.

2. Make the caramel stroopwafel slab: take the tin that you plan to bake your brownies in and line it loosely with parchment. Lay the stroopwafels in to the base of the tin, cutting them to fit, and then set aside while you make the caramel. To make the caramel, melt the sugar in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until a dark amber colour, then whisk in the cream. It will spit and steam quite a lot at this point so be careful! Remove from the heat and whisk through the miso paste if using and then pour the caramel into the tin over the stroopwafels. Spread the caramel into an even layer and allow it to cool. Once at room temperature, pop it in the freezer to harden fully while you make the brownie batter.

3. Preheat your oven: to 175°C and grease and line a 20cm x 20cm square baking tin.

4. Melt the butter with half of the sugar: in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Whisk regularly so the two emulsify and until the sugar granules have completely dissolved.

5. Whip the remaining sugar with the eggs: whisk until pale and frothy, then whisk through your salt and baking powder before slowly streaming in the melted butter/sugar mixture until fully combined.

6. Add the dry ingredients: whisk through the cocoa powder until fully incorporated, then fold through the flour until about 70% incorporated. Stir in the chopped cinnamon blonde chocolate from earlier and by the time the chocolate is fully incorporated, the flour will be too, without over working it.

7. Fill the baking tin: spread half of the brownie batter across the tin. Place your frozen caramel stroopwafel slab into the centre. It should peel away from the paper very easily. If it doesn’t, pop it back in the freezer for 10 minutes or so. Finish with the remaining batter, spreading it evenly so that the whole stroopwafel layer is covered.

8. Bake: bake for about 20 minutes until risen slightly but still ‘jiggly’ in the centre. Allow to cool completely before slicing. I like to refrigerate them overnight so they cut really cleanly the next day.

9. Enjoy!

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   a note on blonde chocolate: I use the M&S baking blonde chocolate which is surprisingly high quality for a baking chocolate but much cheaper than they’re standard blonde chocolate in the confectionary isle. Cadbury’s Caramilk works well too and Waitrose do their own as well. You can also make your own if you’re feeling brave!

   a note on miso: I used white miso for this recipe, but i’ve used black miso too and it works exceptionally well. If you’d rather skip the miso altogether, that’s fine, but I’d recommend at least adding a big pinch of salt instead to balance out the sweetness.

   a note on storage: these brownies keep very well. store them in an airtight container in th fridge, but bring them to room temp before eating. They also freeze very well.

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I’ve taken some of the best salted things (crisps, peanuts, caramel, chocolate) and plonked them into one sweet and salty cookie. The base is my classic cookie dough which uses brown sugar and browned butter for an excellent backdrop of flavour. I then roast crisps and peanuts (so they’re extra crunchy) and coat them in a generous amount of milk chocolate (dark would also work very well here - or even blonde?), set them and then chop them up as the ‘add-ins’. Each ball of dough is then stuffed with a miso caramel core which when baked, caramelises into an incredibly chewy centre and melts down on to the tray leaving and almost toffee-like base. This is a genius idea that I first discovered from (aka @lungisalwaysbaking on instagram) and it’s transformed the cookie game for me to the point that I feel a cookie isn’t a cookie without some kind of caramel core. I’ve borrowed her idea of adding icing sugar to a still warm caramel (from the recipe for her Stroopwafel Caramel Cookies) and done the same here as it really helps to achieve that perfect texture, though I’m not really sure why.. (anyone know the science there?)

This cookie may well be controversial, but for those like me who aren’t completely horrified by the idea of combining sweet and salty - it’s pretty sensational.

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Ingredients

For the chocolate-coated crisps

200g of your favourite salted crisps (I used ridge-cut Kettle Chips)

150g milk chocolate

For the chocolate-coated peanuts

200g salted peanuts

150g milk chocolate

For the caramel core

120g granulated sugar

50g butter

100g milk (any will do)

2tsp miso paste (or more, to taste)

150g icing sugar

For the cookie

160g unsalted butter, browned (see my recipe for salted toffee biscoff blondies for step-by-step instructions on browning butter)

160g granulated sugar

80g dark brown sugar

1 large egg (about 60g)

250g plain flour

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2tsp baking powder

1tsp sea salt

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Method

1. Make the chocolate-coated crisps and peanuts: toast your crisps in an oven preheated to 150°C (130°C fan) until browning slightly - about 10 minutes, though check them regularly to avoid burning. Melt your chocolate (I just stick mine in a heatproof bowl in the oven while it’s on - just make sure you stir regularly) and toss through your crisps until fully coated. Do an obligatory taste test and add extra salt if you feel it’s needed (I generally do). Pour the mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and pop in the freezer to set. Once set, chop up into generous chunks and store in the freezer until needed. Repeat this with the peanuts.

2. Make the miso caramel core: melt your granulated sugar in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until a dark amber colour. Now whisk through your butter and milk and let it bubble a little until slightly reduced. It will spit and steam quite a lot at this point so be careful! Remove from the heat and whisk through your miso paste and icing sugar. Add more miso to taste and then set aside to cool.

3. Make the cookie dough: beat the browned butter, both sugars, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder together until lightened slightly, but not fluffy. Beat through the egg, scraping the sides well, and then fold through the flour. Once the flour is about 75% incorporated, you can add in your chocolate-coated crisps and peanuts. By the time they’ve been mixed through, the flour should be nicely incorporated without being over-worked.

4. Scoop your dough: scoop your cookie dough in to 12-15 balls depending on how big you’d like them. I like to weigh mine so that they’re equal (ish) in size which will mean they bake fairly evenly (something like 70g for 15 cookies and 95g for 12, but you can of course go bigger or smaller).

5. Scoop your caramel: the miso caramel should now be firmer and somewhat malleable (if it’s not, give it a little longer to cool). Using a spoon, scoop enough dollops of caramel to fill each of your balls of cookie dough and place one into the centre of each.

6. Chill the dough: chill the dough overnight. It’s not essential but does improve the flavour and texture so I really do recommend it. Failing that, chill them for at least an hour.

7. Bake the cookies: the next day, bake your cookies in a 200°C (or 180°C fan) for 8-10 minutes. They may need a few minutes longer if you opt for a larger cookie. Be warned, the caramel core means that these cookies will spread a lot, but don’t panic. Let them cool for a few minutes and then use an upside down glass/bowl or cookie cutter to shuffle them into shape. If you shuffle them immediately, the caramel with just stick to your glass and won’t respond in the ay you want it to.

8. Finally: finish the cookies with a final sprinkle of flaky salt and then enjoy either warm and melty, or when they’re cool and fully set (my preference for maximum crunch and chew).

A note on add-ins: I feel very strongly that pretzels, cereals, salted ritz crackers, and other nuts would all work very well in this cookie. Get creative with what you like and what you have :)

A note on freezing: you can freeze your dough and bake them straight from frozen. They may just need a few minutes longer in the oven.

A note on storage: these cookies are always best on the day of baking, but will keep perfectly well for a few days in an air-tight container. They also freeze very well.

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Many, many years ago now, my best friend introduced me to the Fortnum & Mason Toffolossus biscuits, promising me that they would be the most delicious biscuits I would ever know - I was far from disappointed. They come with a hefty price tag (it’s actually not okay that they cost that much), but these biscuits truly are the most mind-blowingly delicious biscuit I’ve ever encountered (no shade to the humble chocolate digestive though). I remember savouring the pack religiously, and taking the remaining few home to my mum who was also totally blown away by just how good they were. We’ve talked about them for years and have long awaited some kind of special occasion that would allow us to justify buying a tin for ourselves, yet that day hadn’t come until this week.

A few weeks ago, when I made my salted toffee and pecan shortbread, my mum pointed out that they weren’t dissimilar to the magical Fortnum & Mason experience of years prior, and it got me thinking that perhaps I really could recreate them myself. So, I bought the biscuits (for research…) and did a Google for a recipe out there, but it doesn’t look like anyone else has tried a recreation yet (correct me if I’m wrong), so hopefully this can be the first of many contributions to this absent field in biscuit world!

I worked through what I think these biscuits entail and scanned the ingredients list to work out quantities and proportions. The result is these delightful biscuits, studded with salted toffee, Medjool dates, and a scattering of oats, all enrobed in a very generous layer of milk chocolate. There are quite a few steps to this process, but if you love an exceptional biscuit, and you love a long bake, then this may be worth a try!

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Ingredients

For the toffee

80g granulated or caster sugar

Generous pinch of salt

For the biscuit dough

125g unsalted butter

5g salt

75g light brown sugar

45g granulated or caster sugar

15g treacle

1tsp vanilla bean paste

40g rolled oats

120g Medjool dates, pitted and chopped in small pieces

135g plain flour

To coat

180g milk chocolate

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Method

1. Make the toffee: set a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium-high heat and sprinkle in your sugar. Because this is a dry caramel (no water added), you can stir the sugar without risk of crystallisation, but try not to stir too much as it will clump and take longer to melt. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, keep it over the heat, stirring constantly until it turns a dark amber colour. As soon as it does, beat through the salt and immediately pour the caramel onto a lined baking tray. Spread it into a thin layer and set aside to cool. Once cool, crush your toffee into fine crumbles (I used a food processor but you can also crush it under a rolling pin or something heavy).

2. Cream the butter and sugar: add your butter and both sugars, along with the treacle, vanilla and salt, to your mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy (you can use a freestanding mixer or electric whisk to do this but it’s also totally fine to just mix with a wooden spoon).

3. Add the dry ingredients: fold through your dates, oats, and toffee crumbles before adding your flour and stirring until just combined.

4. Chill the dough: press your dough and any loose crumbs into a flat disc and wrap tightly with clingfilm before chilling in the fridge overnight or for at least a couple of hours.

5. Shape your biscuits: the next day, remove your biscuit dough from the fridge and preheat your oven to 160°C (or 140°C fan). Roll your dough into a thin and even layer roughly 4mm thick (I like to do this between two sheets of parchment paper). Using your preferred cookie-cutter, cut your biscuits, re-using the scraps until all of the dough has been used up. I used a 57mm round cookie cutter. Place your cut-outs onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. The dough doesn’t spread too much so you can bake them quite close together, but do leave a small gap. You might have to bake them in batches if you only have one tray.

6. Bake: bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and use an offset spatula or knife to gently turn each biscuit over. Bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden on both sides. Set aside to cool completely.

7. Coat in chocolate: melt your chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl over boiling water. Have a baking tray lined with parchment paper ready. Pour half of your chocolate onto a plate and then one at a time, set each biscuit into this chocolate so that the base is completely coated. Spoon some of your remaining chocolate over the top of the biscuit. Using a fork, pick up the now coated biscuit and shake it to remove the excess chocolate before setting it onto the prepared baking tray to set completely. Continue this process with all of your biscuits. Once cooled, enjoy these with a mandatory cup of tea.

A note on dates: I chop mine into six-six small nuggets by slicing them lengthways once, and then widthways three times. You can use any dates here, but Medjool are superior. If you really want to leave them out, you can also do that.

A note on storage: these biscuits will keep very well in an airtight container. They also freeze very well.

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Ingredients

For the brownie

230g unsalted butter

170g dark chocolate, finely chopped (minimum 70% cocoa – trust me it makes a difference)

3 eggs

200g granulated sugar

100g light brown sugar

1/2tsp sea salt

1tsp baking powder

80g cocoa powder

40g plain flour

3tbsp brewed coffee

For the peanut butter filling

400g smooth peanut butter

200g icing sugar, sifted

Sea salt to taste

For the chocolate topping

200g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat your oven: to 160°C and grease and line a 30cm x 20cm rectangular baking tin.

2. Brown your butter: (see my last recipe for a detailed guide on this!) and once ready, immediately pour your hot butter over your chopped chocolate. Set aside to melt (no need to stir it yet).

3. Whisk your eggs and sugars: in a mixing bowl until pale, voluptuous and glossy. This will be quicker if you use a stand mixer or electric whisk but you can also do it by hand. Don’t skimp on this step, the glossiness is key to the crackly top you want on a brownie.

4. Add your salt, baking powder and cocoa powder: to your egg/sugar mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

5. Return to your bowl of butter and chocolate: the heat of the browned butter should have completely melted the chocolate. You can now stir gently until the two are fully emulsified and smooth. Pour your chocolate/butter mix into your egg mix a little at a time, whisking between additions.

6. Whisk in your coffee.

7. Sift in your flour: and fold this through gently until fully incorporated.

8. Bake: pour the batter into your baking tin, level it slightly and bake for around 35 minutes or until risen slightly and almost (but not fully!) set - you want there to still be a little wobble in the middle, but only just.

9. Level the surface: once baked, use the back of a fork to press the edges of the brownie down so it’s really nice and level. Then set it aside to cool while you make the peanut butter filling.

10. Make your peanut butter filling: add the peanut butter, a generous pinch of salt, and half of your icing sugar to a mixing bowl and beat until fully incorporated. Gradually add more sugar and salt to taste. I think this works if it’s really salty and quite sweet as the brownie isn’t that sweet (as far as brownies go), but base this on your preferences.

11. Top your brownie: when the brownie has cooled enough that it doesn’t feel too delicate (you don’t want it to still be fragile as the force of spreading your filling could damage the surface), spoon your peanut butter filling over the top and use an offset spatula or spoon to spread the mixture in an even layer.

12. Melt your milk and dark chocolate: you could temper it if you’d like to, but I don’t have the tolerance for that. Pour the chocolate over the peanut butter ensuring that it reaches all edges of your tin.

13. Patience: if you can be patient, let your brownie firm up in the fridge over night before slicing, if not, give it at least an hour!

14. Enjoy: I personally think these are best straight from the fridge, but enjoy them however you’d like.

A note on peanut butter: the peanut butter you use here really matters for the overall flavour. Pick whichever brand is your favourite, of course, but I’d highly recommend opting for something that is just peanuts and salt (or unsalted if you prefer). High quality brands like Manilife or Pip & Nut make such a difference. I’d also encourage you to use smooth peanut butter here as I think crunchy would just interfere too much.

A note on coffee: you really can’t taste the coffee here, I promise. But, if it scares you too much to use it, just replace it in equal quantities with milk.

An idea: after making these, I wondered what it would be like to add some roasted, salted peanuts in with the chocolate topping - please, I beg that someone does this and lets me know how it is!!

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While one day, I would love to do just that, I also think that sometimes you can’t mess with perfection, and biscoff comes pretty close to that. Anyway, I did post the reel in the end, and I’m so pleased that I did because it’s been by far my post popular yet. It’s resulted in countless requests for a recipe and so here I am, finally sharing my first ever recipe and really hoping that you love it.

See the reel here

This blondie is a marriage of several very caramelised flavours which come together to produce a surprisingly complex overall taste with the added fun of a full, thick layer of biscoff in the centre. The browned butter, brown sugar and vanilla bean paste in the batter produce a mellow and nutty blondie with an excellent caramelised chew. It’s then studded with shards of salted toffee (don’t be scared of this step!) which adds a sharp crunch and a salty, slightly burnt sugar (if you’re brave) flavour. Once cool, the blondie is slathered with a generous layer of biscoff spread which adds, amongst many other things, a slightly warm and spiced feel. It’s then all finished with a layer of caramelised white chocolate. The result is a completely varied blondie with so many textures and flavours which complement one another really well. There are quite a few steps to the recipe (which I personally love because the more time I get to spend baking, the better), but they’re not as complicated as they might initially seem, so don’t be daunted, trust yourself, and have fun!

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Recipe

Yields 12-16 blondies (depending on how big you like them)

Ingredients

For the toffee shards

• 140g granulated sugar (you can also use caster sugar, but granulated is cheaper!)

• 1/2tsp sea salt (I’d use flaky salt here if you can, but fine sea salt will also work)

For the blondie batter

• 250g unsalted butter

• 2-3 ice cubes (to cool the butter once browned)

• 300g light brown sugar

• 2 large eggs (these should ideally weigh 120g in total)

• 1.5tsp good quality vanilla paste

• 1tsp fine sea salt

• 1tsp baking powder

• 240g plain flour

For the toppings

• 400g smooth biscoff spread (this should be an entire jar, but some jars are 380g which would also be fine - no need to buy two, unless you want some leftover)

• 200g caramelised white chocolate (also found in the shops as blonde or dulcey chocolate)

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Method

1. Preheat the oven: to 160°C (or 140°C fan).

2. Prepare your tin: grease and line a 20cm square tin. Make sure your baking paper is well adhered to the tin or the thick batter will make things difficult later! Line a flat baking tray with parchment for your toffee shards.

3. Make the toffee shards: heat a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium-high heat and sprinkle in your sugar. Because this is a dry caramel (no water added), you can stir the sugar without risk of crystallisation, but try not to stir too much as it will clump and take longer to melt. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, keep it over the heat and start stirring constantly. You’re looking for the caramel to turn a dark amber colour. As soon as it does, beat through the salt and immediately pour the caramel onto the lined baking tray. Spread it into a thin layer and set aside to cool.

4. Brown the butter: melt your butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted, keep it over the heat, stirring constantly and really scraping the bottom of the pan to lift up any milk solids so they don’t burn. The butter will start foaming, it’ll be hard to see the colour of the butter underneath, but use your nose to know when it’s ready! It will suddenly begin to smell rich and nutty. Immediately weigh your browned butter into a mixing bowl - you’ll notice that there will be less butter in weight than you started with. This is because browning cooks away the water content, reducing the volume by 10-20%. We want to put this moisture back in and cool the butter down, so add in your ice cubes until the weight returns to 250g. Stir until the ice has completely melted.

5. Cream the butter and sugar: add the sugar to the butter and mix briefly using a stand mixer, electric whisk, or by hand. This doesn’t want to be very aerated to avoid a cakey blondie (we’re team fudgey here!), so just beat until well combined.

6. Combine the wet ingredients: add the eggs one at a time, beating and scraping the sides of the bowl between additions. Stir through the vanilla.

7. Add the dry ingredients: add the salt and baking powder to the wet ingredients and beat vigorously to ensure both are well distributed. I like to do this before adding the flour to avoid over-working the flour. Now fold the flour through gently until about 50% incorporated.

8. Add the toffee shards: break up your now cooled toffee (I just slap it on the table a bit) and add these to your batter. Fold them through until there are no more lumps of flour. Don’t over mix.

9. Bake: pour the batter into your baking tin and use an offset spatula or a spoon to level out the mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes. You want the blondie to be golden on top but for there to still be a little ‘wobble’ in the middle. If the edges have risen lots, use the back of a fork to lightly press them down so you have a flat-ish surface (this won’t affect the texture, don’t worry!) Set aside to cool completely.

10. Add the biscoff layer: once cooled, melt your biscoff spread. Given this recipe calls for 400g (i.e., a whole jar), you can just do this by sitting the jar in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Once melted, pour the spread over your blondie and freeze until the surface is firm (about 15 minutes).

11. Add the chocolate layer: melt your chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl over boiling water. Ensure you don’t get it too hot, as this risks re-melting the biscoff. When the chocolate is cool but still melted, pour it over your biscoff layer. Tap the tin on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles and then set it aside to firm up completely.

12. The hard part: I like to wrap my blondies and chill them over night so they’re really easy to cut the next day. But, if you must eat them the same day, give them 45 minutes in the freezer and then they’ll be ready to slice. Dip your knife in some hot water to make it easier to cut through the chocolate.

13. Enjoy: I personally think these are best at fridge-temperature, but enjoy them however you’d like, and let me know what you think!

A note on chocolate: my personal favourite caramelised white chocolate is the Waitrose blonde chocolate with feuilletine and sea salt. The feuilletine adds a great crunch and the salt offsets the sweetness a bit. I know this isn’t super accessible for everyone though so other options include M&S’s blonde chocolate and Cadbury’s Caramilk bar.

A note on thickness: as you’re adding the batter to the tin, you might feel there isn’t enough mixture there. These blondies are intentionally quite thin, but if you’d like them chunkier, you can bake them in a smaller tin, just make sure they cook for a bit longer.

A note on storage: these blondies will keep very well in an air-tight container in the fridge for around four days (though probably longer if they last that long!). They also freeze incredibly well.

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