Cook up

• Ellie
• 27 Sep 06, 01:39 PM

Hey, how are ya?

I've been writing out recipes today! Hard at work.....! ;o)

It's because one viewer wrote to me asking for recipes for a cookery book they are putting together at school. I think that's a really nice idea and I LOVE to cook, so I dug out my fave dessert recipe; brandy snaps. There's no brandy in them - they're yummy biscuity toffee things and you have them with whipped cream. GORGEOUS.

*mouth waters*

What are your favourite recipes? Do you learn cooking at school? I used to have cooking lessons at school - I think it's a great skill to have. You can eat really healthily (brandy snaps being an exception...!) and try out loads of different, weird stuff. Plus it is a great way to impress your friends, and your mum! We had a Press Pack with Sam Stern on yesterday's show. He's the 15-year-old chef who's just written his second cookery book for kids - way to make a hobby into a moneyspinner!

So are you a fan of Sam's? Do you like to cook? Or are you more of a fan of junk food? Are you sick of all this Jamie Oliver lecturing about eating healthily? Send me your thoughts AND your top recipes - so I can give them a go! And here's my (top secret) recipe for Brandy Snaps! Try 'em out - let me know what you reckon! x

ELLIE’S BRANDY SNAPS

110g butter
110g Demerara sugar
110g golden syrup
110g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tspn ground ginger
1 tspn lemon juice
2-3 drops vanilla essence

Preheat your oven to 325f/170c.

Put butter, syrup and sugar into a saucepan. Heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved (may take a little while). Leave to cool slightly then sift in the flour with salt and ginger. Stir up well, adding the lemon juice and vanilla essence.

Put four teaspoon size blobs well apart from each other on a WELL GREASED baking tin. Make sure the blobs have plenty of room as they will spread out a lot.

Put them in the hot oven for 8 minutes. Take them out and leave them too cool for 2-3 minutes. NO MORE! Take a sharp knife (be very careful or get an adult to help out) and lift up the corner of the brandy snap. If it is bendy, but strong enough to lift up in one piece it is ready to work with.

Pick it up gently and bend it around the handle of a wooden spoon so it is a tube shape. Leave it for a few seconds to harden, then slide it off the handle and put it on a wire rack to cool and harden properly.

Repeat with four blobs in the oven each time until all your mixture is finished (you should make about 20 brandy snaps with this mixture). When all the tube shaped brandy snaps are cold, store them in an airtight tin.

When you are ready to eat them, whip up some cream and pipe it into each end of each brandy snap. If you don’t have anything to pipe it with, just use a teaspoon. DEEE-licious!