I’ve long been a fan of Edd Kimbers The Boy Who Bakes – the photography is incredible – and his Instagram account @theboywhobakes (check it out for some #bakealong recipes from the book) so when I heard he had this book out I was keen to have a look.
Edd won the very first series of The Great British Bake-off and says he spends every day in the kitchen playing with flour, eggs, sugar and butter – and he gets to write about it. Okay, yes, I am a tad on the jelly side about that.
This book though is all about everything that you can cook in a single tin. Yep, you heard that right – one standard 23x33cm (9x13inch) cake tin, the sort you cook brownies in.
There’s loads I want to try in this book and have so many pages bookmarked (don’t worry, it’s a digital copy so I haven’t done my usual corner folding trick) with recipes like milk chocolate caramel sheetcake, one bowl vanilla sheetcake, peanut butter brookies, Anzac caramel chocolate slices and raspberry cheesecake streusel squares. There are even pies, desserts and breads in here – I really want to try the apple fritter monkey bread which is apparently a cross between a doughnut, a cinnamon bun, a brioche and an apple fritter…go figure.
Anyways, the recipe that I’ve chosen to feature is the Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. Like a chocolate chip cookie in a slice, they went down a treat at Sarah’s workplace when I sent them in.
Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
What you need
- 100g unsalted butter melted in a large saucepan over medium heat until it browns
- 280g plain flour
- ¾ teaspoon bicarb soda
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt (I use Maldon)
- 75g tahini (I use an unhulled one)
- 125g caster sugar
- 125g light brown sugar
- 1 large egg plus an extra egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250g dark chocolate – the good stuff – roughly chopped into little nuggets
What you do with it
- Heat the oven to 180C and grease and line your tin – the one that measures about 23x33cm. If you line it so the baking paper overhangs the long side of the tin you can use it to pull the slice out in one go #handyhint.
- Melt your butter – taking care not to burn it. It will melt, sizzle and foam and when that happens little brown nutty flecks will appear.
- In a separate bowl measure out your flour, bicarb and salt and give it a stir together.
- Place the sugars, tahini and melted butter into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer (I use a stand mixer) for about five minutes – or until light and combined. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Tip in the flour and gently mix until just combined and then stir through the chocolate bits.
- Tip into your prepared tin and press it down.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and leave it in the tin until it’s completely cooled.
- Lift out – you’ll be thankful for your baking paper handles – and slice.
Brookford Kitchen Diaries 