Feature my Food Friday: Introducing Julie’s Family Kitchen and her Chocolate & Ginger Cookies Recipe

I am in the South of France with the children and I have asked a few of my friends whether they wanted to have their food featured on my little blog, so here it is: Feature my Food Friday!

Whether you are a keen baker, a blogger, one of my friends or a reader who would like to see their creation online, I would love to feature your food! Just email me a recipe (written in your own words), a landscape photo of your creation as well as the answers to the questions below.

Julie is one of my favourite food bloggers. The first time I stumbled upon her blog a couple of weeks or so after I started blogging in January 2014, I fell in love with Julie’s flavoursome and easy-to-follow recipes. The first recipe I made from Julie’s Family Kitchen is her spicy chorizo and spinach pasta. The whole family loves it and it is quick enough to make mid-week. That makes it a winner in my house!

Oh, and Julie was the first person who ever commented on my blog, so she will always have a special place in my heart. By that point, I thought nobody would ever comment – not even my mum! I asked Julie a few questions and she also agreed to share a delicious cookie recipe with! Over to you Julie!

Tell us about you.

Hi, I’m Julie, a married stay at home mum of 3.  I have two older girls and one toddler boy.

Where do you find inspiration for your recipes?

I find inspiration anywhere and everywhere, primarily through my massive collection of cookbooks.  However, I always try to be original and make things my way.   I’m completely inspired by Mary Berry and Nigella Lawson, both are fabulous food writers with an amazing talent for cooking.    I also like to recreate recipes I’ve tried when eating out and like to make my own version of things I’ve bought from the supermarket.

Is there anything you would not touch even if you were given £1,000 to eat it? 

Yes, insects.  An absolute no no, I’m usually pretty good and will try most things within reason but eating insects, absolutely not.  I don’t care if they are the food of the future, it’s not for me.

Can you give us an anecdote about food?

To this day, my hubby won’t let me forget my greatest cooking disaster.  It was about 20 years ago, when I was a student.  I attempted to cook a chicken curry using a recipe I’d found in a Sunday magazine.  It was vile, completely inedible!  So we resorted to getting fish and chips from the local chip shop.  Thankfully, I’ve improved quite a bit since then.

What is your favourite way to share your recipes?

I love sharing recipes through my blog, Julie’s Family Kitchen. I then use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+  to promote them further.  I learnt that both Facebook and Pinterest are really powerful in terms of generating lots interest in my blog posts.

Could you share a couple of tips that make your life easier in the kitchen?

Digital scales are something I cannot live without; they are the secret to successful bakes.  Plus, it’s worth having a spare battery just in case you need it.

1 thing no one should ever do in the kitchen:

Never guess quantities when baking cakes, it will end in a baking fail.  Then all your hard work will be wasted.

What recipe did you choose to share today and why?

Today I’m sharing my Chocolate and Ginger Cookie recipe, using flavours I really love.   They really are divine and would make a brilliant foodie gift wrapped in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon.

Photo Credit: Julie’s Family Kitchen

Print

Quick and Easy Egg-Free Chocolate & Ginger Cookies by Julie’s Family Kitchen

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 14

Ingredients

• 175 g unsalted butter softened
• 100 g golden caster sugar
• 100 g dark chocolate chips
• 100 g crystallised stem ginger chopped into small chunks
• 50 g whole rolled oats
• 225 g plain flour

Instructions

1. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar, then mix in the chocolate chips, chopped ginger and oats until thoroughly combined.
3. Add the flour and mix until the mixture becomes dough-like.
4. Divide the cookie dough into 14 balls, place on the baking sheet and flatten down until about 1cm thick.
5. Pop them in the fridge for around an hour until firm.
6. Then bake in a pre-heated oven at Fan 160ºC for 20 to 25 minutes until slightly golden brown.
7. Tip: Don’t over bake the cookies!

Thank you so much Julie! Your cookies would have been perfect when I was pregnant. Ginger was really helping with the morning sickness and I kept stealing Jumpy’s ‘free from’ ginger biscuits.

We made the cookies last week, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not find stem ginger in the South of France, so we went for triple chocolate cookies. My nan’s oven from the 1970s also baked them much quicker than I had hoped, but they were still lovely. I must try the full recipe (ginger included) when we get home!

I could not agree more about scales and being precise when baking. Although I just tend to ‘chuck things together’ when making a savoury dish, I find my digital scales essential when baking.

You made me laugh when you mentioned the insects. Do you remember the ‘Truffles with a Twist’ I made for a family gathering last year? Some were regular truffles, others had crickets inside them and a we were playing card games, the loser had to get a truffle each time. I am not competitive, but I did not lose one single game that night! Even though I was happy to make them (and cry with laughter when one of the losers was eating their truffle), I really had no intention of trying them.