Beanies Coffee

As you’ll probably remember from my June Lust List, I decided that it was about time that I treated myself to another purchase from Beanies Coffee - and got myself a jar of their latest flavour – Cookie Dough. 

I was getting super excited when Beanies started to create a buzz about their new flavour, as I always do.  However I got a little too bit excited when I thought that it was going to be a Cherry Bakewell flavour, alas it wasn’t meant to be this time.  But if you’re reading this Head Bean – I would LOVE Cherry Bakewell for your next flavour! *wink wink* *nudge nudge*  I have to say though, when I spied that Cookie Dough was the new flavour, the excitement arose inside me once again - and without disappointment too!
Beanies always feel generous over the bank holiday weekends and usually have a competition on or even better, a great deal.  Last week was no exception, when they were offering three jars of coffee of your choosing and either a travel mug or an actual mug for just £10 including delivery!  
£10 INCLUDING DELIVERY!  
Even better yet, they promised to include an extra wee gift in with your parcel, which really sold it to me.  Purchased on Friday the 27^th and delivered by Thursday the 2^nd – I have been enjoying all three of the lovely flavours that Head Bean has been creating with his minions over the years - and my super cute tea towel!

Wow – like holy mother of wow!  The second you open up your jar of Cookie Dough, you are met with the most delicious scent of creamy goodness.  I know I say this about all of the Beanies coffees, but I really just can’t help it.  They know how to make a fantastic smelling and tasty brew!  Although it doesn’t smell the same as a freshly baked batch of cookies – it really does give you the urge to fetch a cookie from the cupboard!  Since I’m currently still ditching the dairy, I’ve been making my coffees with almond and coconut milk, which you might think may take the cookie dough taste away – but I think it actually enhances it, as these milks are not particularly strong in taste!  To be enjoyed in the morning, afternoon or evening – Cookie Dough is perfect for giving me that instant caffeine hit, whilst subtly soothing my need for a sugar hit too!  Like nearly every single time Beanies realease a new flavour, I think it’s safe to say that this is one that will become a staple in my Beanies orders – I’ve raved about it so much that both my mum and dad have tried and fallen in love with it too, which is great for Beanies but sad for me as my stash is now becoming low again!  You know what they say though – sharing is caring!  I also picked out another two of my personal favourites; Chocolate Orange and Coconut Delight!  

Beanies flavoured coffees contain less than 2 calories per cup, they’re sugar free and each flavour tastes absolutely delicious.  For people who are trying to be good and avoiding sugary snacks, I find that these coffees give just enough flavour to try and control my constant sweet tooth.  Although I will be honest, there is nothing than I enjoy more than a choccy biccy with my cuppa coffee some days!  Every single flavour is also suitable for both vegetarians and vegans – which is amazing because you’d be surprised by what kind of random animal products manufactures throw into their products these days.  What I love the most about Beanies is that they are not even unreasonably priced.  Each jar costs just £2.50, and they recommend that you only need 1 teaspoon worth of coffee per brew, meaning that each jar will last you a decent length of time!  Beanies online almost always have some sort or promotion on be it free delivery or a free mug when you purchase 6 jars – making it even better value for money.  However if you’re desperate to try out these amazing coffees sooner rather than later, some Sainsburys stock Chocolate Orange, Irish Cream, Cinder Toffee and Almond Amaretto – so you’ve plenty to choose from if you really cannot wait.

So thank you Beanies, you’ve blown me away with another fantastic flavour and convinced me once again that I'm going to have to make another purchase again sooner rather than later.  Happy Lauren, not so happy bank balance.

Have you tried out any of the Beanies range yet?   What’s your favourite?

Until the next one,

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So on Wednesday, I was feeling a little creative and decided that I was going to put my baking hat on and go a little nuts.  I’m not a baker, and so by nuts, I mean I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I followed a recipe on the BBC Good Food website listed below, only I doubled the recipe.  I wanted to make big, chunky cookies, and so doubling the recipe meant that I would still get the same amount of cookies as the standard batch, just bigger!

You will need:

300g salted butter (soften before use for an easier mix)

160g brown sugar

160g granulated or caster sugar

Vanilla extract (to your preference)

2 large eggs

450g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2tsp salt

400g chocolate chips

The above ingredients are for the double batch that I made, for a standard batch, simply half the amount per item.

To start, you should preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5.  After this, I then lined four (that’s right, I had four trays of cookies) with a non-stick greased baking paper to stop them from sticking to the trays. 

Next, you mix the butter and sugars into a bowl, and beat them until thick and creamy.  Once this was done, I then added in the vanilla (which I’m not going to lie, I added about half a 90ml bottle to the mixture), and slowly poured in the whisked eggs.  The toughest part was sieving in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the salt to the mixture and mixing it all together until it came to the cookie dough.  The mixture was so tough that I actually managed to snap a wooden spoon, how many of you can say you’ve done that whilst making cookies?!  

RIP

Finally, you add in the chocolate chips and stir them in so that they are mixed all the way through.  I used two bags of milk chocolate chips on Wednesday when I made them, and today used three bags, one milk, one white and one dark.  I will be following today’s footsteps forever more, just so you are all aware.

Finally, you’re ready to scoop them out onto your trays and pop them in the oven.  I placed large round blobs of the mixer on the trays, I managed approx. 7 cookies per tray.  Because they were larger, the cookies did take a lot longer to cook (today about 20-25 minutes) – but it is totally worth the extra time!

Once cooked, leave them for about 5-10 minutes and tada!  You’ve got yourself a tasty, and very calorific snack… enjoy!

Please note, that this recipe was sourced from BBC Good Food, I simply altered the recipe to my own preference :)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2459643/vintage-chocolate-chip-cookies

What’s your favourite dessert to bake?

Until the next one,

Lauren x