The Big Lunch – an annual event encouraging communities to come together to share lunch – is back on June 7 and 8.
This year, celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver, Mary Berry, Rick Stein and Tom Kerridge are supporting the campaign to encourage more of us to come together through food.
A YouGov survey has found that one in seven UK adults (14%) never cook a completely new recipe, so The Big Lunch Recipe Search aims to find the nation’s favourite dishes to inspire more of us to cook.
Here’s a Jamie Oliver recipe for some baking inspiration.
Mint choc chip whoopie pies
Hands on: 10 minutes, plus chillingCook: 37 minutes
Ingredients:(Serves 8)
1-drawer air fryer1 x 145g bar of mint Aero150g full-fat cream cheese85g unsalted butter200g self-raising flour100g caster sugar3tbsp cocoa powder½tsp bicarbonate of soda100g milk or dark chocolate chips2 medium free-range eggs
Method:
1. To make the filling, snap 120g of Aero into a heatproof bowl and melt in the air fryer for three minutes at 170°C, then stir until smooth and mix in the cream cheese. Cover and leave to firm up in the fridge for at least one hour.
2. Melt the butter in a heatproof bowl for four minutes at 170°C. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda, then stir through the chocolate chips, mix in the melted butter, then the eggs, until the mixture is well combined. With wet hands, roll into 16 balls and place on a lined baking sheet, pushing them down slightly to flatten.
3. Line the air-fryer shelf with greaseproof paper. Transfer four to six cookies into the drawer, making sure there’s a one centimetre gap between them. Cook for 10 minutes at 170°C (12 minutes from chilled or 15 minutes from frozen) then, using the paper to help you, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool, and repeat.
4. Once the cookies are completely cool, sandwich them with the filling, crumbling up the leftover Aero to sprinkle into each one, before sandwiching.
Get ahead:
If not cooking straight away, cover the raw cookies and keep in the fridge for up to two days, or the freezer for up to three months, ready to cook to order! Or, once cooked, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days, stashing the filling in the fridge, ready to assemble.
Energy: 451 kcalFat: 25gSat fat: 15.1gProtein: 6.7gCarbs: 52.2gSugars: 32.6gSalt: 0.6gFibre: 1.9g
Easy Air Fryer by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Michael Joseph © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited in hardback, priced £26. Recipe photography by David Loftus. Available now
