Recent Bakes

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3 Rocky Road Recipes that You HAVE to Try!

At the moment, I've been dedicating Thursday evenings to catching up on the Great British Bake Off. I love it! And every afternoon, after watching, I spend my time focusing my attention on recipe books trying to find something that I can bake without risk of failure.

Looking for something today, I poured through various recipes from a couple of my favourite baking websites (www.topwithcinnamon.com and www.johnwhaite.com) but eventually settled upon a 'classic' of ours: the rocky road.

Traditionally rocky road, the way we make it, consists of predominantly dark chocolate with little milk chocolate blend, pink and white marshmallows and rich tea biscuits.

But today, I looked for something else that was still relatively safe and came up with the following: Peanut Butter Rocky Road with Gingernuts and Cranberries. 

For me, I think it looks pretty well decorated and I'm very happy with the result!

Here's how I managed it and a couple of alternatives that you can try:

Peanut Butter Rocky Road with Gingernuts and Cranberries
Makes 16 squares

1) In a glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt 125g soft butter with 200g Hershey's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips, 100g plain chocolate chips and 3 tbsp of (wild) honey. Continually stir until everything is melted and then remove the bowl from the heat

2) Crush 175g gingernut biscuits into rough chunks and mix into the chocolate mixture 

3) Now stir in 3 large handfuls of cranberries until all combined

4) Now line a loaf tin with clingfilm or baking parchment and spoon in the chocolate mixture

5) Level with the back of a spoon and then crush 5 gingernut biscuits into crumbs and sprinkle on top

6) Chill for at least 2 hours and cut into squares. Store in the fridge until you wish to consume

My alternatives for this recipe are; 

Rich Tea, Date and Walnut Rocky Road

For this one, just use dark chocolate. Swap the quantity of honey for the same of golden syrup. After point number 1, roughly crush 150g rich tea biscuits. Add to this, 2 large handfuls of chopped dates and 100g of chopped walnuts.

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Pistachio and Apricot Rocky Road

As with above, use dark chocolate. Swap honey for the same quantity of golden syrup and complete step number 1 of the original recipe. For this version, roughly chop 20 dried apricots and stir into the chocolate with 150g whole pistachios. 

Adaption of the Chocolate Loaf

I hate to be cynical; but it always seems like when you're looking for something you can't find it. But then when you're not, every door is open to you. When I became vegan for a few months, I could hardly find anything that would fill the sweet hole beyond fruit and Alpro Soya yogurt. The choices were very limited and I was hard-pressed to get a good baking recipe - even on sites that specialised in vegan baking.

Recently, I was searching for fitness tips and stumbled across 2 vegan baking recipes on FitSugar. The vegan no-bake brownies that I made (and that are listed under the 'recipe' section) were very nice. They lacked the gooey fudge texture of normal egg crammed, butter filled brownies but nonetheless calm the angry cravings of a sugar-deprived stomach. Essentially, they tasted vegan. 

The bet recipe I tried was sold to me as: "Zucchini bread that tastes like brownies". I had to give it a go. And, it was delightful. Even the raw batter tasted like real brownies. It was so chocolatey and fudge-like that I could instantly tell it would be a winner. When it was baking, it smelled divine and when I took it out I could finally say that I'd made something vegan that tasted 'normal'. It has quite a crumbly texture but it's not at all dry: a lovely treat for a Saturday evening! 

I had initially intended to make these into muffins by the mixture was incredibly sticky and formed a ball which I didn't want to break up. Beside, for the first try, which is always my mistake, I ought to stick to the original recipe. 

However, I did make a slight change. I am not a particular fan of dried cranberries so I substituted half of the required quantity for glacé cherries which are one of my favourite baking ingredients!!

(Vegan) Chocolate and 'Cranberry' Zucchini Loaf 

(Taken from www.fitsugar.com) 

NOTE ON THE RECIPE: This is an American recipe and so measurements are in cups. If you have cup measures then I always find that American recipes are a lot easier because they save you the hassle of measuring ingredients with scales. However, I have written the equivalent measure in grams alongside the initial measure for ease of access. 

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C

1. Grate 225g courgette (zucchini) thinly and place in a bowl. Place to one side
2. In a separate bowl, mix 120g wholemeal flour, 60g cocoa powder (unsweetened), 1 tsp and 1/4 of baking powder, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp mixed spice. Place this to one side
3. In a large bowl, Mash 1 ripe banana and stir in 110g caster sugar, 125ml canola oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. Pour the shredded courgette into the above mixture and stir until combined
5. Stir in all of the dry ingredients
6. Add to the bowl 60g of dried cranberries or glace cherries
7. Line a small loaf tin with baking parchment, pour in the batter and bake for 45 minutes (The cake should be soft to the touch and cooked on top. Insert a skewer into the middle to ensure it is fully cooked)

mmmm...appetizing!!! 

For the Love of Salad!

If you know me well, or are an avid reader of my blog, then you'll relaise that I hate salad. Nothing screams 'CAAAAAAARBS' more than a severe deficiency of bread in favour of bowls of leaves and cucumber.

Well, that was, I did hate salad but after creating my own 'special recipe', I've fallen in love.

I first got into salads having delivered them in my job. Goats' cheese, lentil and butternut squash is my lunch of choice, a new recipe of the company.

I can't really remember when or why I decided to make my own salad but I think it partly came from the fact that salad is 0 propoints on WeightWatchers. So here's what I do:

Of course, my salad isn't 100% healthy. It's got a bit of protein and a staple of life: cheese.

Wash a handful of spinach leaves and place in a bowl. Dice some large tomatoes and place on top of the spinach. Dice, finely, one yellow bell pepper and add to the bowl. Crumble around 40g feta cheese on top. Now, finely dice 2 rashers of smoked bacon. Add this to the bowl and toss everything together. Add 2 tsp dijon mustard and serve. 

I don't know why but I absolutely LOVE this! My favourite mouthful is the last one, where the feta becomes soft and coated with mustard then you pick up a little hint of everything. The smoked bacon is just beautiful and particularly scrumptious if it is slightly crispy.

If you fancy spicing your salads up, give this recipe a try!

Hummus Time in No Time At All!

When I first moved to Dubai, I hated hummus. I found it dry and as though it lived in the shadow of bread. Why would I eat a liquid, half formed and tasteless version of a carbohydrate that I could get so easily, cheaply and didn't have to eat with mountains of carrot sticks?

However, it didn't take long for my taste buds to wake up from their ignorance and realise that the 'tasteless' taste was actually a gently satisfying zing. Now one of my favourite lunches is (perhaps, rather boringly) barbecued chicken, arabic bread and hummus.

I've been wanting to make hummus forever but being wary of what the word 'tahini' meant, I never ventured into that culinary sphere. But I wish I had sooner because I could have been making this all summer!

But 'should've', 'would've' and 'could've' are the last words of a fool, so at least I now know how simple (and healthier) homemade hummus can be!

Super Speedy and Satisfying Hummus

1. Blend 1 x 400g can of chickpeas with 1 clove of garlic, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp tahini paste and 1.5 tbsp lemon juice in a food processor. 

2. Continue to blitz until the mixture comes together then add 1 tbsp of water (for the consistency above) or continue adding water until you have your desired consistency

Simples!

Cake depression and VEGAN no-bake brownies!!

Yes, I was this close to sinking into an eternal abyss of cake depression. It seems a year of hardly baking has rendered my hands useless and I had lost nearly all my talent to produce, not elegant, but EDIBLE cakes.

I've had multiple cake disasters over the past few weeks, passing up food that looks hardly appetising and disappoints the taste buds. I had one more shot today at baking something that I normally wouldn't and, if this didn't work, I was throwing in the apron, oven mits and cupcake cases for good.

So thank goodness it worked.

Trawling the internet for 'miracle' foods, I stumbled upon a recipe for 'Vegan No Bake Brownies' which comes from www.fitsugar.com

These delicious morsels include some of my favourite things, including a particular indulgence of mine: dates!

(I've slightly adapted this recipe, due to a lack of applesauce.)

Vegan No-Bake Brownies (Cuts into 20)

1. Peel a medium sized pear and dice

2. Place in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave with 1 tsp water and cook for 1 minute

3. Remove from the microwave, mash with a fork, set aside and leave to cool

4. Blend 2 cups of oats with 1 cup of unsalted cashews, 8 fresh and de-stoned dates, 1/3 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 tsp salt in a food processor. The mixture should be fine and resemble a flour-y consistency

5. Slice a large, ripe banana and add to the food processor

6. Measure out 1/4 cup of the stewed pear mixture and add to the food processor (you will not need the pear again)

7. Blend in the food processor until the mixture becomes a dough-like consistency (it should be moist and stick together slightly)

8. Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil (and more if required until the mixture sticks together)

9. Oil a square metal dish and put the dough inside, pushing the mixture flat with your knuckles or the back of a spoon

10. When it is leveled, push 5 broken walnut halves into the mixture

11. Chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge

TOP TIP: Store in the fridge until you wish to consume

Overambitious baking

I am fairly ambitious with my baking, trying new things that I expect to turn out brilliantly. Needless to say, I am sometimes disappointed.

Today I made a chili and lemon bread - which should have turned out as a baguette but instead came to be an over-sized roll. I also made, probably more successfully, a blackberry and coconut cake taken from this recipe from the BBC Good Food site. I followed it to the 'T' so I can't claim any credit for this.

Mine didn't look quite as good as there and I feel like 1 hour might be slightly too long baking, so if I tried again I would probably have it going for 40 minutes instead and then giving it a quick check.

However, and I admit that it wasn't a complete disaster, I had a lot of fun baking which is the most important thing.

Unfortunately, I reckon that it's a lot more calorific than it makes out but small slithers will make it last longer anyway!

What's the deal with veggie cakes? (+ recipe)

The carrot cake is never questioned. It has been around since the medieval age and it seems to resonate with people: it is deemed acceptable to put this orange vegetable into our cake batter and top it with cream cheese frosting.

It was initially used as a sweetener, for lack of cheap and good access to the more common staple of any cake: sugar.

When I told my mum that I was going to be making courgette cake, she turned up her nose. It had never struck me that courgettes in a cake might be weird, but I found a recipe on the BBC that I thought I wanted to try. If a website publishes it, I guess it's normal.

But, actually, putting vegetables in cake is the norm a few of the reasons being that they sweeten the cake (as we saw with the carrot situation), they create moisture in the cake and are cheaper/ more easily resourced.

I've seen countless recipes for beetroot brownies and vegetables are a particular favourite for bulking out 'healthy' cakes.

So, today I've made a courgette traybake with orange (which I have yet to taste!) I have taken and adapted this recipe from BBC Good Food's courgette muffin recipe. 

Cuts into 8 large rectangles
PRE-HEAT OVEN TO 200 DEGREES C

1) Peel 180g of courgette and grate

2) Place in a large bowl

3) Add the juice of 1 satsuma and stir

4) Melt 75g butter and add to the mixture

5) Add one egg and stir (NB. make sure that the butter has sufficiently cooled to avoid creating scrambled egg)

6) Add 300g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp of mixed spice and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon

7) Stir until all combined

8) Now add the juice of 2 more satsumas

9) Stir in 100g caster sugar and a generous handful of golden raisins

10) Now place in a shallow square tin and bake for 25 minutes

11) Once removed from the oven, leave to cool for 10 mins then turn out onto a wire rack

12) Slice into 8 and consume!

 

Carrot Soup Recipe

Soup most probably isn't something that you want to be eating on a boiling hot summers day but, for me, it beats a salad. Personally, all that a few lettuce leaves, tomatoes and cucumber says to me is: "WHERE are my carbs?!?!" This usually ends with me going on a bread rampage afterwards which almost defeats the purpose of having not having a sandwich.

Soup, however, does it for me. There's something about a load of blended vegetables that makes refraining from a ham sandwich a good thing.

So I've decided to share with you my FAVOURITE carrot soup recipe. It's my favourite for a number of reasons but namely it's super-duper easy, tasty and makes for great snacking. 

"Slap-dash" Carrot Soup
To serve 4

1) Peel and slice 4 carrots

2) Boil 600ml of water and, once boiled, pour into a jug

3) Dissolve one vegetable stock cube in the boiled water

4) Then, place the carrots in a deep pan with the vegetable stock and boil on a medium heat until the carrots are soft (15-20 minutes)

5) With a hand blender (or a sieve should work just as well) purée the carrots until you have a smooth orange paste

6) Now, top this purée up with boiled water until you have the amount of soup that you want (perhaps another 300ml of water)

7) Add finely chopped coriander, a pinch of salt and pepper and blitz once more (or, if you don't have a hand blender, simply stir)

8) Then, serve!

Simples! And it tastes absolutely lovely.

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It's on the house!

It was stock take day; one of the worst days for obvious reasons. Pulling tags out and printing labels was not anyone's idea of perfection at 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening. Not was getting up at 5:30am to actually check the stock.

But having spent the night before pulling out tags for checking, I strolled in at 9am aware that I didn't have it that bad. 

For me, it wasn't a bad day. It was quiet but I wasn't feeling the stress everyone else had. I didn't really have anything that could dampen my mood. I had spent the night before at one of my best friend's houses and had the prospect of my dad coming to see me soon on my mind. Things were great; what is it matter to me that I had to do a few extra hours. It was a sacrifice I took lightly. 

But what made it even better was my lunch break. I love surprises. Those unexpected things that pick you up. So after eating lunch out on the church wall, I went inside and found the Hairy Bikers doing a book signing.

This day was looking brilliant!! I was on such a high for some expected reason and the sight of two jolly men at the entrance of the store just made me up! I couldn't believe my luck. I was so tempted to queue up, but I knew I didn't have enough time. So instead I strolled around the store, pretending that I wasn't like one of the other customers sneaking pictures of them from behind bookshelf. 

I watched them. Took them in. I knew that I had a camera stuffed in my bag back at work but I wasn't about to run and get it. Instead, I watched everyone else stand behind and have photos taken, hand over their books and help themselves to a free goody at the front of the desk.

Seeing celebrities is just great. Especially when you realise how human they are. I turned endlesslessy, trying to watch them from other angles and listened to them shouting as fans walked past;

"Don't forget your free sauce."

"I like the chilli one." 

"Yeah the chilli's the best."

I remember one of the first book signings I ever went to. It was such a big thing growing up. Buying books and having them signed.

Book week was my favourite thing EVER! They would set up these metal cases in the school hall filled with books and you'd go with your £1 off voucher and scour the shelves for one that took your fancy - normally the one with the best cover!

It was a miracle that I never really attached with actual people. I saw Tracy Beaker as a real person and when I stood in front of Jacqueline Wilson, I didn't quite understand that she was a figment of this lady's head. I knew that Tracy Beaker was made up, but seeing Jacqueline Wilson and confronting reality didn't make her seem any more fictitious.

So it wasn't a bad day at all seeing the culmination of two of my favourite things; food and books. Two TVs chefs in a bookshop - PEEEEERRRFECT!!