Sunday, 19 May 2013

Healthy! Gluten Free and Vegan 'Rolos'!

| Edit Post

Yes that's right- healthy! Not something that you often see on my blog =D

But I wanted to make something for my best friend boyfriend's birthday and since he is a vegan I wanted to make him something sweet! This recipe was stolen from OhSheGlows and I have pretty much used a lot of her recipes-highly recommend them! So these are her Fake Rolos!


Basically 4 ingredients: 200g Dates,  1/2 tbsp peanut butter, 4oz dark chocolate (make sure it is suitable for vegans) and a touch of oil. (I used sunflower oil)

They taste much better than they look!

For the date I softened mines- The first time I tried it, I thought they were soft enough and they were a huge pain to blitz with a hand blitzer! So leave them to soak in a bowl of water and then drain them after a few hours and they are softer. Add the peanut butter to the dates and blitz them until they are smooth. I used a hand processor for this but I would definitely have preferred to use a food processor!

Before rolling them, freeze them for a couple of hours and once you have rolled them into the size and shapes that you want freeze them again. Melt the chocolate and add some oil just to thin it out and make it easier to dip the dates into. I put a ball onto a teaspoon, dipped it in the chocolate, let it drain off a little and popped it only a non stick rolling mat, although onto a piece of greaseproof paper would work too. I usually keep them in the fridge but I think now keeping them in the freezer would be much yummier!




Here is a pic of the finished 'rolos', photo courtesy of Jasmine =D

Labels: baking, vegan | 0 comments

Saturday, 20 April 2013

Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Pecans and White Chocolate!

| Edit Post

This was the first recipe that I have used from my Magnolia bakery recipe book that I got for Christmas! The original recipe actually uses butterscotch bits inst ead of white chocolate but I couldnt find any so I was stuck with more chocolate mmmmmm =D I ended up totally undercooking it, mailny because the last time I made brownies I cooked them a little longer than needed so it was more cake like than gooey. So these were very good heated up with ice cream or froyo! But for next time I will try cooking them a tad longer until a more browny like consistency.

Here is the recipe (From More From Magnolia by Allysa Torey):

65g (21/4oz) plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
55g (2oz) unsalted butter
185g (10oz) plain chocolate
2 eggs, at room temperature
200g (7oz) sugar (I used caster sugar)
2 tsps vanilla extract
115g (4oz) toasted pecan nuts, chopped
30g (1 1/4oz) butterscotch chips or white choc chips
(I totally used more than that for white choc chips though!

*** Toast pecans by putting them on a baking tray and in an over at 180, or 160 in a fan oven, for 15 mins, or until lightly browned and fragrant***

-Preheat oven to 160, or 140 in a fan oven, and grease and lightly flour a 20x20-cm baking tin.
-Combine the flour and salt and place to the side
-In a medium-sized saucepan over a low heat, melt the butter with the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and you want it to cool for 5-10 mins until lukewarm.
-Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the sugar for 2-3 minutes until light and creamy. Add the vanilla and beat well. Next, add the chocolate mix and beat until well combined. Add the flour and salt and mix until well combined again. Stir in half of the pecans and butterscotchchips (or white chocolate!).
-Spread the batter in the prepared tin and bake for 20 mins.
-After 20 mins, take the pan out and spread the remaining pecans and chips on the top of the brown and return to the oven to bake for another 15-20 mins. You are going to want it baked until a toothpick/knife inserted in the centre of the tin comes out with moist crumbs attached.
-Don't overbake!!



Halfway through baking, after topping off
 with the white chocolate and pecans!

The chocolate and butter mixture after
being melted and stirred!

A big pile of yummy gooeyiness!

 



Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, baking, Brownies | 1 comments

Saturday, 13 April 2013

Lemon Meringue Pies!

| Edit Post

I attempted to make another type of pie a couple weeks ago. I decided on lemon meringue because I was going to give a couple to Jasmine who was in the last couple days of her dissertation and yummy things at that stage is usually always helpful! Anyway, she loves lemon and when I mentioned this flavour to the boyfriend he also seemed to like that idea!

So this was from a set of 2 recipe books that I got from Christmas and both were on mini desserts and pies- how cute!!

The base was a biscuit base which you would make for a cheesecake and that is always my favourite part of a cheesecake so I was really excited! With this one you have to bake the base- I usually only refrigerate mines when I make a cheesecake or a banoffi pie so I was excited to try out this. I did end up putting wayyyy more in each base than I was supposed too because I was scared that they would fall apart if they would be too thin- that and I totally looooooovvvveeee the biscuit base =D

The lemon curd was quite fun to make as well and very tart so very nice if you love lemon! All this was topped off with a big dollop of meringue and since I love meringue this was also my favourite part =D Because I totally messed up one part of the lemon curd just by mixing the wrong thing....what a silly moment!...it took a bit longer than I had hoped for but still it turned out well :)

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, baking, pies | 0 comments

Saturday, 23 March 2013

Spiced Apple and Custard Tarts

| Edit Post

These I made back in January just on a whim- I don’t remember the last time that I had made pastry before then so I decided to give them a go!

There was actually 4 different parts to these tarts- The pastry, the spiced apple pieces, the custard and the oaty crumble that you can sprinkle on top to give it a bit of a crunch!

I got this recipe from Lily Vanilli’s Sweet Tooth recipe book which I got as a Christmas gift and before then I had never actually heard of her. Her recipes seem quite modern and interesting and if I am ever in London again then I would perhaps go to her bakery for a wee taste =)

So, anyway, I really liked this recipe and I wouldn’t mind practising it again so I could get it perfect. For a winter’s treat it is very nice with the spiced apples but I am sure that you can substitute this for berries if you wanted something more summery! 

This apple mixture was spiced with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg although it was recommended to use star anise as well but I didn’t have any in the house.  

I was a little bit concerned about the custard; I think that I had made it once before but I had forgotten how it had turned out but I was really impressed with her recipe and it managed to turn out consistent, smooth and yummy!

All in all I liked these- a bit stressful getting all the components ready all at once and I need some more practise making pastry so hopefully there will be some pastry posts coming up in the future!

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, baking | 0 comments

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Homemade Bread!

| Edit Post

There really isn't much that is tastier and satisfying than a home cooked loaf of bread! With the crusty layer on the outside that you have to bite through to reveal the soft tasty bread on the inside I believe that it is one of the finest eating pleasures! It really makes me wonder why anyone would want to go carbs free...
But alas, for the first time I decided to try and make some of this yummy food and here is the result.....

I ended up using the recipe in the Great British Bake Off cookery book from last year and it is the bread that they had to make in the technical challenge- the plaited loaf! I thought my first bread should be a nice easy one =P I actually chose this one because I thought it would impress on my application form for the Great British Bake Off but it however did not...but still very interesting to make =D




So first thing is making the dough-

500g strong white bread flour in a bowl with 10g salt on one side of the bowl and 2x7g sachets of yeast on the other side. You don't want these to touch or the salt can kill the yeast. Add 20ml olive oil and mix until everything is combined. If using you hand it can get prettttttty messy!


So, you will need 40 ml of water at room temp but for now add 3/4 and bring the mis together and then work in the rest of the water.

I found it pretty hard to knead it after this so if there are any tips of kneading bread at this stage I would love to hear them! At this point you want the dough to be "slightly soft but not sticky, nor dry and tough"

Lightly oil another bowl that will be able to handle the dough to rise to double the size, tip the dough in there and cover with cling film. It should only take an hour to double in size. I actually went shopping during this time so was more like a couple of hours for me!


This is actually the super fun part! Knocking back the dough by giving it one punch in the middle of the bowl and then it totally gets gets all the air out. Check it out!

Check out that super awesome punch! =D

Tip it out into a lightly floured worktop and separate the dough into 8 equal bits. Once measured roll out the bits into long sausage shapes measuring about 40cm. At one end group all of the strands together so it looks like a bit of an octopus like this>>>>>


The sequence for the plait is as follows:
1- 8 under 7 and over 1
2- 8 over 5
3- 2 under 3 and over 8
4- 1 over 4
5- 7 under 6 and over 1

Repeat steps 2-5 until it is all braided!
 I think I managed to do a wrong step because my braids were very uneven by the end! But once its all braided tuck in the ends so that it is all neat.

Leave it to proof again for about an hour and then brush it all over with a beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 mins in a preheated oven in 200C. Let me know if you guys have any experience making bread then let me know what you made and how you find making bread! =D

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, baking, bread | 0 comments

Thursday, 3 January 2013

Teeny tiny carrot cake cookies!

| Edit Post

I made these for Jasmine's boyfriend for his Christmas as he is vegan and I wanted to try a vegan cake type thing. They were from a blog that I have mentioned before because for vegan foods, this blog has so many different ideas:
http://ohsheglows.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6001702

I believe that I used plain flour instead of the whole wheat flour and I don't have any coconut oil so i used vegetable oil instead and it seemed to work.

This recipe is really easy as well- just one bowl to mix the dry ingredients and then add in the mixed wet ingredients.

 

Then put into wee even sized balls, pop on a greaseproof paper on a baking tray and bake and once they come out of the oven, pop them on a cooling rack and then devour! i actually really like these as a wee snack...or just a big snack by eating a whole plate of them =D 

Labels: 101 things in 1001 days, baking | 1 comments