Raw Flapjack Squares

If you wanted a quick and healthy, but filling snack, then nothing fits the bill more perfectly than this. Perfect for making the night before, then chucking it in your bag in the morning. Before eating it as your lunch, on the train home, because people consistently don't give you a break ,and you end up eating lunch at home around 5, which is almost tea time. So this is the perfect snack, to keep back the hunger, without missing tea. 

As you can see in the photos i did two versions of this: One, i left the oats whole, to give more of a bite, and make it more flapjack like; Two, i blended the oats up finer to make oat flour, and make it more like a soft oaty cookie. 

I used chocolate chips in one of the bars, but not in the other, and can't say which i preferred, just what i was in the mood for. If you don't like chocolate, but still want to add something in, dried fruit such as apricot would work well, or if you're on of those extremely healthy types, add in seeds such as sesame or chia.

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp almond milk or other dairy free milk (i used oat)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup oat flour (i just blended the same amount of oats up, until fine)
3/4 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup chocolate chips/ chunks 

1. melt the coconut oil
2. stir in the milk and sugar
3. mix in the flour, almonds and chocolate if using
4. press flat between greaseproof paper, and pop in the fridge until firm
5. cut into squares or bars, then keep in the fridge until consumed 

Coconut and Chocolate Balls

Continuing with the recent coconut obsession; Which is healthy right? Perfect, accompanied by (several) an episode of Orphan Black, (the rediscovered unhealthy obsession!); or TV episode of your choice. The dark chocolate, makes them seem extremely healthy, even though they're not really, which may have resulted, in them being eaten extraordinarily quickly; which may, or may not have been consumed at breakfast.

To make them healthier they are coated in dark chocolate, but milk would also work well, especially you prefer things sweeter, as the coconut isn't that sweet. Or if you really want to push the boat out, dipping it half and half, would look pretty. Or if your giving these away as a gift, drizzling them with white chocolate would look great too. 

I kept the dessicated coconut the same size, but feel free to blend it up finer,to make it more like a bounty bar. If you want something a bit different try adding zest of one lime, its really good trust me. Or if you love chocolate, adding cocoa powder would make a healthier version of chocolate rough, add more coconut oil, as it will make the mixture drier. 

Ingredients

1 cup desiccated coconut
2 tbsp honey/maple syrup or similar
2 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
100g dark chocolate, melted

1. melt the coconut oil, and mix in the honey or syrup
2. stir in the coconut, and press into balls( i let the mixture firm up a little, in the fridge before rolling)
3. once the balls are made, place in the fridge to firm up completely, about 30mins
4. once set, dip in the melted chocolate, coating the surface
5. chill until set

April Favourites 2015

Another month gone, another favourites. It doesn't seem that long ago i was writing my march favourites, but with two weeks in April being the Easter holidays, it went super quickly. 

Now into my favourite month, May, for obvious reasons, except maybe not parts of this one, luckily my birthdays on the bank holiday, so i have no worry of there being a test on my birthday. Plus I've only got one more week of college left, so no more commuting until September, which I'm super happy about.

1.Running Armband- Since the weathers been picking up, I've been wearing my shorts and no jacket which means i don't have any where to put my phone. I've been using this every time i go for a run.It don't slip or scratch, and fits quite tightly around the phone, which for a worrier like me, is definitely a good thing!
2. Asics Gel-Kayono 20- About once a year, i get new trainers for running in, as they wear down so quickly. These are my new ones and I'm in love, not just because on there maiden run they made me go faster, but of the bright turquoise colour. Plus there super comfy.

3. Wooden massage mouse- Bit of a weird one, but since i have increased my running day from about one (when i was on work experience)to three I've been getting sore shins some days (i blame the very dry ground).I massage my legs after a run with this, to prevent shins splints, so i can continue running as leading up to exams i get a bit stressed, and running tends to make me less stressed, so i don't want to be injured and can't run.

4. La Roche-Posay ANTHELIOS FACE ULTRA-LIGHT FLUID SPF50+ 50ml- With the sun shining a bit more,i thought that i would start being good, and start a (hopefully lifelong) habit of putting sunscreen on every day. I had been looking for a good sunscreen for quite a while, since the last one i had, kept causing spots; this one is super light and sits nicely underneath makeup. Plus it doesn't have the distinctive sunscreen smell, which i don't mind, i just don't smelly things on my face.

5.Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate- Well what can i say, more chocolate. This ones my fave, because its so smooth, but I've been craving any dark chocolate, all month. Plus dark chocolate is good for you right? Well that's what they say in the newspapers. 

*contains no sponsored content

What have you been loving this month? Let me know.

March Favourites 2015

I thought i would switch up the content on my blog a bit. Starting with endless posts starting with" where has that month gone"; Except maybe not this one, it went pretty fast i suppose; but i was doing work experience this month, which meant waking up at 4:10, (that's no typo unfortunately) so the days did tend to drag a bit.

1. Clinique moisturiser : An oldie, but a goodie. The original was my first ever moisturiser, and i loved it, but i thought it was a bit expensive, as i was so young. I then tried the new formula when it came out, and loved it even more, but put off buying another bottle for quite a while, but I'm so glad i bought it again, as it makes a visible difference to my skin.

2. Spring Flowers: Don't look so pretty. I love spending time in the garden admiring them, just because they are so pretty. Spring is definitely my favourite season because of the flowers, not mentioning the sun these past few days.

3. E45 hand cream: My life saver. Without this, I'm pretty sure my hands would have bled. The detergent for cleaning at work experience, ruined my hands. This eased my pain, and repaired my hands each night, before they started stinging again.

4: Chocolate Easter eggs: I just to add these in; One, Lindt is my favourite chocolate, and two, i love how pretty they are with metallic foil, and Easter is all about chocolate. Right?

5. Pretty honest, Sali Hughes:My favourite thing. I finally caved and bought it, I'm so glad i did. Its a bible for beauty, anything i don't know about i look it up in here, and will most definitely find what I'm looking for. Even if your obsessed with makeup, and think you know most things about makeup, don't say you do until you've read this book. Plus, its a great coffee table book.

 What things have you been loving this month? Let me know.

Dark Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookies

If your looking for a seriously dark chocolate cookie, then this is definitely it. There so rich you wouldn't want them any bigger than this, or eat more than just one. These are also easy to make, so it's a great choice to make with the kids over Easter. Easter means one thing to me since I'm not religious, and that's a chocolate overload. Duh!

These the best/worst kind of biscuits to give to kids; as these are the kind of biscuits that end up all over their faces, because there just so good; but there the kind that keeps them quiet for awhile, whilst they chomp through chocolaty goodness. Whilst recently going through my recipe cut outs, i found a very similar recipe in an old magazine, so obviously, the crunchy exterior and soft interior, appeals so much that its in a food magazine.

Dark chocolate is my favourite, but feel free to use milk or white chocolate chips if you have kids.If you wanted you could also add nuts, e.g macadamia, hazelnuts or almonds, for extra crunch and another flavour. These would be great served with coffee, but, if you like coffee allot then you could swap the vanilla extract with coffee extract; Et volia you have chocolate, and coffee cookies. As with most chocolate recipes, the best chocolate and cocoa powder you can afford, use, it makes a massive difference in this recipe.

Ingredients 

400g dark chocolate chips

225g butter

200g caster sugar

200g dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp treacle 

2 tbsp vanilla extract 

450g plain flour

125g Cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 170

2. Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy

3. Beat in the treacle, vanilla and eggs( be careful not to over beat)

4. Mix in the sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and flour

5. Stir in the chocolate chips

6. Gently knead the mixture and shape into thick "sausages", chill for around 1 hr

7. Cut the dough with even sized thickness( the mixture can be frozen at this point and cooked from frozen)

8. Place on baking tray and bake for 10 mins or until starting to firm up ( it's the kind of biscuit that firms up more out of the oven)

9. Drizzle with white or dark chocolate if wished

10. Enjoy

Salted Caramel, Almond, and Chocolate Fudge Tart

One week until the Easter holidays! yay! Oh, wait, that's just for my sisters. Great... That means, i still have an extra week, of getting up at ridiculously early o'clock, for work experience. I just want to go to bed, and cry. To get me through the tough weeks; i thought that chocolate, was really, the only answer. Since my sisters will have a head start in holidays , i thought i deserved a head start, in the chocolate eating department. So i made this gorgeous tart(man.... i love salted caramel and chocolate).

The best part is obviously the salted caramel, but if you've read my blog before, you'll know that I can eat it by the spoonful, so that shouldn't be too much of a surprise. The tart keeps well, as the layers don't have that much moisture, which cause a soggy bottom. The chocolate filling has a soft texture, somewhere between a brownie, and a mousse; which goes nicely with the crunch of the nuts and crisp pastry.

Like with all chocolate recipes, use the best chocolate you can afford, it really makes a difference. I used left over plain sweet pastry, but feel free to buy, or make a sweet chocolate pastry, if you feel like going on a chocolate blowout. I used almonds as they are probably my favourite nut, and what i had to hand, but feel free to use whatever nuts you like e.g. Hazelnut for that Nutella vibe, or pecans would work well too.

Ingredients

x1 quantity of sweet pastry


caramel:
75g sugar
25g butter
100ml double cream
1 large pinch sea salt
50g almonds

chocolate filling:
100g dark chocolate
75g butter
2 large eggs 
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. preheat the oven to 180°c/ gas 4.

2. roll out the pastry, line with grease-proof paper, and fill with baking beans, bake for 20 mins. remove the baking beans and cook for a further 5-10 mins until golden.cool

3. While the tart is cooking, make the salted caramel. Dissolve the sugar with 2 tbsp water, cook until the sugar turns golden.

4. Reduce the heat, add butter, cream and golden syrup.stir until smooth and thickened. 

5. remove from the heat, add the sea salt.

6. leave to cool for a few minutes

7. pour onto the tart case, scatter with chopped almonds.set aside

8. for the chocolate filling. melt the chocolate and butter together, in the microwave or over a bowl of simmering water, until smooth. set aside and leave to cool.

9. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolk and sugar for about 6 mins until thick and pale, and doubled in size.

10. carefully fold in the chocolate and cocoa powder.

11. pour into the tart case. bake for 20-25 mins or until its set and formed a crust.

12. leave to cool before cutting. Dust with cocoa powder before serving. enjoy.

Belguim Biscuits

These are for the days when you feel like a pretty biscuit; Something a bit more fancy than a plain old digestive, or rich tea (which are both some of my favourite biscuits: which is why they must be kept out of sight when I'm around!). They also make great gifts, as they are probably one of the prettiest biscuits, a great Mother's Day gift as the look dainty and pretty, with speckles of pink.

They are spiced with cinnamon and mixed spice, and remind me of German Christmas biscuits, but without the jam. The raspberry jam is traditional, and I've sprinkled them in freeze dried raspberry powder, as it has a good strong raspberry flavour, but traditionally they would be sprinkled with raspberry jelly crystals.

There also great addition to a bake sale as the look impressive and something a bit different than cupcakes to raise money. Such as, for Comic Relief on the Friday 13th.These make a great gift particularly around Christmas time, as the spices are Christmassy: i usually give these to both my aunt, and my mum. Just don't put raspberry jam in them, unless you know there going to eat them immediately (within a day),as they will go soft quite quickly.

Ingredients- Biscuit

225g butter
1 cup sugar
1 dtsp golden syrup
2 eggs, one white kept aside for later
3 cups flour
1 dstp cinnamon
1 dstp mixed spice
1 tsp cocoa 
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt


1. preheat oven to 180° .
2. cream together the butter, sugar and golden syrup, until light and fluffy
3. add one egg and one yolk, beat well
4. sift together the flour, spices, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
5. add the dry ingredients and mix to form a ball
6. roll out the mixture, around a pound coin thickness, cut with a cutter and place on baking tray
7. bake for 10- 12 mins or until starting to brown
8. leave to cool

9. when cool, make the royal icing

Ingredients -royal icing

1 egg white icing sugar 
raspberry jam
raspberry powder/ jelly crystals

1. mix the egg white and icing sugar to form a spreadable icing
2. spread icing on half of the biscuits and sprinkle with freeze dried raspberry powder
3. sandwich together with raspberry jam 
4. enjoy 

Banana Loaf

This, is for those days when you wake up, and want to bake something for breakfast, but want something quick and sweet, instead of a savoury brunch of English muffins or crumpets.

This recipe has been used by my family for a very long time. I find it works best with all black bananas, and have several ready in the freezer and regularly leave bananas to go black on purpose (yeah, i already know I'm crazy, OK.)to top up my stocks again. A speckled banana is fine too, if a black one grosses you out to much!

Serve on a Sunday morning(or whenever you fancy), smothered in butter. If you want to swap it into a round cake, then be my guest. Or make it fancy by topping with whipped cream and sliced bananas. I like my banana cake to be just banana, but if you wanted a change it, dark chocolate chunks would be amazing, specially when its still warm and the chocolate is still melted. Or if your not to fond of chocolate, i think nuts would make a nice addition too, if not a much healthier choice. 

Ingredients 

125 g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana(i just use two)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp hot milk
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

1. cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
2. add eggs one at a time. beat well after each addition
3. add banana and mix
4. stir soda into hot milk, add to creamed mixture
5. sift flour and baking powder together. fold into the mixture
6. pop in greased and lined tin
7. bake in a preheated oven at 180°c, for 50 mins or until the cake springs back.(if you want to shorten the cooking time split into two tins.)
8. leave to cool and decorate as you fancy or raise your cholesterol by smothering with butter (just remember kids everything in moderation!)
9. enjoy

Emma x

Rocky Road

These things.....oh so beautiful. Delicious. just so......well there are very few words to describe my emotions to these. um mm, so very very good. 

And yes, somehow even though i didn't need it, i convinced myself that, yes, i did need one of the last three, when writing this, because of course it helps me write; who am i kidding. The chocolate is creamy, and the perfect sweetness not too bitter, like all dark chocolate ,and not to sickly sweet as milk chocolate can be when mixed with other incredibly sugary things. Even my mum will eat this, when generally, shes not a rocky road kinda gal, as often it is too sweet.

Feel free to play up the inside things, to whatever takes your fancy. I like to keep the base the same, with 50/50 of each chocolate, mini marshmallows (because who can be bothered to cut up massive ones, it just saves a whole lot of time) and digestives. The rest is up to you. This time i chopped up almonds, and added sour cherries. In the past, for children my sisters age (around 10,) i didn't use nuts and put in cranberries, as they are sweeter for young children,then filled the rest up with more digestives and marshmallows. i also kept the chocolate mix the same as i think its great for all ages, but feel free to switch is up the chocolate, for whoever your are giving it to.

Its super quick, and you probably have all the ingredients already, so is perfect for a last minute, ahhh some one is visiting panic.  Its also super easy to adapt seasonally, such as adding pistachios and cranberries for a Christmassy feel( talking about Christmas is now officially allowed its November now. OK.) or make it your own by adding your favourite chocolate bar ,or totally change the look, by making it a white rocky road,and now i mention it i might try crunchie bar next time. 

Dusted with icing sugar, very apt for this time of year, like a dusting of snow.

Ingredients 

125g butter
150g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
3 tbsp golden syrup
100g digestive biscuits
100g of nuts, dried fruit, whatever takes your fancy or fill up with more digestive or marshmallows
100g mini marshmallows

icing sugar, to dust

1. line rectangle tin and grease the paper(i greased the tin this time and i found it was harder to get out, so learn from my mistakes and don't.)
2. melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup until fully combined, and you just want to gulp it down, right then and there. i don't recommend doing this as it could cause a heart attack, not from how good it is but, sadly from the amount of sugar.
3. stir in the last 4 ingredients(not the icing sugar)
4. spoon into the tin(leaving about 2 tbsp, because a bowl with nothing in, is not worth scraping out, and that is the best part to baking, am i not right.) and flatten as best as you possibly can.
5. chill in fridge for about 2 hrs, or until firm
6. dust with icing sugar and cut into squares
7. demolish, as slowly as you can(because lets be honest its not the most healthy treat you could eat). bet you cant last a week.

let me know what you decide to add. Emma x

Blackcurrant, Chocolate and Almond Cake

Last year, when we moved house i was particularly exited as we had several blackcurrant bushes, in the garden. I love blackcurrants, and will always pick them out of the frozen fruit mix, before anything else. My first proper taste of them cooked, without any other fruit,i owe to my aunt who also has several blackcurrant bushes, had cooked them up with a little sugar and served with cream. yum. and yep I'm drooling right now, just thinking about it. 

If your not lucky enough to possess a blackcurrant bush, then making this might be quite difficult.  I find it annoying that blackcurrants aren't sold separately either fresh or frozen, like most other berries. When in season a good market might have them, but your safest bet if you live in the UK it buying them from this website here, which sells frozen blackcurrants all year round, and fresh when in season.

The pairing of the chocolate and the blackcurrants, works well as the slight bitterness from the chocolate works well with the sharpness of the blackcurrants married happily with the nuttiness and sweetness from the almonds.Serve warm with a blob of thick cream or cool until firm, then serve as afternoon tea.

Ingredients

175g butter, plus extra for extra for greasing
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract
175g ground almonds
75g good quality dark chocolate, chocolate
100g blackcurrants (weighed without stalks)
icing sugar, to dust

1. preheat oven to 180 °c / gas 4. 
2. grease and line, the bottom and the sides, of large loose bottom cake tin
3. beat butter and sugar together, until light and fluffy
4. gradually beat in eggs, one at a time. (If it threatens to curdle, add the flour)
5. beat in the vanilla extract
6. fold in the almonds and flour (if you haven't already) 
7.stir in the chopped chocolate
8.pour the mixture in the tin
9. sprinkle on the blackcurrants, gently press into the mixture
10.bake for around 40 mins until the cake has puffed up slightly and is golden brown on top
11. leave to cool for 30 mins, remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar
12. serve either warm or cool.