Naked Chocolate

Over the past few weeks I've developed an increasing addiction to Nakd bars, which are essentially made up of dried fruit and nuts.

I actually found them in the uni library, grabbing a couple before my library lectures, but now I'm hooked.

I found this picture floating around on Tumblr, it verges on my ideal snack collection to nibble on, mmmm.

The basic chocolate recipe goes by

2 cups of pitted dates

1 cup almonds

2-3 tbsp or more if needed of cocoa powder

Then you can add whatever extras you'd like, in the photo below the bar shaped ones (I tried my best) are chocolate and orange, where I zested one large orange and added about a teaspoon of the juice.

The unsightly sausage shaped one is chocolate and lime, where I added the juice of one whole lime.

Put the dates and nuts into a blender and keep it whizzing until they start sticking together in clumps.
Here is now a good time to add your cocoa and any extras, give it a really fast whizzy burst and then slow it down so a ball of fruity/nutty dough can come together.

Wrap it in cling film and pop in the fridge for a while to set, once it has firmed up a bit you can shape it into bars like I tried to do, by sandwiching it between 2 layers of cling film and rolling it out, or roll it up into a big sausage like I did this time, cutting into disks.

All you have to do to keep them is to wrap them up in cling film and keep in the fridge so they stay harder which makes them a bit chewier.
I find they're useful to have on hand for a grab-and-go breakfast or a snack, plus you're saving lots instead of just buying Nakd bars too, as tasty as they are!

A Night Of Over-Eating

Last night Maisie and I went round Charlotte's for dinner, as you know, I like to eat lots, so this was perfect because, once again, I ended up in pain and with a stitch from eating too much. Thank goodness I was wearing leggings. 

Char gave us sushi to start, I could live off sushi and I think that I could cope with being vegetarian if I got to eat sushi all of the time, but only if I was allowed fish sushi too.

 This picture makes me seriously want some sushi..

We had an enormous bowl of my favourite things in the whole world.

They're not a new discovery to me but Tesco sell frozen soy beans, and when these little babies are defrosted they taste exactly like edamame beans which is because edamame are basically young or baby soy beans! They're only £1.60 for all of these!!

I just defrost them by running them under hot water, sprinkle salt on, then scoff away!

For the main, we had cajun chicken with roasted veggies
We marinaded diced chicken breast in a cajun spice mix that we found in Char's cupboard, organised, then pan fried it until it was cooked.
For the veggies we cut up 3 carrots, 1 pepper and 2 red onions into chunks, drizzled in olive oil and seasoned, then popped them in an oven at 200 celcius for about 40 mins.

Whilst Maisie sorted out her pudding, I looked out of the window..
Charlotte has 49 ducks.
49.

Maisie did poached pears in spiced red wine, I'm going to recreate this soon, so I'll save the recipe, it was so so nice, and I don't even like pears but I loved them in this,. it would be the perfect wintery pudding because it tastes just like mulled wine!!

 

My offering was red velvet brownies, someone told me this week that they were the best brownies that they'd ever tasted. Woohoo!!

We also freezed three bananas, added 3 dessert spoonfuls of cocoa powder and 1 of peanut butter, blended them and had dairy free ice cream, we didn't have much of this because by now we were in pain!

We spent the rest of the evening sat talking in the bathroom (?!), going through Char's wardrobe (I needed to borrow some clothes) and even more talking, I'm going to miss them big time when I go to uni!

Insanely-delicious-smelling Brownies

A few days ago I was pottering about in the kitchen and had just bunged a baking tin into the oven when Josh sniffed the air and asked what it was, after I told him I heard him say to himself "Oh-my-God, yay, I love those brownies!"
Exactly the response I wanted, and for once I'm not being sarcastic.

I'll be honest, this wasn't a planned blog post and going by the smell (which should be bottled up and sold, in my opinion) and everyone who tried them and Josh's reactions, I knew I had to post it.

190g butter

190g dark chocolate

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract 

250g caster sugar

115g gluten free flour

1/2 tsp salt

Melt your chocolate together with the butter and stir until it goes all silky and smooth and delicious looking.
Add the eggs one at a time or it will go all egg whitey and jelly like (learn from my mistakes).
Add the vanilla, sugar and salt then finally fold in the flour.

I pop this in the oven for about half an hour and it shouldn't be jiggly and wiggly in the middle, UNLESS you like your brownies slightly gooey, but if you want them dense and fudgy, go for 30 mins.
Now, my oven isn't entirely accurate because I don't know what temperature it goes on at, hot is all I know, so go for 180 celcius until it's un-jiggly!

Second best thing about these brownies, apart from smelling like a big warm cuddle, is that if you use this flour (I'm not getting anything out of this, I just love their flour and I love brownies) they're gluten free... Tremendous!

A dairy-free, gluten-free version is currently in the works.

Chocolate Fudge Cake Take 2

One of the first recipes I ever posted was this chocolate fudge cake, it's deliciously dense and fudgy and I've made it many a time for girls at school and for Josh.

Today is Josh's dad's birthday and after asking what I could do to help with the party, I was given the task of baking the birthday cake.. No pressure.

I waited for what seemed like forever for it to cook. I put it in for 20 mins at 180 celcius, then back in for about another 50 with foil over the top to keep the top nice.

I got a tub of Philadelphia, mixed it with some butter and icing sugar and slathered it on the cake.

Then came to decorating.
I haven't met anyone who doesn't like Mars, so seeing as Josh's cake last year went down so well when I piled it high with Skittles and M&Ms, I thought I'd pile these on.

Mum was kindly given some pots of edible gold by one of her clients at work, which she kindly gave to me.

I used the moisture from the chocolate to stick the gold leaf onto the planets to make it look more jazzy and special.

I'm not meaning to blow my own trumpet, but this is the best chocolate cake I've had, plus the lack of butter in the ingredients means I can swap the milk for coconut or almond milk!

Original recipe with full ingredients and directions here.

Skinny Chocolate Fudge Brownies

A few nights ago I was trawling through Bloglovin' and found a recipe for dairy free brownies. Without thinking, I took a photo of the ingredients on my phone, but didn't note down who's it was, I've changed this slightly to fit what I had in my pantry but if the base of this recipe is yours, then thank you, because it's so scrummy and dairy free!

It makes the most delicious, fudgey brownies. Don't let the photos make you think that they're cakey, no siree, they're ooey and gooey and sans butter!

1 medium avocado

1 large egg

1.5 breakfast cup of granulated sugar (I'm going to try it with sweetener soon)

3/4 breakfast cup of cocoa powder

1/4 breakfast up of plain flour

First mash that avocado up as smooth as can be:

 

Add an egg..

Stirin your sugar and your cocoa powder.
I found it was easiest to add a little at a time or the powder went everywhere.

Lastly fold in your flour.

Look at that ooey, gooey mixure...

Do a finger taste test, no ones watching or judging..

Pour into a foil lined brownie tin.

And for the sake of the brownies, please grease that foil, or you'll be stuck (or rather your brownies will be).

I used a standard brownie tin (20 cm sq) but that was a little too large, my brownies came out quite thin (I don't really trust thin brownies) so I doubled them up and stacked 2 together to make a decent size.

Pop them in the oven at 180 celcius for about 15 mins, depending on how thick the batter is in the tin. 

The avocado is a much better replacement for butter, not only cutting out dairy, but they're full of good fats to make your nails grow and your hair shiny, plus they're rumoured to help you lose weight.

Brownies that make you lose weight and make your hair shine?
Yes please.

  

 Just one more...