Hello everyone, hope we are all doing well and that the snow melted before it had a chance to turn to ice.
Right, I have baked a few things over the last week or so, so just like the news, if you don’t want to know the score/ see me ramble on about baking, look away now.
First up, peanut butter bars.
Now don’t worry, I have not gone crazy, and yes I know these are biscuits. The recipe is from Sweet Vegan, and it starts off with 15 vegan “Graham crackers” (another recipe in the book). I think they are a bit like digestives? Anyway, I made them one day. As you know, I have the time!
Then they got broken up (why did I bother cutting them out into neat circles? Oh right, the having loads of time thing) and whizzed up with peanut butter and icing sugar. And maybe something else, can’t remember.
The topping is the prettiest part. It is meant to be chocolate melted with some butter substitute (as it is a vegan book) but I used Dark chocolate dreams instead, and let me tell you that is the most amazing topping for anything, ever. Ever!
I added the stars to pretty it up some more 🙂
As I was giving some away for friends who came to visit. It was very crumbly to cut, but it was really worth it. Although next time I think I would just buy biscuits for the base.
Next up- Carrot Cake.
Andy’s family were again coming over for the football, so I wanted to make something pretty. This was a Hummingbird  recipe, but I swapped pecans for walnuts (not a fan of walnuts), and added in some grated coconut.
I made some sugar carrots for the topping- something I have always wanted to do! I had to use my gel colours  (I keep them in the cute owl box) 🙂 I rolled the orange icing into balls, then rolled them into sort of sausage shapes making one end thin and one end fat. For the greens I rolled into very thin rolls, and used 2 for each carrot. I made a little hole in the end of the carrot with my little finger, and poked the greens in there. Then I used a knife to make nobbles on the carrots.
Hooray for my little carrots!
I baked the mixture in two tins, and then made some icing. Now my plan was to use coconut cream (the little tiny tins from Waitrose) to make a coconut icing. When you pour it out, it looks like loads! Anyway, I added in icing sugar and mixed until it was thick, and left it in the fridge to thicken further. I sandwiched the two cakes with some, and had the rest to put on top.
Now, the cakes were cool but I think the kitchen was warm because the icing really melted and kept pouring off the top of the cake. I shall call it a glaze. Andy’s Mum said she much preferred it to normal thick icing because it got in all the nooks and crannies. Anyway, it did taste really coconutty. More practise needed though!
I had some a day later and the icing had hardened more, so maybe that is the key.
Finally, hot buns.Â
From Great British Bake Off book. They are not hot cross buns, because I could not be bothered to make the cross. These were for my parents and I made them with half wholemeal as we all prefer that. Seriously, anyone who visits or has me as a visitor has got to expect some baking at the moment as it is a good way to pass the time.
Something else exciting- Andy had to pop to Tescos the other day, and I went along for the ride (I lead an exciting life)- anyway while preusing the “fancy pretend milk” section look at what I found!
Alpro almond milk! I love the Provamel Almond milk but it is hard to find, and I like the unsweetened Ecomil but that is pretty expensive. I am excited that other companies are making almond milk anyway, especially as this is fortified with calcium and vitamins. 🙂 Plus it is cheaper than the Ecomil stuff.
Finally, the storm in a teacup. Well, sort of. I was sent a few types of tea to review from Storm Teas (love the name) so feel free to check out my review here.
Stay warm people 🙂
And if you could top one thing with the chocolate/ dark chocolate dreams topping, what would it be?
Everything looks so pretty, and the world is so quiet too. You can’t see it as I was not sure how to zoom in, but all the branches of all the trees were covered in a thick icing layer of snow too.
It does not look so huge here, but it was! I did not even reach the neck. Just after this some girls came along and posed for pictures in front of it!
To get to the road, we have to drive along this path, and only a couple of other cars use it. Our actual road never gets gritted either, so that turns into an ice rink very quickly. Luckily it is flat, as a flat ice rink is much preferable to a steep one. The trouble is, a few cars drive (or people walk) and the snow gets compacted, then it freezes overnight. It’s silly because I can see the main roads from our house (and saw them on my walk) and they are fine, but it is getting to them that is hard. I have asked for a grit/ salt box before, because I am sure local residents would use it, but they always say no.
Here you can see the bubbles that appeared, before I covered it in more flour and water.
Then I had to make the dough- 300ml of the starter mix (which was very gloopy so I had to ladle it out), 500g flour (I did half wholemeal and half white), 200ml warm water and a pinch of salt.
It looked a bit messy in the bowl, and it took a lot of kneading, but it did come together to make quite a sticky dough. From things I had read on the internet, the dough would be wetter than a normal bread dough- something I read said to keep it as wet as you could bare.
Then it went back in the same bowl (I don’t like extra washing up, sorry!) which I coated with a little rapeseed oil.
I actually took some photos to see if it had risen or not, because I was having trouble working it out! Anyway, after a good few hours I kneaded it gently and shaped it into the dough shape. I made a makeshift proving basket by lining a pasta bowl with a teatowel, and left it overnight.
Again, I was not sure if it had risen in the morning.
But a look on the camera confirmed it! Or rather, it had spread!
It rose so much in the oven, I was shocked- I honestly think it doubled in height! I did slash the top with a serrated knife, but not deep enough it turns out because it sort of burst out the bottom.
I could not resist slicing it while it was still warm.
And enjoyed an end piece with some hummus for lunch. It has turned out really well for a first go- nice and chewy and it does have a faint sourdough taste. I think as the starter mix gets more mature the flavour will develop too.
And seriously, what do you think it looks like? I am still saying ET!
Wholemeal toast with nut butter and 
Lovely peanut butter clif bar, and some vanilla and lemongrass tea to calm me down once I got back from the appointment (which ended up being fine although I hate driving/ parking somewhere new and I could not work out their map, and then got told I should have parked in the disabled bay!).
Coconut pancakes with coconut chocolate spread, microwaved apple with cinnamon, clementines and (I think ) Teapigs spiced red winter tea. For the pancakes I used 
I heated up some chocolate soya milk, and had it with some grapes. This chocolate milk (provamel) is very very sweet, so be warned.
Another mystery dinner (eg something from the freezer defrosted). This turned out to be some 
Rooibos tea and a chocolate peanut butter brownie.
I made the peanut butter brownies from 
They were for Sunday tea and they were very popular. So gooey and yummy.
I also made some scones for my parents as they are finally back from their travels. These turned out better than I had hoped- I wanted to use the recipe from 
I have also started to make some starter dough for some sour dough bread. I am following 
You have to “feed” the dough with more flour and water every day, so that is what I have been doing so far, and the above pic was from this morning. It is actually bubbling (although you cannot probably see because I tipped the flour on top) which is amazing as there was no added yeast. I am still on step 1 though, it is a long project!
I got to see all their photos (they went to New Zealand), and as a prize for looking at them all (they always do that!) they gave me this really pretty necklace which is apparently a good luck charm (I need one at the moment!) and some mammoth chocolate bars.