The marsh and the mallow

Over my past few blog posts I have been investigating the world of experimental ‘healthy’ baking such as substituting traditional ingredients or using superfoods like chia seeds. Now however for something totally different as I set out to make vanilla marshmallows. For this recipe you will need:

250g sugar

400g water

1 sachet of gelatine or 4 gelatine leaves

A few drops of vanilla extract/essence (or food essence of your choice)

3 egg whites

Icing sugar for dusting

Edible gold glitter (optional)

Lightly grease a baking tray with sunflower oil or equivalent non-flavoursome fat and dust with icing sugar. 

Place your sachet of gelatine (or leaves) in 150g of water and leave to dissolve or soften in the case of the leaves.

Meanwhile add the rest of the water and sugar in a thick based saucepan and boil to 121°c (the threading stage) this will take approximately 8-10 minutes. I have used brown sugar for mine hence why it looks so dark.

it's so swirly and pretty

 Take off the heat and combine the gelatine stirring continuously. 

Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form.

Whilst still whisking pour in the sugar/gelatine syrup down the side of the bowl (this took to many hands to do so I was not able to include any pictures). This is the stage where you should add any food essence and/or food colouring. As I have used brown sugar my marshmallow mixture has a light caramel tint and it is for that reason that I chose to add a bit of vanilla. Transfer to your greased tray and dust with more icing sugar

and for an added dash of pizazz a light sprinkling of glitter.

 Leave to set in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

Don't you just love it when things go wrong?  It would appear that the syrup component of this mixture has somehow separated itself from the fluffy egg white so upon turning out the tray I was left with two different layers. Quite literally: marsh and mallow.

So yeah that looks quite hideous and gross, it tastes nice though. Upon reflection I  would halve the amount of syrup made. 125g of sugar and water. I'm not sure what I'm going to with this not quite marshmallow stuff that's in my fridge. Oh dear this is like the time when I tried to make gummy bears 

Update: I seperated the sugary syrup layer from the mallow...or maybe it was the marsh...and used it in a milkshake.

That time I made coconutty chocolate

This day has been a long time coming as I have spent the last few months trawling though supermarkets, markets and health food shops alike in the quest to find one key ingredient: coconut milk powder.

When making chocolate at home my preferred method is to use ground cacao liquor. This raw ingredient, often also called cacao mass is the direct result of grinding down the cacao nibs and thus contains raw cacao powder and raw cacao butter. The raw cacao (unlike processed cocoa) contains an abundance of minerals and health benefits such as:

Cacao is also a good source of both sulphur and magnesium, probably why we women crave chocolate during our periods!

Rather than having me preach on at you about the benefits of eating raw cacao take a look here for a more in depth look at this superfood. Now dont tell me that chocolate is not good for me

To make dark chocolate we would require to grind our liquor, conch and temper before putting into moulds to set. Yes it really is that simple! Yet I find that dark chocolate is sometimes too rich and bitter for some people (absolute poppycock if you ask me as plain/dark chocolate is pretty much just pure chocolate and what is the point of eating chocolate at all if you are just going to pile on extra ingredients and dilute the flavour.)  well each to their own.

For making milk chocolate do not just add milk as this will change the consistency and increase the fat content instead you should use milk powder. I had a look to see what the dairy free options for raw chocolate were ( personally I eat dairy but my sister and mother would rather substitute dairy in their diets) and well let's just say there wasn't exactly that much option if you wanted a dairy free milk chocolate bar and if there was it didn't taste all that great. I therefore decided to make my own with coconut milk hence the quest to find coconut milk powder.

The first thing you want to is to grind your cube of cocoa liquor into powdered form.

 Now comes the maths bit.

I have 37g of cacao liquor and will be wanting the same quantity of the milk powder.

37 +37=74

74g=100g right?

Well not quite as to make the chocolate more palatable I needed to add sugar and fat. I therefore worked from the equation:74/80 x 100 = x

This would mean that 100% would be 92.5g and subsequently that my sugar and fat content would be 18.5g therefore 9.25g each…well 9g getting into decimals of sugar is quite hard.

Ok maths over you can come back now.

The next stage on our homemade chocolate challenge is to conch our chocolate. I do not however have a large conching machine that you see at most chocolatiers but I have found that a heated up pestle and mortar does the trick nicely.

Heat your pestle or is it the mortar? The bowl bit anyway in the oven for about 20 minutes. I put the stick bit in as well and ended up having the conch with an oven cloth wrapped around both the pestle and mortar. Not ideal.

Put in all the cacao and grind for about two minutes before removing, adding coconut oil and truvia (sugar from the stevia root)  and replacing into the bowl for more grinding. Conching your chocolate helps to purify acidic compounds and improve the flavour so there are no guidelines for how long to conch your chocolate.

Once happy with your now smooth melted chocolate add the milk powder gradually. I started to panic at this stage as my chocolate looked to be clumping and was similar in texture to burnt chocolate. Luckily I learnt that the milk powder that I was using was just quite coarse and it was this that was affecting the chocolate and I hadn't in fact burnt anything. Panic over.

Temper the chocolate. There a few ways you can do this including a process called 'seeding' for this you melt your chocolate and then stir in commercial chocolate. Yet this would 'contaminate' the chocolate you had made so I prefer the 'tabling' method:

 Pour out the chocolate onto a flat, smooth surface such as marble or a non porous chopping board. With a pastry slice work the melted chocolate quickly around the board. The reason that we temper chocolate is to stop it from solidifying in an unstable form, through tempering solid fat crystals have more of chance to form from its molecules meaning that we end up with a chocolate with a better shine but also longer shelf life.

Place your chocolate in a mould and sprinkle on roasted cashew nuts (optional) before placing your chocolate to set in the fridge for about an hour.

Anxiety Girl strikes back

I am siting on the sofa at my sister's house bunny sitting and I am currently freaking out. Why? I don't know, maybe I'm just an anxious person. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying that I have anxiety disorder but I do think that I have been anxious for quite some time. So here I would like to share some of the ways I try to deal with my anxiety:

Play with cute, fluffy bunnies - Lily and Edgar do not like to be picked up and cuddled but they do love to be stroked…for hours on end and they will even let you cry into their fur sometimes.

Cry - well err duh! No but seriously it actually works. You've heard the saying that 'everyone needs a good cry now and then' well it does actually work as I often feel like I am letting out pent upfeelings and  emotions.

 Bake- I admit it I'm a stress baker, I mean you should have seen the amount of shortbread in our house after Cleo went missing. On a side note though it did taste delicious

Dance like nobody is watching -turn on MTV or Spotify on full blast and shake what your momma gave ya - although if anyone asks I will deny that is ever happened

Write- it doesn't really matter what; a blog post, poem, shopping list, anything really. Getting your thoughts down on paper (or on a screen) let's you express yourself or channels your thoughts into something creative that might even be quite good

Watch your favourite  show - but preferably keep it in the comedy genre, now hit me with some Glee. - note this also applies with films or reading books, nobody can deal with something  like The Fault In Our Stars right now

Watch YouTube videos - like this helpful one from Zoella

Go to a place where you have never been before where no one knows your name - get a cup of coffee and relax knowing that you are totally dis attached to everything and everyone…..until you can't find your way home and oh bother I'm lost

On the other hand here are some things that really do not help in times like this:

Getting lost - jetting off by yourself and hiding away to be a social recluse is all well and good until you get lost and have no idea where you are and can't get back and OMG PANIC!

Other people - Even talking to friends can seem overwhelming when I'm in a state of panic. I can start to feel claustrophobic if surrounded by others or even worse I'll start to compare my life to theirs and then feel worse about myself…and yeah it all goes down hill from there.

Phone calls-  in the same vain talking to people on the phone really stresses me out. I mean I don't know what to say? Like what exactly are the social niceties or whatever when you are on the phone? When am I supposed to hang up? Are you done talking? Can I say something now? Like what thehell is this? Basically just don't call me I can't handle it

Watching/ reading/listening to sad films/programmes/books/music - I just have too many feelings

Having a nice hot bath - see this previous post

Bunnies- they run away, they stamp their feet, they do cheeky things like chew stuff.

Baking - when things go wrong and your left with a massive mess in the kitchen and can't work out what was wrong and then get shouted out for things not working and……….yup I'm a failure

Dancing - I will fall over and get hurt, then bruises will follow, then I will be limping then I will cry, or maybe the crying comes before this part.

Crying - everyone wants to know why you are crying! Like why can't they just leave you alone to cry in peace. But no people are always asking what's wrong even if they have like never spoken to you before suddenly it is now their business that I am crying.

Watching YouTube videos - why can't I be like them? (This also implies to all other celebrities EVER also literally every other person you know)

Write - getting annoyed when whatever you set out to write doesn't turn out to be exactly like how you wanted it to turn out. This is especially true is the case of shopping lists, I had such high hopes for my shopping list but it's just a list and it doesn't even sound very good, I mean why are bananas and milk next to each other. I mean who even does that!?!

Date, Apricot and Chia seed cake

Things are about to get experimental in the kitchen once more as we are going to embark making a fat free, (refined) sugar free, eggless, gluten free cake. This cake would be suitable for coeliacs,  lactose intolerance, vegans, vegetarians and also everyone else who fancies trying something different (like me) however I would advise you to steer clear of this recipe if you have a nut allergy.

For this recipe (that I just made up this morning) you will need:

1 cup of pitted dates
1 cup of dried apricots
3tbsp chia seeds
12tbsp water
100g walnuts
150g ground almonds
150g sultanas
1tsp baking powder
2tbsp agave nectar

Place the dates and apricots in cups and soak in water for 30 minutes

I read somewhere (here actually) that hydrated chia seeds can used in recipes as a substitute for eggs. Using the ratio 1 part chia to 3 parts water this soluble fibre will form a thick gel.1/4 cup of hydrated chia seeds equals approximately 1 egg.

Ok so with all the scientificy bit out of the way let's carry on with our recipe. Place 3 tablespoons of chia seeds in a cup and add 9-12 tablespoons of cold water. Leave to stand for 15 minutes and you will notice a thick gel beginning to form.

Grind your walnuts and combine in a mixing bowl with the ground almonds. Add the ground apricots, (I left mine quite chunky to add texture) dates, sultanas,agave nectar and baking powder to help the cake to rise in the oven (my baking powder is gluten free)

Combine all the ingredients and transfer the mixture to a greased loaf tin or muffin cases if you prefer. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. The muffins will take around 22-25 mins whereas the loaf will need about 40 mins. A good test to see if the cake is done is to insert a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean the cake is done.

This cake (if I can even call it a cake I mean it contains no flour, butter,sugar or eggs so what even is it?) is not all together that sweet, add more agave or honey for more sweetness so would go well with some jam and tea. On another side note as there is very little raising agent in this cake it will not rise very much (if at all) so it will be quite dense instead of light and airy as can be expected from normal cakes.