fresh

I learn something new every time. I've never used or heard of courgette till now. They look like cucumbers but with a head and no seeds. Its a squash which is a type of plant like pumpkins. Like cucumbers, it doesn't have a very strong taste and is very watered out. 

48.carrot and courgette muffins

This muffin had soft light brown sugar in it unlike the last one. I also used sunflower oil instead of butter. Natural yogurt, vanilla extract and of course eggs. It reminded me of the carrot cake recipe with a few ingredients added or removed and different proportions.

I grated the carrots and courgette and stirred it in the batter with some chopped walnuts.

best breakfast

Some say the difference between a muffin and a cupcake is that one has frosting and the other doesn't, some say its muffins aren't as sweet as cupcakes. After making this muffin, i discovered that a muffin is like a cross between cake and bread, doesn't have(or need) frosting and also doesn't always have to be sweet. The size of a muffin case being bigger than a cupcake case also suggests that its meant to be more filling and not just a dessert. This freshly baked savoury muffin, with a cup of my favourite tea, was the best breakfast i've had in a while.

47.ham and mushroom muffins

Started off with onions and button mushroom fried in butter. It felt like i was cooking and not baking.

Grated cheddar and flour in a bowl with some milk and eggs, then the fried mushrooms and chopped ham were stirred in.

It was very thick and doughy. I wasn't sure if i had done it right but i just kept going. I spooned it into the muffin cases and baked to golden perfection.

go, go, power bar

This recipe reminded me of a TV show i loved growing up called 'Power Rangers'. A bunch of kids with super vehicles that came together to form a super robot to fight against crime and the forces of evil. Of course my friends and i were one ranger or the other. At the time it was fun, but its one of those things you shake your head thinking about today.

46.rocky road bars

It seems snickers, maltesers, cornflakes, marshmallows and all the other great things in this bar were simply not good enough alone. They just had to come together to form this super bar.

Melted milk chocolate mixed into all those ingredients, sprinkled with chocolate vermicelli and put in the fridge to harden.

easy peasy lemon squeeze

45.lemon bars

Of all the bars I've made so far,this is the only one I've baked. It's quite like a lemon meringue pie in a bar minus the meringue. I made the base from flour, sugar and zest. Instead of caster sugar, icing sugar was used and it made the dough much lighter and softer. 

The second layer of this bar was made from egg, lemon zest and juice and sugar. This is the part that reminded me of a lemon meringue pie. This was poured over the base that had been baked for a few minutes and baked again. Cooled and put in the fridge overnight.

Not too tangy, gooey, crumbly and had a melt in the mouth feel which I believe is owed to the icing sugar.

my goodness!

I love my Alpen and Fruit'n'Fibre in the morning but when there are no minutes available to sit with my bowl of cereal in the morning before i have to run out the door, hungry is how i start my day and thats no fun. I'm totally in love with this muesli bar. It has nearly ten fruits, nuts and seeds all jam-packed to make a delicious bar held together with soft light brown sugar and golden syrup. Its sweet, sticky, chewy, crunchy, tangy, and best of all, healthy. What could this bar do wrong? I haven't had the healthiest diet over the past few weeks and this is an exciting discovery on how to add goodness to my diet. The last couple of recipes have been so quick and easy to make and this one in no exception.

44.muesli bar
Once again, no baking required. I prepared the glue in a saucepan; butter, golden syrup and soft light brown sugar.

In a large bowl i threw chopped apricots, dates, rolled oats, many more fruits and nuts and cornflakes. As stated in my last post, I'm not sure how i feel about using ready-to-eat products as ingredients. Cornflakes falls in this category.

All stirred up well and pressed down into a prepared tin. After a night in the fridge to set, i cut a myself a bar and enjoyed every bit of it to the last crumb.

mud crunch

Once again its the beginning of an academic year and I'm super busy so there have been fewer posts. After looking through this recipe and realizing how easy it i had to find time to make it. I've always been a bit unsure about using ready-to-eat products such as biscuits, chocolate bars etc as a baking ingredient. Is it really baking if you're using something someone else has already prepared? Like just adding milk to a pancake mix doesn't mean you know how to make pancakes. Digestive biscuits and Oreos have become very common ingredients in several recipes. I guess cookies & cream ice cream won't be the same without Oreos or cheesecake might not be right without the digestive biscuit base. I suppose somethings were made just right to play a role in a bigger picture.

43. chocolate fridge cake bars
The only cooking that happened was some melting over the stove. Butter, cocoa powder and golden syrup.

All i had to do with the digestive biscuits was break it up into small chunks. Lots of digestives and raisins with the chocolate mixture stirred in to bring it all together. I think the golden syrup was used instead of sugar not only to sweeten but to act like the glue and help keep the whole thing together. 

Mixed it up for a while to make sure it was evenly dispersed and then pressed it down into the prepared tray. It had to be compressed and packed tightly. This will be cut into bars after a night in the fridge. No baking required.

white delight

White chocolate is so often forgotten. I found this brownie to be very different from the traditional brownie and a nice treat without being so dark chocolate concentrated. Pecan nuts added that extra crunch i think without them this brownie would have been boring.

42.blondie

This white chocolate brownie is made pretty much the same as the traditional brownie but instead of dark chocolate, white chocolate. The nuts were stirred in last and that was it. Quick and easy.