Dairy free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I thought it was about time I tried another cookie recipe and this month I found this one on the Mean Miss Mustard website.  This is a new site for me, but I think I will be back time and time again, so many good recipes on there from mains, to soups and snacks.

This is an already egg free recipe but to make mine dairy free aswell I used Pure Sunflower sperad and dark chocolate.  They came out really well and very tasty, easy to make a small batch too - which always helps when you just can't stop eating them.

Any other recipe recommendations always appreciated, anything we just have to try?

H,xxx

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Long Weekend Crafts to try and of course, Cake

Well good morning to you!  and the reason for being so chipper on a Monday is that it's a Bank Holiday here this weekend coming!  An extra lie-in, an extra day out or an extra day to craft, whatever your pleasure, enjoy it.  It's that time of year where the extra long weekend could not come at a better time - definately in need of a break and as its a bank holiday we can pretty much rest assured it will rain at some point, so some staying in a relaxing will be happening!

I thought I would share with you a few things I am planning with my long weekend and perhaps a rainy day, so you can get some ideas and also start having a look for your own.  Well, that's what lunch breaks are for right?

So, we start with something I have been meaning to do for ages, since I won the Red Ted book.  It's got to be animal or creature related!  These little ducks are amazing and are painted stones, I have been saving up stones when I see shapes that make me think of animals and so I think this weekend will be the perfect time to have a go.  You can see the tutorial here.

Image courtesy of www.redtedart.com

Next up I think it has to be a recipe, as we all know we love a bit of cake here at Live it. Love it. Make it and as I am trying to keep off the Dairy, I am always after a new recipe and I have heard about using apple sauce instead of the fat and as much sugar.  So, when I found this recipe for Applesauce Cinnamon muffins on the Dairy free "Tried and True" blog, I thought I should definitely give it a go.

Photo courtesy of www.dairyfreetriedandtrue.blogspot.co.uk

After having a bit of a clear out last weekend - I know, I do this far too much!  I do love a declutter as we all know.  I found more of a stash of fat quarters than I thought I had - denial is a beautiful thing!  So what better thing to do this weekend than plan a few makes with all my new found goodies.  I found this blog post that I thought would give me some great ideas to start - she has done the running around for me by collecting tutorials from the internet - brilliant.



 Last but not least is a simple Cacti project, but one that looks so cool to do.  It may well be one of those Man Vs Pin moments though and not look as good in real life as it does on Pinterest, but I thought it would be worth a go.  I am trying my hand at looking after Cacti again as I am not green fingered at all, but these are simple, right!???

I think that will keep me going for a bit!  What are you guys up to for the long weekend?  Any crafting or just relaxing?

I am also planning a few movies and some reading, this is starting to sound suspiciously like I am getting to have too much fun with this long weekend.

Whatever you are up to, have fun! 

Until then, happy planning.

H

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Make it: Dairy Free Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins

When food shopping last week, I found a recipe card down the yogurt aisle and as it uses Alpro Soya Yogurt which is dairy free - I thought it was worth a go for my new found dairy free diet.  I substituted a couple of the other ingredients too, to make it completely dairy and gluten free and it seemed to work well, so I thought I would share it with you.  It also helps to redeem myself after our epic birthday cake fail!

The Ingredients:

225g plain flour - I used gluten free flour
140g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon zest, grated
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
245g Alpro Simply Plain soya yogurt alternative
2 tbsp poppy seeds
100g melted margarine - I used soya spread

Heat an oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas Mark 6, and line a muffin tray with muffin cases.

In a large bowl sift the flour along with the baking powder. Next add the sugar, lemon zest, poppy seeds and salt, and stir to combine.

In another bowl whisk together the lemon juice, egg and Alpro Simply Plain.

Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry, being careful not to over-mix. Spoon into the muffin cases and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until well risen and cooked through.

I managed to make around 10-12 from the mixture, but the recipe states that it makes 8.  I suppose it depends on how big you want your muffins.

I also, made a second batch and added around 100g of Blueberries instead of the Poppy Seeds, these were just as yummy.  In fact, I took them to work and didn't say they were dairy or gluten free and no one noticed, which is always nice.  They are great with a glass of juice when its warm, or a good cuppa when you are cold.


You can find the recipe here along with many other good recipes and I used Doves Farm Plain Flour and Pure Soya spread to make my version of the recipe.  Normally with Gluten free flour you have to add an extra bit of liquid, but as this recipe uses the yogurt, I think it works just as well.

These are so easy to make and there would be some other really great variations.  You can buy the yogurt in lots of different flavours too, which I am sure would work just as well.

H

We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a picture and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake

 Live, Love, Make, Like, Share, Follow, Tweet, Pin, Add, Enjoy. 

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Blog Birthday Baking: EPIC FAIL

It's that time of year again, when it is our Birthday!  Our 3rd Blog Birthday to be precise, how time has flown!  We have had so much fun doing the blog and love telling you all about what we get up to.  We hope you stay with us, as we have lots of plans and more crafty fun adventures to share.

As with any birthday, it is not a true birthday without cake and so we thought we would give a new recipe a go, one that is dairy free for H and using agave nectar for Sammy.  We do like a challenge! 

However this time all did not go to plan.....

H found the recipe on the madhava website and you can see it here.

Now, by no means are we proficient bakers, but we do like to have a go.  We decided to make cupcakes with the mix instead of a big cake - which may well have been our first error - this is a baking fail post afterall!

We used plain flour instead of the almond flour - as H does not eat nuts.  Again, this was probably another error as plain flour is much heavier than almond flour.

They looked pretty good at this stage!  As they were smaller we only baked them for around 10 mins, which in hindsight was a bit too much, perhaps we should have given a shorter cooking time - especially for the mini ones.  They were - how do we say this - rock hard!  Obviously we had to give one a try each, but hard and hollow sounding is never going to make a successful bake.

One success was the Marshmallow frosting, it came out pretty darn well - even if we do say ourselves.  By this stage though, we were realising that are cakes were more pretty than tasty.  So we set them up and took some pictures and even those didn't go as planned, over and underexposed, really bad white balance, the list goes on...

We wanted to show you our 'fail', as it is a part of who we are, none of us are perfect. We all have bad bakes, bad 'art days', bad days in general. We are all only human.

If you do try the recipe and follow it properly, then please do let us know what it actually turns out like.  I am sure it is amazing if done well.   I think it was more a case of the bakers than the recipe here!

We are off to go buy some cake.
H & Sammy

Book Review: Candy Kittens

After my Link for the week on Monday we got right in the baking mood and so we thought what better way than review the Candy Kittens book that we got sent by Fluorescent PR.

Candy Kittens is a company owned by Jamie Laing - of Made in Chelsea fame and who's family own McVitie's.  So great credentials to put some sweet treat recipe's together and that's just what this book is, a real sweet treat book.  No bread making or pie's here.

I must admit that my knowledge of Jamie was pretty non-existent, not being a Made in Chelsea fan would mean that anything to do with it is fairly off limits.  However, the book has some great recipes in it to make those sweet treats that are a little bit different to the usual baking books out there.  It is also pretty pink and sparkly and defiantly made for a younger crowd, but that doesn't mean the recipes are age appropriate!

Throughout the book, each section starts with a lovely picture of one of the recipes in its section, just like the macaroons above.  To show what the book has to offer, we have picked some of our favourite recipes to have a look at for the review.

We all know that cupcakes are a big favourite treat and there are some lovely colourful versions in this book, but I just couldn't resist these kitten shaped cake pops for a picture!  Sammy has made cake pops in the past, but these are so cute that I'm not sure whether we could eat them!

H does love a gingerbread house and this Chelsea Townhouse one is definitely a favourite and it is probably the only version we could afford!  I might even give it a go at Christmas, that's if I don't eat all the gingerbread first of course!

Another favourite of H's is bubble tea.  I first came across it in Singapore and have been grabbing different versions of it as I go along.  I really want to try this version out and have even brought my tapioca pearls in preparation for it.  This is not for everyone as it is a drink with the tapioca pearls that come up through the straw, but for some reason, I love it!

All in all, the Candy Kittens book has some great recipes in it, there are also a few fillers in there too - the rice crispie cake recipe just seems a bit unnecessary.  I am also not a fan of the street talk and 'please buy the clothes we endorse' extras.  But I guess you can't like everything hey!  The recipe's are easy to follow and a favourite of H's is not too many ingredients, as who wants to scour the supermarket for all the things you have never even heard of.

For the most part though it's just a fun book and so much so that I went and bought one for a friend for her birthday.  That must be a good review hey.

Make it

H & Sammy

Disclaimer: Although we were sent the book by Fluorescent PR we were not obligated to give it a positive review. 

Link for the week: The Bake Off Book

Now we all love a bit of The Great British Bake Off - for those abroad, go check it out on BBC.

For the 4th series they have brought out a book about Everyday bakes.  Now I am not great with cook books in general as I have a relaxed approach to making sure I have all the ingrediants they ask for.  However, when it comes to baking, you have to make sure its all right, otherwise you end up with very random concoction!  Sorry to those who have had to eat those!

I thought that this week's link should be where you can buy the book so that you can become just like Mary Berry herself:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-British-Bake-Off-Foolproof/dp/1849906084

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/18288/Great-British-Bake-Off%3A-Everyday?src=gfeed&gclid=CNTjv4mpv7oCFSbHtAodsjQAsQ

Plenty of other shops have the book, but at the time of writing this post, these two were the cheapest I could find.

Also, there is a great review here about the book.

have fun baking!

H

5 Things I love about ... Autumn

This month's 'Things I love about' is all about Autumn, just because it's one of my favourite times of year and it seems like it's a favourite for a-lot of people!  If my Instagram feed is anything to go by anyway.

So, I think I should get started and tell you what I love so much about it.

1.  Wearing scarves - I love scarves, I love being able to wrap up with one and in autumn we can wear thinner coats and big thick scarves or thicker coats with thinner scarves.  Which just means more choice, lovely.  That's always the excuse when I keep buying more scarves too, you need one for every occasion!

2.  The leaves turning brown - I love it when the leaves fall and they turn brown.  You also have to enjoy rustling your feet through them all in a big pile.  Who didn't love jumping in a big pile of leaves as a child and as I have grown up, I still love doing it.

3.  Hot drinks - I don't really drink hot drinks apart from in the autumn and winter.  I do love a good cuppa or hot chocolate - with a biscuit of course.  There is something really nice about settling down with blogging and a brew!  Keeps the mind working.

4.  Jumpers - who doesn't love snuggling in a jumper on the sofa.  Get the jeans on, jumper on and your good to go.  Again, a great excuse for buying more jumpers!  As if I need anymore excuses.

5.  Baking - I always feel like baking more in the colder months.  The heat of the oven keeps you warm too.  Plus it's just lovely trying new recipes and baking something nice for a friend or for work.

There are loads more that I could have done, but what's your favourite thing about Autumn?  Let me know in the comments below?

Love it

H

Michelle Makes ... Mini Cinnamon Churros

Hello there, we are starting a new series of posts over here in our little blog world and we thought you could all do with a little break from us talking all the time and so we would get the lovely Michelle from Spotted Rose to do some recipe posts for us once a month!

We are really excited as it means we can look what yummy things she makes and amaze at how she has the time.  We have known Michelle since our College days and so it's nice to share the love through the blog world.

Enough of our rambling, it's over to her for her first post.  I know you will all be lovely to her and definitely go check out her blog once you have read this.

Firstly I’d like to say a huge thank you to H & Sammy for having me over on their gorgeous blog !! I have been an admirer of it for some time and it’s a great pleasure to be guest posting for them.

A little about me: I run the little craft, baking & lifestyle blog www.spottedrose.co.uk and I blog about all things pretty.  I am always creating things and baking and get so much enjoyment from it – I want to share it with everyone and help you to be creative too!

I LOVE baking and I want to try making everything that looks as good as it tastes – so I share tried and tested recipes for all sorts (normally sweet things!)  I also love crafting – so I share tutorials on how to make gorgeous things yourself!  There is a little bit on healthy foods too (this is growing) and a few lovely reviews thrown in just for fun!

I also run a little Etsy shop where I sell some of the pretty crafts I make. You might be able to guess looking at it, that I love roses.

So here is my first post and I REALLY hope you like it.

Mini Cinnamon Churros.

I have had these for dessert a few times recently in one of my favourite restaurants and ooh they are yummy and moreish!  I always thought they would be really tricky to make though so never gave them ago.  But now I am in trouble, because they are super easy and SO much fun to make!

I really hope if you feel the same and you will give them a go!

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter

• 175g plain flour

• ¼ tsp baking powder

• 3 large eggs, beaten

• sunflower oil, for frying

• 2tbsp caster sugar & tsp of cinnamon, for sprinkling

• 200ml water

• pinch of salt

• chocolate to melt (amount is up to you!)

Adapted from BBC Good Food Recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1715635/churros-with-hot-chocolate-sauce

Special Equipment

You will need a cooking/sugar thermometer for the oil (although once it has been boiling for 5-10mins you should be at the right temp and just leave the heat on or do the bread test mentioned below). I got mine from a local hardware store for about £3.

I also used a wire rack from a deep fat fryer, but you can just use a big fork/spoon with holes in.

So first measure out all your ingredients…

Pop the butter in a pan, you can cut into chunks to make it easier.  Add 200ml of water and a pinch of salt and bring to the boil.

Whilst this is boiling, sieve the flour and baking powder together.

When the mixture is boiling, remove it from the heat and quickly stir in the sifted flour and baking powder.

Beat the mix with a wooden spoon or mixer until it’s smooth.

It will all come together and form a bit of a ball of dough like mixture as below.

Tip the mixture into a bowl and cool for a couple of minutes.

Then gradually add the beaten eggs one at a time, beating well until the mixture is smooth, glossy and drops reluctantly from a spoon.

It will look like this:

Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave the batter to one side to rest for 30 minutes.

Mix your sugar and cinnamon in a bowl to get it ready for sprinkling.

Now for the fun bit!! (and slightly dangerous so be careful, although I felt very safe and it didn’t really spit!)

Fill your saucepan (as large as you have) one third full with oil. Boil it until it reaches 180 – 190c on your thermometer.  Or if you don’t have one there is a trick with a piece of bread that will tell you when it’s ready  – pop a little square into the oil and it will turn brown in about a minute)

Fill your piping bag with the mixture, fitted with a star nozzle and once your oil is hot enough you are ready for the super fun bit! I was SO excited at this point.

So, holding your piping bag really tight - pipe 2 small strips of batter directly into the hot oil, be careful and get some help if you need it or just for a spectator, because it’s so cool!

Chop the batter off with a pair of scissors and let it drop gently into the oil.  Only do 2 or 3 at a time as they don’t take very long to cook.

Ooh look at them sizzling!!

Cook them for about 45 seconds.

You can keep pulling them out of the oil to see they when they are browned enough for your liking!

Perfect!

Tip them out on some kitchen roll for a few seconds.

Then dip them, roll them or sprinkle them in your delicious cinnamon sugar mix!

Ooh they smell SO delicious at this point – obviously you have to try one (or two, or ….eight)!

Melt your chocolate at this point or if you are adventurous, make a nice chocolate sauce.

If you have any left at this point – display them nicely with your melted chocolate in a dish, I tried a couple of different ways and serve to you family & friends, I promise they will be devoured in seconds!

I really hope you like them and are inspired to try them, as they really are so much fun to make and OH SO delicious to eat!

Thank you for reading

Michelle x

Make it: Sunny Orange cake

Hey guys, something about this week made me want to bake and I thought why not my favourite Orange cake for a bit of (not that bad for you) cake.

I am not saying that it's perfect, but lots of Vitamin C must be good right?  It makes a nice change from Lemon Drizzle cake too, which although gorgeous, it's nice to have something a little different. Plus when I took it into work, it was demolished within a few hours, so it must have been ok.

The ingredients you will need are:

for the cake

4 eggs, seperated

100g/4oz caster sugar

150g/5oz self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp finely grated orange zest

juice of 2 large oranges

for the icing

juice of 1-2 large oranges

icing sugar (as much as to make the consistency you want)

orange zest to decorate

Preheat the oven to 190°C/ Gas mark 5.  Line a 20cm/8in cake tin with non-stick baking parchment.

Place the egg yolks, caster sugar, self raising flour, baking powder, orange zest and juice in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until softly peaked, then fold them into the egg yolk mixture.  Spoon this mixture into the prepared cake tin and cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is risen and firm to the touch.  Leave to cool.  (just to note, this cake does not rise hugely, so don't think it hasn't worked if it's not the usual size).

When the cake has cooled completely.  Place icing sugar bit by bit into some of the juice and mix well.  The consistency you want is up to you.  You could pierce holes in the top of the cake and pour a thinner mixture over for it to soak in, or make it thicker like my version, to make it sit on the top.

Then Voila!  Just try not to eat it all and share it about.

Let me know if you bake this and how it went?  Also if you have any failsafe recipes for me to try, do let me know in the comments below.

Make it

H

Make it: Quick bake biscuits

With all the horrible weather we have been having recently, I have been inclined to stay indoors and make a few treats to keep myself going through all the crafting/blogging.

I found these simple to make biscuits and they can be made with store cupboard bits without even having to leave the house for extra ingredients.

It's a very simple recipe:

100g/4oz Butter

50g/2oz Sugar

a few drops of vanilla essence

175g/6oz Plain Flour

1.  Preheat oven to 150c / Gas 2

2.  Add the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix until light and fluffy.

3.  Add the vanilla, mix, then add the flour and mix well.  

4.  Roll out to about 5mm and cut into shapes or if like me, life is just too short, make small balls out of the mixture and push down on a baking sheet to about 5mm thick.

5.  Then pop them into the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Then voila, done.  Just wait for them to cool and you have some simple biscuits. You could add chocolate drops or nuts if you would like something a bit extra, just add them in at the mixing stage. Unfortunately they get eaten far too quickly with me, but as they are so easy to make, I can always make another batch hey!

What's your favourite quick bake?  let me know in the comments below.

Make it

H 

Link for the week: Pancakes

So tomorrow is Pancake day!  woop.

Even though they are so easy to make and I love them, I only seem to make them once a year on pancake day and so it's a real treat.  I thought I would share with you this simple recipe from BBC Food so none of you have to buy those weird pancake mix in a bottle things from the supermarket, so no excuses!

Now these are the thinner, not quite crepe type of pancakes, I do like the big american style pancakes but they can be left for another time.  Today is all about the lemon and sugar covered pancakes that I remember from my childhood, just the way I love them! Although these fruity cream ones look amazing too!  How do you eat yours?

mmmmake it

H

Make it: Christmas Baking gifts

Just thought I would share with you some pics of the Christmas baking I have been doing to give as gifts this year. Here is a photo of the Coconut Macaroons I made for my Dad, they were Yummy! I will totally be making them again although he might not see any next time....

 

These are the Gingerbread hearts I made for G'pa. this was the 5th batch I made of these, they mysteriously kept going missing. I used this recipe from BBC Food and it worked really well.

 

I was not the only one with the idea of gifting food, this was the divine home made fudge and chocolate covered marshmallows  given to me by the Gorgeous Kelly as my Christmas present!

Love it! Christmas Baking!!

Sammy xxx