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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Make it: Dairy free Brownies Recipe

This month, the rainy weather has got me all confused with where we should be with our seasons and so I decided that Brownies in July is a great idea!

I found this recipe on the Temporary Secretary blog and so I thought I would give it a go, its really simple and we all know I love to find a new recipe, especially one I can make dairy free so easily.

You will need:
145g unsalted butter (I used Stork as it is cows milk free)
60g good quality dark chocolate
200g caster sugar
2 beaten eggs
75g dark or milk chocolate chips (dark chocolate is usually dairy free)
30g plain flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Oven to 170 degrees

To start with you will need to line a baking tin with greaseproof paper and then melt the butter and dark chocolate together and then leave to cool.

Once it has cooled, add the sugar, vanilla extract and beaten eggs.

Finally, add the chocolate drops, flour and salt and then fold in.  You do not want to overmix and so just fold in until it is all combined.  Then pour it into the tin and cook for 45mins.  Put a skewer in the centre to check it is cooked through (ie. the skewer comes out clean).

Then leave to cool for 15 mins in the tin before taking it out and putting on a cooling rack to cool completely before cutting into squares.  Then eat!

This brownie recipe makes a really nice gooey brownie and so not for the faint hearted, I had mine with some Oatly chocolate milk!  A complete chocolate overload!

If you have a go at making this please do tag us with #livelovemake on twitter or instagram.  Or if you in fact have another recipe I should try, do let me know.

H,xxx

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Make it: Banana and Oat Bites

It's Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK and I am having a bit of a rest day - It's been a busy summer so far and so it is well needed.  Usually this means I like to bake at some point and so I thought I would give these Banana and Oat Bites a go that I found in the Sainsbury's Magazine - plus they so so simple to make.

You will need:
Mash 2 ripe Bananas
60g Porridge Oats
30g Apple sauce
1tsp Ground Cinnamon

Put your oven onto 180C, if it's a fan oven put it to 160C or Gas mark 4.  Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mash up the banana until it's all mixed together.  This will only make a small batch of about 8 and so if you need more you can scale up the mixture for your desired amount.

Then add desert spoon sized blobs onto a baking sheet and pop into the oven for 18-20 minutes until golden.

Take them out and wait for them to cool a little and then devour!  When they first come out of the oven they are crunchy on the top but when they have cooled completely they are a bit more chewy.  Let's face it they are not the same as having a big old cookie, but they are pretty good (as long as you like bananas) and a healthier version too.

They also go brilliantly with a cup of tea - with the looks of this weather, I think it's a day for cosy food and warm tea!

Have a great Monday, whether you are on a Bank Holiday or not.
H

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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

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

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Make it: Dairy Free Cookies

It's just about typical for me that I have developed a Dairy intolerance, to be fair, it has been around for a while, but I actually just went and got myself tested and found out what it was all about.  So, I have been trying some good old recipes using dairy free spread to see whether I can still eat the things I already love!

I thought I would have a go at Chocolate and Oat cookies as you can have 50% and above dark chocolate if you are going dairy free and just replace the butter with dairy free spread.

They tasted pretty damn good too, the only difference I could tell is that they spread a little more in the oven.

You will need: 113g dairy free spread ( I use Vitalite or Pure Soya), 110g brown sugar, 100g caster sugar, 128g plain flour, 106g oats, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 100g dark chocolate (50% and above) and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

This recipe is relatively easy, put all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well, then add a desert spoon sized dollop onto baking sheets and put in the oven at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

That is literally all you need to do.  This recipe makes about 15 cookies, I doubled up my batch to make loads for a friends birthday and they seemed to go down very well.  I don't think they even knew!

What's your favourite recipe, whether dairy free or not, let me know in the comments below.  If you do have any great recipes for dairy free though, I would love to hear about them as I am trying to find more all the time.

It does make me very hungry doing these posts, but as they are so quick I could probably just make up a a batch after work, right? 

H

Make it: Ginger Biscuits

Last week I became a bit obsessed about making Ginger Biscuits!  I wanted to make something for a volunteer afternoon at work and so I decided on biscuits rather than cake and of course I had to have a dry run earlier in the week and so my colleagues got a very biscuit friendly week!

This was the recipe that Jane Horrocks recently used for The Great Sport Relief Bake Off and aparently Paul Hollywood's mum uses the same recipe, so it must be good!  I found the recipe on another blog: http://busybutterfingers.blogspot.co.uk/

They are so simple to make and you are most likely to have most of the ingredients already which is always a good start.  They do go hard really quickly, which I like, but you do have to have strong teeth or a good cuppa to dip them in!  I also added stem ginger to mine to make them extra Gingery, but you can leave out if you prefer.

Recipe

110g unsalted butter

110g brown sugar

110g golden syrup

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp ground ginger
50g Stem Ginger

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 180*C and grease baking sheets.

2.  Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan gently until all melted together.

3.  Remove from the heat and add the dry ingredients to make a dough.

4.  Make into balls about a 50p size – do not flatten.

5.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

6.  Allow to cool and try not to eat them all!

If you try them out, let me know.  I also made some chocolate chip versions with a smaller amount of golden syrup and they seemed to stay softer for longer.  So do play around with the recipe and let me know what you get up to!

H

Michelle Makes: Honeycomb

Everyone is already talking about Christmas, so I thought I would share with you a super fun and easy treat that you can adapt for the children or the grown-ups in your life, for sharing over the holidays or packaging up and giving as gifts.

This really is such a fun easy treat to make that you might never buy another Crunchie in your life!

The ingredients are simple, all you need is caster sugar, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda.

You could also do with a sugar thermometer for this one, but it’s not essential.

So start by weighing out 100g of caster sugar in your pan and add 4 tablespoons of golden syrup.  My that stuffs sticky!!

Mix it together to form a paste.

Then on a very low heat, bring the mixture to the boil slowly.

Let it bubble away gently like this for about 3–4 minutes until the mixture reaches the soft boil stage (112-115c on a sugar thermometer) or drop a tiny amount in a bowl of cold water, (if you can squish it flat, then it’s ready).

At this stage add 1.5 tsp of bicarbonate of soda to the mixture, take it off the heat and give it a couple of stirs. It will froth up pretty quickly so don’t get scared!

I am glad that I got this in shot because it was a pretty quick frothing moment!

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and leave it to set for a couple of hours.

At this stage I wanted to make my honeycomb for the children a bit more fun and playful so I added some marshmallows and jelly tots to it straight away so that they set in the mixture and poured a little chocolate over it.

When the mixture has hardened, you can just break it up into pieces with your hands.

This is where I decorated my pieces for the grown-ups! I did some covered in a drizzle of chocolate like this:

Quite pretty.

And for the ones below, I wanted a nice sophisticated look, so I dipped the thin pieces in chocolate and playing with the gold packaging of a Crunchie, I added a few little edible gold balls for a nice ‘posh afternoon tea’ effect.

What do you think ?

You can add anything you like at this stage – be creative! I tried some edible glitter on a few of mine.

So if you have any left, (I had eaten about 5 by now) then why not package them up in clear cellophane bag, add some Christmas ribbon and voila, some lovely Christmas Handmade Honeycomb !

I really hope you enjoyed this post and do give it a go, it’s a lot easier than you think and really quite addictive to make and even more so to eat!

Thank you so much for reading xxx

Michelle Makes: Halloween Toffee Apples

Michelle from Spotted Rose is back today with a fun Autumnal treat for you all to try.

I am a big fan of Autumn, especially Halloween.  It’s full of lovely baking, running through the autumn leaves, hot chocolate and toffee apples.  They are a real childhood memory for me so I just HAD to try these for myself. 

I was a little nervous because it means heating sugar to the right temperature, but these were really 

fun to make!  You don’t need a sugar thermometer either, there is a little test you can do, which i’ll explain.  There are quite a few different recipes for these so I kind of adapted them all and made up my own. 

Here’s what you will need:

Small apples (I don’t like biting into big ones, but use what you prefer)

Lolly sticks / paper straws

2 cups caster sugar

½ cup water

½ teaspoon white wine vinegar 

2 tbsp golden syrup

Get the sticks ready first – I stamped my families names on some of the lolly sticks as a special little touch, you could add names or Halloween references !

Stick them into the bottom of the washed and dried apples.

I really wanted to try using paper straws in place of the sticks but they are quite flimsy, BUT by just

using the end of a circular ended teaspoon and sticking this in the bottom of an apple, it made a circular hole and they then fitted in perfectly.

Next to make the toffee, add the sugar and water to a pan and bring to the boil.

Then stir in the vinegar and syrup. Set a sugar thermometer in the pan and boil to 140C or the 'hard crack' stage as they call it.  If you don’t have a thermometer you can test the toffee by dropping a little into a bowl of cold water.  It should harden instantly and when removed be brittle and easy to break. If you can still squish the toffee, it’s not quite ready !

So, this is the fun bit – I decided to make my toffee apples a bit more ‘spooky’ and added some green food colouring and edible green glitter.

Slimy and gross hey! 

Then, very quickly dip the apples in the toffee, swirl them around and drip off any excess.  I used some flower oasis to pop these in and keep them upright to dry.

Here they are…

I then added red colouring to the next ones ...

... and decided to add a little sugar witch and some green glitter !

But the below are my all time favourite ones – I have been dying to try the new edible gold spray from Dr Oktker and this was the perfect opportunity!! 

Gold toffee apples – doesn’t get much better than that hey!

Why not package them up in cellophane and ribbon and give them away as pressies!

If they aren't devoured first like mine were.

Thanks so much for reading & happy Autumn!

Michelle, x 

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