Home Made Healthy Chocolate

I love chocolate and I eat way too much of it but I can't give it up either....there has to be some good treats in my life.  The other day I made these chocolates and I had 1 to 2 a day as my treat and didn't eat any other sweets during the day.

The recipe is from Cut out the Crap blog which is a great resource.  Here is the link to the chocolate recipe.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished chocolates and now they are all gone so I guess I'll have to make another batch.

It's just 3 ingredients coconut oil, cacao powder and maple syrup.  It says you may need a touch of milk however I didn't need this at all.  If you want to make a healthy chocolate give this a go and it took less than 5 mins to mix up and put in the molds.  You could use ice cube trays but the chocolate pieces would be much bigger and hard to cut in half and only eat half.  I buy my coconut oil from Aldi and it's half the cost of the other supermarkets and it's organic too.  The maple syrup comes from Aldi as well.  These are so easy and taste great.  I put mine in the freezer (out of sight) and just got one out when I needed it.

Around Here

Here's what's been going on around our place....

Sienna up in the tree complete with her book and pillow.

Helping me take some moody photos in the backyard.

My kids are growing up...this has to be documented with James growing 2cm in the past 8 weeks.

Hair cut time while reading the iPad.

After said hair cut in the pretty light around the side of our house.

Too cold to take his hoodie off...

Sienna helping in the kitchen with disposable googles that I got after a dentist visit.

Sienna's little crochet project.

Our one lonely lemon.....very neglected.

This is my favourite flowering bush in our back yard.

Still enjoying these healthy muffins I made last week. Recipe here.

The kids and I watched this DVD which had us on the edge of our seats....along with thinking this guy was completely obsessed and crazy.

James playing AFL (Australian Football League)

Sunset after a trip to the park to play.

James playing his guitar.

 Sienna doing some knitting.

Breakfast Seed Muffins - Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Nut & Preservative Free

I recently came across a new to me Australian blog called "Cut out the Crap" by Collette with her story into healthy eating here.  She has a whole host of recipes and the other day I made Breakfast Seed Muffins.  I didn't want to go to the shop and discovered I actually had all the ingredients for the recipe including the 3 tablespoons of orange juice (half an orange) which was amazing because we always have apples in our house and not oranges so I was thrilled when I discovered I had some. I turned the oven on and got about to starting the recipe only to discover it said "brown rice flour" and I thought......I don't have any and I didn't want to go to the shop.  I remembered that my Thermomix mills flour (never done it before) and I had brown rice in the cupboard so 2 minutes in the Thermomix and I had my brown rice flour....I seriously felt like I was so clever.  Here is the link to the recipe.

Getting back to the recipe, it's a very runny liquid type of mixture which made 13 muffins and takes 30 minutes to cook.  It basically tastes like a carrot cake and has a very similar walnut taste of a normal carrott cake because of the sunflower seeds and pepita seeds (pumpkin seeds) which has a lovely crunch.  I will absolutely be making these again.  You can have them cold or warm...I cut mine in half and spread some butter on it and it's so delicious.  I've popped the rest of them into the freezer so I can take out one a day for morning or afternoon tea.  I highly recommend making these and are a great "grab and go breakfast" snack because it has so much goodness in it.  I made mine with a red apple as I don't buy green apples so didn't have any and it was fine.  If you are looking for a healthy treat or an "on the go" breakfast, morning or afternoon tea make some of these.  Here's some pics from my baking.

My carrotts were on their last legs as they were "bendy" not crisp but great for this recipe.

My brown rice in the Thermomix ready to do my first "flour milling"

2 minutes later freshly milled brown rice flour.

Some of the ingredients.

More of the ingredients.

Ready from the oven I made 13 muffins.

Look how delicious they are.

Yum....healthy, tasty and delicious goodness....gluten, dairy, soy, nut and preservative free.

Around Here

Around here we are nearing the end of the school holidays and we've had time to go on a bush walk, try ice skating, see the new Ice Age movie and tomorrow we are going to some Farmers Markets.  Here's a few pics from our holiday.

Winter doggy slippers....

A bit of crochet and snacking on Jatz while watching a DVD.

The kids got to try outdoor ice skating at the Brisbane Winter Festival in the city.

 
Family snap.

Aunty Lisa (my sister) with the kids trying to get a photo.

Collecting leaves.

The last of the pretty autumn leaves.

Helping my sister with some photography tips...

Holiday down time on the iPad.

Ready for the bush walk.

Such pretty light.

There were 3 of these pretty little birds on the table.  We think they are these.

Adventures in Sourdough Bread Making

First off I will start by saying I totally admire people who make sourdough bread and keep their starter alive from week to week and some for years.  My first experience with a sourdough starter was January 2015 (I think) or it could have even been January 2014 however I think I'm going with 2015.  Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial blog mailed out to some readers some of her very famous sourdough starter (dried) called Priscilla.  At the time it was school holidays and it was extremely high temperatures in Brisbane and I didn't really know what I was doing and I failed at getting my starter to work.  This was no fault of Priscilla (Celia's starter) it was me who was inexperienced and it was extremely hot and humid in Brisbane.

This is the starter that I made 2 weeks ago and this picture was taken when it was ready at day 10.

This is what's called "the sponge".

After mixing the sponge etc. and ingredients to get my dough.

Shaped dough with waiting to prove.

Stretched out and then put back into a ball and proved and then stretched out again.

Shape the bread.

Dust the bread with rye flour, letting it prove while the oven heated up and then before it goes into the oven to slash it with a serrated knife.

Finished loaf which was just baked on a tray as I didn't have my enamel cookware at the time.

 This is the texture inside that on first go I was very happy with.

I made my starter and fed it every day for 10 days (it says 7-10 and I went with 10) and I had what I thought resembled a good starter.  I will say that making Sourdough bread is all about the "timing" and using overnight for your dough to prove rather than during the day because other wise you will end up baking bread at 11.30 pm at night like I did keeping every light on the house so that you don't fall asleep with the oven going on at extremely high temperatures.

I made enough dough for 2 loaves however decided to cook one loaf (not sure why) on a tray as I didn't have anything to cook it in at this stage.  The bread was baked and it looked great and and the texture was perfect...SUCCESS.  The next morning I cooked the other loaf and it was dense and no good.  The crust was perfect but the texture inside was no good.  So 1 good loaf out of 2 loaves.  

I then had another go the next day and the starter looked good, everything looked good I had longer times to let it prove etc. however the next two loaves came out like the 2nd loaf...beautiful crust on the outside and dense on the inside.

Determined not to give up I re-read Celia's blog again and got my starter out from the fridge and fed it however there were no bubbles and so I got a little bit more out and still the same, no action.  I fed the actual starter again as well and as of late last night about 11 pm I thought that I had killed my starter and would have to start my 10 day process again.  I decided to leave it overnight (the 3 bowls) and sure enough this morning it was looking good.  Only thing is now I couldn't mix the starter with the flour, water and salt and leave it overnight for 12+ hours.  Still I have not given up at this stage and my dough is still proving as I type this.

The key is to first of all...know you are going to be home the next day to cook your bread and of course make sure your starter is alive and well at night ready to mix up your dough.  After it took me nearly 12 days to make my first loaf of sourdough I totally appreciated paying $6-$7 for a good bakery bread.  We'll see how I go making this loaf tonight.  I totally loved the texture of the first one and my sister and I had home made baked beans on my home made sourdough for lunch the other day and it was so yummy and I felt very proud after my marathon effort of 12 days to produce this loaf of bread.

Thanks to Celia at Fig Jam & Lime Cordial for the tip on getting this enamel bakeware to cook my bread in which was $25 + $10 postage which arrived in 7-10 days at my front door.  I was looking a couple of weeks before and I had found $55 plus postage so I was so happy to be able to purchase this one.  I love it and its lightweight and perfect for baking bread.  It's only an on-line product and I couldn't pop down to my local Harvey Norman to save $10 on postage.

So this is my adventure into sourdough breadmaking.......I will keep you posted on my next loaf to see if I can master the texture.  If not, I may have to make a new starter again.

Here's a few other blogs that have some information on making Sourdough Bread.

Clare from The Life of Clare in Melbourne.

Jodi at Jellywares blog in NSW.

Brydie from The City Hippy Farm Girl blog in Sydney.

Green Living Australia have a post on sourdough bread making.

A guest post on Sophie's Local is Lovely blog on sourdough.

Tricia from Little Eco Footprints talks about simple living lessons learned from making sourdough.

Jane from the Shady Baker experimenting with sourdough.

I look forward to being able to master this sourdough bread making adventure.