I’m always on the look out for a healthy tasty snack. Nuts, dried fruit, lentil or chickpea snacks are all firm favourites. I love chocolate too but that’s the reason for me searching for alternatives! I was asked if I’d like to try some coconut based snacks. Ape Snacks is available in two variants – Crispy Coconut Curls and Crunchy Coconut Bites.
Ape Snacks was founded in the summer of 2014 by Zack Nathan, who dropped out of college to pursue his dream of starting a healthy snacking business. Inspired by his own Paleo lifestyle, he decided to make snacks to get the average person eating better. Ape Crispy Coconut Curls Lightly Salted is a finalist in the coconut category in The Grocer New Product Award 2016.
All nibbles are gluten free, sugar free and high in fibre, so what did I think? The coconut curls are ideal for snacking on, as an addition to a lunch box or as a treat after school. The bites are bigger and more substantial so I’d be more inclined to use these after sport or on a car journey. My first reaction to the flavours was surprise. I expected sweeter varieties but saw savoury, combined with the coconut. I should not have worried. This works so well. I love coconut in a curry, so why not slightly salted coconut as a snack?Coconut is sweet enough to cope with salt. Think salted caramel, with many fewer calories.
If you love coconut these may well be a new snack to add to your repertoire.
I was sent a sample of Ape coconut curls and coconut bites to try. I was not asked to write a positive review in return. I was not paid to write this review. All photographs are my own.
Anniversary cupcakes
Celebrating any event necessitates the making and consuming of cake. Our 25th wedding anniversary this week was no different. Except that I didn’t get to eat the cakes I made. They went to work with the husband to be shared with his work colleagues. I’m on school summer holidays so no one in the staff room to share my cakes with. These simple cupcakes were made a little more special by using silver cupcake cases (it’s our silver anniversary!), silver glitter spray, vanilla buttercream frosting and a few silver balls.
Anniversary cupcakes. – makes 12
2 eggs
weight of the two eggs in self raising flour.
weight of the two eggs in caster sugar.
weight of the two eggs in soft butter
1 tbsp milk
vanilla powder
12 cupcake cases
Icing
5 oz soft butter
10 oz icing sugar
milk to slacken if needed
- Pre heat the oven to 180c
- Place cupcake cases into a muffin tin.
- Beat together the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and airy.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Fold in the flour gently. Add a splash of milk if you need to slacken the mixture to dropping consistency (the batter falls of the spoon without the need to shake it!)
- Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and springs back when gently pressed.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, beat the butter until very soft and then beat in half the icing sugar. Once combined add in the second half of the icing sugar. Again, if the icing is too stiff to pipe, add a little milk to the buttercream mixture to loosen it.
- Using a star nozzle pipe swirls onto the top of the cold cakes. Spray with a little glitter and sprinkle with a few silver balls.
Milk and chocolate knotted breakfast bread.
Baking bread is a sure fire way to get me to my happy place. Add into that a plait or a knot and I’m there even faster. Many people have a set routine for breakfast. Same drink, same food at the same time. Not me, I like to ring the changes. Which is why, this morning I made a loaf of milk and chocolate knotted breakfast bread. Sweet but not too sweet milk bread twists around a deep cocoa enriched dough to liven up your morning. Ideal for a weekend treat.
Combining a chocolate dough with an enriched milk bread, this bread is delicious buttered, toasted, made into french toast or simply nibbled with a cup of coffee.
Using a half mixture from this recipe from My bread and brot I then knotted the bread in a four strand knot. I egg washed the loaf before baking. The loaf was baked at 190C for 40 minutes.
Baked and ready to slice.
Tastes delicious and looks pretty too. The next project I have is making my own butter. Any helpful suggestions or hints?
I haven’t posted much recently at all. I’ve really missed blogging and I’m so glad to be back. I’ve spent the last half term working full time, I had fun doing that but now I’m returning to writing.
In the last two weeks of term I was offered the chance to try a few gin cocktails featuring Hayman’s Gin. To be honest, offering a teacher gin at this point in the year could go one of two ways. Luckily for me, it was a great way to relax without being hard to get up in the morning in for school.
I made and enjoyed a Hayman’s Victorian Mojito and a Hayman’s English Ruby Fizz.
Hayman’s English Ruby Fizz.
Hayman’s English Ruby Fizz.
Semi-sweet, refreshing and with an eye-catching pink tint, the English Ruby Fizz is the ideal al fresco cocktail. The sweet taste of the raspberries partners perfectly with the spicy ginger notes.
Makes: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
- 50ml Hayman’s London Dry Gin
- 20ml lime juice
- 10ml sugar syrup or Grenadine
- 4-8 fresh raspberries (I picked mine from the garden) or raspberry syrup
- Ginger Ale to top with
- Lime wheel and fresh raspberries to garnish
Method:
- Fill a highball glass with plenty of large cubes of ice
- Set aside the ginger ale and garnish, and combine all remaining ingredients in a shaker with the ice
- Shake well for approximately 12 seconds
- Double strain into the highball allowing the liquid to run over the ice
- Top with ginger ale
- Garnish with a lime wheel and raspberries
Hayman’s Victorian Mojito
Nothing says summer like a sun lounger, a good book and a refreshing minty mojito in the back garden. The Victorian Mojito combines Hayman’s London Dry Gin with fresh mint and lime juice balanced with sugar syrup to create an ideal English classic.
Makes: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
- 50ml Hayman’s London Dry Gin
- 25ml freshly squeezed lime juice
- 20ml sugar syrup
- Premium tonic water or soda water
- Freshly picked mint leaves
Method:
- Fill a highball glass with cracked or crushed ice and a few fresh mint leaves
- Pour in the Hayman’s London Dry Gin and let it run down over the ice
- Add the lime juice and sugar syrup
- Churn vigorously ensuring the ingredients are well mixed
- Top with the tonic water or soda water
- Garnish with a mint sprig
Both cocktails are light and just right for a warm, balmy summer evening. Now, If anyone can conjure several of those up in the next week or so I shall be eternally grateful.
I was sent a sample of gin to use to make the cocktails. I was not paid to write this blog post. All photographs are my own. I was not asked to write a positive review.
Home made sushi!
I am a lover of any kitchenalia. You know, those bits and bobs that fall into your basket when pottering around the kitchen section of shops like IKEA, Tiger or Williams-Sonoma. The USA has some amazing things you never knew you needed, the bacon bowl maker being top of the list of items I’ve bought in Walmart and never used! Which is how I came to make sushi.
Sushi bits and bobs!
I had the equipment.
I had all the gear.
I also had no idea.
So I set about rectifying the situation ASAP.
The gear you need by the way is fairly minimal, and can now be purchased in most reasonably large supermarkets. If you do have a specialist supermarket close by I’d go there as the variety of products will be greater and you may well get helpful advice from the shop staff.
To make maki or rolls you need a bamboo sushi mat that you have wrapped in cling film, a sharp knife, a chopping board, some nori (seaweed sheets), cooked sushi rice, wasabi and sushi su (seasoning for the rice).
You will need ….
Cook the rice according to the pack or box. I use a rice cooker but a pan and a stove top does just as well. Allow to cool a little and then season with the sushi su whilst still warm
The three main types of sushi I make are:
- Hosomaki (a thin roll using half sheets of nori)
- Futomaki (a fat roll using a whole sheet of nori)
- Uramaki (an inside out roll, where the rice is on the outside and often sprinkled with sesame seeds)
Sushi rolls
The technique is basically the same. I’ll explain it here but you could also look at a wide variety of clips from YouTube or this exhaustive site Eat Japan.
Get a bowl of warm water so you can wet your hands as you go along.
Lay out your cling film covered mat.
Place a sheet of nori rough side towards you. Wet your fingers. Taking a ball of rice in your hand, press it onto the nori in a thin even layer. Leave a margin of a centimeter or so uncovered at one long edge. Add more rice to cover the nori if needed. You can wet your fingers again if needed to, to push out the rice.
Smear a little wasabi onto the rice from one end to the other. Place your favourite fillings on top; Cucumber, salmon, tuna, crab, pepper, omelette and the list goes on.
Using the bamboo mat, and starting away from the margin, roll up your sushi, tightly. The margin you left will seal the edge of the sushi roll. You may like to wet it a little just before rolling as this will allow the nori to stick better making a seal.
Taking a sharp knife, cut the roll into equal slices.
Serve with pickled ginger, additional wasabi and some Japanese soy sauce.
Sushi is addictive. Making sushi is also addictive. You don’t need the gubbins I have to make sushi, just the mat, rice, nori and a sharp knife. However making rice balls in the shape of a panda or using a mould to get hard-boiled eggs into the shape of a star has a certain draw does it not…..
Streusel topped blueberry and pumpkin seed loaf cake
This blueberry and pumpkin seed loaf cake has been a real hit. Chocolate cake is my absolute favourite. I know it doesn’t happen very often but when the weather is as hot as it has been recently, I needed a new go to flavour of loaf cake that would be enjoyed by everyone.
I love blueberries and wanted something crunchy to add to the mix. I thought about poppy seeds but don’t like having them in my teeth for the rest of the day, so plumped for pumpkin seeds instead. I used dried blueberries as they keep their integrity better than fresh ones and don’t make the cake too wet.
Streusel topped blueberry and pumpkin seed loaf cake.
3 large eggs weighed in their shells
An equal weight of butter or margarine
An equal weight of golden caster sugar
An equal weight of self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
50g pumpkin seeds
75g dried blueberries
streusel topping
25g flour
85g demerara sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
50g cold butter
1 dsp dried blueberries
1 dsp pumpkin seeds
Icing
125g icing sugar
50g fresh blueberries, pureed and sieved
water to slacken
How to….
- Weigh the eggs in their shells and weight out equal quantities of butter, sugar and flour.
- Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together well. Continue creaming until the butter and sugar mixture becomes paler in colour.
- Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add half of this beaten egg into the mixture, and stir it in well. Add in a couple of tablespoons of the flour, then the rest of the egg, and beat again.
- Taking a metal spoon very gently fold in the rest of the flour. Use a cutting and folding movement to combine the flour without losing any air from the mix. When all the flour is combined add in two tablespoons of milk, the blueberries and the pumpkin seeds
- Put this mix into a paper lined loaf tin.
- Rub together the ingredients for the streusel topping, in the same way that you would make a crumble. Place this topping onto the unbaked cake
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 180 C until firm and golden brown.
- When cooked cool for a short while in the tin..
- Add the blueberry puree to the icing sugar. Add a little more icing sugar/water to make a thick cream consistency. Drizzle over the cake and allow to drip down the sides. I use piping bag to do this but a spoon and a steady hand works well too. Scatter with a few extra pumpkin seeds and dried blueberries to decorate.
- Devour.
I love Croydon. Love it. Not really something you would expect many people to admit to, but times are changing. It would be fair to say that over the years Croydon has had a pretty bad press. It would also be fair to say that some of the bad press was justified.
With the Fairfield Halls and the Whitgift Centre it always was a useful urban hub. From the Purley Way, during a sunny summer sunset, the hazy view of Croydon could be compared with that of Manhatten.
Croydon is hyper connected too. You can be in central London in 14 minutes and the south coast in under 40! Gatwick Airport is a mere quarter of an hour away and West Croydon’s “ginger line” connects the town to every bustling square inch of south east London – from Peckham to Shoreditch.
However, in recent years, further changes have begun to happen. First there were the trams, then came the regeneration of the run down blocks of flats and disused office blocks into luxury living spaces. After that BOXPARK arrived. Nestled beside East Croydon train station (so you can visit here without actually going into Croydon itself!) this version is entirely given over to food and beverage outlets. Using the excuse of having to collect someone from the station we popped in last Sunday for a bite to eat. There are so many choices it may take you a while to make up your mind. I’d already decided to visit the Yo! Street Food pop up, as I love Japanese food and wanted to give their new menu a try. Others in our little group chose Sri Lankan food and Mexican dishes so all bases are covered.
All really rather delicious and quite different. I loved the sticky and melt in the mouth pork buns, the sushi was amazing and the edamame beans are salty, spicy and fun to eat.
I urge you to go, visit Croydon and spend some time dispelling the myths that surround this much maligned town. Pop along to Surrey Street market with an empty bag and come away with fruit, veg and flavours from around the world, drink craft beer from the Cronx brewery or spend time in Matthews Yard with a coffee and the papers. Croydon will surprise you, put aside your prejudices and visit. Soon.
Next it will be Comedy clubs, coffee shops and curated spaces , ah wait…… that’s already happening!
Ready for ramen.
Every year since our houses were built (1998) we have had a street barbecue. We set the date well ahead of time and invariably seem to pick the chilliest and dampest summer evening of the year. Not that this is a problem as it means the fire pits can be dragged out and lit, keeping the evening going well into the small hours of the morning. You’d have to say that as a group of neighbours we all love our food. Last year it was decided that we shouldn’t have to wait a whole year to get around the table, we ought to get together to share a meal more often. Taking a country each for inspiration, we have travelled from Spain, to Greece and then onto Italy. When it came to my turn I decided we needed a little long haul travel and took us all to Japan for the evening.
Home made sushi!
Home made sushi to start, followed by mushroom miso ramen with chicken and home made mochi for dessert. I supplemented the dessert with bought mochi and some Chupa Chups sweet sushi too!
Mushroom miso ramen with chicken – serves 4
- 15g/½oz dried shitaki mushrooms
- 1.4 litres/2½ pints just-boiled water
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 4 tbsp brown miso paste
- 200g udon noodles
- 2-3 tsp sunflower oil
- 4 large free-range eggs, 2 tbsp dark soy, 1 tbsp mirin and 1 tsp water
- 1 100g pack of speciality mushrooms (enoki, oyster etc)
- red pepper finely sliced
- 2 pak choi, roots trimmed, leaves separated, washed and halved
- 100g/3½oz fresh bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
- 6 spring onions, trimmed, very thinly sliced
- 4 chicken breasts
- Teriyaki marinade
How to …..
- Place the dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl and pour over enough hot water to cover. Leave aside for 4 hours to re-hydrate.
- Coat the chicken breasts in teriyaki marinade and leave in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
- Place a pan of water onto boil, take the eggs from the fridge and place in the barely boiling water.Boil for 6 minutes exactly and then plunge into iced water. Leave to cool and then peel.
- Combine the soy, mirin and water in a zip lok bag and pop in the eggs. Place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
- Drain the dried mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Trim the mushrooms to remove the hard stalks and slice finely.
- Place the liquid, stock cube and boiled water into a large saucepan. Stir in the miso paste and add in the finely sliced re-hydrated mushrooms.
- Grill the chicken and finely slice. Keep warm.
- On a platter, arrange the beansprouts, mushrooms, halved marinated eggs, spring onions and red pepper.
- Cook the noodles as directed on the packet.
- Place noodles into the bottom of a bowl. Pour over the soup. Add in the vegetables, egg and chicken as desired.
- Invite the neighbours and enjoy.
Dragon egg nests.
Whilst I’m no expert, I’m pretty sure that dragons must follow the crowd and lay their eggs in the springtime. Having made more variations on chocolate nests than I can contemplate; shredded wheat, All bran (!), cornflake, rice krispie, rocky road, melted chocolate, cocoa and syrup and filled with foiled eggs, mini eggs, jelly beans or peeps. The time had come, or so I thought, to grow up a little and start to make individual simnel cakes.
Then I spotted the golden eggs in the shops and they made me wonder what creature could have laid them. Dragons, only dragons or perhaps a phoenix could lay a golden egg. Then I started to wonder what a dragon’s nest would look like. I have a mind that wanders, what can I say! Probably brightly coloured and possibly a little sparkly? So I set out to make a new variation of the classic chocolate Easter or Spring nest. Dragon’s nests are a great way to use up the odds and ends in those jars of sprinkles that lurk in the cupboard.
Dragon’s nest rice krispie cakes – makes 12
50g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
100g marshmallows
100g rice krispies
odds and ends of sprinkles (about 3 dsp) plus a few to scatter over the finished nests
2 bags of golden eggs (or foil wrapped eggs if you can’t source these)
muffin cases in a deep muffin tin
Dragon egg nest
How to…..
- Melt the butter together with the golden syrup in a large pan over a very low heat.
- Tip in the marshmallows and melt into the syrup mixture stirring frequently.
- Pour in the rice krispies with the sprinkles and mix well until the rice krispies are completely coated.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin cases. Use a wet teaspoon to create a dimple in the middle of the nest to receive the eggs.
- Top each nest with three eggs and a scattering of more sprinkles or glitter.
- Dragon’s nest make perfect food for unicorns!
I have linked these up to this months Treat Petite, run this month by The Baking Explorer and alternate months by Cakeyboi
I try baking something every year for Red Nose Day. We often have a bake sale at school. Last year it was Red Nose Day Empire biscuits, this year I’m not actually baking but there will still be a plate of delicious morsels at the end of this process.
Red nose day tiffin, with added Maltesers.
200g Malted milk biscuits
50g digestive biscuits
125 g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp cocoa
1 share bag Maltesers
200g white chocolate
red food colouring
6″ square tin, lined with two layers of cling film
How to…..
- Line the tin with cling film.
- Crush the biscuits, I use the end of a rolling pin to do this.
- Melt together the butter, syrup and cocoa over a low heat.
- Pour the mixture over the biscuit crumbs and mix well.
- Add in two thirds of the bag of Maltesers, press into the lined tin and refrigerate until set.
- Once set, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Pour most of it over the tiffin but reserve about a tablespoon of it in the bowl.
- Add in the red food colouring, mix well and place dots of the red chocolate over the white to resemble red noses. Place the remaining Maltesers onto the top too.pressing in well.
- Chill again, cut into 16 pieces and wrap up for a bake sale.
You can donate to Comic Relief here.
mintcustard 