Home-baked Chocolate Chip Bars

There's always a home baked offering for morning or afternoon tea at our place. It might be  our favourite biscuits, fruity muffins, a simple slice, fresh scones or, on the odd occasion, a cake. This past week, we enjoyed home-baked chocolate chip bars which are a homemade alternative to store-bought, plastic-wrapped, super-sweet chocolate chip muesli bars.

Yum!

These homemade chocolate chip bars are very easy and quick to make. With a few minor adjustments to this original recipe, for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars, from Lydia at the Thrifty Frugal Mum site, this is how I made them:

Home-baked Chocolate Chip Bars 

Dry Ingredients:

3/4 cup plain flour

1/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour (or plain wholemeal flour)

1 cup quick cooking oats

1/3 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil (I used macadamia nut oil but canola or a light vegetable oil would also work.)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 180C and line a 20cm cake tin or medium size slice tray.

1.  Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

2.  Whisk together wet ingredients in separate bowl or jug.

3.  Make well in centre of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients.

4.  Mix until combined. 

5.  Press mixture into your lined tin or tray.

6.  Bake for 15mins or until lightly golden.

7.  Cool on wire rack before cutting into bars. 

One of these chocolate chip bars is just right for morning or afternoon tea at home but also perfect for putting into a lunchbox too. With a list of easily-recognisable ingredients, that does not include things like humectant, modified starch, invert sugar and some unknown flavour, they are a more wholesome alternative to that store-bought something that comes in a packet.

Well worth baking!

Meg

Chocolate & Oat Cookies

On a Sunday, I bake lunchbox snacks for the school and working week ahead. This saves us money and time as we are not buying prepackaged snacks and popping a slice of homemade cake or chunky cookies into a lunchbox is very quick and easy of a weekday morning when everyone is trying to get to where they need to be on time.

 Chocolate cookies with chocolate chips!

Recently, I came across a recipe for a scrumptious version of chocolate cookies. They are flourless and include almond meal. (My son can now take foods with nuts in them to high school whereas his primary school had a no nuts policy.) The nuts in them make them unsuitable for those with an allergy to nuts.

The original recipe, which I have tinkered with very minimally, comes from Amanda at Running with Spoons.  I simply reduced the sugar content a little more and used dark chocolate chips rather than mint chocolate chips. There are very simple cookies to make:

Chocolate & Oat Cookies

*Unsuitable for those with a nut allergy.*

1 cup organic quick oats

1/2 cup almond meal

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 Tablespoons brown sugar or coconut sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 large or 2 small eggs

3 Tablespoons coconut oil (melted if it is not in liquid state)

1/4 cup of tiny, dark chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 170C. Line a large baking tray.

2.  Mix all the dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips, together in a large bowl. 

3.  Add the coconut oil and beaten egg to the dry ingredients. Mix well.

4.  Mix in the chocolate chips.

5.  Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, placing onto baking tray so there is room for them 

     to spread. Flatten top of each one slightly with your fingers.

6.  Bake for approximately 10mins (but keep an eye on them as they may cook faster in 

     your oven.)

7.  Allow to cool for 10mins on tray before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

8. Store in an airtight container (I put them in the fridge) for up to a week.

A chocolatey bowl!

These cookies are very chocolatey but not overly sweet. A more wholesome take on a chocolate cookie that is simple and delicious.

Do you have a favourite recipe for chocolate cookies?

Meg

Chocolate-y Choc-Chip Cupcakes

Small chocolate-y choc chip cupcakes, made light and moist by a mixture including both sour cream and yoghurt, are a lovely semi-sweet treat.

Delicious treat!

I took this recipe, for Sour Cream Double Chocolate Muffins, and tweaked it just a little so I could use up a little bit of sour cream and a little bit of plain yoghurt I had in the fridge. As usual, I made them with spelt flour but you could always use plain flour. Here's how I made them:

Chocolate-y Choc-Chip Cupcakes

(Makes 12 small cupcakes)

Dry Ingredients:                                                                           Wet Mix:

3/4 cup white spelt flour                                                              1/2 cup sour cream                

1/4 cup cocoa powder                                                                   1/4 cup plain yoghurt

1/4 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar                                      1 small egg

1/2 teaspoon baking powder                                                       30g melted butter

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda                                                             1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 180C and prepare pan by lining with cupcake cases.

2.  Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until well combined with no lumps.

3.  Blend wet mix ingredients together in a large measuring jug or bowl.

4.  Make a well in centre of dry ingredients and pour wet mixture in. 

5.  Mix together until just combined.

6.  Half fill each of your cupcake cases with batter.

7.  Bake 15-20mins until cupcakes have risen and are springy to touch.

8.  Cool in pan for a few minutes before finishing cooling on a wire rack.

Silicone cupcake cases.

You can use paper or silicone cupcake cases to line your pan. I tend to use my set of individual silicone cases when I know the cupcakes I'm making are going to be quite moist or I want a little fluted cupcake shape. 

While not overly sweet, these little cupcakes are very chocolate-y indeed! Pop one into a lunchbox or on your afternoon tea plate for a little burst of chocolate-y choc-chip goodness in your day!

Meg

Little Potato & Haloumi Cakes

Anything made with chewy, salty haloumi cheese, has me hooked before the first mouthful. So it was with these little potato cakes. 

Delicious!

The recipe comes from The Art of Nourishing, by Therese Steele, which is one of my favourite cookbooks. Therese is a local woman who sought better health for her family through food and other changes to reduce or eliminate chemicals we can all be surrounded by in our modern lives and homes. There are so many delicious, healthy and gluten-free recipes in this cookbook as well as many tips for reducing chemicals in our daily lives. 

This is a very simple recipe really. I have omitted the salt from the recipe because I find haloumi to be salty enough on its own.  I also used olive oil instead of the grapeseed oil from the recipe. (I don't have grapeseed oil.)  Here's how I made them:

Little Potato & Haloumi Cakes

4 large waxy potatoes (A variety like Desiree is a good choice.)

100g haloumi cheese

2 large eggs

paprika & pepper

parsley *optional*

olive oil

1.  Coarsely grate the peeled potatoes on top of a clean tea towel. Bunch up the tea towel around the grated potato and use it to squeeze out as much moisture from the grated potato as possible.  Place grated potato in a mixing bowl.

2.  Coarsely grate the haloumi cheese and add it to the grated potato.

3.  Beat the eggs and add to the potato and haloumi mixture. *Add chopped parsely if using.*

4.  Season mixture with a generous grind of pepper and a sprinkling of paprika.

5.  Cover the base of your frying pan with olive oil and bring up to a medium heat.

6. Place little spoonfuls of potato and haloumi mixture into frying pan and even out thickness with the back of a spoon.

7.  Fry until golden brown on both sides. Remove from frying pan and sit on a piece of kitchen towel to soak up excess oil. 

8. Serve with a scrumptious chutney or chunky sauce and a generous side salad.  

Yum!  These little potato and haloumi cakes are so moreish that I don't recommend you make them all the time. While infinitely healthier than, say a hash brown cooked in palm oil at your local takeaway, eating batch after batch of them might still be overload. Once in a while though ... 

Meg

p.s. This is a rosti recipe I am very keen to try. Jamie Oliver's Giant Veg Rosti sounds amazing and full of goodness.

Choc Hazelnut Crumble Slice

A nutty chocolate filling, sandwiched between two oat-y biscuit layers, makes for a lovely homemade morning or afternoon tea slice. It's quite the treat!

 Squares of scrumptious slice.

The recipe is just a chocolate-y version of our favourite Lovely Lemon Slice.  Rather than a luscious lemon curd filling, I spread a generous layer of a choc-hazelnut spread. This is how I made it:

Choc Hazelnut Crumble Slice

(Not suitable for those with nut allergy.)

Base & Topping

1 1/4 cups white spelt flour (or plain flour)

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

1/3 cup dessicated coconut

170g butter, melted

Filling

1/2 cup of chocolate-y hazelnut spread   (I used Pure Harvest's Coco 2 Hazelnut Spread.)

1.  Preheat oven to 180C.

2.  Line a 20cm x 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

3.  Combine dry ingredients for the base/topping in a large bowl.

4.  Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter.

5.  Mix thoroughly.

6.  Spoon half of this oaty mixture into the cake tin and press down gently with fingertips to cover the bottom of        the tin evenly and form the biscuit base of the slice.  Set remaining mixture aside.

7.  Bake base for 10-15minutes until lightly golden.  Cool.

8. Spread choc-hazelnut spread evenly over base of the slice.

9.  Crumble the rest of the oaty mixture over the top of the filling and press this topping down very gently with

      your hands. 

10. Bake in oven for 20-25mins until topping is lightly golden. Remove and cool in the tin.

11. Cover and refrigerate overnight before removing from the tin and cutting into small squares. 

     Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

A homemade treat.

The next time I make this scrumptious slice, I want to use a homemade choc-hazelnut spread.  You could use Nutella but, according to this review of its ingredients, more than half of that product is sugar and only 13% hazelnut.  While the Pure Harvest spread I used contained no cane sugar, and was far less sweet as it's primary ingredient is rice malt syrup, it only contains 10% hazelnut.  By making my own, I will be able to make a simple spread like this one, from the Living Healthy with Chocolate website, which is made from a base of hazelnut butter blended from ... just hazelnuts!

In a nutshell, that is for me one very big benefit of homemade versus shop bought. You know exactly what is in whatever you have cooked or made. You can experiment too with alternative ingredients and by adjusting quantities for ingredients like sugars and syrups, oils and fats, to arrive at healthier versions.

Meg

p.s. I am not affiliated in any way with Pure Harvest, the makers of the choc-hazelnut spread I used.  I just had a jar of it in the cupboard to use up.

Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies

The nuttiness of these scrumptious chocolate chip cookies comes from nut butter rather than chopped nuts mixed through the cookie dough. I've experimented with several different nut butters such as cashew, brazil, macadamia and hazelnut. Some I've bought and others I've made myself. My favourite one to use though is macadamia nut butter because I find the resulting cookies are lovely and moist. 

Scrumptious!

I came across the original recipe, from Paula over at the blog, Mixing It Up Hong Kong, a few years ago and I've only tinkered with it minimally. The original recipe is one written for the Thermomix but you can make it without one. As usual, I've reduced the sugar content. I find that less sugar is just fine as the chocolate chips add a sweetness too. I love to use dark chocolate chips in these cookies but you can use milk or white chocolate chips instead. I sometimes use nut butter instead of grinding whole nuts and blending with coconut oil as per the original recipe. This substitution is one of Paula's suggestions that you'll find at the bottom of her recipe page. It works well and saves some time too!

This quickly became my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Here's how I make it:

Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Unsuitable for those with nut allergy.)

80g oat flour or ground whole oats
120g macadamia nut butter (store bought or homemade)
35g coconut or rapadura sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large free range egg
100g - 120g wholemeal spelt flour
1 Tablespoon milk 
180g small choc chips


1.  Preheat oven to 180C and line baking trays.

2.  Beat nut butter, sugar & vanilla until very well blended.

3.  Add egg and beat again until well blended. The mixture at this point is quite "sticky".

4.  In a separate bowl, mix the oat flour and 100g of the wholemeal spelt flour.

5.  Make a well in the centre of the flours and spoon the sticky nut butter mixture into it.

6.  Add in milk and then mix until well combined. *While this cookie dough is fairly sticky, 
      mix in the extra 20g flour if you feel it is too wet at this point.*

7.  Gently mix through chocolate chips.

8.  Using damp hands, roll tablespoonfuls of cookie dough into balls and place on trays.
      Flatten each slightly with your fingers.

9.  Bake until lightly golden and cool on wire racks.

Every batch of these I make NEVER makes it into our biscuit tin without several or more cookies mysteriously disappearing from the cooling rack. I often have to stand guard just so they don't all disappear in one go!

Do you have a favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Meg

Saturday Snippets

Saturday, that precious beginning-of-the-weekend day, has dawned here with a clear blue sky and a slight breeze.  All is very quiet here though I fully expect someone will start up a mower sometime soon! (The grass is growing very enthusiastically after all the rain we've had!) My beautiful boy and his Dad headed off to cricket early this morning and left Sir Steve dog and I happily mooching around here at home. It feels already like a gentle, slow day that will unfold in ordinary moments and home-work of a kind that lets contentment settle in. Here's a snippet of what I think I might do today:

 Make lovely lemon curd from these fresh lemons & eggs. 

(A gift from a good friend's garden.)

Cut back this sweetly-scented star jasmine.

(It's now finished flowering.)

 Wash & then decide what I shall do with these used linens my mother sent me.

(They are old pillowslips and cushion covers.)

Cast on the scarf that I want to knit with this soft & sandy coloured wool. 

(Wish me luck!)

Make another one of this nutty & caramel-y alternative to the LCM bar.

(No plastic wrappers & unpronounceable ingredients here!)

Have a leisurely read of this Australian Permaculture magazine.

(I love the teapot on the cover!)

So, that's how my Saturday is shaping up. No plans to go anywhere but thoughts of happy, ordinary things that bring a simple joy. The lawn does need mowing but I'm sure we'll get to that in good time before I have to start calling it a jungle instead of lawn;)

Enjoy your weekend days. May they include some simple joys of your own.

Meg

Chocolate Chip & Coconut Cookies

The chocolate chip cookies I favour the most are those made with nuts.  (I'm sure it's just me but they seem a little healthier if there's a macadamia or a walnut in the biscuit somewhere!) I can't bake nutty biscuits for my son's school lunchbox though because his school, along with many others these days, is a nut-free zone.  As we are preparing to go back to school next week, school baking for the freezer is underway. So, these simple chocolate chip & coconut cookies are a delicious alternative for an occasional lunchbox treat. 

Delicious!

The recipe that I tinkered with is one I came across on the Kidspot website.  The biscuit dough is made in the typical way with the creaming of the butter and sugar, beating in of eggs and the addition of the dry ingredients. I changed the recipe by using a blend of white and wholemeal spelt flours, reducing the sugar and substituting coconut sugar for brown sugar. As always, I used dark chocolate chips because they are our favourites but any chocolate-y chips will do!  Here's how they came together in my kitchen:

Chocolate Chip & Coconut Cookies

125g softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup white spelt flour

1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/2cup dark chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to moderate 180C.  Line biscuit trays.

2.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla with a mixer until pale and fluffy.

3.   Add eggs, one at a time. Mix each egg in well.

4.   Add flours, baking powder, coconut and chocolate chips. 

5.  Mix well until thoroughly combined in a soft dough.

6.  Place tablespoons of mixture onto lined biscuit trays.

7.  Bake until just golden.  Cool on a wire rack then store in an airtight container.

Ssh!  Scrumptious!

As soon as they are cool enough, pour yourself an icy cold glass of milk or make yourself a cup of tea and sample one of your freshly-baked cookies before anyone else discovers them!

Meg

Beautiful Baked Ricotta Slice

On the weekend, I bought two tubs of discounted and delicious biodynamic ricotta, made with creamy milk from the cows that graze on the lush green grasses of "home". This fresh, soft cheese is produced by a family-owned dairy, in a little town called Millaa Millaa on the Atherton Tablelands, a shortish drive from where I grew up and from where my Mum still lives. I think what I really bought, besides two tubs of ricotta, were memories!

One of those tubs of ricotta, save for a small amount leftover, became this beautiful baked slice. It has a crumbly base, a creamy filling that's not too sweet, the sharpness of raspberries or sweet bursts of dark chocolate chips and then an extra crumble on top! All made in next to no time in a food processor. Simple!

A sublime slice!

The recipe belongs to Linda, from her inspiring blog, The Witches Kitchen. It's one of the many delicious recipes featured on her blog that really champions fresh, wholesome food. All I did was substitute raspberries for blueberries, coconut sugar for brown sugar. I also experimented with some dark chocolate chips in half of the topping. Here's how it came together in my own kitchen:

 A simple baked base of wholemeal spelt flour, coconut sugar and butter. 

All whizzed up & baked while the creamy topping is made.

Blended ricotta, yoghurt, eggs, lemon juice & coconut sugar forms the creamy topping.

Almost cheesecake!

Little dark chocolate chips & tangy frozen raspberries ...

... dotted into the creamy topping.

Sprinkle crumble (reserved mixture from the base) over the top before baking. 

Next time, I plan on adding some coconut!

Bake & leave in the tin to cool.

 Cut into squares & refrigerate in air-tight container...after you've sampled a piece!

This sublime slice is crumbly and creamy and cheesecake-y. The perfect way to use up some of that beautiful ricotta. It's lovely ... like a little slice of home!

Meg

Simple Cereal Slice

Another weekend ... another simple slice! Just a few basic ingredients, together with crushed wheat breakfast biscuits (and the saved crumbs from the bottom of the cereal packet) is all you need to make this Simple Cereal Slice. Afternoon tea will be ready in a jiffy!

Squares of Simple Cereal Slice.

This is another slice my Mum would make often and that I learned to cook as a young girl. The recipe comes from my well-used copy of "Day to Day Cookery" with a few of my 'adjustments' here and there. Here's how I made it:

Simple Cereal Slice

1 cup flour (white spelt or plain)

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 wheat breakfast biscuits + saved crumbs from bottom of cereal packet)

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/3 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar

150g melted butter

1.   Preheat oven to 180C. Line a slice tray.

2.   Sift flour and baking powder together into a mixing bowl.

3.  Crush wheat breakfast biscuits under a rolling pin until fine crumbs. Add to mixing bowl.

4.   Mix coconut and brown sugar in to other dry ingredients.

5.   Melt butter over gentle heat in small saucepan. 

6.   Make well in centre of dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and pour in melted butter.

7.  Mix until slice ingredients well combined.

8.   Press mixture firmly into bottom of slice tray.

9.   Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.

10. Cool before icing. (You can make a simple lemon icing or melt a little white chocolate to

      spread over the top.)

11. Cut your slice into fingers and share with everyone ☺

This is such a quick and easy slice to make. It's great too for using up those crumbs left in the bottom of the cereal packet that may otherwise go to waste. A little icing too and something quite plain like this becomes quite delicious. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Meg

Simple & Sweet Chocolate Slice

A sweet chocolate slice, made from a few simple pantry ingredients and some butter, is quite a nostalgic treat here. My mother made this, from her trusty and somewhat splattered "Day to Day Cookery" book, when we were small and I remember it being one of the first things I learnt to cook. I make it rarely now, but when I do, it's a happy treat that disappears very quickly!

 Pieces of deliciousness!

My Mum gave me a copy of the "Day to Day Cookery" book when I left home and, I'm proud to say, my copy is now just as splattered as hers! I've tinkered with the original recipe to reduce the sugar in the slice by half so it's a little less sweet ... that's just my way. Here's how I make it now:

Sweet & Simple Chocolate Slice

1 & 1/4 cups white spelt flour (or plain flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder (or cocoa)
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
125g butter
1 egg

1.  Preheat oven to 180C.
2.  Sift flour, baking powder and cacao into a mixing bowl.
3.  Melt butter in a small saucepan.
4.  Beat egg.
5.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter. Begin to 
     combine with dry ingredients and then add the beaten egg. Mix well.
6.  Press mixture into a slice tray.
7.  Bake for 15 minutes.
8.  Cool before topping with a simple chocolate icing and a sprinkling of coconut. ❤

 Simply yummy!

You can make a simple chocolate icing by mixing together 1 cup of icing sugar and 1 Tablespoon of cacao powder (or cocoa) with a little hot water. Just sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl so there are no lumps and then mix with hot water, a little bit at a time, until you get the consistency you want. You can then flavour with vanilla essence too before spreading thinly over your freshly baked slice. 

Disappearing quickly!

There is nothing fancy about this slice. Just simple ingredients and a little icing and you have a delicious treat for afternoon tea! 

Meg