Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bites

Heya.

I've been away for over a month. It's been long enough to make me miss blogging but unfortunately my camera battery went dead and we can't find the charger, so have all of these great recipes and eating out pics and can't access it. We spent about two weeks turning our house upside down but can't find it. I suspect we left it in a hotel in Sydney, anyway have finally ordered one so will be back with proper pics soon.

Anyway here is a recipe and crappy photo from my phone. I've gone back on a healthy dessert kick and have been making a few of these little snacks lately, if you have similar suggestions would love to hear about them.

Now let me start by saying that I hate the taste of protein powder, whereas Toby as you know is protein obsessed. I loved these though and they served as great filling snacks in between meals, particuarly when I work nights and don't get dinner til about 9pm.

Toby dislikes peanut butter, so I was a bit sneaky in giving him a couple but the flavour is kind of lost so he didn't notice and loved them too.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bites adapted from from Wayfaring Chocolate
Makes 15-20.

• 2.5 tb (50g) peanut butter
• 4 scoops (84g) Sunwarrior Vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 cup soy milk (I added a little more til it was slightly moist since slight adaption of original recipe)
• 2 tb maple syrup
• 1/4 cup (40g) dark chocolate chips

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the peanut butter, protein powder, coconut flour and soy milk until well combined and the batter has reached a cohesive cookie-dough-like consistency. Add maple syrup and adjust liquid.
2. Stir in the chocolate chips, then roll the cookie dough into balls.
3. You can either serve them cold or do as I and Hannah did and microwave them for for  approx 30 seconds, until the chocolate is melted and the cookie dough has become more cooked-cookie-like.They are so much better microwaved!!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jam Cups/Cats

Ok so in america they would be called peanut butter and jelly cups. But I just can't call them that since jelly means something different here.

I think the ideal to put jam in pb cups is pure genius and I wish I had thought of it first.

You know i'm obsessed with choc and pb, but the jam just makes it even better.  The dark chocolate I used was a mixture of 85% and 70% so slightly bitter, pb was kind of salty and the jam adds a tart sweetness that just brings it to another level. I don't think I'm going back to regular pb cups again.!

I made them with my cat mould that I got from Muji in Hong Kong and had some issues getting them out. Next time i'll make the chocolate layers a little thicker.

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jam Cups/Cats adapted  from with style and grace 
I halved this recupe but will making the full amount in the future.

• 2 cups dark chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 cup peanut butter – or nut butter of choice
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar
• 1/2 cup of strawberry jam
• sea salt

Directions
Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, saucepan or microwave. Once it’s melted down, add coconut oil to thin out. Add more, if needed.
Add about one teaspoon of melted chocolate to the bottom of each paper cup. Tilt the liners so the chocolate evenly coats the bottom and slightly up the sides. Another option is to take a pastry brush or even a small knife to spread the chocolate.
Place the cupcake tin in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to let set.
Meanwhile, mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar – this makes it less sticky and easier to handle. Place peanut butter mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Once both timers have gone off, roll [in your hands] about 1 teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture and place in the center of each chocolate cup. Place tin back in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Remove and add 1/2 teaspoon of jelly on top of the peanut butter.
With the remaining chocolate, cover each PB&J cup until covered. Top with sea salt – optional.
Place muffin tin back into the freezer, last time I promise, for about 20 minutes.
These can be left out at room temperature or in the fridge. These lasted about 3 days in our house, but can probably keep up to 1-2 weeks, or 3-4 if kept in the freezer.

Makes about 24

I'm not sure about the addition of salt. I think they are just as tasty without it but perhaps I didn't add enough.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter and PB Cups

I recently got some white chocolate peanut butter called 'white chocolate wonderful' from USA foods. The white chocolate part mostly consists of cocoa butter so the flavour it quite subtle, just like extra sweet peanut butter but still quite delicious. I used mine by adding it to rice cakes, putting it on pancakes with maple marinated strawberries and by making peanut butter cups.

I made a couple of these to help keep me awake at the wild flag show, which was amazing a few weeks ago. Sleater Kinney are perhaps my favourite band so I was so happy when Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss formed a new band with Rebecca Cole and Mary Timothy. I have a bit of a fan crush on Carrie Brownstein who you might know from Portlandia and thought both her and Mary were great performers. Heres a picture of Carrie, I took with my phone:

I then made some more yesterday to take to visit a friend of mine who had quite serious surgery.

White Choc Peanut Butter Cups recipe adapted from peanut butter co
 2 cups (about 12 ounces) chopped dark chocolate (I used whittaker)
¾ cup White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Special Equipment:

10 (2-inch) aluminum/tin foil muffin liners

Procedure

1. Place chocolate in the top of a double boiler (or make your own by setting a heat-proof bowl over a pot with 1-inch of water) over high heat. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce stove heat to low. Or melt in 30 seconds increments in microwave.

2. Continuously stir the chocolate until completely melted. Remove bowl from the heat and place on a heatproof surface.

3. Using a small spoon, “paint” the melted chocolate all over the insides of tin foil muffin liners (the tinfoil cups are easier to peel off than the paper cups). The layer of chocolate should be thick enough so that you cannot see through it, but thin enough that the paper cups remain upright and intact. You will not use all of the melted chocolate in this step.


4. Allow chocolate cups to cool and harden completely by placing on a tray in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You can also complete this step the night before.

5. In a small bowl, stir together the White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter and vanilla extract until smooth.

6. Using a mini ice cream scoop or a small spoon, evenly divide the peanut butter between the hardened chocolate cups. Smooth the top to create an even surface.

7. If the remaining melted chocolate has hardened too much, simply repeat steps 1-2.

8. Evenly divide the remaining melted chocolate amongst the filled cups, smoothing the tops and making sure the chocolate reaches all the way to the edges in order to seal the cups.

9. Chill in the refrigerator until set, about 1-2 hours.


 
I loved these and wish I had made more. The original recipe asks for white chocolate in place of dark chocolate but I think the white chocolate peanut butter pairs so perfectly with slightly bitter dark chocolate. I did have some issues finding mini foil liners in the supermarket but eventually ended up finding some medium ones in iga.

Santa Hat Brownies

This is a first, i'm posted about a dessert that I am taking to a potluck prior to going. I am keen to post these recipes early though in case people are looking for xmas dessert inspirations right now for next week.

I'll post about my other dessert later today or tomorrow. First these santa hat brownies which were popular on pinterest and are orginally from Ericas sweet tooth,but I think this is the first vegan and gluten free version posted. The original recipe asked for white chocolate but a few people have made it with icing. I had planned to make brownies from scratch using the recipe from babycakes but was a bit low on a few flour types and also need to buy coconut oil, so in the end went with the cheaper and lasier option and bought this packet mixture.

It makes great tasty brownies particuarly when they are fresh from the oven they are quite fudgy but they do become a bit hard the next day.

I made this cream cheese frosting and ended up with a fair bit leftover:

Dairy Free Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from VCTOTW
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese
1 cup of icing sugar
1 t vanilla extract

Beat margaine and cream cheese together. Add in vanilla. Slowly add in sugar about 1/4 cup at a time until all mixed in.


Santa Hat Brownies makes 14 (depending on how many strawberries in punnet)
1 punnet of strawberries (I recommend doubling next time as I had lots of brownies left)
1 packet of brownie mix (or make your own)
cream cheese frosting

Bake brownies in cupcake/muffin pan. I actually forgot this step and so had to try to cut them into circles using a glass. Once brownies are cool, pipe icing around base of strawberry. Put strawberry on top and pipe tiny spot on top of each strawberry.  I was piping with a plastic ziplock bag and my kills aren't the best but I still think they are cute.

I do have to admit these are the better looking ones, have some ugly square ones too but taste wise it doesn't matter. Transport is going to be an issue though, any ideas? Flavour wise they are great combination I mean how can chocolate brownies, cream cheese icing and strawberries not be a winner?

I might make these again on Sunday for my family.

Gluten Free Oreo Truffles

I was so excited when I saw Mandee tweet about gluten free and vegan version of oreos at the gluten free expo in Sydney, sadly they didn't have them at the Melbourne show, but I finally got my hands on some last week at the gluten free store in Keilor.


These come in handy this weekend when I woke up at 10am and remembered Emily's farewell picnic which was due to start at 12. I need to make something quic.

Remember the oreo truffle rage a few years ago? I made a few different varieties including white chocolate and peanut butter at one of my first potlucks. Anyway, here is the gluten free version, I think it could be tweaked further by adding more gluten free oreos or less tofutti cream cheese, so feel free to play around with it.

Gluten Free Oreo Truffles
makes approximately 20 truffles

1 packet of gluten free oreo type biscuits
half a pack of tofutti cream cheese
100 grams of chocolate chips


Crush biscuits in food processor. Add cream cheese, mix until well combined. Put mixture in freezer for 15 minutes (I skipped this step), then roll into balls. Melt dark chocolate in double boiler, dip balls in chocolate and place on lined tray. Put in fridge for 30 minutes.



I think the gluten free oreos have a slight after taste but when combined with cream cheese and chocolate you can't tell. I enjoyed these but unfortunately they melted quick quickly at the picnic and become gooey messy balls.

Salted Caramel Truffles -Vegan MOFO Day 17

Another pinterest inspired recipe. Although this time, it wasn't vegan and I couldn't actually read the recipe since it was in Italian. So instead I veganised this recipe.

Salted Caramel Truffles
8 Ounces of Dark Chocolate chips
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons water
2/3 cup coconut cream
1/2 teaspoon of fleur de sel or other fancy salt, I used Maldon salt flakes
Lots of cocoa

Melt chocolate in double boiler. Remove chocolate and set aside.

Combine sugar and 2 tablespoons water in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves, occasionally brushing sides of pan. Increase heat; boil until syrup is deep amber color, brushing down sides and swirling pan occasionally, about 4 minutes. Add coconut cream (mixture will bubble). Stir over very low heat until caramel is smooth. Mix caramel and salt into melted chocolate. Chill until truffle filling is firm, about 30 minutes-an hour. I noticed that if I let them chill for too long that it become too hard and too tricky to roll it into balls.

Place cocoa in bowl. Using 1 tablespoon truffle filling for each truffle, roll into balls, then roll in cocoa. Arrange on baking sheet. Cover. and chill.

The recipe then asked to dip in more melted chocolate but I think they were perfect just like that.These were amazing, so rich and addicitive. Although next time I will double the salted caramelas the salted caramel flavour wasn't strong enough. I will certainly be experimenting these further.

We went to see Dean Wareham playing Galaxie 500 last week, Galaxie 500 is Toby's fave band and these were a perfect snack to have prior to the show.

I had to sample a few to get an inside shot which wasn't blurry, ohh the things I do for you dear readers!

Sour Cherry Ripe Bites- Vegan Mofo Day 7

I have had a bag of dried cherries from costco for about 6 months and not known what to do with them until I stumbled across this recipe. There are other cherry themed desserts on friends blogs which I also want to try but this fulfilled my number 1 requirement to be super easy and quick. I used black cherry jam which resulted in a sour cherry flavour which make them quite different from regular cherry ripes although just as delicious. I think Toby was glad as he loves sour cherries. I had some issues with the mixture staying together when I tried to cut it so ended up with bites instead of bars. I'm going to experiment with regular jam next time.

Sour Cherry Ripe Bites Cherry "Ripe-Off" Candy Bars from cherryteacakes

1 cup shredded coconut 

3/4 cup cherry preserves, pureed (I used black cherry jam)
1/4 cup finely chopped dried cherries (sour if you have them)

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix coconut, cherry preserves, and dried cherries together. Adjust dry to wet ratio as needed until you have a paste that can be molded into candy bars. Mold into a quarter inch thick rectangle. Place in freezer for half an hour, then cut into bars or bite sizes.

Melt chocolate chips and pour over bars to cover. Place back in the freezer for five minutes until chocolate is fully set. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

OMG Mini Vegan and Gluten Free Wagon Wheels

 

 

This recipe almost fits into that recipe looks familar blog event as is a recipe from fellow vegans in Melbourne but doesn't quite fit as they don't have a blog but this recipe convinces me that should start one. Jamie and Elias decided to veganise vegan wagon wheels and thankfully shared the recipe, for which I will always be grateful.  Their recipe included arnotts nice biscuits which are vegan but I can't eat them and couldn't think of a similar biscuit which is both gluten free and vegan and the same size So I decided to make mini versions using the orgran outback animal biscuits. These are so unbelievably good, I can't tell you how similar they are to real wagon wheels as it has been almost a decade since I had them but they are outstanding taste wise and you only need 4 ingredients. Seriously go and make them now, you won't be sorry!

1 packet of vegan marshmallows
4 tablespoons of strawberry jam
2 blocks of lindt dark chocolate (you may need a little more-see comment below)
almost whole packet of orgran outback animal biscuits (had about 6 left over)

1. Spread jam on crackers
2. put marshmallows on crackers

1. Melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave
2. Pour melted chocolate over marshmallows with spoon

Makes approximately 25.
Their original recipe asks for another step: putting them in the oven for 10-15 minutes before putting the chocolate on top. But I had some issues with this because the gf crackers disintegrated and I think I cooked them for too long or at too high heat so they ended up spreading and being a big mess:


I think it worked out well without the step anyway as the marhsmallows were already quite gooey. We made some which completely covered the biscuits and then some rustic ones with just a bit of chocolate on top. I think the rustic ones actually looks better but I prefer the taste of the ones completely covered in chocolate.

 Thank you Jamie and Elias, you guys rock!

Choc Rice Cakes- Product Review and Recipe

I discovered these mini dark chocolate coated rice cakes in the supermarket the other day and was pleased to discover that they were both gluten free and vegan. Anyone who has every worked with me knows that my two most common snacks at work are chocolate and rice cakes. Although not normally together as I tend to put peanut butter on rice cakes. So I was intrigued by this pack which I found them in coles for about $3.90 for a packet.



At the first bite, I was still not convinced but after eating one or two I'm now a total convert. It allows me to have my choc fix but in smaller portion and also fills me up at the same time.  They are much smaller and thinner than regular rice cakes so after sharing a few with colleagues and indulging in several the packet was quickly gone. They do vaguely remind me of chocolate digestives which I was also a big fan of.




So tonight I tried to recreate them using regular size rice cakes. I used the multigrain corn thins and melted a tiny bit of lindt dark chocolate with coconut oil and simply spread a thin layer and let it set. I can't tell you how much though because the chocolate was leftover from another recipe I was making. They were just as good but next time I would use the neutral plain rice cakes as the multigrain ones have a weird sorgum/corn flavour which doesn't go that well with chocolate. I can defintely see this becoming a regular snack in our household.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Treats and Easter Traditions

My family is a little crazy, not in a horrible way, but in a funny silly way. We have recently started a bit of a easter tradition where we have a picnic/bbq at a park with a boat house and then most of our family members get into row boats and canoes and while most people have calm relaxing boat rides down the river we try to splash each other with water using the oars and tip each other over. What generally happens is that most of us end up drenched with water whereas there tends to be one boat/canoe that ends up like this:

When this happened yesterday to 3 of our family members, the rest of us and some strangers looking on from the sides cheered and clapped. So much fun!

Our other easter tradition is an easter egg hunt, where the adults hide the 'children's' chocolate easter eggs' and the 'children' hide the adult's easter eggs. I use quotation marks around the world children because Toby and I belong in that category despite being in our 30s, along with others who are mostly in their 20s. There are certain family members who get more adventurous each year, burying eggs and throwing them so high into trees that you can't reach them and there are always a couple that no-one can find.

This year my mother made a crazy amount of her veggie burgers and I made these chocolate hazelnut crispy treats. I used chocolate peanut butter instead of choc hazelnut butter. These were good, although the marshmallow and chocolate peanut butter flavour was too subtle and there wasn't enough chocolate to fully coat them so I recommend using less rice bubbles/rice krispies, I used the full 6 cups and it was too much. As Allyson suggested it might depend on the rice krispies you use, I used the freedom foods rice puffs. The marshmallows are really great though at helping to keep the mixture together, in the past I've had issues with gluten free rice bubbles/rice krispies and this was far easier.

Chocolate Hazlenut Peanut Butter Crispy Treats from Manifest Vegan

• 4 tbsp vegan margarine
• 1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut butter chocolate peanut butter
  
• 1 tsp vanilla bean scraped, or vanilla bean paste
• 10 oz Dandies vegan marshmallows
• 5 1/2 -6 cups gluten free crispy puffed rice cereal (see note above)
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• sprinkles or coloured sugar

Instructions

1. Measure out about 5 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal and place into large bowl. (Reserve about half a cup to add at the end in case they seem too “wet”. My marshmallow mixture worked perfectly mixed with 6 cups of rice, but depending on exact ingredients used… such as the hazelnut butter’s consistency, this could vary.
2. Generously grease up a 9″ x 11″ or similar sized pan with margarine (on the bottoms and the sides).
3. Over medium heat in large saucepan melt together margarine and hazelnut butter.
4. Stir in vanilla bean paste and marshmallows.
5. Reduce heat ever so slightly and let marshmallows melt and merge well with the butters, stirring often. All the individual marshmallows and other ingredients should homogenize. It will look more like brownish marshmallow fluff at this point.
6. When all marshmallows have been fused into one giant marshmallow-like blob, quickly stir in with cereal until everything is well mixed. This takes a bit of finesse, but not much. If the mixture seems too sticky or wet, add up to 1/2 cup more rice cereal.
7. Transfer marshmallow/crispy combo into the greased pan and spread out until flat and even.
8. Place in fridge to firm up.
9. Cut into squares, either bite sized or bigger.

I coated a couple with dark chocolate and then drizzled a small amount of chocolate on the rest and sprinkled blue sugar crystals on top. In hindsight, less dark chocolate was probably better for my family who mostly hate dark chocolate.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

So it's probably no surprise to anyone that chocolate and peanut butter are my favourite combo, but pretzels have also been a bit of an addiction since high school.  Since going gluten free i've simple changed to Eskal gluten free pretzels. They had a chemical taste when I first started eating them but now I love them. So when Manifest Vegan posted this recipe, I couldn't resist making it since it combined my three favourite things.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Tartlets/Tart by Manifest Vegan

I doubled the recipe below to make one large tart instead of individual ones, I used two packets of eskal gluten free pretzels which may be a tiny bit over the amount.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup gluten free pretzels
• 6 tbsp + 1/2 tbsp softened vegan margarine
• 2 tbsp organic sugar
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup coconut cream
• 1 cup almond milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Gather about twelve 2″ tart pans.
2. Combine crushed pretzels, 6 tbsp margarine, and sugar together until well mixed. Make sure there are no lumps–when pressed the mixture should somewhat hold its shape. You may need to add a touch more margarine if it feels too crumbly… but just about a tablespoon or so.
3. Press crumbs into tart pans, making an even crust that is about 1/4-1/3 of an inch thick. Handle with care…
4. Bake in preheated oven about 12 minutes, or until dark golden brown.
5. Remove tart shells from oven and let cool on wire racks.
6. Once crusts are cool, begin making your filling.
7. Place chocolate chips into a medium sized bowl.
8. Combine peanut butter, coconut cream and almond milk in small saucepan.
9. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly using a wire whisk.
10. Once the mixture comes to a “boil” (or better described as “plopping”) and is very hot, pour over chocolate chips, stirring quickly to melt.
11. Use a deep spoon to transfer the chocolate/peanut butter mixture into the tart shells.
12. The chocolate mix should be pretty thick, a lot like pudding. In fact, it makes a pretty good pudding… try it!
13. Let cool at room temp for about an hour and then chill in fridge.
14. Store in refrigerator and serve cold.

I can't remember how long I baked it for because I took it out checked it a few times and then placed in back in the oven, it was probably about double the time. Here is the crust:



I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the whole complete tart!

This was delicious, but super intense so I think the recipe is probably better suited to tartlets. I love the tiny bit of saltiness this adds to the rich chocolate peanut butter combo. I'm impressed with the texture of choc peanut butter mix, it sets really well. Although, the crust was a tiny bit soggy, so I'm not sure if I didn't bake it long enough or that the brand of gf pretzels were not as great as the ones that Allyson used.

Chocolate Spiders- Gluten Free Childhood Favourite

Despite my spider phobia, I grew up enjoying two spider experiences: coke (and various other flavour) spiders aka ice cream soda, float etc and chocolate spiders. I think Chocolate spiders were my first introduction to the choc and peanut butter combo which I am now addicted to.

I remember making these for parties and sleepovers etc in my teenage years. The original recipe called for a packet of Changs fried noodles which are wheat based but they recently started making a rice variety which allowed me to recreate this childhood favourite.

I also discovered this new brand of Coles Belgian dark chocolate which is vegan. I swear that they used to have a Belgian variety which wasn't vegan, or was I dreaming?





Chocolate Spiders from Chang's Fine Asian Foods

1 pkt Chang’s Original Fried Noodles (100g)
2 Tbspns Crunchy Peanut Butter
200g Chocolate (2 100g blocks)

Microwave chocolate and peanut butter in microwave safe mixing bowl for about 30 seconds on high.  If not melted, then microwave again in 5 second intervals. Mix well until it is a smooth paste. (I just melted it in a double boiler). Add noodles and coat them well. Spoon the mixture onto grease-proof paper, or into individual paper patty pans. Using heaped teaspoons, this mixture will yield 30 to 40 spiders.
Place in refrigerator until set.

They kind of look like spiders. The texture was not quite as good as the wheat ones but taste wise they are just as good. I had some issues getting them to stick together too, but once I started making smaller ones they were fine.

2 Ingredient Chocolate Chia Pudding

Yes this only requires chia seeds and choc soy milk. We are obsessed with vitasoy chocolate milk at the moment and I figured this was probably a healthier way to consume it.

Chocolate Chia Pudding from Foods for Life

[serves 4]

2 cups chocolate soy milk

5 to 6 tablespoons raw chia seeds (depending on how thick you want it)

Berries (optional)

Combine chia seeds with chocolate soy milk and stir vigorously with a fork for several minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes and stir again until the chia seeds are well blended and separated. Let the mixture sit out for an hour, stir one more time and refrigerate at least one day until thickened and firm. (I think I left it for 3-4 hours)/ This is a good dessert to make a day or two in advance in order to give it time to set. When ready to serve, top with strawberries or raspberries and divide into 4 small serving dishes.

I enjoyed this, it's just like eating really thick chocolate soy milk. Although I thought it could be a tad sweeter, next time I might add some maple syrup and/or cinnamon.

Daylesford Revisited

Last weekend, Troy and Bec invited us to go a day trip with them to daylesford. We visited all of our favourite vegan friendly places except for the conti banquet because we only there during the day. First we went to Himalaya Bakery, I had the exact same dish that I had last time: the gf toast with white bean dip and spinach and tomatoes. It's simple but nice. The white bean dip is creamy and gf toast is great and super filling. Although, we took a gf loaf home and put it in the fridge which seemed to destroy the texture completely. Please excuse the phone pics, I forgot my camera!

I also got one of these little cute little desserts, I forgot what it was called but it kind of resembled fruit cake which I don't like. I've had other gf desserts there before and enjoyed them and if you can eat gluten you have to have the cherry danish!

 

And I couldn't possible visit Daylesford without stopping by at the chocolate Mill. I frigging love this place. They sell a range of individual belgian chocolates and even have little signs saying which ones are vegan and which ones contain gluten. Most of the dark chocolate ones are vegan and Bec discovered that a couple which don't have the vegan sign could be make vegan if you make a bulk order like the pina colada chocolates. Toby and I got a box of chocolates which included cherry, cinnamon, mint and cardamon varieties.

We also go a couple of the macadamia chocolate blocks and I had one of their large rich hot chocolates which is basically melted dark chocolate and soy milk. Here is a before photo:

and an after shot:

While in daylesford we also checked out a waterfall and a few stores including the Mill Market. Such an awesome day!

See other Himalaya Bakery reviews by Emily-Kallista, Steph, Michael and  us

And other Chocolate Mill reviews by Cindy and us twice.

The Chocolate Mill
5451 Midland Hwy Mt Franklin
10am to 4.45pm (opened 7 days)


Himalaya Bakery
73 Vincent Street Daylesford

Choc Chip Cookies with Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I told you, it wouldn't be long til I tried making the gluten free chocolate chip cookies that I blogged about a few weeks ago. In fact it was only a week later but I thought it would be kind of boring to hear that I made the same cookies in one week. I do think it's worth sharing though because I made some changes, this time I used regular white agave and a mixture of white and dark chocolate. But I discovered that the strong after taste wasn't the dark agave but was the 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, next time I will try with only 1 teaspoon to see how it compares. I do love the texture though and general flavour. I took some to a friend's house and then used the remaining leftovers to make peanut butter ice cream sandwiches using the recipe from vegan scoop. It is seriously my most used cookbook and this ice cream was another winner.

Chocolates!!!!

I saw my friend Katie Carot today and she gave me this amazing present. It made my horrible day so much better.

She said that she is behind in blogging at the moment but will post some of the recipes when she gets the chance.

The detail on the chocolates is just so awesome. I adore the look of the zombie brains but all of them are so damn cute. See the detail on the little men?



 
They are different flavours too including peanut butter, strawberry and caramel/marshmallow and of course white xmas and they are all incredibly delicious!

Thank you x 1000!

Edited to add: recipes are now up here and here. 

Tuxedo Strawberries

One of the vouchers for the langham high tea was for my grandmother, who is unfortunately in hospital at the moment so couldn't attend with us. So I really wanted to recreate part of the experience for her. I showed my colleague pictures from our high tea and she commented that her friend had made her the tuxedo strawberries once. This led me to do a google search and discovered that it was possible to make them.

It took a little practice to get it right and there was plenty of reject looking ones but I think if you had a proper piping bag instead of trying to use toothpicks (which didn't work at all) or a ziplock bag it might be easier.

I took one into my grandmother who surprisingly was able to eat it and loved it. And then took the rest to a friend's mahjong playing gathering, I finally learned how to play mahjong. Thanks Eve!

Here's the rough recipe:


Tuxedo Strawberries

2 punnets strawberries
1 and 1/2 blocks of sweet william white chocolate
1 cup dark choc chips

Wash and pat dry strawberries, make sure they are dry or the chocolate won't stick.

Melt white chocolate, dip strawberries in white chocolate and set aside or in fridge to set.

Melt dark chocolate, dip in one side, and then another, so you have a v shape. I found this amusing youtube video helped to understand.

Use piping bag filled with dark chocolate to pipe bow and buttons onto each one.

The white chocolate kind of balances out the bitterness of the dark chocolate so I think even people who hated dark chocolate would enjoy these. They are fiddly though and had Toby and I quite stressed and running late. Also, as we learned the hard way you need to use something small and deep like a glass so you can properly dip the strawberries and it ends up using way more chocolate than you think, but i've tried to estimate for the recipe!

Fudge Babies and Sandwiches- Vegan Mofo Day 28

I stumbled Chocolate Covered Katie's Fudge Babies and was intrigued, exactly how good could cocoa powder, dates and cashews combined taste?

Katie has various flavours on her blog, so I made a double batch of the hot chocolate fudge babies so I could experiment with a couple.

Hot Chocolate fudge babies

• 30 grams cashews
• 80 grams dates
• 5 grams (1T) dark cocoa powder ( i used regular cocoa powder)

1. Chop/blend all the ingredients, using a food processor, Magic Bullet, etc. 
2. Roll into cutey-pie little balls or make sandwiches.  (Use plastic wrap if you need to.)

First I just followed the standard recipe above and used bunny cookie cutters to cut out bunnies.

Then I added some peanut butter and made sandwiches. They did look cute but I felt like the date flavour kind of overpowered the other flavours.

So then I made two types of balls or 'babies' as she calls them.  First I added choc chips and simply rolled into balls. For the last batch I put the mixture with the choc chips back into the food processor and added as sprinkling of cinnamon and golden syrup. The last batch was by far my favourite. The cinnamon and golden syrup watered down the date flavour a little and the choc chips were cut down a little which meant that there was more chocolate bits. It just resulted in a such a nice combination. I think maple syrup would have been good too but we didn't have any. They are definitely a lot healthier than other desserts I normally make and they do remind me of lara bars. I think these would make a great traveling snack too.

OMG Choc Honeycomb aka Vegan Crunchie- Vegan Mofo Day 4

I was inspired after trying the raw chocolate bars at world vegan day and having a discussion with Eve about how honeycomb doesn't normally use honey to make this. I started googling recipes and found out that she is right, why aren't more vegans making and blogging about honeycomb? Actually scratch that, I just found Cindy's post here. I'm not sure how I missed that back in 2009!

So I set out to make my own vegan version of a crunchie or is a violet crumble, I can't remember what the difference is????

Vegan Crunchie I used this recipe for the honeycomb


4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 cup of choc chips


1. Grease a 20 cm (or smaller size if possible) square cake tin or slice tray.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the golden syrup and sugar together, bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes. Cooking time will vary but test it by dropping a little syrup into water-it should become brittle when ready. Watch it doesn't burn.

3. Remove pot from heat and add the bicarb soda. Quickly mix it in because the mixture will foam up instantly. Pour immediately into the cake tin. Leave to set.






4. Once cooled remove honeycomb and place on plate or other surface, while melting chocolate in double boiler. Put a thin layer of chocolate in bottom of original pan. Next time I will use baking paper first!

5. Put honeycomb on top of first chocolate layer and add more melted chocolate on top. Let it set (not in the fridge).


It was so so so so awesome, almost exactly like I remembered a violet crumble or cunchie tasting. Although next time I will do a few things differently to get the texture perfect and making cutting easier like using a smaller pan to get thicker bits, using baking paper before putting the choc on the bottom. Also, the texture was a bit too chewy which I think was due to overcooking it slightly or refrigerating it. I'm so excited about the idea of incorporating it in other things like veganising this violet crumble ice cream and caramel violet crumble cake.