The Boy and I have been watching Zumbo’s Just Desserts on TV3 on Monday and Tuesday nights. Despite having an epic savoury tooth I can’t help but develop intense cravings whilst watching Zumbo’s for… SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR. Enough, I thought. Time to whip up something decadent to enhance our viewing pleasure. Frankly, I don’t think you can go past chocolate caramel slice, for me this is the ultimate treat, the king of home-baking.
Here’s my recipe, it’s a bit of a hodge-podge of various recipes I’ve tried over the years.
Now, don’t tell anyone… Sometimes I make it with…. Double the caramel topping. I know. I’m such a porker. But try it, don’t just shake your head in disbelief at my porkiness. (more…)
Way back in September I took part in Sugar Free September. The whole low/no sugar movement is gaining momentum and I thought I’d give it a whirl. The Executive Summary of that story is: I did it, I feel great and fast forward now, We’ve stayed sugar free (mainly) because we feel GREAT.
Sure, there’s been a couple of what I call ‘Relaxing Moments’ but they aren’t biggies by any stretch of the imagination. What am I relaxing on? Wine mostly – Pinot Gris to be precise, my tipple of choice when the weather gets warmer. In context though, as someone who had a serious weakness for chocolate at 3pm, it’s nothing short of miraculous that I’ve eaten four squares of chocolate since late August. That’s it for the extent of my ‘sugar deviation’ not bad, right? I’m staying sugar free because I feel amazing. But I won’t witter on about that here because I went on about it here.
Anyhow, one of the things I enjoyed most about Sugar Free September was trying out new food and recipes and I thought it would be fun to share my favourite recipe from September. If you follow me on Facebook you’ll have seen this before as I shared the recipe for Pecan and Caramel Bark from the Cave Girl blog which, frankly, is a recipe of pure genius. So, with Cave Girl as my inspiration, I made up my own barky version and… YUM! Both bark recipes are so good that, even if I fall well and truly off the sugar bandwagon, I’ll still whip this up. Now, while I shared the recipe on Facebook, those little buggers at Facebook are playing mind games with me as some of my posts on my Facebook just vanish – like POOF! Gone! I have no idea why (if anyone knows – please enlighten me as this palaver drives a woman batty). So, for prosperity, here’s the Coconutty Bark recipe I posted on Facebook here on the blog: Now it’s kept safe for us all to enjoy! (more…)
My son had his birthday party this weekend and unbeknownst to me one of his little friends has a dairy allergy. Being someone who thrives on feeding people, I just couldn’t bear the thought of her not being able to join in and eat birthday cake or dessert so I whipped up this brownie for her. When I say “whipped up” I mean it: This took four minutes. I had the brownie ready to go in the oven long before the oven had reached the desired temperature! (more…)
This chocolate brownie with white chocolate icing is the BEST brownie recipe, ever. I love making this, it’s really straight forward, it’s got serious wow factor and people usually groan with pleasure when they eat it. But, that’s no surprise really, cast your eye over the ingredients…. All the good stuff, or the bad stuff, depending on which way you look at it (I’m not going to try and pull the wool over your eyes!) But, I eat this so rarely, and it’s so scrummy, I just refuse to feel bad eating it: Life is TOO short to feel guilty about eating a piece of brownie! That said, I do chuckle to myself when people ask what’s in this brownie. I usually just smile and say “one packet of dark chocolate melts in the base. Oh and a packet of white chocolate melts in the icing, along with a tin of condensed milk and butter”. Eyes usually widen and then, with a mouth full of brownie, I hear murmurs of appreciation, and then, inevitably, they ask for another slice. (more…)
Yes, another slice recipe…! I found this little gem on the Chelsea Sugar website. I love lemon flavours like some people enjoy chocolate. Hmmmmm. This is a simple recipe – absolutely easy enough to make with a little person ‘helping out!’ I’ve made it as a lunchbox filler, when we’ve got people calling over for morning or afternoon tea on the weekend, or just ‘coz. It’s always enjoyed. (more…)
I love baking slices, they take less time to make than biscuits… I find all that rolling of mixture into little balls a bit tedious: Slices are (often) faster to make! This is another family favourite that’s regularly in our home baking tins. I got this recipe out of the ‘Baking for Blokes’ recipe book by Steve Joll that some well-meaning person bought for my Hot Hubby one Christmas. He’s yet to be inspired, but it’s a cookbook I regularly reach for: It’s got a delightful Kiwi feel to it, the baking recipes in are simple, the ingredients mostly require pantry basics and, critically, damn the food is good! (more…)
This recipe is another of our family’s favourites! I love making it as it’s so versatile: I have gone to make it so many times and realised I haven’t got all the ingredients, so I improvise and it always works! It’s easy to make, my seven year old often makes it by himself.(more…)
This is a favourite in our house, it’s the basic Edmonds Cookbook (aka The Kiwi Cooking Bible) ANZAC biscuit, doubled, and made into a slice! No pedantic rolling of balls of mixture into biscuits, which saves a truckload of time.
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