You’d think I’d be bored of biscuits by now …but no, I just keep thinking of new scrummy flavour combos! Today it’s dark choc and cherry – a winning combination. The tartness of the cherries works so well with the rich, dark chocolate 
These use the same basic ingredients as my choc and ginger biccies but just replace the ginger with a handful of dried cherries! Simple!
You may have noticed a certain penchant for cookies and biscuits lately? what can i say? I just love this simple recipe and how easy it is to customise it with whatever flavours you like
So this weekend Mother’s Day and the return of my lovely friend from holiday inspired me to bake some more biscuits for both of them Both are fans of the combo of ginger and dark chocolate and they work brilliantly with these cookies. I also had some fun with a cool set of letter cutters (I’m such a child!).
You will need:
2 cups Spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
1 cup Unrefined Icing sugar
6 oz Dairy-free margarine (get the best quality you can)
A handful of crystallised ginger
A handful of dairy free chocolate (I used Willie’s chef’s drops)
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Put the margarine in a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and icing sugar in and cream it together. Try not to over mix but make sure the margarine is properly mixed with the dry ingredients. Chop the ginger and chocolate into small pieces and add to the mix. Once it’s formed a dough wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins (optional). If you find the dough is too sticky then add some more flour.
Roll the dough out and use cutters to cut your biscuit shapes and transfer to a greased baking tray. I found that this dough worked best as a thick biscuit (about half a cm). If you don’t want to roll it then take small balls and flatten on to the baking tray. Bake in the oven for 10 – 12 mins or until as brown as you like them (I like my biscuits bordering on burnt so I kept them in a little longer! ).
If you have some letter cutters (or you’re handy with a knife and can freehand them) then you can have fun spelling stuff in biscuit form! 
As we move from winter in to spring my thoughts turn to lighter bakes and lemon always features highly in my list of spring and summer baking yumminess!Once again this is the result of a little seed planted in my head by my good friend Colette (anyone would think she had a bit of a thing for these biscuit recipes… ).
This is super-easy and fun – perfect to make for the kids and can be done pretty quickly after school or on a sunday afternoon. Equally yummy for adults too though!
You will need:
2 cups Spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
1 cup Unrefined Icing sugar
6 oz Dairy-free margarine (get the best quality you can)
zest of 2 small Lemons
1 tbsp fresh Lemon juice
Dairy- free (or non dairy free if you want!) Lemon curd – it will depend how much you use but less than half a jar should do it
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Put the margarine in a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and icing sugar in and cream it together. Try not to over mix but make sure the margarine is properly mixed with the dry ingredients. Add the zest and lemon juice and combine it well. Once it’s formed a dough wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins (optional). If you find the dough is too sticky then add some more flour. Once chilled, make small balls of dough (approx 1 inch diameter) and pop them on a greased baking tray. Push them down to flatten them and use your thumb to create a deep hollow in the centre. Prick the bottom of the hollow with a fork.
Bake for 8 minutes. Then remove from the oven and spoon in a small amount of lemon curd in to each hollow.
Bake for a further 2 minutes or so, or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray. Be very careful when you remove them from the oven as the curd will be molten! Avoid the temptation to eat them straight away (trust me on this one!), just allow them to cool a little before you tuck in!
Ok, I think I need new friends, or maybe I need ones that don’t have such great ideas…. Once again I find myself in my kitchen, baking biscuits at nearly 11pm….Definitely worth it though (thank you my lovely friend Colette from Colette’s Fitness Kitchen for planting yet another seed in my head for some scrummy biscuits!).
So it’s the same biscuit recipe as before but this time I’ve added in:
approximately 100g Dried cherries
approximately 75g Macadamia nuts
100g of good quality white chocolate (omit this if you want it dairy free – or better yet replace with dairy free dark chocolate! yummo!)
a handful of dessicated coconut!
Chop the cherries, nuts and chocolate fairly small and then add all of the ingredients in to the dough at the end and ensure they’re mixed well throughout. You can just make little round dollops of these, or you can roll them out (gently!) and use a cutter as I’ve done.
They will be bit thicker so may need longer in the oven. Enjoy!
Oh and I should say… they are also yummy with the raspberry icing on…!
Apparently I’m very suggestable… which is why I found myself in my kitchen at 11pm on a Monday night making more biscuits! What, I hear you cry? has she not made enough biscuits already! Well no, apparently not! A very dear friend, who shall remain nameless (though her name begins with a C, has an o, two l’s and a couple of e’s and t’s in it…….) suggested to me this evening that those valentine biscuits would be even better with some dessicated coconut in them… now I’m a massive coconut fan and though it pains me to admit when she’s right… she was right, in fact she was damn right!
![IMG_0352[1]](http://puresimplebakes.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/img_03521.jpg)
I went straight home and whipped up a batch! (well after a trip to the local shops for some ingredients!)…. and wow are they good! Seriously you need to try this! I think they’ll work brilliantly with the raspberry icing too – I just ran out of icing sugar so couldn’t ice them tonight!
![IMG_0356[1]](http://puresimplebakes.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/img_03561.jpg)
So it’s the same recipe as before ( i halved it this time) with some dessicated coconut added
2 cups Spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
1 cups Unrefined Icing sugar
6 oz Dairy-free margarine (get the best quality you can)
Approx 1/2 cup (to be honest I just shook a load in from the tub but just try a little at a time and keep working it in until it’s evenly spread throughout the dough!)
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Put the margarine in a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and icing sugar in and cream it together. Try not to over mix but make sure the margarine is properly mixed with the dry ingredients. Add the dessicated coconut as the dough starts to come together and ensure it’s evenly distributed throughout. Once it’s formed a dough wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins. If you find the dough is too sticky then add some more flour. Once chilled, roll out and use a biscuit cutter to cut whatever shape you have. Sprinkle with a little raw sugar if you like and place on a greased baking tray and bake for 8 – 10 mins, or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray.
![IMG_0354[1]](http://puresimplebakes.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/img_03541.jpg)
I got a little over-excited in the biscuit-cutter section of the cake shop and end up with a loast of new valentine’s cutters! So here, for you, is a feast of valentine’s biccies for the one you love (in my case, that’s me! ha ha!)
All the biscuits are based on the same biscuit recipe which I’ve posted before – here but here it is again for ease. This makes LOADS of biscuits so you may want to halve the amount to start with.
4 cups Spelt flour or gluten-free flour mix
2 cups Unrefined Icing sugar
12 oz Dairy-free margarine (get the best quality you can)
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Put the margarine in a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and icing sugar in and cream it together. Try not to over mix but make sure the margarine is properly mixed with the dry ingredients. Once it’s formed a dough wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins. If you find the dough is too sticky then add some more flour. Once chilled, roll out and use a biscuit cutter to cut whatever shape you have. Sprinkle with a little raw sugar if you like and place on a greased baking tray and bake for 8 – 10 mins, or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray.
Cutting and Decorating!
You can use any cutters you like but I had the pleasure of trying out all my new valentine’s ones! It was such fun! For most of the biccies I just sprinkled with raw sugar. I had a wonderful set of hearts that decrease in size so I had a lot of fun with those.
Then I also had some with lovely little messages stamped in them.
Those were all plain, but for other’s however I made some pink icing using raw icing sugar and raspberries. Simply pop a handful of raspberries into a fine mesh sieve and using the back of a spoon crush them through the sieve. You will end up with a lovely raspberry puree. Don’t throw away the seeds and pulp left in the sieve, you can whack this in to your next smoothie! Use this, instead of water, to make your icing. I simply used raw icing sugar (you can use normal icing sugar if you prefer) and the raspberry puree. I added a little at a time until I had the consistency I wanted. If you want it runnier, add a little water, if you want it less pink then add more icing sugar and water down the puree a little and just experiment!
For these adorable ‘his and hers’ jigsaw hearts I used a piping bag to pipe a thin line of slightly darker icing around the edges and then filled the middle! You could use white icing to pipe names on each half. Allow to set and then share with the one you love
I then had a go at just smothering the little hearts in icing – yum!
And finally (for the icing fun) I had a go at filling in the messages on the shortbreads. This was super fiddly but I think it looks fab! I used a cake skewer dipped in the icing to fill the letters!
Valentine’s day wouldn’t be valentine’s day without a bit of chocolate! So I had a go with that too! I just melted some high quality, dairy free chocolate and filled the letters with it in the same way as the icing. This was messy and didn’t work out quite so well but I think with a bit of practice it will!
Finally I made some little double hearts. Once again I piped an icing border around them and then I filled the centre with chocolate.
I have had the immense pleasure of being able to review some delicious vegan ice creams from Razzle Dazzle Ices recently and I’ve been dying to tell you all about them!
Razzle Dazzle Ices are based in the West Country so not available across the UK yet, though their stockists are increasing by the day and I hear one day they may be able to send mail-order deliveries too (oooh I can’t wait! ). They’re a small, family-run company who have developed these ices themselves for their own son and we have the pleasure of benefitting from that. They believe in being environmentally friendly and have great business ethics so they’re pretty much good guys all round in my book!
I was lucky enough to be given 5 flavours to try, each in 100ml pots: Mango Sorbet, Coconilla, Cocodough, Hintamint and Shokalate. They are essentially sorbets but you wouldn’t know that, they give the impression and mouth-feel of a lovely, creamy dessert. I’ll give my thoughts on each on in turn.
Coconilla
A blend of coconut and vanilla ice which is lovely and smooth and creamy. The coconut gives it a really smooth texture and removes any trace of that artificial flavour you can sometimes get with vanilla. The coconut is delicate though so doesn’t over power the vanilla at all. This is lovely on it’s own but even better alongside a vegan brownie or some fresh fruit.
Cocodough
Now I’m not a raw cookie dough fiend so I didn’t expect to fall in love with this flavour. It uses the coconilla as it’s base and has chunks of vegan cookie dough interspersed in it. My fears were wiped away with the first mouthful! The sweetness and stickiness of the cookie dough is balanced really nicely with the ice cream and you get just enough of both to feel like you’re getting something naughty but not tooooo naughty!
Mango Sorbet
Divine. That’s all I can say about this! It’s so refreshing and delicious, and not in the slightest bit grainy or full of ice crystals. It’s so smooth it’s more like ice cream than sorbet and there’s no articificial fruit flavour that you can sometimes get in sorbets – you can really taste those fresh mangoes!
Shokalate
Now I confess.. I am not a chocolate ice cream fan. I love chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate biscuits, chocolate anything in fact, but not chocolate ice cream, I never have. I think I find it too sickly and sweet, so it was with trepidation that I opened this pot. Once again I have been floored! This is so good! It tastes like a really good dark chocolate ice cream and because it’s a sorbet (though frankly you wouldn’t notice that) you get a massive chocolate hit which isn’t diluted by all that nasty creamy milk flavour! It’s just amazing; rich, smooth and just 100% chocolatey.
Hintamint
In my humble opinion, I’ve saved the best for last. This is far and away my favourite flavour. As I’ve mentioned before my two big things are choc-orange and choc-mint flavours so I knew I’d like this but this is beyond like, I love this. I could literally bathe in this stuff! It is just so good. This is a classic combination and the intense, dark chocolate ice combined with refreshing mint oil works perfectly. This is perfect for after dinner but also makes a delicious, indulgent treat for any time!
So “hintamint” is definitely my winner! Though it’s been a very tough call as they’re all so good! I shared my stash with my good friend Colette from Colette’s Fitness Kitchen (wishing I hadn’t now though… ) so I’ll be updating this with her views too. In the meantime I will continue to try to lick the remnants out of the bottom of the pots! A big thank you to Phil and Darrelle at Razzle Dazzle Ices for creating such amazing desserts (and for letting me review them!).
If you can find a way to try this ices you really must! They’re now being stocked in London (Ms Cupcake and a few other places) as well as in the West Country. Check out their website for your nearest stockist and enjoy!
Ah sticky toffee pudding, possibly one of my favourite childhood desserts! A classic school dinner pud that always brightened the coldest, wettest school day. I’ve not had a sticky toffee pudding for years though, so when my favourite vegan, Mel, suggested I have a go at making one this weekend I jumped at the chance.
This one’s perfect as a comfort pudding on a cold evening, served with some dairy free custard. It definitely needs to be served warm, and you definitely need the sauce with it – and lots of it! The pud itself is not over-sweet, if you’re looking for something sweeter you might want to use unrefined sugar instead of the agave. but once you pour the sauce over it I’m sure you’ll find it will satisy any sweet tooth.
As a nice twist you can soak the dates in rooibos tea and make an earl grey caramel sauce (I’ll explain below!). If you don’t have the rice and quinoa flour you can substitute it for an all purpose plain gluten free flour mix (you also need to leave out the xantham gum if you do this), or if you just want to make it low gluten you can use white spelt flour (and again, leave out the xantham gum).
1 1⁄4 cup Dates, pitted
3⁄4 cup Warm water or rooibos tea
1 tsp Baking soda
1 cup Rice flour
1⁄4 cup Quinoa flour
1⁄2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1 3⁄4 tsp Baking powder
1⁄4 tsp Xantham gum
1⁄4 cup Coconut oil (melted)
1⁄3 cup Agave nectar or Sweet Freedom (or 1/2 cup Coconut palm sugar or unrefined raw sugar)
1 Tbsp Date syrup
1⁄2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 tbsp Ground linseed (flax seed) mixed with 1/2 cup water (or rooibos tea)
For the sauce:
1⁄2 cup Coconut oil
1⁄2 cup Coconut palm sugar or unrefined raw sugar (or Agave)
1⁄2 cup Coconut milk or Soya milk (infused with earl grey tea if you want – details below)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tbsp Cornflour or Arrowroot powder mixed in a small amount of cold water (to form a loose paste)
Preheat the oven to 175 C and grease 5 – 6 small ramekins. This recipe filled 5 of these mini loaf tins (which are brilliant by the way!) but you could use a larger tin and create one big pud!
Put the dates and water/tea in a small pan and simmer for 5 mins. Then let it sit for 15 mins until the dates are nice and soft. Meanwhile sieve all the dry ingredients (except the bicarbonate of soda) into a bowl. Put the coconut oil, agave, date syrup, vanilla and flax mix in another bowl and mix until well combined. Once the dates are soft add in the bicarobonate of soda and let it foam. Then lightly mash the dates before adding to the wet ingredients. Mix it all together and add in the dry ingredients and combine well. Pour into the greased tins. Place the tins in a bain-marie – I used a roasting tin with enough water in to go up to half the height of the load tins.
5 little puds in my version of a bain-marie just waiting to go in the oven
Bake for 30 – 40 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on the puds – if they start to get too brown on top then lightly place a sheet of tin foil over them to prevent burning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack.
Now for the sauce! If you want to go for an earl grey (or any flavoured tea) sauce then you need to infuse the coconut or soya milk with the tea first. Put the milk in a small pan on the hob, add 1 tbsp of loose tea or 2 tea bags and gently warm it. Do not let it simmer or boil. Let is sit for a good 15 mins, then strain it for use. To make the sauce melt the coconut oil in a small pan over a low heat. Whisk in the sugar, stirring continuously until it dissolves (approx 3 – 4 mins). You may find it won’t completely dissolve – don’t worry about this, it will still work. Ad the milk a little at a time. When you first add it it will spit and fiz and you’ll panic like I did and think you’ve mucked it up! Just stir quickly and then add the rest in one go, stirring all the time. You’ll find this will instantly create a smooth sauce. At this point keep stirring to combine the oil (it does tend to want to separate out). If you like your sauce runny leave it as it is, but if you want something thicker then add the cornflour/arrowroot mix – stirring continuously whilst still on the heat. Stir until it thickens and then remove from the heat and pour into a jug for serving.
This pud NEEDS to be served warm so either eat it right away or re-heat it later Enjoy the stickiness!
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