Raw Chocolate

Chocolate that's good for you! Well not so bad for you anyway as it has no dairy or sugar. I'm practically living on this stuff right now ;-)

This is my current favourite recipe after experimenting with combinations of recipes from the Naked Chocolate book and others I've found online. This is the best I've come up with so far, it's changing all the time though!

This batch is sweet and bitter with a definite kick; definitely not for children! They are also extremely rich, so whilst they work out quite expensive, just one a day will be all you need to curb cravings and give you a boost!

You should be able to find everything you need to make them at your local health food store, but failing that go straight to the inspirational Shazzie and her Detox Your World website.



Raw Chocolates

Ingredients
(Makes around 30 chocolates)
100g raw Cacao Butter
90g raw Coconut Oil
1 tablespoon (approx, basically a big lump!) raw Cocoa Liquor
100ml Agave Syrup
50g raw Cocoa Powder
3 teaspoons Maca powder
2 teaspoon Guarana Powder
Few drops vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Chop the Cocoa Butter and Cocoa Liquor into smaller pieces and put in a bowl or jug with the Coconut Oil. Place this over another bowl or jug filled with boiling water. Be sure the water cannot touch the mixture. Allow to gently melt.



2. Once melted, add the Cocoa Powder, Agave, Maca, Guarana and Vanilla. Mix well and if possible use a blender; I use a small hand blender just to ensure it's all well mixed.





3. Pour into silicone moulds. I found this fantastic swirly chocolate mould at Lakeland today, but ice cube moulds work just as well for sweet little chocolate cubes.








4. Freeze for at least 20 minutes, then pop out of the mould. These chocolates melt very easily so are best stored in either the fridge or freezer.





Enjoy!

I think I may have to go back to Lakeland to get another mould they had with dinosaur shapes and make some child-friendly chocolates; without the Maca and Guarana!

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Bread Bag

This is something I've been meaning to make for months....many many months! I actually meant to make this before we moved house even! It's crazy it's taken me so long as it was so very simple.

The Comedian can't have wheat and Povey can't have dairy so most of our bread I make myself... Well I throw the ingredients into the breadmaker and it makes them ;-) The problem with homemade bread is getting it to keep without going mouldy or stale. In the past I used to wrap the bread in plastic or foil but it didn't work so well. I did manage to extend the life of loaves slightly by adding an egg to the mix but storage was still a problem.

A bit of research led me to an old-fashioned solution, a fabric breadbag!

I used some loosly woven fabric I picked up in a charity shop years ago and had as yet failed to find a use for. I used French seams inside the bag (to avoid rough edges rubbing on the loaf) and used some cotton cord firctge drawstring. Otherwise I made it just as I would my present bags, ensuring it would fit a whole loaf without being too loose. I was a little dubious of how well it would work as I'd tried a plastic-lined fabric bread bag (from Lakeland) before and it hadn't worked. It must have been the plastic that was the problem as you can see this bag has kept this white spelt flour loaf fresh for a week.








Mainly I just like how much prettier it looks on my shelf than a shop-bought loaf ;-)





I only made the one to see how it did, but now I'll make some more so I always have one handy. I may even colour code the drawstrings!

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