Taking Sponge Toffee to it's Next Logical Conclusion

No big post, just two pictures about what I did with my sponge toffee! Why Han Solo, you might be asking? Because it was the only mold I had that was big enough to make a chocolate bar with, a gift from my cousin Amelia at christmas... also you can see part of the mold didn't quite temper properly, however I figure practice makes perfect!

Basically you melt a chocolate bar, and fill a silicone mold 1/3 of the way. Tap it on the counter to get rid of any bubbles, and stick it in the fridge for about 1 minute. Crumble up some sponge toffee, and top the poured chocolate with it. Cover that with more chocolate, tapping the mold a few time to dispel any bubbles. Stick in the freezer a few minutes until fully set. Pull the sides of the mold to loosen it, and push it out. Then you have a crunchy bar! If you want it to look super pretty, don't forget to Temper it!

Look at the crunchy goodness! Mine looks ragged on the edges because I didn't quite have enough chocolate to reach the top of the mold. It's still pretty good though!

Chocolate Rice Cookies

I got bored last night. So bored I needed to make some cookies!

It was a very slow night, and I really wanted to bake SOMETHING, but didn't have any flour besides glutinous rice flour, which you really can't make much besides mochi cakes with. So, I took my spice mill and ground up some brown rice and jasmine rice as finely as I could with it, which took FOREVER, because I could only do about 1 tbsp at a time.

Despite this, it all turned out for the best, I think! Also, I had put in some puffed rice, but I didn't like how it turned out, so I left that out of the ingredients.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Rice Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1 cup sweet glutinous rice flour
1 tsp guar gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup vegetable shortening or vegan margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
1 cup warmish water
1 1/2  tbsp finely ground  flax seeds mixed with 3 tbsp room temperature water, and left to sit a few minutes.

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350.
In a bowl, sift together the flours, salt, cocoa, guar, and baking powder until everything is smooth and there are no clumps of cocoa. (I find cocoa gets pretty clumpy.)
In a separate bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Once that's all combined, add in the vanilla and flax mixture, beating until mixed.
Add the sugar mixture to the flour, stirring as much as possible. Start adding a bit of the water, a tbsp or so at a time, to help you mix it until it's the consistency of cookie batter (You might not need the full cup!)
Add in the chocolate chips, stirring to combine.
Drop onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat, and bake for about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack!
I find these cookies taste best the day off, and they're VERY dippable!
Check out the action pics!

A glass of Almond Milk awaits!

The first dip

Not quite dipped enough!

The second dip!

There we go!

Nom Nom Nom!

On Vacation with some Pancakes

It's rather nice being on vacation, and as I write my very first post for this new blog I'm starting, all of my family is down at the beach enjoying themselves.

Well, to be accurate, not all of my family, as I'm vacationing with my mother, the sister closest to my age (Krista), her fiance (Corey), and my fella. You can see Corey and Matthew chatting while soaking up some rays. (See above!)

Being on vacation, especially with a group of non-GFVs can present a bit of a problem.

However, with a big of pre-planning, and the grit to say "Sorry, I'm going to cook for myself!", you can enjoy some delicious foodstuffs, for me today namely GFV pancakes drizzled with melted chocolate and peanut butter.