Mars bar & Peanut Butterscotch Caramellos

It’s official.

Baking definitely brings out the worst in me…

 Sad-face.

Here are 3 reasons why:

1.       Impatience: As soon as these babies hit the fiery furnace, I suddenly revert to being an overly excited kid who has nose constantly pressed up against the screen of the oven, compulsively  on the contents within every 2 minutes or so...

 I’m 99.9% convinced that the slowest 35 minutes of all time, ever occurs whilst caramelized Dulce de Leche is laid to bake with buttery chocolate chips and daintily browned, sugary butter, like so:

Even the rooms of the house become helplessly weak-kneed and start to surrender to the waft of the sweet and crumbly, gooey pea-nutty goodness that is so totally happening right here, and right now in our oven. (Past tense).

“Are they ready yet?”

“Are they ready yet?”

“Are they ready yet?”

It didn’t ease the anticipation much, seeing as only other company I had today was that of my 16 year old brother (6”4 with the appetite of a buffalo experiencing a major growth spurt) - who turned out to be equally enchanted by this strange sweetness that was mysteriously oozing out of the kitchen and upwelling into his room…his equally eager presence simply made the wait yet more prolonged….

As a result, we ended up diving into this beautifully warm and sticky, gooey, molten mess just a little too early...

 It was bound to happen.

My heart shattered a little as my perfectly baked babies irreversibly decided to explode molten chocolate caramel all over them-selves. As a result, the pictures turned out slightly stripped of their natural beauty and the prospect of a square cut presentation became slightly doomed (as you can see)… 

We desperately turned to the freezer for help. Into the ice they went; the garden peas, emergency Warburton’s buns and a whole tray of ice cubes sacrificed themselves in the process. (What mum doesn’t know won’t hurt her…)

You can probably gather the moral of the story…gracefully waiting out the 35 minutes of life in slow motion = totally worth it if you want those happy + healthy Caramellos that have just swallowed up your peanut butter and precious 100g of chocolate chips.  

I definitely should have listened to Josh…

Josh: My brother, Drake - he's all about immediate gratification. 

Drake: [points to the oven] There's brownies in there, and I want 'em. 

Josh: They'll be ready in about... 25 more minutes. And you know what? They'll be worth the wait.

Drake: I am not waiting. [puts an oven mitt on and gets the brownies out] 

Josh: Ya see, Drake's gonna learn something tonight. He's gonna learn that some things are just worth waiting for.

Drake: [tasting the batter] Ohhhhhhhhhhh…. it's like…. warm brownie soup…

Josh: You realize that patience is a virtue.

Drake: My god, why didn't I do this like five minutes ago? [a blue arrow wooshes and goes to the upstairs window, then a green arrow wooshes]

For any of you who have watched the ‘Demonator’ episode, this will be one of those unforgettable J+D opening scenes. Also, extra brownie points to any of you who understand the ‘arrow wooshing’ part too! I’m getting so many childhood memories just thinking about it! I miss that show so much!

2.       Indecisiveness: My total in ability to make a rational win-win decision flies totally out of the window when the time rolls around to actually crack down on a recipe. Chocolate? Peanut butter? Caramel? Cinnamon? Coffee? Chocolate, cocoa? Chocolate?! Cookies sounded like a great idea, but just a tad too mainstream for today…Bars are so easy to make. But how do we fit all of the cravings into a single tray bake without leaving anyone behind?

 If you can’t beat them, join them…

So I did. 

I beat them eggs into that mixture compromised of every single ingredient that had been dancing around in my mind:

·         Peanut butter! Swoon.

·         Butter, like, duh.

·         Chocolate – he without the substitute.

·         Caramel – Folds of substituted luxury (The Dulce de Leche worked wonders in place of condensed milk)

·         Toffees, melted (and yes, you heard that right) - simply cuz I can, and simply cuz I shouldn’t…

·         Brown sugar, somewhere, somehow. Dem moist molasses…

·         Mars bars: AKA: The urge. The stars of the show. Totally gotta get me some nougat, asap.

Keep scrolling down to the recipe where you can see how these sweet dreams actually managed to become a blissful reality.

Still, I must confess  that since I was so ridiculously keen to get going , pretty much 70% of the cup ratios were pretty much made up right on the spot and/or jotted down in between spoon switches and the frequent pings of the microwave melts. Impatience strikes again.

Amazingly, however they turned out pretty damn fabulously…

3.       My diabetic destiny: Given that type 2 diabetes has gone absolutely haywire in my mum’s side of the family, I probablyyyyyyy shouldn’t be taking these devilish peanut butter brownies - both spiked with mars bars and laced with triple chocolate & toffee so swiftly into But YOLO. I guess I just liked the clever alliteration of diabetic trait number 3 a bit more than the actual idea of it…

Because FYI, since these brownies (AKA Caramellos - which clearly don’t have a consistent name) are made with 100% natural butter, dark chocolate, organic sugars and the protein, as well as magnesium packed peanut butter (just for starters)…I totally defend the health and nutrition side of them and THUS, I shall continue defending the vital role that they play in a healthy + balanced diet.

100%.

SMILE.

These Caramellos are an insanely rich kind of soul food...the kind to be promoted.

I could swear that the taste actually changes depending on whether or not they are consumed with a fork, spoon or with sticky fingers….or when served with different flavours of ice cream…*note to self*.  

Naughty…

What me and my family noticed most as we sunk our teeth into these blocks of caramelized & fudgey-like lava, was that they actually tasted way more like Snickers bars than they did Mars bars.

They tasted significantly more like Snickers bars than any Mars bar which I’ve ever eaten.  

If anything, they basically are Snickers brownies smothered in crunchy peanut butter and stuffed with excessive caramel, heat and goo. Perfection, I think not?

Although the toffee +caramel pooled inside definitely does makes itself obvious in the flavour, the peanut butter + the general texture reminded us way more of Snickers bars than anything else! I reckon that this is because I had chucked in the super crunchy, whole nut kind of peanut butter which has a grainier and more earth kinda taste to it, as opposed to one which was more smooth + refined. It’s easy to tell how the tastes between brands differ so much, so if you prefer smoother + creamier bars, then definitely go for your favorite brand of smooth pb!

SO! Are you ready?

Patience aside (nice one) because the wait is over! Here I present to you the recipe for these botched up, invented by chance + ultimately patience testing: 

Peanut Butterscotch Caramello Mars Bars….

Recipe:

Wet ingredients:

·         2 Small/1 Large egg

·         1 TBSP Vanilla

·         1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda (not powder)

·         3/4C butter, salted.

·         1/4C white granulated sugar

·         3/4C brown sugar

·         100g/1C of dark chocolate drops. Alternatively, just put any leftover chocolate into a food processor and hit the ON button.

·         3/4C peanut butter – smooth is probably better, but don’t use all natural/homemade – since you really do need the yummy emulsifiers of processed pb if you want the peanut butter to actually hold the recipe together.

 I also added 2 tbsp of Greek yogurt because it makes stuff moist. I'm not sure what difference it made, but it's worth putting it in :)

Dry ingredients:

·         1C white flour.

·         Sprinkle of cinnamon.

·         Throw some oats in if you want for extra texture. E.g. 1/2C, but you may need to up the wet ingredients proportionally depending on how stiff your batter is.

·         Optional: I added appx 5 tbsp of cocoa powder – which is what made the Caramellos look like brownies. I had originally planned to make them look more like cookie dough (which has more distinguished layers) but the cocoa turned out to be last minute that was actually worthwhile in the end…so it is definitely recommended…

·         2 tsp instant coffee powder – the spontaneous ingredient. You definitely cannot taste this in the final product – the idea is that it brings out the full flavour of the cocoa. This is pretty standard for any brownie recipe. Again, recommended.

·         3-6 snack sized Mars bars/supermarket equivalent.

For the caramel dousing sauce

·         1 x 250g pack of those supremely chewy vanilla toffees which every confectionery aisle has. My entire bag cost 29p from Asda - your argument is invalid.

·         4 tbsp butter.

·         Optional, 3-5 tbsp of Dulce de Leche (It’s pretty expensive, about £3.70 for a jar – though I only bought it because it was new to me and constituted as an impulse buy of the eye candy kind).  

·         If you cba with the above. Just get a can of condensed milk and mix it with 4 tbsp of butter over a high heat for your caramel sauce.

Method:

1.       Wet: cream the butter + sugars together. Add the peanut butter and the rest of the wet ingredients.

2.       Mix the wet ingredients with the dry at the same time, gradually adding the eggs to get a proper bind.

3.       Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with parchment paper.

4.       Spoon half of the chocolate cookie dough into the dish

5.       Chop up the Mars bars and throw them on top of the half of the dough inside the dish.

6.       For the sauce, melt the toffees with the butter + dulce de leche (or condensed milk recipe). Stir and pour evenly over the first layer of chocolate cookie dough.

7.       For the third layer, spoon the remaining dough/batter on top of the caramel sauce. Smooth it out as best as you can.

8.       Bake at 176*C in a pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes after switching the oven off – this will help it to crisp up. (Use your judgment as to when to do this)

9.       Don’t do what I did. Wait for it to cool completely before cutting them into squares, getting sticky and ruining the photo’s that could have been…

10.   Serve with ice cream if you are eating them whilst they are still warm though! The combo of crumbly goo with firm, rounded cream is immense. Vanilla yogurt goes great too though.

Otherwise, they definitely do fudge-ify after having been left out for a few hours and are fab by themselves with some milky, milky breakfast tea (the best kind of tea). 

How many can you manage?

P.S. in America Mars Bars = Milky Ways, and vice versa in the UK. I wonder how the inverse combo would turn out though.

Are there any other good combinations out there that you know of?

I also have seen so many recipes for brownies topped with salted caramel pretzels! 

I was so tempted to do that here too, but clearly patience was running way too low today...

Thanks for reading!

Tash xo

Maple-ized: Creamy peanut crumpets (Crump-cakes)

Fat free pancakes.

It sounds like a sin, right?

Well let’s be honest…It is.

Pancakes, by rule, need to be: buttery, soft, fluffy and stacked high in pools of drippy and sweet maple syrup…

So, if you have oodles of time in the morning and an incentive to fry…then by all means skillet ‘em up fresh and fatty.

However, if you are pressed for time but need to satisfy the craving for stacked sweetness, and you happen to have crumpets on hand, then…ta-da!!:

Peanut butter-banana and maple syrup crumpets. 

Welcome to the world of substitution.

Now, these Crump cakes/Panpets (Pancakes – Crumpets ehehe - we need to vote on a name!) aren’t pancakes. I never said they were. I just really wanted pancakes and they were the same shape so….what could actually go wrong with pretending that a crumpet is a pancake?  

When I refined the source of my craving…I realized that what I really wanted was something wheaty, starchy, creamy, buttery and heavy but light all at the same time which I could top with whatever I wanted...such as peanut butter and jelly.

I made do with these and I reckon you could too, just for their own, delicious sake when pancakes feel a bit too naughty for the moment…

Voila.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my fabulous Crump-cakes:

They are shop bought because they are so good and I have no idea how to make them by hand. We buy them over here like we do bread. 

Besides, if I were to cook something then pancakes would have been the first priority anyway…home baking a convenience food is counter-productive. 

They are so great because you can just top them with anything you have a taste for. They are substantial and filling and go well with anything. They are low in saturated fat (though I was considering putting some salted butter under the peanut butter layer but opted out this time around…)

Here’s a quick cross section of the layers pictured:

·         Peanut butter

·         Banana

·         Creamy Greek yogurt

·         Cinnamon

·         Maple syrup

·         Raspberry jam

·         Lotus biscuit spread (amazing though sickly sweet, hence the pea sized scoop)

As I say, they aren’t pancakes.

But, if you are craving pancakes – not for the pancakes themselves…but rather just something sweet, drippy, creamy and personalized…then these are a great substitute which can actually turn into a pretty balanced, healthy + protein rich breakfast (or other main meal).

So, the next time you have the urge to whip up some pancakes but don’t have quite enough time…narrow down your craving: i.e. is it Maple syrup? Is it for wheat? Is it for bananas? Is it for whipped cream? And just chuck whatever you can onto a crump-cake.

I’ve also compiled a list of other fantabulous ideas for the crump-cakes:

·         Butter, eggs, bacon + maple syrup.

·         Butter, maple syrup, banana.

·         Butter, maple syrup + berries & cinnamon.

·         Peanut butter, banana, maple syrup.

·         Nutella, banana + chocolate chip.

·         Yogurt raisins, banana, peanut butter + berries.

·         Caramel biscuit spread + banana.

·         Butter, maple syrup, almonds + granola with a dollop of apple-cinnamon yogurt.

·         Granola clusters, banana, caramel spread.

·         White chocolate spread + strawberry slices.

·         Honey, Greek yogurt, berries + pear & cinnamon.

Go crazy!

Did you know that crumpets and pancakes are made of the same ingredients…only a crumpet is steamed/dry cooked while a pancake is fried - hence the holes and lack of grease? In some places crumpets are known as pikelets.

Even if you don’t fancy the stacking idea…hopefully this post can just remind you of the bliss experienced as one devours a crumpet bathed in golden, salted yellow butter and fruit conserve of the season...

So, what do you think of the crump-cakes idea? Am I completely bonkers or do you think that they may just be the best thing since sliced bre…pancakes?

I just have this gut feeling that maple syrup has a vocation beyond pancakes and porridge, as amazing as they are…

Let me know what you think! I love hearing from you!

xo Tasha. 

All things Breakfast

There is just something so special about breakfast...

Tania says that her peanut butter and banana pancakes on Monday morning helps her to retain the weekend feeling of chill..

Again, a girlfriend of mine highlighted the other day that “Food is the only escape” from the monotonous reality of a day in, studying. It’s not the food itself –rather, it is the distraction, the creativity, the thought + the mindfulness which goes into preparing something nutritious and energizing to eat that makes it such an appealing part of the day…

Cinnamon Greek yogurt banana pancakes with butter & Maple syrup <3

Tell me, at what other time of the day, week or, year is this more seductive than at breakfast?

Sometimes, we wait for the new year or month to have a fresh start. Sometimes we anticipate Monday…or sometimes we just wait for the next day.  A new day to do something right. A new day to embrace that new, clear headed motive that will enhance how we live...

This is where breakfast comes in. Breakfast is the fuel for the start of your new day. Breakfast settles you and gets you up and going by luring you with its sweet/savory appeal. Breakfast likes to do it right. Breakfast lives just for you..

So, if pancakes and maple syrup can convince you that it is actually Saturday and makes you happy; then so be it; If eggs and bacon with croissants and jam fly you to Sunday brunch; then just enjoy. If your peanut butter and jelly or banana concoction persuade you to take a fresh morning run…then it’s definitely working in your favour.

I’ve certainly made no secret of my love affair with these Greek banana and maple syrup buttery pancakes…

And who knew that bread substituted for oaties in milk worked so well with pools of peanut butter?

We have an amazing bakery just next to uni (Kamps!) I have to say that (one of) my favorite breakfast would have to come from there…giant cinnamon buns and custard apple pastries…crumbly chocolate shortbread buns with creamy, honey porridge and cappuccinos…mmm. 

The breakfast club London is on my to-do list. Yes, Still…have any of you ever been there?

But for now…

Love breakfast. Love your day. Embrace the energy and the choice to take off as you wish & cherish the power to choose... 

What’s your ideal breakfast? 

Banana and Cinnamon Maple syrup pancakes in 15 minutes!

Have you ever heard that there's no time better than the present?

You've probably heard it a lot.

Has it become a bit bland and meaningless? It may have, just a little.

There's a whole lot of truth in it. Not just with reference to chores and activities...but life. How many times have we sailed through the Christmas holidays or summer months, wondering how great it will be to one day, enjoy them without the hustle and bustle of daily commitments and endless tasks? That would be great - but it's totally unrealistic and will never happen. We are here  to accomplish something. Even though we may wish the better times last for so much longer uninterrupted...they will only ever exist in addition to whatever else we may have on our plate.

The trick of enjoying the moment? Is to literally enjoy the moment.

I guess a lesson we are meant to learn in this life is one of time management in a deeper sense - how can we shift priorities instantaneously so that we can make the most out of every little moment and time slot life presents us with? I guess it's so easy to dismiss all of the 'little things' in life because we are fed up of something else - this as an excuse to let the moment pass. Some days, times, moments and opportunities are likely to never come back.

I kinda see life as like tiny strands of the universes DNA unraveling - every shred which falls off of it, is totally unique and different to the next. Once it's gone, it's gone. The trick is to capture the moment within each and savor it, so we can add to our memory boxes and trunk of lovely emotions. Chances are, every moment has something to teach us in such a way, that we can trust each lesson to avert from any mines we stumble across in the future.

We will never know where our lessons will take us.

On a less deep note though,

I kid you not. I definitely used a vacant lunch time slot wisely on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon:

It was definitely not my most balanced day ever...

Breakfast? Giant almond croissant (work was going to throw them out...) and a half. Half? Yes. I toasted one, ate half. Realized I like almond croissants better un-toasted so I just put the half eaten one back in the back and got a new one. Clean slate and all. Yum yum. By the way...extra butter is the only way to eat croissants - toasted or not. I've met a few people who are slightly disgusted at this?

Then I had some pumpkin blondies with dark chocolate chips left over from the previous days baking (nom nom - recipe soon to come!) And then I had some more, simply because it's just the thing to do with a plate of gooey pumpkin fudge blondies.

I was on a bit of a sugar high. A light lunch had no chances. Butter over load, anyone? 

2 days ago, I attempted 'sweet potato and banana pancakes'. Delicious as they sound, they turned out looking like an orange and carrot scramble with pieces of old omelette also chucked into the pan. Definitely not a good look. They tasted amazing though, doused with maple syrup and served on a pretty plate - though it would admittedly have been hard to convince the eye of the beholder...

BUT I was determined to pick myself up and try again, this time using far less milk (I have a problem - whenever I add milk I add too much milk. I don't know if it's because my hand doesn't know when to stop or because I simply love the pants off of milk)

Lunch time? Spare time? PANCAKES! Omitting the sweet potato though. I felt like using some wheat for those fluffy, cafe type pancakes. They came out p-e-r-f-e-c-t.

These deliciously light, soft, fluffy and maple sweet pancakes have no added butter, milk, or extra oil inside the recipe (minus oil for frying). They use one egg, apple sauce and a touch of brown sugar.
They are dangerously moreish, but a mere 1/2 cup of flour will grace you with 5-7 small-medium sized pancakes. Bon appetite!

Recipe (serves 1-2 depending on how hungry you are...)

• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 medium mashed banana
• 1 heaped tablespoon Greek/natural low fat yogurt. 
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Maple syrup for dousing

1. Heat an oiled skillet/pan on high. I used canola oil. 
2. Mix together all of the dry ingredients, then add the banana and vanilla. 
3. Add the yogurt and the egg
4. Whisk with a fork or whisker, but do not over whisk. 
5. You should have a very thick, viscous pancakes batter. Do not worry about lumps - just make sure that all of the flour is incorporated. 
6. Spoon the batter onto the high heated skillet/pan. A large pan should fit about 5 on, and the entire batter should give you 2 batches like this. 
7. The first batch will take a bit longer. Flip the pancakes once bubbles start to appear on the surface.
8. The second batch cook extremely quickly (like 1.5 minutes a side, if that).

9. Go crazy with the maple syrup, and enjoy! Extra banana and more yogurt go great in addition!