baking – CLARE HOPKINS

Avocado Brownies? You’re missing out if you haven’t had these

March 22, 2019May 1, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged avocado, baking, brownie, chocolate, dessert, HEALTH, healthy, healthy treat, keto, ketogenic, nutrition, recipe, snacks, weight loss2 Comments

There’s no denying that avocado is the best breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack food available. But who says it can’t be used as a dessert?

Recently I have been playing around with avocado based desserts, and I took inspiration from a post I saw for brownies made for the Ketogenic diet (high fat/protein, low carb).

I ended up modifying the recipe – more towards my taste preferences – and since I’m not following the keto diet, I did add in some honey (which you might want to swap for monk fruit or stevia, if you are looking for lower carb options).

I will admit my first go was very underwhelming. I completely missed the mark on the sweetness, so brownies tasted more like buttery dirt.

But, practice makes perfect, and after many flops I have formulated a avo-brownie recipe that is undeniably healthy. You will need:

1 medium avocado
1/4 cup nut butter – I love peanut Mayver’s butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup cacao powder
Cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp cacao nibs
2 tbsp warm honey (less sticky)

Mix everything (except cacao nibs) together in a blender until it is smooth and creamy, and press into a brownie pan. Sprinkle the cacao nibs and cinnamon on top.

Pop into an oven at 180˚C and bake for 20 mins.

Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

Macro-nutrients	1 serving of avo-brownie (recipe makes 12)
Calories	150
Protein	4g
Carbohydrates	7g
Sugar	3g
Fat	12g

Can you believe it? Healthy Cinnabon Rolls

April 16, 2018April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged baking, blog, blogger, blogging, cinnabon, cinnamon, Colourpot, delicious, dessert, easy, FOOD, friends, fun, guides, happy, HEALTH, journal, LIFESTYLE, local, others, personal, photography, quick, roll, snack, thoughts, wordpress, writing2 Comments

Cinnabon’s aren’t the definition of ‘health’.

But, I wanted to devise a recipe which was just as yummy, but didn’t use up half my daily caloric intake (the average cinnabon has 880 calories).

When my cinnabon craving first hit, I was scrolling through recipes that take about 3 hours to prepare and bake. That was simply too long and I knew I had to find a cheaters quick version.

So, here’s the cheat sheet to my 45 minute, Plant Based Cinnabons:

Dough:

2.75 cups of all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package instant yeast = 2.25 teaspoons
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup almond milk
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp ground chia seeds + 3 tbsp water

Filling:

0.5 cup pureed dates (1/4 cup water)
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 medium apple finely chopped
coconut oil as a base

Time: 45 minutes, Serves: 8, Calories: 294 each

Method:

Preheat oven to 100C
Mix flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl
Heat water, almond milk and coconut oil in the microwave for 30 seconds
Add chia seeds, milk/oil mixture and flour mixture together and knead with hands until dough forms – set aside for 5 minutes
Roll out the dough on baking paper into a rectangle

Spread the coconut oil and pureed dates on the rolled out dough
Sprinkle the apple and almonds on top

Roll the dough into a log, and cut into 8 even segments

Put each segment into greased baking tins.

Put into the oven, and turn the oven off. Leave in rolls there for 20 minutes. Then, turn the oven to 200C and bake for 20 mins.

Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Let me know how it goes! xx

XMAS Healthy Salted Caramel Cookies

December 16, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, CHRISTMAS, FOODTagged Australia, baking, CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS, Christmas baking, Christmas spirit, climate, cookies, delicious, dessert, dessert recipe, desserts, holiday, hot, recipe, salted caramel, snack, treat, yum2 Comments

Okay so yes this is your usual Salted Caramel cookie recipe, however, for a sprinkle of Christmassy festivity I added cinnamon, nutmeg and rich dark chocolate to the dough.

Read on if you’re interested in my simple, yet divinely tasty XMAS Caramel cookies. Or better; create them yourself in 20 minutes.

Gather the following:

Chocolate Chips (I love Doorstep Organics Dark Chocolate Drops Chips)
3/4 Cup Coconut Oil
3/4 Cup Maple Syrup
1.5 cups coconut sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup caramel sauce (I use Natvia No Sugar Caramel Sauce)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
Sprinkle of salt
Cinnamon
Nutmeg

The Method:

Mix all the ingredients (except chocolate chips) together, until you form a cookie dough. You can add almond milk gradually if the mixture is too flour-y.

2. Use a rolling pin to knead the dough out on top of an acrylic/plastic/stone surface.

3. Here’s where it got a little more complicated. I’m currently experiencing an Australian summer, so naturally the sun was beating down at 30˚C, which made all my cookie dough melt and stick to my hands. So, I wrapped it in cling wrap and popped it in the freezer for 5 mins to make it think it was in Antarctica.

4. Cut little shapes out with the cookie cutter.

5. As the cookie cutter will make the raw cookies a lot thinner and smaller than Betty Crocker recommends for cookie sizing, you only have to place them in the oven for 8 minutes at 180˚C (350˚F), so they don’t burn.

The perfect Christmas treat. Enjoy!

Trying the Best Korean BBQ in Sydney

October 3, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged baking, beef, betty crocker, blogging, bul go gi, chocolate, chocolate cake, dessert, eel, froyo, frozen yogurt, fun, homemade cake, journal, kimchi, korea, korean bbq, korean cuisine, korean dining, Madang, midnight baking, nostalgia, ox tongue, pork, splurge, spontaneous, Sydney, the urban list, wordpressLeave a comment

Madang. The Korean BBQ restaurant that’s revered in Sydney. I had to try it.

In Korean BBQ you get given deliciously marinated raw meats (of your choosing) and cook them at the dinner table.

Yep, your table turns into a frying pan, where you whip up your meal and garnish it with lots of tasty condiments such as spicy kimchi and seaweed, potato mash, soy paste, fish cake, miso paste and more.

You could be very adventurous and get sliced ox tongue, but since my dining partner screwed her nose up at that, we opted to share Dweji Bul Go Gi (marinated pork) and Bul Go Gi (beef in traditional Korean sauce), with the Jang Uh Gui Jungsik (grilled & marinated eel). The table service was very attentive, and I would recommend the tender Bul Go Gi and Jang Uh Gui Jungsik. The pork wasn’t my thing, I had a couple of bites and didn’t’ LOVE it.

This was a lot of meat (and therefore a lot of protein) to have in one meal, so if you’re planning on heading to Korean BBQ for dinner prepare your stomach by making your other meals that day a little smaller (I forgot to do this and afterwards felt like I was going to pop from all the food inside).

Madang is located in the middle of a little Korea-town. Left, right and centre there were Korean restaurants dotted about that I’m now dying to try out. Seoul-Ria, Basax Korean Chicken and Dining and Arisun are on my ‘to go to’ list.

I finished off the night with and an epic froyo. Imagine this: chocolate and strawberry frozen yoghurt, loaded with cookie dough, chocolate chips, tim tams, oreos, chocolate wafers, and strawberries. Mouthwatering? I thought so.

Note: Madang was said to be the best by The Urban List, one of my go-to sources for dining information around the city (you have to check it out if you are in Sydney).

***

I also had a random craving for chocolate cake this week.

Usually, I try to make a natural ingredients cake with cacao, banana, and maple syrup (a delicious recipe I will share soon). However, this day nostalgia was calling me and I whipped up my childhood favourite: Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake mix.

It was so much fun to just splurge and spontaneously treat myself by baking a simple cake for no occasion. I finished decorating it around 1:00am and it was so satisfying to sit on the couch afterwards savouring a big piece with a cup of tea.

Comment below if you did anything spontaneous this week!

Banana and Almond Muffins? Yes pleaaassee

September 12, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged almond, baking, banana, blogging, colour pot, Colourpot, craving, dessert, filling, FOOD, fun, HEALTH, healthy, healthy eating, healthy recipes, healthy snack, muffin, recipe, snack, treat, vegan, weight loss, wordpress1 Comment

You know when you have that sudden craving to bake? Well, I experienced this at about 11pm last night and stayed up until midnight baking & feasting away.

I usually head straight for the cacao and dates to make something super chocolatey, fudgy and sweet, but for some reason today my eye caught the two overripe bananas that were sitting on the kitchen ledge.

So, I preheated the oven to 180˚C and gathered together what I could find in the pantry for my banana and almond muffins. These can be vegan and are gluten free.

I used almond meal instead of ordinary flour, as it is high in protein and vitamin E – providing essential nutrients whilst filling you up (read more here). The bananas are the perfect natural sweetener, and they provide a sweet note as well as potassium and fibre.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
Sprinkle of salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 eggs (use an egg replacer for the vegan option)
2 bananas
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp almond milk (or any milk of your choosing)

I popped the dry ingredients into a blender, whisked them together (make sure the oats are ground into a fine powder) and poured them into a bowl. Then I blended the wet ingredients to form a runny mixture, which I combined in the bowl with the dry ingredients.

I placed about 2 heaped spoonfuls of mixture into 8 lined cupcake tins. All they needed was 30 minutes in the oven (check with a skewer – no mixture residue should be on it when you poke it through the middle of a muffin), and they were done. Voila!

Nutritional Breakdown (per serve):

137 calories/572 kilojoules
5.0g Protein
8.5g Fat (0.8g Saturated)
9.0g Carbs
43mg Sodium

5 Go-to Healthy Snacks

May 21, 2017April 17, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOOD, HEALTHTagged affordable, baking, clean eating, cookies, cooking, diet, FOOD, fruit/nuts, go-to snacks, healthy, healthy baking, healthy cookies, healthy eating, hummous, pantry, popcorn, Recipes, snacks, sugarless baking, sugarless cookies3 Comments

As mentioned in my previous posts, I am a huge snacker.

To stop me from standing in the pantry and eating everything in sight, I have five healthy snacks that I go for when hunger strikes.

These are:

Carrot sticks & Hummous – carrots are my favourite veggie because of their sweetness. I buy Pilpel Hummus to go with them, as it has so much flavour and is basically just chickpeas.
Dried fruit/nut mix – I go for a mix of pecans, pepitas, dried apricots, sultanas and walnuts. The fruits satisfy any sweet cravings and the nuts fill you up.
Carman’s Nut Bar – Carman’s does such a great range of healthy and filling muesli bars. If your local supermarket stocks them I would recommend checking them out. They are the perfect snack, and funnily enough, I got up at 2am the other night because my stomach was rumbling, and the Carmen’s nut bar was the perfect fix to send me back to sleep.
Popcorn – try to avoid popcorns that are doused in butter, just plain corn kernels will do the trick.
Sugarless banana & oatmeal cookies (see recipe below)

Sugarless Banana/Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

I have been making batches of these for longer than I can remember because they are the perfect moreish snack, especially when I’m on the go.

You will need:

1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Sprinkle of salt
1/4 cup olive oil (be ready to add more in case your mixture is too dry)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sultanas
2 soft bananas
1/3 cup pepitas
2 tbsp maple syrup
Handful of pecans (to decorate)
Feel free to add chocolate chunks if that’s your thing – I LOVE Pico Super Dark chocolate to bake with.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Mix the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, sultanas, bananas and pepitas together in a large bowl. Then, add the olive oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup and stir to combine.

Add extra olive oil until the mixture is cookie dough consistency. Roll into small balls and whack in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes (or until golden brown).

I hope you enjoy these great snacks.

Baking a Giant ANZAC Cookie

April 23, 2017April 17, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged amazon, anzac, baking, beginning blogger, cute mugs, first world war, giant, giant cookie, gifts, inspirational, kitchenware, life is beautiful, mug, mugs, poppy red, quotes, recipe, wordpress6 Comments

For those reading who aren’t Australian, ANZAC Day is a Public holiday held to commemorate the first military action initiated by Australian and New Zealand forces in the first world war. Hence, ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Traditionally, Australian’s bake ANZAC cookies (a sweet biscuit made of rolled oats and syrup) on the day, in memory of the soldier’s staple food which was a hard biscuit (no sugar involved) made with ingredients that ensured the biscuit wouldn’t go mouldy. Sadly, the soldiers didn’t get the sweet, warm, oaty crunch of the ANZAC biscuits we bake today.

Today, instead of baking lots of little biscuits I decided to make one giant cookie.

If you want to make it yourself; preheat your oven to 170˚C and mix 150g melted butter, 2 tbsp golden syrup, 1.25 cups of self-raising flour, a dribble of water, 1 cup rolled oats and 1/2 cup caster sugar together. Then use your hands to spread it into a giant cookie and bake for 17 minutes or until golden brown.

I had a slice of cookie with some hot cocoa (cocoa powder, almond milk and a squeeze of maple syrup) in my favourite ‘Life is Beautiful’ Mug. As simple as it is, I love having a funny/inspirational message on my mugs to start the day and this one has to be my favourite.

If you want an fun mug to cheer you up at the start of the day, I recently found these awesome ‘life is beautiful’ mugs. You have to admit they are absolutely adorable… if you’re a sucker for cute things like me. They would make a great gift as well!

Enjoy!! Have you made ANZAC cookies before? Comment below and we can chat 🙂

Carrot Cake Tea Party for Easter

April 16, 2017April 23, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged baking, betty crocker, blogging, carrot cake, carrot cake cupcakes, chocolate, Colourpot, cupcakes, dessert, easter, FOOD, fun, journal, my day, recipe, sweets, treats, wordpress9 Comments

This Easter long weekend I decided to have an Easter Tea Party to celebrate. It was the perfect morning tea to begin the day with family.

I’ve always loved carrot cake, but I thought Carrot Cake Cupcakes are the perfect bite size to still enjoy the carroty-cinnamony flavour.

It’s a well-known wives tale that carrots improve eyesight. Whilst incorporating carrots into your diet won’t give you 20/20 vision, they do have vitamin K1, potassium and antioxidants which improve eye health. Cinnamon is a fantastic spice for flavour, but it also has anti-inflammatory properties which boost immune!

I iced these cupcakes with Betty Crocker Vanilla Icing (because it reminds me of my childhood), but they are also delicious with cream cheese icing ← my go-to recipe.

I decorated the cupcakes with edible mini wafer flowers and served them with warmed hot cross buns, chocolate mini easter eggs and French Earl Grey Tea. Delicious!

Recipe (makes 6)

You will need:

2/3 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup caster sugar (or maple syrup for a less processed sweetener)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 grated large carrot or 1 grated medium carrot
1 egg

Method:

Preheat oven to 180˚C, line a cupcake baking tin with patty pans.
Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking powder in a large bowl and stir.
Slowly mix in carrot and oil
Beat egg in a separate bowl and then mix in with all ingredients
Pour mixture in patty pans (about 2/3 full)
Bake for 18 minutes

Then enjoy!! Happy Easter!

Veggie-Packed Frittata to get Your Greens in

February 26, 2017April 22, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged baking, beginner blogger, Colourpot, diet, eggs, fit, frittata, frittata recipe, healthy blogging, healthy dinner, healthy frittata, healthy lunch, healthy recipe, new blogger, nutrition, vegetables, vegetarian, vegetarian recipe4 Comments

Frittata’s are one of those dishes that look super complex but are very easy to whip together.

They are also super versatile – they can be served hot or chilled, and taste good with just about any combination of vegetables.

The rainbow vegetables in this dish provide several vitamins and nutrients, whilst making it filling but low in calories. The eggs are a vital source of healthy fat and protein.

You can choose different veggies depending on what you feel like. My favourites are in the recipe below, but other options are capsicum, regular tomatoes, pumpkin, mushroom & asparagus.

For a touch of sweetness I use sweet potato as the base of the Frittata. This can be substituted for baby potatoes if you prefer a more savoury taste.

You will need:

8 eggs
1/2 cup almond milk
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tsp turmeric
Sprinkle of Paprika
4 spring onions
2 cups baby spinach
1/3 cup feta
1 zucchini
Pinch of salt
6 of cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh basil

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200˚C.
Chop up the sweet potatoes and zucchini into cubes and fry in fry-pan with turmeric, paprika and olive oil, until golden brown and cooked through.
Chop up the cherry tomatoes, spring onions, feta and basil. Also loosely chop the baby spinach.
Whisk the eggs, milk and salt in a large bowl until smooth. Then stir through the basil.
Put the sweet potatoes and the zucchini fry into the base of a cake tin. Cover with baby spinach, tomatoes and sprinkle with spring onion.
Pour egg mixture over all other ingredients in the cake tin, making sure to cover everything.
Cut up feta into small blocks and place on top.
Cook for 25 minutes, or until egg looks bouncy and cooked through (I check by inserting a skewer – make sure the egg has cooked through).

Voila! Homemade and delicious.

Valentines Day Healthy Red Velvet Cake

February 12, 2017April 16, 2020Posted in ALL POSTS, FOODTagged baking, blog, cake for two, delicious, love, mini cake, red velvet cake, special someone, starting blogger, strawberries, two, valentines day2 Comments

Happy Valentines Day! Whether you are celebrating or not, why not make cake!

Did you know that traditionally Red Velvet Cake did not use red food colouring, they had that red colouring due to the non-Dutched, anthocyanin-rich cocoa.

I couldn’t get my hands on this fancy cocoa so I’ve resorted to red food colouring, but it was still super tasty.

This cake is very moist and fluffy, and has a couple of substitutions to make it more satiating and nutritious.

You will need:

1 cup spelt flour or coconut flour – these flour alternatives contain increased vitamins and minerals which help regulate metabolism and improve immunity.
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond milk
60g olive oil
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup coconut sugar
7ml red food colouring

Steps:

Preheat oven to 200˚C. In a small bowl place cocoa powder and red food colouring and mix. Add dribbles of water until the mixture becomes a smooth, velvet red paste.

Pour/sift all remaining ingredients into a large bowl and beat until smooth and fluffy. Then stir in red velvet cocoa paste.

Then you will need to grease the cake tin with coconut oil or olive oil. I used a small tin, since its a small cake, around 10cm in diameter. Afterwards, pour the mixture into the tin.

Bake for 30 minutes on 200˚C, or take out when the cake has risen significantly and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

For the icing, you can make your own cream cheese icing, or you can cheat a little and just use Betty Crockers vanilla icing which goes perfectly with the cake as well! You could also make this from scratch!

To make cream cheese icing just beat together 70g cream cheese, 40g unsalted butter and 1/2 cup icing sugar. Then ice away. Voila!

I sliced the cake in half horizontally and added a layer of icing in the middle. Then, I coated the outside of the cake in icing, and pumped little flourishes around the base and the top. Finally, I garnished with chopped fresh strawberries and an edible flower.

Enjoy! Have you made Red Velvet cake before?