Chocolate Raspberry Green Smoothie

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 9, 2015 // 37 Comments

Hey guys, how you been doing? First off, apologies for how quiet I’ve been on the blog lately – I’ve been majorly lacking in inspiration! Would you believe it if I told you I hadn’t baked since before Christmas? That’s crazy by my standards! I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s a post holiday funk? Or maybe it’s just one of those things! Either way, hopefully I’ll get my mojo back soon or I might drive myself crazy! I have a few recipes in the figurative lock box still to post, but my lack of inspiration spreads to writing too! That might be more of a lack of motivation, it’s a dangerous spiral really – I need to bake to keep myself level headed and happy, when I stop that I lose motivation to do anything else! But I’m here today because a) I need to force myself back into things if I want any hope of returning to normal and b) I can’t miss Fiesta Friday now, can I?

I think we all find ourselves in funks like this every now and then, it’s part of life. People talk about writer’s block a lot, but you don’t hear much about other blocks – baker’s block, knitter’s block, painter’s bloc etc. They all exist, no matter how much you love doing something, sometimes you just can’t! What do you guys do when you find yourself in that situation? Any tricks you use to get yourself back in the game? Or do you find it’s just one of those things you have to let play out? So far I’ve just been letting it play out, but I think it’s gone on long enough now so I’m taking action! Starting with writing up the recipe for something yummy I’ve had in my list of recipes to share with y’all. Next up I’m going to be baking some things to photograph, recipes I’ve already posted but their photos are terrible so they need updating – that’s what I’m gonna be spending my Friday doing – I’ll be baking profiteroles. I’ll only have time for that one thing though, as I have to take the cat to the vet in the evening and then me and my mum are having some late Christmas drinks (aka an excuse to drink more wine than we should!) – but I think it’ll make a good start and hopefully that will give me the kick up the rear I need to get me in the kitchen properly again!

To get me back into the blogging side of things, I’m sharing a pretty easy recipe with you today. It’s nice and simple to put together, it’s super yummy and it’s good for you – that’s 3 pretty awesome boxes checked there! It’s also pretty customisable – I used raspberries because I had a nice supply of them in my freezer and chocolate and raspberry is one of my favourite flavour combinations, but you could also use cherries or strawberries. I love, love, love my green smoothies – it took me a long time to convince myself to try them, but I’m so glad I did. They’re super yummy and they just make you feel healthy even when, like me, your diet really isn’t! I can’t eat a lot of fresh vegetables because of my TMJ so the green smoothie is a great way for me to get some of that goodness in my diet without cooking vegetables until they’re way too soft and lose most of their nutrients. This smoothie is a great one to start with if you’re still on the fence, it’s got plenty of sweetness and a deep cocoa flavour, you’ll forget there’s even spinach in it! My general rule for green smoothies is to have a 2:1 ratio of greens and fruit – so if I use 1 cup spinach I’ll have 2 cups of fruit (or 1 cup and a banana), that way you don’t have to worry about any bitter aftertastes ruining the smoothie for you. Nut milks are a great addition too to help counteract the bitterness, and the almond milk in this one is just a must, it really adds to that chocolatey flavour.

As a rule, I like at least one ingredient in my smoothie to be frozen to make the smoothie cold without any need for ice. I usually buy fruit when it’s on sale or discounted (buying fruit that’s been marked down at the end of it’s shelf life is great for this), then I divide it into portions and freeze in zip lock bags, that way I have handy portions of frozen fruit ready to go! I do the same with my greens too, 1 cup of packed greens per zip lock bag and I’m always ready to go when the smoothie need hits! Although I do like to keep fresh greens on hand when possible, so I don’t lose out on those nutrients.

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 1, 2015 // 40 Comments

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and 2015 is full of non stop awesome for you! I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, especially diet related ones! I’m a baker and I’m very attached to my butter and sugar, dieting just isn’t for me even if I would like to lose a couple pounds. With that said, the first recipe I’m posting in 2015 is pretty healthy! I’m not a calorie or nutrition counter so I don’t know how healthy these are but they have no butter, the majority of the sweetness comes from the bananas with only a small amount of brown sugar supplementing it. They’re also made with wholemeal (whole wheat) flour – they’re practically a health food! These will also be dairy free if you use chocolate chips that don’t contain dairy (I use semi-sweet chips, which do contain traces of milk I believe). You could also potentially make them vegan with a little fiddling, replacing the eggs with applesauce would probably work but I haven’t tested that, so I can’t say for sure.

These chocolate banana muffins are also delicious, way more delicious than they are healthy which is my kind of muffin! They’re a nice dense, moist muffin, I hate those muffins that are like biting into air, I want some substance in my muffins – leave the light and airy for the cupcakes! They’re equally chocolatey and banana-ry, with a hint of cinnamon to give them a nice flavour depth. The chocolate chips are definitely a must too, they add little chunks of chocolatey goodness and a little extra sweetness,

These muffins came about because I had a few way too ripe bananas – my first idea was, naturally, banana bread, but I only had three bananas so it would have been a very small loaf! Muffins seemed like a great idea and they really were! Over ripened bananas are so great for baking, never ever throw away those brown bananas okay! They look pretty nasty and aren’t fun to eat, but the riper they get the sweeter they are, so when they’re all brown and mushy, there’s so much natural sweetness in them that’s perfect for baking, you can even cut down on your sugar usage because of all the natural sweetness. Next time you have some bananas getting a bit too comfy in your kitchen, you should definitely turn them into these muffins, you’ll love them! They’re worth buying bananas especially to make these muffins, you’ll have some waiting time but they’re so yummy it’s worth the wait.

Because of all the natural sweetness, you really can have them at any time. Grab one for a quick and tasty breakfast in the morning, pack one in the kid’s lunchbox for a snack or treat, or even pass them out as dessert after dinner – everybody will love them any time of the day. They have those wonderful domed and chewy muffins tops that are essential for a good muffin! The best way, I find, to get a good muffin top is to fill the paper cases up until they’re almost full and then bake on a high temperature for 10 minutes before lowering it to bake throughout – I never fail to get a great muffin top with that method!

So, 2015 is finally upon us! The year of my golden birthday, the rugby world cup, the year of general elections in the UK and, assuming she’s still reigning towards the end of the year, Queen Elizabeth II will be our longest reigning queen, beating Queen Victoria! And lots more yet to be determined I’m sure. I haven’t made any proper resolutions but I do plan on a few changes this year to help make it a good year – and of course, there will be lots of baking! Do you guys have any big plans for 2015? Have you made any resolutions?

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Spiked Black Forest Milkshake

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 22, 2014 // 8 Comments

This Spiked Black Forest Milkshake has the classic taste of Black Forest Gateaux with chocolate, cherries and kirsch. It’s the perfect festive milkshake!

Happy Monday! It’s Day 8 of my Countdown to Christmas Recipes! And here’s a confession, I’m a little unorganised with this, tomorrow may or may not be the last recipe I post in this countdown to Christmas. I haven’t baked Day 10 yet and really it all depends on when I get them baked! So watch this space I get. If this is your first encounter with my Countdown to Christmas, it’s pretty simple, I have just been posting one festive recipe a day in the lead up to Christmas. Day 1 was Spiced Caramel, Day 2 was a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake, Day 3 was Peppermint Puppy Chow, Day 4 was Mince Pies, Day 5 was Christmas Spiced Chocolate Cake, Day 6 was Frosted Shortbread Christmas Cookies and Day 7 was Spiced Chocolate Orange Puppy Chow. And today I bring you this Spiked Black Forest Milkshake.

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Michelle’s Christmas Mince Pies

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // December 18, 2014 // 33 Comments

These are Christmas Mince Pies done my way! Made with puff pastry, dried fruit, nuts and a sweet, sticky sauce! So simple to make, and the perfect festive treat! It isn’t Christmas without Mince Pies!

Happy Thursday! Only 1 week ’til Christmas and It’s day four of my Countdown ’til Christmas – I’m posting a festive recipe every day up until, and including, Christmas Eve. So far I have posted Spiced Caramel, a Chocolate Peppermint Milkshake and Peppermint Puppy Chow – today I have Mince Pies.

The title here might be a tad misleading, as it could look like I’m saying these are my famous mince pies or something – but actually, this is the first time I’ve ever made mince pies. The reason being that I don’t like mince pies, I never have – I don’t like mince meat, I can’t even put my finger on what it is I don’t like about it, I just don’t. So, I made my own version of mince meat – it has the same core flavours of mince meat but it’s not baked and it’s super yummy. I also used puff pastry as the casing, just because I thought a mince pie roll would be really cute and yummy, and I was right!

For those of you unfamiliar with mince pies, they’re a British staple at Christmas time. They’re small, individual pies filled with mincemeat – mincemeat being a sweet mixture of dried fruits, brandy, spices and beef suet (I think traditionally they contain actual beef, hence the name). Most Brits will tell you Christmas isn’t complete without lots of mince pies, so I always kind of felt like I was missing out. Which is why this year I decided to come up with my own version – mine contain lots of dried fruits, spices, almonds, spiced rum and a sweet, sticky brown sugar mixture. They were so yummy, I will definitely make it a tradition to make these every year. I’m going to make some more for Christmas day and bring a little British tradition (even if it’s not totally traditional) to the US. Although I will be making them in a pie crust casing rather than the puff pastry.

Even if you’re a big lover of mince pies, you should definitely give these ones a go if only to shake things up a bit – plus I think you’ll love them, they’re wonderfully sweet and packed full of yummy fruit. The main star in these is dried figs because I love figs, but you really can customise these to suit your own tastes.

One small confession before I get on with the recipe – I didn’t make the puff pastry for these. Making your own pastry is great and I find making puff pastry quite therapeutic but sometimes I’m just too lazy or I don’t have the time, or both. This was one of those times. They’re great either way, so you can either buy pre made puff pastry from the store or make you’re favourite recipe. I don’t have a recipe for puff pastry on my blog, but Dini @ Giramuk’s Kitchen has an awesome recipe for Rough Puff Pastry which is a quick and effective way to make puff pastry from scratch.

I’m going to bring these along to Fiesta Friday this week, bring a little British Christmas to the party! This week it’s co hosted by the amazing Indu and Jhuls, so this week is a great time to come join Angie’s party!

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Michelle's Mince Pies

2014-12-17 23:35:36

Yields 12

My own take on the British classic - mince pies!

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Ingredients

320g puff pastry (homemade or store bought)
60g butter
100g brown sugar
2.5 tbsp golden syrup*
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 clementine - zest and juice
140g dried figs, roughly chopped
100g dried cherries
100g raisins
50g slivered almonds, plus more for garnish

Instructions

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with circles of parchment paper. Preheat oven to 200C/390F
Add the butter, sugar and golden syrup to a medium saucepan, heat on medium until butter and sugar are melted, stirring. Bring to the boil and boil for 30 seconds, reduce heat to a low medium.
Add the spices, extracts, zest and juice and stir to combine
Add remaining ingredients and stir.
Cook for 10 minutes on a medium low heat, stirring frequently.
Remove from heat and set aside and leave to cool.
Roll out puff pastry into a large rectangle, approx 14" x 9"
Spread the cooled mincemeat mixture over the pastry, covering up to the edges - leaving a small border clear on one length side (about 1cm)
Roll the pastry up length ways (i.e. so you have one long sausage).
Cut the roll into approximately 1"-1.5" slices and place in prepared muffin hold, with spirals facing up. Sprinkle a few slivered almonds on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until pastry is gold brown

Notes

*If you're in the US you can use corn syrup in place of golden syrup
You could also use muffin cases instead of the parchment paper, but personally I like the look the parchment paper gives them.
And since you're using cases, you can cool them in the pan without worrying about them sticking. However, if you want to remove the cases this is much easier to do while they're still hot, so leave to cool for 5 minutes and then carefully peel away paper.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Quince Madeleines

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // November 23, 2014 // 34 Comments

(disclaimer: there are affiliate links included in this post. I also received products free from Kitchen Craft to test out, however no obligation was attached to review or blog about them. All opinions are 100% my own)

Quince is something I’ve never baked with before, or even eaten. But I was in the Asian supermarket near me stocking up on some kefir milk and was having a little browse through their fruit and I saw quince. I vaguely knew what a quince was but wasn’t 100% of the taste or texture. But I thought hey, this kind of looks like an ugly lemon, I’ll buy it and figure out what to do with it later!

That’s actually a pretty good metaphor for how I tackle life actually! I did a bit of research online and it turns out quince needs a bit of preparation before it’s edible, in it’s natural state it’s very hard, woody and astringent, but once you’ve poached it for a bit the sweetness comes out and it has a lovely floral taste. Quince is high in pectin so lends itself well for jam and jelly making, my research actually lead me to discovering that quince is what marmalade was originally made out of!

You do need to take care when prepping the quince because the woody, spongy nature of the fruit makes it quite difficult to cut and you don’t want to lose any fingers! Once it was peeled and sliced and all my fingers were still in tact, I poached it in water and sugar with a cinnamon stick. The internet told me that when it was ripe, it would have an aroma when you hold it up to your nose, so I held it up to my nose and the aroma was similar to that of an apple – so poaching it with cinnamon seemed like a good move! The internet also told me that my quince would turn a vibrant coral pink when it was done, however don’t believe everything the internet tells you! After about 40 minutes of poaching, mine was nice and soft but only had the faintest hints of a pink hue. I decided to use my own judgement and declare it poached. Further research told me the amount of pectin in your quince determines how pink it goes, so I guess mine didn’t have a lot of pectin in it. I drained it, saved the poaching liquid and pureed the quince ready to bake with.

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