Dairy free, healthyish ice cream

I recently discovered Wild Sugar, a cook book by Skye Craig and Lyndel Miller. I love it. So many yummies I'd love to make. But I started with their cacao ice cream, because I was a bit excited that I didn't need an ice cream churn. I also love how easy this is to make, and even better, how little dishes there are to wash afterwards. 

You'll need:

1 cup raw cashews

100ml coffee

3/4 cup agave syrup, maple syrup or honey

80g cacao powder

1 cup coconut milk

Blend all the ingredients together in a blender until smooth. Pour into jars or containers. Freeze for a few hours.

That's it. Not even kidding.

I can't wait to make this again and try mix it up a bit, by adding some nuts, or toffee, or mint. mmmmm.

Making Fimo Beads

How to make this bad boy:

Get yourself some Fimo clay. I bought mine online. Preheat your oven to 110 degrees Celsius. Break off a piece of clay, the size depends on what size beads you're after. Knead it with your fingers to make it more malleable, then form into balls by rolling between your hands. Use a skewer to carefully and slowly insert a hole through the ball. Place them on a piece of foil on an oven tray. Give them some oven lovin' for no longer than 30 minutes. 20 minutes should do the trick. 

Let them cool for a bit, then admire them for a bit.

Thread the beads on to a piece of leather, string, chain.. whatever you fancy. And Tadaaahhhhh, you made a spunky necklace:

Orange and Almond Cakes with Cardamom Syrup

Make them. Do it.

Ingredients:

80 g softened butter
2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup flaked almonds, chopped

Cardamom syrup:
1 orange
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
6 cardamom pods, bruised


Directions:

Step one: Preheat oven to 180 degrees or 160 degrees fan forced. Grease 6 1/2 cup muffin or friand tins
Step two: Beat butter, rind and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat eggs in one at a time.
Step three: Stir in almond meal, flour and nuts.
Step four: Bake cakes for 20 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes, then turn upside down onto a wire rack.

To make the syrup:
Remove the rind from the orange and slice in finely. Juice the orange (you need about a third of a cup of juice). Place the juice, rind, sugar and water in a saucepan and dissolve the sugar. Boil for 10 minutes until it thickens. Get rid of the cardamom and serve the hot syrup over the cakes while they're hot.

Day Dream Catcher

I made my first ever dream catcher! And it was so tedious, but I am so happy with the result.

I know! It's a bit wonky, but it was my first attempt.

I'm not going to provide a tutorial, because when I was researching instructions to make dream catchers, I ended up finding it much easier to follow a youtube video. Written instructions were terribly wordy and difficult to follow. So if you're interested in learning how to make a dream catcher, youtube will be your friend. 

However, I will tell you that the beads are handmade by me using polymer clay. And I cut out pieces of doily to hang off the bottom with tiny gold bells attached. Pretty cute, yes?

x

DIY Recycled Jar Vases

These glass jar vases look pretty spesh, and they're super easy, super cheap and I think they look.. super good. I think the cool thing is that you can change them whenever you like, just by using different paper around them.

So to make them, clean the labels off the jars. I just soak them in hot soapy water, then clean anything remaining with a label remover substance from the supermarket. I used two layers of paper to create the decoration around the jars. First a layer of brown packing paper, then a strip of patterned scrapbooking paper. To make the strips straight, I folded the longest edge under. I used a tiny piece of sticky tape to attach the brown paper around the jar, as you won't see it anyway if you're doing another layer or paper. Then I attached the second layer (of patterned scrapbooking paper) with a few dots of pva glue. Add some twine, wrapped around a few times, then tie in a bow. You could also use recycled wrapping paper or fabric.

Ta daaah!

Bakin' Bread

So I spent some of the rainiest rainy day making my first ever focaccia (rosemary, garlic and sea salt). It tasted awesome, especially eating it as soon as it came fresh out of the oven! 

Recipe for Rosemary, Garlic and Sea Salt Focaccia:

2.5 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons of dried yeast

1/4 cups parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon freshly chopped sage

3 teaspoons sea salt flakes

1 cup (250ml) warm water

1/4 cups olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped rosemary

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Sift flour into a large bowl, then stir through the yeast, cheese, sage and 1 teaspoon of the salt.

Gradually stir in the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil.

Knead on a floured surface for roughly ten minutes, or knead in a mixer for about five minutes; either way the dough should be smooth and elastic.

Place the dough on a oiled oven tray. Press into a 24 cm round (this is what the recipe said, however I pressed it out into a square, the shape of a baking tray I had). Cover in plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until dough doubles in size. Try placing it on a tray over a sink of hot water with a towel covering it to keep the warm air in.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius or 200 fan forced.

Combine rosemary, remaining oil and the sliced garlic.

Remove plastic wrap from dough, then sprinkle the oil mixture evenly(ish) over the dough. Sprinkle the sea salt over the dough.

Bake focaccia for 25 - 30 minutes. It should look nice and golden brown.

Place it on a wire rack to cool.

Eat some while its warm!

Gourmet Garden Gifts

I would definitely regard homemade gifts to be more meaningful than most shop bought pressies. They can also be better for the environment if you use recycled materials and better still if you can grow it in your garden. So for some of my relatives for Christmas, I made these homemade condiments in decorated jars. 

Hang on to some old jars and recycle them for this project. I bought the labels from etsy. 

This time I've made poached pear and rhubarb and a roma tomato and capsicum relish, but there are so many others I'd love to try. Some other ideas for these gift jars are homemade bbq sauce, jams, dukkah, chocolate ganache, granola, aioli or berry compote. 

Here's the recipe for my tomato and capsicum relish:

3 red capsicums, halved and seeded

2 kg ripe roma tomatoes

125ml (half a cup)olive oil

2 spanish onions, finely chopped

250 ml (one cup) aged red wine vinegar

220 g (one cup)caster sugar

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

                              ---

Blanch capsicums for five minutes, then transfer to a bowl of iced water. Blanch tomatoes for thirty seconds, then transfer to a bowl of iced water. Peel, cut tomatoes in half, then scoop out the seeds. Dice the tomatoes and slice capsicums into strips.

Heat oil in a large pot and add the capsicums, onions and one teaspoon of salt. Cook over a low-medium heat for ten minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients and cook, uncovered, over a medium heat for one and three quarter hours or just until the mixture is thick and has reduced.

Spoon into hot, sterilised jars and seal.

It should keep in the fridge for up to three months.

For the poached pear and rhubarb, I didn't follow a recipe. I just used one pear, a bunch of rhubarb and some caster sugar and water. It only took about 15 minutes in a pot on the stove and it was ready to rock and roll. There are plenty of recipes online, or your mum or nanna might have a recipe.

Try mixing up the jar sizes and shapes. Get creative. Make them for birthdays, engagement gifts, mothers/fathers day.. or just for yourself.