The joy of bread...

Trust me, if I could find a way of turning this into a Scratch 'n Sniff Blog I would - because if you were here right now with me you'd be breathing in one of the MOST delicious smells on the planet... the smell of bread baking. Ahhhhhhhhh.... heaven!

Let me give you a little glimpse into life at PhotoFairytales HQ: every Friday morning I bake bread. I do it during the week too, but on varying days. Whereas Friday morning has become a pattern because the whole bread eating thing becomes more frequent when everyone's home all day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not elbow deep in flour, kneading and proving, and being all uber-houswifeish! Nope, I cheat, I've got a bread maker - in 5 minutes flat I have all the ingredients chucked in the pan and the machine is doing it all for me. It's on just shy of a 3 hour programme, which means that about this time on a Friday morning I'm getting both barrels of that gorgeous bread smell. It's almost ready!!

I started baking bread not long ago, so I'm just starting out. My mum kindly let me borrow her bread machine for a few months to see how I got on before making the commitment and buying my own machine. Within a month I was online and scouring the many different brands available having quickly made my mind up that there was no going back!

So what have I learnt in the 3 or 4 months since I started baking my own bread? Well, I know that mixing white and wholemeal flour works when I want to do my own version of that 50/50 type bread. I know that adding as much sugar as it states in the recipe is too much - I've cut down from 2tbsp to 1tbsp. I found 2tbsp made the bread far too sweet, but bread seems to need some sugar to help the yeast do its thing. I use just less than half of the recommended salt too - and I've used Low Salt and normal salt, and both work just as well. I've experimented with yeast amounts too - and found that cutting that back a tiny bit actually makes for a nicer loaf.

But my biggest tip of all? How to get a soft crust...

Don't get me wrong, we all like a nice crunchy loaf - but when you're using the bread for sandwiches, etc too you don't always necessarily want the loaf to be crunchy all the time. So, to get a nice soft crust that still has a bit of good 'chew factor' to it, and to stop the bread being a bit on the crumbly side, I've basically upped the fat content. The recipe told me to use water - but I now use roughly 2/3 milk to 1/3 water. And instead of using 2tbsp of butter I now use 2tbsp of oil. And it works every time :) When I get the bread out of the machine I wrap it in a clean tea towel which also seems to help it keep its softness as it cools.

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a cooking and baking type blog this week, hasn't it? Ooh, the bread machine's just beeped - got to go!

Sarah x

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Sugar-Free Chocolate Truffles Recipe

Fruit packed sugar free chocolate truffles

It was good news today when Public Health England announced that tooth decay in five year olds has dropped to its lowest level in almost a decade.

As a mum, I’m aware of how much we have to keep an eye on sugar consumption, especially as so much of it isn’t always easy to spot. But it’s important to strike a middle balance I think in the battle to keep sugar at bay - some would say swinging too far in the other direction makes sugar even more tempting!

I know we’re supposed to stop thinking of certain foods as ‘treats’ - or if we must, to term healthy options as ‘treats’ too. But it’s hard to persuade your child (especially as they get older) that some carrot sticks or an apple are a treat in quite the same way as a biscuit! Unless you start with that ethos from the moment your baby is born - and get everyone they’re ever likely to meet out of the home on board too - you might be setting the bar too high!

So, to maybe help a little bit, I thought I’d share my sugar-free chocolate truffle recipe with you - my daughter loves these, and certainly looks on them as a treat! I think part of the reason why they work so well is because they tick all the sweet treat boxes:

1. They’re sweet
2. They look and taste chocolatey
3. They’re ‘picky’ sized - so you can get that “ooh a treat”/finger food type feeling you’d get from chocolates or sweets!

Now, I’ll be honest here: they’re not 100% sugar free - but they’re as near as dammit! And if you wanted to make them completely free of sugar it wouldn’t be too tricky. They take about 10-15 minutes to make, there’s no baking, they are more filling and satisfying than sweets, and they’ll keep for a good few days (in theory, although the ones I make never seem to last much longer than about 24 hours!). Here’s the recipe:

Sugar Free Chocolate Truffles

200g stoned dates (chopped or whole, doesn’t matter)
1 dessert spoon cacao powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g rolled oats
1.5 tbsp peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
1 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
1 dessert spoon water

A note about ingredients:

• Cacao: I use cacao powder in my recipe rather than cocoa powder. The reason being cacao is a purer version of chocolate - there’s no added sugar and it hasn’t been highly processed. It’s basically chocolate in its pure form. It is more expensive than cocoa powder, and harder to find in the supermarket - but a little goes a long way as it has a more powerful chocolate punch. If you can’t find cacao you could use sugar free cocoa powder instead.
• Vanilla Extract: The vanilla extract I use (Tesco Madagascan Vanilla Extract) does have sugar in it - the ingredients are listed as: Water, Ethanol, Sugar, Vanilla Extract. But as I’m only using a teaspoon I kind of figure that it won’t really break the sugar bank (if you see what I mean)!
• Peanut Butter: The peanut butter I use is whole peanut butter - ie, it’s 100% peanuts and nothing else. I buy mine from Tesco and use either the Meridian or Whole Earth (whichever is cheaper at the time I buy it).  If you don’t want to use peanut butter you could probably substitute it with perhaps some ground almonds, although you might need to add more water and maybe a small dash of honey to the mix as the peanut butter acts as a kind of ‘glue’ to the mixture.
• Chocolate Chips: Again, I have to admit that these do have sugar in them, but I'm only adding in a tablespoon of them so... - but you could substitute them with a sugar-free chocolate if you wanted to, or you could leave them out entirely if you prefer.

1. Add all the ingredients, except the water, into a food processor and whizz it up until it’s crumbly. This will probably take 1-2 minutes. 
2. Add in the water and blend for a few more seconds. 
3. Transfer the crumbly mixture to a food bag and squish it up into one big ball. Then simply break off pieces, roll them into balls, and you’re done!
4. The mixture should make about 15/16, depending on the size of your balls [insert own joke here]. The mixture will feel a little bit crumbly when you’re rolling the balls, but it does firm up - I put mine in the fridge for half an hour and they go firm with a nice non-fall-apart consistency!

I hope you enjoy them - if you have a go at making these I’d love you to come back and let me know what you think! And if you have any recipes or healthy sweet treat ideas, please leave a comment and share :)

Sarah x

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Superfood Radishes: my latest craze!

It was back to work with a bang this Monday after taking a few lovely days off work - no 6am starts, deciding what we were going to do with our day over breakfast, picnics and days out. Smashing.

And every day little food treats - ice cream with a flake? Don't mind if I do! Glass of wine even though it's only 4 o'clock in the afternoon? Actually, I am quite thirsty now I think of it... Fish and chips for tea? Well, we are at the seaside!

So this week I'm making the shift to get back to eating a bit more conscientiously - and to be honest, I was ready to. Funny how your body starts telling you it's time to start giving it some proper fuel... Which means I'm back to my new secret habit: radishes. I flippin' love 'em!

There's no such thing as a lunchbreak here at PhotoFairytales HQ - lunch is something I grab at my desk, usually typing emails at the same time. And although I'm pretty good at dishing up something healthy for dinner, lunches are more of a challenge. Very often its just a quick sandwich (minimal effort, minimal thought) and quite often I'd reach for a bag of crisps too. Hhmmm... not a great choice - then a few weeks ago I had a brainwave: replace those crisps with radishes! And now I'm a little bit hooked on them - they're the perfect alternative for me: they give me something to crunch (like crisps), they're perfect hand-to-mouth food (like crisps), and they've got a stonking hit of flavour (like crisps). They're juicy, crisp and give you a fantastic pop of heat. Some are hotter than others too, so with every mouthful it's a little bit like radish roulette!!

Not only that, but I've since discovered that they have great health benefits too - in fact, they're one of those brilliant superfoods. Obviously I'm no expert, but this is what I've found after doing a bit of research online:

• Radishes are packed with potassium which helps to lower blood pressure
• One serving of radishes gives you a third of your daily Vitamin C hit
• They're also a source of Vitamin B6, magnesium, calcium and zinc
• They help you to digest fat more efficiently
• They have great cancer-fighting properties
• They're great for your kidneys
• Radishes are low in calories, cholesterol and fat - and they are high in roughage and water which is good if you have digestive problems
• They helps to relieve congestion when you have a cold or cough
• They're great for the gallbladder and liver, protecting from infections
• Radishes are a natural diuretic and great for bladder infections

Phew! These hot, peppery little ruby red balls of juicy crunchiness are most definitely staying as a feature in my lunches for the foreseeable - yum. And what's more, they last well in the fridge - they'll sit in there watching your lettuce turn slimey, and be ready for a quick wash and top-and-tail when you need them.

Sarah :)

Quick and easy recipe: Tomato Soup

I've been making home made soup for many years now - they are (usually!) quick, easy and cheap. Plus my soups are often so hearty and filling that they can fill you up for a main course. I batch cook mine, making double quantities and freezing them - that way I've always got a standby dinner to hand that's almost instant after a quick defrost in the microwave!

This is one of my favourites which I make all the time and would love to share with you:

Easy Home Made Tomato Soup 

(for approximately 4-8 people, depending on the size of your bowls, the size of your people and the size of their appetite!)

Ingredients:
1kg tomatoes
1 or 2 Sweet Potatoes (normal white potatoes are fine too, although I think sweet potatoes add an extra sweetness and colour)
Vegetable Stock (I usually just use a stock cube, nothing fancy!)
Seasoning
Sugar
Approximately 50g butter

Peel and dice the potato, then melt the butter in a large saucepan. Throw the potatoes into the pan and stir about over a medium heat. Meanwhile, simply quarter the tomatoes (no need to peel or finely chop). Keep giving the potatoes a stir, then sling in the tomatoes. Give everything a stir and cover with vegetable stock - just enough to cover the vegetables, not too much. I like to add in a few grinds of pepper too. Bring everything to the simmer and let it bubble gently away for about 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are soft. You now need to process the soup - you can either use a food processor/blender, or a handheld blender. Give the soup a whizz until its is smooth, then pass it through a sieve to get rid of the tomato seeds. The soup will probably be quite thick so you'll need to smooth it through the sieve with a spoon - keep going until you've got about a desert-spoon of mulch left in the sieve. Warm the soup back up, and add 1 teaspoon of sugar. This sounds weird I know, but it takes away any bitterness and make the soup taste lovely and smooth. I don't usually add salt or anything else but you can if you like. If the soup is too thick add a little water until its the consistency you like.

You can fancy-schmancy the soup up with a few chopped herbs, or a swirl of cream would look pretty - but mostly we have ours simple and just served with some part-baked rolls from the oven. Yum!

What's your favourite soup recipe?

Sarah :)