Saturday, 16 November 2019

GBWO, Week 10, The Final: Chocolate Cake

WW-Friendly Chocolate Cake
N.B. This is relevant to MyWW Purple Plan

Related Instagram post is here.

Serves 10

For the cake, I followed this recipe, using the all in one method (ignore the fudge cream part), with the following adaptations:

110 grams plain chocolate (broken into squares) - 114 g Free'ist no added sugar dark chocolate
175 grams unsalted butter (softened) - 200 g of unsweetened applesauce (baby food is exactly this)
60 grams light brown muscovado sugar - 60 g of NKD Living erythritol gold
110 grams caster sugar - 110 g of NKD Living granulated erythritol
4 large eggs - not separated
3 tablespoons milk - 2 tbsp of Blue Diamond Almond Breeze milk 


For the frosting, I followed this recipe (the icing part only), with the following adaptations:

25g dark chocolate (preferably 70% cocoa solids), finely chopped - 25 g Free'ist no added sugar dark chocolate
50g icing sugar - 50 g NKD Living powdered erythritol
25g butter, room temperature - 25 g I Can't Believe It's So Good And Light
1 tsp semi-skimmed milk - 1 tsp Blue Diamond Almond Breeze milk
100g light cream cheese, straight from the fridge - 100 g Philadelphia Lightest
100g quark cheese - 100 g fat free quark


You can top the cake with whatever you like, but make sure you point accordingly. Enjoy!





Saturday, 12 October 2019

GBWO, Week 7, Festival Week: Halloween Pumpkin Buns

WW-Friendly Pumpkin Buns

Makes 9 at 4sp each

For the bread dough:
250 g bread flour
15 g caster sugar
2 g salt
3 g 
80 ml almond milk
100 g pumpkin puree
15 g I Can't Believe It's So Good And Light

For the filling:
300 g pumpkin puree 
30 g NKD Living Erythritol Gold
30 g I Can't Believe It's So Good And Light
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/16 tsp ground cloves

9 pieces of kitchen twine/cotton, 90 cm each, soaked in oil


Make the filling:
Heat up all the filling ingredients in a saucepan until the butter has melted and everything is well mixed. Leave to cool and divide into 9 portions. Wrap each of these portions up in clingfilm to make 9 filling balls and chill in the freezer. 

Make the bread:
Put the bread flour, sugar, salt, yeast, almond milk and pumpkin puree in a bowl and mix until combined. Slowly incorporate the I Can't Believe It's So Good And Light whilst kneading for about 20 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Form a ball with the dough.

Place the dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling film and let proof in a turned off oven that has a pan of boiling water in the bottom of it, until it has doubled in size (approximately 1 hour).

Remove the dough from the bowl and knock back (knead to remove the gas bubbles). Weigh the dough and divide into 9 equal portions (mine were about 50 g each). Roll each dough into smooth balls, cover with cling film and rest the balls for 10 minutes.

On a lightly floured work surface, flatten each dough ball into a round disc, using your fingers to squash out any trapped air as you flatten the dough. Take your pumpkin filling out of the freezer and out of the cling film and wrap each filling ball in the dough discs. Pinch and seal the seam.

Wrap the oiled cotton strings around the dough balls to form 8 segments. You do not have to wrap these tightly.

Place the balls seam side down on lined baking trays, giving them room to expand. Cover with cling film and leave the dough to proof for the second time for about 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 deg C, fan assisted, for 20 mins or until golden brown. You can cover the buns with baking paper lids towards the end of baking if they brown too quickly. Remove from the oven and transfer to wire track to cool a little.

Remove the cotton string before eating. I decorated mine with edible gold glitter and made stalks from tomato vines. (I was going to use Matchmakers ;-) )

Enjoy!

Sunday, 6 October 2019

GBWO, Week 6, Dessert Week: Verrines

WW-Friendly Verrines

Serves 4 (I used small wine glasses, if such a thing exists!), 6 sp (4 sp without the sable biscuit, but still including the chocolate)

Mango compote
100 g mango chunks
40 g finely diced mango (set 5 g aside for the topping later)
MyProtein mango FlavDrops (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp NKD Living granulated erythritol sweetener
2 g powdered gelatin

Put all the mango compote ingredients into a saucepan (except for the 40 g of diced mango and the powdered gelatin) and heat gently until the mango is soft. Blitz or mash to a smooth puree (I used a hand blender), sprinkle the powdered gelatin on top and let it dissolve before stiring. Stir through 35 g of the diced mango into the mixture, then divide evenly into the four glasses. Let set.

Coconut panna cotta
70 ml boiling water
8 g powdered gelatin
123 g silken tofu
56 g NKD Living Naked syrup

245 ml Alpro coconut milk drink
zest of 3/4 lime
1 tsp vanilla extract

Disslove the gelatin in the boiling water and set aside. Blitz the remaining ingredients in a food processer (I used my Ninja). Transfer to a bowl and stir in the boiling water/gelatin mix. Stir gently as to not create too many bubbles. Divide evently into the four glasses, on top of the mango compote. Let set.

Raspberry jelly
The jelly layer is just no added sugar raspberry jelly made to instructions. Pour on top of the panna cotta layer.

Streusel
20 g I Can't Believe It's So Good and Light
20 g NKD Living Erythritol Gold
20 g plain flour
10 g dessicated coconut
zest of 1/4 lime

Blitz together all the ingredients to form a dough. Wrap in cling film and freeze for 30 min. Grate the dough over a baking tray lined with baking paper and spread out the gratings. Bake for 7 minutes on 180 degrees fan oven until golden. Leave to cool. Divide beween the four glasses. You can add further chopped mango to this later and a mint leaf, but I forgot.

Sable Biscuit
50 g I Can't Believe It's So Good and Light
70 g plain flour
25 g NKD Living granulated erythritol

Blitz together the ingredients to form a dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out to a thickness of about 2 mm on a floured surface. Cut out at least four rounds (I used a 7 cm cutter) and chill again for 30 minutes. Bake until golden at 160 degrees C fan assisted. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Balance on top of the glasses.

Top the biscuit with dark chocolate (I used Chocologic no added sugar dark chocolate giant buttons) and raspberries (I only had blackberries).


Serve and enjoy!

Saturday, 7 September 2019

GBWO, Week 2, Biscuit Week: Fig Rolls

WW-Friendly Fig Rolls

Related Instagram (@maximmortal) post here.


Makes 18, one for 2sp, two for 3sp


Ingredients

For the biscuit dough:
175 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
pinch of salt
¼ tsp baking powder
50 g I Can't Believe It's So Good & Light
40 g sweetener (I use NKD Living granulated Erythritol)
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:
8 fresh figs, quartered
sweetener to taste
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp of ground ginger
zest and juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp Clarks Original Maple Syrup Blended With Carob Fruit Syrup

Method


Make the biscuit dough
  1. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a bowl.
  2. Beat the butter and sweetener with an electric whisk or stand mixer, for 5 minutes, until pale and creamy.
  3. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.
  4. Add the flour gradually, beating on a low speed, until incorporated.
  5. Put the dough onto a sheet of cling film, wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes, until firm.

Make the filling
  1. Put the figs into a small pan and add a splash of water so that it just covers the base.
  2. Add all of the other ingredients, mix, bring to the boil and simmer until the mixture thickens.
  3. Blend the mixture with a hand blender, or otherwise to blitz the skins.
  4. Add sweetener to taste.
  5. Leave to cool.

Fig roll time!

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C fan.
  2. Roll out the dough on a flour-dusted sheet of baking paper to accommodate a 25 x 30 cm rectangle.
  3. Trim the edges and cut the rectangle into three strips, each measuring 25 x 10 cm.
  4. Put the fig filling into a piping bag and pipe a strip of filling down the middle of each of the dough rectangles. You'll probably have some filling leftover.
  5. Brush the long edge of each of the strips with water and roll the dough over the filling to form long tubes. The dough should overlap and seal in the filling. 
  6. Cut each tube into 6, to form 18 fig rolls.
  7. Transfer the rolls onto a prepared baking sheet.
  8. Use a fork to gently flatten each roll.
  9. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly browned.
  10. When done, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving.
N.B. You'll probably have some fig filling leftover - try it on toast as a jam, or I have another recipe coming soon which also uses this filling! Keep checking my Instagram for that one.

Saturday, 31 August 2019

GBWO, Week 1, Cake Week: Angel Slice

WW-Friendly Angel Slice

Related Instagram (@maximmortal) post here.

Serves 6, one slice for 3sp, two for 7sp

Ingredients
4 eggs
100 g zero calorie sweetener (I use NKD Living erythritol) 
100 g self-raising flour, sieved
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g light margarine (I used I Can't Believe It's So Good And Light)
110 g fat free Greek yoghurt
lots of zero calorie powdered sweetener (I used NKD Living powdered erythritol) - around three cups?
red food colouring gel
yellow food colouring gel

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line three 25 cm x 10 cm tins.
  2. Beat the eggs, vanilla extract and sweetener together for 5 minutes with an electric whisk until the mixture turns thick and pale and increases in volume.
  3. Gently fold in the flour in two or three batches using a metal spoon.
  4. Divide the mixture into three. Pour one third straight into one of the tins.
  5. Add red food colouring to another third to colour pink, fold gently and pour into the next tin.
  6. Add yellow food colouring to the last third, fold gently and pour into the remaining tin.
  7. Run a skewer gently through each mixture to break up any large bubbles (be careful not to mix your colours).
  8. Bake for 10-12 mins until golden and firm.
  9. Once done, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins, but cover them with a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out. 
  10. Meanwhile, make the 'butter'cream by whisking the margarine and yoghurt together. Gradually add powdered erythritol and whisk - I just kept on adding until it was sweet enough for me, so I didn't weigh it out (up to three cups should do it).
  11. Set aside a small amount and colour with more red food colouring.
  12. To assemble, remove the cakes from the tins and trim so that they are all the same size.
  13. Spread some of the buttercream on the plain cake and top with the pink cake.
  14. Spread some more buttercream on the pink cake and top with the yellow cake.
  15. Slice into six portions.
  16. Spread a thin layer of buttercream onto each slice.
  17. Note - I didn't use all of the buttercream.
  18. Spoon the pink buttercream into a piping back and pipe two long, thin lines down each slice.
  19. Gently drag the lines with a cocktail stick in opposite directions through the white buttercream to feather.
  20. Enjoy! It tastes just like birthday cake!
Phew!

I forgot to do it, but if you wanted, you could flavour each batter separately at the point where you add the food colouring. Try raspberry for the pink layer (I would use MyProtein raspberry FlavDrops) and lemon for the yellow layer (some lemon juice and zest would do it). 

Monday, 22 July 2019

Links


 
Get a free month with WW here.
Buy Spicentice kits here and use code MAXIM20 for 20% off (affiliate link).

Get 20% off at Skinny Food Co here (affiliate link). 
Buy NKD Living sweeteners here and use code MAXXX-10 for 10% off a minimum spend of £15 (affiliate link).
 
Buy Coconut Bowls here and used code MAXXX-10 for 10% off (affilate link).

Join TopCashback here and earn money whilst you shop online! I've earned over £1400 so far.

Get 10% off your first order with Protein Pick & Mix 
here (referral link).

Get £10 off your first order of Dare Motivational Shakes (they are honestly amazing) here (affiliate link).

 
Read my weight loss success story here.
 
Read my WW blog about myWW Purple Plan here.

Get £10 off your first purchase at Never Fully Dressed here (referral link).


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