Another surprisingly easy recipe, makes me wonder why I never made these as a kid, my mum loved condensed milk, and I loved bounty bars.
190g sweetened condensed milk
180g desiccated coconut
180g dark chocolate
Combine the condensed milk and coconut, making a very sticky mixture. Use your hands to squeeze into small balls, logs or what shape you can manage (like I did). Then put in the freezer for 30 mins or so to harden them up.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, roll them around in it (or try being delicate with 2 spoons like I tried and failed to do), then place on a tray back in the freezer for a bit.
Kept in the fridge thereafter and are extremely tasty.
In the quest for learning to make things yourself, I decided to make use of herbs and flowers. A dandelion salve seemed a good choice as we now have an abundance of them popping up. Make sure to always leave enough for the bees. It’s been a cold start to the season and the early ones and other pollinators will need them. Note – don’t pick dandelions that have been sprayed with pesticides, or that are exposed to domestic animals, or kerbside.
They need to be dried, for a day or so (and good to leave them outside for a little while after picking to let any bugs escape). Then put then in a jar and cover with olive oil (or any carrier oil of choice), to infuse for a week or two. Shake lightly every day and put on a sunny sill if available.
Then drain the oil through some cheesecloth to get all the bits out.
Add beeswax, the oil, a small bit of shea butter and essential oils if you want, melt together until the wax is dissolved using a double boiler.
Then pour into containers. Leave to set for half an hour, job done.
I actually put a bit of homemade lavender coconut oil in as well for some extra aroma as I don’t have any essential oils. Also have some rosemary and dandelion infusing currently so will see how that combo turns out next week.
This recipe was
42.2g dandelion infused olive oil
14.8g beeswax
9.2g shea butter
2.5 tps of lavender infused coconut oil
It can be tinkered with and adapted as necessary they say, but it’s a start. YouTube vids are good for tips and techniques as well.
Definitely the new go to recipe for homemade cookies 🍪.
250g All purpose flour (plain flour in the UK)
1 tps baking soda
1tps baking powder
1/2 tps salt
100g granulated sugar
100g brown sugar
100g butter (at room temp)
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g oats
100g desiccated coconut
100g chocolate chips
Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the extract and egg, mix well.
Add the flour, salt and baking powder/soda.
Mix in the coconut, oats and chocolate chips by hand. Shape either into small balls and flatten slightly, or flatten out the mix and use a cookie cutter. I did some more today using that method, and without coconut and chocolate for some, as coconut is not to the entire households taste 😉
Bake at 180c for around 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool, then eat them!
MKW Publishing 