my Easter break bake.

I spend so much time in the kitchen these days. There is always lots of food prep to be done and plenty of new recipes to try out. I aim to cook something new at least once a week. This may not sound like much, but when life gets busy I tend to stick with the old favourites and all of a sudden we are eating the same thing week after week. Having a toddler with a huge appetite is a great challenge because he gets bored of eating the same thing extremely quickly. 

In the spirit of Easter I was keen to finally try out the recipe for Teresa Cutter's Healthy Hot Cross Buns. 

Now I haven't had the best of luck making my own bread in the past  - Rob never hesitates to remind me of the cracked tooth incident which he maintains was a result of one of my past attempts at making homemade lunch rolls! And although I have a weakness for the traditional bakery-bought variety, I was keen to test out a much healthier version. I'm pretty happy with the result:

After a sneaky taste test I can proudly report that all of my teeth remain intact. They aren't as good-looking as the originals but they are delicious!

Any choc-filled holiday would not be complete without the delicious raw brownie from one of my all-time favourite food blogs, My New Roots. This one's an oldie but a goodie. If I'm making a batch for Noah I will sometimes use carob instead of cacao, which contains trace amounts of caffeine (as well as Theobromine which has a similar effect).

I also roll it the mixture into small balls instead of pressing it into a tray - much easier and cleaner for small hands to work with!

Too easy. One or two of these balls after dinner has even replaced my daily chocolate fix. They're that good.