DrinkMaple

Summer, the time of sunshine unless you live in Scotland. The place where you are lucky to get two days of sun in a row. Today proves that. Yesterday and the day beore were nice. Sunny and warm. Today we are back to cloudy and rainy. I thought I'd write this post just incase we get some more sun at any point this summer.

As we may not be used to the heat when it comes around it is important to keep up with our water intake. Hydration is very important for us all especially in the hotter weather but water can get boring.

I find water especially boring when I am trapped in work on a nice day. I know I should just have another glass of water around 3pm when I'm getting those sweet cravings. I'm most likely not even hungry but frustration and bordom can win and then we're off to the vending machine.

I have now found my solution and need more of it soon. It's DrinkMaple.

DrinkMaple is maple water that has been tapped sraight from the maple tree. It tastes like water but with a touch of sweetness. It isn't overly sweet either. Think of it like you have just added a drop of maple syrup to your water and mixed it really well. That may sound weird but it tatstes great. 

I can see it being an acquired taste but I love it and think it is a great option for trying to win with water over sweets or just to try something new.

Maple water claims to have less sugar than coconut water and it also reports to have more magnesium than kale.

Maple water appears to be quiet good for you and true nothing is as good as pure water but its something different. Maybe it will give coconut water a run for it's money.

Wholefoods was where I found mine and I had chosen the smaller option of 250ml for 1.99. It may not be the cheapest but larger bottles are also available and are more cost effective. Hopefully more stores will pick it up and the price will come down a bit.

I still recommend it though and if you love it you can buy multipacks for less online.

Weekend Baking

This is not the restart I was thinking of but instead of a foodie event, I give you a brownie post.

A few weekends ago I went to a foodies event or at least tried to. After missing two trains I finally got to the location to see that it was cancelled. This put me in such a bad mood I came back to my city and treated myself to a pizza. I didn't want to think of food anymore than that.

Brownie set-up

The weekend after I was back onto food thoughts and I wanted to experiment with making brownies (and blondies).
I had found a few recipies online and in my cook books that caught my attention with differing ingredients or different techniques.
My main goal was to get a fudgy brownie. I had family coming to visit and they also wanted brownies that were between gooey and cakey. So why not fudgy?

Brownies (undercooked :( )

My first batch was started by whisking the eggs and flour together for several minutes before adding in the chocolate and rest of the ingredients.
The batch looked great when it went in the oven and appeared good after but when cutting them they were too soft and didnt look like there was enough mixture. My thinking on this is I should have cooked them longer.

Blondie Batter

The next batch was blondies, done in almost the same way as before but I added melted white chocolate and white chocolate chunks. These turned out much better but more cakey. Which I prefer for a blondie.

Blondies

Blondies

We will forget the next brownie batch as when mixing the chocolate and sugar and such the sugar just wouldn't melt and I didnt bother trying to bake them.

I finally decided to try my Leiths baking book and their brownie recipe and it worked well. Nice and fudgy.


Brownies

I'm going to look more into brownies one day and throughly study the different ways, ingredients and outcomes. How can I make my ultimate brownie? I'm not sure right now but I look forward to trying.