Homemade coconut and chocolate sugar scrub

Since discovering count oil as the saviour of dairy and gluten free cooking I've been reading up on other uses for this miracle product.

I wash my face with it, I clean my teeth with it (google oil pulling and there are a million articles on it) and now I use it in a body scrub. 

Pinterest is a gold mine of thousands of other suggestions for coconut oil from cleaning make up brushes to moisturisers, face masks, fixing squeaky doors, even a treatment for head lice. 

But whilst I was trawling pins for inspiration one of the ideas that stood out for me was body scrubs. 

Made with store cupboard ingredients you can whip this up in under half an hour. It costs much less than the beauty brands' body scrubs and it also makes a wonderful gift.

This particular scrub caught my eye as it's chocolate and I don't think it's possible to have enough chocolate in your life. Being dairy free I don't eat chocolate bars anymore so this is a fantastic way to get a blast of chocolaty scent without eating any. Although, in reality,  you could eat this as everything contained in it is completely edible. I bet you can't say that about many store bought beauty products!!!

This was the second body scrub I made (the first was also divine and I will blog that soon) and although that first scrub was wonderful, it was difficult to take into the shower in batches and I didn't want to leave my Kilner jar in the shower to go rusty. As I was using the scrub in the shower - my best ideas come to me in the shower - I thought about setting the scrub in ice cube trays so that I could store the cubes in a jar and simply pick up a couple of cubes before jumping in the shower.

Whilst searching in the depths of the cupboard for the ice cube tray I found a shaped muffin silicone mould - perfect for  chocolate body scrub roses! 

These would make a fantastic gift wrapped in little cellophane bags finished with a ribbon or bow and my friends and family might just find a few of these in their stocking this Christmas!!

 

Chocolate and Coconut oil sugar scrub roses 

1 cup mixed sugars (I used a combination of soft brown, demerara and granulated) 

1/2 cup coconut oil 

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

 

Mix the dry ingredients and add the coconut oil. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to melt the coconut oil. Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. 

 

Once melted, give the sugar a through mix to ensure the coconut oil is evenly distributed. 

 

Press the mixture into moulds, or put directly into a jar. If using moulds chill for 20 minutes to reset the coconut. 

Be aware that the oil will melt if it gets too warm. 

I'm done with all these posh and expensive beauty products that are full of chemicals, perfumes, parabens and Lord knows what else. I'm going au naturel!!

You will love the smell of this scrub when you take it into the shower; it smells like chocolate cupcakes baking!!! Let me know how you get on. 

Coconut Flapjack Oaty Bars - gluten, dairy and refined sugar free

I simply love the smell of dessicated coconut.

Opening the packet instinctively reminds my of my late Nan who used to bake at least four dozen cakes every Sunday in anticipation of the family arriving in their droves.

Nan had a shelf full of cake design books that we would pore over for weeks before our birthdays trying to decide which cake design we'd like that year. She always exceeded our expectations with her finished cake and it would be the making of a birthday. I think that's why I am so passionate about homemade birthday cakes now. It's such a vivid memory for me and I want to pass that down to my children.

Aside from special occasions, every Sunday Nan would treat us to the most amazing selection of sweet treats, sufficient to rival the local bakers. There would be pastry horns, Eccles cakes, fairy cakes, eclairs, puff pastry slices, mini Bakewell tarts and - my absolute favourite - coconut macaroons,  of course not to be confused with the current on-trend French macarons.

No, the coconut macaroon, also known as the coconut pyramid, was a mixture of dessicated coconut, caster sugar and egg mixed together before being formed into a mound on top of a sheet of rice paper and finished with the obligatory glace cherry which was then nonchalantly discarded prior to devouring the delicacy. It was crunchy on the outside, squidgy in the middle and full of flavour.

I've made them myself a few times and I when I do I always find myself back in Nan's kitchen, remembering the glorious smell of baking wafting through to the hall. Of course we weren't allowed to choose a cake until we'd eaten our beef or cucumber sandwiches, celery stick (which Nan used to dip into a mountain of salt before eating) and a half a plateful of plain crisps. It was an idylic Sunday afternoon tea and to this day is a vivid and warm memory.

This weekend I was trying to think of homemade snacks that would tick all of my dietary boxes. Obviously gluten and dairy free were top of the list, closely followed by its portability (we'd planned a picnic but the heavens opened at dawn and remained so all day!).

I am also trying to reduce all of our sugar intake. I want to restrict the children's consumption of sugar for various reasons - tooth health, regulation of blood-sugar levels, behavioural effect, etc. And I am trying to cut down as I think it's having a detrimental effect on my skin although with the childhood described above I don't think it's any surprise that I have a sweet tooth! My husband generally doesn't eat many sweet things but he has sugar in hot drinks and tends to raid the cupboard after I've gone to bed and will eat whatever is there. We have a 'silver sweetie bowl' and at least once a day babypuddleduck can be heard asking for "something out of the silver bowl" to which the response is a resounding 'no' - usually because Daddy has consumed its contents!

I scoured the cupboard for ingredients in stock and found gluten free oats, coconut, coconut oil,  eggs, raspberries, sugar substitute Sweet Freedom, cocoa and Doves gluten free flour. I ended up making a raspberry and almond cake (blog to follow soon) and spicy chocolate biscuits (no blog as they were disastrous) and following the banana flapjacks I made a few weeks ago which were a success in my view (a view not shared by babypuddleduck or the boy) I also tried a new oaty bar recipe. They're even better than the banana version and I attempted different toppings too for a bit of variation.

COCONUT FLAPJACK OAT BARS

Gluten free, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free
Step by step coconut and oat flapjack recipe with images 

Ingredients:
3 cups (240g) of gluten free oats
1 cup (80g) of dessicated coconut
5 tablespoons coconut oil
100ml Sweet Freedom sugar alternative
3 tablespoons dairy free spread (I use Pure)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence




Method
Mix the oats and coconut together in a bowl.

Over a pan of water melt together the coconut oil, coconut butter, maple syrup and vanilla.

I found this handy steamer insert that is supposed to sit in the bottom of a pan but actually sits quite nicely on top of my smaller pan so that I can perch the pyrex jug on top and still be able to lift the jug off the pan once everything has melted. My jug isn't big enough to sit over the pan on its own and when I use the big bowls I find they're too
hot to handle after they've been over the pan for more than a few minutes. I think I got this one from Aldi - you know the aisle in the middle of the store that means you have to spend twice as long in the store as you anticipated and also means you leave with twice as much as you needed!

Once the ingredients have melted together nicely and you've stirred it well to make sure it's all incorporated, pour it over the oat and coconut mixture and again, mix well.



Doesn't my kitchen look colourful with an orange bowl, purple steamer, yellow spatula and red baking tray! I'll never be one of those people whose house is coordinated. Nothing matches here!

Either line a 9 inch square baking tin with baking paper / non-stick parchment or do as I did and use a silicone tray. It makes it much easier to remove them at the end.

Whichever tin you're using, spread the mixture evenly and press down firmly with your fingers or the back of a spoon or anything else that's flat and will compress the mixture. You want to  be really firm so that it bonds well and the flapjacks hold their shape when cut. I ended up with some leftover granola when two of the bars crumbled as I was taking them out of the tray. It still got eaten, but wouldn't have been suitable for our picnic. Don't hold back, be very firm.

Bake at 180 degrees C / 160 degrees C (fan) or gas mark 4 for 20 minutes. Leave in the tin to cool well before slicing.

I made a chocolate coating and dipped the flapjacks in so that half of each bar was covered. I then dipped half of the bars in more coconut to get a monochrome effect.

This recipe made 12 bars (or would have done if two hadn't crumbled into granola as I was lifting them out of the tray!). The boy has had them in his lunch box at nursery and I've taken one to work each day this week. I'd guess they still have a few days left in them too. I've stored them in a cake tin which seems to have kept them nice and fresh.

Do let me know if you try this recipe and take some better pictures than I did to show me!