Goody Good Stuff

I've been raving about these for almost a year, since last year's Bristol eco veggie fayre. Back then, Goody Good Stuff had only just started, and you couldn't buy their products anywhere. Which was a huge problem for me, because I'd tried them and bought several packets, only to discover my new favourite sweet treat was unavailable to purchase.

Fast forward about six months, and I'm looking around my local health food store. Goody Good Stuff sweets are on the shelves, in all their delicious varieties, at the same cost as a bag of Haribo with none of the nasties. They're fat-free, too, so I don't feel too guilty about working my way through a bag after a workout.

When I went to the stand at the Brighton vegfest last week, I was glad to see the company back, doing well, and getting their products out there. Surprisingly, they even remembered me, and the sweets were as good as ever. Highly recommended.

http://www.goodygoodstuff.com/

Brighton Vegfest

Yesterday, I went to Vegfest in Brighton. It was paradise; it's not often a veg*n will go somewhere that they can eat everything without asking about ingredients. Besides eating almost everything that was on offer, I tested out a lot of new products and got some good deals on old favourites. I also attended a cookery talk, in which we were taught how to make the world's healthiest cake, and although it went a little wrong in the live demo, I wrote down the recipe anyway because it's likely to work well with a little home tweaking.

My next load of blog posts will be about everything I loved from the show; food, beauty products, books, and recipes I've created around what I found there. So stay tuned.

Vegfest is also going to Bristol in May this year, so for anyone who wants to attend, and I think that you all should, here's the website: http://www.vegfest.co.uk/

Chocolate & Strawberry Cookies

For my first post, I thought I'd share a recipe I've been making for years. It's fairly quick and simple, and easy to make in any quantity, so it's perfect for filling the home cookie jar or making larger amounts for bake sales and parties.

1/2 cup strawberry jam
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup rapeseed (canola) oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4.
Mix together the jam, sugar, oil and extracts until they form a paste.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.
Add the paste to the dry ingredients in small amounts, mixing well. When you are done, you should be left with a dough.
Break off bits of the dough and roll them into walnut-sized balls. Place them on a cookie sheet/baking tray a reasonable distance apart - the dough spreads quite far. Flatten each ball just a little.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins, then leave to cool.

Notes:
-Try different flavoured jams - raspberry and blackcurrant work well.
-For a crunchier cookie, bake for longer.
-The dough can be made in bulk, wrapped in cling film and put in the fridge. Then, when you want a couple of cookies, you can just break a bit off and bake them to order.