APPLE & BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE

It's week four on bake off which means it's time for desserts! As I didn't have a huge amount of free time this week I went for a simple and easy crumble recipe, the perfect thing for the chillier evenings creeping it. As blackberries are currently in season and see to be everywhere at the moment, they were swiftly added into the recipe.

On your marks...get set...BAKE!

- 75g butter
- 100g sugar (we used a mixure of golden brown, muscavado and caster sugar)
- 3/4 bramley apples
- Around 200g blackberries (save some for a garnish)
- 150g gluten free flour (you can really use any flour)

Preheat the over to gas mark 4. Peel, core and chop the apple into around 2cm chunks and place them in a  saucepan. Add 2tbsp of water and half the sugar to the apples. Place on a medium heat and cook until the apples become just mushy. For the crumble mix, place the remaining sugar with the flour and add the butter. Mix until it looks like large bread crumbs. Add the apple mix to an oven proof dish, add the blackberries and then top with the crumble mixture. Cook for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown and you can see the fruit bubbling. Serve straightaway with ice cream of custard.

And there we go, it really is that simple! Let me know what you think of this week's recipe and if you're baking along make sure to leave me a link below or tweet me @afloralcrown! For all things Great Blogger Bake Off related check out:
- GreatBloggerBakeOff on Facebook
- #GreatBloggerBakeOff on Twitter
and the creators of this brilliant mini series:
- Laura from I Love Crafty
- Shannon from Mumma Told Me So
- Meg from Briar Rose
Don't forget to tune into the Great British Bake Off each week Wednesday at 8pm on BBC1!

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COURGETTE CHOCOLATE LOAF

Welcome back to the weekly Bake Off challenge! It's week three which can only mean one thing, I feel the knead (couldn't help myself) for bread. I'm 100% sure that Mary and Paul would not be best pleased as this week's loaf may sort of be bending of the rules. There was no kneading, nor proving, involved for this bake. Simply place ingredients all in one bowl, whisk up and pour into a loaf tin. The result? A super moist, chocolate loaf perfect in the afternoon with a cup of tea.

You may have noticed from the title that for the second week in a row - last week I made Avocado Chocolate Cookies - my baking tends to have at least one slightly abnormal ingredient. This week it was courgette (or zucchini if you're American). I've read a lot that it's used in baking to help keep moisture and stop the result from being too heavy of dense. So here's how to make it...

On your marks...get set...BAKE!

- Half of a medium courgette - grated (around 3/8 of a cup when compactly placed in cup)- 3/4 cup of ground almonds/almond flour
- 1/8 cup cocoa powder
- 1/8 maple syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg

Pre-heat oven to around 175 Celsius/gas mark 4 and thoroughly line the loaf tin. Mix together the almond flour and cocoa powder before adding the rest of the ingredients, mixing well in between each one. Whisk well until smooth (you may have some small lumps due to the courgette) and pour into the tin, ready for baking. Bake for around 15 minutes - for a small loaf tin, around 20/25 minutes for a larger loaf tin. At the the end of 15 minutes use a skewer or sharp knife to check that the insides have cooked, if it comes out clean then it's ready to be removed from the oven and set to cool.
Because this is such a moist mixture I really suggest giving it a lot longer to cool - perhaps an hour, it you can wait that long! Think as if they were brownies, they may look under cooked to begin with but as they cool it'll start to solidify. It should turn out super soft, moist and melty. Once it's cooled simply slice off a section and enjoy with a cup of tea.

Let me know what you think of this week's recipe and if you're baking along make sure to leave me a link below or tweet me @afloralcrown! For all things Great Blogger Bake Off related check out:
- GreatBloggerBakeOff on Facebook
- #GreatBloggerBakeOff on Twitter
and the creators of this brilliant mini series:
- Laura from I Love Crafty
- Shannon from Mumma Told Me So
- Meg from Briar Rose
Don't forget to tune into the Great British Bake Off each week Wednesday at 8pm on BBC1!

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AVOCADO CHOCOLATE COOKIES

Welcome to my second post in the #GreatBloggerBakeOff series! You can check out my first post here - Mini Pancake "Cakes". Planning for this weeks theme - cookies - began with a debate. A debate which ended with my initial thoughts, cookies and biscuits are the same them.  Cookie in the US, biscuit here. A biscuit in the US is - a savory scone like bun of sorts!  With that all cleared up I moved onto the bake. I knew I wanted to use avocado as a butter sub, after scouring the web Smoothie Lover was one of the blogs I came across using avocado in recipes.

*Note before we begin. These didn't turn out as biscuit like as I had hoped. They were very smooth, very cakey but sadly didn't have a crunch nor snap. Maybe I used too much avocado, hence the creamier texture, so if you're looking for something a bit more whoopie pie like this could be the one for you! If not, I think a bit less avocado would do the trick!*

On your marks...get set...BAKE!

- 1 small/medium avocado - ripe
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (you can use coconut or Stevia for healthier alternatives)
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 egg
- 50g chopped dark chocolate (I used 70% Lindt)
- 1 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to around 170 degrees. Cream together the sugar and avocado. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Next add the cocoa powder and chopped chocolate. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and then add this to the mix. Once combined, spoon heaps of the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven for around 8-10 minutes.
I baked mine for about 10 minutes and they came out very soft and cakey. Leave them on the baking tray until completely cooled, then remove. Mine were a lot more delicate than cookies and definitely more cake like. Note - they taste super good when they've been chilling the fridge!

Let me know what you think of this week's recipe and if you're baking along make sure to leave me a link below or tweet me @afloralcrown! For all things Great Blogger Bake Off related check out:
- GreatBloggerBakeOff on Facebook
- #GreatBloggerBakeOff on Twitter
and the creators of this brilliant mini series:
- Laura from I Love Crafty
- Shannon from Mumma Told Me So
- Meg from Briar Rose
Don't forget to tune into the Great British Bake Off each week Wednesday at 8pm on BBC1!

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REVAMPING MY RUNNING

Through my runstreak, running quickly become a part of my everyday life that was here to stay. I really enjoy running, but over the past couple of months I been struggling to bring back the love I once had for it. I've become slightly bored with my routes, my playlist and started lacking the motivation to run further distances. When I was training for half marathon I really enjoyed pushing myself and achieving the goals of hitting those mile markers. But, without that goal/deadline to work towards, getting back to running those longer distances has been non existent. Since my half marathon the furthest I've run is around 4/5 10ks and a sprinkling of 5ks along with at least one mile day (as part of my run streak).

So I've decided it's time for a little bit of a change. So it's time for a little bit of a change. I'm hoping to restart my love for running and get back into running longer distances. Also learning to have fun with it again and the challenge that comes as part of working up to the longer distances. I've gained a lot of inspiration recently from the large group of running/cycling/fitness bloggers that I follow on Twitter (and their sites) and it's definitely helped to start helping me bring back the love for running. Here are just a few of my running/cycling and general fitness inspiration - Charlie, Alexa, Leah, Amy, Carly, Sophie, Melissa, Cathy, Cat and Jen.

I'm going to carry on run streaking everyday, with at least a mile run, but I'm hoping to gradually build back up to having longer runs again on Sunday mornings.
It's time for me to lace up my trainers, rejig my playlist and head out the door to push myself further and get those miles up again. If you have any song recommendations or blogs to follow do let me know or tweet me @afloralcrown with your recommendations!

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