NOUGAT

Nougat is a typical sweet made in a town called Jijona, in Alicante. It is famous all around the Mediterranean and I think you can buy nougat in most countries.

Nougat is made with honey, almonds, sugar and egg white. It is very sweet and delicious! There are many types of nougat. In my country, Spain, people usually eat nougat at Christmas, but in summer people eat it on ice-cream too.

There is a nougat museum in Alicante, Spain. This museum exhibits all types of typical nougat, explains the process of making nougat and explains the history of the nougat.

Soon, I’m going to show you how to make this special sweet so that you and your family can enjoy some for Christmas.

HALLOWEEN SWEETS

HOMEMADE HALLOWEEN POPS

Halloween is coming, so why don’t you make some homemade Halloween pops for the children?

Ingredients:

6 tablespoon of sugar

¾ Honey

¼ glass of water

10 drops of food coloring

Oil

10 pop sticks

How to make them:

Put the sugar, honey and water in a saucepan. Cook it over medium heat. When it is all dissolved, mix it until it turns golden and then leave it simmering for 5-7 minutes. Then remove it from the hob and put it in a bowl. Then, put the colour you want in it.

Take a mould for pops and put the mixture in it. Put the stick in too.

If you want, you can add sweets or chocolate to decorate them and make scary faces.

CHOCOLATE COSMETIC TREATMENT

Some days ago, I was searching on the Internet for the uses of chocolate in cosmetics and I found that chocolate is very good for cosmetic treatments.

Many people have a chocolate treatment on their face or their body to improve their skin.

Chocolate treatment is very good to combat stress, anxiety or moodiness. Chocolate treatment is also a method used to help reduce cellulite, anti-stress, rejuvenation, slimming and firming because it has got more than 800 molecules with moisturizing agents, which can help with toning, regenerating and revitalizing of the skin. 

I think that I am going to a cosmetic shop to buy some chocolate treatments for myself. 

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES

Last Friday, I was very anxious because it was the beginning of the school term, so I decided to make some homemade chocolates for fun. I searched on the Internet and I found this recipe. It is very easy and quick to make them. I would really like you to try making some homemade chocolates, below you have the recipe:

Ingredients:

White chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate

A mould.

How to make them:

Put the chocolate in a Bain Maria. Then when it is melted, put it in the moulds. If you want to make a mixture of white and milk chocolate for example, first add the chocolate you prefer, and when it solidifies, after being in the fridge, make the other chocolate and put it at the top of the mould. After that, you will have some delicious homemade chocolates.

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MORE RECIPES

MAKING CHOCOLATE AT HOME

Try to make white, dark or milk chocolate at home, it is very simple! Here you have the recipe to make white chocolate:

Ingredients:

Soya milk powder, 1 / 3 cup

Sugar, 1 / 3 cup

Cocoa butter, 1 / 2 cup

Water, 1 / 2 cup

Soya lecithin, 1 / 2 tablespoon

Vanilla 1 tablespoon

Process:
Put the sugar and the soya milk powder in a saucepan over a bain maria, until they have both dissolved. When this happens put the other ingredients in and mix them altogether. After that leave the chocolate in the fridge to set.

RECIPE

HOW TO MAKE A THREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

A few days ago, I was talking about the three chocolate cake I made, so today, I am going to tell you how to make it.

Ingredients you need are:

150g dark chocolate

150g milk chocolate

150g white chocolate

750ml milk

125g sugar

750ml liquid cream

3 packs of curd

1 pack of biscuits

60g butter

How to make it:

First of all, you have to crush the biscuits with a mortar. When they are all crushed, melt the butter and mix it with the crushed biscuits. Then put all this mixture in a cke tin.

Now you have to prepare the chocolate.  The first chocolate you have to put in is the dark chocolate. You must chop the chocolate, and put it into a cooking pot, with a glass of liquid cream and half a glass of milk, and let it simmer until it boils.  While you are waiting the mixture to boil, you must put a pack of curd into a glass with half a glass of milk.

When the mixture boiled, mix it with the mixture of milk and curd, and let it simmer again until it boils. Then put it on the biscuit already in the cake tin and do the same process with milk chocolate and white chocolate.

If you want to make your cake more beautiful, put some decorations on it.

CAKE

THREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Last month, it was my little cousin’s birthday, and as I like cooking so much, I decided to make him a three chocolate cake for his birthday.

Three chocolate cake is made of white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and biscuits on the base. It is very sweet, and many people love it.

It is very simple to cook, I learned to cook this cake when I was only 8 years old.

You can do it in the thermomix or by the traditional method, and there are lots of recipes on the Internet. I always cook it the traditional way, because I have not got a thermomix.

So, if you have a celebration and you want to make something delicious for dessert, cook this fantastic three chocolate cake.

THE PROCESS OF MAKING CHOCOLATE

The process of making chocolate is very complex. First of all cocoa beans are selected and cleaned. After that, the cocoa beans are roasted to remove their skins better.

Later, the beans go through a different type of toasting. They are toasted for a few minutes at between 110 and 120 degrees Celsius to remove any water and sourness in them.

Also the beans go through a roller that makes them into a powder and the result of this process is cooked and transformed into the chocolate that everyone knows and eats in their homes.

CHOCOLATE

Everyone knows what chocolate is, they know that there are many types of it too: White chocolate, milk chocolate, plain chocolate, chocolate with almonds, and so on, but most people do not know that it is exotic, an aphrodisiac and it is a stimulant.
Chocolate comes from cocoa and many people love it. 
It can cause some problems that we must know about. For example, if you eat a lot of it, you could become addicted, and you are going to be very anxious. Also it has got a lot of calories, above all white chocolate, because it is the fattest chocolate.
What is more, chocolate in teenagers can become a real problem, because it causes aannein excess and addiction. Many specialists think that a lot of teenager’s behaviour changes so much if they stop eating chocolate for a few days.

GUMMY BEARS CAN REDUCE CAVITIES

According to a study from United States, maltitol, a new sugar substitute can help prevent cavities in children.  

Some doctors from the USA decided to give thirty 8 years old children gummy bears with different amounts of xylitol and maltitol. They divided the children in 3 groups, and gave the first group 15.6g of xylitol a day, the second group ate 11.7g of xylitol a day, and the third group ate 44.7g a day of maltitol, for six weeks.

When the experiment finished, experts discovered that, all the children in the experiment reduced the amount of bacteria that produces cavities and their teeth looked whiter.

 Because of this experiment, now, most chewing gum or gummy contain these sugar substitutes, and make the sweets better for our dental health, but we must be careful with xylitol, because it can hurt our stomach and make us loose a lot of weight.

So, if you want eat some sweets, choose gummy bears with xylitol or maltitol, I think it is a good decision for you.

WHAT IS SUGAR-FREE CHEWING GUM REALLY MADE OF?

As we all now, chewing gum contains gum, but it has more ingredients than we know about.

Chewing gum contains a lot of sweeteners, flavourings, colourings or preservatives.

Current sweeteners are:

Aspartame. It’s a sweetener which is very low in calories. It substitutes sugar.

Sorbitol. It is present in a lot of sweets, because it has not got a lot of calories. But, it has got many problems: the principal problem is that it can cause you stomach ache, and it causes diarrhoea, too. It also makes you loose a lot of weight, and it is not so healthy.

Mannitol. It is a mixture of glucose and fructose. It makes the chewing gum tasty.

PROHIBITION OF CHEWING GUM

WHY IS CHEWING GUM PROHIBITED IN SINGAPORE?

In 1992, the Government of Singapore, decided to ban chewing gum. The reasons for this prohibition are that people there thought that chewing gum is very sticky and made the streets dirty. Another reason is that many people stuck chewing gum on the doors of the urban metro, and this delayed it, because the doors did not close properly and it caused major problems. What is more, the cleaning service cost too much money for Government.

In 2004, the authorities authorized chewing gum, but only the chewing gum that is destined to help quit smoking, this type of chewing gum is only sold in chemist’s.

CHEWING GUM

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CHEWING GUM

Chewing gum is my favourite type of sweets. There are many types of chewing gum with different flavours.

I think chewing gum has got a lot of advantages, but it has got disadvantages too.

The advantages are that chewing gum helps us to calm our anxiety if we are trying to stop smoking and it is good for our breath too.

There are some of disadvantages about chewing gum: 
If you chew sugared gum, it can produce cavities in our teeth.

Chewing gum contains a type of laxative, so it can produce intestinal problems.

 Another disadvantage is that chewing gum can give you jaw ache.

Well, before reading this, did you think is it good to chew chewing gum?

I think, yes, but not in excess. So, don’t chew a lot of chewing gum, it isn’t really healthy for you.

INTRODUCTION

My sweetsweetiesweets blog
Hi, I’m Arantxa and I am 15 years old. I live in a little village in Valencia, Spain. I am Spanish and I’m learning English. In this sweetsweetiesweets blog, I’m going to write about all types of sweets: chewing gum, chocolate, boiled sweets, bubble gum, sherbet, liquorice, lollipops,  jelly beans, sugared almonds and so on.

I think sweets are really delicious and they help to make people feel happy. When people are sad, they eat sweets and this makes them feel better.

I love sweets, especially chewing gum. I’m starting to think that I really have a problem with them because I chew gum all day and when I haven’t got any in my mouth, I miss it a lot.

Follow my sweetsweetiesweets blog, it's going to be very interesting!