This sounds brilliant! I’m going to give this a go – I’ll substitute out the honey for Agave or sweet freedom I think and for the protein powder I’m going to use my favourite vanilla one from Pure Form Fitness 🙂
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Monthly Archives: February 2012
Almond protein bars
I’m always on the look out for high protein snacks for big work out days. I came across this recipe from Lifestyle inc and thought I’d give it a go. I subsituted the eggs out of the recipe and added some dried fruit as I like the tartness it adds. The original recipe calls them muffins but they’re pretty solid and dense so I think they’re more of a bar, though they’re not bar-shaped so I guess they’re more like protein lumps ?! 🙂
170g Almond Butter
1 cup Flaked Almonds
1 cup Coconut milk / Almond milk
2 cups Dessicated Coconut
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
2 tsp Agave Nectar or Sweet Freedom
3/4 cup Soya milk with 3 tbsp Lemon Juice/ Cider Vinegar added (to curdle it)
6 tbsp Cornflour or Arrowroot powder
1/4 cup Unrefined Raw Sugar / Coconut Palm Sugar
A handful of Dried apricots, blueberries etc
Preheat oven to 190 C. Line a muffin tin with muffin cases or grease a set of small loaf tins (this should make 9 – 12 depending muffins on the size). Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Have a little taste and adjust the sweetner if you need it sweeter. Then pour into the tin and bake for at least 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Enjoy! 🙂
The Great Custard Taste Challenge
My challenge this weekend from my lovely taster friends was to whip up some dairy-free, vegan friendly custard..How?! I hear you cry! Is that even possible?
Well first off, did you know that Bird’s custard powder is completely dairy free? I bet you didn’t – the only vegan I know didn’t either! Bird’s custard powder does not and has never contained egg, or milk powder! All it contains is starch, salt, colouring (Annatto) and flavouring. When you make it you add the milk and sweetner, so you can make it dairy free if you like but using an alternative milk. So that’s all good I guess but frankly I don’t want to be eating articifical colourings and flavourings so I still thought I’d have a go at recreating that custardy yumminess myself and to make it just a little more fun I asked my two official tasters, Colette and Mel, and some special guest star tasters, Rod, Ben, Debs and Sue, to try all the recipes out to see which they liked best.
Top row from left – custard 5, custard 2, custard 4. Bottom Row from left – custard 3, custard 1
So my 5 recipes were:
1. Bird’s custard powder, made following the instructions using Soya milk and unrefined raw sugar.
2. 1 pint soya milk, 3 tbsp unrefined raw sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tbsp cornflour and a little water. The soya milk needs to be heated in a pan with the sugar to just below boiling point, stirring all the time to dissolve the sugar. meanwhile mix the cornflour with a very small amount of cold water to form a paste. Add that to the soya milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Stir all the time. Heat until you get the consistency you want. If you want it thicker add more cornflour.
3. 1 pint soya milk, agar flakes (follow the instructions on the packet for the amount of liquid used, I used 2 tbsps), agave nectar or sweet freedom to taste (about 2 – 3 tbsp but taste as you add!), half the seeds from a vanilla pod. Heat the soya milk in a pan with the agar flakes stir until the flakes dissolve and bring to a very gentle boil then continue to heat for as long as it takes to dissolve them! Add the agave and vanilla at any time. It won’t set in the pan so it will still appear very runny, but as it cools it will start to get thicker so once the agar is dissolved you can take it off the heat and allow to cool.
4.1 carton of silken tofu (approx 350g or so), 1/3 cup of agave nectar or sweet freedom, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, pinch of salt. Blend all the ingredients together using a wand blender or normal blender. Chill to set.
5. 1 pint almond milk, agave nectar or sweet freedom (to taste – probably about 2 – 3 tbsp), seeds from 1/2 pod of vanilla, 1 tbsp cornflour and a little water. As for number one, heat the milk in a pan with the sugar to just below boiling point and add the agave or sweet freedom – stir to dissolve. Meanwhile mix the cornflour with a very small amount of cold water to form a paste. Add that to the soya milk and bring to a gentle simmer. Stir all the time. Heat until you get the consistency you want. If you want it thicker add more cornflour.
If any of them have lumps (which depending how good your stirring is then then may!) then just pass them through a sieve. They can be served chilled or warm!
Right so what was the verdict?
Debs and Sue braving the taste challenge...
- Number 1 came in top from all my tasters – Debs said it was perfect and Sue agreed. This was Colette, Rod’s and Ben’s favourite.
- Number 2Â Joint top! Mel said it looked funny but it tasted lovely, Debs would be very happy to have over crumble and Sue said it was fab. Rod and Ben liked this and Colette thought it could be as good as number 1 with a bit more sweetner
- Number 3Â Mel wasn’t keen on this one, Debs said not much taste and Sue didn’t like the texture. Rod liked this one.
- Number 4Â – Everyone thought it was too cinnamony – and generally would be a nice accompaniment to things but wasn’t really a custard (and I agree).
- Number 5 –Â they all said it was ok but not great
So unsurprisingly everyone liked number 1! I think a big part of this is the fact that it “looks” like custard (i.e. fake yellow!) and of course it’s the taste we’re all conditioned to! But I’m pretty chuffed that number 2 came in joint top as it was my attempt to replicate it. In fact it’s not surprising as it’s basically the same ingredients, just without the articifical flavourings and colourings.
Number 5 was probably a bit too almondy but if you like almond milk it’s worth a try. The tofu one is a pretty nice accompaniment for a warm dessert but it’s not a custard really. The agar one was the least successful and I’m not surprised – it sets too hard and becomes more of a pudding, it’s also hard to work with.
So the winner is soya milk (or whatever milk of your choice), cornflour, unrefined sugar and vanilla!
Top tip – if you hanker for a dairy free crème brûlée you can use this recipe with just a bit more cornflour. Pour into ramekins and leave in the fridge to set! 🙂 Pop a few raspberries or blueberries in before it sets if you want a fruity version, then when you’re ready to eat just remove from the fridge, sprinkly with coconut palm sugar (or unrefined raw sugar) and melt with a blowtorch or under the grill until you get a cripsy topping! 🙂 ta da!
PANCAKES!!!
Ah pancake day is here again! I was going to try to resist jumping on the pancake posting bandwagon but I just can’t help myself!
There are loads of awesome recipes out there but this year I’m going for this gluten-free recipe from Pure Form Fitness. I’ve used homemade puree’d apple as the egg subsitute and they’re light, fluffy and frankly delicious! I’m having my first batch (of many!) with fruit and maple syrup! Then I’m cracking out the lemon and sugar I think…..
Another fab recipe for vegan pancakes is from the Toxic Vegan. I tried these yesterday and they’re yummy!
And this popped in to my inbox this morning from Paperbagblog which is FULL of lovely sounding recipes so give them a go!
Hope you all have a lovely pancake day! I’m off to troff some more .. nom nom nom 🙂
Pear and Almond Frangipane – Gluten and Dairy Free
I absolutely LOVE almond and whenever there’s a frangipane or almond tart on offer somewhere you can bet that that will be the cake I choose. So when I came across this awesome recipe I just had to try it! It’s from Isa’s website but I’ve modified it to make it gluten free and substituted the margarine for coconut oil which is much healthier and less processed. My tasters almost didn’t get any of this as I pretty much inhaled it as soon as it came out the oven!
For the pastry:
2/3 cup Ground Almonds
1 cup Rice Flour / Gluten Free Plain Flour Mix / Spelt Flour (for low gluten not gluten free option)
2 tbsp Coconut Palm Sugar / Unrefined Raw Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt (ideally Himalayan Rock Salt)
6 tbsp Olive Oil
3 – 4 tbsp Cold Almond Milk
For the frangipane:
6 tbsp Coconut Oil (don’t melt it)
2/3 cup Coconut Palm Sugar / Unrefined Raw Sugar
1 and 1/4 cup Ground Almonds
2 tbsp Cornflour
pinch salt
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
2/3 cup Almond Milk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
4 Pears (I used conference pears as it’s what I had in my fridge!), peeled, cored and sliced
Preheat the oven to 175 C.
Start with the pastry. Put the ground almonds into a food processor with the flour and salt and pulse to combine. Keep pulsing and add in the olive oil gradually. Add 2 tablespoons of almond milk and keep pulsing. The mixture should hold together when pressed, if it doesn’t then add some more almond milk, pulsing all the time, until it does. At this point have a taste. If you want a sweeter pastry then add some more sugar until you get the desired flavour. Press it into a pie dish. This amount should do a 9 inch pan. Using a fork prick the base of the pastry shell and place in the oven for 15 minutes to blind bake.
Now for the frangipane (my favourite bit! 🙂 ).Put the coconut oil, sugar, ground almonds, cornflour, cinnamon and salt in a food processor and pulse until well combined and all crumbly. Slowly add the almond milk, vanilla extract and almond extract whilst still pulsing the food processor until it forms a thick batter. Pour the batter into the pre-baked pastry shell. Peel and core the pears, slice them in half and then into thin slices (about a 1/4 of an inch thick). Lay the pear slices in the batter – overlap them and push them in so about 2/3 is under the batter and the top is sticking out (so you need to put them in at an angle if that makes sense!). Bake the tart for 40 – 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown, then move the tart onto a cooling rack and cool for 20 minutes.
warning - this is seriously addictive
Because I used coconut oil, not margarine, for the frangipane this came out as rather like a treacle tart in texture. Now I quite liked that but if you want something a little more cakey then you might want to use vegetable shortening instead. I’ve not tried it yet (though I will be!) but a more solid fat should help with that. Personally I love the flavour the coconut oil gives and I can cope with a nice sticky tart! 🙂
Almond, Pear and Tahini Cake – gluten and dairy free!
This is a recipe that a friend very kindly sent me from a newspaper clipping. I was a little dubious how this would turn out but I actually really like it. It’s got a lovely mix of richness and sweetness from the pear, some crunch from the almonds and then a fab very slightly savoury note from the tahini. I think you could probably reduce the amount of tahini and up the amount of date syrup if you prefer things sweeter. I tried this out on a couple of people without telling them what was in it and they all loved it so I think it’s a winner! 🙂
240g Tahini
260g Date Syrup
220g Rice flour/ gluten -free plain flour mix / spelt flour (if you want low gluten not gluten free)
100g Whole Almonds, chopped roughly (or pulversised in a pestel and mortar for a bit!)
150g Pears, peeled, cored and diced
250ml Pressed Apple Juice (the best you can get)
1tsp Gound Cinnamon
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Preheat the oven to 170 C and grease a 23 cm cake tin (a smaller one will also work, you’ll just have a deeper cake!)
Make sure the tahini is well stirred as the oil tends to separate out in the jar. Add to a bowl with the date syrup and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl add the flour, cinnamon, almonds and pear and mix together. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the tahini mix and stir well. Then add a third of the flour mix and mix well. Add half the apple juice and mix again. Add another third of the flour mix and the final half of the apple juice and mix. Then finally add the rest of the flour mix. Stir well until combined then pour into a the tin.
Place in oven and bake for 45 mins. Then turn the oven down to 160 C and bake for a further 30 mins. For the final 10 mins loosely cover with foil. Keep an eye on this cake – because it’s dark it’s hard to see when it’s starting to be a bit too well done (aka burnt!), if it starts to look too done just pop the foil on sooner, otherwise it will look like mine! I like burnt edges on my cakes though so I was happy! 🙂 Once done remove from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack.
fresh out the oven!
As I said before, the people I tried it on who didn’t know what was in it loved it! My loyal tasters also liked this cake, though some thought it needed a bit of something to sweeten it up. You could add more date syrup and remove some tahini, or some chopped dates or prunes would liven it up a bit too. I’d say adding a good handful of dates would do the trick! I’ll be trying that next time 🙂
Raw chocolate truffles! :)
As it’s valentine’s day I just had to give this recipe for raw chocolate truffles a try. I modified the recipe a bit – I subsituted the honey in the original recipe with Agave and because they tasted a bit sweet to me I added in a tablespoon of carob powder too. They’re not half bad for a healthy truffle and very easy to make!
a perfect post dinner treat
This will make loads! I cut the ingredients down by a third and it made 10 decent sized truffles, but I’ve put the original amounts here so you can decide for yourselves how many to make! 🙂
3/4 cup Raw Cacao Powder
2 cups of Ground Almonds
1/2 cup Agave Syrup
3 tbsp Carob Powder
1 tbsp Coconut oil
Dessicated coconut for rolling
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. If the coconut oil is too solid you may need to soften it first in the microwave. Once combined roll into truffles and roll in dessicated coconut. They can be eaten immediately but are best if chilled first – either in the freezer or fridge for as long as you can wait! 🙂
Love is in the air! and in my cake tin…
I am not a big valentine’s day person to be honest, at least not in it’s commercial form but as an excuse to make cute little heart shaped yummy things then I think it’s great! 😉
Sooo I’ve been playing again and have come up with a few simple, tasty, low gluten, dairy free valentine’s treats! These are available in limited numbers to order, just drop me a line if you’d like some.
Ginger love hearts
spice up your valentine's day
1/3 cup Olive oil
3/4 cup unrefined raw sugar (golden raw caster sugar, coconut palm sugar, or dark raw cane sugar)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup soya milk
1 cup amaranth flour / quinoa flour
1 cup gluten free flour mix (make your own or you can use an organic pre-mixed one. If you want low gluten not gluten free then go for spelt flour instead of the amaranth and gluten free flours)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt salt
This recipe will make about 50 small heart biscuits (2 – 3 cm) so you may want to halve it or even quarter it depending how many you want and how big your cutters are.
Whisk the oil and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the soya milk and the molasses and whisk all together. Sieve the flours, spices and baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda in to the wet ingredients and mix until it forms a dough. The dough may seem quite moist. You want it to be workable but not so sticky that you can’t lift it. Add a bit more flour if it is too wet. Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for an hour (the dough can be left in the fridge for several days so you don’t have to use it all at once. It can also be frozen).
Preheat the oven to 175 C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Roll the dough out on a floured surface. It’s worth trying small amounts of dough at a time and be generous with the flour. It will stick a bit but don’t worry. You want it to be rolled out fairly thin but not too thin – maybe 5mm thick or so. Use a small heart shaped cutter (I use a 2 – 3cm cutter) to cut out the biscuits and transfer to the baking tray. Bake for 8 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will seem soft when they come out the oven but as they cool they harden. If you want super crispy biscuits just pop them back in the oven for another few minutes.
Give them to the one you love.. or just eat them all yourself!
(these are available in bags of 20 for £2.50 – contact me for more details)
Brownie love bites
chocolately loveliness!
165g Silken tofu
100g white spelt flour
65g Whole-wheat spelt flour
70g Cocoa powder
6 tbsp Water
8 tbsp Agave syrup AND 2 tbsp Date syrup
200g unrefined raw sugar/ coconut palm sugar
A handful of chopped pecans and dried cherries
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp Ground brown linseed
1.5 tbsp Hot water
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
Mix the ground linseeds with the 1 1/2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside to thicken. Preheat the oven to 180 C and then line an 8-inch x 8-inch x 2-inch baking tin with greaseproof paper and lightly oil.
Blend the tofu, water, agave syrup, date syrup, cocoa powder, linseed mixture, and vanilla extract until completely smooth. Place the remaining ingredients, except the pecans and cherries, in a mixing bowl and stir until they are well combined. Then pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir well. Finally, gently fold in the pecans and cherries. Pour the mix into the tin and place in the oven for 30 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then cool on a wire rack. Whilst still warm use a small heart cutter (2 – 3 cm) to cut out heart shaped brownie bites. You should get 12 – 15 out of one tray of brownie (and you get to eat all the little off cuts!) 🙂
Available in bags of 5 for £4
Chocolate orange cupcakes – full of gluten free dairy free chocolately love!
perfect to share
1 cup rice flour
3/4 cup raw unrefined sugar (coconut palm sugar, raw cane sugar etc)
1 cup soya milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp natural valencia orange extract (omit this if you don’t like orange flavour – could be replaced with 1/2 tsp almond extract, chocolate extract or more vanilla extract)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp himalayan rock salt
For the icing:
1/4Â cup cocoa powder
1/4Â Agave syrup
1 – 2 tbsps Unrefined golden icing sugar
Sugar hearts to decorate
Preheat oven to 175 C and line a muffin pan with muffin cases (this should make about 12).
Whisk together the soya milk and vinegar and leave to one side to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and any other extracts you’re using. Beat until foamy using a hand whisk (or you could use an electronic one if you’re feeling lazy!). Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the wet mixture a little at a time, stirring in between. Mix until smoothish (some lumps are ok). Taste it at this point and if necessary add more extract if needed. Pour into the muffin cases and place in the oven for 18 – 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When done, remove and allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
In the meantime you can make the icing. Put the cocoa and agave into a small saucepan and heat very very gently (this is important – do not over heat it!). Stir continuously until it is well combined. Add the icing sugar and stir well. Have a taste to check it’s sweet enough for you, if not add a bit more agave or icing sugar. The mix will be quite runny when warm but will harden when cool – it will never be completely hard (unless you add a lot of icing sugar!) so it will be a bit sticky – which I personally love! 🙂
Once the cakes are cool you can apply the icing and then add some decorations – then enjoy!
These are available in boxes of 4 for £5.50
The Versatile Blogger Award & Nomination!
Hello Everyone,
I am super chuffed to have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks! I’m loving blogging and connecting with other people who love the same things I do. It’s so exciting when people comment on and likes my recipes so thanks to everyone who does 🙂
I also wanted to thank Colette at Pure Form Fitness Kitchen for taking the time to nominate me (9/2/12), particulary as her blog inspired me to create my own, so I couldn’t be more grateful. I am looking forward to many more months of baking, blogging and being happy! Thank you 🙂 xx
The rules for the award are:
- Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post.
- Share 7 things about yourself.
- Pass the award on to 15 more bloggers that You enjoy.
- Contact the bloggers that you have chosen to let them know that they have been nominated!
I have now given my thanks so here goes….7 bits of me! 🙂
- I’m an anthropologist, a photographer, a baking fiend and a fitness nut!
- I have an amazing family and some wonderful friends, who put up with me and all my faults every day and for that I’m truly grateful.
- I love my 3 furry feline friends and my 2 chelonian buddies
- I love being healthy, strong and fit and I love staying that way
- I love the smell of rain
- I am passionate about conservation and work to conserve wild primates in Indonesia
- I miss my dad and think about him every day, but I know he’d be looking down on this now and would be super proud and that makes me happy
The 15 bloggers that I want to nominate for this award are as following.
- The dusty baker
- Eggton
- Love & a six foot leash
- La Vie Simple
- Paper bag blog
- Emerging vegan sistah
- Ecoprimate
- Indulge – Travel, Adventure, & New Experiences
- Primal movers
- Edible substance
- Frugal feeding
- Bake love not war
- Sunday Dreamings
- fitnesslovingmom
- domestic diva, M.D.
Thank you again, Nancy at Pure and Simple Bakes 🙂
Dairy Free Chocolate Pudding Truffles
As indulgent as any bought truffle and full of goodness!
This is another of my recipes featured on Pure Form Fitness Kitchen. It’s a modified version of a fab chocolate pudding from there and it works really well for making individual little truffles. I’m a chocolate monster so I need my chocolates and these totally hit the spot. You can get creative and add whatever flavours and fillings you like 🙂
1oz Cocoa butter
3 tbsp Cocoa powder
2 tbsp Pure protein powder (vanilla)
½ Avocado
Agave syrup to taste
A few drops of Valencian orange extract, peppermint extract or cinnamon, cayenne pepper etc
Chopped roasted hazelnuts, dried cherries, dried apricots, dessicate coconut, roasted almonds, etc (anything you want to put in them!)
Melt the cocoa butter gently on the hob or in the microwave. Mix the cocoa in until well combined. Add the avocado and blend until smooth (a wand blender works best). Mix in the protein powder and agave to taste. A your flavours and nuts or dried fruit to taste. Combinations that work well are – hazelnut and dried cherry (rolled in chopped hazelnuts), cranberry and orange extra (rolled in dessicated coconut), roasted almonds rolled in cinnamon sugar, cayenne pepper (rolled in cocoa powder), peppermint extract, or just plain! When smooth roll into small balls and roll in a coating if you want – it will seem very soft at this point but as the cacao butter cools they will firm. Leave in the fridge to cool, then enjoy!
Pure and Simple Bakes 