Tag Archives: chocolat

Brownie Love Bites

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I was asked recently if I had a recipe for vegan brownies… well I do… and so I thought I’d re-post it to make it a little easier to find! 🙂 These were originally made for Valentine’s day, hence the heart shapes, but I kinda like them like this anyway! 🙂

Enjoy!

Brownie love bites

 

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!) :)

Raw chocolate covered marzipan snowballs!

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I had some left over marzipan and wanted to create a little treat for after dinner on christmas day so I thought I’d make some raw choc covered marzipan snowballs 🙂

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I used this marzipan recipe from my christmas cake post and for the chocolate you need:

35g Cacao butter

25g Raw Cacao powder

Sweet freedom to sweeten (up to 1/2 tbsp)

Extra raw cacao powder and dessicated coconut for decoration. Maybe some edible glitter too 🙂

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Grate the cacao butter into a small bowl and then place over a saucepan of water (bain marie). Heat the water gently and allow the butter to melt. Once melted whisk the cacao powder in with a small balloon whisk or fork. When thoroughly combined remove from the heat and stir in the sweet freedom. I like my chocolate quite bitter for this recipe so I only added a small squirt but add as much as you need 🙂

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Put some raw cacao powder in a small bowl and the dessicated coconut in another bowl.

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Roll the marzipan in to small balls and line up your bowls of chocolate, cacao powder and dessicated coconut. Drop the marzipan into the choc and used a fork to gently move around until covered. Then, if you’re using it, drop the ball into the bowl of cacao powder or dessicated coconut and gently shake it around to cover it. Remove and place on greaseproof paper. When they’re all covered pop in the fridge to set. This choc has a very low melting point so keep in the fridge until you want to serve. Enjoy! 🙂

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Chocolate banana bread! Omg!

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So I have had some very ripe bananas hanging about in my kitchen for the past few days and decided I just had to do something with them… and it just had to be banana bread! But… I was in need of a chocolate fix….. and boy, is this a good chocolate fix!

I used my original non-dairy banana bread recipe with just a couple of additions:

2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
couple of handfuls of chopped non-dairy dark chocolate of your choice
1 cup coconut palm (or any unrefined) sugar
1/4 cup and 2 tbsps almond oil or olive oil
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup soya milk mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp himalayan rock salt

Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C. Line and grease a small loaf tin (approximately 8 inches x 4 inches) or 6 mini loaf tins.

Mix the flour, baking soda, raw cacao, cinnamon, allspice and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the oil and sugar together until well combined. Add the mashed bananas and the soya milk (to which vinegar has been added) and the vanilla extract. Add this mix to the flour mixture and stir well. Finally stir in the chopped chocolate. Pour into the loaf tin and place in the oven for an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool. And then eat…. quickly.. while it’s still warm and the chocolate is still melted! yum!!

 

 

Chocolate hazelnut Biscotti – Dairy Free, Gluten Free and yet more chocolate!

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As the end of chocolate week draws near I thought I’d finish with this little recipe which is another I’ve had for a while and not got round to posting. These do require double baking but it’s less of a faff than you think – honest! and it’s very much worth it!  I guarantee you won’t be able to tell these apart from “normal” (gluten filled, dairy filled) chocolate biscotti and they’re perfect with a cup of coffee over the weekend 🙂

I hope you enjoy it and do let me know if you try out this recipe and what you think of it (that goes for all my recipes!).

1/3 cup Almond milk
2 tbsp Ground linseed
3/4 cup and 2 tbsp Raw unrefined coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup Almond or Hazelnut oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1 and 1/4 cups Spelt flour (wholewheat or white) or Gluten free flour blend
1/2 cup Quinoa flour (if you don’t have this add more spelt flour)
1/3 cup Raw cocoa Powder
2 tbsp Arrowroot powder or Cornflour (also known as cornstarch in the US)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
1 cup Whole, Raw Hazelnuts (these can be toasted first if you want really crunchy nuts!)

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and grease a large baking tray very well.

In a large bowl, whisk together the milk and ground linseed for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, oil and extracts and stir until smooth. Sieve in the flour, cocoa powder, arrowroot or cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Stir to mix and just as the dough starts to come together, knead in hazelnuts. Knead very briefly to form a stiff dough.

Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and form it into a rectangle (approx 12 inches long and 3 – 4 inches wide). Push in the nuts if they pop out! Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. It will rise and get a bit puffy and the top may start to crackle. Keep an eye on it from 20 minutes onwards as it can start to burn. Obviously remove if it starts to burn (this can be hard to see because of the chocolate colour so give it a good sniff if in doubt!) 🙂

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes until very firm.

Turn up the oven to 375F/190C. Carefully transfer the baked dough to chopping board and using a serrated knife, slice 1/2 inch slices. Push the knife down in one go, don’t use a sawing action as you will find the biscotti crumble. They are extremely delicate at this stage so you need to be gentle. I ended up with a fair bit of crumbling and breakage but that’s not the end of the world, it just meant I had lots of bits to taste! 🙂

Place the slices on the baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes until brown and crispy. Don’t be tempted to over bake – they will still seem quite soft when you remove them from the oven but they will crisp up as they cool – I promise (Trust me, I’m a Dr 😉 ). Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the slices to a cooling rack. When completely cool, store in an air tight container and enjoy with a cup of your favourite coffee 🙂

Spicy chocolate chewy cookies – dairy free, gluten free goodness

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It’s grey and windy here in the UK at the moment (well it is where I live!) so it just makes me want to have lots of warming, spicy foods and we all know how well chilli and chocolate go together so I thought it was time I wheeled out this recipe. I actually made these ages ago but just never got the chance to post the recipe. It’s modified from the amazing Isa Chandra’s recipe

1/2 cup Almond oil

1 cup Raw unrefined coconut palm sugar

1/4 cup Maple syrup

3 tbsp Almond or Soya milk

2 tsp Vanilla extract

1 and 2/3 cup Spelt or gluten free flour blend

1/2 Raw cacao powder

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt

For the topping:

1/3 cup Raw golden caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease and line a baking tray (or 2!).

Put the oil, sugar, maple syrup and milk in a bowl and mix together using a fork. Add in the vanilla extract and mix well. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and sieve in to the wet ingredients. Mix until you have a dough. The dough will be quite moist and sticky.

Put the topping ingredients on a plate and mix together.

Take small, walnut sized, balls of the dough and pat into the topping sugar to make discs about 2 inches across. Make sure they are well covered in sugar. Put them on to the baking tray with the sugar facing up. Cook for 10 – 12 minutes until they are crackly on the top and have spread a little. Allow to cool on the baking tray for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy! 🙂

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Super healthy chocolately goodness – dairy free, sugar free just not actually free!

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Continuing my chocolatey theme I thought today I’d leap in with my current favourite chocolate treat. I’ve shared this delight before but not in it’s chocolate form! This stuff is amazing and such a blessing for anyone trying to avoid dairy (for whatever reason) but still wanting something yoghurt/mousse-like in their diet.

It’s Coyo! the raw chocolate variety 🙂 It’s basically just coconut milk and raw chocolate! It’s great on it’s own or really good with some fresh berries 🙂

Chocolate week! the healthy (healthier) way… :)

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It’s “Chocolate week” this week apparently! Hurrah I hear you cry! 🙂

So in order to celebrate one of my favourite things I wanted to share some chocolatey goodness with you all. Sadly my kitchen is still in a state of disarray (tile dramas!) so I haven’t been able to create anything new but it offers the perfect chance to go back to some old favourites. So here, just for you all, are a few of my favourite chocolate creations:

These are naughty, but not too naughty…. They’re best served hot so the chocolate oozes out of them…. hmmmmmm

Chunky Cherry Chocolate Loaves

This has to come a close second. It was originally featured on the fab Pure Form Fitness Kitchen blog and it’s the Ultimate Chocolate Dessert. The spelt chocolate brownies (which are also used for the valentine Brownie Love Bites) are, in my humble opinion, out of this world, especially with the sauce on it (which you can make thicker and as more of an icing if you choose….)

You can’t beat a bit of simplicity and these Raw Chilli Chocolates certainly fit the bill. They’re so easy and quick to make, full of antioxidants and simply divine!

Another recipe featured on Pure Form Fitness Kitchen, is my Chocolate Treat Bar. These are fab – full of goodness, full of chocolate but still healthy! These are my go to bar if I’ve had a big work out day or if I’m just having a chocolate craving! 100 times better than any pre-packaged cereal bar and you can use whatever seeds (or nuts) and dried fruit you like in them.

I’m going to leave it at that for now, before we all pass out from a chocolate induced high! But as it’s chocolate week ALL week I’m going to keep on posting a few more chocolatey delights as the week goes on so watch this space! 🙂

Chocolate Buckwheat Crispies – gluten and dairy free

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This will probably be my last ‘baking’ blog for a while as I’m now in Indonesia for 2 months working on my primate conservation project (to find out what I’m doing check out www.nancypriston.com). There may be some food posts but I definitely won’t be cake making! 🙂 I meant to post his before I left but ran out of time, so here goes!

I’ve been having a play with buckwheat lately! I haven’t had much success cooking it so was looking for other ways to use it. My friend Colette gave me a recipe for making buckwheat crunchies so I thought I’d use them in a chocolate-based snack recipe! I’m pleasantly surprised with the results! I’m still not too sure about the buckwheat but so far it’s the best I’ve come up with!

It’s fairly straightforward but first off you need to make your buckwheat crunchies. Purchase some raw buckwheat groats (grains/kernels/whatever they’re called!) from the local health food store. You need to soak these over night – use 3 times as much water as buckwheat. Rinse really well in the morning and drain. Then spread them out on greaseproof paper and either pop them in your dehydrator if you have one, or in the oven on low heat. They will need a couple of hours. When they’re done they will be crispy and crunchy.

You can eat these as they are (in fact I quite like them sprinkled on fruit and soya yoghurt for brekkie to give some crunch) but you can also use them to create these yummy chocolate treats!

I made two versions:

Chocolate topped crispie

1/2 cup Coconut butter (you need the proper butter, not the oil – you can get it here. Nb other brands call themselves butter but are actually the oil – you need one that uses the coconut flesh)

1/2 cup raw Cacao powder

2 cups Buckwheat crunchies

1/4 cup Cacao nibs

1/8 cup Chia seeds

squirt of Sweet freedom (adjust to taste)

For the topping:

equal quantities of cacao powder and coconut butter (to make enough to cover the crispies to whatever depth you want!)

squirt of sweet freedom (adjust to taste)

Gently melt the coconut butter in the microwave or in a pan until it is runny. Mix all the ingredients in together and stir well. Line a tin or tupperware box with greaseproof paper and push the mixture in to it to the desired thickness. Then in another bowl melt the coconut butter for the topping and mix with the cocoa powder and sweet freedom. Pour on to the top. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Almond Cherry Chocolate Crunchies

1 cup Buckwheat crunchies
1 cup raw Cacao powder
1 cup soaked Almonds (soak in water for as long as you gave time for – ideally overnight)
1/2 – 1 cup Coconut butter (not oil)
1/4 Sweet freedom (or less – to taste)
2 tbsp Pure protein powder (vanilla)
1/2 cup dried Cherries/cranberries/goji berries

Once you have the buckwheat crunches and soaked almonds ready it only takes a few minutes to make these. First blitz the almonds in a food processor – just a few pulses to chop them up a bit and place to one side. Then gently melt the coconut butter and add the cacao powder and sweet freedom. Mix to a paste and stir in the protein powder, buckwheat and almonds, finally gently stir in whatever fruit you are using. Line a tin or tupperware box with greaseproof paper and push the mixture in to it to the desired thickness. If you find the mixture isn’t holding together melt a little more coconut butter and pour over the top. Chill for 30 mins then slice and enjoy!

🙂

Raw gluten free, dairy free chili chocolates

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The Easter bunny was a bit late getting to my house this weekend but thankfully he did finally make it .. and look what he brought!

These are super easy and quick.

50g cacao butter

40g cacao  powder

1 – 2 tbsp sweet freedom/ Agave (to taste)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

Melt the cacao butter and then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Pour into a silicone chocolate mould and leave in the fridge to set. For the eggs you need to do each half separately then use a bit of melted mixture to glue the set halves together. These chocs don’t do well at warm temperatures so store them in the fridge until ready to eat!

Chunky Cherry Chocolate Mini Loaves

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This is another one of Isa’s recipes – it sounded so good I just had to try it and it definitely doesn’t disappoint! You don’t have to use mini-loaf tins for this, you could just use muffin tins but loaves taste better for some reason! You can get the tins here.

I won’t waste anymore time talking about these – just get stuck in! 🙂

1/2 cup Apple puree

1/4 cup Almond butter

1/3 cup Cocoa powder

1/3 cup Almond milk/soya milk/any non-dairy milk

1/3 cup + 2 tbsp boiling water

3/4 cup Coconut palm sugar/ unrefined raw sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 tsp Chocolate extract (if you don’t have this then use another tsp vanilla extract)

1/8 tsp Almond extract

1 1/2 cups Gluten-free flour mix (or spelt flour if you’re not worried about gluten-free)

3/4 tsp Bicarbonate soda

3/4 tsp Himalayan rock salt

4 oz Chocolate chopped into chunks (use vegan chocolate if you want to keep this dairy free – my favourite vegan recommends green and black’s)

1 cup chopped Sweet cherries

Preheat oven to 175 C and boil the kettle (no, not for tea – though that wouldn’t hurt!).

Put the apple, almond butter, milk and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Add 1/3 cup boiling water and mix quickly with a fork to make a thick chocolate sauce. Add the sugar and extracts and mix well. Sieve half the flour, bicarbonate soda and salt into the mix and mix gently. Add 1 tbsp boiling water and mix again. Add the rest of the flour mixture and another tbsp boiling water and stir until smooth. Go gently – don’t over mix. Finally add the chocolate chunks and cherries and fold in to the mixture.

Pour into the tins (this recipe will give approx 8 – 9 tins) and put in the oven for 25 – 30 mins.

Fresh out the oven

Check they’re done by sticking a skewer in the centre, if it comes out clean they’re done (bear in mind you may hit a cherry or chocolate when you do this so you’re looking for a lack of cake dough on the skewer – chocolate or cherry juice is fine!). Allow to cool in the tins for 10 mins then take out of the tins and cool on a wire rack. They really need to be eaten warm so the chocolate is all melty! 🙂 Yum Yum Yum! 🙂