Coconut Cashew Cream

This lovely coconut cashew cream is an adaptation of Amy Crawford's recipe (http://theholisticingredient.com/2013/09/16/coconut-cashew-chia-cream/), and went really well both with a chocolate cake and with a walnut-banana-chocolate chip cake made with gluten-free flour. There's such little flax seed meal in it that it does not really affect the colour of the cream; it's still nice and white.

150 grams of cashews
4 dl refrigerated coconut milk
2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds
3 tablespoons of honey
the seeds of one vanilla bean
a pinch of ground sea salt

1. Let the cashews soak in water for two hours, rinse and drain.
2. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and blend with a hand blender until smooth.
3. Place the mixture in the fridge for the night for it to get thick and creamy.
4. Serve cold with a cake of your choice.

Minty Chocolate Icing/Mousse

I made this minty, creamy chocolate icing for a chocolate cake but it would also work well on its own as a chocolate mousse. I went a bit crazy with the mint because you couldn't really taste it very well until the ingredients had had some time to set in the fridge. Oh, and I've got to say that the vanilla flavour was overpowered by the mint flavour, so you might want to omit the vanilla altogether - at least if you use as many as 4 sprigs of mint.

2 smallish avocados
2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
6 tablespoons of raw cocoa powder
5 tablespoons of honey (or to taste)
the leaves of 4 sprigs of mint (maybe half of that if you want a less intense flavour)
(the seeds of one vanilla bean)

1. Chop the mint leaves.
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and blend until smooth and creamy.
3. Place in the fridge for a couple of hours; this will allow the flavour of the mint to really seep into the icing.
4. Enjoy!

Annika

Nuts for Ginger - Gluten-Free Ginger Nuts

I never had a major sweet tooth in my glutenous past. The only two types of biscuits that I've ever really, really liked are ginger nuts and oat biscuits. This is my attempt at recreating ginger nuts without gluten. My ginger nuts are not brittle like glutenous ginger nuts but soft and more bread-like. I love their taste but I do miss the crispiness of glutenous ginger nuts. I am currently trying to develop a second ginger nut recipe that would result in a similar taste but a crispier texture. I reckon you could also make these biscuits a bit crispier by forming smaller/thinner biscuits, and by lowering the temperature to 170-180 degrees and keeping the biscuits in the oven a bit longer. I will try that next time I make this dough.

NUTS FOR GINGER

2 dl cooked white beans

3 tablespoons coconut oil
0.5. dl honey

0.5 dl boiled and blended sweet potatoes

5 tablespoons ground flax seeds

1.5 tablespoons ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
0.5-1 teaspoon ground cloves (or 10-20 crushed clove buds)

a couple of pinches of sea salt

0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel a sweet potato, cut it in small pieces, steam until soft and blend until smooth.
3. Mix the honey, 0.5 dl of blended sweet potato, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, the ground flax seeds, the ginger, the cinnamon, the cloves and the sea salt, and let the mixture stand.
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

5. Blend the beans and two tablespoons of coconut oil until smooth.
6. Add the spice mixture and blend. The dough will be quite solid.
7. Use two teaspoons to form seven biscuits: both spoons to get the batter onto the lined baking tray, and one teaspoon dipped in water to shape and flatten the biscuits.

8. Bake for about 15 minutes until the biscuits start browning.

9. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack, and let them cool down.

10. Enjoy.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory - Spicy Chocolate Biscuits

I've been carrying out so many chocolate biscuit experiments recently that I'm starting to feel like I'm working at a chocolate biscuit factory! Why this sudden obsession with chocolate biscuits and cakes? I should be filling out my tax forms, that's why.

Anyway, my starting point for these chocolate biscuits was this recipe:

http://mynewroots.blogspot.pt/2011/11/black-bean-chocolate-chili-cherry.html. The original recipe is nice but I wanted to make my biscuits a bit sweeter (when trying out the original recipe, I didn't add the dried cherries, which would have probably made the biscuits a lot sweeter). To add that little bit of extra sweetness, I've been experimenting with pureed vegetables. So far, I've tried beetroots and sweet potatoes - sweet potatoes definitely being the winner. Apart from sweet potatoes, I think that carrots and pumpkin might work well in these biscuits. Don't worry, by the way, because there isn't a hint of bean or sweet potato taste in the end product!

I'm really quite happy with the texture of these biscuits, by the way. I've been having some problems making my gluten-free biscuits stick together well enough but these are just perfect (they are definitely softer than glutenous biscuits, though). To compensate for the pureed vegetables being liquid, my recipe contains a lot more ground flax seeds than the original recipe (ground flax seeds can be used as an egg replacement).

As a side remark, you should be able to make these biscuits vegan by using agave instead of honey. If you're not big into spicy stuff, you could also try replacing the spices in this recipe with vanilla, cinnamon, or something else.

WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

2 dl cooked beans (the ones in the picture were made using white beans; black beans will result in a darker brown colour)

1 tablespoon coconut oil

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

0.5 dl honey

0.5 dl boiled and blended sweet potatoes

4 tablespoons ground flax seeds

1 1/3 tablespoons ground ginger

a couple of pinches of sea salt

a couple of pinches of chilli powder

OPTIONAL: 0.4 dl chopped walnuts (about 6 large walnuts; the ones in the picture were made without but the ones with walnuts are prettier)

0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel a sweet potato, cut it in small pieces, steam until soft and blend until smooth.
3. Mix the honey, 0.5 dl of blended sweet potato, the coconut oil, the ground flax seeds, the ground ginger, the sea salt, the chilli and the cocoa powder, and let the mixture stand.

(4. Crack the walnuts open and cut them into small pieces.)

5. To prevent yourself from wolfing all the biscuits down as soon as they are ready, think of something to do for a couple of hours after you have taken them out of the oven.

6. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

7. Blend the beans and the wet mixture until smooth.

(8. Add the chopped walnuts and fold to incorporate.)

9. Use a tablespoon and a teaspoon to form the biscuits: both spoons to get the batter onto the lined baking tray, and the teaspoon to shape and flatten the biscuits. The batter is enough to make nine thinner biscuits without the walnuts, and six thicker biscuits with the walnuts.

10. Bake for 20 minutes until the edges of the biscuits are browning (a bit longer in case you choose to make thicker biscuits with walnuts). I turned the baking tray around after the first 10 minutes.

11. Place the biscuits on a cooling rack.

12. Do what you planned to do in Step 5.

13. Enjoy.

Annika

P.S. Please notice that the taste improves when you keep the biscuits in the fridge and the tastes have more time to meld with each other.
P.P.S. Please stay tuned for recipes for gluten-free gingernuts and gluten-free muffins, which I am working on at the moment.

Cocoa Loco - Fudgey Chocolate-Ginger Cake

I've recently been looking for gluten-free cake/muffin/biscuit recipes. The impression that I have is that, to bake gluten-free, you need to buy lots of exotic flours and ingredients (or a gluten-free baking mix but that would be cheating, wouldn't it?). Considering how rarely I bake (this was my second ever gluten-free baking experiment), I don't really feel like buying all that stuff, and none of the recipes I came across really took my fancy... until I happened to find this exciting cake recipe that uses beans instead of flour: 
http://www.healthyindulgences.net/2009/05/healthy-chocolate-cake-with-secret.html 


I guess that the word "bean" is enough to turn a lot of people off but I can guarantee that there really isn't a hint of bean taste in the end product.


Anyway, instead of using the original recipe, I decided to try to replace the eggs with something else... but what?! I did some research on vegan egg replacements, and decided to try to replace some of the eggs with banana and some of them with agar agar, which I had never used before. I spread the batter between two cake pans, one of which I took out of the oven after 45 minutes, after I had come to the conclusion that the batter wouldn't really solidify (or rise). At that point, the texture was similar to that of Finnish chocolate kissel, and I happily ate it all(!) while it was still hot. I left the other cake pan in the oven for 25 minutes more but the batter still hadn't solidified properly after an hour and ten minutes, and the cake was still as flat as a pancake. I left the cake pan to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes and, encouraged by the fact that the batter had started solidifying (thanks to the agar agar?!), put it in the fridge for another 20 minutes. After that, the texture was sort of fudgey, and the cake was easy to cut. My camera is broken at the moment so, if you want to get an idea of the texture, please check out the pictures of this cake, whose texture looks very, very similar to mine:
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2012/02/22/gluten-free-flourless-vegan-chocolate-cake-recipe/


The recipe in this post is the recipe for the fudgey cake, which I will definitely make again. I'm now thinking, though, that it might be easier to try to bake gluten- and egg-free biscuits than cakes to get a more "conventional" end result. So, please stay tuned for my upcoming biscuit experiments!


If anyone has any ideas for egg replacements that would result in a crumbly cake rather than a fudgey one, do leave me a comment with your advice :-)


COCOA LOCO


1.8 dl cooked white beans (I soaked 1 dl of white beans, and was left over with some after using 1.8 dl for the recipe)
5 tablespoons agar agar flakes
1 1/2 small ripe bananas
1 1/3 tablespoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil
0.6 dl honey
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda


0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease two 15-cm round cake pans (or one cake pan with the same total area) with coconut oil, and dust cocoa over the inside of the pans.
3. Mash the bananas using a spoon.
4. Place the beans, the mashed bananas, the ginger and the salt into a blender, and blend until smooth.
5. Whish together the cocoa powder, the baking soda and the baking powder.
6. Beat the coconut oil with the honey until light and fluffy.
7. Pour the bean batter into the coconut oil/honey mixture and mix well.
8. Mix the agar agar flakes with a little bit of water (I started with just 8 tablespoons) and boil for about five minutes, stirring constantly (keep adding water until there is enough for the agar agar flakes to melt).
9. Add the agar agar mix in the batter and mix well.
10. Stir in the cocoa powder/baking soda/baking powder mixture, and beat until smooth.
11. Pour the batter into the cake pans and smooth the tops.
12. Bake for 1 h 10 min.
13. Allow to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes.
14. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
15. Enjoy!


Annika

Lingoist Ice Cream - Lingonberry-Banana Ice Cream

I'm back in the homeland, and eating loads of local berries. Here's a new ice cream recipe that I came up with the other day. To be honest, I don't know how widely available lingonberries are. I think I saw them in the Alps in Italy but, when I asked about them, was told, "Oh no! We don't eat THOSE!" Well, we do!

LINGOIST ICE CREAM

200 grams of frozen lingonberries
1 ripe banana, sliced
2-3 tablespoons of coconut milk

1. Take the lingonberries out of the freezer and leave them in room temperature for a few minutes.

2. Put the ingredients in a bowl and mix them with a blender until you have a smooth paste.

3. Enjoy.

Annika

Merry Berry Icecream

I´m holidaying in Finland at the moment, and I´m making the most of the plentiful supply of frozen berries by making "berry icecream" every day. The recipe was actually invented by my friend Michael, and it's one of the things I'm craving for the most in Italy where it´s really hard to find frozen berries (you might be asking yourself why I am not freezing berries myself but somehow I just find it a real shame to freeze fresh berries and, therefore, prefer to eat them as such).

Merry Berry Icecream

frozen berries of your choice
coconut milk

1. Put the frozen berries and the coconut milk in a bowl.


2. Blend! (If your blender is old and powerless, you might have to wait until the berries are a little bit softer.)

3. Enjoy!

I´m mainly using black currants, red currants, blueberries and lingonberries here in Finland, and the resulting icecream is not particularly sweet. If you prefer something sweeter, it's obviously better to go for strawberries, raspberries and the like.

Annika

Paradis du chocolat - Pure Chocolate

Ground-breaking news. I was just alerted to the existence of chocolate with a 99% cocoa content. I still don't know how to get my hands on it but I'm almost hoping for a rainy day for when I'm going climbing in Fontainbleau at Easter; I might get the chance to pop into the Michel Cluizel shop in Paris! Noir Infini. Paradis Infini.

http://www.cluizel.com/

Annika