dairy-free lamingtons

Lamingtons were a childhood favourite of mine.

They are one of my first baked treats that really worked out well for me, every time. From about the age of 13/14 I loved being in the kitchen baking. I have fond memories of hanging out on the bench helping mum while we made ANZAC cookies.

When I got the gist of baking on my own, most afternoons after school I would be straight into the kitchen and browse through my favourite cookbook of all time – Woman's Weekly ‘Sweet Old Fashioned Favourites’. The go-tos would be: Devil’s Food Cake, Vanilla Slice, Coconut Ice, ANZAC Cookies and of course Lamingtons.

Now that I am older and my tastes have changed, I find myself baking less and less. But I was feeling nostalgic and decided to come up with a dairy-free, low-gi option for one of my all-time favourite homemade bakes.

I was amazed at how similar to the old version these were! The main difference was the coconut sugar in the sponge as it added a deeper rich caramel flavour. Yum!

Ingredients

(makes 12)

Sponge

3 eggs

1/2 c coconut sugar

1/2 c self raising flour

1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

Icing

1/2 c cocoa powder

1/4 c agave syrup

1/8 tsp stevia powder

1 tblsp cocoa butter

1 tblsp creamed coconut or coconut oil

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1/4 c water

tiny pinch of salt

chipped coconut

Sponge

Heat oven to 150 degrees and line a 9"x12" baking dish with baking paper.

Beat eggs in a medium bowl until thick and creamy.

Slowly add coconut sugar until well dissolved.

Next, slowly fold through sifted self-raising flour and bi-carb soda.

Pour mixture into the dish and bake in oven for 20 mins.

Remove from oven and cool completely.

Icing

Bring a saucepan to boil, half filled with water.

Next combine all ingredients for the 'icing' in a small bowl and stir constantly over the boiling water until butter is melted.

Assembly

Slice sponge into small squares.

Dip each square into 'icing' then roll into the chipped coconut and place on a plate.

Repeat the process for all the squares and place the plate in the refrigerator to cool.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

homemade chocolate with amaranth: vegan, low-gi

Homemade chocolate isn’t as difficult as you think it is. If you have all the ingredients available to you, it should take no more than 5 minutes.

Finding vegan chocolate is getting easier, but it’s still a bit of a challenge. Coupled with my love of making things from scratch, creating my own chocolate is a must.

Being the control freak that I am, I like to be able to tailor make my food to my tasting. If you haven’t been able to tell by now, I like to keep my desserts low-gi and not overly sweet.

I added a bit of coconut butter/oil to the recipe to stretch out the cocoa butter; this is where the mass producers would add in milk products.

I know cocoa butter is a bit dear, but it’s well worth the purchase. And a little bit goes a long way.

I’ve used the popped amaranth from my previous post to bulk out the chocolate, resulting in a bit of a ‘chocolate crackle’ adaptation.

This recipe turned out really tasty! Even Joel, who loves his ‘normal’ chocolate, was way on board devouring 4 portions in one sitting.

It’s sweetened just enough to offset the vanilla salt and with the roasted amaranth – yummm..

Other than the popped amaranth, this recipe is raw.

Don’t expect to be eating commercial chocolate when you nibble on a bit of this. I feel my this recipe is taking chocolate back to the raw basics and celebrating what makes chocolate real.

Ingredients

(makes 40)

1/4 c raw cocoa butter

1 tblsp coconut oil

1 tblsp creamed coconut

1 c popped amaranth

1/4 raw lucuma powder

3 tblsp raw cocoa

1 tblsp agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

20 drops stevia (add more for desired sweetness)

1 vanilla bean, seeds

1/4 tsp vanilla salt

Melt cocoa butter, coconut oil and creamed coconut over warm water.

Meanwhile, combine amaranth, lucuma and cocoa powder in a bowl, mix together and create a well in the middle.

In the well pour remaining ingredients and slowly add the melted oils.

Stir thoroughly until all combined and spoon 2 tsp amounts into chocolate moulds or ice cube trays.

Set in the refrigerator to set for a couple of hours.

Then you should be ready to enjoy!

Store in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

vegan fudge brownies - low-gi

Joel absolutely loves brownies – if made well and gooey.

I attempted build some for him a while back, but they didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped.

Round two and OH MY GOODNESS – amazing.

Not too sweet, rich and gooey, low-gi, grain-free, packed with healthy oils and best of all vegan!

Ordinarily I would have used eggs to bind the mixture together, but a few weeks back I picked up ‘No-Egg’, a gluten and dairy free egg replacer. Unopened and wanting to keep these brownies vegan, I decided to incorporate the egg replacement into the recipe. I was skeptical at first, but was pleasantly surprised with the result.

I love hiding vegetables and fruit in baked goods, it keeps the meal healthier, lower in fat and higher in fibre.

Not to mention, Joel does not like beetroot - like, at all. I’ve tried everything for him to eat this vegetable, but he is no fan. So, I hid a large beetroot in the mixture and he didn’t seem to notice! Score one for my sneaky beetroot endeavours.

I’ve also used Lucuma powder in this recipe to keep it nice and low-gi as this Peruvian health food has a super low gi index of 25.

Lucuma also contains 14 essential trace elements, including a considerable amount of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, beta-carotene, niacin and phosphorus. Phosphorus is important for bone and protein formation, digestion and hormone balance.

There are also studies to indicate that lucuma may have anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and skin-repair effects on human skin.

Ingredients

(makes 12+)

1 large beetroot, roughly chopped

1 large red apple, roughly chopped

¼ c water

Dry

2 c shredded coconut, pulsed in blender/processor until powdered

½ - ¾ c raw cocoa powder (depending on how rich you like your chocolate)

½ c mesquite powder

½ c lucuma powder

½ c coconut sugar

2 tsp bi-carb soda

40g vegan dark chocolate

pinch of vanilla salt

Wet

3 tblsp No-Egg, mixed in ¼ c water

½ - 1 tsp stevia (depending on sweetness)

1 tblsp vanilla extract

¼ c coconut oil

¼ c cocoa butter, melted

Heat oven to 180 C and line a 6” x 12” porcelain dish or brownie tin, with baking paper.

Place apple and beetroot along with water in a large pot – cook through until soft.

Cool, then empty contents into a food processor/blender and whiz until pureed.

Separately combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and create a well in the middle.

In the well, pour in the wet ingredients along with the puree.

Stir in a rotational movement until well combined.

Scoop batter into the baking dish and place in oven for 40 mins – or until skewer is inserted and comes out clean.

Cool (if you can wait) and enjoy.

With just the two of us at home, we won’t get through these brownies in a couple of days, so I will be storing them in the freezer. Just pull them out to thaw about 1 hour before you’re ready to eat, good as new.

Sometimes, when that chocolate craving comes around, it’s good to have something on hand.

chocolate cream cakes - raw and vegan

I've mentioned it before, but I'm not really a dessert person.

I used to be though, before I got married. Cakes, loafs, pies, muffins, crumbles, cookies - you name it, I was there.

But, with a husband not really interested in sweets and my strong will to lighten up on the sugar, I guess I've dramatically cut back.

Apart from fruit.. love fruit!

In turn, my baking tin stock is pretty low.

Luckily, there was a sale on baking trays this past weekend and I got a bit excited.. 

When I was paying for my new purchases, the lady at the counter asked what I planned to do with them, and I stated that I'm trying to do a food blog and needed some more essentials.

She then said 'if only these items could be tax deductible for you' - how perfect would that be! I love new gadgets in the kitchen and to get them on tax...! Ah well, keep dreaming.

Anyway, it was my mother-in-laws birthday this week and what better opportunity to try out my new mini muffin trays.

I decided to make up these raw mini vegan chocolate cream cakes.

They took about 15 mins from start to finish* and couldn't be more simple.

Oh they turned out so delicious. 

The base was delightfully biscuity and the cream filling like a rich chocolate mousse (without the guilt).

*Not including soaking time

Ingredients

(makes 12 mini cakes)

Base

3 dried dates, soaked in 50 ml of warm water for 30 mins

1/2 c almond meal

2 tblsp raw cocoa powder, heaped

1 tsp vanilla essence

pinch of salt

Remove dates from water - keeping the water for later.

Combine all ingredients in the food processor and blend until crumbly. The mixture should stick together when compressed.

Divide the base into a 12 capacity mini muffin tray and press down firmly.

Filling

1/2 c raw cashews, soaked for 30 mins and drained

10 drops of stevia

1/4 agave syrup

2 tsp vanilla essence

water from the dates

1/4 coconut oil, liquid

1/4 raw cocoa powder

Combine cashews, stevia, agave, vanilla and water in the food processor and process until creamy.

Then add the coconut oil and cocoa powder and continue to process until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the food processor as necessary.

Spoon cream on top of the cake base and refrigerate for 6-7 hours before serving.

Serve with a sprinkling of coconut and some fresh berries.

Base pressed into muffin tray

 Cake filling spooned on top of base

enjoy xo

raw mint slice - protein packed and sugar free

Following a recipe is not really my strong suit.

I like to mix things up - bit of this, bit of that. By the end of the meal I can barely remember what I have put into it!

For the sake of this blog, I'm getting better on taking note of what I'm adding.

This recipe is a perfect example of this.

 I decided to adapt a recipe I saw ages ago into a healthy option.

Substituting, tasting, adding, minusing - I had to sit down straight after I'd finished and take specific note on what went into these mint slices, because they are healthily tasty!

These bad boys contain approx 17 g of protein with only 70 calories. 

Perfect raw food 'sweet' snack.

I'm not really a sweet tooth, but I do enjoy a cup of tea after dinner - mostly accompanied with fruit or some raw vegan chocolate.

These mint slices went so perfectly with a cup of liquorice tea - I had to stop myself going back for 3rds!

Ingredients

(makes approx 20)

1 c triticle flakes (alt. rolled oats), soaked for 4-8 hours, drained 

1/3 c raw protein powder

1/4 c carob powder

1/4 c raw cacao powder

40 ml coconut oil

1 tblsp black chia seeds

1 tblsp hemp seeds

1 tsp natural stevia

1 tsp mint essence

extra water

Combine all ingredients (minus the water) in a food processor.

Process and slowly add water until you have a non-sticky, dough-like consistency.

Divide into tablespoon proportions, roll into balls and then flatten into desired shape.

Place on a baking paper covered plate and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Done.

Store in refrigerator or freezer. 

Love x