Tag Archives: No bake

No bake Avocado Chocolate Torte

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Chocolate, Gluten Free, No bake/ Raw, Tart, Vegan

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This is my special occasion dessert. Rich fabulous and extremely more-ish.

torte

NO BAKE AVOCADO CHOCOLATE TORTE*

* note: this takes time but the results are worth it!

Crust

1½ cups of roasted hazelnuts – ground (I use a coffee grinder)
½ cup of organic ground almonds
2 dessertspoons of organic coconut oil
¼ cup of organic maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla powder/ bean paste/ insides of two pods 
1/2 a cup of cocoa powder
2 heaped dessertspoons of cacao powder
Good pinch of Himalayan pink salt or sea salt
dry stuff!

dry stuff!

Chocolate Avocado Mousse

3 extremely mashed organic ripe avocados/ two and a half really big ones
Scant third of a cup of non diary milk
¼ cup of organic date syrup
¼ cup organic dark agave === blend both together
1 dessertspoon natural peanut butter
( I use the fresh ground one from The Hopsack health shop)
1 dessertspoon blanched almond butter or cashew nut butter
1 dsp natural vanilla powder or bean paste or insides of two pods
1 round teaspoon arrowroot powder
¼ cup of Cocoa powder plus a dessertspoon of cacao powder
Pinch of himalayian pink salt or sea salt
70g bar of dark vegan chocolate- chopped up pick a good one. I used a wild harvest one! Fancy.
Optional: 1dsp of chopped Cacao paste liquor, piece I used was size of ping pong ball

 

hmm yummy

hmm yummy

Crust How To

Oil your cake pan or tart pan. If a spring form one- line with paper.
Grind your hazelnuts to a crumbly meal and mix with ground almonds and salt
In a small bowl mix your maple syrup, coconut oil (and vanilla if not using powder)
Mix mash and mix until it becomes one thing.
This is your warm up exercise the real work out is later that involves avocados!
Add syrup oil mix to the dry. With COLD hands rub the ingredients together.
Switch back to a spoon and keep mixing. It should form a ball of dough.
Press this into your pan EVENLY- wow betide the uneven crust!
Cover and put in the freezer to chill.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse How to

If you happen to have a food processor or blender living in your kitchen take it out now!You can do the fancy blendy bit for this part. If you are me, which I am, you get a Perspex bowl and a fork and go to work.
Mash your avocado (and vanilla if not using powder) together for approx 10mins/ until smooth.
Add and mash in the peanut butter, almond butter, date syrup and agave syrup. Possibly with your other arm, flatmate, child, partner or neighbour.
Get your big bowl of green yummy omega rich avocados and mix in the SCANT third of a cup of non diary milk.
Into this SIEVE the ¼ cup of cocoa,cacao,vanilla salt and round tsp of arrowroot
Mix very well- until there is no green!Fold and talk in upbeat tones to it- as you do not want to knock the air out of it.
greeeen!

greeeen!

Next or if a multi tasker while you are finishing the mousse

Put a Perspex bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Put your bar of chopped up chocolate in and with a spatula mix it while it melts. Add the cacao paste and let it melt too. Take off the heat.
Get your bowl of sweet cocoa avocado goodness and gently fold in the melted chocolate until is all one colour!

 

melty goodness
melty goodness

Finally

Remove the crust from the freezer and scoop the mousse on top. Gently smooth out- it should reach the top of an inch deep pan. Cover and put back in the freezer. It needs two hours to set I find licking the bowl in the mean time helps.
It needs to be stored chilled so the mousse stays moussey but as a result it also has lasting power!
slice torte two
I decided to to go over the top with a fork. If you don’t it stays shiny. Let me know if you try it. Xs Aissa

 

Functional Sweet Treats with reishi!

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Chocolate, Gluten Free, Natural Health, No bake/ Raw, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

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Functional Sweet Treats

Functional Sweet Treats

These are packed with good stuff! They taste pretty amazing too, if I don’t say so myself. Tomorrow I am helping to give a demonstration to nutrition students, it is on how to use medicinal mushrooms ( I did this morning, it went well 🙂 ). I am bringing along sweet goodies made with reishi mushroom powder. Reishi has been used for thousands of years. It is one of if not the first medicinal food to be written about, in China roughly 2,000 years ago!Paul Stamets is a good name to look up if you want know more about these natural powerhouses, his Ted talks are a good intro.

Savoury is generally they way we go when it comes to mushrooms but why not with cacao? Or blueberries? Think of the antioxidant levels! Picture the immune boosting! Discover their adaptogenic properties!! Imagine the tastiness!

Here we go Functional Sweet Treats

    • Two dessertspoons of goji berries. Soaked over night in just enough water to cover them. I used water kefir.*
    • Half a ripe avocado- should a bit of give to it when pressed and be going a dark sap green colour.
    • Two big dessertspoons of blueberries
    • A flat dessertspoon of organic coconut oil
    • Two generous dessertspoons of raw dark agave/ date syrup / maple syrup. Whichever you prefer.
    • A generous cup plus two dessertspoons of ground almonds
    • Two generous teaspoons of raw cacao powder
    • A sachet of reishi powder which includes mint, licorice, star anise and stevia. Great for those adrenals. *
    • Optional: Half a teaspoon of pre-gelatised maca powder
    • A half teaspoon of vanilla powder or the scraped inside of one vanilla bean.
    • A quarter of a teaspoon of good quality sea salt or himalayian pink salt.
    • A third of a cup of organic desiccated/shredded coconut. For sprinkling on top or rolling in.

*This is about double the goji needed. I do more incase some stay a bit hard and eat the left overs. Yum.

*If you are using reishi capsules make sure there are not tons bulking agents, these could change the flavour. One capsules may do, go by taste.

Grab your soaked goji berries. It really is up to you what you would prefer. I don’t want goji lumps on my cacao reishi fantasticalness so I cut or shred my softened gogis. If you like big hits of the gogi then just chop them in two. Put them to one side for use as a topping later.

Mash your avocado and coconut oil together. Add your one dessertspoon of the blueberries and mash again. Should be a creamy paste.

Add the liquid sweetener and Mash MASH mash… again. Add the other spoon of blueberries and mix through. I press this less, as I like having more whole pieces of blueberries too.

Colourful even in the orange light of my kitchen diner.

Colourful even in the orange light of my kitchen-diner.

In another bowl combine all the dry ingredients (except for the coconut, that is for on top). Make sure there are no lumps of ground almonds or cacao. Sprinkle the salt in so it is evenly dispersed.

Dry goodies

Dry goodies

Add the dry things to the omega rich, mct containing, antioxidant abundant….stuff. Mix, stir, combine and merge the ingredients. Pressing the mixture to make sure the fats are taken up well.

Here is the one I used

Here is the one I used

My preferred Option A: You can roll them into teaspoon size balls. Prepare a plate with your gojis and one with coconut. Roll the balls in goji and then roll them in the coconut. Pop them on a dish and stick them in the fridge to set. They need to live in the fridge (and die in your tummy) as they will go squidgy when left unchilled.

Option B: Get a 7.5 inch cake tin/ tart dish and spread the mix a one centimetre deep. Ah the mixed measurements! That is 20cm cake tin and a quarter inch thick! 😉 You can the sprinkle and press the goji and coconut on top. Pop in the fridge for fifteen minutes. Take out and cut into one inch (2.5cm) squares. Put in the freezer to set. It is happier in there all the time really. It gets shy and melty at room temperature.

Hope you like these!Xs Aissa

P.S. There is a wealth of info on line but here are a few of links about reishi!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stamets/reishi-mushrooms_b_2200808.html

http://www.alive.com/articles/view/17705/reishi_mushroom

And for a bit more of the nitty gritty science bit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92757/

Fluffy Red Velvet Aduki Truffles

02 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Chocolate, Gluten Free, No bake/ Raw, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

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These are fluffy with a gentle sweetness; as a result they are easy to eat. Don’t be deceived by their soft melty-ness they are super filling. The aduki beans and almonds mean one are two are more than enough at a time. I store them in the fridge or freezer to keep them firm.

You will need a cup for measuring, a plate, a bowl and some sort of blender. I use a hand held one which works fine.

Fluffly Aduki Cocoa truffles or Red velvet Aduki Truffles?

Fluffly Aduki Cocoa truffles or Red velvet Aduki Truffles?

Fluffy Red Velvet Aduki Truffles 

    • Nine unsulphered dried apricots
    • Optional: A spoon of dried mulberries

Soak these in a some water for at least an hour and then chop them.

    • A generous mug of cooked aduki beans roughly 240g. If you used canned ones make sure they are well drained.
    • Two dessertspoons of date syrup. If you are more used to normal sweets you may want to add a spoon of agave/maple syrup too!
Adukis and syrup

Adukis and syrup

Mash these together with a fork, you will be blending it so don’t worry about squashing every bean.

Dry Stuff

    • Half a cup of ground almonds
    • A quarter cup of cocoa or raw cacao
    • A dessertspoon of raw carob
    • A teaspoon of vanilla powder/ scraped insides of two vanilla pods*
    • A pinch of salt about a quarter of a teaspoon
    • Optional: Half a teaspoon of maca powder
    • Optional lovely extra: Orange zest

*If you want to use vanilla essence don’t! Vanilla bean paste in sugar would be fine but alcohol based extracts aren’t so good in raw sweets.
Mix the dry ingredients together, pressing out any lumps.

    • Two thirds of a cup of desiccated (shredded) coconut
    • Twenty four organic almonds, finely chopped

Put these on a dinner plate. You will be rolling the mixture in them.

almonds etc

Put your chopped fruit into the adukis. Give things a mix. Stir in your dry ingredients.

Grab your hand blender and start blending! Use a low setting at first, it is better for your blender. The ingredients will get quite fluffy and a pinky chocolate colour. Should have called them Red Velvet Aduki Truffles 🙂 You know I will, they were called fluffy aduki cocoa truffles.

Rinse your hands in cold water. If your hands are too warm handling the concoction you may find it all melting to goo. By the dessertspoonful gently roll the aduki truffles into the nuts and or the coconut. It was a warm day here and I found everything going a bit squashy. So work quick if you are having good weather!

Put them in the fridge or freezer to set for half an hour. I store mine in the fridge as they are lovely cold and it keeps them firm. I am a messy chef so while they are setting I try and get the mix off my hands, the cupboards and every surface. Works up the appetite anyway!

Xs Aissa

 

 

Barleygrass Balls!!!

26 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by in Natural Health, No bake/ Raw, Superfoods, Sweets, Vegan

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These are one of my favourite things to make. They are super easy, fast, tasty and filling! I’ve played around with the ingredients a bit and I will give you alternative options at the end.

Sooo green - should have posted these on Paddy's Day!!

Sooo green – should have posted these on Paddy’s Day!!

You will need two small bowls, measuring cups or just a regular mug , a dessertspoon and a teaspoon.

  • One dessertspoonful of Barleygrass powder or juice powder
  • A bravely large pinch of sea salt prob a quarter teaspoon
  • Three quarters of a cup of organic ground almonds
  • Two dessertspoons of organic virgin coconut oil or one and one of cashew nut butter
  • Two dessertspoons of raw dark agave or do one spoon and one of maple or yacon syrup
  • There are a couple of options in regards to flavouring you can..
  • A: Use a at least a third of a teaspoon of a good quality peppermint extract
  • B: If you have access to a food grade organic peppermint oil use five drops

Get one of the bowls, put in your coconut oil and mash it a bit so it softens.

Add your extract- mash again.

Add your agave syrup and mix until it is all combined well.

Now put your ground almonds in the other bowl and poke it a bit so there are no lumps.

Add the salt and barleygrass to this and give it a stir

Add your dry to the wet and mix it well. Really get in there press the mix together so the fats are taken up well into the dry. It should all hold together to form a ball like a biscuit/ cookie dough would.

Ready your teaspoon, run your hands under cold water (so when making the balls they don’t go all melty). By the teaspoonful roll the mix between your two palms to form little balls and drop them into the bowl you had used for the dry stuff. When done stick them in  the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up. Taa- daah! Fabulously a source of antioxidants, chlorophyll, protein (all 9 amino acids in barleygrass), MCTs and magnesium amongst other things, also really yummy!

Troubleshooting!
If you have been over generous with your ground almonds and it is a bit dry you could add a splash more extract, add a bit of warm water or non diary milk that has not been in the fridge (if it is cold the coconut oil will re solidify and form bits). If too wet just add more ground almonds.

Recipe options
A thing I change up a lot is the coconut oil. I often do one spoon coconut oil and add in one big dessertspoon of a nut butter. The ones that work best are cashew or blanched almond.
In regards to the peppermint flavour it really is up to you how strong you like it, I prefer them really minty! I have also used spearmint – a smidge bit toothpastey but nice for a change, also did just plain vanilla using a half teaspoon of vanilla powder or teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.
The reason for using agave is it is relatively neutral in flavour

Really hope you like these! X Aissa