A Dairy-free Birthday Treat

Every year, on my birthday I bake a cake. Not this year, although I went back to dairy this year I decided to give myself the time to work on something else that I have been craving - Almond Butter cups!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we recently took an amazing trip to Vegas! It was wonderful to be in Vegas but also to be in the states again. There were so many things I had missed from my time living there. There were also so many new things that I wanted to try. When you follow various food blogs you get to see some of the delicious new things people are loving in America and around the world. Since my time living in the US, it seems that healthy eating has become much more prevalent and, with it, a whole bunch of exciting new healthy products. One of the things that had tempted me was the Justin's products and particularly his heathy peanut butter cups. However when I went to get some I saw that he included sea salt, which is something that I don't eat. So I disappointedly walked away =(

(It's an unfortunate belief that sea salt is more fancy or healthy than normal salt and therefore many healthy food companies include sea salt in an attempt to appeal to the healthier customer, however it ignores those that cannot take it)

However I never gave up on the idea of a healthy nut butter cup, and preferably my favourite nut butter - Almond! So for this birthday I decided to dedicate my baking time to chocolate work.

Almond Butter Cups

240g Dark Chocolate Chips
100g Almond Butter
50g Almonds, toasted and ground
1-2 tbsp Agave Nectar
1 tbsp Coconut Oil
1 tsp Salt


I used some of my delicious 70% + dark chocolate. I melted down two thirds of it and then added the final third to bring down the temperature and temper the chocolate. Then I poured them into my mini-cupcake cases

For the almond butter centre I mixed store bought almond butter with more toasted ground almonds to thicken it, coconut oil for smoothness, salt in enhance the flavour and a tiny bit of agave nectar for sweetness. I then made little balls and pushed it into the hardened chocolate cases

From there I froze the cups to cool everything and facilitate the covers hardening. Then poured on the bottoms from the tempered chocolate.And then I simply let them hardened et voila...

As you can possibly see, the bases are not completely flat. This is due to the container having a raised lip. However I appreciate the thick bases as it's a nice chunk of chocolate to balance the almond butter.

As you can also see I left some lovely chunks of almond, but this is obviously optional! So now I have my dream treats and I will definitely be making these again, even if they leave a little bit of clean up.....

I would highly highly recommend making these. They are incredibly delicious, vegan, healthy and full of goodness. The best part is that it lasts so much longer than cake. I ate one of these while I typed this tonight and there is still plenty more =)

Double chocolate protein brownie bites

This week I am updating an old granola bar recipe in order to make it higher protein as I got a request for a protein bar recipe including vita-fiber.

These are super simple and I threw them together in about 5-10 minutes.

Want smore biscuit cake?? (Lactose free)

 

For years and years I have been making versions of chocolate biscuit cake for a variety of events, The ingredients vary based on the recipients (e.g. adding Moro bars for someone whose nickname is moro, pronounced differently) but essentially the process remains the same; chocolate, biscuits, condensed milk and a couple of other essentials. The problem is that not everyone can handle condensed milk and why should a lactose allergy keep anyone from enjoying the craving fulfilling taste sensation that is ewwy gooey!!

Therefore I present for your dietary restricted enjoyment..........

Lactose-free Smores biscuit cake (adapted from Eric Landlard's honeycomb squares)
(makes 24)

225g Butter
4 tbsp Golden syrup
4 tbsp Granulated Sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
400g Dark Chocolate
300g Rich tea biscuits
300g Digestive biscuits (ensure these have no milk whey powder - eg Jacobs low-fat ones)

50g Dark Chocolate (melted)
3tbsp Marshmallow fluff

Melt the butter in a saucepan, while you break the chocolate into little pieces and crush the biscuits in a plastic bag. You want there to be a mixture of large chunks and lots of crumbs.

 Once the butter is melted add the sugar and golden syrup and stir until all the sugar has disappeared and the mixture is starting to bubble up the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate.

Mix thoroughly until all the chocolate has melted and then add the biscuits. Mix thoroughly until all the biscuit is covered, then cut up 100g marshmallow and mix thoroughly.

At this stage you will be very tempted to just eat the whole thing with a spoon, the chocolate is so shiney and melted, the marshmallows will be slightly melted and I won't lie to you.....I took a sample or two..... to quality test it of course ;)

Line a roasting dish with cling-film and pour in the mixture. Cover with cling-film and wrap tightly before chilling in the fridge at least an hour or over-night if possible.

Remove from the fridge and melt the final 50g of dark chocolate. Turn out the biscuit cake and plate upside down. Spoon out small chunks of marshmallow fluff and smear over the top. Using a tiny piping bag dribble the melted dark chocolate over the top. Then slice and as always enjoy =)

Ninja-bread men: let's start this season right

The Tae Kwon-do Christmas party was this week and having been confined to the couch for so long I was excited to go. I also had a family event to attend on the same evening so I would be jumping straight back into socializing and Christmas prep.

On the day, I got out of work, got to the gym as fast as possible, worked out like a devil, got home, cleaned up, picked the outfit, made the dough for these ninjas, chilled the dough while doing the hair and make-up, cut the cookies,chill the cookies, baked the cookies, cooled and decorated them, strapped on the high heels, wrapped up warm and hit the road. At the family event we walked around for 2 and half hours and then I head to............headed to................gonna go to...............bed. As it turns out, you can't quite go from 0-100mph when you're just better. Damn! So these cookies didn't quite make it to the party, but they were enjoyed none-the-less ;)

These are definitely a twist on gingerbread, there is very little ginger if I'm honest. However with all the flavour packed into them you will barely miss it. They have an amazing combination of dark chocolate, orange, ginger and almonds that make a wonderful alternative to the ole gingerbread men and to say that these little guys pack a punch is an understatement. I chopped the chocolate and almonds into tiny slivers so that they would disperse throughout the entire cookie;I've included a little video below showing how I cut the chocolate for these. I've zero knife skills but hopefully it will give you an idea of what to do.

Ninja-Bread Men (Dark Chocolate, Orange, Almond and Ginger)

150g         Unsalted Butter
200g         Sugar
400g         All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp      Baking Powder
1/4tsp       Salt
1/2 tsp      Ground Ginger
1               large Egg
1 tbsp       Milk
1 tsp         Orange essence
100g         Dark Chocolate very thinly sliced
100g         whole Almonds

Preheat your oven and toast the almonds for 10 minutes. Beat together the butter and sugar. In a separate bowl sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger. In a jug, beat together the egg and milk. Slowly add the flour and egg mixture alternating between the two until the mixture is combined. Don't worry if the mixture appears dry at this stage, the oil from the nuts is an important element of this recipe. Chop your chocolate as thinly as possible, almost shaving the chocolate with the knife and then chop the almonds as thin as possible also. Add the nuts and chocolate and beat until everything is fully incorporated.

Chill the dough for 2 hours or so and then roll out. Cut with the gingerbread men cutters of your choice. Preheat the oven to 190'C/375'F/Gas Mark 5. Chill for another 20mins before baking for 10minutes. Cool on a wire rack and decorate with icing sugar and little stars =)