Raw Choc Chip Cookie Dough Balls

After the only half-successful cake I still decided to give the book Cake! 12 Healthy Recipes another try.

The No Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars have a method I am a bit more used to than yesterday's coconut flour cake. I did some adjustments but the little balls turn out really yummy.

Healthy nuts and seeds with natural sweetness are always a winner! The vanilla and the maple syrup give the recipe a distinctive flavor. And who can say no to dark lindt chocolate?

For variation one could roll the ball in coconut flakes or raw cacao powder.


Raw Choc Chip Cookie Dough Balls
(yields around 25 small balls)

Ingredients:

100g raw cashew nuts
50g raw sunflower seeds (without skin)
150g fresh medjool dates
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
1 pinch of salt
20g of dark chocolate (I used the one with 85% cocoa content)

Preparation:

1. Soak the cashews and the sunflower seeds in cold water for 2-3 hours and then drain.

2. Put all ingredients besides the dark chocolate into a food processor and process to a sticky paste.

3. Tip onto a plate and mix in the chocolate which you chopped into small pieces.

4. Roll the mixture into small balls with your heads and store in fridge to harden slightly.

Coconut, Lime and Blueberry Cake

Are you as confused as me with all the health claims out there? Surrounded by the advocates for different lifestyles be it gluten-free, wheat-free, paleo or vegan to name just a few? Believers in intermittent fasting versus believers that leaving out breakfast will take you straight to hell on the nutrition highway?

Sometimes I am not sure if reading a lot is a blessing or if ignorance would be bliss. Over the last weeks I read lot's and lot's of books in the aim to find an eating plan suitable for me. Unfortunately with little success. Most books have convincing arguments. However if you compare notes in the end the arguments contradict. With some meal plans so constraining that I wonder where's the fun in live if one sticks to that?

I was hoping to find the easy way out by arranging for food intolerance testing in a lab. If there would not be all those published studies that those test results are not worth the paper they are printed on...

So I arrived at food intolerance testing through exclusion diet. This is based on the theory to exclude certain foods for a while from the diet in order to find out if changes in well-being can be detected.

But what's a baker without wheat, gluten and dairy?

Help was in sight with the recipe Coconut, Lime and Blueberry Cake from the book Cake! 12 Healthy Recipes.

Even though some of the ingredients are on the more unusual (and costly) side I was still keen on giving it a try. The recipe sounds easy enough. While preparing the batter some doubts start creeping up. This looks like nothing I baked before. Once all ingredients are mixed according to instructions I ended up with a result I would not call a batter but more a mix of weird crumbs. To be on a the safe side I added coconut milk to the recipe which resulted in some improvement in consistency but still more on the dry side.

The recipes requires the blueberries to be sprinkled on top. Due to the dryness of the cake batter that's also where they remain which I personally find a bit odd.

During baking the cake browned very quickly which made me a bit concerned about the baking time. Unfortunately the consistency of the batter did not allow for the usually poke test so I decided to stick to the 40 minutes mentioned in the recipe.

The taste test unfortunately confirms the dry appearance. The flavor is nicely coconutty which is complemented well by the fruity blueberries. The sweetness of the caramelly coconut sugar is balanced with the tangieness of the blueberries.

I will publish the recipe even though I don't consider it a success yet. Let's rather see it as a document of my learning journey...

Coconut, Lime and Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:
2 eggs
150g coconut sugar
150g grated courgettes
Juice and zest of two limes
100g coconut flour
100g desiccated cooconut
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
150ml coconut milk
150g blueberries

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. Mix eggs and sugar well until foamy with an electric beater or mixer.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients besides the blueberries into the bowl and mix again until well combined.

4. Fill batter into prepared baking tin (with baking paper and greased sides) and sprinkle blueberries on top.

5. Bake for 40 minutes on a low level.

Took a break...

... back soon. It's amazing how fast time is running sometimes! It's more than 4 weeks since my last blog. 4 weeks to overcome my cooking confusion spent in winter hibernation. After a doctor's visit I had to realize that I need to change the way I eat. That does not mean I didn't cook at all recently. But I spent more time figuring out what to eat in future then writing about what I ate.

However below a few pics from the last weeks. I will be back to blogging regularly soon!

Delicious filled aubergine:

Some kind of souffle-style fluffy bake made with asparagus and bacon:

Crunchy chickpeas roasted with Mediterranean spices:

Sweet and sour Lemon Meringue:

Asian-inspired fish ball soup with glass noodles:

Pearl Barley Risotto with feta:

Cravings for garlic bread

After checking out foodgawker.com while still lying in bed this morning I really felt like warm and buttery garlic bread.

I still had leftover dough from the pita breads earlier this week so I decided to form this dough into small rolls and slather the rolls with garlicky butter. So delicious!

You can find the recipe for the dough here. The garlic butter is just salted butter mixed with crushed garlic. However I always crush the garlic myself. I find that the one you buy crushed already develops are very strong side taste I don't enjoy.

Homegrown Sprouts

Have you ever grown your own sprouts at home? It's super easy and so much fun. Also something cool to do with the kids. You just need a plastic container for sprouting (Wellness Warehouse for example sells them), some seeds and water. Within a few days you will be ready to eat your first fresh sprouts. Yummy in salads but also very good on a simple slice of buttered bread with a little bit of salt. Besides that sprouts look pretty when decorating plates and they super healthy because they super fresh when you eat them and there's no pesticides if you grown them yourselves. I added a few pictures to describe the process of growing sprouts.

The seeds need to be soaked over night in water. Once they in the sprouting container just pour water into the top layer twice a day. Be careful to empty the bottom layer regularly where the water collects. Depending on the kind of seed you are using it will take 3-7 days until you can harvest. I used broccoli and alfalfa seeds on the pictures below. The alfalfa grew much quicker.

The salad is an adaption from the recipe California Sprout Salad in the book Jamie's America. Thrown together in less than 10 minutes and wholesome enough to make up dinner together with some nice bread.

Salad with Sprouts, Chickpeas and Chorizo

Ingredients for 4 portions:

200g mixed shoots and sprouts
150g sugar peas, cleaned and cut in pieces
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
100g rocket leaves
4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
150g chorizo sausage, sliced
200g cooked chickpeas
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
salt and black pepper

Preparation:

1. Mix the shoots, sprouts, sugar peas, chilli and rocket in a bowl and dress with the balsamic vinegar and the extra virgin olive oil.

2. Heat the tablesoon of olive oil in a pan and fry chorizo, chickpeas and garlic in the oil until slightly browned.

3. Dish the salad mix from the bowl onto individual plates, add the chorizo mix on top and add salt and pepper according to taste to each plate.

Tomato-Bulgur-Soup with Chickpeas

I am still alone at home so there are still more chickpeas to be used up in the fridge. And my guess is there is still more chickpea recipes to come.

In the meantime I made this yummy soup to fight the winter chill in Cape Town. I still had pita bread dough so I baked some more to accompany the soup and ate some hummus with it.

The following recipe is adapted from the recipe My Astoria Soup from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's America.

Tomato-Bulgur-Soup with Chickpeas

Ingredients for 4 portions:

100g bulgur wheat
200g cooked chickpeas
1 red onion, sliced
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
olive oil
3 tablespoons zahtar
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
1 litre chicken stock
15 cherry tomatoes, halfed
grated rind and juice from 1/2 lemon
mint leaves, chopped
salt and black pepper
optional: plain yoghurt

Preparation:

1. Prepare the bulgur according to the instructions on the package. (Usually one just has to add boiling water and wait until it is soaked up)

2. Heat the olive oil in a decent sized pot and once hot fry the onion and the peppers in the oil for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, zahtar, cumin and smoked paprika. Fry for another minute and add the chopped tomatoes with the stock. Boil for ca. 15 minutes.

3. Use a stick blender to blend some of the chunks in the soup but not all of them. Add the bulgur, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, lemon rind and lemon juice and bring to almost boiling point again. I like to add a spoon of plain yoghurt to each portion.

4. Add the chopped mint, season with salt and pepper according to taste and serve hot.

Lebanese Breakfast

I had a lazy late morning today. There's still chickpeas left from yesterdays dinner and I really felt like fresh, homemade bread. So hummus with pita bread it was.

The recipe for pita is adapted from the book The Lebanese Kitchen. The hummus is done the way I am doing it for years with slight variations. To make it less fatty I add some yoghurt to reduce the olive oil. However you can replace the yoghurt with oil to keep it more traditional. The recipe makes quite a decent amount which keeps well in the fridge.

The pita turned out delicious. It puffed up perfectly with crunchy and soft bits.

Hummus

Ingredients:

250g dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnights
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of chilli-flavored avocado oil
3 tablespoons of tahini
3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt
Extra olive oil

Preparation:

1. Boil the chickpeas in fresh water for ca. 60 minutes until tender. Drain and let cool down.

2. Add the chickpeas with the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and process until you get an even dip.

3.Check if there's enough salt in it and serve with olive oil drizzled on top.

Whole Wheat Pita Breads

Ingredients:

500g whole wheat bread flour

1 package dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of olive oil

325ml warm water

1. Mix the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the olive oil and the water and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes until thoroughly mixed and elastic. Add some more water if the dough is too dry or some flour if too sticky.

2. Let the dough bloom in a fresh bowl covered with a kitchen towel. After 1 hour the dough should have more than doubled it's size.

3. Take golfball sized pieces of the dough and roll out flat in round shapes.

4. Bake at 230 degrees in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned.

Simple but super delicious Amarula Cake

Oje, I really need to work on my discipline in taking pictures of the food before it is eaten up. I only realized today after I distributed pieces of cake to everyone in the house already that I had not taken a picture yet.

The recipe is an adaption of the Ant Cake in the book Eating In - Delicious Home Cooking to Enjoy All Year Round. The original uses advocaat. I gave the recipe a South African Twist by replacing the advocaat with Amarula. For the non-South-Africans out there who don't know what Amarula is: it's a deliciously creamy liquor made from the marula fruit. A little bit like fruity-tasting Baileys. You can find some more information on Amarula here.

Amarula cake

Ingredients for 16 pieces:

200g butter, softened
175g castor sugar
3 eggs
225ml Amarula
250g self-raising flour sifted
100g milk chocolate, chopped into small pieces

Preparation:

1. Beat the butter and the sugar until creamy and the sugar is disolved.

2. Add one egg at a time with a tablespoon of flour each beating well after adding each egg.

3. Add the amarula and flour and combine well.

4. Stir in the chocolate pieces.

5. Fill the cake batter into a buttered ring tin and bake the cake for ca. 45 minutes in the preheated oven at 180 degrees. 

More dumpling time...

There is still this half packet of wonton wrappers left over from the beginning of the week. Which means time for more dumplings. Today's recipe is adapted from the book The Essential Wok Cookbook. The pictures in there looks so yummy and all the recipes I tried so far turned out delicious.

Gyoza

Ingredients for ca. 30 dumplings:

1 baby cabbage, sliced thinly

350g pork mince

2 teaspoons crushed chilli, garlic and ginger

2 spring onions, sliced thinly

2 teaspoons cornflour

1 tablesoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine

2 teaspoons sesame oil

ca. 30 wonton wrappers/ca. 250g

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

150ml of water plus extra to wet the wonton wrappers. 

Preparation:

1. Mix cabbage, pork mince, chilli, garlic, ginger, spring onions, cornflour, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil in a bowl until thoroughly combined.

2. Put a teaspoon of the mixture on each wonton wrapper. Wet the sides of the wrappers, fold them over and press them together that they are closed.

3. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the gyoza for 2-3 minutes until they browned and crispy on the bottom.

4. Add the 150ml of water and close the pan with a tight-fitting lid. Cook for ca. 5 minutes over medium heat until all water is absorbed.

Visit at the evil place (a.k.a. Exclusive Books Warehouse Sale)

I went to the evil place today. Or shall I rather say that the place is so good that it becomes evil? The Exclusive books warehouse sale is currently happening in Cape Town which is obviously a huge temptation for a book addict. The books are priced by the kilogram and they give you boxes to fill up with the treasures you want to take home.
I ended up buying 44 books which I guess is kinda nuts. Can I use the excuse that they are not all for me? They had a great kiddies book section so I also loaded the box also with goodies for the godchild and since my bf enjoys reading too I though a few books for him might be a good present.

Obviously a few books were cookbooks and while paging through them at home I looked for something new for dinner. I am unfortunately not only a cookbook collector but also an ingredient collector. The kitchen storage cupboard is overflowing with jars, packets and tins so recipes reducing the overflow are highly welcome. Luckily I found something for tonight which with smaller adaptions can be produced without even going to the supermarket.

The recipe is called Lemon and Coconut Dhal Dip and is found in the book Appetizers - 500 Best-Ever Recipes. Unfortunately the recipe is not entirely clear on what one is supposed to dip into it. I decided on Provitas and carrot sticks. The combination of chilli and red curry paste makes the dish quite hot. Decrease the amount of red curry paste if you prefer it milder.

Lemon and Coconut Dhal Dip

Ingredients to serve 4-6:

1 tablespoon crushed garlic, ginger and chilli (from a tub)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon red curry past
150g dried red lentils
250ml water
300ml coconut milk (I used the light version)
Salt
Juice of 1 lemon

Preparation:

1. Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli in the olive oil over medium heat until translucent.

2. Add the red curry paste and red lentils and give it a quick stir.

3. Add the red lentils, water and coconut milk and cook for 20 minutes with a closed lid and 20 minutes without lid until the lentils are soft and most of the liquid has evaporated.

4. Add the lemon juice and salt to taste.

5. Serve still warm. Can also we used as accompaniment to cold meats.

Potstickers - in dear memory of Shanghai

Do you guys know foodgawker.com? This place is amaaazing!! I could spend hours ogling the picture and clicking on the links. I have not really warmed up to Pinterest yet but foodgawker was love on first sight.
The problem is I can never decide quickly what to make. Too many choices!
Or I get stuck at impractical ideas. Today pork chops with peaches caught my attention. I already was about to add the necessary ingredients to my shopping list when I realized that fresh peaches will be hard to find in Cape Town winter.
So an alternative had to be found. That's when I saw the picture of spicy sesame chicken potstickers.
The first time I saw potstickers was during my backpacking trip through China. Just that I dindn't know they called potstickers. There was this small dumpling shop in the same road as my hostel in Shanghai and each morning I passed by I ordered a portion of potstickers for breakfast. Due to lack of local language skills the order had to be done by pointing at the food.

One can rarely recreate the exact eating experience from far away countries at home this will however not stop me from trying.

Below my adaption of the following recipe: http://www.lifesambrosia.com/2013/08/spicy-sesame-chicken-potstickers-recipe.html

I couldn't find chicken mince and fresh chillies in the shops so I had to improvise. Back at home from the supermarket I realized I ran out of soy sauce...

Chicken Potstickers

Ingredients for ca. 35 dumplings:

250 grams Wonton Wrappers (I bought the size 8 x 8 cm at the Chinese supermarket)

500 grams chicken sausages, skin removed

2 spring onions, finely cut

10 grams fresh ginger, grated

3 cloves of garlic, grated

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1 pinch of chilli powder

3 tablespoons of canola oil

1 cup of water plus a small bowl of water extra

Optional: sweet chilli sauce and/or thick sweet soy sauce

Preparation:

1. Mix chicken sausage meat, spring onions, ginger, garlic, sesame oil, fish sauce, rice vinegar and chilli powder in a bowl.

2. Lay wonton wrappers next to each other on flat surface and put one teaspoon of the chicken mixture in the middle of each wrapper.

3. Wet the corners of the wrappers with water, fold each wrapper in the middle to close in the filling and press the edges together.

4. Heat the oil in a pan until hot and add the potstickers. Brown the bottom of the wrappers until brown and crunchy in the open pan. Add the cup of water to the pan and put on a tight fitting lid. The dumplings will steam in the closed pan. They ready once all water is evaporated which should take around 7 minutes.

5. Enjoy dipped into sweet chilli sauce and/or thick sweet soy sauce.

Romany creams cupcakes

After making cookies and cream ice cream yesterday I looked for a recipe to use up the rest of the cookies.

Below my adaption of the following recipe: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/657083. Instead of Oreos I used Romany Creams (yoghurt flavor) for the local South African touch. The icing is sweet and slightly tangy at the same time which combines well with the moist chocolate cake.

Ingredients for 10 cupcakes:

115g soft butter
115g castor sugar
2 eggs
100g self-raising flour
20g cacao powder
1 tablespoon milk

50g soft butter
80g plain cream cheese
175g icing sugar
6 Romany Cream cookies

I put the soft butter together with the sugar into the kitchen machine to whisk. Once combined I added the eggs, gave the mixture another stir with the kitchen machine and sifted in the flour and cocoa. Together with the milk I gave the dough a final mix. Once smooth I filled the mixture into medium-sized cupcake paper cases in a muffin form.
The cupcakes are now ready to be baked at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
Once cooled prepare the icing by mixing butter, cream cheese and icing sugar in the kitchen machine.        The cookies need to be shredded to fine crumbs and then added to the icing.
I used a piping bag to add the icing to the cupcakes.

Prep day!

My bf is finally coming back tomorrow after being away for more than five weeks. His birthday was during his absence so I am planning a special dinner for him tomorrow. Special in the sense of foods he enjoys not lobster with French champagne special.
The planned menu is rustic matching the colder weather expected tomorrow:

• Young salad leaves with pear and blue cheese dressing
• Split pea soup with bacon
• Homemade whole wheat focaccia
• Lemon meringue tart

The soup is peacefully simmering on the stove right now while the lemon meringue is cooling down in the baking tin.

Isn't the heart-shaped cake tin super cute?

I found it at a shopping center in Istanbul, Turkey a few weeks ago.

The bread is rising slowly in the fridge until tomorrow evening and the dressing is already ready in a jar in the fridge. So assembly will be quick quick after work tomorrow.

Today's dinner were more of the delish date balls while licking the baking spoons...

My first recipe!

I never really liked dates on their own. However I like the thought of date balls. Especially in this naughty combination with cocoa and chocolate nibs!

Maca powder is supposed to be superfood. The packet caught my eye at Wellness Warehouse recently. It seems maca is made from a root which grows in the Andes and has s whole range of health benefits (check out this link http://www.superfoods.co.za/maca.htm for more information on maca). So when I saw the suggestion to whizz the powder into date balls I had to give it a try.

Ingredients for around 25 small balls:

2 tablespoons of raw cacao powder
1 tablespoon of maca powder
2 tablespoons of dark chocolate chips
1.5 tablespoons of cocoa nibs
2 tablespoons of ground almonds
2 tablespoons of raw whole almonds
3 tablespoons of dried goji berries
10 pitted dates
A pinch of vanilla powder

This recipe is super easy! All ingredients go together into the kitchen machine (small bowl) and after a fair amount of long pulses a sticky paste is formed. The paste will be rolled into balls and you done!

If you manage  not to eat all balls immediately they should be stored in one layer in a closed container in the fridge.

Uh, is this how quick it goes? My blog (or should we rather call it blog-to-be) already has 5 views.

I am busy googling the www for tips on blogging. This copyright thing is really confusing. Since I would like to write on my experience on recreating recipes from my cookbook collection and the net I am a bit confused on the use of the recipes in my blog. However I think I understood the following:

• Ingredient lists cannot be copyrighted
• Same goes for methods
• However the way the recipe is described can be copyrighted

Therefore:

• Do not copy the exact recipe
• Do not copy pictures
• Do write up your own experience in making the recipe
• Do give credit to the source/link to the source

Sounds easy enough. I mean not that I am a super photographer but I can manage to take my own pictures. Guess I am also not a super writer but the same goes I can write down the word fruit salad in my not so average brain.

So what's next? Will I tackle filling in my profile?

Mmmhhh... guess that is the start to my blog. Not sure yet where this is gonna take me. Not even sure how this works technically. The next weeks will show...