Showing posts with label Cinnamon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cinnamon. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Cinnamon Chocolate Cake Bites


240 Ml (1 Cup) Desiccated Coconut
120 Ml (1/2 Cup) Dried, pitted Dates
120 Ml (1/2 Cup) California Raisins
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp Cacao (or Cocoa will do fine) Powder
1/2 Tbsp Agave Nectar (or maple syrup)
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
7 Pecan Nuts (optional to omit if you are allergic)
Pinch of Allspice
Pinch of Sea Salt


Everything except for the agave (which will make it stick to the sides and difficult to blend right) goes in the food processor. Blend on high speed, stir, do this consistently until it is all well mixed. Add the agave and blend it up again. Use a teaspoon or other round measuring spoon to form candies, or you can use a small cake pan and make a proper cake out of it!

Saturday, 3 December 2011

Sticky Christmas Candy!

This is more of a fruitarian recipe-we are trying to eat more fruits in our diet as they are so good for you.

180 Ml (3/4 Cup) California Raisins
120 Ml (1/2 Cup) Desiccated Coconut
2 Tbsp Dried Cranberries
4 Dried, Pitted Dates
2 Chunks of Dried Mango (or a teaspoon or two if you need a measurement)
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar (or maple syrup or honey)
1 Tbsp Chopped Nuts (I used Pecans but any nut would do fine. Just be sure to rinse them before blending.)
1/4 tsp Ginger
Pinch of Cinnamon
Pinch of Allspice (optional)

Everything in the food processor at high speed. Use a teaspoon to scoop it into little balls. This would also make a good pie filling if you doubled the recipe or so; as it tastes sort of like mincemeat (for you in the States, mincemeat is not meat at all. It is a spicy-fruity filling used for pies and such). Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

Monday, 7 November 2011

HOLY DONUTS!

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this may be my new favourite food. Maybe. I don't know, but. DROOOL!
Chocolatey raw donut holes. Oh. Absolutely. AMAZING. and EASY!! I like easy.

100g (or about 7/8 cups I think) Brazil Nuts
240 ml (1 cup) Dried pitted Dates
1/2 Tbsp Virgin (cold-pressed) Coconut Oil
1/2 Tbsp Agave Syrup
----
Coating:
3/4 Tbsp raw Carob Powder
pinch of Cinnamon

In a food processor (or a blender if you do not have one), put one ingredient in at a time starting with the nuts and blend.
Put the Carob Powder & Cinnamon in a bowl. Take the donut mixture and scoop out with a Tablespoon. (pack it into the tablespoon with your fingers, then press it so it gently slides out and you have a half-ball shape. That's at least, how I find the easiest way to do this.) Take the half-balls and roll them, with the round side facing down, in the carob mix-shake off the excess. Will make about 13 donut holes if I remember correctly. Mmmmm.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

All Hallows' Eve Special-Pumpkin Pie! Yum...

Wow, this turned out so, so good. Minus the filling being a bit more sloppy than the baked kind, it's pretty spot-on I'd say. This makes A LOT of pie, so half this recipe if need be, but serve it in a small pie pan if you're gonna do so. It will keep well in the fridge or freezer with some tin foil over it though.

For a Basic Pie Crust, you do something similar to my (un)cookies. This is really easy and doesn't take much work.
1 1/2 cups Cashews
2 Cups Dried, Pitted Dates
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Pulse this in your blender/food processor until it's blended up nicely. It's gonna be chunky, but you want it to be well mixed. It won't take more than a minute'r two.

Now take this, and press it with the back of a spoon and your fingers into a large pie pan. The crust is sticky so this part is a little difficult, but it's not that bad. Stick it in the fridge while you make the filling.

Filling:
(I halved this and did each half at a time since I only have a cheap blender. If you have a food processor you can do this all at once and save yourself a lot of time, however.)

Approximately 1420 ml/6 Cups chopped pumpkin (small pieces)
240 ml/1 cup Ground Almonds
2 Tbsp Desiccated Coconut
4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
2 1/2 Tbsp Organic, Local Honey (Otherwise the Bees are treated in a manner that is very cruel and grotesque...eugh...)
2 Tbsp Provamel (or other rice milk/milk substitute)
1 1/2 Tsp Allspice
1 Tsp Cinnamon

This is tough work in a cheap blender, and might take some time, but pulse, stir, pulse, stir, ect until you get it well blended.


Topped With A Walnut, Just Because I Thought It Was Cute.
Fill your pie crust with your filling and smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Refrigerate for 30 min to an hour and serve. Yum, yum, yum!

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Moist Carrot Cake

mmm...

Cake:
4 Organic Carrots
240 ml/1 cup Desiccated Coconut
240 ml/1 cup Dried, pitted Dates
1 Cup Mixed Nuts
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/3 tbsp raw Carob Powder
1-2 tbsp Maple Syrup

Wash & finely grate the carrots into a large bowl. Tedious, but this recipe is well worth it, believe me. Grind (pulse, stir, pulse, stir...) Dates & Nuts together in a blender or food processor until they are a relatively smooth mush. Add this and the rest of the ingredients to your large bowl. You may whisk or stir this until it is very well blended, but I found it easier to just get in there with my hands and mix it up. Press the cake mix into a glass pan and even it out with your fist. Alternatively, you could turn these into cupcakes! Frost and enjoy. Will easily serve 4-6, or more...but not if you're hungry like we were when I made it. The two of us ate about half of it in one sitting. :))

Frosting:
About 1 cup Ground Almonds (you may grind them yourself in a food processor if you wish, but they were cheaper to buy pre-ground at Tesco's. Easier too.
4 Tbsp Maple syrup
2 Tbsp Desiccated Coconut
Rice Milk

Add all ingredients into a bowl & stir, add rice milk gradually until the desired consistency is obtained. Recipe may be doubled if you want a sweet cake or you just want some extra frosting for whatever else. Smooth onto the cake with a knife or the back of a spoon.

Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Butternut Soup and...Nutterbutt Ice Cream!

Creamy Winter Squash Soup:

About 240 ml/1 cup Butternut Squash, peeled and chopped
1 Small carrot
1/2 to one whole small leek leaf, depending how you want it to taste
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Sunflower oil
2 tbsp Basic Cashew Cheeze
1 Tbsp Pine Nuts
1 Clove Garlic
1 tsp Fleur de Sel (which you can read about here, it is so good and loaded with minerals-I highly reccomend ditching your white salt and opting for this instead!)
240 ml/1 cup warm Water
Dash of Allspice, optional.

...You know the drill...toss it in the blender and mix on high speed until creamy and smooth. Serves 2.

Carob Nut Ice Cream

The bottom (round plump part) half of a Winter/Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and chopped (I left about half of the mulch/pulp inside, but not the seeds.)
1 large handful of dried, pitted/stoned Dates
2 handfuls of nuts (I used 1 ea of Walnuts and a "Mixed Nuts" blend that contained Almonds, Peanuts and Walnuts)
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
3 1/2 tsp Raw Carob Powder
1/3 tsp Allspice (I know, I use this stuff in everything...but it's so damn good!)
1 Tbsp Rice, Almond, Coconut or Breastmilk (for this particular batch I used Provamel's Rice Milk, which is one of the nicer milks I think)

It is important to note that this is not one of my easier recipes, so, I apologise in advance (but HEY, give me some credit, most of my things are pretty cheap and easy). This might not be the case however if you have a really good food processor, but if you are like me and are working with a cheap blender, be prepared to put in a bit of elbow grease.

Now. Chop up that squash into small pieces because otherwise you will do what I did and be stuck blending the darn thing a bit longer than you will like to. I put in very large pieces and was blending for ages. Toss the squash in with the liquid ingredients and pulse, stir, pulse, stir until you've got it into a chunky mush. Now add the dates and nuts and continue doing that pulse and stir thing until you have a consistency you are happy with, it should be like runny home-made ice cream with small chunks (I like chunks in my ice cream, don't you?) now add the powdered ingredients, pulse and stir a couple more times, and you can put this into a couple of plastic tubs and freeze it. I used two large hummous pots and managed to fill them to the brink, so in other words this will easily serve 4, or could just as easily serve only 2 if you keep it on hand in your freezer for those occasions, you know, when a friend needs you to come over pronto with a tub of ice cream...keep this on hand for just such occasions. What a favour you'll be doing them, bringing something so delicious AND giving their body to a raw treat... :) This has a very carob-y, nutty, ice-cream esque taste and consistancy and is just. YUM.