Tag: almond flour

Gluten-free Biscotti

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Biscotti

Biscotti are a family favourite so I knew I had to come up with a healthier version of these traditional Italian biscuits. They are wheat- and grain-free, and I’ve used some stevia, allowing me to cut the amount of coconut sugar in half. I love to have them with a cup of tea or hot chocolate while I’m working on the blog šŸ™‚

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups almond flour
1 1/2 cups raw almonds
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1/3 tsp stevia (or replace with an additional 1/3 cup coconut sugar)
pinch of Oryx Desert Salt
1 tsp aluminium-free baking powder
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 C.

Place 1 cup of the almonds in a blender or food processor and grind finely. Chop the remaining 1/2 cup almonds roughly. Combine both with the almond flour, coconut sugar, stevia, salt, baking powder and zest.

Beat the eggs and vanilla. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the egg into it. Use a fork to pull the dry ingredients into the egg, mixing as you go. It may look like the mixture is too dry, but just keep going and it will come together. Use your hands to fully combine if necessary, and then shape it into a ball.

Dust your work surface with a generous amount of almond flour. Divide the dough in half, and then shape each half into a log about 7cm wide and 3cm high. Place both logs onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat, or greased with coconut oil.

Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Turn the oven down to 140 C. Slice the logs at an angle and about 1.5cm thick. Slicing at angle will give you the traditional biscotti shape. Lay the slices out on the baking tray and return to the oven to dry out; 30 – 40 minutes, depending on how you like them.

Health & happiness!

Love,
Raine

Chocolate Birthday Cake with Berry Chia Jam & Chocolate Mousse Icing

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Chocolate Birthday Cake

For my son’s first birthday I made a cake without refined sugar but still used stoneground wheat flour and organic butter. Last year for his second birthday I was determined to come up with a completely clean cake recipe, so I began The Cake Trials (which you may have seen if you followed my old Instagram account @unsinfully_divine.) I must have baked about 10 cakes in the month leading up to his birthday, and finally came up with the perfect recipe!
This cake was so good I made it again this year for his third birthday. You would never guess that it is so healthy… it’s rich, moist and has a good crumb (very hard to do with gluten-free baking!) Berry chia jam and my awesome Chocolate Mousse Icing finish it perfectly.

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
70g raw cacao paste
150g pitted fresh dates
180ml boiling water
150ml organic maple syrup
200g organic virgin coconut oil
4 eggs
1/2 tsp organic vanilla powder or 1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of himalayan salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup almond flour
60ml raw cacao powder

For the Chocolate Mousse Icing:

320g mature coconut flesh and 1 1/2 cups hot water, OR 2 cups organic coconut cream
80ml raw honey
pinch of himalayan salt
1/4 tsp organic vanilla powder or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5ml agar agar powder (not flakes – they require different measurements)
40ml organic virgin coconut oil
90ml raw cacao powder

For the Berry Chia Jam:

1 cup frozen mixed berries
1 tbsp raw honey
1ml organic vanilla powder
small pinch of himalayan salt
2 tbsp chia seeds

METHOD

Set aside the frozen berries to allow them to defrost.

Firstly make the icing. If using fresh coconut to make your own cream, blend the coconut and hot water in a high speed blender for 30 to 60 seconds. Strain through a nut milk bag. Allow it to cool slightly before squeezing so that you don’t burn your hands! Return the coconut cream to the blender, along with the honey, salt, vanilla, agar agar and coconut oil. Blend until smooth. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for three minutes exactly and then remove from the heat. Boiling activates the agar agar, allowing it to set, but over boiling will destroy it, so use a timer. Refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Line two 20cm cake tins with baking paper or silicone liners.

In a clean, dry blender, grind the oats until you have a fine flour. Sift together with the almond flour and 60ml cacao powder. Set aside.

Place the cacao paste, dates, boiling water and maple syrup in the blender. Blend until completely smooth. Add the coconut oil, vanilla and salt, and the eggs one at a time. Blend until the mixture is smooth, thick and glossy. Add the bicarb and blend just to disperse it thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto the sifted dry ingredients and fold them together. Pour into the cake tins, dividing the mixture evenly, and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cake bakes, make the jam. Blend the berries with the honey, vanilla and salt. You can make it smooth or leave it chunky, as you prefer. Pour into a bowl and stir in the chia seeds. Refrigerate until needed.

Once the icing has set, blend it again with the 90ml cacao powder. Agar sets much firmer in comparison to gelatine, but blending it breaks up that glassy texture, giving you a smooth and creamy end result. Refrigerate again to firm up.

Once the cakes have cooled, turn them out. Use the berry jam to sandwich them together and then top with the icing.

My son asked for a Maleficent cake. I made two 20cm cakes and two 10cm cakes, and sandwiched them together with the jam. I then used coloured cardboard and ribbon to decorate, rather than using fondant icing which is full of refined sugar and chemical colours which are so bad for kids! Once the cardboard was on, I carefully piped the icing ontop, and placed a Maleficent figurine we got from the toyshop on the top of the cake.

Maleficent Cake

Health & happiness!

Love,
Raine

Homemade Almond Milk

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almond-milk

If you would like to read about why dairy is bad for you and why I don’t have it myself and why I don’t give it to my baby, read this article about why dairy is bad for you. I do not recommend replacing dairy with soy, even if you’re buying organic non-GMO soy products. Soy beans naturally containĀ isoflavones, which function as phytoestrogens. These mimic your body’s own oestrogen, therefore it’s as though you have increased oestrogen production. It’s never a good idea to mess around with your hormones.Ā Furthermore, soy beans may have health benefits in their natural, whole state, but most of the dairy-replacement products made from soy are very processed. My rule of thumb is that processed is bad, and this is the major theory behind the “raw food” and “clean eating” movements.Ā I don’t think that eating organic tofu once in a while will have a bad effect, but for most people whatever they use to replace dairy is something they will be eating every day. So you need to choose something which will contribute to your health, not hinder it!

For me, the best alternative to cow’s milk is almond milk. It’s just so damn yummy! The health benefits of almond milk include improved vision, weight loss, stronger bones and muscles, and a healthy heart. It helps to maintain ideal blood pressure and is good for your kidneys. Almond milk (or any other nut milk) is such a great substitute for cow’s milk that you won’t even miss it. In fact, once you’re used to having nut milk the taste of cow’s milk is quite unpleasant.Ā 

Nut milk is really simple to make, and once it becomes part of your routine, no big deal, you’re ready to move onto the next step of cleaning up your diet šŸ™‚

Ingredients

1 cup raw almonds
water for soaking
900ml purified water
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
1/4 tsp vanilla powder or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 – 4 dried dates, or 1 tbsp raw honey or organic maple syrup

Method

Firstly, soak the almonds in water overnight or minimum 4 hours. Don’t skip this step! Almonds contain an enzyme which inhibits digestion so it’s important to soak them first. Drain the water off and rinse them.
Time-saving tip: if you own a dehydrator, soak a kilogram of almonds in one go and then dehydrate them. That way your almonds are pre-soaked and you can make milk without any forethought!

Now put all the ingredients in a blender, and blend well. In a high-speed blender 30 seconds is enough, but it may take longer in a regular blender.

Strain the liquid through a nut milk bag (available at health shops or online) or use a clean piece of cheesecloth or muslin. Keep refrigerated and use within 3 – 4 days. You could play around with flavour by adding cinnamon, or raw cacao powder for chocolate milk!

almond milk2

What you have left over after straining off the liquid is called almond pulp. In Raw food preparation we dry this out in a dehydrator to get almond flour (as opposed to store-bought almond flour, which is usually ground, blanched almonds.)

If you don’t have a dehydrator you can spread it out on a baking tray and put it in your oven on a low heat until it dries. Then process it in your blender to a fine flour. Keep in an airtight container. If you live in a very hot or humid place I recommend keeping it in the fridge. You can use this for gluten-free baking, as I do in my Banana Bread.

almond milk3

Health and happiness!

Love,
Lauren

No-fry Chocolate and Maca Pancakes

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Choc Maca Pancakes

I can’t think of anything better for Sunday breakfast than a stack of pancakes! And with this recipe they’re completely guilt-free.

This is basically a variant of the Plain Buckwheat Pancakes – I’ve added raw cacao and maca for a delicious malted chocolate flavour. Maca gives you increased energy and is said to help relieve the symptoms of PMS. It has a malted flavour which pairs very well with raw cacao.

Both maca and cacao are aphrodisiacs, so why not start practicing this recipe now for Valentine’s Day? Ā šŸ˜‰

I find it tedious to stand in front of the stove frying up batches of pancakes, so I decided to try baking them and it worked really well! Of course you also have the added benefit of not having fried them in oil – while coconut oil is the best choice for frying, oils are always healthiest in their raw state.

In this version I used almond flour simply because I have so much (as a by-product of all the almond milk I make) but you could substitute it with buckwheat flour, as in the original recipe.

IngredientsĀ (this makes enough for my husband, my toddler and I – about 12 pancakes)

4 tbsp flax seeds, ground in a coffee grinder (you could also use chia seeds)
150ml water
1 cup almond flour
1 heaped tsp aluminium-free baking powder
1/4 tsp Himalayan salt
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tbsp maca powder
1/2 tsp organic stevia leaf powder (or 1 tbsp organic maple syrup or raw honey)
1 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork to a puree
1 cup almond milk or other dairy-free milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Combine the ground flax and water to make your flax “eggs.” Refrigerate for 15 minutes while you make the rest of the batter.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cacao powder, maca powder and stevia. Add the banana and almond milk and use a whisk to combine well. Add the flax “eggs” and whisk again. The flax is quite gluey so make sure you get it mixed in really well.

Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Place a heaped tablespoon of the batter onto the paper and use the spoon to spread it out into a neat circle, about 1 – 2cm thick. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
Bake for about 20 – 30 minutes until they have risen, browned and are cooked through.

I served these with fresh raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, pomegranate and my Raw Caramel.

Health and happiness!

Love,
Raine