-Sticky Pear Ginger Cake

I seem to be making a great deal of sweet things at the moment...This is very good. I have baked it a couple of times now and it seems to be pretty fail-safe. Any cake preceded by the words sticky, pear and ginger would just have to be a winner.
The recipe comes from Nat's Thermomixen in the Kitchen. I reduced the sugar content, added wholemeal flour and a little more pear, used rice and maple syrup instead of golden syrup and replaced some of the butter with coconut oil.
I also put the pears in at the second stage so my non-fruit eating son wouldn't come across anything too chunky and suspiciously fruit-like in his fruit cake...I admit, it would have been nicer just stirred through at the end, but he loved it. Sucker.

140g rice syrup/maple syrup mix
75g dark brown sugar
125g butter/coconut oil
250g self raising flour (I used half white and half wholemeal)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1Tbsp ground ginger
310mL milk
1 egg
3 medium pears, peeled, cored, diced

-Cook syrup, sugar and butter/oil 90 deg, 5 mins, speed 2.
-Add dry ingredients, milk and egg and mix on speed 4 for 4-5 secs - be careful not to over mix.
-Add pear (if you want chunks) and mix reverse speed 2 for 3 secs.
-Grease and line a square cake tin, pour in the mix and bake for 55-60mins at 180 deg. Cool in the tin 10 mins, then on a rack until cold.

Double Layered Raw Chocolate Fudge

If you like coconut oil, you'll love this...
The recipe comes from Hot Pink Chilli (who adapted it from a rather more sugary version in PaleOMG). I only fiddled around with the tahini/nut butter part - the original recipe uses almond butter. I had peanut butter and tahini so I used half of each. Would probably be yummy with cashew butter too. I had a little coconut nectar in the fridge but decided to use maple and rice syrup as they are a little sweeter. I also only made half the quantity, but lived to regret this, as the batch lasted one day....and my kids only saw one piece each.....
One more thing - keep it in the freezer or fridge! It quickly turns to mush if left out, so not really a suitable lunchbox treat, unfortunately.

200g/ 1 cup coconut oil
125g/ 1/2 cup tahini
120g/ 1/2 cup peanut or almond butter
150g/ 1/2 cup coconut nectar/ rice syrup/maple syrup
30g/ 1/3 cup desiccated coconut
15g/ 5tsp raw cacao powder
2 pinches salt

-Throw everything EXCEPT the cacao and one pinch of salt into the thermomix and blitz on speed 7 for 3 secs.
-Pour half the mix into a suitable tupperware container (my half batch fit neatly into a square 1L box) and place in the freezer to set (will be ready by the time you have mixed up the topping).
-Add the second pinch of salt and the cacao to the remaining mix in the thermomix and whiz for 3 secs on speed 7. Scrape down and repeat.
-Pour chocolate fudge mixture into the tupperware and pop it back into the freezer. When it is solid (this does not take long, thankfully) remove from container and use a hot knife to slice up into good sized chunks. Delicious.

Nori Linseed Crackers

I don't wish to set a precedent but this recipe does not need a Thermomix (gasp!).  Karen was kind enough to lend me her dehydrator last week and my lovely friend Jan showed me these crackers that she discovered at a yoga retreat in Bali (phew).  Too simple for words.

Soak some flaxseeds (lots) and pumpkin seeds in water overnight.

The next day spread out sheets of nori onto the dehydrator trays.
Add a couple of splashes of tamari or shoyu into the flaxseed mixture
Thinly spread the flaxseed mixture onto the nori sheets
Dehydrate at low setting (I did 43 degrees) for 5 hours or until crisp
cut into squares with scissors and store in airtight container.

My kids loved them and great for lunchboxes.

Shaggy Dog Pikelets

As a child my Mum often use to makes us Pikelets and I have made them the same way for years, but with all the new ingredients now in my cupboard, I have made this old time favourite a little healthier. This recipe actually doesn't need to be mixed in the Thermomix (shock horror!!) and is better just mixed in a bowl with a spoon.

1 cup Spelt Flour
1/4 cup Rapadura Sugar
2 tbsp Macadamia Nut Oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup of milk of choice 
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Topping
Shredded coconut
Sultanas

Add all ingredients except milk to bowl and mix to combine
Slowly add Milk and mix after each addition until it forms a smooth batter

To Cook
I have found that by cooking on a non-stick sandwich press you can quickly cook these pikelets with little mess and it also requires no butter or oil to cook them. If you don't have one, then of course they can be cooked in a fry pan.

Spoon smallish circles of the batter onto sandwich press/fry pan and then sprinkle with shredded coconut and sultanas.

Turn over when batter is bubbling and then cook for a further minute until cooked through.

Yummy eaten hot or can be eaten cold i.e. in the kids lunch box

Crackers

I can't believe I have been buying expensive not so healthy crackers when these are so easy to make. After my girls sat down to eating a plate of these with some hommus, I later caught them stealing a few more from the baking tray...so I'm guessing they like them!!

70 g warm water 

70 g olive oil
250 g wholemeal Bakers Flour

10g Chia seeds

10g Linseeds
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, remove sticks
1 tsp sea salt 

Preheat oven to 180ºC 

Place water and oil into TMX bowl and warm 

80ºC/ Speed 1 / 1 min

Add remaining ingredients and blend

10 secs / Speed 7

Tip into a bowl and scrunch into a ball to form a soft dough

Wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Divide into thirds and roll out each ball of dough as thinly as possible. Side onto a flat baking tray.      
Use a pizza cutter to score the dough

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until crisp.

Turn off oven and break into crackers into pieces. Return to oven to completely dry out.

Orange Pepita Cupcakes

This recipe is based on the one found on the Mixing it Up HK website (Thanks for the link Mim), which was a Citrus Poppyseed Muffin. I was lacking a couple of ingredients so here is my version, which I have also reduced the amount of sugar in (but definitely try out the original as well)

1 whole apple 
1 whole orange
2 large eggs
30g coconut oil, melted if solid 
50g natural yoghurt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb
120g white spelt flour
120g wholemeal bakers flour
70g rapadura
Handful of pepitas

1. Preheat oven to 170°C and grease 12 cake cake/muffin tin

2. Remove core and quarter one apple. Add to the TMX bowl and chop
10 secs/Speed 4. Scrape down the sides.

3. Add 20g water and cook 8 mins/100°C/Speed 1. MC lid off 

4. Cut a whole (incl skin) orange into quarters. Remove white pith and any obvious pips. Add to the TMX bowl and blend Speed 7/10 secs

5. Add the eggs, coconut oil and natural yoghurt and Mix Speed 8/10 seconds until well combined. 

6. Add baking powder, bicarb, flours, rapadura and pumpkin seeds and mix 8 secs/Rev/Speed 4 until mixture just comes together. Do not over-mix.

7. Spoon mixture into prepared cake tin and place in preheated oven to bake for about 12-15 mins  

8. Once cooled a little, I topped each cake with a dollop of natural yoghurt

Pink Butterfly Raw Biscuits

This is a healthy raw biscuit recipe. The biscuit and filling are very easy to make but the assembly process is a little messy but fun to do with the kids. I made Butterflies with Pink filling and for the boys out there I made Stars, which was suppose to have a blue filling but looks more purple! Trick when making these biscuits is to keep everything very cold.

60g brazil nuts

60g cup pepitas

2-3 tbsp cacao powder

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1. Add nuts and seeds to TMX bowl.

Speed 9/ approx 30 sec until cumbly

2. Add remaining ingredients except maple syrup

Add maple syrup slowly once blades are running. Batter should come together easily without being too wet

Speed 6 / approx 10 sec 

3. Put mixture on cutting board and roll out 

Using cookie cutters cut shapes out and place onto a plate (even numbers - approx 12 depending on your cutter size) Set cookies aside in fridge

Pink Filling Ingredients

1 banana

1/2 cup frozen raspberries (at room temp) (for the blue/purple ones I tried blueberries)

4 tbsp coconut oil

1. Place all ingredients into TMX bowl and blend till creamy

Speed 4 / 10 sec and then scrape bowl and repeat a couple of times

2. Pour onto a cutting board and put into freezer

3. Once set, cut shapes and assemble biscuits. Once done they are best kept in the freezer until they are ready to eat

Black bean brownies

This recipe is converted from the Healthy Hybrid.  Similar concept to the magic bean chocolate cake which uses red kidney beans in place of flour.  I have yet to try it but thought I'd post anyway

Ingredients

2 cup cooked black beans, drained of all liquid - could use a can.
2/3 cup rapadura sugar or sweetner of choice
1/3 cup raw cacao powder, cocoa, or carob powder
2 tbsp coconut oil, or butter
3 eggs,
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
walnuts (optional)

Do

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees and prepare a rectangular slice pan/ dish (grease or line with baking paper) 

2.  Blend ingredients other than walnuts together with 20 seconds sp 5 or until well blended
3.  Pour into greased 8"x8" pan. top with walnuts for decoration if you'd like

4.   Bake in the oven maybe 15 minutes. When the top starts to crack, they're golden and cooked.

Healthy Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cashew Nut Cream

I thought I would try out a new recipe for Fathers Day, although seeing as they came out a little bit red/pinkish it maybe good for Mothers Day!! This recipe has been adapted from the one found on "The Healthy Chef" website. It makes 12 smallish cupcakes, which didn't last long in our household. The last ones were eaten (without icing) after dinner with Quirky Jo's Cashew honey vanilla bean custard http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/cashew-honey-vanilla-bean-custard.html Yum!

2 large raw beetroot
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt
150g almonds
¼ cup cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
3 tbsp macadamia oil
60ml honey
½ cup raisins
1 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven 160 C (fan forced) 

2. Add almonds to TMX bowl and grind
Sp 9 / 2 mins. Set aside

3. Add Beetroot with skin into TMX bowl and grate
Sp 6 / 3 secs (until grated)

4. Add eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, ground almonds, cocoa, honey, oil and baking powder and mix
Sp 6 / 10 sec

5. Add raisins and mix
Sp 3 / 3 sec

6. Spoon into paper lined cupcake tins

7. Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked through

Cashew Nut Cream Icing1 cup of raw cashew nuts 

1/2 cup of water
little vanilla

1. Add all ingredients to TMX bowl
Sp 9 / 2 mins (or until smoothish)

Cake a Day.....

After a week living it up in Cairns, we all needed to break our taste buds addiction to sugar etc but still needed some yummy morning teas to get us through a week of renovations on our sun room. So just for a bit of fun, here are the morning teas I made (all Quirky Jo recipes) and any variations.

Monday
Pancakes with Banana and Rainforest honey (from Cairns)
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/blender-batter-brown-rice-waffles.html

I made these just with Buckwheat and sliced up bananas which I put in each pancakes whilst it was cooking

Tuesday
Blender Batter Berry Cake
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/blender-batter-berry-cake-gf-df.html

Halved the sugar in these

Wednesday
Carrot Cake
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/one-bowl-thermomix-carrot-cake-gluten.html

Halved the honey and added some pumpkin seeds as well

Thursday
Flourless Pecan Cake
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/flourless-pecan-cake-gf-df_16.html

I didn't have enough pecans so used some walnuts instead. Also I couldn't face not using all the thick coconut cream in the tin so I added a bit extra. The cake was a little softer but so so yummy. The girls were at Pre-School but Guy and I nearly ate the whole cake. (mainly Guy actually it was a favourite of the week)

Friday
Sultana Spice Bread
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/grain-free-sultana-spice-bread.html

Again I didn't have any pecan nuts so instead I made the 120g up with Brazil nuts, cashew nuts and pumpkin seeds. I have made this one before with Pecans and it still came out very similar with the different nuts. I didn't add the honey which is optional in the recipe.


My freezer is now full with the leftover cakes cut up in slices. YA!

Kale Chips

I've yet to try this recipe but saw it on the Healthy Hybrid blog and it looks yummy so I've converted to TMX.  My kids love these chips for arvo tea.

1 cup red capsicum seeded and roughly chopped
1 cup raw cashews
2 tbs nutritional yeast flakes
2 to 4 tbs water (as needed)
1 tbs agave or other sweetener
1 tbs EVO
1/2 tsp salt
bunch of Kale washed and ripped into pieces removing touch central stem- must be a large bunch.  I had a small bunch and did a half batch of the sauce

Add all ingredients except Kale into TXM and blitz sp 6 until a paste forms adding water as you go so the mixture has the texture of thick cream.

In a large mixing bowl combine with the kale leaves until leaves are roughly covered.

Dehydrate for 8 to 10 hours or bake in the over either at low temp until crispy or quickly at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.

Quirky Cooking Blender Batter Muffins

Hi Girls

Karen put me onto this blender batter on the Quirky Cooking website.  It's so easy, you make the batter the night before then bake in the morning.  Very quick so you can have fresh muffins first thing.  And also you are soaking the grain to make it more easily digestible.

I used 200ml buttermilk instead of the almonds and water and it worked out fine.  The muffins are moist and yummy.

http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/blender-batter-muffins.html

Jude Blereau's World Peace Bars

These delish bars are dairy free, egg free, nut free and wheat free so great for school lunch boxes.   The recipe looks complicated but is actually very quick and easy.

Filling

150g dates
90g dried apricots
50g apple or pear juice
50g water
1 tbsp lemon juice

 Oat mix
2 tsp chia seed
1/3 cup macadamia, almond or coconut oil
1/4 cup brown rice syrup (I used maple)
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 rolled oats
60g extra rolled oats or oatmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 cup rapadura sugar

1. Preheat over to 180degrees or 165 if fan forced.
2. Place 150g oats on a baking tray and toast in the over 5 - 10 minutes until just fragrant. 
3. grind chia seeds for 1 minute sp 9.  
4. add 80g water and mix 5 sec sp 5.  Set mixture aside
5. without cleaning out bowl add all filling ingredients except lemon juice and cook 100 degrees 10 minutes sp 4.  
6. add lemon juice and mix 5 seconds sp 3.  Set mixture aside.  Clean and dry bowl.
7. If using oats rather than oatmeal, place 60g extra oats in bowl and mill 1 minute sp 9.
8. Add sunflower and pumpkin seed 3 sec sp 6 or until roughly ground.
9. add baked oats, oatmeal (if using instead of extra oats), baking powder, coconut and sugar.  Mix 6 sec sp 4.  
10. Add chia seed mix, oil, brown rice syrup and vanilla extra.  Mix 10 sec sp 4.
11. Line a baking tin with baking paper and press half the oat mix onto the base of the tin.
12. Very gently evenly spread the filling over the oat mix.
13. With fingers evenly distribute the remaining oat mix over the filling and use a fork to distribute evenly.  Wet your hands and gently but firmly press down on the topping to even it out.
14. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until well cooked, golden and slightly crispy on the edges,  Leave for 20 minutes before slicing and serving

Store in an airtight container in a dark cool place- fridge is best in hot weather.

Gingercake

Gingercake with Lemon Icing (adapted for Thermomix from a Nigella Lawson recipe)

Ingredients
150g unsalted butter (could replace a portion with coconut oil)
125g rapadura sugar
200g golden syrup
200g blackstrap molasses
4cm piece of ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
250ml milk (I used rice milk which worked well)
2 large eggs (beaten to mix in)
1tsp bicarb dissolved in 2tbsp warm water
300g plain flour
Baking tin, greased and lined with baking paper

For the icing
1tbsp lemon juice
175g icing sugar (made in thermomix from raw sugar sp9 for 1 min - could try rapadura instead?)
1 tbsp warm water

Method
Preheat oven to 175 degrees

1. Place peeled ginger in tmx sp9 for 30s
2. Add butter, sugar, golden syrup, molasses and cinamon and melt 60degrees sp4 for 2 minutes (or until melted).
3. Add milk, eggs and bicarb. Mix sp4 for 5s
4. Add flour and mix (it will be a very liquid batter)
5. Place in prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1hr. Be careful not to overcook as it is nice to be sticky.

Icing
1. Mix ingredients together to make a thick icing
2. Spread over cooled cake and leave to set



Blackstrap Molasses:
Molasses is the left over after extracting sugar from raw sugar cane and in particular blackstrap molasses is the most concentrated and nutrient thick obtained from the third boiling of the sugar cane juice. It contains significant amounts of iron, folic acid, B6, calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc, manganese, postassium. It has a low GI.

Guy remembers his grandmother giving him blackstrap molasses on toast for afternoon tea as a treat!!