Chocolate and Vanilla Custards

This recipe comes from the Feisty Tapas blog (and it is originally from the UK thermomix book Fast and Easy Cooking). I doubled it to make a decent amount (2 serves just wasn't going to cut it) and had to play around with the cooking time a bit.

1L milk (I used half coconut and half dairy)

3 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs (meant to be a room temp but I couldn't wait)

75g raw sugar 

5 Tbsp cornflour

4 Tbsp cocoa powder

- Put all ingredients EXCEPT cocoa into thermomix and whiz for 5 secs on speed 5.

- Cook 10mins, 90 deg, speed 3 until the mixture thickens. (The first time mine thickened quickly, but the last time I made it I had to give it another 3-5 mins cooking time. Not sure why...)

- Mix 8 secs on speed 6. Pour HALF the mix into ramekins or clear glasses (4-6 depending on the size you use). Cool till just firm.

- Add cocoa to the thermomix and whiz 20 secs on speed 6. Pour over the vanilla custard and cool to room temp. Cover to prevent a skin forming and chill in fridge. Nice served with raspberries/strawberries to offset the sweetness.

-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.

Spiced Chicken and Raisin Pilaf

This recipe comes from the foodiemum.com and is now a family favourite. This is a great meal to cook on Sunday afternoon so that dinner is ready to heat & eat when you get home from work on Monday night....always a sanity saver on a "Too Tired to Cook Monday"!

1 Chicken breast fillet
40g olive oil
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
2 tp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
300g Basmati rice (I used Brown rice)
1/2 cup raisins or sultanas
1 Litre water
1 Tbsp Vegetable stock
2 tomatoes
1 capsicum, finely diced
1 bunch of broccoli
1 handful of parsley, finely chopped
Cubed pumpkin

Add onion, garlic and chop
3 sec /Sp 6

Add 20g of oil, half cumin seeds (1 tsp) and cinnamon and saute
2 mins / 100 C / Sp 1 with MC off
SET ASIDE and add raisins

Using a frypan add oil, remaining cumin seeds and Chicken and cook until cooked through

Meanwhile, add rice to TM basket and rinse. Add water and stock to the bowl and place the basket with rice into TM
Add pumpkin, capsicum and broccoli to varoma and continue cooking 

15 mins / Sp3 / Varoma temp
 (Note: If using Brown rice cook for 30 min and add vegetables in varoma in last 15 minutes
Transfer vegetables and rice to a large bowl, mix through onion/raisin mixture and diced tomatoes.

Slice or shred cooked chicken and add to rice. Season with pepper.

"Coconutty" Berry Cake

I love berries in any cake and also love the healthy touch of Chia seeds and Brown Rice in this recipe, which I found on the Recipe Community by the Foodie Mum. I have changed a couple of the ingredients and this recipe has now become a favourite in our house for our regular weekend morning teas.

150g Frozen mixed berries
approx 1/3 cup of Shredded Coconut
170g Brown Rice
100g Raw Almonds
70g Flour
2tsp Baking powder
90g Rapadura Sugar
2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
200g Coconut Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Macadamia Oil
2 eggs


Preheat oven 180 degrees Celsius
Grease and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin

Spread berries out in cake tin and sprinkle with coconut

Brown rice into TMX bowl and grind
1 min / Sp 9

Add Almonds
30 sec / Sp 9

Add Flour, Baking Powder Sugar and Chia Seeds and blend
10 sec / Sp 5

Add Coconut Milk, oil and eggs, vanilla
15 sec / Sp 5
Scrape bowl and repeat
15 sec / Sp 5

Pour batter over berries and coconut and bake for approx 40 mins until inserted knife comes out clean. Leave to cool for 5 mins before taking out of cake tin and removing baking paper.

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

brown rice crackers

I've  been  meaning to post this for ages.  I made  these crackers with some leftover cooked brown rice.  I'm wondering if it would work with other leftover cooked grains like quinoa,  buckwheat or millet.

210g cooked brown rice (or 110 g uncooked)
300g uncooked brown rice
1 tbsp of linseed (could use chia or sesame or other seed of choice)
1 tsp sea salt
50g EVO
60-80g H20

heat over 180 degrees
If need to cook 110g rice
put uncooked rice into clean dry bowl 1 min sp 10
add all ingredients - only 60 g of water 20 sec sp 7
add more water though the lid if need to- mixture should come together as dough
roll between 2 sheets baking paper
score with pizza cutter
bake 30 minutes until brown

Lazy Leftover Deconstructed Roast Pie

This is a version of of Quirky Cooking's leftover roast meat pie.  Mine is for the lazy ones among us.  I usually do this quickly on a monday after work when we've had roast lamb or beef on a sunday night.

Ingredients
1 or 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry depending on how many you wish to feed
1 clove garlic
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick celery
1 tbs coconut oil
handful mushrooms if you have them
A few leaves of kale if you have it chopped up
leftover roast meat cut into bite sized pieces
leftover roast vegies (including any mash or rice)
leftover gravy
stock concentrate
water
2 tbsp flour of choice (cornflour, spelt, rice flour) to thicken

1. Preheat oven 180 degrees and take puff pastry out of the freezer to thaw
2.Garlic 3 sec sp7
2. add onion, carrot, celery (I also had some zucchini that needed using) 5 sec sp 5
3. add coconut oil 100 degrees 3 minutes sp1
4. add mushrooms 10 sec sp 3
5. cook 100 degrees 2 minutes sp 1
6. add kale, meat, roast veg, gravy, flour and top up the bowl with some water and add a little stock concentrate.  100 degrees 10 minutes reverse soft (may need longer to thicken up)
7.  Carefully cut pastry sheets into 4 squares.  Place on a lined baking tray and pop into the oven.
8.  Serve pie mixture in a bowl topped with square of pastry

Night before sourdough pancakes

I have Karen to thank for putting me onto this fantastic recipe.  I have a sourdough starter in my fridge which I like to use for making bread but I have to be super organised with all the rising etc. So this recipe is an easy way to use your starter without all the hassle of making bread.

You make most of the batter the night before then just add the last bits and pieces in the morning.  I use whole spelt flour but I think any flour would work find.  Photos forthcoming......

Ingredients:
1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups H2O
3 1/2 cups whole flour  (may need a bit more or a bit less depening on thickness of starter)
3 eggs
4 tablespoons sweetner of choice (I use maple syrup)
1/4 melted coconut oil or butter
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp salt

1.  The night before (or any time up to 3 hours before) add starter, water and flour.  Mix 20 sec sp 4 and leave in the bowl overnight.

2. In the morning add the rest of the ingredients and mix 20 sec sp 4 until combined.

3.  Cook in the frypan with a little coconut oil as per usual pancake.

I like to serve mine with the strawberry sauce from the EDC and some ricotta.  I use half the sugar as the recipe suggests and vary the berries to whatever is in the freezer and I make the sauce whilst the pancakes are cooking.

A great weekend breakfast that even dads can do!