Chocolate Banana Cakes

One of these things is not like the other ... wait a minute. Scratch that. Neither of them are like the other. In one small way. Okay, I'll admit it. They are almost identical. :)

They are both delectable chocolate banana cakes made with a couple of over ripe bananas just begging for a chance at fate. They both have everyone's favourite superfood -- raw cacao. They both contain very little sweetner and a decent amount of protein. In fact, they are identical in every respect except for one naughty little detail. The bottom cake contains an addition of a few decadent morsels of Callebaut dark chocolate ...

Now, I have to confess I'm not much of a chocolate eater, and I tend to turn up my nose at banana. (Cooked is okay, but raw? Erk.) However, I live with a couple of true chocolate lovers and banana eaters. My little son's first experience with chocolate was raw cacao nibs, which taste to me exactly like dirt. However, to him they are wonderful. I guess I don't  need to bring up the cigarette butt eating incident again, but ...

These little cakes were very popular in our house. We did half the batch with Callebaut morsels, and half sans. The raw cacao make them taste gratifyingly chocolately even without the punch of the chocolate. However, my husband will attest that they certainly aren't harmed in any way by the addition. ;)

ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1/4 cup clear agave

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 over ripe bananas (about 1 cup)

1 cup pecan meal

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of freshly ground black pepper (optional)

1/4 cup raw cacao powder (or cocoa if you must ;))

1 cup kamut flour (finely milled, pastry flour texture, whole grain, please)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 to 1/2 cup of high quality chocolate morsels

directions:

preheat oven to 345 and prepare 24 muffin cups (or use a rectangular pan if you prefer)

1. lightly warm the milk and oil together to melt the oil (coconut oil is a solid below 24 degrees)

2. add agave, and eggs, and stir briskly to combine

3. add vanilla

4. lightly mash the bananas (don't puree), and stir into the wet ingredients

5. stir in the pecan meal, sea salt, cinnamon, and black pepper

6. stir in the raw cacao and baking soda

7. add the kamut flour and mix thoroughly

8. if you are not adding chocolate morsels, spoon the batter into 24 muffin cups

9. if you are using chocolate morsels, add 1/2 cup chocolate morsels to the batter, and spoon the batter into 24 muffin cups

10. if you are adding chocolate to half the recipe as we did, spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups, then add 1/4 cup chocolate to the remaining batter, and spoon the remaining batter into 12 more muffin cups.

11. bake at 345 for 22-24 minutes in the upper half of the oven, or until the tops spring back when pressed lightly with a brave finger.

12. use them to bribe your husband to clean up his room.

Stuffed Pasta -- here's the recipe for real this time

Well, I'm about to share with you one of my most personally prized recipes. After much trial and error, I came up with a pasta dough that is super easy to make, unbelievably good for you, has a wonderful texture, and tastes divine. Even my husband, who is usually pretty lackadaisical about food (to my chagrin -- sometimes I want him to get a little bit more excited about the things I make) was impressed. He said it was the best thing he'd ever eaten in his life.

I use a food processor to make the dough. I know traditionalists take a big pile of flour and make a well in it. But I am definitely pushing away the boundaries of traditional pasta.

ingredients:

150 grams frozen spinach, defrosted. (I suppose you could use fresh spinach if you like, but I always just keep a few bags of organic spinach in the freezer for convenience. You'll have to be careful about the quantity of flour added if you use fresh)

1 egg

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tsp sea salt

dash nutmeg

dash black pepper

1 1/2 to 2 cups kamut pastry flour (whole grain)

directions:

1. pulse the spinach in the food processor until it is a green gooey mass of puree

2. add the egg, almond flour, sea salt, and black pepper, and whirl until  combined

3. add the first 1 1/2 cups of flour and pulse until combine. add the remaining flour a little at a time and pulse until the dough forms a firm ball. once the ball forms, don't add any more flour.

4.  wrap in parchment followed by a plastic bag, and set it aside to rest.

meanwhile, there is filling to make!

I made a lovely filling by sauteing some shallots in coconut oil, allowing them to cool, then mixing that into ricotta, a couple of eggs, seasoning it with sea salt, pepper, and some herbs. My two year old turned his nose up at it and refused to eat it.

So, this time I kept it very simple:

simple ricotta filling:

ingredients:

1 400 g container ricotta

2 eggs

1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 cup grated parmesan (there's this cheese guy at the Riverdale Farmer's Market who sells the most amazing raw milk parmigiano reggiano -- swoon)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp oregano

dash of nutmeg

dash of black pepper

directions:

1. combine and season  to taste :) 

You can also do a more complicated filling if you prefer. My mother in law can't eat dairy, so I made a filling from roasted portabellas, shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, and walnuts, jumped up with some roasted garlic and roasted red onion. The whole thing sang nicely with the addition of some ground hemp seeds, almond meal, nutritional yeast, a dash of lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar. Very yummy. But any roasted vegetables could work.

And now the moment you've been waiting for -- the making of the stuffed pasta.

directions:

1. divide your dough into 15 gram balls using a kitchen scale. Or, if you are not as ocd as I am, you can just make smallish balls of dough. A little less than an inch in diameter is good.

2. keeping the balls covered by parchment topped by a damp cloth as you work so they don't dry out, roll them out and fill them, one by one. I guess they roll out to about 2 1/2 or 3 inches in diameter

3. the dough is a little sticky, but I wouldn't add extra flour. Just work quickly so your rolling pin doesn't get dry and crusty.

4. Put some filling near the center of the circle of dough. A little spoonful will do it.

5. fold the dough over itself in half, and press the edges tight. I actually find this easiest to do by picking it up and pinching the edges together

6. Avoid over-filling the dough, or you won't get a good seal, and there will be hell to pay when you boil  the pasta.

7. I do a quick press on both sides with the times of a fork. Who knows if this does anything. But it looks cute.

8. As I work, I line up the finished pasta on a lined baking sheet. You don't want them to stack, because they will stick to each other. They freeze really well, and can be boiled from frozen in about 15 minutes. To freeze, put the filled baking sheet in the freezer until the pasta is frozen through. It can then be bagged and tagged appropriately, to be used when your in-laws come for dinner an you want to impress them.

9. you can also use them the same day. To store for a few hours, put them in layers separated by parchment (including underneath them) in an airtight container in the fridge. 

10. To cook from fresh, bring a largish pot of water to a boil (put a little olive oil in the water). When the water has reached a boil, add the pasta. Once the water returns to the boil, cook for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. You can either toss them in a pan with a little tomato sauce, or simply top them with our favourite tomato sauce (or top them with a little olive oil (or coconut oil) and parmesan). If you like pesto, hey, why not? 

11. serve with a little pride and your favourite salad 

12. My son was impressed because the cross section is vaguely fish shaped, and he thought they were fun to eat when I cut them up for him ... 

Zesty Crackers

I'm an addict. I've been forced to acknowledge it. But I can't stop nibbling on these crackers ... so good. These are my favourite snack right now. They are high in protein, and chock full of zesty deliciousness. Must. Eat. More.

ingredients:

2 eggs

4 tbsp organic coconut butter (this is made from ground up coconuts and is delicious -- I use Artisana)

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp water

1/2 cup flax meal

2 tbsp mesquite powder

1 1/2  tsp sea salt

1 tbsp chili powder (not the same as chili pepper. and depending on how spicy yours is, you might want to adjust this. mine is not 'hot' at all, just savoury)

1/4 tsp ground chipotle (optional)

3 cups almond flour (JK Gourmet)

1/2 tsp baking soda

directions:

1. warm the coconut butter lightly to melt it.

2. add the water, vinegar, and beat in the eggs

3. add the flax meal, and mix thoroughly

4. add the seasonings and the mesquite, and mix

5. add the baking soda, and mix thoroughly

6. add the almond flour cup by cup, and mix thoroughly

7. bake the dough now, or wrap securely and save for later

8. divide the dough into four portions

9. roll each portion of dough between pieces of parchment, or on a silicone baking sheet, and covered by a piece of parchment. Don't try to roll directly on the dough on your counter,  because you will get a sticky mess and then you'll curse my name forever and stop reading my blog ...

10. once you have achieved a reasonably thin flat dough, score it into squares with a dull knife directly on the mat or parchment. Be careful not to get the edges thinner than the rest.

11. put the parchment or silicone mat onto a baking sheet, and bake at 300 for 24 minutes in the upper half of the oven. If you are baking 2 trays at once, switch positions half way through. Turn off the oven after 24 minutes, and leave the crackers in for another 30. This will make them nice and crisp, without burning them.

12. Break the crackers apart into squares and store them in an airtight container when thoroughly cool.

13. hide them so no one else knows they are there. Just kidding. Sort of.

update: if these last you a number of days, and have for some reason become ... uncrisp ... 30 minutes in a medium heat oven (around 250 or 275) will render them once again delightfully crisp. 

rainy day variation: 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar instead of 2, 1 tbsp chili powder instead of 1 1/2 tsp, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast -- still zesty and delicious ... but different. I like it!

Autumn Soup

Tuesday morning November 2nd meant the final farmer's market at East York Civic Center until spring 2011 :(  

Bob Proracki from Round Plains Plantation (http://www.ontariosweetpotato.com) brought me 2 brand new sweet potato types that he grew for the first time this year. Unlike the bright orange, soft fleshed sweet potatoes most people are familiar with (Bob has those, too), these genres have a dry flesh. One is a bright purple fleshed  cutie called the Okinawa, and the other is white fleshed, equally cute, and is called the Mirosaki -- both named after places in Japan. I lived in Japan for a few years in the 90s, and fell in love with the dry fleshed sweet potatoes that the street vendors would roast up at street fairs ... My decade plus long search to find these same treats here brought me to Bob and his fabulous chemical free fare. Tuesday morning was also a fond farewell to our other East York farmer's market fave -- Hillsview Farms. We stocked up on some chemical free produce from them -- some of the best carrots I've ever tasted in my life, sweet broccoli, very nice squashes, bright happy tomatoes, and some adorable little mini cabbages.

In honour of our final farmer's market of the season, we made a lovely roasted vegetable soup when we got home. 

ingredients:

1/2  package dried lima beans, soaked overnight, and rinsed (made 14 cups of beans)

4 tomatoes

1 1/2 baby cabbages

1 carrots

1/2 small butternut squash

1 small onions

2 small (or 1 med/large) cloves of garlic

1 small or medium sweet potato (I just used the usual orange ones in this soup)

sea salt

pepper

coconut oil

marjoram

oregano

1 broccoli

directions:

1.  bring lima beans to a boil and then remove from heat and soak  for 2-3 hours or overnight

2.  rinse lima beans well, and put in a large stock pot with water just to cover

3.   add a few generous tablespoons of coconut oil

4.   add sea salt and black pepper

5.   chop tomatoes and add to pot

6.   dice carrot and add

7.  chop cabbage and add

8.  add salt, pepper, marjoram, and oregano

9.   cover the pot and bring it to a low boil or a heavy simmer. This will need to cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours

10.  dice the squash, and oven roast on a cookie sheet at 345 for 1/2 hour

11.  dice the sweet potatoes, and oven roast at 345 for 1/2 hour

12.  peel the garlic cloves, quarter the onions, and oven roast at 345 for 1/2 hour

13.  once the garlic and onions are cooked through, chop onions and add both to pot for simmering process

14.  once the lima beans are thoroughly cooked, add squash and sweet potatoes for a final 30 minutes of cooking. At this point, add in as much more water as you need to get the correct broth-to-solids ratio that will please your palate most. Adjust the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper or herbs if needed. 

15.  chop broccoli and add for last 10 minutes of cooking

You can serve this with bread or crackers for a simple meal, or as a starter, if you prefer.

This will make about 4 quarts of soup, so you'll need your big soup pot or dutch oven to make this. It will freeze well in glass jars. Or you can halve the recipe like any normal person would do. :)

It is savoury, delicious, and comforting on a chilly evening. Yum

Organic Chocolate Chip Cookies -- Happy Hallowe'en

These cookies are neither vegetarian -- they contain butter, milk, and eggs -- nor are they particularly healthful, although they do contain all organic ingredients. They are, however, very tasty. This recipe makes a soft cookie that is crisp on the outside when fresh. They keep well, and are enjoyable even a week later. They are also free of chemicals and preservatives, don't contribute in anyway to Big Tobacco (most of the candy companies are actually owned by Big Tobacco), and are thus my Hallowe'en shellout of choice. I'm baking a big double batch of them, and will individually wrap the cookies, and label them with my name, address, and the ingredients used. No doubt some people will opt to throw out rather than enjoy homemade Hallowe'en goods. However, we did the same last year, and they were very well received.


ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (melted)
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp cinnamon

2 cups large flake oats

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups unbleached pastry flour

1 cup chocolate chips (our favourite isn't organic -- callebaut morsels ... sooooo good)


directions:

1. combine butter and sugar
2. mix in the eggs
3. stir in the milk
4. add the vanilla
5. add the cinnamon and the sea salt
6. stir in the oats
7. add the apple cider vinegar
8. at this point, it is important to let the mixture sit for a good 10 minutes. This will allow the oats to soften and soak a little, which will help the cookie have a soft and chewy texture instead of a crumbly texture.
9. add the baking soda and stir
10. add the flour, and mix well
11. add the chocolate chips, and stir well.
12. drop by spoonful onto a lined baking sheet. Flatten and shape with a damp fork.
13. bake in a preheated oven at 345 for about 15 minutes

makes 3 dozen (large) cookies

Basta Pasta -- Simple Baked Pasta

When we were up on Lake Huron this summer, I went to the local store for ingredients to make a quick baked pasta. They had no organic ricotta, nor did they have organic cottage cheese. I found some quark, of which I had never hitherto heard. It turned out to be a lucky accident, as this made the creamiest, most fabulous baked pasta EVER.

(I like this kind of baked pasta over lasagna for a quick weekday meal because it's very simple to throw together)


ingredients:

2 cloves garlic
3 small onions
8 medium tomatoes
'
1 small package mozzarella
1 container quark
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

2 packages rigatoni or fusilli (whole grain)

sea salt to taste
herbs
black pepper
extra virgin coconut oil


directions:

1.   sauté garlic in plenty of coconut oil (1/4 cup)
2.   add onion and sea salt and cook to translucence
3.   add tomatoes and cook

4.   grate mozzarella, mix with quark and eggs, add milk, sea salt and herbs, black pepper

5.   soak uncooked pasta in cold water for 5 minutes and then drain

6.   mix pasta with hot tomato sauce, then stir in cheese mixture

7.  put into large rectangular (lightly oiled) pan, pressing in with scraper

8. cover top of with milk to ensure all pasta is submerged

9.  bake at 345 for 50 minutes. Allow time for it to set after it comes out of the oven

(optional: grate some parmesan on top before baking)

Last night we made a quick baked pasta dinner just based on what we had lying around:

ingredients:

1 cup cooked cauliflower

1 cup frozen spinach

1 carrot

2 boxes (375 g) of whole grain fusili

2 cups of (frozen) tomato sauce (see pizza post for recipe)

1 500g package of pressed cottage cheese (or 1 container of ricotta, or cottage cheese)

1 cup of milk

1 cup of grated mozarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 cup blanched almond meal

2 eggs

sea salt

black pepper

nutmeg

oregano

1 cup milk

1/4 cup grated parmesan

directions:

1. puree cauliflower, spinach, and carrot

2. mix  pureed vegetables with cheeses, eggs, sauce, and 1st cup of milk

3. add in nutritional yeast and almond meal

4. add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and oregano to taste

5. soak uncooked pasta for 5 minutes in cold water, and then drain

6. mix pasta into cheese mixture, and scoop/pour into an oiled rectangular baking dish

7. sprinkle the second 1/4 cup of grated parmesan on the top, and pour the 2nd 1 cup of milk over the top to make sure all bits of pasta are covered

10. bake at 345 for 50-60 mintues

11. allow to set before serving.

Basically, you can get the picture that I pillaged my freezer and pantry for whatever I had, and threw it in. It turned out high in protein, with a decent amount of vegetables in it. Anyway, judging by how quickly my picky eaters wolfed it down, it tasted great. Don't be afraid to be creative, just don't put too much of something in so that it overwhelms the rest of the ingredients. If you don't have the exact ingredients, you can probably find something that will work instead, just as well, or simply do without.

I thought I'd add a footnote that this particular one turned out wonderfully, and like most baked pastas, was even better the next day. And, you can easily divide it into portions and freeze them individually to be pulled out of the freezer for quick meals whenever you need.

Bagels

My earliest memory of bagels is riding in the car on dark winter Sunday mornings at about 6 a.m. with a big bag of hot bagels on my lap, making our way home from the bagel bakery up on Bathurst Street, mouths stuffed with hot, fresh bagels ...


I'm not going to get into a debate of Montreal bagels vs New York bagels, or even pretend my bagels have any kind of authenticity to them. However, unlike any bagels we can buy at Bathurst Street's famed bagel bakeries, or the bagel factory at the top of the mountain in Montreal, or at Zabars in New York, my bagels are pretty good for you :).


Like their brethren, my bagels are boiled before being baked, which gives that sought after chewy bagel texture. However, they involve no white flour whatsoever. Sadly, even the whole grain options at the bagel bakeries tend to be at least 50% white flour.


My bagels are full of flax seed, whole grain flour, occasional additions of some super food, and are moist and tasty, if not authentic.




ingredients:


1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp bread yeast


1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 egg (or 1 tsp egg replacer + 2 tbsp water, or just 2 extra tbsp water)
1/2 cup  spelt flakes
1/4 cup flax meal
4 cups organic red fyfe flour (up to 4 1/2)
1 tbsp sea salt




directions:


1. mix the honey into the warm water, and add the yeast. Set this aside to do its thing.
2. combine the flour, flax, spelt flakes,  and sea salt into a mixing bowl, or into the bowl of your mixer
3. add 1 beaten egg, the vinegar, and the foaming water/honey/yeast mixture, and gradually turn it into a dough. Add the final cup of flour bit by bit until you have achieved a dough that, while not sticky, retains a clammy feel and supple elasticity.
4. knead the dough for at least 15 minutes
5. once the dough has been kneaded enough, return it to its bowl, and cover it with parchment and a wet towel, and allow to rise for 45 minutes or 1 hour.
6. once the dough has risen nicely, divide it into 24 equal parts (approx 56 g each), and form these balls into rings by sticking your finger through the center and flattening slightly.

7. place the rings on lined baking sheets, cover with parchment and damp towels. Allow to rise for another 45 mintues or 1 hour.
(you will need 2 baking sheets for this, 12 per)
8. bring a large pot of water  with a couple table spoons of baking soda in it to a boil
9. boil the bagels 6 at a time (or 4 at a time if your pot is smaller) for 2 minutes per side (flip with a slotted spoon or slotted metal spatula)
10. return boiled bagels to the lined baking sheet (draining in the slotted spoon or slotted spatula
11. sprinkle bagels with seeds, sea salt, seasonings, spelt flakes, or whatever turns your fancy
12. bake at 345 for 25-30 minutes, swapping the upper and lower trays halfway through
13. eat with gusto and good friends
14. don't boil your bagels whilst naked.

Oven Roasted Cauliflower

This is a fun way to prepare cauliflower that my sister Deborah recommended to me. My husband says it still tastes like cauliflower and makes a bit of a face when he eats it. My 2 1/2 year old devours it with greed and gusto.




ingredients:


4 cups of cauliflower, dismembered into florets
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
a pinch or two sea salt




directions:


1. toss the cauliflower with the coconut oil and sea salt
2. place on a lined baking sheet or in a large glass baking pan
3. bake at 345 for about 30 or 45 minutes, or until it is done to your liking


You'll probably realize that coconut oil is a solid at room temperature, making it hard to toss vegetables with it. However, if you put the vegetables and the oil in the baking dish and then put them in the oven for 2 minutes, remove them from the oven, toss, and return them to the oven, you'll find it's no longer a solid. However,  if you prefer your oil a la olive, be my guest.

Oven Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew

Inspired by Sara and her squash and chickpea stew ...


I had three adorable if generous 'bone' squashes from my favourite chemical free farmer at the East York Civic Center, and decided that today was the day to use one of them. Squashes to keep very well, so it could be weeks before the next squash post. We'll see.


I oven roasted the individual ingredients before combining them all in my red cast iron casserole (named Nemesis after a Red Dwarf star) and cooking them all together to let the flavours do a final meld.
The individual roasting section of the preparation doesn't really add much in terms of labour because honestly it's the cutting and dicing that feels the most labour intensive. However, it does add a little in terms of time. But also adds much in terms of flavour, integrity, and over all result. If you wish to skip the pre-roasting, I'd love to hear how it turns out for you. Yummy, I'm sure. I oven roasted some cauliflower and was originally going to add it, but then decided to just serve it as a side dish. With a loaf of freshly baked bread. :)


ingredients:


1 butternut squash, gutted and cubed
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
4 cups cauliflower florets and greens, chopped
4 cups cooked chickpeas
1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (see the pizza recipe post) (or you could chop some cherry tomatoes in half and throw those in instead -- yum)


1/2 tsp chili powder
black pepper
sea salt




directions:


1. toss butternut squash with coconut oil and a touch of salt and oven roast on a large baking sheet (line with silicone or parchment
2. toss onion and garlic with coconut oil and oven roast in a small oven proof baking dish
3. toss cauliflower with coconut oil and a touch of sea salt and oven roast in a rectangular glass pan
(you'll be able to fit the squash on your bottom rack, and the other two on your upper rack, and thereby do all at once)
4. oven roast everything at 345 until each one is individually done. I really hate under cooked garlic and onion, so I probably roast these much longer than some people would.  The cauliflower should be nicely brown in spots, and kind of translucent and soft. If you've never had cauliflower this way, try it and give thanks to my sister Debbie :) The squash is nice when it's a little brown in places.
5. you can reserve the cauliflower like I did to use as a side dish, or you can use it in your 'stew'.
6. In a large casserole (cast iron, stainless steel, ceramic, or glass), combine the oven roasted vegetables and the chickpeas. Pour the coconut milk over everything, and stir gently to combine.
7. pour on the tomato sauce. You don't want to use so much that the tomato dominates, but rather just enough that it pulls the flavours together nicely, and balances out the richness of the coconut milk. I found 1 1/2 cups did the trick for me.
8. I really like chili powder (not the same as chili pepper) and decided to add 1/2 tsp to this stew. I really like the way it works with the sweetness of the roasted vegetables and the brightness of the tomato. If chili powder is not your bag, maybe just sea salt and black pepper would work.
9. put the loaded casserole into the oven, and bake for 45-60 minutes to meld the flavours fully.
10. Serve with fresh bread, by itself, sided by cauliflower, wearing only a smile, topping quinoa, or consume standing over the stove directly from the casserole whilst wearing a guilty expression.

Oven roasted cauliflower and cauliflower greens that didn't make it into the stew

Squash stew, fresh bread, and Nemesis

Well, we've eaten this for the past three days or so, and I find it to be wake-up-in-the-night-and-raid-the-refrigerator delicious. Not that I do that ;) But I do look forward to a bowl of it for dinner. Extra Yum!


Let me know what you think :)

Apricot and Pistachio Power Bars

Unlike the previous power bars I have posted about, these ones do not have a homogeneous, melt-in-your mouth texture. The pistachios and cashews are coarsely chopped instead of finely ground, and the goji berries are chopped as well. There are no chocolate undertones in this one. It's more of a berry burst, like a mouthful of sunshine on a chewy apricot afternoon. I like 'em.


ingredients:


1 cup pistachios
1 cup raw cashews


1 1/2 cup organic unsulphured apricots -- update to 2 cups
2 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil -- update to 4 tbsp
1/4 cup flax meal
1/2 cup goji berries


1 tbsp acai powder
1 tbsp pure green barley powder
2 tbsp maca powder


1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger powder




directions:


1. coarsely chop the pistachios and cashews (by pulsing in your food processor). Set aside
2. puree the apricots in your food processor
3. add coconut oil, flax seeds, and goji berries and chop
4. add acai, barley powder, and maca, and combine
5. add salt, cinnamon, and ginger, and combine
6. add pistachios and cashews, and pulse to combine, but try not to puree
7. press very firmly into a square baking pan
8. chill for several hours or overnight
9. cut into squares. I usually make 32.
10. share with your friends
11. oops on second thought -- keep them to yourself until further notice. They are too crumbly! Update soon ...


Update:
by returning the crumbly bars to the food processor with an extra 1/2 cup of apricots and 2 more tbsp of coconut oil, they decided to cling together properly, and have become chewy bars with good integrity. 

Coffee Cake

REALLY MOIST AND REALLY YUMMY

I thought it would be fun to whip up a coffee cake last night. We have music class on Saturday mornings with our friends, and our Aunt Sarah and Uncle Ted often visit before that on their way home from the St. Lawrence Farmer's Market. I wanted to be able to offer something wholesome yet delicious to go with coffee or tea, or to be consumed by the fistful by toddlers from chubby little fingers. You could definitely make this cake as 24 muffins if you didn't want to make it as a large rectangular cake.

This cake is redolent with cinnamon and vanilla, and that slightly complex dark sweetness that comes from maple syrup. It was well enjoyed by everyone, and is really a little too wholesome to be truly a cake or a cupcake, although surprisingly sweet, especially when you consider out how little sweetener there is in it.

ingredients:

1 1/2 cups organic whole milk

2 organic eggs, large

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil (I prefer Nutiva)

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tsp sea salt

2 cups fine almond flour (I used JK Gourmet)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

a quick grind or two of black pepper

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup fine kamut flour (whole grain)

1/2 cup organic thompson raisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans

directions:

preheat the oven to 345

1. warm the milk slightly

2. add the coconut oil, and stir until melted

3. add eggs and stir briskly

4. add vanilla and maple syrup, combining well

5. add salt and spices and almond flour, and stir well

6. add baking soda, mix well

7. add kamut flour, and mix thoroughly but briefly

8. add raisins and pecans

9. pour batter into a greased rectangular pan, and sprinkle the top with a little cinnamon and coconut palm nectar

10. alternately, you can bake this in 24 prepared muffin cups (use paper liners if you aren't using silicone)

11. bake at 345 for 35 minutes

I cut my rectangular cake into 24 pieces, so the following information would be the same for the cake or the muffins.

each piece/muffin contains:

1/2 tsp egg

1/2 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp maple syrup

1 tsp raisins

1 tsp pecans

2 tsp kamut flour

3 tsp milk

4 tsp almond flour

etc.

Not such a huge amount of sweetner, and plenty of protein.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.