Vegan milk chocolate recipe

So my kid has been craving milk chocolate recently (well, in fairness he’s just hoovering up any food, he’s growing so fast and is continually hungry). I’ve been looking into healthier kinds, but even the supposedly healthy chocolates still have a ton of sugar. So I decided to try to make my own…

This recipe is raw vegan, and as long as you keep the same amount of cacao butter, you can vary the other ingredients (so I guess you could make white chocolate too if you only use the milk powder). I initially found it hard to find milk powder, but finally found coconut milk powder in Holland and Barrett – I also bought the other ingredients there. You also need some moulds. I’ve been gathering moulds over the years. I also just used ice cube moulds if you don’t have other ones. Finally, you do also need a very good blender. I used my trusty vitamix for this. Enjoy!

Ingredients

220g cacao butter

175g milk powder (I used coconut milk powder, rice will work too)

150g raw cacao powder

125g sugar (any non-liquid kind)

Pinch of salt

Instructions

Melt the cacao butter in a pot.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the vitamix and blend in short bursts.

Add the melted cacao butter and blend for 2 minutes. The mix will be hot.

Pour into moulds (I added some granola to some for extra effect) and leave overnight to set (put them in the fridge if you want it to go faster).

And that’s it! Well that was easy😊

30 May 2019 0

Carrot & choc chip cookies

I haven’t baked cookies in a while, but after my gorgeous yoga class this morning, I felt inspired! I always try to bake with food that needs to be used up, and today that was carrot. My first intention was to just bake carrot and oat cookies, but couldn’t resist throwing in some chocolate chips…

Ingredients

100g grated carrot

90g oats

90g buckwheat flour (you can use rice flour)

90g sugar (or xylitol)

50g cold butter, diced (vegan butter will work fine)

30g maple syrup

30g tapioca flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp psyllium husk (you can replace this with xanthan but psyllium is actually good for your bowels so I prefer using it when I can)

Pinch of salt

1-2 tbs milk of any kind

50g choc chips (optional – I used 80% cocoa)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Put all the ingredients apart from milk and chocolate chips together in a bowl.

Rub the butter through the rest of the ingredients with your fingers until you have a sticky dough.

If everything doesn’t stick enough, add 1 to 2 tbsp milk.

Then add the choc chips so they’re well divided among the dough.

Turn the dough into a sticky mass and take little chunks out one by one to make the cookies.

Roll the chunks of dough into little balls and flatten them on a baking plate with sheet.

Once all the cookies are shaped, bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

12 May 2019 0

I-can’t-believe-it’s-healthy chocolate cake!

Finally, a lull in work, and so I can get back to baking. Kid’s been complaining about the lack of cake recently, so I’m glad to say there’s been a steady stream of them on our kitchen table in the past week😊

This recipe came about from some experimenting in the kitchen with ingredients I happened to have lying around. It’s super quick, super easy, and ridiculously moreish! If you only ever bake one cake, let this be it… It’s so healthy, it could easily be brunch.

Ingredients

90g brown rice flour

30g teff flour

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

100g xylitol (or sugar – this is very little and you can use 120 to 150 depending on your sweet tooth)

45g raw cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

240g any milk

60g water

80g lactose-free or vegan yoghurt

100g grated courgette (skin and all)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Add all the dry ingredients together and mix until there are no lumps. Then add the rest of the ingredients and again mix well.

Put the cake batter into a lined and oiled cake tin (I used a 16cm diameter tin) and leave in the oven for 30 mins for a gooey effect, 5 mins longer for a firmer effect.

Serve with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

9 Apr 2019 1

Spiced pumpkin granola bars

I was planning to make my usual granola bars but was determined to use up the leftover pumpkin purée from the Spiced pumpkin cheesecake I made yesterday as well as a bunch of walnuts my aunt donated to me… So a new recipe was born, fairly accidentally, and it’s so gorgeous, I just had to share it! These are much chewier than my other recipe which is very much of the crunchy variety. But I’m in love with pumpkins for the moment so I can’t get enough of these recipes!

Ingredients

200g Gluten-free oats

70g walnuts

75g rice syrup (or other liquid sweetener, such as maple syrup or honey)

55g lactose-free or vegan butter

50g xylitol or other sugar

100g pumpkin purée (for the recipe, see Spiced pumpkin cheesecake)

50g dark cooking chocolate

1 tsp gingerbread spices/speculaaskruiden

Pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C and roast the oats and chopped nuts on a baking sheet for 10 mins or until slightly brown.

In the meantime, put the rice syrup, butter, and xylitol in a pot on a medium heat until dissolved. Add the pumpkin purée and mix until well combined.

Add salt and spices to the oats and nuts, and add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Mix until wel combined.

Put in a lined roasting tin and press down well until you get a shape you’re happy with to cut pieces from when it’s solid.

Melt the chocolate au bain marie or in bursts in the microwave (I don’t normally do the latter but was in a hurry this time and it worked very well).

Drizzle the chocolate over the granola mix and put the roasting tin into the freezer for 2 hours. Take out of the freezer and cut into rectangular chunks or the shapes you desire.

These can be stored in the fridge for 5 days or you can keep them in the freezer and defrost as required.

30 Sep 2018 0

Chewy autumn peanut butter cookies

These cookies are my new favourites! They are ridiculously easy to make and bake very quickly so it’s an instant gratification hit 😊 But it’s also veggie packed goodness, so that makes up for it being fairly calorific… Here is the recipe: let me know what you think!

Ingredients

250g nut butter. I tend to use the leftover stuff that’s gone a bit hard as the oil has been used up. Today I used a mix of almond and peanut butter.

65g pumpkin purée (see Spiced pumpkin cheesecake recipe)

80g xylitol or other sugar

100g flour – today I used buckwheat but rice, oats, quinoa… I’m sure all work)

1,5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp gingerbread/speculaas spices

Pinch of salt

Chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170C and put baking parchment ready on a baking sheet.

Mix the nut butter with the pumpkin puree until well combined.

Add the other ingredients and mix well. If the mix is too wet, add up to 30g more flour bit by bit until the dough can be shaped.

Scoop bits from the cookie dough, roll it out to little balls with your hands, and flatten them with the palm of your hand on the baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 mins in the middle of the oven. Let them cool off for half an hour so they become harder (or you can eat them with a spoon if you can’t wait😜). FYI these will remain quite soft and chewy on the inside. That’s just the type of cookie they are.

Enjoy!!

29 Sep 2018 0

Oreo covered energy balls

Part 2 of my prep for my son’s return to school…. Energy balls, with healthy fats, protein, carbs… Can’t go wrong and keeps my kid going from the end of school till dinner time. Again, to coax my child to try them, I added a oreo crumb. He loves them. These are easy to make, though I think it’s easier in a vitamix rather than a regular mixer. You’ll have a smoother finish. These are calorie bombs so enjoy in moderation.

Ingredients

40g pecans

40g almonds

150g dates

45g coconut flakes

30g raw cacao

5g protein powder

5g probiotics

5g flax seed

Two scoops peanut butter

Pinch of salt and vanilla

Crumbled oreos

Method

Put everything together in the vitamin and blend until smooth. Then make small balls of the mix and roll them in the oreo crumb. Enjoy!

1 Sep 2018 1

Lunch bag granola bars with chopped oreos

Is it september already?! To make sure my kid who is currently going through a massive growth spurt has some healthy snacks in school, I’ve been baking some healthy goodies. I’ll talk about the energy balls I made in a future post. But for now I want to share my yummilicious recipe for granola bars… I’ve catered for my kid’s growing needs (ie with added protein powder and probiotics powder) but you can of course leave these out or add your own powders…

So here it is – my recipe is gluten and lactose free and low in sugar, but I’ll give information to make it vegan.

Ingredients

200g gluten-free oats

60g chopped nuts (I used almonds and pecans but feel free to choose what you have in the house)

75g honey (replace with rice or maple syrup to make vegan)

55g lactose free butter (I’m sure it works with vegan margarine too)

50g xylitol

Pinch of vanilla and salt

5g protein powder

5g probiotic powder

And about 50-70g of other ingredients of your choice. I chose (as I wasn’t sure my son would like granola bars – he hadn’t had any before) 50g chopped up oreos.

Method

Start by preheating your oven to 200C.

Chop the nuts fairly well (but so the chunks are still visible, not up to powder stage) and put them on a baking plate together with the oats. Leave them in the oven for 10 mins until they start smelling of granola 😋

In the meantime, put honey, xylitol, and butter into a pot and melt on a medium heat.

Stir all your ingredients together (including the ones you’ve added and press the mix down in a lined baking tray. Press down quite firmly so the bars will stick together.

Put in the freezer for 30 mins until firm, and then cut into bars. Delish!

1 Sep 2018 2

Chewy hazelnut and choc chip cookies with butternut squash

I recently bought Kate Hackworthy’s Veggie Desserts + Cakes, because though most of her recipes aren’t gluten or lactose free, there is so much inspiration to be got from her creativity. Today I made a first attempt at baking her hazelnut and butternut squash cookies. I adapted the recipe so it’s gluten and lactose free, and low in sugar, and the cookies turned out beautiful. My 6 year old nephew/godson helped me and it worked very well, so it’s a lovely recipe to try with kids. So here is my recipe, adapted from Kate’s – the cake is gluten free, vegan if you use vegan butter (otherwise lactose free), low in sugar (sugar-free if you use sugar-free chocolate), and high in protein:

Ingredients

125g butternut squash (you can replace it with sweet potato or parsnip)

115g unsalted lactosefree (or vegan) butter, melted and cooled

150g xylitol or erythritol (this makes it virtually sugar free)

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g rice flour

62g starch (tapioca, potato, or mais all work)

62g protein-rich flour (I used lupin, but I’m sure teff would work too)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt (I used pink Himalayan salt)

50g finely chopped dark chocolate (I used chocolate with coconut sugar which doesn’t raise the blood sugar level as much as regular sugar – this is the only sugar present in the cookies)

50g finely chopped hazelnuts (I used those from my mum’s garden which I’d just roasted last night)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Cut the butternut squash into chunks and put in the oven for 30 minutes or until soft but not burned, then lower the oven temperature to 180C. Puree the butternut squash until smooth.

Beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla together (in a standing mixer or with a handheld one) until combined, then add the butternut squash puree and the other ingredients. Add the chopped chocolate and hazelnuts at the end and combine well. The dough will still be a bit sticky but should hold together well.

Make little balls out of the dough and press them into thick circle shapes on a baking sheet with parchment. Bake for 17 minutes covered with a baking sheet or aluminium sheet to stop them turning too brown.

Once you take them out of the oven, leave them to cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes. It’ll be very tempting to eat them quickly, but resist the temptation 🙂 They’ll remain chewy in the middle with gooey chocolate chunks. Enjoy!!

29 Aug 2018 0