Ice-Cream and Giggles

Donuts are one of my obsessions. Nothing can quite compare to a hot cinnamon donut from a bakery, slightly oily, sweet and fluffy. Ah, those were the days when I could eat 6 donuts and wake up with a flat stomach the next morning. Alas, those times are gone, but at least I can still make vegan donuts that taste like nutella, are gluten free and refined sugar free!

Prep: 12 minutes, baking, 10 minutes. Cooling: 15 minutes: Total Time: 35-50 minutes.


Makes around 9 donuts.


You will need:

1 tbsp ground flax seeds soaked in 2.5 tbsp water
1/3 cup coconut sugar
2 tbsp melted vegan margarine
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup melted loving earth hazelnut chocolate butter or a vegan nutella option
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp gf baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cacao powder

Plus around 50 g of chocolate for icing (I used salted caramel and dark)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. In a bowl, add to the flax egg the coconut sugar, margarine, almond milk and chocolate hazelnut butter. Whisk.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda, then add cacao powder. Mix.
4. Pour into a piping bag, and pipe into a lightly greased donut tin.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
6. Let cool for around 10-15 minutes, then dip into some melted chocolate!

So I believe I have, in the past, professed my love for Nutella. On numerous occasions. Ahh that gooey hazelnut concoction is to die for! Except that it is not vegan friendly. This Nutella however is super delicious, only requires 2-3 ingredients and half an hour of your time. I used a favourite product of mine, du chocolat drinking cocoa which is sweetened with natvia (stevia), so it's a sugar free option. This recipe would probably work with other drinking chocolate powders (just make sure it has no dairy), but then this recipe would not be sugar free. The soy milk powder is optional (it is hard to get, I know: I found mine from iHerb), but it does help make it creamy, like the traditional Nutella.

Makes 1 jar. 

You will need:

2 cups of raw hazelnuts
2-3 tbsp du chocolate drinking cocoa powder
2 tsp organic soy milk powder (optional)

Method:

1. Place your hazelnuts on a lined tray, and bake in oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10-12 minutes. Remove when you can see the skins starting to peel off. Let cool for ten minutes.
2. Once the nuts are cool, rub them between your hand to remove skins. You don't need to get all the skins off, but try to get most.
3. Blitz the hazelnuts in your food processor/blender. Have your machine on low until the oils start to release and a gooey hazelnut butter is formed. This can take 5-10 minutes. Be patient!
4. Add du chocolat powder, 1 tbsp at a time until you reach desired taste. If using soy milk powder, add as well.

The vegan ice-cream cake has, for a long time, been on my to-do list. As my first try at this dessert, I decided to make it reallllly epic (despite the cake being a baby size). I am talking three layers of crazy flavour goodness, topped with dark chocolate shavings, berries and flowers kind of epic. Oh, and it is also healthy and you only need 4 ingredients! The verdict? Trust me, more ice-cream cakes will be coming your way...and I should cover cakes in flowers and berries more often! I fell in love with how it turned out, so I decided to share it here! I used a baby springform tin (5 cm high and 12 cm diametre), but I think if you times it by three (i.e. 3 bananas per layer), it should fit in your average cake-size tins.

Serves approx 4 people, 15 minutes preparation, 1-2 hours in freezer.

You will need:

3 large frozen bananas
1 tbsp cacao/cocoa
1-2 tbsp vegan nutella (i.e. any hazelnut/cacao spread: I used this)
1-2 tbsp almond butter

+ a spring-form tin, approx: 5 cm high and 12 cm in diameter.

1. Line the base of your springform pan with some baking paper (this will make it easier to remove the cake later on).
2. For the chocolate layer: combine one frozen banana and 1 tbsp cacao in a food processor until combined. Try not to add liquid, as this will make the cake harder to cut into etc. With a spoon, spread out the ice-cream into the springform pan. Try and make it as smooth as possible.
2. For the nutella layer: combine one frozen banana with 1-2 tbsp vegan nutella. Repeat, smoothing out this layer on top of the chocolate layer.
3. For the almond butter, combine one frozen banana with 1-2 tbsp almond butter. Repeat, smoothing out this layer on top of the nutella layer.
4. Place in freezer for 1-2 hours.
5. Remove from tin  and serve! When serving, add some shaved vegan dark chocolate, cover with berries and edible flowers!

These "nutella" popsicles are delicious, healthy, refined sugar free with a decadent chocolate coat covered in nuts. The only "unhealthy" thing about this recipe is the coconut oil in the chocolate, but what is wrong with a little coconut oil every now and then?

Makes approx. 4 mini popsicles, 10 minutes preparation, 4 hours freezer time.

You will need:

For the popsicles:

1 banana
1/2 cup of almond milk
2 tbsp vegan nutella (I used Mayvers) or you could make your own such as with this recipe.

For the chocolate topping:

1/4 cup melted coconut oil
3 tbsp cacao/cocoa
2 tbsp maple syrup

+ crushed nuts to top (I used walnuts, but hazelnuts would also be a great idea)

1. Combine ingredients for the popsicles in a blender until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds. Place in freezer.
2. If using popsicle sticks, add them to the molds after they have been in the freezer for an hour.
3. After the popsicles have set, combine ingredients for the chocolate in a bowl until combined. Prepare your crushed nuts.


4. Remove popsicles from moulds. Dip in chocolate in whatever way you like (I experimented with full dipping, half dipping, dipping at an angle etc), then sprinkle nuts on top of the chocolate before it sets. Place on baking paper, put in freezer for five minutes or more and serve.


Tip: if you want to cover the whole of the popsicle in chocolate, pour into a tall glass (one that is wide enough to fit the popsicle) and dip it in. It will allow you to coat the popsicle easily.

Have you ever lusted over a nutella pizza? Well, what about a vegan nutella ice-cream pizza? Well, if you have, you are in for a treat! Imagine a fresh pizza base, creamy nutella ice-cream, strawberry and banana all in the one wonderful mouthful! And do you know what is the best part about this recipe?

It's healthy.

I mean, the base is really only flour, yeast and a dash of oil. The ice-cream is only banana, hazelnuts and cacao, topped with strawberries and banana. Which means:

No added sugar!

A delicious treat made from fruit, nuts and cacao!

In regards to the pizza base, this is my go-to recipe for all things pizza. You can use it if you want, or use a premade base, which you will need to do especially if you want a gluten-free base. I have tried to make this pizza base recipe gluten-free before, but it failed and wouldn't rise. So feel free to use your favourite pizza base recipe!

For the pizza base (makes one pizza), adapted from "Better Homes and Gardens: Best Bread Machine Recipes."

1/2 cup water
2 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups of bread flour
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1. Add all ingredients to a bread making machine according to manufacturers instructions. Select cycle, and when complete, remove dough from machine. Punch down, cover and let rest for 10 minutes, then roll into a base.
2. Pierce with a fork! then bake for roughly 10 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius or until golden brown.

N.B. If you don't have a bread making machine: add warm water + yeast and salt to a bowl, let sit for 5 minutes until yeast reacts. Then sift in the flour and mix with hands, add olive oil, mix again until combined. Cover bowl with glad wrap and let it sit to rise for an hour to two hours. It should almost double in size.

For the ice-cream:

2 large frozen bananas
4-6 tbsp vegan nutella (I used this) 

1. Combine ingredients in a food processor until combined. If it won't mix, add a dash or almond milk or coconut water until it reaches a smooth stage. It is a good idea to make this just prior to serving, so it is in that soft-serve stage which makes it easier to spread over the pizza base.

Assembling:

Pizza base, nutella ice-cream, approx 5 strawberries and one banana.

1. When pizza base is cooled down, with a spoon smooth on the nutella ice-cream.


2. Add your chopped strawberries and bananas to the ice-cream. Serve immediately, before the ice-cream starts to melt! You can always stick it in the freezer for 10-20 minutes before serving, but not for too long as you don't want the pizza base to freeze!

We've all done it. Reached for a spoon, twisted the lid off, and gone for it. I am of course referring to the delicious and ever so satisfying moment when you put that heaped spoon of Nutella in your mouth. Heavenly. The way the smooth spread melts in your mouth.... I am sure you get the point: Girl Loves Nutella: Love Story Part Une. However, I have unfortunately reached the point where if I indulge in such an activity, I feel sick and nauseous. This of course leads to the breakup: Love Story Gone Wrong: The Sequel to Girl Loves Nutella. Fortunately for me, there are a number of vegan "Nutella" spreads: or in other words, Hazelnut and Chocolate spreads. I won't be making vegan Nutella in this post (if you are really keen on making your own Nutella you should check out this recipe) but instead I will be using "Mayver's All Natural Hazelnut and Cacao Spread", which is only made from Cacao and Hazelnuts (still keeping in tune with my "natural ingredient" ideal). I decided to use bananas again as the ice-cream base, as Nutella and Banana go so well together (Nutella and Banana Crepes anyone?)


You will need:

2 bananas (frozen if possible)
1/4 cup or more of almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
4-6 tbsp or more of vegan "Nutella"


1. In a food processor or blender, combine the ingredients. I used frozen bananas this time, so a food processor worked the best. Add more milk if needed, and add more "Nutella" if needed, until it reaches the desired taste.
2. Pour into a metal tray, and if desired stir in 2 tbsp more of "Nutella" so that there are streaks of the spread in the ice-cream. If you used un-frozen bananas, you can add the "Nutella" in the last stage of mixing the ice-cream, so that you do not lose the streaks.
3. Stir your ice-cream every 30 minutes until ready to serve (if you can wait that long!). If you used frozen bananas, your mixture will only need 30-45 minutes in the freezer.

N. B. Why you should use frozen bananas:
1. It cuts down preparation time
2. The mixture is (in my opinion) more creamy
3. For aesthetic reasons: the colour won't go as grey and funky.