Ice-Cream and Giggles

In the midst of data collection, database creation, writing a literature review and a 7,000w candidature essay, dense and nutritious food is what my brain needs. Oh, and coffee! These caramel slices really hit the spot. The nutty base, sweet caramel, and chocolate ganache are perfect together. Though I am a bit biased, not only does my sister love these treats, but my boyfriend's omnivore sister liked them! She liked them so much she actually asked for the recipe! So if that isn't an incentive to make you create these ASAP, I really don't know what is. ;)

Prep: 25 minutes. Cooling: 1 hour. Total Time: 1 h 25 minutes.

Makes 12-18 slices.

You will need:

For the base:

1 cup gluten free rolled oats
1 cup raw almonds
4 tbsp maple syrup

For the caramel:

3/4 cup almond butter
3/4 cup maple syrup
100g coconut butter (or coconut oil, but it won't be oil free)
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt

For the ganache:

150g vegan sugar-free dark chocolate
170g lite coconut cream or milk

Method:

1. Blitz the oats and almonds in a high-speed blender or food processor until a flour is formed. Add maple syrup. If it is still too dry, add a dash of water. Press down firmly into a lined baking tin of the desired size.
2. For the caramel, in a saucepan over low heat combine the almond butter, maple syrup, and coconut butter until smooth. Add vanilla and salt, then pour on top of the base. Place in the freezer.
3. For the ganache, melt the chocolate and cream together in a saucepan over low heat until a smooth ganache is formed. Pour over the caramel layer then place back in the freezer and let it set for an hour or so.

Notes:

- This slice doesn't travel well, as the ganache layer wants to melt off the delicious caramel layer. I recommend bringing the slice in the tin if you wish to take it to a party, replacing it in the freezer to let it cool, then cutting it when you want to serve it.
- Try cutting the slice up then wrapping each square individually and placing them back in the freezer for easy to grab snacks.

These lil' babies are a current obsession of mine. Great for snacks for work, uni, school, you name it! Though they rarely last 2 days in a row at my house (between my sister and I), they are really easy to make if you have time constraints and good if you're one for prepping meals.

Cookie Dough Protein Balls (recipe altered from One Green Planet)

Prep: 10 minutes.

Makes 15-18.

You will need:

1 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp ground flax meal
1 cup almonds
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla essence
15g vegan vanilla protein powder (like a pea and rice protein)
4 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup vegan dark chocolate chips

Method:

1. Blitz oats, almonds and flax meal until a fine meal is achieved in a food processor. Add rest of the ingredients minus choc chips until a dough is formed.
2. Using a spoon, mix in the chocolate chips. Roll into balls as desired.

A few weeks ago, I started craving eggnog like nothing else. The strange thing is, I had never tried eggnog before at that point, but I couldn't get the scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation out of my head, where Chevy Chase is drinking eggnog out of adorable moose mugs (which you can buy from Urban Outfitters!). So while I have never tried eggnog before, I found a recipe for a vegan version on food52.com. And fell in love! It's thick, creamy, milky, and spicy all at once. So wonderful! However, the batch I made was a little too much for me to drink all by myself, so I decided to be adventurous and make some waffles with the leftover eggnog that I had.

What a call. Eggnog waffles turned out to be seriously awesome. Whilst I used homemade eggnog (buying vegan eggnog, or even eggnog for that matter, in Australia is impossible), I am sure if you are lucky enough to live in America, you could probably use store-purchased vegan eggnog (like Silk) to the same effect.

Serves 1. 

Prep: 5 minutes, Resting: 10 minutes, Cooking: 5 minutes. Total Time: 20 minutes.

You will need:

1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour (or more buckwheat flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
2.5 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup vegan eggnog (alcohol free)
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Plus, maple syrup for serving.

Method:

1. Soak the ground flax seeds in the water for 2 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients,  making sure to sift the flours and baking soda. Let the batter rest for 8-10 minutes while you turn on the waffle iron and let it warm up.
2. Pour the batter into the waffle iron, and cook for 3-5 minutes, depending on your waffle maker's instructions. Serve with maple syrup.

I have been forever searching for a chocolate banana bread, and a few efforts in the past have been complete fails. But huzzah, this one was not! I am so impressed with myself, seriously *pats self on back*. It doesn't crumble, it is dense in a good way, yummy, and oil free! It uses apple sauce to replace oil/egg: you can find puree apple with no sugar usually in the baby food section! Weird, I know. Why do babies get all the goods? This bread does have a slight undertone of apple, but the chocolate, banana and apple flavours just get one another, you know?

Prep: 15 minutes, baking: 1 h 15 min. Total time: 1 h 30 minutes.

You will need:

3 small/medium bananas
1/3 cup apple sauce/apple puree
1/2 cup natvia sugar free baking sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup brown rice flour (or other GF flour)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (or other GF flour)
1/4 cup du chocolate drinking cocoa powder 
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cacao powder
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. In a blender, add the almond milk and apple cider, and let rest for 2 minutes (don't blend). Then add the banana, apple sauce and vanilla and blend. Then add the sugar and cocoa and cacao powders and blend again.
3. Pour mix into a bowl. Sift and hand mix in the rest of the ingredients (minus almond meal: just hand whisk that in). Pour into a lined bread tin, and bake for 55-1 h 15 minutes. Check at 40 minutes, then check every 5 minutes with a skewer/tooth pick until cooked (when skewer comes out clean). Remove from oven.
4. Let bread completely cool before cutting (3 - 5 hours).

I have officially submitted my thesis (yay!) and though I still have a PhD proposal to write, I have much more time on my hands to experiment in the kitchen and post here! So, this blog shall hopefully be no longer so neglected!

In all my cheesecake experiments, I had yet to insert raspberries in them. They just add an extra "oomph" I think, you know?  This is another oil-free cheesecake experiment, so enjoy!

Prep: 30 minutes, Freezing 6-8 hours; Total Time: 8h30.

Serves 6-12.

You will need:

Base:

1 cup almonds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1.5 tbsp coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup

Chocolate Layer:

1/2 cup soaked cashews
1 tbsp coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cacao powder
1/4 cup coconut yogurt or cream

Plus 1/3-1/2 cup frozen raspberries for layering

Raspberry Layer:

1/2 cup soaked cashews
1 tbsp coconut butter
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup coconut yogurt or cream
1/3 cup frozen raspberries

Method:

1. Combine almonds in a food processor until crumbly. Add rest of base ingredients, and press into a small lined tin pan.
2. Combine all ingredients for chocolate layer in food processor/high speed blender until smooth. Layer the raspberries on top of base, then pour chocolate layer on top. Place in freezer.
3. Rinse out blender, then add the ingredients for raspberry layer and blend. Then pour on top of chocolate layer. Set in freezer for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight.

Have you ever had a recipe idea in the midst of essay writing that just makes you stop and go "I have to make this now!". Well, this recipe was formed in such a moment. As soon as I had the idea, and since my progress writing a new chapter for my thesis wasn't going so well, I decided to make these tarts ASAP. For those wondering...yes, after my supervisor requested me to write a new chapter, and when I sent her the new draft, she told me to re-write it from scratch. Yep, just 12 days out from submitting my thesis, I am trying to write another chapter. Not exactly the situation you want to be in, to be honest. Though on the bright side, the formatting is 95% done and the rest of the thesis about 90% finished, so potentially I have time. But stress levels, you know, are not the best. But tarts do help, my friends!

So if you have made it through this ramble, you must be wondering what's the go with these tarts? Is there even a recipe here? Well, yes there is! These tarts taste like creamy ice cream with a crunchy base. Yummy! And lavender and blueberry are a match made in heaven, I have no idea why I haven't tried it before! Plus, this is another experiment in oil-free recipe phase, so enjoy!

Makes around 6 small tartlets, or around 1 small 10cm diametre cheesecake.

Prep: 20 minutes, Freezer: 2-3 hours. Total Time: 3h 20 mins.

You will need:

For the base:

1 cup almonds
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1.5 tbsp melted coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the filling:

1/2 cup soaked and drained cashews
1 tbsp melted coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut yogurt or cream
1/4 cup blueberries
1-2 tsp dried lavender

Method:

1. In a food processor/blender, blitz almonds until crumbly. Add the rest of the ingredients until combined, then press into small tartlet moulds.
2. Combine all ingredients for filling in high-speed blender, except lavender. When smooth, add 1 tsp lavender. Add more according to taste.
3. Pour filling into parts, then place in freezer to set for a few hours.

Hi guys! Sorry again for the lack of posts: my masters thesis is now due in 19 days! Super scary stuff, especially since my supervisor told me last Friday I need to write another chapter! I have since frantically written said chapter in a caffeine-infused haze, so you can feel free to imagine me as bogged down at my desk, surrounded by notes, books, chocolate wrappers and discarded cups of coffee. You wouldn't be far from the truth either, to be honest.

So here is a quick recipe, and sorry for the sole slightly-out-of-focus photo: I didn't have time to take proper ones. But if you were after more recipes, I have been posting most on my instagram, but once my thesis is done, I will be posting more regularly on here: I do have a few projects coming up that I am excited about, not to mention a back-log of recipes!

Prep: 20 minutes, Freezing, 6-8 hours. Total time: 8 h 20.

Serves 4-6, in a tiny tin (roughly 15cm x 8cm)

You will need:

For the base:

1 cup almonds
1/4 cup coconut shreds
1 1/2 tbsp coconut butter, melted
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the rose layer:

1/2 cup soaked cashews
1 tbsp coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut yogurt or cream
1/2 tsp rose water or a few drops of rose essence

For the chocolate layer:

1/2 cup soaked cashews
1 tbsp cacao powder
1 tbsp coconut butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut yogurt or cream

Method:

1. In a high speed blender, blitz the almonds until fine. Add coconut shreds, coconut butter and maple syrup. Blitz. Then press into a lined small tin (that has a good depth). Mine was tiny, about 15 cm long, 8 cm wide, and 7 cm high.
2. In a high speed blender, add all ingredients for rose layer except rose essence/water. Once smooth, add a drop or two of your rose essence. It can be easy to add too much, so take it slow until you like the taste. Pour on top of base, bang on the bench a few times to remove air bubbles, and place in the freezer while you make final layer.
3. Rinse out your blender, then add all ingredients for chocolate layer. When smooth, pour on top of rose layer, bang on the bench again, then cover in some cling wrap and place in the freezer for at least 6 hours.
4. Remove from tin, and serve when ready! I covered mine in some chocolate, rose petals, and a raspberry.

"Oh great, yet another caramel slice recipe on the internet." That's what I bet you're thinking. Why make another one? There is probably hundreds if not thousands of vegan caramel slice recipes on the internet. The problem? Dates and oil.

I love dates, don't get me wrong. But there is a time and a place for them. Plus, dates in caramel slice can be a tad rich, resulting in a sickly sweet dessert. And they usually feature copious amounts of coconut oil to help them set. Especially after reading this and an interview with Jamie Oliver, I have been trying to be more mindful about using oils in cooking. It is about using the whole plant to get plenty of nutrients, not just the saturated fat. So how does one make a caramel slice that will set without coconut oil? Coconut butter! Plus, it is super magical and makes the caramel creamy. Yay!

Makes around 12 small squares.

Prep: 20 minutes, freezing time: at least an hour.

You will need:

For the base:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almonds
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the caramel (altered from here):

1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
50 g coconut butter (can use coconut oil but then it won't be oil free)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
dash Himalayan salt

For the chocolate:

45g cacao butter
30g cacao powder
60g maple syrup

Method:

1. In a food processor combine the almonds and oats until reaches a flour consistency. Add maple syrup and blitz. Press into a lined square tin, approx. 15cm x 15cm.
2. In a small saucepan on low heat combine the almond butter, maple syrup, and chopped up coconut butter. Once smooth add vanilla and salt. Whisk again then pour on top of the base. Smooth. Place in freezer whilst making chocolate.
3. In a small saucepan on low heat melt the cacao butter. Once smooth add the maple syrup and cacao powder. Whisk. Then pour on top of caramel, smooth across and place in freezer for at least an hour.