I'm about to head to the train station to go to my parents, but figured I'd share a recipe with you all before leaving! Chocolate pistachio cookies!!
And yes, these are really yummy! (I mean, what can go wrong if you use almond, pistachios, coconut and chocolate!?)
So I wish everyone a great weekend, and perhaps some baking fun when you feel like it. I'm off to have a tasty BBQ now ;-)
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're all enjoying this day!
When it comes to Easter food, I made myself a couple of nice meals, not too different from what I normally eat, but I put a little more effort in it than usual.
Yesterday afternoon I suddenly had a craving for Asian food, I think the warm weather caused that. As you might now, spicy food makes people able to cool down a little. (sounds unlogical, but it makes sense when you think about it) So I ended up going to the Asian supermarket and stocked up on some good curry paste. I bought Patak's Vindaloo Paste (which is generally very hot) and some Mae Ploy Thai Yellow Curry Paste along with some Thai coriander, baby bok choy and a huge bag of dessicated coconut. So I can start cooking spicy as soon as I feel like it. Somehow shopping at the Asian supermarket always feels like a small holiday to me, I love everything about it!
Why would you make pumpkin cookies when you could also make chocolate pumpkin cookies?
Right, that's what I thought!
I don't know why I'm craving cookies all the time, but I really like experimenting with them these days. So far, these are one of my favourites!
Quite moist on the inside, rich chocolate flavour, walnuts..
These would be perfect for an Easter treat! And that's why I decided to join in Kelly's recipe roundup for 'Our Spunky Holiday', the Easter edition!
She has some wonderful recipes on her own blog, go check it out over here: The Spunky Coconut
I needed chocolate and cookies today.. And I had a good reason for that.
The best way to combine my needs: chocolate cookies!
I kept them simple, only used 5 different ingredients and sweetened them with dates instead of agave or something similar. I like my chocolate to be bitter, so if you like yours to be a little sweeter, simply add a few more dates.
Right now, I'm watching Prison Break, my latest addiction, and am enjoying these cookies at the same time. Pretty good!
This post should actually be my mom's post, because she's the one who prepared all this delicious food.
She did so much baking and put a huge amount of time into preparing every single item of food we had today. And it all tasted great! Plus, we had a really good time having this high tea while talking about travelling and sharing our next holiday plans.
Still had some parsnips in my fridge and decided they had to be used.. So, I made a chocolate pudding! Not exactly a combination you'd expect, but it works so well, especially with the coconut and the bananas.
Of course I also got myself (and a large part of the kitchen..) covered in cocoa powder.. They really shouldn't make those boxes so deep, it's too hard to get the last bits out without making a mess! Or maybe I'm just a little clumsy.. I guess we'll never know ;)
My last bake for the next couple of months.. So I made sure it's a good one!
I wanted to get rid of the chocolate I had left so I figured I'd make brownies; coconut brownies. Yum!
It's only got 6 ingredients and you've got yourself a wonderful dessert or Sunday treat.
They have a rich chocolate taste, with a crunchy coconut texture, while still a bit moist on the inside.
Every now and then most people will feel like having a comforting dessert on a lazy, rainy Sunday. Well, today is a lazy, rainy Sunday for me. It isn't raining yet, but it looks as if it can start any moment now.
I had already been planning to adapt a recipe for 'chocolate coffee cups' from one of my cookbooks, as the recipe used milk, cream and sugar.
My version isn't completely guilt free (each serving contains a pretty large amount of chocolate) but it does cut out the dairy and added sugar, so it won't spike your blood sugar as much. The recipe also said this makes 4 servings, but I could barely fill 2 small coffee cups out of it; and since I'm not exactly the type of person who likes small portions, I only made 2 servings. (I didn't need more anyway)
They taste absolutely amazing!
If you want to make these more kid-friendly, I suggest adding 2 tablespoons of agave syrup to reduce the bitterness.
Chocolate coffee cups (serves 2)
- 3/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp arrowroot
- 1/4 cup strong black coffee, freshly brewed
- 100g dark chocolate (containing at least 70% cocoa solids)
1. Take 1 tbsp of the coconut milk and dissolve the arrowroot in it, in a small bowl.
2. Bring the rest of the coconut milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
3. When boiling, add arrowroot paste and stir vigorously for about a minute so there won't be any lumps.
4. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the coffee and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted and a thick, smooth mass has formed.
5. Divide the mixture over 2 small cups and put in the fridge for at least an hour, until set.
Serve with a small spoon and take your time to enjoy every single bite. Yum!
I spent a lot of time in the kitchen yesterday, attempting to make these cupcakes work. It was really hard to get them sweet enough, and unfortunately it simply couldn't be done without adding some agave. Not entirely paleo, but they're worth making for those times you feel like treating yourself with something sweet and don't feel like having fruit. You can simply freeze the ones that are left over and take them out another time.
This morning I had my first taste (I topped it with coconut cream, as you see) and I must say it turned out pretty well!
The chestnut flavour combines wonderfully with the cocoa, and it doesn't taste like banana at all even though there a quite a few of those in there.
My inspiration was this recipe from BBC GoodFood, mine however, don't look like those at all. I simply put the chocolate inside, instead of on top, and they aren't half as sweet as the ones from the original recipe are.
Because I only had 1 jumbo muffin pan, I ended up making 6 jumbo muffins, and I simply poured the rest of the batter into my brownie tin. That turned out pretty well too.
If anyone wonders where I got the chestnut puree; from my local supermarket. I knew they had it for a while, but never had a recipe to use it, so I bought it right away when this opportunity came around.
Chocolate chestnut cupcakes (makes 10 jumbo cupcakes)
- 1 can chestnut puree (439 g)
- 6 eggs
- 3 large, very ripe bananas
- 3/4 cup agave nectar
- 200g almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- coconut cream, for topping
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius and line 10 jumbo muffin cups with paper liners.
2. Puree the chestnut with the eggs, bananas and agave in a blender or food processor.
3. In a large bowl, mix almond flour, baking powder and cocoa until well combined. Stir in the chestnut mixture, until well combined.
4. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups.
5. Bake for approx. 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Let cool and serve with a nice dollop of coconut cream on top.
