C is for Cacao, and Cruising back home, AND D is for Date

I spent a week at home in New Zealand relaxing for a week, hanging with family. Sometimes the best holidays are the ones when you do a whole lot of not much - this was definitely one of those. J and I spent the better part of a week hanging out in Levin, which is a tiny town in the south of the North Island, population of about 20,000, and not a whole lot going on, so we just hung out with my Nana, weeded her garden, cooked and baked - including a VERY indulgent Banana Cake (from my newly inherited old school Edmonds cookbook, with the quantities in pounds and ounces <3<3<3) with Chocolate Buttercream frosting and whipped cream filling. We also a couple of day trips, as well as having a few nights in the capital city Wellington to complete our week away.

One highlight was definitely the trip over the hill to Martinborough for the day. I was in wine and cheese heaven! If I was to go back I would stay at least a night here and adventure round a little more - you can hire bikes in the town to get around the vineyards and the town centre is so cute. We had lunch at Alana Estate, visited a couple of other wineries, then had some more local wine and cheese at Village Cafe in Martinborough, before visiting my favorite winery of the day - Loop Line in Opaki, small vineyard that produces a delicious drop.

But now, back in Melbourne, reality, the 12WBT (which has been a bit of a fail this round), and this blog... I am only up to 'C' and its already April, I figured I better get cooking and writing, so have also combined 'D' in this post...

Cacao (raw chocolate - YUM) is high in antioxidants (around 4 times the amount of cocoa powder!), has many cardiovascular benefits, AND its an aphrodisiac! There are some great cacao recipes you can try here.

Fresh dates are available in most supermarkets in the produce section. Medijool dates are a good source of fiber and contain high levels of the essential minerals potassium, magnesium, copper, and manganese.

Check out the recipe below, which produces delicious little brownie bites, a combination of these 2 super foods to have with your cup of green tea.



Raw Cacao Fudge Bites
(adapted from Melissa Ambrosini)

1/2 cup walnut
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup dates
1 1/4 cups fresh dates, pitted
1/2 cup cacao powder

Whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor (Thermomix 1 minute speed 9) unitil it is in small crumbs. Press into balls or a small mould and freeze for 1 hour before serving. Store extras in the fridge to enjoy with a cup of green tea as an after dinner treat.

B is for Beetroot

In case you didn't already pick from my last blog posts I am a girl who enjoys baking, and I have my old faithful Raspberry Red Velvet cupcakes that I fall back on as a crowd pleaser. But the whole idea of making red velvet from food coloring always puzzled me - a little research had me figure out that red velvet originally came about by coloring with beetroot, which is amazing, loaded with nutrients, and can be eaten raw grated on salads, is the perfect burger filling, and the canned stuff is pretty tasty in salads too.

SO here is my attempt at making baking healthy with a REAL Red Velvet recipe - a super moist ad tasty cake, more purple than red, and I think if I was to make it again I would leave out the coffee, or use less, it was a little over powering. Official taste tester PVC says "moist and palatable, had me salivating..."and we ate it so quickly I forgot to take an after photo, but its an excuse to make it again.

Beetroot Red Velvet Cake  
Adapted from "Tender" buy Nigel Slater

2 medium sized beets, rinsed and peeled
100g dark chocolate (I used 85%)
2 tbsp espresso (next time I would use water)
100g butter (room temp)
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs (separated, room temperature)
1/2 cup castor sugar

Lightly grease a small cake pan and line the bottom with baking paper. Boil the beets in salted water until they’re very tender, about 1 hour. Drain then rinse the beets with cold water. Cut into chunks and thermomix until you get a puree. (If you don’t have a TMX, use a food processor or cheese grater). Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
In a large bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Once it’s nearly all melted, turn off the heat (but leave the bowl over the warm water), pour in the hot espresso and stir it once. Then add the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the heat.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
When chocolate mix has cooled, stir the egg yolks together and mix them into the melted chocolate mixture. Fold in the beet puree.
Whip the egg whites until stiff, gradually adding the sugar. Using a spatula, fold them into the melted chocolate mixture, being careful not to overmix. Then fold in the flour and cocoa powder.

Pour into the prepared cake pan and reduce the heat of the oven to 160ºC. Bake the cake for 30 minutes, or until the sides are just set but the center is still slightly wobbly. Be careful not to overbake, the original recipe said longer but my over tends to be hot!
Let cake cool completely, then remove it from the pan.
Serve with yogurt and/or ice with cream cheese icing when cool

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

A is for Almond

After a week in Bali, drinking my weight in cocktails and gaining a few holiday kilos, I am ready to get back on the 12WBT bandwagon! The plan for this whole alphabet cooking thing I promised in my last post was to pick a new healthy food each post, cook with it, so starting with A....Almonds are a rich source of nutrients and are really good for you. I eat them as a snack, or with yogurt, in my smoothies, on my muesli, and also in baking. They are gluten free too, so bonus for people with allergies! This week I made pita bread using almond meal. Almond meal is available in the supermarket, or you can whizz up your own (TMX, 10 sec/spd 9). These are gluten free, low carb, and delicious - winning!

Pita Pockets

1 egg
1/2 cup of water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp coconut flour (I didn’t have any so I used a tbsp of dessicated coconut TMX, 15 sec/spd 9)
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 170. Whisk egg, water and oil together (TMX 10 sec/spd 5). Add dry ingredients, mix well till a smooth paste forms (TMX 30 sec/spd 7). Pour into 2 equal portions onto a well greased sheet tray. Bake for 15-20mins. Cool on a wire rack and they will keep for a couple of days, or eat warm from the oven, served with some TMX homemade hummus (1 can drained chickpeas, 2 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp tahini, 2 tbsp oil, juice of 1 lemon) or tzatziki, or stuff with salad for a tasty snack or meal.

2013 and more cookies

The year has begun! I have made some resolutions and intentions for the year ahead, I have signed up for another round of the Michelle Bridges 12WBT kicking off in Feb, I am looking at doing my personal training qualification at some point during the year, and I am going to attempt my first triathlon!

But before all the crazy health stuff kicks in, here is the recipe I promised in my last post. Shortbread always reminds me of my grandparents house in Levin, New Zealand, where there always used to be a tin of this in the cupboard that Nana had baked - its deliciously creamy and so super easy to make. And only three simple ingredients you are bound to have in your cupboard.

Shortbread
(from my Nana)

250g softened butter (not melted)
125g icing sugar (raw sugar in TMX 20 seconds/Sp 10)
375g flour

Rub ingredients together in a large bowl, or for TMX, 3 mins closed lid on the knead function. Roll into a log. Slice approx 1cm thick. Place on baking tray lined with baking paper, and press down gently with a fork. Bake at 160 for 25 mins. Make sure your oven is not too hot or you will over cook the shortbread and it will go brown, the result should be a creamy colored biscuit.

20 Jan - PS I tried an AWESOME variation on these today, add 75g chopped apricots (chop in TMX for 10 secs on Sp 7) and press a square of chocolate into each before baking. Dreamy.

As for my baking and blog, I have decided on a new approach, and will cook my way through the alphabet from A - Z, starting with an ingredient that begins with A, then using a different healthy ingredient each post which starts with the next letter - so watch this space...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

With all the festive celebrations, this is not the time of year to be on a diet! There are so many good foods, treats, wines, beers, ciders and everythings to be had, as well as good times with family and friends. I am home in NZ with the family, Thermomix-less so persevering with good old fashioned cooking (I haven't forgotten how).

Drink of the festive season would have to be the Old Mout cider range. I have it every time I come home, they now have a Passion flavor to add to my list of favorites, currently topped by the Feijoa flavor. Epic. I will be filling the suitcase.

One thing I did try this year that I have not tried before are Christmas fruit mince pies. These are not something we generally have at home, so when Dad claimed from out of nowhere that all of a sudden we needed them to make it more Christmassy, I thought I should give them a shot. Result - amazing...

I had a whole day baking day in the kitchen, made mums famous afghans from my previous post, some red velvet and blueberry cupcakes, a variation on my basic vanilla cupcake recipe (one tablespoon of red food coloring and one tablespoon of cocoa mixed into a paste then added, plus 3/4 cup frozen berries), and also nana's shortbread (which is ridiculously easy to make, and will share the recipe for that too in another post).

Christmas Fruit Mince
(adapted from Annabel Langbein)

½ cup brandy
1 packed cup soft brown sugar
300g currants
150g raisins, chopped
150g cranberries
1.5 cup stewed pear (apple would also work)
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground mixed spice
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
¾ cup almonds, toasted and chopped

Melt sugar into brandy over a low heat. Add all other ingredients and cook for 30 mins. Store in fridge until ready to be used - this has no preservatives, but you could put in a sterilized jar and keep for a short period if you don't use it all.

Citrus Shortcrust
(adapted from BBC recipe)

250g flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
140g soft butter
Zest 1 lemon
Zest 1 orange
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp water

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until the mixture comes together as a soft dough. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (my mum has a super powerful over so I had it at 160°C). Roll out two-thirds of the pastry to about 2-3mm thick. Cut out 12 discs with a larger circle for the bases (if you are using a slightly larger circle than the size of your pie dish this will work fine to mould into the dish. Spoon a tablespoonful of mincemeat into each pastry case then roll out the rest of the pastry. Cut 12 discs or stars for lids. Place the stars on top of the pies and press down gently. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

What's eating you?

Well, the 12WBT (for me for this round anyway) is officially over, I'm sure I will be back for another round as there is always more to learn, and I would highly recommend it. I feel like the biggest lesson I learned is that about 80% of weight-loss is what you eat - the whole "you are what you eat" thing is true! It doesn't matter how much you exercise if you still fill up on junk food. How annoying is that! Sadly it's not enough to stop my bake-fests, so never fear! And sadly I finished the 12WBT with a binge - a weekend in Adelaide visiting my friend Katy and her gorgeous little family, and drinking and eating mostly junk food for two days straight... OOPS! To be fair you can't really go to Adelaide without visiting a surrounding wine region or few - we went to just one this time around. South Australia is well known for its wine (mostly reds, but it was not a red wine kind of day),  and the hot weather took us to McLaren Vale, where we visited a really cute little brewery, Goodieson which had a delicious Pale Ale and IPA, Hugh Hamilton Wines for a tasty Rose, and Penny's Hill which had a really nice Sauvignon Blanc.

I figure since I had a binge-fest in the weekend I might as well have one more treat - the guys in the office will appreciate them tomorrow...

Raspberry Red Velvet cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow tops

(I can't take complete credit for inventing these, I got the idea from heartbreakpies blog and have made the cupcakes a few times, and even won a bake off with them at work (yes another bake off!). I have wanted to try using a toasted marshmellow topping on something for awhile - nothing like a Tuesday night home alone to try new things...)

Use my previous Vanilla Cupcake recipe but leave out the vanilla, and when up to the stage when adding the dry ingredients, mix together 1 tablespoon red food coloring (one day I will try a proper red food cake) and 1 tablespoon cocoa in a small bowl making a smooth paste. Add with the dry ingredients. Mix in TMX until just combined (TMX 10-20sec ish/Reverse/Sp 5).

Spoon into cases, add 2 raspberries to each and push in slightly. Bake for 12-14 mins, pull the cupcakes out, put the oven on grill. Place a large marshmallow on top of each cupcake and put back in the oven until the top is just toasted and the marshmallows begin to melt. This will not take long so don't walk away from the oven! Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. The marshmallows will be a little sticky until they cool.

C is for cookie... omnomnomnom...

Another week or few of failing somewhat to stick to the diet, and I blame cookies (hopefully you have had a chance to read my past post introducing my Cookie Monster), wine (on that note, another plug for Redbox Winery, their Cabernet Blanc is amazing - light drinking, similar to a Rose, perfect summer wine), and Melbourne Cup. I thought I had my self control well refined but it turns out I have a weakness for cookies, and get into the whole internal debate with myself when presented with the temptation - surely one won't hurt...???

One of my (numerous) favorite cookies, which has been a not so secret love of mine since the days when we used to go on our family Christmas camping trips to the Coromandel, is Afghans. Nana would always bring enough baking to feed an army, and I always used to sniff these babies out and make sure I got my share - the list of other delish treats such as Ginger Crunch, Fruit Cake, Surprises, Choc Coconut Slice were all equally as good but these ones are something extra special. They are one of my mum's favorites too, so she has got Nana's recipe off her, and was kind enough to share it with me. J is also a big fan of these

Afghans 

200 grams butter, soft not melted
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 1/2 cups  flour
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 cups corn flakes
2/3 cup of dark chocolate drops or buttons

Pre-heat the oven to 170. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar, add flour and cocoa powder and mix. Fold in the cornflakes (don't worry if they smash up). Roll into balls, place on trays and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
Melt the choc drops (I do this in the microwave, 10 sec at a time, stirring in between). Mix well until the chocolate is a smooth consistency. Drizzle on to cookies. (Nana used to put a walnut on top too but I prefer them without).