Ingredients:

Crust

300g of peanuts

7 chunks of ‘naked’ ginger (or glace ginger)

200g of fresh dates

Filling

3 ripe avocados

150g of coconut oil

200g of raw cocoa

pinch of Celtic sea salt

Agave nectar

1/2 cup of gluten free icing mixture

Method:

Place the peanuts, ginger and dates in a food processor and blitz until it forms a dough with chunky bits of nuts in it. Oil your hands and press into your tart dish base and sides. I used a rectangular fluted one, lined with baking paper. The fluting can make it difficult to remove this kind of crust so I avoided the fluting by using the baking paper. Place in the freezer to firm up while you make the filling.

Clean out your processor bowl and blade and dry it. Put all filling ingredients in the bowl and process until it is smooth and well mixed. Adjust the agave nectar and icing mixture to taste.

Spread the filling into the tart case and set in the fridge to firm up.

Serve with fresh berries and garnish with mint.

1 cup coconut flour
2 cups Gluten Free Self Raising Flour
1 gluten free chorizo (Hans makes GF chorizo) chopped finely
1 + 1/2 cups of grated cheese
1 cup chopped basil and rosemary
4 small eggs
1 + 1/2 cups rice milk
190gms melted butter

Method:

Place flours in a large bowl then add the chorizo, cheese and herbs. Stir to coat fillings in flour.
Make a well in the centre. Combine eggs, rice milk and butter, then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix gently until all ingredients are combined. Coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture so if it seems a bit dry add a little more rice milk.
Place large spoonfuls into a greased muffin tin, (i used silicone patty cases and they fell out very easily) and bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. Less if making mini muffins.
Cool in for 10 minutes and then turn out on wire rack.

I made mine with vanilla flavour only in the shells and filled them with homemade lemon curd. The very happy tasters said it was like little bites of lemon meringue pie.

My second batch I added ground coffee to the macaronage and filled them with the left over avocado chocolate mousse, pictured in the white spoons. But the latest batch, a colleague told me, were the best yet. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients
Shells

• 2 egg whites
• 5 tablespoons of caster sugar
• 1 cup of icing sugar
• 1 cup of hazelnut meal + 2 tablespoons extra
• pinch of salt

Filling

• 100g of dark chocolate
• 1 cup of cream
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon of kahlua (but next time will double this, or replace with instant coffee powder

Method
Follow the instructions on Bravetart’s post for the shells. Let them cool before filling.

The filling is a ganache. Heat the cream gently with the kahlua, until bubbles show but don’t bring to a boil. Place the chocolate in a metal bowl over the top of simmering water. Use a bowl that covers the saucepan opening so very little steam escapes. Pour the cream over the top of the chocolate and stir until its smooth and well-combined. Remove from heat, add the butter and stir to combine. Let this cool, stirring occasionally. I put mine in the fridge to hurry it along, but monitor so it doesn’t go too hard too quickly. When cold and thick, whip it with a hand/stick mixer so it’s more like frosting.

Match up your shells so they are equally sized pairs, pipe filling onto one, then sandwich the shells together, twisting slightly.

Pasta Ingredients

Drying pasta over oven racks with oven fan blowing

• almost 1 cup gluten-free flour mix (I used Aldi Has No plain flour)
• quinoa flour to make up the previous to 1 cup
• 1/2 cup lupin flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon of Celtic sea salts
• 1/3 cup of water
• a bit less than 1 tsp of xanthan gum

Chilli vegetable sauce

Velvety chocolate mousse in demitasse cups

Ingredients

• 2 avocados
• 5 tablespoons of cocoa
• 2 tablespoons of nut butter (I used ABC almond, brazil, cashew)
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 6 dates
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla paste
• 1 teaspoon of mandarin zest
• 3 tablespoons of coconut milk

Method

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process until a smooth and creamy texture.
Spoon into serving dishes. I used demitasse cups. Decorate with more zest, crushed nuts of your choice, or whatever catches your imagination.

Don’t be too rigid about the quantities – I will be experimenting with the balance. I’m even considering a peppermint chocolate version.

Just the topping…

Ready to eat.

Ingredients:

• 1 handful of raw pistachio kernels
• 1 handful of raw cashews
• 10 dates
• 3-4 tablespoons of sunflower seed butter (or any nut butter)
• some coconut oil melted
• a little bit of honey to taste

Method:

1. Process the pistachio, cashews and dates until crumbly mix of small particles
2. In a small bowl mix the sunflower seed butter with a little honey and some coconut oil. Only use the extra oil if your nut butter is dry. It should be soft and spreadable like cake frosting.
3. When your slice has cooled, spread the nut butter mix over the top and then sprinkle a thick layer of the nut and date crumbles all over it. Pat it down so that it sticks in the frosting as much as possible.

Then cut the slice into pieces and store in an airtight container if they don’t get eaten immediately.

Pistachios, Cashews, Dates in the food processor attachment of my stick mixer.

Assembled Ingredients

]]> http://aabaga.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/pistachio-date-topped-chocolate-slice/feed/ 0 20120516-222906.jpg Peta Pistachio topped chocolate slice Topping Ingredients Ingredients http://aabaga.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/frozen-choc-bananas/ http://aabaga.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/frozen-choc-bananas/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 04:30:27 +0000 Peta https://aabaga.wordpress.com/?p=122 Read More →]]> An easy, no-cook recipe to use up those bananas that have all ripened at once.

Banana halves on bamboo skewers

Ingredients:

• Ripe but still firm bananas
• 1 pack of dark chocolate buds – adjust depending on how many bananas you have
• crushed peanuts (groundnuts)
• shredded (or desiccated) coconut

Method:

Dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in crushed peanuts or shredded coconut

Peel bananas and cut in half. Stick a skewer or ice-block stick into each portion.

Place on foil, or baking paper, on a tray in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate buds in the microwave. Add a little coconut oil if you need to make it go further.

Dip each banana into the chocolate and use a spoon to ensure full coverage.

Before the chocolate hardens completely, roll it in either the coconut of nuts. Place back on the foil and return to the freezer until you are ready to eat them.

Voila, the finished product

This weekend project I made without referring to any recipes. It needs some planning as the beans must be soaked overnight. If you are too impatient and have some tinned white beans you could use them, but I didn’t check on the weight of soaked cooked beans. It was more than 1 tin of beans though.

Folding in the egg whites

Ingredients:
Cake

• 1 cup white beans
• 1/2 a cup of honey
• 1 cup of pie apples with no added sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 3 eggs separated
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 2 limes

Topping

• 1 package of cream cheese
• stevia and/or agave nectar to taste
• strands of lemon zest
• a little extra lime juice
  

  Ready for topping

Method:

Soak the dried beans overnight and cook gently in water until they are soft. Let them cool to room temperature.

Grease your cake tin and preheat the oven to 180C. I used a round silicone ‘tin’ and greased it with coconut oil.
Take some strands of zest from half of one lime, then grate the rest of the zest. Set aside the strands for decorating. Juice the limes and set aside the juice until the cake is out of the oven.

Put the beans and pie apples in a food processor and blend until very smooth. Add the egg yolks one at a time and process. Add the honey, baking powder and poppy seeds and process until fluffy.

Beat the egg whites until fluffy and it holds gentle peaks.

Place the bean mixture in a bowl and gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites. Add the remainder of egg whites and fold in.

Pour the mix into your cake tin and bake for 35 minutes, until golden. It is quite delicate, a bit like souffle so handle carefully. Pour the lime juice over the cake and leave to cool in the tin. It will collapse a little.

When it is cool, carefully turn out of the tin onto a plate.

Topping
Beat the cream cheese with a little stevia and agave nectar. Add the sweeteners a little at a time and taste, until its right. Spread the topping on the cake and sprinkle the zest on the top. Add some berries or edible flowers for decoration.

served with yummy raspberries

Modifications:

• replace sugar with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of agave nectar or honey
• Add some besan flour (chickpea flour) or other gluten-free flour to redress the extra liquid sweetener
• Add 1 tblsp of poppyseeds
• I replaced one of the lemons with a lime

I couldn’t find the base for my small cake tin, so had to use a larger one, so it turned out more like a slice than cake. Because it was not so deep I took it out of the oven after 25 minutes. It would make nice cupcakes too.

For a topping I mixed a tablespoon of honey into Greek yoghurt.

Pastry holds the contents nicely

I have made a number of nut crusts in the past and they have been quite crumbly, but suitable for tarts or recipes where you can press the mixture into the case. For these pies I used a recipe I found at The Cook and the Chef site. It worked very well in the electric pie maker. I used a commercial gluten-free flour from the Aldi range which did not have potato flour like the one mentioned in the original recipe.

The filling is my recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 purple carrot
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 chunk of pumpkin (I used golden sunset)


Curried Vegetables

• 1 cup of mixed frozen vegetables, but you can replace with whatever fresh greens are in season
• 1 piece of fresh turmeric chopped finely
• 1 tsp of ground turmeric
• freshly ground peppercorns
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds
• 1 tblsp of coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of tomato purée, or pasta sauce

Method:

Melt the coconut oil and sauté the garlic, turmeric, onion, cumin seeds and pepper.

Add the chopped carrot and pumpkin and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the other vegetables and the tomato purée. Add a little water if it’s too dry. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently until the pumpkin and carrot are tender.

cooking the gluten-free flour with the water, butter and salt

Read the method for the pastry on the Chef and the Cook website.

Texture of pastry is a little doughy

When the pastry is ready, roll it out and use to line your pie maker, or in your usual pie making method.

Pastry rounds

Rolled between sheets of baking paper, then cut into rounds for the pie maker