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Raw Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles

September 2, 2010 //
0

This recipe is for the chocolate snobs (go on, own it – it just means that you have great taste).

It’s all about using the best quality raw cacao ingredients that you can find.  In Australia, that means Loving Earth – their single origin, fair trade, organic and truly raw cacao products are insanely amazing.  Unfortunately I don’t know about overseas suppliers but feel free to share your favorites in the comments (without being spammy please).

Chocolate and hazelnuts were meant to be together.  There’s not too much more to explain here, except to note that as usual I’ve opted for natural sweeteners and minimal processing.  The result?  Dark, rich, decadent, chocolaty, nutty, not overly sweet, and chock full of minerals, antioxidants and natural bliss chemicals.  What’s not to love?

Equipment:

  • Food processor
  • Mixing bowl
  • Plate or tray
  • Large pyrex or metal bowl
  • Large saucepan
  • Mixing spoon
  • Parchment paper

Ingredients for Filling:

  • 1/2 cup hazelnuts plus 16 whole nuts
  • 1/2 cup brazil nuts
  • 8 juicy medjool dates
  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 heaped Tbsp raw cacao powder
  • large pinch of himalayan or sea salt

Ingredients for Coating:

  • 1/2 cup raw cacao butter
  • 1/2 cup raw cacao powder
  • 2-3 Tbsp honey or agave (to taste)
  • drop or two of vanilla extract

Step-by-Step:

  1. Set aside 16 hazelnuts for the inside of the truffles.
  2. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup hazelnuts and brazil nuts in food processor and whir until crumbly (even better if it gets smooth like nut butter).  Add dates and coconut oil and whir some more until fully combined.  Add cacao powder and salt, whir a bit more, and remove to a mixing bowl.
  3. Form the filling dough into a large ball.  Divide in half and half again.  Repeat until you have 16 little portions.  Use your hands to form each little ball around one of the whole hazelnuts.  Set aside.
  4. Add about an inch of water to the saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Put cacao butter into the pyrex or metal bowl and suspend the bowl over the saucepan.  Stir constantly until the cacao butter has melted.  Reduce the heat if the cacao butter gets too warm.
  5. Turn off the burner but leave bowl suspended over saucepan.  Add cacao powder, sweetener to taste and vanilla.  Stir until fully combined.  Add more sweetener if you like.
  6. Remove molten coating from heat.  Dip the filling balls into the coating one at a time, then place on a plate or tray covered with parchment paper.  Place plate into the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
  7. Take the truffles out the freezer and give each one another coat of chocolate.  You can reheat the coating over the double boiler again if it gets too thick – but remember you don’t want to coating to get hot, just melty.  Repeat 2-3 times, freezing in between layers, until you have a nice thick layer of chocolate around each truffle.  If you have extra chocolate coating, why not dip some strawberries or dried fruit in it?
  8. Store in an airtight container.  If you live in a warm climate you may like to keep these in the refrigerator, otherwise they will be fine at room temperature.  If they last that long.
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Categories Recipes, Superfoods

FUNctional Food

November 25, 2009 //
3

Check out this cake!

I’ve been thinking for a while about what I’d like to call the Fun Principle. So often this whole raw-health-nutrition scene gets so serious. And yeah, on one level it IS incredibly serious. We’ve talking about our health here, and as the old saying goes, what have we got if we haven’t got our health? So eating the optimal diet is most definitely a worthy goal that ought to be among our highest priorities.

But at the same time, we have to lighten up. I don’t necessarily mean by compromising and eating less healthy foods, though there are times when that might be a worthy decision if it supports your social life and lessens stress – but that’s not what I’m talking about right now. What I’m talking about is looking at food from the pleasure angle. The Yum Factor. The joyful, blissful, pure enjoyment of really amazing food that makes us feel great and buzz with happiness. The kind of food that makes us want to shout because it tastes so good and is so freakin’ full of nutrition you can feel your cells dancing. This is happy food! And it ought to be celebrated.

Hence the celebratory cake above. This is Hi-Cake: full of raw cacao, lucuma and nuts, and topped with a rich raw chocolaty icing made of avocado! I made this cake in honor of my brother, Alex, traveling almost as far as one can possibly go around this little earth of ours to visit me in Australia. After spending 30 hours in transit, doesn’t he deserve a joyful cake? I thought so. And what is more joyful than chocolate cake – what, that is, other than raw chocolate cake full of bliss chemicals and heaps of vitamins and minerals.

The recipe comes from one of my heroes: Kate Magic Wood. Her middle name is Magic! How cool is that? Kate is a super raw foods educator, writer and entrepreneur who lives in the UK and operates the funky website Raw Living. But it’s not just her passion for raw and superfoods that I dig about Kate. It’s her holistic view of things. The way she really gets that the whole point behind this whole nutrition thing is to allow people to fully realize themselves and reach their highest potential, and to provide a basis for the flowering of humanity – the real revolution. And her website is pink and purple – I dig that too. Her superfood recipes are so innovative and have such a sense of FUN flowing right off the page. If only I were in the UK to try some of her food. For now I will have to settle for deriving creative inspiration – like this amazing cake. I added the goji berry spirals because they just seemed to be in the spirit of Kate! I also subbed cashews for brazil nuts and used honey instead of agave – about half as much as called for. Divine.

Look, nutrition is a serious matter. But at the same time it’s a laughing matter! Because joy is the true path to vibrant physical, mental and emotional health. So here’s to utmost nutrition, unspeakable pleasure, and true creativity, which ultimately are all one and the same. Talk about having our cake and eating it too!

Hi-Cake

by Kate Wood

(published at Raw Living)

Time needed: 30 mins, 3 hours setting time
Equipment needed: blender
Makes 8 large slices

By popular demand, here is a raw chocolate cake recipe for you, so you can see what all the fuss is about. These cakes are so nutrient-dense, one slice is a meal in itself, packed with vitamins, minerals, proteins and healthy fats. Easy to make, and even easier to eat! Remember the Hi-bar? The first raw chocolate bar to be sold in the UK (and beyond!), made with cacao nibs and brazil nuts, this is the Hi-bar in a Cake.

Cake:

  • 250 g cacao nibs
  • 250 g brazil nuts
  • 250 g lucuma
  • 6 tbsp agave nectar
  • 150 ml water

      Icing:

      • 2 avocadoes
      • 30 g raw chocolate powder
      • 2 tbsp agave nectar
      • 60 ml water

        Decoration:

        • 2 tbsp goji berries
        • 2 tbsp dried cranberries

          Grind up the nibs and nuts separately in a high power blender or coffee grinder. Transfer to a mixing bowl with the lucuma and agave. With your hands, mix the all the ingredients so you have an even powder. Add the water gradually, kneading the mixture into a ball with your hands. It should end up as a fairly thick dough-like consistency. Press into a springform cake tin, and leave in the fridge to set for a few hours.

          To make the icing, put the avocado flesh in the blender along with the chocolate powder, agave and water. If you haven’t got chocolate powder, you can substitute carob or mesquite. Blend until you have a thick cream. Once your cake is set, you can remove it from the cake tin, and spoon the icing evenly over the top and the sides. Decorate with dried goji berries and cranberries sprinkled over the top. Uneaten cake can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks

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          Categories Gastrosophy, Recipes, Superfoods

          De-stressing with Dessert

          September 17, 2009 //
          2

          When I feel emotionally drained, stressed or otherwise out of sorts, I find the most soothing thing to do is to get into the kitchen. As I begin chopping, mixing, molding and, yes, tasting, I feel myself relaxing, my posture softening, my breath slowing, my mind quieting. I work on instinct, sometimes referring to various recipe books or websites, but always tweaking things as I go based on my personal culinary sensibilities and the ingredients that I happen to have on hand.

          These truffles are something that just sort of happened during one of my evening de-stressing sessions. I really liked the idea of a maca-cacao truffle, something that I’d seen in Matthew Kenney’s book Everyday Raw, and I also had some juicy prunes sitting around. I thought their richness would be wonderful with cacao, but wanted to sweeten the mixture a bit more so brought in the dates, honey and a splash of orange juice. The almond-brazil nut combo came about because of their different flavors and fat contents; they balance each other perfectly here. Cinnamon came in at the last second and I really like the subtle spice it adds to the maca coating (after all, I’m still an American girl at heart, and as obsessed with cinnamon as the rest of my compatriots).

          Not every kitchen experiment is blog-worthy, but I was really pleased with how these turned out. Give them a try, or use them as a jumping off point for some inspiration of your own. Please share your creative results in the comments section!

          Rich Cacao Maca Truffles

          Makes about 20 truffles

          1/2 cup almonds
          1/2 cup brazil nuts

          1/2 tasp Himalayan salt

          1/4 cup pitted prunes

          1/4 cup pitted dates

          2 Tbsp honey

          2 Tbsp coconut oil

          1/3 cup + 1 heaped Tbsp cacao powder

          juice of 1/2 an orange
          a few drops vanilla extract
          2 heaped Tbsp maca powder
          1 tsp cinnamon

          Combine almonds, brazil nuts and salt in food processor and grind to a powder. Add prunes, dates, hon ey, coconut oil, cacao powder, orange juice, vanilla and 1 heaped Tbsp maca powder. Whir until a sticky dough comes together. Place in the freezer for 1/2 hour.
          Put the remaining 1 heaped Tbsp maca in a shallow bowl and mix in the cinnamon. Roll truffle dough between your hands into small balls, then roll in maca cinnamon powder to coat.

          Another recipe I came up with recently on a rainy Sunday (gotta love rainy Sundays, I feel entirely justified spending the entire day in the kitchen and not out frolicking in the sunshine) is a new twist on oatmeal raisin cookies. You may have also noticed that I love oatmeal raisin cookies. I’ve tried a few recipes, and the truth is, they’re all good. This time around I subbed soaked buckwheat for oats, which worked a treat. I like using buckwheat in raw versions of baked goods because they create a really satisfying doughy texture. These cookies are sweet, soft and slightly spicy – everything you want a oatmeal (or buckwheat) raisin cookie to be.

          I use honey here – beautiful, raw, local honey – because it really deepens the flavor. There are differing opinions out there on the use of honey, as some people prefer to avoid all animal-related products, but I personally find it to be health-giving and utterly delicious. I’ve heard that eating local honey is a good remedy for hay fever, too. Personally it makes more sense to me than using agave imported from the other side of the globe, but there are times when I prefer the runnier texture and more subtle flavor of this sweetener in more delicate recipes. Follow your own instincts.
          Buckwheat Raisin Spice Cookies

          Makes 9-12 cookies

          1 1/2 cups almonds, divided

          1 cup buckwheat, soaked overnight and drained

          1/2 cup pitted medjool dates

          1/3 cup raw honey

          2 tsp vanilla extract

          1/2 tsp Himalayan salt

          1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

          1/4 tsp ground cardamom

          Grind 1 cup almonds to a fine powder in a powerful blender, food processor or spice grinder. Remove and set aside.

          Place the remaining 1/2 cup almonds in a food processor and pulse a few times until the almonds are chopped into small pieces. Remove and set aside.

          Combine buckwheat, dates, honey, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and cardomom in food processor. Whir until the mixture comes together. Slowly add in the 1 cup of almond powder and continue whirring until you have a solid dough. Add a little bit of water if necessary. Remove to a large mixing bowl.

          Stir almond pieces and raisins into the dough. Scoop out heaped tablespoons of dough and arrange on dehydrator sheets. Dip the spoon in water and press down the tops of the cookies with the back of the spoon to create even circles. Dehydrate for 2-3 hours on one side, until firm on the outside, then flip onto dehydrator screens and dehydrate another 4-5 hours for a soft cookie, longer for a firmer cookie.
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          Categories Recipes, Superfoods

          Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart

          June 14, 2009 //
          3

          This is a celebration cake! It features a chocolate cookie crust filled with layers of rich chocolate ganache and orange cream. I actually made it about a month ago for a raw potluck that got canceled at the last minute, so instead of attempting to devour the whole thing myself, I stuck it in the freezer. It worked a treat. With Jayson’s birthday in mind, I pulled it out the day before our family celebration. Then we all gorged ourselves silly on this incredibly rich tart for his birthday dessert.

          This amazing cake comes with a word of warning: do not eat late and night, and do not eat in large quantities. It is insanely delicious, but so rich and packs quite a punch of cacao power. So make sure to share it with people you love!

          The idea for this cake is a combination of Matthew Kenney’s Chocolate Hazelnut Tart from Everyday Raw, and Raw Goddess Heathy’s Chocolate Orange Cake. I didn’t really plan for it to be that way – basically I couldn’t find hazelnut extract, and I felt that I needed a bright, clean flavor to cut through all that chocolatey-ness. So I tweaked the tart recipe a bit, stuck an orange cream layer in the middle, and voila! Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart. Here’s the recipe:

          Chocolate Orange Ganache Tart

          *This recipe requires a few days of advance planning, as you need to make the cookie crumbs at least 3 days before the tart. Since the whole thing is pretty labor intensive, I recommend making it in advance for a special occasion and then refrigerating or freezing until ready to serve. If freezing, take it out of the freezer the day before you’re going to serve it.

          Crust
          2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
          1/4 cup melted coconut oil

          Sub-recipe: Chocolate Cookie Crumbs

          2 cups cacao powder
          2 cups oat groats, ground to powder in a spice grinder
          3/4 tsp himalayan salt
          1/2 cup agave
          1/2 cup raw honey
          1 1/2 Tbsp melted coconut oil
          3/4 tsp vanilla extract

          Combine dry ingredients (cacao powder, oat powder and salt) in a large bowl. Add agave, honey, melted coconut oil and vanilla and mix well. You’ll probably have to get your hands in there! Crumble into small pieces onto dehydrator screens and dehydrate for 3 days.

          Now you have lovely cookie pieces to do with what you will! You’ll want to pulse about 3 cups of the pieces in a food processor to get small crumbs to use for the above crust, but you can use extras in lots of fun ways – crumbled over raw ice cream, mixed into raw chocolate or white chocolate base recipes, in other raw cookies, or just munch on them! Store in a sealed jar.

          Back to the Tart…

          Chocolate Ganache Filling
          1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
          1/2 cup water
          1/2 cup agave
          1/2 cup melted coconut oil
          1/2 tsp vanilla extract
          1/4 tsp himalayan salt
          1 cup cacao powder

          Orange Cream Layer
          3/4 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
          1/4 cup fresh orange juice
          1 tsp orange zest
          3 Tbsp agave
          1 Tbsp melted cacao butter
          1/2 tsp melted coconut oil
          tiny pinch himalayan salt

          Garnish
          Dark Chocolate glaze (melted coconut oil, cacao powder and agave)
          Orange segments
          A bit of orange zest

          To assemble the crust, mix chocolate cookie crumbs with melted coconut oil in a bowl until the crumbs hold together. Press the mixture into the bottom of a tart pan and place in the freezer while you make the filling layers.

          Make the chocolate ganache by combining all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor (often these creams require a high speed blender, but mine came out totally smooth in my trusty old battered food processor) and processing until completely smooth. Spread half of the mixture over the cookie crumb crust, and put the rest aside. Place the half-filled tart into the freezer to set while you make the orange cream.

          Make the orange cream by combining all ingredients in high-speed blender or food processor as above. Spread the cream layer over the bottom chocolate ganache layer. Place in freezer to set. After about 1/2 hour, remove from freezer and top with the rest of the chocolate ganache. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve, or freeze if not using with a day or two (remove from freezer one day prior to serving).

          I made a quick dark chocolate glaze by mixing about 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil with 1 Tbsp cacao powder and a bit of agave, then drizzling over tart just before serving. Decorate with orange segments.

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          Categories Recipes, Superfoods

          Breakfast and Beyond: Spiced Hot Chocolate, Grawnola, and Buckwheaties

          March 28, 2009 //
          0
          Grrrrr-awnola and Buckwheaties: Crunchy goodness in a jar.

          Breakfast rocks! There’s something so lovely about waking up, with a whole new day stretching before me, and thinking to myself, “What would I like to start my day with today?” The answer depends both on what’s on hand and my appetite. I always start with a nice big glass of water, and then I usually squeeze myself a fresh fruit or vegetable juice. From there, the possibilities are endless.

          Having been out for a rather filling dinner recently, I woke up the next morning feeling not terribly hungry but in need of a little kick where it counts. So I had the brilliant idea of making myself a nice spicy hot chocolate, full of eye-popping, mind-motiving, body-driving goodness. The recipe is simple and just begs for variations. I poured oat milk (any sort of milk will do – a nice creamy nut milk like almond or brazil nut would synergize gorgeously) into a small pot, and added a heaped tablespoon of cacao powder and agave to taste. Then, I went spice crazy! Like a good American, I adore lots of cinnamon, and I also added a bit of nutmeg, cardamom, and a whopping pinch of cayenne. I heated it slowly over a low flame, removing it as soon as it felt hot to the touch. This drink really gets me going like nothing else. After having it for breakfast, I felt super creative and energized. Powerful stuff. And, it’s all warm and chocolatey!

          “I’m spicy and chocolatey and I’ll kick you in the pants!”

          A little later on, I thought I ought to have something a bit more substantial in my tummy before heading off to work. Grawnola! Again, the American in me just loves a bowl of cereal with fruit and milk, and my raw version is just so much better than any commercial breakfast cereal I’ve ever tasted. The process is simple, though it does take some planning in advance. I soaked a big bowl of buckwheat overnight, as well as a small bowl of almonds and a small bowl of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. In the morning I rinsed and drained all of these and mixed them in a big bowl with the proverbial two scoops of raisins, a handful of chopped dried apricots, a handful of goji berries, some agave, cinnamon and grounds cloves. Then onto dehydrator sheets for a full 24-hours of dehydration. The next morning my kitchen smelled like cinnamon and my grawnola was crunchy and warmmmmmm! Into a bowl with some oat milk and sliced banana.

          My yummy breakfast bowl, with some orange-beetroot juice.

          I’ll let you in on a little secret while I’m on the subject: buckwheat is amazing. When you’re soaking some for your grawnola, soak double the amount you need and dehydrate it separately – just plain – on dehydrator sheets. In less than 24 hours it comes out dry and crunchy, and it goes well on anything. I am a big fan of the crunchy-creamy combo, so my favorite thing is to stir it into some banana ice cream – frozen bananas, pulsed in the food processor with a little almond milk. I made an amazing version the other night, into which I stirred not only buckwheaties but also some carob candies (made by stirring together carob powder, agave and a little coconut oil) and a little ribbon of agave. It totally tasted like something from a Ben & Jerry’s carton, but it was all raw and nutritious. You can use buckwheaties in a million other ways, so trust me, just make it and do with it what you will.

          Somehow this post has gone from breakfast to ice cream. Am I suggesting ice cream for breakfast? Hey, that’s up to you. Just be creative and have fun with it, and let each day be an exciting adventure, culinary and otherwise. We all need a reason to bound out of bed in the morning!

          RECIPES:

          Spiced Hot Chocolate

          1 cup milk of your choice
          1 heaped Tbsp raw cacao powder or ground nibs
          2 tsp agave (or to taste)
          1/2 tsp cinnamon
          large pinch nutmeg
          large pinch cardamom
          large pinch cayenne
          small pinch Himalayan salt
          1 cinnamon stick (for garnish)

          Combine all ingredients except cinnamon stick in a small pot. Heat slowly over a low flame, stirring constantly, until the drink is hot to the touch (but not boiling!). Remove from flame and pour into a nice big mug. Garnish with cinnamon stick.

          Variations: Vary the spices to suit your taste. Other options include clove, star anise, allspice, ginger, black pepper. If you’re sensitive to cacao, replace half of it with carob powder and use half the amount of agave.

          Jess’s Grawnola

          3 cups buckwheat, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
          1/2 cup almonds, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
          1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
          1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
          1 cup sultanas or raisins
          1/2 cup goji berries
          1/2 cup dried apricots, cut into quarters
          Juice of 1/2 an orange
          1/2 cup agave or raw honey
          1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
          1 tsp ground cloves
          1/2 tsp Himalayan salt

          Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Spread over dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 40 degrees C (115 F) for 24 hours. Store in glass jars or airtight containers. Eat for breakfast with milk of your choice and fresh fruit, or on its own as a snack.

          Variations: Try using other dried fruit, nuts and seeds – whatever you like best, or whatever is in the cupboard. Cacao nibs are also a great addition if you want a little extra boost. Vary the spices to suit your taste, and try using other fruit juices instead of orange. Vanilla or almond extract would be lovely too. Let me know what you come up with!

          Buckwheaties

          Place buckwheat in a bowl or jar. Cover with filtered water – the water should be about 1 inch higher than the buckwheat as it expands a bit as it absorbs the water. Soak overnight. In the morning, drain and rinse the buckwheat. Dehydrate at 40 degrees C (115 F) for 24 hours. Store in jars or airtight containers.

          Eat it as a breakfast cereal, stir into raw ice creams, mix with a basic raw chocolate recipe for raw nestle crunch, grind in spice mill into flour for raw breads and pizza bases – do with it what you will! Feel free to post your buckwheatie creations here.

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          Categories Recipes, Superfoods
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