Raw freezer oreos

As an obsessive tea drinker I often fantasize about having biscuits with my cuppa however biscuits are..

1- addictive, the pringles (and many other things) once you pop you can't stop and you can often find yourself have 4 or 5 if not the whole pack. With the average digestive bring 70-80 calories a pop that's some painful math for a 'snack'
2- often full of butter and refined sugar, the mcvities milk chocolate digestive has 3.9g of fat per biscuit
3- have little to no nutrional or health benifits.. unless you count the raisins that some of them have in it but lets face it those biscuit stay at the bottom of the tin once people find out its dried fruit rather then chocolate chips, eh?

So here I have taken the most sinful of biscuits, the Oreo, and made it nutritional. This new version of the Oreo is made with dates and almonds so is full of fiber, protein and healthy fats and makes it a perfect natural energizer. It is sugar free and only uses the natural sweetness from the dates and agave  so your blood sugar levels don't go on a roller coaster. Also this recipe is raw so the antioxidants from the cocoa powder and the vitamins and minerals from the dates, banana and almonds are not lost through cooking. These 'Oreos' are so good they come with a dip.. yes that's right, a mother fucking chocolate banana mouse dip. 

What you waiting for..

Ingredients

Oreos
1/2 cup almonds (raw unbleached)
1/2 cup pitted dates
2 heaped tbsp of raw cocoa powder
1 tbsp of agave
1 tbsp of vanilla soy milk (or other vanilla plant based milk substitute)
pinch of salt

-Blitz almonds, cocoa powder and salt till they are the texture of sand. Then add your dates and blitz till fully combined.
- Add the rest of your ingredients then blitz for 10 seconds more. Remove from blender and place in a mixing bowl.

- Bring together the dough with your hands until the mixture sticks together and forms a ball. Transfer to a board and roll out the dough in to a cylinder. Wrap in cling film and place in the freezer to firm up for about 30 mins (enough time to make your dip by the way)
- Once firm, remove from fridge and cling film and slice in to rounds.

- Slice a banana into rounds about the same thickness as your chocolate rounds. Then assemble sandwiching a slice of banana between two chocolate rounds. (you can make double stuffed ones if you add two slices of banana, genius!)
- Place back into freezer in a container so the dough remains firm and the banana does not discolor. Because these are freezer Oreos they are refreshingly cold and make a great healthy substitute to naughty freezer desserts like cookie ice cream sandwiches.

Nom nom nom nom

Double stuffed fuck yeah

Chocolate Banana mouse dip

1 1/2 banana
2 heaped tbsp of raw cocoa powder
1 tbsp of agave
1 tbsp of vanilla soy milk (or other vanilla plant based milk substitute)

-Blitz bananas then push through a seive to create a smooth banana puree

- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a whisk making sure there are no lumps, viola!

Double stuffed Oreo and dip

Dip drenched Double stuffed Oreo

Double Oreo taking a swim

Sweet Potato Pie bites with A Nut crust and Maple Glaze, from Sneak Peak post

Here is my improved recipe from my 'sneak peak' post.

First make your own nut cream! This replaces the butter, cream or cream cheese that is often used in Sweet Potato Pie. If you don't have the time or patients to do this use a pre-bought vegan yogurt/cream, however it is much more satisfying to make your own.

Almond Vegan Cream

Ingredients
1/2 cup of raw almonds (cashews work aswell)
1  pitted date
1 tsp of vanilla
Water

-Soak your almonds for 3-4 hours or over night.
-Drain and add to a food processor along with the date and just enough water to cover the almonds. BLITZ!
- Once the mixture has created a smooth consistency pass through a sieve removing most the pulp. Because your not using a cheese cloth or a finer strainer as you would if you were making almond milk you get the consistency of double cream. Add vanilla and store in a air tight tub in the fridge till needed.

Sweet Potato Pie bites with A Nut crust and Maple Glaze

Ingrediants

Crust
1 cup of pecans
1/2 cup of cashews
5 soaked dates
1 tbsp of maple syrup
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinamon
1 tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 oats
1/4 oat bran

- In a food processor blitz together pecans, cashews, and dates. Once the mixture looks like sticky dread crumbs place in a bowl and mix in other ingredients.
-In a square pan firmly spread mixture pressing it into the sides and corners to it resembles a crust.
-Bake at 180 Degrees Celsius till lightly golden and crisped. Set aside...

Filling
1 1/2 large sweet potato
1/2 cup of Almond vegan cream (or vegan yogurt/cream)
5-6 tbsp of maple syrup
 1 tsp of cinamon
1 tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp of grated lemon zest
1 tsp of vanilla extract
pinch of salt

- Cook sweet potatoes (microwave of oven roast them) until flesh is tender. Leave to cool and peal away skin and add flesh to a medium mixing bowl.
-Mash the sweet potato of blitz with a hand blender till it is a smooth puree.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Fill your nut crust with the mixture and smooth out the top.
- Bake at 180 Degrees Celsius till the top is slightly golden, about 10 mins tops.

Glaze
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp of vanila

- Heat your ingredients in a small pan, when your pie is our the ovens spoon the heated glaze over the top and tilt the pan around to the glaze has full coverage.
- Switch your oven to grill and broil your pie for 5 mins maximum s not to burn your pie.

- Leave your pie to cool then remove and cut into squares. Voila!

Crumbly crust beware

Hozaaa!!!!!!

Served with soya yogurt and sprinkle of Cinnamon, fancy.

Enjoy Amigos

 

Sneaky Peak

Sneaky Peak

Living in the UK to me sweet potato is a tasty orange potato that you can bake, roast, put in curries and make in to a variety of savory things. However since being introduced to the wonderful word of the web and discovering many American Food Blogs, I have been really interested in using Sweet Patato in Sweet dishes. Not only does sweet potato have health benefits, as it is low GI and packed with vitamins, but it gets me exited that I'm using a vegetable for pudding (I know, it's a sad life I live). As I haven't worked with sweet potato as a sweet before its going to take a few tries to get the recipie bang on but here is a sneak peak.

The idea is like a sweet potato pie, but cut into squares/bite size pieces but with an nutty almond oat flapjack inspired crust, no refined sugar or butter and all whole healthy ingredients. Any suggestions or tips for my sweet potato adventures be sure to comment. I will probably maple syrup next so hopefully soon you will see a recipe for 'Maple Syrup Sweet Potato Pie Bites',

First Post, Frozen Vegan Yogurt

Hey First Post WOOO!
And first recipes...

Lately I have been looking into Vegan Dairy Substitutes for yogurts.
Plain Alpro Soya was always a go to however a new brand 'Joya' came on the UK scene. Interested, I gave it a try. 'Joya' has no added sugar so it so it isn't as sweet as Alpro and has a very neutral/bland taste with a slight nuttiness of, you guessed it, soya. However, it is not that pleasant to eat on its own like Alpro is. So obviously when I was presented with this bland 'Joya' I thought, it needs a make over..

Lets make FROZEN VEGAN YOGURT. A sugar free, dairy free, tasty treat.

Sweet Almond, Raisin and Cinnamon Vegan Frozen Yogurt
Ingredients

2/3 of a pot of plain 'Joya' or other dairy free yogurt  (or if you like dairy 0% fat Greek Yogurt)
1/4 cup of Agave or other Liquid Sweetener
1/4 cup of raisins
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
Hand full of almonds, unbleached
Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Almond milk (optional bulker)

-Get your pot of yogurt add vanilla, raisins, and sweetener reserving about a table spoon for later. Taste and more or less sweetener to your liking. Set aside.
-Heat a small frying pan and add almonds and a pinch of salt. When you can smell them roasting (a fragrant nuttiness) and they are lightly colouring remove and lightly crush into rustic chunks. I use a pestle and morta to do this.
-Then add cinnamon and a table spoon of sweetener and return to pan to caramelize the sweetener slightly. This only takes about 1 min maximum. Take care not to burn. Remove from pan and leave to cool.
-When cool add to yogurt pot and mix.
-If you want a lower calorie lighter frozen yogurt you can bulk it out with unsweetened Almond milk, I used about 1/3 of a cup. The almond milk as well as being low in calories has a a slight almond taste adding to the taste whilst bulking it out and making it lighter. However, it will lose some of it's creaminess.
-Freeze in pot until set

Mine is in the freezer at the moment will post a picture when it comes out!