Category Archives: recipes

recipes

Chewy coconut cookies

April 17, 2012 – 5:18 pm
Elena Vinogradova liked this post

Chewy Coconut CookiesMy man needed a little cheering up, so I made these chewy coconut cookies last night, with a few “healthy” modifications (as per usual). They turned out delicious… so good, I downed four last night (maybe even five), and three more today. They certainly aren’t going to be around for long!

My version used the following substitutions:

  • 1/2 cup of quinoa flour, 1/2 cup of amaranth flour and 1/4 cup spelt flour instead of 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil instead of butter (I read somewhere that when you do this, it should be solidified coconut oil. I only had the melted sort, so I used that, and it was fine)
  • 2/3 cup of agave nectar instead of 1/2 cup of brown sugar + 1/2 cup of white sugar
  • 1 chia egg (1/4 cup of water + 1 tbspn ground chia seed) instead of egg
  • 1 1/3 cup organic, unsweetened coconut flakes (or at least, this is what I would have used had we had any – I’m pretty sure the stuff we have is sweetened, because woohey, these cookies are sweet! but delicious! then again, that could be the agave… I don’t really know)

Once the dough was portioned out on a baking sheet, I added a sprinkle of raw, unsweetened cocoa powder (using a small tea seive is a great way to accomplish a dusting over the top of the cookie) and a dash of nutmeg on each. I also decided to add a teaspoon’s worth of Crofter’s Superfruit Organic Spread with Wild Blueberries, Cranberries, Morello Cherries & Red Grapes (it’s the blue one on their site there) to the tops of some of the cookies. I love the way they turned out – the jam, spice and cocoa worked so well together with the soft chewy sweetness of the cookie.

The cooking instructions are the same. I think we left them in there for 13 minutes in total, rather than the 8-10 minutes, but that depends more on your stove than anything else. There probably is extra moisture than the original recipe would have, so that makes sense to leave it in a bit longer. Whatever you do, keep an eye on them so you make sure they’re not overcooked.

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recipes

Pumpkin Cocoa Gingerbread

March 11, 2012 – 9:41 pm

This evening I was suddenly struck with inspiration to bake, so I found a recipe for some pumpkin gingerbread, something I’ve had on my mind to bake for a few weeks now. I found this mouth-watering pumpking gingerbread with spiced buttercream recipe, and was pleased to see its inspiration is from a site I regularly frequent, Fat Free Vegan. I somehow have convinced myself that becaue the ingredients are vegan and use healthier alternatives to sugar and other processed foods, that the results will be healthier.

In any case, I made the following modifications to the recipe:

  • add 1/4 cup of chopped crystallized ginger
  • use 1/2 cup of agave nectar in substitue for the white sugar
  • add a hugely heaping tblspn of organic cocoa powder
  • add 1/2 tblspn of ground flax seed (compensation for extra liquid in the agave nectar)
  • alternative flours instead of white flour (I used a half quinoa and half amaranth, I believe)
  • no icing

A warning: it’s quite spicy, and the crystallized ginger is a strong flavour. I’m not actually sure I like it. I do like the rest of it. I also thought I should have added something orange / citrusy to it, perhaps some orange zest, but it’s quite tart with just the ginger. Anyway, a suggestion to consider.

You can see the result in my photo. The scent was absolutely marvellous as it cooked, and Misha was particularly grateful to me for taking the initiative to make a delicious treat (it’s been a long, shut-in few days of both of us coding our butts off).

Edit: I’m thinking this would go really well with a dollop of the Highbush Cranberry Syrupy Stuff I made last fall.

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recipes

Highbush cranberry syrupy stuff

October 25, 2011 – 11:26 am

Highbush Cranberry Syrup Stuff

Highbush Cranberry Syrup Stuff

After finishing my last two midterms yesterday, I spent most of the day in the kitchen. I have a tendency to buy way too much food when I go grocery shopping (a process in refinement, I assure you), and so there was a bunch of stuff sitting in there that needed doing something with. Some of this stash included a bunch of highbush cranberries we picked when visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks ago.

I searched around online for what to do with these large-seeded berries. Eventually, I realised that, because these berries need to be strained, the most I could probably do was make some kind of thick syrup. I found a recipe that called for a jalapeno, so I added that as well, though in the end, it really did nothing to the final flavour. I suppose boiling the mixture for so long was the culprit.

In any case, here’s the recipe I sort of cobbled together:

Likely we had close to 7 cups of highbush cranberries. I’m not entirely sure, though, because I didn’t measure before I began. I just went ahead and boiled what I had.

Ingredients:

  • 7 cups of highbush cranberries
  • 1 cup of agave nectar
  • 1 jalapeno pepper
  • 2 tbsp orange juice
  • 1 tbsp grated orange peel

Instructions:

Boil the highbush cranberries in a large pot, with enough water to cover the cranberries by an inch or two, for 25 minutes. Next, most recipes call for cheesecloth. I didn’t have any, so I placed a colander over a pot, placed a slightly open holed metal strainer over it, and pressed the cranberries through as hard as I could. I then took a slightly smaller holed metal strainer I have, and placed that over the resulting mess. I squeezed as hard as I could and got some cranberry goo out, leaving the seeds in between the two strainers. I mashed and squished until I couldn’t get out any more goo. I had to do this a few times to get through all the cranberries and juice I’d made.

Once this was done, I threw out the leftover skins and seeds. I’m not sure if other people could do something else with it – I just didn’t have time or desire to figure something out for them. Next, I put the slightly thick juice back into the pot, along with a finely julienned jalapeno. This really did nothing for the final flavour, as far as I can tell. It’s not spicy in the slightest… perhaps it made it slightly more savoury in flavour. I then added 1 cup of agave nectar, since I try not to cook with sugar anymore. Most recipes call for 2 cups of sugar. I didn’t want it to be that sweet, and I was using agave, so I put in 1 cup. I then added the 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice, and 1 tbsp of finely grated orange peel. Again, I don’t think this did too much to the flavour – but you never know.

I boiled the whole thing for about 45 minutes – just basically trying to reduce out the water, watching it thicken up a bit. In the end, I ended up with a semi-thick syrup… I let it cool, and when we poured it into the jar, it ended up being slightly thicker again than it had been when it was still boiling. The flavour is quite tart – Misha mentioned he liked how it’s not overly sweet. It has a lovely texture, though, and I think it’ll work well on any overly sweet desserts, or on savoury things like pork chops. Certainly, I really love the colour!

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