Dessert – Page 4

Buckwheat Muffins (vegan, gluten-free, yeast-free & sugar-free)

August 24, 2012

I was so happy to eat these. Irfan and I are STILL on our cleanse, going onto week 8! We are not allowed to have any sugar, INCLUDING natural sugar, and INCLUDING most fruits.

I have been missing baked goods and so these muffins totally hit the spot! And so easy to make, it’s a win win!

I can’t take the credit for this, Jemila made this into a “cake” for us a few weeks back – thanks Jemila! 🙂
Side note: Jem is currently in Vietnam and will be teaching there for the next 2 years, you follow her adventures on her blog at everydayjems.

Ingredients

7/8 cup oil + 1/2 tsp sea salt (strange, I know but it is our “butter”)
3 tbsp ground chia
9 tbsp water
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice from concentrate (we can have pineapples on our diet – hollaaaa 😉 )
2 & 1/2 cup buckwheat (I use light as it has less of an aftertaste)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups shredded carrots
optional: stevia (I put about 1/2 tsp of the clear extract, you could put more as mine wasn’t very sweet)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the chia and 9 tbsp water. Let sit for about 15 minutes.
3. Combine the olive oil and salt mixture (our “butter”) with the chia mixture, pineapple juice and stevia (if using).
4. Combine the buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt in a separate bowl.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture to wet mixture beating until well blended. Stir in carrots.
6. Spread batter into a greased muffin/cake/loaf pan.
7. Bake 30-45 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

Chocolate Cake 2 – Happy Birthday Adnan!

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August 21, 2012

I’m such a nice sister that despite me being on a sugar-free cleanse, I offered to make my brother his birthday cake 😉

It was a little bit challenging as I wasn’t able to try the batter but people liked the cake! I was determined to make a super health(ish) cake and so I was so excited to find a cake recipe with zucchini!

Try it for yourself peoples! I found it a bit crumbly for a cake so you may want to experiment with cupcakes instead.

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup Sorghum flour
1/4 cup Tapioca Flour
20 pitted dates
1/4 cup maple syrup or agave
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup cacao, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups zucchini (do not drain the juice from the shredded zucchini – add it to the cake)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp ground chia
9 tbsp water

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

2. Soak 20 pitted deglet dates for a minimum of 45 minutes. Throw the dates and 3/4 cup soak water into a blender with the vanilla and a 1/4 cup of maple syrup agave, set aside.

3. Combine chia with the 9 tbsp of water, and let sit for 15 minutes.

4. Sift all of the dry ingredients together, then fold in the zucchini, chia water mixture, date mixture, and oil.

5. Grease a cake or muffin pan and pour batter in. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out dry after poking the cake.

Adapted from The Discerning Kitchen

I used the same icing recipe as I made for my Chocolate Cake #1

Pumpkin Cake with Coconut Icing – Thanks Jemila!

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July 2, 2012

Yesterday was our 2 year wedding anniversary (high-five Irfan!)! Jemila, my sister-in-law, made us a cake! Mami mia it was delicious! I asked Jem to guest blog, so here she is!

Hello Happygutters of the Internets!
by Jemila Pirbhai

My name’s Jemila and I almost feel silly for blogging to you all because I am VERY new to this happy gut world. In fact, I still haven’t fully committed to it (as Irfan slaps me for eating a store-bought chocolate chip cookie for breakfast). However, I’ve had a wonderful happy gut experience and I think y’all can benefit from it, so here I am…

This long weekend, we celebrated my two brothers’ anniversaries. I love baking and would’ve usually reverted to my delish yellow cake recipe that everyone loves (it’s full of sugar and butter – no wonder!), but I decided to take a chance and try out a happy-gut friendly cake recipe instead! I recently stumbled upon My New Roots blog by Sarah Britton, an award-winning blog that has some unique recipes coupled with some mouth-watering photographs. Sarah has a Pumpkin Spice Cake that I decided to attempt. This was surprisingly easy to make…. and VERY rewarding. I made some adjustments and actually forgot a few dry ingredients (whoops!), but everyone (both happy-gutters and non-happy gutters alike) loved it! Yess!

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Coconut Vanilla Icing and Roasted Walnuts

Serves 10-12

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups whole spelt flour

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. cardamom

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. ground cloves

2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Wet Ingredients:

1 ½ cups canned pumpkin puree

1 cup maple syrup

6 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large, ripe banana

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Heat to 350°F.

2. Put 1½ cups of pumpkin puree into food processor and add remaining wet ingredients, except for apple cider vinegar. Blend until well combined.

3. Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry mix and stir to combine. When mixed, add apple cider vinegar and whisk quickly to incorporate.

5. Pour batter into two 9” cake pans. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing.

Coconut Vanilla Icing with Roasted Walnuts

Ingredients:

2 cans of coconut milk

1 vanilla bean, scraped

¼ cup creamed honey (not liquid honey)

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Place 1 cup of chopped walnuts on a cookie sheet, place in 200°F oven and bake for 10 minutes.

1. Place cans of coconut milk in the fridge for at least 4 hours to cool and separate. Open cans and scoop out just the top cream layer, leaving the liquid portion (save for soup or stew!). Place in a bowl and whisk together with the honey.

2. Slice vanilla bean down the centre lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Fold into the coconut cream and honey mixture. Place icing in the fridge to set.

3. When the cake is completely cool, remove from pans. Slice the rounded top edge off of one of the cakes (this will ensure that the subsequent layer will sit flat).

4. Place one of the layers on a plate and cover with half of the icing, followed by a generous helping of the roasted walnuts. Do the same with the top layer. Enjoy!

Adapted from My New Roots

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Well, what do you know… both my gut and my palate are dancing for joy! That wasn’t so hard after all (*scraps chocolate-chip cookie for happy-gut power breakfast… gets high-fives from Kirfan… and from my gut).

Chocolate Brownies

Dessert

July 2, 2012

My friend Haroon is getting married (yay Haroon & Zehra or should I say Zaroon?!) and we’ve been having dance practise this week. Most of the snacks provided have not been very happygut friendly (no offense friends!) and so I decided to add some healthy goodies to the mix.

Are you ready for this one? Raw vegan gluten-free brownies. Need I say more? It was super, my friends! And the secret ingredient? Avocadoooo, heeeyyyy!

Ingredients:

2 cups hazelnuts (or you could probably use walnuts, hazelnuts are expensive!)
1 cup pitted dates
3/4 cup cocoa powder, divided
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
1 medium avocado
Crushed hazelnuts (or walnuts) for garnish

Directions:

1.Pulse the hazelnuts (or walnuts) in a food processor until finely ground into a flour
2. Add in the dates, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, and 1/4 cup maple syrup and process until it forms into a thick dough that sticks together.
3. Lay the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to about 3/4-inch thickness.
4. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into either 8 or 10 equal sized rectangles. If there’s excess dough you can form it into a ball, roll it out, and cut again.
5. Make the frosting by blending together the remaining maple syrup, cocoa powder, and the meat from the avocado until it’s uniform in color and texture. Taste it and adjust the sweetness if need be.
6. Spread about 2 tablespoons of frosting over half of the cakes. Layer with another slice and spread an equal amount of frosting on top of that piece.
7. Garnish with crushed hazelnuts (or walnuts).

Courtesy of The Wannabe Chef

Lemon Cake/Cupcakes

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June 11, 2012

We celebrated my Mom’s birthday a few days ago and I offered to make the cake. I needed something to please both the picky adults and kids. I opted to try a recipe from one of the blogs that I follow, The Discerning Kitchen. The cake turned out good although way to sweet for my liking. My friend Fatima came over on the weekend and so I made decided to try the recipe again in cupcake form with reduced sugar. They were really good! The only downside was that they were a little crumbly, next time I will try adding some chia and water to act as a binder – feel free to try it on your first go!

Makes 12 cupcakes or a 10″ cake

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cups sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup good sugar (maple syrup, agave, turbinado sugar, cane sugar etc.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups shredded yellow squash
1 lemon, zested and juiced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cupcake/cake pan
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix
3. In another bowl combine the squash with the wet ingredients. Make sure to add in the lemon zest and juice.
4. Combine the liquid and dry ingredients by folding in the squash mixture -this will be a drier than normal cake batter but it’s okay (the squash releases liquid as the cake cooks in the oven and it comes out quite moist)
Note: Because the cake doesn’t have eggs, feel free to try a very small amount of batter. If there isn’t enough lemon flavor, zest half of another lemon into the cake batter.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes away mostly clean. You don’t want to overcook this cake and a little extra moisture is better than too little.

Adapted from The Discerning Kitchen

I did make a frosting but didn’t like it enough to post, I will make sure to post an awesome lemon frosting when I find it 🙂

Happy Anniversary Van & Adnan! Chocolate Cake #1

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June 1, 2012

Last week was my brother Adnan and sister-in-law Vannary’s 9th wedding anniversary! Pretty big deal – almost a decade!

Initially Irfan and I were going to buy a happygut (i.e. gluten & vegan) cake but I cringed when I found out it cost $20. I decided to make one myself instead 🙂

Feel free to use the recipe as a base and tweak it as you see fit. I’ve made a few gluten vegan chocolate cakes and although this may not be number one for taste, it is definitely the best for consistency and texture.

Ingredients for Chocolate Cake #1

2 cups brown rice flour or sorghum flour
½ cup tapioca flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup ground chia seeds
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 cup prunes
½ cup safflower oil or virgin coconut oil
1 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions for Chocolate Cake #1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch cake pan.

In a medium sized bowl place the brown rice flour, tapioca flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and sea salt; mix together well with a fork or wire whisk.

Place the prunes in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Place the prunes and water into a blender or Vita-Mix and add the oil, maple syrup, chia seeds, water, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Blend until very smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well, though be careful not to over mix.

Immediately pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 25 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes in the pan and then gently invert onto a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before frosting.

Adapted from: http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2009/02/gluten-free-vegan-sugar-free-chocolate.html

Ingredients for chocolate frosting

1 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup earth balance softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp lime juice

Directions for chocolate frosting

Process all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth and creamy

Adapted from: http://vegetarian.about.com/od/veganfrostingrecipes/r/nosugarchocfros.htm

Protected: The Anti-Cheese Cheese Cake (Raw)

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March 25, 2012

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Category: Dessert