Chocolate and almond ice cream

Wanted to make something more than just chocolate ice cream so I found this recipe from Paleonewbie.

Ingredients

1 can full-fat coconut milk (400ml)

1/4 cup maple syrup or rice malt syrup

1/4 cup almond butter

2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

1. Add all above ingredients in a blender to combine.
2. Mix in blender for about 1 minute
3. Pour into electric ice cream maker
4. Takes about 20-25 minutes to churn before it's ready to eat (or freeze for later)

Aussie splice icy poles

Another recipe that I made ages ago but I've missed it on the blog and since I struggle to actually find the recipe online I decided I should put it on here so I can easily find it next time. The recipe is from I quit sugar

Ingredients
makes about 12 icy poles

Green layer
½ avocado
1 cup/240 ml spinach
1 banana
1 cup/240 ml coconut water

Yellow layer
400 ml coconut cream
240 ml diced frozen mango

Blend all ingredients to the green layer in a blender until smooth. Pour the mixture in moulds to about half way and put them in the freezer for about maybe an hour. It should be set enough so that it doesn't mix with the next layer but not set enough so that you can't get the stick into the moulds once done (if you're using the same kind of icy pole moulds that I used).
Blend all the ingredients for the yellow layer until smooth and pour it on top of the green layer. Freeze for another couple of hours until the icy poles are frozen.

Chocolate chia puddings with caramelised banana

Found these chia puddings of taste.com.au and they were really easy to make. The caramelised banana was what made these super delicious though.

Ingredients
serves 4
60 ml chia seeds
270 ml coconut milk
2½ tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp water
60 ml rice malt syrup
1 tsp coconut oil
1 large banana, sliced
pinch of sea salt
shredded coconut, to serve

Put chia seeds, coconut milk, cocoa powder, water and 2 tbsp of the rice malt syrup in a blender and blend until almost completely smooth. Pour into 4 glasses (approximately 125 ml per serve) and place in the fridge to chill for about 2 hours.
Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook the banana for approximately 30-60 seconds each side or until golden and caramelised. Remove from heat and sprinkle with sea salt. Drizzle with the remaining rice malt syrup and let cool for a couple of minutes.
Top the puddings with the banana and shredded coconut.

Soft and gooey chocolate brownie

I've been trying to find recipes of food, snacks and sweets that are good to freeze so that when the baby comes we can always just go to the freezer because we probably won't have the energy or time to cook every night and we don't want to get take-out all the time. So I'm trying to prepare as much as possible while I'm not working. I found this recipe on paleogrubs.com and it's a super easy recipe with not that many ingredients and it's pretty much like a normal chocolate cake/brownie.

Ingredients
makes about 10 brownies/1 round cake
240 ml almond butter
80 ml maple syrup
1 egg
2 tbsp melted ghee
1 tsp vanilla
80 ml cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. In a large bowl, whisk together the almond butter, maple syrup, egg, ghee and vanilla. Stir in the cocoa powder and baking soda gently.
Pour the batter into a 22 cm baking pan (I used a round one).
Bake for 20-23 minutes, until the brownie is done, but still soft in the middle.
Let cool and enjoy by itself or with some berries and cream.

Banana bread with chia seeds

Got in the mood to bake something easy and delicious yesterday and found this recipe. It turned out that I had all the ingredients at home so I decided to start baking. It turned out extremely well.

Ingredients
makes 1 loaf/serves 12
400 g ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
6 eggs
4-6 fresh pitted dates (depending on size)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
60 ml coconut oil
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
120 ml coconut flour
60 ml chia seed
2 tbsp protein powder - optional

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
Combine banana, dates, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, eggs and baking powder in a food processor and blend until creamy and combined. Add the coconut flour and chia seeds and mix through.
Rest for about 10 minutes to allow the chia seeds and coconut flour to expand.
Lightly oil one loaf tin and line with baking paper.
Add the batter to the tin. Decorate with some shredded coconut and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Bake for about 50-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre will come out dry.

Chocolate hazelnut cupcakes

I have found a new love for hazelnuts. They're just so delicious. I found this recipe on a Swedish blog and just had to try them because they sounded really tasty. They absolutely were!

Ingredients
makes 12
10 pitted dates
200 ml hazelnut flour
100 ml shredded coconut
50 ml melted coconut oil
4 tbsp cocoa
½ tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla powder
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease a muffin tray with coconut oil.
Mix dates, hazelnut flour and shredded coconut in a food processor. Pour in the melted coconut oil together with cocoa, vanilla powder and honey and mix again. Add the eggs and baking powder and mix until it's a smooth batter. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin trays and put in the oven for about 7 minutes. To get a sticky effect, keep them in the fridge for approximately 45 minutes before serving.

Served with coconut cream and strawberries

Super simple and delicious coconut ice cream

Once again I got this recipe from Paleomg. I wanted to make some ice cream sandwiches with the cookies I made yesterday and I found that recipe. We modified the recipe slightly but they still turned out to be superdelicious and the ice cream by itself is really nice.

Ingredients
1 can full fat coconut milk (about 400 ml)
120 ml maple syrup
120 ml almond butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Place all ingredients for your ice cream in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk until completely mixed together, don't overheat. Then place in the freezer for about 30 minutes or until completely cooled.
Add mixture to your ice cream maker and turn on.
Once ice cream has thickened, eat straight away by itself or if using it for ice cream sandwiches; place it in a container and in the freezer to harden up a bit more before putting it on the cookies.

Soft and chewy spice cookies with molasses

I think Paleomg has some of the best dessert and treat recipes out there. This is the second time I try one of her cookie recipe and they turned out great.

Ingredients
makes about 18 cookies
2 eggs, whisked
240 ml almond butter
60 ml molasses
120 ml coconut sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
60 ml coconut flour
2 tbsp tapioca flour/arrowroot starch
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix eggs, almond butter and molasses in a large bowl.
In a medium sized bowl mix together coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, coconut flour, tapioca, baking soda and salt. Pour half of the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix well. Then add the rest and mix until completely combined.
Line an oven tray with baking paper and scoop about tablespoon sized cookie dough drops on to the baking sheet. This should make about 18 cookies so you may need to use 2 oven trays.
Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies are firm on the top.

Chocolate, hazelnut and salted caramel tart

I've been wanting to make this tart for a few weeks now but I just haven't had the energy to do it until now. It was definitely worth it. I'm so proud of the result. Don't think I've ever managed to make something so pretty. The recipe is originally from the Merrymaker sisters' book but I've used the one on EatDrinkPaleo. It wasn't actually even that difficult to make and I've forgotten how good hazelnuts are.

Ingredients
For the crust:
360 ml almond flour
240 ml raw hazelnuts
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted or soft
1 egg
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the caramel layer:
150 pitted dates (soaked in boiling water for at least 10 minutes)
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted or soft
1 tsp vanilla essence
240 ml coconut cream (coconut milk is fine too)
1 tsp sea salt

For the chocolate layer:
100 g coconut oil
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp cacao powder
2 tbsp crushed nuts of your choice for decoration

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a tart tin (mine was 26 cm in diameter but smaller should work as well).
Begin with toasting the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. Swirl around frequently so that they don't burn but get a nice brown colour on all sides. Remove and let cool for a few minutes.
Place the hazelnuts in a food processor and grind into a fine flour (should take about a minute). Add the almond flour, coconut oil, egg, maple syrup and vanilla. Process until the mixture comes together.
Scoop the mixture out and make it to a ball. Place it and flatten it with a rolling pin in between two sheets of baking paper. Roll out by starting from the middle and roll out to the sides in each direction until it's about a 3-5 mm thick. Peel the top layer of baking paper off and flip the base over the tart tin. It's quite delicate so be careful. Mine broke quite a bit so I had to fill in the gaps when it was in the tin but that worked fine as well. Make sure the area where the sides and base meet are filled properly, preferably they need to be a bit thicker. Place a round sheet of baking paper to cover the base of the crust and put on baking beads (I used uncooked rice since I don't own any baking beads). Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, remove the baking paper with the beads or rice and bake for another 10 minutes or until it's golden brown. Set aside to cool in the tin.
For the caramel filling; Drain the water from the pitted dates. Place them in a food processor together with coconut oil and vanilla and process until the form a thick paste. Add the coconut cream and salt and process again until it's smooth (should take about a minute, scrapping down the sides as you go). Spread the caramel filling over the crust and place in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.
For the chocolate layer; place coconut oil, honey and vanilla in a double boiler (a bowl placed over a pot of simmering water) and melt until combined. Add the cacao powder and whisk until it's smooth, probably only about 30 seconds, make sure not to overcook it. Take your base out of the freezer and pour the chocolate mixture over the caramel and spread with a spatula. Sprinkle with the crushed nuts and place in the freezer for another 5 minutes or so.

Serve with some whipped coconut cream or berries of your choice.
Leftovers can be stored covered in the fridge for about 5 days.

Raspberry mousse

Ok, so this is not Paleo but I've tried to make it at least a bit LCHF by replacing the sugar with some xylitol and not use as much since I think raspberries are quite sweet in themselves. The recipe is from tasteline.se.

Ingredients
serves 2
250 ml raspberries (+ some extra for decoration and texture)
1 tbsp xylitol
½ tbsp gelatin powder
150 ml cream

Put the raspberries in a pot and heat them up together with the stevia.
Press the raspberry sauce through a sieve so that you get a sort of purée.
Mix the gelatin in 1 tbsp of cold water to thicken and then mix this in with the raspberry purée.
Whisk the cream quite hard and fold in the raspberry purée and some whole raspberries in the cream.
Dish up in some cute bowls or glasses. Let stand in a cool place for a bit before serving. Decorate with some extra raspberries and maybe some grated chocolate.

Paleo jam filled cupcakes

This recipe is one of the best in a long time. So easy to make (especially if you have the jam already made) and they are super tasty. The recipe is once again from paleomg.com

Ingredients
makes about 10
2 medium bananas, mashed
180 ml nut butter (I used brazil, cashew and almond butter)
60 ml honey
3 medium eggs, whisked
1 tsp vanilla extract
60 ml coconut flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
about 80 ml homemade raspberry blueberry jam (or other jam of choice)

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Mash the bananas in a large bowl. Add the nut butter, honey, eggs and vanilla extract and mix together.
Then add coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and a pinch of salt and mix well.
Grease and line a muffin pan, scoop a large spoonful of the muffin mixture into 9 cups, filling the cups about half way. Then use a small spoonful (a bit over 1 teaspoon) of the jam and put in the middle of each cup. Put the rest of the batter to cover each jam filled cup.
Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before eating.

Paleo raspberry and blueberry jam

Found this recipe on paleomg.com and it is so delicious. I can eat it by the spoonful as a special treat but even better to put on some porridge in the morning or on some pancakes.

Ingredients
makes approx 250 g
480 ml frozen raspberries
240 ml fresh blueberries
160 ml honey
juice of 1 lemon

Place a saucepan over medium heat. Add the frozen raspberries to cook until they are heated up and the start to get juicy. Then add the blueberries, honey and lemon juice.
Mix and cook for about 5-7 minutes then reduce the heat and cook on low for another 15 minutes until everything has broken down into a well combined mixture. The longer you let it simmer on low the thicker your jam is going to be.

Ginger bread cookies

It's Christmas season and I'm definitely missing Sweden. There are so many differences between Australia and Sweden around this time of year. Firstly it's of course the weather; it's very hard to get into the right Christmas mood when it's over 20 degrees and sunny outside. So I sort of miss the darkness and the cold but it's only for this time of year when that's the case. Also, the food is a lot different. I miss my Swedish Christmas treats. Luckily I have been able to find some Paleo versions of these Swedish treats. This one I found on recept.nu

Ingredients
makes about 25 cookies
200 ml almond flour
100 g butter
50 ml stevia
2 ml ground cloves
2 ml ground cardamon
2 ml cinnamon
1 tbsp psyllium husk
75 ml coconut flour
2 egg whites

Make the dough about a day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
Melt the butter together with the stevia and spices. Add in the almond flour and psyllium husk. Let it sit for about 30 minutes to expand. Whisk the egg whites hard and carefully fold it into the rest of the dough. Add the coconut flour and mix to a firm dough. Shape into a roll and cover with cling wrap.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Flatten the dough by using a rolling pin and use cookie shapes to make cookies.
Put them on an oven try with baking paper and bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.

Paleo chocolate chip cookies

These cookies turned out great. Although I think I made them a bit too big so they didn't quite get that cookie crunch but the they're still delicious. The recipe was for 12 cookies but I only got 10 because I made them so big. The recipe is from The Food Lovers Kitchen.

Ingredients
makes 12 cookies
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
175 ml semisweet chocolate chips (I used 85% chocolate and chopped it up)
60 ml coconut oil
60 ml cup maple syrup
1 egg
350 ml almond flour

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients.
In another mixing bowl beat eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with hand mixer until combined.
Melt the coconut oil and pour into the batter. Continue to blend until combined. Then stir in the chocolate chips. On an oven tray lined with baking paper, drop balls of cookie dough, about a tablespoon in size. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Let cool.

Paleo crumble

This is one that I made when I was back in Sweden. My parents have a lot of rhubarb in their garden and rhubarb pie is one of my favourite desserts. I'm afraid I don't remember the rhubarb part of the recipe but normally you mix together the rhubarb with some sort of sweetener and potato starch or tapioca flour.

Ingredients
serves 4-6
2 tbsp coconut oil (you can also use butter)
150 ml shaved almonds
150 ml shredded coconut
150 ml almond flou
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until it becomes a crumbly dough. Distribute the dough over the fruit in the pie dish and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it's got a golden colour.

Paleo waffles

Since it's a long weekend I decided to make something extra delicious for breakfast today other than the usual eggs and bacon. I got the recipe from Undervarttak.

Ingredients
makes 4-6 waffles
4 eggs
200 ml coconut milk
200 ml almond flour
1 1/3 tbsp psyllium
2 2/3 tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp baking powder
2 pinches salt

Start heating up the waffle iron. Whisk the eggs and coconut milk until fluffy. Melt the coconut oil and add to the egg mixture. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients and whisk these into to the egg mixture.
Once the waffle iron is hot, brush it with some melted coconut oil and pour in enough mixture to cover the surface. Close the lid and cook until golden brown.
We served ours with some fresh fruit or berries, maple syrup and some shredded coconut.

Banana and cashew butter brownies

Today I had an extremely unproductive day at work and I felt so unmotivated to do anything. So, I had a look on the internet for some recipes with cashew butter since I knew I had some at home and it's been there for quite a while and I wanted to finally use it. I found this recipe on http://www.cleanfoodcreativefitness.com

Ingredients
makes 8 pieces
80 ml cocoa powder
60 ml almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cashew butter
2 eggs
1 mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla powder
2-4 tbsp cashew butter for decoration

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Combine your cocoa, almond flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
Using a hand mixer add in the ripe mashed banana, honey, 60 ml cashew butter and eggs.
Lastly mix in your vanilla.
Once blended pour into a greased 20x20 cm baking pan.
Drop your remaining cashew butter by the teaspoon on top of your batter. Use a knife to swirl into the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Banana ice cream with almond butter

Once again I've got this delicious recipe from undervarttak.blogspot.se

Ingredients
serves 4
8 ripe bananas
4 tbsp coconut milk
3 tbsp almond butter

Prepare the bananas one day in advance by cutting them in pieces and putting them in the freezer.
Put the frozen banana pieces in your food processor and using the knife blades crush the bananas into small pieces. Add the coconut milk and blend together until it starts looking like ice cream. You might have to stop and push down the mixture from the sides. Add the almond butter and blend a bit more. Top with some roughly chopped almonds.

Banana ice cream with crunchy almonds

We visited my sister-in-law and she had Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook 'It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great'. In there we found a recipe for banana ice cream which we never got a chance to make when we were up there. So we looked up the recipe and made it last night. The result was really good. We put in some coconut sugar when we toasted the almonds in order to get that extra crunch and it was really tasty.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
4 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
60 ml almonds, finely chopped
1 tsp coconut sugar
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp maple syrup, divided
½ tsp sea salt
120 ml unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place banana slices in a single layer on a plate or tray lined with baking paper; put in the freezer for at least 3 hours. Put the almonds in a frying pan and toast by themselves for a little bit. Add the sugar and mix around until it's melted. Put the almonds in a bowl, add 2 tsp maple syrup and the salt.
In a food processor, pulse frozen banana slices, almond milk, vanilla and the remaining 2 tbsp syrup, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the mixture is the texture of soft-serve ice cream. Spoon into bowls; sprinkle with the crunchy almond mixture.

Rhubarb crumble

So this rhubarb crumble turned out pretty well. It was maybe a bit too sour but with the cream it was definitely very tasty. I found the recipe for the crumble mixture on http://recipes.sparkpeople.com

Ingredients
serves 3-4
500 g rhubarb
2 tsp honey
1 tsp arrowroot powder

2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 large egg
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
475 ml almond flour



Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Take the skin off the rhubarb and cut into 2 cm big pieces. Put them in a bowl and add the honey and arrowroot powder. Let sit for a few minutes.
Mix together the egg, coconut oil, cinnamon and almond flour.
Put the rhubarb on the bottom of an oven proof dish and add the crumble on top. Drizzle some honey on top of the crumble and cook in the oven for about 35 minutes.

Serve with some whipped cream with vanilla