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.

Roast vegetable soup with leftover roast chicken

Last night we had roast chicken for dinner. Since it's just the two of us we normally don't eat a whole chicken. So I found this great recipe from Against all grain which uses leftover roasted chicken in a soup. It was also super easy to make

Ingredients
serves 3-4
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, peeled and cubed
700 ml peeled and cubed butternut pumpkin (about 1/3 of a big one)
1 small onion, quartered
2 tbsp olive oil
1 liter chicken stock
leftover roasted chicken, shredded
½ red chili, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp dried parsley
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
240 ml water
480 ml baby spinach

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius.
Prepare all the vegetables and toss them in the olive oil (include the garlic cloves). Roast in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
While the veggies are in the oven, bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a large pot. Add the chicken, chili, herbs, salt and pepper. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes.
Add half the roasted veggies to the soup and place the other half in a blender together with 240 ml of water. Make sure to put all the onion pieces in the blender. Blend until you have a smooth puree.
Add the vegetable puree and spinach to the soup and simmer for another 5-10 minutes, until the spinach is wilted and all of the soup is hot.

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.

Chewy double chocolate cookies

This cookies are sooo good and easy to make. I wouldn't say they're healthy considering they have quite a lot of coconut sugar in them but compared to the alternatives in the store they are much better. I love Paleomg for putting up the recipe for these beauties.

Ingredients
makes about 13-15 cookies
240 ml thick almond butter (make sure it's not too oily)
240 ml coconut sugar
1 egg, whisked
120 ml unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
60-120 ml chopped dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
In a large bowl, mix together almond butter and coconut sugar using a large spoon. Then add the egg and mix again until well combined.
Add 60 ml cocoa powder at a time. It's probably easier to use your hands from now on since the batter is quick thick. Add all the cocoa powder and completely combine.
Then add baking soda, vanilla, salt and chopped chocolate. Combine until everything is well mixed.
Scoop out around 2 tablespoons of dough and make into a round ball. Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper. This dough will create about 13-15 cookies that size.
Use a fork to press the cookies down just slightly. Don't press them down too much because they’ll come apart when they bake so be careful.
Place them into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and let them cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing them from the baking paper as they can easily come apart when they're hot.
Enjoy!!

Spicy meat soup

I really like soups, especially when it is getting a bit colder and darker outside around this time of the year. I however sometimes just feel like vegetable soup of some kind (i.e. pumpkin) whilst my other half wants some more protein in them. So I found this recipe on Under vart tak and decided to give it a try. I think we were both very happy with the result. I added some cauliflower to the recipe for some extra veggies.

Ingredients
serves 4
500 g mince meat
125 g bacon
1 onion
2 carrots
1/4 head of cauliflower
690 g tomato passata (or crushed tomatoes)
400 ml coconut milk
100 ml stock
2-3 garlic cloves
½ red chili
3 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp salt (or herbal salt)
pinch of black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper (or as much as you think you can handle)
handful of fresh parsley
handful of fresh basil
butter, olive or coconut oil to fry in

Peel and finely chop the onion.
Grate the carrot and the cauliflower with the big grater.
Fry the onion and other veggies in a big pot with your choice of grease.
Chop the bacon to small pieces and add these to the pot. Fry them for a few minutes.
Add the mince meat and let it all fry together until the mince meat is cooked through.
Finely chop the chili and crush the garlic and add this to the pot.
Add the tomato passata and the coconut milk.
Add the spices and mix around. Finally add the fresh herbs and let it all simmer for a few minutes until all the flavours are mixed through and the soup is hot.
Serve it with some nice Paleo focaccia