Almond Fruit Tart:

Almond Fruit Tart

Taken and adapted from Martha Stewart Living.

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

• 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Cup Almonds, ground
• 1 stick unsalted Butter, softened
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• 1/4 cup Sugar

For the Filling:

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup almonds, ground
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
• 5 tablespoons apricot jam
• 4 cups assorted berries and kiwi

Preparation:

For the crust:  Preheat oven to 350. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and ground almonds with the salt. Place the butter in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, and beat until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating just until incorporated. Add the flour mixture all at once and mix just until it forms a ball. Flatten the pastry into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes or just until firm (can place in freezer for about 10-15 minutes.)

For the filling: In a small sauce pan, stir in milk, vanilla and 2 tablespoons sugar, and bring to a boil. Whisk yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl. Add hot milk in a slow, steady stream, whisking until combined. Return to pan, and whisk over medium heat until thickened, about 2 minutes.

Place thickened milk mixture in a mixing bowl. Beat in ground almonds, flour and cream cheese. Spread into tart crust. Bake for 15-25 minutes, until golden brown and set. Let cool completely in pan on a rack. Unmold.

Arrange berries on top. In a small saucepan heat through the apricot jam and water. Brush the top of the berries with the glaze.

Serve right away or chill in the fridge. Enjoy!

Source:  http://www.thecandidappetite.com/2011/10/28/almond-fruit-tart/

Vegan Avocado Chocolate Birthday Cake

Best Ever Vegan Avocado Chocolate Birthday Cake with Vegan Chocolate Ganache

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

A moist, vegan chocolate cake made heart-healthy avocado. Perfect for a celebration!

Author: Monique of AmbitiousKitchen.com

Recipe type: Vegan, Cake, Birthday

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 3 oz good-quality vegan chocolate
• 2/3 cup freshly brewed coffee
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Ghiradelli)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup canola oil (you can also use olive oil — but cake might have a slight olive oil flavor)
• 1/2 large very ripe avocado, mashed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup unsweetened soy, coconut, or almond milk (I like Silk brands)
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (I get mine at Whole Foods)
• For the vegan ganache:
• 8 oz vegan chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (lite or full-fat), plus more if necessary

Instructions

1. Grease 12-cup bundt cake pan with whatever oil you have on hand. I usually use olive oil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place a small saucepan over low heat and add in 3 oz of good-quality vegan chocolate and freshly brewed coffee. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, both sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
4. In a separate large bowl, beat together mashed avocado, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth. Whisk in cooled chocolate and your milk of choice. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips. Your cake batter should be pretty thick. If it’s too thick, add in an extra tablespoon or two of milk.
5. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and smooth top. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out almost clean, with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pan an hour on a wire rack before flipping over and transferring to wire rack to finish cooling completely.
6. To make vegan chocolate ganache:
7. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add in coconut milk and chopped chocolate. Watch carefully and whisk until chocolate is completely melted. If you want a thinner ganache, add in more coconut milk. Let stand for a few minutes then immediately spoon ganache over cake. Top ganache with sprinkles, more chocolate chips, nuts, or another topping of choice. Cut into 12 slices and serve immediately!

Notes

Most dark chocolate is vegan, so look for that when you read the ingredients. I always go for about 60-70%.
You can find good quality vegan chocolate chips online or at Whole Foods. Make sure you use a large, ripe avocado.
If you use coconut milk, the cake may have a very slight coconut flavor, which is really delicious! You could also fold a 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut into the batter.

Source:  http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/05/best-ever-vegan-avocado-chocolate-birthday-cake-with-vegan-chocolate-ganache/

Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing

Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing {vegan, gluten-free}

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Delicious vegan and easily gluten-free salad with Thai flavors and a perfect crunch. It’s even better the next day!

Author: Monique of AmbitiousKitchen.com

Recipe type: Healthy, Salad, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free

Cuisine: Asian, Thai

Ingredients

• ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
• 1-2 cups shredded red cabbage, depending on how much crunch you like
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• ½ red onion, diced
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• ¼ cup diced green onions
• ½ cup cashew halves or peanuts (honey-roasted is good)
• Optional: 1 cup edamame or chickpeas
• Fresh lime, for a bit of tang
• For the dressing:
• ¼ cup all natural peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 3 tablespoon soy sauce, gluten-free if desired
• 1 tablespoon honey (use agave if vegan)
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Water to thin, if necessary

Instructions

1. To cook quinoa: Rinse quinoa with cold water in mesh strainer. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil. Add in quinoa and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from heat and fluff quinoa with fork; place in large bowl and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. You should have a little over 2 cups of quinoa.
2. To make dressing: Add peanut butter and honey or agave to a medium microwave safe bowl; heat in microwave for 20 seconds. Add in ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and both sesame and olive oil and stir until mixture is smooth and creamy. If you want a thinner dressing, simply stir in a teaspoon or two of water or olive oil.
3. Add as much or as little dressing as you’d like to the quinoa. I always start out with a little bit of dressing and usually add more to suit my taste preferences. Alternatively you can save the dressing for later and add when you are ready to eat; however the flavors of the dressing usually soak into the salad so I love adding it to the quinoa first.
4. Next fold in red pepper, onion, cabbage, carrots, and cilantro into the quinoa. Garnish with cashews and green onions. Serve chilled or at room temperature with lime wedges if desired.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1/6th of recipe Calories: 260 Fat: 13.5g Carbohydrates: 27.7g Sugar: 7g Fiber: 4.3gProtein: 8.6g

Source:  http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/04/crunchy-cashew-thai-quinoa-salad-with-ginger-peanut-dressing/#comment-5123

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Source:  http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2012/09/nutella-stuffed-brown-butter-sea-salt-chocolate-chip-cookies-my-favorite-cookie-ever/

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies {The Best Cookies in The World}

 

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Prep time

2 hours

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

2 hours 10 mins

 

Nutella is stuffed between a hazelnut brown butter flavor enhanced chocolate chip cookie then sprinkled with sea salt.

Author: Monique

Recipe type: Dessert, Cookie

Serves: 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
• Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
2. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.
3. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager, although I cannot promise the same results if you do this.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball — it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled! Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough if necessary. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand VERY gently. (Really only the tops need to be flattened a bit!)
5. Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Chocolate chip cookie cake:

Source:  http://realsustenance.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-cake-glutengraineggdairysugar-free-paleo-vegan/

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

• 4 packed cups of blanched almond flour
• 1 cup of truvia baking blend (or other granulated sugar of choice!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons butter (dairy or nondairy)
• 2 Tablespoon vanilla Extract
• 4 Tablespoons milk (Dairy or Nondairy)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (Regular or Allergen free. See notes below for sugar free)
• 2 Teaspoons baking powder (I use double acting)

Frosting (Optional):

• 6 Tablespoons butter (dairy or nondairy)
• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar (see directions below to make sugar free)
• 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons shortening (I use spectrum )

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 inch wide circular pizza tray with parchment paper. 
2. In a mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix until a dough forms. (add the chocolate chips last)
3. Spread the dough evenly onto the pizza tray into a 1/2-1/4 inch thick layer. (making it roughly 12 inches wide)  (Note: If the dough sticks to your hands, give your hands a quick rinse, lightly oil your hands and the dough will no longer continue to stick)
4. Bake for 21-25 minutes until  lightly golden brown.
5. For the Frosting (optional): Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer and then chill until firm. Use a pastry bag (or a zip loc bag with a corner cut out) to make fun designs on your cookie cake!

Substitution notes:

• Instead of blanched almond flour feel free to use another homemade nut or seed flour. Sunflower seed flour reacts to baking soda and powder and turns green if you surpass a certain amount of baking powder per cup of flour. (I don’t know what this exact amount is and will be toying with this in the future.) This is something to be aware of if you try using homemade sunflower seed flour. If your cookies turn green- then try using less baking powder in the recipe than I have called for.
• To make your own Nut or Seed flour: simply run the nut or seed in a high powdered blender or coffee grinder until you have a super fine flour. (If the flour is course- the recipe might not work as well.)
• Coconut flour or any of the starchy grain based flours will NOT work in this recipe.
• The cup of granulated sugar can be ANY variety. Cane, Sucanat, Coconut Palm Sugar. To make this recipe SUGAR FREE use xylitol or erythritol (Or use Truvia as I did!) . Just make sure whichever sugar you use is granulated not liquid.
• For the Milk:  you can use any variety: Cows Milk, Goats Milk, Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, Soy Milk or Rice milk. Use what you have on hand. If you have none- you can just use water instead.
• For the chocolate chips I used Enjoy Life as they are free of many allergens. However, if you need to also avoid sugar I recommend using a bar or two of Simply Light sugar free/ dairy free  dark chocolate.  Just chop it into chunks! These bars generally can be found at  Trader Joes and Whole Foods.
• You can make your frosting sugar free by pulsing truvia, xylitol (or other granulated sugar of choice)  in a high powered blender or coffee grinder until powdered. Use it in exchange for regular powdered sugar.  (Note: Coconut Palm Sugar, and Sucanat can also be used to make powdered sugar, just note that your frosting will end up more of a caramel flavor and color.)

Raw cookie dough bites:

http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/429/

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Yield: 18 cookie bites

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup creamy raw almond butter
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp organic coconut flour
• 3 tbsp ground golden flax seed (or use an additional teaspoon or two of coconut flour)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup fair trade chocolate chips (or carob chips)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the raw almond butter, honey and vanilla until creamy and well blended.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the coconut flour, ground flax seed and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well to combine.
3. Use your hands to knead the dough to thoroughly combine. If it's too wet, add a bit more coconut flour. If the dough is too dry and doesn't hold together well, knead in one teaspoon of water. Fold in the dark chocolate chips or carob chips.
4. Then, scoop out tablespoon-size portions and roll into one-inch balls using your hands to create a bite-sized treat.
5. *Refrigerate truffles for 30 minutes before serving.

Notes

*I place the cookie bites on a baking sheet about an inch apart and freeze them until frozen solid. Then I place them in freezer-safe containers by flavor. That way, I can just pop whatever I need in the frig to defrost a bit before serving. Or you can place the frozen cookie bites right into your child's lunchbox. Yum!

Recipe Variation: Use 100% all natural peanut butter (the kind you have to stir) instead of raw almond butter to make yummy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Dough Bites.

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Gingersnap Cookie Dough Bites

Yield: 18 cookie bites

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup creamy raw almond butter
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp organic blackstrap molasses
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp organic coconut flour
• 3 tbsp ground golden flax seed (or use an additional teaspoon or two of coconut flour)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the raw almond butter, honey, vanilla, molasses and ground ginger until smooth and creamy.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the coconut flour, ground flax seed and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well to combine.
3. Use your hands to knead the dough to thoroughly combine. If it's too wet, add a bit more coconut flour. If the dough is too dry and doesn't hold together well, knead in one teaspoon of water.
4. Then, scoop out tablespoon-size portions and roll into one-inch balls using your hands to create a bite-sized treat.
5. Optional: Roll gingersnap dough balls in some ground flax seed before refrigerating.
6. *Refrigerate truffles for 30 minutes before serving.

Notes

*I place the cookie bites on a baking sheet about an inch apart and freeze them until frozen solid. Then I place them in freezer-safe containers by flavor. That way, I can just pop whatever I need in the frig to defrost a bit before serving. Or you can place the frozen cookie bites right into your child's lunchbox. Yum!

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Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Bites

Yield: 18 cookie bites

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup creamy raw almond butter
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 tbsp organic coconut flour
• 3 tbsp ground golden flax seed (or use an additional teaspoon or two of coconut flour)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the raw almond butter, honey, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth and creamy.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the coconut flour, ground flax seed and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well to combine.
3. Use your hands to knead the dough to thoroughly combine. If it's too wet, add a bit more coconut flour. If the dough is too dry and doesn't hold together well, knead in one teaspoon of water.
4. Then, scoop out tablespoon-size portions and roll into one-inch balls using your hands to create a bite-sized treat. (Optional: Mix together three tablespoons of ground flax seed with 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Then, roll the snickerdoodle dough balls in this mixture before refrigerating.)
5. *Refrigerate truffles for 30 minutes before serving.

Notes

*I place the cookie bites on a baking sheet about an inch apart and freeze them until frozen solid. Then I place them in freezer-safe containers by flavor. That way, I can just pop whatever I need in the frig to defrost a bit before serving. Or you can place the frozen cookie bites right into your child's lunchbox. Yum!