:)

lørdag den 10. september 2011

Brownies with hazelnuts ( advanced )

After six months of traveling around the world, our life has now finally settled back to normal. And that is when we realize that we don’t know what normal is anymore. Even though me and Luise have been living together for a couple of years, it feels like our life as a family starts now. Just like Elsa, we are taking our first trembling steps towards our new family life. Right now we have no idea how that life will turn out, how we will find a balance between work and family, or even in which country our life will take place during the next couple of years. You might say that we have some figuring out to do. One thing that we do know, is that we will keep on sharing our favorite recipes with you. Like these Chai & Hazelnut Brownies that Luise made the other day. We would be lying if we called them healthy, but they are at least vegan, raw and gluten free. And they taste – pardon my french – fingerlickin’ good!
Before moving on to the recipe, we want to give you some basic tips when baking with dates.
1. Always use fresh dates. They should be dry on the outside, and very soft and sticky on the inside.
2. If you have to use dried dates, you need to soak them in drinking water a couple of hours before baking with them.
3. If you can’t find dates at all you can try using raisins, figs, dried plums or dried apricots (remember to always soak dried fruit first).
4. When you blend dates they should turn into a very sticky paste, so you need a strong food processor or blender.
Raw Hazelnut & Chai Brownies (adapted from the danish cookbook “Raw Cake”, by Caroline Fibæk)
Makes around a dozen brownies
What makes this cake special is that it is spiced up with chai spices, it gives it such an unique taste! Use normal tea bags, cut them open and just pour them in the dough, isn’t it easy? -and you can choose green, black or herbal chai tea!
2 cups (5 dl) fresh medjool dates, remove the seeds
4 tbsp coconut oil (room temperatur)
2 tbsp maple syrup

6 tbsp raw cacao powder, or ordinary cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla powder (not sugar) or 1 vanilla bean
3 chai tea bags, cut them open (we use Pukka or Yogi)
2 tbsp grounded flax seeds (you can buy grounded or use a coffee grinder)
two pinches of sea salt
1/2 cup (1,2 dl) hazelnut, roughly chopped (you can use any kind of nuts or seeds)
Put all ingredients, except the hazelnuts, in a high speed blender. Add the chopped hazelnuts and work the dough by hand. Take a brownie tin or a plate, cover it with plastic wrap and press down the dough to whatever thickness you prefer (ours are about 1/2 inch high). Rub a bit of coconut oil on your hands to prevent the dough from sticking on them. Put the cake in the fridge and let it set for a least half an hour.
Slice it up in pieces, sprinkle with cacao powder and garnish with whole hazelnuts.

fredag den 9. september 2011

Dream cake

We're not really sure why it is called a dream cake, other than it is very dreamy and more-ish.
Ingredients for the cake
350 grams caster sugar
5 eggs
80 grams margarine or butter
350 ml milk
450 frams flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar or 2 tsb vanilla extract

Ingredients - topping
150 grams butter or margarine
350 grams soft, dark brown sugar
175 grams desiccated coconut
50 ml milk
This is how you do it:
Melt the butter/margarine and put to one side to cool a bit.  Whisk sugar and egg till it is light and frothy.  Sift the flour, baking powder and vanilla (if using vanilla sugar, if using extract, add this at same time as butter) and fold into the mixture (don’t over work it).   Mix margarine and milk and fold carefully into the batter.
Line a baking tray with baking paper (a 30 cm by 30 cm is about right) and add the mixture.  Bake the cake at 170 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes or until almost done (the cake is done when a skewer comes out clean)
To make the topping:
Add all ingredients to a saucepan and melt – stir until all sugar has melted and you have a good spreadable consistency.
When the cake is done add the topping immediately on the whole cake and bake for another 5 minutes on 180 degrees. 
Let cake rest before slicing.

Ingredients

1+1/3 cup (150 g) all-purpose flour
1+½ cup (330 g) sugar
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (170 g) butter
3 fl oz (0.9 dl) boiling water
3 eggs
4 oz (120 g) chocolate chips (40-50% cocoa)
5 oz (150 g) chopped walnuts or pecan nuts

Frosting

1/3 cup (75 g) butter
8 oz (220 g) sweet or semisweet dark chocolate
2 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 tablespoon hot espresso or very strong coffee

- your welcome