about five oranges 4 cups caster sugar 4 cups water additional caster sugar for storage
Slice oranges on a mandolin using the widest setting. If you don’t have a mandolin, aim for half a cm width.
Heat the sugar and water in a pot, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer
Lay the slices in the pot forming an even layer of orange slices and simmer for 1 hour, gently stirring occasionally to ensure all the orange slices are being covered with the simmering liquid.
Remove with tongs and lay out on drying racks. You can use these straight away. If you want to keep them for longer: Once cool, place in dehydrator or a very low oven to remove some of the moisture. Store in an airtight container sprinkled with some additional caster sugar.
Notes
Serving suggestions include:
– eat as is
– dip in melted dark chocolate
– float in your espresso martini
– cut halfway and slot on to your next drink
– chop up and add to your next brownie batch
– chop up and add to ice cream
Wow, these are tasty. To make this recipe, I used part of a batch of passionfruit curd to fill. Because the passionfruit curd is wonderfully sweet, I hardly sweetened the chocolate and so the bitter chocolate compliments the sweet centre beautifully. You can stuff your chocolates with anything – caramel, coconut, strawberry curd. Think of a flavour you love and go with it. But for me, its all about the passionfruit curd.
Makes 16 chocolates
a chocolate mould 80 grams cacao butter 40 grams cacao powder 1 teaspoon maple syrup about 6 tablespoons worth of passionfruit curd
In a double boiler (a stainless steel or Pyrex bowl sat on top of a pot of simmering water), melt and stir the cacao butter, cacao powder and maple syrup.
Pour in to chocolate mould and let sit for about 10 minutes. In summer, you can put it in the fridge for about 5 minutes. Once the time has passed, tilt the mould so that the chocolate coats all sides of the mould. (If you did this immediately after pouring, the chocolate would be too hot and therefore create too thin a coating. Leaving the chocolate to thicken up a bit will give you a better shell but time and temperature is obviously going to affect the result so just keep an eye on the chocolate and if all else fails, they’ll still taste great.
A couple of minutes after you have tilted the mould to coat all sides with chocolate, turn the mould upside down over your chocolate melting bowl and let all the excess chocolate pour off. Use the flat edge of a knife to scrape all along the mould to get rid of all the excess. You will use this to seal the chocolates.
Return the mould to the fridge until set. About 10 more minutes.
Fill each chocolate with passionfruit curd, leaving a little space at the top. Whatever you fill your chocolates with, just make sure its cold.
Re-melt your remaining chocolate in the double boiler and pour in to each chocolate to seal. Return to fridge for about 15 minutes.
Gently tip your mould and tap to pop out your chocolates.
1/2 cup cacao 2 cups coconut cream 4 tbsp maple syrup 1 tsp vanilla 2/3 cup chia seeds 1/2 tsp sea salt
Whisk all ingredients until all cacao is combined and set in fridge for at least four hours. The chia seeds will swell and your mousse will be ready to eat.
If you would like a smooth consistency, blend the mousse ingredients in a high powered blender until smooth and then set in fridge.
SOAKED BISCUITS
~20 plain digestive brand biscuits
3/4 cup freshly brewed coffee, cooled
3tbsp maple syrup
3tbsp kahlua
CREAM
1 3/4 cup cashews
1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup freshly brewed coffee, cooled
1 tablespoon Kahlua
Pinch of salt
ADDITIONALLY
Cacao powder
Combine cooled coffee, maple syrup and kahlua in a bowl or container that is wider than your biscuits as you’ll be dipping them in here.
In a blender: Cashews, soy milk, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, coffee, kahlua and salt. Blend on high until smooth and refrigerate.
About 6 hours before serving (you can also make a day ahead) get your individual serving crockery ready. Ramekins are a good option as they’re the right size to fit the digestive biscuits. Submerge each biscuit in coffee soaking liquid for about ten seconds then place in bottom of ramekin. You want them to be soaked through but not falling apart. Top with ~2tbsp cream and finally, dust with some raw cacao. Repeat the biscuit and cream layers again and return to fridge until ready to serve.
300ml soy milk 400ml can of coconut cream 2 vanilla beans 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste 150g maple syrup approximately 3/4 cup fruit mince mix
Pour soy milk and coconut cream in to a 1 litre jug
Cut vanilla pods in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Add to jug.
Add vanilla paste and maple syrup and stir with fork until evenly mixed.
Pour in to your ice cream machine and churn for approximately 60 minutes.
In the last ~15 minutes, slowly add the fruit mince mix and finish churning.
Put in a container and set in freezer until ready to enjoy.
Notes:
You can rinse your vanilla bean pod, dry it and keep it in your caster sugar.
I’ve served this ice cream with some left over fruit mince pie pastry for that extra mmmmm….
1 cup good quality soy milk or other non-dairy milk 3 tablespoons cornflour 4 tablespoons icing sugar 1/2 teaspoon tumeric 1 vanilla bean 1 can 400ml coconut cream
Put all ingredients in to a medium sized pot (Split the vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds from each half with a teaspoon. Put the seeds and the pod in to the pot) and whisk so the corn flour dissolves.
Cook over medium heat constantly stirring with a whisk until the mix starts to thicken. This should take about 7-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit until you’re ready to serve. The custard will thicken more as it cools. Can be served cold or reheated in the pot over low heat and stirring with a whisk to avoid any lumps.
1 cup bonsoy soy milk 1/4 cup caster sugar 1/4 cup glucose syrup 400 gram tin of coconut cream 1 tablespoon matcha powder a pinch of sea salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
ICE MAGIC 100 grams dark chocolate 50 grams coconut oil
TOPPING small handful of almonds, chopped
In a saucepan, heat soy milk, sugar and glucose syrup until sugar is dissolved.
Turn the heat off.
Add all other ingredients and stir until combined.
Keep in fridge until chilled.
Place in ice cream machine according to manufacturers instructions.
Melt together chocolate and coconut oil in a small pot, stirring constantly on low heat until chocolate is dissolved.
Drizzle over ice cream just before serving and top with chopped almonds.
Dedicated to Penny. Coeliac, friend, birthday enthusiast.
4 tbsp flax meal 1 cup soy milk 1 1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) 3 tsp baking powder 2/3 cup rice syrup 2/3 cup sugar a pinch of salt 1/2 cup melted vegan butter 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 cup pureed banana 1/2 cup pureed beetroot 1/2 cup vegan yoghurt 1 cup raw cacao 1 cup almond meal 2 cups gluten free flour
1/2 cup orange marmalade. 1/4 cup raspberry jam. Good quality stuff. Ideally made by your friend, Chloe’s mumma.
1/2 cup non-dairy milk of your choosing (I used soy) 1/4 cup room temperature vegan butter (I use nuttelex) 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 200g dark chocolate
Cake:
Preheat oven to 180 C.
Combine flax meal with 10tbsp boiling water. Stir and set aside.
Combine milk and ACV. Stir and let sit for a few minutes.
Add to milk, baking powder, rice syrup, sugar, salt, butter, vanilla, banana, beetroot, yoghurt and flax. Stir to combine.
Add cacao, almond meal and flour. Stir to combine.
Spray a layered cake tin set (five shallow tins so you don’t have to slice a big cake later) and pour about a cup of batter in to each one. Divide any remaining batter among the tins until it’s been evenly distributed.
Bake in the oven for approx 30minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer comes out of the centre clean.
Let cool and refrigerate.
Icing:
Heat milk and butter in microwave for approx 1 minute until warm.
Add chocolate, let sit for a couple of minutes then stir.
Once all melted and smooth, add icing sugar. Whisk until well combined.
Jammy Layers:
Combine marmalade and jam. Add 1/3 cup icing mix to jam and stir to combine.
Take chilled layers out of the fridge. Put 1/4 of the jam/chocolate icing mix on each layer and spread to the edges and top with the fifth layer. Return to fridge for about an hour.
Ice with remaining icing and return to fridge until ready to serve.
Notes
I always use raw cacao. It is not heat treated so it retains nutrients. Eat that chocolate!
Gluten free flour is readily available at the supermarket.
re: the cake tins. You can cook this in one regular sized cake tin and slice it later, just be mindful of the cooking as it will need to be in the oven for longer. Just check it every so often after half an hour has passed and take it out once a wooden skewer comes out clean from the centre.
1/3 cup cacao 4 tbsp linseed/flax meal 150g dark chocolate 150g nuttelex 1 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 cup almond meal 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup gluten free flour
Preheat oven to 180 C and grease a 20cm cake tin.
Combine cacao and 1/3 cup hot water in a small bowl and set aside.
In a separate small bowl, combine linseed meal with 4tbsp hot water.
In a double boiler, melt chocolate and nuttelex over low heat.
Once melted, stir in cacao mix, linseed mix, brown sugar, almond meal, baking powder and gluten free flour.
Pour in to cake tin, tap on counter to even the top and cook in oven for 50 minutes.
Note
Eat this cake on it’s own, serve it with ice cream or turn it in to a cake shake!
