no flour hemp chocolate torte

This is my all time favourite go-to fancy looking (by sinfully simple) dessert favourite!

I have been making this hazelnut nutella tort for about 3 years, and have made some really yummy variations… but this hemp seed version takes the cake!

The original recipe comes from Nigella’s “how to be a domestic goddess” but I have tweaked it enough to make it my own and whip it up often with no recipe and no fear.. as it always turns out perfect!

In a double boiler melt:

150 g of butter

100 g of the best quality dark chocolate

once melted remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a stand mixer whip to soft peaks:

6 egg whites

In a large bowl combine:

6 egg yokes

a splash of vanilla or liquor of your choice

350 g Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) or Almond butter for a less sweet variation

100 g finely ground organic hemp seeds

pinch of salt

and cooled melted chocolate

mix well, then gently fold in egg whites.

 

grease shallow tart pan with a hearty slather of butter (I have had mixed results using oil to prepare the pan in this recipe)

a 12″ round tart pan is perfect, however I recently used a 12 x 8″ rectangle tart pan (with a push through bottom, those are my favourites)

bake at 350 for 25 minutes, at which point the torte should be starting to crack in the centre, and will feel firm to the touch.

allow torte to cool for about 10 minutes before removing the outer pan (if using a push through) glaze with a lovely chocolate gnache which I make by melting in a double boiler roughly 150 g of chocolate with a dollop of butter, once melted add about 1/3 cup heavy cream or whipping cream and mix well, pour and slather the gnache and sprinkle with more hemp seeds, allow to set for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

I promise you will LOVE this as much as I do!

 

 

 

no flour almond butter cookies

The best thing about this recipe is it uses only 5 ingredients and takes less than 15 minutes before you can put a cookie into your mouth. These are wheat free and lactose free, super simple and pretty darn good considering they are missing nearly all of the very building blocks of good cookies requirements.

Almond butter is the key, and I find it amazing how often you can sub it for both butter and flour in baking! It’s a super protein rich energy food, that is pretty readily accessible, and way better for you than that nasty processed peanut butter spread I grew up eating. It is important however to buy organic almond butter from a reputable source… as almonds farming practises are pretty abusive to our poor little bee kingdom, trucking them across america feeding them GMO corn syrup, exhausting and killing off populations with a stressful pollination production existence. I do my best to avoid buying cheap almonds, or trail mix … but I do prefer almond butter to any other nut butter. In any case caring for the bee’s and having a future with bee’s is a good food issue to get informed on, that is if you like to eat food! maybe while your baking these cookies you can read about the bees here or do your own search google

Start with a large bowl and combine all of the following in no particular order:

1 cup almond butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking soda

mix well, and portion into 1 oz balls, they are lovely straight up into the oven just like this… at 350 for 9 minutes

but you could try: rolling the dough balls in a cinnamon sugar mix or top each one with a lovely little chocolate round or roll them in coconut or roll them in icing sugar (for a cracked snowy mountain effect) or add a dollop of jam to each for amazing AB+J treats!

anyway you make them, I am sure you will enjoy these little almond darlings!

 

roasted banana buckwheat coffee cake with hemp streusel crunch

I hope you find this recipe as easy and divine as it truly is. Don’t get hung up on the roasting, the sifting, or the 1/2’s and 1/3’s… lots of baking recipes that read as complex are actually just a series of simple steps you can do while your waiting for peaks to stiff, or the oven to come to temp, etc. Also sifting flour is an easy way to get lovely fluffy cakes and muffins. and stopping to scrap your mixer bowl and incorporating ingredient slowly while balancing wet and dry is the best way to get results which will make you happy every time.

About 5 years ago I made some roasted banana and nut spring rolls (which I should revisit as they were unreal) It turned out though that I ran out of spring roll wrappers and had a couple cups of roasted banana nut puree left over which I whipped into a banana bread. Once I did that, there was no going back for me, I have never made banana bread again without first roasting the bananas. What a delicious way to add a deep complex flavor to a baked goodie!

Enough though about all of that, lets talk about this lovely buckwheat cake! This recipe is adapted from a cinnamon streusel coffee cake recipe I love from the Art & Soul of Baking. My variation (as usual) is made with ancient grains and almond butter laced with the caramel wisps of fresh dates and a hint of cocoa. Lots of people think they don’t like dates, but in a loaf like this, the soft flesh of the dates turn magically into little layers of sweet caramel waves. Bring on the date haters… they too will love this!

Start by peeling 2-3 overripe organic bananas, left whole and set in the prepared pan you will use to bake the loaf / cake in. This recipe will fit into a standard loaf pan but I used a nice 8×8 square pan instead. Set your oven to 350º and let the bananas come to temp in the oven and roast while your getting everything else ready. They should be bubbling and browning when they are ready to go (about 15-20 minutes)

In a mixer cream:

1/3 lb of butter

1/2 cup of almond butter

add 5 fresh seeded dates

Once combined scrap down the sided of the bowl and add:

1 cup of organic cane sugar

and 4 eggs (one at a time, scraping bowl once)

1 tbsp vanilla (the real deal)

In a separate bowl sift together:

2 cups of spelt flour

1 cup buckwheat flour

2 tbsp pure cocoa powder

2 tsp bp

1/2 tsp bs

pinch of fine sea salt

In a smaller bowl make the streusel by combining:

1/2 cup of course dark cane sugar

1 tsp cocoa

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup of hemp hearts

a tiny pinch of fine sea salt

Remove your bananas from oven and add them into your mixer along with 1/3 of the flour mix. Once combined add 1/2 cup of organic yogurt and another 1/3 of your flour, scrap your bowl down and add the final portion of flour along with another 1/2 cup of yogurt.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into your hot pan, then sprinkle half of the streusel mix over the top, pour the rest of the batter in and cover with the rest of the streusels mixture.

Bake the loaf for 55-60 or a small cake for 40-45 minutes; these would bake off as mini loafs of muffins in 20-25 minutes.

enjoy

Buckwheat Butterscotch Cookies

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Mmm I found an inquiry on chow looking for help with a butterscotch cookie recipe, which really inspired me because the cookie looked just like my great grandmothers gingerbread chew cookie, which everyone loves!

I decided to give it a whirl, although never one for sticking to any recipe, I made it gluten free and broke out the buckwheat again. The test was a great success and I am pretty happy with the texture of this all buckwheat cookie as well as the deep brown butter sugar flavour. My old vintage oven runs really hot… so next time I will bake these at 275º for a few extra minutes instead of the 350º the original recipe calls for. I love the idea of starting a cookie with a bubbling butterscotch base! mmm

Wheat / Gluten Free rich dark deep sugar cookies.

180g unsalted butter, browned in skillet until nutty and golden

1 3/4 cups dark brown organic cane sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 tablespoon pure vanilla

2 1/2 cups buckwheat flour sifted along with:

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Sugar For Dredging

1/4 cup vanilla cane sugar with a pinch of Himalayan sea salt.

Start by browning your butter in a small cast iron skillet on medium heat, until golden and nutty smelling. Mix hot butter and sugar in stand mixer for 5 minutes until well combined and gooey and ridiculously yummy smelling. Add eggs one at a time and combine well before then next egg. Scape sides and beat everything for another 2 minutes, along with salt and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift together buckwheat, bs, and bp. Slowly add flour to wet mixture, scraping down bowl as needed. Mix until everything is well combined then allow dough to cool slightly in fridge for about 10 minutes.

Using a mechanical ice cream scoop portion your cookies and drop them into a large bowl with the sugar dredging mix, gently toss dough balls until covered then position on a silpat sheet. Bake at 350º for 10 minutes, or until lightly cracked and golden. This batch yielded 30 x 1 oz cookies.

Punk Rocker Chocolate Drops

I couldn’t decide what to call these fabulously chocolate-y  vegan cookies, but I found the inspirational starting point for this recipe at the post punk kitchen, thus my Punk Rocker Chocolate  title. I tweaked this recipe a bit by taking out the standard wheat flour and replacing it with a blend of Buckwheat /Hemp and Kamut (I posted this as a WF/GF recipe because brown rice flour would be ideal in place of Kamut to keep this GF, however I just ran out and my partner is OK with ancient wheat grains, new discovery on the allergy front… yeah!)

I have a small confession to make… I actually HATE cookies. I know you are thinking no one on the planet hates cookies, and I know this is a true fact, because back in my city life I owned two cookie companies, and I did pretty well catering to the cookie cravings of the rest of the planet. Ok so now you’ll understand that after a decade of  making millions of cookies I don’t actually eat them, crave them, or enjoy them almost ever. Well this morning something happened… the universe has shifted, because I actually ate 3 of these! 3!

This speaks volumes at just how wicked these babies are!

YOU’LL NEED

2 cups organic (gluten free if applicable) Oats

1/2 + 1/3 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup kamut flour (or Rice flour for GF cookies)

1/3 cup hemp flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

pinch of sea salt

1 cup organic cane sugar

1/2 cup hemp seeds

2/3 cup chocolate almond milk (you could use regular)

2/3 cup canola oil

2 tsp pure vanilla

1 cup fair trade dark chocolate chips.

Portion cookies and bake on baking parchment at 350º for  12-16 minutes.(depending on how big you make the cookies) I used a 1 oz mechanical ice cream scoop and yielded 30 super stellar cookies!

cha cha cha chia!

 

Amazing Vegan Gluten Free Super Power Squares!

Packed full of energy and essential fatty acids these are not only the most requested recipe I have, they are a personal favourite! I have made a raw variation of this snack too, which I am happy to share if anyone requests it.

YOU’LL NEED

1 1/2 cups crispy brown rice cereal

1/2 cup raw sliced almonds

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup hemp seeds

2 tablespoons whole chia seeds

1/4 cup flax seed

1 cup dried Medjool dates (about 6 ounces), pitted

1/4 cup natural smooth unsalted almond butter

1/4 cup brown rice syrup

1/2 teaspoonsea salt

1/2 teaspoon real vanilla

1 Tbsp pure cocoa powder

Toast cereal and nuts and seeds in oven for about 15 minutes (until aromatic and lightly browned) and then allow to cool for a few minutes before  pulsing the  mixture in a food processor  about 5 (1-second) pulses. Transfer to a medium bowl; set aside.

Place dates in the food processor and process until finely chopped and a ball forms, about 15 seconds; set aside.

Place almond butter, rice syrup, salt, and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until mixture is combined and runs like slow-moving lava, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, immediately add dates and cocoa powder, and, using a wooden spoon, stir, smashing down on the dates, until well combined and no streaks of cocoa remain. Pour / spoon hot syrup over cereal mixture and stir, pressing as you do, until evenly combined. (This takes some muscle and time, about 5 minutes.) Transfer to the prepared baking pan and, using your hands, spread and firmly press the mixture into the pan. Let cool completely.

Remove the date-seed slab from the pan. Cut it in desired size bars and keep in an air tight container or you can freeze them.

* I have a sweet little vintage flower  biscuit cast iron pan I often use to form these, in which case I call them chia flower power!

 

Ginger Pear Chocolate Buckwheat Loafs

That had to grab your attention!

These little darlings would be super stellar baked straight up with any old flour, however I wanted to crack open the bag of Organic Buckwheat Flour I got when I visited Annie’s Flour Mill out in Abbostford over Thanksgiving, so I took a pear loaf recipe I scratched down a while ago and tweaked it into this divine little creation.

You’ll need:

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

3/4 cup of organic cane sugar

2 fresh eggs

1/2” of grated fresh ginger (or 1Tbsp of ground ginger)

1 cup of Kamut or Spelt Flour if you can tolerate ancient wheat if not use rice flour to make it GF

1/2 cup of Buckwheat flour

2 tbsp pure cocoa powder

1 Tbsp baking powder (non aluminum)

a pinch of sea salt

1/3 cup of yogurt, (or soured raw milk, or sour cream)

1/2 cup of of premium dark chocolate chunks

1/2 cup of dried pear chopped up small (or fresh finely diced pear)

1/4 cup organic candied ginger finely diced.

In a mixer cream butter, sugar until well mixed then add eggs, and fresh or ground ginger. Beat until smooth, scrapping down the bowl as needed.

In a bowl sift flours, bp, cocoa add sea salt together. Add 1/2 of flour blend into the mixer, once incorporated add yogurt, followed by the balance of the flour. Now add candied ginger, chocolate chunks and pear, Stop mixing as soon as everything is incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350º for 60 minutes for 1 large loaf or 25 minutes if you use a mini loaf pan.

These are so very lovely