Baked 'Bakewell' Pie.... New favourite easy festive 'bressert'!

I have found my new Christmas breakfast for this year!  Or more accurately 'bressert' - when  dish i heathy enough for breakfast but indulgent enough for dessert!

It's a spin on my equally wonderful classic Christmas baked oats from over 4 years ago now (wow time flies!) and it's the new recipe I'll be making for my family on Christmas morning. 

This year we are spending Christmas Day at my brother and his girlfriend's house in Winchester, and knowing they both love 'Bakewell Tart' flavours I was inspired to create a breakfast in their honour. The mini bliss balls pressed into the top are added indulgence as I had some mix in my fridge from the recent workshop I ran (more workshops in the New Year if you want to come!) but you could omit these or simply use marzipan and roll into balls if you have that to hand! Or you could use Bakewell Nakd bars chopped up, ha ha (not a sponsored link!) I will say the balls do make an incredible addition to this breakfast so add them if you can.

The three big things I love about baked oatmeals are...

1. They literally take minutes to mix up in one bowl and you can just as easily make breakfast for two or eight by just changing at the quantities (and the size of the baking dish)

2. There are almost endless flavour combinations (I have loads on my blog already)

3. They are healthy enough for breakfast but indulgent enough for dessert!

The bliss ball recipe I used is available here in my newly launched 'The Ultimate Bliss Ball Recipe Guide'. It has 20 recipes AND loads of alternative options for each so the ideas really are limitless... this guide will be a great addition to a January health kick too!  I made the book as a 'printable layout' so you can print and cut the cards up to give as gifts with a recipe you've made.  

It's the little things that make me happy! :-)

Now, back to the Bakewell Pie recipe...

Recipe: Baked 'Bakewell' Pie

Serves 2 (could just as easily be doubled or tripled....)

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup porridge oats

• 1 1/2 cup non dairy milk

• 1/2 cup flaked almonds

• 1 tbs ground flax seed or chia seed

• 1/2 tsp almond extract

• 1/2 cup roughly crumbled frozen raspberries*

• bliss balls or marzipan balls (optional)

• approx. 1 tbs maple syrup to taste (or any unrefined sweetener of choice)

*I didn't have cherries to hand (which would have made a more classic bakewell). I use frozen fruits as they are more readily available for me at this time of year. Their colour does not bleed so much as I mix then through, and they do not risk burning in the oven.

Method:

Mix everything together adding the raspberries in the final strokes. Spoon into a medium oven dish, add a few extra almond flakes into the top if you like. Don't addd the bliss balls yet! If you are making your own bliss balls, you have a 10 minute window to make them now.

Bake at 180C for a total of approx. 25 mins until the topping is golden. After 10-15 mins whilst the top is still quite soft (and not golden) add the bliss balls, pressing them lightly into the top. Continue baking until golden on top.

Serve immediately, alone or with non-dairy yoghurt, cream or (ice-cream for dessert!) Also great eaten cold the next day.

Easy raw chocolate brownies

Guess what... it's national chocolate week! Time for a little celebration with a new recipe I think! 

I wanted to give you an indulgent chocolatey classic, yet something easy to whip up in minutes.

I have just the thing.  Actually it's a spin on these chocolate balls which are always a winner with people whenever I make them and so  a pressed a sliced version was a nice alternative. For some reasons changing the format of things always makes them taste different! I always remember when I was younger how much more I loved Maltersers in the cardboard box compared to in the regular packets! (anyone agree or am I just a weirdo!!)

You could add walnuts here for an even more authentic brownie if you fancy. I dusted the top with a raw cacao and coconut sugar blend.

Eve though they are not baked, these slices have a beautiful cake like quality to them, deeply rich, slightly crumbly and melt in the mouth. Keep them in the fridge and they'll stay more robust. They also freeze very well too not that they'll be around for long enough!

Recipe: Easy raw chocolate brownies

Ingredients: 

Makes approx. 12 slices

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup ground almonds

• 1 cup almond or cashew butter

• 2 tablespoon coconut syrup

• 12 pitted dates( based on deglet noor dates but if using larger medjool dates reduce to 7 dates)

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 cup raw cacoa powder (plus extra raw cacao to dust- optional)

• 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

Soak the dates in hot water for 5 mins and then drain. In a food processor, process all the truffle ingredients together to form a thick paste, it should be sticky but not to sticky to handle. Add the walnuts to the mix last and stir through by hand (or a couple of pulses) so they don[t break up too much.

Press the mix firmly into a lined 8" square pan. Dust the top with cacao if desired. Chill until firm before slicing. Keep in the fridge.

Easy Easter no-bake slices

I'm bringing you a keto inspired round up of meal and recipes in the next few days, walking you through how I went a month on a super low carb, fat fuelled diet... but for today, we are rocking the Easter thing!!

Only just over a week to go. I can't believe I haven;t brought you more before now! Ooops...

I've been busy concocting Easter recipes for Real Food Source (yes this was indeed tricky and full of crazy temptation in the midst of keto- my mum did a lot of the eating!) and so today I want to share with you these seriously simple no-bake slices.  Whilst by no means keto, these are still a great low carb treat, packed full of good fats and unrefined coconut sugar chocolate (that stuff is soooo good!) 

I love layered up desserts and you could top them within anything that takes your fancy. Here I used macadamias and a few cranberries and choc chunks.  Chill the slices well and cut with a sharp knife for a super neat edge.  These freeze well too if you don' t trust yourself enough to keep them on the kitchen counter! :-)

You'll find the full recipe HERE over on Real Food Source.

Note: I've used their ingredients, but you can use roasted almond butter, or make your own. Any unrefined syrup would work well too.

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Chocolate almond crackers

I've been busy creating recipes over at the Real Food Source again. This is one of my favourites at the moment.

For something a little different to the usual softer more traditional cookies I fancied getting experimental and creating a 'chocolate cracker'  which is basically more like a biscuit with a dryer, crisp bite- perfect for eating on its own or spreading with a little nut butter. The cookies are gluten free- bonus!

The best thing about these cookie-crackers is their super high protein content- just check out how much almond these little bites contain!

Check out my post here for the full recipe!

P.s have you downloaded the FREE nut butter ebook yet.... it contains loads of fab recipes I created for them. (most of the recipes are vegan)  You can download it here!

I'd love you to join me in other places too!  

Why not sign up for emails in my sidebar where I feature roundups and special offers. If you are new round here check out my 'About' and 'Getting Started' tabs up top. To buy nibbles you can also find me over at Wholeplus.  Day to day you can also find me in these places:

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Raw chocolate almond slices... last minute gifting!

As of today, right now, I'm actually going to take some downtime over Christmas, ok well it's my version of downtime but what I actually mean is a little bit of time out from normal work, whole plus, my blog and crazy kitchen experiments so that I can dedicate some hard-core time to reading a huge pile of coaching books that have been waiting so long for me to get stuck into...and also to writing to my 'fit-food' e-book which still has a long way to go and I'm giving a seminar on the 17th January!!… so there's no going back now, it needs to be ready for that date.... ahhhh!

I have another one or two recipes scheduled, and who knows I may pop up again before New Year... i'm just not scheduling anything in at this moment in time. Taking the pressure off but let's see if i can keep away, ha ha.

So today... we're in last-minute-treats mode. As it happens this is the box of treats I gave my colleagues at the Spine and Wellness Centre last week. Those who follow me on Instagram will have seen it already :-)

Sp quick and easy to whip up.... just process, press and slice!

If you are not such a fan of a pronounced almond flavour you could use anther extract and add other crushed nuts to the top... hazelnut would be good, opt peppermint or how about chocolate orange maybe with some zest or coconut sprinkles on top? For a nut free version, use desiccated coconut in place of the ground almonds.

Package up in cellophane with a few pieces of swirly ribbons and you're good to go! These treats will keep well right through the christmas period and don't need to be refrigerated. They are pretty robust too, so perfect for travels to friends and family!

P.s sorry the photos look 'fuzzy'. The have such a short depth of field because it was a really dull day and I struggled to get enough light so had to open the aperture as wide as it would go! (techie talk over now).

Recipe: Raw chocolate almond slices

Makes approx 20 squares

Ingredients:

• 300g dates
• 70g coarse ground oats (or other equivalent GF flours)
• 100g ground almonds
• 50g cocoa powder
• ½ tsp almond extract (or other see notes above)
• Blanched flaked almonds pressed into top- optional

 Method:

Process the dates to begin to form a paste, then add the remaining ingredients and process until fairly smooth, the mixture should become a sightly sticky dough.

Pack into a brownie sized baking tray and press down very firmly (use the flat end of a rolling pin to pummel down!). Decorate with almonds or as desired.

Chill for an hour or so and then slice into squares. 

p.s You know that pile of books I was just talking about...!  

5-minute fruit crumble!

It feels like I made this crumble ages ago, erm... actually I think that probably is the case!

I've got so many recipes I want to share with you that have been stockpiling over the last couple of weeks as my creativity has continued full throttle but the practical reality of typing it all up on my computer to get it out there to the world has struggled a little more with so much going on in the background. Making decisions seem to take a lot of my time up- way too much procrastination going on recently!!

But all is good, there is plenty of time to enjoy the ride. Life is not for rushing. (maybe one day i'll follow my own advice).

So, back to the crumble.

This one literally takes five minutes.

It's healthy and gluten free.

There is absolutely no excuse not to make it!

So many of my recent recipes have been of the quick 5 to 10 minute type I think that's why I've created so many yet not blogged them, as in actual fact it takes longer to post them than it does to create them in the first place, crazy!

For this little dish I had just picked a big tub full of blackberries and so it was a no-brainer to team them with apple as it's my favourite summer-becomes-autumn fruit combo.

Fresh blackberries picked in the countryside near my house... thank goodness for Instagram to capture the loveliness! 

The almond flour made a great gluten-free topping, lightly crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth. it was a simple 'throw the ingredients into a bowl and clump up your fingers' type of deal and I cheated a little and grilled the topping instead of baked it for the super-speedy finish. It worked really well. 

So...who fancies a quick midweek desert? 

Enjoy.

Recipe: 5-minute blackberry and apple crumble

serves 2 (or 1 hungry person)

ingredients:

fruity bit: 

• 1/2 cup blackberries

• 1 apple sliced fairly small (tart apples are best)

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 1 tsp arrow root powder

topping:

• 1/2 cup fine almond flour (not ground almonds)

• 2 tbs agave syrup (or syrup of choice)

• 1 tbs coconut oil

• pinch salt

• a touch of water (only if needed) 

Method:

For the fruit compote, toss the fruit in the lemon juice and arrow root powder and then cook on the hob to soften down- up to 5 mins.

Meanwhile combine the topping/base ingredients to form coarse crumbs/globs. Add a touch of water (if needed) to help the globs stick together a little.

Pile the hot fruit mixture into a small pie dish (approx 15cm diameter) and roughly crumble the topping on top- there should be some larger chunks. 

Grill on medium-high heat for a couple of minutes until the crumble topping begins to go golden- note it wont take long at all so keep a close eye! 

Alternatively if you want to go down the more traditional route of oven baking, you can cover with tin foil and bake for about 20 minutes until cooked, and then uncover and bake for a further 2 minutes to brown the top- but again keep a close eye! Note: i haven't tried it this way but suggestions I saw on the web followed this route. The foil prevents the almond flour browning prematurely.

Lemon and blueberry mini pudding pots

Remember my crazy good hot chocolate cherry pots?

… Duh, how could you forget? :-)

On that particular post one reader commented with a question as to how to make a lemon and blueberry version. At that time I haven't tried that twist, but the idea was sparked and it was only a matter of time before I wanted to try it out for myself. 

The only real difference is substituting the cocoa powder for another 'fine flour', I used the combination of coconut milk powder and tapioca starch (any starch should do) It worked really well! You also try substituting other fine dry 'flours' of an equal amount.

As always in many of my recipes using berries I opt for frozen so that their juices bleed less and the berries themselves have less risk of being overcooked or burnt during the process.  With these little pots, I microwaved them in the same way that I did the chocolate pots but then I also grilled them for two minutes to brown the top a little which give a great contrast in texture between the slightly crisp and thick 'crust' and the soft and moist pudding below.

These puddings don't look very big, partly because my ramekins are quite big so the puds don't come up as high as I would have liked for the photos (perfectionist!)  but mainly because they are very rich with the ground almonds that you wouldn't want a large pudding!

What other flavour combos would you come up with? I imagine these little pots to be as versatile as my breakfast baked oatmeal!

Recipe: Lemon and blueberry mini pudding pots

Serves 2 multiply recipe to fill more ramekins!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup ground almonds
• 2 tbs coconut milk powder*
• 2 tbs starch (I used tapioca flour)
• 2 tbs sugar-free marmalade and a few drops of stevia (to taste)
• ½ tsp baking powder
• tiny pinch salt
• zest of 1 lemon and its juice (approx ¼ cup) add extra juice/milk if needed (I didn’t)
• large handful frozen blueberries

Method: 

Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Mix the marmalade, lemon juice and rind separately and then combine with the dry ingredients. Mix together until smooth and the mixture is thick but easily spoonable.

Spoon the batter into a ramekin no higher than 2/3 of the way up, layering with berries and adding the remaining berries on top. Microwave individually for 60 seconds on full power (90s if doing both at once). Heat the grill whilst the pots are in the microwave and then grill the tops for a couple of minutes until lightly golden.

Note: I have not tried cooking these in the oven but I can see no reason as to why it would not work- just keep an eye on it and be careful not to let it dry out as you still want a gooey

*You could probably sub the coconut milk powder for more starch or another fine flour. 

Chocolate brownie butter

This wasn't made for me.

There is a reason I don't use create this kind of thing.

If I did I would eat it within minutes!

This pot of indulgent chocolate brownie spread was especially made for my mum's birthday today!

Actually I made two types of chocolate pot; the other was a smooth and creamy spreadable 'Nutella style pot' similar to this creation but made with the addition of coconut milk powder.

The one you see here today is a thick chunky chocolate 'butter', the type to stick your spoon in and shove a globful in your mouth, the type that will layer up over biscuits and scones, it won't run anywhere... thick and chunky is the name of the game!

I added dried cranberries and walnuts to amp up the brownie style indulgence. But you could add any nuts or dried fruit or even biscuit crumbs if you fancied- the more texture the better!

The photos here imply the fruit being dipped (and apologies for the browning apple slices- photoshoots take too long!) however this is not so much a dippy spread as I thick butter, so grab a spoon or a knife and slather over your fruit or whatever you wish. You could serve it cold or warmed a little to soften up. If you added a little extra liquid to the mix you may also get more of the dippy spread, though I haven't tried this way.

Recipe: Chocolate brownie butter

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup blanched almond paste (I ground up some blanched almonds. Regular roasted almond butter would also work but will alter the end flavour slightly)

• 1/4 cup cocoa solids- melted

• 1/3 cup boiling water

• 1/4 cup coconut sugar (or unrefined sugar of choice, date paste may also work) 

• handful of dried cranberries

• handful of chopped walnuts (toasted optional) 

Method: 

Dissolve the coconut sugar in the boiling water and add to the cocoa solids. Blend all with the almond paste until well mixed and smooth (ish). Mix the walnuts and  cranberries through lightly.

Store in a airtight jar. It should not need to be refrigerated. I have only just made this 'butter' so am sure of it's shelf life.