Hazelnut Chocolate Cake. Saturday night we had a special dinner with family friends.
For one weekend all 8 of us were around before starting vacations and school again; one of is even spending a year studying at Oxford(no, it’s not me; yes, I’m jealous). That called for cake. I had been wanting to make this recipe for a while and wanted to wait until just the right celebration. Everyone loved it, although when I told them the frosting involved avocado you would have thought I told them my own hair was in it. They started eating it again 2 seconds later when they remembered how good it was and decided you couldn’t taste the avocado.
I actually made this cake for Father’s Day last year and featured it as a guest post on Gena’s blog. Hazelnut Chocolate Cake {Raw/Vegan} Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 0 minutes Ingredients(makes 5 2×3-inch frosted cakes): 2 cups hazelnuts1 cup pitted dates3/4 cup cocoa powder, divided1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup, divided1 medium avocadoCrushed hazelnuts for garnish Method: Homemade Nutella. Marshmallow 101. A few months ago, I promised a marshmallow tutorial –WITH PHOTOS!
– to Laura and Karen, to prove that, YES! , they can make marshmallows at home. Big, soft, happy, puffy marshmallows that taste much better than any you’ll find at the grocery. Marshmallows that actually MELT in hot chocolate instead of bobbing around looking stupid. Are you ready for the challenge? Let’s go! There are many marshmallow recipes out there, but my favorite comes from the December 1998 issue of “Gourmet.” So, let’s get started! Adapted from Gourmet (December 1998)1 cup confectioner’s sugar (a.k.a. powdered sugar)3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin1/2 cup cold water2 cups granulated sugar1/2 cup light corn syrup1/2 cup hot water (You want it to be around 115°F, which takes about 15 seconds in the microwave. )1/4 teaspoon salt2 large egg whites (or meringue powder reconstituted according to the manufacturer’s directions) 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
Food, Travel, Lifestyle, Hunting and Redefining Slow Food. Fruit roll-ups were a big thing when I was growing up.
There were so many iterations at one point that I was in pure fruit candy bliss. Then there were the healthy versions that we’d always find at the health food store. They were called “fruit leather,” because they were thicker and made out of pure fruit I suppose… not the other nasty bits that were probably in the fruit roll-ups. My editor told me that they needed a few more recipes for my book Food Heroes a little while ago for “layout” reasons. And since I had so many strawberries left over from the pie and shortcake I made, I gave this home made fruit leather a whirl. Fruit Rollups. I am not one of those people that eat strictly organic, natural, and whole foods.
Just check this, this and this. Overall, I am not a very healthy eater. My diet consists of mostly bread, pasta, cheese and sugar. Oh, and heavy cream. Chocolate kiwi popsicles. Frozen Banana Bites. Frozen Banana Bites are coated in healthy things like peanut butter, ground flax seed or trail mix and then dipped in chocolate.
A recipe that represents equilibrium: a perfect balance between health and flavor. All the ingredients are healthy. And all the ingredients rank high on flavor, especially when combined! Do you know the saying implying we should avoid “form over function”? The idea behind the message is to choose what’s practical over what looks good. We need a little form, don’t you think? I’ve been mulling a new saying lately, health over flavor. Frozen Strawberry Squares. Frozen Chocolate-Raspberry Pie. Cookie Dough Pie. It’s a trick actually. There is no cookie dough in this pie at all. Just cookies made so they seem like cookie dough. Magical really. This pie could easily be named 1.2.3. Pie as there are only 3 ingredients, cookies are dipped at a super, quick count of three, and the whole thing takes about three minutes to make.
My little niece, Mia ate this and said, “Hey did you put cookie dough in here?” Cookie Dough Pie 15.25 ounce package Chips Ahoy Cookies- Original kind8-12 ounces Cool Whip- I used 8 ounces2 cups milk* Quickly dip cookies in milk, shake off excess liquid, and layer in 9 inch pie plate, breaking cookies to fill any gaps. *Last night I used 1 C. strong coffee mixed with 1 C. milk for dipping instead of plain milk. Note- You must dip quickly or your pie will be very soggy. Can you imagine other cookie combinations? Top photo courtesy of Rob Klause (my brother.) Want another great pie…try this Banana Split Pie- WOW! Peanut Butter Cups. York Peppermint Patties