Archive of ‘snacks’ category

03
Feb
2017

Lovely Licorice-Date Fudge with Lucuma

Hello again, friends! I’m hoping your week has been lovely. Mine sure is, after making these licorce-date fudges with lucuma – oh my these are lovely. In January I was feasting with other kind of feel-good candies made from mulberries (I hope you didn’t miss the recipe, if so, check it out – it’s delicious!), and I was as happy now when I came up with this recipe.

These licorice-date fudges are soft, lovely, super sweet, and really fudge-like. You know those old fashioned fudge squares? Well these are really close to them!

This feel-good treat has only a few ingredients, and no refined sugar. The sweetness comes from dates and licorice, and thanks to lucuma, this fudge also has some caramel-like flavor – as fudge should!

And you know, there was most of the ingredients, as well! In addition to these, the licorice-date fudges has some virgin coconut oil, that binds the dough together. These fudges are dense and doesn’t become too soft even if left on a table for even a longer time – keeping in fridge, though.

Traditional fudge has a lot of cream, butter, glucose syrup, regular and brown sugar. That’s a lot of sugar.. But of course this feel-good fudge also has sugar, but from dates and lucuma. When you sweeten treats like this, you also get the health benefits of the fruit – a real win-win.

Dates have some vitamin C, A and B, fiber (about 7%), potassium, calsium and some magnesium, too! Quite amazing set of nutrients, if you compare these with traditional fudge, don’t you think?

I hope you’ll love them, too!
Tuulia

Licorice-Date Fudge with Lucuma

20 pieces of soft medjool-dates (pitted)
about 1,2 dl lucuma
about 2-3 Tbsp strong, raw licorice powder
hint of salt
0,75 dl coconut oil (melted)

1. Place dates into a powerful blender and blend until you have sooth paste.

2. Add melted coconut oil,lucuma, licorice and salt into the blender as well. Mix, until smooth. If the dough seems to be too oily, add some lucuma.

3. Press the dough into a small pan (I used a freeze box myself) and pop into freezer for couple of hours.

4. Heat the base of the freeze box, so the lucuma will loose beuatifully. Cut into pieces, and enjoy!

If you have high blood pressure or you’re pregnant, skip the licorice and add a bit more of lucuma.

10
Jan
2017

The Best Feel-Good (Mulberry) Candies

categories: snacks, vegan

Phew, and finally! We’re back home, after three and a half months of living in different, temporary apartments. Nothing is in it’s place yet and there are unpacked bags everywhere, but I couldn’t care less: it’s lovely to be at home! The end of last year was more than tiring, and the last month we lived at my parents’ house. It was nice to stay in a familiar place and have company (and help), but because of all this I’ve been unable to give my blog (and you guys) as much time as I would’ve desired. But now this will change, and let’s get started with these amazing feel-good candies: the best Mulberry candies, in three different flavors!

I was shopping at Ruohonjuuri, which is a local health food chain, and noticed something lovely: lucuma-coated mulberries. I bought some (delicious!) but only after paying for the at cashier I realized that a small bag of them was actually really expensive. I started to wonder if I could prepare them myself, and it turned out that not only was it possible, but also really, and I mean really, easy!

So, because the lucuma mulberry sweets were lovely and very candy-like, I took the idea a bit further. When I was still eating candy I used to love salty licorice, so I had to have licorice mulberries as well, of course, with the salty caramel (lucuma) mulberries. And since I was clearly going to have feel-good candy feast, I wanted to have something akin to fruit candy as well. This was where beetroot juice powder came along.

I have to admit that the first batch disappeared so fast that I had to make new ones to take photos of them – but that is always a good sign for a recipe, right?

Each of the three candy recipes require only three ingredients (except the salty caramel mulberries have salt as a fourth ingredient), of which two are the same in all the recipes: mulberries and cocoa butter. In addition to the ingredients you need a baking tray, parchment paper and a way to melt the cocoa butter. That’s all!

The recipe is simply divine. The candies are so so good, easy, and basicallt you can’t screw it up – it is that easy! The candies have only natural ingredients, no added sugar and at the same time as they’re delicious, they’re nutritious as well! They make ditching candies easy, and are full of goodness: vitamin C, iron, calcium, fiber, protein, B vitamins, potassium, folate and many other goodies. Superb!

Oh yes, beetroot in candies? Yep, that’s right. Beetroot juice powder is actually surprisingly sweet, and together with mulberries they taste so good! Try it yourself, and you’ll see!

My own favorite, ex licorice addict as I am, was of course the licorice mulberries, but the salty caramel mulberries are lovely as well. As are the beet mulberries, ha! Together these three feel-good candies make one great candy mixture, for parties, movie nights or for what ever situation in which you’re used to craving normal candies. Perfect!

Wishing you lovely feel-good candy moments ✨
Tuulia

The Best Feel-Good (Mulberry) Candies

1) Salty caramel Mulberries
about 3 dl mulberries
about 0,5 dl cocoa butter, melted
lucuma powder
salt

1. Put a parchment paper sheet on a baking tray and spread the mulberries. Pour the melted cocoa butter on top, and mix with hands until the mulberries are coated with cocoa butter.
2. Add lucuma powder little by little. I didn’t measure the powder, but you will see when there is no need to add more lucuma (around 0.2-0.4 dl I’d say). Mix the powder well with the berries, it starts to stick, and you end up with feel-good candies!
3. Sprinkle some salt on top, and put into s fridge for a moment.

2) Licorice Mulberries
about 3 dl mulberries
about 0.5 dl cocoa butter, melted
raw licorice powder (NB not licorice root powder, but licorice powder – it’s stonger)

Prepare the same way as the Salty Caramel lucumas. You’ll need less licorice powder than lucuma. Add the powder little by little, and you’ll see when it’s enough.

3) Beet Mulberries
n. 3 dl mulberries
n. 0,5 dl cocoa butter, melted
beetroot juice powder

Prepare as mentioned above. You’ll need even less beetroot juice powder than licorice powder. Add the powder little by little, and you’ll see when there’s enough.

So here we go. Your feel-good candy moment is all set! ✨

Ps. If you’re pregnant or have hight blood pressure, I recommend you stick with Salty Caramel Mulberries and Beet Mulberries.

26
Dec
2016

Leftover Rice Porridge Waffles (gluten free, vegan)

categories: Breakfast, dessert, snacks, vegan

Hi again everyone, I hope your Christmas and holidays were lovely! Ours went well: I had some time to wind down, spend quality time with family and friends, and of course, we ate well. My daughter fell ill, which was a minor setback, but as we were forced to spend most of the time inside I had a lot of time for recipe testing and cooking in general – a silver lining.

This years’ last collaboration is with Urtekram, and the theme was rice porridge, which is a very typical Finnish breakfast at Christmas time. I was excited when I heard the theme – I actually love rice porridge, especially when cooked slowly in a mixture of coconut milk and rice milk. Rice porridge is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, so I tend to cook a lot of it, most often too much. And you know, when Christmas is over, I usually still have some left in the fridge, and it might get a little bit boring by this time already.

But that being said, not this year! I realised that the solution for (boring) leftover porridge has been in front of me the whole time, in form of a waffle iron. Yep, keep on reading, there are some waffles coming up!

When I realised that I could easily transform my leftover rice porridge into a delicious stack of waffles, I got even more excited. And after tasting them, it was clear that the excitement wasn’t for nothing: the waffles were so, so nice! And super easy and quick to prepare!

This time I served my leftover porridge waffles with persimmon, pistachios and creamy coconut milk – you can of course serve them with almost any fruits, nuts or berries, but as it is still the best season for persimmons, I suggest you try them. It’s almost like having candies on top of the waffles (but make sure, that the persimmons are ripe).

Wishing you delicious leftover waffle moments, Tuulia xx

Leftover Rice Porridge Waffles with Persimmon, Pistachios and Creamy Coconut Milk
2 dl rice porridge (cooked in plant based milk)
2 dl coconut milk (or another plant based milk)
1 ripe banana
2 dl rice flour
1 Tbsp psyllium
1 tsp baking powder
vanilla powder
hint of salt
(1-2 Tbsp clear honey or maple syrup)

To serve: persimmons, pistachios, creamy coconut milk

1. Mix the coconut milk with the rice porridge in a bowl. Add the banana, and mix everyhting together with a hand blender, until smooth.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together (including the spices), and heat up the waffle iron.

3. Mix the dry and the wet ingredients together. Check the flavor, and if desired add a pinch of sweetener.

4. Oil the waffle iron lightly with virgin coconut oil, and bake the waffles. Dice up the persimmons, grind coarsely the pistachio nuts. Serve the waffles with them and coconut milk. Ah, bliss!

22
Dec
2016

No-Bake Mini Gingerbread Bites with Lucuma Fudge ✨

categories: dessert, snacks, vegan

Phew, the last weeks of the year are here, and life’s been quite busy lately. Luckily I still had a moment to come here to share this super easy, delicious recipe with you guys – this Christmas treat has stolen my heart.

One really special project has kept me busy for some time already, and I could spend all my time planning and doing it – luckily that’s not possible, thanks to other projects, work and family, that keeps me busy as well – otherwise I might end up being quite boring company, ha. And now we’re approaching one of my favorite times of the year, and I’m getting excited – there’s something really special about Christmas time! We’re celebrating it at my parents’ house, with extended family: we’re going to be almost twenty gathering around the same Christmas table. So nice.

But let’s get back to the matter of, Christmas treats! Even though I’ve been busy, I’ve had some time to start the preparations, at least when it comes to recipe testing. I tested out this lovely Christmas Date Cake, have been planning to make this Most Wonderful Christmas Cake (with glögg) and these No-Bake Mini Gingerbread Bites I created originally for Ecoteekki, which is a small, but very professional, Finnish health food chain.

The base of these lovely mini bites tastes just like gingerbread, or to be more precise: gingerbread dough. Even better! It’s simply so good, so try not to eat it all before popping the dish into the freezer. On the top there is creamy, soft, caramel-like lucuma fudge, with some shredded coconut, and the mini bites will be decorated with raw chocolate. No gluten, no refined sugar, no dairy, vegan. Easy, delicious and ah so Christmassy! (And at least a bit better option for traditional Christmas truffles, right?)

I wish you all the best, warm and relaxing Christmas. Take care, spend quality time with family and friends, and stay warm!

Tuulia xx

(Oh and about the project, maybe I can tell something about it too.. It’s a book! Delicious, beautiful feel good cook book, that I will tell you all about later. Can’t wait!)

No-Bake Mini Gingerbread Bites with Lucuma Fudge

Gingerbread layer:
10 soft medjool dates
1 dl rolled oats
1 dl shredded coconut
1,5 tps gingerbread spice
(or: ground ginger, cardamom, cloves, Ceylon cinnamon)
hint of salt

Nutty lucuma fudge:
1 dl cocoa butter (solid, grated)
2 Tbsp smooth peanut butter
2 Tbsp coconut flour
0,5 dl lucuma powder
0,5 dl shredded coconut
1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup
1/2 tsp gingerbread spice (or the spices mentioned above)
hint of salt

For decoration: raw chocolate

1. Prepare the gingerbread layer: pit the dates, and put them into a blender with the other ingredients of the base. Mix until a dough starts to be ready: it’s soft (and delicious!), easy to mold and sticky.
2. Spread the dough into a small dish, covered in parchment paper. (It’s easiest with wet hands.) Put the dish into the freezer.
3. Melt the cocoa butter, and mix all the ingredients of the lucuma fudge to it. Mix until smooth (by hand), and pour over the gingerbread base. Put back into the freezer, for about 20 minutes or so.
4. Melt the raw chocolate. Take the dish from the freezer and cut the treat into small squares. Decorate with melted raw chocolate. Enjoy, and keep the rest in the fridge.

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 … 8 Next