Double chocolate cheesecake bites

Makes 8-12 

Ingredients

Base

50g walnuts- you could use any nuts in the base

50g almonds

50g melted butter

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp cacao powder

Topping

125g full fat cream cheese

2 tbsp cacao powder

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanlla extract

1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Method

For the base:

In a food processor blitz nuts until it looks like crumbs, then add cacao, honey and butter, pulse until combined. On a tray lined with baking paper put balls of the mix on and flatten with your fingers to form a flat circle. You should get 8-12 depending on how big you want them. Put in the fridge to set.

While the base is setting blitz up your cream cheese, cacao, vanilla, cacao and coconut oil until smooth. Take out your base and spoon the topping on, put back in the fridge. You can keep in the freezer for a frozen treat too.

Upside down pineapple cake

Grain, gluten, dairy free 

Ingredients

1 cup blanched almond flour

1/3 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ cup of walnuts, chopped

½ cup almond milk, or similar

¼ cup of coconut oil, melted

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

1/3 cup of honey

4-5 slices pineapple with middle core removed, or use tinned sliced pineapple

Method

Preheat oven to 180 c

Line/grease either a round, rectangle or square cake tin

In a large bowl put your flours, cinnamon and baking soda.

In another bowl add your eggs, vanilla, milk and coconut oil, whisk together

Add wet mix to dry mix and whisk; make sure there are no lumps. Add walnuts and stir in.

Place your pineapple on the bottom of your tin and drizzle over 2 tbsp honey, you can leave the honey out if you prefer. Pour over you cake mix and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a plate. Serve warm with ice cream or cream as a dessert or cold as a cake.

Spelt crust quiche with spinach, bacon and brie

Ingredients

100g spelt flour

50g cold diced butter

1 egg, beaten

Good pinch of salt

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C. Turn the oven on after your put your pastry in the tin. You need a 24cm base measurement fluted tart tin with removable base

In a food processor briefly blitz the flour, salt and butter until it resembles small lentil, you don’t need to do it until fine.  Add your egg and pulse just until it comes together, only 3-4 pulses. Take out and knead a couple of times till it forms a dough, add a  little more flour if needed and with a rolling pin, roll between 2 sheets of baking paper and form a circle, put in fridge for ½ an hour to rest. Take out and continue to roll until it is big enough to fit your tart tin, lightly grease. Take 1 piece of baking paper off and hold underneath the paper then quickly turn over and put your pastry into your tin, peel off the baking paper (use this same paper for your blind baking) trim the excess and use that to fill in any gaps.  Put back in the fridge to rest for 15 minutes. You need to blind bake so you can use rice or dried chickpeas or specialty blind baking beans. Put the baking paper that you peeled off your pastry back onto your pastry and fill the paper with your blind baking rice/beans. This is done to weigh the pastry down so it doesn’t rise, make sure there is an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes, then take out and take your rice and paper out, keep your rice for your next blind baking (you can’t reuse and cook the rice) Put the tart shell back in the oven to dry out for 3 minutes. When done the pastry should no longer be raw. Take out of the oven and set aside.

Your filling you can use whatever you like this one is ½ a red onion and 1 piece of middle bacon- both diced and cooked in a pan for 3 minutes. Set aside. I had some frozen spinach to use up, so use a 250g pack of frozen spinach.  Defrost and make sure you squeeze out the excess moisture. Place the onion, bacon and spinach on the bottom of your quiche shell. In a bowl add 5 eggs and 2 tbsp cream, you can leave the cream out if you prefer. Whisk with a little salt and pepper. Add 3 more eggs but don’t whisk, you want them to stay whole. Pour the egg mix over your quiche ingredients and then top with sliced tomato and 120g of sliced brie or camembert. You can use feta or buffalo mozzarella or any other cheese. Bake for 20 minutes until it is golden brown and the egg is pretty much set.

Sesame and sage crusted pork, roasted pumpkin, corn and tomato & wilted silverbeet

Serves 4

Ingredients

 

500g pork steaks

Rounded 1/4 cup of sesame seeds

1 tsp dried ground sage

Salt and pepper

300g  of 2cm cubed pumpkin

½ bunch of silverbeet, washed and chopped

4 truss tomatoes-cut in half

2 cobs of corn, each cut into 4

Method

Preheat oven to 200c

In a roasting dish put in your pumpkin with 2 tsp ground sage, salt and 1 tbsp coconut oil. Put in for 5-7 minutes then add your tomato and corn and cook for another 10 minutes or so. While that is cooking coat your pork with the sesame seeds/sage mix. Pan fry in coconut oil for 5 minutes each side, depending on your thickness. When the vegetables are done pour over your silverbeet to wilt it. When your pork is cook take out and set aside. In the same pan (without washing) add 2 tbsp coconut oil, 2 tbsp coconut aminos (you could use tamari) and 2 tbsp tahini. Scrape all the yummy bits from the bottom and stir. Add in any juices that have come out of the pork.

 

3 seed "cheesy" crumbed fish -nut free

Serves 4

Ingredients
600g fish, cut into 2-3 cm strips
1/4 cup of tapioca or rice flour-season with salt and pepper
1 egg plus 2 tbsp water-beaten and seasoned
1/4 cup each of pumpkin/sunflower/sesame seeds
2 tbsp savoury yeast flakes (you can leave this out if you dont have it)

Method
Blitz your seeds and yeast flakes until fine like crumbs. Put you fish into the flour, shake off excess, put in egg, let excess drip off then roll in your crumbs. Cook in coconut oil for 2-3 minutes each side on a medium heat. Serve with lemon/homemade tartare sauce and sweet potato chips.