chocolate

The Best GF Brownie Recipe

healthy living

Gluten, dairy and guilt free. These brownies are rich, decadent and you wouldn’t even know whether or not they’re healthy! This is the second brownie recipe I’ve made because I want variation in my recipes, depending on what ingredients my readers may have available. The first included bananas, but this one is a little different, but the closest you can get to regular brownies.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup oats
  • 2 eggs
  • 60g dairy free chocolate (I used sweetswitch)
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1/4 cup raw cacao flour
  • 1/4 cup almond milk
  • 1/2 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

STEPS

  1. Using a double boiler (heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water) melt your coconut oil and chocolate.
  2. In the meantime, blend your oats in a blender to make oat flour.
  3. Once your chocolate has melted, remove from the double boiler and allow it to cool down.
  4. Crack your eggs in a small bowl and use some of your chocolate batter to temper it. Mix well and add the eggs to the rest of your chocolate. Incorporate gently and you will notice the batter thickening.
  5. Mix in the coconut sugar and vanilla.
  6. Sift in your cacao and oat flour and fold in gently until your batter is well incorporated. The key is to not over mix your brownie batter.
  7. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. I used a bread mould because I only made a small portion, but you can easily double the recipe.
  8. Bake the brownies at 170º C for 30-35 mins depending on the accuracy of your oven.
  9. Allow them to cool before slicing. (Tip: best enjoyed warm)

I hope you try out this recipe, it has definitely become one of my favourites. Thank you for reading, please like and follow for more, xoxo.

Healthy Brownie Recipe

healthy living

I recently came up with this recipe on the spot with basic ingredients, but it makes the softest brownies ever! The ingredients are clean and completely gluten, dairy and guilt-free! If you’ve tried baking with oats before, you’d notice that they aren’t the most forgiving and tend to become dry, but this recipe is a must try.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4-5 medium bananas (ripe)
  • 1 cup oats
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 almond milk (or any plant-based milk)
  • 2-3 tbsp erythritol/ coconut sugar
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 2-3tbsp raw cacao powder

Optional

  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp cacao nibs

STEPS:

  1. Mash the bananas in a bowl, mix in the eggs, sugar and vanilla (above)
  2. Blend the finely oats to make oat flour and mix into the batter.
  3. Add in the almond milk and the melted coconut oil.
  4. Sift in the cacao powder into the batter to prevent any clumps and fold in until well incorporated.
  5. Pour the batter into a square pan and sprinkle the cacao nibs on top, bake in an oven at 180ºC for 40-45mins.
  6. Let it cool and slice it evenly.

The best part about this recipe is that you can barely taste the banana and it has a great texture. I hope you try it out and let me know what you think. Thank you for reading, please follow and like for more xoxo.

Vanilla Almond Birthday Cake…

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This year, I celebrated my 20th birthday… in lockdown and it’s safe to say that it was one of the best and because buying a birthday cake was definitely not an option, it was left to me to bake a cake worthy of 20yrs. This one did not disappoint. It took me time to perfect the birthday cake recipe; I wanted one which was not too sweet but sweet enough and it had to be dairy and gluten free.

The issue with a gluten free cake is making it moist and soft enough without a whole lot of butter, as gluten free cakes tend to be dense and dry. The secret is having enough fat, but I needed healthy fat so I turned to almond flour. If you look at finely grounded almond flour, it has a very cakey texture and is perfect to balance dense flours. Although I have seen a few people add mixtures of buckwheat and tapioca flour, I felt like these ingredients weren’t available to everyone and the ratios were never harder to get right.

However, with this combination it’s always a 1:1 ration; half almond flour and half of any gluten free flour blend. Gluten Free flour blends are pretty constant with a mixture of tapioca, chickpea, potato starch and anthem gum. I’ve used multiple brands such as neofoods, Bob’s red mill… and any all purpose blend should work fine.

The recipe below makes four layers of cake and the donuts, but I’ve also provided measurements for only one layer in bold to simplify it.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 1/2 cups Almond flour / 1 cup
  • 4 1/2 cups GF flour/ 1 cup
  • 9 eggs / 2 eggs
  • 3 tsp baking powder / 1/2 tsp
  • 5 cups almond milk (or any plant-based milk) / 3/4 cup
  • 1 1/2 cup coconut sugar / 1/2 cup
  • 2tbsp vanilla extract / 1tsp
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil/ 1 tbsp

Filling & Glaze (for 4 layers)

  • 350g dark chocolate (I used Sweet switch’s 70% vegan chocolate)
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup almond milk

STEPS

  1. Combine the flours and baking powder together in a large bowl.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, coconut sugar or any sweetener of choice, coconut oil and almond milk together.
  3. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients or use a hand mixer on low speed to incorporate properly.
  4. Spray your baking pan with coconut oil and add baking paper to the bottom. Pour your batter to fill in 3/4 of the pan.
  5. Bake for 30- 40 mins at 170ºC, let the cake cool before levelling it.

Filling & Glaze

  1. For the filling, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Let the layers cool completely before spreading the ganache between them.
  2. For the drizzle on top, add almond milk to the melted chocolate and pour over your cake, spreading it with a cake spatula or spoon.
  3. To make donuts to decorate the cake, I simply baked the leftover batter in donut moulds. Optional: add cacao nibs or chocolate chips.

TIPS

  • Make sure all your ingredients are at room temp.
  • If the oven is too hot, your cake is more likely to form cracks.
  • Only level your cake when it has cooled.
  • Levelling a cake is harder without the right tools, but not impossible; using a ruler and a sharp knife, mark your cake all around at the same height. Then start cutting the dome off by angling your knife at right angles to the cake, keep rotating it and cutting slightly deeper each time. This is to avoid cutting a hole in your cake.
  • Keep in the fridge to harden the chocolate, and honestly cake tastes better cold.

Healthy Hot Chocolate Recipe

healthy living

I’ve tried to make healthy hot chocolate multiple times but never got the recipe right, from it being too sweet to having a powdery after taste. However my many trial and errors finally led to the perfect mug of cocoa and the best part is that it’s super easy to make, you don’t need a frother or any special ingredient.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1-2 tbsp raw cacao powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1/4 tsp vanilla paste)
  • 1tsp honey (or agave syrup)
  • 1 1/2 cups of milk ( I used almond, you can use any plant-based milk as well)

STEPS

  1. Pour 1 1/4 cup milk in a blender and let it blend while you prep the chocolate
  2. Mix 1/4 milk, cacao, cinnamon and vanilla in a saucepan over low heat.
  3. Whisk the chocolate over low heat until it starts to thicken.
  4. Turn off the heat when the cacao is creamy and whisk in the frothed milk.
  5. Top with cinnamon or cacao powder.

There it is! The easiest, perfect hot chocolate recipe. You can definitely make this recipe vegan if you like by switching out the honey. I hope you try it out and follow for more recipes like this one. Thank you for reading xoxo.

Healthy Chocolate Muffins

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Gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and guilt free. This yummy recipe is easy to make and takes only a short amount of time. I recently made this one as a little treat even though I am improving my fitness goals, so you don’t have to worry that it will compromise your weight loss, it won’t (as long as you don’t eat the whole batch in a week).

What I find works best for me is to avoid batch baking, because otherwise I find myself reaching for one of these every day and that’s ok as long as you’re not going into a caloric surplus. I usually bake on the spot because these recipes are pretty quick to make.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 50g almond flour
  • 50g gluten free flour (I used neofoods all purpose blend )
  • 20 g cacao powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 40g erythritol/stevia blend (I used Sukrin)
  • 100 ml almond milk
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • Cacao nibs (optional)

 

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STEPS:

  • Mix all the dry ingredients together
  • Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine well. Gradually add the milk until a desired consistency, the thicker the batter, the more dense your muffins will be.
  • Spray a muffin pan with some coconut oil and pour in the batter up to 3/4 of the mould.
  • Bake in the oven at 170ºC for 10-15 mins (these cook pretty fast so keep an eye on them)
  • Let them cool down before storing them in the fridge, they’ll last for 1-2 weeks.

 

 

  • Servings: 4
  • Calories: 173
  • Time: 20 – 25 mins

 

I hope you enjoy this recipe, let me know down in the comments if you do try them out. Please follow for more recipes like this one, xoxo.