Frozen Rocky Road (LF)

Frozen Rocky Road is a recipe I made up as a quick dairy free dessert for Christmas this year. Having moved away from where our families live, we always have to travel to be with them for Christmas so when my sister suggested I make a dessert to contribute to the Christmas feast I said "sure" and quickly put my thoughts into what I could easily make in my mum's not so well equipped kitchen on short notice. Then 'BOOM!'  Frozen Rocky Road was born. It's chocolate frozen goodness with chewy dried fruit, crunchy hokey pokey(honeycomb) chunks and nutty nuts. Delicious!

Frozen Rocky Road

INGREDIENTS:
5 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
200 g dairy-free chocolate
90g blanched almonds
90g shelled pistachios
150g margarine
85g dried cranberries
100g dried apricots


METHOD:
Lay a silicon mat onto a cookie sheet and brush with vegetable oil.
Melt sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan over low heat.
When sugar mix is 115 degrees celcius or is a caramel gold colour turn the heat up to high.
Quickly whisk in the baking soda and pour mixture onto prepared silicon mat.
 

Hokey Pokey (Honeycomb)

 Let it cool for 30 minutes, remove the hokey pokey from the tray and chop into chunk sized pieces.

Hokey Pokey Chunks

Line a loaf tin with at least 4 layers of cling film, ensuring it overhangs the sides of the tin enough to cover over the mix when it's full.
Chop up the almonds and pistachios then mix together with cranberries and apricots. Set aside.

Dried Fruit

Chopped Almonds

Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Add margarine to chocolate and stir together until melted together.

Chocolate & Margarine Mix

 
Take off the heat and add the chopped nuts and dried fruit.

Rocky Road Mix

Spoon and press into prepared loaf tin.
Fold overhanging cling film over the rocky road mix.

Rocky Road Mix Set in Loaf Tin

Freeze overnight or at least 6 hours.
Remove frozen rocky road from tin, unwrap cling film and cut into slices.
Serve with fresh summer fruit like strawberries and raspberries.

Enjoy!

Tips and Tricks:
- Work quickly once you add the baking soda to the sugar mix when making the hokey pokey otherwise you may end up with a sticky claggy mess in your pot to clean up.

-If you do end up with a sticky hard goo in your pot or on your utensils just rinse it hot water and the mix will dissolve off.

-Keep a large glass of hot water handy whilst making the hokey pokey so you can easily dissolve the sugar mix off your thermometer in between measuring and stirring.

-Make sure your silicon mat is brushed well with vegetable oil so the hokey pokey easily slides off. Baking paper is not a good alternative.

-Once the frozen rocky road is set; the slices can be kept in the fridge sif you prefer the slices to be firm but nit rock hard.

Lemon Cupcakes (LF) (GF)

Lemon cupcakes are refreshingly delicious. Full of lemon zesty goodness, lactose free for my wonderful "guinea pig" (partner) as well as amazingly soft and springy for a gluten free cake recipe. I topped these with a basic lemon icing recipe; something I'm not used to making so please excuse the poorly made/applied icing - it's not my best effort but it did not affect the taste.

Lemon Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

For the cupcakes:
89g rice flour
67g maize cornflour
28g almond meal
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
150g sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
80 ml canola oil
200 ml soy milk
1 lemon, zested and juiced

For the icing:
1 lemon zested and juiced
2 cups icing sugar
1 drop of yellow food colouring

METHOD:

Turn on oven to bake at 180 degrees celcius.

In a bowl mix together rice flour, cornflour, almond meal, xanthan gum, sugar and baking soda.

Mix together the eggs, soy milk, oil, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Add wet ingredients mixture to dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Line and fill a 12 pan cupcake tin so each is 3/4 full of mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

To make icing, mix together lemon juice, food colouring and icing sugar until nice and smooth.

Add more icing sugar if required to get a spreading consistency.

Add lemon zest to icing mixture.

Once cupcakes are cooled, spread icing onto cupcakes.

Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake (LF) (GF)

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake is just yum! I made it for my birthday cake this year and of course it's dairy-free and lactose-free so my awesome partner could help me devour it. As a bonus it's also gluten-free! Here I served it with dairy-free creme patissiere, berry coulis, strawberries and a sprig of mint. Amazingly simple and quick to make, it even kept moist for 3 days. I can't wait for an excuse to make another.

Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake

 

INGREDIENTS:

190g rice flour
145g maize cornflour
60g almond meal
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
380g sugar
80g cocoa powder
3 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
500ml cold water
150ml coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

METHOD:

Turn on oven to bake at 180 degrees celcius.

Line two 24cm x 15 cm loaf tins with non-stick cooking paper.

In a bowl mix together rice flour, cornflour, almond meal, xanthan gum, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the vanilla essence, water, coconut oil and vinegar. Mix well.

Pour mixture evenly into loaf tins.

Bake for 30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Serve with Creme patissiere, strawberries and berry coulis.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Raspberry Tarts (LF)

Chocolate Raspberry Tarts are little morsels of awesomeness! Topped with epic vegan raspberry jelly and filled with dairy free chocolate mousse you just have to go back for one more. Substitute the sweet short crust pastry (base) with a vegan alternative such as the base from my Chocolate Mousse Cake Recipe to make this an amazing vegan dessert.

Chocolate Raspberry Tarts

INGREDIENTS:

For Base:
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
10 tbsp dairy-free margarine
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp water
2 egg yolks

For Filling:
350g silken tofu
350g vegan chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla essence

For Raspberry Jelly:
1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup water
4 tbsp sugar
1 tsp agar agar powder

METHOD:

Turn on oven to bake at 180 degrees celcius

For Base:
Put flour, salt and sugar into a bowl.
Add margarine and rub until mixture is like breadcrumbs.
Add vanilla, water and egg yolks.
Mix together and knead into a soft smooth ball of dough.
Place in fridge for at least 15 minutes.
Roll out pastry to about 2-3mm thickness.
Cut circles out of the pastry to line the holes in a mini-muffin tray.
Bake blind for 8 minutes. Remove baking blind material and bake for 1 minute.
Remove from oven tray and set aside to cool.
Continue to bake pastry cups until pastry is used up.

For Filling:
Place tofu and vanilla essence into a blender or food processor.
Over a double boiler, melt chocolate.
Add melted chocolate to blender and quickly start whizzing the mixture until smooth.
Spoon into the cooled bases.

Place into fridge for at least 2 hours or until set.

For the Jelly:
Put raspberries and water into a small saucepan.
Mash the raspberries into the water with a fork.
Add the sugar and bring to the boil.
Add agar agar powder and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Place a non-stick silicon mat into a large flat bottomed tray (such as a swiss roll tin).
Pour raspberry jelly mixture onto mat and refrigerate overnight or until set.
Cut small shapes from the jelly and layer over the set chocolate tarts - I used a square cutter and two jelly layers to give the tarts some height.

Makes 48 bite-sized tarts.

Quick Tips:
- I don't have a double boiler so to melt the chocolate I use a glass or metal bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water - just need to be careful of the steam, I often wear an oven glove on the hand holding the bowl.
 - You can also use a microwave to melt the chocolate by microwaving in stints of no more than 20 seconds at a time (often much less once heated through), stirring in between each stint.
 - Make sure you start whizzing the filling mixture as soon as the melted chocolate has been added because the chocolate will start cooling and solidifying as soon as you add it.

Enjoy!