I arrived home from work yesterday in one of those give-me-all-the-snacks moods. You know the mood I'm talking about, right? I'm not the only one? Considering Easter is this weekend, I have chocolate on my mind, and I had been wanting to give raw vegan truffles a go so these proved to be the perfect opportunity. Chocolate + snacks + raw vegan goodies = yes please! I know most raw vegan truffles have dates as their base, but we didn't have any dates in the house, and lordy they're so expensive here! So I made do with what I had on hand, and they turned out fabulously delicious, naughty-tasting but definitely not bad for you in the slightest. You could very easily add anything you want into these babies; the buckwheat is optional, as are the chia seeds, but both add a delicious bit of crunch. You could try adding in almonds or walnuts, or basically any nut or seed, if you so desire.
Hope you all have a wonderful, chocolate-filled Easter!
What you need:
1 tablespoon of raw cacao powder (I use Loving Earth)
1.5 tablespoons of raw coconut oil, room-temperature
1.5 tablespoons of liquid sweetener of choice (maple, honey, rice malt, etc)
Half an avocado
1/2 of a cup of desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
A pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon of maca (optional)
2 teaspoons of chia seeds (optional)
1 tablespoon of raw buckwheat (I used Loving Earth's caramelised buckinis) (optional)
What you need to do:
Mix together the cacao powder, coconut oil and liquid sweetener, until it's a delicious chocolate-y mess.
Add in the avocado, and mash it up well until everything is mixed together nicely.
Add the coconut, cinnamon, sea salt, maca, chia, and buckwheat, and mix everything together.
In a small muffin tin lined with small patty pans, dollop a couple of teaspoons of the mixture into each patty pan. Pop into the freezer for 15-20 minutes, to allow the coconut oil to re-solidify.
This is where it gets fun and messy. Making sure your hands are nice and clean, roll the mixture from each patty pan into a ball (it'll be a little sticky!). Roll the balls in your choice of more coconut, or cacao powder, or both.
Pop back into the freezer, and eat whenever you can't wait any longer! The longer they spend in the freezer, the more truffle-y they become, but I totally understand if you don't hold out for that ;)
If you like your chocolate nice and dark, then I promise you will love these cookies. They're rich and fudgy, chunky (almost brownie-like), and verging on bittersweet. They also just happen to be, you know… Really good for you. I know, I'm pretty happy about it too.
You know those times where you just really. want. chocolate? One of those times is the reason these cookies came about. I just really wanted chocolate. Rich, dark, sinful-tasting chocolate. And boy did they do the trick. They may have even done the trick a bit too well - I was a whirl of energy for the rest of the afternoon and well into the night. Maybe eating like, half of the batter (yes I licked the spoon, and ran my fingers around the bowl, and I expect the same from you) and then two cookies straight from the cooling rack, and then another one once they'd cooled down was a bit excessive… Just a friendly reminder that cacao does have a bit of caffeine in it, so these bad boys aren't great for a pre-bed snack! I speak from experience. No regrets.
But anyway! Let's talk ingredients. I used amaranth flour because it's what I had in the pantry, but I'm 98% sure that coconut flour would work just as well. If anyone tries that out let me know how it goes! If you want to use other flours, just remember that amaranth and coconut flour are very absorbent flours, so you'd have to play around with the liquid/dry ratio. I also used raw cacao powder, which is the unprocessed, unheated, much more nutrient- and mineral-rich, natural form of cocoa powder, and it also tastes much richer than cocoa powder. In saying that, I'm sure cocoa powder would work well, and if you're sensitive to caffeine/prefer not to eat cacao, then try using carob powder instead!
I completely adore the addition of avocado into any desserts. If you haven't ever tried avocado chocolate mousse, then I absolutely recommend giving it a go. I've fed it to friends before who don't normally like ~vegan~ ~healthy~ food and they've loved it! The use of avocado in this recipe is what gives the cookies their delicious fudginess.
Finally! I used Loving Earth's chocolate buckinis in this recipe, which are oh so heavenly, but I am well aware that many of you wouldn't have these in your pantry (especially if you don't live in Australia. If this is the case, I'm so sorry that you miss out on the goodness that is Loving Earth, and I hope they sort out international postage stat). Chocolate buckinis are basically a mix of activated raw buckwheat, coconut flakes, goji berries, raw cacao powder, and coconut sugar. As a substitution, mix together 3/4 of a cup of raw buckwheat, a tablespoon each of coconut flakes and goji berries, and a tablespoon of coconut sugar.
Enough talk. We need cookies.
What you need:
1/2 cup of amaranth flour + an extra tablespoon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup of raw cacao powder
1 cup of Loving Earth Chocolate Buckinis (see above for substitutions)
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup of almond milk (I'm sure any milk would work just fine)
1/2 an avocado, mashed
2 tablespoons of maple syrup/agave/coconut nectar (don't skimp on this, when I say tablespoons I mean like… heaped tablespoons) (the cookies aren't ridiculously sweet, which is what I love about them, but if you've got a mega sweet tooth then maybe add extra)
What you need to do:
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius, and line a tray with baking paper.
Mix together your flour, baking powder, cacao powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the buckinis and stir in well.
In a separate bowl, mash the avocado. Add the almond milk and your sweetener of choice, and mix together until very well combined.
You should have a nice sticky batter, which holds together well.
Dollop onto your cookie tray. You should have 12 pretty big cookies.
Pop into the oven for 25 minutes. Try not to eat them all at once!
I find there's something so nostalgic and cosy about Easter time, and I completely adore it. Maybe it's the shift of the seasons happening at this time of year, the summer warmth giving way to the colder and cosier months. Maybe it's the fond memories that I have of chocolate-fuelled long weekends spent running around my grandparents' home in the mountains (I can't say much has changed…). Maybe it's the understated and easy-going nature of Easter, compared to Christmas, as families come together to spend time with each other, without that seemingly inescapable stress that Christmas time brings. Maybe it's simply that smell of baking hot cross buns, the scent of cinnamon reaching every corner of the house.
As I've grown older, hot cross buns have steadily overtaken chocolate's prime status as my favoured Easter treat (!) and I find myself hanging out for them in the months leading up to Easter. I just can't say no to a freshly-toasted, dried-fruit-studded, cinnamon-spiced, subtly sweet homemade hot cross bun (especially when paired with a cup of tea!). But I think it's their fleeting, transient nature that I love most - with only a few weeks out of every year in which to make the most of their goodness, they take on a somewhat ephemeral quality.
These muffins were very much a trial-and-error experiment. I obviously wanted to bake up some hot cross buns myself, however I've had zero time for bread-making lately, so I thought why not take the whole yeast step out of the mix and see what I end up with? I basically ended up with scones, which were fabulously delicious and hot-cross-bunny (heh) regardless. I then played around with the recipe, remade them, and ended up with these muffins instead. The texture is deliciously soft, and subtly sweet, studded with currants and a hint of citrus, and to top it all off, I made the cross out of raw cacao for extra deliciousness. Plus, they're vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free - much unlike the buns you find in supermarkets.
Hope you enjoy them as much as my family and I did!
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