june: anna’s vanilla coconut chia pudding with cherries and almonds

I consider real vanilla beans a luxury! Even though you can buy vanilla extract quite cheaply, real vanilla beans are pretty pricey. I was excited when I found some that were reasonably priced at Costco. If I don’t have whole beans, I usually use Nielsen Massey vanilla bean paste, which is a great substitute. It’s a mixture of vanilla beans and extract, so you still get the little black flecks in your dessert!

With a theme like vanilla, this month’s dessert could have gone in almost any direction. The dish I made, chia seed pudding, is really simple. There are only a few ingredients and it’s also vegan / raw / gluten free / lactose free! The pudding is as simple as mixing all the ingredients together and letting the mixture sit in the fridge overnight. I found a recipe that paired the pudding with a cashew cream, which takes a little more effort than the pudding itself as there is blending involved!

The base recipe is pretty versatile. Some recipes use a different liquid such as almond milk or soy milk, but I really like coconut milk and I think it’s a great flavor for a summer dessert! I lightened it a bit by using a combination of coconut milk and coconut water.

In line with this month’s theme, vanilla is featured in both the pudding as well as the cashew cream. I served these in little individual glasses and topped with cherries and flaked almonds.

I wasn’t sure how well it would be received, since “raw” and “vegan” might not sound very appealing to everyone, but everyone loved it! The coconut, cherry and almond flavors paired so well together. This is definitely something I will make again.

It also inspired me to try out some more raw cooking next weekend!

Find the recipe here

may: anna’s coconut and passionfruit cupcakes

I was looking for a lighter type of cupcake to make for a friend’s birthday recently. We were having burgers and fries for dinner, so I needed something not-too-heavy to follow (so chocolate was definitely out).

Coconut cupcakes sounded like a great option. I used three different types of coconut to make these – fresh coconut, coconut milk and dried coconut.

The original recipe topped these with a coconut glaze, but I wanted something fruity, so I paired the cupcakes with a passionfruit buttercream. I think it was a good flavor combination, but the passionfruit flavor actually overpowered the delicate coconut flavor. On it’s own, the cake had a really great flavor and texture. The coconut milk in the cupcake batter came through subtly. I definitely want to try making these again with the coconut glaze. It would also make a great layer cake!

I’m always anxious when I’m trying out a new cake recipe. The results can be hit or miss, but this one was definitely a hit!

Find the recipe here

may: coconut

Coconut products have become a craze of late. The market has been flooded with products such as coconut water, coconut oil, coconut sugar and coconut flour.

These products have become popular replacements in cooking as they are naturally dairy and gluten free and because of the nutritional benefits. It’s yet to be seen whether this is a fad or if it’s here to stay, but this month, we’re exploring the versatility of coconut in our sweet dishes!

april: anna’s maple and pecan ice cream

I’ve decided that ice cream is going to be my thing this summer! After making it a couple of times recently with very favorable results, I was keen to continue experimenting with new and different flavors!

Once you have an ice cream base that you like, there’s really no limit to the different flavor combinations you can make. I’ve seen lots of unique combinations pop up recently… the most interesting combination I’ve tried is miso and sour cherry, which actually worked really well (I’ve mentally added it to the list of flavors to try making)!

This particular ice cream used maple syrup as a complete substitute for sugar. The recipe suggested using Grade B maple syrup, which has a more intense flavor, but I only had Grade A maple syrup on hand, so I used that instead. I love freshly roasted pecans, so I added those to the ice cream too.

The ice cream turned out really well! Very rich and creamy. I just used plain roasted pecans, but you could also toss them with salt or other spices, for something a little different.

Find the recipe here

 

march: anna’s pineapple and ginger ice cream

I have to confess, I don’t like pineapple. People are usually horrified when I say that… I guess it’s like saying you don’t like mangoes or watermelon! So this month’s ingredient was a bit of a stretch for me. I don’t mind having pineapple if it’s in a dish, like carrot cake, or in a drink, like a pina colada! I just don’t really like it plain or if it’s the primary flavor in a dish.

I ended up making last month’s friands again. They were a hit at the brunch that I took them to! I had 5 egg yolks left over, which was the perfect amount for a batch of ice cream. I often end up throwing out extra egg yolks, which I hate doing. I also hardly ever have room in the freezer to fit my ice cream machine, so whenever I do, I always take advantage of it. Our freezer is usually jam packed with ingredients that we’ve stocked up on because they are hard to get or just come in bigger sizes than we can eat, and dishes that we’ve cooked and saved for later. We were away for a couple of weeks last month so we actively tried to clear out the freezer before we left. There was plenty of room for my ice cream machine!

Once I decided to make ice cream, it was easy enough to decide on the flavor, given this month’s theme! I already had some canned pineapple at home from when I made hummingbird cake, so I decided to use that, and kick it up a notch with some fresh ginger. You could definitely use fresh pineapple, but it was so easy to use canned, and I think the fresh ginger really livened it up so you probably couldn’t even tell that it was canned pineapple.Ice cream is something I really enjoy making. It’s a bit like fresh pasta – pretty easy to make but tastes so much better than a bought one, and people are always really impressed!

I took the ice cream to a friend’s party and we served it with a champagne chiffon cake that my friend made. It was a great combination! Even to a pineapple hater, this ice cream was pretty damn good!

Find the recipe here

february: anna’s quinoa raspberry friands

Quinoa is everywhere these days. I’ve been a fan since I first tried it a couple of years ago. I spent some time in Chicago recently and discovered Protein Bar, a healthy, fast food style restaurant that has quinoa in pretty much every dish. The food was tasty and good for you! I was addicted. I’m sure it won’t be long before it comes to NY! I’ve only ever had quinoa in savory dishes and I was inspired to try it in a sweet dish, hence my choice for this month’s theme!

I wanted to use quinoa in a couple of different forms, but I was really short on time this month, so I ended up just going with quinoa flour. I did a bit of research and it seemed like people had mixed experiences using this type of flour. Various websites said it has a bitter / sour / grassy flavor that overpowered other ingredients. Some websites said to toast the flour before using it. Some websites described the flavor as nutty, so I thought I’d use it in a nut-based dish to keep with the same flavor profile. I decided to make friands, which I’ve actually never seen in the US! I think they are an Aussie thing. They are little cakes made with only a few main ingredients – almond meal, flour, sugar, butter and egg whites. The texture of friands is unique – they are light but dense at the same time. I should also mention that this version of friands, with quinoa flour instead of plain flour, is gluten free! You could easily use a gluten free flour mix or other type of gluten free flour like rice or tapioca flour. It’s a small portion of the ingredients so I don’t think it would change the end result too much.

I wanted to try the flour without toasting it to see what the flavor was like. I smelt the bag of flour when I opened it and it definitely had a distinct smell – the same smell of quinoa grains while you are cooking them. Once quinoa grains are cooked, they lose that grassy taste, and I’m guessing the same thing that happens when you toast the flour.

The quinoa flavor definitely came through in the friands, which I liked. You might not necessarily pick the flavor as quinoa, but it definitely did taste different to regular flour. I will try toasting the flour next time, to see how differently it turns out. Friands are awesome. It’s been a long time since I ate one and I’d forgotten how much I like them!

Find the recipe here