Posts Tagged With: cacao

2-Minute Vegan Chocolate Sauce – Only 3 ingredients!

Posted on February 20, 2018 by leroy watson

We love this one! 3 words, easy, rich and delicious, plus 3 ingredients (and a wee twist of salt). On our fantasy dessert island, this sauce would be the ocean.

We make this all the time and put it on most things really. Sometimes though, if you’re going wild, the only accompaniment needed is a big ol’ spoon. Of course, there is officially over a million ways to make chocolate sauce (no, more!!) but this is the easiest, apart from opening a packetbottlejar-thing.

February seems to be one of those months. Most people are feeling the winter pinch right now, we’re bang in the middle of Feb (sort of) and I think we all need as much sweetness as possible to get by at this time of year. This is not food, this is survival!! Cacao is really high in anti-oxidants so you could kind of say that this is a flu remedy.

RETRO MAGIC

This sauce will also solidify when poured over cold things like ice cream, or those ice cream sandwiches made out of cookies which are just awesome. Pouring over very cold things will result in a really nice crack and crunch, like the retro chocolate sauce we both had as kids (although Jane is querying the brand here). I think it was called Birds Ice Magic (see below). The mint flavour was my favourite, Jane’s was chocolate flavour. Which is no surprise. Ice Magic was some kind of revolution. Anyone remember it?

Ideas for this sauce are of course, ice cream, drizzle over your favourite biscuit/ cake/ pancake/ toast/ fruit/ you get the idea. This sauce rocks on anything!!

The great thing here is that with three ingredients, you can balance the chocolate sauce how you like it. Some like it really dark (more cacao/ cocoa), some are sweeties (more sweetener). You may also like to flavour this sauce with things like ginger, cinnamon, mint, orange, vanilla, butterscotch, brandy (just a dash;) this list goes on. Let us know if you try it out.

Cacao is unprocessed, well, cacao, which eventually makes chocolate. Cacao powder is a little more expensive but has loads more nutrients and we think the taste is better.

Recipe Notes

We prefer to use coconut oil in this sauce, you can get coconut oil that is low on coconut flavour, if you’re not into that. At a push, you can use other lightly flavoured oils, but we haven’t tried this extensively.

Maple syrup is our favourite but any liquid sweetener, like brown rice syrup, agave etc will work nicely.

This sauce will keep nicely in the fridge, but its so easy to make and eat, there will be little need for leftovers;)

The coconut oil should be melted, liquid, but not really hot. Let it chill a bit.

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2-Minute Vegan Chocolate Sauce

The Bits – One small bowlful

2 tbs cacao / cocoa powder

2 tbs coconut oil (melted and cooled a little)

1 tbs sweetener (maple syrup, brown rice syrup etc)

Pinch sea salt

Do It

Stir together the ingredients in a bowl until a smooth sauce forms. That’s it!!

Foodie Fact

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF REAL CACAO
Cacao has been known as the ‘Food of the Gods’ for centuries in the Americas and it’s easy to see why. The cacao tree produces big pods, where the cacao beans hide and grow. Inside each cacao bean there is a cacao nib (for chocolate) and cacao butter (for chocolate, cosmetics etc). Most chocolates are made with extra cacao butter, or things like soya lecithin, added to make the bar smooth.

Cacao is very high in antioxidants and essential nutrients although many of these can be lost when processed into chocolate or cocoa. Some of the apparent health benefits of eating cacao are lowering high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, asthma, diarrhea, preventing wrinkles, liver, bladder and kidney disorders and many more.

The cacao bean is packed full of antioxidants, good fats, carbohydrates, protein, minerals like calcium, magnesium, sulfur, copper, iron, zinc and potassium. They also contain oleic acid which is a heart-healthy essential monounsaturated fat, fiber and vitamins E, B2, B1, B5, B3 and B9 as well as small quantities of vitamin A and C. We think it’s incredible that something as decadent as chocolate, especially raw chocolate, is so wonderfully healthy.

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Categories: Desserts, gluten-free, healthy, Nutrition, plant-based, Recipes, Sauces, Superfoods, Vegan, veganism | Tags: cacao, chocolate, vegan recipes | 4 Comments

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cups

Posted on October 26, 2017 by leroy watson

This deep and rich chocolate mousse recipe is simple and decadent, always a good mix! This is a go to recipe for a quick and stunning dessert that no one can resist. Top with your favourite, colourful things and serve in cups/ glasses and you have a lovely looking dessert with minimum fuss.

A food processor is fine here, but a blender is probably better to get the mousse really smooth and shiny. I’ve been playing for a while with my vegan/ gluten-free biscotti recipe and it is getting there. I may well share it soon, I need another few more tasting sessions first! A bit of crunch is perfect with the mousse, scooping up the mousse with a biscotti is something outrageous!

Recipe Notes

You can also use silken tofu (drained) to make this mousse. Replace a similar quantity for the avocadoes or use a mixture of the two. Both will give a lovely plant-based creaminess.

I don’t like my mousse too sweet, you may need a little more sweetness, give it a taste before serving and add more maple syrup as needed. Use any sweetener you like, but I love the combo of maple syrup and dark chocolate.

To make sure you don’t waste a drop of your mousse, use a rubber spatula to scrape out your food processor/ blender.

Adding a large pinch of chilli powder is a nice idea here, takes it in a slightly Mexican direction which I love.

For your topping, think about contrasting colours and textures. Pistachios are perfect because they’re delicious, bright and GREEN. They always look great.

Don’t forget the little twist of salt, it really deepens the chocolate flavour.

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Rich Chocolate Mousse

The Bits – For 4-6

4 ripe avocados
1/2 cup cacao/ cocoa
3/4 cup almond/ other plant milk (unsweetened)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
Large pinch sea salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs coconut oil (melted, but cooled to room temperature)

Topping
Scattering of berries and toasted flaked almonds, sliced strawberry, amaretti biscuit, almond biscotti, pomegranate and pistachio…..whatever your favourite toppings are or what is to hand.

Do It

Place all ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth. This may take a few attempts of stopping the blender and scraping down the sides with a blender.

Refrigerate for a few hours to thicken or can be enjoyed straight away.

Foodie Fact

Cacao is unrefined chocolate. Simple and stunningly healthy. It comes normally in powder form, but can also be found in cacao ‘nibs’. Cacao is full of anti-oxidants and as you may know, eating chocolate releases endorphins, makings us more happy, shiny people:)

Categories: Desserts, gluten-free, healthy, Nutrition, photography, plant-based, Recipes, Vegan, veganism | Tags: cacao, chocolate, recipe, veganfood, vegfest | 5 Comments

Brazil Nut and Cacao Pancakes with Papaya Sauce and Berries

Posted on September 20, 2013 by leroy watson

A truly awesome start to any day, this just happened to be a Sunday. This is a low-rise cake, with aspirations to one day be a pancake.

Brazil nuts, berries, papaya, this is a decadent affair. Its the kind of thing you’d imagine the old Maharajas to be munching on in palaces on the Gangetic Plains. What Im trying to say is that this is decadent in the extreme and packed full of nutrition. I find normal fat pancakes, american style, a little on the heavy side. These Brazil Nut beauties have all the flavour without the post breakfast sag.

They can be made raw with a dehydrator, but we forgot to put ours on the night before, so we baked them like a cake in the oven and they turned out very well indeed.

The papaya is a real treat, making quite a change to all the apples and blackberries we have been eating at this time of year. What can I say, I am weak when it comes to papaya. They are one of my favourite things for breakfast. Even though the papayas that take the long flight over here are a little jaded and solid, I never tire of that unique flavour. I also love the seeds, they look like frog spawn.

THE BEAUTY OF BRAZILS!

Brazil nuts (or cream nuts) are always handled with great care in our kitchen. They seem impossibly hard to harvest and grow, so when I get hold of some, I reserve them for the best occasions and finest of company. When blended, they are so fatty, they resemble butter. Brazil Nut butter is the only thing that can compare with ‘real’ butter for creaminess and outrageous fattiness, only the fat here is not all saturated and of course, all plant based.

Brazil nut trees are mighty things, some of the highest and oldest trees in the Amazon region, growing to nearly 50 metres tall! Imagine climbing that to get to the nuts! Each one of these massive trees will only yield around 300 brazil nut pods per year and take at least 14 months to mature.

I am a little dodgy with gluten it seems, it makes my eczema go wild. Ground brazil nuts, like almonds, make a perfect substitute for flour and are much more nutritious. Brazil nut oil is also a wonder thing, great for massages and cooking. As if that wasn’t enough goodness for one nut, see the nutritional content in the Foodie Fact below.

The Beach House Kitchen has been as busy as ever, but you’d never guess it by the number of posts of late. Below are some of our cacao/ chocolate-style creations for the month. We’ve had friends and family visiting, so cakes have definitely been on the agenda. We really should type more, we’re just too busy cooking and eating!

Pancake time!

The Bits

Pancakes – 2 bananas, 1 1/2 cup brazil nuts, 1/2 cup raw cacao powder (or normal cocoa if you like), 1 cup flax seed meal, 2 teas cinnamon, 1/2 teas bicarb of soda, 1 cup water

Sauce – 1 small papaya, 1 small orange, 1 tbsp sweetener of choice (maple syrup, rice syrup etc)

Finish with chopped bananas and berries (we used raspberries and blueberries) and a few chopped brazil nuts (we used almonds bizarrely).

Do It

Preheat an oven to 200oC

In a food processor, add your brazil nut and pulse them until broken down, but still a little chunky. Almost to the texture of ground almonds, but not quite.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the water, blend together and add the water a little a time. You are looking for a thick, double cream like texture, a little thicker than a normal pancake.

Pour into a well oiled, circular spring form pan and pop in the oven for 15 minutes. It will rise nicely into a low-rise cake of sorts, but still in the realm of pancake.

Whilst this is occuring, wipe out your FP and place all sauce ingredients in. Blend until smooth. Thats that.

Chop up and wash your toppings ready for action.

Serve

In slices, drizzled with the sauce and festooned with topping galore. What a treat for those weary Sunday mornings when the loss of Saturday just seems too much.

If you are hungry and feeling extravagant (even more so!) then you can stack these pancakes into some form of wonder tower, layered with the toppings and sauce.

We Love It!

Dessert for breakfast is something we wholeheartedly condone in these parts. ‘Nuff said.

Foodie Fact

Brazil nuts are such a gift. Individually wrapped, hanging from a beautiful fruit. Originally a delicious source of protein for the people of the Amazon, now enjoyed by us all, they are fatty, rich and packed full of nutrients.

Being so buttery, Brazil nuts are high in calories and fats. The great news is that a large portion of these fats are mono-unsaturated, making them good for the heart and preventing strokes.

Brazil nuts also boast great levels of Vitamin E (good for the cells) and Selenium (they are the highest natural source of this mineral). Selenium works with anti-oxidant enzymes to keep cancer, coronary disease and cirrhosis at bay.

Brazil nuts are also good for the vitamin B’s and are full of minerals like copper and magnesium.

Here’s what else has been hitting the ovens recently:

Baked Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Cheesecake with Hazelnut Base

Kiwi and Tahini Custard Tart with Cacao and Cashew Base

Jane’s Double Chocolate Cake filled with Dark Cherry Jam

If you’d like any of these recipes, just let us know.

Categories: Breakfast, gluten-free, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: brazil but, cacao, dairy free, gluten-free, healthy, nutrition, pancakes, raw, recipe, vegan | 8 Comments

Vegan Chocolate and Almond Ice Cream

Posted on August 7, 2012 by leroy watson

One big pile of Vegan Chocolate Nut Ice Cream

The Beach House Kitchen is definitely rustic. Not in the manufactured ‘rustic’ sense of the word, I mean we have sheep invading our front garden and no coffee shop within a half hour drive. The wind howls and we regularly have horses looking into our bathroom window (which can be quite a shock when you’re getting out of the shower!). We live out here and it’s beautiful!

I try and convey this country feel in our pictures, I just don’t have the gadgets (and time) to make our food look so polished. I am in awe of many blogs that manage to make any dish look like food of the Gods. When it’s so grey outside, taking photographs of food just doesn’t do the dish justice. One blog who constantly dazzles with its photographs and gorgeous food is 84th&3rd. This recipe is inspired by their Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream recipe. This is one of those food blogs that is so delicious and sexy, you just want to try out all of the recipes.

This is an amazing recipe that will blow anybody away. Vegan or otherwise. Even the hardest of hardcore Ben and Jerry lovers will be impressed with this ice cream. It is a wonder, with purely natural and healthy ingredients. Good fats and sugars ahoy!

The Beach House additions to this recipe were mainly nutty. Almonds to be exact, although pecan and cashews would be lovely also. We used soaked almonds here, the soaking brings out the nutrients and also makes them nice and plump and soft, ready for blending. Soak your nuts! It helps.

Cacao powder is a great investment, a little costly, but a small spoonful goes a long way. It is surprisingly chocolaty and opens a doorway into much sweet experimentation. Contrary to popular misconception, vegan ice cream can be rich and we’ve turned to the old favourite, avocado, to give things that creamy richness that diary normally would.

Cacao Beans

Cacao or Cocoa?

Cacao is not cocoa, cocoa is not cacao. They are very similar in every way, which can be confusing, but one way they differ greatly is nutritionally. Cacao is raw, meaning not heated to an extent that fragile enzymes and nutrients are destroyed, cocoa is heated (although still very tasty). Raw chocolate is brilliant for the body (in moderation) and big slab of Cadbury’s just ain’t so great.

Try to buy organic with your cacao, they use a load of pesticides and bad things in cacao growing. There’s no point going healthy and opting for a chemical cocktail, it will probably be the matter of a few pennies more.

Bananas (not ripe yet)

Bananas

The bananas here, and in general, should be getting towards brown. Some brown spots and a nice soft banana is important. They will be alot sweeter and better for you (I won’t bore you with the science of it this time, see the ‘Foodie Fact’ for that). Most places sell bananas way to early, meaning we eat them far too early. We try and buy bananas a week in advance so they are nicely ripened when we get around to them. Bananas are an essential part of any healthy foodies diet. They are so packed with sugar and can add super sweetness to all kinds of things. No added sugar required when a banana is in town. It is a nice idea to keep some bananas (and fruit in general) chopped and ready in the freezer. It keeps them fresh and is perfect for making smoothies etc.

This recipe is so easy to prepare, no need for an ice cream blender (which is surely a dust trap/ counter clutterer waiting to happen). It just needs a little stirring and a freezer and you have a gorgeous, very chocolaty ice cream.

You may like to add even more chocolate to this recipe, just bash up a bar of your favourite dark chocolate or add cacao nibs for the healthier touch. This adds some nice crunchy bits, as does the almonds. If you like a smoother ice cream, just blend for longer.

Jane sneaks in

The Bits

1 cup soaked almonds (overnight), 1 ripe avocado, 2 large frozen bananas (chopped up), 1/4 cup cacao powder, pinch good sea salt (we use halen mon tahitian vanilla sea salt), 1 tsp maple syrup/ honey, 3 tbsp bashed up dark chocolate or cacao nibs (for serious chocolate fiends only)

Do It

Blend up the almonds first for a minute then add your banana, avocado and salt using a food processor until smooth. Chop up the rest of the almonds into rough looking pieces and stir them through with cacao powder until well combined. Add maple syrup/ honey. Stir through chocolate chunks/ cacao chips if using.

Pour into an old ice cream container, or something of those dimensions. Stir every 30 minutes or so, breaking up frozen bits and mixing until smooth. Do this approximately four times if you can. You may also like to dust off and put into use your ice cream maker here.

Set out for 15 or 20 minutes to soften slightly before using, it is easier to scoop this way. Sharing is optional.

Serve

We had ours with blueberries and chopped banana, with a little more chopped almonds on top.

We Love It!

The texture of this ice cream is so rich and has a lovely smooth nuttiness. We cannot believe how healthy and delicious it is, we will be making more of this. Alot more.

Foodie Fact

When bananas ripen proto-pectin is converted into digestible, soluble pectin and starch is also converted into sugars of which 20% is glucose, 14% is fructose and the remaining 66% is sucrose.

Bananas give off a large amount of ethylene, which helps fruits ripen. If you have any fruits that need ripening, pop them in a bowl with the bananas and wait a day. They use this ethylene to turn green oranges orange. Many people don’t like the look of a green orange, even though they are ripe. We do funny things with our food!

Bananas also contain our happy friend trytophan, that converts to serotonin and makes us shine. See our ‘Mood Foods….’ post for more info on happy veggie foods.

Categories: Desserts, Recipes, Summer, Vegan | Tags: almond, banana, cacao, chocolate, cocoa, dessert, food, healthy, ice cream, recipe, vegan | 17 Comments

Willie’s Cacao Chocolate Tasting Challenge

Posted on July 13, 2012 by leroy watson

Our stash of Willie’s Chocolates

Ladies and Gentleman, we have arrived in chocolate heaven………

W illie’s World Class Cacao chocolate is the best we have ever tasted. No mincing our words here, its the best. Hands down. The champagne of the chocosphere, you know it’s the best by its ‘bite’. One crisp, crack and you instinctively know that good things are going to happen in your mouth.

No cheese, ho booze, no coffee, no sweat. No chocolate, well that’s an existence you can count me out on. As Willie says “Coffee is a poor mans cacao” and I tend to agree.

Yes, we are eating chocolate again, with great relish and delight. We have thrown ourselves back into the world of those fabulous brown chunks with gusto and started right at the top with a Willie’s chocolate tasting session. We lined up some lumps of quite amazing cacao and gave our taste buds a real treat. For moments, we had died and gone to chocolate heaven.

Passion is infectious and Willie has it in giant spades. I remember seeing him in Selfridges (big posh shop in London) being animated and charming about all things chocolate and the very finest cacao. Willie has a mission in this life and its very chocolaty. I liked him straight away, its rare to see anybody so consumed and charged by something, the fact that this something was chocolate, only made me warm to him more.

I then watched the documentary style TV programme that followed him to his hacienda and cacao farm in Venezuela where he seemed to be a one man army, defending us all against the abomination of substandard cacao. Willie was so driven to succeed against all odds and many wild and wonderful set backs. The story of this chocolate is to follow your dreams, no matter what gets in your way or what they may be. Don’t waver and have faith. In chocolate! This definitely adds to the flavour!

Willie has scoured Latin America looking for the finest cacao trees to re-plant and discovered a small plantation, surrounded by coffee trees, that had not cross pollinated with the newer types of cacao trees (some of those high yield, low quality varieties that modern farming is dominated by). He took them back to his hacienda and ended up planting 10,000 of them (told you he is driven!).

Cacao is great for us and Willie uses only the finest cacao and a little sugar and thats it. No hidden nasties in there or chemicals at all. He also sells the cacao pure, 100%, that is best used in cooking or hot chocolate (it is a little on the bitter side).

Willie

He brings all of these beans back to this little grey island and feeds them into his collection of old chocolate making machinery (slower than the modern machines, but better for taste).

Willie’s chocolate is not the cheapest, you wouldn’t expect it to be, but if you are looking for the best, I think its probably worth splashing out the extra .50p on something truly amazing!

If you don’t believe any of these claims, check out Willie’s brilliant website. You’ll find a real feast for the eyes, it a stunner, you’ll also find many recipes for cooking with chocolate and not just desserts either. Savoury dishes with the 100% cacao. We’ll be giving some a go soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

My first taste of chocolate in a savoury dish was in Mexico, up a mountain somewhere south, lost and hungry. It was actually raining as well. A kind hearted lady opened her front room for us and begin to whip up something that looked like a chocolate and banana sauce, mixed with a casserole. My first Mole Poblano and I will never forget it. Dark and rich, with the bitterness of the chocolate, sweetness of banana and the potent chilli punch, it was a rare taste explosion. A combination and sensation that cannot be repeated in any dish.

One of Willies farmers

Back to chocolate as we know and love it, here are Jane and I’s tasting notes for the chocolate frenzy/tasting:

Indonesian (Javan Light Breaking)

Lee – Love that crack and crunch, gorgeous (this was repeated many times during this tasting), light flavour, lighter than most chocolates with a lovely caramel-ness to it.

Jane – Tastes like caramelised treacle, so, so smooootthhh.

YYYYYYYYuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….

Venezuelan Gold (Hacienda las Trincheras)

Lee – Rich, really rich, wow, a real full flavour that goes on and on…..more intense than the Indonesian and super velvety. Gorgeous (again!)

Jane – More chocolaty, more flavour and complexity, super luxury chocolate, super rich.

MMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (eyes closed and slightly erotic noise).

Madagascar (Sambriano Superior)

Lee – Really, wow, very, very nice. Thats amazing. Very nice. Fruity, a little blackcurranty and was that a raspberry!

Jane – Fruit, yes fruit, delicate flavour, no words (just noise of delight)

DELECTABLE……moving on….

Ginger Lime (Sierra Leone)

Lee – Reminds me of Christmas, I prefer the other, unadulterated stuff. Still very, very fine and zesty.

Jane – A bit like ginger nuts! Heavenly.

Peruvian (San Martin)

Both – AMAZING CHOCOLATE!!!! (dumbstruck looks and lost for words……)

(Due to intense chocolate overload, at this stage the tasting turned into a giant scoff/ farce and we lost track of which was chocolate went with which wrapper. Meaning the other bars tasted all get a 9.96 out of 10 and a big thumbs up from us.)

Best Overall

Lee – Has to be the Indonesian, maybe because it was first to be tasted. I loved the sweet caramel flavours and the general lightness of the chocolate, something really different and not achieved completely naturally. I would also like to visit Indonesia one day soon.

Jane – Venezuelan. The richness, so, so dark and packed full of flavour. The loveliest and purest flavour. REAL chocolate.

This was only a small taster of the full range which you’ll find a doorway to here.

Enjoying Willie’s chocolate makes you part of a very special adventure; one mans dream, now boxed up by old clanking machines and available on supermarket shelves. This is our kind of food success story. Chocolate is important and Willie’s is chocolate at its most inspiring and delicious best.