Cranberry Scones

In the everlasting quest to incorporate very healthy - and tasty - foods into our everyday diet, it's important I chase after some of these healthy takes on yummy bakery classics. This is not your Mama's scone! Especially for Andy, my roommate (who is British), this is definitely not what he is used to. There will be no floury baked goodness, no clotted cream, and no sugary jam. Actually, when it comes to raw recipes, it's all in the head. The only thing familiar here to a traditional scone is that is has some dried cranberries and raisins in it, and was shaped to mimic a scone prior to going into the dehydrator.

This raw scone is so fresh, so healthy, so delicious, I actually feel proud of myself for eating it. If I had humans kids (as opposed to my furry ones), this is the exactly the kind of food I would be feeding them because it is made of the best stuff we can put into our bodies; all natural fruits and veggies. The stars in this scone are: apples, carrots, flaxseed and almond meal. It is low in sugar and high in fiber, rich in omega 3s and 6s, and beta-carotene! :-)

For the people on the fence about raw food, I will say that I am so glad I got a dehydrator in embarking on my quest to learn how to make raw foods. I know the initial cost might be off putting and the concept is different to what has become a traditional 'food' lifestyle, but honestly it it so cool and I am so excited that this adventure is changing my life for the better, that I highly recommend it. It's the kind of thing one should slowly incorporate. No need to culture shock your food world if this is way off the beaten path. But if you want to be kinder to your body, this is definitely one of many ways to do it.

The book I take this recipe from does offer recipes for raw and vegan creams, jam sauce, and miso coconut butter to go with these scones.  However, the scones are so good on their own, I didn't see a need to make them.

RECIPE

3 cups applesauce ( from 3 large apples or 4 small ones)

2 cups carrot pulp ( from 4- 5 large carrots)

2 cups almond meal

2 cups raisins

1 cup fresh or dried cranberries

1/2 liquid coconut oil

1/4 cup agave syrup

1 cup brown or tan flaxseed

1 cup filtered water

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the applesauce, carrot pulp, and almond meal in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Add the raisins, cranberries, coconut oil, and agave syrup and stir until well.

Combine the flaxseed and water in the blender and blend until mixed well. Add to the applesauce mixture in the bowl and stir until well mixed.

On dehydrator trays line with Teflex or ParaFlexx sheets or parchment paper, measure about 1/2 cup dough and form into a triangular scone shape. Repeat with remaining dough. Dehydrate for 8 - 12 hours, or until dry or to desired consistency.

Will keep for a week or more in the fridge. The drier they are, the longer they will keep.

Making Carrot Pulp and Applesauce

To make carrot pulp, all you need to do is juice carrots and use what is left over. If you don't have a juicer, visit a local juice bar to order carrot juice and ask to receive the leftover pulp. The pulp gives the scones a lighter texture. Using shredded carrots won't work in the same way since they have more moisture and a different texture from the dry pulp. 

Applesauce is super easy to make: Just place cored apples (with or without skin) into the food processor and puree. It's that simple.

CRYSTAL'S NOTES

• Okay- so not everyone will have a juicer and going to a local juice bar may be asking too much. Speaking for myself, that is way too much work. Luckily we have a juicer because it is just another item in our arsenal for better health (and I will be blogging recipes soon). I did juice my carrots and used the pulp as suggested. I removed the carrot pulp from the juicer, saved the carrot juice and pumped 2 apples into the juicer and later used the fresh carrot/apple juice with some vodka on ice for a cocktail (yum!). Of course, it is delicious on it own without the alcohol. Either way, don't let the juice go to waste.
• REMEMBER- this is RAW food! You cannot make traditional applesauce- NO cooking! The apples puree up nicely as described above.
• I added cinnamon to my apple puree.
• Ani did not offer a temperature setting for the dehydrator in her book, but I dehydrated at 105F for the 12 hours. It is to be LIVE food so you cannot dehydrate over 140F and you want low and slow for a nice even dehydrated scone. It also allows you to monitor over time to see what you like and don't like. I picked at one scone and we tasted every few hours to test how moist or dry we liked it. In the end, we liked the 12 hour drying time.
• If anyone is ho-hum about the drying time, first- the food assembly is fast and once you pop it in the dehydrator and move on to do chores or hobbies, you will forget about it and the time will fly. Second- the energy usage is minimal. Here is a site where this woman does an at home comparison of dehydrators in terms of effectiveness and also has done the math for electricity consumption. I am sure 12 hours sounds like a lot but you will find cost is minimal due to the wattage of the dehydrator. She even provides a link to explain how she arrived at her dollar figure.
• You can modify this recipe. I used 1 cup purple and 1 cup golden raisins. I was going to add nuts but decided not to. I am sure you can add currants, or most kinds of dried fruit/nuts and it's going to taste fab!
• Almond Meal (ground up almonds) is available at most stores. Click here to see what you are looking for. It can be tricky to make on your own at home (avoiding making a nut butter while getting it finely ground) but is doable in a pinch.

Enjoy!

Source:Ani's Raw Food Desserts

Blueberry Muffins with Lemon Blackberry Glaze

These muffins are moist, delicious, full of nutrients, and the blackberry glaze is just gorgeous. It's a perfect bite for breakfast or even an afternoon snack.

Since making raw foods is still new to me, I sometimes anticipate doing a new recipe and this one is no exception. I wonder how each will turn out and I am always curious about the creation process as I head into it. Once again it was fast and easy. The only real work is waiting for the dehydrator to do its business which in this case was 7 hours of drying time. However, while you are waiting, the dehydrator is busily warming the muffins and blowing out the gentle warm scent of blueberries into your home, which was both welcoming and delightful to the senses.

If you like traditional muffins made with flours and sugar of some description, you may pause at the thought of a raw muffin. I challenge that this muffin is as good, if not better than, a traditional healthy muffin, and that you will not be disappointed! Especially if you have a healthy streak in you, then there is no denying that you can benefit from this as an addition or replacement to other muffins. Even the oat bran muffins at grocery stores or bakeries have flour or refined sugar added. This is an all natural way to get equally good taste without the heavier added ingredients that our bodies have to work through. And as usual, because it's not baked, all the nutrients are still viable and ready to do their good work for you.

RECIPE

Muffins

1 2/3 cups almond meal

1 cup golden flax meal ( about 3/4 cup whole seeds ground into powder)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons agave syrup

1 tablespoon alcohol-free vanilla extract, or the seeds from one vanilla bean

1 tablespoon liquid coconut oil

1/3 cup cup filtered water, as needed

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze

1/2 cup cashews, ground into a fine powder

2 tablespoons blackberry juice ( from 1/3 cup blackberries pushed through a wire sieve)

2 tablespoons lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)

2 tablespoons agave syrup

1 tablespoon filtered water, as needed)

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the muffins, mix together the almond meal, flax meal, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the agave syrup, vanilla, and coconut oil and mix well. Add the water and mix to a batter like consistency. Gently fold in the blueberries ( I did this by hand).

Place your choice of small or large cupcake liners into a muffin pan and spoon dough into each. I suggest gently pressing the dough into the shape of the liner. This is not traditional baking where the dough cooks up and out. It will not take shape unless you make it. Fill cups to your personal liking. Place the pan into the dehydrator and dehydrate for 4 - 7 hours, until the batter is dry to your desired consistency.

To make the glaze, combine the cashew powder, blackberry juice, lemon juice, agave syrup, and water, in a personal blender and blend until smooth.

To serve, frost each muffin with the glaze.

These will keep for several days refrigerated. Can be frozen for several weeks and thawed. Warm muffins in the dehydrator at 104 (optional) for an hour or two before serving.

CRYSTAL'S NOTES

•  I added chopped walnuts to this recipe for a textural element. I like my breakfast muffins to have soft and crunchy elements in them, and I personally love nuts anyway. You can modify this recipe in all kinds of different ways and still keep it raw.
•  I did not puree my glaze enough, you really want a smooth silky glaze. The cashews take a little extra time to blend through. Don't hesitate to add more blackberry juice than what is recommended. I did so after the fact and it was more delicious and the color amazing.
• Author Ani Phyo recommended a yield of 6 muffins/cupcakes for this recipe which would have been too big in my opinion (large liners). For the amount of flax in these muffins, I don't think you would want more unless your digestive system is really used to it. I used the standard size cupcake liners and filled them to the top and they were perfect. One of these satisfied my sugar craving and I felt full for hours.
• This muffin is rich is Omega 3 and 6, antioxidants, and vitamins.

 Recipe: Ani's Raw Food Desserts, by Ani Phyo


Enjoy!

Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake

This post starts a new direction for me personally in the world of all things sweet. No matter how much I love and yearn for refined sugar and floury baked goods (and always will) that are laced with heavy cream, caramel, or topped with meringue, it is my inner health nut that yearns for a healthy and long term option to satisfy cravings. The answer to this issue for me is in the form of raw desserts.

I became aware of raw food desserts during the years I spent living a vegan lifestyle. Not much into cooking or baking at that time due to time constraints, I often bought all my food pre-made. Being a dessert junkie I obviously had a specific need to discover my sources of vegan desserts which were mostly raw desserts, pre-made from Whole Foods.

For those folks unaware of what a raw dessert is, I have taken this excerpt from Wikipedia in which 'raw food veganism' is described this way:

" A raw vegan diet consists of unprocessed, raw plant foods that have not been heated above 40 °C (104 °F). Raw vegans such as Douglas Graham^[3] believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost much of their nutritional value and are less healthful or even harmful to the body. Advocates argue that raw or living foods have natural enzymes, which are critical in building proteins and rebuilding the body, and that heating these foods kills the natural enzymes and can leave toxins behind. However, critics point out that enzymes, as with other proteins consumed in the diet, are denatured and eventually lysed by the digestive process rendering them non-functional. Typical foods included in raw food diets are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes."

In addition, Vegans do not consume or use anything that is an animal or that came from an animal. You would be amazed the animal by-products that exist in everything from food to your deodorant and toothpaste, film, and even charcoal to filter wine. The only reason I ended my vegan diet was due to a health issue in which the doctor said my diet exacerbated my problem. In the following years with new doctors and after painfully changing my diet, I came to find out he was full of it. Much of what I learned and followed stays with me and I want to make some efforts to add more of those ways back into my world, starting with one dessert at a time. 

I present you with the Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake taken from Ani Phyo's book,  'Ani's Raw Food Desserts'. I wanted to start with a recipe that had simple ingredients, was easy to follow, and was chocolate.

What impressed me the most was how fast it was to put this together. I made this dessert while I was in the midst of dinner preparations and really did not take any time to make it look pretty, smooth my frosting, etc. And while you can use a food processor as the instructions call for, I actually used a Vitamix blender instead...much easier to clean. It was kind of a relief not to have to wait for the baking and cooling process before frosting once that was all over.

I also enjoyed the chocolatey taste and didn't have the awareness that what I was eating was made of fruits and nuts. The raspberries give it a brightness and balance that is much needed. I think next time I may do individual mini tarts with the cake bottom, frosting middle, and all raspberries on top. I personally felt the double layer cake was a tad too much cake.

RECIPE

Fudge Cake

3 cups dry walnuts

2/3 cup unsweetened cacoa powder or carob powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup pitted Medjool dates

Frosting

1/3 cup semi-soft pitted medjool dates

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/2 cup ripe avocado flesh (from about 1 medium avocado)

1/3 cup cacao powder

Filling

1/2 cup raspberries

INSTRUCTIONS

To make the cake, combine the walnuts, cacao powder, and salt in the food processor and pulse until coarsely mixed. Avoid over-processing. Add the dates and pulse until mixed well. Shape into 2 stackable cakes of desired shape and set aside.

To make the frosting, combine the dates and agave syrup in the food processor and process until smooth. Add the avocado and process until smooth. Add the cacoa powder and process until smooth.

To assemble and serve, frost the top of one of the cakes with half of the frosting and top with raspberries. Stack the second cake on top and frost the top and sides. Serve immediately -or- place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to firm up.

The cake on its own will keep in the fridge for many weeks. 

The frosting will keep separately in the fridge for 1 week.

The assembled cake with raspberries will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.