Zucchini brownies

Ok so brownies are a Big deal. If you can make good brownies you pretty much have a permanent place in my heart. And no joke I have witnessed guys go from polite to putty in a girls hands because she makes good brownies. 

And the thing is brownies should be so simple to make but apparently not. I have had so many brownie disasters, undercooked, over cooked, brownies that literally melt in your mouth because even the the top is crispy the insides are goo (not as nice as they sound), brownies that refuse to develop that crispy top and brownies that taste like crap. And that was before I cut out dairy, and then gluten. My coconut flour brownies sucked, but then I don't like coconut flour so it may have been more to do with that? 

So what better to do than to make brownies that are vegan and gluten free and full of vegetables? It makes sense.

Im pleased to report that these were not disaster brownies. They're chocolatey and gooey and have that crispy top that I had resigned myself to having to forego if I was going to make vegetable brownies.

They also don't taste like zucchini at all. 

Which is great because while I love zucchini I don't want zucchini dessert.

Ingredients

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups organic brown cane sugar (or other sugar of your choice I'm just opting to be pretentious at the moment)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

2 cups gluten free flour

1/2 cup organic cocoa 

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh zucchini (shredded. You guys my food processor grates/shreds stuff at the speed of light I'm so amazed)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Instructions

1.Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2.Grease or line your parking pan (I uses a 10x10 pan but would recommend an 8x8 pan for thicker brownies. I'm just lazy and had just used my 8x8 pan for a batch of blondies and couldn't be bothered to wash it up),

3.In a large bowl mix together oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract until well blended. In another bowl combine the flour, ½ cup cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. A little at a time stir into the sugar mixture. At this point the mixture will be really crumbly and you'll be tempted to add in as many wet brownie ingredients as you can remember from the area of your brain reserved to brownie baking. Ignore your panic, it's supposed to be like this. 

3.5 I should also mention that because I was so excited about my new food processor that I actually skipped the process of wet and dry ingredients and just threw it all in and blitzed it. I'm happy to report that this works. Hoorah for lazy brownies!

4.Fold in the zucchini (and walnuts if you used them) suddenly your dry, crumbly brownie mix will look like molten chocolate. Glorious. 

5. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the brownies spring back when gently touched. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool (or not because hot brownies are bloody amazing

Chickpea peanut butter blondies

Ingredients

• 1 can (398ml.) chickpeas, rinsed & drained
• ½ cup peanut butter
• ¾ cup maple syrup (this time I discovered I had run out of maple syrup so I substituted for 1/3 cup agave, 1/4 brown cane sugar and 80ml water which works just as well) 
• 2 tsp vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cups dark chocolate chips, reserve ¼ cup for the top
• pinch sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a loaf pan with parchment paper
2. In a food processor (or high speed blender), add all ingredients except chocolate chips and process until batter is smooth, similar consistency to hummus
3. Stir in 1/2 cup of the dark chocolate chips
4. Scoop the batter into the lined pan and smooth it out evenly. Lightly press the remaining chocolate chips over top
5. Bake for 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. This will vary with ovens so be patient and wait until the edges are beginning to brown
6. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan then transfer to a rack for another 30 minutes for them to set
7. Cut into squares

 

Coconut and avocado cookie (cakes)

This is a recipe that I've used a lot in the past but adapted by request of Harrison who wanted to have them based with coconut flour rather than my usual gluten free flour mix.

These most certainly didn't turn out like my usual cookies, the coconut flour is far denser than a normal flour blend and these cookies are more like little cakes.

In saying that they still went down well enough for the recipe to make it onto this blog. However I'm definitely going to post my normal chocolate avocado cookie recipe soon.

Enjoy 

X

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup organic cocoa
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup mashed avocado
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup almond milk
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment and set aside. 

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa. Set aside. 

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the coconut oil, avocado, and sugars together until creamy and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the vanilla extract. 

4. With the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture. Add the milk and then add the remaining dry ingredients. Mix until the flour disappears. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4.5 You might find that with coconut flour the cookie dough is still really crumbly, add more milk, coconut oil or a small amount of water till it can be formed into balls easily.

5. Form cookie dough into tablespoon balls and place on prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand or a spatula. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, or until set around the edges, but still soft in the center. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Lentil Bolognese with Zucchini spaghetti

Ingredients

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

3 zucchinis 

approx 8 mushrooms, finely chopped

3/4 cup of uncooked brown lentils 

1/2 cup of red lentils

800ml of tinned chopped tomatoes

300ml of vegetable stock

4 tablespoons of tomato paste

mixed herbs

splash of balsamic vinegar

Fresh basil

Method

Fry onion and garlic and fry until softened.

Add the mushroomsand fry for a further 5 mins. Add a little of the stock to prevent sticking if needed.

Add the lentils and mix well.

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, mixed herbs and splash of balsamic vinegar.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for a couple of hours, the slow cooking really softens the lentils and allows the flavours to develop. (It would be great done in a slow cooker too.)

Check it a couple of times through cooking time, just incase it looks like too much liquid has been absorbed ,as you may need to add a little more stock/water.

For the spaghetti 

Peel zucchini and put through a spiralizer or contintune to peel I to strips.

Lightly fry until tender

Season with salt and pepper.

Cauliflower pizza

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups cauliflower, grated (about 1/2 a large head)

1 large egg, lightly beaten/ 1/3 cup of oil

2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Mozzarella/substitute 

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup tomato sauce

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Fresh basil leaves, optional

Misc toppings

DIRECTIONS

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and preheat oven to 425ºF.

Grate the cauliflower using a box grater until you have two cups of cauliflower crumbles. 

Place in a large bowl and microwave for seven to eight minutes, or until soft. 

Remove from the microwave and let cool.

Mix in the egg/oil, parmesan cheese, garlic and salt and pepper. Once combined, pat into a 10-inch round on the prepared pizza pan. 

Spray lightly with nonstick spray and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden.

Top the pizza with the sauce, mozzarella,red pepper flakes and other misc toppings.

Bake in the oven until melted and bubbly, another 10 minutes. 

Top with basil before serving.

Gluten free, Sugar free (VEGAN!) Banana Balls

These should be boring and disgusting, because honestly who wants cake without sugar and gluten? I made these into balls because I've already posted a regular banana bread and the banana bites but as with most bread and cake recipes this can be loaded into whatever pan you like and baked into whatever shape and size you desire. 

I would advice against using these as cake pops though, they aren't dense enough and just slide down the cake pop stick this ruining the illusion that you're clever enough to make successful cake pops.

Ingredients: 

- 4 ripe bananas (the blacker the banana the sweeter they will be) 

- 1/4 cup of oil (I used olive oil but you can also use coconut oil or butter) 

- 1 1/2 cups of almond flour

- 3/4 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 cup almond milk 

- 3/4 tsp cinammon 

- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp real salt 

Method: 

- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

- In one bowl mash the peeled bananas and mix in the oil. 

- sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

- Fold in flour mixture, salt and vanilla extract to the oil and banana.

- mix  slowly add in the milk (you may not use all of it depending on the consistency of the batter)

- Bake in a greased cake pop pan for 20 minutes, before checking (approximately).

 - Allow to cool a little before eating..