Tag: raspberries

flourless chocolate and raspberry cupcakes

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As you can probably tell baking is not my best skill 🙂 But it doesn’t bother me, as long as the final effect is tasty. I passionately can spend hours in the kitchen trying to make something pretty, usually inspired by sweet creations made by others – and most often it comes out like this. But as soon as I make a first bite and I can taste chocolate fluffiness, and creamy texture of mascarpone mixed with juicy raspberries it doesn’t matter how it looks like. For sugar eaters it might not be sweet enough, as I didn’t add any sugar or sugar replacement to mascarpone. But for me it’s sweet enough. I prefer to be able to taste slight bitterness of chocolate and gentle sweetness of fruits. I think cherries would be also delicious. Chocolate and cherries and chocolate and raspberries are my favourite combinations.

I used a muffin tray and baking paper cut in squares instead of proper cupcake liners. You can do the same or use fancy, colourful cupcake liners – they will look much prettier that’s for sure. I don’t bake often enough to have them on hand, that’s why I always use bits of baking paper.

It’s a perfect recipe for all of you who cannot tolerate gluten as these cupcakes are free from flour. They are made only with 4 ingredients: eggs, dark chocolate, butter and sugar replacement. With simple mix of mascarpone and fruits on top. These cupcakes are very light and that’s their downside – you won’t even notice when you eat them all, and you will need to make a new batch.


flourless chocolate and raspberry cupcakes

NOTES: my measuring cup is regular 250ml glass

INGREDIENTS for 12 cupcakes:

  • 100g dark chocolate (I’ve used Lindt 90% cocoa)
  • 100g butter
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup xylitol (or any other kind of sugar replacement or regular sugar, if you don’t mind)
  • 250 g mascarpone cheese
  • 1 cup raspberries

DIRECTIONS

Break the chocolate in smaller pieces and place in a large glass bowl and melt over a double-boiler (pot with some boiling water, glass bowl placed inside, the bowl theoretically should not touch the surface of water but my usually touches and I didn’t manage to burn the chocolate yet). Add butter and stir until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the pot and let cool down to room temperature.

Now whip the egg whites. Separate the egg yolks and set them aside, we will use them later. In a bowl or a pot start whipping the egg whites, first on the slower program, after a minute or so you can use faster one (it will make you sure that all the whites are whipped and nothing stays on the bottom). Start adding sugar replacement and mix until you get soft peaks. I don’t like very sweet sweets, but if you feel like it’s not sweet enough for you, add more.

Heat the oven to about 160ºC.

Now go back to melted chocolate, if it’s room temperature add egg yolks and stir to combine. You can first add one spoon of chocolate to the egg yolks to warm them up, then pour them to the rest of chocolate.

Now slowly spoon by spoon start adding egg whites to chocolate, and stir gently using folding motion. You can easily do it using spatula or a big spoon. Always add egg whites to chocolate not the opposite, because whipped whites will deflate. You should get quite fluffy consistency.

Now fill up each cupcake liner, bake for about 25 minutes. After baking let it cool down completely.

Set aside couple raspberries and smash the rest with a fork. Whip mascarpone cheese with mashed raspberries. I used my icing kit to “decorate” cupcakes but mascarpone mixed with raspberries is not thick enough to keep the shape of icing tip, although still looks nicer than if I would use a spoon. Decorate each cupcake with couple raspberries and enjoy.

chocolate chia pudding

Published on by PaulaLeave a comment

Really low carb themed dessert today, not sweet for most of the people, for me sweet enough to be a dessert 🙂 Obviously you can alter this recipe to your liking and needs. Personally I love combination of chocolate (cacao) and raspberries, and warmth of pudding mixed with frozen fruits, that’s melting over it. Add some chocolate on top and you don’t need anything else.

You can use various types of milk to prepare it, I had almond, but I think hazelnut would taste delicious, kind of nutella flavour. If you don’t mind regular cow’s milk, you can use it as well. The same with sweetener. I use xylitol, but if you have other sugar substitutes you like, feel free to add as much as you like.

I also used raw cacao powder, which in my opinion is much less bitter than regular cocoa powder, so you don’t need to add as much sugar or sweetener to balance the bitterness.

From this amounts of ingredients I got two quite large portions, but you can easily make four smaller ones.

Chia seeds are full of Omega-3 fatty acids, and also other nutrients, so if you’d like to balance your intake of Omega-6 fatty acids, chia is a great source. If chia seeds are not available to you, flaxeeds or linseeds are great substitute. Although I feel like soaked linseeds make slightly different consistency, more gel-like, kind of slimy. If you don’t mind (and I know lots of people do) you can use linseed to make this pudding. It’s also full of Omega-3 fatty acids, and one of the best foods that reduces inflammation in your body according to the researchers.

I would recommend eating your pudding when it’s still warm, with piece of dark chocolate melted on top. Sound good, isn’t it? 🙂

chocolate chia pudding

INGREDIENTS:

  • about 500 ml plant milk of your choice (or cow’s milk if you like)
  • 4 tsp raw cacao
  • 8 tbsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp xylitol or other sugar replacement of your choice
  • handful of raspberries (I had frozen)
  • couple bits of dark chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Heat up the milk in a saucepan adding cacao powder and sweetener. Combine using a whisk. When milk heats up add chia seeds and whisk again until it starts to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes stirring repeatedly. Switch off the heat and set aside to cool down.

Transfer your chia pudding to smaller bowls or other dishes, place some raspberries on top, and couple bits of dark chocolate. You can either eat it warm or cold. I like it warm with chocolate melting on top.

You can store your chia pudding in the fridge for 2 days.

Enjoy! 🙂

Porridge oats replacement made with chia and berries

chia pudding with summer fruits #ketofriendly #nodairy #vegan

Published on by Paula1 Comment

Before I started keto diet, my all time favourite breakfast was oats with summer fruits, nuts and honey. I was having this for my breakfast everyday and never got bored. Even now my mouth’s watering just thinking about my morning porridge. Although you never know, after months of keto some food seems to taste different (worse) than before.

By the way, do you have any food items that you really liked before keto, and now you think they are so-so? I have this with potatoes – I really enjoyed their taste before keto, now boiled potatoes seems bland and tasteless, baked ones though are still great. I haven’t tried oats yet, I still avoid gluten and try to keep my carbs pretty low – seems like it serves me best. On the other side, I’m a bit afraid that I might not like my porridge like used to.

So because of this situation I had to find some kind of replacement for my morning oats. Although I swapped mornings with nights, and usually make chia pudding for supper or eat it as a treat, for example when we watch movies. It’s not the same, but does the job 😉

For last few years chia seeds become very popular as a “healthy food”, but they are not new at all. They has been known for over 5.500 years as main component of diet of Mayas and Aztecs. Chia grows is in an area from western Mexico to northern Guatemala, that’s why it’s well known in US, what’s interesting EU countries the marketing of chia seeds as new food ingredients has been permitted only since 13 October 2009.

Chia seeds contain 16-26% of protein, 31-34% of fat, 37-45% of carbohydrates in total. Chia seeds contain quite a lot of carbs, but most of them (23-41%) it’s fiber. Twice as much fibre as bran, 4-5 times more than almonds, soy, quinoa or amaranth. Apart from that, they are a source of minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium), vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, ascorbic acid and vitamin A) and antioxidant compounds. Apart from that, they contain 6 times more calcium, 11 times more phosphorus and 4 times more potassium than cow’s milk. Most of the fats are in the form of polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as ω-3 alpha-linolenic acid and ω-6 alpha-linoleic acid. They also contain more proteins than rice, maize, barley or oats seeds. They may play an important role in preventing and treating diseases of the digestive and circulatory systems, diabetes, colorectal cancer, kidney stones, haemorrhoids and metabolic disorders.*

So seems like, this inconspicuous seed might be fairly good source of nutrients, and bring you some health benefits. It’s not going to heal your body magically, but together with other nutritional foods will keep you stronger and in better shape.

Definitely it’s a better treat, than crisps. And it’s almost as easy to make as grabbing bag of crisps 😉 You just need 3 ingredients.

 

chia pudding with summer fruits #ketofriendly #nodairy #vegan

INGREDIENTS (for one portion)

  • 5-6 tsp chia seeds
  • 350 ml almond or coconut milk (or cow milk if you choose)
  • 1/2 cup forest fruits (my favourite: blueberries, raspberries or cherries, oh and blackcurrants) – usually I use frozen ones
  • optionally: 1 tsp coconut oil

DIRECTIONS

In a small pot heat the milk, add 5-6 tsp of chia seeds and stir thoroughly, so the seeds won’t stick to each other. Bring to boil and cook for 5-10 minutes, until it get thickened. I also add 1 teaspoon of coconut oil to top up the fats. At the end add most of the fruits, leaving a few for decoration. Stir so the flavour from the fruits will go through your pudding. Prepare small bowl or a jar and pour your pudding in. Decorate with remaining fruits and enjoy!

* “Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica): health promoting properties and therapeutic applications – a review“, Katarzyna Marcinek, Zbigniew Krejpcio, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Department of Human Nutrition and Hygiene, Poznan, Poland

no egg raspberry tiramisu #lowcarb #glutenfree #ketofriendly

Published on by Paula1 Comment

I could not resist to try prepare this dessert in keto option. Tiramisu has always been one of my favorite desserts, and this raspberry version is as delicious and traditional one. Traditional tiramisu is made with egg yolks, this version is much easier to make. I’ve tried to cut the carbs as much as I could, to make it as keto friendly as possible. I’ve skipped one layer of gluten free biscuits, and added a layer of cacao nibs instead. You can also crush some 95% cacao chocolate and use is as a layer. If you don’t mind the carbs so much, you can make two layers of gluten free biscuits.

Important thing – don’t fool yourself that it’s going to taste exactly the same as regular tiramisu made with sugar and amaretto. Because it won’t, but it’s definitely a better choice if you’re on diet, but you don’t want to restrict yourself from eating anything that’s considered as sweets. C’mon we’re only humans, and we should have a right to enjoy the things we like. So you don’t need to feel guilty if once for a week you’ll have keto appropriate tiramisu 😉 Because as Merry Berry said: Cakes are healthy too, you just eat a small slice.

So enjoy your portion of raspberry tiramisu like it’s the last portion you’ll ever eat. Taste each spoon with pleasure. Notice how cream is soften in your mouth. Spot the bitterness of cacao nibs, sweetness of raspberries with every chunk. A bit sharp taste of alcohol mixed with coffee, and when all these tastes are melting together in your mouth. Take your time, and don’t rush yourself.

I can guarantee you, that if you pay attention to the process of eating, you won’t need to eat a lot to feel full. Especially that with this amount of ingredients, you’ll get quite a big portion, so don’t forget to share with your family, or give some to your neighbor – I’m sure they will be happy with such a yummy gift 🙂

 

 

no egg raspberry tiramisu #lowcarb #glutenfree #ketofriendly

INGREDIENTS

· 250 g full fat mascarpone cheese
· 500 ml whipping cream
· sweetener of your choice: erythritol, stevia, xylitol or monk fruit
· 250 g raspberries
· any gluten free biscuits of your choice
· 100ml strong coffee (I’ve used 4 tsp of instant coffee)
· low carb alcohol like martini (9.8g carbs in 100ml) or no carbs whisky
· a little bit of cacao
· optional: handful of cacao nibs or crushed 95% cacao chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Prepare coffee first by dissolving 4 tsp of instant coffee in 100ml of hot water (you can also use espresso if you have a coffee machine). Let it to cool, then add alcohol of your choice. The amount is your choice – you can do 100ml of coffee and 50ml of alcohol, but feel free to add a bit more or a bit less. But be careful, so the alcohol won’t dominate gentle taste of tiramisu.

Whip the cream, at the end add sweetener of your choice, spoon by spoon up to the moment you feel it’s enough. On keto your levels of sugar taste are different than other people, at least I’ve noticed that even the low sugar sweets are very sweet for me.

When your whipped cream is ready add mascarpone and whip it again, until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Divide the mixture in two equal parts. Leave one half plain, add about 3 small handfuls of raspberries to the other half, and mix using hand mixer.

Dip your biscuits in coffee and alcohol mixture and place them on the bottom of the dish. Make a layer of cacao using a sieve, then spread the raspberry cream. Instead of another layer of biscuits I’ve put a layer of cacao nibs, but if you want you can skip the nibs and put another layer of soaked biscuits. Next is the plain layer of cream and mascarpone mix. Spread it evenly and arrange the rest of raspberries on top.

Tiramisu is ready, now you only need to be patient and wait 3-4 hours for it to set in the fridge. Which is not very easy 😉 I sprinkled my tiramisu with tiny bit of powdered sugar, just for purposes of the photo.