Chocolate Zucchini cake/muffins - Gluten free, nut free, dairy free

My chocolate and beetroot fudge cake has proven to be a huge hit, both amongst friends and family as well as on this blog!  The benefits are not having to cook the beetroot before cooking, and of course sneaking vegetables into a decadent chocolate cake makes eating one slice too many almost acceptable!

Well, here is another option of adding a vegetable to a chocolate cake, no-one any the wiser! 
I'm not suggesting this as a way to get vegetables into your children and to therefore serve it next to their pork chop on the dinner plate!  But actually the zucchini creates a beautiful moistness in this cake, and if that can be done from a vegetable, why not!

Nut and gluten free fudgy dark chocolate brownie slice

Hehehe I love you guys!!  A bit of chocolate splashed across my Facebook page and before I could blink again it had become one of the most popular posts since, well, the last chocolate recipe!!!  You and I have something in common that is for sure!  A LOVE of all things chocolate! And why not?!  A good quality chocolate recipe can fit perfectly well into a balanced diet.

Chocolate is mood food, comfort food, soul food, endorphin releasing smile food!  Chocolate lovers live it and breathe it.  And when the 'chips are down', chocolate has this uncanny knack of being able to give us a hug, turn up the corners of our mouth, pick us up, brush us off and keep us going.  Any wonder many health professionals out there are calling it a super food!  Damn right it is ( ;

And the closer you get to the natural cacao bean itself, the more you benefit from antioxidants, magnesium, flavenoids, iron, zinc, potassium, copper.....

As Mellymaks regulars know, these days I only use raw cacao powder (instead of the over heated and processed cocoa powder) and minimum 70% dark chocolate.  For Christmas a dear friend of mine gave me a sachet of Loving Earth Drinking Chocolate which is so amazing as it contain cacao nibs in it which gives these beautiful little crunchy pieces while drinking the chocolate milk!  YUM!  When I served this recipe up with homemade vanilla ice cream and strawberries, I sprinkled some of the drinking chocolate over the top which finished it off beautifully!

So given I am officially a new school mum this year, my mind is on nut free recipes at the moment!  This recipe therefore uses sunflower kernels and pepita seeds instead of the traditional walnuts or almonds.  Of course it is also gluten free.  I've also made it more bitter than sweet, but adding just a little more rapadura, or preferably some raspberries to the mix, will increase the sweetness!

If you like a really fudgy slice, reduce the cooking time by a few minutes.  I layered my slice up with ice cream, but a coconut cream, ganache or even a butterscotch sauce would be just as delicious.

I challenge you not to lick the bowl from this one! ( ;

Nut and gluten free Fudgy Dark Chocolate Brownie Slice

Ingredients

85g sunflower kernels
85g pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
140g butter
40g rapadura sugar
150g dark chocolate
35g raw cacao powder
3 eggs

Method - Conventional

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Line a slice tin with baking paper.      
2. Grind sunflower kernels and pepitas in a food processor until fine.  Set aside.
3. Melt butter, sugar and dark chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat until just melted.  Take off heat.
4. Add cacao powder and stir through. 
5. Add eggs and beat with electric beaters for approx 1 minute or until thickened.
6. Fold through ground seeds.  
7. Pour into prepared slice tray and smooth surface.  Bake for 25 minutes or until just cooked through.  Be sure not to over cook or you will lose the fudgy centre!
8. Serve in any of the ways suggested above.

Method - Thermomix

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Line a slice tin with baking paper.
2. Place sunflower kernels and pepitas in TM bowl and grind on speed 9 for 20 seconds.  Dont let it turn into a paste though.  Set aside.  No need to wash the bowl.
3. Place butter, sugar and dark chocolate into TM bowl and combine on speed 7-8 for approx 10 seconds - enough to break it all up. 
4. Scrape down sides of bowl and heat at 90 degrees, speed 2 for 2 minutes, ensuring all mixture has melted.
5. Add cacao and eggs and whip on speed 5 for 30 seconds.
6. Add ground seeds back into the mix and blend through on speed 4 for 15 seconds.
7. Follow steps 7-8 as above. 

Enjoy....

Black rice, seed and choc chip cookies - gluten and nut free

My eldest son starts school next year and already I think I have heard more about 'lunchbox etiquette' than anything else to do with school!!!

It seems gone are the days when pretty much every lunchbox consisted of a peanut butter or ham sandwich, cheese stick, Prima (Juice Box for many other parts of the country/world!), pack of chips and piece of fruit!  And that's probably a good thing on the whole!

These days you have to be 'nude food' compliant, 'rainbow food' savvy, cold chain compliant, and must have not a trace of nut in sight!  5 days of the week, 38 weeks of the year, 13 years straight! AAAUUUGGGHHHH.  How ever are we going to get out of the door each morning??!!  And will we be accepted by the lunchbox police? ( :

In all seriousness though, the allergy thing is a big one these days, with so many kids administered with an EpiPen in the case of an anaphylactic shock.  So not only do these parents understandably spend so much time and effort keeping their children safe and avoiding nuts, every parent who has school aged kids really needs to be mindful of the products they are sending to school in lunchboxes.  That can be tough for a family not needing a radar for nuts in their life (or any other allergens for that matter).

So given I use nuts a lot, I really wanted to start exploring the nut free world so that next year we can be armed with some yummy homemade snacks that might just win over not only the lunchbox police, but also the nutrition police (me!) and most importantly, the taste police (being my boys!!).

Nutrient wise, when it comes to bikkies, these little guys not only contain a lot less sugar than probably all store bought varieties and many home baked too, but also actually provide goodness, coming from the black rice, sesame seeds and chia seeds!  As I spoke about on Mellymaks Facebook page recently, 'black foods' are a powerhouse of minerals, isoflavones and antioxidants, helping to strengthen the immune system among other benefits.  And milling the whole grain means that not only do you get those immunity benefits, but the fibre and healthy fats from the bran, germ and endosperm!

I spoke a lot about the benefits of seeds in STEP 3 of Mellymaks STEPS program, and the chia seeds and sesame seeds in these bikkies will certainly boost the kids with energy and nutrients galore!

Steamed choc caramel puddings

This weather just doesn't seem to be warming up quick enough for my liking!!  But then, I know I could quite happily live in a climate that wouldn't ever dip below 25 degrees. I'd be as happy as a pig in mud!

But, living in Melbourne, that will never be the case so I may as well make the most of the cooler days while they last, and for me that means comfort food.  And when we have visitors or go visiting, that can mean a little indulgence with the comfort I reckon!

Fudgy chocolate beetroot cake

Ever made red velvet cake?  All the recipes I have seen vary from 1-2 tsp of red food colouring to 1-2 TABLESPOONS!!!!  Deary me.  Well to me this is screaming out to be 'renovated' and yes I couldn't resist the obvious opportunity to add some nutrition in there too ( ;
So here is my renovated red velvet cake - made with beetroot!!!!  Actually, as the story goes, these cakes were originally made with beetroot, before food colouring made their appearance!  The magic about this recipe is that you don't specifically taste the beetroot flavour, but what it adds is a depth of flavour (the earthiness of the beetroot pairs beautifully with the earthiness of chocolate) and a beautiful moist cake that will keep for days (if of course it can be resisted that long!).