Suklaaviipaleet - Chocolate Biscuit Slice

The festive season is moving in and I'm making the most of the cooler weather to bake treats for later. These chocolate biscuit slices are a childhood favourite and I am excited to share the recipe with you!

Pikkujoulukausi lähestyy, joten käytän viileämmät ilmat hyväksi leipomalla herkkuja valmiiksi pakastimeen. Suklaaviipaleet ovat lapsuusajan herkku joita ei ole tullut leivottua pitkään aikaan. Vihdoin sai herkutella näilläkin!

Chocolate Biscuit Slice
(recipe adapted from pirkka.fi)

150g (unsalted, organic) butter

75g raw caster sugar

35g raw vanilla sugar
2 tablespoons treacle or dark syrup
1 egg + 1 egg for brushing
210g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons unsweetened, dark cacao

pearl sugar, for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Beat soft butter, sugar and syrup until light and creamy. Beat in one egg, then add the mixed dry ingredients. Mix well to combine into a smooth dough. 

3. Divide the dough into four portions. Roll each portion into a long bar, then press slightly to flatten. Place the bars on baking trays (2 on each), brush with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar. 

4. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately cut the bars into slices (diagonal shape is traditional for these biscuits), then leave to cool completely. Store in an airtight container, preferably in the freezer.

Spiced sweet potato brownies to celebrate 2 years of blogging!

It's been nearly two years since I started my blog and I thought it would be appropriate to bake a little treat to mark the occasion. Admittedly, I've spent more time in the kitchen during the past two years than probably ever before, and although it's been a bit of a game of hits and misses, I've enjoyed the most of it.

When I first started this blog, back in August 2009, I was writing in Finnish and I never thought I'd have any other readers than perhaps my own parents. As I started to mingle more with the other Sydney food bloggers, I realised that it would probably make more sense if I wrote in English, and I then changed the name of the blog to 'Scandi Foodie' (denoting my Finnish-Swedish heritage and in purpose of promoting Scandinavian food and culture).

I've felt proud to give a glimpse to the Scandinavian culture through my recipes and posts, and I hope I've been able to inspire and educate people on the way. These spiced sweet potato brownies are to all of you who've been so kind and supportive - I thank you so much! 

Spiced Sweet Potato Brownies

(Recipe adapted from Dan Lepard)

100g coconut oil (not liquid)

100g dark chocolate (70%)

200g cooked and mashed sweet potato

100g organic rapadura sugar*

2 large free-range eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

100g whole spelt flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground clove

1/4 teaspoon ground bitter orange**

100g macadamias, chopped

*if you can't find rapadura sugar, use raw caster sugar instead

**ground bitter orange (pomeranssi, Citrus aurantium) is a common spice used in Scandinavian cooking. If you can't find this, replace with ground orange or mandarin peel, or try ground ginger for a slightly sharper taste.

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease a square 18cm baking dish. 

2. Place the coconut oil and roughly chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat the mixture in the microwave until just melted (do not let it boil!), but smooth. Alternatively, melt them in a saucepan on the stove. Set aside.

3. Beat the sweet potato and sugar in a separate bowl. Add the coconut and chocolate mixture, eggs and vanilla and beat until thick. 

4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and spices. Add this mixture into the wet ingredients, then fold everything together until smooth. Lastly fold in the macadamias.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch. Leave to cool on wire rack before cutting into squares. 

Home-made quinoa milk and 'Chocoatl'

Some of you may have seen the tweets earlier this week about my experiments with home-made quinoa milk. I adore quinoa and I am convinced about its versatility, nutritious qualities and tastiness. It is suitable for both sweet and savoury dishes and its a perfect gluten-free alternative. Like brown rice, it can also be made into milk and used as a protein-rich dairy-free drink. 

 

As a side note I should say that I have always had a deep interest in the Maya culture. Even as a young teenager, I was (perhaps in an un-cool way) drawn into the fascinating history of the Mayas and I once aspired to become an archaeologist, something along the lines of Indiana Jones. This didn't happen, however, although I did manage to complete a minor in a somewhat less interesting field of Finnish archaeology. 

This quinoa chocolate drink takes me right back to my Maya research days. The combination of chocolate and spices is impeccable and results in a thick, velvety drink that is filling and satisfying. I have used home-made quinoa milk, but you could substitute with rice milk, almond milk or even normal milk. If you use all quinoa milk, you will get a thick almost soup-like consistency. You could use half milk half water if you like, but I the thick filling chocolate drink was exactly what was called for on this rainy autumn's day.

 

Quinoa milk*

(makes 1 litre)**

1/2 cup white quinoa, rinsed

2 cups water

*you need to start this recipe on the previous night.

**Recipe from Food.com

1. Place the rinsed quinoa in a glass bowl and cover with water. Cover the bowl with a lid or cling wrap and refrigerate over-night.

2. The next morning, drain the quinoa and rinse with clean water. Place the quinoa in a saucepan and cover with 2 cups of clean water.

3. Bring to boil and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. 

4. Place the cooked quinoa in a food processor and add 2 more cups of water.

5. Blitz until smooth and velvety, add water if needed.

6. Strain the quinoa milk through a fine sieve or a cheesecloth.

Chocoatl - Chocolate quinoa drink

(Recipe adapted from Ruohonjuuri)

1 litre quinoa milk

25g raw 100% cocoa chocolate

1 tbsp unsweetened, dark chocolate powder

3 tbsp raw honey

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

tiny pinch of chili flakes

tiny pinch of salt

1. Heat the quinoa milk (or half quinoa, half water) in a small saucepan. 

2. In the meanwhile, melt the chocolate in the microwave. (Be careful not letting it get too hot.)

3. Whisk in the chocolate and all other ingredients and whisk until smooth and velvety. Add water if too thick.

4.  Serve warm.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Chocolate and zucchini cake is an all-time favourite, but to those who haven't heard of the combination (or tasted it), it may seem as weird as combining beetroot with chocolate. It works, however, and I for one am not going to argue it is not a winning pair. 

A home filled with the sweet scent of chocolate is a perfect start for a lazy Sunday.

 

 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

3-4 zucchini (about 250g grated)

120g walnuts, coarsely chopped

450g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground clove

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

180g 70% dark chocolate

225g brown sugar

4 large free-range eggs

125ml vegetable oil or melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

250ml buttermilk 

Preheat your oven to 180C and grease a large cake tin (23 cm). 

Squeeze out excess water of the zucchini and combine with walnuts. Sift the dry ingredients, except the sugar, into a bowl. Melt the chocolate in the microwave and set aside. Using electric beaters, beat the eggs, sugar and oil until light and fluffy. Beat in the chocolate and the vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately. Lastly fold in the zucchini and walnuts. 

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 45-60 minutes or until a a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on wire rack, then dust with icing sugar to serve.

Rainy day treats - Walnut crusted chocolate-ricotta cups

It has been a very wet weekend here in Sydney and I must admit the rain always makes me feel a little uneasy and anxious. On the other hand I love the sound of the rain and the feeling of having to go nowhere and do nothing, but on the other hand I keep hoping for the rain to ease so I could go on my daily walks and enjoy the fresh air.

Rain or no rain I love having guilt-free treats and these walnut crusted chocolate-ricotta cups could not be more guilt-free. I've used 100% raw chocolate, which even for a bitter chocolate lover like myself is a bit too much to handle on its own. The natural sweetness of vanilla and raw honey is all you need to take away the bitterness, and mixed with smooth ricotta and orange zest it makes a perfect filling for these cups. Perhaps rainy days are not all bad after all...

 Walnut crusted chocolate-ricotta cups

(Makes 8 small cups)

{walnut crust}

1 cup raw walnuts

1 tbsp almond meal

1 large free-range egg white

{filling}

40g dark (raw) chocolate

1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract

2 tablespoons raw honey

zest of one orange

100g smooth, low-fat ricotta

1 large free-range egg

icing sugar, to serve

zest of one orange, to serve

Preheat your oven to 170C. 

Place the walnuts in a food processor and blitz until they resemble coarse bread crumbs. Add a tablespoon of almond meal and the egg white and mix well. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and press into small silicone muffin cups.

To make the filling, place the chocolate, vanilla and raw honey into a small saucepan and set on low heat. Stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted, then leave to cool. Add orange zest, ricotta and one egg and mix until smooth. Scoop the filling evenly into the cups. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, then cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and orange zest before serving.

When everything else fails ... Make mocha cakes

It was one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong - washing failed, cooking failed, baking failed, even ironing failed. I know they might not seem like huge issues in a bigger perspective (and that's what I kept telling myself), but that day they seemed bigger than Ben-Hur. I knew I had to stop what I was doing, take a breather and try again another day.

When everything else fails, we tend to go back to old favourites. This mocha cake is one of them and although I've tweaked the traditional recipe a little bit, it is still full of comfort at every bite. It is soft, chocolaty and sweet like a mother's kiss. Exactly what I needed.

 

Mocha Cakes

(Makes 5 small cakes)

2 large free-range eggs

40g brown sugar

60 ml unsweetened apple sauce

1 tsp natural vanilla extract

50g coconut flour

70g white, unbleached spelt flour

1,5 tsp baking powder

1,5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

100 ml low fat milk

{icing}

70g icing sugar

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

2-3 tbsp strong coffee

3 tbsp desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 180C and prepare 5 muffin tins or small loaf tins (9.2 cm x 6 cm x 3.5 cm). 

Using electric beaters, beat the eggs and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the apple sauce and the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sieve together the flours, baking powder and cocoa. Fold half of the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, then fold in half the milk. Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients and the rest of the milk until the batter is smooth and even. Scoop the batter into the prepared tins and bake for about 15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, sieve together the icing sugar and the cocoa. Start adding the coffee one tablespoon at a time, stirring until the mixture has reached a thick but slightly runny consistency. Spoon the icing on top of the cakes and sprinkle each cake with desiccated coconut.

Healthy Birthday Cake - Almond, Hazelnut, Orange and Chocolate!

Hello friends how was your weekend?

I'm always excited to start a new week. I love planning ahead and making to-do lists for the week, whether all the things on the list will get done or not doesn't matter, it's just fun planning.

  

On Sunday we attended a birthday party where I had been asked to bake a cake. I wanted to make it a healthy one, and I was quite nervous of how the cake would turn out as I didn't have a plan B in store! What made the situation even more nervous was that of course I couldn't cut the cake and check (and taste) how it had turned out before it was already on the table, decorated with candles and then cut into pieces for all the guests to eat *gulp*. I am glad the guests were so polite as to say the cake was "very nice" - at least it made me feel much better ;-)

The cake didn't turn out too bad at all actually. I was quite happy that it tasted as I had planned and imagined it would. This is not a very sweet cake, but the tiny pockets of chocolate give it just enough sweetness with the natural sweetness of the orange. I've lightened the cake with some plain flour, and once again I've replaced all butter with unsweetened apple sauce and fat-free yoghurt. There is only a small amount of brown sugar used, but you could consider using other sweeteners (like raw sugar or raw honey), instead. 

 

Almond, Hazelnut, Orange and Chocolate Cake

(Serves 10-12)

1 cup almond meal

1 cup hazelnut meal

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

zest of one orange

2 tsp baking powder

6 large free-range eggs

1 tsp natural vanilla extract

1 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 cup organic, fat-free, plain yoghurt

1/4 orange, juiced

100g dark (70%) chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 180C. Prepare a 22cm cake tin. In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients: almond and hazelnut meal, flour, cocoa, brown sugar, orange zest and baking powder. In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs and add in the vanilla, apple sauce, yoghurt and orange juice. Mix well to combine, then mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and fold until smooth. Lastly fold in the chocolate.  

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for about an hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve sprinkled with icing sugar. 

Have a lovely week!

Plum,Chocolate and Pistachio Bake

A big sigh of relief!  This Sunday I woke up and something felt different. It wasn't as uncomfortably hot as it has been for the past couple of weeks and I could only think of one thing: baking! I had bought a big bag of plums the previous day and paring them with chocolate was the obvious choice.

This is another guilt-free treat: again I've used no butter and no sugar, only fat free yoghurt and raw honey. I've used really dark chocolate which gives it richness without too much sweetness, and I've added raw cacao nibs and pistachio for texture. Plums give it natural sweetness which is just perfect for a lazy Sunday morning treat.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Plum, Chocolate and Pistachio Bake

1/3 cup white, unprocessed spelt flour (or plain wheat flour)

1/4 cup unsweetened cacao powder

3 large free range eggs

1tsp natural vanilla extract

1 cup fat free plain yoghurt

1 tbsp raw honey

1 tbsp raw cacao nibs

25g pistachios

60g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 small plums, halved and stoned

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a small (20cm x 20cm) square tin with baking paper. In a bowl, lightly whisk the eggs with vanilla, and add the yoghurt and honey. Whisk until smooth. Stir in the flour and cacao powder, and then mix in the cacao nibs, pistachios and the chocolate. Pour the batter into the tin and smooth the top. Place the plums on the batter, cut side up. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean (this is a moist cake!). Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Chocolate & Yuzu Brownies

One of my favourite flavours in Japan was yuzu, deliciously sour citrus fruit. I had it fresh, drank it as juice, I bought yuzu marmalade, yuzu cake, even a yuzu macaron, and I also bought some yuzu peel to bring back home with me. I wanted to use this peel in baking, and thought chocolate would marry well with the tangy citrus. I added some coffee and cocoa nibs for extra flavour and texture, and replaced butter with mashed banana! These brownies are a perfect guilt-free treat to be enjoyed even so soon after the silly season ;-)

Chocolate & Yuzu Brownies
(Makes about 12)

100g brown sugar
125 g dark chocolate (70%)
125g banana, mashed
2 tbsp strong coffee
3 large free-range eggs
2 tbsp cocoa nibs
1 tbsp yuzu peel (substitute with sweet orange peel)
50g plain or white spelt flour
35g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 17cm x 25cm brownie tin.

Place the sugar and the chocolate in a bowl and microwave for one minute. Stir well to combine until the chocolate has melted. Mix in the banana and the coffee. Using a wooden spoon, beat in the eggs one by one.

Place the cocoa nibs and the yuzu peel in a bowl of a food processor and process until fine. Add the mixture into the dough and stir to combine.

Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder and fold all in. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until it feels firm to touch. Serve with icing sugar and extra yuzu peel.

Enjoy!

Wattleseed and Chocolate Cake

I feel like I'm really embracing the Australian native spices, especially lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Lemon myrtle I am absolutely in love with, I cannot have my morning yoghurt with berries or fresh fruit without a sprinkling of lemon myrtle on it. Wattleseed is another one of my favourites, and it goes really well with chocolate, so of course I had to try making a cake with this combination!

You could add hazelnuts into this mix, they would go great with the coffee-like flavour of the wattleseed. This is not a sweet cake as I haven't used much sugar and I used unsweetened cacao, but if you have it with fresh berries I can guarantee it'll be sweet enough and won't leave you even with a slightest feeling of guilt!

Wattleseed and Chocolate Cake

4 large free-range eggs
70g natural light muscovado sugar
150g organic, unsweetened apple puree
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
250g organic white spelt flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp wattleseed
3 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder
200ml low-fat milk

natural icing sugar, to serve
fresh berries, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare a square or rectangular baking tin (about 20cm across).
In a bowl, using electric beaters, whisk the eggs and the sugar until light, thickened and fluffy. Fold in the apple puree and the vanilla extract. Combine the dry ingredients in another bowl and alternate folding in the dry ingredients (through a sieve) and the milk until everything is well combined. Be careful not to over-mix. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Serve with a light dusting of pure (natural) icing sugar and fresh berries.

Indulge.

Sweet Basil and Chocolate Crepes

Crepes or pancakes are such a simple treat for a lazy Sunday, but I've made them a bit more exciting by adding a touch of sweet basil in the mix. Combining chocolate with sweet basil dawned to me by an accident; I was sipping my herbal tea that has sweet basil in it and I was having my cuppa, as I so often do, with a piece of dark chocolate. This combination would make a wonderful cake, but for a lazy Sunday, crepes will do.

These sweet basil and chocolate crepes are great drizzled with agave or maple syrup and some dark shaved chocolate. If you are really indulging, you could add some good vanilla ice cream as well. Once again I have used spelt flour instead of normal plain flour, and sweetened the mixture with natural vanilla and agave nectar. You could use honey instead if you like.

Sweet Basil and Chocolate Crepes

1 cup white spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened, pure cacao
1 tsp dried sweet basil
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
2 tbs raw honey
3 large free-range eggs
1 cup low-fat milk

olive oil, for frying

Mix together all ingredients instead of the olive oil. Stir until smooth. Heat a medium frying pan on high, brush the pan with olive oil and add a scoop of crepe mixture. Cook on both sides for a minute or two until cooked through. Continue with the rest of the mixture. Serve with raw honey or maple syrup and dark, shaved chocolate.

Chocolate Spelt Loaf

I've been working from home this week mending my sore back. Sitting down and vacuuming seem to be the worst (and I'm not making this up!), but standing doesn't hurt so at least I've still been able to go about my daily chores. Thankfully standing next to the stove doesn't hurt either!

I felt like baking a nice treat for my partner and I, and this chocolate spelt loaf is what I created. It is still a healthy treat, there is no oil or butter used to make this, and if you wish, you can even substitute sugar with raw honey. Sometimes a little treat goes a long way :-) If only chocolate could mend broken backs as well!

Chocolate Spelt Loaf

1 1/2 cups organic white spelt flour
1/4 cup unsweetened, pure cacao powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup natural muscovado sugar
3/4 cup organic, unsweetened apple sauce
3 large free-range eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 cup raw walnuts, chopped
20g dark, 70% chocolate, chopped

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cacao, baking powder, bicarb and muscovado. Mix until well combined. Add the apple sauce, eggs and milk and mix well to combine. Finally fold in the walnuts and the chocolate and pour into a prepared loaf tin. Bake in 170C for about 45-50 minutes.

Indulge.

Black Bean Brownies

Hello friends! Happy Sunday :-)

Black bean brownies may sound a little unconventional, but that doesn't mean they aren't as tasty! I've made brownies with beetroot before, and they were probably the best brownies (if I may say so myself) I've ever had, so I didn't need much convincing to give a go at using black beans as the 'secret' ingredient.

I recently got a reminder of this wonderful recipe from David and Luise in the Green Kitchen Stories, but I do remember seeing these recipes pop up in blogs already a couple of years ago.
What a great little twist to the old favourite!

I'm using raw honey to replace some of the sugar and apple sauce to replace some of the butter. You could use all honey and no sugar and replace more of the butter with the apple sauce. I'm also using pretty dark chocolate (70%), but if you might want to opt for chocolate with 50-60% cacao for a bit more sweetness.

Black Bean Brownies
(Recipe adapted from the Wholefoods Markets)

1 x 400g can organic, unsalted black beans, drained & rinsed
3 large free-range eggs
1/4 cup unsalted, melted butter
2 tbs organic, unsweetened apple sauce
50ml raw honey
2 tbs natural muscovado sugar
2 tsp natural vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped
50g chocolate (70% cacao), chopped

Preheat oven to 180C.

Grease a brownie tin (26cm x 16cm). Place the beans in a bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Place the eggs, butter, apple sauce, raw honey, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and stir until smooth. Add the beans and the cocoa and mix to combine. Add the walnuts and the chocolate and fold them in.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in hot oven for about 30 minutes or until the centre has such set. Let cool, then cut into portions.

Strawberry-Cocoa Soy Smoothie

If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed my growing obsession with smoothies. Ever since I discovered how easy it is to make home-made soy milk, I have been experimenting with different delicious smoothie flavours. I have used a lot of strawberries since they are in season, but as we start to have more and more summer fruits (like mangoes!) available, I will most definitely be using them too.

The wonderful Coco Chocolate opened its store in Mosman just recently, and of course I had to pop in to buy a little treat. I decided to get a bag of cocoa nibs I had tried at the chocolate tasting evening. The cocoa nibs really give this smoothie a delicious, but slightest chocolate flavour and a beautiful fragrance, and it's 100% guilt-free! ;-)

Strawberry-Cocoa Soy Smoothie

(Serves 2)

250g strawberries, washed and hulled
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 tbsp organic maple syrup
1 tbsp unrefined cocoa nibs
700ml home-made soy milk

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

Enjoy!

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