Buckwheat Chocolate Cake with Thermomix

I promised that there will be more chocolate to come! I also wanted to experiment with different grain flour as a substitute to white flour. This buckwheat grain worked equally well compared to quinoa. Buckwheat has 13g of protein while plain white flour only has 8g, buckwheat also has 5.8 times more fiber than plain flour.

150g Buckwheat grain

2 Eggs (small)

65g Olive oil

120g almond milk

50g Molasses or palm sugar

1 packet Stevia powder (optional)

15g Cocoa powder

1tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp vinegar

1/3 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

(for variation: add some hazelnut to grind with the buckwheat)

- Grind the buckewheat into powder for 20 second at speed10

- All all other ingredient into the mixing bowl

- Mix for 20 seconds at speed6

- Pour into baking pan

- Bake at 170c for 15-20min



Quinoa Chocolate Cupcake with Cashew Cream

A friend (thanks Bee Hong!) brought me a box of ten Lindt Chocolate last month, I quess the theme of this month cooking will be....chocolate! I don't have problem with chocolate, do you? I can eat, drink, soak, dream about it all day long and still want more!

This is cupcake version of the last choclate quinoa chocolate cake, but instead of 100% quinoa flour, I mixed this with 50% buckwheat grain (pulverized to flour with Thermomix), and the result is as good!

Whipped up some cashew 'cream' to go with some fresh fruits, it is as picture perfect as it taste good!

Recipe for dailry free Cashew Cream:
1 cup Soaked Cashew (8hours)
1/2 cup water
3 dates or stevia extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

• put all in thermomix, turn to speed 9 for 20sec, scrap down a few times. reduce water to suite the cream thickness, it will get thicken when keep in the fridge.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake with Thermomix

Quinoa is an amazing grain, for people who are allergic to gluten, for suffering gout, quinoa is the best substitute to wheat flour. Besides, it has more digestible protein and all round better minerals and 3 times more calcium than plain white flour! so why not?

Quinoa flour is not easily found in Malaysia, but I am saved by Thermomix, quinoa grain is available in most health food store, 20second in the TM bowl will turn this grain into Flour! This will also ensure that no added gluten or other impurities in the store bought flour.Quinoa Chocolate Cake:
Quinoa grain 150g
Egg 2
Olive oil 70g
Almond milk 120g (or oat milk or raw milk)
Molasses sugar 60g
Stevia Powder 1pkt (stevia is a type of sweet leaves)
Cocoa Powder 20g
Baking Powder 1tsp
Baking Soda 1/2 tsp
SeaSalt 1/3tsp
Vinegar 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract 2 tsp

• Pulverize Quinoa grain for 15-20second
• Add in all other ingredients
• Mix 20sec at speed6
• Bake at 180c for 15min (if shallow pan, 20-30min if deeper tray is used)

Chocolate Sauce:
Medjool Dates 6
Cocoa bar 70g (use 80% or more cocoa content)
Almond Milk 1/2c
Olive Oil 10g

Meringue

What do you do with extra egg whites after some recipe that only call for the egg yolks like Kaya (coconut jam), my daughter (candy addicts) sure would suggest it to pair with sugar and that make it into meringue. Obviouly this is a pure white sugary naught, though I must confess it was once my own fantasy to make those delightfully cute treat, well I thought maybe I can do it like a craft, admire it, take photo shots and throw them off the window later, yup! Let's do it!
But not quite, my children attack them like a wolf! Thank God I brought some kids over to share the risk!
This recipe do not use cream of tartar, I was told it will not work, somehow it did! Maybe it helps to hold the shape better, but I am happy to go with one less chemical. Sugar is real bad enough by itself.


Ingredient:
5 Egg Whites
200g White sugar (Ouch!) Will try brown sugar next time.
1/4 tsp salt
Lemon Juice 1/2 tsp
Beets juice 1tsp

1. Pulverize sugar, set aside
2. Put egg whites and salt into TM bowl, 50C/7min/speed3
3. Add in sugar SLOWLY and juice for another 2min
4. Bake at 120-150c for 30-45min.
5. Turn off powder and leave the merigue in the oven for 1-2 hours for it to completely dry and crunchy, especially in humid country. 
6. Store in air tight container (if it can make it to storage)
7. See a dentist immediately!

Sweet Story

Sweetness Without White Sugar............

 Palm Nectar Sugar from Indonesia, bought from an Indonesian villager who home made

this sweet hearts, I have them air flown in to Penang and cost me an arm and leg! that will ensure to put my sweet tooth into control!

 Medjool Dates from Middle East, they are naturally sweet, unlike chinese red date which has a little sourish taste, medjool is also sticker and softer than red dates.

 Stevia is now the king of sweetener! the sweetness index is like 300 times more than normal cane sugar, and it has zero glycemic index and perfect for diabetic people and zero calories.

If all these still aren't sweet enough for you, you can have my

Brown "Sugar"(my dog)

Beef Pasta Bolognese

I impressed myself with what I can do in one hour! Well, not quite 30min meal or something, otherwise it will be me not Rachel Ray, ha!
I dropped my daughter to music class, went to grocery to pick up ingredient, went home, wash, chop, boil, drain, cook with my Thermomix (of couurse).....then, DINNER is ready! One hour is up, went picked up my daughter home for dinner! Beef pasta balognese for the kids, fresh salad and soup for myself. NO Canned pasta source, not even tomato puree ok!

Balognese sauce Ingredient:
Ground Beef   500g
Roma Tomato   8 (seeded)
Sun dried tomato 8pc (soaked)
Red pepper 1/4 (optional)
Fresh button mushroom 8-10, sliced
Onion  1
Italian herbs  1/2 tsp
Parmesan Cheese some
olive oil  10g

1. Chop onion (5sec, speed10), add olive oil, saute (100c/30sec/speed2)
2. Add tomato, red pepper, sun dried tomato, herbs, cook (V/20min/speed2), or cook till your desired thickness.
3. Blend 6sec/speed10
4. Add beef and mushroom, cook (V/10min/speed2)

serve over your pasta of choice with parmesan cheese. You can also use this recipe for lasagne red sauce.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Indredient:
Fresh Coconut Milk 1/2 cup
Almond Milk 1 cup (homemade)
Egg Yolk 1
Palm Sugar 40g (or Medjool dates, or stevia)
Cocoa chocolate (85% cocoa solids, I used Lindt) 50g
Organic Raw Cocoa powder 1 tsp
Vanilla bean
Salt pinch

Method:
1. Put all ingredient into TM bowl
2. Cook 90c for 5min at speed2
3. Pour into stainless steal container and freeze
4. Blend in Thermomix for 15sec before serving, or put back into freezer immediately for later enjoyment!

To make almond milk:
soak 1/2cup organic raw almond for 4hours.
 Add 1cup of water with almond in TM bowl,  blend at speed9 for 20sec, strain with cloth.