Creme Brûlée

Ingredients
2 1/2 c heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
2 tsp tapioca flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp raw sugar

Directions
*You must start this recipe at least one day ahead so the custards have time to chill.

1. First make the custard by placing the cream in a pan over low heat and bring to just below simmering, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
2. While the cream is heating, use a balloon whisk to whisk the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and tapioca starch.
3. While whisking the egg mixture the whole time, gradually pour the hot cream into the bowl with the other hand.
4. Once its all in, immediately return to the saucepan using a rubber spatula.  Return to the low gentle heat as you continue whisking until the custard is thick and smooth. This will happen as soon as it reaches simmer icing. Do not overheat, or it will look grainy. If this occurs, remove from heat and whisk until smooth again.
5. Divide the custard into the ramekins and leave to cool. Cover each dish with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.
6. To caramelize the tops, preheat the broiler. Uncover the ramekins and sprinkle tops evenly with one Tbsp of sugar. Place all on a baking tray under the broiler for about 4-5 minutes until the sugar has melted and starts to go very dark brown in some places. Leave the caramel to harden before serving.

There is another, more common, method of preparing the custard in a steam bath in the oven.

Strawberry Pavlova

Ingredients

For the meringue
3 large egg whites
3/4 c sugar
1 c fresh ripe strawberries, hulled
1 tsp sugar

Filling
1 250 g tub mascarpone, chilled
1 tsp vanilla
1 tub low fat cream cheese
1 tsp sugar
icing sugar to dust

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 250. For the meringue: Place the egg whites in a large clean bowl and whisk until they form stiff peaks. It is very important not to over whisk, as it will start to collapse.
2. Now whisk in the 3/4 c sugar, 1Tbsp at a time, whisking after each addition until all the sugar is in.
3. Using a metal tablespoon, spoon about 1/3 of the meringue onto a prepared baking sheet covered in parchment paper, forming a circle about 8 inches in diameter.
4. Next spoon rounded blobs next to each other, so that they join to form a circle all around the edges. Using the tip of a skewer, make little swirls in the meringue. Put into oven, then immediate turn the heat down to 225. Leave for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min.
5. Turn the heat off but leave the Pavlova inside the oven with the door cracked until it's completely cooled.
6. When ready to serve, or up to 1 hour ahead, whisk the filling ingredients together. Put 1/3 of the strawberries into a food processor along with 1 tsp sugar. Halve the remaining strawberries, leaving small ones whole.
7. Lift the Pavlova from the liner and place on the serving dish. Spook the vanilla cream into the center, arrange the strawberries on top. Dust with icing sugar and pour the puree just before serving. Cut into wedges.

* This recipe is adapted from delia online. You can see a video of this recipe at deliaonline.com

Tarte au citron (classic lemon tart)

Ingredients

Tart crust
1 cup flour
1 stick butter
1 Tbsp icing sugar
1 free range egg yolk
1 Tbsp cold water

Filling
5 free range eggs
3/4 c heavy cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 lemons, juice
zest of 1 lemon
icing sugar, for dusting

Directions
1. For pastry: place flour, butter, icing sugar into a food processor or work by had until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Then add egg yolk and water
2. Continue working (or pulse food processor) until the mixture sticks together in clumps, then tip onto a work surface and gather it into a ball with your hands. Knead the pastry just two or three times to make smooth. Wrap in saran wrap, place in fridge, chill about 15 minutes to re-cool the butter.
3. Grease tart pan, and dust with flour. Roll out the pastry thin and larger than tart tin size. Place onto tart tin and gently fold the pastry surrounding the tin base in towards the center. It should slightly overhang the rim. Lightly prick with fork, but not all the way through.
4. Place the apstry and tin on a baking tray, cover loosely with foil if desired. Cover with parchment paper and add beans or cooking weights. Blind bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes until the pastry is set. Remove from oven, remove parchment paper and beans, and return to oven for an additional 10-12 minutes. It should be pale golden and completely dry. Reduce oven temp to 325. Carefully trim the excess pastry from the sides using a sharp knife.
5. For the filling, break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk. Add the rest of filling and whisk again until well- combined. Pour into cooled pastry crust. To prevent spilling, pour in the oven. Bake 30-40 minutes until set with just a slight wobble in the center.
6. Leave to cool, and when pastry is firm enough, remove from the tin.Transfer to serving plate and served, dusted with sifted icing sugar.

Florentines (Italian cookie classic)

Ingredients

1/2 stick butter
1/4 c raw sugar
1/4 c honey
1/4 c flour (plain or rice)
1 Tbsp dried cranberries, finely chopped
1 Tbsp dried apricots, finely chopped
1 Tbsp zest of orange (about zest of 1/2 to 1 orange)
1 Tbsp almonds, finely chopped
1 Tbsp walnuts, finely chopped
200g plain chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 3 trays with parchment paper.
2. Place butter, sugar, and honey in a small pan, heating gently until butter is melted.
3. Remove from heat, add flour, cranberries, apricots, orange zest, nuts to the pan. Stir well to mix.
4. Make 18 florentines by spooning 6 tsp of the mixture onto each of the trays. Be sure to leave enough room for spreading during the bake.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Leave to partially cool on tray and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. (If the florentines become too hard to remove, pop them back into the oven for a few minutes to soften again.)
6. Set a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Temper the chocolate by breaking half of the chocolate into the bowl.  Stir until it reaches melting temperature at 127 degrees. Meanwhile, finely chop or grate the remaining chocoate.
7. Carefully remove the bowl from the pan, add the remaining chocolate, and stir gently until cooled at 79 deg.  (There are great tutorials online as to how to temper chocolate without a thermometer).
8. Spread the melted chocolate over the flat base back side of each florentine and leave to cool slightly before marking a zip zag in the chocolate with a fork. Leave to set, chocolate side up on the cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Granny's Banana Nut Bread (Made Vegan!)

Ingredients
1/2 c non-dairy butter and/or coconut oil unrefined
1 tsp baking soda
1 c organic sugar (I like to mix brown, raw, stevia, etc)
1 c non-bleached organic flour (makes well with gluten free flour)
2 flax eggs
3 ripe bananas (mashed)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c pecans (chopped- optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease and flour loaf pan.
3. Mix all ingredients and pour into loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour or until center is done.

Granny's tip: *place a pan of water on the shelf below the loaf pan to prevent over-browning)

Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Ingredients
1 lb strawberries, diced
1 lb pineapple, diced
12 oz blueberries
12 oz red grapes
2 kiwis, peeled and diced
15 oz mandarin oranges, drained well

Dressing:
1/4 c honey
2 tsp lime zest (or zest of 2 limes)
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 drops Citrus Fresh essential oil (optional)

Directions
1. Combine all fruit in large mixing bowl.
2. In separate bowl, whisk together honey, lime zest, lime juice and Citrus Fresh. Pour over fruit just before serving and toss evenly to coat.

Pumpkin Fudge

Ingredients
2/3 c coconut butter
1/4 c + 2 Tbsp pumpkin puree
1/2 c brown, coconut, or raw sugar (or equivalent maple syrup)
1 Tbsp creamy almond butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
approx 2 Tbsp non-dairy milk
tiny pinch of fine grain sea salt

Directions
1. Add all ingredients to a medium sauce pan over low heat. Whisk constantly for about 5 minutes or until all ingredients have melted together
2. Grease a small 3x5 or 4x6 container (or line with parchment paper). Pour in mixture and smooth out surface.
3. Freeze for about 1 hour to set. Slice and serve. Keep refrigerated.

Vegan Banana Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

3 bananas
1 1/3 c pumpkin
2 1/2 c flour (I used a mix of whole wheat and unbleached)
2/3 c coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c brown sugar or scant or mix
1/4 c honey
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 c raisins (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease bread pan with coconut oil.
2. Mash bananas and add pumpkin. Stir in oil, vanilla, sugar, honey. Once combined, add flour, baking powder, soda, and spices. Finally, combine raisins if desired.
3. Bake 30 minutes.

Chewy Sugar Cookies (Vegan)

Ingredients
1 c unbleached flour
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sucanat or raw sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c non-dairy plain or vanilla yogurt (I used So Delicious Greek coconut milk vanilla yogurt)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
6 Tbsp vegan butter (I use Earth Balance)
1/3 c coconut oil
1 Tbsp non-dairy milk (I used Almond Coconut milk blend)
1-2 tsp vanilla extract (pure vanilla)
cinnamon to sprinkle on top (optional)


Directions
1. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt.
2. In a large bowl, whisk sugar, yogurt, cornstarch, melted butter, oil, milk, vanilla
3. Pour dry into wet ingredients and stir to combine. Cover dough and chill in fridge for at least one hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350 deg and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Roll cookie dough balls and flatten slightly. Sprinkle with cinnamon (or sprinkles ;)
6. Bake for 10 min or until bottoms are brown.

Protein Smoothie (Without the Powder!)

Version 1: with fruit so slightly higher in carbs (about 53g protein)
1/2 c frozen wild blueberries
1/4 lemon with rind
1 1/2 c kefir or 1 c milk and 1/2 c plain greek yogurt
1/4 c dried cranberries
1 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 walnuts
1 Tbsp chia seeds
2 Tbsp flax seeds
2 Tbsp almond butter
1/2 Tbsp coconut butter
1/4 avocado (optional)
3 Tbsp rolled oats
optional stevia and/or honey to sweeten

Version 2:  no fruit, but still pretty high in carbs (about 52g protein)
1 1/2 c kefir or 1 c milk and 1/2 c plain greek yogurt
1 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 walnuts
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 Tbsp flax seeds
2 Tbsp almond butter
1/2 Tbsp coconut butter
3 Tbsp rolled oats
dash of cinnamon and vanilla
optional 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder and/or stevia and/or honey to sweeten
*confession: sometimes I add a little coffee to mine in the morning ;)

Lemon Steamed Salmon

Ingredients
1/2 filet salmon
1/4 c white wine
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon, zested then sliced
water
salt and pepper to taste


Directions
1. Season salmon with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix wine, garlic, lemon zest together. Rub over salmon. You can let this sit about 30 min if you have the time.
2. Line basket (if using bamboo steamer) with parchment paper or cabbage, etc. Add salmon and lay sliced lemons on top.
3. With water in the bottom of a pot, place steamer basket with food into pot. Heat to boil. Steam about 15 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins Gluten free/Paleo/Clean/Vegan

Ingredients
2 cups almond flour
1/2 c coconut flour
1 flax egg
1 chia egg
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 c raw honey
1/4 c agave
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c blueberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300/350. Grease muffin pan or line with paper.
2. In large bowl, mix all ingredients except blueberries. Once all is mixed well, gently fold in blueberries.
3. Fill each muffin 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes. Top should be spongy but firm when pressed. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.

***I am still working out the temperature and time length for this. To be honest, I baked at 300 for 30 minutes, as suggested by a similar recipe, but found they did not cook through. So I baked another 10 minutes at 350. I'll update when I try again!***

*you could also use all agave or all honey rather than doing both, or 2 flax eggs vs 2 flax and 1 chia, etc. If you are not vegan or with egg allergies, you would eliminate the following and replace with 3 eggs:
1 flax egg
1 chia egg
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup coconut oil

Salted Caramel Bourbon Brownie (Vegan, Paleo, Clean)

Ingredients
Brownie
3 c packed almond flour
2/3 c cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Baking powder
1 c granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp non-dairy milk
4 Tbsp Bourbon
2 Tbsp room temp non-dairy butter
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

Salted Caramel
1/4 c non-dairy butter or coconut oil (I used a mix)
1/2 c brown sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp Heavy Coconut Milk (canned)
course sea salt to taste

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Place parchment paper in 6x6 pan.
2. In bowl, mix all brownie ingredients. Dough will be very thick.
3. Press dough into prepared pan. Bake 35-40 min.
4. Remove from oven and cool completely before attempting to slice, otherwise they will crumble.
5.Meanwile, make the caramel. In heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine all caramel ingredients and bring to gentle boil for 1-2 minutes, until it thickens slightly. The longer you boil, the thicker it will be.
6. Drizzle caramel over brownies and sprinkle with salt. Try not to devour in one sitting ;)

Brown Sugar Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients
4 sweet potatoes
3-4 Tbsp Coconut Oil, unrefined
3 Tbsp brown sugar
Cinnamon to taste

Directions
1. Place frying pan on med high heat, with coconut oil.
2. Cut potatoes into slices, then quarter the slices. Add these to frying pan.
3. Add brown sugar and cinnamon. Let cook approximately 15 min, stirring occasionally.

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients
12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar (or to taste)
1 lemon, zested
water

Directions
1. Place cranberries in saucepan, removing 1/2 c and setting aside. Add sugar, lemon zest, 2 Tbsp water and cook over low, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves and cranberries are soft, about 10 min.
2. Increase heat to medium and cook until cranberries burst, about 12 min.
3. Reduce heat to low and stir in reserved cranberries. Cook 1-2 additional minutes. Add additional sugar to taste if necessary.
4. Let cook to room temperature before serving

Vegan Waffles

Ingredients
3 C flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 c non-dairy milk
1/3 c orange juice
1/3 c coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat waffle maker
2. Mix all ingredients until smooth. Oil or spray waffle iron.
3. Pour batter and cook until golden brown. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve plain or garnish with pure maple syrup, fruit, etc.

*can make without sugar or use stevia in place of

Vegan Donuts

Ingredients
1 1/2 c unbleached organic flour
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
dash of cinnamon and nutmeg
3/4 c non-dairy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c applesauce
1/4 c coconut oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Combine we in separate bowl. Add wet to dry until just combined (should form a very soft dough)
2. Using a tablespoon, scoop dough into ungreased donut pan. Smooth top.
3. Bake for 12 min. They should not be browned on top, but toothpick should remove clean. Inver hot pan over board or cooling rack to release donuts. Allow to cool completely before decorating.
4. Top with glaze, melted chocolate, and /or sprinkles if desired.

Chocolate Glaze
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 Tbsp nondairy milk or water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. In medium bowl, whisk powdered sugar and cocoa. Slowly stir in milk and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. You can add more milk if needed to make it a dippable glaze.

Blueberry Muffins: Vegan and Clean

Ingredients
3/4 cup non bleached organic flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c organic sugar (both sugars can be replaced with stevia)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 c coconut oil
1/2 c applesauce
1/3 c non-dairy milk
1 cup blueberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 deg. Grease muffin pan
2. Combine dry ingredients. Separately, combine wet ingredients. Stir to mix, without over mixing.
3. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean

Vegan Apple Cake

Ingredients
3 apples, peeled and diced in cubes
1 apple, peeled and sliced for topping (optional)
1 1/2 c unbleached flour
1 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c brown sugar
1 whole banana, mashed
1/2 c apple cider (could use milk or non-dairy milk)
dash of OJ
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c unrefined coconut oil

Icing
1 cup powedered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp apple cider

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400. Prepare the cake pan by greasing.
2. Mix dry ingredients, then mix wet ingredients, including banana, separately. Combine together in bowl. Do not over mix.
3. Fold in apples.
4. Pour cake mix into pan. Arrange extra apple over top. Bake 50 to 60 min. Once cool, drizzle with icing.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

FALL is here!!!

Ingredients

2 1/2 c unbleached flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 c of sugar or stevia
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
dash of cloves
1 c unrefined coconut oil
15 oz pumpkin puree
4 Tbsp maple syrup
8 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c vegan chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease bread pans.
2. Mix all dry ingredients. Mix wet in separate bowl. Fold together without over-stirring.
3. Pour into baking pan/ pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 min.

*can easily be adapted into muffins!

Every year, our fall tradition on the first available "cold snap," we serve up some form of pumpkin bread with yummy, hot apple cider!! That's our FALL tradition...incidentally, fall is my favorite time of year ;) Boy, I do miss living in a place where I can watch the seasons change!