January 15th, 2011
We’ve got a new staple food. One that often acts as an accompaniment to breakfast tea, or as a snack at work, or a dessert after dinner, or all of the above. It has earned an almost permanent nook in Paloma’s lunch box and a thumbs-up from all the friends who’ve tried it. Needles to say, our new staple tastes good. Delicious and satisfying, to be exact.
Fig bars.
We didn’t have Fig Newtons when growing up, but had something similar – a cookie with a chewy, fruity filling. I’ve often thought about that cookie and craved a more nutritious alternative. Finally, I found the recipe, or, as I often feel with this sort of thing, the recipe found me.
The recipe is adapted from Living Raw Food. It yields moist, chewy, and nourishing fig bars that, dare I say, taste better than any Fig Newton I’ve tried.
Now, here’s a cooking mystery that I’ve been trying to solve. The original fig bar recipe calls for coconut oil in the “dough” part instead of the almond butter that I used in my adapted version. I’ve tried to use coconut oil, but it immediately went rancid in the dehydrator. I didn’t give up easily and tried to use different brands of coconut oil, but the result was always the same – rancid. I’m puzzled – it never happens when I use coconut oil in other recipes that require dehydration. If you happen to know the reason, please let me know. I’m truly curious.
Edit: Thanks so much for all your help in solving the mystery. It turns out that the sprouted oat flour+coconut oil=rancid formula is universal, literally. Many readers have lost trays of cookies and bars because of it. Some have suggested that it is because of the water in the recipe, some have said that it is because the coconut oil is raw and is not fit to be heated to higher temperatures. Since then, we’ve also tried to substitute the coconut oil with raw cacao butter and the bars turned out excellent!
Have a lovely weekend.
Fig Bars
(Adapted from Living Raw Food)
Dough
8 cups sprouted oat flour
2 cups maple syrup powder
1 cup raw almond butter OR raw cacao butter
1 cup date paste
1/4 cup vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoon purified water
In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients. Add the almond butter and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, mix the date paste, vanilla extract, and water. Add to the dry mixture and combine well.
Filling
6 cups fig paste (see below)
1/2 cup raw agave syrup
To make fig paste, soak any kind of dried figs for 8 hours. Then blend in a food processor, adding the soaking water as needed to achieve a smooth consistency. Keep refrigerated in an air tight container.
Assembly
In order to form the bars, you will need two trays that fit in the bottom of your dehydrator. We use half-sheet pans that can be found at any restaurant supply store.
Line the two pans with parchment paper. Divide the dough equally between them and press into the pans to achieve a uniform thickness. Using a knife, cut the dough in one of the pans into 4 even parts. Place that pan into the freezer for about 10 minutes, so that it becomes more firm for easier handling.
Meanwhile, mix the fig paste with the 1/2 cup of agave, and evenly spread this mixture on top of the uncut dough in the second pan. Remove the first pan from the freezer and carefully place each quadrant on top of the fig paste layer.
Place the sheet pan in the bottom of the dehydrator and dehydrate at 115F for about 6 hours. Remove from the dehydrator, cover with parchment paper and invert your second empty pan on top of it. Carefully flip over, holding both pans together and remove the upper pan. Peel away the parchment paper and place back into the dehydrator for another 6 hours. Once removed from the dehydrator, cut through all the layers to form bars of any size you like. I cut each quadrant in half lengthwise, then across into 8 sections to make 64 bars. Transfer the bars onto screen-covered dehydrator trays and dehydrate for another 10 hours.
Another great thing about these bars – you can always order them online through One Lucky Duck, or pick one up at their takeaway in NYC.
Tags: breakfast, dessert, food, raw food, recipe, snack, staple
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October 26th, 2010
This Halloween is not only the first one that Paloma can understand as a holiday, but, in a way, the first one for me. Although I’ve been living in the U.S. for twelve years, not having a young child and growing up without this tradition left me somehow indifferent to all the festivities. This year, everything’s changed.
Paloma is in daycare now, and is very curios about all the Halloween decorations and pumpkins that they’ve acquired. It’s funny how having a little kid can bring back the long gone excitement of the holidays.
I loved the challenge of making these raw cookies, playing with the shapes and colours. As for the flavours, I wanted to evoke true autumn tastes like pumpkin spice, carrot cake, nutmeg and clove, as well as include some new additions like matcha, mango, and black sesame. I was thrilled when everyone who tried the cookies loved the result.
This was a chance for me to experiment with sprouted oat flour, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I started with making a basic dry mix, and then added different ingredients for various cookie flavours.
Matcha powder (green tea powder) is another ingredient that I just started using. It’s been getting lots of great publicity, as I always see tempting matcha recipes on food blogs and in magazines. Delicious!
The multi-coloured oak leaves are also edible. Made of fresh coconut meat, flax seeds, and various fruits and vegetables – the recipe is coming soon!
These are quite nutritious and work well as breakfast cookies. Paloma was thrilled to have one for breakfast along with the usual green smoothie.
I came up with three types of frosting – chocolate, caramel, and coconut butter. Some cookies were simply glazed, and some – layered similarly to Oreos.
Happy Hallowe’en!
Basic Mix
2 cups almond flour
2 cups sprouted oat flour
1/2 cup ground rolled oats
1 cup maple syrup powder
pinch of salt
Pumpkin Cookies
2 cups basic mix
1/2 cup raw almond butter
1/2 cup freeze dried carrots – ground
1/2 cup date paste
3/4 cup carrot puree (2 carrots, 1/2 cup freshly squeezed carrot juice, 1/2″ piece fresh ginger root – all pureed in a high speed blender)
1/2 cup carrot pulp left from making carrot juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon each clove
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Matcha Cookies
1 cup basic mix
1/4 cup raw almond butter
1/4 cup date paste
1/2 tablespoon matcha powder
Mango Cookies
1 cup basic mix
1/2 cup oat flour
1/4 cup raw almond butter
1/4 cup date paste
1/2 cup mango puree (dried mango slices soaked in water for 2 hours, drained, and blend with water reserved from soaking)
Chocolate Cookies
1 cup basic mix
1/4 cup raw almond butter
1 tablespoon raw chocolate
1 tablespoon carob powder
1/4 cup date paste
Black Sesame Cookies
1 cup sprouted oat flour
1/4 cup maple syrup powder
1/4 cup raw almond butter
1/4 cup date paste
4 tablespoons coarsely ground black sesame seeds
Frosting
raw chocolate
caramel (in the raw chocolate recipe, substitute raw cocoa powder with lucuma powder and leave out mesquite powder)
coconut butter
The cookies can be shaped into simple squares or circles. Shaping them in figure molds takes some more time, but makes for a pretty result. If one of the mixes turns out too sticky and not firm enough, rolling it between a Teflex sheet and a sheet of parchment paper and drying a little in the dehydrator should ease the cutting/shaping process. Once the cookies are shaped, dehydrate them at 115F until they are dry on the outside and slightly moist and chewy on the inside.
Tags: children, dessert, food, food for tots, holiday, paloma, raw food, recipe, snack
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October 1st, 2010
Some foods have a distinct seasonal disposition. Ice cream for summertime, apple pie in the autumn, hot soup during winter, and roasted artichoke in the spring. Well, I have a feeling that this soup surpasses seasons. It’s both light and hearty and is just as delicious chilled as it is warm.
I often daydream about food and make up different recipes while doing things unrelated to cooking. Well recently, in the middle of a daydream, I got an idea for making a soup that would have nut milk for its base. I imagined a bowl full of soup that is “blond” and creamy, and became excited about the possibilities of the milk’s earthy flavour.
It took quite a bit of experimentation until I was able to minimize the ingredients to two simple companions to almond milk – apple and fennel. Combined with the milk’s nutty taste, the two bring a sweet and fresh presence to the bowl. The spice of chili and coriander deepens the flavour and ties the whole thing together with a slight kick. The use of nut milk instead of whole nuts makes for a much lighter soup.
Pumpkinseed cheese is a fairly recent discovery. The first time I made it, I could not believe what a wonderful result I got with so few ingredients. It’s a bit like a cracker. A cheesy, healthy, and delicious one. I’ve made it very frequently over the past couple of months. It’s simple, and works as a wonderful snack or part of a meal. I like to serve the soup with this “cheese,” but it’s very possible to pair it with any crackers of your choice.
Almond Milk
1 cup almonds – soaked overnight
3 cups water
3 dates
In a high speed blender, thoroughly combine all the ingredients.
Strain through a nut bag or double lined cheesecloth, carefully squeezing all the liquid out. Use 2 cups of the milk for soup, and if you have some left over, enjoy it with your breakfast or cookies. You can make these cookies out of the left-over almond pulp.
Creamy Apple-Anise Soup
2 cups almond milk
1 fennel bulb – roughly chopped
1 large apple (any kind) – cored and roughly chopped, reserve 1/4 for garnish
1 handful fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 small chili pepper – seeded
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
Garnish
the reserved 1/4 of apple – cut in small cubes
pumpkin seeds – optionally soaked and dehydrated for extra crunch
drizzle of chili olive oil (optional) – olive oil mixed with chili powder
fresh mint or cilantro leaves
In a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients until smooth. Adjust the salt and spices. Garnish with the cubed apple, pumpkin seeds, and a drizzle of chili olive oil. Before serving, heat up in the dehydrator or serve chilled.
Pumpkinseed Cheese
1 cup pumpkin seeds – soaked overnight
1/4 cup purified water
1/8 cup lemon or lime juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
In a food processor, blend all the ingredients until smooth. Thinly spread onto Teflex sheets and dehydrate at 115F for 6 hours. Flip and remove the Teflex. Break into pieces and dehydrate for another 2 hours.
Tags: food, raw food, recipe, savoury, snack, soup
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September 15th, 2010
Paloma loves to eat. In that way, we are very fortunate. It’s quite a rarity for her to turn down food, and she’s always eager to try anything I put in front of her. I’ll never forget an impossibly bitter dandelion smoothie that I made. No one could drink it, except for Paloma, who joyfully slurped down a whole glass. I dearly love to cook and feed people, especially family and friends, and her approval makes me one happy mama.
Our days usually start with me cooking breakfast and impatient Paloma sitting at the kitchen table, spoon in hand, narrating my preparations and hurrying me on. It’s quite humorous. She is not the calmest of children (a little tornado to be exact) and becomes very excited when food is in sight.
This is where the idea for the edible puzzle stemmed from. I imagined a game that would occupy Paloma, and, since she puts everything in her mouth, be safe and tasty to eat. I thought about the obvious educational qualities of puzzles such as teaching about shape, colour, size, structure, and included two more – flavour and nutritional value.
I started by making various fruit leathers of different colours. Mango, kiwi, blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, kiwi-spinach and carrot-mango to be exact. Then I decided on five basic shapes (circle, triangle, long rectangle, curved teardrop, and straight teardrop) and cut each one out in three different sizes. The simplicity of the shapes allows for much imagination when building a picture, the possibilities here are never-ending. It seems that room for creativity is one of the most important aspects of a children’s game, it encourages a sort of intellectual freedom and concentration.
Well, it was a hit. Paloma is a little too young to be able to construct her own images, but she liked watching us do it, naming all the animals and things, and loved the fact that all the pretty puzzle pieces could be eaten.
This type of puzzle would make for an interesting homemade gift. Or it could be a way for a more finicky eater to learn about the taste, scent, and colour of different fruits and learn to like them through playing a game.
Bunny rabbits, cats, birds, tigers, bears and other animals, snowmen, butterflies, flowers, sailboats, the sun, pine trees, bees, and landscapes.
You name it.
Fruit Leather
You can find many fruit leather recipes on the internet. Here, I just blended the fruit in a food processor. Then sweetened it to taste with raw honey or agave. Spread it quite thickly on Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and dried at 115F until leathery. Peeled off the Teflex, flipped, and dehydrated some more until completely dry. I made hard templates of each shape and used a knife and kitchen scissors to cut out the pieces.
Tags: children, dessert, food, food for tots, paloma, raw food, recipe, snack, special food
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