holistic health – Page 3

This recipe for cashew butter blondies came to me as an epiphany of sorts. I love blondies and my favourite recipe in the past was curtesy of the Barefoot Contessa. Rich, buttery and completely indulgent, those blondies were fun to eat but not so great for my health goals. So with this year’s baking challenge I decided to include a lightened up blondie recipe.

I thought that cashew butter would be a great addition to blondies and I spent a lot time Googling recipes trying to figure out how to achieve my blondie dreams. I tried a few recipes that I found, and while they were good they didn’t feel like the decadent treat that I was searching for. Then I came across a recipe for grain free brownies that was simple and sounded delicious. I decided to use that recipe as a base and adapt it into the blondie recipe I had been dreaming of.

This recipe is simple but delicious. These blondies are flourless and can be refined sugar free if you omit the chocolate chips. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 500g jar cashew butter

1 cup (250ml) golden maple syrup

2 organic eggs

4 Madjool dates, pitted and mashed

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Pinch of Himalayan pink salt (or sea salt)

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp Baking soda

What to do:

Preheat oven to 320 degrees

Blend the dates and maple syrup until creamy

Mix in the cashew butter until completely integrated

Slowly stir in the eggs (one at a time)

Stir in the salt, cinnamon and baking soda

Gently fold in chocolate chips until just combined

Pour batter into a 8 X 8 pan lined with parchment paper

Bake for 45 – 50 minutes until golden brown

Let cool before cutting into squares

I hope that you have a beautiful day! XXS

The very first flourless cake that I ever made was a hazelnut cake. It may have been flourless but it was still full of fat and sugar. While it was good it wasn’t great, there seemed to be something off and I just couldn’t figure out what it was. Over the years I made the cake a few more times using the same recipe, always producing the same results – good but not great.

So in November, while searching thru my recipe books looking for dessert ideas I came across the recipe for hazelnut cake. I decided to make a few modifications in the hope of lightening it up and producing the great cake I was dreaming of. Thankfully the changes worked and I now have a recipe for hazelnut cake that I absolutely love. Light, moist and delicious this cake can be enjoyed anytime of day. Paired with a mug of lemon green tea, it is the perfect snack for when you want to take a moment for yourself and breathe.

Hazelnuts and chocolate together is an incredible food pairing, and I was hardly not willing to miss an opportunity to enjoy the two together, so I added dark chocolate chunks to the mix. This is purely optional and this hazelnut cake is delicious either way.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of hazelnuts

6 large eggs (yolks and whites separated)

1 cup (250ml) of maple syrup

2 tsp of baking soda

1 cup of dark chocolate chunks (optional)

pinch of sea salt or pink Himalayan salt

1 tsp cinnamon

What To Do:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (F)

Line the bottom only of a 9inch spring form pan with parchment paper

In a food processor or blender chop the hazelnuts until 95% finely chopped

Add the maple syrup to the egg yolks and beat until they are a pale yellow

Gently fold in the hazelnuts, chocolate, cinnamon and salt into the yolk mixture

In a separate large mixing bowel beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form

Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture

Pour the batter into the spring form pan

Bake for aprox 50 – 55 minutes (until a cake tester comes out clean)

Cool completely before removing the sides of the pan

Enjoy!

XXS

Tag: holistic health

Cashew Butter Blondies

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