the food faffer

To give you an idea of how good these are, this is possibly the most-requested recipe I’ve had in a long time. Seriously, these things are insanely good!! Who knew you could put just three healthy ingredients together and end up with such a bundle of yumminess?? I didn’t even know that I like dates… but even if you’re not sure about them, it’s the intense chocolate that makes these scream “EAT ME!!!”. 😀

Speaking of which, I remember when I was a kid, my two sisters and I would buy our dad a pack of “Eat Me” dates for Christmas every year. (Does anyone else know what I’m talking about? Are they just a UK thing?) He was the only date-eater in our house, and I think Christmas was the only time he had that privilege. If only I’d known back then what these things could be turned into!!

Peet and I have been trying to eat healthy for this past wee while… which has been easier to do with actual meals than it has with snackies. There’s only so much hummus and veggies a person can eat, right? And what happens when you have that sweet craving, and you desperately try to pretend cookie dough doesn’t exist in the world?

Cue the little round balls of deliciousness that are about to enter the stage of your life!! (I’m trying to give them a dramatic entrance, but I don’t think it’s working.)

Anyway, these things have to be tasted to be believed. Pleeeeeeeeease don’t disregard this recipe simply because it has dates in it (as I would’ve done in my former life). If you like chocolate and coconut, these are gonna change your snacking world… and your body will thank you. Or me. You’re welcome.

Healthy Chocolate Coconut Truffles
(Makes 20)
(From Alida’s Kitchen, with a very minor tweak…)

8oz pitted dates (approx 1 ½ cups)
3 tbs Dutch-processed cocoa powder (or regular cocoa powder works fine, too)
3 tbs unsweetened flaked or shredded coconut, plus extra for rolling

1. Put dates, cocoa and 3 tbs coconut in a food processor and blitz it until everything is pulverized and blended together.
2. The mixture should be sticky enough to easily roll into balls, but not so sticky that it’s wet. If it’s too dry and crumbly, add water by the teaspoon while blitzing (I generally need 2-3 tsp). If it’s too wet (or if you added too much water!!) add some extra coconut.
3. Grab tablespoonfuls of the mixture and roll them into balls (a cookie scoop works great).
4. Roll the balls in the extra coconut, pressing gently if it needs some help sticking to the outside.
5. Chill in the fridge until you’re ready to indulge.

Enjoy!!

Um… OK. I’m trying not to be too frustrated with myself right now. Believe it or not, I had drafted this post back in February – I just hadn’t got around to finishing it and posting it (what the blazes have I been doing for the past 6 months to justify that??!!!). I finally sat down just now to upload the photos and post it… and in the process, poof!! Everything vanished. I have no idea what happened. I didn’t delete anything… I didn’t type over anything. But all my text was gone. Not happy. Not happy one bit.

So…  as I try to laugh this off as “one of those things”, let’s try this again. Oi oi oi…

I never used to be much of a granola fan. It always felt like I had a mouthful of cardboard crumbles in my mouth that tasted of nothing other than… well, cardboard. But in my constant pursuit to find healthy snacks that both Peet and I enjoy to make and eat, I thought I’d revisit the “granola” idea. It seems like such a versatile food item. If you have a great version of the final product, it’s wonderful eaten on its own as a snack… especially on road trips… although it’s helpful to wear one of those pelican bibs to catch all the bits that miss your mouth as you drive over bumps and sink holes!! It’s also great with ice cold milk poured over it for breakfast or a late night snack. Or how about sprinkled on top of applesauce or my Slow-Roasted Balsamic Strawberries (shameless plug!!), with a dollop of Greek yogurt for a healthy dessert? Gosh – I’m getting hungry!!

So, since the options to dress it up or down seemed limitless, I started looking for a granola recipe that might inspire me.

Enter Sylvie from Gourmande in the Kitchen. I’ll spare you the countless less-than-average recipes that I tried, and will simply say that Sylvie is a genius!! She deconstructed granola and came up with a wonderful list of ingredients that gives you the best granola I’ve ever eaten!! I don’t want to steal her thunder, so pop on over to her site to read why you should use two different kinds of oats, why it’s good to include fruit puree, what the benefits are of using both a liquid and a sugar sweetener, blah blah blah… It’s worth the read!!

To make things a little more challenging when it comes to me finding a granola recipe I like, I have a nut allergy. Most nut-free recipes make up for it by adding seeds of all shapes and sizes… but there are some seeds I can’t eat, and the rest of them I don’t like!! (Can I hear “high maintenance” coming from the chorus line??!!) However, the beautiful thing about granola is that you can find the base recipe that works for you, and then you can add whatever the heck you want to after that!!  Well, folks, without further ado, let me present to you my favorite base recipe…

Nut-Free Chewy Granola (makes approx 1 gallon)
(From Gourmande in the Kitchen, with some tweakings…)

2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups Rice Krispies (if you can get the brown rice variety, do it!!)
3/4 cup applesauce
1/2 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp kosher salt or sea salt, divided
2 cups dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
2 cups sultanas or golden raisins
1 cup coconut, shredded or flaked, sweetened or not, toasted or not (there are no rules!!)

1. Preheat oven to 300ºF and move racks to upper and lower thirds of the oven.
2. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper (not foil or wax paper – ask me how I know!!) and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the two oats and Rice Krispies.
4. In a smaller bowl, mix together the applesauce, agave, sugar, oil and vanilla until well blended.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix thoroughly to ensure that all the dry ingredients are coated.
6. Sprinkle 1 pinch of salt over the mixture and stir to combine. Repeat twice more.
7. Divide the mixture evenly between the two baking sheets. At this point you can either squeeze small clumps of the granola together and space them apart on the cookie sheet to allow air to circulate around them… or you can spread the mixture out in a thin layer and use a scrap of parchment paper to lightly press it down with your hand (this is what I do).
8. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets and bake for another 20 minutes or so, until the granola is dry and turning golden. (It will continue to crisp up once it comes out of the oven.)
9. Allow to cool for 5 minutes… and then tip into a large bowl. Add the chopped chocolate, raisins and coconut and gently turn everything over to evenly distribute the add-ins, breaking up the large chunks of granola as you go. (The raisins tend to soften the granola over time, so feel free to add those later if you prefer.)
10. Allow to cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

Enjoy on its own, drenched in milk, or sprinkled on fruit, yogurt or ice cream. Yum!!

I must do better with my blog.
I must do better with my blog.
I must do better with my blog.
I must do better with my blog.
I must do better with my blog.
I must do better with my blog.

Hi!! I know, I know… it’s been eons since I’ve posted. Sorry. It’s been a hectic 7 months. It all started going slack back in the summer when I went full-time with my job and any “spare time” became a rarity. Then we got new laptops… which is a FABulous thing, obviously… but my photo software wouldn’t transfer and then I got into all sorts of shenanigans with Adobe (imagine that!!)… blah blah blah. Anyway, I could throw out some incredible reasons for my silence… but I’ll spare you. Just know that I’m back and I’ll try to do better this time!! 😀

I thought I’d launch back into things by sharing my apple cider recipe that people keep asking me for. Now, I must confess, I don’t really like hot drinks. Apart from mulled wine. Of course. But I can’t stand coffee. And even as a Brit, I don’t touch tea (sorry to burst anyone’s bubbles of stereotyping!!). Hot chocolate is nice if I’m in the mood for it, but I find it so sweet. I tend to feel a little gross after downing a mug of the stuff. So, in these cold, wintery months I need something that tickles my taste buds. OK, so I realize that a lot of us reading this aren’t necessarily experiencing a cold winter – it’s in the 70s outside here in Memphis and it’s still February!!

But we have had a handful of cold mornings… honest!! So, hot cider has become my breakfast staple these days. Partly to warm me up in the mornings. But mostly out of sheer laziness!! I can put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, take it in the car with me and drink it at my desk (yes, I have to wait AGES for it to cool a little!!).

Over the years I’ve spent here in the US, I’ve tried all sorts of cider products. I have a fundamental problem with the shop-bought varieties, actually two fundamental problems: 1) they’re too sweet, and 2) this country’s total obsession with cinnamon. Wherever there are apples, there’s cinnamon. And cider seems to be no exception. In fact, the cinnamon has a more prominent position in the flavor hierarchy than the apples when it comes to hot apple cider!! Maybe the drink should be re-named? “Cinnamon Cider”. “Hot Cinnamon Drink with a hint of Apple”. Anyway, I digress…

Since there are so few ingredients in this drink, you really do notice the difference when you use good quality juice. For the apple juice, make sure you use cloudy or unfiltered juice. None of that translucent stuff that looks like unhealthy pee. Not good. I often use Simply Apple, just because it’s easy to get at the local store and because I know it has a strong apple flavor that can stand up to the other ingredients. But I also love those big 1 gallon glass jugs with unfiltered “apple cider” in them. Just make sure it doesn’t have anything added to it already (ie. spices or sugar). The orange juice I use tends to be Simply Orange – again, it’s so convenient and actually tastes like oranges. I buy the “medium pulp” version. “No pulp” seems wrong to me… after all, it’s from an orange for goodness sake!! “High pulp” is fine, but I just don’t like that amount of “bits” floating around my hot apple cider. (Having said all that, you could just juice your own fruit. I have no doubt this would make an incredible version of the drink. However, I make so much of this stuff, it would cost me a fortune in fresh fruit!!)

For the spice, I use ground allspice (or Jamaican allspice in some stores). It has a wonderfully warm flavor… not too overpowering, not overwhelmingly present (unless you use too much, of course!!). And that’s it. Not a hint of cinnamon in sight!! Now, the spice may be a powder, but it won’t dissolve. Don’t expect it to. It may surprise you to know that I can sometimes have purist tendencies(!!), so at one point I tried to strain the infused juices through cheesecloth before bottling to leave the “sediment” behind. What a faff!! I only tried it once and that was enough. These days, I’m fine with the spice being in my drink. It makes life so much simpler and doesn’t affect the drinking experience one bit!!

One more piece of important info: there is no added sugar in this recipe. Hurrah!! There really is no need to sweeten apple cider – whether you drink it hot or cold. No more sticky lips syndrome after drinking from your adult sippy cup… know what I mean?!!

So, give it a whirl and let me know what you think…

Unsweetened Hot Apple Cider (makes 11 cups)

8 cups cloudy/unfiltered apple juice
3 cups good quality orange juice
2 tsp ground allspice

1. Pour both juices into a large pot.
2. Add the allspice and stir (don’t panic when the allspice appears to just rest on the surface!)
3. Cover, put over medium heat and allow to simmer (not boil) for a while, stirring occasionally. (How long you heat it for depends on whether you forget about it or not – like I tend to do!! I often let it simmer for an hour or so.)
4. Turn off the heat and allow to steep (covered) for a wee while longer.

From here you can serve it immediately… or, since I make so much of it, I allow it to cool and put it back into the juice bottles ready to stick in the fridge… microwaving mugs-full of it on an “as needed” basis. (FYI, I have no idea how long it keeps!! I’ve had some last for several weeks in the fridge and it’s tasted totally fine…)

Enjoy!!

(Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and I’m not receiving any kickbacks from the “Simply” line of juices unfortunately. I really do love their products!!)