Bittersweet chocolate tart with vanilla poached pears

 

Bitter Chocolate Tart

 

A confession- I love making desserts more than I enjoy eating them. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the eating either but I love it when an idea comes to life and you can make something delicious to share with friends.

I made a chocolate mousse tart recently for our remedial massage therapists birthday. Adorned with berries and crystallised ginger it went down a treat over lunch one busy Friday. A little hard to serve being a mousse filling but delicious all the same. A few requests for the recipe meant I needed to have a go at remaking it and write it down second time around. I decided this time to try adding a little grass fed gelatin (I buy it here) to see if the filling held a little better and used an 85% chocolate round two for a more bitter sweet effect. The result? A bitter chocolate tart- a denser tart texture rather than a mousse but it held beautifully on cutting.

So without further ado- the recipe:

Peppermint choc chip ice cream (Vegan)

Peppermint choc chip- my all time favourite ice cream (well, in equal first position with boysenberry anyway). Seems my little man takes after me requesting a peppermint choc chip ice cream cake for his 6th birthday. I normally use this delectable recipe from Isaac Mizrahi, making a lower-casein version of the custard with real cream from grass fed cows, and raw goats milk. I use hopper natural food colouring or spinach juice if it’s not green enough and depending how minty the fresh mint was I have been known to add some peppermint essential oil. So this is what I made for his birthday this year.

However we had a few extra intolerances to be mindful of this year, dairy eggs and sugar to name a few. So I needed to create something special they could have as well. I didn’t want any gorgeous people missing out so came up with a great alternative- an avocado based version. No eggs, dairy or sugar, yay!

A little more straight forward that making custard, chilling, churning in the ice cream maker and refreezing too- bonus!

Peppermint Creams- Junk free.

I love chocolate. Peppermint chocolate is pretty high up the list too. Mint patties were a favourite growing up and I love the gooey peppermint filling in Club dark chocolate.

What I don’t love is the junk in them. Add on the fact that my lil’ man can’t have dairy (and I cant eat it in front of him if I’m not prepared to share it), I needed an alternative. One we could all consume, minus the grossness and guilt.

Enter these real food peppermint creams.

My thoughts on sweetness- the foodie kind.

Most of us love a little sweetness in our diets, some more than others! Sugar is a primary fuel for the body and in its natural, complex form can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet. Complex unrefined sugars still contain valuable minerals and fibre, such as iron-rich molasses, so the body naturally prefers their slow releasing energy and health-supportive properties.

Why avoid white sugar, refined sugars?

The problem with sugar begins when it’s refined. Sugar is generally encased and held within more complex forms and when eaten in this form it’s released slowly as the food is broken down. When it is refined and separated from the valuable minerals and fibre, this pure (bleached) sucrose is like high-octane fuel for the body. It burns rapidly, over stimulating the pancreas to release insulin and leaching minerals (calcium in particular) from bones. Along with being devoid of important nutrients, consumption of refined conventional sugar cause the body to use up its stores of vitamins and minerals struggling to digest those sugars!

White, raw and brown sugars are basically highly refined sugar cane juice, with colors and, in the case of light and dark brown sugars, some of the molasses added back to the refined white sugar.

Sugar and sweetness can be an enjoyable and nutritional part of your diet if you choose the right kinds and consume even the good ones in moderation.

 Here’s a breakdown of common sweeteners……..

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Did you know a lot of commercial vanilla extracts or essences can contain corn syrup, glycerin, fructose, propylene glycol and preservatives? There are some better ones on the market but you need to read your labels well!

However making your own is simple, and cheaper too- it costs a little to get the first one going but the price of 3 beans and some vodka gives you a full 250ml good quality vanilla extract! A true vanilla extract will impart a more beautiful flavour too- and I’m all about flavour in cooking!

Dairy-free panna cotta? Yes Please!

This recipe evolved out of the desire to offer a dairy, gluten and egg-free friend a scrumptious dessert (that wasn’t just another cake or muffin I adapted). I wanted something that could look a little bit fancy on a plate too if you dressed it up right, so it could stand up to a dinner party standard. My dessert workshop participants have since enjoyed it’s presence on the menu too!

So, here’s my take on the classic panna cotta.

Cardamom and Coconut Panna Cotta

(Gluten, dairy and egg free)