No Bake Almond Butter Bars

Following on from my last recipe post (Coconut Quinoa & Kale Salad), I’ll be keeping things relatively healthy. This, in part, is due to our oven being broken since I got home from Christmas (it has since been replaced, and upgraded!). I still had the baking urge, so I looked into some no bake recipes. The great thing about a lot of raw recipes is that they are pretty healthy. This has no sugar (just some honey), no butter (just coconut oil) and is packed full of seeds.

Almond Butter Bars

I’ve been looking for a snack to get me through the mornings lately (I’ve been so hungry of late) and these no bake almond butter bars are great. They have enough to them to tide you over but without too much fat and sugar they are (relatively) guilt free. The main thing I’d say though, is make sure you do keep them in the fridge. They get a tiny bit too gooey and sticky. They still taste great but it’s a bit messy to eat at your desk. Also nut butter, make your own. It’s so cheap and so much healthier than the store bought stuff. Ages ago I said to my friend Steph that I was going to try and do some more diabetic and gluten free friendly recipes, so here’s another for my Free From bakes.

Almond Butter Bars

Now my oven is fixed I’m going to start churning out the bakes again. I know it’s been quiet recipe wise for a few weeks now. The great news is that it actually has two shelves now. Which is going to cut down my baking time for a bunch of stuff. It’s actually a little worrying how excited I was when I saw that we had a new shelf. Things like this and new baking toys tend to get me far too overexcited.

Almond Butter Bars

Almond Butter Bars

Oh and hey, my friend Lucinda doodled me up bit of a logo which she then got printed on to stickers for me. Who wants one? They’ll be going on all of my Cake Care Packages from now on too!

Bearded-Bakery

Bearded Bakery Stickers

 

No Bake Almond Butter Bars
 
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Author:
Serves: 16 bars
Ingredients
  • 120ml cup honey
  • 60ml coconut oil
  • 60ml cup almond butter (I made my own, you can use store bought if you prefer)
  • ½ tbsp. cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 70g chopped almonds
  • 50g cup chopped walnuts
  • 100g cup dark chocolate chips
  • 35g sunflower seeds
  • 40g pumpkin seeds
  • 50g Berries (Optional, pick the type)
  • 90g rolled oats
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan over a low heat mix together the Honey, Oil, Almond Butter and Cocoa Powder. Keep stirring so it doesn't catch. Allow to heat for a few minutes until well mixed together.
  2. Meanwhile mix the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
  3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and combine well.
  4. In a lined dish (I used my brownie tray) press the mixture out into a square. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, cut up and serve. This will last for several days in the fridge.
 

Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies

Sweet Potato Brownies

First of all, I’m sorry. I’ve been really bad with baking updates the last couple of weeks. While I hope you all enjoyed my Scotland updates (you can see part 1, part 2 and part 3 here), I understand that they aren’t what you likely come to this blog for. I am warning you now that there will likely be one from my Chicago trip next week as well… featuring a lot of Pizza.

Anyway, before I get sidetracked rambling about pizza and my travels I thought it was time to do something a bit different. A week or so ago one of my closest friends put out a Facebook status declaring she wasn’t doing too good and asking someone to send her cake. So I am. She is currently doing a Paleo diet, which is something that I’m not even going to begin to pretend I’m an expert on. So she sent me across a few ideas she’d found while she herself had been doing Paleo cooking research.

Sweet Potato Brownies

I opted for Sweet Potato & Ginger Brownies. A lot of the Paleo recipes I came across asked for ingredients which I likely wouldn’t use again, unless I was to regularly do Paleo things. This meant that I wanted to be careful with what I was baking and not shell out for a heap of fancy ingredients. Being my first attempt at this sort of thing I also wanted to keep it simple. These Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies were just right. With the only slightly awkward (read: Expensive) thing I needed to buy being Coconut Flour. I opted for this recipe here.

Sweet Potato Brownies

Plenty of the Paleo recipes call for sweet potato or avocado, often both. They help replace a lot of the flour, butter and chocolate, the avocado being naturally oily and also creamy. The sweet potato being good to bake and help hold things together. A few other recipes that use these sorts of things can be found here.

Sweet Potato Brownies

Oh yeah and the big news? I’m moving to London at the start of October.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 Large Sweet Potato (approx. 2 cups once mashed)
  • 3 Eggs
  • 57g Butter
  • 60ml Honey
  • 3 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
  • 3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 75g Dark Chocolate, chopped roughly.
Instructions
  1. Peel and dice the sweet potato. Place in a pan of boiling water and boil until tender.
  2. Mash the potatoes until smooth.
  3. Preheat the oven to 180 °C(160 °C fan assisted) prepare and line a 9x13 inch brownie tin.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the potato, butter, honey and vanilla.
  5. Add the dry ingredients and mix well, then stir in the chocolate.
  6. Pour into the prepared tin and spread into the corners.
  7. Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (a tooth pick inserted into the middle should come out clean).
  8. Remove from the oven and place on a rack, only removing from the pan once cooled.
 

 

 

Gluten Free White Chocolate and Pecan Brownies (Diabetic Friendly)

I’ve had requests from a lot of people for some stuff that’s a bit “different”. Well, that’s not really the right word. To sum it up I’m going to do a series of bakes to fit into a “free from” range. Once a month I will do something that could be classed as “free from” i.e. Vegan, gluten free, diabetes friendly etc. To kick things off I’ve gone for a double whammy, which is Gluten Free Diabetic Friendly White Chocolate and Pecan Brownies. I told my friend Steph ages ago that I’d do her some diabetic friendly bakes so this one took priority. Gluten Free White Chocolate Brownies 03   This is the first time I’ve tried my hand at an intentionally gluten free recipe. But damn, it’s good. The brownies are wonderfully chewy and flavourful. The white chocolate (despite being a fairly small amount in comparison to many brownie recipes) comes through well as do the pecans. This is the first time I’ve baked with rice flour. It’s also the first time I’ve baked with just plain margarine instead of butter/oil for ages.
Gluten Free White Chocolate Brownies 01


Gluten Free White Chocolate Brownies 05


It took me a couple of tries to get these just right and a couple of points I’m going to raise now are these. You *have* to line the bottom of the tray to make sure that you can get these out without them sticking to the bottom. Also, they will look like they are done after about 20 minutes, but make sure you bake them for the full 30 minutes! Gluten Free White Chocolate Brownies 02 Gluten Free White Chocolate Brownies

Gluten Free White Chocolate and Pecan Brownies (Diabetic Friendly)
 
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Ingredients
  • 75g (2¾oz) gluten-free white chocolate
  • 75g (2¾oz) polyunsaturated margarine
  • 175g (6oz) light soft brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • A few drops vanilla extract
  • 50g (1¾oz) ground almonds
  • 1 heaped tablespoon rice flour
  • 100g (3½oz) pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan assisted). Grease and line a brownie tray of 18x28cm.
  2. Melt the chocolate with the margarine (I used a bowl over hot water). Stirring constantly.
  3. Stir in the remaining ingredients one at a time. Mix well.
  4. Pour in to the prepared tin and place in the middle of the preheated oven.
  5. Bake for about 30 minutes.
  6. Remove and leave in the tin. Allow to cool in the tin until completely cool.
  7. Remove and divide up how you please.