Quick, easy 3 or 4 ingredients choc pudding (in the microwave)

Took me a minute and 30 seconds to make this
decadent chocolate cake

Did I mention it is Gluten and Dairy Free too... And healthy???!!! Do not adjust your screen (or glasses) this is not a typo.

I came across this beauty when one night I made my son's pudding and got the time wrong on the microwave (must've been one of those nights).
Despite baking a lot I am not really resourceful when it comes to puddings for my little one. I just generally make him a chocolate porridge with pieces of dried fruitsor mashed banana. The purpose is mainly to get him full so we can all have a full night sleep. Did I mention he is a lazy eater?! This dessert works used to work fine for me. Now that he has tasted the 1 minute pudding, there is no going back.

So to the recipe (today also seems to be the ideal day to have one for afternoon tea since iti s cloudy and cold here)
For 1 person.

Spray a breakfast bowl with oil.

Ingredients:
-1/2 of oats (processed into flour)
- 2 tsps of baking cocoa (I have not tried with drinking cocoa powder but it should work, adjust the sugar they generally contain some as well as milk powder)
- 2 tsps of agave syrup (or honey)
- 3 Tblsps of soy milk approx

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add the milk and mix until it ressembles a thick cake batter. You may require some more milk.

Spray a breakfast bowl or ramekin (if you don't want yours to look flat and miserable like mine). Pour the mixture in the bowl and microwave for 1 minute. It generally only takes that long, however if you have put too much milk you might see that it is not completely cooked, so put it back in the microwave for another 30 seconds.

Enjoy it!!!! It tastes really decadent and give you an immediate chocolate fix.

Variations:
I made this for my little one last night except I added half a mashed banana and reduced the milk a little. It was very nice and almost the whole bowl was devoured.
I also made mine (pictured) with coconut milk instead of soy milk. It was delicious! It tasted rich and the coconut milk definitely brought the chocolate flavour out. I ate 3/4 of it and just finished the rest as I was typing this recipe and it taste very nice, very nice indeed.

Make this is a big bowl with a chocolate ganache or some cream on the side next time you have guests and let them think you have been sweating over a hot oven all day, they won't taste the difference.

Looking around for similar recipes after my first and I have found a very similar recipe om Chocolate Covered Katie if you wanted to try this one as well: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/01/19/single-serving-mocha-chocolate-cake/ with a few more ingredients and a different variation on flavour.

Happy Baking everyone :)

Oatmeal brownies (Gluten and Dairy Free)

Well the story started last night with pudding for my son. He loves pudding so much that my Husband and him have a song for it, and when that song starts they both mean business.
My Husband made last night's pudding and mixed some oats, dried apricots, peanut butter and chocolate. My son LOVED it!!!
In fact he loved it so much that I made the same for Breakfast but I thought I could take this little bowl of yummy porridge to something more decadent (at least in taste but not in calories).  This is sure to satisfy any chocolate cravings without having to worry about the scale the next day.Without further a do, here is the recipe:

Ingredients: (makes about 12 brownies)
- 1 cup of porridge
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder
- 2 tsp of coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp of peanut butter
- 5 dried apricots (optional)
- 1 Tbsp of agave sugar (or honey or maple syrup)
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1 Tbsp of milk (I used Almond Milk)

For this recipe I processed the porridge into a flour but it should work without this step.

Pre- heat the oven to 200 Degree C.

In a bowl mix porridge and cocoa powder. Add the boiling water and let the mixture absorb it.
Mix the coconut oil with the peanut butter to losen it. Mix all the ingredients to the oats mixture.

If the mixture seems to "dry" or hard to work with, add more milk. It should be a smooth batter, kind of ike a cake batter.

Pour the mixture in either a cake pan (buttered or oiled) or muffin pan (butterer or oiled unless using a silicone one as I did).

Bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean (mine took about 30 minutes but I realised 15 minutes in that my little kitchen hand changed the oven temp to 150 Degree C).

Take them out of the oven and leave them to cool a little before taking them out.

You can serve them just as is or you can add a topping. I made mine Rocky Road.

Rocky Road Topping:
- 1 tsp of coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp of cocoa powder
- Some agave sugar to taste
- 1 Tbsp of milk (I used Almond milk)
- Mini Marshmallows
- Peanuts cut into pieces

Melt the coconut oil in the microwave (add the milk if you are just taking it out of the fridge).

Mix it the cocoa powder. Add teh agave sugar to taste (I think I only put about 2 tsp).

Mix the marshmallows and peanuts and "dump" the frosting over the brownies.

I added some white chocolate drops on the boys' simply because they love it. My little munchkin LOVED it almost as much as the pudding his Daddy made him the night before :)

Happy Baking everyone :)

Caramelised pineapple and homemade ice cream (choc sauce optional)

I bought a whole pineapple a couple of days ago but to encourage my son to eat more fresh fruit. When I tasted the fruit, it was very blend, not sweet and juicy as you would expect. I made fruit kebabs with some of it

and tonight I decided to caramelize the rest with a sugar syrup (made out of 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and a little water). I served it with some homemade low fat ice cream which is just a tin of Light Evaporated Milk whisked with icing sugar and vanilla extract until nice and think and put in the freezer until needed.
My husband wanted some chocolate sauce so I just microwave some with a little milk (maybe not enough, it was quite a thick sauce) and crushed walnuts.

Meringues- pavlova style

I had 4 eggs whites left from some curds I made earlier in the week so I decided to make a pav... But then I had a big sugar craving and decided to make little meringue treats for me to get my sugar fix.
I have found the recipe a couple of years on the New Zealand Herald website.

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
220g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp cornflour


Preheat the oven to 110 Degree C. 

Whisk egg whites and salt until soft foam.

Gradually whisk in the sugar until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Whisk in the vanilla, vinegar and cornflour.

Turn on to the prepared tray, shaping into an 18-20cm circle, drawing the mixture up high and smoothing off the top. (I didn't take a picture of the meringue on the tray since I made mini ones)
 
Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Do not open the oven during cooking.

Turn off the oven, open the door slightly and allow the pavlova to cool in the oven.

When completely cold, decorate with whipped cream and fresh fruit or passionfruit pulp.

Almost as soon as the first batch came out of the oven 4 of them disappeared... I then dipped some in chocolate and they were even better. 

And here is the result:

Then dipped in chocolate:

I also made some bigger ones that looked like nests... and I will not tell how many I ate, but surely meringues have to be good for you, they are so light. Happy Baking everyone :)

Creme Anglaise

If you have read the previous post you would have seen that I made a creme Anglaise to accompany my apple crumble pie. I took the recipe from Annabel Langbein's website: (www.annabel-langbein.com)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of milk
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 Tbsp of cornflour
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Heat the milk in a pot. While it is heating put the sugar, egg yolks and cornflour in a bowl and whisk to combine.

Mix a little hot milk into the aboe mixture, then stir the egg mixture into the remaining milk.

Add the vanilla. Stir over low heat until thikened slightly.

Allow to simmer for another 40 to 50 seconds, stirring gently.

If you are not going to use it straight away, cover it with plastic wrap (touching the top of the creme) otherwise it will form a skin.

Delicious and very quick and easy chocolate pots...

After I made the 3 curds cake I had 3 eggs yolks left and I didn't want to waste them. I know that you can freeze them but as usual I would have forgotten all about them and in the end they would have ended up down the drain...
So I tried to think of what I could do with them... and Eureka. I thought creme patissiere (pastry cream)... but I really didn't want to make pastry so I just poured it in ramekins and tried to forget about it for at least an hour (until it was "appropriate" to have dessert). I made up the recipe and if you want a chocolate hit that's the one for you:

Ingredients:
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon of cornflour
- 2 teaspoons of cacao powder
- 2 cups of milk
- a handful of chocolate chips (dark for me)

In a bowl mix together the egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and cacao powder. Set aside.
Bring the milk to the boil with the chocolate chips. Keep stirring otherwise the chocolate is going to burn. Once the milk is boiling, turn the heat off and pour the milk onto the mixture of egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and cacao powder stirring like mad to avoid egg bits in the cream.
Pour into the molds of your choice (big ramekins for me). leave to cool and ready to put in the fridge. The creme patissiere will be set but the time in the fridge will bring up the chocolate flavor even more.

My husband had his as is. I mixed mine with frozen mixed berries. YUM!!!

Variations:
If you need to make a quick chocolate tart you can buy some already made pastry from the shops (I would recommend shortcrust, cook the pastry to the instructions on the packet and them pour the creme patissiere.
This can also be nice sandwiched between a sponge.
You can also add some cinnamon to make a spicy choc cream, or if like me you like the combination of of chilly and chocolate you could add some cayenne pepper...
Really the possibilities are endless. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Happy cooking!