Homemade Maple Pecan Butter

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Homemade Maple Pecan ButterYou know how maple syrup is the greatest?

(Along with golden syrup and blackstrap molasses?)

And you know how pecans are the greatest?

(Along with almonds and cashews and pistachios?)

And you know how homemade nut butters are the greatest?

(Along with puppies? Yeah, there was no connection with that one.)

And you know how Sarah is the greatest housemate?

(I lost the rhythm a bit there.)

Homemade Maple Pecan ButterWell, I made Sarah a batch of Homemade Maple Pecan Butter before I left Toronto, and it was the greatest.

So great, in fact, that we were at risk of eating all the maple-roasted pecans straight from the tray before turning them into nut butter.

And so great that, once turned into nut butter, the entire batch disappeared in little more than the blink of an eye.

This nut butter is ridiculously easy and quick to make, as the high (good-for-you!) oil content of pecans means they butterise (shhh, spellcheck, let’s pretend that’s a word) more swiftly than do almonds or cashews.

Go forth and make this incredible roasted maple pecan nut butter, my friends.

Because this world is the greatest.

Homemade Maple Pecan Butter

Homemade Maple Pecan Nut Butter

Makes 3/4 – 1 cup

  • 1 1/2 cups raw pecans
  • 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup, depending on your sweetness threshold
  • few pinches of salt
  1. Preheat oven to 160C/325F, and line a baking tray with baking paper (trust me; the clean up is far easier this way). Toss the pecans with the maple syrup, then spread out on the baking tray.
  2. Bake for 8-10 minutes, stirring once, until the pecans are starting to toast but aren’t burning.
  3. Let cool for five minutes, taking sneaky bites of pecans here and there when no one’s looking.
  4. Tip nuts into a food processor along with a few pinches of salt, and process until turned into silky smooth drippy-town nut butter. This took five minutes in my powerful food processor (scraping down the sides once), but it may take you longer, depending on the strength of yours. Have faith! Deliciousness awaits!

Chocolatepalooza: Raw Shakti, Justin’s, Madécasse

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Writing this blog has brought many, many wonderful people into my life. Glorious people, shining people, inspiring people, talented people. One such people person is the lovely and hilarious Alayna of Thyme Bombe.

Alayna recently published her first cookbook, The Japanese Pantry, which showcases approachable yet dinner party-worthy Japanese (and Japanese-inspired) recipes. Believe you me, Alayna’s recipes look, sound, and taste as good as many of the dishes I ate in Japan several years ago.

Madécasse Pink Pepper and Citrus, Justin's Milk Chocolate Candy Bar, Raw Shakti Chocolate, Kind Bar, Living Raw Chocolate Macaroons, Justin's Dark Chocolate Peanut ButterWhen Alayna offered me a copy of her cookbook, I was breathless with gratitude and joy. A few weeks later, I moved beyond “breathless” to “squealing” because, along with her cookbook, Alayna sent me the dazzling array of goodies you see above.

Alayna, you are a wonder and a song. This is your chocolatepalooza post. Thank you.

Raw Shakti Chocolate 85% Cacao

Raw Shakti Chocolate 85% CacaoA part of me is tempted to repeat the words on the Raw Shakti Chocolate package then proclaim “voila! My review!” After all, Shakti proclaims that its chocolate is: 85% cacao, raw, stoneground, handcrafted, sustainable, [made from] single origin Ecuador[ian cacao], [using] all organic ingredients, [and has] deep fruity notes with a complex floral finish.

Need I say more?

Raw Shakti Chocolate 85% CacaoPerhaps not, but I will anyway. This Raw Shakti 85% vegan dark chocolate had one of the crispest snaps I’ve ever encountered in raw chocolate, as well as an unwavering aroma of twangy redcurrant and unripe plum mixed with bitter raw cacao.

The taste followed suit with red fruit acidity, but thankfully not in a puckeringly sour way. The flavour was strong in tannins, merlot, lemon, and (again) unripe plums, but it also had notes of cigarette ash and the coolness of underground caves. Yes, I just said this chocolate tastes like caves.

I’d like to see that appear in the marketing blurb one day.

Justin’s All-Natural Milk Chocolate Peanut Candy Bar

Justin’s All-Natural Milk Chocolate Peanut Candy BarHave you ever wanted a Snickers bar but not its plethora of dodgy ingredients? Well, Justin’s has your back. Justin’s All-Natural Milk Chocolate Peanut Candy Bar is comprised of milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel, and nougat, but no hydrogenated oils or multisyllabic chemical components. Just pronounceable nuts, sugar, and chocolate.

Justin’s All-Natural Milk Chocolate Peanut Candy BarThe caramel was firmer than is found in a Mars Bar or Snickers, and had a lighter sweetness too. The nougat was malty and the peanuts well-roasted, balancing the sweetness of the caramel and milk chocolate. At times, the overall texture and flavour reminded me of fudge.

I want Justin’s (vegan) Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups now.

Madécasse Pink Pepper and Citrus

Madécasse Pink Pepper and CitrusI saved the best for last! Having previously tried and loved Madécasse, I was supremely excited about this mini bar of Madécasse Pink Pepper and Citrus 63% Dark Chocolate. The citrus refers to combava fruit, also known as kaffir lime.

This bar was wonderful. Alayna, you’re wonderful.

Madécasse Pink Pepper and CitrusThe aroma was so strong, so chocolatey, so tangy (in a gorgeously fruity way). As is always the case, Madécasse exemplified perfect tempering in this bar, with a beautiful crack-snap ringing out each time I broke off a square.

The flavour was light yet strong, by which I mean that the lime notes were ever-present but not overpowering. The citrus was like a cloud of perfume dancing through the vanilla-scented heady cacao notes of the 63% chocolate, while the pink pepper added just the barest hint of a savoury twist, broadening and deepening the bar’s overall flavour.

Oh Madécasse. I like you almost as much as I like Alayna.

Glimpses of Westwood, Los Angeles

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Westwood, Los AngelesAlways.

Horrific Cookie Dough Bites SodaNever.

Rocket Fizz, Candy Store, Westwood, LANot if Bieber’s watching my every move.

Rocket Fizz, Candy Store, Westwood, LAMaybe.

(The Butterfinger Bites, if you’re offering, Rocket Fizz.)

Hannah and Carolyn, Westwood, LA, The Coffee BeanIndubitably.

(American-style iced coffee > Australian-style iced coffee.)

Chick-O-Stick, Hello Kitty Ring Pop, Cheese Peanut Butter Crackers, Healthy Time Zucchini Cake Whole Foods MarketShhhh. I know. You don’t need to tell me.

Healthy Times Zucchini Cake Wheat Free

Won’t repeat.

(My gluten-free dairy-free poppy seed cake is better. Probably because I use sugar.)

Smitten Kitchen's SnickerdoodlesWill repeat.

(Happiness is freshly-baked snickerdoodle cookies.)

Smitten Kitchen's SnickerdoodlesRecipe here.

Heel click,
Hannah

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

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Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

I miss primary school fêtes. I miss how the schoolyard looked and felt different when visited on the weekend in the sunshine, how the tables in the quadrangle adorned with homemade treats or “trash and treasure” seemed more alluring than any shopping mall ever could, and how much fun it was to run around wildly with friends without having to worry about a teacher yelling at us for going out of bounds.

I miss putting so much tomato sauce onto my sausage sizzle sausage that the flimsy white bread beneath grew soggy (but tangy!), and I miss buying a toffee cup for ten cents; I miss those toffee cups in muffin cases that were nothing more than caster sugar, water, and food colouring boiled together into discs then topped with sprinkles, ready to be sucked on for hours (or until accidentally dropped it in the dirt while playing tag).

Vegan Chocolate Coconut IceThere would always be at least one plate of coconut ice on the tables selling homemade goodies. A uniquely Australian treat, coconut ice is traditionally a pink and white layered confection made from coconut, copha, red food colouring, and either sweetened condensed milk or icing sugar and egg white.

Coconut ice is sweet, so sweet, and pretty, so pretty, and coconutty, so coconutty.

A few months ago, I remembered the existence of coconut ice and could suddenly think of naught but veganising it with the help of my enormous jar of coconut oil. In a vague nod towards being a Grown-Up rather than an seven-year-old girl with a sticky disc of half-licked toffee in her hand, I replaced the food colouring with cocoa powder and took the resulting gluten-free, dairy-free, definitely-not-sugar-free treat into work.

My colleagues may not have the same school fête memory associations with this vegan chocolate coconut ice as I do, but they seemed to love eating it all the same.

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

Makes 16-20 squares, or more if you prefer teensy bites.
Adapted from Taste

  • 250g desiccated coconut
  • 500g pure icing sugar, sifted
  • 200g coconut oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  1. Line a 20cm (8 inch) square pan with non-stick baking paper, allowing paper to overhang the sides. In a large bowl, stir together the coconut and icing sugar.
  2. Melt the coconut oil in a medium saucepan over low heat, then add the vanilla extract. Immediately pour this over the coconut and sugar mixture, then stir stir stir stir stir! It may take a bit of elbow grease to get all the sugar and coconut incorporated into the coconut oil.
  3. Once the mixture is combined and cohesive, divide in half. Press one half smoothly and evenly into prepared pan. Add the cocoa to the remaining half, and mix well until the coconut is evenly coloured.
  4. Press the chocolate coconut mixture over the layer already in the pan, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour or until set.
  5. Remove the coconut ice from the pan, and use a sharp knife to cut into small squares. Store in the fridge. You can either serve this straight-crispy-hard-cold from the fridge, or let it soften a little at room temperature first.
  6. Are you done yet? Have you finished eating? Can we go play Red Light, Green Light in the schoolyard now, please?

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday, Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love and 5 Ingredient Monday.

Fresh Restaurant, Toronto: Brunching and Lunching

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Sarah at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen WestI miss that face up there. That face is the face of my fantabulous housemate Sarah back in Toronto, and it is a face that my face enjoyed facing every day of our long winter face something face face this is one of those situations where the more you say a word the more nonsensical it seems face face face.

(I may or may not have eaten an unseemly amount of ice cream immediately prior to writing this post. Face face face.)

Sarah at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen WestSee? It’s such a great face, Sarah’s face. It is one of my favourite faces to see across the table at Fresh, the vegan and gluten-free-friendly restaurant I’ve previously posted about here and here.

Before I left Toronto, Sarah and I made a point of setting aside a few weekend days for Outside The House Adventures and, each time, we started said adventures with brunch or lunch at the Fresh closest to our house.

Hannah at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen WestThe juices are lovely, and the coffees can be made with almond milk. At our first brunch, Sarah and I sat at the bar ogling the enormous carrots and mountains of bananas wielded by Fresh’s juice chefs (juiceisters? juicetenders? juiceologists?), before diving into our delicious plates of goodness.

Gluten-free blueberry pancakes with tempeh bacon and scrambled tofu at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen WestSarah ordered from the gluten allergy friendly menu, opting for the blueberry pancakes with scrambled tofu and tempeh bacon. It hurt my heart that the pancakes arrived topped with the devilfruit, but perhaps this was a deliberate ploy to prevent me from stealing all the pancakes. All of them.

Hannah at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen WestI chose one of Fresh’s big bowls of vegetables and grains (I asked for extra kale, which came after this photo was taken), and delighted in every bite.

Hannah and Sarah at Fresh, Queen St West, TorontoWhat is a meal without dessert? Fresh stocks desserts by Sweets From The Earth, and I took a gamble on the Gluten-Free Walnut Brownie.

Sweets From The Earth Gluten-Free Walnut BrownieSweets From The Earth Gluten-Free Walnut BrownieEaten later while watching Departures with Sarah, the brownie had a great mix of crispy-outside and fudgy-inside, with the walnuts balancing the sweetness of each bite.

Grilled Cornbread, Hummus, and Superfood Salad, Gluten-free at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen WestA few days before I left for the U.S., Sarah and I returned for a last meal at Fresh. As glorious as the red lentil, tomato, and fennel soup, grilled cornbread, hummus, and superfood salad were, no food could compare to the joy of sitting on a patio on a sunny spring day after six months of brutally cold weather…

Sarah with soup, cornbread, and salad combo at Fresh Restaurant, Toronto, Queen West…with that face.