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Almond Butter and Chocolate Energy Balls

So as you know, the majority of the recipes on Pop Therapy contain ample quantities of sugar and butter….so today you will be surprised to see a refined sugar and butter free recipe!!

“Jem, what’s become of you!? You’ve changed man!” I hear you say…..but don’t you worry, it’s the delicious sweetness of DATES that make these babies delicious!! They’re healthy, and completely addictive….and don’t worry…I still dipped them in chocolate to finish, so they’re not too healthy, in case you’re thinking of tuning out right now.

To make these completely dairy free, you can leave out the chocolate, or use dairy free choc chips!

I used this recipe from the Butter Half, worlds punniest food blog!

Ingredients:

1 cup dates, pitted
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 cup almond butter
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (for melting)
1/2 cup crushed coconut flakes

Method:

1. In a food processor, blend the dates and coconut oil together until smooth. Add in almond butter, dark chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix until smooth and the mixture resembles dough.

2. Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet or plate covered with parchment paper.

3. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl, over a simmering saucepan of hot water, being careful that your bowl does not touch the water. Dip the top half of the energy bite into the melted chocolate, then dip into the crushed coconut. Allow to set for 10 minutes, then chill in refrigerator in a sealed container.

Whilst they’re not the prettiest, I assure you, they sure taste good!! What’s your favourite healthy treat recipe?

Orange and Poppyseed Bundt Cake

What better to do on a rainy day than to bake (and subsequently eat) a delicious orange and poppyseed bundt cake!!

“What is a bundt cake,” you ask? A bundt cake is made in a bundt (or kugelhopf) pan, and has a big hole in the middle, which means you can make a super delicious cake without the middle being undercooked.

I’ll never make a regular cake again!! After making this chocolate espresso funfetti bundt cake, and now this delight, Im a bundt cake nut!!

This was delicious and easy to make…and yes, if anyone is wondering, that is a lemon lurking in the background, but it was purely for decorative purposes….I just ran out of oranges!!

I used this recipe.

Ingredients:

Melted butter, to grease
125ml (1/2 cup) fresh orange juice
130g (1/2 cup) Greek-style natural yoghurt
60g (1/4 cup) poppy seeds
250g butter, at room temperature, chopped
270g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated orange rind
4 eggs
340g (2 1/4 cups) plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 orange
150g (1 cup) pure icing sugar
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice, extra

Method:

Preheat oven to 160°C. Brush a 25cm (top measurement) kugelhopf pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Combine the orange juice, yoghurt and poppy seeds in a small bowl.
Use an electric beater to beat the butter, caster sugar and orange rind in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition until just combined.
Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg mixture. Add the yoghurt mixture and use a large metal spoon to fold until just combined. Spoon mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Use a zester to remove the rind from the orange. (Alternatively, use a vegetable peeler to peel rind from the orange. Use a small sharp knife to remove white pith from the rind. Cut rind into thin strips.) Combine the icing sugar and extra orange juice in a bowl until smooth. Pour over the cake and sprinkle with the orange rind. Set aside for 20 minutes or until the icing is set.

Pure bundt deliciousness!! Now I just need (another) coffee to have with this and my day will be complete!!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

Peanut butter and chocolate is a seriously delicious combination!! I recently made these chocolate dipped peanut cookies with pretzels, and now am on the peanut butter bandwagon (sorry to all our peanut allergic friends!)!!

I used this recipe from a Cup of Jo. The recipe is by Abbey Rodriguez from The Butter Half! It was really simple and I had these ready in under 30 mins!! The only thing I changed was adding a sprinkle of sea salt (why not!?).

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cups butter
1/3 cup water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup white sugar (for dipping) and sea salt for sprinkling
1 bag dark chocolate melts

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat sugar, peanut butter and butter until fluffy. Blend in water, egg and vanilla.Next, add oats, flour and baking soda. Mix well. Shape the cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Place them on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar (wet the glass, then dip in the sugar!!). Add a sprinkling of sea salt. Bake 10 minutes.

While cookies are baking, boil a small saucepan of water. Sit a heat-safe glass bowl on top of the saucepan and melt the chocolate (make sure your bowl does not touch the water). Stir constantly until smooth.

Remove cookies from oven and top each with 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate. Allow them to cool and set for 10-15 minutes.

These cookies were loved by both adults and babies alike!! Whilst they’re not exactly health food, the addition of oats makes them slightly more nutritious (I tell myself these things…).

Enjoy!!

Chocolate Espresso Funfetti Bundt Cake

Nothing spells fun like sprinkles!! Today I purchased a Bundt cake pan….which is basically a regular cake pan, with some cool shapes in it, and a hole in the middle!!! Best $20 I ever spent… this cake is the bomb!! It’s Lachy’s birthday, so chocolate cake was called for!! This cake was so good that I’m currently trying to find people to visit and eat it, so that we don’t eat the whole thing!!

I used this recipe from Joy the Baker – but made a couple of small tweaks…I made a simpler ganache (because I was too lazy to add additional ingredients), and brushed the cake with a wash of orange juice and castor sugar before icing, for added moisture!!

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon brewed coffee
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon buttermilk
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoon canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups, plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted

For the Ganache:

1 pack dark chocolate melts
1/2 cup of thickened cream

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
Grease a 10 inch Bundt Cake Pan
To make the cake batter: Put brewed coffee and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from the heat and let come to room temperature.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low speed for about 1 minute.
Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.
Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes.
The batter will be very loose (it’s super liquidy, but don’t worry, it will work!!). Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool completely in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack.
Make the ganache, by placing your chocolate and cream into a heat proof bowl. Place the heat proof bowl above a simmering saucepan of water, making sure your bowl does not touch the water!! Stir regularly, until mixture is runny and glossy. Ice cake quickly before your ganache goes hard!!

Add sprinkles!!

This made a great birthday cake for Lachy…and was enjoyed by all…especially Dash, who has now learned how to ask for “more cake!”

The texture of this cake is amazing…this is my new favourite chocolate cake…and the coffee flavour makes it even better. Have you made a bundt cake before? I can’t wait to make some other delicious bundt cake flavours!!

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

So I had a fruit bowl full of bananas….and a jar of Nutella staring me in the face… what better to do, then combine them into the ultimate NUTELLA SWIRLED BANANA BREAD (I feel like this banana bread deserves capital letters).

I recently made the best ever brown butter chocolate chip cookies stuffed with Nutella, and am seriously on board the Nutella baking bandwagon… a few google searches would reveal that I’m not the first one to dream up such an amazing banana bread!!

I used this recipe from Zoe Bakes. It was so darn good, half the loaf was gone in minutes!! The recipe makes two loaves, but you can halve the recipe if you don’t trust yourself to have two of these in the house.

Ingredients:

Makes 2 loaves

3 large or 4 medium (2 cups mashed) bananas, yellow with brown speckles
1 cup brown sugar, packed
250 grams unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup Nutella

Method:

Pre-heat over to 180 degrees Celsius
Grease two loaf tins and line with baking paper
Mash the bananas with a potato masher, so they still have some small lumps, set aside.
Combine the sugar, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla and mix with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer. Whisk together the flour and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter mixture, just until smooth. Add the bananas and mix just until they are combined.
THEN COMES THE MAGIC – microwave your nutella for about 20 seconds until soft (or you can stand the jar in hot water).
Drizzle about two thirds of the Nutella over the mix, and gently fold it through, being careful not to stir too much, as you want to retain a marbled effect.
Pour the mixture into your loaf tins
Drizzle the remaining Nutella over the top of the banana bread.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean

Pure deliciousness!!! Serve with…more Nutella!!!

Do you have any Nutella recipes you would like to share? Are you on the Nutella Bandwagon?

White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies

If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve been on a cookie bender the past few weeks….Sydney weather has been horrible, so what better to do at home than to bake cookies!! I’ve never been a massive white chocolate fan, but these cookies are seriously amazing…the white chocolate and macadamia combination, along with the saltiness of these cookies is just divine!! So divine, that I’m about to deliver a batch of these cookies to my neighbours before I eat them all!!

I used this recipe from Donna Hay, but made a couple of tiny tweaks including the addition of greek yoghurt, and chilling the dough for an hour before baking.

Ingredients

150g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (175g) brown sugar
¾ cup (165g) white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tablespoon greek yoghut
1½ cups (225g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking powder, sifted
½ teaspoon table salt
250g white chocolate, chopped
150g macadamia nuts, chopped

Method

Place butter, brown and white sugars and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat for 8–10 minutes or until pale and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg, beating well to combine. Add yoghurt and beat through.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat on low until a dough forms. Fold through the chocolate and nuts.
Chill dough for one hour. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
Roll 2 tablespoons of the dough into balls at a time and flatten slightly. Place on lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing room to spread. Bake for 15–18 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on trays before serving.

And that’s it….pure deliciousness!! They also remind me of the cookies you get at Subway!! Is anyone else a closet Subway cookie lover!?

Easy Chocolate Tarts

I love chocolate tarts…almost (but not quite) as much as lemon tarts. Out of sheer caution, I made only two of these tarts (and as I predicted, I ate both of them…instead of dinner….with wine of course….all the food groups!!)

These are a super easy dessert to make and sure do taste amazing!! The best thing is, you only need a few ingredients to make them!!

I used frozen puff pastry, but you could also make these with a biscuit base if you want a no-bake option.

Ingredients:

Frozen puff pastry
200 mls thickened cream
200 grams dark chocolate melts
1 table spoon espresso coffee (disolved)
2 tablespoons of icing sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius
Grease four mini tart pans
Press puff pastry into tart pans and trim edges
Use pastry beads to weight puff pastry to prevent it rising – bake pastry for 15 minutes, then remove from oven,
Remove pastry weights, and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until golden
Allow tart shells to cool
Melt the milk and dark chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). Remove from heat, stir until smooth, then allow to cool for 5 minutes. Stir in the coffee and fold in the icing sugar
Whip cream until soft peaks form, then fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the tart pans and chill for at least 2 hours until the chocolate filling is set (as you can tell from my photos, I was so eager to photograph, then subsequently eat my chocolate tarts, that I didn’t wait the full 2 hours for them to set).

Serve with all the trimmings – shaved chocolate, cream and strawberries! I suggest a 50:50 cream to tart ratio!!

Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

Say what!? Yes, that’s right…these are chocolate chip cookies, made with brown butter, STUFFED with Nutella (and sprinkled with sea salt!). !@#$, what a cookie!!

I’m sure they’re worth the equivalent of a day’s worth of food in calories, but they are so darn delicious they’re worth it.

Being the new year, I’ve been attempting to stick to healthy eating…yoghurt and berries for breakfast, salad and tuna for lunch….but tonight it was cookies (hell, and wine!) for dinner…what a meal!!!

This recipe was taken from the blog Ambitious Kitchen, and what a fantastic recipe it was!! I also used a tutorial on how to brown butter from the same blog and found it really easy (I’ve tried other ways in the past and this method worked really well!!). My last attempt was in my brown butter cake recipe! You can make brown butter in advance and store it in the fridge also. Brown butter is seriously the bomb….try it on toast, try it drizzled on steak….even better, try it in cookies!! Enough about the joys of brown butter, here’s the darn recipe!!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Method:

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.
Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager, although I cannot promise the same results if you do this.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball — it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled! Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough if necessary. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand VERY gently. (Really only the tops need to be flattened a bit!)
Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

And that’s it….pure deliciousness!! Can you think of a way to increase the calorific content of already delicious foods by stuffing them with even more delicious foods! The possibilities are endless!

Calories aside, these are the best cookies I have ever eaten!!

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies with Pretzels

I love baking (and yes, eating!) cookies around the holiday season (actually, around all of the seasons!)!! Usually it’s the classics for Christmas time, like Gingerbread and shortbread, but this year I thought I’d try something different. I’ve never tried peanut butter cookies before, but how could peanut butter and cookie not just be the most delicious combo ever!!

I saw this recipe and had to give it a go, but combined the recipe with this one!! These cookies were easy to make, and completely delicious, and to make things even better, you then get to go and dip the little beauties in molten chocolate and coat them with pretzel crumbs. I knew today was going to be a good day!

Ingredients:

butter, softened
½ cup smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
230 g(1¼ cups) brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
185 g (1¼ cups) plain flour, sifted
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 pack dark chocolate melts
1 bag pretzels

Method

Place butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and vanilla into a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until light and creamy.
Add egg, beat until well combined. Stir in sifted flour and bicarbonate of soda. Mix until a soft dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 170°C.
Roll mixture into 2.5 cm-sized balls. Place onto baking paper-lined trays, allowing room for spreading. Lightly press down onto each cookie with a fork.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays.
Once cookies cool, melt dark chocolate in a bowl over simmer water on the stove (make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water)
Dip cookies into the chocolate, then crumble pretzels over the chocolate

All that’s left is to eat them!! Luckily this Christmas, I got a new bike (pictured here) and can work these off!!) What are your favourite cookies?

Little Lemon Tarts

So it’s been a while since I’ve posted a lemon flavoured baked good on the blog….far too long I say!!

I’ve finally finished uni for the semester and what better way to celebrate with the baking and eating of (too many of) these babies!!

I looked at a few different recipes, and wanted to have a go at making the pastry myself….and this recipe was simple to follow and turned out beautifully!!

Recipe from Butter Baking

Ingredients:

For the tart pastry:

180g unsalted butter (6 oz)
6 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups flour (300g, 10 oz)

For the lemon filling:

¼ cup plain flour (35g, 1¼ oz)
1 cup sugar (220g, ½ pound)
½ cup lemon juice (125ml, 4 oz, about 3 lemons)
zest from 1 lemon, grated
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

Method

To make the tart pastry, preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F) and get out two mini muffin pans.
Place the butter, water, oil, sugar and salt in an overproof bowl.
Put the bowl in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the butter is melted, bubbling, and just beginning to brown around the edges.
Carefully remove the bowl from the oven and dump in the flour. Stir quickly, until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the dish.
Put a teaspoon of dough into one mini muffin hole, and press it into the base and up the sides using your fingers. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
Prick the dough with a fork once or twice.
Bake for 8 – 12 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown all over.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
To make the tart filling, reduce the oven to 150 C (300 F).
Combine the flour and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix to dissolve the sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and the egg yolk with salt.
Add the eggs into the lemon and sugar mixture and whisk until well combined.
Pour the filling into each pastry case
Bake for 5 – 10 minutes, until the centers are just set

They’re lemony, they’re delicious…what more could you want!! Serve with a cup of tea!!