Stevia Week Recipe #3: Chocolate Ginger Cake

Did you miss Stevia Week Recipes #1 & #2?

• Raw Almond Cookies
• Double Carob Chip Ice Cream

Or, God forbid, the stevia giveaway itself?

Assuming you’ve got that taken care of, onward with experimental recipe #3! And I do mean experimental—I do not consider myself a skilled baker, and at first I thought my Chocolate Ginger Cake idea didn’t turn out very well. After a night in the fridge, however, it tasted a lot better to me! Go figure. Sometimes I think the fridge is a better cook than I am, or that it must at least have some mysterious, Magical Deliciousness Elves living in it. Perhaps they’re related to the Magical Deliciousness Elves that live in my slow cooker.

Anyway, for this recipe, I used NuNaturals NuStevia Sweetener Stevia Baking Blend in place of sugar. This can be substituted for sugar in a 1:1 ratio. No-brainer!

Chocolate Ginger Cake (Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup NuNaturals Stevia Baking Blend (or sugar)
• 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used hemp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Mix applesauce through vanilla in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a smaller bowl.
4. Add dry mixture to the wet mixture gradually, stirring until just combined.
5. Stir in the candied ginger. Pour batter into a greased baking dish (I used an 8”x8” square, glass dish).
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Now for a few words about this cake: it probably doesn’t taste quite like you’d imagine it does. As I said a few posts ago, I prefer to err on the side of less sweet where stevia is concerned, and in retrospect, I could have probably safely used 1/2 cup baking blend in this recipe. It’s not sweet like birthday cake from a boxed mix is sweet.

I guess that’s what I was expecting when I first tasted it, though, and that’s why I originally thought this was a bit of a fail. Kind of surprising, considering how great it smelled while baking, not to mention that there’s nothing much better than baked goods fresh from the oven.

After cooling in the fridge, though, it totally grew on me. Part of this is the expectation, though. As you can see from the pictures, this is not the kind of cake you frost and stick candles in. The combination of chocolate, ginger and coconut oil gives it a mildly sweet yet somehow slightly salty flavor that begs for a cozy-hot beverage and bitchy girl talk. Or high tea. Same difference.

So what do you prefer: cake, cookies or ice cream? We’ve had all three this week already…what ever could tomorrow’s stevia recipe be??? ;)

Stevia Week Recipe #2: Double Carob Chip Ice Cream

Time for my second experimental stevia recipe! Did you miss #1? Definitely have a gander—methinks you shall soon want some almond cookies in your life. You can even score a chance at some free stevia via my giveaway. I’m choosing a winner Friday—get on it!

So here’s today’s recipe. Don’t pretend like you didn’t see ice cream coming a mile away. ;)

Double Carob Chip Ice Cream (Vegan)

Ingredients:

• 2 cans coconut (one lite, one regular)
• 60 drops NuNaturals liquid vanilla stevia
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp carob powder
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup carob chips

Directions:

1. Combine all remaining ingredients except for carob chips in a blender and whiz just until well-incorporated.
2. Process ice cream batter in your ice cream maker per manufacturer’s instructions.*
3. Add carob chips in the last 5 minutes or so of processing.
4. Freeze and enjoy!

*If you don’t have an ice cream maker, I recommend blending ingredients per step 1, then placing the ice cream mixture in the freezer. Stir every 10-20 minutes or so until the mixture has reached soft serve texture, at which point you could stir in the carob chips. Feel free to nosh as soon as you have achieved your desired ice cream thickness.

My photos don’t do much justice to the carob chips, but they were in there, I swear!

No carob of any kind on hand? Feel free to substitute cocoa powder for a chocolate version. You might also like to top your ice cream with something fun like, I don’t know…say, Raw Almond Cookies?

Carob has a very distinct taste, but I kinda love it for a chocolate alternative every once in a while. How about you—carob, chocolate or both?

Stevia giveaway here!

Stevia Week Recipe #1: Raw Almond Cookies

Welcome to the first recipe of Diana’s self-proclaimed Stevia Week! If you missed yesterday’s post, four lucky stevia winners will be chosen this coming Friday, so make sure to enter the giveaway!

For this recipe, I used NuNaturals Alcohol Free Stevia liquid.

Raw Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond meal/pulp/flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 2 tbsp raw almond butter
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 30 drops NuNaturals alcohol free stevia liquid (or other sweetener to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 150* (or prep dehydrator if that’s how you roll).
2. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir until you have a soft ball of dough.
3. Scoop by the tablespoon-ful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 60-90 minutes. I left them in the oven for 90 minutes, but the bottoms were beginning to brown by that point (not my intention), so keep an eye on them and use your judgement.
5. Remove from oven and cool completely. Store in the refrigerator.

With stevia, I prefer to err on the side of less sweet because too much tastes funny to me, so definitely taste the batter before baking to make sure it’s sweetened to your liking. To the credit of NuNaturals, though, I haven’t yet noticed that funny taste that I’ve heretofore associated with stevia.

I really love these cookies! If you like almond-flavored desserts (Russian Tea Cookies?) or marzipan, you’ll totally dig these lil bites. Best use of almond pulp (as in leftover ground almonds from making almond milk) ever!

And it goes without saying that these cookies are totally healthy, especially without all the added sugars. Along with a tall glass of the almond milk that accompanied the creation of this recipe, I’m thinkin’ cookies and milk are a totally legitimate breakfast now. ;)

If you want to try this recipe, make sure to enter the NuNaturals giveaway for your chance at some free stevia!

It’s Stevia Week! Giveaway time.

The Stevia Fairy, aka Ron Redding of NuNaturals, has been extremely kind to me.

I received all of the above products in a package recently and have really been having fun sampling stevia in a number of different forms. The obvious first test? Coffee.

NuStevia Quick Dissolve Tabs are my favorite way to take stevia in my coffee right now. I’ve been using stevia to sweeten coffee for some time now, but NuNaturals is seriously higher quality than anything else I’ve tried, and what’s more, one little aspirin-sized stevia tab sweetens a Diana-sized cup of coffee quite precisely to the way I like it. No more of this guess-timation of pouring loose stevia powder in there.

I also received several different kinds of liquid stevia, stevia packets, the baking blend and a couple tubs of loose stevia products. This stuff makes it so easy to stay away from the ever evil aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, etc. And refined sugar, of course.

I’ve been playing with this stuff since receiving it, so I’ll publish a new stevia-sweetened recipe each day this week while the giveaway runs. Hope you enjoy—I know I have!

Right, so there’s a giveaway in here somewhere.

NuNaturals has generously offered no less than four prizes for this giveaway, so chances are pretty good that you could win yourself a box of NuStevia packets + a bottle of Vanilla Stevia Liquid! Don’t miss out!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post (USA residents only, sorry!).

For additional entries, you may:

1. Link back to this giveaway on your own blog. You must leave an additional comment on this post to let me know you’ve done so, or the additional entry will not be counted.
2. Tweet a link to this giveaway, making sure to include my Twitter handle, @soapnchocolate. Again, you must leave an additional comment here to let me know you’ve done so. You can use this message: @soapnchocolate is giving away NuNaturals Stevia! http://bit.ly/daQsb0

I will choose a winner on Friday, March 12. In the meantime, stay tuned for some nummy sugar-free recipes!

Spectacular

Eyeball update: If you’ve been reading along for a while, you know that I was told to stop wearing my contact lenses about 6 weeks ago since they were causing irritation and gooeyness in my eyes. I quickly scheduled a consultation for Lasik laser correction, but ended up told that I have large pupils and am therefore not an ideal candidate. No Stairway! Denied!

When the doc told me that my pupils are abnormally large, I almost said, “The better to see you with, my dear!” but then realized, well, no, not really. At all.

So all this time I’ve been stuck in glasses that haven’t gotten updated lenses in over three years. I’ve been squinting more than Mr. Magoo and Renee Zellweger combined. I needed new specs in a big way, and I finally got them this week. Allow me to model for you briefly.

Here I am doing my best Stephen Colbert face:

And my best sexy face:

Actually, droopy right eye = not as sexy. Try again.

Better?

Yeah, I don’t think so either.

At any rate, the new glasses are comfy and fit my big dome even better than my last pair. Calvin Klein’s my boy.

In other news, Galaxy Granola launched their Fruit Not Fat website today. I also got some samples this week—woohoo!

As you might have guessed, Galaxy Granola uses fruit, not fat, to up the flavor without upping the calories of their granola. I’ll admit to being skeptical when I was first contacted about trying this cereal. I’m not one to eschew fat! So long as it’s “good fat,” that is.

This stuff’s really tasty, though, and the ingredient list is short.

Today I actually began AND ended my day with the Not Sweet Vanilla granola. At breakfast, I topped some applesauce with granola to go with a big shake…

And I had a little bowl straight up with rice milk tonight for dessert.

It may sound cheesy, but I’m a convert! I wasn’t optimistic that I’d want to review this product up in here, but how that I’ve tasted it I know that my samples won’t go to waste. I may or may not have a penchant for playing with my cereal, anyway…

Ponzu Fried Rice

As part of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program, I have many opportunities to sample new food products for free. So many, in fact, that all of a sudden it seems like my samples are getting ahead of my ability to taste and review them! What’s a trustworthy blogger to do? Consolidate. 

While my instinct is often to overpopulate my recipes with intricate spice combinations, I chose the simple route for dinner tonight instead. I thought it fairest to both the products and to you that I let just a few tastes stand out. (I also didn’t mind that this made recipe creation much more low maintenance…)

The products in question are Kikkoman’s Ponzu lime sauce and Eggland’s Best eggs. Call me boring, but having these two items in the fridge at once just screamed “fried rice!” at me, loud and clear.

Armed with those key ingredients and a bag of my favorite frozen veggie mix from Whole Foods…

…it wasn’t long before I had this sizzling on the stove:

Ponzu Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice, uncooked
• coconut oil (or other oil of your choice)
• 1 large bag (about 1 lb) frozen veggies (or your preferred mix of fresh chopped veggies)
• 6 tbsp Kikkoman Ponzu lime sauce
• 2 Eggland’s Best eggs

Directions:

1. Cook rice as instructed. Once done, remove from heat and let stand, covered.
2. Heat oil (about 1–2 tbsp) in a large skillet or wok and add veggies.
3. Cook over medium-high heat until tender-crisp, stirring occasionally.
4. Add rice and ponzu, stirring to coat evenly.
5. Create a well in the center of the rice mixture and break eggs into the middle.
6. Turn heat to high and stir until all the egg is cooked throughout.
7. Serve topped with sesame seeds and hot sauce, if desired.

Serves 2-4

That’s it. No fancy technique or ingredients. And you’ve got a leg up on the process if you already have some rice cooked when you begin. Then it’s a really quick meal! The Ponzu gave the dish a nice tangy, soy sauce-y flavor that lent itself well to fried rice, and the eggs added rich substance to the finished product.

It’s too bad that fried rice of the greasy Chinese take-out variety gets such a bad rep (and not undeserved) because it gives a bad name to the homemade kind! But really, there’s nothing unhealthy about this method, and it even had plenty of oil. The trick is knowing the difference between something like sunflower/soybean oil and its nutritionally superior counterpart in coconut oil. When you hand-pick your ingredients with care, though, there’s nothing to worry about.

Fried rice = comfort food. Serve me up another bowl, in that case.

Where do your rice preferences lie? Steamed or fried? Main dish on top or on the side? Or cooked along with the rice itself, as the case may be? I’m a one-dish kind of chick myself…

Alive and Thriving

I want that phrase to be my self-fulfilling prophecy right now. It has so many meanings! For example, yes I am still alive and thriving, though you wouldn’t know it by checking on my blog. One of the things keeping me away from the blog, however, is the one thing that generates the most post material anyway, so that’s mighty convenient. :)

Indeed, Sun In Bloom’s raw dessert offerings are very much both alive and thriving.

As I brainstormed a number of additions to this selection, I got to sample the “Ooh-la-la,” a raw chocolate chai cake. Suffice it to say that it is very well named!

The bottom layer is chocolate-chai flavored while the upper layer is chai, but without the chocolate. And the whole thing is slathered in raw white chocolate buttercream frosting!

I really might not have known it was raw if I didn’t know that beforehand. Who cares, anyway, when there’s delicious cake in your life?!

Excited to get my hands back into raw dessert-making on Thursday night. Here’s hoping I’ll have a winner on my hands!

That said, I’m always looking for inspiration for new creations. Which traditionally non-raw dessert would you want raw-ified?