Coconut and Quinoa Pancakes w/ Bananas, Cottage Cheese and Raspberry Sauce

Alrighty then! Due to overwhelming demand from friends and family for recipes I'm restarting this blogging thing; and what else to start up on but a delicious healthy breakfast, this one takes a bt of prep work the night before, but can be re-made a couple of days later and is just as good (if not better)

Coconut and Quinoa Pancakes w/ Bananas, Cottage Cheese & Raspberry Sauce

serves 4

Pancake Batter
1 cup white quinoa, cooked in-
     - 2 cups cocoquench (coconut milk drink) then cooled
2 cups shredded coconut
4 eggs 
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1/2 cup Almond Meal
1/2 cup cocoquench (http://www.pureharvest.com.au/product/organic-coco-quench)

Raspberry Sauce
1 cup Raspberries
1 Vanilla pod, scraped
1-3 teaspoon coconut sugar (http://organicness.com.au/product/power-super-foods-coconut-palm-sugar-1kg)
100ml fruit juice (cloudy apple works really well)

2 Bananas
200g Cottage cheese
1 Tablespoon coconut oil or spray

Method

Mix together eggs, cocoquench, almond meal and protein powder. Add quinoa and coconut and let stand for at least 10 minutes, preferably overnight so the coconut can absorb some of the liquid.
While the batter is resting, make the raspberry sauce by putting the raspberries, vanilla, juice and sugar into a small saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes.

When you're ready, heat a pan really hot and coat with coconut oil. Plop a couple of big tablespoon sized  dollops of batter into the pan and press out to a palm size. These pancakes are quite delicate so the smaller they are, the easier they are to flip. Once they are nice and golden, carefully flip them over and cook the other side. Continue until you've got enough pancakes, stack them in the middle of a plate, top with sliced banana, cottage cheese and lashings of hot raspberry sauce. Dig in!

Espresso Jelly with White Chocolate Foam

Hey there. Made these for a high tea/dinner party that got a little out of hand... I kind of want to make them again with Cafe Patron in the jelly and Creme de Cacao in the foam to make it extra fun... will update with results.

Ingredients

Espresso Jelly
- 500ml freshly brewed espresso
- 200g brown sugar
- 3 tsp/ sachets powdered gelatine, dissolved in a little hot water
- Cafe Patron Tequila (optional, although definitely worth it)

White Chocolate Foam
- 250ml Cream
- 1 tsp vanilla paste/ 1 vanilla bean, halved
-220g white chocolate
- 2 egg yolks
- 150g caster sugar

-extra vanilla paste

Okay, I'm really tired. let me know if this makes no sense...

Start by making your espresso jelly. Heat the espresso in a saucepan over low heat and dissolve the brown sugar in it. Remove from the heat and add the dissolved gelatine (it should be a sticky paste). Stir briskly until combined (If you're an alcoholic like me, add the Patron here). Line a baking tray or similar container with cling film and pour the jelly mixture in. Cover, then place into the fridge and allow to set.

Whilst the jelly is setting it's time to make the foam. It's basically a creme anglaise with white chocolate added then put through a cream charger. Start by heating the cream and vanilla over a medium flame, wait until small bubbles start forming around the edges of the saucepan and add the broken up white chocolate to dissolve. Remove from heat. While the chocolate cream mixture is cooling slightly, whisk the egg yolk and caster sugar together until it is nice and creamy. Add a bit of the cream to the egg mixture and stir to combine, then pour the creamy eggs into the saucepan. Put back onto heat, stirring gently until mixture coats the back of the spoon. Allow the mixture to cool slightly before pouring into a cream charger. Charge with two nitrous oxide bulbs and refrigerate until ready to serve.

To serve, I cut the jelly into cubes and placed 2 in each shot glass then filled the shotty with foam, finishing by piping a comma of vanilla paste. You could just as easily serve them as dessert by pouring the jelly into parfait glasses before setting and then top with cream and shaved chocolate.... I'm so making that soon....

Red Velvet Cupcakes with my niece

I've escaped Melbourne for a few days to hang out with my family. Made these beauties with a little help from my niece. Recipe will be up soon.

Alrighty. It's been a while but I thought you all could do with some indulgence. So get into these beauties as soon as you get a chance. Like I said earlier, my niece and I made them back in April, so they're dead easy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1 1/2 caster sugar

• 1 cup milk

• 200g melted unsalted butter

• 2 eggs, lightly whisked

• 1 tbls white vinegar

• 1 tsp vanilla paste

• 1-2 tsp red food colouring

1/2 cup icing sugar

200g unsalted butter, softened

Juice of 1/2 fresh Orange

Orange zest

Shredded coconut

• 
  

Turn on your oven and preheat oven to 160°C. Line your mini patty cake pans with paper cases. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarb into a big bowl and stir through the sugar. Whisk the milk, butter, eggs, vinegar, food colouring and vanilla in a large jug. I got my niece to do this and got the mixture all over my sisters kitchen, but couldn't get angry at her because she's just too cute. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the hot pink milk mixture and stir until just combined so that the mix is nice and velvety.
Divide the mixture among the lined pans. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the icing simply mix together the icing sugar and butter. Add orange juice until you get the desired consistency then stir through the orange zest. 
To finish, wait until the cupcakes are cool, then spread with the orange icing mixture and sprinkle over with shredded coconut. Delicious velvetty goodness.