Another great recipe from Supercharged Food: Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian by Lee Holmes (Murdoch Books, 2015).

1/3 c rice malt syrup
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp all spice or nutmeg
1 tsp chilli powder (I used 1/2)
1 tsp cayenne powder
4 c mixed nuts

Put nuts in a bowl. Melt rice malt syrup with the spices and pour over nuts. Mix well to combine. Tip onto baking paper and spread out to one layer. Bake for 40 min, turning after 20 min. T...

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Thanks Annabel Langbein for this genius recipe. Yes, only 3 ingredients! But you can add more to jazz up if you like.
1kg mixed dried fruit (I used currants, prunes, apricots, cranberries and sultanas)
2 1/2 c milk (I used rice)
2 3/4 c flour (I used gluten-free mix)
Soak the fruit in the milk in a bowl overnight in the fridge.
Next day, preheat oven to 160C. Line a 23cm cake tin with baking paper.
Mix in sifted flour with the fruit and transfer into tin. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until cook...
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I had some leftover chickpea cookie dough from my kumara brownies so I decided to make s'mores cookies, finally succumbing to our 3-year-old requests for marshmallows. We don't indulge her marshmallows but I consider this a wee Christmas treat. 
400g canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 egg
1/2 c rice malt syrup
1/2 c almond butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c flour, more or less (I used gluten-free and brown rice mix)
1/2 c dark chocolate chips
mini marshmallows
Preheat oven to 180C. Line ...
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This is from a great book called Kenko Kitchen by Kate Bradley (Hardie Grant Books, 2015). It’s sugar-free, gluten-free and vegan. She’s based in Melbourne. This brownie recipe caught my eye because it adds in vegetables where our daughter won't notice them.

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 5cm pieces (I used golden kumara)
14 medjool dates, pitted (I like to soak dates in filtered water for an hour before using, then drain)
2/3 c ground almonds
½ c  buckwheat fl...

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One of my fave pastimes is borrowing cookbooks from the library and poring over all the recipes. There are so many great wholefood cookbooks out there now I’m spoilt for choice. This is from Supercharged Food: Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian by Lee Holmes (Murdoch Books, 2015). I get something out of every book I delve into, and this one is no exception.

Makes 30 balls
½ c sunflower seeds
½ c cashews
1 Tbs nut butter
2 Tbs basil leaves
½ tsp ground cumin
2 Tbs lemon juice
½...

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Similar to my cheese straws, these little savoury coins are so moreish. From Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima (Chatto & Windus, 2012).
150g flour (I used wholemeal spelt)
100g softened butter
75g grated parmesan
1 egg yolk
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until a dough forms. Turn out onto a surface and knead for about 30 seconds until smooth. Divide into 2 and roll each half into a cylinder about 3cm in diameter. Wrap tightly with cling film and chill in the fridge until firm,...

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I love meringues in slices – marshmallow without the gelatine. This is from High Tea (Viking, 2014), it contains 200 recipes! They used macadamia nuts but I had some roasted peanuts I wanted to use up. I found the slice a bit dry and needed some cream to go with. I think next time I would blind bake the base first and then add a caramel sauce with the nuts before topping with meringue. Or if you don't feel like nuts you can just add jam and coconut in the meringue and it woul...

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With the abundance of strawberries at the moment I wanted to make a healthy combination of strawberries and chocolate. This is a mixture of my recent strawberry muffins and the last post, chocolate olive oil cake. Macerating the strawberries first in balsamic vinegar really adds depth to the flavour.
2 c strawberries
1/2 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
50g cocoa
125ml boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c rice malt syrup
100ml olive oil
1 1/2 c flour (I used a mix of wholemeal and ...
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This lovely recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Nigellissima (Chatto & Windus, 2012). She made a cake but I decided to try these silicon moulds. The mixture rose quite a lot so my little bundt cakes were large, but moist and delicious just the same. Nigella uses 200g sugar but I was very happy with 150g.
150ml olive oil
50g cocoa, sifted
125ml boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g ground almonds or 125g flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch salt
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 170C. Grease an...
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This is from The Great New Zealand Cookbook (PQ Blackwell, 2014) – a fantastic collection of favourite recipes from NZ chefs. I was inspired by the very first recipe by Tui Flower. This is her raisin loaf but I added bran and substituted ¾ c sugar with ½ c rice syrup. With the raisins it was well sweet enough for us.

1 c milk
½ c rice malt syrup
2 Tbs golden syrup
2 c flour
1 c bran
3 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 c raisins (I used currants)
Preheat oven to 180C. Line an...

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Not baked but deep fried! This Chinese-style snack is from Peter Gordon's Everyday (Harper Collins, 2012). They are so crunchy-yummy-moreish.
250g raw prawn tails, shelled and cut into chunks
1 spring onion, sliced
2 tsp cornflour
2 tsp fish sauce or soy or tamari
3 Tbs sesame seeds
8 slices bread, crusts removed (my mixture was enough to spread on 12 slices)
vegetable oil for deep frying
Preheat oven to 100C.
Place prawns, spring onion, cornflour, fish sauce and half the sesame seeds in a food proces...
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What a decadent flop! It didn't look like the one in the book (High Tea, Viking 2014) but it still tasted good - evil good. I rarely use condensed milk (so much sugar!) but I made an exception for this easy slice – just pour in each ingredient on top of the last one.

125 g butter, melted
1 c sweet biscuit crumbs (I used gluten-free arrowroot biscuits)
1 c desiccated coconut
325g chocolate chips
395g tin condensed milk
1 c nuts, roughly chopped (I used cashews and almonds)

P...

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This is an I Quit Sugar recipe for raspberry muffins but I just substituted for fresh strawberries. I made 44 mini muffins from this mixture. Went down a treat at our first summer picnic at Wenderholm.
2 c flour (I used spelt)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 c almond milk
1/2 c butter, melted
2 eggs, whisked
1/2 c rice malt syrup
2 cups strawberries, chopped
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 12-muffin tin or 2 x 12 mini muffin tins with paper cases and/or grease the tins.
In a large bowl sift the flour, ...
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I can't believe I haven't made these before - a Kiwi classic recipe I found in Peter Gordon's Everyday (Harper Collins, 2012). Like an open version of spaghetti toasties or jaffles.
100g melted butter
12 slices sandwich bread, crusts removed
1 can spaghetti in tomato sauce
1 c grated cheese
Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 12-muffin tin and place in the freezer for 1 minute to set the butter. Press the bread into each muffin pan and brush with the remaining butter - inside, tops and sides.
Spoon the ...
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Caraway seeds. Acquired taste. Caraway crisps. Not my best work. I think these biscuits have an identity crisis. They are in the Savoury chapter of High Tea (Viking, 2014) but the recipe included 1/4 c sugar, salt and a sprinkling of salt and caraway. The butter and cream cheese makes a very rich combination. The sweet-savoury taste would not be to everyone's liking, but my husband gobbled quite a few after being wary at first!
120g softened butter
1 c cream cheese
1/4 c cup sugar
1 c self-raisin...
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Following on with my adventures with aquafaba, first I made meringues and now chocolate mousse. Super easy when you can whip up the aquafaba (chickpea brine) real good with the electric mixer.
Serves 2
100g dark chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from one vanilla pod
aquafaba from one can drained chickpeas, about 1/2 cup
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Melt chocolate over a bain marie. Using an electric whisk, beat the aquafaba with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and mix in slowly...
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