Category Archives: Fruits

Raw Fudge Treat

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I cannot take credit for this recipe at all. In fact, I was just inspired by the raw fudge purchased from Planet Organic. Figured I’d make that extremely clear before they sue me or something
Now the picture on their website just shows a chocolate slab and the ingredients list a mix of nuts, seeds and fruit. Anyway, I didn’t read the description before I bought it, just saw it was suitable for my dietary needs and thought of it as a good, yet incredibly expensive treat. £4.49 for a 70g piece of ‘fudge’??!

Anyway! I tasted some the day it arrived and it was my first encounter with raw cacao. Tasted brilliant. The next day, it was finished.

So I wanted more fudge and thought it’s too soon to do another order now, too expensive and I’d have to wait a few days for it to arrive. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a patient person maashaaAllaah but if I need food now, I need it now. I’ve only been this way since changing my diet to clean stuff so it’s all good alhamdulillaah, at least it’s not bread I crave!

So, the reason why you’re all here, le recipe! It’s quick, easy and oh so yummy. Absolutely high in calories due to all the good fats so if you calorie count please click the little cross on the top of your browser now .

This recipe made a 7″ round slab which was about 1cm thick, just to you have a rough idea or how much it yields and for once I’m gonna attempt to measure what I added.

Ingredients:
For the base –
Handful of Brazil nuts
2-3 Dates (I didn’t add these as I only have ajwah dates at the moment)
2 Dried Figs
Small handful of Sunflower seeds
Small handful of Raisins
3 dried Apricots
Sprinkle ofSesame seeds
Sprinkle of Desicated Coconut (I added this instead of dates)
I guess you could even add pine nuts or pumpkin seeds. Whatever you have laying around really!

For the ‘fudge’ –
Approx 1/2 cup of Coconut oil
Approx 1/3 cup of Raw cacao powder NOT cocoa powder, I’ll blog about cacao Vs cocoa
2-3 tablespoons of Honey (I used Sidr Honey, it was all I had)

Method:
I used a small kenwood food processor so the amount of my ingredients was based on this.
Blitz all the base ingredients together until roughly – finely chopped but not mushy. Taste it to make sure you like it. Tip it into the tin and pat down with a spatula or off-set palette knife. I used my hands at first but it was too sticky so was getting stuck to my hands instead.

Add fudge ingredients to food processor and blitz until nice and smooth, remember to taste it. If it’s too bitter add more honey, just a bit or if you want it more chocolately add more cacao. It looks very wet but don’t worry, all the initial ingredients are solid at room temp so it will set again once you pop it in the fridge. Pour fudge onto base, spread out and leave to chill out in the fridge for at least 15-20 minutes I think. I wasn’t timing, I just went to check once I was bored and it happened to be set.

Remove from tin and apply generously to face. WOAH! When I say apply to face I mean your mouth, this isn’t a face mask peeps. Store it in the fridge and make sure you eat lunch/dinner before going back for more cos you will quite easily polish it off. Seriously.

And now some pictures for you to drool over in the meantime…

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Base squished into place

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Blizted fudge mixture

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Fudge mixtured plonked onto base

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Fudge mixture smoothed out – looks plain and boring…

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… That’s more like it! Bit of decor

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Chilled and out the fridge, removed from tin but still on tin base

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Side view of fudge on tin base

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If someone gives you baklawa, feed it to your gluten munching family and keep the tray for times like this

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Cut into generous portions hehe

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Take a piece and hope noone notices… let’s all focus on the crack on the tray instead and solve that mystery instead of the “who took the fudge?” thing

You’re hungry now aren’t you? Go make some fudge!

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Berry Almond Scones

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Q: What’s the fastest cake?

A: Scone

That’s actually kinda true if you think about how long it took me to make these. I had a few spare minutes before work and BAM! Scones! The image on the website, healthhomehappy.com looks nothing like my scones so I’m wondering if it is the real picture or not. Either way, I’m attaching my own. The method says to shape it into a triangle but I’m happy with randomly blobbed scones/poorly formed circles. It makes no difference to the taste. By the way, I also added a pinch of baking powder. I don’t know why, something inside me made me do it and it just seemed appropriate. Maybe that’s why mine don’t look like the picture? I halved my recipe and it made three mahoosive scones. In hindsight I would make them half the size. I had them warm and they were ‘meh’. Tried them again after work and I seemed to like them more.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups of almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons honey or other natural sweetener or 4 dates, pureed
1/3 cup melted butter or ghee
1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries

Method:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a baking sheet with butter or coconut oil.
In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until combined. Add melted butter, and honey.
Combine wet and dry ingredients.
Fold in berries.
Drop ¼ cup of dough onto the baking sheet, shape into triangle shapes.
Bake 15 minutes.

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3 blueberry scones, piping hot

Benefits of Grapes

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Grapes are brilliant and I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t like them! Admittedly I don’t think I like them in their dried form (raisins and sultanas) but I’m working on it… eventually… inshaaAllaah… baby steps…

I’m quite fussy when it comes to grapes. I don’t mind seeds but I have to say crunchy, crispy grapes are the best. I know I like crunchy and crispy foods but honestly, squidgy, over-ripe grapes aren’t the same. Unless they’re Italian grapes. Italian grapes are quite large and tend to come in bigger bunches, sadly supermarkets don’t really stock them as far as I’ve seen. They’re also sweeter and juicier.

I’ve had grapes for breakfast on numerous occasions. The best way to have them, I think is sliced in half (green and red/black grapes) with a drizzle of honey and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. And you can top it with a tiny amount of fresh corriander or parsley if you want. Of course you can just have it as a snack too. I sometimes add watermelon, galia melon, yellow melon or honey dew melon to the mix if I have some handy.

Grapes are also mentioned in the Qur’aan, Allaah says:

وَجَعَلۡنَا فِيهَا جَنَّـٰتٍ۬ مِّن نَّخِيلٍ۬ وَأَعۡنَـٰبٍ۬ وَفَجَّرۡنَا فِيہَا مِنَ ٱلۡعُيُونِ

And We have made therein gardens of date-palms and grapes, and We have caused springs of water to gush forth therein. (Ya-Sin 36:34)

Ibn al-Qayyim writes that the Prophet salallaahu ‘alaihi wasallam was reported to have liked eating grapes and watermelon. Allaah knows best if he salallaahu ‘alaihi wasallam them together but that’s not the reason why I eat grapes and melons together, in fact I didn’t even know of this quote until very recently and I’ve eaten this combo since about 2010 (strangely specific…)

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A few more detailed health benefits of grapes:

  • Migraine. Home remedy for migraine is ripe grape juice. Should be taken pure (no additional water) early in the morning. (That’s the strangest thing, I’m pretty sure I’ve craved grapes several times when I’ve had a migraine in the past but I neever knew this!)
  • Blood cholesterol. Pterostilbene , a compound present in grapes helps lower the cholesterol level. Saponins in grape skin prevents the absorption of cholesterol by binding with it.
  • Alzheimer’s disease. Resveratrol in grapes reduces the levels of amyloidal-beta peptides in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Grapes can enhance brain health and delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases.
  • Kidney disorders. Grapes reduce the acidity of the uric acid and help eliminate the acid from the system thus reducing the pressure of the kidneys.
  • Heart disease. Grapes increase the nitric oxide levels in the blood which prevents blood clots thus reducing heart attack incidents. Antioxidants in grapes prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which blocks the blood vessels.
  • Indigestion. Grapes prevent dyspepsia. They cure indigestion and irritation of the stomach.
  • Anticancer properties. Resveratrol acts as anti-inflammatory. Effective in breast and colorectal cancers. Anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins have properties of anti-proliferate which can inhibit the growth of cancer causing agents.
  • Prevents cataract. Flavonoids in grapes reduce the damage caused by free radicals such as cataract apart from age related problems, heart disease and cancer.
  • Macular degeneration is age related loss of vision. Studies suggest 3 servings of grapes daily to lower the risk of macular degeneration by over 36%.
  • Asthma. Due to the high assimilatory power of grapes, moisture present in lungs increases. Grapes have therapeutic value for asthma.
  • Breast cancer. In a recent study, purple colored Concord grape juice helps prevent breast cancer. Experiment was conducted on laboratory rats. There was a significant reduction in breast tumor mass after they were fed the grape juice on the experimental basis.
  • Fatigue. It’s not the dark grape juice that gives an iron boost it’s the light and white grape juice that prevents fatigue because it replenishes the iron content in the body. So go for the light and white grape juice for boost not the dark one.
  • Antibacterial activity. Red grapes contain antibacterial and antiviral properties to protect you from infections. Its antiviral property is effective against poliovirus and herpes simplex virus.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

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I actually don’t like chocolate cake but because it was paleo and looked good I figured I may as well try it out and perhaps it’ll get me off my chocolate waffle addiction (yeah right).

Making this cake, with thanks to Rebecca over at the Barefoot Coconut for the recipe, was pretty fun and very different to what I normally do. I’ve never had to whisk just egg whites and it felt strange making a cake for myself.

My thoughts on this cake: At first it did have a bitter smell and taste to it, I thought I baked it for too long as it ended up needing 28 minutes. I initially had it warm but later in the evening I had another slice (they were tiny, honest!) and it tasted much better. It’s a really rich cake so you can’t have a lot in one go and if it’s just for one person, I hear it freezes well. I’ve frozen mine, not defrosted a slice yet but when I do I’ll edit this post to give you my verdict then. Oh, I forgot to mention, it’s more like a brownie than a cake but that’s a good thing if you like them. I think in total I got about 14 slices out of a 9″ round cake. Won’t be baking this for a while I think!

Now you have the recipe, here’s how I did it (kind of… didn’t show you everything, just the fun bits)

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Whisk the egg whites into fluffy clouds

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Turned upside down to make sure they’re stiff enough. I’m not nasty enough to hover it over my head (or brave enough!)

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Melted butter and chocolate is so glossy and nice. Added vanilla, honey and something else to this… forgot what so check the recipe! Added raw honey btw, almost got through the whole bottle!

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Seriously, that’s one way to get through honey you’re not keen on but know it’s good for you. For me, it’s an acquired taste but living according to the Sunnah is very important… even if it does come in the form of a chocolate cake

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Fold the glossy melted choc mix in with the fluffy cloud-like egg whites. It does look a little gross at first I’ll admit and it takes a lot of folding to make sure you mix it properly. Every time I thought I was done I found another large unmixed bit of melted choc! Got there eventually… I think

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Egg whites and melted choc folded together. Looks much more appealing now!

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Put it into a 9″ baking tin. I use reusable greaseproof sheets. Unlike my normal GLUTEN cakes this fell out the tin nicely and wasn’t stuck to the sheets. Much easier when it came to cleaning up. Awesome.

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Cake baked. It did smell a bit strange and bitter to me. The size was overwhelming for someone who doesn’t actually like chocolate cake *gulp*

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Out the tin – nice smoothish edges and sides

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Chillaxing before being attacked….

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…Attacked!

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Et voila! Oh it looks so good maashaaAllaah! Topped with raw honey, raw cream and served with yummy fruits. Makes it feel oh so much healthier and good for you!