Little Indulgences

For Little Princesses

These little chocolate mice are just cute as can be and with school functions, Hallowe'en and other things coming up, these are at least possible to make gluten free. The bodies are made and frozen, so they can be made ahead, to a point. I had to make them gluten free for a museum function called a Princess Party. Little girls were invited to dress as their idea of a "princess," though the purpose of this function was to talk about how actual princesses are to behave, such as how to wave properly, how to sit, and other things. It was such a smash hit as a function, they had to have a second go at it, as so many children applied there wasn't enough room! I made these chocolate mice the first time, more as a decoration to the plates of goodies I had created, but every little girl wanted one, and some were gluten intolerant. For the second Princess Party, I made plenty of these little mice and they all went!

Chocolate Mice

This recipe is a bit more complex, and requires quite a few extras and tools, so have these things handy when starting:

• Chocolate cake and plain white icing, separately (gluten free, if needed)
• Sliced almonds, for ears
• Mini chocolate chips, for eyes and nose
• red licorice for tails (gluten free licorice, if needed)
• 1 or 2 packages of chocolate bark for dipping
• Wooden skewers or two-tined pickle fork
• Waxed paper
• Clean tweezers

This recipe for chocolate cake works excellently using gluten free flour (I used Namaste brand, at the time, though now I have my own blend, here). The baked and cooled cake and the following recipe for a very small amount of icing are beaten together to make the form-able mixture for the bodies of the mice.

If you do not need these to be gluten free, simply use your favorite 2-layer chocolate cake, baked and cooled.

Chocolate Cake (Gluten Free)

Chocolate Mice

Enough for about 40 to 60 mice, depending on size

2 cups Gluten-Free flour (I used Namaste brand)
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
¾ cup water
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch round pans. Line the bottom of the pans with parchment. Measure the flour, soda, baking powder, Xanthan Gum and salt into a bowl and whisk to blend. In a standing electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy, then add in the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix. Combine the buttermilk and water. Add the dry ingredients, alternately with the liquid ingredients, until completely mixed. Pour evenly into prepared pans. Tap pans once or twice sharply on counter top, to release air bubbles. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool. 

Cream Cheese Icing Binder

3 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3½ ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
 
Combine the cream cheese and butter in an electric mixer. Add in the confectioner's sugar and the melted chocolate to combine. 

Break the two cake layers into pieces and drop them into the bowl with the icing and beat to combine, until the mixture is pliable and works like soft clay.

Chocolate Mice

Chocolate Mouse

One recipe chocolate cake, above
one recipe Cream cheese Icing Binder, above
List of ingredients above
  
With your hands, pull out about ⅓ cup portions of the modeling cake mixture and form into oval shapes, working to form a point at one end (the nose), while rounded at the other. Set two almond slices into the end towards the point, as ears. Cut sections of the licorice about 5 inches long. Push one end of the licorice into the rounded end of the mouse for a tail. Set onto parchment or waxed pper lined baking sheets to freeze.

Once the bodies are frozen, it is easier to work with the dipping. (While it is tempting to want to use chocolate chips to melt for the dipping of the mice bodies, do not do this unless you are very conversant with tempering chocolate. The coating will not set properly otherwise, making them a true mess to handle.) 

Melt the chocolate bark in a double boiler set over, not in, simmering water. Once melted, bring out a few of the mice at a time. Stick a long skewer or pickle fork into the back end of the mouse, below the tail. Have a second skewer or other long, thin implement handy. With a small ladle, drizzle the melted chocolate bark over the mouse, turning as necessary to cover all sides, including the almond ears. Using the second skewer, slide the mouse off the skewer onto waxed paper to dry. Using tweezers, while the chocolate bark is still wet, place two mini chocolate chips for eyes, and one for the nose. Makes about 40 to 60, depending on size. 

Best if stored in the refrigerator to keep them firm.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Just a Little Something Sweet

You know how sometimes you just have to have a little something sweet? Like you just can't go on if you don't have something - soon! Well, last evening I got that craving. Having been working frantically to get all the appetizer components made that can be made in advance, the last thing I felt like doing was making a dessert.

Some years ago, when I went on a completely RAW diet, where nothing at all is cooked or baked, I got very familiar with little dessert treats that can be whipped up in no time and really satisfy that craving. Once eating RAW, my cravings were satisfied far more easily. There are some very lovely dessert presentations to be found  on the internet these days for RAW desserts. Ice creams are easily made using nut or seed milks as a base. But what I loved most are these sweet little balls that can be made and kept refrigerated for when that craving hits. One of the first was Brownie Bites. Oh my! Whether on a RAW diet or not, those were just plain good. 

RAW Brownie Bites

RAW Brownie Bites

Makes 25 balls, about 48 calories apiece

1 cup pecans, finely ground
1 cup dates, packed tightly
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons agave nectar
3 packets sweet leaf stevia (or approximate)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder, for dredging
2 packets sweet leaf stevia, for dredging

Combine first 5 ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth and balled-up. Form into about 25 small balls about 1-inch in diameter, and then roll these into a mixture of the 3 tablespoons cocoa powder mixed with the 2 extra packets of stevia. Keep refrigerated. 


Later I discovered how easy it was to make varied dessert balls, or "RAW Cookie Dough" recipes. No eggs are involved in these, so no problem with bacteria. Just use nuts (often cashews or almonds, with their milder flavor as a base) and the addition of other things as desired. Dried fruits are great, either as an addition or as in the case of my own recipe for Fruit and Nut Balls, just a lot of wonderfully sweet dried fruits and nuts mixed together. 

RAW Fruit and Nut Balls

RAW Fruit and Nut Balls

Makes about 30 balls @ 68 calories each

¼ cup dried apricots, finely minced
¼ cup dates, finely minced
¼ cup craisins, finely chopped
¼ cup dried blueberries, finely chopped
½ cup walnuts, finely chopped
½ cup almonds, finely chopped
¼ cup agave nectar
1 tsp dried orange peel
¼ cup ground flax seed
2 packets Stevia
¼ cup almond butter

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well combined. With hands, scoop up enough to pack together and roll into approximately 1-inch balls, then roll balls in either ground nuts, or coconut. Store in the refrigerator. 

Remaining RAW Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anyway, back to last night. Raw cashews make a wonderful "cookie dough" base. However, I had no more raw cashews, having used up the last of them in a curry recently; drat... So, improvising, I had a craving for oatmeal cookies (I love oatmeal cookie dough - the real cookie dough, meant to be baked) and thought I'd use raw rolled oats. I am not totally sure if oats are heated when they are rolled, but I did not cook them, so I started out with almond meal/flour, added flax, some unsweetened coconut, and the oatmeal and tossed those things into the food processor. I should have stopped to grind the flax seeds first, as not many of them were ground in the processor. I was just in too much of a hurry to make my dessert to stop and take the time ;-)

I used agave syrup as the binder. I wanted chocolate chips and happened to have a partial bag of mini chips, so I mixed some of those in too. Chocolate chips are not RAW, so if you are being very strictly RAW, use Cocoa Nibs instead. Didn't have any of those on hand last night either.  If you do not want to use the oatmeal, or if making these Gluten-Free, add more almond meal, coconut or flax. The amount of agave syrup needed will depend on how much of the other ingredients are used. My "recipe" was written down after the fact, so the amounts are approximate. Watch when adding the syrup to see how the mixture comes together. If it is too dry, add more syrup. If it got too wet, add more of the dry ingredient(s) of preference. For now, this is more or less what I did for my craving last night. I ate about 3 of these little balls before they ever got to be balls, but by that time I was completely satisfied, so the rest are waiting for me in the fridge for whenever that desire strikes.

RAW Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Size of my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

 
Makes about 24 one-inch balls

⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
½ cup flax, ground
½ cup almond meal
½ cup unsweetened coconut
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup agave syrup
more oats, if needed
¼ cup mini chocolate chips or cocoa nibs

Place the first 5 ingredients into a food processor and process until broken. Add the vanilla and with the processor running, add the syrup in a stream until the mixture starts to come together in a ball. Stop the processor as soon as this starts. If more syrup is needed, add more by hand. If the mixture is too wet, add more oatmeal. Fold in the chocolate chips and form into tiny, one-inch balls. If any are left, store in the refrigerator. Enjoy!



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Experiments with Currants; Good and Bad

'Champagne Pink' Currants

I guess one never really knows how a thing will turn out. Even basing one recipe on another that was a success does not guarantee perfection. So here's what happened. A friend asked me to come with her to an older gentleman's house to pick vegetables from his wonderful garden. Turns out, he loves the planting and care of the garden, which is huge, but is not as interested in trying to eat all that produce. The garden is a veritable paradise; everything laid out in perfect rows, or caged to grow upwards. Everything perfectly weeded. Neat and tidy and just bursting at the seams with great produce. Aside from just vegetables, there are fruit trees and other wonderful bushes, like the "Champagne Pink" Currants.

My friend raved about the currants, and how pretty they are and how good to eat, but she said she didn't have the time to devote to picking the little things. So, when we arrived, I took it upon myself to pick currants. They are so pretty it almost hurts. They look like little pearls; palest pink. They hang on the plant like little strands of pearls, too. Just the prettiest sight ever. I spent the entire time there picking these little gems, ending up with 3½ pounds of them.

'Champagne Pink' Currant Dehydrator Jam

Okay, so what to do with them? I have made jams and jellies in past. I have also made freezer jam with Sure Jell, and made dehydrator jam when I was on a RAW food diet. Since it is wise to watch the sugar intake, I decided to take the route of making dehydrator jam. I hadn't used the dehydrator in some time, so I dusted it off and got to work. I cleaned all those tiny fruits, and in batches I whirled them in the food processor. Unfortunately the seeds are large, for such tiny fruit, and quite a distraction, so I decided to pass them through a strainer. I added in some honey for sweetness, since the fruit is tart, with the belief (wrongly) that once the fruit dehydrated down, the honey sweetness would become more apparent. Long and short, I ended up with 6 cups of puree with honey. I divided it up between two old Tupperware marinating containers; low and flat. I set them in the dehydrator at 5 PM, and let it run through the night. I pulled the containers out to stir them at 10 PM, and then again at 5 AM. They were still a little too runny at 5 AM, so I left them until about 8. I ended up with a grand total of 2½ cups worth.

'Champagne Pink' Currant-ade

I tasted my wonderful pink jam. OMG. It was so mouth-puckeringly tart. No way would most people use this. And then I thought what a terrible waste of so much work picking all that fruit, to end up with a jam that was inedible. Well, not totally, because I like it okay. But it is really tart. So, how could I use it? The first thought was that since it was a very tart medium with only a little sweetness, it might make a lemonade type drink. This was a wonderful bit of serendipity. It did taste quite like a lemonade in its tartness. I used 3 tablespoons of the jam in a 12 ounce glass of water. It had a lot of pulp that wanted to settle, but it was wonderful and refreshing.

My next thought was to make some kind of ice cream like dessert. I made a RAW Cashew Currant "Ice Cream", in quotes because it used no cream or dairy. I had soaked the cashews ahead and put them in the food processor with ½ cup of the currant jam and more honey. I added a little vanilla and ginger and processed the mixture till fine and chilled it. I put it into my old DAK Gelatissimo and oh, it was good.  Okay, 2 for 2.

Cashew Currant Ice Cream

That night I made pork chops. I have often made pork chops by setting them in a cold fry pan and heating up to medium high. I season the top with salt and pepper and once browned underneath, flip them over and season that side, adding in chopped garlic, either rosemary or sage and some Marion blackberry jam. The pork chops are just divine this way. So on the basis of that idea, I made my pork chops and used 1 tablespoon of my dehydrator currant jam on each pork chop, with sage as the herb of choice. The pork chops were just wonderful. The fruity flavor came through brightly. The whole combination was just perfect. So far that is all I have done with my too tart Champagne Pink Currant Dehydrator Jam. My next thought is to try making a frozen granita. I will see where that takes me.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.