Sunday 2 February 2014

Tea Cakes

I LOVE a challenge...I'm always looking for suggestions for recipes to add to the page. I want the recipes to be the type of food you want to eat...

It's not about being fancy or complex... It's about getting the message out that it's not expensive or time consuming to eat healthy food...


So a friend requested healthy Tea Cakes... you know the ones from when you were little... biscuit base, mallow & coated in chocolate... YUM! But full of sugar so not something I'm going to indulge in any time soon...


I love these challenges....wondering if I can actually recreate them in a healthy way & for them to actually taste good... I'm pretty sure I can't express how thrilled I was with how these turned out... they tasted INCREDIBLE!! 

There are a few steps involved, so be prepared to spend an afternoon making these... it's well worth it though! 

For the biscuit base:
  • 80g coconut oil, melted
  • 25g raw honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 220g almond flour
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 160d (fan). 

Simple as always... throw everything into a bowl, mix until well combined & holding together as a stiff dough.


Since you'll be rolling out the dough, it'll be easier to work with if you leave it to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. This allows the coconut oil to solidify & gives a firm dough which rolls out without sticking or cracking.


Once the dough has chilled, roll out to about 1/2 cm thickness between two sheets of parchment paper.


Using a round cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough & place on a non stick baking tray.


Bake for approx 10 mins.. until cookies are firm and pale brown.


Set aside to cool on a wire rack.


For the marshmallow filling:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • pinch of salt

Heat oven to 120d (fan). 

Place all the ingredients into a heat proof bowl set above a pan of gently simmering water. 

Whisk constantly (and I mean constantly or you'll end up with scrambled egg whites)....

It will take approx 8 minutes to end up with stiff, glossy opaque peaks. At this stage, you might want to taste the filling... I don't like things really sweet so you may want to add more sweetener, though these got the seal of approval from a lot of taste testers so I think you'll be ok with 1 tbsp...


Once the filling is ready, place heaped tablespoons onto the biscuits. I'd usually pipe the filling to make it look pretty, but a tablespoon works fine. 


When all the biscuits are ready, you need to place them back on a baking tray & into the oven for 10 minutes. This will help stabilise the filling & give it a firm structure. Note the really low temperature so you shouldn't expect them to come out of the oven browned..just slightly more firm.


For the chocolate covering:

I'm going to recommend using really dark chocolate for this... mainly because it solidifies better than homemade Paleo chocolate. 

Just make sure it's got a super high cocoa solid content... like 85%+ is ok in my book.. 

  • 150g dark chocolate, melted

Simply melted the chocolate, and dip each of the tea cakes into the chocolate to coat. 


Allow to set on a sheet of parchment paper. 


I was seriously thrilled when I made these... they turned out better than I expected & the tasted pretty awesome too... 

Give them a go & let me know how you get on... send me pics on the Facebook page :)

If there's anything you'd like to see recreated in a healthy way, let me know... I'm always looking for suggestions! 

Oh... and in case I didn't mention it, lots of people said they were nicer than the original... RESULT!!!

1 comment:

  1. i want this diane! i love marshmallow but cant have it coz its not veggie!!

    ReplyDelete