Strawberry Chocolate Torte – a Summer Treat!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by vibrantearth

It’s summer! – at least for us on the Southern half of this planet 🙂

That means an abundance of local, fresh, ripe fruit, especially berries! What better to do than to whip up a yummy chocolate torte with it?! Make sure you use organic or spray-free berries though, as the ‘conventionally’ grown ones can hold a lot of pesticides.

Should you happen to not dwell on the strawberry side of the globe this torte is easily made with orange slices, bananas or even pears. For a more decadent crust feel free to replace the shredded coconut with macadamia nuts and make sure to sprinkle some bits over the top! B.T.W. the torte below was made in a spring form.

This recipe was introduced to me by my dear friend Matt Samuelson in 2004 and has been a staple in my dessert repertoire ever since.

And here we go!

Strawberry Chocolate Torte
Serves 8

For the crust:

1.5c shredded coconut
1.5c cashews
4-6 Medjool dates, pitted
Pinch cayenne pepper

For the filling:

3 avocados, peeled, pit removed
1T vanilla extract
5T organic cocoa powder, raw if you prefer
1/2c Rapadura, raw cane sugar
a few drops lemon or lime juice
1 punnet (500g) fresh strawberries, thinly sliced

To make the crust, in a food processor grind the shredded coconut into a fine powder. Add the cashews and cayenne pepper. Continue processing to a coarse meal.
Add the pitted dates and homogenize until the texture resembles a graham cracker crust. Mixture should be loose and crumbly, yet hold together when pressed tightly.
Press the crust into a 9 inch ungreased pie plate. Press firmly to get the crust to hold together. Place it in the freezer or refrigerator to set up while making the filling.
To make the filling: place the avocados, vanilla, cocoa and Rapadura in a food processor with the “S” blade and homogenize until completely smooth. Make sure to add a little splash of lemon or lime juice! It will nicely balance the flavours in your chocolate. (Just don’t tell anyone! ;-))
To assemble: Divide the filling into 3 equal parts. Spread a thin layer of filling on top of the crust. Next, place a layer of strawberries on the filling. Spread another layer of chocolate filling on top of the strawberries, and then layer more strawberries, another layer of filling and the remainder of the berries.
Refrigerate for at least one hour prior to serving.

Be sure to use a very sharp knife, yes VERY sharp!, when cutting this torte. The strawberries have a tendency to slide all over the place when cut with a dull knife.

Enjoy!

René
🙂

Apple Spice Granola Recipe – a staple in our house

Posted on October 19, 2012 by vibrantearth

Ever been suspicious of what these supermarket breakfast cereals contain? Often less nutrition than the cardboard boxes they come in.

Here is a time proven raw granola recipe I was introduced to years ago by my good friend and mentor Chad Sarno. Not much tweaking needed to happen since. Some creations are just perfect. Saying that, especially this basic granola recipe is almost crying for some playful changes or addition of ingredients like Maca powder, chia seeds, cacao nibs, Sacha Inchi powder, freeze dried fruit slices etc.. Knock yourself out! 😉

Don’t be afraid to substitute or add other nuts and seeds like pumpkin seeds, coconut chips or brazil nuts. Just adjust the amount of date paste to obtain the desired sweetness.

I often use sprouted buckwheat for this recipe as it is a reasonably priced alternative to lot of highly priced nuts, like pecans or walnuts. Buckwheat also dehydrates beautifully into a crispy crunch. I believe the thick ‘slimy’ run-off from the sprouting grains also helps to bind the granola clusters together – similarly to what happens with flax and chia seeds when you soak them.

This brings us to another great little secret wit this recipe. By soaking and sprouting the nuts and seeds and then mixing the wet ingredients with date paste, apples and whatever spices and superfood powders you want to add, you achieve a natural clustered crunchy granola after dehydration. Adding wet and dry ingredients to nuts and seeds before dehydration and then dry the lot together in clusters, bars or any shape, will nicely attach the flavours and hold all other components together.

Now just pop your granola clusters into a bowl, add some banana slices and pour your freshly made almond milk or raw organic Jersey cow’s cream over it and enjoy!

You are still waiting for the actual recipe, right?!
Here it is:

Apple Spice Granola
Makes 4 cups

1 c pecans or walnut pieces, soaked10-12 hours
1 c almonds, soaked 10-12 hours
1 c sunflower seeds, soaked 10-12 hours
1 c hulled buckwheat, sprouted for 1-2 days
1-2 c date paste
1/2 t vanilla extract

2 T chia seeds
3 apples, diced small
2 T cinnamon, ground
1 T maca powder
t natural sea salt
1/2 t lemon juice

Keep the sprouted buckwheat aside. Using the food processor, pulse all other nuts and seeds until coarsely ground. Add in a large bowl to the sprouted buckwheat.
Also using the food processor blend the dates with a small amount of water until it becomes a smooth paste. Dry dates will require soaking over night.
Toss the paste along with the diced apples, chia seeds, maca powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract and salt with the nut mixture. Hand mix well. Adjust flavour with lemon juice.
Continue by crumbling the ‘wet’ granola onto Teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 145 F for 2 hours. Over the next hours turn the temperature gradually down to 115 F. Turn trays periodically. After 6-8hours flip over and remove Teflex sheets. Dehydrate at 105 F for 12 more hours or until crisp.

This process is important to stop the granola from fermenting during the dehydration process. Not that it would be bad for you, yet the flavour would be slightly different 😉 It would definitely clear up any phytic acid remnants after the soaking and sprouting.

Notice the space between the clusters when wet!
Store in sealed glass jars.

Enjoy!
René
🙂

Almond Lime Cookie recipe – a versatile sweet raw treat

Posted on July 8, 2012 by vibrantearth

You would never think these little darlings are raw, would you?!
Trust me, they are 🙂

Among the White and Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart and Amy Levin’s Candied Hazelnut Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting they almost disappeared at last week’s Divine Desserts class. Yet… try them! The flavour and texture is pretty close to marzipan, well worth the effort of hot-soaking, peeling, soaking, dehydrating… Double the batch and have your family help you peel the almonds. They might get a cookie for it 😉

And here is how:

Almond Lime Cookies

Makes about 60 cookies

3 c almonds, hot-soaked, peeled, soaked for 6-8 hours, dehydrated until crisp
4 T agave nectar or light honey like clover
1/4 t natural sea salt or to taste
1 T lime juice
1 t lime zest
2 t vanilla extract

Process all of the almonds in a food processor until coarsely ground.
Add the other ingredients and process into a firm dough.
Form dough into a ball and flatten between two teflex sheets into 0.5cm thickness. With a cookie cutter cut out heart-shaped cookies and place on dehydrator sheet.
Dehydrate at 42° C for 8-12 hours or until crisp.

Enjoy!

René
🙂

Chocolate Müsli Slice – a glutenfree and vegan Power Snack

Posted on June 30, 2012 by vibrantearth

Be warned, this one will be a staple in your power snack repertoire. A thoroughly nourishing and satisfying chocolate treat. The basic recipe below is not fully raw as presented here, due to the use of 72% dark chocolate. I like to use the vegan Whittaker’s’Dark Ghana’. ‘Green & Blacks’ works as well. By all means, go ahead and make your own raw chocolate topping!
Oh, have I not posted that recipe yet?! Hang in there, it will pop up shortly 😉

When I am making this Chocolate Müsli slice I always make more of the dry crust mix than I will need for one standard baking tray. I store it in a sealed container till the next batch is due. That way I only have to add date paste, mix it thoroughly, press it into a paper lined tray and pour the chocolate.

And yes, the recipe below is not suggesting for the nuts and seeds to be soaked and dehydrated. For better digestion and utilization of all nutrients feel free to soak and dehydrate the sunflower- and pumpkin seeds as well as the almonds.
It is ESSENTIAL to dehydrate the nuts and seeds completely dry after soaking them over night. The base of the Müsli slice is held together by the moisture being evenly distributed throughout the crust.

And here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Chocolate Müsli Slice

Makes approx. three standard baking trays with 64 pieces each

7c sunflower seeds, ground into coarse meal
5c pumpkin seeds, ground into coarse meal
10c dried finely shredded coconut
4c almonds, ground into coarse meal
2c cashew pieces, ground into a coarse meal
4c chia seed flour
3c cranberries
2c sultanas
3-6c smooth date paste, depending on moisture level
9 x 250g bars of Whittaker’s 72% Dark Ghana chocolate (750g per tray)

In a large tub hand-mix all dry ingredients well.
Put a pot with 1-2cups of water to the boil, place a stainless steel bowl on the rim of the pot so it completely covers it. Break 3 bars (750g) of the dark chocolate into the bowl. Turn the heat down to a minimum once the water boils. Stir the chocolate occasionally until it is completely melted.
While the chocolate is melting take 12c of the dry müsli mixture and hand-mix 1-2 cups of date paste in until everything sticks well together and is evenly moist and covered with date paste.
Line a standard baking tray (approx. 2cm deep) with one sheet of baking paper. Now press the moist müsli mixture evenly into the tray.
When the chocolate is completely melted pour it over the compacted müsli in the baking tray. Make sure you dry off the bowl underneath beforehand to avoid water dripping into your molten chocolate! Tap the tray lightly on the work bench to distribute the chocolate evenly and to make the surface level. Use a cranked spatula to help spread the chocolate, if necessary.
Can you smell the freshly poured chocolate?!
Place the tray in the fridge (walk-in coolers are handy here! ;-)) to let the chocolate solidify. Check frequently for the chocolate surface to turn matt. Do not wait till the chocolate is thoroughly chilled through. It will be too brittle to cut. A very sharp and thin (Asian) chef’s knife helps!
Once the chocolate surface has turned evenly matt and is sufficiently solid to cut, carefully, while holding on to the paper, slide the chocolate-covered müsli block onto a large cutting board. Cut into 64 equal pieces and stack them into a tight-sealing container with baking paper between the layers.

Return to chiller overnight. The chocolate will solidify and the moisture in the müsli mix will spread evenly through all ingredients, making them hold together better.

Caution!

Do not touch the chocolate surface after it is poured!!! Your fingerprints will remain visible.
From the time of cutting into individual pieces till serving the individual müsli slices should stay refrigerated. Alterations in temperature will cause moisture in the air to condense on the chocolate coating. This ultimately leads to bright brown spots on it and makes it look unsightly and old.

Enjoy!

René
🙂

PS: Yes, this might be one of the recipes featured at one of my next demo classes!

Raw Chocolate Super Fudge recipe

Posted on May 14, 2012 by vibrantearth

Here is the much requested recipe for the Raw Chocolate Super Fudge I demo-ed last Saturday at the Green Living Show in Auckland.

Should you have been among the poor fellows who came on Sunday believing the sign that I would do it again, only to be shown how to make a Super Charged Green Smoothie (takes a new breath)… then here is the recipe:

Super Fudge

Makes one standard baking tray with 64 pieces

3.5c / 900g date paste
2c / 180g raw cacao powder
1c / 200g Chia seeds
1c / 160g Sesame seeds
1c / 200g Sultanas or Cranberries
2c / 260g Sunflower seeds
1c / 150g Goji berries
2T / 24g Maca powder
4T / 40g Sacha Inchi powder
2t / 6g Camu-Camu powder
1t / 2g Vanilla powder

In a large bowl hand mix everything thoroughly together.
Line a standard baking tray with baking paper. Press the mass evenly into the tray and level the surface with a cranked metal spatula.
Set aside for minimum of one hour to set. Cut into 64 or 128 smaller pieces.
Serve as is or place in dehydrator for a few hours at 115°F until dry to the touch.

You can always come to the Wise Cicada Café to sample the recipe. We sell them there 🙂

Raw Cheese Cake- the secrets revealed

Posted on April 24, 2012 by vibrantearth

Here is the recipe!

‘Finally!’ I hear you say 😉

First of all let me express my gratitude to Matthew Kenney and his book ‘Everyday Raw’ for inspiring me to venture into the realm of vegan raw cheese cake ‘imitations’ (far yummier than most of the baked dairy-based ones – apart from yours, mum ;-))

This recipe is not for the faint-hearted chef – as the ones who have attended my Raw Cheesecake Master Classes can confirm. You will have to run your high power blender with an open lid and fold over the filling with a rubber spatula while blending.

In my element at the Wise Cicada – making raw cheese cakes.

But don’t worry. I can happily supply you with custom made cakes of this kind upon request. Just drop me a line on our ‘Contact‘ page. As long as you are in Auckland, NZ… 🙂

And you are still looking for the recipe, right?!
OK, I will give you the non-chocolate version as a basis for your experiments. For a cacao alternative just add 1 cup of cacao powder in the very end. Be aware, that you are adding a whole cup of dry powder to a mixture that is already quite thick. More spatula work!!! …and watch the temperature of your filling mix! Once it starts steaming, you’ve left the realm of raw foods 😉 – and so have the life enzymes.
Only remedy in that case: Lots of extra Love.

Basic Raw Lemon Cheesecake

Inspired by Matthew Kenney, yet adjusted to fill a big pie shell
Yields a large round tart pan with 16-20 pieces

Crust
4c shredded coconut

1.5 c cashew flour

1 T coconut oil

4 T date paste

Filling
4c cashews

3/4c lemon juice

1c coconut sugar

1c coconut oil, melted

1/2c filtered water, if required

1 t vanilla powder

¼ c lemon zest

Crust

Mix all ingredients together well in a food processor, starting with the dry ingredients, then adding the ‘wet’ ones.
Press into plastic-lined fluted French tart pan to desired thickness. Make sure the rim of your crust has an even height and thickness all around!
Chill crust in freezer for at least 15min or until ready to fill.

Filling

Blend all ingredients in a powerful high-speed blender until very smooth. Start with cashews, coconut sugar and the water-based liquids. When the cashews resemble a smooth thick cream add coconut oil. The flavours can be adjusted last. Adjust liquids as required for the blender to still turn the mixture over. You will have to use the plunger or a spatula to help mixing the filling. Give your blender motor a break from time to time and monitor the temperature of your filling closely. Too much water will make your final cake runny and too little liquids will make your filling too thick for your blender to turn it over without burning a fuse.
To fill the crust properly the blender should contain about 1.2-1.5l of mixture.
Fill the crust and chill in freezer overnight.
Remove from tart pan and wrap with plastic film. Label with flavour and production date.
Store in freezer.
Remove 15-20min prior to cutting and serving

Other flavours can be achieved with red grape juice, acai berry powder, goji berries, chai extract, chai- or cherry concentrate, goji/apricot, cranberry, 2c of melted frozen blueberry/strawberry etc. Make sure to reduce the amount of water accordingly!!!

Good luck!

René

🙂

PS: Next trick: make two different fillings in one pie shell!

Raw Food Survival Class – The Art of Raw Chocolate

Posted on March 14, 2012 by vibrantearth

…with samples, of course!

Believe it! We are announcing a raw chocolate class.

This will be the ultimate in making delectable desserts, snacks, cakes and presents using raw cacao in all its various guises – right on time for Easter.

Mark this date in your calendar:

Wednesday, March 28th, 7 – 9.30pm,
Wise Cicada Cafe, 23 Crowhurst Street, Newmarket
Auckland, New Zealand

You will learn:

How to make a variety of simple, yet stunning chocolate cakes, cookies, drinks and desserts.
How to make delicious shakes, using raw cacao and other superfoods.
How to entertain friends and family with your own sweet chocolate treats, pralines and chocolate bars.
Which flavours enhance or combine well with chocolate.
What ratios are required for a rounded flavour and also consistency.
What secret ingredients will make any of your creations a hit with your audience.

As always, a complete recipe booklet and samples are included.

Your investment: $60.-/person

Space is limited to 20 people. Book yours today by ringing René on 0275551622 or contacting us here.

Oh, upon frequent request at our previous classes we will actually have some of the presented sweets for sale after the class. Bring your piggy bank!

See you there!

René

🙂

Prana, Raw Cheese Cakes and a word on Raw Food Blenders

Posted on January 13, 2012 by vibrantearth

Yep, the Prana New Year 2012 Festival is over. It was stunning! Despite the rain we had a Blast supplying the ‘One World Café’ with raw desserts. Jack and René arrived well ahead of the crowds and went straight to work making raw granola, our vegan chocolate müsli slice, chocolate walnuts, and raw cheese cakes. Jack truly refined the art of crust making during the festival. In the end we counted a total of 18 raw cheese cakes made and sold. By the time the festival started we had 16 in the freezer waiting to be served and just topped it up with two more in the end. The selection of flavours we had were: lemon, lemon vanilla, lime vanilla, goji apricot, chocolate peppermint, chocolate chai, spicy chai, passionfruit vanilla, goji chocolate, maple chocolate and layered as well as swirled combinations of the above.

Lydia joined us a day later and put her loving energy into our Super Hero Bliss Balls as well as tied up all the loose ends around our raw food operation in the back kitchen as well as lovingly tending the front dessert counter.

We had an AMAZING crew volunteering in the kitchen and helping us occasionally. The groovy music in our part of the kitchen seemed to help a bit 😉

from top clockwise: peppermint choc, ginger cashew, goji cashew, plain choc and cashew, pure choc orange

Once the festival was under way we also supplied the nightly chocolate bar with a selection of our raw chocolate buttons in various flavours. Jack became great at making a vibrant-looking strawberry chocolate torte (which was a mission to cut :-)) and we also sent out the occasional Orgasmic Blueberry Pie.

Overall we had a splendid time in the kitchen and at the festival. Having prepared so much in advance we had enough time to attend a few concerts and music happenings when the rain stopped 🙂 Jack was out networking and jamming with great enthusiasm. Lydia and I enjoyed ourselves at Caitlin and Sika‘s concerts, laughter yoga and a late night drumming circle in the large tipi – which was out of this world!!!

Yes, the Raw Food Blenders!

We had three different models in our prep zone: Jack’s late model Vitamix, Maya’s LexSun (replaced by OmniBlend brand nowadays – see below) and our trusted BlendTec Total Blender.

They all performed extremely well. Yet making raw cheese cakes in series production really showed the different models’ strengths. Guess, which one tolerated the most ‘abuse’/hard work?! Maya it was your darling LexSun blender! After the VitaMix and BlendTec had both requested a holiday in the freezer to reset their over heat fuse the LexSun completed the job without complaint. Very impressive!

The strategy René followed in the end to make the raw cheese cake filling was to blend the whole batch in the LexSun – somewhere between 1.2-1.5 liter of thick cashew mix. After everything had mixed well and the cashews were kind of finely broken down I split the batch and finished it in two parts in the BlendTec – which definitely achieved the smoothest texture – 750ml as optimum fill level.

The cool thing about this strategy was that it allowed for colourful swirly cakes with different flavours combined in one crust. The most popular one was the spicy chai and chocolate one.

These days the LexSun is replaced in New Zealand by the identical OmniBlend machines at a more reasonable price. Make sure you get the new jar with it – which is a larger copy of the BlendTec jar. Perfect combination! This on here.

For a generous 15% off the listed prices on the OmniBlend website with free shipping in NZ apply this discount code: RAFS2014

Oh, did I mention that we will be teaching a Raw Cheese Cake class?

See you there!

René

🙂

Chocolate Haystacks – a quick and easy crowd pleaser for the holidays

Posted on December 23, 2011 by vibrantearth

This recipe was inspired by our dear friend Elaina Love of Pure Joy Planet.

It’s one of those things you make once and then just keep doing until they become so familiar that you don’t even require the recipe. After a while you replace the thread coconut with soaked, dehydrated and coarsely ground pecans, add some cocoa nibs and cinnamon to the mixture… you know how it goes 😉

At the Wise Cicada Café we produce them in big batches on over-sized baking trays, pressed firmly, chilled…

…and then cut into 128 individual pieces. Our guests just love them with their coffee or tea. What you see here is only half a tray (cutting board too small :-))

And here we go:

Chocolate Haystacks

Makes about 30 piece

3 c or 250g thread coconut (or soaked, dehydrated and then coarsely ground pecan nuts)
¾ c organic virgin coconut oil, liquefied
½ c organic cocoa powder (Equagold is offering great stuff too – non-organic though)
¾ c Rapadura® dehydrated cane juice or organic raw sugar
or ½ c agave nectar/maple syrup (the latter goes well with pecans!)
Zest from 1 organic orange or a few drops of high-quality organic essential citrus oil
1 t vanilla extract
¼ t lemon juice
2 T Cocoa nibs, optional
1/2 t organic cinnamon, ground, optional

Method

If you are using organic raw sugar or Rapadura, blend it in a dry blender jar into a powder.
In a bowl whisk all the ingredients except the thread coconut together until the batter emulsifies.
Now, with a spatula or your hand, mix the batter in with the shredded coconut.
With a teaspoon and the fingers of your other hand shape into small haystacks and place on a tray.
Place the tray in the refrigerator or freezer to cool down and solidify the haystacks. They will become soft at temperatures over 26°C so serve them cold!

Voila! Enjoy and happy holidays!

Lydia and I will be in the Cocomandel – ah Coromandel 🙂 catering the raw dessert side of the Prana Festival. We might see you there!

René

🙂

Juicy raw apple cake fresh from Santa’s kitchen

Posted on December 21, 2011 by vibrantearth

Here is a treat you might want to spoil your loved ones with on Christmas. The recipe – originally inspired by my dear friend Chad Sarno – tolerates a lot of alteration, as long as you keep the amounts the same. You can substitute the cranberries with dried apples or dried pineapple pieces. Should you have run out of organic currants use sultanas. The raisin paste can happily turn into date paste. Oh! Before I forget it, you can replace the apples completely or just in part with grated carrots.

Remember though, what holds this cake together is the proper balance between wet and dry ingredients, so stick to the ratios and make sure you let the cake rest for at least two hours before serving – overnight is even better.

The topping/icing of the cake can either be cashew cream – see below – or a bit more liquid coconut cream (less coconut oil) as used in our wedding cake (see there).

Enjoy the bake-free preparation and the happily fed family! Careful, this cake is very filling!

Raw Apple Cake

Serves 6

¨ 2 c apple, grated, fresh (approx. 4 small apples)

¨ 1 ½ c organic dried cranberries

¨ 2 c pecans or walnuts, soaked, dehydrated and ground into flour. .

¨ ¼ c currants

¨ 1 c raisins, soaked 2-4 hours and blended into a paste

¨ 1 T cinnamon

¨ ½ T orange zest, grated (optional)

¨ 2 T carob powder or mesquite flour

¨ pinch of nutmeg

¨ 1-2cm grated ginger (optional)

Method

Place all ingredients into mixing bowl and handmix gently, yet thoroughly, set aside.
Using a 6-inch spring form pan, line the bottom with plastic wrap. If you happen to use a pie dish, line the whole dish with plastic wrap (see picture)
Press ’cake’ into pan firmly.
Turn over on a serving platter and remove spring form pan and plastic wrap. Cut into individual pieces now, if you prefer to serve as such.
Frost or garnish with cashew cream.
Chill before serving.

Note with extra cake, form into bars and dehydrate for 10-12 hours for a great snack on the trail.

Cashew Cream

Makes 2 cups

2 ½ c cashews, soaked over night
enough filtered water to just cover the cashews in blender jar
1 T organic maple juice
1 t lime juice
½ t vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in high speed blender into a smooth cream.
Fill into garnishing bag and garnish cake or use as icing.

Happy Holidays!

René

🙂

René Archner Workshops, Food & More

Real Food for Real People

Category Archives: Raw dessert

Strawberry Chocolate Torte – a Summer Treat!

Apple Spice Granola Recipe – a staple in our house

Chocolate Müsli Slice – a glutenfree and vegan Power Snack

Raw Chocolate Super Fudge recipe

Raw Cheese Cake- the secrets revealed

Basic Raw Lemon Cheesecake

Raw Food Survival Class – The Art of Raw Chocolate

Prana, Raw Cheese Cakes and a word on Raw Food Blenders

Chocolate Haystacks – a quick and easy crowd pleaser for the holidays

Chocolate Haystacks

Juicy raw apple cake fresh from Santa’s kitchen

Raw Apple Cake

Cashew Cream