Don't judge me

So I have a funny story and a personal confession. Which one do you want first? I am just going to decide for you basically because I have to. Confession first because that kinda led to the comical turn of events. 

I am a recipe hoarder. Yup. Like crazy. I’m talking magazine recipes, little brochures you pick up at the supermarket, online recipes, and let’s not even mention the ever growing amount of scrap pieces of paper that I have scribbled on with recipes and ideas that have paralysed whilst waiting in line to pay for my fruit and veg. Picture it. 31year old female going into a trance like state while someone is yelling ‘next please’ at her. Now that’s just embarrassing. And then there are the cookbooks. The cookbooks that I don’t even use! Aaaaah!!! I know!! Why don’t I use them??? It is mainly because most of the recipes contain ingredients that I don’t really eat anymore. But I keep the books because the collection makes me look like I am veteran chef. No, that’s not true. I keep them because I think that I will cook from them when people come over to play.  Which I decided was silly because if I wouldn’t eat some of the ingredients myself, then why would I feed it to my family and friends??? Mmmm well it depends how much I like them. Kidding!

So as with most recipes I come across, I research substitutes for certain ingredients and make my own Mellness version. Which is fun and challenging at the same time.

But now it’s story time……

Today is Australia Day here in Oz. Actually that has absolutely nothing to do with it. But what it means is that it is summer. I want ice cream. But what I don’t want is the dairy laden kind. What I also don’t want is ice cream that has a list of 26 ingredients most of which have numbers at the end of them and make me scared.

I guess that means I’m not goin out to by ice cream today!  And this is where my cookbooks become famous!

I came across a recipe for rosewater and pistachio ice cream in a book given to me a while back that is on display in my kitchen. So I decided that my challenge was set! Full cream milk= almond milk. Full cream pouring cream=coconut cream. Caster sugar= maple syrup (teensy weensy bit…..I am sorry but I have just done a sugar detox guys…..give me a break! More on that in next post....)

So how’s about how I made scrambled eggs as a result? Bahahahaha! Hilaaaaarious!!!! I nearly took photos but it looked like yellow baby chuck and very offensive to the eye. But I think I may have recovered. So standby while my rosewater, coconut scrambled eggs are freezing.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I was scared that my kitchen festivities were going to be a waste. So I got creative. And frugal.

I had egg whites left from my ice cream venture right, so I beat those lil whites till they were nice and fluffy and made chewy coconut cookies!

 Stuff you need

·      2 cups of shredded coconut (I would use desiccated next time)

·      2 tablespoons of coconut oil

·      3 tablespoons of cacao hazelnut butter (this is just raw cacao blended with hazelnuts. That’s it! But you could make your own with any kind of nut butter and cacao powder)

·      2 tablespoons of goji berries or sultanas

·      3 egg whites

·      Pinch of salt

*When I am not being so I-don’t-want-to-have-too-much-sugar I shall add a bit of honey for extra chewiness and sweety goodness. Just melt it into your coconut oil and nut butter. You should try it, go on.

How to make them

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. Beat egg whites until nice and fluffy and add to the dry ingredients

4. Melt the coconut oil and nut butter together until you have a runny consistency and add to the coconut mixture.

5. Spoon the mixture into clumps on a baking tray and bake for approx. 15-20 mins or until golden brown.

Wanna know how my ice cream went???

I MADE ICE CREAM!!!

AND IT WAS EDIBLE!!!!

And this is what it looked like…..

 Don't be mistaken by the runniness, it's maple syrup. Don't you worry, this ice cream was in scoops!

So here’s what I did…..

 The food part

1 cup of almond milk

1 cup of coconut cream

6 egg yolks

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

1 cinnamon stick

¼ cup toasted pecans (yes it was supposed to be pistachios, but it was all I had)

Rosewater to taste

I also added a couple of teaspoons of coconut flour to thicken it up as I didn’t have the caster sugar.

The creating part

1. In a saucepan combine cream, milk, vanilla and cinnamon stick and heat on low till almost boiled.

2. In a bowl beat egg yolk, maple syrup and coconut flour together.

3. Gradually add in the milk mixture and continue to beat.

4. Return mix to the saucepan and continue to heat until thick. That was until thick, not until the yolk starts to scramble! Lol!

5. Mix in the rosewater and pecans.

6. Pour into a bowl that you will be able to continually mix in and place in the freezer. Unless you have an ice cream machine which in that case makes you way more awesome.

7. Check the ice cream mix every 30-45mins and take out to beat with a hand beater just as the icicles start to break them up. Continually do this until you have the perfect creamy icy treat that you can scoop.

Then drizzle with something amazing ( I just used maple syrup) but you can use berries, crushed nuts, honey…whatevs!!!

Pheeeeeeew I'm sleepy now!