Flourless Chocolate Cashew Cookies

Having eaten the combination of chocolate and cashew before, and enjoyed the flavour combination, I thought to make this version of the Flourless Cashew Cookies recipe that I had made earlier. I'm still playing the ingredient combinations, but these turned out like puffy cookies that stick a little to the roof of your mouth. An interesting combination, and one that came with great taste. This is a definite make-again cookie.

Flourless Chocolate Cashew Cookies 1 cup cashew butter 100 g good dark chocolate (70%) 1/2 cup xylitol 1/4 cup soft tofu 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Heat chocolate over double boiler until just melted. Mix ingredients in medium bowl. Using two small spoons, form into ball using heaped 1 teaspoon of dough for each cookie. Arrange on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

Flourless Cashew Cookies

Having enjoyed Sweets from the Earth Flourless Cashew Cookies and looking round the 'Net for a recipe that would duplicate it, I managed to cobble together this recipe. Sweets from the Earth uses tofu to replace egg or oil (and don't call them Flourless Cashew Tofu Cookies, which I debated doing). Most of the original recipes also called for 1 cup of sugar; I decreased it by half as you can see, with little loss in flavour. I still have to work on this to make it more of a firm cookie, was thinking of removing some of the oil that comes with the cashew butter. Still, these were quite tasty and easy to make! Finally, like peanut butter, these stick a little to the roof of the mouth.

Flourless Cashew Cookies 1 cup cashew butter 1/2 cup golden brown cane sugar 1/4 cup soft tofu 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Mix ingredients in medium bowl. Using two small spoons, form into ball using heaped 1 teaspoon of dough for each cookie. Arrange on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

Chocolate Surprise Cake

The surprise in this cake, which, for me, is a total surprise that I really like it, is not really new, I’ve heard of it before; it’s adding beets to a chocolate cake. This recipe comes from the book Better Food for Kids, from which we’ve made a few recipes. As you might have guessed, I find this cake to be quite delicious, moist, and, the best part, it does not taste like a beet cake with chocolate, rather it is a good-tasting moist chocolate cake. If the idea of beets doesn’t turn your fancy, you can always substitute the beets with 4 bananas and 1/2 cup of milk. But, try the beets! The decoration on this cake, done wonderfully by my beautiful Bride, is for my young daughter’s birthday. We used natural colours, beet red (how appropriate!), turmeric yellow and blue from red cabbage. They worked out well, though are not so bright as the artificial colours.

Chocolate Surprise Cake
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 19 oz can beets, drained and puréed
1 cup granulate sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

Combine beets, both sugars, oil, butter, eggs and vanilla extract in a stand mixer. Beat on slow until blended, then on high for 1 to 2 minutes, until thoroughly mixed. Add flour-cocoa mixture in small batches and mix on low.

Pour batter into greased baking pan and bake for 40 minutes (check doneness by inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake). Cool on a wire rack.

Cheese Manjyu

These came from a colleague of mine, he lives and works in Singapore. The filling is like creamy ricotta cheese. Not to my taste, but I like the tagline on the package for the ingredients; “High quality ingredients whose taste has been nurtured by natural light and wind in the greenery section”.

Thai Society of Ontario Saturday Market

We found out something the other day on our visit to Chinatown on a Saturday, that the Thai Society of Ontario has a Saturday Market, where lots of freshly made Thai foods are sold. The Thai Society of Ontario has their office in the building on the northeast corner of Dundas and Spadina; go to the door before the Fruit Market going North, there are stairs going up. The Thai Society is on the left.

The selection in the Market varies from week to week, but there could be all kinds of Thai desserts, snacks and meals, such as Mor Gang, Khanom Tuey, Curry Puffs, Khanom Dtom, Toddy Palm Cake, Tod Man Pla, Som Tam and Sticky Rice.

Cookie Sabparod is a pineapple cookie. Delicious and the best of the desserts.

Khanom Chan is a multi-layer rice flour dessert. Peel the layers for extra fun.

Krong Kreang Grob is deep-fried flour with a peppery coating. Interesting but not exactly what I'd expect in a dessert or snack.

Khanom Gluay

The other Thai dessert we used the smalls bowls we got with the Kanom Tuy uses the flavours of Thai banana, coconut and coconut milk mixed with rice flour to make a small and delicious banana cake. This again, like the Toddy Palm Cake, is a steamed cake, but, because of the banana, it ends up denser.

Khanom Gluay
2 cups well mashed ripe Thai banana
1 cup shredded young coconut
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Add rice flour and tapioca flour to mashed Thai bananas and mix well. Add sugar and 1/2 cup of shredded young coconut. Gradually add coconut milk and mix everything together well. Toss 1/4 teaspoon of salt with the rest of shredded coconut; set aside. Spoon the banana mixture into small bowls or silicone baking cups and garnish them with the prepared shredded coconut. Preheat the steamer until very hot, then place the prepared bowls in the steamer and steam them for 25-30 minutes. Take the khanom out of the bowl once they cool to serve.

Khanom Tan - Toddy Palm Cake

Having eaten and enjoyed the frozen Thai Khanom Tan, my beautiful Bride though to make some fresh. Toddy palm flesh can be bought bottled from most Asian supermarkets and is the sugary sap, called toddy, extracted from the flower clusters of certain palm trees grown in hot climates (India, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka). We used shredded coconut flesh, though you could use desiccated coconut in a pinch. The small bowls came from our other previously enjoyed Thai dessert, Ka-Nom-Tuy. These turned out quite delicious and much tastier than the frozen prepared ones.

Toddy Palm Cake
2-1/4 cups coconut milk
1-2/3 cups sugar
2-1/2 cups rice flour, sifted
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup toddy palm flesh
shredded coconut flesh mixed with a little bit of salt for garnish

Mix coconut milk with sugar and boil it until sugar dissolves.

Filter it to remove any undissolved chunks. Bring back to a boil, then set aside to cool.

Mix together the sifted rice flour with toddy palm flesh until it becomes fine-grained (small lumps). Slowly add the prepared sugared coconut milk, kneading as you add, until it comes together into a dough. Add the rest of coconut milk and mix together. Cover with a lid and sit it for 6 hours or overnight.

Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 2 cups of the batter. Mix well.

Pre-steam the small bowls in the steamer for 10 minutes. Put the batter in the heated small bowl just to the rim. Steam the cake for 20 minutes. Garnish them with prepared shredded coconut. Take the cake out of the bowls to serve.

Penta Thai Dessert Ka-Nom-Tuy

Ka-Nom-Tuy is a two layer dessert made from rice flour and sugar (one layer) and topped with coconut milk (the second layer), that is a street food in Thailand. Though, if you get it on the street, it doesn't come with a ceramic bowl, they crack it out and serve it to you. Often too, the rice layer at the bottom is flavoured with pandan leaf, a particular favourite of my beautiful Bride (and she was a little disappointed that this one wasn't). These cost about $3 and come frozen.

This is a closeup of the ceramic bowl that comes with the packaged dessert (you get 6 of them) after I ate it. We are going to use them to make another dessert.

Thai Bananas in Syrup

This is a simple Thai dessert, bananas cooked in a simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water). Simple, but it takes a while to prepare. The red limestone paste firms the banana flesh, so it's better able to handle the heat (and not turn to mush); you can also use white limestone paste, if you can't find the red one (both of which can be found in good Asian supermarkets). Choose not quite ripe bananas for this, more green in colour; don't, I repeat don't, use ripened bananas for this, otherwise it will just turn to mush. We estimated the amount of the simple syrup, adjust if you are using more bananas (or less). These bananas look reddish-brown when cooked like this, that's the caramelized sugar, and has nothing to do with the red limestone paste. They're quite tasty, and great if you have a sweet tooth.

Thai Bananas in Syrup
7 Thai bananas, ripe (green-yellow) to just ripe (yellow-green)
1/4 tsp red limestone paste
1 cup cane sugar
1 cup water
a pinch of salt

Peel bananas and cut into half, or thirds if very large. Place limestone paste in medium container of water, then put bananas in water, so they are covered. Keep in water for 15 minutes (green-yellow), 25 minutes if ripe (yellow-green).

Take bananas out of soak water, then rinse off limestone water. Put bananas, sugar and water in pot, and bring to boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to very low and continue to boil sugar for about 1 hour. Occasionally, stir the contents of the pot slowly by picking it up off the stove and swirling (be careful not to spill the hot sugar contents).

Thai Desserts

My brother-in-law's girlfriend's friend brought these Thai desserts from New Jersey the other week, they were for sale at this Thai Buddhist Temple.

This dessert is called Mor Gang, and often has pumpkin or taro as an ingredient or flavour, but this one seemed to be plain. Still great tasting.

The golden threads, or foi thong, on the left are made from egg yolk which are cooked in sugar and perfumed water. Delicious. The cassava dessert in the middle also has coconut. Interesting and flavourful. The lucky coins are formed with a mold and are made from mung bean. Tasty.

Lion City Multi Layer Cake

I don't know the technique to do this, but I think it requires a fair amount of work, putting down each thin layer, alternating between light and brown. Whether you have to bake each layer in-between for a short while, to set it, before adding the next layer, or that you can just set the batter down in alternating layers before baking, is the interesting part; if anyone knows and can point me to a recipe, that would be great. This dessert tasted pretty good, kind of a brown sugar or mocha flavour.

Pandan Sticky Rice Dessert

We bought this dessert from Lion City, it has sticky rice on the one side, with a Pandan custard on the other. Interesting and flavourful.

S&P Glutinous Rice with Durian in Coconut Cream

Another of the frozen desserts from S&P attempting to duplicate popular Thai desserts, I found this one to be very tasty. The durian was actually good tasting, and a fair amount of it as well. The combination of the glutinous rice, with coconut cream and sugar worked well. I definitely would like to make this myself.

Thai Custard Agar Dessert

My beautiful Bride decided to make this quick dessert for a potluck end-of-program party she recently attended. Of course, making this yourself from fresh ingredients will yield a much better and tastier result, but, if you are strapped for time, this works well. This is an egg custard, with agar-agar, that is similar to Portuguese versions (which don't use agar-agar, nor coconut cream). The ingredients are sugar, coconut cream powder, non-dairy cream powder, whole egg powder, agar-agar and artificial flavours. Essentially, you add water, bring to a boil, then pour into little containers (she used silicon muffin cups) and let set.

The taste? Not bad, though I would like to try freshly made ones.

S&P Khanom Mor Gang (Baked Taro Custard)

This is another offering from Thailand's S&P, and one which I enjoyed very much. It is an egg custard, with taro and brown sugar and coconut cream (which of these Thai desserts doesn't have coconut cream?), and very tasty.

Breyers Double Churn Banana Cream Pie Ice Cream

I admit to one (well, one of several) indulgence, that is banana cream pie, which I usually find and consume in Chinese Buffet restaraunts (oddly enough); there usually is coconut cream pie, also good, and chocolate cream pie, but it's the banana one that I like the best. This is the one that you find in the freezer section in most supermarkets, made by McCain. The pie is often in that semi-frozen state when you eat it. So, when I saw the new flavour from Breyers, Banana Cream pie, with a swirl of graham cracker crumbs (like the McCain banana cream pie has for its pie shell) and a swirl of cream (like the whipped cream the McCain banana cream pie has), I knew I had to try it. And, it does taste like the pie that I indulge in, though it also has the ice cream taste. The graham cracker crumbs are an odd mouthfeel for an ice cream. Overall, this was interesting and good, but, like the pie it represents, I would eat this only very occasionally.

S&P Sago Black Bean with Coconut Cream

This is another dessert from Thailand's S&P, meant to duplicate a popular Thai dessert recipe. This one would be good, for me, if it did not have the sago in it, the black beans and coconut cream on their own are a good and tasty dessert.

Korean Red Bean Mochi

We bought these Korean red bean mochi in the bakery located in P.A.T. Oriental Foods located on Dundas in Mississauga, they sell Japanese and Korean fine foods. There were four kinds of mochi, green tea, white sesame, black sesame and red bean powder. Inside the soft rice flour dough is sweet red bean paste. Tasty.

Khanom Dtom

This is another one of those Thai desserts that take a lot of effort, but taste really good at the end, well worth the effort. Similar to the Bua Loy dessert we made earlier. Delicious!!

The extra part that I did not include in this recipe, is the creation of the grated fresh coconut, which, though it takes a fair amount of effort, is also worth it to get the fresh coconut meat. We found a relatively easy method for cracking those brown water coconuts you see in the supermarket, the ones that seem to defy the release of its sweet meat inside. You won't need a driller or hammer either for opening the coconut! Kids, get an adult to do this! Essentially, hold the coconut in your off hand, and whack it hard across the middle with the blunt end of a meat cleaver; after two or three times you will hear a crack and a release of air; if the crack is open enough, you can pour the coconut water out into a bowl (you did shake the coconut to see if there was water inside?). Whack it a few more times to open it completely, then you can whack it on the floor to make small pieces. Use a flexible knife (one you use for grapefruit works) to separate the coconut meat from the husk, or carefully pry the meat off with a sharp knife. You can take the brown part that sticks to the white coconut meat off with a peeler (or leave it on, you can eat it, it just makes the coconut meat look not all-white). Then process the meat in a food processor until finely ground (you can add a little of the coconut water back). You should get enough out of one coconut to make this recipe, with extra left over.

Khanom Dtom
150 g glutinous rice flour
3 Tbsp tapioca flour
100 g taro
50 g purple sweet potato
1/2 cup concentrated fresh squeezed pandan juice
1-1/2 Tbsp red sala syrup
2 Tbsp filtered water
Coconut filling:
180 g grated fresh coconut
100 g palm coconut sugar
1 Tbsp brown cane sugar
Coating:
1-1/2 cups grated fresh coconut
1/4 tsp fine salt

Steam taro and purple sweet potato until cooked. Blend separately cooked taro and cooked sweet potato in food processor. Set aside.

To make pandan juice, cut pandan leaves into small pieces, then process in food processor with 1/2 cup water until leaves are fine, then strain.

Mix water and red syrup together to make red sala water; set aside.

Steam 1-1/2 cups of grated coconut and add 1/4 teaspoon of salt; mix well. Set aside in a large bowl.

Mix glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour; set aside.

Heat non stick pan with low heat. Add grated coconut and both sugars. Cook until sugar melts and coconut and sugar becomes sticky. Set aside until it cools down. Once cool, form small 1/2-inch balls; set aside.

Mix half of cooked taro with 50 grams of flour mixture. Slowly add 1 tablespoon of pandan juice and knead it until smooth; set aside. Mix another half of cooked taro with 50 grams of flour mixture. Slowly add 1 tablespoon of red sala water in to the second portion of the dough and knead it until smooth; set aside. Repeat for the cooked sweet potato with just the pandan juice and flour mixture.

Make 1 inch balls of dough for each of the mixtures. Flatten the ball and put the coconut ball filling in the middle. Wrap them well; smooth to become a ball; set aside.

Boil water in a big pot. Once water is boiling put the finished balls into the pot. Wait until each ball floats, remove from water with a strainer and put them in the steamed coconut. Cover each ball with coconut. Remove to a plate.

Grand Maple Pineapple Cake

In these kinds of cakes, it is the fruit paste or jam that is key to its flavour, and in the case of this cake, the pineapple paste is just not that good tasting, with just a little pineapple flavour. But then, what should I expect for a little more than a dollar?