So, I was running a bit low on ground almonds and had an idea – why not combine my pumpkin cashew bread recipe with the Xmas cake concept of simmering the fruit in orange juice! So that’s what I’ve done this morning and it worked great!
As always, the recipe is real foods and suitable for those on special diets – being gluten free, starch free, dairy free and Paleo. It’s a bit higher in carbs as the fruit is spread out over fewer buns, and there are extra carbs in the orange juice and cashews.
It’s suitable for vegetarians but not vegans, because of the eggs. Though it might work if you use something like a flaxseed “egg” instead.
Ingredients
• 250gm (2 cups) raw cashews
• 1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cooked, mashed butternut squash or pumpkin
• 2 Tablespoons coconut nectar
• 2-3 teaspoon grated orange (and / or lemon) zest
• 4 Tablespoons juice from a fresh orange
• ½ cup sultanas, raisins or currants
Method
You’ll need to plan ahead and cook the butternut or pumpkin beforehand. You can peel it and boil it in chunks, if you’re in a hurry. But the flavour will be more intense and the texture drier if you bake it in the oven. I baked up some slices last night, when I was making butternut chips for dinner. But you could also bake whole pieces with the skin still on and scrape the skin off later.
Wash your orange, and zest or grate the skin. My orange didn’t give me quite enough zest (the pictured measuring spoon is a dessertspoon, or 2 teaspoons) so I also used a little lemon rind.
Juice the orange. It will probably give you more than 4 tablespoons, so just put the rest to one side.
Mix together dried fruit, orange juice & zest in a small pan. Set on a low heat to gently warm through.
When the juice is pretty much all soaked in, take off the heat.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150ºC (300ºF).
Put the cashews, spice, baking soda and salt into food processor and process till fine. This is as fine as I can get it, but that’s fine enough.
Leave the processor running and add the eggs, one at a time, through the chute.
You can see that the slices of butternut had a bit of a harder edge, so I cut that off before roughly mashing it. It took about 8 half slices to make a cup.
Add the butternut or pumpkin and sweetener and process again.
Take out the blade and gently stir in the orange soaked fruit. It will be quite a loose mixture.
Spoon into 10 muffin cups.
Bake for about 30 minutes, till a skewer comes out clean.
We ate two each straight out of the oven, hot with melted ghee.
Then I had a go at doing crosses. I melted together a chunk of creamed coconut (or coconut butter) that was probably about 2 Tablespoons. I added the leftover orange juice (about 2.5 teaspoons). I melted them together in a small pan.
I didn’t have a suitable icing bag or implement, so just made some rather rough crosses using the handle of a teaspoon. It didn’t set though, so be careful when serving. If you keep some in the fridge for later, it does set then, and they are equally delicious cold.
My other idea was to just melt some carob or chocolate and spoon it on. Or possibly make into a glaze by adding butter or cream (before putting it over the heat!), which means the crosses would be a finer texture.
Thanks for reading and have a great Easter!
Photos by myself or @sift666.
Follow me for more health, nutrition, food, lifestyle and recipe posts.
Contact me in Discord, SteemitChat, or through Peerhub to ask about one on one nutritional coaching or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) sessions by Skype. Bitcoin, Steem or Paypal accepted.
Some of my previous RECIPES AND KITCHEN TIPS:
• Choc Blackcurrant Smoothie
• Paleo Cottage Pie
• Feijoa Pear Smoothie
• Grain free, dairy free Pumpkin & Cashew Bread
• Tip for storing ginger & tumeric
• Grain Free Banana Cashew muffins
• Warming winter soup
• Breakfast ideas
• Healthy Chocolate & Fudge
• Jerky with vegetables
• Choco-mallow protein bars
• Equipment for the real food kitchen
• Carrot Almond bread
• Grain free Fruit & Nut bar
• Vegetable muffins
• Finger food for a gathering
• Real food ideas for snacks and road trips
• Grain free cheese muffins
• Best ever (and easiest) Christmas cake
• Orange Cranberry Xmas Breakfast Muffins
• Festive smoothies for Xmas morning
• Crisp & crunchy Xmas cheese stars
• Xmas menu ideas
• Planning your holiday eating to be a bit more balanced
• I judged the Steemit Culinary Challenge: Paleo
• Happy birthday to me! with birthday cake recipe…
• Paleo Easter Buns (coconut-almond flours, gluten and starch free, lowish carb)
• For MORE RECIPES and my 15 step Whole Food cooking course, see my recipe website.