Hazelnut chocolate torte

Hazelnut is my favourite nut in desserts. I love the sweet and nutty taste of it and the crunch it lends to biscuits and cakes.

Last summer, ahead of a couple of friends visiting me to see my new-ish home, I made this hazelnut chocolate torte to go with teas.

Hazelnut chocolate torte

Fluffy brownies (2)

The first batch of fluffy brownies turned out well. As per usual, I tweaked the recipe slightly just to see what it would be like. 

Fluffy brownie

Fluffy brownies (1)

I had some ripened avocados in the fridge and decided to use them before they turned. The last few batches of brownies I made were more fudgy and dense. This time, I thought I'd try a lighter, fluffier variety. 

Fluffy brownie

Chocolate peanut butter cups

One of my favourite chocolate treats is Reese's peanut butter cups. When I got a big tub of peanut butter made with 100% peanuts, I could finally make my own peanut butter chocolate cups. 

Chocolate peanut butter cups

Chocolate-frosted yellow cake

While I wouldn't call myself a cake lover, I do occasionally find myself hankering for cake. And that was what happened two weeks ago. I desperately wanted a slice of moist, dense, and fluffy cake. Being swamped at work and not really having an idea of how to make a wheat-free version, I picked up a toffee cake from the shops. While it tasted alright (not amazing, mind you), I paid for it with several days of discomfort and then more. And still, my craving wasn't satisfied.

So I bit the bullet and bought myself a coffee grinder so I could grind up golden linseeds as they seem to be called in several wheat-free, grain-free recipes. And boy, was I glad I did! Not only did the grinder work a treat for the linseeds, I also managed to make icing sugar without cornstarch with it, which was needed to make the frosting for my cake.

The cake I chose to make was a chocolate-frosted yellow cake. I came across a recipe for it in Dr William Davis's 'Wheat Belly Cookbook'. The cookbook has a good variety of recipes and is easy to use once you have the basic ingredients at hand. The wheat-free cakes I'd made so far were mostly loaf cakes so I wanted to try something new and a yellow cake looked like a good choice as it was versatile. I also wanted to try another kind of frosting (using something other than coconut cream/milk).

Chocolate-frosted yellow cake

Decadent chocolate walnut torte

As my mini chopper successfully blitzed cauliflower for rice, I felt more confident that it could handle grinding walnuts well. And seeing as it'd been a while since I made any chocolate desserts, I reached for the bag of top quality antioxidant, non-alkalised cocoa that I bought a good while ago and my trusty Green & Black's dark chocolate bars to make this decadent chocolate walnut torte. 

Pots de crème au chocolat et thé Earl Grey

I've made chocolate pots a couple of times before for Valentine's Day (or night, rather) but not for the last few years. So I thought this year would be a good time to bring them back, with a few tweaks no less.

Macadamia nut brownies

Because my first batch of brownies received rave reviews all around (and because I only kept a few for the Husband), I made another batch a couple of days later, this time swapping honey for molasses and walnuts for macadamias.

Nutty fudgey brownies

I was invited to a ladies luncheon at a girlfriend's last week. I knew she was a fan of brownies, so I decided to make a some to bring over even though I'd never made any before. 

35th birthday dinner

organic strip loin, rosemary potatoes roasted in goose fat, sugar snaps, cheesy garlic biscuit, salsa pepolata

dark chocolate chai cake