Ingredient: brown rice flour

Green Sunflower Seed Cookies

CELEBRATING ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

The term ‘green food’ can mean several things. More and more households are ‘going green’ with their menus, buying food from sustainable local sources. People who are ‘eating greener’ include those who grow their own food and compost all their waste to those who simply take a re-useable bag to the supermarket. Most of us are interested in making decisions that are better for the environment.

Others immediately think ‘green vegetables’. Then of course there are those who, especially at this time of year, may think of the color green and foods with which to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. There is so much you could do with this holiday in terms of food such as rainbows, leprechauns, shamrocks, pot of gold ………

In North America, St. Patrick’s Day is pretty much just a fun day here. Green food has been getting more and more ‘creative’ on this particular holiday. For the most part, it’s an excuse to party and drink some green beer.

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, I wanted to incorporate some ‘green’ food into our day. I decided on some ‘magic’ sunflower seed cookies. These cookies are quite unique in that when you use sunflower butter combined with baking soda in the batter the bread turns green. The green color is a harmless result of natural chemical reactions and doesn’t affect the taste or safety of the cookies.

Sunflower seed butter, often called Sunbutter, naturally turns green when these two ingredients meet during baking. The alkaline baking soda interacts with the acidic chlorogenic acid, producing a green pigment called chlorophyllin. This reaction intensifies as the cookies cool down, leading to the characteristic green hue.

Nevertheless, I thought it was a fun way to put a different twist on today’s green celebrations.

Print Recipe
 Green Sunflower Seed Cookies
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Rate this recipe!
Course dessert
Cuisine North American
Keyword green sunflower seed cookies, sunflower bread
Servings
Ingredients
Cookies
Topping
Course dessert
Cuisine North American
Keyword green sunflower seed cookies, sunflower bread
Servings
Ingredients
Cookies
Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Mix everything together in one bowl until well combined.
  3. Scoop the dough, roll in seeds & place onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. This amount will make 12 large balls or 15 small ones.
  4. Bake 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven & cool on wire rack.
Recipe Notes
  • It's definitely very important to use baking soda and make sure to mix the batter adequately to disperse the baking soda fully,  otherwise the chemical reaction that produces the green color won't happen. It also needs to sit for a few minutes after baking. Some brands (or even jars) of sunflower butter do work better than others, whether it has to do with freshness, added ingredients, or what. It's the secret ingredient to the green color - any other nut butter will just be brown! Look for a jar with as few additives as possible.
  

 

Black Bean Lava Cakes

In a dream world, desserts would be low in calories and fat and eating one cookie wouldn’t tempt us to eat five more.

By now, everyone knows what a molten chocolate cake is (also known as chocolate lava cake). Practically every restaurant has a version of the recipe on its dessert menu. Its basically the richest chocolate cake imaginable, in miniature form. The key is to purposely under bake it so it will reveal the thick, hot fudge-like center that oozes out when you spoon into it.

But, there’s one way to achieve healthier baked goods and that’s to add legumes. Yes, the very same beans that we put in soups, chili, dips and countless savory recipes make surprisingly tasty desserts.

If you’re using beans as a flour substitute, its typically a 1:1 ratio. When it comes to replacing fat ingredients with beans, a little caution is needed. Fats are not only used for flavor but also texture and mouthfeel for dishes. For brownies, you can replace oil with 3/4 as much black bean puree. For cookies, you can replace up to half the butter or shortening with the bean puree. For quick breads and muffins, replace butter or shortening with half as much bean puree. This is only a general guide as other ingredients may need to be altered too. Always good to experiment first.

The end result, of course, with any substitution should not just improve the nutrition content but leave you feeling satisfied and not still craving the decadent variety. We found these black bean lava cakes certainly did that!

Print Recipe
 Black Bean Lava Cakes
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword black bean lava cakes
Servings
Ingredients
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword black bean lava cakes
Servings
Ingredients
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Make flax egg & set aside.
  3. In a food processor, combine black beans, sugar, applesauce, apple cider vinegar & sea salt. Pulse to combine for about 1 minute.
  4. Add rice flour, cocoa powder & flax egg. Process until combined about 30 seconds.
  5. Add baking powder & continue processing for another 30 seconds.
  6. Grease (4) 5-oz. ramekins with oil. Make sure to grease well. Add 1/4 cup batter to each ramekin.
  7. Place a piece of chocolate in center of each & divide remaining batter between the 4 ramekins, spreading evenly.
  8. Place on a baking sheet & bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven & cool for 10 minutes.
  9. Use a knife to loosen edges, then flip ramekins over on to serving plates (they should come loose easily).
  10. If you wish, sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve warm.