Quick Chocolate Sorbet

Being dairy-free makes it difficult sometimes when you're craving chocolate desserts - they all seem to have milk or cream in them! But after seeing a recipe for chocolate sorbet, I realized it was a completely milk-free dessert, and something I definitely needed to add to my 'repertoire'! So when some friends came over for lunch the other day, I gave it a go in the Thermomix - not the usual version, where you make a chocolate syrup, freeze it, reblend it, etc, etc... can't be bothered with that. I wanted an INSTANT version, where you don't have to wait forever to get your chocolate fix!

(It was starting to melt by the time I took this photo, as we left it sitting in the Thermomix while we went running around the yard looking for an egg, so we could add an egg white to make it more creamy! ...Finally found one - those confounded chickens have been hiding their eggs... I was very tempted to squeeze one to see if I could get an egg to pop out!)

This way of making a chocolate sorbet is not quite as smooth as if you made it the traditional way - you can taste the little slivers of chocolate as they haven't been melted - but nobody complained! The second time I made it, I tried slightly melting the chocolate, Rapadura, cocoa, coffee, vanilla and salt; blended them together, then added the egg white and ice and ground it all up... but I found it worked better when you didn't try melting them. Just make sure you grind the Rapadura and chocolate really, really well, before adding the other indgredients.

You can add less Rapadura and more cocoa if you like a darker chocolate flavour. Enjoy!

1. In your Thermomix bowl, pulverise on speed 9 for 30 seconds:
- 200g Rapadura

2. Add chocolate, and pulverise on speed 9 for another 30 seconds, until it's a very fine powder:
- 170g good quality dairy free dark chocolate, chopped in small pieces (eg: 70% cocoa Rapadura chocolate, or make your own with this recipe, or this recipe)

3. Add, and pulverise on speed 9 for 1 minute, using the spatula to help it mix:
- 30g good quality cocoa powder (eg: Planet Organic Cocoa)
- 2 Tblspns strong brewed coffee
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 egg white (opt. for creamier result)
- 700g ice cubes (add half first, grind a few seconds, then add the rest)

4. Eat it quickly before it melts!
...or freeze in a shallow tray, or in ice cube trays, and reblend when ready to serve.

Carob Cake with Sugar-Free, Dairy-Free Icing

Hi everyone - I'm finally getting around to posting a recipe! We're actually on holiday at the beach, which is why I've been so slack. This cake can be made with either cocoa or carob (use a little more if cocoa). There's also a couple of suggestions for sweeteners - if you've never heard of Rapadura, see here. I sometimes use butter, sometimes olive oil, sometimes coconut oil - you can substitute it for whatever you usually use. You can make it either with spelt or gluten free flour (or wheat of course, but I don't use wheat).

I use grams for most of my measurements (because the Thermomix has a built in scale, and that's how you cook with it), so I've converted them to ounces as well, but not to cups - sorry!

The icing (frosting) is really yummy, and so healthy! If you can't have soy, maybe you know of another type of carob buttons you could use. I've suggested a recipe for homemade soy-free carob chips here (with comments).

If you'd like some carob 'candy' recipes, my friend Angie has a website with some: there's Carob Candy Squares, Carob Sesame Balls, Carob Fruit Candy (contains milk powder, but you could substitute with soy milk powder), and Carob Clusters. Yum!

Happy baking!

Carob Cake

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Grease / line a 20cm square pan or small ring tin.

2. Melt butter/coconut oil (Thermomix: 2 mins, 60 degrees, speed 4):

- 120g (4.25 oz) butter (or oil)

3. Mix together all ingredients (including melted butter/coconut oil) in Thermomix or food processor for 30 seconds (speed 5 in Thermomix, med-high speed in food processor):

- 100g (3.5 oz) rice-almond milk

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 150g (5.3 oz) spelt flour (or 120g (4.2 oz) gluten-free flour)

- 4 level tsp baking powder

- 30g (1 oz or about 3 heaped Tablespoons) carob powder

- 100g (3.5 oz) raw honey or 120g (4.2 oz) Rapadura or 60g (2 oz) Rapadura + pinch of Stevia powder

4. Pour into cake tin and bake in centre of oven for 25 - 30 mins, or until knife inserted in cake comes out clean.

5. Eat warm, dusted with powdered Rapadura, or cool and top with carob icing.

Carob Icing (Frosting)

(based on one from the Fit for Life Cookbook, Marilyn Diamond)

1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and warm over med-low heat while stirring continuously with a wooden spoon (or Thermomix - 2 mins, 60 degrees, speed 2).

- 3 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter

- 1/2 cup carob chips

- 1/4 cup honey (or rice malt syrup)

- 1/4 cup rice-almond milk

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

2. Drizzle and spread over cake - it will get firm as it cools.

If you have some left, you can keep it in the fridge and spread it on toast - it's yummy! Try adding crushed hazelnuts for a healthy substitute for Nutella!