Homemade Muesli #7, inspired by Dorset Cereals

Used to eat a lot of Dorset Cereals muesli, but after moving could no longer find any. Muesli bought in supermarket invariably disgusting and cardboard-like, prompting switch to porridge and other breakfast items. One day, woke up sweating at 2 am in great excitement. Had genius idea. Wrote in notebook next to bed, kept expressly for such flashes of genius: would make muesli at home, by looking at ingredients on Dorset Cereals website. Did so next morning and was v. happy with results. Have about 10 variations, this is #7, as only one took picture of. Other variations include hazelnuts, pistachios, dried cranberries, other exotic expensive things.

Eat with bananas or berrries, or bananas and berries, with cold non-dairy milk or yoghurt.

Homemade Muesli #7

• 40g rolled oats
• 55g bran flakes (or use 65g Sultana Bran and omit raisins)
• 10g raisins, preferably Chilean flame if you can find them, which are most voluptuous of raisins
• 15g chopped toasted cashews
• 10g chopped almonds
• 10g chopped macadamias
• 30g chopped dates
• 20g chopped semi-dried apricots

Place oats in non-stick frying pan and toast on very low heat until aromatic and golden. Combine with remaining ingredients in airtight jar. Do not know how long this keeps for, as often gets over within two days. Take as proof of deliciousness. 

Five-Minute Chocolate-Almond Chip Cookies

I’ve seen many recipes for cookies made with oat flour, especially vegan-gluten free ones. Oat flour doesn’t have to be purchased, it can easily be made by blending wholegrain oats briefly in a blender. These cookies are supremely easy to make: blend dry ingredients for around 30 seconds, add wet, scoop onto cookie sheets and bake for a few minutes, depending on size. If you're good at shaping cookies, you could take even less than five minutes! (I'm not, I come up with the most bizarre shapes.) If you love flapjacks and oatmeal raisin cookies, you’ll adore these! You can make these oatmeal-raisin cookies by substituting the chocolate with raisins. My baby sister took these to school and ate them all and left everything else my mum packed; I was secretly very flattered because she is the pickiest person I know :) These chocolate-chip cookies are the saintliest you will ever eat, in addition to the most scrumptious: they are low in sugar and 100% wholegrain.

If you bake only one healthy cookie in your life, let it be this one.

And eat with cold creamy soymilk (or almond milk, or cashew milk, or rice milk, or go crazy and have oat milk). Dunking recommended.

Chocolate-Almond Chip Cookies

• 150g rolled oats
• 50g soft dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch salt, if you like

• 26g macadamia oil or melted coconut oil (for taste, or use canola if you don’t have)
• 50g soymilk or other non-dairy milk (no more!)
• 10g vanilla essence (or use 5g vanilla bean paste)
• 60g chopped Whittaker’s 62% with almond chocolate, or chocolate of your choice

1. Process first four ingredients in blender to form flour. It doesn’t have to be very fine.
2. Add next four ingredients and mix to form stiff dough. You want dough, not batter! Feel free to taste the dough: it's delicious, and you don’t have to worry about salmonella from raw eggs!
3. Scoop fifteen or so little mounds of dough onto baking trays lined with baking paper, and flatten slightly using a greased spoon. Bake for seven minutes. Take cookies out when still soft, as they will harden upon cooling.

I know I said to make 15, but the dough is very tasty, okay?

Have a great week!

Chocolate Mousse Cake (three-ingredient!)

I have always adored chocolate mousse, and when I went vegan, I found  many veganised chocolate mousse recipes which used tofu as a base. This sounds strange, but it is genius. It produces a result better than the raw egg version with a most brilliant, incredible, silky texture. In this mousse cake, I use melted dark chocolate instead of cocoa powder, for added richness. The chocolate also sets when chilled, so the cake is slice-able, which I think makes for a lovely presentation. (If you want to make a traditional mousse, I suggest using very soft tofu and substituting some chocolate for best quality cocoa powder you can find, then aerating it.) Anyway, here is the chocolate mousse cake, in all its glory: 

With cacao nibs (Navitas, bought from iHerb), and strawberries

This may be one of the best-looking things I have ever made.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

• 300g silken firm tofu (do not drain any liquid if it comes in a 300g pack)
• 5g best-quality vanilla bean paste
• 180g dark chocolate (I recommend going for something a bit sweeter than you would normally eat, as there is no other sweetener in this cake. You can use half 50% chocolate, and half 70%, but my favourite version is made with equal parts 50%, 70% and 85%. I use Whittaker's and Lindt, and I love very dark chocolate - if you don't, then try using a greater proportion of Whittaker's 50%)

1. Melt dark chocolate. Please don't do this in a microwave and risk burning everything. The best way is the double-boiler way: fill a wok with water, heat the water, then hold a small saucepan filled with the chopped chocolate in the wok's simmering water and stir until smooth and liquid. It doesn't take long. 
2. Combine with tofu and vanilla in a blender. Blend until perfectly smooth, which shouldn't take more than a few seconds if your blender is reasonably powerful. 
3. Pour into a round cake dish which has been LINED WITH CLING WRAP, because otherwise you won't be able to lift out the cake in one piece. Use one large piece of cling, and let it hang over the sides of the pan. Spread around with a spoon and make patterns on the top if you like.
4. Place in chiller (the coldest part of your fridge, under the freezer), and let chill for 3 hours until set. Then lift out using the overhanging cling and slide very gently onto a plate. Slice and sprinkle each slice with cacao nibs, if you have them, and strawberries or raspberries. Store the rest of the cake covered in the chiller and it should be good for five days, if not more. 

Look how juicy the raspberries are!

I highly recommend finding cacao nibs and using them, because their crunchiness contrasts so perfectly with the silky richness of the mousse and the juiciness of the berries.