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Easter Egg Macaroons {DF, GF, EF, RSF}

Easter Egg Macaroons

This is not a new recipe for me – we make chocolate macaroons frequently – but I decided to make it into Easter Eggs for the children to decorate, so we’re sharing it again, all seasonal like.Easter Egg Macaroons

I used egg moulds to make these Easter egg halves, but you could make whole eggs by hand too.  Depending on where you are (temperature) and whether you use organic coconut or not, you may need a little extra coconut oil. If that’s the case, just add a tablespoon at a time at the end of the mixing process. The  mixture does need to be able to hold together.

Easter Egg Macaroons {DF, GF, RSF}
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Ingredients
  • 50g Coconut Oil (1/4 cup)
  • 70g honey or syrup (1/4 cup)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 30 – 50g cocoa powder (1/3 cup)
  • pinch of fine sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
  • 150g shredded unsweetened coconut (1.5 cups)
Instructions
Regular Instructions
  1. Melt the coconut oil in a pot – this requires 37C, i.e. body heat, and is still considered raw, or uncooked.
  2. Add the honey or syrup and stir till it’s all mixed and liquid and remove from heat
  3. Add the vanilla extract
  4. (If using banana, mash it and add to the mix)
  5. Add 30g cocoa first then add the coconut
  6. (Add chia seeds if using)
  7. Stir till it’s all combined
  8. Taste the mix too see if it’s the right amount of chocolatey. If you want it ‘darker’ add more cocoa powder till it’s right for you. Mix again.
  9. Scoop out onto a tray, or into moulds and refrigerate until it hardens.
  10. Keep cool as it will fall apart if the coconut oil gets too warm.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Put the coconut oil in the bowl, and melt 37C/Speed 1/ 20 Seconds (you’ll need a bit longer if the weather is cold) Make sure it’s melted though, or it won’t be liquid enough to hold everything together)
  2. Add the honey or syrup and mix 37C/Speed 1/ 30 Seconds.
  3. Add the vanilla extract
  4. Add 30g cocoa first then add the coconut
  5. Mix speed 2/ 15 seconds
  6. Taste the mix too see if it’s the right amount of chocolatey. If you want it ‘darker’ add more cocoa powder till it’s right for you. Mix again speed 2/15 seconds.
  7. Scoop out onto a tray, or into moulds and refrigerate until it hardens.
  8. Keep cool as it will fall apart if the coconut oil gets too warm.

 

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Fun-tastic Thermomix Halloween Ideas

Thermomix Halloween Ideas

It’s coming up for spooky time again, and all our groups and activities seem to like Halloween parties, so I’ve been on the lookout for quick, easy, and frightfully fun Thermomix Halloween ideas. I want these to be as quick and uncomplicated as possible, so I’m on the lookout for Thermomix recipes.

For a lot of these recipes you’re going to have to rely on Google Translate, but as far as I can tell, that shouldn’t be a problem. Read through the recipes first and if there’s anything you’re unsure about, you can always fall back on an English recipe, using these themed-styling ideas. 

Thermomix Halloween Ideas

Witch Fingers

These have been redone on loads of blogs, but the original seems to be this one. If you scroll towards the bottom there’s a pretty decent English version (once you’ve done a Google translate)

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere

Pumpkin Parmesan Soup

Pumpkin Parmesan Soup is perfectly seasonal, and served in a large pumpkin would make a fabulous centrepiece too. And use clementines to double as jack-o-lantern pumpkins, or peel them and stick a tip of celery stalk inside to look like pumpkins. That looks really cute!

Eyeballs

Another recipe that would look great on the Halloween table, the eyeballs recipe from Thermomix Tarif Defterim.

Brooksticks & Log PilesCheesy Straws

Make cheese biscuits into cheese straws, then stack them up as log piles or turn them into brooms using string cheese and chives. Individual portions as starters or dotted around a table, they do add to the effect.

Spider Cupcakes

Another from Thermomix Tarif Defterim, these Spider Cupcakes require specific items, like the liquorice strings, but they do look rather spectacular.

No Bake Spider Web Cake

I love the look of this no bake spider web cake, but the instructions are a bit confusing if you don’t speak the language – Google translate doesn’t do a great job on this one! I might try this with a Nutella Cheesecake filling instead, using the Oreos around the outside as their recipe suggests, and then make the spider web out of something white.

Ghost PizzaPizza ghost for Halloween

This is such a simple and effective Halloween theming idea, and you can adapt it to any ghoulish shape, really. So clever! The main thing to remember is that you need to put the cheese on afterwards, so that it doesn’t melt and lose it’s shape.

Minipizza Scream

mini pizza mini pizzas scream Scream

I love love love these mini pizza scream crackers – they are so great for dips. You could season them with herbs or salt, I expect.

Carrot arancini (Rice Balls) rice balls Rice balls Halloween

Thermo Recetas has a fabulous looking carrot rice ball recipe that involves carrot and olive and is a nice savoury option.

Frightful SoupPurple Carrot and Clementine Soup

The Ghoulicious Carrot And Clementine Soup Recipe uses purple carrots and clementines to colour the food quite (un)naturally, making for a weird coloured but supremely tasty soup.

I hope you enjoy making these creative Thermomix Halloween recipes!

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Thick Chocolate Mousse & Basil Cream

thick chocolate mousse and basil cream

I love Basil. It’s such a sensory herb, with the ability to transport you to just about anywhere – usually in Italy.

I also love chocolate, and one of my favourite memories is from my honeymoon, some 10 and a bit years ago, where we spent time backpacking through Italy, from Sorento through to Bergamo. Our last night was in a  hotel in Turin, and by the time we got there we were pretty worn out. The 4-star hotel had an amazing jacuzzi in the bathroom, and with promises to return one day, we didn’t venture further than the cafe on the corner.

This particular cafe, however, had a delicious selection of home made chocolates and ice cream, and I fell in love with the combination of Basil and Chocolate. No, it’s not one you come across often, but it works – trust me, it works.

I recently agreed to participate in a challenge where I had to come up with a recipe that speaks to the taste of Italy, and I can’t think of much that speaks of Italy like Basil does, so here is my contribution: Chocolate Mousse with Basil Cream – and here is my advice: don’t knock it till you try it!
thick chocolate mousse and basil cream

This is an incredibly rich mousse. We had two people (including two children) sharing the two ice cream bowls of mousse & cream in the pictures, and it was still a lot. So it’s a great sharers dish.

Thick Chocolate Mousse with Basil Cream

We hope you love the Chocolate Mousse & Basil Cream as much as we do!

Easy French Chocolate Mousse – Kids In The Kitchen
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-3
Serve with home made clotted cream, strawberries & mint leaves!
Ingredients
  • 335g double cream
  • 10 fresh basil leaves
  • 15g icing sugar
  • 150g chocolate
  • 2 large eggs, separated
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Basil Cream
  1. In a sealable container, add 200g cream and whole basil leaves together.
  2. Cover and put in the fridge for 5 hours. After that time, remove the basil leaves and discard
  3. Add the icing sugar to the cream and whisk to stiff peaks. (I find it easiest here to transfer into a piping bag, and set aside.
Regular Instructions
  1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, on a double boiler, in a bowl nestled inside a pot on the stove top (making sure not to get any water in) or however you normally melt chocolate.
  2. While it’s melting, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar slowly as you whisk, then put the egg whites in the fridge.
  3. Next, whisk the cream to stiff peaks, and place in the fridge.
  4. Finally, in a large bowl add the vanilla extract to the egg yolks and mix until smooth. Pour the melted chocolate slowly in to the egg yolks, stirring all the time.
  5. Next, add the cream to the egg and chocolate mix, and stir till it’s all combined.
  6. Finally fold in the egg whites. Do not beat, whisk or over stir this as doing so will cause the mousse to collapse. Follow instructions below for combining.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. These instructions are for one bowl. If you have two, melt the chocolate in one and do the whisking in the other.
  2. Place the egg whites and sugar in the Thermomix bowl and whisk with the butterfly speed 4 about 1 minute. Keep an eye on it – the freshness of your eggs and the temperature will affect how long you need to whisk this for, and you don’t want it to collapse again, so just stop when you reach stiff peaks.
  3. Scoop into a bowl and set aside in the fridge
  4. Wash out the bowl and dry thoroughly.
  5. Pour the cream in and add the butterfly again. Whisk the cream for about 30 seconds/speed 4. Again, keep an eye on it – freshness of cream and starting temperature of cream will affect how long it needs to be whisked for. You don’t want butter!
  6. Set aside the cream, and wash and dry the bowl.
  7. Add the chocolate to the Thermomix bowl and chop speed 5, 10 seconds.
  8. Heat to 50C/Speed 2/ 3 minutes. Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix the egg yolk and vanilla extract and stir to combine. When the chocolate is melted pour in a thin stream whisking together. (Don’t pour the egg into the hot chocolate or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.)
  9. Add the cream to the bowl, whisking to combine.
  10. Finally, add the egg whites and gently fold them in. If you whisk or stir too vigorously you’ll knock all the air out of the egg whites and your mousse will fall flat.
To Finish
  1. Smaller ramekins or glasses are better for this desert as it is very rich.
  2. Place a layer of chocolate mousse in your serving dish and flatten out.
  3. Next you need a layer of basil. I find piping it around the edges first then in through the centre the easiest, before adding a final layer of chocolate. If you’re confident in your piping skills, pipe a pattern of the basil cream on top – I messed it up first time, so scooped it up again, hence mine looks a bit chocolatey.
  4. You can serve it immediately for a light and fluffy mousse, but it’s equally delicious, if a bit denser and less airy a few hours later.

 

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Self-Saucing Steamed Pear Pudding With Orange Butter Sauce

Self-Saucing Steamed Pear Pudding With Orange Butter Sauce

I bought pears a few weeks ago thinking my girls would eat them, but they were hard, and stayed hard, till they started looking beyond their best, so I decided to make a baked pudding with them. I have been trying to use my Varoma more, so thought a steamed pudding would be nice too, specially since this ‘summer’ is hiding behind thick rain clouds today.

Self-Saucing Steamed Pear Pudding With Orange Butter Sauce 2

I have no idea how you would steam a pudding on the stove top, but if you do, I’m sure this will be easy to make even without a Thermomix.Self-Saucing Steamed Pear Pudding With Orange Butter Sauce

I also think the flavours in this can easily be adapted – adding cloves, raisins, cardamom as you like. And I like to serve this with home made clotted cream or ice cream.

Steamed Pear Pudding With Orange Butter Sauce
Recipe Type: Dessert
Cuisine: Steamed
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 puddings
Serve with home made [url href=”https://www.keeperofthekitchen.com/2015/08/19/diy-clotted-cream-in-the-slowcooker-or-crockpot/” title=”DIY Clotted Cream In The Slowcooker Or Crockpot”]clotted cream[/url] or ice cream, or just on it’s own
Ingredients
  • For the fruit
  • 2 pears, cored and chopped in rough cubes
  • 25g butter
  • 20g sugar
  • teaspoon cinnamon or all-spice
  • juice of one orange
  • For the pudding
  • 125g butter
  • 110g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 130g self-raising flour
  • zest from 1 orange
Instructions
  1. Chop pears into cubes and place in the Thermomix bowl.
  2. Add butter, sugar and spices and orange juice and cook 5 mins/ Varoma Temp/Speed 1
  3. Spoon into rammekins or heat-proof dishes
  4. In the Thermomix, whisk the butter and sugar together for 50 seconds/speed 4
  5. Add the eggs, self raising flour and zest and beat together for 30 seconds/speed 4
  6. Spoon into rammekins, above the fruit
  7. Place the rammekins into bottom ‘shelf’ of the Varoma and put the lid on
  8. Add water up to the 1l mark in the bowl, place the Varoma on top and steam for 25 mins/Varoma Temp/Speed 3
  9. Turn upside down onto a serving dish and serve with clotted cream or icecream

 

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Thermomix Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe

This year I grew butternut squash in my garden for the first time. Between the slugs, the lack of sunlight and the fact that we’re moving soon, they’ve remained small, but perfectly butternut shaped. I’m quite pleased, actually!

Butternut Squash is perfect for this time of year – it’s light but filling, and can used in a variety of dishes.

Butternut Squash Risotto

Since we’re moving in a week, we’re trying to use up a lot of store cupboard supplies, and one of those is Risotto, so today I made this roasted butternut squash risotto for our lunch. It’s slightly different from my usual, in that I didn’t have wine or home made stock, but I was very pleased with how it worked out!

Thermomix Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 50 g parmesan cheese cubed
  • 1 medium onion, halved
  • 1 tbs white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbs dried sage
  • 50 g olive oil
  • 400 g arborio rice
  • 1000g stock/water
  • 10g butter
  • 1 Butternut Squash, sliced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • *handful of fresh sage, if you have.
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 190C.
  2. Layer sliced butternut squash on a tray, drizzle with oil and salt, and cook for 30 minutes.
  3. After 10 mins*, put the Parmesan into the thermomix bowl & pulverise for 10 seconds Speed 9 and set aside.
  4. Place the onion and oil in the bowl & chop for 5 sec on speed 4.
  5. Saute for 3 mins at 100C on reverse speed 1.
  6. Add rice and white wine vinegar and dried sage into bowl & saute for 2 mins at 100C on reverse speed spoon.
  7. Add stock and water and cook for 15 mins at 100C on reverse speed spoon.
  8. Add butter and cheese and stir. If you have two bowls, swap over, otherwise empty the bowl and put half of the butternut squash in the bowl. Put the MC in place and pulse on turbo four or five times till it’s pureed.
  9. Mix the squash into the risotto and season to taste.
  10. Sprinkle with fresh sage leaves, if you have.
  11. *Use those ten minutes to lightly fry sage leaves, if you have them. Set aside for topping.

 

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Simple Easy Stuffed Courgette / Zucchini Flowers

I love Courgette Flowers (Zucchini Flowers). There’s something about them that just makes me think of long summer days in Italy… maybe because the first time we ate them was in Varazze Italy and a few days later on a long lazy afternoon in Rome. Some years ago we were camping in Switzerland but the nearest market was in a small town in Italy, so we drove there for fresh vegetables a few times, and picked up a big bag of courgettes attached to the flower. We took it back to the camp site and prepared our own stuffed courgettes. They are so delicious, I’m sharing the recipe with you as now is the time for them!

Courgette

We have two courgette plants, two pumpkins and a marrow. Between them they make loads of flowers, but not enough for us to have a family meal off one crop, so I recently discovered that we can actually freeze the flowers. Just pick them, wash them and lay them on a tray without touching anything else. Pop them in the freezer for an hour or so, then transfer into a sealed container.

When you’re ready to eat them, take them out the freezer about 10 minutes before you need them. They’re so thin the defrost in minutes.

You can stuff courgette flowers with pretty much anything you like. We love mozzarella and anchovy, even if you don’t like anchovy, it’s great… it really just adds a bit of saltiness, which is delicious.

The secret with frying your courgette flowers is in having the tempura batter really cold. Once it’s mixed, split the batter between two bowl. Put one in the freezer, and use other to dip one round of courgette flowers. Swap bowls, and use the next bowl for the next round, then swap back. It may seem a faff, but having the batter ice cold makes it crispy and light, which is really what you want for this summer delicacy.

Simple Easy Stuffed Courgette / Zucchini Flowers
Recipe Type: Main, Starter
Cuisine: Foraged, Italian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 15 – 20 Flowers
  • Batter
  • 1 egg
  • 250g very very cold water
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
  • 100g all-purpose flour
  • Filling
  • 100g mozzarella
  • 5 anchovies
Instructions
  1. Hold each flower under a cold running tap. This helps open it up while washing it.
  2. Set aside to dry.
  3. In your food processor, add the egg, water, baking soda and flour.
  4. Mix until it’s all blended (10 seconds, speed 5)
  5. Put it in the freezer
  6. Mix your filling and scoop into a piping bag
  7. Gently fill each flower from the piping bag, and ever so gently twist the top of the flower to contain the filling.
  8. Heat the oil
  9. Pour half of the batter into a different bowl and return it to the freezer.
  10. Take two – four flowers (depending on the size of your pot of oil) and dip in the cold batter, before putting in the oil.
  11. Fry the flowers until they are golden.
  12. Return the batter to the freezer and swap.
  13. Dip the flowers, remove the cooked flowers and put them aside to drain.
  14. Repeat until all the flowers are done. Remember the colder the batter the better and each batch of flowers should cook in 3 – 4 minutes.
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Tabouleh Plus Recipe

Tabbouleh, Tabouleh

I love Tabouleh, Tabbouleh, Tabbouli or Tabouli. Whichever way you spell it, it’s a bulgar wheat warm salad, often made (incorrectly) with couscous. It’s still good though, so don’t be put off using couscous or even quinoa if that’s what you have on hand. I’ve made it with all three and love it still.

If you Google for a recipe you’ll be hard pressed to find two recipes exactly the same, and now I’m throwing another into the fray. But I stand by it. It’s really good.

The basics, the essentials, are the garlic, parsley, mint, lemon juice, onion and tomatoes, but saying that, in the picture you’ll notice no red flecks. I didn’t have tomatoes, so went without.

Anything else is optional though. My guests are big meat eaters, so I added bacon. We’re all halloumi lovers, so I added two blocks, rather than one.  It’s pretty flexible.

Tabouleh Plus
Recipe Type: Main, Side
Cuisine: Turkish
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
A lovely filling main course warm salad, or a side dish, this adds to a traditional tabouleh. There are a plethora of recipes for tabouleh, but this is how we make it.
Ingredients
  • 1 Red onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 3 large or six small tomatoes
  • Bunch parsley
  • Bunch mint
  • 30g (60ml) lemon juice
  • 30g olive oil
  • Optional:
  • Pack bacon
  • 2 avocado
  • 2 packs Halloumi
  • 450g Bulgar wheat
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the thermomix:
  1. Add the onion, garlic, tomatoes, parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil (and cooked bacon and halloumi, if using) to the bowl. 30 Seconds/Speed 4 – check to see that it’s fine enough for your liking.
  2. Add the avocado, mix 10 Seconds/ Speed 3.
  3. Set aside.
  4. Cook bulgar wheat to manufacturers instructions – around 17 minutes, Veroma speed.
  5. Stir together, and sprinkle parsley roughly chopped before serving.
Traditional cooking:
  1. Cook Bulgar wheat according to package instructions.
  2. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, garlic, tomatoes, parsley and mint and add bacon, halloumi and avocado, if using. Mix in with lemon juice and oil.
  3. Mix in the warm bulgar wheat and serve, sprinkled with parsley.

A Very Thermie Christmas This recipe features in A Very Thermie Christmas, where you can find it and 50 other recipes perfect for a Thermomix assisted Christmas. Read more about it here.

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Chicken Soup And Steamed Dumplings Recipe

I’ve had the most awful of colds this week. Normally, I get on with things, but this week I have largely felt like the world was ending and intent on taking me with it. As luck would have it – note the sarcasm – we were also in a hotel at the seaside, and I barely left the room. I’m actually happy to be back home and the first thing I did was make a chicken soup and some dumplings.

If preplanned, I would add ginger (I don’t have any) and possibly noodles for the not unwell members of the family, but I grabbed frozen chicken out of the freezer, and used what I had available to make this sickness comfort food in as little time and with as little effort as possible.

I’ve done this as a Thermomix recipe, but I’m pretty sure a mildly confident cook would be able to to convert it to a stove top and steamer recipe.

Also, if you don’t have buttermilk on hand – I did left over from butter making before we went away – you can use a buttermilk substitute. (Just short of a cup of milk, and a tablespoon of lemon juice [bringing it up to the 1 cup mark]. Leave it for five minutes and use as buttermilk).

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Sweet Apple Muffins

I took my children apple picking a few weeks ago, and we came home with masses of apples – way more than we needed really, but it was so much fun picking, that we just kept going. Since then we’ve been making a lot of apple dishes, and these apple muffins have come out as a real favourite. My girls request them. Since they only take two apples we decided to freeze some in packs of two for use over the winter months too.

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Ghoulicious Carrot And Clementine Soup Recipe

Carrot and Clementine Soup

I remember making this Carrot and Clementine soup almost five years ago, with ordinary carrots and I remember that it was lovely. I found it a few days ago in the bottom of my drafts folder, and decided to make it again soon. As it happens our organic vegetable box arrived this week with purple carrots – the original carrots, apparently – and I thought these would make an eerie, spooky, fun addition to your Halloween festivities.

Carrot and Clementine SoupOf course, you can make it with normal carrots too, and it will be delicious, but not purple.

Also, I like creamy soups, so I add cream before serving. You can add cashew cream instead to make it vegan, or  you can make it without any cream at all, if that’s your preference.

Serve with Cardamom Braid or Soda Bread – both are just as delicious.

Carrot and Clementine Soup Recipe:

Carrot And Clementine Soup
Recipe Type: Soup, Winter
Author: Luschka
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 600g (+- 5 large) carrots finely diced
  • 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
  • 750 ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
  • 1 teaspoon (5ml) crushed coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon (5ml) ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon (5ml) grated ginger
  • 2 tbsp (30ml) corn flour or ground rice
  • 6 clementines/mandarins/nartjies or other sweet citrus, liquidised
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • cream to serve
Instructions
  1. Sweat the finely diced carrots and onion in large saucepan with the butter – keep the lid on and keep stirring them until soft, for about 10 minutes.
  2. Add the crushed coriander and heat through for about 2 minutes to release the fragrance, and then add the hot stock, ground cumin and fresh ginger. (If you are using ground coriander add with the other spices and the stock.).
  3. Add the thickening agent (rice or corn flour) and liquidised citrus– stirring well, and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, then liquidise in a food processor or with an immersion blender.
  5. Return the soup to the pan and reheat for 5 minutes or until piping hot, remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Drizzle with a little cream, and top with dehydrated carrot or twists of citrus zest, and serve with bread.
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Chop the carrot and onion finely, speed 4/ 5 seconds
  2. Sweat for 3 minutes/100C/Speed 1.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the salt, pepper and optional cream.
  4. Cook for 15 minutes on Veroma/Speed 1.
  5. If you like it smooth, pulse on Turbo a few times, otherwise leave it as is.
  6. Drizzle with cream and season to taste. (optional)
Notes
Any left overs can be frozen, and reheated when required.

Find more Halloween Recipes here