The festive season is in full swing and it is a time to rejoice, laugh, love, and indulge. Many people ask me, “So what are you going to eat over the festive break.” My answer for this, and most other milestones/celebrations is, “Life is too short to restrict everything at all times. If you’ve been exercising hard, staying healthy and keeping a watchful eye on your nutrition, then you have earned the right to indulge. Don’t think about it too much and enjoy.”
With that, it is not a green light to go crazy. By all means don’t think too much about what you eat or drink and don’t feel guilty about it… but don’t go and stuff yourself with 360 days of missed TimTams.
Given its the festive season I thought i’d give you a little recipe that comes straight from our friends at thehealthychef.com.
Here is a healthy version of Christmas Cake (well as healthy as christmas cake can be!)
There is nothing more satisfying than baking your own cakes, puddings and biscuits for Christmas. Around this time of year I’m in my kitchen a little bit more than usual baking cakes and cookies and packaging them up as presents for friends and family. This is an extremely delicious and simple Christmas cake to make. It’s a part of my great Aunty’s recipe file along with other yummy healthy treats.
This is a dense and moist fruit cake with a high ratio of fruit, which means I don’t need to use any extra sugar in the recipe. I’m also using ground almond meal which replaces traditional white refined flours that make up most store bought cakes. The almond meal is also gluten free and adds moisture so I just need to add a small amount of macadamia nut or olive oil to make it complete. I love the combination of vanilla, orange and cinnamon in recipes and my Christmas cake is the perfect recipe to marry the flavours together. Serve in small portions after Christmas lunch or dinner or warm it up and serve as a pudding with vanilla bean custard or thick natural yoghurt and orange blossom honey.
Serves 20 small portions
600 g mixed dried Fruit or a mix of the following (raisins, prunes, figs, apricot, currants, sultanas, dates)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla bean extract or paste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
zest and juice from 1 orange
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 eggs
200 g (2 cups) ground almonds
50 g walnuts
Preheat your oven to 150 C (fan forced)
Prepare a 20 cm round cake tin with baking paper lining the sides and the base.
Combine dried fruit, spice, vanilla, orange zest + juice, olive oil and eggs.
Add the almonds and walnuts and mix through.
Spoon Christmas Cake batter into your baking tin.
Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if it comes out clean, if not bake for another 30 minutes.
Cover the top if necessary to prevent over-browning.
Cool, then remove from the tin and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month.
NOTE:
If you wish to soak your Christmas cake in orange liqueur, as soon as you remove the cake from the oven, skewer holes through the cake and drizzle over 1/4 cup orange liqueur so it can penetrate through the holes and infuse into the cake.
This cake can also be served as a pudding served with vanilla bean custard or thick natural yoghurt.
FOR NUT ALLERGIES – THIS RECIPE IS AMAZING !
GLUTEN FREE / NUT FREE FRUIT CAKE VERSION
125 g dried organic apricot, chopped
125 g fresh pitted dates, chopped
1 orange
½ cup (70 g) Healthy Chef Organic Pea Protein Isolate ( NATURAL)
2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
3 organic eggs
¼ cup cold pressed coconut oil or light olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine the ingredients into a high speed blender like a Vitamix and blend until smooth and creamy looking.
Add 500 g of your choice of dried fruit (apricot, fig, raisins are all great)
Pour into a loaf tin lined with baking paper. The size tin I used was 10 1/2 cm wide and 26 cm long.
Bake for 1 hour or until the loaf is cooked through.
Cool in the tin for 1 hour before removing.
Serve plain and enjoy.
Serves 14
For more yummy, healthy recipes. Please check out www.thehealthychef.com
As always,
Stay Healthy Sydney.