Petite Kitchen: My picks #2

Last week after posting my first Petite Kitchen picks, I had quite a few enquiries about where I source some of my ingredients from. So before we get into this week's recipes, I thought I'd share first where to source ingredients:

Coconut oil
You can buy fairly cheap non-flavoured coconut oil from the supermarket these days. But to really invest in good quality oil so you actually get the health benefits you do need to get virgin organic coconut oil.

The first jar I bought was from Zenian - $38 and free delivery for 1L. I bought the jar at the end of June and it lasted nearly 3 months, making at least 2 lots of baking a week with it as well as putting it in a daily lemon and honey drink.

 

Most recently, I bought another jar from Lifefoods for $31 plus delivery (so $37 in total).

Almond meal
Where I make recipes using almond meal/ground almonds, I've been sourcing mine from Countdown, but at $8 ish for 350g it's not altogether cheap so for some recipes I do try and swap it for normal almonds that I grind up as much as possible.

For recipes using honey, I try and use manuka honey purely because it has added health benefits but I also try and buy one that's reasonable. A good alternative in some recipes is runny honey as sometimes getting tablespoons full of honey to work with in a recipe can be a bit messy and tricky! I often combine my honey and coconut oil in a pot and warm in the microwave until liquid so that they are a better consistency to work with in the food processor.

Dates
All Petite Kitchen recipes use medjool dates which I think are much sweeter and softer than normal dates but if you are going to making a lot of recipes then buying dates in bulk is a much better option. I bought 3kg of diced dates from Moore Wilsons (wholesaler in Wellington). Given that you have to chop up all the dates for the recipes, this saves me loads of time and I just add a bit of water and zap them in the microwaves for a minute to soften them up and absorb the water. Voila!

Here are this week's picks:

Raspberry and coconut chocolate torte
Gluten free, dairy free and sugar free
This torte came out more like a cake than a torte but was still pretty tasty. The only thing you have to get past is the crunchy raspberry pips in it, but overall the flavour was lovely and subtle.

Ingredients: raspberries, honey, coconut oil, eggs, coconut flour, cacao, baking soda.

Recipe here

Date and cashew slice drizzled in chocolate
Gluten free, sugar free (without the Whittakers), egg free, dairy free (if using nut milk)
This has to be one of my favourites so far. I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with the fact I slightly cheated and put Whittakers Dark Chocolate on top instead of the original recipe cocoa/coconut oil.

Ingredients: dates, cashews, coconut, peanut/almond butter, normal or nut milk, apple cider vinegar, baking soda. Drizzle: coconut oil, honey, cacao, vanilla.

Recipe here

Old-fashioned gingerbread loaf
Gluten free, sugar free, dairy free
This one promised a lot and looked good but was a little disappointing in its taste. It tasted a wee bit too eggy and not gingery enough in my opinion. So when I make it again (which I will) I think I'll double the ginger.

Ingredients: ground almonds or hazelnuts, eggs, dates, ginger, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, baking soda.

Recipe here

Stay tuned for more great Petite Kitchen picks next week!