Sweet potato muffins with brazil nut crunch

These muffins were inspired by the sweet potato pie in Vegan Pie in the Sky! I made it for dessert on Christmas, and I loved the brazil nut topping on the pie and thought it would be great on top of a muffin!

The first batch of muffins I made the nut topping burnt a bit, so I tried turning down the oven temperature, and they worked out great.

Pecans or walnuts would also be yum for the nut topping!

[ Makes 12 small muffins or 6 - 7 large muffins ]

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


1 cup sugar


1 tablespoon baking powder


1/4 teaspoon salt


1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


1/2 teaspoon ground ginger


1 cup pureed sweet potato


1/2 cup coconut milk (or other non dairy milk)


1/2 cup vegetable oil


2 tablespoons molasses

Brazil nut crunch

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons vegan margarine


1 cup brazil nuts, roughly chopped


pinch of salt

To make the brazil nut topping, mash together the sugar and margarine then mix in the brazil nuts and salt.

For the muffins, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In another bowl, whisk together sweet potato, milk, oil, and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full. Sprinkle over about a tablespoon of the brazil nuts on each muffin, and push into the batter slightly.

Bake at 170°C for 20 minutes or until a toothpick poked in comes out clean.

Buckwheat Crepes

I've been making crepes for a while, ever since I bought a good crepe pan, so I though I'd try out something other than regular crepes! I adapted this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum to make buckwheat crepes :)

[ Makes about 15 crepes ]


1 cup soy milk
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 cup melted margarine
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup spelt flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbls maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
A few tablespoons of water to thin out

Whisk together all ingredients in a bowl, except margarine, until combined. Then fold through the margarine. Refrigerate for at least an hour, or preferably overnight.

Chocolate Hazelnut Butter (or Nutella)

I was really excited to try out Chocolate Covered Katie's recipe for nutella.

It turned out really well, except I added some extra agave syrup because I like things extra sweet :)

And I could have blended the hazelnuts for a bit longer to make it smoother, but it was still delicious.

I had mine on crepes! This is the best crepe recipe I've tried! I think the trick with these crepes is the longer you leave them in the fridge the better they work. But they still turn out well with only 30 minutes in the fridge. And it helps a lot if you invest in a good crepe pan, or non stick pan.

YUM!

Curry Laksa!

One of my favourite meals. I used the recipe from Appetite for Reduction, it's so easy and quick to make!

Chocolate Coconut Pancakes

I thought I'd start off this blog with some of my favourite recipes.

I decided to have my own pancake week a while ago where I made pancakes everyday for 7 days!

These were definitely my favourite.

The pancakes are chocolate with chocolate chips, and then they are topped with a scoop of coconut ice-cream, covered with chocolate coconut sauce and sprinkled with toasted coconut. Sounds good right? It is.

You can use whatever ice-cream you want really, but I think ice-cream made from coconut milk is the best. In Australia there’s this new brand called CocoLuscious, it’s made from coconut milk and it’s dairy, soy, egg, nut and gluten free! It tastes amazing and has a really good texture!

I always wake up wanting something sweet so I could easily eat these for breakfast, but they would also be a great dessert!

Recipe  (makes about 8-10 fat pancakes)

1 1/2 cups wholemeal spelt or wheat flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbls oil

1/3 cup water (plus more if you need to thin it out)

1 1/4 cups soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbls maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (optional)

Chocolate sauce

120g vegan chocolate (I use Whittakers 50% dark chocolate)

¾ cup coconut milk

¼ rice or soy milk

2 tbls maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Coconut ice-cream and toasted coconut to serve

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl.

In another bowl combine the rest of the ingredients and whisk until frothy. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just combined. Add more water if the batter is too thick, but you don’t want it to be too thin.

Fold in the chocolate.

Let the batter rest for 10 minutes before cooking.

To make the chocolate sauce, melt the chocolate with the coconut milk and rice milk in a small saucepan over a low heat. When it’s melted whisk in the maple syrup and vanilla.

To toast the coconut spread it out on a tray and put in a 160˚C oven for 4-5 minutes.

New blog!

Hi! Welcome to Kokonut Kitch! :)

I decided to create a new blog where it's easier to post photos and recipes of the food I make. My old blog is at kokonutkitch.tumblr.com. From now on all recipes will be here and my tumblr blog will just contain the photos.

So this blog will mainly consist of baked treats and desserts (because I LOVE them), with the occasional savoury recipe. Everything I make is vegan, and most of the time I try to use healthier alternatives for things like white flour and sugar, and I like experimenting with gluten free recipes too. But I think it's fine to occasionally indulge in sugary, fatty treats!

Anyway, I will get back to posting some delicious food!

I hope someone out there enjoys it! :)