Gingernut Bliss Balls

I am a ginger in a house full of gingers who also happens to LOVE the flavour of ginger!

So it's no surprise that I keep finding ways to incorporate my beautiful ginger essential oil into my diffuser blends and into my food.

This is my favourite ginger infused diffuser blend to have on at the moment and I don't care in the slightest that it's Winter not Autumn. It smells cosy and comforting and like there's something delicious baking in the oven!

The other ways I like to use it are in my stirfrys with lime and lemongrass oils, and in my quinoa porridge with cinnamon oil. So delicious and such an easy way to get incredible pure flavour.

These recipes are on my list to try next:

Carrot rice with Ginger and Mint
Lazy Avocado Sushi
Glazed Spicy Sweet Potatoes

I wanted to make something different for my last essential oils class so came up with these ginger nut bliss balls. I know not everyone loves ginger as much as me so I kept it quite mild and tamed down with the addition of wild orange. If you are a ginger fiend like me and not serving them to kids, you might like to add another 2-5 drops of ginger oil, tasting as you go!

They are absolutely delicious and quick snack to grab on the run.

Gingernut Bliss Balls

1 1/2 cups raw almonds
1 scant cup pitted dates
50g extra virgin coconut oil
1 ts vanilla extract
1/2 ts salt
5 drops Wild Orange essential oil
10 drops Ginger essential oil

Place all ingredients into the food processor and blitz to a sticky crumb.

Roll teaspoonfuls into balls and store in the fridge.

Makes approx 16.

Do you like ginger? What's your favourite ginger recipe? x

My pre-Christmas Bake-a-thon and the Best Ever Gingerbread

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a fabulous day. We enjoyed a lovely relaxing Christmas at home which was perfect as there is no way the boys would have wanted to leave their brand new trampoline behind.

Did anyone else have a Christmas Eve bake-a-thon? I spent most of the day in the kitchen and then crashed in the afternoon before heading out for the evening. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy the baking and cooking (I wouldn't be here otherwise!) it's just the cleanup that gets me down. I am so grateful to have a dishwasher, we couldn't get by without it.

I was trying not to leave everything to the last minute but some things can really only be made the day before, and other things I sort of forgot about so ended up doing those too!

I know you are probably all totally over Christmas food but I wanted to post at least this one recipe so I can keep track and make it again next year (and probably before that too) because it was totally amazing.  

I didn't have much cooking to do this year but I did lots of sweet things.

On Christmas Eve I made 2 types of custard to take to my mother in laws house (the pudding was already prepped thank goodness). Then for our trifle I made a lemon and orange curd, a spelt genoise sponge, more custard and a mango and coconut jelly. Yum! I also made a double batch of this pumpkin gingerbread for our Christmas breakfast, a batch of my dairy-free rum balls and a batch of gingerbread men so the boys would have something yummy to leave for Santa. Whew!!

For me this gingerbread was the absolute highlight of my Christmas baking. It was everything you want in a gingerbread - packed with warm spicy flavour, incredibly moist and tasted even better the next day when you can't be bothered cooking anything. We had it Christmas morning with some homemade peach and chia jam.

While I think it would be more suited for our Christmas in July celebrations rather than a hot summertime Christmas, I would happily eat this any day and am glad to have half a loaf still stashed in the freezer.

Apologies for the less than stellar photo - cake for breakfast waits for no man! Had to snap one quickly and then get it on plates for the hungry horde. 

Best Ever Pumpkin Gingerbread 
Adapted from Simply Recipes

400g white spelt flour
1 1/2 ts bicarb soda
1 tbs ginger
1 tbs cinnamon
1/2 ts nutmeg
1 1/2 ts salt
2 cups pumpkin puree
225g melted butter
2/3 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
1/2 cup molasses
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 160 degrees C fan forced. Grease and line 2 loaf pans (mine were pyrex) and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, bicarb, salt and spices.

In a separate large bowl or jug, whisk together the remaining ingredients until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold through until just combined.

Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 45-60 minutes (mine was done at 45 minutes so start checking then). It is done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Delicious served warm with butter but it's even more amazing the next day if you can wait that long.

Lime Cheesecake with Gingernut Crust

Happy St Paddy's Day! While I did make this today, the fact that it is actually St Patrick's Day was just a happy coincidence. We were supposed to be having friends over for curry but a burst water pipe (at their place) and 2 screaming kids who missed their nap (at our place) put an end to our dinner plans.

Luckily there was still a cheesecake to be eaten, and cheesecake makes just about anything better!

This is a variation on Dorie Greenspan's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake from Baking: From My Home to Yours. I first made it for Tuesday's with Dorie a few years ago and it has been my go-to cheesecake ever since, with a different flavour each time.

I love the combination of lime and ginger here. While it doesn't have the same zing as my Key Lime Cheesecake which includes a layer of lime curd, when topped with a pillowy cloud of whipped cream this is creamy cheesecake heaven. Enjoy!

Lime Cheesecake with Gingernut Crust

For the cheesecake:
500g (2 boxes) cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup cream
2 large eggs
2/3 cup rice malt syrup (or white sugar)
Juice and zest of 2 small limes
1 ts vanilla

For the crust:
1 pack gingernut biscuits
100g melted butter

To decorate:
1 cup whipped cream
Zest of 1 lime

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius / 160 degrees fan-forced. Lightly grease a 20cm springform pan and line the base with baking paper.

To make the crust, place the biscuits in the food processor and blitz until fine crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse until well combined. Bake for approx 10 minutes. It should smell toasty and fragrant. Remove and allow to cool, then wrap the outside of the pan in 2 layers of alfoil.

Reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees celsius / 140 degrees fan-forced.

To make the cheesecake filling, first wipe out the bowl and blade of the food processor (no need to wash it as long as there are no crumbs left). Add the cream cheese and process until smooth. Add the rice malt syrup and process for 1 minute, add the cream and sour cream and process for 1 minute, add the eggs and process for 1 minute, then add the lime juice and zest  and vanilla and process for 3 minutes.

Pour into the prepared base. Place the springform pan into a large roasting dish. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until it comes halfway up with sides of the springform pan. It can be safer to do this once the roasting pan is already in the oven.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until the top is lightly golden brown and the cheesecake is set with just a slight wobble in the middle. Turn off the oven, prop the door open with a wooden spoon and leave for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, remove the cheesecake from its water bath and place it on a rack to cool to room temperature then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Just prior to serving, smooth the whipped cream over the top and sprinkle with lime zest.

Serves 8-10.

Oh and as we ended up having to freeze most of this, I can personally vouch for the fact that this cheesecake tastes AMAZING frozen!