Wake-You-Up Coffee Rum Balls - No Added Sugar

There was chocolate chip and a LOT of broken cookies at home. I didn't want to make chocolate cookies or anything that looked too... "Normal." So I took the initiative to integrate ingredients with stronger tastes and interesting flavours. So this is how I came up with a rum ball recipe that is adaptable to many people's palate.

There is no sugar added to the ingredients. The sweetness comes from the semi-sweet chocolate, the cookies and the rum. So this is how I would describe the taste: chocolatey, not too sweet, not too rum-y, very coffee-y and most of all... coconut-y!

FYI, I recently got a new camera, and somehow, suddenly, pictures don't look the same as in the past. It just saves me from Photoshop editing time!

Alright, less talk.

Ingredients:

350g semi-sweet chocolate chips
75g (5 tbsp) heavy cream
25g (2 1/2 tbsp) rum
10g (2 tbsp) coffee beans
25 g (2 1/2 tbsp) coconut powder
8 to 10 graham, social tea or any kind of cookies you have at home
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1. In a bain-marie, melt the chocolate with milk
2. Mash the coffee beans with the cookies. If you don't like it rustic, you can always grind the coffee.

3. Add in some coconut powder. If you don't have powder, you can add shredded dry coconut as a replacement, but not that the taste and texture will be more coconut-y at the end.
4. When the chocolate is well melted and mixed to the heavy cream, add in the rum and mix well.
5. When the rum is well incorporated in the chocolate, add in the dry ingredient mix. Stir well.

6. Remove the ingredients from the bain-marie and start shaping into balls.
7. When the balls are shaped, place them in the fridge for 1 hour so that they solidify and preserve its form.
8. In a bowl, place 1 tbsp of cocoa powder. Place the cooled rum balls in the bowl and shake to distribute the cocoa powder evenly.

9. Let it sit overnight for the rum to settle. And at last, it is ready to serve.

Good luck and enjoy!

Sambuca Beet Cake

I was in search of something nice to the smell and gentle to the look. It turns out that things didn’t go the way I expected. What I mean is that I was hoping that the beets cake would turn red velvet, but it did not at the end. However, the taste was really nice, considering that I have topped it with some liquor. 

Well, let aside the colour failure, I think the taste and the texture of this cake was satisfactory! Plus... Beets are really healthy vegetables, rich in iron, but not everyone likes it. To make it more acceptable to some palates, I understood that adding cocoa and liquor to it would wear off the earthy taste and allow those who are not fond of beets to, hopefully, learn to enjoy it gradually.  

Ingredients:

(cake)

65g granulated sugar

65g butter

3 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 small beet

1 cup of milk

300g all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp cocoa powder

1/3 cup yogurt

Sambuca con Piacere Liquor ( about 2 tbsp)

(glaze)

1 tsp Cocoa

3 tbsp Milk

1 cup Icing sugar

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Sift it to obtain a finer texture and to prevent cocoa powder chunks.

2. Preheat the oven at 350°F. Grease the pan of choice, I have personally used the bundt cake pan.

3. In a mixer, blend the granulated sugar with the butter until it becomes fluffy.

4. In a blender, cut the beet into tiny pieces and beat it. Add milk in so that it becomes a juice.

5. In the mixture of butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla extract. When everything looks fluffy, add in the beets juice.

6. Add in the combination of dried ingredients indicated in (1). It is better mixing by hand using a spatula. Place it in the greased pan. Bake it for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

7. When retrieving the cake out of the oven, make sure to tap the bottom so that the hot air comes out and that the cake remains in its form. Reverse the pan to shake the cake out.

8. While the cake is still warm, brush some Sambuca con Piacere on the cake. Beware of the magically tempting smell of the cake!

11. Let it sit for 5 minutes so that the cake absorbs the liquor. Meanwhile you can prepare the glaze. Then spread it over the cake.

12. Add some hazelnuts (or any type of nut) and then let the cake sit for at least 4 hours before serving it. It lets enough time for the alcohol to settle down.

Good luck and enjoy!