More sweets!!!!….for someone who doesn’t eat sweets, two posts in a row with cakes sounds like too much.

The thing is I am planning on a trip to France to visit my family next month, and my mom being diabetic, I am experimenting some low glycemic cakes and desserts to bake for her when I will be there.

I am definitely a firm believer that moderation is key, but still if you have a sweet tooth and are diabetic, even one small traditional French pastry can make you diabetes go up drastically. Have you seen a Paris-Brest? that chou pastry filled with butter cream…well, Just looking at it makes you gain 5 lbs.

White flour, butter and sugar are not really the best ingredients for diabetics and no patisserie sell low glycemic pastries. The dilemma about light cakes is flavor and texture. I don’t like low calories cakes, because they don’t honestly taste very good. They tend to be dry, or chewy or hard, and not really satisfying when you crave for something sweet.

I’d rather have a small bite of regular pastry than eat something that does not taste good, and labeled “low calorie” – but I have no diabetes…so my opinion does not count.

After my kitchen experimentation in baking some low glycemic desserts, I have to say that I am quite happy about the result of these chocolate cakes. I was worried they would end up dry and not really good, but they are actually quite delicious, especially eaten with raspberries. I ate two after lunch and I have the feeling I didn’t eat anything, and certainly not heavy.

I will definitely make those for my mom (and myself too) and I am sure she will enjoy them, especially knowing that it will not make her diabetes sky rocket.

Ingredients for 8 mini cakes or 1 large cake

• .3 oz (or 80 g) raw coconut sugar + stevia to taste
• 1.41 oz (or 40 g) unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup coconut milk (the drinking kind)
• 2 eggs
• 1.8 oz (or 50 g) coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs cocoa nibs
• 2 tbs sliced almonds

Preparation

Pre heat oven at 360F.

Using two mixing containers, in one container mix flour, sugar, baking powder, almonds and cocoa nibs (the dry ingredients). In the other container, mix all other ingredients (the wet ingredients). Pour the wet ingredients mixture gradually in the other container. Mix well.

Divide mixture in individual silicone molds, or in a large round cake molds previous buttered.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

I love this cake, I love it even more because I used the almond pulp that was left while making almond milk. So there is no waste in the process.

In France in January we celebrate Epiphany, and we eat the traditional Kings cake or galette des rois made with frangipane (mixture of butter, eggs, sugar and ground almonds).

I adore frangipane, so last week I made a  galette des rois for some guests who came for dinner, since then I have been hooked on almonds. I have been basically trying to reproduce a galette des rois flavor in a cake…et voilà, c’est réussi!

This cake is very moist, so soft and if you like frangipane, you will love this cake. I am very happy about the results and will make this cake again and again after I make almond milk.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• leftover almond pulp (from making almond milk, about 1.5 cups)
• 4 tbs almond flour
• 2 tbs regular flour
• 3.5 oz (or 100 gr) melted butter
• 7 oz (or 200 gr) sugar
• 1 tbs rum
• 1 tsp almond extract

Preparation:

In a container, mix leftover almond pulp, sugar, yolks, both flours, butter, rum and almond extract. In another container, beat egg whites until firm. Carefully, mix whites to the almond mixture.

Butter a round mold and pour batter. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 370F for about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and let it cool. sprinkle with powdered sugar and sliced toasted almonds.

I made this recipe a month ago when the peaches were delicious and juicy, now you get the last peaches of the season…bye bye my sweet fruit.

This dessert reminds me of my childhood…during the summer months when I used to go in town with my mom, we would sit down sur la terrace d’un cafe in Place Stanislas, and watch people walk by indulging with one of those ice cream desserts. Life could not get any better and sweeter. Peche Melba was one of my favorite ice cream cups (coupes de glace), along with Chocolat Liegeois and Poire Belle Helene. It’s fairly simple, you only need excellent ingredients.

The dessert was created in 1893 by Auguste Escoffier for the Opera Singer Nellie Melba, that’s where it got its name. It’s simply a peach poached in a syrup served with vanilla ice cream, raspberry coulis and toasted almonds. It’s a great dessert to serve when you have 6-8 guests and that you don’t want to start getting into complicated desserts. Since it’s still peach season with peaches sweet and juicy, this would be the right dessert to enjoy right now. I bought tons of peaches, so it looks like this will be on the menu for the next week or so. No complaints.

Ingredients for 4

• 4 peaches, cut in half, pit removed
• 2 packs raspberries
• 3 tbs sugar (or more to taste)
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• Vanilla ice cream
• 3 tbs toasted sliced almonds
• whipped cream (optional)

• water (enough to cover the peaches)
• 1/4 lb sugar
• vanilla bean, cut in half and scraped
• 1 star anise

You can really tell someone is Italian by the quantity of pasta they eat…my family eats pasta almost every day…unlike me…I eat it once in a while, which can be a good reason to question my Italian nationality, let’s hope they don’t come and take away my Italian passport!! Oh well, I guess I am not much of a habit type of a person and that habits somehow disturb me and can give me anxiety. Some people find comfort in habits, in my case it’s the opposite.

Everyone knows pesto which a famous paste made out with raw ingredients, that traveled beyond many borders. Of course there are many recipes for pesto using different ingredients and herbs. This particular pesto is called alla Trapanese, meaning Trapano style, after Trapano, a city in Sicily. This pesto is made with almonds and raw tomatoes ; you get a very fresh and light sauce which makes it so delicious.

To transform the pasta and make it into a fun and original mixture, I love to flavor the dough with vegetables or herbs. You can add anything you want, saffron, mushrooms, tomato paste, broccoli, etc…and  color your plate and pleasure your eyes and palate!

If you want to keep this dish vegan don’t add the yolk in the pasta, it will turn out fine, and don’t add pecorino, and you’ll get an absolutely delicious vegan pasta dish.

Ingredients for 2

For the pasta

• 100 g semolina flour
• 100 g farro flour
• 100 g spinach, cooked (about one bunch spinach raw)
• 1 egg yolk

For the pesto

• 3 well ripe tomatoes, peeled and seedless
• about 20 basil leaves
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 tbs almonds
• 6 tbs olive oil
• 4 tbs pecorino
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the pesto

Pat dry peeled and seedless tomatoes to remove excess water. Using a mortar, blend all together together (except for pecorino) into a fine paste. Set aside. You can use a mixer but make sure not to blend the mixture into extra fine paste, you want some texture.

For the pasta

Combine all flours together in a mixing container. Add purée spinach and yolk, and start kneading the dough thoroughly for about 20-30 minutes. At this point, the dough will be elastic and smooth.

On a large wooden board (spianatoia), with a pasta rolling pin, make a thin sheet. You can use a pasta machine if you have one and not used to rolling pasta sheets.

Cook pasta in boiling water for a few minutes, drain and toss with pesto. Add pecorino and serve hot.

Lately I have been using coconut milk in many dishes, and I think it can be a nice substitute to regular milk especially in desserts. I know very few people who don’t like chocolate, personally I am a vanilla person, but even though I love chocolate.

I use to make a fabulous chocolate cake when I was a child, with almonds and no baking powder and I really don’t remember what the exact ingredients were, all I remember is anytime I made this cake, if friends came to visit my parents, they would devour it in a few minutes. It was rich, flavorful but not too over whealming in terms of chocolate flavor. I tend to add less sugar than most of you probably would, so taste the batter and if it seems to low in sugar, add extra to your liking.

I tried to reproduce from memory that particular cake, I added less butter and coconut milk, and it is not exactly the same, it is still delicious.

It’s funny how childhood memories of some dishes, smells, flavors remain so engrained in one’s mind. Some memories fade away with time, I tend to forget events that seemed to be important when it happened, but for some reason, I always remember the great food that I came accross.

Ingredients for 8

• 250 g flour
• 5 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 10 tbs melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 tbs sliced almonds
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, add eggs and sugar. Mix well. Add butter (previously melted) and coconut milk, then cocoa powder. Mix well to produce a smooth mixture. Add vanilla extract and powder. Mix well, then add flour, mix again. Add almonds, baking powder and baking soda.

Butter a cake dish, add flour to coat all sides of the dish. 

Pour mixture in buttered dish and cook in a pre-heated oven at 37-365F F for about 1 hour. 

Let cool and serve.