Remember me? It’s been such a long time since I was regularly posting…I mentioned last time that I was working full-time and the crazy long hours were why I hadn’t been blogging. Well, the long and short of it is that that job was definitely not right for me. I won’t go into details but I’m moving onto better and brighter things and am determined to make the time for blogging while doing so.
I missed everything about it, and especially all of you (!) too much to not keep it up so I hope you’ll have me back!
Lemony foods make me think of spring. Maybe it’s because daffodils and fluffy ducklings are yellow…or perhaps just because I tend to be drawn to lighter, fresher flavours at this time of year. Whatever it is, we’re kicking things back off around these parts with a healthy lemony snack/dessert.
Whiz up your cashews in the food processor until flour-like
These White Chocolate Coated Lemon-Cashew bites are mighty tasty and just so happen to be raw, vegan, paleo and candida-diet friendly! Nice to have something everyone can enjoy…not that I did a lot of sharing!
They take just a few minutes and a few ingredients to put together. You *could* stop after the first couple of steps I suppose for plain ole Lemon-Cashew bites but I highly recommend making that little extra effort and going for the white chocolate coating too. The sweet creamy chocolate balances out the zingy interior perfectly and takes these into treat territory.
I’ve talked before about my past fondness for white chocolate and last year came up with a recipe for raw, vegan white chocolate chips which I’m pretty happy with.
I recycled that recipe here for the white chocolate coating with just a teeny tweak to use coconut instead of cashew butter (along with cacao butter). If you don’t have cacao butter then feel free to replace it with an equal amount of coconut butter + 1 tsp coconut oil. Still delicious!
I made the bites from cashew flour - just whole cashews ground into flour using my Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender - works great!
Ingredients
- Lemon Cashew Bites:
- 1 ¾ C Cashew flour*
- 1 Tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp Lemon zest (zest of 1 large lemon)
- Pinch of Vanilla powder
- 1 Tbsp Coconut oil, melted
- 1 Tbsp Coconut nectar(or liquid sweetener of choice)
- Pinch of salt
- White Chocolate Coating:
- 4 Tbsp Melted cacao butter (Approx 55 g)*
- 3 Tbsp Raw coconut butter
- 1 Tbsp Coconut nectar + 5 drops stevia (or an extra 1 Tbsp coconut nectar)
- Pinch of vanilla powder
Instructions
- Add all ingredients for the lemon-cashew bites to a food processor and pulse until combined. You should have a thick dough-like consistency but it shouldn't be too sticky or wet.
- Roll the mixture into small balls and place on a plate covered in parchment paper in the freezer to firm up.
- Gently melt the cacao butter and coconut butter together over a double boiler (glass bowl over a pot of boiling water), remove from heat and add the vanilla powder, coconut nectar and stevia, if using.
- Set aside to thicken up slightly for 5-10 minutes at room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Dip each bite in the chocolate coating until it is completely covered. Scoop out carefully with a fork, and tap the fork handle on the edge of the bowl so that excess coating drips back into the bowl. Place back on the parchment lined plate and return to the freezer until coating is solid (about 5 minutes); then repeat the coating process once more.
Notes
*To make cashew flour grind raw cashews in a food processor until a flour (see image)
*Cacao butter may be replaced with more coconut butter. In this case, the mixture will be less liquid and so should be kept over a pot of hot water to prevent it seizing up whilst coating the bites.
Thanks for all your kind messages asking after me while I was away. It meant a lot to me.
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