Vegan Mango, Citrus and Coconut Cheesecake

We hit a big milestone this week, 15,000 followers on Instagram!  That was so exciting for us as we put a lot of love into our account and we are ever so grateful for the love back.

Last week we introduced you to Michelle who is behind all of our recipes.  You’ll be hearing more from her soon.

In the meantime, to celebrate our milestone, we wanted to share a new cake recipe with you. If you like citrus flavors combined with chocolate, you’ll love this Vegan Mango, Citrus and Coconut Cheesecake recipe!  This is a great way to make the most of the citrus season and as always, we have the most delicious mangos in our boxes, which will give it a delicious sweet touch. 

In case you prefer to leave out the chocolate, it’s also possible to omit the cacao nibs and cacao powder for a nutty, mango, citrus and coconut cake.  Yum yum yum.  Either way, we know you’ll enjoy this one!!!

Thank you once again to all of our amazing followers and in case you aren’t already part of the gang, come join us at https://www.instagram.com/fruitfuldayuae/

Vegan Mango, Citrus and Coconut Cheesecake (makes one 20cm cake)

9 hours (including time to soak nuts and set)

Ingredients for the base

  • 1 cup mixed nuts and seeds from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1/3 cup cacao powder  
  • 2 tbsp shredded coconut (fresh is the best)
  • 1 cup dates
  • A pinch of salt
  • 3 tbsp cacao nibs
  • 5 drops food grade citrus essential oil

Ingredients for the filling

  • 2 cups cashews from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 cup of mango from the Fruitful Day Box
  • Zest of 3 oranges from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ¼ cup citrus juice (grapefruit/lemon/orange) from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1/3 cup melted cacao butter
  • 3 tbsp coconut cream
  • 10 drops food grade citrus essential oil

Ingredients for the garnish

  • Zest of 1 of orange from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 400ml can of coconut cream
  • 2 tbsp cacao nibs

METHOD for the base

1. Blend all dry filling ingredients; mixed nuts and seeds, cacao powder, coconut and salt in a food processor.

2. Add wet ingredients; dates and essential oil and blend until it comes together as a dough.

3. Add cacao nibs and mix with hands into the dough – if you blend the nibs in the food processor they will become too small and you’ll lose the great crunch texture they give.

4. Line the base of your cake tin and then press the dough down evenly into the bottom.

METHOD for the filling

1. Soak cashews for at least 4 hours or, if possible, overnight.

2. Drain and rinse cashews

3. Put all filling ingredients; cashews, chopped mango, zest, juice, melted cacao butter, coconut cream and essential oil into a high speed blender and blend until smooth.

4. Pour filling mixture over the base mixture and set in the freezer for 4 hours or overnight.

5. Garnish with coconut cream – to do this leave the coconut cream in the fridge for 2-4 hours, open the can and then scoop only the cream from the top leaving behind the water.

6. Garnish with zest and cacao nibs. 

Chocolate Orange Tart

It’s Christmas Eve and what better way to celebrate than with a chocolate orange tart!  This tart is rich, creamy and indiscernibly healthy. How you wonder? If you use coconut cream and a refined sugar-free dark chocolate it is gluten, dairy and refined sugar free, which seems surprising for how decadent it is. Even if you use full cream and 85% Lindt chocolate, it’s still a gluten free dessert with minimal added sugar! 

This makes our Chocolate Orange Tart the perfect to please both the health conscious and the more indulgent festive eaters. With that, we wish those celebrating a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

We are so grateful for your loyal support through out 2018. We wouldn’t have been able to make it this far with out our most important ingredient – you our customer. Your continued support has allowed us to grow the team and get more creative in the process. We hope to continue to deliver the freshest, tastiest hand picked fruits to you and to continue to brighten up your days.

Chocolate Orange Tart (makes one 21cm tart)  

1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients for the crust

  • 120g gluten free flour
  • 120g buckwheat flour
  • 2 free range eggs
  • 100g butter
  • 100g coconut sugar
  • Zest of one orange from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 1 tea spoon cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp salt

Ingredients for the filling

  • 1 ¼ cups full cream or coconut cream
  • 2 tea spoon orange zest from the Fruitful Day Oranges
  • 300g dark chocolate (I used 85%)
  • 2 eggs
  • Pinch of salt

METHOD for the crust

  1. Remove butter from the fridge to soften and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
  2. Add all dry crust ingredients to a mixing bowl; gluten free flour, buckwheat flour, coconut sugar, zest, cinnamon & salt and sift together.
  3. Chop butter into cubes and whisk eggs in a separate bowl.
  4. Put cubed butter and eggs into the bowl with the dry ingredients and bring together as a dough in your hands.
  5. Wrap dough in the cling film and allow to harden in the fridge for one hour.
  6. Grease a 21cm tart tin or silicon mould with ghee or coconut oil.
  7. Once the dough is set, remove from the fridge and place onto a clean, dry floured surface.
  8. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a flat circular shape. You may not be able to roll it very thinly as gluten-free crusts are much harder to work with.
  9. Once in the mould, you can press with your fingers to even it out across the bottom and up the sides. Then prick the crust with a fork all over.
  10. Cut out a circle of baking paper approximately 30 cm in diameter.
  11. Place this over your pie crust and pour some rice or beans into the centre to hold the paper down – this is called ‘blind baking’ – it allows the crust to bake evenly on it’s own before putting the filling in. The beans or rice act as weights to hold the baking paper down.
  12. Blind bake for 15 minutes and then set aside while making the filling

 

METHOD for the filling

  1. Put cream in a heavy bottom saucepan on medium heat and add the zest and salt. Bring to a simmer and stir.
  2. While cream is heating, finely chop 230g chocolate and place in a wide bottomed bowl.
  3. Pour 90% of the cream onto the chocolate and let it sit for 3 – 5 minutes. This allows the cream to melt the chocolate.
  4. Pour the remaining cream into a bowl with the eggs and whisk quickly. This tempers the egg mixture so the eggs don’t curdle when they come in contact with the hot cream.
  5. Next, add the egg and cream mixture to the chocolate and cream mixture. Stir with a whisk from the centre outwards until everything in incorporated evenly.
  6. Pour this mixture into the crust and bake for 18 minutes or until the chocolate is set in the centre.
  7. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
  8. Remove from tart tin and garnish with remaining chocolate and orange zest.

 

Apricot & Orange Granola Bar

7 days, 7 recipes!

It’s the middle of the summer and we totally get how difficult it is to be stuck inside for most if not ALL of the day. However, it’s the perfect time of year to practice your cooking skills so for the next 7 days we’re going to share a recipe every day with you that is both HEALTHY and DELICIOUS.

First up is a homemade granola bar!  Most supermarket granola bars contain sugar, corn syrup, wheat or canola oil and by making it yourself you know exactly what is going inside. These apricot and orange granola bars are perfect to take to work or if your kids don’t have nut allergies, they can be a great afternoon snack before anyone gets hangry.

As an aside, we have just discovered the most delicious apricots from Uzbekistan. You have to try them out! Available in our discovery box here.

Happy snacking.

Apricot & Orange Granola Bar 

(makes one square tray of 20cm x 20cm)  

Healthy Granola Bars: Apricot & Orange

45 minutes

INGREDIENTS for the crust 

  • 100g walnuts from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 120g gluten free oats
  • 100g apricots from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 50g pumpkin/sunflower seeds from the Fruitful Day Box
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • Zest of one orange from the Fruitful Day Box
  • 90g peanut butter
  • 50g honey
  • 30g cacao butter/coconut oil/grass fed butter

METHOD 

Healthy Granola Bars: Apricot & Orange

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C
  2. Roughly chop walnuts
  3. Finely chop apricots
  4. Add all dry ingredients to a bowl; walnuts, oats, apricots, seeds, spices and salt.
  5. Add wet ingredients; orange zest, peanut butter, honey and oil.
  6. Combine until this mixture forms a dough.
  7. Press mixture down into a lined baking tray and bake at 160°C for 20 – 30 minutes or until browned.
  8. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

                                                           

Energy February: Upside-Down Orange Cake

If you’ve been following our blog this month, you’ll know we’ve been focusing on foods that can help you boost your energy levels. Choosing your ingredients carefully is the difference between the right kind of sugar, carbohydrates, and fats, which boost your energy levels and the wrong kind, which will leave you feeling tired and hungry a short time later.

Our last recipe of the month is an upside-down orange cake. Many people love to eat cake mid morning or mid afternoon as an energy boost when they are hitting a low. However, traditional cake made with flour and sugar is high glycemic which means it will spike your blood sugar levels quickly and sharply, however, make you feel tired and hungry later in the day. This cake made with almond flour and maple, is much lower on the glycemic index and will be sure to satisfy your sweet tooth without playing havoc with your blood sugar levels and appetite. 

If you’ve received blood oranges in your box this week, we recommend swapping out the oranges for blood oranges in the recipe for a stunning finish!

Upside-down Orange Cake (one 20cm cake)

INGREDEINTS

  • 3 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 3 tbsp grass fed butter 
  • 1/3 cup (65g) ghee/butter
  • 1 ¾ cups (175g) almond flour
  • ¼ cup (30g) arrowroot flour or any gluten free flour blend
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup (120ml) maple syrup/honey
  • 2 tsp vanilla powder/extract
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 2 Oranges from the fruitful day box

METHOD

Upside-down Orange Cake (one 20cm cake)

  1. Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. Grease or line a cake tin and set aside.
  2. Zest the oranges and then slice into 1cm slices. Cut the peel off each slice leaving a slither of the pith to hold the orange together.
  3. Heat the coconut sugar and butter in a pan on low heat until the sugar is melted. Pour this mixture into the bottom of the prepared cake tin and spread evenly.
  4. Arrange the orange slices over the butter and sugar mixture.
  5. In one bowl mix the almond flour, arrowroot, salt and baking soda.
  6. Separate the egg whites from the yolks and in another bowl mix the yolks, maple syrup, melted ghee, vanilla, lemon juice and orange zest.
  7. Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer or kitchen aid until they form soft peaks.
  8. Mix the egg yolk mixture into the flour mixture and then fold in the egg whites.
  9. Pour this cake mixture over the oranges in the cake tin.
  10. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Check the cake after 8 – 10 minutes and cover if it has began to brown. As soon as you see browning you need to cover for the remainder of the cooking time.