Treats

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Chocolate Zucchini Cake

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Stir in the vanilla, citrus peel and zucchini.

Alternately stir in the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture, adding the nuts and chocolate with the last flour addition. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 10-inch bundt pan. Bake at 350 F for 40 to 50 minutes, checking for doneness after 40 minutes by inserting a sharp knife. If it comes out mostly clean, it’s done. Run a knife along the edges and let cool thoroughly. Remove to a cake dish and, if you like, drizzle a cocoa glaze over top or to each slice served.

Stir all ingredients together until smooth, adding more milk a little at a time to reach the desired consistency.

*If using rice syrup, reduce milk to 1/4 cup
*For an egg-free cake, replace with: 3/4 cup water combined with 1/4 cup ground flax seed (let stand 10 minutes to thicken before adding in the recipe); or 1 cup whipped silken soft tofu; or (if you like a chocolate banana cake) 1 large ripe banana, mashed.

FOR INDIVIDUAL DOSHAS
VATAS chocolate is not recommended; increase spice by adding 1 tsp ground ginger; choose any sweetener and any egg replacement option
PITTAS chocolate is not recommended; choose any sweetener plus flax or tofu egg replacement option
KAPHAS chocolate is not recommended; use spelt flour; replace sugar with fruit concentrate or prune puree; reduce fat to 1/4 cup margarine + 1/2 cup applesauce; choose flax or tofu egg replacement option

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Psyllium Cookies

 

These little cookies are so full of fibre I should really be calling them “pookies”. Psyllium is all fibre so it doesn’t get absorbed by the body. Its calories are negligible and they add lots of bulk to help keep your digestive system moving (find psyllium at health food stores). The oatmeal and flax are also great for the gut! Choose a nut butter, sweetener and flour according to your dosha (see below) or to your taste. Makes around 2 dozen. Pictured here using molasses, walnut butter and spelt flour.

8 Tbsp seed or nut butter (almond, peanut, walnut, sunflower, tahini…)*
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch sea salt
8 Tbsp sweetener (maple syrup, molasses, rice syrup…)*
1 egg
1 cup whole grain flour (spelt, kamut, chick pea, rice, or a mixture of these)*
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup whole psyllium husks
1 Tbsp flax seeds

Preheat oven to 325°F and spray a cookie sheet with oil. In a food processor or large bowl, mix together the nut butter, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and sweetener. Mix in the egg. Stir in flour, oatmeal,psyllium and flax seeds, and mix just enough to distribute them evenly throughout the mixture. You should end up with a stiff batter.

Make little balls of dough and press each cookie flat, to about 1cm high, with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool and store in an air-tight container. I recommend you have a glass of water with each cookie, since the psyllium absorbs lots of water and will expand in the belly, which is how it adds bulk to your system. Otherwise it could leach moisture from your intestines!

* FOR INDIVIDUAL DOSHAS
VATAS choose: any nut butter; whole wheat or brown rice flour; molasses or brown rice syrup as sweetener
PITTAS choose: almond butter; whole wheat or spelt flour; maple syrup or brown rice syrup as sweetener
KAPHAS choose: sunflower or pumpkin seed butters; millet or rye flour; brown rice syrup or fruit puree as sweetener

NOTE
~ Flax is a great fibre seed for all doshas, so feel free to substitute the psyllium husks with ground flax (also better for Vatas).
~ For a gluten-free cookie, replace oatmeal with dry cereal like kamut flakes or puffed rice
~ Cooking with honey goes against Ayurvedic recommendations because honey is a living food. Its nutritional benefits will be destroyed with heating, so in general, choose unpasteurized honey and do not use for baking or cooking.
~ I tried these with just molasses and find they need to be cut with some other sweetener as well, like maple or brown rice syrup (half and half). I also tried these with chick pea flour and they were surprisingly good (suitable for Pittas and Kaphas)!