primal cavewife

Summer's coming... you know what that means for me... More ice cream making before my freezer dies for the next few months!

I love creamy ice cream. If you are lacto paleo like us, then this is the recipe for you. You can have it without the hazelnut, but it's so good with it! I've made this recipe with just plain chocolate, but I didn't blog about it because I forgot to take a picture of it. Here it is now!

What you need
2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp cacao powder
160g dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp stevia, optional (if you want dark chocolate ice cream, leave it, if not, add more)
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup hazelnut, roasted and chopped/crushed

What to do

• Mix 1 cup of cream with cacao powder in a saucepan on medium heat. Whisk it until the cacao has blended. Keep whisking and bring the mix to boil and simmer for 30 seconds on low.
• Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate until well blended.
• Stir in the remaining 1 cup of cream, pour it into a bowl and set aside.
• Warm the milk, stevia and salt in the same saucepan on medium heat. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl and slowly pour the milk into it, whisking continuously.
• Transfer the mix back into the saucepan and stir it over medium heat until it thickens. Stir it into the chocolate mix. Add in the vanilla.
• Set the mixture aside and when it cools, pour it in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
• Once the mixture has thickened, add in the hazelnut.

Hint: Before you serve, let it sit in room temperature until it softens a bit.

• Roast macadamia nuts at 150 degrees for 30 minutes, flipping them every 10 minutes.
• Set the macadamia nuts aside once roasted.
• Puree coconut cream, dates, vanilla extract and cashews together until completely smooth.
• Place butter and honey in a saucepan over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes and set aside.
• Add the coconut cream mix into the ice cream maker as per manufacturer's instructions.
• Once the ice cream begins to thicken, add the macadamia nuts.
• Drizzle the caramel into the ice cream mix and let stand in the freezer for a couple hours.

• Beat the eggs and mix the almond meal, coconut cream, cacao powder, stevia vanilla extract, and cinnamon powder together.
• In a frying pan, heat up some coconut oil on medium heat and pour in a thin layer of the mix. Swish the frying pan around slowly to help spread the mix.
• Cook it for about a minute or two or until the batter starts drying up and stays in one piece and flip it with your spatula. Cook it for another minute and serve with cut fruits, cinnamon and cream.
• If you don't want cream, you can make your own sauce with cacao powder and honey and drizzle it on top.

• Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor. I didn't grind them too much as I prefer them to be chunky.
• In a saucepan, combine the cacao powder, stevia, egg yolks, coconut cream, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, medjool dates and ground hazelnuts. Bring the mix to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Let it cool down before blending the mix in a blender. I made a mistake of placing all the ground hazelnuts in the pot so my chunky hazelnuts were mostly gone by the time they came out of the blender.
• Place it in your ice cream machine as per the manufacturer's instruction.

If you are not gluten-intolerant and you feel a bit naughty and a little bit bored this weekend, indulge yourself in this beautiful rich Oreo Cheesecake! A friend gave me this recipe. Not sure where the original is from.

Here is a great Paleo cheesecake recipe that doesn’t use cheese at all!

Ingredients:
2 cups oreo crumbs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
900g cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups oreo crumbs
450g sour cream
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract

• Combine 2 cups cookie crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Firmly press mix evenly onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of a 10-inch pan. Bake at 175 degrees for 5 minutes. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup whipping cream, flour and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
• Pour 1/3 of batter into pan. Top with 1 1/2 cup cookie pieces. Pour in remaining batter.
• Bake at 175 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove cake from oven. Combine sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla, spread evenly on cheesecake. Continue baking for 7 minutes. Turn off and leave in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake and cool completely.
• Combine 1 cup whipping cream and chocolate chips in saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Pour mix over cheesecake while still warm. Refrigerate until serving time (at least 8 hours).

This one of the first desserts I made my boyfriend when I first found out that he’s gluten-intolerant. It is so delicious you won’t even realise that it is flourless!

Ingredients:
300g milk or dark chocolate
125g unsalted butter, chopped
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
200g hazelnut meal
1 tbsp caster sugar

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
• Break the chocolate into pieces and place them in a saucepan with butter and vanilla essence. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
• Beat egg yolks and sugar together with electric beater until mixture is pale, thick and creamy. Gradually add chocolate mix, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in hazelnut meal and set aside.
• Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add extra sugar and beat for a minute. Add a large spoonful of the egg white to chocolate mix and fold through until well combined. Add remaining egg white and fold through gently.
• Transfer mix to a cake tin or muffin tray, smoothing top. Bake for 45 minutes (20 minutes for muffin tray) until centre is moist but not sticky.

I came across this recipe online and thought ‘hm… this looks like cheesecake…’ Looked at the recipe… there’s no cheese! Decided I’d give it a go anyway… Tried the end product and let my friends and boyfriend have a taste of it… Looks like cheesecake, tastes…kinda like cheesecake… must be cheesecake! NOPE!

You have to try it to believe me. Or you could just stick to this Oreo Cheesecake recipe that is in no way Paleo at all. It’s got cheese and oreo in it.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup raw, unsalted cashews (soaked for at least 24 hours)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Crust:
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup flaked coconut

• Blend all crust ingredients together until they are breadcrumb consistency.
• Press crust mix in the bottom of the pan, making sure it doesn’t go up the sides.
• Blend cake ingredients. Filling should be super creamy and not chunky to feel like cheesecake.
• Spoon filling into pan. Cover and freeze overnight. Thaw for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Note: this recipe broke my food processor when I tried to pulse the crust ingredients. Try chopping up the ingredients into smaller pieces in case they break yours… or maybe mine is just cheap… it did only cost me about $20. I then had to blend the rest of my ingredients in a blender because my food processor was useless. I did have to portion the cake mix and blend them separately to make sure it would come out smooth. Make sure to soak the cashews for at least 24 hours. The second time I make this, I was so impatient, the mix came out chunky and it wasn’t as good as the first time I made it.