How To Make Date Powder

Date is a common name of a seed

Ingredients:
Tin,
Pie

Process:

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HOMEMADE PLANTAIN CHIPS

Author: Lilian 

Prep Time: 20 mins. Cook Time: 20 mins. Total Time: 40 mins

These plantain chips are ultra crispy, so tasty and so addictive!

Ingredients:

-3 green plantains (unripe and firm to the touch)

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-Oil for frying

Instructions

1. Peel the plantains. Cut off both tips of a plantain then cut a line across the ridges of a plantain then lift the skin from the cut portion and remove the entire skin with your hands.

2. Slice the plantains into chips using a mandoline slicer, the slicing side of a box grater or just cut thinly with a knife.

3. In a small bowl, mix a quarter cup of water and the salt. Set aside.

4. Place oil in a deep pan up to 4 inches high. Heat the oil on high for about 10 minutes (the oil should be 350 degrees Fahrenheit hot). Turn down the heat to medium then add two tablespoons of the salt water. Add the plantains one after the other. (I added half of the plantains at this point.)

5. Gently stir the plantains and let them fry in the oil while you stir from time to time for about 5 minutes. After that, remove the chips and place on paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Once the chips are cold, enjoy! You can store plantain chips in an airtight container or Ziploc bag.

Recipe Notes:

1. You could use slightly ripe plantains to make plantain chips but please make sure the plantains are still firm to the touch. If they are not firm enough, they won't turn out crispy.

2. Use salt water as the recipe stipulates instead of sprinkling salt directly on the plantains. This ensures that salt gets into every nook and cranny of the plantain.

3. Slice the plantains using a mandoline slicer or the slicing side of a box grater. This ensures thin even slices that will cook evenly.

4. Do not gather the sliced plantains and place into the oil all at once, I have found that doing it that way leads to several plantains sticking together. When that happens, the plantains that stuck together will turn out soft and not crunchy. So to avoid having soft chips, place your sliced plantains one after the other into the oil. It seems like a lot of work but trust me, it is worth it because by doing so you will get a whole batch of ultra crispy chips!

5. Stay far from the oil when placing the salt water in. This is because the salt water causes the oil to splatter and sometimes that could burn you. I always take a step back before placing the salt water into the hot oil.

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THE BEST CHIN CHIN RECIPE

Author: Lilian

There are many Chin Chin recipes on the internet and I get that. But this is really the best Chin Chin recipe.

Every ingredient here works together beautifully to produce perfectly crunchy yet not hard Chin Chin. It is rich in flavour and so addictive. I actually have to beat myself from eating more than my waistline can accommodate.

If you are not familiar with Chin Chin, let me explain. This is a popular West African snack eaten in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. It is called “Les Croquettes” in French.

The ingredients for Chin Chin are pretty simple: flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder, salt and some sort of flavour. All ingredients are combined to form a dough which is then rolled out, cut into desired shapes then deep fried. Insanely delicious!

Now if you can’t get a pasta maker, no worries! You could use your knife to cut beautiful Chin Chin. You could equally use a pizza cutter or you could just use your hands to form small balls out of the dough and deep fry. You could even use small cookie cutters to cut out your Chin Chin. Really!

What makes this the best Chin Chin recipe? The proportion of ingredients for the Chin Chin. The ratio of flour to butter to eggs and milk is just right. Perfecto!. With the right proportion of ingredients, you get Chin Chin that is super crunchy but not hard at all!

Now I insist on you using butter if you can even though margarine or vegetable/canola/corn oil could work as well. But if you want your Chin Chin to have a really rich flavour, buttah is the way to go. Make sure it is left out of the fridge to soften (at room temperature) so you can easily incorporate it into the flour.

Also I use evaporated milk instead of any other form of milk. The flavour is simply to die for. I love using evaporated milk in making cakes, breads and other baked goods. It takes their flavour up a notch.

And to make the Chin Chin super tasty, I add in some orange zest. So you need one orange, whose back you will grate away with the fine side of your grater. Avoid grating the white part of the orange as that part is bitter. Grate just the skin. Then add the grated back of orange to your Chin Chin dough. Does that make sense?

To get the whole Chin Chin experience, make sure you serve it with a cuppa something. It could be milk, juice or your favourite drink. Enjoy!

This is one African Dessert recipe, you will want to make over and over again! 

Chin Chin is one of those things that has to be made for Christmas in my home. Growing up, we always made Chin Chin for Christmas. It is a Christmas tradition that has continued for years and years!

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour (1/2 kg or 500 grams)

1/2 cup granulated sugar ( 8 tablespoons)

1 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter - softened 8 tablespoons or 1 stick or 113 grams

1 teaspoon orange zest - grated from one orange

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 eggs

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Oil for frying - I used canola

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, milk and orange zest then keep aside.

2. In a large bowl rub in flour, butter, baking powder, ground nutmeg and salt with your finger tips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.

3. Add egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to form a dough. Transfer dough onto floured  surface and knead for one minute.

4. Cut a small portion of the dough about the size of a golf ball then roll out to 1/8 inch thick and cut with a knife or pizza cutter into squares or thin strips. You could also use a pasta maker to cut it.

5. Heat oil in a large pan on high heat for about 10 minutes (for about 1 1/2 litres of oil) then reduce to medium and start frying chin chin in small batches. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan so your chin chin doesn't soak up the oil. Fry each batch until golden brown then remove and place on paper towel to drain the excess oil.

6. When chin chin cools completely, store it for up to a month in an airtight container. Enjoy as a snack with juice, milk, or your favourite drink!

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THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES-

Author: Lilian

These cookies took a few tries, but I’m happy to say they’re now the best gluten-free, paleo, vegan chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had.

You guys. I don’t think I’ve been this excited about chocolate chip cookies in a long time. And I mean gluten-free, paleo, vegan chocolate chip cookies that actually taste like the real deal, classic, chewy chocolate chip cookies. If you’ve done any amount of gluten-free, grain-free baking then you’re probably familiar with how most “dietary restricted” cookies turn out – thick, dry, chunky and crumbly. Not exactly mouth watering, eh?

So I set out to create the best chocolate chip cookies that met all my dietary needs – and then some! Now, I’ll be honest, this winner of a recipe took three tries.

But once this version was baking in the oven I knew it was gonna be a winner. How so? Because it flattened all on it’s own. It didn’t take any manual, finger-smooshing flattening…it melted into the most golden, gooey, sweet, chocolate chip cookie – effortlessly in the oven. Winner winner.

What I love most about this cookie is that it’s crispy and golden on the edges, but soft and chewy on the inside. It’s the best of both worlds…and it’s highly addictive.

The key to this cookie is creaming the palm shortening, coconut milk, vanilla and coconut sugar together. Then, adding your dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients. The dough will be quite sticky and tacky as you mound the cookies on your parchment paper, but trust me, that’s a good thing. I tried two versions of this recipe with honey, which didn’t turn out, and one version with not enough liquid/fat, which also didn’t turn out.

But life is about sticking with it…so I didn’t give up. And in the end, I’m so glad I did…because now I have the best chocolate chip cookies to munch on.

INGREDIENTS:

¾ cup organic palm shortening

½ cup coconut sugar

¼ cup full fat coconut milk (shake the can to mix)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups almond flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

½ cup dark chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

2. Place the shortening, coconut sugar, coconut milk and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer to blend all ingredients together until creamy.

3. Add the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed for one minute, until well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drop heaping tablespoons of dough, evenly spaced. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are turning golden brown. (Note: if the cookies haven't flattened all the way, gently tap the baking sheet on your counter as soon as you remove them from the oven and they'll flatten).

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HOW TO MAKE ALMOND MILK

Almond milk is easily made from almonds and water. You can then add a sweetener, pinch of salt and vanilla extract if you’d like.

INGREDIENTS:

-1 cups raw almonds, soaked overnight

-4 cups cold filtered water, plus more for soaking

OPTIONAL

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-1 tbsp maple syrup, honey or 1-2 soaked dates

-pinch of sea salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. After the almonds have soaked overnight, drain and rinse them.

2. Place the almonds in your Vitamix along with four cups of fresh, cold water and any optional add-ins.

3. Blend on high for 2 minutes.

4. Strain the almond milk through a nut-milk bag or a few layers of cheesecloth into a bowl or large measuring cup. Pour the almond milk into an air-tight storage container and place in the fridge for up to 3 days.

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