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Transcript

Kevin: Hello, all my wonderful noobs in noob land. This is Kevin here, all alone, flying solo today, because we have some really amazing episodes coming up in the future, and Michelle is right now super busy getting those prepared, including corralling a few really interesting guests. But with schedules and all that, it's going to take a little bit longer to pull these together.
So she's busy on that. I'm so excited. I can't wait to have you all listen to what's coming up.
There's some really amazing episodes that I can't wait for. But enough teaser. Today, it's just going to be me.
And we decided last summer we had our series of summer shorts, and one of them was where I shared my recipe for the ultimate Caesar salad dressing, which I'd been working on for seemingly decades to perfect. And that was a really popular episode. We got a lot of feedback on that.
And also, it's one of our top three most listened to episodes. So I guess you guys like our recipes. So I decided, let's try it again and start a new occasional series, very occasional series, probably, called Recipes for Noobs.
So what we'll do in this is either Michelle or myself, or both of us, are going to share some recipes that we have tried and tested and we love. And so today, we're going from salad to dessert. And, you know, because everyone loves dessert.
So this is a recipe that I've adapted from a traditional Mexican dessert, actually. It's basically a pecan, date, apple, and chocolate cake. And so what I've done, I've made about maybe a dozen batches of this, let's say.
Some were delicious, some not so delicious, shall we say. They went directly to compost. But I think I've got to a point where this is looking and tasting pretty good.
So first, let's just give a little tiny bit of theory about how to replace certain ingredients. Because, of course, you know, baking is all about science, and we're all about science here at Nutrition for Noobs and our Recipe for Noobs. So the main differences in this cake that I've adapted is removing the eggs and removing the oil.
And I know oil, you know, can be plant-based, of course. But if you go back and listen to our fat and oil episode, you'll probably have a better idea of why I've removed the oil from this recipe. But it turns out just as good, if not better.
So the reason why we add egg to a recipe is twofold. First off, it adds a little bit of binding. It's kind of the glue for a recipe.
And then it's also a rising agent. Because when you whip up an egg, it creates tiny bubbles. And then when you mix that with the dry ingredients, those bubbles get mixed in with the dry ingredients.
And when you cook it, the bubbles pop, but the form stays. So you get a lighter, fluffier cake. And the reason that we add fat or oil, whether it be butter or coconut oil or vegetable oil or margarine or whatever, is basically to add moisture.
Moisture that's not going to evaporate and that doesn't just make the cake soggy, such as adding water or something would just sog up the cake and make it really gross. So let's start with the fat side of the equation. That's easier to replace.
Basically, all you need is you need some sort of moisture that's not going to evaporate easily. So my go-to for any chocolate-based dessert is black beans, mushed up. The color is completely disguised.
You can't see them, obviously, because they're black and the chocolate disguises it. I wouldn't necessarily use black beans for a vanilla-based cake, for example. But for chocolate, it works really well.
And surprisingly, they are flavorless. They don't add any flavor, but they just add bulk and moisture. Now, for other recipes, you can use other things.
Bananas, either fresh or frozen, work really well. I always keep, you know, I always throw overripe bananas into the freezer and then I've got some instant fat replacement for my baking for banana bread or whatever. Now, obviously, bananas do add a little bit more flavor, so you have to be careful.
But for banana bread, it's amazing. You can also add finely grated zucchini. You can add something like finely grated apples or potentially applesauce.
Although applesauce tends to be a little bit denser. Or something like pureed pumpkin. But again, just keep in mind, pureed pumpkin might add a little bit more flavor to whatever you're cooking, which can be delicious.
Just be aware of the flavor combinations. So any of these can replace the fat content. And generally, it's a one-to-one ratio.
So if the recipe calls for half a cup of butter or margarine or fat or oil or whatever, replace it with a half a cup of mashed up black beans or mashed up banana or finely grated zucchini,
Now, for the eggs, that's a little bit trickier. I find that what has worked best for me is unsweetened applesauce. That adds the glue and the binding.
It doesn't add the rising, of course. So for that, what you have to do is generally just increase the amount of baking powder you use a little bit. Now, you don't want to add too much just because baking powder does actually add a bit of a chemical flavor if you use too much.
But if you add about half a teaspoon of baking powder to about the equivalent of a cup of flour, additional to what you'd normally add to a cup of flour, that will counteract about two eggs worth of rising. Now, keep in mind, it's not going to rise quite as much as an egg, so it will be a little bit denser. So if you're making a cake, for example, it might be a little bit halfway between a cake and a brownie, so it won't rise quite as much, but it won't be as dense as a brownie, for instance, if you do add a little bit extra baking powder.
Now, of course, the other option is you can add vegan substitutes. There are vegan egg replacements and there are vegan butter replacements. The thing with vegan butter is it usually is some other kind of fat or oil, so you're still not being fat-free.
And the egg replacements, they're fine. I've never personally used them. I prefer to use applesauce simply because I can buy unsweetened applesauce anywhere at any store, whereas for a vegan egg replacement, you have to go to a particular health food store or something to find that, and I don't often get the chance to go there.
So it's more just I'm trying to use day-to-day ingredients that you might have in your pantry or that's very easy to get into your pantry. Because we're also all about simplicity here at Nutrition for Noobs, right? We live in the real world, as Michelle says. So for this recipe, I will post the actual ingredients in the description of the podcast.
So if you're driving, you're not creating car accidents by trying to write this down or something. But basically, the main ingredients are grated apple, flour, black beans, a bit of sugar, some chopped up dates, some chocolate chunks, and then some seasonings. Very, very simple.
It comes together in about 10 minutes or so. Super simple. So basically, you start just by grating a few apples, fairly finely grated, and then you mix them up with a bit of cinnamon and a bit of high-quality cocoa powder, and just let them sit and marinate for about 10 minutes or so, and the apples are going to absorb that cinnamon and cocoa flavoring, and they're just going to become delicious.
Then mix up your flour, your baking powder, your salt, and then the fun part. Mash up those black beans. Get all your frustrations out on those beans and make them nice and pureed.
I tend to use an immersion blender, which works really, really well, and mix those up with some sugar and a little bit of unsweetened applesauce. Then add in the chopped dates, and then into that wet mixture, you fold in all the dry ingredients, that flour mixture. Then you add in the apples, and at the very end, you fold in some bittersweet chocolate chunks or chocolate chips.
Now, I highly recommend you use bittersweet because those don't have sugar added, so it creates a really, really nice contrast between you've got the tartness of the apples, the sweetness of the cake, the sweetness of the dates, and then the bitterness of the chocolate chunks, and it just works so well on so many levels because you've got all those contrasts happening all at once in your mouth. Really delicious. If you're making this for kids or something, and you want to use semi-sweet chocolate chips or something like that, then just cut down on the sugar a little bit because you don't want this to become just sugar central.
Remember, this dessert is supposed to be, in air quotes, healthier, right? So then you line a baking dish with parchment paper, throw it in, put it in a 350-degree oven for, depending on your oven, 25 to 30 minutes. I have a gas oven, so gas ovens tend to cook a little bit faster than electric ovens, but maybe at around the 25-minute mark, poke a toothpick in the center, see if it comes out clean. If it does, you're good.
If not, let it sit for five minutes and test it again. Depending on the size of the baking dish that you use, if it's a little bit thicker, it'll take a little bit longer. If it's thinner, it'll take a little bit less time.
Generally, the dish I use is 9 by 13 inches. And then when it's done, let it cool, cut it into squares, and you've got a really nice brownish consistency that's nice and dense. You've got, again, the sweetness of those dates, the tartness of the apples, and the bitterness of that really delicious dark chocolate, and it just works so well together.
So try the recipe, and if you do, please send us photos on our Facebook page, or send us an email and let us know how it turned out. We'd love to hear from you. And if you have any suggestions for your own recipes, let's make this a little bit of a sharing session.
And I love finding new recipes, and who knows, maybe we can share them with everyone else. You can connect with us on our Facebook page, Nutrition for Noobs, or you can email us at n4noobs@gmail.com. So I hope you enjoy the recipe, and we'll have some more in coming episodes. But in the meantime, as I mentioned before, Michelle's got some amazing guests keyed up and some really interesting episodes that are coming up in the coming weeks and months.
So in Michelle's honor, since she's missing, I'm going to share a joke that she shared with me so I can't take credit for this. It was actually told on a talk show by Harrison Ford, and we're going to try it here. So there's a grocer in a grocery store, and a customer comes up and says, Excuse me, I'm looking for the broccoli.
And the grocer says, Oh, sorry, we don't have any right now. It's going to come tomorrow morning. So a few minutes later, the same woman comes back and says, Excuse me, I can't find the broccoli.
And the grocer says, I just told you, we don't have any broccoli. You're going to have to come back tomorrow. We'll have some tomorrow morning, okay? A few minutes later, the same customer comes back and says, Why can't I find any broccoli? So at this point, the grocer's had it, and he said, Look, lady, how do you spell cat as in catastrophe? And she goes, Uh, C-A-T.
And he goes, Good. How do you spell dog as in dogmatic? And she goes, Uh, D-O-G. And so he goes, Okay, last one.
How do you spell freak as in broccoli? She thinks a moment and says, Uh, there's no freak in broccoli. He looks her dead in the eye and says, That's what I've been trying to tell you, lady. There's no freakin' broccoli!
Okay, well, that's it for me. Hope you enjoyed this. I hope you enjoyed trying out this recipe.
And until then, we will catch you back here in another two weeks. Eat your greens. And don't forget, be real, everyone.
This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at n4noobs@gmail.com. That's the letter N, the number 4. N-O-O-B-S at gmail.com. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the podcast on whatever your favourite platform might be.
Also, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends. That's the best way to spread the word. We'll see you next time with another interesting topic.