Tag Archives: coconut oil

Easy Whipped Shaving Soap

13/04/2015DIY, Natural Cosmeticscoconut oil, cosmetics, diy, eco friendly, essential oil, gift ideas, homemade, natural, Naturseife, skin careStef

In one of my previous blog posts I shared how easy it is to make liquid hand soap out of a cold processed natural soap bar. Today’s recipe is just as easy and even takes less time.

You can buy special shaving soaps (or make your own cold processed one) but if you have lots of soap bars like I do and can’t use them up as fast as you’d like, this might be the perfect solution. Also a good way to pimp up a soap bar that you maybe didn’t like that much before. There is no need for alcohol or aggressive surfactants or paraffinic oils. If you take a look at the back of many commercial shaving creams you’ll see that they often include things you really don’t want on your skin. Natural cold processed soap bars are made from oils and are saponificated with NaOH and often are highly superfatted to prevent dry skin.

For this shaving soap I used a bar that I didn’t like that much on its own and added some coconut oil and pure aloe vera gel (for extra moisture) to the process. I you don’t have aloe vera gel or don’t want to use it you can just add an equal amount of water to the mixture.

Ingredients

50 g cold processed soap
100 ml water
50 ml pure aloe vera gel
1 tbsp coconut oil
a few drops essential oil (optional)

Grind the soap bar or chuck it in a food processor. The soap should be really fine, otherwise it won’t melt easily. Heat the water with the soap and oil in a medium sized saucepan on low heat until the soap has completely melted. You really need to stir a lot because of the small amount of water. Mine turned into a thick paste really quickly and the soap was dissolved almost immediately. Be careful not to let it burn! It might form little lumps at the bottom which may seem like unmelted soap. If you touch them, you’ll see that those lumps are actually more like a paste and it means the soap flakes have dissolved already. Stir in the aloe vera and keep it a little bit longer on the stove until everything is incorporated properly. Take it off the heat and set aside to let it cool down.

Unlike the liquid hand soap I have made, the shaving cream doesn’t need to gel up for a few days. I gave it a stir every few hours and it had set completely after a day. If you don’t stir it so frequently it might take a little bit longer. When the soap has set, whip it up by hand or with a mixer and add some essential oil if your soap wasn’t scented. It will be really smooth, creamy and easy to apply. Best is to keep it in a small tin in the bathroom.

Stef

Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

02/02/2015Sweet Toothbaking, chocolate, coconut oil, cookies, dairy-free, homemade, recipe, vegan, vegetarianStef

This year I wanted to try a few more vegan recipes, especially in baking. I saw these cookies on mywifemakes and immediately wanted to try them. They turned out to be delicious and I will definitely make them again. No one would ever guess they’re vegan and they are really easy to make! The raw dough still tasted a bit coconutty but I couldn’t taste any coconut flavour in the baked cookies. I also used my homemade peanut butter which is a really quick 1-ingredient recipe, while store bought jars often include extra oils, salt or sugar.

Ingredients

75 g virgin coconut oil, melted
110 g brown sugar
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder
110 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt & some for sprinkling the cookies
80 g vegan chocolate
50 g hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 175°C, line a baking tray with parchment paper and roast the hazelnut for a few minutes.

To make the flax egg mix one tablespoon of ground flax seed with three tablespoons of water and set aside until it becomes gelatinous. In the meantime chop the nuts and the chocolate.

In a bowl whisk together the sugar, vanilla, coconut oil, peanut butter and flax egg. Add the flour, soda and baking powder and mix until everything is just incorporated. Then you can add the hazelnuts and the chocolate and carefully mix everything together. Drop the cookies with two spoons onto the tray or use your hands (I think hands are the easiest option) and flatten the cookies a bit. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake around 11-13 minutes. Let them cool down because they will be quite soft at first. Enjoy!

Stef

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies

02/11/2014Sweet Toothchocolate, clean eating, coconut blossom, coconut oil, cookies, dairy-free, raw, recipe, superfood, vegan, vegetarianStef

Since I’ve never had raw cookies, although I have seen some in the cafés, I thought it would be great to try that next. These were really easy to make and don’t need that many ingredients. For the chocolate chips you can of course buy ready made raw ones or just plain chocolate chips if you’re not a raw foodist. I decided to make some myself because I wanted to keep the recipe raw. I have to say that I definitely need to work on those. They are more like flat chocolate circles than chocolate chips but tasted great.

Start out with making the chocolate chips if you don’t want to buy any. Otherwise you can skip this step. This recipe makes around 6-7 cookies.

For the chocolate chips

1 ½ tbsp raw cacao butter
1 ½ tbsp raw cacao powder
1 ½ tsp coconut blossom syrup or other sweetener
sea salt

Carefully melt the cacao butter making sure that it doesn’t get hotter than 40-45°C. Mix in the cacao powder and sweetener. Spice with a bit of sea salt against the bitterness. I like my chocolate quite salty. Let it cool down a bit before piping chocolate drops on a piece of parchment paper. Let them set in the fridge and prepare the cookie dough.

For the dough

½ cup almonds
½ cup oats
2 tsp coconut blossom syrup
1 ½ tbsp coconut oil
sea salt

In a food processor first grind the almonds to flour, then the oats.

2women2cats: Raw chocolate chip cookies — Doesn’t look that pleasant at first.

Mix everything together with a bit of salt in a bowl forming a dough. Depending on what size cookies you like seperate the batter. Then roll each piece into a ball and flatten it afterwards. You can then add the chocolate chips or first make the cookies and put them on top later. I went with the second option because I made the cookies first and the chocolate wasn’t firm enough yet.

You can eat them right away at room temperature or let them set in the fridge for a bit. If you have chocolate chips left over store them in an airtight container for next time or melt the chocolate and spread it out on a parchment paper sprinkling it with dried berries. Enjoy!

Stef

Raw Chocolate Goji Cake

06/04/2014Sweet Toothavocado, clean eating, coconut oil, dairy-free, gluten-free, goji, raw, recipe, superfood, vegan, vegetarianStef

As you might already have noticed, my new obsession is raw cakes. They are just so easy to make! You can make the recipe up as you go and basically nothing can go wrong. If it tastes good while you make it, it can only get better after a bit of rest in the fridge.

This time I wanted to make a cake with a bigger and more crumbly crust and a smaller top layer.

Cake Crust

100 g pitted dates
50 g almonds
50 g hazelnuts
1 tsp raw honey or agave nectar for a vegan version
20 g goji berries, chopped

Because the crust should be a bit more crumbly this time, start with the dates. Put them in the food processor and blend until they are a paste. Then add the almonds, hazelnuts and the honey or agave nectar and process until everything starts sticking together but is still a bit coarse. Blend the chopped goji berries in.

Pour everything into a cake ring and squeeze the dough carefully down so the crust will stick together. Don’t press too hard because this cake should have a more crumbly texture!

Put the cake in the fridge and start preparing the top layer.

Filling

3 small avocados (I had mini avocados, so you might only need 2 normal sized ones)
1/2 banana
5 tbsp raw cacao powder
4 tsp raw honey or agave nectar
2 tsp raw coconut oil
sea salt

a few goji berries

Blend everything in the food processor until smooth and add a bit of sea salt to take the bitterness out of the cacao powder. It should have a mousse type of texture. Pour everything on top of the crust and spread evenly.

Decorate with goji berries and keep in the fridge until serving. Enjoy!

Stef

Raw Blueberry Cardamom Cakes

06/03/2014Sweet Toothavocado, cake, cardamom, clean eating, coconut oil, dairy-free, gluten-free, raw, vegan, vegetarianStef

It is time for a new raw cake recipe. The other day we had way too many ripe avocados, so I decided to make two small raw cakes with blueberries. If you want to know a bit more about raw food you should also take a look at my raw chili chocolate cake recipe.

Cake bottom

50 g almonds
50 g pitted dates
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tsp raw honey or agave nectar if you want a vegan cake

Blend everything in a food processor until it becomes sticky and paste like.

When the dough starts sticking to the wall, push it down with a spoon or spatula and mix a bit longer. This should take a few minutes.

Once the dough stays together by itself, you can press it into a baking tin of your choice. I used two small cake rings, each around 8 cm ∅. Put it in the fridge and start preparing the filling.

Filling

2 ripe avocados
60 g frozen blueberries (of course fresh ones would be nicer)
3 pitted dates
2 tbsp raw cacao butter
raw honey or agave nectar depending on the sweetness of the blueberries
cardamom

If you use frozen blueberries rinse them under warm water and strain them. Otherwise the filling would be too moist.

Blend everything in the food processor until smooth and add honey or agave nectar if the mixture is not sweet enough. Put a little cardamom in, it will give the cake a nice taste. The filling should have a mousse like texture in the end.

Divide the filling equally and spread onto your cake bottoms. Put them back in the fridge.

For the topping I wanted to create a thin white chocolate layer and experimented with cacao butter.

White chocolate layer

2 1/2 tbsp raw cacao butter
1/2 vanilla pod
raw honey or agave nectar
raw cacao nibs for decoration

Melt the cacao butter in a small bowl in warm water. Be careful not to let it get too warm because otherwise it won’t be raw anymore. Cut the vanilla pod and scrape it out with a knife. Add to the melted butter with some honey or agave sirup until it’s sweet enough. Let it cool down a bit before you pour it over the cake.

It used two different techniques for the topping as you can see in the picture. With the right cake, I poured half of the chocolate on top, whereas for the left one I whisked the cooled down chocolate with a small spoon until it became firm. I then spread it on top of the cake. I like this version more because it gives the cake a more rustic look. You have to make sure that you don’t whisk the chocolate too much: it will become to hard otherwise. In that case you can slowly heat it up again until it’s soft enough.

Sprinkle with cacao nibs and put the cakes back in the fridge until serving. Enjoy!

Stef