SUNDAY BAKING pt. WHATEVER; CHOCO-COCO RAW-MUFFINS

Time for some Sunday baking! Or, by the time you'll get to it it will be Monday already. Alhtough it's Easter so Monday is kind of like Sunday anyways but oh well peanuts! 

...which is what we will be using here; or not peanuts-peanuts but nuts and fruits mainly - these muffins are raw. It's a muffin version of the cake I made some time ago. I've been refining the recipe a bit. It is originally based on a layered raw cake on mulberries and walnut with a raspberry filling from Jolie. I was about to transport these away from home today so I decided to make them into muffins instead of a cake. Although a more proper word would perhaps be pastries. But yes yes thats peanuts-schemanuts again.

These will stay good a day or two  refridgerated. They are pretty heavy so one or two per person is quite enough. This batch makes 15 small sized muffins. 

So,

you will need 4 dl of nuts and 4 dried fruit (the measurements are a little bit so-so, I usually just go for one handfull = one dl, but I tried to be precise here!), cocoa powder and coconut flakes, berries (fresh or frozen), coconut cream, coconut oil and honey (or agave) and small cupcake molds. If you are a puritan you will use all-raw ingredients but I use basic items that can be found in most grocery stores.

First, we make the crust. Or cake. Not sure what to call it. Muffin:
2 dl walnuts
2dl almonds
1 dl dried figs (about four big)
1 dl raisins
2 dl dates (about 8 mid sized)
1 table spoon dried apple in bits
1 dl cocoa powder
coconut flakes

You can do this on only walnuts too and you can use basically any fruit or dried berries for the batch, as long as half of it is dates.

If the fruit is very dry chop it into pieces and soak in water for some time. I needed to soak the figs and the apple for about 30 min. Pressed pitted dates can require longer for example.

Grind the nuts in a food processor. (If you do not have a monster machine that can take the whole amount at a time -but a bullet or hand mixer with a cutting blade- you need to do this in small phazes. Believe me, I've broken several smaller mixes when I've been to eager...)
You can leave a little texture to the nuts, they don't have ti turn into smooth flour. If you mix walnuts for too long the oil will fall out which makes the batch greasy.

Add the fruit in a few bits at a time and the cocoa powder, mix to a rather smooth paste. If it feels too moist you can add a spoon of coconut flakes.

Scrap out of the mixer, put some coconut flakes on your working surface, moist your hands and roll the batch into a ball. Cover with plastic and put in the fridge.

Meanwhile, take out the berries from the freezer if you use frozen ones.
You'll need about 2 dl.

Now, let's make the frosting -

For which we need:
One pack (200g) coconut cream
3 table spoons honey (or agave for the all-vegan version)
4 table spoons cocoa powder (or more for a darker frosting. Makes sense.)

And oh, 2 large table spoons of cold pressed coconut oil.
Put the oil in a cup and place the cup in a pot of warm water, so that it will melt.

Place the coconut cream in a strainer so that any excess fluid runs off. Note that coconut cream is not coconut milk, but a firm paste.  (Btw I realized I had never had the need to use the word strainer in English before in my life and had to look that up. Funny. )

Add all ingredients in a bowl or in the food processor. I sprinkled some ground vanilla on top. 

Mix togehter by machine or hand, both works fine.  Put in the fridge for a while to set.

This makes a great chocolate mousse too btw to eat with fruit salad or refrigerated as ice cream.

Take out the dough and roll it into balls, place them in the molds. They are actually quite good just like this but we won't leave it to just balls now will we. Flat the balls with a teaspoon and form a little pot.

Mash the berries.

Fill the pots with berry mash, about a teaspoon each.

Take out the frosting and decorate the muffins by spoon or knife or with that squisher-thing that makes swirls like this.  (Another word I didn't know. But then again I can't seem to know the accurate word for it in Swedish or Finnish either. Or any other language. Lets call it swirler.)

And then we're done! Serve. These are the kind of pastry you can serve to people without mentioning that they are raw or healthy if you want to; you can easily fool most skeptics. 

Best eaten by spoon. Yum!