With Christmas coming up I wanted to make something super fun and exciting, but also something that would really test your culinary skills. These Raw Vegan Snowball Teacakes aren’t quite as fluffy as the original Tunnock’s Tea Cakes due to the fact that the meringue is raw, but they certainly are just as tasty. Traditionally an Italian meringue is used which requires a boiled sugar syrup to be added to the egg whites (or aquafaba). I also used a fudgy, cashew based cookie dough in replacement of the shortbread. I think in future I’m definitely going to give the original baked version a healthier makeover, I’ve even been working on my shortbread skills, but I thought for now a raw version would be a fun challenge.
Raw buttery cookie dough, soft fluffy peppermint mallow, all enrobed in a crisp raw white chocolate shell with an arctic blast of shredded coconut, making these Raw Vegan Snowball Teacakes the most mindblowing treat ever!
Now, you’re probably going to be both excited and terrified to know that today I’m teaching you how to make your very own tempered raw white chocolate. It’s more of a laborious and time-consuming task rather than a difficult one, however, if you follow my instructions down to the tee you’ll soon realise that it’s not so bad. In a nutshell, it requires you to stick to certain temperatures – you melt your chocolate to a certain temperature, drop the temperature, then raise it again in order to create a stable, solid chocolate that has a wonderful snap to it. To be honest the hardest part is preventing the chocolate from thickening too quickly whilst you’re painting your moulds. If you feel that at the moment it’s too overwhelming then feel free to buy around 550g of your favourite chocolate (raw would probably be too pricey though) and melt that down instead. Personally, I think a good 90% chocolate would make this the ultimate dessert but I know that my kiddos would completely disagree.
I used raw cane sugar and erythritol in my white chocolate purely for aesthetics but I’d highly recommend subbing the cane sugar for coconut sugar as it’s so much healthier and the meringue is filled with the stuff too. I also want to reiterate the fact that this is in no way a healthy dessert and it should be kept strictly for special occasions only. But yes, it still healthier than the original processed sugar-laden teacake. I always feel like I have to pop a little disclaimer like this as it’s easy to come under heavy scrutiny when you’re a healthy eating blogger. It’s kinda funny really as overall my blog doesn’t represent my day-to-day way of eating. I love to stuff my face with veggies, drink down adaptogens, and I would love it if more people wanted to see those kinds of recipes. They are after all the most important ones. Sadly, they just don’t bring in as much traffic to my site as desserts. I think I’m going to have to go back to shoving more veggies in them to make sure you’re all eating well! Anyway, I digress…
This has to be the most rewarding recipe you will ever make – I mean come on – raw, buttery cookie dough, soft and fluffy peppermint mallow, all enrobed in a crisp raw white chocolate that’s gone for an arctic coconut blast. Beautiful! But it’s not just about the taste, it’s about the fact that you have single-handedly managed to create every single element of this recipe. It’s crazy! So yeah, don’t be put off by the million steps, instead, just relax and enjoy the process. Get your kitchen clean, decluttered and prepped. Read through the instructions a thousand times, write a quick note of the temperatures so you don’t need to keep on referring back to the recipe, and most of all just don’t stress. If your chocolate goes out of temper just start again. You might even want to make your chocolate before attempting this recipe and then carefully melt it down to the temperature required to coat the silicone mould. Sometimes that’s what I do too because the entire task feels too big to take head-on. Either way, try this recipe when you’ve got some spare and uninterrupted time to tackle this awesomeness! So without further ado, I present to you the recipe of all recipes – Raw Vegan Snowball Teacakes!
Feeling kinda festive? Why not give my Paleo and vegan Cranberry and Orange Meringue Pie or Star-Topped Mince Pies a whirl? Oh, and if you want to keep up to date with my deliciousness then why not sign up to my newsletter?!
- 1.5 cup cashews
- ½ cup ground almonds
- 4.5 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp lucuma powder
- 1 tbsp mesquite powder (or maca if strict Paleo)
- ½ tsp vanilla powder or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch sea salt
- 67.5g cashews
- 45g raw cane sugar (powdered)
- 37.5g erythritol/xylitol (powdered)
- ½ tsp vanilla powder
- 375g cacao butter
- 3ml Mint Medicine Flower Extract/15-20 drops organic peppermint essential oil/1½ tsp peppermint extract (preferably oil based)
- 1¼ cup raw cane sugar (powdered)
- ⅔ cup aquafaba (juice from 1 can of organic chickpeas)
- ¾ -1 tsp xanthan gum
- ½ tsp vanilla powder or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- 1ml Mint Medicine Flower Extract/5-7 drops organic peppermint essential oil/1/2 tsp peppermint extract (preferably oil based)
- 2 cups desiccated coconut
- Firstly start by making your raw cookies. Place your cashews and ground almonds into the bowl of your food processor. Process until a flour-like consistency is achieved. Add in your remaining cookie dough ingredients and process until your mixture starts to come together into a dough. It doesn't have to instantly 'ball' together but if you pinch it between your fingers it should be quite oily and sticky. Remove the mix from your food processor, roll into a ball, cover with cling film, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Once your dough has firmed up remove from the fridge and place onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Roll out gently using a rolling pin until about 0.5cm thick. Using a large (around 7cm diameter or slightly above), upturned cookie cutter (crinkly side up) cut out 6 rounds, placing on a greaseproof paper lined
baking tray . Place the cookies in the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up. - It's now time to make your tempered raw white chocolate. Start by powdering your cashews, cane sugar, erythritol, and vanilla powder into a really fine flour. A Vitamix/Blendtec would work wonders but a Nutribullet style blender with a milling blade will also work fine too.
- Next, place your cacao butter over a bain
marie and melt until liquid. Using a stem thermometer ensure that you don't go over 39°C/102°F. Pour your melted cacao butter into the blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Keep checking the temperature as you go along. When making raw chocolate you do not want to exceed 42°C/107°F otherwise it will no longer be raw. - It's now time to temper your chocolate. Pour the chocolate into a large mixing bowl and stir around to encourage the chocolate to cool. Drop the temperature to 29°C/84°F and then heat the chocolate back up to 31.5°C/88.7°F. You can do this by either placing your bowl over freshly boiled water taken off the heat or you can place back into your blender and blend until you reach the right temperature. If you go over 33°C/91.4°F you will have to start the tempering process again. Stir in your peppermint flavouring of choice and leave to thicken.
- Once your chocolate has thickened enough to spread, coat the inside of your silicone moulds making the thickness of the chocolate roughly 0.5cm. I used the back of a spoon and ran the chocolate around the moulds. If the chocolate is too runny it will pool into the top of the dome making it too thick and the sides too thin and fragile. I found that the best temperature was about 25°C/77°F. Place your mould into the refrigerator to set.
- Remove your cookie dough rounds and dip in the remaining chocolate, allow the excess to drip before placing back onto a lined tray.
- It's now time to make your mallow. Divide your raw cane sugar into 2 equal halves, transfer one half into a high powered blender and using a milling blade, process until it begins to turn into an icing sugar like consistency. Place your aquafaba, xanthan gum, and cream of tartar into your stand mixer and whisk on max speed until doubled in size and fluffy. Be sure to periodically scrape down the sides to incorporate all of the ingredients. Spoon in your powdered sugar first, spoon by spoon, followed by your granular cane sugar following the same method. Whisk until smooth and fluffy with stiff peaks. You shouldn't be able to feel any grittiness of the sugar when rubbing the mixture between your fingers. If you don't have a stand mixer then a handheld electric whisk will suffice.
- Remove your silicone chocolate mould from the fridge and spoon in your mallow mix until ⅔ full. Place back into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Remove both your chocolate dipped raw cookies and your chocolate mould from the refrigerator and carefully de-mould the domes. Heat a non-stick or cast iron pan until warm then place the top of one raw cookie onto the pan for a second to melt the chocolate and do the same with the bottom rim of the domes. Place the 2 together and hold gently to fuse. Place on to a wire rack and place a sheet of non-stick paper underneath. Repeat until you have made each dome.
- Heat your remaining chocolate back up to 28°C/82°F using the methods from before and pour over a dome. Immediately sprinkle over a handful of desiccated coconut until covered. Repeat for each dome. Leave to set and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
If you own a Vitamix or Blendtec you will not need to melt your cacao butter first -
you can actually throw all of your ingredients in and use the tamper stick until evenly melted.
*All cup measurements used are UK cup measurements and so 1 cup = 250ml.
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