Annie’s Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake Recipe, Spotlight on Hazelnuts and Chocolate and Boosting Positivity for Better Health

One of the greatest “secrets” about extra virgin olive oil is how easily this healthful fat can substitute for the traditional saturated fats, like butter and lard, that are the core of many baked goods, especially desserts. As you experiment, I recommend starting with the mildest olive oil in your cabinet, especially for lighter cakes and cookies. But for Valentine’s Day, let’s go bold with an amazing chocolate cake that delivers benefits from numerous healthy ingredients. Enjoy!

Annie’s Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

• Annie’s Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

  Annie Paterson, the multitalented proprietress of Nullamunjie Olive Oil in Australia, generously shared one of her signature recipes when we got together. The hazelnuts provide another punch of healthy fats. Serve slices with fresh berries and, for a touch of indulgence, vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

  Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons top-quality cocoa powder
  • 1/3 cup hot water
  • 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
  • 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup finely ground hazelnut meal
  • 4 large eggs, separated

  Directions

  Step 1

  Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch springform pan with a round of parchment paper on the bottom and a long strip around the inside walls. If making your own hazelnut meal, pulse 2/3 cup toasted whole nuts in a food processor to a mealy consistency, about 12 pulses—don’t go too far or you could end up with a paste. Measure out 1 cup (reserve any excess to sprinkle on cereal or yogurt).

  Step 2

  In a large mixing bowl, combine the cocoa powder and hot water, and whisk until smooth. Melt the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler, stirring constantly. Add the melted chocolate to the cocoa-hot water mixture along with the olive oil, brown sugar, and hazelnut meal. Stir until thoroughly combined, and then whisk in the yolks, one at a time; set aside.

  Step 3

  Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold half the whites into the chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula. When well combined, fold in the remaining egg whites, and then scrape the mixture into the prepared pan.

  Step 4

  Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean—some moist chocolate may remain as the cake should be fudgy, like a brownie. Let the cake cool completely in the pan, then remove it and carefully peel off the parchment.
  

  Serves 8 — Recipe courtesy of the Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are one of the unsung stars in the nut category, with a sweet taste that’s best when roasted but not salted. A one-ounce serving delivers 3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, and 17 grams of fat—76% are healthy monounsaturated fats and 12% are healthy polyunsaturated fats. Hazelnuts are also an excellent source of vitamin E and the minerals copper and manganese, and a good source of B1, B6 and magnesium. While ground hazelnuts make an excellent flour substitute, these nuts aren’t only for desserts—they’re great in place of breadcrumbs and they add crunch to salads and veggie side dishes. A handful makes a satisfying snack.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Dark Chocolate for the Win

Much research has been done on the potential health benefits of dark chocolate. A study review published in The FASEB Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology looked at 19 articles and found that dark chocolate and cocoa do indeed contain significant polyphenols, antioxidant-rich nutrients that may help lower blood pressure and even cholesterol. But what exactly is dark chocolate, and how can you balance the sugar that’s added to make a very bitter food—cacao—so delicious?

Chocolate is defined by the percentage of cacao it contains, before other ingredients like cocoa butter, sugar, and vanilla are added. Cacao is made from the fleshy white seeds within cacao pods. Bittersweet chocolate has the highest ratio of cacao to other ingredients. It has to be at least 35% cacao, but the best choices are usually 70% or more—with just enough sugar to create a great taste. Semisweet chocolate—the vast majority of chips sold at most supermarkets—is about 55% cacao, while milk chocolate can be as low as 10% but more often is about 40%. So, it’s easy to see why eating a box of bonbons with a high sugar content is not going to deliver many antioxidants, but rather tons of calories. Always look for the percentage rather than just the designation of “dark” or “semisweet” when buying. Have fun researching new brands, and read the taste profiles on manufacturers’ websites—you might like a 72% bar better than a 64%! A great American brand to try is California-based Guittard. Storage tip: Keep chocolate away from moisture, heat, and extreme temperatures—a cool 60°F is ideal.

For Your Best Health

Boost Positivity for Better Health

Emotional health is vital to overall health. With all the distress we’ve faced over the last year, it’s more important than ever to look for ways to boost positivity. An amazing resource is the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The Center sponsors groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well‐being and shows you how to apply their findings to your personal life through articles, videos, quizzes, podcasts, free online courses, and the wonderful “Happiness Calendar” full of ideas for doing good and feeling great. Check out the February installment and sign up to get the calendar by email every month.

Fitness Flash

Circadian Rhythms and You

Have you ever noticed that you feel more tired around the time of a full moon? Research done at the University of Washington, the National University of Quilmes in Argentina, and Yale University found that the body’s natural circadian rhythms tend to take advantage of the extra natural light after dusk on the nights leading up to a full moon, when the “waxing moon” is in the sky. Whether they were living in cities or rural areas, study participants slept the least and went to bed the latest during this monthly occurrence. “We hypothesize that the patterns we observed are an innate adaptation that allowed our ancestors to take advantage of this natural source of evening light that occurred at a specific time during the lunar cycle,” says lead author Leandro Casiraghi, a postdoctoral researcher in the biology department at the University of Washington. Note your sleep and wake times around the time of the next full moon; if you wake up cranky, it could be because you’re going to bed too late and missing out on some important zzz’s.

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Squash and Carrot Soup Recipe, Spotlight on Turmeric, Add a Microplane Grater to Your Kitchen, Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Turmeric Properties, and Limiting Dangerous Downtime

I love a dish that’s easy to make yet tastes complex with layers of flavor and, even better, is also comforting on a cold day. The first recipe in this issue of The Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter delivers on all counts. The directions for many vegetable-based soups suggest boiling the vegetables before puréeing them, but that technique is no match for roasting to bring out all their natural sweetness, which, in turn, adds richness to the finished dish. Because I so want to introduce you to turmeric, often under appreciated in American cooking, I’m also including a second recipe that features it—chai masala, an amazing spice mix that makes it easy to create your own chai tea (or coffee) at home. Enjoy!

Squash and Carrot Soup

• Squash and Carrot Soup

  This dish is easy to make yet tastes complex with layers of flavor and, even better, is also comforting on a cold day. I recommend roasting your vegetables—before puréeing them—for maximum flavor and enhanced natural sweetness.

  Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • 2 pounds squash, such as butternut, acorn, or Hubbard, halved, seeded, and cut into large pieces
  • 4 large carrots, scrubbed and quartered
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 1-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon, preferably Vietnamese, plus more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

  Yields 6 servings.

  Directions

  Heat your oven to 425°F. Coat a large baking sheet with the olive oil and add all the vegetables, with the squash pieces skin side up. Roast for 30 minutes, flip the vegetables with a spatula, and roast for another 20 minutes. Once the vegetables are cool enough to handle, scrape all the squash flesh from its skin and transfer to your food processor along with the carrots, onions, 1 cup of the broth, and the spices. Pulse a few times, adding more liquid as needed until it reaches a purée consistency. Taste and add more cinnamon and/or nutmeg as desired.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Turmeric

India is the land of intriguing spices, rich and deep, and none more colorful than turmeric. The country produces nearly all of the world’s turmeric and its 1.3 billion people consume 80 percent of it! Turmeric (Curcuma longa) belongs to the Zingiberaceae family, which also includes ginger, and you can see the similarity between them when you hold up the edible parts, the rhizomes. Fresh turmeric reminds me of a thick tree trunk with a tight network of branches. Also, like ginger, turmeric has been used for thousands of years in both sweet and savory dishes in India and throughout South Asia and into the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. Apart from its culinary history, turmeric has been widely used in Eastern medicine, in religious ceremonies, and even as a natural coloring. Essential in Indian dishes from kormas to dals, it’s also delicious in sauces, stews, broths, salad dressings, juices, and baked goods for depth of flavor and a jolt of color.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Kitchen Tool Recommendation: Microplane Grater

If you don’t yet have a Microplane grater (or two), it’s time to add this essential to your culinary gadget drawer. It makes fast work of grating nutmeg, not to mention finely zesting lemons, limes, and oranges. The graters are available everywhere from Amazon to top homeware retailers like Williams-Sonoma.

For Your Best Health

Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Turmeric

Most of the interest in turmeric comes from its powerful polyphenol curcumin, which is thought to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, although research done in Western countries hasn’t quite been able to explain how it works. Interestingly, we know that, on its own, curcumin has a low bioavailability, meaning the body isn’t able to draw out and make the most of its nutrients. According to a report in the journal Foods, you can increase that bioavailability by having black pepper, rich in the active ingredient piperine, along with turmeric. So, every time you reach for turmeric, grab your black peppercorn grinder, too.

Fitness Flash

How to Limit Dangerous Downtime

Working at home has its merits, but there’s a potential downside, too—more time spent sitting and less energy expended. In fact, according to a post from the American College of Sports Medicine by fitness and wellness experts Alicia T. Bryan, PhD, FACSM, and Raymond Jones, PhD, many people are clocking another three hours of sedentary behavior a day on top of the eight hours we’re already averaging. “With the recent rise in virtual learning, teleworking, and health-mandated quarantines/isolations, we can be confident that adverse health outcomes will eventually emerge among those who now find themselves classified as physically inactive or insufficiently active,” their report stated.

How to stop this dangerous activity slowdown? One key piece of the advice given by Drs. Bryan and Jones is to reimagine Zoom meetings (business and social) with these pointers:

• Limit meetings to one hour or less.
• Have breaks between meetings rather than scheduling them back to back so you can get in some light movement or even a short workout.
• Spend 5 minutes in a standing activity for every 25 minutes you’re seated.
• Between calls, practice stretches at your desk that target the hips, hamstrings and lower back.

They also offer the reminder that everyone can achieve health gains through small, incremental bouts of physical activity, even just five minutes at a time to start. Here are more ideas—they’re written with meeting organizers in mind, but can be adapted by anyone wanting to be more active.

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The Ultimate Guacamole Recipe, Spotlight on Cumin, Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Actually Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

While avocado toast has had its moment in the foodie spotlight, avocados have always been in style. I love topping avocado slices with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of Maldon salt. Their creaminess makes them a great omelet stuffing and of course, there’s nothing quite like guacamole, a surprisingly healthful dish when you dip veggies instead of chips or use it as a spread instead of mayo. I’m always entertained by the theater of tableside guac prep at Mexican restaurants, but making it at home is actually quite simple. So, grab a fork and get ready to mash…

The Ultimate Guacamole

• The Ultimate Guacamole

  This guacamole gets a jolt of flavor from cumin. You can intensify the heat by leaving in some of the jalapeño seeds.

  Ingredients

  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 1 small jalapeño
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 cup of cilantro, leaves and some stems
  • 3 large ripe avocados
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste
  • 1 lime, halved
  • 1 teaspoon cumin (wild if possible), toasted and ground
  • Freshly ground black peppercorns
  • Coarse sea salt

  Directions

  Mince the garlic and set it aside for 10 minutes to allow its healthful compound allicin to develop. Wearing gloves to keep the jalapeño’s powerful oils off your skin, slice the pepper in half lengthwise and use a small spoon to scrape out the ribs and seeds, and then cut it into a small dice. On a large cutting board, chop the onion into a large dice and keep chopping as you add in the garlic, jalapeños, and cilantro to meld them together. Halve the avocados and use a spoon to scoop all the flesh into a large bowl. Add the olive oil, coarsely mash the avocado with a fork, and then fold in the onion mixture. Squeeze in the juice of a lime half and fold in the cumin, a few twists of your peppercorn grinder, and a sprinkle of salt. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more olive oil, lime juice, black pepper, and/or salt as desired.

  Yields 4-6 appetizer servings. ​

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Wild Cumin

Experimenting with new spices is a passion of mine. Sometimes, it’s not a completely different spice that intrigues me, but an elevated version of one that I already use. That’s the case with wild cumin (Bunium persicum)—rare, dark-brown seeds handpicked from wild plants growing in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan and then sun-dried. Wild cumin, used in cooking for centuries, has a somewhat mysterious history because it’s native to very remote areas of the world, notably other regions of Central Asia such as Iran, Pakistan, and the Himalayas in northern India, where it is known as kala jeera. Wild cumin is also known as black cumin or royal cumin. It’s often confused with Nigella sativa because the common name of that seed is also translated as “black cumin.” But Nigella is part of the Ranunculaceae family, whereas the plant that gives us wild cumin, along with parsley and dill, is from the Apiaceae family.

Wild cumin has a depth that’s missing in the common variety. It has the aroma of cedar, pepper, eucalyptus, and rye, and, on the palate, is very reminiscent of the caraway on seeded rye breads. It tastes both earthy and bright with hints of anise, eucalyptus, and mint. Used whole or ground, it shines in classic Indian dishes such as biryanis and curries, Middle Eastern falafel and hummus, and North African tagines and harissa, a heavily spiced chile paste. It also adds wonderful zest when sprinkled whole on naan and other flatbreads and when ground for dry rubs and marinades. And, of course, don’t be shy about using it in Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes that typically call for plain cumin.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Much has been written about the smoke point of oils (and butter), the temperature at which the fat begins to smoke in a pan. This smoke is a sign of its chemical breakdown, or oxidation, and the potential loss of nutrients. One of the biggest myths surrounding olive oil is that it reaches its smoke point at a lower heat than other oils, meaning it isn’t a good choice for frying or high-heat sautéing. However, a number of lab tests over recent years, including an extensive one published in Acta Scientific Nutritional Health, have found this to be untrue. The integrity, nutrients, and flavor of extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO, can, in fact, withstand temperatures of 475℉ on the stove or in the oven, a temperature nearly twice as high as the typical heat of sautéing. Starting with the highest-quality EVOO with plentiful antioxidants actually protects the oil’s stability when heated. The volume of oil needed to deep-fry a batch of potatoes, for instance, makes using EVOO for that purpose a very expensive proposition. But for most other dishes that call for cooking in oil, it’s a great way to infuse the food with olive oil’s rich flavor. Check out this article in US News & World Report for a full rundown on the testing.

For Your Best Health

Wild Cumin and Your Health

Wild cumin has a bounty of antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Many cultures have used the essential oils pressed from the seeds as a botanical remedy for digestive and other problems for centuries. Because different strains grow wild in different parts of the world, it’s hard to study wild cumin’s health benefits in a formal setting to truly unlock its potential, according to research in the journal Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants. So, for now, think of these properties as a possible bonus to its unique taste.

Fitness Flash

Actually Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Have you already made and broken a list of New Year’s resolutions? Vera Ludwig, PhD, a research associate in the Platt Labs at the University of Pennsylvania, has a better way based on what’s called reward learning and intrinsic motivation. Her method, which draws on mindfulness and self-regulation, was published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. It focuses on adding awareness to the mix of goal setting and changing behaviors.

“There’s this idea that there are two systems at work in the brain: the impulses and desires trying to tempt us and the cognitive control processes trying to rein in those desires and impulses,” Dr. Ludwig says. “We were interested in how this can happen in a more harmonious way. Rather than fighting against impulses, why not try to align those with our values?”

The process starts with realizing that the behavior you want to change doesn’t make sense for you or doesn’t match up with your goals. Next, try to understand what triggered the behavior and how you feel afterward. Then, think about more positive behaviors you can take instead and how you might enact them. “In the final step, you become aware of how the new behavior feels physically and emotionally,” Dr. Ludwig says. “The idea is that the brain reward system will then update the reward signal to encode the reward value of the new option as higher. Then, we may effortlessly act this way in the future. Studies show that behaviors that are aligned with our goals and values subjectively feel better than those that are not. The hope is that simply by paying attention, we can notice that the new behavior is really beneficial. When we get a positive outcome, the new behavior gets reinforced.” Read more about Dr. Ludwig’s research at Futurity.org.

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