We love answering questions, there’s two questions that we’ve seen come up recently:

How do I change a recipe that uses dates to be Fructose Free?

How do I stop chocolate made with rice malt syrup from separating?

So here’s our thoughts (and a couple of extra tips) to help you out.

Replacing dates/dried fruit in a biscuit base

Quite simply most times you can replace the dates or dried fruits that are used for binding the biscuit base together with a combination of Golden Rice Malt Syrup and coconut oil or butter.

For example if the recipe calls for around 8-10 dates, leave them out and simply use:

¼ cup of The Sugar Breakup Organic Golden Rice Malt Syrup and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil or butter.

We’ve road tested this on a great Raw Vegan Bounty Slice (original recipe can be found here, thanks to LiveLoveEatRaw.com.au ).

The base is uncooked, we swapped the dates for ¼ cup Rice Malt Syrup and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. As you can see in our photo the base holds together beautifully and it tastes great!

How do I make a simple gluten, grain, dairy and fructose free biscuit base?

If you are exploring in the kitchen making different types of slices and cheesecakes it is always good to have a simple base that you can use for different toppings. One of our favourites is:
2 cups of mixed nuts (cashews, pistachios, almonds, pecans – any nut you like!)
½ cup shredded coconut
¼ cup The Sugar Breakup Organic Golden Rice Malt Syrup
2 tablespoons of coconut oil (for diary free) or butter
Pop everything in a food processor and process until the nuts break down and it starts to stick together.
Press into a greased and lined spring form cake tin (perfect for a 20cm tin)
Bake for 10-15 minutes until just golden.
Allow to cool and top with whatever creative topping you like!

Do I have to cook the base?

No you don’t! You can also use this recipe as a raw base. It is best set and stored in the freezer but will also last a couple of days in the fridge. Really depends what type of topping you are placing on it as to whether it is best to have it baked or raw, you decide.

How do I stop my rice malt syrup chocolate from separating?

We LOVE making chocolate. It can be done using cocoa butter, coconut oil or a combination of both. However, if you’ve made chocolate by whisking coconut oil, rice malt syrup and cocoa/cacao powder together you might have noticed they can separate whilst cooling which doesn’t taste or look great. Here’s the key things you need to know to make your chocolate made with coconut oil work:

1. Be gentle when melting coconut oil. You can melt it in bowl sitting over a pot of boiling water or in the microwave, it just needs to be turned into liquid not burning hot.
2. Use a stick blender or food processor/thermomix to whiz the coconut oil, rice malt syrup & cocoa/cacao powder together. By blending together you will stop (or slow down) the ingredients from separating whilst setting. Yes you can whisk by hand but whisk hard!
3. ALWAYS put the chocolate into the freezer to set. The chocolate needs to set quickly so it doesn’t have time to separate.
4. Keep your delicious homemade chocolate in the fridge or freezer. Coconut oil is very soft or even liquid at room temperature (depending on where you live) so this chocolate can’t live in the pantry.

We used coconut oil to make the chocolate on our version of the Raw Vegan Bounty Slice. A very simple equation to remember is:
¼ cup melted coconut oil + ¼ cup Golden Rice Malt Syrup + ¼ cup cocoa/cacao powder + pinch salt.
Whiz together, pour, straight into the freezer to set.

We love answering questions! Don’t be shy, hit us with your questions about cooking with The Sugar Breakup Dextrose and Golden Rice Malt Syrup!