Mango Macadamia Honey Ice Cream and a visit to Maleny Dairies

Nestled in the green mountains of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland is a beautful local producer and farm, Maleny Dairies

A family run farm with strong ethics and care for their animals and a factory that is at the heart of its community. They believe in what they do and in quality products. As a cook I have never used a cream as real, rich and thick as the Maleny Dairies cream.

It is so natural it is almost yellow and it whips in seconds.

It truly makes the best ice cream, my kids know if they see Maleny Dairies cream in the fridge there is a good chance ice - cream is on the menu!

Coffee Ice Cream

Chocolate Macadamia Ice Cream

And my latest creation!

Mango, Macadamia & Honey Ice-cream!

Ingredients

• 1 x 600ml container of cream, (I always use Maleny Dairies rich and natural cream)
• 2 ripe mangoes
• 2 tabelspoons raw honey (or to taste)
• 2 droppers of sweat leaf vanila stevia drops ( you can get these from most health food shops and many supermarkets, I know the Maleny IGA stocks them OR use a good vanilla paste in its place and increase your honey to taste if needed.
• 2 teaspoons dark coconut sugar (optional you could also you raw cane sugar) 
• 1/2 cup raw macadamia's

Method

• Pour the cream into a large bowl, add the honey, liquid stevia drops ( or vanilla paste/essence), coconut sugar.
• Carefully whip the cream, making sure not to over-whip it.
• Taste it for sweetness. Drizzle carefully with some extra honey.
• In a blend blend both mangoes worth of flesh until it smooth and runny.
• Arrange some ice-cream moulds, plastic cups or a tub for your ice-cream on a bench.
• Pour into each mould a layer of the cream.
• Drop in some loose macadamia's.
• Top with a layer of mango, then  more cream, nuts and mango again etc until containers are filled.
• You can now either freeze as is OR use a paddle pop type stick to swirl the flavours together a bit for effect and flavour.
• Place a paddle stick into each one.
• Freezer covered with cling wrap or similar for at least 4 hours.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• You can also make this tub style and pour the ingredients into a tub on top of each other and then use a spoon to swirl them into each other and top with a drizzle of honey and macadamias.
• If you have a dairy allergy but still want to make these swap the cream for:
  the equivalent in Coyo coconut yoghurt (do not whip), Sanitarium vanilla ice-cream (allow to soften slightly at room temperature so easier to work and do not whip) or with a tin of full fat organic coconut cream (yum) - still absolutely delicious, may take a little longer to set, still give a light hand whip and chill in the fridge for 2 hours before using. 

Visiting Maleny Dairies.
I have always believed it to be very important that kids get to know where all foods come from that they are going to eat, so whatever your chosen diet for your children they should become familiar with where everything they put into their bodies comes from, I think it gives them a more down to earth appreciation for food and their bodies.
I recently took the kids for a fun filled day out to the dairy to do their farm tour.

 The kids had the best time! What a fantastic day out and so much for kids to do. They get to feed baby animals, ride the toy animals, see the cows coming in from the field to be milked, see all the amazing machines filling the milk bottles and even watch a hilarious Moovie!

It is a fun and also peaceful day out and after your tour everyone gets to taste some dairy deliciousness, buy goodies farm direct and relax on tables and chairs while the kids run around on the green, green grass with happy chooks cruising around, a giant chess set and toy animals they all race to ride.

Spelt, Beetroot and Walnut Chocolate Brownies

It is school holidays here and the kids love to eat a lot, cook alot, do fun things, explore, run amok,  and did I mention eat a LOT?

The recipe below has been one of their favourite picks these holidays.

Spelt, Walnut & Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

We  made these brownies right after the grand opening of Coles in Nambour, yes, I was made delighted to go down for all the face-painting, balloon blowing, stilt walking, live music, games, colouring in, ring tossing and fun and festivities after my kids discovered everything that was going to be happening down there.

I have to be honest and say we were a bit disappointed with the main lift not working and traipsing across to the next one and then all the way around to the said open new shop and through non automatic doors (you notice these things pushing a pram or trolley) and we had been hoping to see more specialty stores, when it is not so busy I would recommend parking up the top rather than underneath if you have a pram, I think a lot of Nambour and surrounds was excited and eager to see what specialty stores were going with it, I was naturally hoping for a kitchen ware shop ;) I can't say I am a huge fan of the design of these shops being wrapped around outside in the heat instead of inside a shopping centre design with air con, I don't tend to browse a lot when we are all hot but I am very happy to see Coles is moving with times and taking great strides like teaming up with WWF to source and supply sustainability caught seafood.
And we were all very impressed with Not Just For Kids entertainment that was put on and the general atmosphere was great and staff were very happy and friendly, it is good to see more jobs in the region and growth in Nambour.

Couldn't believe she stayed so still!

Lily is always a fan of free balloons and promotional giveaways!

AND I was very surprised and happy that this Coles had a lot of organic and healthy food items that you just don't often see in such a large supermarket chain store and at very family budget friendly prices, which when you are on a tight budget can make a big difference to what you can actually buy and make for your family each fortnight.
The organic, wholemeal spelt flour in a large bag I was very happy to see and it was that we used for these brownies.

Spelt, Walnut & Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

• 2 cups wholemeal, organic spelt flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 4 free range eggs
• 1/2 cup raw honey (or to taste)
• 1 cup walnuts, roughly smashed - see notes
• 200g dark chocolate of choice - see notes
• 1 cup firmly packed grated, raw beetroot
• 1/2 teaspoon pink himalayan salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• baking paper - I use If You Care non toxic baking paper

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180ç. 
• Grease and then line a suitable baking dis with baking paper.
• Over a low heat melt the chocolate and butter together. (You can of course do this double boiler if you want too but I find over a low heat as it is with butter (and as a busy mum) I often just do it this way).
• Remove from heat.
• Stir honey into chocolate mixture.
• In a large bowl combine the spelt flour, salt, baking powder.
• Add in the eggs, mix together.
• Mix in the walnuts and beetroot.
• Combine it all together and pour into the prepared tin.
• Bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until nice and golden and firm on top but you want the skewer to come out a little sticky in spots so that your brownies are still lovely and chocolately gooeyness in some places but still quite firm. Sometimes ovens vary so a lot will depend on how yours cooks too.
• Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack, cut into squares.
• My kids especially liked theirs drizzled with Maleny Dairies fresh, nothing added real cream, by themselves and with a chocolate sauce.

Notes

• You don't want to over-smash your walnuts as you want mostly crumbly with some bigger chunks through it.
• Use your preferred dark chocolate, you could even use Sweet Williams sugar free or an organic bitter dark - just remember to taste your batter in case it is not sweet enough if the chocolate is really bitter- unless you like it that way!
• Use a GF flour to make these gluten free.

Happy Cooking!

Bek XX

Note: this was not a sponsored post