Crunchy Raw Chocolate Malt Granola

So... my daddy is visiting me in Berlin these days and it's really amazing having him here and showing him a bit of my urban world, combined with my love for nature, lakes, greens, and of course... food :-) I am showing him around Berlin, bringing him to all the sites and also to my favorite lakes and restaurants and other food places and of course, sneaking in some healthy raw food creations from my kitchen lab, mainly for breakfast. Now, of course, I can't shock him with a green juice or green smoothie on the first day, so the first two days, I introduced him to my raw kitchen, giving him what he kind of knows: Granola, or "Knuspermüsli" as the German's call it.

Who doesn't love Granola, the yummy crunchy sweet clusters that you commonly put in milk in the mornings and crunch your start into the day. Unfortunately, granola isn't as healthy as it may appear, cause usually it's full of sugar and not so healthy stuff and if you then drink it with homogenized ultra heat treated milk or some highly factory processed soy drink, I doubt it's any better than a wheat bun with butter and jam...

The good news is, I have a perfect alternative: All raw, gluten-free, free of processed sugars and full of good energy, so yummy and crunchy. The secret of the crunchy effect is the sprouted buckwheat. Buckwheat is an amazing seed (it's actually not a grain!). It's gluten-free and actually reminds more of a grain, cause it's fairly low in fat, digests super well and when you sprout it and dehydrate it again, it becomes very crunchy and therefore is the perfect base for granola. Now add some truly raw wild grown cacao nibs from Bali and Indonesia to give you some happiness to start the day, cause they are so loaden with Triptophane, which is the precursor to Serotonin, the happy hormone, and then add a few sprouted nuts and seeds and a paste made from dates, carob and mesquite (a pod from central america) to give it a malty chocolaty flavor, and ready is the best chocolate malt granola ever.

For the base Base:

250 g sprouted buckwheat (weight before sprouting)

1 cup walnuts or pecan nuts (soaked for 2 hours)

½ cup sunflower and pumpkin seeds (soaked for 4 hours)

½ cup shredded dried coconut

4 dried figs

1 /2 cups raisins

1/3 cup of goji or other special berries

1/2 cup cacao nibs (or crushed beans)

2 apples, grated

Put the sprouted buckwheat into a bowl. Food process the nuts and seeds in a food processor with the s-blade attached. They should be coarsely ground still quite chunky. Add to the buckwheat. 

Soak the dried fruit in just a little water for about half an hour. then cut the figs in small pieces and add them together with the raisins and berries and the rest of the ingredients to the buckwheat nut base. 

Safe the soak water of the dried fruit.

For the paste:

1 apple

3 medjol dates

3 T coconut palm sugar

2 T cacao powder

3 T mesquite powder

3 T carob powder

1/2 t salt

1 t vanilla powder or 1 vanilla pod

Optional: grated zest of 2-4 oranges

soak water of dried fruit

Blend everything to a thick paste adding a little water if needed. Add the paste to the base and stir well using a sturdy wooden spoon or your hands. Distribute the granola evenly and not too high and not too tight on teflex sheets of a dehydrator and dry for up to 36 hours at 42 degrees until completely dry and crispy. Store in an airtight container. 

Serve with plain homemade raw coconut or almond milk 

and some fresh fruit (grated apples, berries,…), 
add some chopped wild herbs, mint and/or lemon verbana and crunch your day away !

Find this and more recipes in my 

Ebook

or learn this and much more during my introduction seminar to raw food

The 101 of Raw Food

or even better

in Bali end of January 2015 during my most magic retreat :-)

Enjoy the most awesome day :-)

b.happy - b.crunchy - b.alive!

My Dad and I after swimming in Plötzensee (above) and at Tempelhof after my yoga lesson.

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b.alive Berlin Brunch , 1st edition

Last Sunday, I opened doors to the first brunch at the inofficial "b.alive raw café" at my little studio loft in Berlin Mitte. It was a great success. 11 hungry people showed up with sceptic faces wondering whether THIS raw food would actually fill them or if they need to go to have a Döner or Currywurst after. I think, noone had to :-)

The brunch menu featured:

• Banana Blueberry Chocolate Smoothies
• Raw Homemade Superfoods Granola (including Goji Berries, Maca, Raw Chocolate, etc.) served with a freshly made Goji Berry Coconut Milk and fresh fruit
• Raw Buckwheat Pizza with fermented cheese and marinated vegetables
• Nori Rolls with Fermented Wasabi Sunflower Cheeze
• Chocolate Nachos with a Sweet Spicy Walnut Saffron Paté
• Sicilian Fennel Orange Radicchio Salad with Walnuts
• Apple Pie with Caramel Cashew Sauce

The raw pizza was definitely the brunch star. Everybody was surprised on how pizza can be raw until they figured out that the misterious black box in the corner was the magical tool: a dehydrator. This pizza was delicious, with a crust made from buckwheat and sun-dried tomatoes, a layer of fermented sunflower seed cheeze, another layer of marinara sauce and topped with a vegetable medeley of eggplants, zucchini, spinach and bell pepper that have been marinated in olive oil and Italian herbs for 24 hours. Everything together created a perfect combination of textures and flavours.

My personal favourite were the chocolate nachos with a walnut saffron paté. The chocolate in the nachos (made from a base of sunflower seeds and corn) gave them a bitterness which is well complemented by the sweetness and spicyness of the paté, made from walnuts, saffron, dried apricots, chilli and some other little secrets.

For the Nori Rolls, I used the fermented sunflower seed cheeze and flovoured it with Wasabi and Soy Sauce, used it as a filling together with raw veggies like cucuber, carrots, peppers, avocavdos and sprouts, et voilà, a beautiful vegan interpretation of a maki roll.

The celebrities of the first brunch were: Writer Travis Jeppesen, art photographer Luigi, Art Gallerist Michael Rade, Roisin Cronin, Mark Malossek, Sven Bretschneider, Fashion Youngster Reto Cameri, Fair Trade Coffee Roaster David MacGregor, DJ and Musician Snax and Berlinale volunteer Na'ama with her friend William.

Everybody, including me, was happy and shining by the end of the brunch and left with an obvious abundance of radiating energy from their first living food experience. At least the grateful smiles told me so. I am already looking forward to the next event.