Find a little balance to the Easter feasting
● Sneak in a little goodness with Rooibos and pumpkin!
As cupboards, baskets and shelves fill up with colourfully wrapped Easter eggs, it is almost certain that sugar intake over this Easter weekend will be at a year long high for most Nelson Mandela Bay residents — regardless of age.
The key is to create balance and allow children to indulge in their Easter stash while helping them stretch that stash over a longer period of time with the help of deceptively healthy spreads between the feasting.
To ensure families enjoy their Easter celebration while maintaining a healthy balance, SA chefs and Laager Rooibos ambassadors are sharing two recipes — a decadent Rooibos glazed doughnut recipe from renowned Lebo and Tebo Ndala, as well as a healthier brownie recipe from dietitian and Laager partner Mbali Mapholi.
Here are three top tips for creating a healthier Easter:
● Plan some fun outdoor activities for Easter that get the whole family moving. These can be a bunny hop race, Easter-themed scavenger hunt or Easter egg spoon race.
● Get the little ones to pack their Easter egg stash into smaller containers and give them one container at a time, so they don’t eat them all in one go, but have a treat to look forward to every day.
● Instead of painting Easter eggs with food colouring, boil eggs and paint these, and then have them as a healthy snack during the day to balance out the Easter treats.
Laager Tea4Kidz Apple & Berry Rooibos & Pumpkin Brownies
Ingredients:
½ cup (125ml) vegetable oil 2 ½ cup (625ml) pumpkin purée
2 eggs
½ cup (125ml) brown sugar or honey
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup (125ml) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup (250ml) self-raising flour pinch of salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
To make the pumpkin purée: 500g raw pumpkin, cubed 6 Tea4Kidz Apple & Berry tea bags brewed in 500ml boiled water
Method:
Add brewed Apple & Berry Tea4Kidz to pumpkin, boil until soft and blend to make a purée.
You can add a bit of extra tea to make it thinner when blending if necessary.
Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare an 8 x 8 baking dish with grease or parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix oil and pumpkin purée, whisk in the eggs, then add sugar and vanilla.
Add cocoa powder, flour, and salt, and stir until combined then add in chocolate chips.
Pour into pan and bake for 22-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Different size pans will yield different baking times.
Let cool before serving. For the topping, melt chocolate chips in the microwave with 1 tsp oil.
Rooibos-glazed Doughnuts Ingredients:
¼ cup Laager Pure Rooibos tea ¾ cup milk
1 packet instant yeast
1 egg
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup castor sugar
½ tsp salt
3 ½ to 3 ¾ cups flour
Oil for frying
Method:
Heat milk in the microwave for 45 seconds until warm.
Add in the yeast and stir gently.
Leave it to sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy.
In a mixer, beat together the yeast mix, cold tea, eggs, butter, sugar and salt until combined.
Switch to a dough hook, and gradually add in the flour until a soft ball forms.
Knead for four minutes.
Place into a clean, oiled bowl and cover.
Allow dough to double in size (about an hour).
On a floured surface, roll the dough out to ½ inch thick.
Use a doughnut cutter to cut dough into doughnut shapes.
Place doughnuts on a lined baking tray.
Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise another hour.
Heat oil to 175-180°C in a deep pot. Fry doughnuts for about 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
Remove carefully and drain on a paper towel. To serve, dip doughnuts in the glaze and set them on a rack.
Rooibos Glaze ingredients: 1 cup icing sugar
2 Tbsp strongly brewed Laager Pure Rooibos tea, cooled Glaze method:
Mix the icing sugar with tea to make the glaze.
Add more tea for a thinner consistency or more icing sugar if the glaze is too thin.
Pour over doughnuts and serve.