It's ok to treat yourself

Hi everyone!

Even tough having a healthy way of living involves not eating pastries, you must know that it is okay to treat yourself once in a while with a nice sweet little desert. However I do not recommend eating any pastries for breakfast as they do not contain the energy and nutrients needed, but are full of calories.

Mauritian napolitaine.

These little pink biscuits are one of my favourite, they have been part of my childhood and I'm so keen to share my recipe with you today.

You don't need to be exact in the quantities, feel free to add or reduce the ingredients when needed.

• 2 cups of plain flour (I used the organ gluten free plain flour)
• 1/2 of soft butter 
• your favourite jam
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• about 1/2 of cold water
• a teaspoon of beetroot juice or some mashed blueberries mixed with a teaspoon of hot water (You can also use some food colouring but these are good healthy alternatives)

The first step is to melt the butter and add it to the flour, then you will have to mix it with your hands till you obtain a nice, homogenous, yellow pastry. (Using your hand is very important, you need to have a dry but homogenous mixture) Hint: you must be able to do a ball with the mixture, if you can't do so, add some more melted butter.

Once this is done you will have to spread out the mixture on a clean surface. Make sure it is evenly spread out, a bit like a thick pancake. The next step is to cut little circles out of the pastry, you can help yourself with a glass or a champagne glass. While doing so, don't forget to preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

You can now turn you oven on "bake" and leave your biscuits in for 15 to 20 mins.

Once your little biscuits have cool down, you can turn them over and cover the middle with a bit of your favourite jam. Here I have used a local strawberry jam. Once this step is done you can now pair them.

You can choose to eat them like that, but the traditional recipe of the napolitaine is to cover the biscuit with a smooth pink icing. The icing is done by mixing the beetroot juice (or whatever you are using to colour your biscuit with) with the icing sugar and some cold water until you have this nice, smooth liquid texture. 

Now you have done a mess covering all your napolitaine with the icing, you can go towards the last step which is to put them into the refrigerator for two hours before enjoying your "cheat day" or "non-healthy day" as I call them.

Bon appétit!