Wholemeal Oat Lactose Free Ginger Cookies

These 4 days off were so lazy and cozy that  when we came back from the gym yesterday and spent our afternoon watching movies all I wanted was a quick healthy snack. And so I baked these amazing cookies. I even did not expect them to be so cute :) And they were sooo tasty. Moreover, lactose free wholemeal and reduced in sugar. Only two of them are currently waiting for my morning coffee time tomorrow. So I will keep it short: just bake them!

Ingredients:

yields 9 cookies

1 cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 cup oatmeal flour
1 heaped tbsp oat flakes

1 tsp baking powder

1 banana

1 tsp mixed spices (or ginger cookies spices/or just mix cardamon, anis, cinnamon, muscat nut etc.)

2 tbsp honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp demerara black sugar

Preheat oven to 180°С. Prepare your baking sheet, lining it with baking paper.

In a bowl mix dry ingredients. Add mashed banana, oil, honey, oat flakes and Demerara sugar. Mix the dough well and form 9 balls of equal size. If you prefer smaller form you will get more of them (nice benefit for quantity :). Press the balls to form a cookie. I used a HOME-MADE stamp for it and it looked just awesome!!!

Bake the cookies 15 minutes until golden edges. Tastes perfectly with whole milk. Unless you are lactose intolerant. Then for tea/coffee time - perfect match!

Enjoy!

 

Blueberry Creamcheese Coconut Cake

Spring has officially started. And even though Hamburg's weather hides this miracle I already have the proof. The birds started singing so loud and so diversely that all the other city noises disappeared. The sun shows up more often granting us its' attention, the wind becomes weaker and the days are now much longer. So long that when I came yesterday back from work I could even make nice pictures of a meal for my next post. Yuppy! Sounds like a plan ;)

But coming back to now and here I want to share an easy recipe of a Blueberry cake with Creamcheese. Why will you like it? Because it is easy, healthy, wholewheat, full of flavors, sugar free, low fat and clean. And if you plan to invite guests for Easter this cake will be the right decision. I baked it last weekend to make our coffee time even more colourful. And since in our family the cakes with creamcheese are always welcome I made a little improvisation from available ingredients. As a basic recipe I used my mother's sponge cake called "Eskimo". Even if you ask me the recipe in the middle of the night I will tell you directly all the steps. This basic recipe is always good to have for the times when you cannot make long research among all the cooking books and food blogs. Main thing - it should be bullet proof. And trust me - it is!

So having the basic recipe you can always be creative and complete it with any cream or fruit you prefer. Even without cream filled with apples it tastes perfectly. So note it, share and enjoy;)

 Ingredients:

yields 23 cm cake

for sponge cake (adopted from mother's "Eskimo")

100g wholewheat buckwheat flour

50 g white flour

30 g wholewheat spelt flour

2 mashed bananas

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamon

2 tsp baking powder

10 tbsp ice cold water 

4 eggs

0.5 cup agave syrup

sprinkle of salt

for the syrup

raspberry jam

for the cream

500 g low fat creamcheese

3 tbsp coconut cream
5 sheets gelatin
lemon zest from 1 lemon
1/3 cup agave syrup
250 g blueberries
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the sponge cake preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare your springform in advance: butter and line it with parchment paper. Separate egg yolks from egg whites. Into the bowl with egg yolks add mashed bananas and agave syrup. Using a hand mixer whisk all the time in the medium speed  and add gradually 10 tbsp of cold water, cinnamon, cardamon, sift all flour types with baking powder. Set aside.

In another bowl beat egg whites with a sprinkle of salt until stiff peaks. Fold accurately egg whites into the dough not to ruin the air bubbles. Pour the dough into your springform and bake for 30 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean.

Let the cake cool down completely. Cut off the top of the sponge to make it even and only then slice it into 2 equal layers. 

For the cream mix creamcheese with agave syrup and coconut cream. If you are wondering which coconut cream I am referring to, do not be scared. It is just a thick top cream from coconut milk. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl pour cold water and soak gelatin sheets for about 5-7 minutes*. Then preheat them on a low heat and stir into the cream. Drop in half of washed blueberries and fold couple of times. Ready!

*If you are using gelatin powder, just follow the instructions on the package. 

And now it's time to assemble the cake. Put bottom layer on a plate, brush it with raspberry jam. Spread the cream evenly over the sponge. Then cover it with the second layer and spread some frosting on top and from the sides as well. Decorate it with the blueberries. Place the cake into refrigerator for at least 4 hours. 

Tip!

If you prefer sugar free cake, use e.g. stevia sweetened jam of your choice or skip this step. If you find the jam too thick just mix it with some water. It is up to you.

Enjoy Easter time and the Blueberry Cake!!!

 

Old-New Oat flakes: 5 Easy and Healthy TOP- recipes

It is sometimes quite interesting how one posts get more popular than the others. I often try to guess in advance if the reader will like my recipe this time or not. I often find a post not that powerful while the others just love it. Or it also happens that I am really proud of the recipe and pictures but, indeed, they do not find a wide public of adherents.

Therefore today I decided to dedicate my post to a product we all know and sometimes forget about: old-fashioned oatmeal. Too simple? I do not think so. Easy, healthy and (!) gluten free - YES!

And here are my 5 TOP-recipes with oat flakes:

1.Starting with the classic breakfast recipe: Old fashioned oatmeal. It becomes creative when you open your drawer and get out all the various nuts, coconut flakes, dried fruits, seeds, cinnamon. Keep cool and eat oats :)

2. Oat banana egg pancake with fresh figs and joghurt: my recipe on duty in case I have a sweet rush. It is done within three steps Mix-Fry-Fill. Add your favourite seasonal fruit pieces and way to go for a healthy snack.

3. Oat pancakes with cinnamon apples and vanilla ice-cream - can be served as a dessert or snack or breakfast in bed ;) My tip to you - make yourself a time out when you can fully enjoy each bite. It is so worth it!

4. And what do you usually have as a snack while travelling? I prefer Home made grab'n'go granola power snack. They may be easily transported in an air tight container, easy to prepare and always ready to charge your power.

5. And the last but not least - chewy healthy and easy Sweet date candy-balls. They may be prepared in advance and frozen for "better times". And how entertaining it becomes when kids are involved in the process. Did I ever tell you the story how my nephew helped me to bake a cheesecake? He was delighted! But that is a totally another story.

Summary for today: do not understate the healthy benefits from consuming oats. Because we live once, let us live a healthy life!

Gluten Free Ricotta Cake

Why are Fridays always that good?! I get up easily, go to work with a light feeling knowing that after it I am free like a butterfly: can stay awake longer without any need of getting up early the next day, can go meet my friends and not hurry up home to cook/bake/make my homework for the German classes, can just sit the whole evening reading doing NOTHING ;) Those are the moments worth to wait for from Monday through Thursday. And although my work is a lot of fun, I sometimes really need a rest. Just some time for myself, with no rush and time pressure. And for all this I love weekends. And moreover I adore days off for having more time to bake/cook something really special. Just like the recipe today. 

This is a gluten free cake with ricotta and polenta. Worth to try, I promise! A bit moist inside, yet nutty and redolent with a slight sourness.

Ingredients:
yields 18-20 cm cake

2 middle ripe bananas
50 g butter
160 g corn flour (polenta)
100 g honey or rice syrup
3 tbsp lemon zest
4 eggs
100 g almond flour
250 g ricotta
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 18 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. It may be also a 20 cm form.

As you know from my other posts you may reach additional pleasant sweetness in the pie by replacing sugar with banana. And this is exactly the case. In a food processor blend bananas, add butter, 50 g honey, lemon zest, vanilla. Then pour the egg yolks and mix well. Now it is turn of the main ingredients. Fold the batter adding almond meal, polenta and ricotta. 

Meanwhile beat the egg whites for about 1 minute. Portion by portion add honey and do not stop whisking until shiny glossy meringue. Honey may be replaced by rice syrup if you prefer. I did not have it this time.

Pour the batter into your form and bake for about 40-50 minutes  or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little. My decoration was pretty simple - sugar dust and pecan nuts.

Enjoy your weekend and save some time for yourself ;)

Wholewheat Banana-Date Bread with Walnuts

Rainy weekend... Nothing surprising for this time of the year in Hamburg. And sometimes it is not that bad because you pick your "To-do-in-rainy-weather list" and find something special to cheer you up. It may be reading of another interesting book that was waiting on your shelf for better times, or watching a movie that transfers you to a different world of adventures, or doing something useful like cleaning, sewing, knitting. For me it is usually cooking. But firstly - gathering inspiration. I start leafing through my favorite cooking books, magazines, food blogs, pinterest posts in my Recipes desk and usually come back to reality in about an hour, full of ideas and energy. This time it was very quickly. Since I finally got Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver I wanted to do this fantastic recipe: Figgy Banana Bread. And everything would be cool and smooth if I didn't realize that I don't have dried figs and almonds :(......

 But who cares?! If I have enough dates and walnuts! And a bowl of inspiration!!!

So here is my version of Bread from Jamie Oliver - Wholewheat Banana-Date Dread with Walnuts.

Ingredients:

yields 1 round loaf of bread 24 cm in diameter

adopted from Everyday Super Food by J.Oliver

250 g dried pitted dates (about 30 dates)

100 g wholemeal spelt flour

50 g wholemeal buckwheat flour

4 tbsp grapeseed oil

5 tbsp Bulgaria yoghurt

1 tbsp corn flour

2 large eggs

3 ripe bananas

1/3 tsp vanilla seeds

1 heaped teaspoon baling powder

100 g ground walnuts

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 apple

50 g whole walnuts

This bread is really packed with healthy ingredients (nuts, wholewheat flour, seeds, healthy oil), contains only natural sugar, no added. Therefore it serves a perfect snack to-go, breakfast or dessert. I personally had a wonderful breakfast today - couple of banana-date bread slices with peanut butter.... Yummy!!!

First of all preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 24 cm round ovenproof form with baking paper. Wash the dates and place 200g of them in a food processor together with eggs, peeled bananas, oil, yoghurt and vanilla seeds. Blitz until smooth. Then add both flour types with baking powder, ground walnuts, poppy seeds and turmeric. Pulse until combined with the rest of the dough. Add corn flour.

Grate the apple and mix it in. Pour the mixture into the form and spread evenly. Cut the remaining dates into pieces and decorate the bread with them, pushing them a bit. Then place walnuts all over the top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden, cooked through and as inserted skewer comes out clean. Let it cool a little.

Voila! Easy and ready to be eaten: a Perfect Smooth Sweet Nutty Healthy Date-Banana Bread with Wholemeal flour and Walnuts!

All you need now is PATIENCE not to eat it all at once ;)