Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Flour free Banana and Blueberry Pancakes

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I love making pancakes on lazy weekends. It’s so good not getting up early, not rushing to work. Instead of these I go to the kitchen, make the batter; then we sit down, eat the pancakes and just enjoy the delicious moment of the morning.
I found the recipe on one of my favourite healthy, vegetarian blogs, Green Kitchen Stories. I love David & Luise’s recipes that are so comforting, nutritious and oh so delicious. After making these pancakes I did a bit of searching on the Internet about berries and currants. There are so many of them, I didn’t even know about. In Hungary we ususally grow, use and eat strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries and redcurrants. These are the most known berries. I know about mulberries, lingonberries, jostaberries, whitecurrants and blackcurrants but these are difficult to find in markets. 
The most interesting ones I haven’t heard about: olallieberry (a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry, each of which is itself a cross between blackberry and another berry – raspberry and dewberry, respectively), loganberry (an octaploid hybrid produced from crossing a hexaploid apomictic blackberry and a tetraploid raspberry), youngberry (is a hybrid between a blackberry and a dewberry, both members of the genus rubus of the rose family, first cultivated in the western United States), dewberries (a group of species closely related to the blackberries, they are small brambles with berries reminiscent of the raspberry, but are usually purple to black instead of red), boysenberries (a cross between a European raspberry, a common blackberry and a loganberry), and pineberries (a strawberry cultivar owned by breeder Hans de Jongh and commercialized by VitalBerry BV in Made, The Netherlands, and publicized in Germany in April, 2009, as Ananaserdbeere, or white pineapple strawberry). Wikipedia still mentions a few like Pacific blackberry, Himalayan blackberry, Santiam berry, Chehalem blackberry and marionberry. Hope I can try all of them one day.

Did you know about all these kind of berries? Which is your favorite one?

Flour free Banana and Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 1,5 ripe bananas, peeled, mashed with a fork
– 3/4 cup blueberries (frozen)
– 3 organic eggs
– 60-70 g desiccated coconut
– 1 tablespoon cinnamon
– coconut oil

Method

In a bowl whisk the eggs then mix together with the bananas. Add desiccated coconut, cinnamon  and blueberries and stir it together. Prepare a non-stick pan with 2 teaspoons coconut oil on medium heat. Spoon batter into pan, forming 2 small pancakes. Cook until lightly brown on the bottom. Turn and brown the other side. Serve with blueberries, honey or maple syrup.

Cocoa and Banana Muffins with Black Sesame Seeds

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Raise your hands if you know Béa and her beautiful and amazing food blog, La Tartine Gourmande. If you don’t, hurry up and check it out, after reading my post. 🙂 Béa’s blog was the first foreign food blog I found and I fell in love with it. Her recipes are nourishing, healty and mostly gluten-free. And her photograpy… Oh My God… that is absolutely stunning. She is such a great, talented photographer and food stylist. You know what is the best? I have the opportunity to meet her in August at Food Blogger Connect, Europe’s premiere food bloggers conference. I’m so looking forward to meeting Béa and learning from her on her workshop.

And why am I writing all these? Because I chose a recipe from her to bake this yum cocoa and banana muffins with black sesame seeds on top. You should try it too!

Cocoa and Banana Muffins with Black Sesame Seeds

Ingredients

– 2 ripe bananas, smashed with a fork
– 100 g white spelt flour
– 100 g whole wheat spelt flour
– 50 g hazelnut meal
– 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetend
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– 90 g cane sugar
– 1/3 cup oat milk
– 2 organic eggs
– 80 g butter, melted
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– black sesame seeds

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C (350F) and line 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases. 
In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, hazelnut, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl stir together the eggs with the cane sugar, beat until light, then add oatmilk, butter and vanilla and mashed bananas. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the cases, filling them about two thirds full, dividing the batter evenly. Sprinkle the tops with black sesame seeds. Bake the muffins about 25-30 minutes on 170-180C (350F). Remove from the oven when a cocktail stick just comes out of the muffins cleanly. Leave them to cool in a wire rack.

Easy Greek Dessert

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We slowly run out of our Greek products: the yoghurt and pistachios. I am a bit sad of this because I really like the pistachios we bought on the island of Aegina. It would be nice to have continuous supply from the island. If you want something sweet for a quick snack or something delicious for breakfast, make this dessert. Not only does it taste amazing, this dessert is so simple to make you hardly need a recipe. Both yogurt and honey are great for the digestive system, and the combined tastes are so yum.
Did you know that Greek yogurt (yiaourti) has been around for thousands of years? Yogurt itself might be as old as 10000 years, which is much older than the oldest Greeks. It didn’t get popular outside Greece until the first wave of Greek emigration to Western Europe and the US after World War I.

Easy Greek Dessert

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 200 g Greek yoghurt
– 8 teaspoons honey
– small handful toasted pistachio, roughly chopped

Method

In a dry pan toast the pistachio for 3-5 minutes, then peel them. Divide the yoghurt into 2 serving bowls, drizzle 4-4 teaspoons honey over the yoghurt and sprinkle with the toasted pistachio.

Vegan Lemon-Poppy Seed Pancake

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Weekdays I only have time to drink freshly squeezed juices and herbal or yogi tea for breakfast. At work I eat fruits until lunch. I love weekends when we have time to make proper breakfast and we can laze around for a while. Last time I made Alkaline Sisters’ vegan pancake. This is a similar version, I only changed a few ingredients.

Vegan Lemon-Poppy Seed Pancake

Ingredients (makes 8 pancakes)

– 1 and 1/4 cup whole grain spelt flour and white spelt flour mix
– 3 tablespoons ground almond
– 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
– 1 and 1/2 tablespoons aluminium free baking powder
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 1 organic lemon’s zest
– 1 cup oat milk
– 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
– 1 tablespoon agave syrup
– pinch of salt
– coconut oil for the pan

Method

In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, almond, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt. In another one mix together the wet ingredients: oat milk, oil, agave syrup, vanilla and lemon zest. Give each mixture a stir then add the wet to the dry combining just until mixed. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow batter to rise. Prepare a non-stick pan with 1/4 teaspoon coconut oil on medium heat. Spoon batter into pan, forming 2 small pancakes. Cook until lightly brown on the bottom. Turn and brown the other side. Serve with lemon wedges and agave syrup.

Chocolate-Zucchini Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting

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I have already told you that I love cupcakes. Last weekend I baked a new version and nothing left of course. Because of the zucchini the dough is light. The peanut butter frosting is salty and sweet in the same time. I will definitely bake it again.
What is your favourite cupcake?
Chocolate-Zucchini Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients (makes 12)
For the cupcake
– 1 cup peeled, grated zucchini
– 1/4 cup unsweetend cocoa powder
– 1/2 cup sunflower oil
– 170 g white spelt flour
– 120 g cane sugar
– 1 organic egg
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
For the frosting
– 150 g mascarpone
– 2-3 tablespoons peanut butter
– 2-3 teaspoons cane powder sugar
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
Method
Preheat oven to 170C (350F). Line 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases. In a bowl stir together the egg with the cane sugar, then add oil, vanilla and zucchini. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Pour the dry mixture into the wet ones and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into cases, filling them about two thids full, dividing the batter evenly. Bake about 25-30 minutes on 170-180C (350F). Remove from the oven when a cocktail stick just comes out of the muffins cleanly. Leave them to cool in a wire rack.
For the frosting in a bowl mix together the mascarpone with peanut butter, cane powder sugar, vanilla until smooth. Refrigerate about 30 minutes. Frost the cupcakes with this yum peanut butter frosting.