Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Vegan Hazelnut-Vanilla Pancake

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I love pancakes! Hungarian pancakes are larger and thinner than  the American ones. We serve it with cocoa or jam and roll up. I have never done vegan pancakes before, so it was high time for that. 🙂  Even if I did change the milk to coconut milk or oat milk, I always used eggs. Then I found a vegan pancake recipe on Alkaline Sisters blog and I fell in love with the concept. I wrote a comment for them because I really liked what they wrote about (Why We Wait to Improve Our Lifestyle when Cancer Lurks). Then we continued “talking” in emails… I have found out that Julie’s and Yvonne’s dad was Hungarian and he came from Szeged, my hometown! OMG, it is a small world, again!!! Unfortunately they lost contact with their relatives but I promised to help as much as I can to find them.

I did a few changes in the recipe. E.G. I used oat milk instead of almond milk and I added some ground hazelnut to the batter. And it turned out great.

Vegan Hazelnut-Vanilla Pancake

Ingredients (makes 8 pancakes)

– 1 and 1/4 cup white spelt flour
– 1/4 cup ground hazelnut
– 2 tablespoons aluminium free baking powder
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 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: flour, hazelnut, baking powder, salt. In another one mix together the wet ingredients: oat milk, oil, agave syrup and vanilla. 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.

I served it with more agave syrup and tangerines.

Coconut Bread

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I love every kind of bread, especially the sweet ones. I’m a sweet bread girl. 🙂 They are great with your coffee and tea for breakfast or afternoon. I found this recipe is Tara’s site but I did some changes. It caught my eye for the first time and decided to bake it as soon as I can.

Coconut Bread

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf)

– 150 g (1 cup) white spelt flour, sifted
– 150 g (1 cup) whole wheat spelt flour, sifted
– 80 g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
– 250 ml (1 and 1/4 cup) coconut milk
– 110 g (1/2 cup) cane sugar
– 2 organic eggs
– 2 teaspoons baking powder
– 2 teaspoons cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 6 tablespoons coconut oil (you can use butter too)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). In a bowl mix together the wet ingredients: first the eggs with the sugar, then add vanilla seeds and coconut milk. Set aside. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and desiccated coconut. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry one, stirring until just combined. Also fold in the coconut oil. Pour it in a 25 cm (9,75 inch) long loaf pan and bake it on 170-180 C (338-356 F) for about 40 minutes. It’s ready when the cake tester (or toothpick) comes out clean.

Cinnamon-Maple Syrup Bread

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I have already tried a couple of bread recipes. First came the banana bread, then the zucchini-chocolate and last Christmas I tried butternut squash-walnut bread. I baked this cinnamon-maple syrup one for my parents’ birthday instead of a cake. They loved it. It’s so moisture and smells amazing. The recipe comes from Kelly. Check out her blog, eat make read, it’s so gorgeous… especially her polka dots dish cloths.

Cinnamon-Maple Syrup Bread

Ingredients

– 1 cup whole wheat spelt flour, sifted
– 1 and 1/4 cups white spelt flour, sifted
– 1/2 cup maply syrup
– 3 tablespoons rice syrup
– 2 teaspoons cinnamon
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 3/4 cup oat milk (you can use milk, rice milk, soy milk too)
– 50 g butter, melted
– 2 organic eggs
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 30 g butter, cold and cut into small cubes
– 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl combine oat milk, eggs, melted butter, maple syrup, rice syrup and vanilla. Beat well until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together until combined.

In a small bowl sprinkle the cold butter cubes with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and gently fold this into the batter. Pour it in a 25 cm (9,75 inch) long loaf pan and bake it on 170-180 C (338-356 F) for about 40-50 minutes. It’s ready when the cake tester (or toothpick) comes out clean.

Ricciarelli, Siena’s Almond Cookies

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Raise your hands if you know Giulia and her wonderful food blog Juls’ Kitchen. If you don’t, hurry up and check it out, after reading this post. 🙂 I don’t remember how I found her amazing site – stuffed full of stunning photos, traditional Italian recipes and well written content in English and in Italian too – but I love it so much! She makes so much effort to translate all her posts into English. She is a friendly and chatty person, a great cook and a talented baker. We don’t live very far from each other – Giulia in Italy, myself in Hungary – so I’m sure we will definitely meet one day… Sooner than later. 🙂

Thanks to the social networking tool, Twitter, we started chatting and getting to know each other, following each other’s lives. To make the long story short, Giulia emailed me last December if I was interested in writing a cross cultural exchange recipe post. She already knew which Hungarian cake she would like to bake, but I wasn’t sure about my Italian challenge. I didn’t have a clue what  I should say… “Giulia, don’t be hard on me! I like easy recipes! Surprise me! :)” She chose Dobos Torte because she ate tons of it when she visited Budapest. Juls is a big fan of this 127 year-old cake. I translated the recipe for her and I also emailed a video (subtitled in English) to make her baking easier (thanks to a fellow Hungarian food blogger, Kriszti, who made a video of how to make the Dobos Torte).I got the recipe of Ricciarelli, the almond cookies from Siena. “The origin of Ricciarelli di Siena dates back to the 15th century: the almond paste – in the form of marzipan or Marzapanetti – was once very popular in the town and Siena was famous even outside its territory for its production. The cookies made with almond paste were reserved for the sumptuous banquet of the Lords because they were made of precious ingredients, mainly almonds and sugar. They were so valuable and refined that marzipan sweets were sold in the apothecaries shops  along with drugs and the most exotic spices of the time.” (Info adapted from Juls’ blog.)

Giulia says this recipe comes from the grocery shop Rosi in Poggibonsi (SI), slightly revised. She loves  to enter this shop especially during holidays because it is full of smells of chocolate, spices and happy-faced children.

I did a few changes in the recipe. I added less icing sugar (I don’t like cakes/cookies very sweet) and reduced the amount of bitter almond extract. The cookies turned out to be amazing, a bit crunchy on the outside and soft, moisture in the inside. After a couple of days they are even better. Everyone in my family loved it. Grazie Giulia, it was a great experience!

Ricciarelli

Ingredients (makes about 20)

– 2 egg whites
– 1 drop lemon juice
– 120 g icing (powdered) sugar
– 200 g ground almond flour
– 2 teaspoons bitter almond extract
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 1 orange’s zest
– 100 g extra icing sugar

Methods

The night before: whisk the egg whites with the lemon juice to stiff peaks. Add the almond flour, 120 g of icing sugar, the almond extract, the orange zest and the vanilla seeds. Mix everything together then cover the soft dough with cling-film and set aside in the fridge for overnight.

The day after: place the extra icing sugar on a working surface. Roll the dough into a log (diameter 2,5-3 cm) and cut 1 cm thick slices. Shape each slice with your hands and coat the shaped cookies with extra icing sugar. Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in preheated oven on 160C (320F) for about 18 minutes. When you remove from the oven, they will still be soft and moist but don’t worry they will reach the ideal texture once cooled down. If some remain, store them in an airtight box.

Cinnamon Cupcake

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I have started making cupcakes recently but I like it so much. This cinnamon one is so creamy and moist. I could only save one to take photos of it. The base of the cupcake is vegan and without frosting tastes amazing too.
Cinnamon Cupcake

Ingredients (makes 12)

For the cupcake
– 2 cups whole wheat spelt flour and white spelt flour, mixed
– 1 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 2 teaspoon tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
– 1 teaspoon apple vinegar
– 1 and 1/2 cups oatmilk (you can use rice, soy or almond milk too)
– 1/2 cup cane sugar
– 1/3 cup sunflower oil
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded

For the cinnamon cream frosting
– 200 g mascarpone
– 1 tablespoon cococa powder, unsweetend, sifted
– 1,5-2 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
– 1 teaspoon cinnamon
– pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C (350F). In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, starch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. In another bowl mix together oatmilk with vinegar and sugar and stir to combine. Add oil, vanilla and stir together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix until smooth. Line 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases. Spoon the mixture into cases, filling them about two thirds 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 cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt and powdered sugar until smooth. Refrigerate about 30 minutes. Pipe on the cinnamon frosting to the cupcakes.