Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Vegan Banana Bread With Almond & Chocolate

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Oatmilk in little bottles

I’ve already baked banana bread before (and different kind of “bread cakes”) but not in a vegan way. Banana bread is one of those things that is great on it’s own or with a cup of coffee/tea or next day for breakfast. You can add different kind of fillings, like chocolate, fruits (blueberry, strawberry, etc.), nuts (walnut, hazelnut, almond, etc.) and seeds (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, etc.).Using different flours in the batter also makes it rich and filling. Bananas create a very soft, moist, not too sweet, cake-like quick bread that you just simply can’t stop eating.

Did you know that banana bread first became a standard feature of American cookbooks with the popularization of baking soda and baking powder in the 1930s?

Vegan Banana Bread With Almond & Chocolate

Ingredients

– 1 cup whole wheat spelt flour
– 1/2 cup white spelt flour
– 2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 2 evőkanál ground flaxseed + 1/4 cup (60 ml) water
– 1/2 cup oatmilk (you can use rice milk or soy milk)
– 1/3 cup cane sugar
– 3 ripe bananas, mashed
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 1/2 cup almond, roasted in a dry pan, then roughly chopped
– 1/2 cup chocolate (70% cocoa content), chopped

Method

In a small bowl mix together the ground flaxseed with the water to make a “flax egg” – let the mixture sit for a 6-8 minutes until thickened. Preheat the oven to 180C (356F).

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients: flours, baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix together the oatmilk with the cane sugar and mashed bananas. Add the vanilla and the flax egg and pour these wet ingredients mixture into the dry one, stirring until just combined. Fold roasted almonds and chocolate in.

Pour it in a 25 cm (9,75 inch) long loaf pan and bake it on 180 C (356 F) for about 40-45 minutes. It’s ready when the cake tester (or toothpick) comes out clean.

Jamie’s Two Nuts Chocolate Cake

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I used to live in England for two years and this is how I “met” Jamie Oliver for the first time. That time he was not known in Hungary at all. Since then I have admired Jamie’s hard work, his food and enthusiasm to change the way for people to eat healthier and encourage them to cook more at home. I even had lunch in his Fifteen restaurant in London. This is a huge experience to always remember.

His Food Revolution campaign is also big I stood for with a few food blogger friends around the world. This food revolution movement is for everyone. If we care about about our children and their future, we should educate ourselves about food and cooking. He also launched a back-to-school campaign to support better food education through the work of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.

Love at first sight: yellow creamy sugar butter with dark brown chocolate and nuts mixture…

The other day I started re-watching Jamie’s “Naked Chef” series. He made this cake from walnut and hazelnut. I had almond at home so I used that instead of walnut. You don’t need too many ingredients to bake this cake but the ones you use, should be good quality – that is the secret.

It doesn’t contain any flour so it’s very rich from the almond & hazelnut and chocolate-y. You need only a thin slice from the cake… first. Then half an hour later another thin slice… until it lasts.

Jamie’s Almond Hazelnut Chocolate Cake

Ingredients (serves 4-6, for a 18,5 cm – 7,28 inches – spring form pan)

– 75 g almond
– 75 g hazelnut
– 150 g chocolate (70% cocoa content)
– 125 g soft butter
– 50 g cane sugar
– 3 organic eggs, separating the white parts from the yolks
– pinch of salt
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded (this wasn’t in the recipe I added as an extra)

Method

Line the spring form pan with parchment paper then spread butter the bottom and side. Preheat the oven to 190C (374F).

Place the almond and hazelnut into the food processor and whizz up until finely grounded. Add 100 g chocolate and whizz for a minute to break up the chocolate. Put this mixture in a bowl and set aside. Place soft butter and cane sugar into the food processor and blend. Add the egg yolks, one at a time and blend until pale and fluffy.

Mix sugar butter mixture with the nuts chocolate one. In another bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the butter nuts chocolate mix.

Pour batter into the prepared pan. Press the remaining 50 g chocolate into the batter in small pieces. Bake the cake at 190C (374F) for about 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven when a cocktail stick just comes out of the cake cleanly. Cool somewhat before removing from the pan.

Serve…

One slice for you… Do you like it?

Strawberry Leather Or The Healthy Version Of Gummy Candy

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This is going to be a very red post, full of strawberries. Strawberry leather… have you heard about it before? This is actually fruit leather and you can make it from juicy apricot or peach (I will definitely try from these stone fruits too!). This leather thing is exciting not only for children, for adults too. It’s very easy to make but it takes a few hours. Anyway, you will be amazed with the result so don’t miss it!

Last year I found a couple of fruit leather recipes online but somehow I’ve never made them. This year when the Hungarian strawberry season started I was the first one at the market to buy a batch and try to make these yum gummy candies.

Why should we make our gummy candies? The traditional gummy candy (bear) is made from a mixture of sugar (a lot!!!), glucose syrup, starch, flavouring, food colouring, preservative, citric acid, and gelatin (derived from the collagen mainly inside pig skin (hide) and cattle bones!!!). I think that’s enough reason to convince myself to make my homemade version as healthy as possible. We can say that gummy candy is only a plastic chemical product. Remember this next time when you stand at the cash desk and all the colourful candies will tempt you to buy them.

Raw food diet followers make fruit leather in food dehydratator. I don’t own one so I baked my version in the oven at the lowest temperature. Ingredients are only strawberry, honey and vanilla. Do you also think it’s a healthy gummy candy?

Strawberry Leather

Ingredients

– 5 cups strawberry (about 600-700 g)
– 3 tablespoons honey (you can use maple syrup or rice syrup too)
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded

Method

Hull and half the washed strawberries. Place them in a pan and cook on low heat for about 12-15 minutes. Turn off the heat, add honey and vanilla. Pureé it with a hand blender. Pour the strawberry mixture on to a baking sheet (38*35 cm / 14,96*13,77 inch) covered with parchment paper.

Put in the oven and bake (dry) at 50C (122F) – this is my lowest temperature in my oven – for about 6-8 hours. Leave the oven door a bit open to let the moist out.

First time when I took the sheet out of the oven the leather was very firm so I put it back in the oven and I let  it cool there. The next morning the leather was softer and it was easy to peel off from the parchment paper.  Use a scissor to cut stripes and roll them up.

Strawberry leather on baking sheet…

Strawberry leather without baking sheet turned against the light…

Amazing experience – strawberry leather in my hands!

Fruit rolls…

Vanilla And Honey Rhubarb Galette And A Virtual Potluck Dinner Party For Food Revolution Day

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I bet May 19, 2012 will mark an important day in history thanks to Jamie Oliver’s first-ever global Food Revolution Day. Jamie Oliver is a great guy and a huge inspiration. I got to know him (not in person unfortunatelly! yet!) 12 years ago when I used to live in the UK (before he become famous in Hungary). He is an amazing, enthusiastic person, a big fighter. This food revolution movement is for you and your family. If you care about your children and their future, take this revolution and make it your own. Educate yourself about food and cooking. Make only a few small changes, cook at home with your family from fresh ingredients and magical things will happen!

“Food Revolution Day is also an opportunity for everyone around the world to do something.” – says Jamie in a Huffington Post article. “The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.”

This is Jamie’s video about the Food Revolution Day…

We, international food bloggers and friends stand up for the real food event that’s why we decided to organize a virtual potluck for this day. Everyone cooked and baked her own food at home and today we are bringing it together on the Internet and sharing the recipes with you. The only thing we regret that this party is virtual. Hopefully we will organize something similar live in the near future.Let me introduce you our small team and the menu:
Karin (from Germany, originally from the USA) – Nibbles and Dips
Giulia (from Italy) – Green Panzanella Salad
Valeria (from Italy) – Purple Kale, Sorrel and Lancashire “Caesar” Salad
Regula (from Belgium) : Mussels with Real Traditional Belgian Fries
Emiko (from Australia): Crespelle Verdi di Pesce
Sarka (from England, originally from Czech Republic): Rhubarb and Almond Panna Cotta
Zita, myself (from Hungary): Vanilla and Honey Rhubarb Galette

Galette is a general term used in the French cuisine to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes. Galette is also a type of thin large pancake mostly associated with the regions of Normandy and Brittany, where it replaced at times bread as basic food, but it is eaten countrywide. The filling can be savory or sweet, you can add any kind of herbs and spices.

Galette is very easy to make and you can take with you for a dinner party or a picnic with friends. I used whole spelt flour and buckwheat flour that has a rich, nutty flavor and a very high nutritional value. In addition, it is gluten free. Rhubarb is one of my favorite spring vegetables although I always use it in desserts. Honey and vanilla perfectly complete the sour taste of rhubarb.

Except cane powder sugar, lemon and vanilla all of this recipe’s ingredients come from Hungary so they are locally grown and produced (I have rhubarb plants in my small community garden but I couldn’t use it yet so I bought the rhubarb at the organic farmers market in Budapest).

Vanilla and Honey Rhubarb Galette

Ingredients (serves 4)

– 200 g whole spelt flour
– 150 g buckwheat flour
– 160 g cold butter
– 3 tablespoon cane powder sugar
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– grated zest of 1/2 lemon
– 8 tablespoons cold water
– 170 g rhubarb, cleaned and cut into 5-7 cm pieces
– 3 tablespoons honey
– 1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– freshly whipped cream to serve

Method

In a bowl mix together flours, powder sugar, salt and lemon zest. Cut butter into small chunks and add to the flour mixture. I always use my hands for this: with your fingers rub the butter into the flour until you get a crumbly mixture (pea size pieces). Mix in the cold water until the pastry comes together into a smooth, elastic ball. Wrap in plastic and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.

In a bowl mix together rhubarb with honey and vanilla.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie dough out to a 30 cm (about 11,81 inch) circle and transfer to a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Place the rhubarb pieces over the pie crust, leaving about 5 cm (about 1-2 inches) boarder. Fold over the edges of the crust, pleating as needed to make an even circle. Bake galette at 170-180C (350F) for about 30-40 minutes until crust is golden brown. Serve with whipped cream.

Kale And Mushroom Lasagne

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The recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s vegetarian cookbook Veg Every Day!. Hugh spent one summer to get to know the vegetables more. He’s come up with an abundance of veg-tastic recipes. I could cook and bake all the recipes from the book. With over 200 recipes and vibrant photography, River Cottage Veg Every Day is a timely eulogy to the glorious green stuff. You can watch the series on  YouTube-on.

This lasagna was a winner. Everyone in my family loved it.

Kale and Mushroom Lasagna

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

For the lasagna
– 300 g kale, tough stalks removed, leaves cut into bite size pieces
– 500 g button mushroom, sliced
– 3 cloves garlic, chopped
– 180-190 g lasagne sheets
– 30 g butter (unsalted)
– 20 g Parmesan, grated
– 2-3 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
– olive oil
– sea salt, pepper

For the béchamel sauce
– 750 ml non-dairy milk (oat, rice, soy, you can substitute with milk)
– 1 onion, chopped
– 1 small root of celery, chopped
– 50 g butter (unsalted)
– 50 g plain flour
– 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
– 1 bay leaf
– a frew black peppercorns
– sea salt

In a pan heat the milk with bay leaf, onion, celery and peppercorns until just below simmering. Remove from the heat and set aside to infuse.

Put the kale leaves into a pan and cover with cold water. Add salt. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

In a large pan heat 30 g butter, add mushroom, some salt and pepper. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the liquid released by the mushroom has evaporated. Stir in garlic and thyme, cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

Reheat the infused milk slowly, then strain. In a large saucepan heat 50 g butter for the béchamel sauce. Stir in the flour and cook gently for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add about a quarter of the hot milk and beat vigorously until smooth. Repeat with the remaining milk until you have a smooth sauce. Return to the heat and cook for a few minutes – stirring -, allowing it to bubble until thickened. Stir in the mustard, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Stir about half of the béchamel sauce into the kale, put to one side.

Spread half the remaining sauce over the bottom of a 29*20 cm (11,4 * 7,8 inch) ovenproof dish. Put one layer of lasagna sheets in the dish, then spoon the kale over the top. Add another layer of lasagna, then the mushrooms. Finish with a final layer of pasta and the remaining of béchamel sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan and olive oil and bake at 180C (350F) for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown.