The best gluten free crispy bread

Crispy and crunchy has always had a certain appeal for me. Biting through a tower of wonderful toppings to end up with a satisfying crunch in the end is a fine thing indeed. Here's one of my absolutely favourite crispy bread recipes. It is ridiculously easy to make, and endlessly variable. Just use any (gluten free) flour combination (if you use gram or coconut flour, you might need to add some more liquid), any nut/seed combo and any spices. Did I say endless varieties? It's true!

I don't quite remember where the original recipe came from, but I  do remember it was made with all corn flour. A corny version (see what I did there? ;)) is also super yummy, but like said, experiment and see which flour combination floats your boat.

Delicananda's go-to crispy bread

2 dl gluten free flour 

0,5 dl pumpkin seeds

0,5 dl sesame seeds

0,75 dl sunflower seeds

0,5 dl flax seeds

0,5 dl olive oil

2,5 dl boiling water

1 tsp salt or 0,5 tsp salt and some salt sprinkled on top before baking

spices (I often use turmeric, curry, ginger, cinnamon or chili. Or all of them)

Mix together all dry ingredients. Add oil and boiling water. Mix into a spreadable dough. Pat onto a baking tray lined with baking sheet with your hands (I use gloves for this) or spread with a spoon. Spread into an even and thin layer. Bake in 150-160 degrees for 40-50 min. Cover with aluminum foil in the end if the bread isn't yet crispy but is starting to look a little too brown. Let cool, break into portion sizes and gobble up :)

Fish cakes with Awesomesauce

I love and adore fish. In (almost) all shapes and sizes. It's a little tricky to get my hands on the good stuff here in Berlin, though, which is a shame. On the other hand, then I don't feel it to be such a sacrilege to chop the fishy into tiny bits of mush. Like in this fish cake recipe.

I've been pretty sceptical about fish cakes in general since I had some in the University which were so appallingly bad that it almost put me off them for good. I've had better luck since, but they still hadn't become a favourite. This recipe does tip the scales to the other direction, namely the direction of awesomeness, though!

And since it's me and I love to bury everything under a delicious puddle of sauce, this recipe wouldn't be anything without the home made sriracha mayo. You can also buy both parts, the sriracha (which is a chili sauce for those who think it sounds like something of a Cthulhu monster. Cthulhu also doesn't ring a bell? Well, never mind. It's a chili sauce, yeah? That's all you need to know. Sriracha, I mean. Not Cthulhu. But I'm sure you catch my drift...) and the mayo, or you can make either or both yourself. I decided to take the homemade road, since I didn't want any additives or processed sugar in my sauce, and boy did it turn out DELISH! The only slight disappointment was the not-so-spiciness of the chilis I used. Make sure you choose properly hot ones to get more kick, or leave (at least some of) the seeds in.

The sriracha takes time to cool, so if you're making it yourself (Do try! It's soooo good!), either make it beforehand or take a small portion and stick it into the freezer for a little while to cool it down enough to be mixed with the mayo.

Fish cakes with superawesome sriracha mayo

Cake recipe again from the lovely Syötävän hyvä, Sriracha from Nomnompaleo and mayo from Herkkusuun lautasella

makes about 6 cakes


Cakes

ca. 400 g salmon

half of a red bell pepper (ca. 1 dl of cubes)

6 tbsp almond meal

1 egg

1/2 tsp soy sauce / tamari

1 tsp lemon juice

a dash of garlic powder

generously salt


Sriracha 

(I made half a portion, but here's the whole recipe)


700 g fresh red jalapeno peppers / chilis, stemmed seeded and roughly chopped

8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp tomato paste

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tsp salt


Mayo

1 egg

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 dl neutral oil (I used sunflower)

some white pepper

some salt



To serve: mayonnaise, sriracha (or other chili sauce), rucola/salad, avocado, sesame seeds


Prepare sriracha and mayo first, or use shop bought.

Sriracha

Prep chilies. Pro tip: use gloves. Throw all ingredients into a high speed blender. Puree until smooth or leave a little chunkier, as you please. Pour into a saucepan/skillet, bring to boil. Reduce to low heat and let simmer for 5-10 min, stirring occasionally. By cooking the sauce we strengthen the flavour and cut the sharpness of raw garlic. Once the foam subsides, the sauce should be bright red and you shouldn't be able to detect any raw veggie smell. Taste and adjust seasoning. Transfer into sterilized glass jars (sterilize by soaking in boiling water for a minute or so) and let cool. If you're using it straight away with the fish cakes, take out a small portion and stick it into the freezer while you make the mayo.

Mayo

Pour all ingredients except the oil into a stick mixer jar. Keep the mixer in the bottom of the jar, start mixing and pour in the oil in a thin trickle while mixing. When the mayo is done, adjust taste. I added a little more mustard.

Cakes

Make sure to buy a de-skinned fish fillet, or remove skin by yourself if you know how. Chop salmon into small cubes either with a knife or give it a couple of pulses in a food processor. Try to leave it a bit chunky though, so don't blitz it into a puree.

Chop the pepper into small cubes, the smaller the better. I had slightly more cubes than 1 dl, and the cakes turned out great.

Mix the "dough" and pat into flat cakes. I don't remember how many I made, but the recipe says it should be roughly six.

Cook in butter/oil for about 3-4 mins per side. Watch out not to overcook, since no one likes dry salmon.

Mix about 3 tbsp of mayo with 1 tbsp of sriracha, or do a mixture that better suits your taste buds. Serve cakes with mayo, rucola and avocado. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Done!

Fudgy vegan brownies with a secret

I don't think there's a person on this earth who doesn't like brownies. Or if there is (and the reason isn't chocolate or histamin intolerance), there must be something wrong with them. Or well, I don't want to be mean, so I take it back. You're allowed to dislike brownies (and that means there's more for me!) But at least I love and adore them in all shapes and sizes. I'm also very picky when it comes to The Perfect Brownie. Dry baked goods suck and brownies make no exception to the rule. I'm also very interested in using my baked goods to smuggle all sorts of veggies to unsuspecting customers, muahaha.

I have a vaque recollection of doing a beetroot chocolate cake in the "good old" GlutenSugar days, at least I've had it on my agenda for a while. But now I decided to try it as the first treat I made for a wonderful café I've been baking for a bit over a month now, Lykke. They cater for all sorts of special diet people so I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to bake for them and practice my skills without having to eat everything myself.

The recipe for these babies is from Unconventional baker, a wonderful blog for us who'd like our cakes without any conventional ingredients but still absolutely yummy. The first batch of the brownies that I fed to my girlfriends was a little too dense and smooth to my liking, plus the taste of beets was a bit too overpowering. And I managed to mess up the topping and it separated... It still tasted good but required a generous dusting with cocoa powder to make things photo worthy.

I changed things around a bit for the café version, replacing the beet boiling water with almond milk and adding chopped almonds into the batter for some texture. The result was much better, and it does say "fudgy brownies", not "fluffy brownies" in the recipe... They are dense, but super mega yummy, and I'll take a dense brownie against a dry one any day. Give them a go!

Fudgy beet brownies

Base

1/2 c wholemeal rice flour

6 tbsp sticky rice flour

1/4 c tapioca flour

1/4 tsp guar gum / xanthan gum

1/2 c cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 c cooked beet puree

1 c maple syrup/other sweetener

1/2 c almond milk/other non-dairy milk (or beet water)

1 tbsp vanilla

chopped almonds/nuts


Topping

1 c non-dairy chocolate (chips or chopped block chocolate, preferably sugar free)

1/4 c margarine

(salt, if using unsalted margarine)

1/4 c almond milk/other non-dairy milk (or beet water)

(1/2 tsp amond extract, if you can get your hands on it. I couldn't)

cocoa powder for dusting


Heat oven to 175 C. Grease a 20 x 30 cm baking tray (or something roughly similar).

Make the beet puree first: plop beets into a kettle full of water and boil until soft. You can peel them before boiling of after, your call. Puree the boiled peets in a blender. Add a splash of beet boiling water to help things along, but don't thin out the puree too much, it needs to be nice and thick.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add in all remaining base ingredients except chopped almonds and mix everything with a mixer to combine. Fold in chopped almonds. Pour into prepared baking pan and level the top with a spatula to smooth out the batter.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out dry(ish). Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the chocolate topping by placing all ingredients in a glass or stainless steel bowl. Warm the mixture carefully on a double boiler and mix occasionally until everything is smooth and uniform. Once the brownie base has cooled a little, pour this mixture thinly and evenly over the brownies (use a spatula to spread it around evenly as needed). Allow the brownies to chill a little by placing them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, once the tray has cooled enough to go in the fridge. This will allow the topping to get absorbed into the brownies, and that's when the magic happens.

Dust with some cocoa powder, cut into squares or hearts or dinosaurs or or or... and dig in :)

I knew I'd find a use to the dusting stencil I bought from Ikea way back when!

Zucchini noodle avocado sauce mush

Yes yes, I know. This dish has become such a cliché in food blogs, but since I don't give a damn about such things (plus I want to jot it down before it gets lost in the sea of recipes I have bookmarked), here goes.

I love love love zucchini spaghetti and finally decided to "splurge" and get a gadget for making the said delicacy. I had a julienne peeler before but was never really satisfied with the quality of the strips it produced, they were too thin for my liking. This new baby which cost all of 12 euros if I remember correctly delivers! No, it's not a spiralizer, but it takes much less space in my teeny tiny kitchen and the price was a definite bonus.

And it produces the cutest cones ever! Awww...

I found the recipe in Paleo Cupboard and the result was just absolutely amazingly scrumptious. The avocado sauce had exactly the right amount of flavour, although I think I used a little less garlic than the recipe, since I'm still getting used to it again after omitting it from my diet for quite a while due to sensitivities. But feel free to use all 3 cloves if you want yours more garlicky. You can either serve the noodles raw or cook them. I love them both ways but this time I cooked them and the result was really really good. So, anyway you go, you can't go wrong.

The pics also don't really do this dish justice. I wringed my poor zucchinis to within an inch of their lives while  trying to get the excess liquid out and didn't believe the recipe when it called for 6 large zucchinis, so the result is more a mush under a mush than noodles with a sauce. But hey, I'm always of the opinion that there can never be too much sauce and am known to drown all sorts of innocent cakes in something liquid and sweet, so I had no complaints. If you want a more photogenic dish, do as I say, not as I do. Yes? :) But now: Let me present: Miss Avocado meets Mr Zucchini, falls in love and decides it never wants to be separated from him ever again, aka Mush. Enjoy!

Zucchini noodles with avocado cream sauce

6 large zucchinis (yes it seems like a lot but they lose a lot of volume when squeezed)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp oil

Sauce 

2 large avocados, peeled and pitted

1/4 cup packed basil leaves

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 cloves of garlic, minced (or less, I think I had 2 small ones)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

Julienne or spiral slice your zucchini and place in a strainer over a larger bowl or in the sink. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of salt over the zucchini and toss to coat. Allow the zucchini to sit for 15-20 minutes to allow excess liquid to drain. After the zucchini has drained, wrap it in a few paper towels and squeeze gently (don't wring it to death) to remove any remaining moisture. Wrap again in fresh paper towels and leave on the counter until ready to cook.

To make the sauce, place all of the sauce ingredients in a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if desired. 

Note: If serving raw, stop here and serve the sauce on top of the noodles.

To cook the noodles, pour oil in a large skillet and warm over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and cook for 2 minutes. Add the sauce and toss with the noodles to coat. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until heated through, then serve.

Sweet potato boats with delicious cargo

So, I have a confession to make: sometimes I cheat on coconut with the other love of my life, sweet potato. Give me fries, wedges, brownies, mash - anything goes, as long as it's orange. This dish is a true ode to that wonderful root vegetable. It is again from Outi Rinne's wonderful book Mieliruoka and cooked to (almost) perfection in my mom's kitchen. The boats carry a truly nutrious cargo of quinoa, black beans, tomatoes in two forms and a wonderful array of spices. Absolutely delicious!

I roasted way too much of the sweet potatoes, so the rest of them I mushed and smuggled into a batch of cookies I promise to share with you later. Watch this space! :) And really, there's no such a thing as too much sweet potato. You can put it anywhere: bake into bread rolls, make brownies or cookies, just eat it as is, make veggie patties, paint the walls with it, marry it... The choices are endless. Or if in doubt, just ship it over to me and I'll make short work of it ;)

I also put a little too much of the sundried tomatoes in, since I thought the "6" that's called for in the recipe means 6 whole tomatoes, and my sundrieds were halves. But I think 6 halves would have been more than enough since they do lend a very "dark" and pungent-y sour taste to the filling.  

These babies are really yummy by themselves, but once again, like in the lentil watermelon salad, the mint vinaigrette makes a real change. Sooo fresh and yummy! Also a nice salad would be great as a side dish, if you want to have more greens with your orange. 

Sweet potato boats

2 small plump or 4 skinnier sweet potatoes

coconut or sesame oil

Filling

1 dl quinoa

1 tin (285 g) black beans

6 sundried tomatoes

2 fresh tomatoes, chopped

1/2 onion, grated

1 clove of garlic

grated zest and juice of 1/2 organic lemon/lime

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp coriander powder

black pepper to taste

1/2-1 tsp salt

3 tbsp cacao nibs (I didn't have these so left them out)

1 tsp smoked bell pepper powder (mom can't deal with bell peppers so left this out)

2 dl soft innards of sweet potatoes 

For garnishing: fresh coriander

Mint vinaigrette

Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Scrub the sweet potatoes clean under flowing tap water. Split in four wedges lengthwise (or in 2 wedges if the sweet potatoes are very skinny). Give the wedges a nice oil massage and roast in the oven for about 30 min or until they are soft and done.

Meawhile: prepare the filling. Cook quinoa according to the directions in the package. Grate lemon/lime zest, garlic and onion in a large bowl. Grate also the fresh tomatoes (best to halve the tomatoes and grate with the cut surface facing the grater). Pat the excess oil out of the sundried tomatoes with kitchen roll and chop the tomatoes, add into the bowl. When the quinoa has cooked, drain it well and add 2 dl in the bowl. If there's something left over, save it for other use. Add the remaining filling ingredients in the bowl (not the lemon juice or the sweet potato meat, since it's still in the  oven (d'oh!)). Mix.

Take the soft and lovely sweet potatoes out of the oven. Scrape the innards out of the boats carefully, so that there will be a hole where you can put the filling. I didn't manage to do this very well and we ended up having just filling on sweet potato skins, mainly :P. Equally delicious but not as pretty. Add the scraped out sweet potato innards/meat/flesh or whatever it's called (2 dl or more of it) into the bowl. Check the flavour and add lemon/lime juice if needed. Spoon the filling into the awaiting boats and finish with fresh coriander.

Serve with mint vinaigrette. Devour.

Coconut bacon aka. the most awesomesauce thing ever

So, I made a salad. And it called for an interesting sounding topping, namely coconut bacon. Say what, you say? My thoughts exactly. Coconut that tastes like bacon? Well, why not. And since I'm a complete coconut junkie anyway, another way to prepare the delicious thing didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

So, after scoring some smoked bell pepper powder on the nearby Boxi farmer's market (where I end up spending all my money every Saturday) there was nothing that could stop me from trying out this weird but wonderful sounding thing.

And, oh my Gods... I mean, really. I cannot even.... Well, let me try. You know those moments, where you don't quite know how to describe the noise of pure pleasure that comes our of your mouth when it encounters something ultra specially delicious. No? Is it just me? Well, I moaned, giggled, laughed and groaned. All at once. And many tines. One might have thought there was someone else with me in the kitchen than just food and me, but no, it was just a foodgasm. Ridiculously overwhelmingly wonderful, this thing. Crunchy, sweet, salty, smoky, aaaargh just so good.

You really really need to make this. Really. You will regret it if you don't. I mean it. Do you need me to go on? OK, I'll shut up now. Here's the recipe. Thank you, Outi!

Coconut bacon

3 dl

3 dl coconut chips (the nice chunky ones)

1 tbsp tamari / organic soy sauce

1 tbsp maple syrup

3 drops of liquid smoke + 1 tsp bell pepper powder OR 

1 tsp smoked bell pepper powder

1 tsp olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spread on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Warm the oven to 75 degrees and roast the chips until they're completely dry. Toss and turn them once in a while (and take some samples. You know you want to.) If you're lucky enough to have a dehydrator, you can also dry the chips there. Or in a 45 degree oven overnight (leave the oven door cracked open a little). 

Store in an airtight box if there's some left. Which I highly doubt. 

Lentil watermelon salad with a Secret Ingredient

Lo and behold, a post that's not about sweet stuff! I had a brunch with my lovely ladies here in Berlin, and I wanted to test out a recipe from a wonderful new book, Mielekkäät eväät by Outi Rinne, who is the multitalent behind a delicious Finnish blog Mieliruoka. Outi writes that lentils are a good vegetarian source of iron that needs vitamin C for its absorption, so combining lentils into a salad with fresh veggies is a good idea. The salad is very nice by itself, but it is made absolutely perfect by a mint vinaigrette and my newest addiction, coconut bacon, which deserves its own post where I will sing its praises in more detail.

But here, without further ado, Outi's wonderful recipe. Enjoy!

Lentil watermelon salad

4 portions

Salad

2 1/2 dl beluga lentils (or some other small, shelled lentils. I used troy lentils)

1/2 tsp salt, black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 l water melon cubes

2 young red onions with their stalks (or 3-4 scallion stalks)

250 g lollo rosso or some other reddish sort of lettuce 

1/2 red radicchio (or more of some sort of lettuce you can get your hands on)

coconut bacon / parmesan chips

Mint vinaigrette

1 pot of mint 

5 sprigs of parsley

(some coriander leaves, if you happen to have some)

1 dl basil leaves

1 1/2 dl olive oil

juice from 1/2 lemon + 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

1 garlic clove

Prepare mint vinaigrette by putting all ingredients into a blender or hand mixer jug and buzz into a smooth vinaigrette. Put into the fridge while you prepare the salad and the Awesome Secret Ingredient (aka. coconut bacon).

Cook lentils according to the package. Note that some lentils require soaking; I soaked my troy lentils overnight although the package called for only 3 hours. I wasn't entirely sure if the recipe called for 2,5 dl cooked lentils or the amount of lentils you get when cooking 2,5 dl raw lentils, so I soaked 2,5 dl, ended up with 6 dl of cooked lentils of which I used 3 dl for the salad. After cooking rinse the lentils with cold water. Add salt, black pepper and olive oil and mix.

Cube watermelon, slice the onion into thin slices and mix with the lentils. Spread the lettuce on a tray of  line a salad bowl with them. Spread some of the vinaigrette on top. Spoon the lentil melon onion mixture on top and finish with the rest of vinaigrette before serving. Sprinkle with THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER, aka. coconut bacon, or parmesan chips.

Snickers bites

Everyone likes Snickers, right? At least I do. There's something magical about the scrumptious get-together of salty peanut, caramel and chocolate. The ingredients in the normal Snickers, though? Less magical.

So,  let's make a goodie version out of the teeth-jarringly sweet snack bar, shall we?

Syötävän hyvä beat me to it again. Or inspired me to get snickering in the first place, actually. I chose to take the "cover everything in double chocolate" route (because, why not?). And it was good and bad at the same time. Good, because more chocolate = more chocolate. Bad, because in this case, as I doubled the chocolate amount, I added way more sweetener than I should have. Also, the honey I was using was a spreadable type, not the runny one. So the chocolate became super thick. Yummy, but very very super honeylicious and thick.

I felt slightly sick after a few samples. to be honest ;). But what wouldn't I do for the sake of experimenting! Now I know. Next time: start easy on the honey. Or use maple syrup. Or coconut syrup.

I also decided to go for bite size goodies instead of full bars, since nobody could eat a whole bar of this stuff (or if they could, I'd very much like to see that). And I even halved the bites in the end. So these were more candies than bars in the end, but hey, more for everyone!

Next time I'd also like to get the chocolate a bit crunchier, which would probably mean less sweetener, more cacao butter. Something to think about, for the next time around.

I bought unroasted and unsalted peanuts, but ended up roasting and salting them :D. So, just buying the regular ones would probably have made more sense. But making stuff from scratch is also fun. At least I didn't grow the peanut trees (bushes? where do they grow?) myself :D

Snickers bites

Base

1 dl peanut butter

2 tbsp liquid sweetened (I chose maple syrup)

2 tbsp almond meal

(a dash of salt if using unsalted peanut butter)

Filling

8 soft dates, pitted

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp water

dash of vanilla powder

dash of salt

peanuts on the top (unroasted and unsalted or the normal ones)

Coating (for the double chocolatey way)

6 tbsp melted cacao butter (melt in a double boiler)

2-4 tbsp liquid sweetened (I used honey and 4 tbsp was way too much)

6 tbsp raw cacao powder

dash of vanilla powder

Line a freezer box/suitable container (ca. 10 x 20 cm) with baking paper. Mix the base ingredients. Spoon into the container and flatten out. Put in the freezer.

Mush the filling ingredients into a smooth paste with a hand mixer. Spoon on top of the base, spread out evenly. Press a desired amount of peanuts on top and stick in  the freezer for a couple of hours (or overnight).

Make the chocolate coating by mixing the ingredients together. Add sweetener if desired, but take heed from my mistake and start with a smaller amount. Lift the frozen snickers chunk out of the container using the baking paper. Cut into bars or bites. 

Dip bites in the chocolate and, ideally, lift onto a rack to drain. If, like me, you don't own a full set of praline making goodies which includes a fancy rack, just let a little of the excess chocolate drain back into the bowl and then set the bites on a plate and watch the excess choco melt into a charming little puddle around them.

Put back into the freezer and take out only as much as you're serving: the chocolate starts melting quite quickly. If you're particular about the look of the bites, you can cut out the excess chocolate from around the bites if you want them to resemble squares more than blobs. I tried my best, but since my chocolate was very thick, my bites remained adorably plump :).

Heavenly soft licorice chocolate truffles

Oh my Gods, my mouth starts watering when I even think about these wonderful little balls. I had some licorice powder left from the best licorice chocolate mudcake ever that I wanted to use for a light little snacky something. So, *Internet scour*, and ta-da: Syötävän hyvä delivers again. This one is actually not her recipe, but comes from the kitchen of the lovely Hannamari of Yellow mood. She's published a nifty little book about the ABCs of raw baking and these delicious treats are featured there.

So, without further ado, 1-2-3, bake! I added the ingredients into a blender, but the heat apparently did its thing, as all the mass was literally swimming in oil by the time I was done. I tried to massage it into the mass but it just wouldn't stick. So I poured the rest of it off and still the mass was the oiliest thing ever. I already thought I'd lost this round of the game, but I decided I'd let the freezer try to persuade the little beasties that were huddling together, not very keen to keep their ball shape.

So, a round of freezing and a round of reforming into balls the next day, and a round of rolling them in cacao powder. And, Oh My Sweet Soft Truffle Gods. The consistency was absolutely silky, the licorice flavour bursted into a dark symphony in the mouth after the initial tartness of chocolate powder, and I could have easily eaten the whole container full of the balls on one go. They only remained as balls in the fridge, though, and started to get soft the minute I got them out, but they were so absolutely wonderfully delicious that I couldn't have cared less. The mass was actually so pliable at this stage that I could have formed a bunch of licorice sculptures out of it, or little cups, or whatever people make out of Play Doh (I was never very talented with the stuff). I made a couple of hearts.


So, I was definitely not sorry that something weird happened with the blending process. Sometimes the almost-disastrous version turns out to be infinitely better than the one that was sought after. I might try to do these another time, just to see if I can get the "normal", not Play Doh type consistency to work. But if not, hey, there will be another round of something truly delicious to nibble on.

Silky soft licorice chocolate truffles

Recipe here on Syötävän hyvä

3 dl cashews

1 dl coconut oil, melted

3/4 dl honey/coconut nectar/maple syrup 

5 tbsp licorice (root) powder

3/4 tsp salt

Optional: contents of 5 medicinal coal capsules for black colour (I didn't use it)

Cacao powder/licorice powder for coating

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If you blend too long, it might be that the consistency turns into a ball of dough swimming in a pool of oil. If this happens, drain the excess oil. Form into small balls and stick into the freezer for ca. half an hour.

Original recipe had the truffles rolled in licorice powder, but since I ran out I used cacao, and boy was the match of chocolate and licorice heavenly! So, your choice: add either licorice powder or cacao on a plate and coat the balls in the powder. Store in the fridge, if there are any left after you're done with the game of "just a little taste more".

Cinnamon roll soft serve

The next N'ice cream creation I wanted to test out was something that had to do with frozen bananas. As the Monkey madness ice cream I made, sold and devoured on Koh Phangan was such an amazing step into the land of banana ice cream, I couldn't wait to take one step further. Since cinnamon is one of my all time favourite spices (along with turmeric and ginger) and I absolutely adore cinnamon rolls, the choice was pretty easy. Cinnamony soft serve! How could that be bad?

So off to the work I went. My mom's new blender didn't co-operate with the frozen bananas as well as the food processor back on KPG, so the consistency became quite thin as I had to blend it for a while to get all the bananas to let go of their solid form. I stuck the mass into the freezer for a while to think about things and wait for its fate. Quite cruel, I know, but sometimes needs must.

Runny, cold things have always had a special place in my heart. Let's take a trip down memory lane. When I was a kid, my favourite kind of ice cream treat consisted of banana slices, vanilla ice cream, heaps and heaps of caramel sauce and sprinkles. Nothing earth shattering here, I know, but wait, it gets better. The best part was to mush the ice cream and bananas and let it melt into a runny, vanilla-caramelly goo. An ice cream soup! I was a genious already as a kid, apparently :D

Back to today: This cinnamon creation wasn't as runny as my childhood treat, but it was good nonetheless. The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to wait for the bananas to ripen a little more. Now the ice cream tasted mainly of slightly too yellow bananas, while the other subtle flavours were a bit lost. And maybe add more cinnamon. There can never be too much cinnamon! But it was still so good we gobbled it up with my mom in no time.

Cinnamon roll soft serve

Recipe from the lovely N'ice cream bible
2 servings


Cinnamon roll mixture

1/2 dl almonds

1/2 dl pecans

1 tsp ceylon cinnamon (add more for a fuller flavour)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom (same here, I'd say it's safe to add more)

5 fresh dates, pitted

1/2 dl water


Ice cream

3 ripe bananas, chopped and frozen

3 tbsp coconut milk

1 tsp vanilla extract/powder


Add almonds, pecans, cinnamon and cardamom into a blender and blend into a fine crumble. Add one date and blend some more. Scrape half of the mixture into a bowl (the mixture should be dry but formable. Mine was more on the crumbly side, so maybe I should have added one more date).

Add the rest of the dates and water into the blender (the remaining half of the cinnamon mixture is already waiting for company there) and blend into an even paste. This worked better with a hand mixer than a blender. Scrape the mixture into another bowl.

Wash and dry the blender. Add frozen bananas, coconut milk and vanilla and blend into a soft serve. You might have to scrape the sides of the blender jug with a spoon a couple of times before the mass will have the right consistency. Scrape the ice cream mixture into the bowl that has the softer cinnamon roll mixture and stir. Divide into bowls and sprinkle crumbles of the drier mass on top. Serve and enjoy!

Gluten free crepes and summer berries

One of the ultimate summer treats in Finland are "lätyt" or, crepes. The sweet versions are usually served with berries and ice cream or whipped cream, or anything you fancy, really. They taste the best when made outdoors, on a huge cast-iron pan on wood fire, but they are equally yummy if made indoors on a normal skillet/pan.

As I avoid gluten whenever my willpower is enough to do so and today was one of those days, I wanted to have these delicacies in a gluten free form. They were so good (and there was still some filling left over, whaddayaknow!) so we made them twice. Savoury version with a paste made of smoked salmon, yoghurt and mayonnaise and the sweet (more photogenic!) version with berries, whipped coconut cream leftovers of the date caramel. It took a tremendous effort of willpower to actually get some photos out of these babies, as they are of course best eaten hot, straight out of the skillet. But I managed, yay!

The recipe was found from Gluteenitonta leivontaa. Enjoy! *would add a heart here, but Blogger thinks it's broken HTML. How depressing.*

Gluten free crepes

ca. 10 large ones

5 dl milk/almond milk (works well with either, probably also with coconut milk)

2 eggs

2 tbsp coconut sugar (can also be omitted)

1 tsp salt

3 dl gluten free flour (any kind)

2 tbsp butter, melted

butter/coconut oil for frying

Beat the eggs with a hand whish until the yolks and whites are combined into a uniform mix. Add milk, (sugar) and salt. Sift flour in, mixing constantly (gluten free flour tends to clump if added without sifting). Add melted butter last. Let the batter set for ca. 5 minutes. If it's super thick, add an egg and some milk. Fry on a hot skillet on each side. Serve with ice cream/whipped (coconut) cream and berries. And some bubbly to go with that isn't a bad idea ether. Eat at least one too many ;).

Raw brownie bites

I was originally supposed to return from my Asia trip in July, but in the end the choice between one more month in Asia and a longer summer in Europe was an easy one. Especially Finland is amazing in the summer: there's nothing quite like the light summer nights, the rich and fresh smell of the forest after the rain and the possibility to spend some time at the summer house. Such peace and quiet is hard to find anywhere else.

Midnight

The cooking and baking facilities at the summer house are of course a bit more modest than in the city, so I came prepared: I blended some nuts already before we left and only planned to make something that needed minimal time in the kitchen and minimal amount of washing-up.

Raw brownies seemed like an excellent way to give some rich counterbalance to the fresh berries, salad and smoked fish we were having. And the dollop of sweet and creamy coconut whipped cream didn't exactly ruin the lovely little squares, either. Have I mentioned, how I'm a complete coconut junkie? Well, if I haven't then now you know. Hi, I'm Lilje, and I'm a coconut-holic. Give it to me in every form and consistency and I'll gobble it up like there's no tomorrow. In fact, I'm sipping coconut water as I write this post, and there's a new delicacy waiting to be blogged about in the fridge, where one of the main ingredients is coconut oil. But there are worse things to be hooked on than coconut, right? (Ok yes let's not mention chocolate in this context now, shall we?)

But I digress. Back to the brownies. They were really really good, and the yield of the recipe is perfect for a couple of days snacking for 2 people or a little sample for more people. I chose to make the brownies bite sized since they are quite rich, which was a good decision (and then you can have more pieces! Yay!) And the coconut cream really is a very nice addition, highly recommended.

The recipe is, surprise surprise, again from Syötävän hyvä. That girl is a powerhouse when it comes to amazing recipes and lovely food photography. Enjoy!

Raw brownies

(about 9 small squares)

Brownies

1 dl pecan nuts

a generous dl fresh, pitted dates

3 tbsp raw cacao powder

1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

a dash of salt

Topping

0,5 dl fresh, pitted dates

1 tbsp raw cacao powder

1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

ca. 2 tbsp water

Throw the nuts into a blender and blend till small but not yet powdery. Add dates, cacao powder and coconut oil and blend to a soft mass. I used a hand mixer, since I hate using blenders for date mixes (it just never works!). Also the hand mixer had a little hard time with the heavy mass, so if you have a small food processor attachment to your hand mixer, that might be the best option. Sweeten if desired, but the dates give ample sweetness in my opinion. Press the mass to the bottom of a rectangular/square dish.

Prepare the topping by mushing the ingredients together with a hand mixer. Add water till the consistency is spreadable-soft but not runny. Spread on top of the brownie mass. Put in the freezer until set (about an hour). Cut into cubes and store in the fridge. Serve with whipped coconut cream!