Summer Berry Crumble Bars

I made this oat crumble as a surprise 'bressert' for my boyfriend last weekend. His favourite fruit is rhubarb and I had a few stalks in the garden that I wanted to use up.  I wanted a super healthy breakfast crumble that was indulgent enough for dessert (hence bressert).

I had planned for this to be enough to last us for breakfast AND dessert late in the day.... but we ate it all for breakfast ;-)

I first made this oat crumble recipe for my 'Not Just For Goldilocks' book, so I won't share it in full right here, BUT I will share with you a great spin-off in the form of these bars. I made the bars in the photos below initially for Real Food Source last year and using the same principle as the crumble I made them again.

These bars are quite soft and cakey with a crisp top, which is how I love them. I used a combination of oats, ground almonds and tiger nut flour for the topping, but other flours in place of tiger nuts and almonds would also work.

They also have a great nutritional boost by way of chia seeds which are also used here to thicken and bind the base and fruit layer.

These are perfect served hot with some vegan for a little indulgence or with a dollop of plain vegan yoghurt for a breakfast option.

Recipe: Summer Berry Crumble Bars

Makes approx 12 squares

Ingredients:

Crumble:

• 1 ½ cup oats

• 1/2 cup ground almonds

• 1 cup tiger nut flour (or other flour such as wholemeal, spelt or a gluten-free blend)

• ½ cup coconut oil– melted

• approx. 2 tbs coconut syrup (to taste)

• 2 tbs chia seeds and 3 tbs warm water (mixed to gel)

Berry Layer:

• 1 heaped cup stewed fruit (I used a combination of apple, rhubarb and raspberries)*

• approx. 1 tbs maple syrup

• 2 tbs chia seeds

• ½ cup rough chopped nuts of choice for topping (optional)

*I used approx 2 small/medium apples, 2 medium stalks or rhubarb and a large handful of raspberries (I didn't measure precisely but it equated to a good cup of fruit once cooked down)

Method:

Mix the oats, ground almond and tiger nut flour dried with the melted coconut oil and syrup. Set aside approx. 1/4 of this mixture for the topping (or more for a thicker topping).

To the remaining mix, add the chia ‘gel’ to help bind. Press the crumble mix firmly into an 8” square pan- it should be approx 1cm deep.  Bake for approx 15 minutes at 180C until just golden.

Meahwhile stew the fruit in a saucepan, adding a little syrup to taste as the rhubarb and raspberries are tart. No extra liquid is required as the fruit will release it's own. Add the chia seeds during the last few minutes to help thicken.

Remove the base crumble from the oven and spread the fruit layer evenly over the top. Add the reserved crumble mix, plus extra chunky nuts if desired.

Bake for another 5 minutes or so until the topping is golden and the fruit bubbling.

Serve hot or cool (note: the bars slice better when cool)

 

Armenian nutmeg cake

Is it that time of the month again already?!

Time for the Daring Bakers Challenge reveal…  this month Armenian Nutmeg Cake! There was also an option of creating Armenian Nazook, which looked deliciously intriguing but sadly I did not find the time to attempt a vegan version of this recipe also.

You can find the original recipe outline and instructions here.

The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

There were a few things I changed in order to veganize and healthanize this recipe: I used soy milk to replace regular milk, I reduced the quantity of sugar and added some polenta so that the base layer maintained some crunch, I use coconut butter and reduce the quantity by adding soy yoghurt to substitute in part. Lastly I used wholemeal spelt flour as my usual flour of choice when baking.

The cake turned out quite well, it was light and airy although not very deep, I think if I made this again I would use a 7” or 8” pan. It ws delicately spiced and not over sweet which I really liked. However, I made a bit of a silly mistake by not fitting the base of the pan tin correctly so that some of the mixture leaked through. Silly me! This meant my crust was a little messy and it was also a bit crumbly.  I was keen to have another go at getting the crust sussed! In my second attempt I added a little ground chia to help the mixture stick together. This time I also decided to go down the route of mini muffins with a little base mixture pressed into each muffin mould with the end of a rolling pin.  This time the mixture was not crumbly at all but it was not very crisp either- I wasn’t sure if it should be?  I have therefore come to the conclusion that in order to get a crisper denser crust you would need to include nearer the full quantities or sugar and butter. I’d be interested to get thoughts on how the base turned out for you?

Either way I really enjoyed the taste of this cake, a lovely change from the norm as I usually opt for fruity flavours. Even though the name of the cake is ‘nutmeg’ you can use any warming spices you wish such as cinnamon and cardammon depending on you preferences. I used a combo of cinnamon and nutmeg (I just had to get cinnamon on there somewhere!) Similarly you could decorate the top with any nuts you wish (or go crazy with some chocolate shavings!...shhhh you didn’t hear that from me!)

Recipe: Armenian nutmeg cake

Makes  a  9” cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy milk
• Just under 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups spelt flour- mix of whole and white
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup rapadura plus a pinch of stevia
• ¼ cup polenta (to add crispness)
• 1/3 cup coconut butter/oil
• 1/3 cup soy yoghurt (or apple puree)
• 1 tbs ground chia or flax and 2 tbs hot water
• ½ cup flakes almonds and desiccated coconut

Method

Mix the soy milk and baking soda and set aside.

Mix the flour, baking powder, spices, rapadura and polenta in a food processor. Add the coconut butter and yoghurt/apple and mix to form crumbs.

Press half the mixture into a cake pan (or in the bottom of cupcake moulds) to form a base.

Add the chia egg and milk mix to the remaining dough in the food processor and mix to form a lumpy batter. Pour the batter over the base mixture in the pan. Sprinkle nuts over the top.

Bake at 180C for approx. 30-40 mins until lightly golden and a skewer comes away clean.

Plantain Banana Cake

Following my experiments at the weekend I had one more ripe plantain sitting in the cupboard just waiting to be used. It looked lonely and forlorn all on its own trying disguise itself to fit in with the bananas but not quite managing to pull it off!

I had planned to make a banana cake for some time and so I thought it could be an ideal way to use up my last plantain. This was going to be a little experimental since plantain is not quite the same as a banana but I felt confident enough that it would still do the trick. I was right…

The plantain worked a treat! It’s difficult to know exactly how it would have turned out had I just used bananas but I have a feeling that the plantain gave the loaf a more starchy bready texture which worked really well to give a firmer structure to the loaf as a substantial ‘mid-morning snack’ which really helped to fend off the munchies until lunch! This was lovely swerved warm (to melt the choc chunks) with a little vegan butter or cream frosting…………….. Mmmmmmm.

Recipe: Plantain banana cake

(fills one 20cm loaf tin )

Ingredients

• 60g rapadura (or agave syrup) and a pinch of pure stevia
• 1tsp flax and 1tbs hot water to gel
• 200ml soy yoghurt
• 2 tbs coconut butter/oil (any oil would work)
• 1 ripe plantain and 1 ripe banana well mashed (or 3-4 ripe bananas)
• 40g finely chopped dates
• 200g wholemeal and white spelt flour mix (or one or the other)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 2-3 tbs poppy seeds or nuts
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg                                 
• 50g dark chocolate chunks (optional but more decadent!)

Method

Mix melted coconut butter with yoghurt, flax, sugars and stevia in a large bowl for a couple of minutes. Add the mashed banana/plantain and mix until well combined. Mix remaining ingredients together in a separate bowl then add to the wet ingredients. Once well combined, pour mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake at 180C for approx. 50-60 minutes. Check with a toothpick to see when cooked and keep an eye out for top browning (if it looks as though it’s getting too brown loosely lay tin foil over the tin).

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