Healthier Banana Bread

Ah, banana bread, I made banana bread a lot when we were vegetarian and I had it a lot growing up omni too. My mom made it quite often and it was always one of my favourites. After all, is there anything better than the smell of banana bread baking?? Since turning vegan however I haven't found the perfect recipe. I tried veganizing my moms and trying others and I find they all taste great but the texture is too dense and not 'banana bread' like. I once again had a glut of really ripe bananas to use and thought I would try something different altogether, a healthier banana bread. After all, nothing else has been working and why not? One thing that always annoyed me about banana bread is how high in calories one simple slice was.

So, I devised this one - it is sweetened only with the minimum amount of maple syrup, barring the optional sprinkle of demerara sugar on top, and the fat has been drastically cut back by only using 2 Tbsp of the much healthier organic coconut oil. I also increased the bananas for sweetness and texture and swapped some of the white flour with wholemeal, in keeping with the healthier tag of course ;-)

I gotta admit I did not have high hopes for this, as anyone who reads this blogs knows - I love my sugar. In fact I un-apologetically love my sugar. And anyone who follows me on twitter will know I was ready to eat this with a bottle of maple syrup at my side. Well, as you can guess as it's being blogged it was bloody fantastic! Out of all the vegan banana breads I have made this one was hands down my favourite, and with about half the calories! Unlike the usual moist bricks I get this one had a really nice texture which I hope comes out in the photos here and it tasted great, just sweet enough although I would consider the demerara sugar topping there essential ;-)

So, there you go, a great tasting fantastic textured banana bread that just happens to be better for you to boot! Win-win!!

Oh yeah, it's also another huge hit with my son who was having a slice at breakfast and a slice after school!

:-)

**Edit - just made this again (as it's my new favourite banana bread recipe) but was out of a few ingredients. So, FYI -It also works really well with melted vegan butter in place of the coconut oil and the brown sugar syrup from my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola recipe in place of the maple syrup (I used 80ml instead of 60ml) I was also a little short of the 400g of bananas but it turned out just as good with the same great texture :-) **

Healthier Banana Bread:

140g plain flour

140g wholemeal flour

60ml maple syrup (1/4 cup or 4 Tbsp)

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

75ml rice milk

400g really ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp organic coconut oil, melted

1 tsp vanilla

optional - 1 Tbsp demerara sugar 

Preheat the oven to 180C and line the bottom of a loaf tin with baking paper, spray the sides with cooking spray. In a large bowl mix together the flours, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl whisk together the mashed banana, maple syrup, coconut oil, rice milk and vanilla. Add this to the flour mixture, mixing and folding with a rubber spatula until just mixed, do not over mix.

Scrape into the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar over top, if using. Pop in the oven and bake for 45min - 1 hour until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes then remove and leave on a wire rack to fully cool.

Great warm with a spreading of vegan butter:

♥

Nutritional Information: per 100g

Calories: 252

Fat: 4.5g

Sat Fat: 3.3g

Fibre: 4.3g

Protein: 5g

Carbs: 50g

Sugar: 15.3g

Calcium: 124g 

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Cumin Seed not-so Flatbreads

No, not naan - not-so-flatbreads ;-) I had some of this spicy carrot and bean soup in the freezer and felt like it one recent rainy and windy day. Soup for me, and most people to be fair, must have bread with it but I always feel regular bread just doesn't really go with curry based soups. I always want something more naan like for some reason. So I thought I would whip these up. I very loosely based the recipe on Nigella's 'Nigella Seed Flatbreads' out of How to be a Domestic Goddess, veganizing and replacing some things with stuff I had on hand. I opted for cumin seed instead of nigella seeds mostly as that's what I had in the cupboard but it works amazingly well. (Edit - I have since made these with nigella seeds, also known as black onion seeds and they were just as good, either work.) As for the not-so-flat part, they were supposed to be flatbreads but rose so well in the oven some could only be described as buns! I wouldn't change that next time either though as the texture was fantastic.

The breads themselves are beautiful, really light and fluffy softly spiced with cumin and went so well with the soup. The next evening I made a simple chick pea and veg curry and we had one on the side of that - very nice. I will always whip these up before a curry night, or indeed any time I make a curry spiced soup as they are really quite easy.

Perfect with a bowl of spiced carrot soup!

Cumin Seed not-so-Flatbreads 

Yields 12 Flatbreads

500g white bread flour
1 sachet easy blend or quick yeast (7g)
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp full fat coconut milk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp cumin seeds (or black onion seeds, both work well)

Mix the flour, salt, yeast and cumin seeds in a large bowl. Measure the coconut milk and vegetable oil in a pyrex measuring cup and fill up to 350ml with quite warm water. Give it a stir then pour over the flour and mix well. Tip the mixture onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until it's smooth and elastic, add more flour to prevent sticking as need be. Shape into a ball and place into a greased bowl and grease the surface. Cover the bowl with cling film and place in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Punch the dough down, give it a couple kneads and cut into 12 even size pieces. Gently knead each piece into a ball then give it a quick back and forth roll with a rolling pin to flatten out. Repeat with all the pieces placing them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

Funny how uncooked bread looks like a black and white photo...

Preheat the oven to 220C and loosely cover the sheet of breads with cling film and place in a warm place for 20 minutes. Now remove the cling film and bake for 8 - 10 minutes until golden and risen again. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool, although they are best warm from the oven :-)

There, that's better!

The soup I served these with is a spicy citrus carrot and bean soup. Recipe comes from BBC Good Food, available here. It was really good but reminded me too much of my absolute favourite carrot curry soup which given the choice I would always opt for that one. Still, I can highly recommend it, had really nice taste and the addition of beans added a nice texture.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 flatbread

Calories: 179

Fat: 4.2g

Sat Fat: 0.5g

Protein: 5.5g

Carbs: 28.5g

Sugar: 0.6g

Fibre: 2.1g

Sodium: 421mg

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola

Love my old-fashioned French milk bottle filled with rice milk - "the good milk" indeed!

Why yes, I did grow up on Cookie Crisp cereal, why do you ask? You may have recalled in my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie post below that I said I loved them so much I was having them for breakfast. I started to think it would be nice to have this without all the guilt and thought of a granola with all the flavours of an Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie, after all, both are oatmeal based.

I have never made my own granola so had a search online and was happy to see how easy it is. However almost all the recipes called for using maple syrup, honey, agave, golden syrup to coat the oats in. While I would normally be more than happy to use maple syrup it just wasn't keeping with the cookie flavour I really wanted here.

Whenever I think of the main flavours in an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie I think primarily brown sugar, butter, vanilla and chocolate. So I thought I would make a brown sugar syrup to help replicate that, using just light muscovado sugar and water. It turned out beautifully and I set about making the granola with that instead. To that I added some melted vegan butter, vanilla and a bit of cinnamon, just like in my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

The end result was fantastic! This really does have the aura of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie BUT without being overly sweet. By aura I mean it doesn't taste like you are eating a bowl of chopped up cookies - NOT what I was after, but rather, tastes just like granola with all the hints of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. The best praise came from my son who had 2 bowls and said it "was the best cereal I have ever eaten and probably ever will". Aw shucks!

Oh, and ultimately I wanted to make this with chocolate chips, but if you read my cookie post below the chips I used to buy are no longer vegan so had to resort to chopping some dark vegan chocolate instead. It's still chocolate, it's still good ;-)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Granola: makes about 600g

300g oats
Brown sugar syrup - recipe below
2 Tbsp vegan butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
100g dark chocolate chips or a chopped bar

Brown Sugar Syrup:
200g light muscovado sugar
100ml water

To make the syrup, simply add the sugar and water to a saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the while. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring very often, watch it as it can bubble up pretty quickly, just reduce the heat more and keep stirring if it does. Remove from the heat and add the margarine, stir until it melts then add the vanilla, stir well. (You can double or triple this syrup recipe if you would like extra, if you are making more then measure out 200ml of the syrup for this recipe. The rest can be kept in a glass bottle in the fridge - it's lovely of pancakes and the like.)

Preheat the oven to 150C and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. In a large bowl add the oats and cinnamon and mix well. Pour over the syrup and stir really well until everything is coated and it's evenly blended.

Tip this onto the baking sheet and spread out evenly. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes, remove give it a mix around, spread it out again and pop it back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Give it another mix, if it's golden and feeling crisp then it's done, remove and leave to fully cool.

When cool, tip it all into a large bowl and add the chocolate, give it a toss and that's it, it's ready for the morning. Keep in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on a 50g or 1/3 cup serving

Calories: 225

Fat: 6g

Sat Fat: 2.4g

Protein: 5 g

Carbs: 38.4g

Sugar: 20g

Fibre: 3.5g

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I do love a basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and this is a real good one! As you can see, in keeping with my tastes these are jam packed with as many chocolate chips as was possible to get in ;-) I tried an oatmeal cookie prior to this one but they were way too crisp, these are just lightly crisp on the outside but still nice and chewy too. I love them so much I was having them for breakfast :-) You can easily swap the chocolate chips here for raisins too for a really nice oatmeal raisin cookie, just use less than the chocolate chips, 100g maybe, just eyeball it. :-)

Just a note on the vegan margarine here. I use Vitalite (UK/Ireland) and it's a really soft margarine. If the vegan marg you use is firmer you may have to add a bit more water. I used to use Pure Sunflower and I know if I was using that I would need to add a bit more water. Just add enough so you have a firm drop cookie dough :-)

Also, regarding the chocolate chips, I had some old packages of Dr. Oetker plain chocolate chips which always appeared to be vegan. When I went to go buy some more I noticed the ingredients now had whey powder listed but with a little number 2 by it, almost like it was just a cross contamination issue. I called the company and they weren't sure but said they would ask the head guy (Dr. Oetker himself???) and get him to call back. He said that they recently changed suppliers but would be changing suppliers again at the end of the year and will try to ensure they are dairy free. You go Doctor!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies: makes about 19

100g vegan margarine
120g caster sugar
50g light muscovado sugar
1 tsp vanilla
115g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
90g oats
140g plain/dark/semi-sweet chocolate chips (again, this is the absolute maximum you'll get in there!)
1 tsp or more water

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. In a bowl whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl cream together the margarine, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture until it comes together. Add 1 tsp or more water if necessary, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoon onto the pan keeping them about an inch apart and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until the just start to go golden around the edges. Leave on the pan for 5 minutes then when they are firm enough to move, transfer to a rack to fully cool. Enjoy!

♥

Nutritional Information: 1 cookie (out of 19)

Calories: 136

Protein: 1.9g

Carbs: 21.6g

Sugar: 12.8g

Fibre: 1.2g

Fat: 5.3g

Sat Fat: 1.9g

Sodium: 97mg

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Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Bundt Cake

With chocolate glaze, I mean, why not??

So I might just have a little addiction to cake. On the day my lovely birthday cake finished I made this, like I can't cope without cake or something! Basically I had some tofutti sour cream that I needed to use, to be honest I don't know how that happened as that stuff usually goes pretty quick in this house with nachos, burritos, tacos etc.. being much loved, but there you go.

Regardless, I thought of trying a sour cream cake and came up with this, I'm glad I did as it turned out beautiful, first try and all! The cake has a wonderful moist yet nicely crumbed texture, not too heavy at all and the flavour is perfect. I wasn't planning on adding anything on top as I was envisioning a simple snack cake but felt it just needed something. So I was toying with the idea of a ganache, chocolate glaze, sifted icing sugar or chocolate drizzle and settled on a chocolate glaze. It's the same one as I use on my doughnuts and worked well with this. I felt ganache would be a bit rich and not really suit the cake as I just wanted something thin and light, this works really well but of course you can do any of those options, or simply leave it plain, any way it'll be very good! If you do want a ganache, I highly recommend my recipe here, it's one of the best ganache's I've ever had.

Just a note on the sour cream, I don't know if others have found this but I find sometimes tofutti sour cream is really wet, other times, really thick. This time it was really thick and after whisking it to soften it I did have to add about 1 Tbsp water to the end batter. If it was thinner, I probably wouldn't have needed to. It is a very thick batter but if it's looking excessively dry, as in you can still see flour, just add a bit of water - a tsp at a time should do. It's still a 'spooning in' batter and not a pouring batter. :-)

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Bundt Cake: serves 16

280g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

100g vegan butter

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla

225 pack tofutti sour cream, whisked 

100g plain chocolate chips

2 'eggs':

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp vegetable oil

100ml water

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and flour a bundt pan. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside. In a small bowl make up your 'eggs': add the cornstarch, baking powder and xanthan gum and give it a whisk. Mix together the vegetable oil and water and pour this over slowly, whisking all the while. When it is all added give it a really good whisk until slightly thick and gloopy. Set aside. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer add the butter, sugar, vanilla and the 'eggs'. Turn mixer on and slowly go up to high speed. Stop and scrape down sides to get all the butter incorporated. Keep it running for a couple minutes until light in colour and everything is mixed well. When you stop the machine and lift the paddle attachment the batter should run down in a ribbon.

Now add some of the flour mixture to this and mix well, then some of the sour cream. Keep adding flour then sour cream mixing well after each addition. When all has been added spoon the batter into the prepared pan and level off with the back of a spoon. The batter will be very thick. Pop it in the oven and bake for 40 minutes until risen, golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. It should feel firm but bouncy to the touch as well. Do check if after 30 minutes however as all ovens are different.

Cake once inverted.

Leave it in the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes then invert onto the wire rack, removing the pan. Mine came out real easy, it's a springform pan so I first removed the outside part then ran a knife around the middle cone. I then placed the wire rack upside down over the top and flipped the whole thing over and the cake just came away from the pan in one go. Maybe I was lucky though! Now just leave it to fully cool on the wire rack.

Chocolate Glaze:

1 1/2 Tbsp vegan butter

75g icing sugar

1/8 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp hot water

75g dark chocolate, chopped

Simply place everything in a bowl and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until the chocolate melts and everything is blended well. Remove from the heat and give it a good whisk. Leave it until it thickens up slightly. You still want this runny enough to pour over but thick enough that it actually coats, to be fair I was probably I little impatient with mine there and it could have done with thickening up a bit more. As it's sitting and thickening up whisk it now and again to stop the surface crisping up. When ready simply spoon over the cake letting it run down the sides. Let it sit some more to let the glaze set, about an hour then it's ready to serve, so get the coffee on! :-)

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1/16th of cake

Calories: 259

Fat: 9.9g

Sat Fat: 3.7g

Protein: 2.8g

Carbs: 40.8g

Sugar: 22g

Fibre: 1.1g

Sodium: 263mg

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Breakfast Sausage and Hash-brown Burger

"Butter" grilled bun, Fry's burger patty top with slow fried onions, a hash-brown and ketchup.

Ok, just an uncharacteristic non-recipe 'simple idea' post for you today. Mostly to prove I don't make semi-complicated meals all the time and enjoy some almost ready made food as much as the next person :-) This was, of course, delicious and I dare say would make a great hangover breakfast. Actually, I can confirm that.

For the patty there I used a Fry's burger patty which works perfectly here. I absolutely love them but I don't think they taste like burger patties. To me they taste like a perfect sausage patty and therefore work really well here. This was just whipped up one morning but if I really wanted to go for it I would make the English Muffins from Vegan Brunch and "butter" grill one of those for the ultimate Vegan Sausage McMuffin, screw the egg!

Breakfast Sausage and Hash-brown Burger:

1 x Burger Bun
1 x Fry's Burger Patty
1 x Large Hash-brown, cooked
Onion
Vegetable Oil, I used 1 tsp
Ketchup
Vegan Butter

Simply spread 'butter' on both sides of a bun or English Muffin and  place on a grill pan toasting until nice and grilled. Press down on it while cooking to help get the lines, doens't matter if it gets squished as it's a pretty high burger in the end anyway!

In a fry pan fry the onion nice and slow in the oil until very soft, golden and a bit crispy on some edges, remove. Now in the same pan fry the burger patty for 8 - 10 minutes until golden on both sides, add more oil if need be. Add the onion to the pan at the end to re-heat slightly.

Now simply top the bun with the patty, onion, cooked hash-brown and lots of ketchup. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information: approx, depending on bun used, how much ketchup etc..

Calories: 385

Fat: 13.5

Sat Fat: 2.7g

Fibre: 2.1g

Protein: 18.4g

Carbs: 50.5g

Sugar: 11.5g

Sodium: 1027mg

♥

Jumbo Pasta Shells stuffed with Basil Almond Feta with a Creamy Tomato Basil Sauce

The whole dish, prior to baking.

Ok, I would like to promise that this will be my last post with the almond feta for awhile, but I can't guarantee that! It's just so good, and so versatile :-) This dish is particularly fantastic - jumbo pasta shells stuffed with the almond feta mixed with lots of fresh basil and all topped with my new favourite tomato cream sauce (blog post below). Seriously delicious and really special, I can see us having this one for many special occasions....or any weeknight really as it's not hard!

I realize my quantities may look skimpy but this was very satisfying with just the right amount of filling and sauce. I went with 4 shells per person but this recipe could easily serve just 2 with 6 shells each; just keep in mind that almond cheese stuffed inside pasta with a cream sauce does have the calories you would expect!

Another great thing about this dish - I discovered the almond feta can be made on the same day you are making this so it won't take you 2 - 3 days to make :-) I whipped up the feta in the morning, let it drain in the fridge until it was time to make it then half cooked the feta for 20 minutes. I then stirred in some chopped basil, filled the par cooked shells, poured the sauce under and over then baked it off for another 20 minutes. This meant the feta didn't get overcooked as it still got it's full 40 minutes :-)

Jumbo Pasta Shells stuffed with Basil Feta with a Tomato Basil Cream Sauce:


12 large pasta shells
1 x recipe almond feta
1 x recipe Tomato Cream Sauce
fresh basil

(If you have any leftover filling or sauce, don't worry, it'll get used elsewhere!)

In the morning make the almond feta up to the stage where it is draining in the cheesecloth in the fridge. I also like to make the sauce in the morning and have it ready and waiting in the fridge. About an hour before you want to eat remove the feta from the cheesecloth and place in a lightly greased oven proof dish. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes. It usually takes 40 but remove it now and stir in lots of chopped fresh basil, it will be quite soft.

Now the shells, it will depend on what the package instructions say but I parboiled mine for 15 minutes then ran them under cold water and drained well. Stuff the shells with a bit of the basil feta but don't fill them up or worry about fully fulling them up. The basil feta is strong in flavour (as well as calories) and you don't need a lot here. Also, I filled a piping bag with the cheese and piped it into the shells but don't recommend doing that. It was fiddly and would have been much easier to spoon it in. When the amount of shells you want are stuffed heat up the tomato cream sauce and stir in some chopped fresh basil into the sauce.

Now place some of the sauce in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and lay the stuffed shells on top.

Spoon over some more of the sauce, don't worry it it doesn't cover all the shells, like the basil feta this sauce is full of flavour and I found the amount you see here to be just right:

Now, fully cover the whole dish with foil and pop back into the 200C oven for 20 minutes. My shells after this stage where just al dente but could have maybe done with a little more so give them a little test and see if they need a little longer in the oven.

Scoop out the shells onto a plate and this is entirely optional - grate with a little cheddar cheezly and serve. Would be great with a glass of red wine and garlic bread.

The finished dish with my *smaller* portion plated up, shame it's not a great picture as this was amazing!!

♥

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Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce

Served with Spaghetti and my Garlic Bread.

Well, we had quite a bit of leftover Tomato Cream Sauce from the Buckwheat Crêpes recipe and I just had to try it with pasta as it was so good on it's own. Wow. This is a seriously good pasta sauce and will be a staple in our house for sure, even the kid loved it, yay! I'm going to re-post the recipe here as I've increased the quantities for a pasta sauce. The photo there is with parsley but I prefer basil for a pasta sauce and parsley for a crêpe sauce, although both work well. I also took some step by step photos for you here, although it's a dead easy sauce ;-) I've showed this sauce on it's own here so you can see it clearly but any kind of vegetables added would be great.

Sauce is loosely based on/inspired by The Pioneer Woman's "Penne a la Betsy" :-)

Recipe Notes:

♥ I love the coconut milk in this but I have also made this with soy cream, it's just as good.

♥ Don't drink? Simply swap the wine with equal amounts of water. Again, it's still good.

♥ Passata is just sieved crushed tomatoes, I understand this product is harder to find in the US. To help you substitute the ingredients are: tomatoes (99.7%) salt and citric acid and the product is completely smooth. Plain canned tomato sauce can most likely be used in it's place. Make sure the ingredients are as above with no oil, basil,vegetables etc.. and it is very smooth with no seeds, skin or chunks. 

♥ Please don't confuse passata with tomato paste either, I've seen some sites online saying they are the same - they are not....375g of tomato paste would make for an *interesting* sauce, lol.

2013 photo with my new favourite pasta shape - De Cecco Fusilli Lunghi Bucati -5 

Creamy Tomato Pasta Sauce

makes 1/2 litre, good for about 6 servings.

• 1 1/2 Tbsp vegan butter
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 60g chopped shallots
• 4 -6 cloves garlic, I used 4 large ones, use 6 if they are small, chopped fine
• 150ml white wine
• 375g passata (about 375ml) 
• 200ml full fat coconut milk 
• 1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt
• 6 -8 grinds black pepper
• about a 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (to be honest, I didn't measure here, I just eyeballed it)

First, heat up the butter and olive oil until the butter melts. Add the shallots and garlic and fry until the shallots are soft and transparent, a few minutes should do.

Pour in the wine and bring to a strong simmer, cook until the wine reduces by about a third. Now add the passata, salt and pepper. Stir well, bring to a boil then reduce to low heat, put the lid on and simmer for 20 minutes. Make sure to stir it now and again. It should cook down considerably and be fairly thick.

Pour in the coconut milk, stir and remove from the heat.

Pour it all into a blender and blend until super smooth, it should thicken up and change colour to a glorious orange:

Now simply pour it back into the pot, stir in the basil and or parsley and bring it back up to heat. Check seasoning and it's ready to use!

Fantastic with penne too, or of course, any pasta :-)

♥

Nutritional Information: just the sauce - per 1 serving out of 6
Calories: 151
Protein: 1.3g
Fat: 5.9g
Sat Fat: 1g
Fibre: 0.6g
Carbs: 7g
Sugar: 3.5g
Sodium: 358mg

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Buckwheat Crêpes filled with Spinach, Almond Feta and Walnuts with a Tomato Cream Sauce - Soy and Gluten Free!

So we had the Sweet Cinnamon Berry Buns for our anniversary breakfast, and this was the dinner. I cannot convey to you how good this was! It's a bit involved to make but so, so worth it. I will most definitly be making this one again, and not just for special occasions. I will also be making that sauce over and over again, especially for pasta as it's sublimely good!

The crêpes were an experiment and took a few go's. I've never worked with buckwheat before, the only thing I've had close to it is in soba noodles. Initially I attempted a batter with coconut milk and a bit of chick pea flour added, like my wild rice and coconut crêpes but they didn't turn out well. They tore way too easily while trying to turn AND stuck to the pan. I had a search online and saw quite a few vegan buckwheat crêpe recipes with quite a few ingredients but then saw that you can buy pre-made buckwheat crêpes in France made with just 3 ingredients - buckwheat flour, salt and water. I then thought, well, if a French factory can do it, then so can I and set to work. My god, they turned out perfect! Tasted great but also didn't stick to the pan, flipped easily and were altogether easy to work with. I cannot tell you how happy this made me. Three ingredients. I love it!

This made me realize they were both gluten and soy free, yay! I was wondering what to stuff them with and felt my spanakopita filling would be nice here (also gluten and soy free) with some added walnuts for taste and texture. I then thought I might as well go all the way and make a gluten and soy free sauce, I wanted to do a creamy tomato sauce and would normally use soy cream but opted for full fat coconut milk here and it turned out amazing!! That sauce is unbelievable good, I will be using it in loads of recipes for sure :-) 

Buckwheat Crêpes filled with Spinach, Almond Feta and Walnuts with a Tomato Cream Sauce serves 2

Crêpes:
100g pure buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
300ml water

Filling:
200g baby spinach
1 onion, chopped fine
100g almond feta
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
about 40g walnuts, toasted

Tomato Cream Sauce: this makes more than you need, trust me, that's good, it'll get used ;-)

1 Tbsp vegan margarine *if wanting gluten and soy free please check ingredients of yours*
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large shallot, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100ml white wine
250g passata
125ml full fat coconut milk, from a can
1/4 tsp salt
about 5 grinds black pepper
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

First I made the filling early on in the day to make things easier. Pull off any large stems from the spinach place it all in the sink. Wash well then pour salt all over the leaves, don't worry as it gets washed off. Now rub the salt into the leaves tearing as you go into small pieces. The bulk of spinach should reduce down dramatically in size, rinse well and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. It should be fairly fine now but I like to give it another chop here to make sure it's as fine as possible. My spanakopita post has a lot of photos showing the steps for all of this.

In a small saucepan heat the olive oil and add the onion and some freshly ground black pepper. Fry until very soft and a little golden. Let cool slightly. Add this to the spinach, crumble in the feta, add a pinch of salt and a small grating of nutmeg and stir until the mixture is all creamy. If making this earlier in the day you can now cover with cling film and pop it in the fridge.

Next make your sauce - *Edit - I have step by step photos for this sauce here* Heat the margarine and olive oil in a medium saucepan until the marg melts. Add the shallots and garlic and fry for a few minutes over low heat until the shallots are soft. Add the wine and let simmer until it has reduced about a third. Now add passata, salt and pepper, stir well, bring back to a simmer, cover and let simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes stirring occasionally. At this point it should have reduced quite a bit and look almost thick. Pour in the coconut milk and stir well. Turn off the heat and let cool slightly then tip it all into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Pour it back into the pan and wait to heat again while you make the crêpes.

Now, the crêpes. Simply add the buckwheat flour and salt to a large bowl then pour in the water. Give it a really good whisk and let sit a few minutes then whisk again. It should be the consistency of a crêpe batter now, perhaps a tad thicker. Heat a small non stick frying pan, I only greased with a quick spray of cooking oil and using about 1/3 cup of the batter pour into the hot pan turning it as you do to make sure the batter covers the whole frying pan surface. Cook for a few minutes then flip. I found it easiest to flip these by loosening them all around and picking them up by the side and just turning them over by hand. Once they are flipped they will not stick and you can even "fancy flip" with the pan ;-) After cooking one place it on a plate and cover with a sheet of baking paper. Continue until all are cooked, you should get about 5 here, depending on size of pan.

Now, lay a crêpe out and place a strip of the spinach/almond feta mixture, about a couple tablespoons down the middle, top with a sprinkling of toasted, chopped walnuts and roll up. Place in a greased baking dish and repeat with the remaining crêpes. You may have some filling left over. Cover the dish with foil and pop in a 200C oven for 15 minutes.

While they are in the oven, add the parsley to the sauce, bring back up to a simmer and check seasoning. It should be thick enough to spoon over like in the photo here. If not, keep simmering until it cooks down a bit. When they crêpes are done, place 2 on a plate and spoon the sauce over. Serve immediately, this dish is lovely with a glass of white wine that you used in the sauce :-)

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Sweet Cinnamon Berry Buns

Beautiful sweet cinnamony bun filled with raspberry jam and drizzled with an almond glaze - yum!

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary! Time sure flies, hard to believe it was all those years ago we were getting married in my hometown in British Columbia, Canada. Here we are now settled and living in Cork, Ireland, it's all been grand!

To be honest we usually don't ever go out for our anniversary. I always like to make a really nice meal and we just stay in with some champagne. This is partly down to not getting great vegan meals out but also simply down to my love of cooking fancy stuff! I'm thinking dinner tonight might be some sort of stuffed crepe with sauce....hmmm, watch this space, it'll get blogged if it turns out ;-)

I have never made anything nice for an anniversary breakfast though and was inspired to make these by a recipe in the latest BBC Garden Illustrated magazine. I know. You become a homeowner with land and suddenly turn into the kind of person who buys garden magazines. Blimey. Anyway, they sounded so nice and I had to try them, of course I made quite a few changes, me being me and all! First they needed veganizing, I swapped the butter for vegan marg, milk for coconut milk and just omitted the egg altogether. I've been doing that lately, just ignoring the eggs in things and you know what? Stuff has been turning out great! I also added cinnamon to the dough, and topped them off with a drizzle of almond glaze as they were just calling out for it. I also changed the fresh yeast to quick yeast. I actually have fresh yeast and love to bake with it but understand that it's hard to find and tricky to work with if you are not used to it. Everyone can buy and use quick yeast though ;-)

I also started making these about 7:30 last night so didn't get a lot of step by step photos, but they are really very easy, they just take time as yeast risen breads do. It was pretty tortuous waiting to the morning to scoff one of these but the wait was worth it. They are absolutely gorgeous! Keep in mind they are a bun or roll, bread dough, not like a cinnamon roll would be. They kind of reminded me of an iced bun but miles better. I could never understand those things as I always felt like I was eating a highly processed hot dog bun questionably covered in icing. These are how those should be, sweet cinnamony dough, just the right amount of jam and then a nice almond glaze. Perfect.

Sweet Cinnamon Berry Buns
Yields 12

75g vegan margarine (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)
250ml dairy free milk (1 cup)
1 sachet quick yeast, 7g
1/2 tsp salt
50g golden caster sugar (1/4 cup)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
500g plain flour (about 3 1/2 cups)
about 125g jam - whatever flavour you like
apricot jam - optional, to glaze

Almond Drizzle Glaze:

100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp dairy free milk

Place the margarine, milk and sugar in a saucepan and heat until the margarine melts and the sugar dissolves. If using caster sugar when the marg is melted the sugar will be dissolved. Pour into a small bowl to let cool. If you have a thermomenter you want it to be 45C if not you want to able to put your finger in comfortably, so still quite warm but not steaming hot.

In a large bowl whisk together 400g of the flour, salt, cinnamon and yeast. When the liquid is the right temperature pour it in and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough comes together. Now add the remaining 100g as you'll most likely need it. Tip mixture onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Keep adding small bits of flour if it's sticking. It should after 10 minutes not need any more flour and feel smooth and elastic.  Now place the ball in a greased warm bowl, cover with cling film and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Punch the dough down, give it a couple of kneads and shape into a log. Using a knife cut this into 12 equal size pieces. Give each piece a little knead and shape into a ball, flatten slightly and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. When all are done press and tear a large hole in the middle of them, making sure you don't go all the way through, just an indentation here. Fill the hole with your jam, when they are all done, cover with a sheet of baking paper and place back in a warm place for 20 minutes to rise a little more.

Please excuse the bad photo, this is why I don't usually work at night!

Preheat the oven to 220C, remove the top sheet of baking paper and bake for 10 - 15 minutes. It will depend on your oven, mine took 10 minutes. They will have risen again and be golden brown on top.

Now, this next step is entirely optional but I like to take some apricot jam, warm it up in the microwave, push it through a seive and add a few drops of water to make a glaze. I like to brush this on sweet yeast risen baked goods as it gives a really nice shiny glaze to them that you don't get without an egg wash. It really is just aesthetics though, so not necessary but they do look better for it.

Leave the buns to cool then make your glaze, simply stir everything together until smooth and runny enough to drizzle over but thick enough it'll stay on. Just add more milk and or icing sugar till you get the right consistency. Drizzle this over the buns and leave it to set. Then they are ready to serve, perfect with a steaming hot cup of coffee :-)

I actually wanted to call these "Anniversary Love Buns" but was outvoted :-(

♥

Nutritional Information: per bun

Calories: 263
Fat: 4.4g
Sat Fat: 1.3g
Protein: 4.7g
Carbs: 50.7g
Sugar: 18.3g
Fibre: 1.5g
Sodium: 145mg

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Cinnamon Buns

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