Banana Oat Pancakes with Cashew Sauce (eggless, flourless, easy!)

We are drowning in information, but starving for wisdom.

This was the heading for an article I read this morning, and although its meaning and intention had nothing to do with the thoughts that flickered through my head (the merits of a liberal arts education) upon first seeing the quote, there is definitely an implication that resonates with me. This is all a little random, but I do feel as if more should be shared on this space than just the occasional recipe or review. Heck, it’s why I love the Internet. Variety underpins sensory awareness, exposure, curiosity. One reason why I love blogging about food is because I don’t see the stuff as merely something to eat, but as complex edible objects which hide more abstract, profound meanings, relevant to little aspects of our everyday lives. I remember to take things a little slowly when spreading soft, salted butter on my toast, the pale creaminess reassuring. A sticky, sweet medjool date makes me lose myself just for a second. Pause. Ponder. It sounds silly, I know. Is it just me?

Information, and so much of it, is the nexus of the 21st century. But though it’s everywhere, in the form of the news or the hippest TV series or the next best recipe (oh, just you wait), wisdom is rare. It may be argued that the accumulation of knowledge naturally leads to this to this point of discernment and judgement. I like to think of it as a meal: the info is the appetiser, the formulation of opinion or analytical discussion comprise the main course. The dessert, further debate, perhaps division or (!) discovery. But the intriguing bit lies in the waiting time between appetiser and main course. Our information thresholds, where we draw the line between absorption of the world around us and internal debate. I like that thought; it’s interesting to consider just how different our thought processes are. As we prowl possibility, awaken a hidden psyche. That is what leads to understanding and progression. I’m guilty of being a robot sometimes, to squander away time doing meaningless activity, to have stuff go in one ear and come out the other. I mean hey, it’s ok to be a vegetable! It is, sometimes. I just think it more necessary in this current day and age to be that much more perceptive, instead of gulping air, nodding, regurgitating.

I shall now introduce you to my new favourite pancake recipe: Eggless, flourless, practically everything-less (vegan readers, you there?) banana oat pancakes, with a decadent cashew sauce. I should like to clarify the name of the sauce here; I say cashew because I’m currently going through a serious, unrelenting vanilla cashew butter phase, and the cashew butter is the primary component of the sauce, but really you can use any nut butter you have lying around. It is the tang of this sauce, thanks to the yoghurt, coupled with the naturally sweet, earthy nature of these glorious pancakes, and milkier aftertaste of the cashews, which makes it the most divine breakfast for days on end.

I like making normal pancakes, I do. You know, with actual flour, eggs, the whole motley crew. They’re easy easy easy, and the recipe is just standard stuff after a few goes.

But these. These! I couldn’t believe how sweet, fluffy and flavourful these pancakes turned out to be! When I first starting experimenting with healthy, or at least healthier ingredients, I was incredibly skeptical of the turnout. They would never taste or look as good, I bet on my life, I always thought. I associated things like wheatgrass and acai and oat flour with the life of a poor rabbit. How wrong I was. How terribly wrong. The ripe banana here makes these naturally, not overly sweet, and if you are inclined to leave a few chunks in the batter then you get nice pockets of cooked, sweet banana in your breakfast. The oat flour makes it all folksy, almost cultured, and using it for the first time in pancakes brought to mind thatched countryside roofs and battered wheat and yoga. It brought me down to earth, and it always feels good to treat my body well, to give the french toast and white/fancy breads a break.

Banana Oat Pancakes with Cashew Sauce (makes 5 4-inch wide pancakes)

For the pancakes:

2 small or 1.5 medium bananas, the riper the better

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp yoghurt (or sour cream)

4 tbsp almond milk (or any milk of choice)

1 tbsp coconut oil (or vegetable oil, or melted butter)

60g oat flour (I ground 60g rolled oats in a blender, so there’s really no need to buy oat flour. It takes a mere couple of minutes to grind em up into a fine flour.)

1.5 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon cashew butter (or any nut butter of choice)

1 tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp honey (or maple syrup)

Preheat a pan on medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, salt and baking powder. In another medium bowl, mash the bananas, then mix in the remaining wet ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet mix, and use a large spoon or spatula to slowly incorporate everything until just combined.

Drizzle a little coconut or vegetable oil to the preheated pan, and, using a tablespoon, ladle on enough batter to make a circle around 4 inches wide. This part is completely up to you; make them as big or as small as you want. Cook the first side for around 2 minutes/ You’ll notice the edges firming up and turning a slightly darker colour than the middle, and that’s when you should take a spatula and slide it under the whole pancake in preparation to flip. If it shakes or wobbles too much on top, let it cook for a while longer. After flipping, cook the second side for around 30 seconds, for the pancake itself is already mostly cooked by this point. Let the cooked pancakes rest on a paper towel while you finish up the rest of the batter, or in an oven preheated to 160C if you wish to consume everything immediately.

Make the sauce! In a small bowl, mix the 3 ingredients listed above. The consistency should be on the thicker side, but not gloopy and unmanageable. To serve, stack a few pancakes on top of each other, top with the nut butter sauce and fresh fruit. The pancakes are naturally very sweet so I don’t think maple syrup or honey necessary, but go ahead if you feel like it. Pancake eaters do what instinct tells em to.

These pancakes freeze very well. After cooking and letting rest on a paper towel for around 5 minutes, transfer those which you’re not eating immediately into a ziploc bag, laying them in a single flat layer. Pop in the freezer, and whenever you’re in the pancake mood, take however many you want out and microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Posted on April 23, 2015February 21, 2022 by alexcrumb 2

Blueberry Almond Cheesecake Mousse For One (no bake, raw)

I quote again from my Instagram: clearly I was too excited to let the stuff sit properly in the fridge, hence the less-than-ideal consistency. But this yields a wonderful firm, mousse-like texture after 4 hours in the icebox! ‘Wow Alex. There’s no cheese in here but it tastes like cheese? It’s GOOD.’-Dad With a magnificent almond-date crust. Am I out of my mind? Not quite. I think you’ll be as pleased with how easy and bloody delicious this is as I. The raw phenomenon has taken the world by storm, and although I initially wished to be left out of the craze, inspiration and my own health inclinations have gotten the better of this selfish shunning. Dearest Emily is a huge raw fan, and her sweet vegan recipes always look too inviting. How could I not give something a go. What better way to get into the raw groove than by experimenting with my own stock of nourishing ingredients? It’s funny, these phenomenons, these supposed fads. You think it all insubstantial, lets-be-pseudo-health-nuts. No. I’m not saying I’m the healthiest eater out there, but I make it a point to treat my body well most of the time. I’m as partial to oatmeal, fruit and vegetables as I am to brioche and mounds of butter and jam. Eating well has become part of me; whipping up something nourishing and delicious is never, ever a chore. Simply second nature. You take a bunch of fresh, nourishing ingredients, throw it together in a blender, and 5 minutes later (or less, actually) you’ve got a Mini Jubilee Jar. All for yourself. Share if you have to, share the joy. The lemon in this recipe works splendidly against the sweet, dense almond-date crust, which is really just a bit of almond butter and one date blended together. The good thing about this recipe is that I found it a pleasure to eat even with little bits of blueberry or almonds in the mousse, not seamlessly blended together, and streaks of date at the bottom. Perfection within imperfection.

Blueberry Almond Cheesecake Mousse for One (fits in one mini 4-inch wide mason jar) For the cheesecake mousse:

25g fresh or frozen blueberries

10g raw almonds (optional, for crunch)

juice and zest of half a lemon

1 heaping tablespoon of almond butter

1tsp milk of choice (I used coconut)

For the crust:

one teaspoon almond butter

one date

In a blender or food processer, blend together the crust ingredients (date and almond butter) until everything is well blended (or not, it’s up to you and the world is your oyster). Scrape the contents of the blender into your mini jar and press down into an even layer. Pop the jar in the fridge to set whilst you put together the cheesecake mousse. Don’t wash the blender! There’s no need.

Throw in the ingredients for the cheesecake mousse and blend everything together well. I liked the addition of raw almonds for a bit of crunch, but you can leave those guys out. Once everything is well blended, pour the mix, which should be thick but slightly wet, into the mini jar. Let this set in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. This actually makes a rather good breakfast treat so make this the night before, and the rest is blissful history! Before eating, top with fresh blueberries and more lemon zest. I imagine some yoghurt and a bit of honey would be lovely too.

Posted on April 20, 2015February 21, 2022 by alexcrumb 0

Mini Lemon Bundts

Lemon’s taking up all the oxygen in the room. It’s a good thing. If you’re as obsessed with the ingredient as me, that is.

FYI, I cut the tops off the guys before removing them from the pan just for the picture; it’s twice as efficient to remove them with their domes first (I may be dim but not toooo dim)!

There’s something so endearing about each mini bundt I popped out of the pan. This recipe yields exactly 12 light, springy, lemon-filled balls of sponge. Sponge of medium density, of average sophistication, of half-cake-half-gooey-sponge pleasure. The secret lies in the use of plain yoghurt, which made the little cakes moist but not doughy, and sufficiently dense but well-risen. I adapted the recipe from Nigella’s cookbook, and it’s my personal go-to for something simple, light, lemony, and pleasing. See the tops I cut off? Oh goodness, please save those. The tops boast the sugary, browned crusts, sharp and bit stiff when bitten into, giving way to the most pleasurable, mildly sweet and lemony bite. Coo for crust. These have it all.

Mini Lemon Bundts (makes 12 4-inch wide mini bundts)

150g all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

75g melted, unsalted butter, cooled slightly

zest of one lemon

juice of half a lemon

2 eggs

110ml natural yoghurt or sour cream

large pinch of salt

125g white caster sugar

For the icing: 170g icing sugar, one teaspoon vanilla extract and the juice of one lemon (do this to taste)

Preheat the oven to 170C. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. In a measuring jug or smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, lemon zest, juice and yoghurt. Pour the wet into the dry mix and slowly mix everything together, transferring from a wooden spoon to a spatula. the batter should a little thick, of spoon-dropping consistency. Make sure that there are no lumps or streaks of flour at the bottom. Grease your mini bundt tin and pour the batter into the molds. Bake in the preheated oven for 23-25 minutes.

Whilst waiting for the buns in the oven, make the icing. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the icing sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. The mix should be thick and runny, not too opaque, and won’t harden after a few seconds of stirring in the bowl. If you need more liquid, add more water, drop by drop. Once the bundts are done, remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack. Pour the icing on once they’re cool; it’s actually fine to do so when they’re still a little warm because the heat will help the icing along down the sides.

Posted on April 16, 2015February 21, 2022 by alexcrumb 2

Breakfast Special: Try This Now

The gap in your knowledge must be filled. Certain Eureka! moments cannot, must not cease to be conveyed to the masses (however small my audience is; don’t want to sound all high and mighty here). I like discoveries and surprises, be it with regard to random tidbits of information I come across on the net or in books, or when I put two and two together in the kitchen and suddenly I get five but it works. Unless you dislike bananas or yoghurt or, well, butternut squash (sigh), I’m (almost) on my knees begging you to put the three together.

What you see above, friends, is really a simple construction: a thick slice of the bestest, moistest, chocolate chip banana bread cut in half and stacked, topped with homemade butternut squash candy puree (oh you just wait), drizzled with plain yoghurt, and a crumbled leftover brownie. I have already posted the recipe for two of those components, the only thing left is the squash candy purée. I learnt the recipe from a family member, after watching her cook the stuff and label it a ‘Filipino delight’. It was a little hard to adapt this because she doesn’t measure anything, however after just one spoonful of the delightful stuff, I can see why she does it the way she does– it’s all according to taste, and how sweet your butternut squashes are in the first place. What you get is a rich, thick, sweet plateful of orange purée. It’s like a healthy orh nee, or yam paste, but with a distinct squash flavour and undertones of coconut!

You may find the recipes for the moist banana bread (the recipe yields a plain loaf, but I threw in a cup of chocolate chips for extra goo and decadence; the chocolate also makes the perfect pairing with the banana here) and the brownie here and here. The brownie recipe was written to incorporate an additional cream cheese swirl, but I used salted caramel in place of that this time. Bits and bobs of sweet, salty goo. You may also leave that out, or you may wish to leave out the brownie component altogether, which would be just as sublime (see pictures right above).

Butternut Squash Candy Purée (makes enough for 2 servings)

one large butternut squash

240ml water

200-240ml coconut milk

3-5 tablespoons of light/dark brown sugar (range is due to difference in taste and the natural sweetness of the butternut squash you have on hand)

half teaspoon of salt

In a heavyset saucepan, add the water, salt and butternut squash, turn on the heat and let everything come to a boil. This will take around 10-15 minutes. Once boiled and the butternut squash is soft and tender, use a large spoon or potato masher and mash the butternut squash in with the water. Reduce the heat a little to medium and add the coconut milk once most of the water has evaporated. At this point, add however much sugar you want, according to taste. Mix on medium heat for another 5-10 minutes, until the mixture is thick and smooth. Pour into a container and let cool before serving. I personally think this is best served cold, so if you wish, make this a day ahead and scoop it right out of the fridge the following morning.

Assembly: Take one slice of moist banana bread, top with the cold (or hot) squash purée, then drizzle on some plain yoghurt (vanilla or Greek works well), and top with broken bits of brownie.

Posted on April 9, 2015February 21, 2022 by alexcrumb 0

Hot Cross Cake Cookies

Sometimes things get to your head. Sometimes you mean for something to turn out one way, but thanks to some tiny, sudden instinct, or some recent experience with another different but wonderful foodstuff, elements which you never meant to blend together end up doing just that. Sometimes, that’s ok. Like this cookie.

I never was a fan of fluffy, cakey cookies. I am a hard advocate of pin-thin, dense, chewy cookies, all nicely ridged round the edges and squidgy, half-baked in the middle. You could press the middle and your finger mark will stay. That chewy and squidgy (I love the word squidgy). I felt like doing something over the Easter weekend, but the entire of Saturday and Sunday was a blur, a hectic mess. A jumble of egg hunts, a scramble to feed my sisters and her friends breakfast (pancakes, if you’re wondering), a desperate longing for time cooped up reading in my room. Monday morning called for something dedicated to this holy occasion, but nothing too orthodox. Without much time on my hands, I resorted to cookies, a category I haven’t played with in what feels like forever. I had a gorgeous slice of sponge cake from (goodness knows) somewhere over the Easter weekend, and I guess that theme of airy lightness fed into this experiment. But I’m grateful for the mistake– I think the fluffy nature of this cookie (hence the ‘cake’ before the ‘cookie’ in the title) allows the more stuff to be, well, stuffed into each little cookie. Ah, the stuff. Good stuff. I’ll talk about the stuff.

Specifically, soft nougat+dried fruit+chocolate. I personally prefer hard nougat, the sort which you’re afraid might make your teeth crack, but it’s the soft ones which work best in this buttery, cinnamony batter, for after the oven action, what you get are gorgeous, chewy, caramelised nougat residue, gooey and melted, with little bits of crushed almond and peanut strewn throughout (depends on the sort of nougat you’re using of course, I think pistachio would be lovely here). The lemon icing on top of the cooled cookies are quite literally the icing on the cake (cookie). The ‘hot cross’ theme limits just how much icing you can smother on these guys, but go ahead and dip one side of the cookie into the icing if you wish, for better indulgence.

Stuffed Hot Cross Cake Cookies (makes 15-18, adapted from here)

For the cookies:

240g all-purpose flour

100g light brown sugar (or white, if you don’t have any brown on hand)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g unsalted butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon each of baking powder and cinnamon

quarter teaspoon nutmeg

100g dried fruit/sultanas/raisins

50g each of soft nougat (chopped into small pieces), and dark chocolate chunks or chips

large pinch salt (half a teaspoon)

For the icing:

120g icing sugar and the juice from half a lemon

Preheat your oven to 180C and grease a couple of baking pans. In a large bowl and with an electrical or normal whisk and bicep action, beat together the softened butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and whisk to incorporate. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

Chop your nougat into small pieces and coat them with a teaspoon of the flour mix, so the edges stop sticking to each other. Add the rest of the flour mix to the butter and sugar mix, then stir with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough. Add the chocolate, dried fruit/sultanas/raisins, then the nougat. Mix everything to combine.

Dollop batter onto the pans using two tablespoons or with your hands. Each cookie should be the size of a ping pong ball. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. You may have to do this in batches. While the cookies are baking, make the icing by mixing together (I use a mini whisk or a little fork) the powdered sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice. You might not need all the juice from half a lemon. Put the icing into a small ziploc bag and set aside. Once the cookies are done, leave to rest in the pan on cooling racks for at least 15 minutes. Snip off the end of the ziploc bag and ice the cookies, drawing a cross on each one. Reinforce the ‘stripes’ by piping over the crosses again.

Posted on April 6, 2015February 21, 2022 by alexcrumb 2

alexcrumb

recipes, catering, creativity