Apple, banana and oats cake

Last weekend we celebrated in advance a very important event for our family (the youngest member of the gang is tyrning two).
As a very dear guest was a vegan, I wanted to bake an egg-free and dairy-free cake. After a lot of research, inspired by a recipe of the wonderful Ella, I made an apple, banana and oats cake, very easy to make and really delicious!

I didn't have the chance to take more pics, which means it was really successful.

Ingredients:
- 6 medium apples;
- 4 very ripe bananas;
- one handful of raisins;
- 300g oat flour / grind rolled oats;
- 2 tsp cinnamon;
- seeds from 1/2 of vanilla bean;
- 2 lg chia seeds;
- 2 lg coconut oil.

Method:
Peel and core the apples, then dice them or grate them. Place the cut apples in a pot and simmer over low fire until they get soft and the syrop evaporates (if you diced them, add a splash of water in the beginning, otherwise they might get burnt).
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
When the apples become soft, remove them from the fire, add the mashed banana and the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined.
Place the batter in a cake tin (line the base with baking paper and grease the margins)

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.

For the topping, I used peanut butter and fresh raspberries, but any fruit will do.

Enjoy!

Oven Baked, Vegan Falafel

I absolutely love the falafel from the Lebanese restaurants, so I tried make a baby friendly version at home. The first recipe I tried was the one from Ruxandra Micu's blog (here) and I never needed to look for another recipe, as I liked this one a lot 😂😂😂 This is my version (slightly adapted).

Ingredients:
- 1 cup of boiled chickpeas, (1/2 cup raw chickpea, soaked over night and boiled) or one can of chickpea.
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast;
- 1 handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped;
- 1 small carrot, finely grated;
- 1 small onion, finely chopped;
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed;
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika;
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder;
- salt (if no restrictions) and pepper by taste;
- 1 big tbsp tahini;
- 1 tbsp olive oil / olive oil spray.

Method:
Process the drained chickpeas in a blender until it becomes a smooth paste (or you can leave bigger chunks, depending on the texture you like). Transfer to a bowl and add all ingredients except for the oil. Mix well.
If the mix is too wet (and you cannot shape it using your hands) you can add a little bit more nutritional yeast or chickpea flour.
With a wet hand form patties, flatten them and place them on a tray lined with baking paper. Using an oil spray or a brush apply a thin layer of oil on the patties.
Bake in the oven until they get a golden brown crust (about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius; time may vary depending on the size of the patties).
You can also fry them in a non-sticky pan, without oil, under a lid, adding a splash of water from time to time.
I served with potato puree and a vegetable stew.
Enjoy!

Crustless cheesecake

I made this very quick recipe only because I had some mascarpone cheese that I needed to consume. The cheesecake turned out to be so good, creamy and pleasant, that I think I will make it again for this coming Easter, maybe with a biscuit or tart crust.

Ingredients:
- 500g mascarpone;
- 450g fresh cows cheese / ricotta;
- 4 eggs;
- seeds of a vanilla bean;
- one banana (very ripe, but not black);
- one cup fresh or frozen berries.

Method:
Turn on the oven on 160 degrees Celsius.
Place the cows cheese, mascarpone and mashed banana in a bowl and mix (using the hand mixer) until smooth. Continue by using a spoon! Add the eggs one by one and mix well, then add the vanilla seeds.
Pour the batter in molds (you can use silicone muffin molds or a cake tin, I combined both) and bake it in the oven for 45-60 minutes (depending on the molds' dimension). When set, turn off the oven, open the oven's door just a little bit and leave the molds in there for 15 more minutes, them remove and let them cool on the table. After they are completely cooled, place them in a fridge for about 1h, then you can remove the cheesecakes.
Serve with whole berries or make a sauce by blending the fruit.
Enjoy!

Blueberry tiramisu, baby friendly

This morning I was looking at the pictures from the last summer holiday and, among the numerous photos of my kids, I found this pretty image of a delicious home-made blueberry tiramisu cake (oh, this little piece would have gone perfectly next to my coffee).

The story of this tiramisu cake started with some blueberries (too many) that I bought from the green market (it was already mid September and I was super excited to find blueberries). Well, after my kids ate a fair amount, there were still enough blueberries left to try some experimental cake recipe.  

Tiramisu had been on my mind for a while, but the challenge was to replace the sugar and the coffee in it so that it would be baby friendly. Instead of ladyfingers I used a walnut cake, cut in rectangles, to have approximately the same size (I got this idea of using a nut cake while I was making tiramisu Montignac after the recipe here). Instead of sugar syrup I used blueberries, the juice from the fruits and water used for soaking the dates.

Ingredients:

For the walnut cake:

- 7 eggs (separate the yolks from the whites);

- 200g ground walnuts;

- 6 dates (soaked in water for a few hours)*;

- a pinch of vanilla.

For the filling:

- 250g mascarpone;

- 250 ml sweet cream;

- 6 dates (soaked in water for a few hours)*.

For the syrup:

- 300 - 500 g blueberries (plus the juice that they leave and the water used for soaking the dates).

*If you want the cake to be sweeter add more dates

Method:

Blend the soaked dates (pitted) until smooth. Mix with the egg yolks until they start to get foamy. Add the vanilla and the ground walnuts and mix well. Whisk the egg whites until you get a strong foam and add it to the walnut-date mixture. Using a spoon, stir gently and briefly (so that it remains fluffy). 

Pour the mixture onto a tray lined with baking paper and level it with a spatula (it will raise a bit while baking so the layer can be pretty thin). Bake in the preheated oven at 160 degrees C, for about 20 minutes (until it passes the toothpick test, just be careful not to burn it as it bakes pretty quickly).

Remove the cake from the tray together with the baking paper and let cool. Cut it in rectangles (to have a similar shape as ladyfingers) or any other shape that you like.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Whisk the sweet cream until firm (but not too much or it will become butter), add the mascarpone and the date paste and whisk a bit more, but only as much as necessary to  mix all the ingredients together.

Pick the tray in which you want to assemble the tiramisu and cover it in cling film (it should be maximum 1/2 the size of the tray in which you baked the walnut cake). Add 2 tbsp of filling and spread it over the bottom of the tray. Add the first layer of "ladyfingers" (the walnut cake pieces) and pour a few tbsp of blueberry juice and date water on top of those. Add a layer of blueberries and a layer of mascarpone filling. Continue with a new layer of "ladyfingers", followed by syrup, blueberries and mascarpone filling.

Depending on your preferences and the size of the tray, you can add as many layers you want. I prefer to have only 2 layers of cake + the subsequent blueberry and filling.

Decorate with blueberries or other forest fruit and enjoy!