Sweet stuff

Granola

Ingredients:

  • 90g butter
  • 30g sugar
  • 60g honey, molasses, maple syrup or any other syrup
  • 300g oats
  • cinnamon
  • salt
  • 150g nuts
  • 100g seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, etc.)
  • 150g dried fruits
  • everything else (milled flax or chia seeds, superfoods powders, etc.)

Methods:

  • Preheat the oven to 150C.
  • Heat the butter, sugar, other sweetener, cinnamon and salt until melted and well combined.
  • Add oats and mix until every flake is coated.
  • Spread the oats in a uniform layer across the baking tray covered in baking paper. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden but not yet blackening around the edges.
  • Put a tray of nuts in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until smelling lovely and starting to change color.
  • In the meantime chop the dried fruits.
  • Put a tray of seeds in the oven and bake for 5 minutes or until smelling lovely.
  • Take the oats off the baking tray with the baking paper and let them cool down while still looking like a flapjack.
  • Once everything is cooled down, chop the nuts and break up the oats into small clumps of crunchy goodness.
  • Mix oats with nuts, seeds, dried fruits and everything else.

Note: My favourite combination is almonds, cherries and cacao nibs. Apricots fit well into any combination. Avoid dried fruits that contain sweetners.

Inspired by: www.thekitchn.com

Buttermilk pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 30g butter
  • 200g flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 0.5 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 0.25 teaspoon salt
  • 375g buttermilk
  • 1 egg

Methods:

  • Melt the butter and let it cool down a bit.
  • Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
  • Separately whisk together the buttermilk, egg and melted butter.
  • Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until combined. Do not overmix, there should be lumps in the batter.
  • Spoon small dollops of batter on a non-stick pan. They will expand, so do keep them small and spaced out. Flip as soon as the bottom sides is brown, while the top is still liquid.

Serving suggestions: Fruits, berries, yoghurt and cacao nibs. Or citrus fruits and whipped feta. Don’t reach out for honey or syrup by default, enjoy the taste of the fresh fruits, bitterness of cacao nibs and creaminess of yoghurt instead.

Inspired by: www.justataste.com

Buckwheat crepes

Ingredients:

  • 30g butter
  • 100g buckwheat flour
  • salt
  • 1 egg
  • 300g milk

Methods:

  • Melt the butter.
  • Mix buckwheat flour, salt, egg and 100g of milk.
  • Mix in the remaining 200g milk. Add butter and mix until well combined.
  • Pour batter on a hot non-stick pan covering the whole pan to make thin crepes.

Serving suggestions: Savoury version - grated cheddar, steamed asparagus, thinly sliced peppers and red onion, salad leaves. Sweet version: caramel and toasted almond flakes.

Inspired by: www.dovesfarm.co.uk

Vegan option: 250g buckwheat flour, 500g water, salt, vegetable oil. Mix flour, salt and water. Chill the batter overnight or at least for 30 minutes. Before frying, bring the batter to room temperature for 15 minutes, stir in a bit of vegetable oil.

Banana buckwheat pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 2 very ripe bananas
  • 130g buckwheat flour
  • 5g baking powder
  • 5g ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 175g milk

Methods:

  • Mash bananas with a fork.
  • Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
  • Add flour mixture to the bananas, mix until combined. Add milk and mix until well combined.
  • Spoon small dollops of batter on a non-stick pan. They will expand, so do keep them small and spaced out. Flip as soon as the bottom sides is brown.

Serving suggestions: Unhealthy option is to lace pancakes with rum and serve with chocolate ice cream and toasted almond flakes.

Inspired by: pickuplimes.com

Chocolate truffles

Ingredients:

  • 300g double cream
  • 50g butter
  • 300g dark chocolate
  • 30g cacao powder
  • 5-10 tablespoons of rum

Methods:

  • Cut chocolate into small pieces.
  • Gently heat the cream and butter cut into pieces until butter melts completely (that means the cream is hot enough to melt chocolate too).
  • Remove from the heat, add all chocolate and cacao powder into the cream, gently mix, let it sit and melt for a moment. Add rum and mix gently until all chocolate has melted. Stop mixing as soon as the mixture looks smooth and glossy. Do not overmix, otherwise the emulsion will split. If it does split, handblender the emulsion back together.
  • Refrigerate the mixture until cold.
  • Use a spoon and your hands to make small balls of chocolate mixture, arrange them on a plate.
  • Refrigerate the plate with the truffles until cold.
  • Put a bit of cacao powder in a jar, add several truffles, close the lid and shake to coat the truffles. Proceed until all the truffles are coated.
  • Store them in the fridge.

Inspired by: bbcgoodfood.com