Baked and raw pastries!

Hi there! I've been pausing for quite a while, and that is because I broke my camera. Fortunately I have a bad-quality mobile phone camera, to make some "food-notes". So I apologise for the quality of these photos, but they deliver the idea in every best manner they can. So this entry includes my saturday-bakings! And raw.

Buns

As you can see, I baked some traditional finnish coffeebread today! Or actually I think these are called cinnabons. I'm quite sure that almost everyone knows how to make a bun dough, but no harm is done by writing it down.

The dough:

5 dl of water (or soy milk)

2 dl of (cane)sugar

1 tbsp of cardamom

1 tsp of salt

25 g of dry yeast (2 bags)

1-2 dl of raisins (optional)

15 dl of flour

150 g of melted margarine (or oil)

The liquid should be as warm as 42-celsius degrees for the yeast to work. Mix in the sugar, cardamom, salt and raisins. (I put in this some almond paste, but I can't really say I would've tasted it?) The dry yeast should be mixed with the flour, but I'm telling you a secret: I'm so lazy, that I always put the yeast in the liquid. And the buns always work out fine (and when I try using normal yeast problems begin..). Molest in most of the flour (I never really count the amount of the flour, I go by instinct), and then knead the dough with the margarine. Add the rest of the flour until the dough is nicely firm and detaches from the bowl. Let it rise covered.

Bake the buns in 225 degrees for 10-15 minutes (in my oven 12 minutes is The Time). To make cinnabuns, share the dough in four batches and roll each to a plate. Then brush with melted margarine, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (and desiccated coconut, as I did).

I went wild doing these cinnabuns, and tried some new fillings!! I can surely recommend trying:

-Mashed banana, cinnamon, desiccated coconut

-Almond paste, redcurrant (jam or just mashed), (desiccated coconut)

-Any jam you like

Raw-food lemon pie

I got really excited about this new recipe! I made the base as normal, but the filling was new. And I can tell you, this was so good! You couldn't tell no sugar was used.

The base:

250 g of dried fruits (I used one bag of mixed fruits)

½ dl of sesame seeds

½ dl of desiccated coconut

Juice of a half lemon

So the dried fruits were soaked in water over-night. The next day I ground them with a blender with the sesame seeds, desiccated coconut and added the lemon juice. It should become a nice firm paste. Then I put it in a cake tin with some desiccated coconut for the bottom.

The filling:

1 dl of almonds, ½ dl of cashew nuts (soaked in water for 1-2 hrs, then rinsed)

1 banana

2 tbsp of soy yogurt

zest and juice of 1 organic lemon

cloudberries

Ground the nuts with a blender to a smooth paste. Then mix in the mashed banana, soy yogurt and lemon juice and zest. Sprinkle some cloudberries on the base, and then pour on the filling. Decorate with the cloudberries. (You can use any other berries you like or fruits) Let the pie be in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours or over-night for a firmer texture.

And below a picture of another raw-food pie and a WILD pancake my mom made last weekend! It was huge.

Breakfast edition

I have some sad news! I haven't been updating lately, because I accidentally broke my camera. And actually, not even my camera, and the accident was as embarrasing as making it swim in beer. One thing I learned, is not to carry beercans in your bag with a camera.
But I had some photos in my archive. I have been planning on writing about my almost-every-morning-habit, making smoothies ! I've gotten so fixed in it that I can't imagine living without it. I used to eat fruits as breakfast before, but I prefer this as a more exciting option. It requires some making in the morning, and it goes well with me.

Smoothies are really light to eat, and serves if you don't want to eat heavily in the morning. I feel like it's kind of a cleansing-habit every morning, it gives a refreshed and light feeling. But sometimes if I want to eat more firmly, I mix some granola in it, and it keeps hunger away for a longer time.
Really there are no rules and regulations in making smoothies, about any fruits and berries go, and you should just use your imagination. I have just gotten used to almost always using banana - it somehow makes the texture firmer and is quite mild tasting so it goes with almost anything. Also avocado gives a nice texture, I just prefer not using it too much, because it can be too icky. Apples and pears are aöways safe options. Really the royals in this are berries, especially fresh ones. I love especially the mixture of banana and lingonberries! I recommend kiwi also, I love it's zesty taste. Pineapple, mango, nectarines, strawberries, raspberries, what ever you can find.
I usually put in one smoothie about three fruits, depending on the size of course, it makes about 1 ½-2 glasses (I should get me a taller glass so all would fit in on one time!). And I always keep the fruits in the fridge so they're cold, and it's good to add berries from the freezer. I like to add always couple spoonfuls of soy yogurt for the texture. If you like the texture to be juicier, you could well add some fruit juice or soy milk, as you like.

And then just use your blender and eat right away ( I prefer eating them with a spoon rather than just drinking..). Is there really a better way to start a day?! Enjoy with green tea, mornings news paper and a cat in your lap (not on the table).

Pie for consoling injuries

Savory cloudberry-pie

I love this recipe! Before I have made this from lingonberries, but we had some cloudberries in the fridge so I took my advantage of them. I've had a real clumsy day, I injured myself bloodily at work - cut a piece of my little finger with a sharp knife and it bled like the Niagara Falls. We'll see, if it's time for stitches tomorrow. I had to solace myself with something. Let it be sweet.

Ingredients:

100 g of melted margarine

1 dl sugar

2 good tbsp of soy flour mixed with about the same amount of water

2 dl of spelt flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of ginger

2 tsp of cinnamon

½ tsp of cardemom

2-3 dl of cloudberries ( or lingonberries )

Heat the oven in 200 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar, add the soyflour-water mixture. Combine separately the dry ingredients, and then stir together. Pour the dough in a small cake tin and the berries on top. Bake for 15 minutes in the oven. At that time make the filling:

½ dl of soy cream

½ dl of muscovado sugar

1 tsp of vanilla sugar

Boil the ingredients up in a kettle, and pour on the cake. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Alcohol acquaintances

Irish Coffee

Well, I don't usually drink coffee, and if I do it's non-caffeine. And alcohol is an occasional acquaintance, usually I don't drink at all or then have a few glasses of wine (especially sparkling!), whiskey or rarely some good beer. I don't see any harm in it. But the thing is, I found myself in a bar, and had my first Irish Coffee ever last weekend. It was so good. I love hot drinks anyways, and drink them always in a minute! Can't help it! The funny thing in it was that I was looking at the making of this drink and it seemed a bit desperate. The bar tender was quite, um, chilled. I was a bit horrified how it was going to turn out to, but not is everything what it seems - it looked and tasted awesome, maybe because the glass was quite small, and according to the amount of coffee there was a lot of whiskey... But I know now, how to use the remains of my Jameson-bottle I got last christmas.

This is how to make Irish Coffee:

1, 5 dl of coffee
2 tsp of farine sugar
5 cl of whiskey (any Irish whiskey should do, for example Miller's, Jameson)
Some whipped cream

Measure the sugar in the glass and pour on the hot coffee. Mix, add the whiskey and the whipped cream on top. To make it non-alcoholic leave out the whiskey. (But I can say that it's not even nearly the same!)

Muffins strike again

Pineapple muffins

Ingredients:
50 g of melted margarine
1 banana
about ½ dl of soy yogurt
1 dl of pineapple juice (from the can)
2 dl of spelt flour
3/4 dl of sugar
3/4 dl of desiccated coconut
1 tsp of vanilla sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 small can of pineapple cubes

Heat the oven in 225 degrees. Mash the banana, and mix with margarine, yogurt and pineapple juice. Mix separately the dry ingredients, and then combine. Chop almost all the pineapples from the can (or all, if you want to) and leave some for decorating. Whisk the pineapples in and admeasure to muffin tins. Set the rest of the pineapples on them and sprinkle some desiccated coconut on top. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

I guess it is muffin season now.. ! The pineapple muffins were wonderfully moist, thanks to the fruit. I definitely add pineapple to my favorites from now on.
I made also this, or actually it was supposed to butterscotch-pecan bars, but I didn't have a proper tin for it. And I think that I baked this for too long, it was quite crispy, but edible it still was of course! After all, it hasn't been failure-clear-week!! Here is the link for the recipe: http://havecakewilltravel.com/2008/10/02/a-can-of-whoopmolasses-another-twist-of-the-butterscotch-bar/#more-2439

Muffin cloud

The thing that has happened to me many times is that when I try to make good muffins without egg, the result sucks. Often they stick to the mold and don't come off the paper as a whole, pshff. I'm not in harmony with this chemistry yet. But today I nailed it, I didn't mean it
I have been planning on making these for some time. After all the work I found out that I had time, and I was hungry, so I made these instead of making real food (excellent decision). We named these the tropical muffins!! Jambalaya ? Next thing I have in mind, is baking pineapple muffins, that is a craving. But these were good and sweet and vegan. All good and all happy.

The tropical muffins

Ingredients:
3 dl of spelt flour
1 dl of oat flakes
½ dl of sunflower seeds
2 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
1 dl sugar
1 dl of desiccated coconut
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of clove
50 g of melted margarine
2 dl of soy- or ricemilk (I would have loved to make this to coconut milk, worth a try)
½ dl of chopped dried dates
2 medium sized carrots grated
1 small apple grated

Heat the oven in 225 degrees. Grate the carrots and apples. Mix the dry ingredients, and add the liquids. Sturb in the dates, carrots and apple. Admeasure evenly to cupcake molds. Bake for 15 minutes!

Altered Pizza & Cake

Polenta-almond pizza

This recipe was found from the book Paula Heinonen & Satu Silvo's book Satumaista voimaa arkeen. It made for two pizzas, or then it could be for one large one. I rarely eat pizza, and it's so greasy and makes you feel quite dunk, but this was quite a ... "light"-version of a pizza (even though I could just squint for the word light)! It's also gluten-free! I think some spices could make the base more interesting, it was quite mild tasting.

Ingredients

The base:

225 g of polenta grits

1 l of water

2 tsp of salt

1 dl of crushed almond

Let the polenta grits boil in the salted water for 10 minutes, sturbing for the time. After that pour in to an oiled casserole for a 1-2 cm layer and let cool. Fill as a normal pizza as you like. Bake in 200 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

And we had some "mozzarella"-salad, but the mozzarella had passed it's best before-date, so the situation was saved with some cottage cheese! The taste is pretty much the same. The salad included fresh basil, wild rucola, pear, tomato and the cheese.

And now I have some pictures of the living nutrition's cake! http://nanae-n.blogspot.com/search/label/living%20nutrition That link holds the recipe used also in this one. This could be variated in so many ways, and it's under to-do-list to make different versions of this cake. I filled this with mashed banana and red-currant-jam, and put on top nectarine and apple, desiccated coconut and cinnamon. No sugar & flour used.

Pancake breakfast

Blueberry pancakes

Pancakes for breakfast is a good tradition! Mom insisted me doing some for this morning. These could be variated in so many different ways, by using different berries or some chopped fruits, and using coconut milk instead of soy milk etc. I've quite advanced in baking pancakes, since the first ones I made last summer became quite poor. I like to sit next to the stove and read something meanwhile the pancakes are frying. Relaxing.

Ingredients:

5 dl of soy- or ricemilk

50 g of melted margarine

Juice of a ½ lemon

4 tbsp of grounded flaxseed mixed with 4 tbsp of water (replacing 2 eggs)

4 ½ dl of spelt flour

½ tsp of salt

2 tsp of baking powder

2-3 dl of blueberries (or whatever berries you have to use)

margarine or oil for frying

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, and then add together. Whisk in the blueberries. Heat a pan with some margarine, and when hot, put a spoonful of the dough in. Fry for 2-3 minutes from each side. I prefer adding margarine a little for each pancake. I also like the pancakes not too flat. This made about 12 pancakes with my pan.

Asian Cooking

Yesterday the weather was just perfect, the air was fresh and cool so I walked to town taking alongside some pictures. Today clearly it's just been raining and of course it's mail distribution day today... I've been soaking wet, but made some asian lunch and Yogi tea and changed in to dry socks. This recipe was from Yukiko Duke's book Viisi aasialaista keittiötä, though a little variated.

Zha Caixin (Woked Choi Sum) with rice noodles

So this recipe is really meant to be cooked of Choi sum-cabbage, but I used just ordinary iceberg lettuce and it was fine. It says in the book, that this fits for all green leaf veggies. I added the noodles to this so it made a whole meal. Otherwise this could be used as a condiment.

Ingredients:

500 g of iceberg lettuce

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of soy sauce (it says in the recipe to use oyster sauce, but we had none)

250 g of rice noodles

water

Peel and crush the garlic. Heat the wok pan and pour the oil in it. Add the garlic and fry for a minute. Add the lettuce with spices and fry for 4 minutes.

At the meantime, heat the water so it's boiling, and add the noodles in it. Take off from the stove and let it sit for 3 minutes. Strain the water and flush with cold water. Add to the wok pan in the last minutes.

Soup Days

This is how sane she is. Above a capture of our kitchen.
Soups are needed, when I want to eat something not-too-heavy, and still get warmed up. I've made two different variations of a carrot-soup. Funny how the things you disliked as a child... I don't know what it is, but these days I like cooked carrot and vegetable soups. Maybe I'm just too adult. I like pureed soups the best, when they are not too creamy and not made in cow milk. And not tasting boring.

I have no good pictures for the first soup, it was beautifully golden orange.. but it tasted so nice I wanted to put the recipe up. The first soup gives spunk to carrots with coconut milk and ginger, and the other one tastes quite autumnal with lemon juice and honey. I recommend both of these! They equal the color in the leaves of the trees. Both of the recipes are for 1-2 persons.

Coconutty Carrot-Soup

Ingredients: (for 2 person)

3 medium sized carrots

1 tomato

2 dl of coconut milk

1 garlic

2 tsp of grated ginger

2 dl of water

olive oil

sea salt

Saute the ginger and garlic in some olive oil. Add carrots and tomato, chopped finely, plus the coconut milk and water. Let it boil until cooked and puree with a blender. Season with sea salt.

Carrot-lentil soup

Ingredients:

3 carrots

50 g of red lentils

1 garlic

about 4 dl of water with ½ vegetable bouillon

juice of a ½ lemon

1/4 dl of soy cream

1 tsp of honey

pepper

sea salt

Chop the carrots and add to the boiling water with garlic and red lentils. Let it boil for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lemon juice, honey and soy cream and let it boil for 5 minutes. Puree with blender. Enjoy with fresh rye bread !

Some tastings

Berry-pie

Last friday I baked some berry-pie. Mainly blueberry, but I mixed in some cloud- and redberries also. It was SO good. And also vegan. I've been feeling quite good leaving out egg in cooking, even though sometimes I get frustrated and throw eggs in when things seem to go against the wall.
Ingredients:
The base : 3 dl of spelt flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of vanilla sugar
½ dl of sugar
50 g of melted margarine
½ dl of syrup
2 dl of water
1 tbsp of vinegar

About 4-5 dl of blueberries and/or other berries
Some sugar

Preheat the oven 175 degrees. Mix the ingredients of the dough and pour into a greased cake tin (mine was quite huge, but if you use smaller a longer baking time in the oven would be good). Set the berries on top and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.


And then I also made some rice pilaff in the weekend, it consisted some apple, raisins, nuts, onion and indian spices. It was one of "I-had-to-come-up-with-something-and-quickly"-foods. And some salad, I watched Nigella the other day.. (Can't really watch now, because the tv signed itself off. I'm glad) Crispy iceberg lettuce, a bag of frozen peas quickly boiled in water and seasoned with vinegar, salt and fresh mint, and avocados chopped in good slices. And some more mint and sea salt.

In the Cookie jar

Almond-sunflower seed cookies

This recipe was from the book "Kasviskeittiö".

Ingredients:

50 g of room-temperature margarine

1 dl sugar (I guess less would also serve fine, these became quite sweet with that amount)

1 dl of crushed roasted almond

½ dl of sunflower seeds

2 dl of graham flour

pinch of salt

1 tsp of baking powder

½ dl of soy milk (or cream)

Am I forgetting something from this recipe? I put in some nuts also. These were baked in... 220 degrees I think . Good guesses, these were good but I would have preferred less sugar. I want a cookie jar full of cookies.

Last weekend before September

Chanterels

Isn't it autumn already? I love it!! The nights are getting darker and the air smells somehow refreshing, there is something deeply refreshing in autumn. It feels like giving up old leaves and growing on new ones. I think that after all, this is and always has been my favorite time of year. I feel this awesome sensation every year.
We bought some chanterelle, mmmmm. Just simply fried with onion and olive oil until golden brown, and then boiled with some soy cream. Seasoned then with pepper, salt and fresh ground parsley. We ate this with dark rye bread and redcurrant juice. The most simple wonders are most delicious.

Gratinated artichokes with goat cheese-salad

This recipe is from Virginie Besancoies cookbook "Aurinkoinen keittiö", as also the tofu buns. There weren't any artichoke's hearts in the store, so we just used normal artichokes. The artichokes and goat cheese were gratinated in oven 225 degrees, with dried oregano, thyme, pepper and olive oil for about 15 minutes. Then they were setted on different salads. The dressing was basic, olive oil, vinegar, pepper and salt.

Champignons with sesame oil

This recipe was from a book called "Intian makuja". INDIA! Coriander, lemon oil, bay leaf and dried chili were fried in sesame oil for a minute, and then added the champignons for 3-4 minutes.

" Tofu buns"

Cake for the soul

Peary chocolate cake

Made in heaven!! Once again I made chocolate cake, a good habit for the soul, and also a cake of the living nutrition. Both cakes were awesomely delicious, it's the secret spell. The chocolate cake was made with Fair Trade's extremely dark chocolate, 90% cocoa. Very bitter, and gets to shine in baking.

Here is the recipe for the Living Nutrition's Cake :

200 g of dried plums

200 g of dried apricots

1-2 dl of sunflower seeds

1 dl of almond crush

coconut flakes

Fresh berries, fruits

Put the plums and apricots in a bowl, and pour on them 3 dl of water. Let them soak up over night. Next day mince them in a blender, and then add the sunflower seeds and almond crush. This should make a quite firmy batter. Sprinkle the coconut flakes on a cake tin and level the batter on them evenly. Garnish with berries and fruits! Delicious served with vanilla soy cream.

Autumn leaves and so on!

Redberry jam

So autumn is coming! Our backyard has sooo many redberry bushes, and one rainy day I picked one big bowl of them, and still a lot remained to be collected. I guess it requires some good wild imagination where to put all the berries - jam was one thing I had in mind, red-berry juice is awesome too. Our freezer just doesn't take anything in anymore - it is full of cloud-, blue- and strawberries and who knows what else. It's not too big anyway. I guess that some shall be given to friends who would like to adopt some!

The redberry-jam was easy to make, I just made it very simple. I boiled about 2 ½ dl of water and 2 dl of fructose in a kettle, and then added 1 ½ litres of berries. It was boiled with a mild heat for about 25 minutes. The jam was poured into a clean oven-heaeted glasspot (for the bacteria to die - heat the pot in 100 degrees in the oven). It should be then keepen in cold.

Autumnal Mushroom-pie with fennel

Mushrooms picked from the forest, what else makes it feel the autumn is definitely falling? I don't remember what the name of these were, but just some ordinary mushrooms found. The base is consisted of soyflour and margarine, our regular. I wanted to put some fennel in the pie, but I must say, this pie was very mild of it's flavor. But it was good, so it's OK. I guess fennel tastes more "spunky" when served raw.
This was served with salad from the garden and some organic cherry-tomatoes! Yum!

The Base:
2 dl of soyflour
100 g room-temperature margarine

Fiddle into a dough and press in a casserole. Sting with a fork and pre-cook in the oven, heated in 200 degrees, for 10-15 minutes.

1 Onion, chopped
½ fennel, finely chopped
½ litres of mushrooms, pre-boiled and chopped
2 eggs
2 dl of soycream
Fresh parsley
Pepper
Salt

The onion and fennel were sauted in some olive oil. Mix the eggs, soy cream, parsley and spices in a bowl. Pour all these on the pre-cooked base. Bake in 175 degrees for 30 minutes.

Granola cookies

Spinach pancakes

I found some fresh spinach in the local stores. Lovely green ! But I was surprised how I felt, it really didn't taste so much, maybe I've been too used to the flavour of spinach that I learned in grade school - the spinach soup that was never so good, hhmm.

5 DL Soy milk

150 g fresh chopped spinach leaves

2 dl spelt flour

1 dl soy flour

1 tbsp of honey

1 tbsp of oil

pinch of salt

Granola bars

I got inspired by these cookies when a friend served these, "health-granola bars", with chocolate and umm.. so much for the health stuff. These were so good, I just basicly mixed all kinds of stuff I could find that would fit in. The basis is on granola and some room-temperaturer butter. In these I added raisins, chopped almond, sunflower seeds, muscovado sugar, chopped chocolate and some flour.