Banana granola with raisins & walnuts

I haven't bought cereal in a while now, reaching instead for homemade granola with yogurt or milk and my morning coffee. I love the recipe I began making about a year ago, which gets its crunch from the addition of a whipped egg white (tip courtesy of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook). But recently we had a few very ripe bananas, and instead of baking a loaf of banana bread, I decided to mash one into our weekly granola. Best decision!

naturally sweetened banana granola
full of grains and protein = happy start to the day

The consistency of the banana, mixed with a little tahini, oil, and honey, resulted in a perfectly crunchy, clumped together granola, without the addition of a whipped egg white. I added raisins and chopped walnuts after baking the granola, which gave it just the right level of sweetness and crunch. Feel free to leave out the coconut if that's not your bag, and to use peanut or another nut butter instead of tahini (ground sesame seeds) if you'd like. I've also used coconut oil in place of the rice bran oil, which is delicious. The ground flaxseed and chia seeds, along with the oats, add plenty of protein and fibre-- this stuff will keep you full till lunchtime. 

oats, ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, and coconut with banana, tahini, and honey

I'm also planning to try a sweet potato or pumpkin version of this granola later this month (just in time to cure any ex-pat Thanksgiving blues!)... I imagine a mashed sweet potato / pumpkin will offer a texture and sweetness similar to the banana in this recipe. I hope you enjoy this version as much as we did: the hubs has dubbed it the best granola yet.

Banana granola with raisins & walnuts

makes about 3 cups

1 large ripe banana (or 2 small bananas), mashed (about 3/4 cup)

1 tablespoon oil (rice bran oil or coconut oil work well)

1 tablespoon tahini (or peanut butter, almond butter, etc)

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of freshly ground sea salt

3 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1/4 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup coursely chopped walnuts

In a large bowl, combine the banana, oil, tahini, honey, cinnamon, and salt. Stir well to combine. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir well so that everything is evenly coated in the banana mixture.

Spread the mixture evenly onto a large cookie sheet (or two medium sized cookie sheets). Bake at 150C / 300F for 30-35 minutes, or until lightly golden, taking the tray out halfway through the baking time to flip the granola over with a large spatula and stir it around a bit on the cookie sheet so that it bakes evenly. 

Remove from oven and allow to cool, then sprinkle the raisins and walnuts over the granola. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Wedding Cakes! (Almond Bundt Cake with Brown Sugar Filling, and Triple-Berry Buttermilk Bundt Cake Frosted in Coconut)

Last weekend I was invited to contribute to the hubs' best friend's wedding by helping out with the wedding cakes.  Very exciting!  And my first 'wedding cake' attempt.  The bride decided she wanted a table of homemade cakes to which everyone could help themselves.  Love this idea, and it's the same thing my brother and his wife did for their beautiful Louisiana wedding (my mom's famous peach cobbler featured there).  The Aussie bride had already lined up a few of her soon-to-be-hubs' grandmother's famous ginger loafs, her maid of honor's mother's chocolate cake, and a lemon-lime citrus cake.  I spent a little while perusing my favorite cook books and food blogs and finally decided that there had to be at least two bundt cakes if a Texan was contributing to the dessert table.  The plan was to do an amaretto-almond cake from Southern Living and a triple-berry buttermilk cake from Smitten Kitchen.  Both had rave reviews and the pictures online looked divine.

However.

Perth grocery stores at the end of winter/beginning of spring stocked no berries except for blueberries.  Undaunted, I bought a bag of frozen mixed berries and just picked out all of the strawberries so only blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries remained.  The batter was incredible, and I waited eagerly for the cake to bake.  I know from experience to grease and flour a bundt pan within an inch of its life, and some of the SK reviews had mentioned the cake sticking in the pan.  I let the cake cool almost completely before turning it out, and ran a plastic spatula all along the edges of the pan, but a few pieces of stubborn fruit still stuck to the sides.  I picked them off the pan and reattached them to the whole, but the surface of the cake was not smooth like the cake pictured on SK.  My bad for using frozen berries instead of fresh : (  Lesson learned.  Surely, I thought, the thick powdered sugar frosting will cover up any pock marks.

Well.

When glazed, this cake looked *nothing* like the beautiful one gracing SK's page.  It may have been the ugliest cake I've ever seen.  In distress, I searched through my sister-in-law's kitchen pantry to find something, anything to fix it.  I'd already baked the first cake, expertly drizzled almond glaze down its sides, and topped it with sliced almonds and powdered sugar.  It was magnificent.  Even after I'd scrapped the Southern Living recipe (amaretto is so expensive!) and gone with a Martha Stewart version instead.  But this triple-berry monstrosity was not presentable.  Not for a wedding, not for a house-warming gift, not for a 2-year-old's birthday party, not anywhere.  With three hours till the wedding, I almost left it on the counter for my sister-in-law's man to devour and baked a chocolate bundt cake instead.

But!

I found a package of shredded coconut in the back of the pantry.  Perfect. Berries and coconut will be fine.  So I covered the entire cake in mountains of coconut, filling in the little holes where the berries had sunk or dislodged with more icing, more coconut.  It was not the most gorgeous cake in the world, but it was no longer the ugliest.  And it was the first to go at the wedding!  I had a small slice of both to taste them (yum), and the next time I turned around and spied the cake table, it was gone, with barely a coconut shred remaining.  Like all weddings, the little stresses in the build-up didn't matter in the end: everyone enjoyed great company, good food and drink, silly pictures and dancing.  It was a fabulous celebration.

Hope you've had time this year to party with those you love and share cake with a crowd in celebration of something wonderful-- a wedding, a birthday, a new life, or a sweet goodbye and good luck.

almond bundt cake with brown-sugar almond filling, topped with almond drizzle, sliced almonds, and powdered sugar (Martha Stewart recipe)

triple-berry buttermilk bundt cake with thick lemony glaze, dredged in shredded coconut (Smitten Kitchen recipe)

Almond Honey Pear Spiced Oatmeal

Twice in the past two weeks I've had oatmeal (aka porridge) as a non-breakfast meal.  I made pumpkin and pecan spiced oatmeal for an easy Sunday dinner (after over-indulging on high tea at the Queen Victoria Building tea rooms--see blurry pic below--a beautiful treat from my sister-in-law and her man when they came to visit), and I made today's recipe for a late lunch this weekend.

perfect high tea at the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney

I never leave myself enough time to make oatmeal in the mornings, going instead for cold milk and cereal (loving Oatbrits right now), or vegemite and avocado spread on multigrain toast.  But whenever I make a hearty oatmeal for a quick weekend lunch or dinner, I always save some for breakfast the next morning--then kick myself for not making it my first meal of the day more often.  This almond-honey-pear-spiced oatmeal, made with water, a little coconut milk, and served with an additional dash of coconut milk, is truly delicious, and gluten-free, diary-free, and (almost) vegan (use rice bran syrup in place of honey for vegan).  It tastes just like Autumn, and fills you up good.  

apples or pears, spices, raisins and currants, almonds, and honey

Make sure to prepare the oatmeal with water first, adding the coconut milk only at the end so that it doesn't heat too much and make the oatmeal super-sticky.  I prepared mine with an electric stovetop, if you're cooking with gas use a medium gas heat and watch the mixture carefully.  

autumn in a bowl: almond honey pear spiced oatmeal with coconut milk

The pictures show a batch made with diced apples because my pears weren't quite ripe enough, but pears are my favorite addition for their soft texture.  I used a combination of raisins and currants, but any dried fruit will do (cranberries, chopped dried apricots, etc, just make sure they're preservative free).  For another Autumn-inspired version, add a couple tablespoons of baked and mashed pumpkin or sweet potato.  Serve with an extra dash of coconut milk and a little drizzle of honey.

Almond Honey Pear Spiced Oatmeal

two lady-like servings, or one man-sized serving

1/2 cup rolled oats (make sure they're gluten-free if cooking g-f)

1 cup water

half a peeled pear (or apple)

1/4 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup raisins and/or currants

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

good dash of ground ginger

dash of allspice

little pinch of nutmeg

pink of freshly ground sea salt

1/4 cup coconut milk, divided (can use regular or light coconut milk)

1-2 teaspoons honey, to taste (plus another drizzle to serve)

Please the oats and the water in a small saucepan, turn the heat to medium-high.  Dice the pear and coursely chop the almonds.  Add the pear, almonds, raisins/currants, and spices (including salt) to the oatmeal.  

Heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Keep an eye on the mixture, and as soon as it starts to bubble turn the heat down to low.  Add most of the coconut milk, reserving about a tablespoon.  Stir for another minute, then remove from the heat.  Stir in 1-2 teaspoons honey, to taste.  

Serve hot, with the remaining coconut milk and a little additional honey drizzled on top.  

Raw Chocolate Coconut Truffles

Our oven stopped working a while back, and while we were waiting a few weeks for the repair I began experimenting with some raw food recipes.  I like the idea of packing your 'food pyramid' with veggies and whole grains, while replacing meat with nuts and other vegan protein sources.  I don't think I could ever switch to a majority raw diet, but I am certainly inspired to consume more raw sources of nutrients.  We have already transitioned to a much different food pattern here in Australia in comparison to our diet in England, especially with so much delicious, seasonal produce available.

However, we both still crave dessert during the week. Rather than bake up cookies like I used to (however reduced-fat and reduced-sugar they were), I've started making smoothies or, if we want to splurge, raw brownies.  Nuts, dates, cocoa.  That's all you need for raw brownies, and they cure a chocolate craving perfectly.

raw chocolate truffles dusted with lightly-sweetened coconut

I play around with the combination-- sometimes using walnuts, sometimes pecans, adding coconut, cinnamon, hot chili powder, etc.  Tonight my mixture wasn't coming together very well, so I dumped it out of the blender, into a bowl, added a tablespoon of brown rice syrup and a teaspoon of water, and rolled them into truffles.  I then dusted them in unsweetened, shredded coconut mixed with a touch of brown sugar.  Awesome.

Ok, so processed cocoa (I haven't sourced cacao nibs yet), brown rice syrup, and the tiny bit of brown sugar make these only un-officially 'raw'.  But they're pretty close, and they're much healthier treats than the ones from Godiva.

I just use a blender (plain old blender, nothing fancy) for these, but a food processor would work best.  Make sure your dates are a bit moist-- if they're dry, just soak them in water for 15-20 minutes, then drain. (Or, as all the raw food sites say, reserve the date water to sweeten your next smoothie).  Enjoy!

Raw Chocolate Coconut Truffles
makes about a dozen 1-inch truffles

3/4 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons almond meal (if you don't have any, just use a full cup of walnuts)

1/2 cup cocoa

1 cup moist dates (if they're pretty dry, soak them in water 15-20 mins, then drain to use)
2 tablespoons unsweetened, shredded coconut (divided use)

1 tablespoon brown rice syrup (or agave syrup or honey)

1 teaspoon water (if necessary)

1 teaspoon brown sugar (or coconut sugar for paleo-friendly) (optional)

Mix the walnuts, almond meal (if you're using it), cocoa, dates, and 1 tablespoon of the coconut in a blender or food processor.  Mix until everything is very finely chopped/ground and the mixture is sticking together.  (If using a blender, blend the nuts first, then add the cocoa, blend till incorporated, then add the dates and coconut-- scraping down the sides when necessary).

Scrape the mixture into a bowl.  Add the brown rice syrup and stir together.  If the mixture is not coming together easily, add one teaspoon of water and stir together until it all comes together to form one big lump of dough.  Pinch off chunks of dough and roll into one-inch balls.

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix the remaining tablespoon of coconut and, if desired, the teaspoon of brown sugar (or coconut sugar).  Roll the truffles one by one in the coconut-sugar mixture until evenly coated.  Set the coconut-covered truffles in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before eating, or for up to four days. (Chilling really allows the flavors to meld and creates a denser, richer-tasting truffle).

Update: adding a couple of teaspoons of coffee liqueur (Baileys, Kahlua, Tia Maria, etc.) to the dough as you're blending it is a fabulous idea...