Strawberry cream pancakes

I told you my cashew custard would be making another appearance!

Here it is used as the dressing but also as part of the pancake mix (this can be substituted for regular cashew butter if you are not planning on making cashew custard). The pancakes are perfect for a summer brunch or dessert and you can dress them up however you fancy… I warn you now, they are pretty filling!

When cooking pancakes, I find that it helps to keep them fairly small, no larger than fist sized rounds as otherwise it can be tricky to flip them…or maybe I just haven’t got the knack!

I have also topped my with chia jam, such a simple recipe of mashed berries and ground chic seeds. The sweetness of the berries really shines, but you could add some extra sweetener to the mix if you prefer.

Recipe: Strawberry  cream pancakes

Makes approx. 6 medium thick pancakes. (serves 2-3 for brunch or dessert)

Ingredients

½ cup mix of white spelt flour (or GF mix-* I used buckwheat and tapioca)

3 tbs rolled oats (GF if necessary)

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs agave

1/3 cup soy milk

1 tbs softened cashew butter (or 2 tbs cashew custard)

1/3 cup chopped strawberries (add last)

Method

Mix the wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl then add the wet and mix. Add chopped strawberries last and lightly mix through. Spoon  dollops on a lightly oiled hot frying pan and fry till golden for a couple of minutes each side.

Serve with cashew custard, yoghurt or fruit.

You'll find more pancake recipes here.

* for further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Creamy cashew custard

Smooth and creamy custard…perfect served hot or cold spooned over pancakes, dolloped on granola, drizzled over fruit……the list goes on. Whether the sun shines or the wind blows, a spoonful of cashew custard will be you perfect companion!

This recipe was based on this vanilla bean custard over at Quirky Cooking, I took the vegan route and also added some extra ground chia for a more authentic vanilla bean appearance since I use vanilla powder and it doesn’t have the bean grains.  You can vary the water content to get a thick or runny custard, if served cold the custard will have a thicker consistency…perfect for eating by the spoonful. I used approx. 500ml water and it gave a fairly runny custard when warm and a thicker pudding type custard when cold.

Sereved here with my nutty apple breakfast bake.

You’ll be seeing this custard in a few posts over the next few days as once I’d made a jugful I kept it in the fridge and then ate it with nearly all my snacks over the following week.

Recipe: Cashew custard

Makes 1 medium bowl

Ingredients

100g raw cashews

400-600g water (depending on whether you want thick spooning or thin pouring custard)

2 tsp vanilla paste or powder (best quality)

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbs ground chia

70g agave (plus a pinch of stevia is you require additional sweetness to taste)

30g cornflour              

Method

Ground the cashews to get a fine meal. Add all ingredients along with the cashews to medium pan and bring to the boil for 6 minutes stirring continuously until thickened.

Alternatively using a Thermomix, grind the cashews for 10 seconds speed 9 and then add all ingredients to the bowl. Cook the mixture at 90C speed 4 for 6 minutes.

If you love custard…you have to check out this coco-nana cashew custard! Or my simple cashew cream. I also used this custard recipe in these baked chocolate custard tarts.

 

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Chocolate banana sponge pudding

What do you get if you cross a mug cake with chocolate cashew custard?

…This dish of indulgence!

Can you believe that this rich, smooth, chocolatey dessert full of globs of choc chip sponge cake is actually healthy?

…well now is the time to start believing.

You may remember my love for the super simple choco-banana cashew custard, and so I couldn’t resist taking it that little bit further and adding another level of fun.

This is another recipe where the ingredients and method would appear much more complicated that in reality. To give you a quick summary… you make an ‘oversized’ mug cake in the microwave (total 5 mins) then blend up some cashews and add in the other custard ingredients (total 5 mins). Cut the cake into cubes and pile into an oven dish then pour the custard over the top (total 5 mins). Bake in the oven for about 15 mins…see, super simple! I prepped the dish ready and then baked it whilst we ate first course, perfectly timed for dessert.

I say this dessert is healthy, but I warn you now it is also very filling. I definitely overestimated the portion sizes!! I made this dessert for my family after Sunday lunch last weekend, there were four of us and although we managed to polish it off between us, I would definitely suggest that this makes a dessert more suitable for 6 of even 8. But hey, I’m not stopping you from hogging it (I wouldn’t blame you!) I’m simply warning you that it will fill ya right up! This would easily store in the fridge for a day or two.

My inspiration for this pudd originally came from vegan bread pudding recipes I’d come across but just didn’t jump out at me enough. I also wanted a gluten free spin on things if I could…so the result was a cakey-saucy combo. Another level of comforting pudding indulgence that most certainly ticked all the boxes, knocking bread pudding to the floor! Note that although I have used spelt flour here (it’s what I had to hand at the time) you could easily opt for a GF combo along the lines of this recipe.

Recipe: Chocolate banana pudding cake

Serves 6

Ingredients- choc chunk cake

Makes one 7” round cake pan (thin layer) or approx. 4 cupcakes

½ cup white spelt (or sub GF mix)

3tbs agave syrup and a few grains of stevia!

Tiny pinch salt

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Approx. ¼ cup soy milk

1 small banana- mashed well

½ tsp vanilla extract

Handful of chocolate chunks

Method

Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and then add wet ingredients. Mix together well adding the chocolate chunks last.  

Spoon the batter into a smallish approx. 7” round or square cake pan, or cupcake trays.

Either cook the cake for approx. 2 ½ mins in the microwave (use a sillicone cake pan) or oven bake for approx. 15-20 mins until cooked through and slightly golden.

Once cooked, allow to cool for a couple of minutes before cutting into rough 2cm cubes. Pile the cubes into a small (approx. 7”) but deep oven dish.

Note: I used the microwave method as I was using the cake as a base for a chocolate pudding. The microwave gives a slightly chewier texture which worked well for my needs but oven baking would be superior for serving as a regular cake.

Ingredients- choc cashew custard

Makes 4 small bowls

250 g cashews (soaked in water for min. 4 hours, then drained) *
220g water for blending
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
2 tbs agave syrup (more to taste)

1 large ripe banana

¼ cup cocoa powder

Extra agave to taste as necessary

Rapadura/coconut sugar for glaze

Method

Drain cashews and discard the soaking water. Blend cashews with remaining cream ingredients in a powerful blender for approx.1 minute until smooth.  *note: if you have a very powerful blender such as a Thermomix or Vitamix, you could blend the cashews without soaking first as I did..

Add the cocoa powder and banana and blend for another 30 seconds until thick and smooth. Add a little more agave if you prefer a sweeter custard.

Pour the chocolate custard mixture over the cake cubes in the oven dish, ensuring a full coverage.

Sprinkle a little rapadura or coconut sugar over the top before placing in a pre-heated oven at 200C for approx. 15 mins until the surface browns and the sauce fully heats through.

Serve immediately.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Coco-nana cashew custard

This recipe post wasn’t planned. Sometimes it just happens that way.

It was Sunday evening and I had the cashew cream on my mind. I had just finished dinner with my parents and I really fancied a little something by way of dessert to round things off…..

….just then a vision of chocolatey banana custard popped into my mind and I couldn’t resist….neither could my parents!

So five minutes later dessert had been concocted (ok, so more like 10  minutes once I’d allowed for a quick photo shoot!) but you get the idea. A smooth and silky base of cashew cream whipped up with cocoa powder and banana to create a thick, rich custard. Surprisingly the banana flavour was still quite subtle (in my opinion) and the rich chocolateyness really took centre stage. I added some extra chunks of chopped banana, a sprinkling of coconut chips and a dusting of nutmeg to top it all off.

It was deliciously simple but oh so deliciously good! 

Recipe: Coco-nana cashew custard

Makes 4 small bowls

Ingredients

250 g cashews (soaked in water for min. 4 hours, then drained)
250 g water for blending
½ to 1 tsp real vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste or 1 cm fresh or dried vanilla pod
1 pinch salt
1 to 2 tsp agave syrup

The steps above are to make the basic cashew cream as before. To this mixture add:

2 very ripe bananas

¼ cup cocoa powder

Extra agave to taste if necessary

Note: to make an even thicker custard add 2-3 tbs coconut butter

Method

Drain cashews and discard the soaking water. Blend cashews with remaining cream ingredients in a powerful blender (I used my Thermomix) for approx.1 minute until smooth.

Add the cocoa powder and banana (plus coconut butter if using) and blend for another 30 seconds until thick and smooth. Add a little more agave if you prefer a sweeter custard.

 Serve hot or cold (hot may make the custard slightly runnier).

 
For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Baked chocolate fudge custard tarts

I’ve been looking to make a healthy vegan ‘custard’ for some time. Ever since my egg nog experiment, where the warm and spicy flavours of vanilla and nutmeg enveloped me.

I was recently inspired by this recipe for a cashew custard by Quirky Cooking, it looked deliciously simple but since I was in a ‘tart baking mood’ at the time I decided to modify it a bit to create a thicker custard that would suit a tart or pie filling. I also added a little nutmeg for a warming spice kick. If you want a thinner custard suitable for pouring you could reduce the amount of cashews and chia a little and slightly increase the water (or simply follow this recipe).

I had fun playing around with tart case options.  Originally I wanted to go with a basic pastry shell and then pile the tart with fresh fruit berries, but as it happened I didn’t have any berries or suitable pretty fruit. So then I began thinking of ways to flavour the tart case in interesting ways.

Options…options!   Either gingerbread and chocolate initially sprang to mind. Since I also had planned to make some of my healthy chocolate fudge to snack on during the week I thought it would be a good opportunity to test it out as a baked crust!

So, the tarts in the photos have a baked chocolate fudge crust, but you could also use your own tart case recipe. Baking the chocolate fudge seems to work really well as a sweet ‘pastry substitute’. It was really easy since the dough itself is very soft and easy to mould so I flattened a ball of it in my hands and then pressed it into a tart case with my fingers, or you could roll the dough and use cutters.

Taste test for the sweetness of the custard as soon as it’s mixed before you spoon it into the cases and add extra agave or a little stevia as necessary. I used a sweet tart case so the custard itself didn’t  need to be overly sweet, if you were using a less sweet tart pastry style case then you may prefer a sweeter custard filling.

 

Recipe: Baked chocolate fudge custard tarts

Makes 1 medium bowl of thick custard

Ingredients- custard

100g raw cashews

400g water

2 tsp vanilla paste or powder (best quality)

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 tbs ground chia

70g agave (plus a pinch of stevia is you require additional sweetness to taste)

30g cornflour

Method

To make the custard, grind the cashews to get a fine meal. Add all ingredients along with the cashews to medium pan and bring to the boil for 5 minutes stirring continuously.

Alternatively using a Thermomix, grind the cashews for 10 seconds speed 9 and then add all ingredients to the bowl. Cook the mixture at 90C speed 4 for 5 minutes.

Lightly grease the tart pans and line with you chosen tart case. Spoon the custard into the prepared tart cases (if using the chocolate fudge crust line the tart pans with a 3mm thick layer of raw fudge dough) and bake at 180C  for  approx.10 minutes until the tart tops are on the verge of going golden, keep a close eye so they don’t brown.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.