Double banana blondies

It’s bbq time!

It’s been a super hot weekend so far, summer has not fled just yet. I went to a bbq with friends and my contribution to the party was a batch of double banana blondies. I know these are always a pretty safe bet, ever since the original blondies that first made an appearance at a friend’s party way back last year. Since then I’ve also made this variation on the theme that was shared with my work colleagues….always a winner!

So, here I have simply combined the two recipes, and as such I felt it was deserving of a recipe write up all of its own. But before I get onto that, back to the bbq. There was so much food…food that I could actually eat and not once did I feel limited for choice or like an awkward guest. The guests brought home-cooked dishes and there was food from so many non-eurpopean cultures where the classic dairy infused dishes is not so much the norm that I was a very happy girl!  

My favourite dish was the chickpeas (I assume a form of chana masala?)  I asked the host for the recipe so hopefully I’ll have this up on my blog before long. Also to my delight, fresh bbq’d corn on the corn and sweetly charred plantain slices…..Mmmmm.

On a random note..this made my laugh and so i had to photograph it! Ever thought of growing your herbs in an old bathroom suite? This is a dramatic case of Upcycling if ever I saw one!

With all that food, I barely had room for cake (although to be honest I’d had enough tastings of the batter prior to cooking I didn’t fancy any more….shhhh!) In case you are wondering, the blondies were a great success, disappearing within a couple of minutes, and nobody could guess the secret ingredient! Beans in cakes- it’s always a fun discussion point, I love to make people think twice, to realise that there are ways of going beyond the norm and simply doing things a little differently. By the time the cakes came out it was too dark for my camera so you'll have to make do with these shots I took just before I left home.

Double banana blondies

Makes 16 squares

Ingredients

1 cup cooked chickpeas

¼ cup soy yoghurt

¼ cup soy milk

1/3 cup coconut butter

1 cup GF flour (I used 1/3 cup each of almond meal, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour)

1 banana mashed

1/3 cup agave plus ½ tsp stevia

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

1 banana cut into chunks- for the top

Method

Blend wet ingredients in food processor until very smooth. Pour into a bowl, add dry ingredients (except choc chips and banana chunks) and stir together until well mixed. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon mixture into a parchment lined 8x8 baking tin and smooth top. Press the banana chunks lightly into the surface. Bake in oven at 180C for approx. 15 mins. Check with a toothpick and remove when just cooked. Allow to cool fully before slicing into squares.

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.

Sticky toffee pudding

Happy New Year to you all!

It has been a crazy few days and I have barely had the chance to sit down with my laptop and write my notes up. Now the holidays are over and I’m back at work, I realise so many of my Christmas plans to relax and read books fell by the wayside.

The holidays always feel like such a long stretch of time ‘off’, but once you have factored in catching up with friends and family…along with the fact I gave myself the big task of totally redecorating my bedroom, does time ‘off’ actually exist?  Not that I’m complaining, I love to be busy…but maybe I should just be a little more realistic about much I can actually fit in!

Any way back to food….

I (probably like everyone else) have succumbed to the sugar and naughtiness overload this holiday, despite my best intentions of self- control! I’m now craving healthy food so these next few weeks are most likely to feature more savoury snacks, I also fancy getting back into soup mode. But more on all that another time.

For now…one last indulgence I just couldn’t resist!  The great British classic- sticky toffee pudding!

I love this dessert and have been waiting to explore my own healthy vegan version for a few weeks now- but have only just found the time to do so in amongst the madness of Christmas and New Year.

The recipe is very closely based on my amazing blondie recipe, just a bit more datey, syrupy and gooey!  Since my blondies were super healthy, this pudding is also super healthy by default. Ok, the syrup topping maybe isn’t so much…but there certain limits in creating a healthy syrup and this is still healthy in comparison. The pudding itself is still very sticky and moist without the extra syrup, so it could be served straight with a little soy yoghurt if you are feeling a little more virtuous- it’s your call!

For those of you who’ve never had sticky toffee pudding, the so called ‘pudding’ is more like a dense moist cake. It is typically formed and served using a miniture singular dome shaped pudding mould, but here I have used the more practical blondie slice format and simply stacked two squares on top of one another.  The typical sauce would also be thinner and more ‘caramelly’ and although it is quite possible to make a vegan version this way, they typically involve lots and lots of refined sugar which I really wanted to avoid. Therefore my syrup is a thicker date syrup that I think really works well with the pudding. Also, I went down the route of using the GF subs optionally noted in the original blondie recipe.

Having just read this back to myself and uploaded the photos…I really want another piece right now!

Recipe: Sticky toffee pudding

Ingredients

1 cup cooked mashed sweet potato

¼ cup soy yoghurt

1/3 cup coconut butter- melted

1/3 cup dates- softened

½ cup mashed chickpeas

3 tbs brown rice syrup (or maple syrup) plus ¼ tsp stevia

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white spelt flour (or GF subs below)

2 tbs cocoa powder

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

NB: GF flour substitute- 1/3 cup each of almond meal, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour

(makes one 8” pan or approx. 8 servings of two squares)

For ‘toffee’sauce:

1 cup softened dates

1/3 cup brown rice syrup and a pinch of stevia to taste

½ cup soy yoghurt

¼ cup water

(makes just over 1 cup)

Method

Blend the wet ingredients in food processor until very smooth. Pour into a bowl, add dry ingredients and blend together until well mixed. Spoon mixture into a parchment lined 8x8 baking tin and smooth the  top. Bake in oven at 180C for approx. 10 minutes. Note- GF timings may be slightly shorter.

Whilst the pudding is in the oven blitz together the sauce ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a small sauce pan and heat for approx. 5 mins stirring continuously until bubbling. The mixture should form a thick sauce. If you would prefer a runnier syrup add a little more water.

Remove the pudding from the oven after 10 minutes and use a toothpick to make holes all over the top of the cake- approx. 100 holes. Spoon/pour approx. 1/3 of the sauce over the top and smooth over allowing to seep into the holes (much of the sauce will remain on top as a sticky layer).

Return to the oven for a final 5 minutes cooking time. Once cooked, allow to cool for a couple of minutes before slicing into squares. Serve whilst still hot with some of the extra sauce poured over the top as desired. Serve with soy yoghurt or ice cream.

The pudding and sauce will store well in the fridge for a couple of days. Best served hot.

  
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 swirled blondies…that go with a bang!

Today I am very happy! It sometimes easy to underestimate how others may respond to a recipe, I worry that my tastes are different and that just because I enjoy my cakes- other people who are used to ‘normal’ cakes may not.

However, this time it can most definitely be said that these Blondies achieve top marks in the taste test!

The basic idea of including sweet potato came from a recipe in the highly regarded ‘Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar’, however I wanted to take healthy to greater heights!  This was a risk and I knew it! The plan was to make some cakes to take along to my friend’s fireworks party, so I knew I’d need to pull out all the stops to get it right.

There sat my plate of Blondies in amongst all the other non-vegan, non-healthy delicacies that had brought to the party....and by the end of the night… they had all disappeared! No one had guessed the secret ingredients and what’s more one of the guests at the party was diabetic and was so pleased upon realising he could eat my cake without any worry!

This first batch was made using spelt flour, but I figured since the amount of flour was already fairly low (as I’d subbed part of the flour for the chickpeas) it should be fairly simple to make a gluten free version.  I was on a role and so this morning I couldn’t resist making another batch for myself- this time with my favourite GF combo.

The result… I think I like the GF blondies even better!!

Recipe: Chocolate marbled blondies

makes 16 squares

Ingredients

1 cup cooked mashed sweet potato

¼ cup soy yoghurt

3 tbs water

1/3 cup coconut butter

¼ cup agave plus ½ tsp stevia

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup white spelt flour (or GF subs below)

½ cup mashed chickpeas

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

A pinch salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

NB: GF flour substitute- 1/3 cup each of almond meal, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour

Method

Blend wet ingredients in food processor until very smooth. Pour into a bowl, add dry ingredients (except choc chips) and blend together well mixed. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon mixture into a parchment lined 8x8 baking tin and smooth the top. Bake in oven at 180C for approx. 15 mins. Note- GF timings may be slightly shorter- check with a toothpick and remove when almost cooked. Allow to cool fully before slicing into squares.

Note- if the mixture is still slightly warm (from the sweet potato not being totally cool) the choc chips will melt slightly giving the batter a ‘marbled' effect. This was a happy accident which I actually love, but if you want to chocolate chunks to stay solid and the batter to remain ‘blonde’ than allow the potato to cool fully before mixing.