DAY TEN: Carrot cake baked oatmeal

The weekend before last, the morning before I was due to go on holiday…the very morning I had so much to do I told myself there was no way I would go into the kitchen and make a thing! I did venture into the kitchen, I just couldn't resist.

You see, a little idea had crept up on me, an idea that simply screamed ‘brunch’ and since I was hungry and the idea was simple I ended up in the kitchen whipping up a quick and simple baked oatmeal dish- carrot cake style. The perfect healthy filling mid-morning brunch, perfectly double portion sized so I saved the rest for the following morning for a hassle free breakfast before my flight. It was just as yummy served cold straight from the fridge! 

I’d come across various recipes for baked oatmeal in the past, not least from two of my favourite blogs Chocolate Covered Katie and Oh She Glows, but I’d never made a baked oatmeal dish of my own before. I’m often an impatient kinda girl when it comes to my breakfast so bowls of oats and two minute breakfast cookies are my usual style. But this was worth the short wait and the bonus of a ready-made breakfast the following morning... oh yeah!

You could sweeten this up with a little more agave or a pinch of stevia if you preferred, I wanted a very lightly sweetened breakfast snack so for me this was perfect. Add some choc chunks and a little more indulgence and you could also have yourself a dessert!

My oven dish was slightly too small (note the dribbles down the sides), so I packed the remaining mixture into a silicone muffin pan hence the muffin in the photos. You make all the mixture the into muffins if you fancied. I reckon this mix would make between 4 and 6 muffins depending on size of the pans.

Recipe: Carrot cake baked oatmeal

Ingredients

2 carrots grated

1 tbs chia/flax seed

1 cup soy milk (or other vegan milk)

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg or ginger

½ cup oats

2 tbs chopped pecans or walnuts

2 tbs dried cranberries (or raisins)

2 tbs desiccated coconut

1 tbs coconut sugar/rapadura/agave

Topping- sprinkling of desiccated coconut and coconut sugar

Method

Mix all ingredients together until well coated  and spoon into a greased oven dish*. Press down and smooth the top before sprinkling with a little extra desiccated coconut and coconut sugar (or other unrefined granulated sugar as desired).

Bake at 180C for approx. 20 mins until the topping is golden. Serve immediately.  This also tastes good cold the next day!

*my oven dish was approx. 20x10cm in size and I had a little mixture left over that wouldn’t fit in so I filled a silicone muffin case as well.

What Vegan MOFO means to me.

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.

Raw carrot cake balls

I seem to be having a bit of a carrot cake kick…what with this little concoction a week or so ago and a few other ideas up my sleeve!

Well it is almost Easter, and it would seem that carrot cake it a very seasonal cake…maybe that was my subconscious coming into play because I didn’t consider carrot cake to be seasonal until I ‘googled’ Easter baking. To me typical Easter treats are more along the lines of hot cross buns and simnel cake…?

So carrots…but this time less of the cake and more of the smooshed ball variety. A lightly sweet and juicy treat to keep in the freezer and take out for a deliciously chilled nibble (or defrost fully for a softer bite). The original idea was inspired by these balls, but since I don’t have a juicer and I wanted to avoid the potential hassle of grating and squeezing to remove the juice, I simply  added oatmeal to the mix to absorb some of the liquids. I also thought I’d use carob to coat some of the balls which actually works really well with the flavours of the delicately sweet carrot and apple. You could use whatever you like, I also used coconut flakes for others.

Carob flour is an ingredient I am only just beginning to incorporate into my baking, so you will probably see it crop of more and more as time goes by. I have known of its virtues for a long time but until recently held back from giving it a go.  This is largely due to the fact that it’s simply not chocolate! To elaborate on that point, if you are unfamiliar with the taste of carob don’t fall for those who tell you it’s a ‘healthier alternative to chocolate’ (as I was told many years ago!). Yes its healthy…but no its not chocolate! It tastes a lot different and is naturally sweeter than cocoa. It is another one of those quirky health food ingredients that simply needs to be appreciated and enjoyed in its own right and not as a replacement for something else.

Are you familiar with carob? How have you incorporated it into your recipes? I’d love to know more.

I have kept these carrot balls in the freezer since otherwise they do make for a soft ball, even when kept in the fridge. They only take a couple minutes to thaw out enough to eat without freezing your teeth and I actually really love the chilled texture- almost like an ice cream ball! If you prefer them without the chill simply take out of the freezer about 20-30 minutes before you serve.

If you do want to squeeze out some of the carrot and apple juice, go ahead. I haven’t tried it this way but it should just make for a firmer ball, that can be stored in the fridge quite happily.

Recipe: Raw carrot cake balls

Makes approx. 12 balls

Ingredients:

2 carrots

1 medium apple

½ cup oatmeal (or GF grains)

½ cup dates

½ cup walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

Pinch salt

4 tbs agave

3 tbs cashew butter (or almond butter)

Carob powder/cacoa nibs/coconut flakes for decoration- optional

Method:

In a food processor blend the carrots and apple to puree (note they will be very wet and so the resulting balls will be soft- optional to use a juicer and drain away approx. ½ the juice).

Add all the remaining ingredients and blend in a food processor until all small chunks and well mixed through. You should have a very soft mixture that can still be formed into a ball, if too wet add a little more oatmeal. 

Decant the mixture into a bowl and allow to sit in the fridge for 30 mins to firm up a little. Once chilled roll into balls and then roll in coconut flakes or carob powder to coat. Lay the balls on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze.

Once frozen they can be stored together. They are best removed from freezer a few minutes before serving and eaten chilled. They can be stored in the fridge but will be very soft (unless a juicer is used to drain part of the vegetable juice).

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.

Single serve carrot cake

I’ve enjoyed making my ‘2 minute breakfast cookies’ so much recently, more for dessert than breakfast! I’ve tried out lots more flavour combinations so I will be sharing those with you soon, but today I fancied a single serving more of the mug cake variety.

Using this gluten free raspberry cheesecake mug cake recipe as a basis I set about making a super nutritious ‘fill me up’ type dessert with some added oats for oomph. To make smaller portions you could divide the mixture into two small ramekins to serve two.

Instead of serving it straight from a bowl or mug I decided to line the ramekin with lightly oiled clingfilm so that once cooked I could easily lift it out and peel away the clingfilm to serve. It worked pretty well although if I’d waiting a couple of minutes for it to cool and firm up slightly it probably would have been even easier….me impatient…never!

Using orange juice instead of soy milk really helps to bring out the flavour of the carrot, and the ground almonds really help add to the moistness of the crumb, you could probably get away without the added oil since the texture was in no way dry. You could serve it with a dollop of nut butter or a creamy cheesy style frosting. Here I served mine with a thick cashew cream made with much less water than usual.

Single serving 'microwave' cakes are great as a time saver and also as an ingredient saver particularly when being a bit adventurous or experimental and you don’t want to make a whole batch of cake to find it tastes awful! Today this ‘5 minute cake’ really did the trick and meant that I could have a 10 minute time-out before rushing off the do the next thing on my list…so much to do today…busy busy busy, I will reveal all very soon!

Recipe: single serve carrot cake

Serves 1!

Ingredients

2 tbs GF flour mix

1tbs ground almonds

1 tbs oats

1 tbs rapadura

Tiny pinch salt

¼  tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp mild flavoured oil (coconut or rapeseed)

1 small carrot grated- approx. 3tbs

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbs orange juice

Nuts to sprinkle on top- optional

Method

Add all the ingredients to a small bowl adding orange juice last just enough to achieve a medium thick batter. Mix well so there are no lumps or dry patches of unmixed flour.

Pour into a mug or large ramekin (line it with clingfilm if you want to be able to take it out to serve). Note the mixture should only fill no more than just over half the height of the mug/ramekin. Sprinkle nuts over the top if you like. 

Cook on full power (900W) in microwave for 1 min. check with a cocktail stick until stick comes out almost clean. Cook for 20 seconds more if necessary (up to two times) until cooked.

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.

Carrot cake

Well I know I said my my sticky toffee pudding was a final indulgence after the overload of Christmas naughtiness…well, maybe that was a tiny fib, but I do have an excuse for this cake… and it’s a good one!

For Christmas as a bit of a novelty gift, I made my very own ‘Including Cake vouchers’ to give each of my family so that they could trade them in for a tray of sweet treats of their choosing.

My sister is going back to university this weekend after her holiday’s back at home and so decided to trade her voucher in so she had a little treat to take back with her. So you see, this cake is not for me at all!

She opted for a good old classic carrot cake…super healthy style!

I’ve made a few variations of carrot cake before, but as yet they have not appeared on my blog. The recipe I use makes for quite a dense sponge best suited to mini loaf pans (as I have used here) or muffin/cupcake tins.  When I previously made it using a regular sized loaf tin I felt it was a little gummy in the centre, don’t get me wrong it still tasted really good but would be best suited to a smaller pan so the centre maintains a cakier crumb. I've also used spelt flour here but I would imagine that my typical 30/30/30 combo of ground almonds, buckwheat flour and tapioca starch would work well as a GF sub (note- this hasnlt ben tested in this recipe)

I haven’t frosted these loaves as they really don’t need it, but you may want to add some frosting if you are opting for cupcakes.  I haven’t included a frosting recipe here as I have yet to create a ‘white’ frosting that I really love. My previous investigations lead me down the route of blending firm tofu, coconut butter, orange zest and agave syrup- but although this does create a viable healthy frosting, I simply felt it needed a little more work…feel free to experiment!

I promise I do have some soups coming up very soon! Soups are great for all seasons, all times or day and for wherever you happen to be. They are the perfect healthy winter comfort food and what could be better than that?  (ok, well maybe a little bit of cake for dessert!)

I also have some granola style bar investigations underway. I want to create the perfect healthy snack bars for all situations… a slow release energy bar, an quick release energy hit, a high protein snack. This has been inspired in part by one of my colleagues who asked my to create him a healthy sugar free energy bar. Not one to turn down a challenge…investigations are well underway…I’ll keep you posted!

Recipe: carrot cake

Ingredients

1/3 cup apple sauce (or soy yoghurt)

1/3 cup crushed pineapple

2 tsp vanilla

½ cup agave and a pinch stevia

¼ cup soy milk

¼ cup orange juice

½ cup coconut oil

2 cups spelt flour

1tsp salt

2tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

2tsp cinnamon

1tsp mixed spice

2 cups grated carrot

½ cup chopped nuts

½ cup chopped dates or raisins (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Blend together wet the ingredients in a food processor then mix in melted coconut oil. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl (except nut/dates/carrots) then add wet mixture and stir until thick. Fold in grated carrot, chopped nuts and dates last. Pour mixture into 3 mini loaf tins or  12 cupcake /muffins pans. Bake for approx. 20-30 minutes depending on pan sizes used. Check to see when a toothpick comes away clean.

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.