Banana and Walnuts Cookies (Vegan)

It's been quite a long time since I last published some cookie recipe. Why did I haven't baked cookies all these months?! Shame on me! Nothing screams home more than the irresistible scent of fresh baked cookies and since I bought the awesome cookbook Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar there was no excuse. Finally, cookies, an indecent quantity of vegan cookies were baked by yours truly this week to compensate all these months without them.

As you can see I'm in a vegan baking frenzy, can't help it, sorry. Actually my vegan cookbooks are quickly taking over my bookshelves and to think that I can cook much healthier baked goods that are as yummy and tempting than the rest makes it even more interesting and challenging for me.

These banana and walnuts cookies really surprised me! Really, really healthy cookies that make a great breakfast. It's an easy and quick recipe that doesn't require any super-special-rare-to-find vegan ingredient, perfect when you have some very ripe bananas and leftovers in your pantry.

It's the first time I tried out the recipes from this cookbook so obviously (and being the stubborn-prefectionist I am) there will be some improvements and small changes in the future. For example: this recipe calls for 2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal and when I started making these cookies I found out I only had oatbran but I went on and, even though I'm sure the texture of the dough is better if you use oatmeal, they came out very good, chewy and not too sweet. I loved the banana-walnut flavor!

Receta en español aquí!

Vegan Banana and Walnuts Cookies
 Recipe adapted from the book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Ingredients
(makes 2 dozen cookies)
1 very ripe medium banana.
1/3 cup sunflower oil.
2/3 cup sugar.
1 tsp vanilla.
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour.
1/2 tsp baking soda.
1/4 tsp salt.
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon.
2 cups quick-cooking (not instant) oatmeal or rolled oats.
1/2 cup chopped walnuts.
1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, mash the banana well with a fork. Add the oil, sugar and vanilla and mix with a strong fork. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the oatmeal, walnuts, and chocolate chips and mix well. Use your hands for mixing when usign oatmeal, that way you make sure that the oats get nice and moist. If the dough is very slippery you might want to add a few tablespoons extra flour (it really depends on how big your banana was).

Clean your hands and roll the dough into balls slightly smaller tan a golf ball. Flatten it a bit in your hands and place each ball about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes approximately, until lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Vegan French Toast

These are my very first french toasts! Believe it or not, I've never tasted french toasts before...until now!...and the dangerous part is that I really liked this recipe! As if I hadn't enough to control my sweet tooth now I add another recipe to my 'Favorites' list, hehe.

Since it was my first attempt and I wasn't sure of how sweet and oily/greasy these toasts will came out I decided to make the vegan version, much more lighter and healthier.

It's a quick recipe, perfect to enjoy on a sunday morning with fresh fruits and pure maple syrup. I love how my kitchen smells after making them, it brings me back memories of when I was a child and my parents took me to the fair, that sweet smell of cotton candy, waffles, crèpes, candied apples has always mesmerized me.

Receta en español aquí!

Vegan French Toast

Ingredients
3 ripe bananas.
1 cup soy milk.
2 tsp cinnamon.
1 tbsp vanilla.
2 tbsp ground chia seeeds or flax meal.
6 slices approx. of whole wheat bread.
2 tbsp sunflower oil or light olive oil.
Maple syrup.
Optional:
1 tsp cardamom.
1/8 tsp nutmeg.

Directions

Blend bananas, milk, cinnamon, vanilla and flax meal in blender or food processor and pour mixture into a wide dish or pie plate.

Gently dip bread slices into the mixture, coating both sides well.

Fry in oil in medium-hot skillet until golden brown, about 2 or 3 minutes per side.

Serve with maple syrup and fresh fruits, like bananas and strawberries. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Raspberry and Cinnamon Custard Tart

This raspberry tart it's a quick one! But delicious and really eye-catching nonetheless.

Fruity tarts and pies are perfect for the spring/summer season and even better when you use fresh berries like I did cause it makes your cake more juicy and the raspberries give a cool tangy touch to the very sweet cinnamon custard, which makes for a good combination.

The custard is very similar to the french crème pâtissière (or french pastry cream) but the one I made is very traditional in Catalonia.

I've said it's a quick (and easy) récipe because I used a prepared short crust pastry but you can always make it at home and I'm sure it'll taste even better!

Receta en español aquí!

Raspberry and Cinnamon Custard Tart

Ingredients
Fresh short crust pastry sheet.
Fresh raspberries.
5 egg yolks.
125g granulated sugar.
50g cornstarch.
625ml milk.
1 cinnamon stick.
1 lemon peel.
Optional: confectioner's sugar or 1 gelatine sachet.

Directions

Preheat oven to 200ºC (392ºF).

Roll out the short crust pastry, place the dough in the tart pan. Using your fingers spread the dough and press it evenly all over the inside of the tart pan. Trim any excess pastry and blind bake for around 20 minutes, until cooked and golden. Carefully remove the pastry case from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile we start making the cinnamon custard.

In a large saucepan, bring the milk, lemon peel and cinnamon stick to a boil so the milk absorbs the scent of the lemon and cinnamon. Set aside.

In another mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add in the cornstarch. Strain the hot milk and add it to the egg/sugar mixture, stirring constantly until all ingredients are well combined.

Heat the mixture, don't stop stirring (this step is really important) and quickly remove from the heat once the custard becomes slightly thick. You can keep stirring a bit more away from the heat because the custard will become thicker with the remaining heat in the saucepan.

Cover the saucepan with plastic wrap pressed down right on the custard to prevent skin forming. Set aside and let it cool completely.

Once the custard is cool fill the pastry case with it and spread evenly on top. Put the fresh raspberries.

Brush the berries with gelatine or dust with icing sugar to decorate.

Keep refrigerated until serving.

Yummly Certified and a quick Crème brûlée

Hello guys!

 

As you can see I've made a few little changes to the blog, I tieded up the right sidebar including new and cuter social media buttons and also added a customized badge of my Tastespotting page and a link to follow my blog via Bloglovin'. Some small improvements that I hope you like, at least it looks better to me, less cluttered up and more cute.

 

But what really makes me proud and happy is to finally wear the Certified Yummly bagde! Let me say...YAY! That means my blog is now on the Yummly 'A-list' of food blogs and I'm so proud that one of the best food sites in the world has added Cinnamon Girl to their favorites! Who would have thought that I'd be in the same list as some of my favorites food blogs!!! It's an honor that they consider my bakery blog good enough to be featured on their site.

 

This is what they say:

"On the Yummly blog we feature the best food blogs. These sites have great recipes, unique insights, beautiful photos and other things we love."

...well, that means that I'm doing a pretty decent job after all, right? ;-)

 

To finish this quick post here's a couple pics of an impromptu Crème Brûlée I made last week with some leftover custard from making cupcakes. I will share a full recipe and more pictures of a properly done crème brûlée soon!

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

Guest post for Yummly: Sacher Cake

I'm so thrilled, excited, stoked...and every adjective that could describe my happines right now! It's been almost a month since I baked this Sacher cake and I couldn't wait any longer to share this recipe with you, but I had to wait a bit until the awesome people at Yummy.com publish my recipe on their blog. Because, yes! I've written a guest post for the Yummly blog this month and you'll see here my Sacher cake recipe.

I feel so honored that my recipe is featured on their site! I've been following their work for almost a year and drooling over the delicious recipe they publish ever since then and now I see my cake on their website! I must confess I jumped for joy when I saw my pictures and my recipe there. :-)

 

Thanks a lot to all the wonderful people at Yummly and specially to Shelley!!!

 

...and before I leave I want to share with you a few pictures of the Sacher cake and the cooking process. Very important note! If you are going to bake a Sacher cake don't forget to buy a high-quality chocolate cause you'll enjoy the chocolateness of this cake at its best. I used three different types of Valrhona chocolate cause it was my mom's birthday and I wanted it to bake a very special and rich chocolate cake.

 

My Sacher cake featured on Yummly here.