Rhubarb crumble bars

These rhubarb crumble bars are absolutely yummy!

 

What you need (12-16 bars)

- 1½ cups all-purpose flour

- 1½ cups oatmeal oats
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- ¾ cup refined coconut oil, softened
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 360g rhubarb compote (or 1 jar)

Preheat oven to 175°C. Combine flour through salt in large bowl. Combine ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.Reserve 1½ cups of the crumb mixture. Press the rest onto bottom of a greased square / rectangular baking pan (a brownie pan is perfect for this). Spread compote over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.

 

Based on this recipe.

 

 

Vegan pannenkoeken

Dutch pancakes are different than American pancakes. In America, pancakes are thick, fluffy, smaller and generally eaten for breakfast. In the Netherlands they are larger, thinner and usually eaten for lunch or dinner. They can be served with sweet or savoury toppings and traditionally contain eggs. However, eggs are not necessary at all or can be easily substituted should you want to.

Basic pancake recipe (9 pancakes):
500g (2cups) selfraising flour
Approx. 1ltr non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
2tbsp ground flaxseed mixed with 6tbsp water (egg replacer, optional)
Pinch of salt (optional)
Oil or margarine

In a large bowl, sift together flour and salt (if using), add the flaxseed mix (if using) and then gradually add milk while using a handmixer until the batter is the desired consistency (aim for a thin custard-like batter).
Thoroughly heat a skillet and add some oil/margarine. Add a full ladle of batter to the skillet and swirl the pan to spread the batter. Flip the pancake once the top of the pancake is solid and the edges start to colour. Cook a few more minutes on the other side.
Serve warm or cold with a topping of your choice.

Some ideas for toppings/add-ins:
- good ol' fashioned molasses (my favourite)
- (powdered) sugar
- cinnamon-sugar
- jam
- chocolate spread with sliced banana (see below)
- add grated apple, soaked raisins and cinnamon to the batter and cook pancakes as usual

Carrot-ginger cake with cream cheese frosting

Another Hummingbird Bakery recipe that was a big hit among my friends!

What you need (12 servings):
 225g peeled and finely grated carrots
1 tbsp peeled and grated root ginger (or store-bought ginger paste)
40ml buttermilk
1 1/2 large eggs (I scrambled 2 eggs in a bowl and used approx. 3/4 of the mixture)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
175 ml vegetable oil
210g caster sugar
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
40g pecans, roasted and chopped (optional)

150g icing sugar, sifted
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
60g cream cheese, cold

Pre-heat the oven to 170C and line a square cake tin with baking parchment.
Mix together the carrots, root ginger, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla essence, vegetable oil and sugar in a mixer until all the ingredients are well-combined.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices, then slowly beat into the carrot mixture. Stir in the chopped pecans, if using, and mix the cake batter until it's smooth and even.
Pour the batter in the cake tin and bake for approx. 30 mins.
Meanwhile, beat the icing sugar and butter together using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well-mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and continue beating for at least 5 mins. until the mixture is light and fluffy. (Do not overbeat as the frosting can become runny).

After the cake has completely cooled, cover the top with frosting. Cut the cake into 12 squares and serve.


NOTE:
- the cake recipe is from 'Cake Days', the cream cheese frosting recipe is from 'The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook' (both books are listed in the sidebar on the right!).
I halved the quantities of the original recipes to make a square 24cmx24cm cake.

Idea: sweet lasagna

So my dad and I were talking the other day about making 'ordinary' lasagna and suddenly started brainstorming about a sweet version. Sort of like a trifle with a twist.
We haven't tried it out yet, but here's what we came up with:

What you need (approx. 8 servings):
1 loaf cake (homemade or store-bought)
a few bananas, thinly sliced.
chocolate mousse (homemade or store-bought)
rum (or flavouring if you don't want to use the real thing)
whipped cream, to serve

Line a loaf tin (the same size as your cake) with cling film. Cut the cake in thin slices, lengthwise. Put one slice at the bottom a the loaf tin and sprinkle with some rum. Spread a layer of chocolate mousse evenly on top and layer with banana. Repeat a few times, ending with a layer of cake.
Keep in the fridge for a little while to set. Turn the cake tin on a serving dish and remove the cling film. cover the top with whipped cream and cut in slices to serve.

Don't know about you, but it sounds yummy to me!

Lemon yoghurt cake

I had some left-over Greek yoghurt, so I googled a recipe for a yoghurt cake.
The texture of the cake was soft and velvety and my co-workers, who happily assume the role of guinea pigs for all my baking endeavors, gave it a big thumbs up.

Apparently, it's a recipe from "Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book", but I found it on a Dutch recipe site.

What you need (1 loaf):
300g sugar
50g softened butter
3 eggs
225g Greek yoghurt.
zest of 1 lemon
175g self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract

For the lemon glaze:
100g powdered sugar (icing sugar), sifted.
approx. 1 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice

Preperations:
Preheat the oven at 170ºC. Grease the baking tin or line it with baking parchment.
Wash the lemon to remove any wax, zest the lemon in a small bowl and set aside. Squeeze the lemon juice in another small bowl and set aside.
Take a large bowl and wipe the inside with a bit of lemon juice to make it completely grease-free.
Separate the eggs: put the egg whites in the grease-free bowl and the egg yolks in another large bowl.
Beat the egg whites until it forms soft peaks.

Add sugar, vanilla, salt and butter to the egg yolks and beat until it's a soft, fluffy mixture.
Stir in the yoghurt and lemon zest. With a wooden spoon, stir in the sifted flour and baking powder (be careful not to remove all air from the mixture). Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites.
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hrs until an inserted knife comes out clean.
Let the cake cool for a few minutes, take it out of the tin and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack.
Once the cake has cooled, make the glaze by stirring the lemon juice through the icing sugar. Pour the glaze over the cake and spread evenly over the surface. The glaze will harden in the fridge.

The cake should be stored in the fridge and can be kept for up to a week (but I doubt it will make it that long...)

Observations/alterations:
- I used caster sugar
- I used margarine i/o butter
- I used 1 sachet (8g) vanilla sugar i/o vanilla extract
- I have a fan oven so I lowered the baking temperature to 160ºC (next time, I may even lower it a bit more to 155ºC so the cake will rise more evenly).
- I didn't have a sieve at hand, so I didn't sift the flour - maybe that's why one side of the cake slightly collapsed??
- you could use grated orange peel and orange juice or grated lime peel and lime juice for a different flavour.

Grandma's poundcake

What you need (1 loaf)
- 200g self-raising flour
- 200g white caster sugar
- 200g butter (room temperature)
- 4 eggs
- 1 packet vanilla sugar
- pinch of salt

Cream the sugar and butter with a handmixer. Add 1 egg at time and mix until incorporated before adding the next egg. Sift the flower, salt and vanilla sugar in a separate bowl and gradually add to the butter mixture. Mix at high speed until the batter looks white and creamy.
Preheat the oven at 200C. Grease a loaf tin and pour in the mixture. Bake for approx. 60mins, until an inserted knife comes out clean.

Or try this:
- make cupcakes instead of a loaf. Bake for approx. 30 mins.
- mix cocoa powder through (half) the batter to make a chocolate or marble loaf.
- top the batter with apple slices mixed with cinnamon.

Red pears

We don't have many holiday traditions in our family, but the one thing we do each year is serve these pears at our Christmas dinner, no matter what else is on the menu :)

What you need:
- cooking pears, peeled, quartered, core removed (we always use Gieser Wildeman pears)
- red wine
- sugar
- cinnamon stick

Put the pears in a pan with a little bit of water, a good splash of red wine, a few tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil and let them gently simmer for a few hours until the pears are nice and red. Serve chilled.

Rhubarb compote

What you need:
-rhubarb, peeled and cut into pieces of approx. 3cm/1,25inch
-sugar (I used 100g/4oz to 400g/16oz of rhubarb)
-cinnamon stick

Wash the rhubarb and put into a pan. Do NOT add extra water as the rhubarb will release a lot of liquid when cooking. Add the sugar and cinnamon stick and let simmer for approx. 30 min. Remove the cinnamon stick and let cool completely.
Eat by itself, with custard or use as a pie filling.