Sweet Raspberry Cornbread (gluten free)

 
Todays blog post features the first totally gluten free cake recipe I have ever done in my life.
Drum roll, please!
Although I am not gluten intolerant, I am  sensitive to wheat. Most of my baked recipes use spelt flour since I love its health benefits and I digest it more easily.

My first gluten free baking experience was quite frightening because I did not know what to expect. Will it taste like dry wood or will it crumble like old wakllpaper that has been painted far too often? Luckily, neither of this happend and I think the cornbread turned out well enough to share with you.

                           

If you have never had corn flour before, you’ll probably find that it has a dull and slightly tart taste to it. But don’t be fooled! It tastes great when balanced with something sweet, rich and fruity. Thus I chose two of my favorite baking ingredients: honey and vanilla.
If you want this recipe to be completely vegan, replace the honey with any other liquid sweetener you prefer.
I know, I know…June is the “Month of Strawberries”, so why the hell did I chose raspberries?! Eh, the raspberries went into the cornbread because….I had them in the freezer? That’s it. I had them in my freezer. And they were already talking to me because I had slightly neglected them. I mean, who can resist the begging of a pink cuty patootie  raspberry? I can't-
Also, I love to wing it, you know…Sometimes improvisation brings out the best results.

As always, have fun in the kitchen and enjoy!

Sweet Raspberry Cornbread (gluten free)

Ingredients (for a 30 cm pan):

100g (3/4 cup) corn flour (masa harina)
115g (3/4 cup) corn meal (polenta meal)
1 Tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
4 Tbsp honey or other liquid sweetener
1 heaping Tbsp coconut oil and more to grease the pan
1 ¼ cup oat milk
1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).
In a large bowl mix flours, salt, vanilla sugar and baking powder. Add honey, coconut oil and milk and stir to combine. Fold in frozen raspberries and pour into a greased  round pan.
Bake at 175°C for 25 minutes or until golden brown and the top slightly cracked.
Let cake cool on a rack for 15 minutes before slicing.

                        

                        

Greek-Inspired Pesto Pasta, Basta!

The weather has been very lovely in Germany for the last three to four days and I just could not help myself and make a (to me) very summery pasta dish that reminds me of the beautiful country of Greece. However, I have to admit, I have never ever been to Greece myself! Oh. What a shame, really. One day hopefully…
Consequently, this dish is what I think pasta tastes like in Greece. It has sheep’s feta in it, roasted Mediterranean vegetables and fresh basil. Maybe it is more of an Italian-Greek symbiosis or a what-a-German-thinks-Greek-food-tastes-like kind of dish. Whatever. It tastes delicious and that is all that counts, right?

If you feel like it, I can totally recommend adding one or two garlic cloves to the pesto. Garlic is always great in everything Mediterranean meals, but I left it out this time because I want to pack it for lunch the next few days. I  think there’s nothing worse than to bother others with garlicky fume. Ehem.

The dish can be served hot as a main pasta dish or at room temperature as a salad. Either way, it’s good. I hope you enjoy!

                   

Greek -Inspired Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:
(Serves 4-6)

5 cups cooked penne pasta (probably 300g raw penne)

Basil Pesto:
2 ½ cups slightly packed basil leaves
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp walnuts
2 Tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp sea salt
Pepper to taste

100g sheep’s or goat’s feta cheese, crumbled

Add all ingrediemts except the cheese into a blender and blend until you have a pesto like consistency. Then Stir in the feta cheese. Set aside.

Baked vegetables:
2 zucchino, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
250g brown mushrooms, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt, pepper

Add your chopped vegetables  and the olive oil to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine everything. Spread vegetables on a lined baking sheet and bake in the oven at 175°C (350°F) for 30-35 minutes.

Arrange the dish:
In a large bowl mix noodles with pesto and stir well to combine. Then fold in all the baked veggies. Season with salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Serve warm as a pasta dish or cold as a salad.

Pfannkuchen and Oven-baked Rhubarb Compote

Today was a Pfannkuchen kind of day. Pfannkuchen are similar to pancakes but large enough to fill and roll.
This recipe is an old family favorite and goes back to my Grandmother. What can I say? My Mum’s and Grandma’s Pfannkuchen are the best. No really. Although I may be a little biased, their Pfannkuchen are as fluffy, thick and satisfying as a Pfannkuchen can possibly be. The secret? Quark (similar to thick Greek yoghurt) and fluffy eggwhites. They also do neither contain any sugar nor baking powder.  There’s only the real stuff in them. Yuhu!
                         

My Mum normally serves Pfankuchen for lunch. Yeah, I know. It's not very nutrious. But my family has a major sweet tooth. If sweet lunches are not your thing, you can also make them for a relaxed Sunday breakfast, or brunch.
And now, no matter what day it is, go ahead and make yourself a large batch of Pfannkuchen, fill them with (homemade) strawberry jam or cinnamon sugar. Then, roll, roll, roll. You know the drill.  As always, enjoy!
              


Pfannkuchen
(makes 7 Pfannkuchen, serves 3)

Ingredients:
2 cups (à 200 ml) milk*
2 cups (à 200 ml) spelt flour*
2 eggs
2 heaping Tbsp quark or thick Greek yoghurt
Pinch of salt

Butter or margarine for frying

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) and place large plate on a baking rack.

Beat eggwhites until stiff. In a medium bowl add egg yolks and salt. Add 1 cup milk and whisk with a whire whisk. Add 1 cup of spelt flour and whisk again. Repeat with the remaining milk and flour.
Now add the quark or Greek yoghurt and whisk well. Gently fold in the stiff  eggwhites. Do not overmix!
Heat a knob of butter in a small nonstick pan. Add just enough dough to cover the bottom of the pan (my pancakes where about 17 cm in diameter). Reduce the heat slightly and bake the pancake until it starts to set on the top. Flip and bake on the other side until golden brown. To keep the pancakes warm, place on the plate in the oven.
Serve warm with compote, jam, cinnamon or whatever you prefer.

*The cups used in this recipe are normal tea cups, not measuring cups. They have an average liquid capacity of 200 ml.


Oven-Baked Rhubarb Compote
(serves 3-4)

Ingredients:
750g rhubarb, skin removed and chopped
1 ½ apples, chopped
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
3 Tbsp creamed honey
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cornstarch

In a bowl mix all ingredients until well combined and place into a casserole dish.
Bake for 30-35 minutes at 175°C (350°F).

                         
                    

Whole-Grain Spelt Bread

I am a little obsessed with bread baking lately. Normally I get some kind of spelt bread at an organic bakery in the city. Although their bread is great and I really love the bakery's local produce the habit gets very expensive after a while and additionally, my taste buds got really bored from eating the same ol' bread week after week. Consequently, I did not enjoy eating bread as much as I used to. And let me tell you, that is a veeeery bad thing because as a German girl, I love bread! Yes I do.
Thankfully, there was light at the end of the tunnel. A few weeks ago I found Jenna’s recipe for this sandwich bread. And if I haven't said it clear enough here, her recipe was life-changing. Life-changing in a way that I do enjoy baking bread now and am no longer freaked out by the "chemistry" of making a yeast dough. It is actually quite fun. Given the circumstance the active dry yeast that has been hiding in the back of your kitchen drawer for ages is not as active as a lion sleeping in the sun. Is that a bad comparison? Alright. Make sure your yeast is active and you'll be set. Just saying.

I knew this bread would be a hit by the time I took it out of the oven. My kitchen was filled with the amazing smell of freshly baked, doughy bread and I had to sample a slice immediately! So good!
The original recipe calls for wheat flour, but since I prefer spelt, I replace the whole amount with spelt flour. This time around, I also used a part whole-grain flour to add more fiber. And although the original recipe did not recommend the use of whole-grain flours, I was surprised of how well the bread turned out anyways and I thought it was nice to share the recipe again.
If you are feeling like adding some raisins to the dough, go ahead! I’ve tried it with adding 50g raisins to the dough and I loved it!

Wholegrain Spelt Bread

Ingredients:
(makes one loaf)

160g spelt flour (type 630)
210g wholegrain spelt flour
48g rolled oats
14g sucanat
8g salt
7g active dry yeast (1 package)
1 1/3 cups water, luke warm
15g (vegan) butter, at room temperature

50 g raisins (optional)

In a small bowl mix water and active dry yeast. Let sit on the counter for a few minutes until the mixture gets bubbly.

In a larger bowl mix flour, oats, sugar and salt. Add water-yeast mixture and knead with a handmixer (dough hooks!) for 10 minutes on high speed. I do not recommend to knead by hand, since the dough is very sticky! At the end of the kneading time, the dough should be less sticky and smooth. Cover the bowl with a table cloth and let sit in a warm place for 90 minutes or until the dough has about doubled in size.

When the dough has doubled, put it on a slightly floured surface . Add raisins and quickly knead to combine.  Sprinkle with additional oats (as many as you like). Slightly roll the dough to make the oats stick to the dough slightly. Add the dough into a greased  loaf pan. Cover with a table cloth and let sit in a warm spot for 15 minutes.

In the meantime preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
After 15 minutes add bread to the oven ande reduce heat to 175°C. Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown. And crunchy. Do not open the oven while the bread is still baking.

Remove the bread from the pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes.