Coconut, Berry & Buckwheat Granola

          Hello everyone! The recipe I'm sharing today came about from a happy accident. While i was baking my last recipe, the Anzac Cookies, I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to line the baking tray of the first batch. As a result I ended up having to scrape what was left off of the tray, ending up with a really tasty granola.

           From there, I swapped out the oats to buckwheat groats, and added in dried berries, because berries and macadamias are a match made in heaven! I used a mix of dried sour cherries, organic cranberries and wild blueberries, which gave it a few different flavours, but if you cant get your hands on all of these just use what dried berry you like the best!

           You could use this granola a few different ways, as it has a delicious crunchy texture, you could add it on top of stewed fruit as a crumble topping, or on top of banana nice cream, or you could simply eat it as you would a normal cereal, with fresh fruit and a plant-based milk.

Coconut, Berry & Buckwheat Granola

Plant-based - Gluten Free - Dairy Free

Makes: 4-5 cups of granola

Time: prep- 10 minutes

Cooking- 15 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 cups raw buckwheat groats

- 1/2 cup macadamias, chopped

- 1/2 cup dried berries (I used a mix of sour cherries, organic cranberries and wild blueberries)

- 2/3 cup shredded coconut

- 1/4 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 tbsp maca powder

- 1 tbsp mesquite powder

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tbsp cinnamon 

- 1/4 cup coconut nectar

- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 160C.

- Place all of your ingredients into one large bowl and stir them around until it is all combined.

- Pour your mixture over a baking tray so that it forms a single layer. You may need more than one baking tray for this, as it will cook evenly when it has the room to spread out. 

- Mid-way through the cooking time, take it out of the oven and stir it around to make sure it doesn't burn around the edges of the tray, then pop it back in for the remainder of the cooking time.

- Once it has cooked, take it out of the oven and give it another mix before leaving it to cool completely on the tray. It will seem quite sticky and gooey when it first comes out if the oven but as it cools it will firm up.

- Store it in an air tight container, and you can serve it with fruit, banana nice cream, yoghurt, on top of stewed fruit, or simply with a dash of almond milk.

Anzac Cookies

    Oh hey guys! Long time no see. I'm so sorry I have been away from here for a while. I'm currently having quite a bit of trouble with my computer, I was unable to open any of the documents and recipe posts I had started and saved. Totally weird, and if you know me, you know I am completely not a tech savvy person and I couldn't figure out what was going on! Anyway, I have found a temporary solution to the glitch but I'm going to have to figure out a better way to write, save and store my half written posts.

    Now that that boring part is out of the way. I have always loved Anzac cookies, but it's kind of a given for me as I absolutely love oats! So oats in a delicious, portable cookie form is definitely a winner in my books.

Anzac Cookies 

Makes: 20 medium cookies

Time: prep- 10 minutes

Cooking: 15-20 minutes

 

Ingredients:
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 3/4 cup shredded coconut
- 3/4 cup macadamias, chopped
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 tbsp hulled tahini
- 1/2 cup rice malt syrup (or your chosen liquid sweetener ie, maple syrup, coconut nectar)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of Himalayan pink salt

Method:
- Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking paper. This really is a key step as the mixture will stick like glue to your baking tray without it, and like with my first test batch of this recipe, you will end up with a super tasty granola instead of cookies.

- Pop all of the ingredients into one bowl and combine them together.

- Scoop out small amounts of the mixture and roll it into little balls and place them onto your baking tray. Press down on each one, to flatten it into round cookie shapes. I found it was a lot easier to handle the mixture with damp hands, that way it stuck more to itself than to my hands.

- Place the tray in the oven for 15-20 minutes, allow them to cook until they are nice and golden. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking tray a bit before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.


Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram and tag me with @cinnamon_courtney so I can see all of your recreations!

'I take the win-win approach' - Stephen R. Covey

Cinnamon Buckwheat Pancakes

            When I was little we would often have pancake Sundays, and if I’m completely honest, I really didn’t like pancakes (I was a pretty fussy eater). Although I loved how my family would all come together and cook up a lot of pancakes for a lazy Sunday breakfast together. The left over pancakes would be eaten by my dad and brother throughout the week. So whenever I cook pancakes, it’s ingrained in me to cook up a large batch, so if you don’t want to end up with as many pancakes as this recipe makes, feel free to halve it!

            I recently got my hands on some banana flour and I have to say that it’s delicious! For this recipe if you can’t get your hands on any banana flour, you can just substitute it for buckwheat flour and it works just as well. I got my banana flour from my work at The Source Bulk Foods in Camberwell.

            Also I used coconut nectar as my liquid sweetener, but you could substitute this with your preference of liquid sweetener; like rice malt syrup, molasses, pure maple syrup, agave syrup or honey if you aren’t vegan.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Pancakes

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: around 20 medium pancakes

Time: prep- 10 minutes

Cooking- 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 ¼ cup banana flour, (could swap this for buckwheat flour)

- 2 cups almond milk (or your choice of plant-based milk)

- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted

- 2 tbsp coconut nectar (or your chosen liquid sweetener)

- 1 tbsp baking powder

- Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or more if you’re a cinnamon addict like me!)

- Coconut oil for cooking

To Serve per person:

- 1 Banana, sliced

- Drizzle of coconut nectar

- Sprinkle of goji berries

- Sprinkle of shredded coconut

Method:

- Combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then form a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add in the wet ingredients. Combine them both together really well until there are no lumps in the batter.

- Heat up a pan to a medium heat and pop a small amount of coconut oil in the pan.

- Once the pan has heated and the coconut oil has melted, pour in around a ¼ of a cup of batter for each pancake, and leave it in there to cook until the little bubbles appear over the top of the pancake. Flip it over to cook for a further minute on the other side, or until it’s golden. Transfer them to a wire rack once they are done, to stop them from getting soggy while you cook up the rest of the batter.

- Cook up the rest of the batter the same way; you may need to add in a touch more coconut oil to the pan as you go.

- To serve, pop them on a plate with fresh sliced banana, a drizzle of coconut nectar, goji berries and shredded coconut. Or just eat them straight from the pan!

Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations!

‘There is plenty for everyone, including me’ – Louise L. Hay

Chocolate Chia Mousse

            Happy Easter everyone! Or happy chocolate and hot cross bun weekend if you don’t celebrate Easter. I have a little naughty but nice chocolate recipe for you here today, that is my go to healthier version of a chocolate dessert when nothing but chocolate will do!

            Now I know a lot of people out there try out ‘healthy swap’ recipes and are disappointed because they taste nothing like the dish they are trying to recreate, I’ve been there too!

            So when I was testing out a chia pudding recipe, I was using almond milk and berries, which did turn out nice but not really what I wanted, I changed it up and used coconut milk and raw cacao powder… and was blown away. I had to force myself to stop eating the whole batch…

            It has an awesome light mousse texture but the coconut milk and raw cacao make it taste like it is a really decadent and rich dessert.

A little bit about C H I A  S E E D S ;

These powerful little seeds are jam packed full of omega 3, fibre and protein.

            ~ One tablespoon of chia contains 3 grams of omega 3 and 6 grams of dietary fibre. This helps increase energy levels, improve digestion and promote healthy hair, skin and nails. They also love to absorb liquid, they can absorb up to 16 times their own weight! This can increase your feelings of fullness after eating as well as helping your body regulate hydration levels.

            ~ As a vegan protein source they are also pretty amazing as they contain all nine of the essential amino acids, which are the building blocks in our bodies and essential for maintaining a healthy functioning you!

            ~ There is also no nutritional difference between the white and the black chia seeds so feel free to use which ever you like for this recipe.

Chocolate Chia Mousse

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Serves: 2 people

Time: prep- 10 minutes

Setting- 5 hrs or overnight

Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup chia seeds

- 400ml or 1 ¾ cup coconut milk

- 3 tbsp liquid sweetener

- 1 tsp Maca (optional)

- 1 tsp Mesquite (optional)

- ¼ cup cacao/carob powder

- ½ tsp vanilla extract or ¼ tsp of vanilla powder

- pinch of cinnamon

- pinch of Himalayan pink salt

Top with:

- Fresh berries, shredded coconut and goji berries – it is quite rich so the fresh berries really help to cut through it.

Method:

- Add all ingredients into a jar and make sure you stir and combine everything well.

- Pop the jar into the fridge to set.

- Serve with a layer of fruit in the centre and then top with fresh berries, coconut and goji.

Let me know how you go if you do try this out yourselves, or post a picture on instagram with the hashtag #cinnamoncourtney so I can see all of your recreations.

‘When I decide to be happy, I attract great things I my life’ – Robert Holden

Source:

The Chia Co. – www.thechiaco.com