Hot Cross Bun Muffins

            Autumn has to be one of my favourite seasons. It’s no longer crazy hot outside, but still a nice enough temperature to want to get out of the house and be outside. I also love storms, the rain and weather that isn’t a simple sun in the sky. It all just seems so amazing to me.

            It also happens to be the season when my birthday is! I had an amazing birthday last weekend with family and friends, and I decided I wanted to make myself a birthday treat! I love fruit and spices in baking and since it’s so close to Easter, I thought, why not add in an Easter theme? So I decided to make myself Birthday Hot Cross Bun Muffins.

These actually work just as well when you just form them into a ball and place them on a greased baking tray, if you don’t feel like making them in muffin tins.

Hot Cross Bun Muffins

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: 8 – 10 medium buns

Time: prep – 20 minutes

Cooking – 20 minutes

Ingredients:

- 2 cup almond meal

- 1 cup arrowroot flour

- 2/3 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- ½ tsp nutmeg

- ½ tsp clove

- ½ tsp ginger

- pinch salt

- 2/3 cup sultanas (could also use dark dairy free chocolate here instead)

- 3 flax eggs (1 tbsp flaxseed meal to 3 tbsp of water, left to set for a few minutes)

- ½ cup coconut oil, melted

- 1/3 cup coconut nectar (or chosen liquid sweetener)

Topping:

- 2 tbsp coconut oil, not melted

- 4 tbsp coconut nectar

- 4 tbsp of banana flour or buckwheat flour

(*If you were making chocolate cross buns you can add in a tbsp of cacao powder)

Method:

- Pop the oven onto 170c and line a muffin try with liners or grease with coconut oil. If you don’t want to have them in muffin tins you can simply bake them spread out on a greased baking tray, they do tend to crack on top as they cook because they have a lot more room to move.

- Combine all the dry ingredients except the sultanas, together really well in one bowl and in a separate bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients. Now just pour the dry in with the wet and mix until you have a smooth mix. I put mine into a mixer for a few minutes to ensure the flax egg and all the other ingredients were really well incorporated. Then stir through your sultanas (or dark chocolate chunks), distributing then evenly.

- Form the dough into balls and place them into your muffin tins or onto your baking tray, and then place them into the oven. Bake these for about ten minutes before removing them to pipe on the topping.

- While the buns are in for their first ten minutes of baking, you can put together the icing. Firstly combine the coconut nectar and the flour to form a liquid paste, now add in the coconut oil.

* I have found that the coconut oil needs to be soft but still white and not completely melted. If you use completely melted coconut oil it will split from the coconut nectar and flour when you go to mix it in.

- You can either pipe the topping on to get a neat cross or you can use a knife and spread it on for a more rustic look, then pop them back in the oven for another ten minutes to finish cooking and give the topping a warm golden colour.

- After being in the oven for 20 minutes altogether, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for a while on the trays before transferring them to a cooling rack. Or if your anything like me, just eat them warm straight from the oven!

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.

‘My mind is tranquil. I allow peace into my life’ -Leon Nacson

Millet Meal Porridge Two Ways

 

            So today I have a double whammy for you, because I’m such an indecisive person (you just need to ask my partner how hard it is for me to decide on anything). I have tried each of these versions of millet meal porridge and loved them both, so I couldn’t choose which of the recipes to share. So I ended up deciding, why not both?

            As much as I absolutely love oats, and could gladly eat them everyday, it is nice to try out different ways of doing things. The millet meal porridge base of this recipe was pleasantly surprising for me. I was half expecting it to taste a bit like a gooey, savory, cous cous kind of thing, but it has an amazing creamy and hearty texture that really just warms you up on those cooler mornings. Also millet is actually a seed, and is gluten free, making it a great alternative to porridge oats.

Although both of these porridge toppings are more on the decadent side of breakfasts, the base recipe of this millet meal porridge would be just as delicious simply topped with warm berries, dried fruit or just a tablespoon or two of coconut nectar.

  

Millet Meal Porridge Two Ways

Caramelized Banana and Hazelnut Porridge

Or

Candy Apple and Sultana Porridge

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Serves: 1

Time: Prep- 5 mins

Cooking- 15 mins

Ingredients:

Porridge base

- 1/3 cup millet meal

- 1 cup nut milk

- 1 tsp maca powder (optional)

- 1 tsp mesquite powder (optional)

- ½ tsp cinnamon

Caramelized Banana and Hazelnut Topping

- 1 banana, ½ sliced, ½ mashed (mashed half to be stirred through the porridge base once it has cooked)

- ½ tbsp coconut sugar

- 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (optional)

- 6 or 7 hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Or;

Candy Apple and Sultana Topping

            - ½ apple, thinly sliced

- ½ tbsp coconut sugar

- 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (optional)

- 2 tbsp sultanas

(As this version doesn’t have any sweetener in the porridge base, you may need to taste test the porridge base and add some sweetener in as desired)

Method:

- Place millet meal, nut milk and cinnamon in a saucepan and heat it up until you start to see steam, while stirring to stop lumps forming. Then reduce to a simmer and continue to cook it until the millet meal soaks up all of the nut milk (around 5 minutes). If you find that the mixture is too dry just add in some water until it reaches the consistency you like.

- Now each of the different toppings are cooked the same way which keeps things pretty simple, so which ever recipe topping you choose, here is the instructions for both;

- While the millet meal is cooking, place ½ tbsp of the coconut sugar into a pan.

- Pop either the banana slices or the apple slices on top of the coconut sugar and bring it to a med to hot heat. You will notice the sugar around the bananas or apples will liquefy as it starts to caramelize.

- Allow the first side to become golden before flipping to caramelize the other side. Watch them as if the sugar goes too far it will burn and taste really not nice.

- Once it has had a chance to caramelize on both sides, add in either the hazelnuts or the sultanas, and allow them to warm through in the pan.

- If you are making the banana version, and the remaining mashed half of your banana into the cooked millet meal.

- If you are doing the apple version, taste the millet meal to see if you need any sweetener added.

- Then simply transfer your millet meal porridge into a serving bowl and cover it with your chosen toppings.

- You can also add a tbsp of your desired sweetener here (or even 1 tbsp coconut sugar and 1 tbsp water, to continue with the same flavours), and enjoy!

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!

‘I release all criticism’ – Louise L. Hay

Hazelnut Fudge Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Icing

            Last week I was struggling to come up with an idea of what to bake my friend for her birthday, so as I was going through my cookbooks for ideas I saw Lola Berry’s Paleo Chocolate Ganache Birthday Cake, in her new ‘The Happy Cookbook’ and knew exactly what I wanted to bake her.

            This cake is like a mix between healthy Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, at least that’s what I was thinking when putting it together. Also if you do manage to have a little bit of the icing left over after icing your cake, it makes an amazing healthier alternative to Nutella.

Hazelnut Fudge Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Icing

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: around 10 – 12 servings

Time: prep – 15 minutes

Cooking – 1 hour

Ingredients:

Cake

            - 3 cups hazelnut meal

- ½ cup buckwheat flour

- ¾ cup cacao powder

- 1 cup coconut sugar

- 2 tsp baking powder, gluten and aluminum free

- ½ cup coconut oil, melted

- 3 flax eggs (1 tbsp flaxseed meal to 3 tbsp water per egg)

- 1 cup coconut milk

- Pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Icing

            - 2 cup hazelnut meal

- ¼ cup cacao powder

- 2/3 cup coconut nectar (or preferred liquid sweetener)

- ¼ cup coconut milk (don’t worry if its just under a ¼ cup)

- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

- Pinch of pink Himalayan salt

Top with

            - ½ cup chopped hazelnuts (optional)

* The quantity of coconut milk used in both the cake and icing is equivalent to one 400ml can.

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 170C and grease a spring form cake tin, as it’s easier to get out. If you don’t have one, you can simply line your cake tin with baking paper.

- Combine all the dry ingredients for the cake in one bowl, and then mix together all the wet ingredients for the cake in another bowl before incorporating them both together. Mix this batter together really well; making sure all the flax egg is dispersed evenly. (ie. no light brown nuggets through your cake.)

 

- After it is all combined pour it into you cake tin and place in the oven for an hour, or until the skewer comes out clean. Once the cake is cooked through allow it to cool for a little bit in the cake tin before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely. You could eat the cake as it is now but I really think the icing is worth the effort.

- When your cake is cool it’s time for the icing. Which is as simple as popping everything into a bowl and mixing it together really well!

I just used what coconut milk was left from the can after measuring out what was needed for the cake, because it adds an amazing creaminess and I hate to waste food, so don’t worry if you have under a ¼ of a cup’s worth of coconut milk. If you feel the mixture is a touch too thick you can add in a bit of water or nut milk to loosen it. Once it’s mixed together you can smother the top of the cake in it and sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts.

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!

‘I am flexible and flowing' - Louise L. Hay

My Go To Green Smoothie Bowl

            This is my go to green smoothie bowl for when my body knows it needs an extra dose of greens. It’s a great breakfast dish but I have eaten for all different meals (including dinner… its got veggies in it so its totally acceptable!).

           

            It really is such a sneaky way of getting an extra dose of greens because it really doesn’t taste like your eating a salad, the bananas cover the taste well. It just looks like it will taste of leaves, but really its just a deliciously creamy fruit smoothie.

Green Smoothie Bowl

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Serves: 1 person

Time: 10 minutes

Freeze banana- overnight

Ingredients:

- 1 to 2 frozen bananas

- 1 non-frozen banana

- ½ cup spinach, lightly packed

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- ¼ cup water

- 1 tsp maca powder (optional)

- 1 tbsp coconut sugar (optional)

- You could also add in a scoop of protein powder here, or your chosen pre/pro-biotic, green superfood powder or even matcha tea powder makes a delish addition.

Optional Toppings:

            I usually like to keep it simple here and serve it how it is, but it is also yummy when topped with fresh fruit and granola or muesli.

Method:

- The only real prep you need to do for this is to freeze your bananas the night before. I always have a stash of bananas in my freezer for banana ice cream, smoothie bases or just to eat as is! I’ve found that it’s easiest to peel and chop up the bananas before putting them in the freezer, just store them in an airtight container. Then as you need them, just break off chunks of frozen bananas.

- Once the bananas are frozen its as simple as popping all the ingredients into a blender of food processor and wizzing them up together. You may need to stop and move the mixture around to make sure all the frozen banana is getting broken down.

- After the mixture has combined, simply transfer it to a bowl and coat it in your favourite smoothie toppings!

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!

‘I feel no guilt when I say no to someone’ – Brian L. Weiss

Banana Bread

 

            Hello there! Sorry I haven’t posted the last two weeks, I have been busy, busy with an awesome venture, and as I often struggle to push myself to do things when I’m stressed, I decided to take a little break to relax and enjoy the process of change. But now I’m back and so ready to dive right into all things health, lifestyle and food.

The one recipe that I absolutely love but have always struggled with recreating has been banana bread. It goes without saying that if I love bananas as much as I do, then putting them into a deliciously dense and spiced loaf will only make me love this amazing fruit more!

So in keeping things completely honest with you, this recipe has actually taken me a few years of on and off, trial and error to get where it is today. And I absolutely love it!

 

            This recipe is the perfect way to use up bananas that are super ripe. In my house that isn’t very often, but to get a really good flavour you need to use bananas that have no green on their peel and have brown spots all over them. The spottier the better. I have also made this recipe where I added in walnuts and dates; which is an amazing combo with the bananas, but if you wanted to add in any other nut or dried fruit that you have, go for it! Just add in a 1/3 of a cup of each (2/3 of a cup in total) and it will have a good consistency while still holding together, dark chocolate chips would also be a delicious alternative here.

            Having moved out of home I can no longer just borrow my mum’s loaf tin, so instead I have baked mine in 2 medium loaf tins that I own. If you want to, you can just use a larger regular size loaf tin for this recipe but the cooking times will vary and be longer than the cooking time I have found with the smaller loaf tins. Just keep checking the centre of the loaf with a skewer for when it is removed cleanly, and also just press down on the centre of the loaf to make sure that the loaf is relatively springy and doesn’t cave in under your fingers.

Banana Bread

Plant-based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: 2 medium loaves

Time: Prep: 10 min

Cooking: 45min- 1hr

Ingredients:

- 4 small to medium bananas, 3 mashed, 1 for top decoration (optional)

- 3/4 cup almond meal

- 3/4 cup buckwheat flour or brown rice flour

- 2 eggs (or flax eggs, 1 tbsp flaxseed meal, 3 tbsp water, for each ‘egg’)

- 1 tbsp hulled tahini

- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

- 3/4 cup nut milk

- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil

- 2 tbsp rice malt syrup

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

- ½ tsp clove

- ½ tsp nutmeg

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional Extras:

- 1/3 cup pecans, chopped

- 1/3 cup dates, chopped

Method:

- Preheat oven to 180C and grease loaf tins.

- Grab a mug or a small container and make up your flax eggs, and put to the side to set.

- Mix the buckwheat flour, almond meal, spices, baking powder and soda, in a bowl and set aside.

- Combine the flax eggs, vinegar, nut milk, coconut oil, vanilla, tahini, and mashed bananas in a second bowl.

-Once each is combined separately, pour all the dry ingredients in with the wet and mix well.

- Stir through the dates and pecans if you wish to add them in, before transferring the mixture to the greased loaf tin. Top with slices of banana (I quartered my banana lengthways to get 4 long banana strips), before popping in the oven for 45mins- 1 hr, or until a skewer comes out clean.

- Leave the bread to cool in the tin before removing it and transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely before serving. Store in an air-tight container in a cool place or in the fridge.

 

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!

'Every thought I think is creating my future' - Louise L. Hay

Roast Tomato Sauce

 

A few days ago I was thinking about what an average day of food would look like for me if I were to write it down on paper. It made me realize that I really am a creature of habit when it comes to my everyday meals. I will eat the same thing over and over until I either think of a new dish I want to eat or until I get sick of it, which doesn’t happen often.

One of my everyday go to meals is always pasta. I choose corn or gluten free pasta that has minimal ingredients, and I will always go for a tomato and vegetable based sauce. I use organic tined tomatoes, and add in whatever vegetable I felt like buying at the start of the week and will try and add in as many colours as possible as it is a good indicator for a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.

But this week I decided to spice things up a bit, as I have recently been trying to make more of my food from scratch (namely almond milk, as I was a little put off by all the extra ingredients in the store bought ones). It has been going great so far so I decided to recreate an all purpose tomato sauce that could be used on pasta or pizza or a simple flavoured sauce to use in place of bottled tomato sauce which I would smother all over oil-free baked potato chips, and this is the recipe I came up with!

Healthy eating doesn’t always mean using crazy hard to find ingredients, it’s also just using simple, natural, fresh whole foods, which are the easiest way to include healthier dishes into your life. If you’re not a fan of using garlic or onion you could easily cut them out of this recipe and it’d still be delicious.

Homemade Roast Tomato Sauce

Plant based – Gluten Free – Dairy Free

Makes: 550 ml (just over 2 cups)

Time: prep- 15 minutes

Cooking- 50 minutes- 1hr

Ingredients

- 8 tomatoes, quartered

- 6 garlic cloves

- 1 onion, cut into wedges

- ¼ tsp ground turmeric

- 1/8 tsp fennel seeds

- ¼ tsp chili flakes

- Pinch pepper and salt

- ½ cup fresh basil leaves

- 1 tbsp rice malt syrup (or any liquid sweetener – ie. honey or coconut nectar)

- Juice of ½ lemon

- coconut oil, for greasing

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 170C, and grease a roasting tray with coconut oil.

- Chop the tomato and onion, and pace them on the roasting tray. Break off 6 cloves of garlic from a bulb, remove any of the outer bulb casings but leave the individual garlic cloves casings on them. This protects the clove from burning in the oven. Lightly press on each garlic clove to break it open a touch, then place them on the roasting tray with the tomato and onions.

- Sprinkle over the fennel seeds, turmeric, chili flakes, salt and pepper, and place the tray in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour.

- Once all the tomatoes, onions and garlic have roasted, remove the garlic cloves and put to one side. Place all the tomatoes and onions to a food processor or blender. Now to add the garlic into this, you only want the roasted clove not the casing, so squish the center out of the garlic clove and discard the casing.

- Add the rice malt syrup, lemon juice and basil, into the food processor and blitz this up to a relatively smooth sauce consistency. How smooth is up to you!

- Keep the sauce in an airtight jar in the fridge, and it will last up to a week.

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!

'My life works beautifully' - Louise L. Hay

Chocolate Zucchini Birthday Cake

            This week was my partner's birthday, so I decided what a perfect opportunity to break out my cake baking skills. I normally prefer to bake small things, like muffins, cookies or slices, because I feel like I understand how they react and bake in the oven.

I always get a little scared when I’m baking a cake that the middle will just not cook but I’ll burn the outside! This fear comes from a very bad run with trying to recreate a healthy banana bread recipe, but I have recently solved that dilemma so this should be a piece of cake! (Pun intended)

            The first thing I knew I wanted to have in this birthday cake was a chocolate flavour. Simply because I know he’ll love that, but from there I had so many ideas of what else I wanted to add in, that I just couldn’t decide. In the end I chose to use the beautiful zucchinis that had grown from his sisters vegetable garden. These add in a sneak hit of vegetable goodness, but will also help to add an awesome texture to the cake and stop it from becoming dry.

Zucchini & Chocolate Birthday Cake

Plant based - Gluten Free - Dairy Free

Makes: 1 cake, 8- 10 serves

Time: prep- 15 minutes

Cooking- 30 minutes

Ingredients:

- 1 1/3 cup almond meal

- 1 cup buckwheat flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- ½ cup cacao or carob

- ½ tsp cinnamon

- ¼ tsp nutmeg

- Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

- 2 flax eggs (1 egg= 1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp water)

- ½ cup coconut oil, melted

- ½ cup rice malt syrup

- 1/3 cup almond milk

- 2 medium zucchini, grated

Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing (optional):

-2 tbsp cacao powder or carob powder

-2 tbsp rice malt syrup

-4 tbsp coconut oil, melted

-2 tbsp natural peanut butter (could swap for any nut or seed butter)

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 170C, and lightly grease a medium cake tin with coconut oil.

- Grate the zucchini and squeeze as much of the liquid from it as you can, either with a muslin/cheese cloth or through a sieve.

- Combine all the wet ingredients together in one bowl and all the dry ingredients together in another. Then mix them both mixtures together; making sure that it is all well combined.

- Transfer the mixture into your cake tin and pop it in the oven. Cook the cake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

- Allow it to cool in the tin for 10 to 15 minutes, before turning it out into a wire rack to cool.

- While the cake is cooling you can put together the chocolate topping. Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir until combined. Once the cake has cooled slightly pour the topping over the top of the cake, the topping smoothes out better when the cake is still a little warm. You could add extra toppings here, like coconut chips, chopped nuts or fresh berries.

- I recommend keeping this in an airtight container in the fridge, but I also think it tastes a lot better when its at room temperature. So take the out of the fridge a little while before serving.

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!

‘I don’t make assumptions’ – Don Miguel Ruiz