Gluten-free Archives - Vesna en violet

Food

Gluten free Christmas cookies

30. 12. 2018

I asked my boyfriend to help me out and this is what he came up with … :D

Hi, my loves! I hope you had an amazing Christmas week, I had so much fun spending some time with my family <3 And baking cookies is another thing I like doing around Christmas. Luckily I took some pictures along the way and because I really liked the end result, you can find the recipe below. If you don’t know it yet, gluten free cookies almost always taste different than the regular ones – especially if you try to make them healthy in general. Although I love how they turned out, my grandparents made it clear that they prefer the traditional version ;) As you’ll see, the recipe is really simple, so there’s no reason not to try doing them! I also added some golden flax seed flour Special that was sent to me by Lepa z naravo, an online store retailing organic and cruelty-free cosmetics, but also LCHF flours and other dietary products. This is how I made them:

500 g gluten free flour ♥ 250 g golden flax seed flour ♥ 1/2 tsp salt ♥ 2 tbsp gingerbread mixture
ground nutmeg & cinnamon ♥ 275 g butter ♥ 200 g brown sugar ♥ 2 tbsp agave sirup/honey ♥ 1 egg

Add both flours, gingerbread, spices and salt into a bowl and mix. In a separate bowl, mix together butter and sugar on low speed and after 3 minutes, add one egg. When everything comes together, add the agave sirup or honey. Then start adding the flour & spice mixture spoon by spoon. At the end, the dough still looks sticky, but don’t be discouraged! You’ll form three balls, wrap them in plastic foil and put into the freezer (or on the balcony, winter is great for baking!) for 15 minutes. Then preheat oven to 200°C.

When the dough has rested for some time, take one ball, put it on a floured surface and gently press down. Then add some more flour on top, spread it with your fingers and then start rolling until the dough has around 0.5 cm. Then you’re ready to start cutting cookies! I mostly made stars, to be in the spirit of Christmas, but also some animals. However, the moose was too large and it broke down before I managed to decorate it …

Put into the oven for 10 minutes or until they are golden brown. Then put them on a rack and when they cool down, you can decorate them as you wish. I used the Dr.Oetker sugar pen, but I was so disappointed! It was hard to get the paste out, it didn’t attach to the cookies and above all, I just don’t like the taste. If I’m honest, I’ve never had any good experiences with these sorts of tubes. I’ll have to visit a professional baking store, maybe they’ll be able to help me out!

♥

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Food

Sour cherry pie & chocolate frosting

18. 4. 2017

I’m a huge pie lover and since we’ve had an amazing weather in the last couple of weeks (this week excluded), I felt an extreme urge to bake. Pies, that is. ANY pies with a fruit filling! They are so easy to prepare, you just throw everything for the crust together and experiment with different sorts of toppings. So the first pie I made two weeks ago was a vegan and gluten-free sour cherry pie with coconut-chocolate frosting. I wasn’t particularly happy with the rice flour crust as it was too dry, but the rest of it was amazing.

For the sour cherry filling I used 450 g defrosted sour cherries, 2 tablespoons of agar agar flakes and 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar. I simmered them for about 10 minutes to let the agar agar flakes dissolve completely. Then I poured a slightly cooled filling onto the pre-baked crust. As for the chocolate frosting, I melted 100 g of a good quality dark chocolate and two teaspoons of coconut milk, I like this combo so much! I poured that on top and tried to cover the whole pie with the chocolate using a spatula. I put it into the freezer overnight and served it the next day. I love the combination of sour cherries and chocolate, it’s so refreshing and I love the fact that there is no additional sugar. Yummm!

♥

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Food

Peanut & Oat Cookies Recipe

20. 11. 2016

I’m a huge cookie lover, especially when I can do them by myself in a healthy way. As usual, I’m all about simple and quick recipes with very little dishes to wash afterwards. This recipe yields about thirty cookies you’ll hardly keep just for yourself as soon as somebody finds them in your kitchen!

For Peanut & Oat Cookies you’ll need:

1 1/1 cup rolled oats ♥ 3/4 cup ground oats ♥ 3/4 cup semi-ground peanuts ♥ 1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 tbsp honey/maple syrup ♥ 4 tbsp melted butter/coconut butter ♥ 1 tsp baking powder

Frist put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them together. Then add honey and butter – you could also put in a tablespoon of peanut butter, I would definitely do it myself if I had any at the time! When everything is thoroughly mixed, you can start making cookies. Take two spoons and use them to transfer the mixture to your baking pan lined with parchment paper. Try to make the cookies round and press them down while keeping a safe distance between them. Bear in mind that baking powder will make them rise and spread a little. Put into oven for 10–15 minutes on 175 °C.

When they are golden-brown, you can take them out. They will be very crumbly and soft at the beginning, but will become more and more firm as they cool down. You can very simply make a vegan version – use maple syrup and coconut oil instead of honey and butter. Store them in cookie containers for up to a week, but believe me when I say you’ll finish them much, much quicker! Bon appétit :)

As you can see, I’ve got myself a bunch of cute containers for storing my Peanut & Oat Cookies! I bought them at Smile concept store in Ljubljana and also used the voucher we received at the Beautiful Bloggers Meetup. I immediately fell in love with this apple print, isn’t it adorable? There are three different container sizes that come together in one package and you can also choose from other containers from the same line!

♥

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Food

A new day, a new recipe: Kale Chips

1. 9. 2016

I never thought that I, a huge potato chips lover, would be able to say there is a perfect and also a healthy substitute to the chips you get in every store. These are so addictive and believe me when I say you won’t even notice these aren’t made of potato and fried in oil over and over again. The preparation is insanely simple, you’ll see! For two trays you’ll need:

♥ around 10 kale leaves (washed) ♥ fleur de sel

Preheat the oven to 160°C on the ventilation setting, otherwise set it to 170°C. Then cover two trays with parchment paper. Take kale leaves and tear them into pieces, then place them on the paper. Sprinkle regular salt or fleur de sel on top for a more luxurious flavor. Put in the oven for 7-10 minutes and bake until the edges get a little brown. Take them out and enjoy, bon appétit!

In addition, kale chips is prepared much quickly than zucchini chips. However, kale is very hard to find in Slovenian stores, but I managed to grow it this year in the garden. I’ve been using it in smoothies all the time, I’ve truly developed a green thumb this year, yay! Nevertheless, please do give kale chips a try, you’ll see it has an incredible taste!!

♥

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Food

Guilt-free bounty bars

30. 8. 2015

I am actually writing this post with a huge delay as I am currently on my vacation in Greece! :) Nevertheless, I have to share the recipe for these bounty bars with you. You can find countless recipes on the Internet, but this is how I like to do them. Honestly, the best dessert I have ever made, and I don’t say that easily. It is low in sugar, consists of lots of healthy goodness and tastes amazing. All in all, this cannot be even compared to the store-bought Bounty! And the ingredients are far healthier… Oh, and the taste! Plus, it is done in a heartbeat. You’ll need:

4 cups shredded coconut ♥ 3 tbsp raw honey ♥ 3 tbsp coconut oil ♥ 200 g coconut milk ♥ 1/2 tsp dry vanilla

And for the chocolate:

tbsp coconut oil ♥ 6 tbsp cacao powder ♥ 2 tbsp raw honey ♥ 5 drops stevia

Put shredded coconut in a big bowl and add honey and vanilla. In the meantime, melt coconut oil and coconut milk and pour the mixture over the ingredients in the bowl. Thoroughly mix with a fork or hands. Cover a small baking pan with plastic foil, transfer the mixture onto the foil and press it firmly down so that the bars won’t crumble too much. Then place them in the freezer for 20 minutes.

You can make the chocolate yourself or use a regular dark chocolate. Either way, melt the coconut oil, cacao powder, raw honey and stevia (or just pieces of dark chocolate) in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Remove the bounty loaf from the tin and cut it into small bars. Dip the bars in the melted chocolate and place them on a plastic foil. When all the bars are done, put them in the freezer for another few minutes.

I just have to add that homemade chocolate melts very quickly, so I do not recommend using this one if you’re planning a summer party outside! ;)

♥

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Food

Oh So Yum: Raw Banana Snickers

28. 5. 2015

Oh my, I’ve created the most heavenly dessert ever. Pure harmony. I’ve been eating lots of junk lately and also fell sick yesterday, so I need lots of good nutrients at the moment. As I’ve consumed a whole bowl of nachos and tortilla chips in the past 20 hours (by myself), I am, naturally, craving for something insanely sweet. And I’m not ashamed to say that this dessert literally saved my day!

This is a bit unusual recipe because I didn’t measure anything, but I can give you a rough estimate of what I used anyway. You’ll need:

2 bananas ♥ around 2 tbsp homemade honey ♥ peanuts ♥ pollen

For the chocolate: : 1-2 tbsp coconut oil ♥ 2 tbsp raw cacao ♥ 1 tbsp maca powder ♥ 1 tbsp coconut sugar

So, first slice two bananas into a bowl and pour one tablespoon of honey over it. For the chocolate, warm two tablespoons of coconut oil, add cacao, maca powder and coconut sugar, then mix with a spoon. Pour one tablespoon of the chocolate over the bananas and put into refrigerator. After five minutes, take it out and pour another tablespoon of honey over it and sprinkle with peanuts. You can add the rest of your homemade chocolate and sprinkle with pollen over top. Put into refrigerator for another couple of minutes and that’s it, easy peasy!

At first I thought this will be enough for two servings, but I almost finished it all already. Whoops! But you cannot go wrong with this one, homemade chocolate brings this simple dessert to a completely new level. And if you leave it in the refrigerator for a bit longer, you get a perfect summer dessert! And a scoop of (homemade banana !!) ice cream will definitely make it even better :D

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Food

Strawberry & peanut cheesecake

10. 5. 2015

Ohhh, cheesecakes are very high on my list of favorite desserts, which is not surprising because they are so damn satisfying! It’s similar to raw cakes, one piece is more than enough and you can make countless variations of it. As we had a picnic this weekend, I knew there would be some yummy biscuits I couldn’t eat, so I spontaneously decided to make a cheesecake primarily for me, but I was kind enough to offer a piece or two to the others as well ;) What you’ll need for this pretty pastel pink cheesecake:

For the crust:

200 g peanuts ♥ 1/2 cup walnuts ♥ 75 g butter ♥ 1 tbsp honey

And for the filling:

500 g cottage cheese ♥ 4 tbsp sour cream ♥ 2 tbsp honey ♥ 7 drops stevia ♥ 2 eggs ♥ 8-10 strawberries

Put both peanuts and walnuts in a blender and start blending. When you get a creamy to flour-like consistency, add butter and honey. Mix again and spread on a pre-buttered cake baking tin. For the filling mix all the ingredients (cottage cheese, sour cream, honey, stevia and strawberry puree) with a whisk OR just add whole strawberries and mix with a hand blender. I blended the filling anyway because it gives a much creamier texture. Put in a preheated oven on 150ºC for 20 minutes, then cover it with a piece of tin foil and bake for another 40 minutes on 160°C.

When the cheesecake is done, let it cool down a bit, then put it in the freezer for a few hours, preferably overnight. Obviously, I never manage to do that because I always decide to make it in a last minute. However, it tastes much better the next day, so I do encourage you to make it a day in advance ;)

My crust was crumbling a lot and I couldn’t move it on another plate. Both the glass plate and the base of the baking tin were very slippery and at one point the cheesecake was on the verge of sliding off the plate (on the floor!!!!), so frustrating! :D What I’m trying to say is: be careful ♥ If you fancy something a bit sweeter, you can also go for a Greek cheesecake I made last year. There can never be too many cheesecakes in this world!

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