10. Cook 52 different recipes

On my 24 Things To Do Before My 24th Birthday list number ten was to cook 52 different recipes. As I mentioned before I wasn't really sure how I wanted to demonstrate to myself how I managed to do 52 different recipes so I decided to count the recipes I posted about. 

So far I have posted 5 different recipes. 

First I made some amazing Peanut butter-Chocolate-Banana Cinnamon Rolls, which were devoured.

Then I started making different kind of milk I made Oat Milk and Coconut Milk.

And at last I made something I've wanted to make for ages: Homemade Nutella.

I am really happy about all the things I did and I am really exited for the other things I'll be trying to make!


So I can finally say


10. Cook 52 different recipes (4/52)


Bisous

Making Homemade Nutella

This recipe only has 4 ingredients: hazelnuts, dark chocolate, coconut milk and salt. There is no added sugar or any ingredients you can't get easily! Furthermore, it's super easy!

This recipe yields about 300 ml (1.3 cups) of delicious nutty nutella.

Ingredients:
250 ml chopped hazelnuts (I used them with the skin still on)
200 ml coconut milk (you can easily make it yourself)
50 gr dark chocolate
A dash of salt

I measured the hazelnuts only after I blended them for 1 minute.

Start with blending the hazelnuts for couple of minutes whilst you melt the chocolate with 100 ml of coconut milk.

In the blender add the other half of the coconut milk (100 ml) and start blending it with the hazelnuts. Add the melted chocolate and the coconut milk in the hazelnut mixture and keep on blending. Taste and add the salt after you liking.

Blend until you like the consistency, it looks like the chocolate hazelnut spread is way to thin but trust me it isn't.

But it into a jar and cool it in the fridge. It needs to be kept in the fridge, both for it to not go bad to quickly and for the consistency to be just right.




Bisous

Making Homemade Coconut Milk

I like making things that I usually need to buy. Not only is it fun it is as well frequently much cheaper than buying it from the store.

I've previously demonstrated how to make some oat milk and I love using the oat milk when I am baking and I am sure that I won't use cow milk in baking ever again!

But today we are here to talk about coconut milk. Making coconut milk is easier then oat milk, it even takes less time!

There are only two ingredients in the coconut milk I make. Since I use it for cooking, baking and all kinds of shenanigans I don't add any flavor enhancers.

Ingredients:
250 ml shredded coconuts
500 ml warm water

The water shouldn't be boiling hot but it should be somewhat warm, what I like to do is to put the water in a pot and heat it up until it burns when I test the temperature.

Add the shredded coconut into the water and let it stand for couple of minutes. Put it into a blender and blend on the lowest setting for one minute and let it stand again for about 15 minutes.

The reason I let it stand is to give the water a chance to absorb as much as possible from the shredded coconut.

After that it is time to sieve the shredded coconut away from the liquid. I have found the best way to do that is through a muslin. 

Don't throw away the coconut gunk! It can be dried and used for baking, in your oat meal, with your yogurt and anything you can imagine. 

I have never had to sieve the coconut milk more than once.

Store it in a fridge, it needs to be consumed in 4-5 days! 

Bisous

P.S. Check out my homemade oat milk post! 

Making Homemade Oat Milk

I have two confessions to make. The first one is that I am lactose intolerant and the second one is that I love cheese.

Since I love cheese I try to portion my lactose intake. Therefore, I don't drink milk and I don't eat yogurt and I buy lactose free cream. I wanted to change things up when I bake and make smoothies since I sometimes use milk in these things. I did some research and found a tremendous amount of information about milk substitute, after I talked it over with my sister she suggested I could make milk from oats. 

The ingredients are few: oats and water. Some people use salt but I don't like adding salt in something like that. I rarely add salt in things because I believe there is too much salt being used in the world! 

There are six simple steps in making homemade oat milk.

First, the ingredients:

125 ml (1/2 cup) of oats
water for soaking
water for boiling 

750 ml water for blending

Second, soaking 

Put the oats in a bowl and let them soak for at least 8 hours (I let mine soak for 24 hours) in the fridge

Third, boiling

Sieve the oats, rinse and squeeze. Place them in pot with some water and let cook them for 40 minutes.

Fourth, blend

Put the oats in a blender and add 750ml of cold water and blend it for couple of minutes.


Fifth, sieve through a muslin (I used baby burp muslin cloth, perfect size)
It takes some time to sieve it through the muslin, there is oat gunk that blocks the flow of the milk

Sixth, optional, sieve again.
There was a tiny bit of oat gunk left that sank to the bottom of the jug. Thus, I decided to sieve again!

This yields about 1 liter (33.8 fl oz) of oat milk.

I saved the gunk and dried it in the oven. There isn't a lot of it but it is still useful!

So what does oat milk taste like? Well, it tastes like the water when you are boiling oatmeal. It is a simple but pleasant taste.

Bisous

Peanut butter-Chocolate-Banana Cinnamon Rolls

I had a dream that I was eating something super delicious and I when I woke up I was craving it, I couldn't stop thinking about it for a week. In the end Mr. Handsome just told me to make it and eat it! And so I did. It was literally a dream come true.

Thus, I would like to introduce you all to Peanut Butter-Chocolate-Banana Cinnamon Rolls otherwise known as Heaven Rolls.

Yields about 19 rolls
Bake it at 225°C (437 Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes. 

Dough
1kg (8 cups) flour
100gr (3.5 oz) butter
5.5dl  (2.3 cups) milk
42gr (1.5 oz) fresh yeast

Melt together butter and milk in a pot. In a bowl add flour and make a little valley, in that valley break the yeast cube into smaller pieces. Check the temperature of the butter and milk mixture, it shouldn't be hot, only warmish, stick your finger in there and it should feel like a comfortable finger Jacuzzi.

Add the butter and milk mixture to the flour and yeast and mix well together. Set aside and let rise for 45 minutes - 1 hour.

When the dough has risen take it out of the bowl and roll it out, the dough should be around finger width or thinner.

Filling 
1 jar of peanut butter (15oz / 425gr)
300gr (10.5 oz) milk chocolate (chopped)
dash of cinnamon
2 bananas (cut in slices)

First smear the peanut butter on the dough like it is bread. Spread the chocolate pieces and the banana slices  and sprinkle the entire thing with pure cinnamon.

Roll it up and cut it in slices. Stuff the slices into a buttered oven dish and slide it into the preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until it seems to be ready.

Frosting
250ml (1 cup) brown sugar
130gr (4.5 oz) butter
2dl (6.6 oz) milk

Add the butter and brown sugar into a pot and stir until melted, let it cool for couple of minutes and add the milk. Whip it carefully.

The Heaven Rolls can be enjoyed warm or cold, with the frosting or without it.

Enjoy

Waffles

I was going to post this recipe ages ago (well when I made these waffles) but I just didn't have the time! 

The ingredients are:

200 gr flour

3 tablespoons melted butter

2 eggs

2 dl milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

Preheat waffle iron. Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the eggs, milk and melted butter and beat until smooth. Pour the mix into the waffle iron and bake until golden. Eat hot with whatever you would like to put on it! 

 I accidentally put in too much of the mix into the waffle iron and it overflowed.

The waffle all ready to eat, golden and warm. :)

Now I'll have to go back to study for my finals!

Banana Bread with coconut oil and honey

I've been craving a good banana bread for some time now and a miracle happened, we had overripe bananas. This isn't something that happens often since we usually just eat the bananas! So I started to search for a perfect recipe but didn't find exactly what I wanted. So my base is this recipe, but I added my touch.

Ingredients:

240 gr of banana
180 gr flour
2 eggs
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey

Mash the bananas, I like letting some clumps be left so there is some extra super banana bites. Add the eggs. Melt the coconut oil and the honey slowly and add to the mixture. Mix all slowly together and add the flour and baking powder.

Add into a what you want to bake it in. I chose the thing we bake the usual bread in.

Heat oven 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and bake for 30 minutes (until fully baked - do the stick test)

The bread is quite fluffy which I love, try eating it lukewarm with a bit of salted butter on top. Best thing ever.

I sadly didn't manage to get any good pictures of the bread, but the next time I'll bake it I'll take some pictures and add them to this post and let you know!

Rice-Pancakes with cinnamon and coconut oil

There is this Icelandic dessert that's called Lummur, I used to love it when I was a kid and I haven't had it for years! Many, many years. It's usually made from day old rice pudding but the only time we have rice pudding here is for lunch on 24th of December. We do on the other hand have frequently rice. I tried to work out the recipe with our leftover rice and it worked like a magic.

Ingredients:

200 grams of boiled rice

2 dl milk

50 gr flour (or whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

25 gr coconut oil

2 tablespoon sugar 2

1 egg

Put together the rice and milk in a pot and heat it up until it’s the consistency of a rice pudding, take it of the stove and add the coconut oil and melt it.

Add the flour and sugar and stir gently with a spoon and let it cool down.

When the rice mixture is at room temperature add egg, cinnamon and baking powder. At this point the dough should have the same consistency of a pancake batter.

The best pan to fry these things is a pancake pan, and the best way to fry these delicious bites of heaven is like pancakes. Not like European pancakes, like fat juicy american pancakes.

Each rice pancake is about 1 tablespoon of the dough, fry well on both side, this recipe makes about 15 of these pancakes.

It's best to eat them lukewarm with some powder sugar and jam.