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Berry Bircher Müsli

Posted on July 24, 2012 by thesweetestbrunch

We have summer!

It’s been such a long wait this year that it is worth me mentioning this. We’ve had 3 days of sun in a row with about 25-30 degrees and it’s been great.

In this weather I like to use my balcony for breakfast – it gets the sun in the mornings, which is lovely. And, instead of slaving over a hot stove to cook up something exciting, I have been enjoying a summery and healthy “Bircher Müsli”  which is so quickly put together that I often have it during the week before work as well as on lazy weekends. It’s rather healthy and full of slow release energy thanks to the oat flakes.

Of course, the original “Bircher Müsli” is a Swiss müsli, which may be another reason why I like eating it in the  summer… it reminds me of family summer holidays in Switzerland, when I grew up. However, this is not quite a traditional receipe but my version of it, made without nuts but with seeds and grain flakes, all of which you can find in health food shops.

As for the measurements, it’s actually not that easy to write up a proper receipe, since I very much make up the quantities as I go along. So use this as rough guidelines only – in other words, feel free to vary them as you like. The same goes for the ingredients.

Whatever your ingredients for the dry müsli mix, I suggest making up a big jar of it, so you can scoop out a few tablespoons for each portion you make up – just remember to do this the night before as it needs soaking in the fridge!

You will need:

  • 1 cup Oat flakes
  • ½ cup Barley Flakes
  • ¼ cup Spelt Flakes
  • ¼ cup Toasted Rye Flakes
  • ¼ cup Pumpkin Seeds
  • ¼ cup Sunflower Seeds
  • Apple Juice
  • Fat Free Vanilla Yoghurt
  • Fresh Berries such as Strawberries, Blueberries and Raspberries

 

Combine the flakes and seeds and store in a jar.

The night before you want to eat the Bircher Müsli, add a few tablespoons of the flake and seed mix to a bowl and add some apple juice, just enough to cover the müsli. Leave to stand in the fridge overnight so that the apple juice sweetens and softens the müsli.

In the morning add as much yoghurt and as many berries as you like. I tend to stir everything in and then top it with another dollop of yoghurt and a few more berries.

Mmmmmmm….

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Guilt Free Strawberry Muffins

Posted on June 23, 2012 by thesweetestbrunch

It’s time for another healthy breakfast, some low-cal, low- fat, low-(or even no) sugar strawberry muffins. The strawberry season in England is well and truly upon us, with Wimbledon just around the corner, and the strawberries are at their best right now.

This simple that receipe I found on the Dashing Dish blog doesn’t include any butter/margarine or oil and it is wheat-free. Plus it can be made with Stevia instead of sugar to lower the calories even further. I opted for Stevia and can therefore truly call these muffins guilt free. Apparently they only have about 90 calories per muffin!

It has to be said though that the muffins are so healthy tasting that I didn’t quite have the guts to offer them around the office. I’m not saying they tasted bad but they are not really sweet and I feared my colleagues would think I’d have lost my touch, as they are usually treated to extra sweet and creamy goodies from my oven to get us through a hectic day I the office. I should probably have added a bit more Stevia or used vanilla flavoured yoghurt rather than plain, which may have made the muffins sweeter. As it was, they did taste a bit like oatmeal porridge in muffin form but as a healthy breakfast option, this works for me.

It is very important to cut the strawberries in small pieces so that they can mix into the dough and muffins evenly as it is these juicy red pieces that give the muffins their flavour. And one more note, as pointed out by the original author, please use silicon cases for the muffins – they would stick to paper ones!

Receipe from: http://dashingdish.com/recipe/strawberry-shortcake-muffins/

For 12 muffins (that are of the smaller size rather than the gigantic American ones) you’ll need:

  • 2 ½ cups of oats
  • 400g (about 2 cups when cut into small pieces) strawberries
  • 1 cup plain low fat Greek yoghurt (or you could try a vanilla or honey flavoured one)
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup Stevia (though you may want to increase this up by about 3 extra tbsp)
  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda

Start by prepping the strawberries: cut them in small pieces and put them on some kitchen paper to dry, so they are not too juicy. Set about ½ a cup aside!

Preheat the oven on to gas mark 6.

In a bowl mix the yoghurt, the eggs, the Stevia, baking powder and baking soda with a whisk.

Tip the oats in a blender and top with the yoghurt mix to blend. The best way is to start this is using the pulse setting – the oats needs to get grind down to a rough powder whilst being mixed in with the yoghurt.

Pour the mix back in to a bowl and fold the strawberry pieces under, except the ½ cup you set aside earlier! Spread the dough evenly between 12 silicone muffin cups and use these strawberry pieces you set aside earlier to top about a teaspoon worth of them in the middle of each muffin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or do the toothpick test (ready whem the toothpick comes out clean!).

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Blueberry Scones

Posted on June 12, 2012 by thesweetestbrunch

At the moment – rather depressingly – we seem to be having a lot of cold and grey around us in London as it’s been raining for days now.

Luckily, I made some blueberry scones on that one sunny weekend we had a little while ago, which allowed me to take the photos on my sun-flooded balcony and I can now bring you a hint of summer with this summery receipe and sun-lit photo!

I’ve always liked English scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam but I also like to try out new angles on old classics and therefore had to try these blueberry scones, I found a receipe in the Rose Bakery ‘Breakfast Lunch Tea’ cookbook for. Apparently, they are one of their bestsellers in their Parisian Cafe and I’m not surprised.

I had a feeling they would go down well with some lemon curd and crème fraiche – and my feeling was right. It makes them more ‘brunchy’ and maybe a little more ‘summery’ too.

Receipe from the Rose Bakery ‘Breakfast Lunch Tea’ cookbook

For 12 – 15 scones you’ll need:

  • 500g flour (plus extra for dusting)
  • 2 very heaped tbsp baking powder
  • 2 heaped tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 110g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 2 handfuls blueberries
  • 2 eggs
  • circa 300ml milk
  • 1 tbsp demerara/light brown sugar
  • creme fraiche & lemon curd to serve

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 and grease a baking tray with butter or oil.

Mix th flour and baking powder in a bowl, then add the sugar and salt. Now add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the lemon zest and blueberries and mix well.

Beat one egg in a measuring jug and add enough milk to reach the 300ml mark.

Make a well in the middle of the dough mix, pour in the liquid and use a fork to work it into the dry ingredients. Finish by hand but without overworking the mixture – you want a softish but still firm dough and it should not be sticky! (If it’s too dry add a little milk, if it’s too wet add some flour)

On a floured surface pat and roll out the dough to about 3cm thick, pressing the cutter straight down and pulling it straight up (to ensure the scones rise up straight). Using a 5cm cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place them on the tray (they can sit quite close together).

Beat the other egg and use to glaze the top of the scones, ensuring that the glaze only goes on the top (otherwise the scones won’t rise that well). Sprinkle with the Demerara sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden.

Serve warm with lemon curd and a dollop of creme fraiche.

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Botswana’s Breakfast Porridge

Posted on March 5, 2012 by thesweetestbrunch

Excuse the long silence but I have been away for a few weeks…

I visited Botswana, in southern Africa, to volunteer at an orphan nursery and pre-school/day centre in Maun, a small town in the north of the country.

I heard about this project through some Australian friends of mine who built this school and others like it, all over Botswana, a country that has a major problem with HIV and as a result, a lot of orphans.

Traditionally, in Botswana and other African countries, someone in the family or village takes care of an orphan but sadly these guardians may not always give the best care. One issue, for example, is that they are often very old, as it’s most commonly grandparents looking after their orphaned grandchildren and they are simply not able to give young active toddlers the full attention they require. To help with this, my friend started to build centres like the “Place of Joy” I visited, a preschool/nursery that functions as a day care centre and gives the orphans, who are usually from poor backgrounds, a chance to attend a preschool (there are no free state run ones) which gives them a good start into education, regular meals and also offers some relief to their care takers. Not all the children at the school are orphans however, as the idea is not to make them feel like special needs cases but treat them exactly the same way as the other kids, whose parents pay school fees. All children get their lunch and breakfast at school every day and I thought I’d share the recipe for their daily breakfast porridge with you.

Before my trip I was a little worried if I’ll like Africa’s porridge like maize meal “pap”, which is often is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In Botswana, it’s popular with sour milk for lunch, or as an accompaniment to a meat or pumpkin stew for dinner… and I did like it, especially as a savoury dish. But what I liked even more was Botswana’s breakfast porridge, which is made from sorghum rather than maize – as you can see on the photos, the kids like it too!

It’s darker than maize meal porridge and has a light nutty flavour. Sorghum is a grass/cereal crop very popular in a lot of African countries as it grows very well in harsh, dry areas and is rich in fibre, iron and protein, so a good food staple for the developing world. For the porridge, the grain is used as flour, which depending on where you live, you should be able to find in African shops or health food stores.

To make the porridge for 2-3 people, you’ll need:

  • 1 cup sorghum flour (millet flour may work as a substitute)
  • 3-4 cups water (adjusted to individual consistency preferences)
  • an extra cup water
  • 2 tbsp sugar plus extra for serving
  • a little milk, if desired

Mix flour with ½ cup cold water.

Bring remaining water to boil, add the flour mixture, and stir until the bubbles start to bubble up. It’s important to stir continuously until then as the porridge can easily go lumpy (which is also why the flour gets mixed with some cold water before being added to the boiling water).

Cook for 10-15 minutes until smooth and thick, stirring occasionally.

Add an extra cup of water and the sugar to sweeten.

Serve warm, with a little more sugar sprinkled on top and, if you like, a little bit of milk to give it a slightly creamier taste.

If you want to know more about the Place of Joy or help out, please send me a message or see: http://www.botswanaorphanproject.com/

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Warming and Healthy Quinoa

Posted on January 9, 2012 by thesweetestbrunch

Happy New Year!

I thought it would be good to start the new year with something healthy.
Don’t worry it wont last long, I like my sugary treats too much to become a full time health fanatic. However, some so called super foods have successfully found their way in to my kitchen and gluten free quinoa is one of them (though it is not as photogenic as I’d like it to be…).

I discovered it as a breakfast option when I had the pleasure of visiting an Ayurvedic health spa in Germany. They were quite peculiar about their food in this spa, for example eating desserts before mains, but every morning they served us what they called “warm muesli”. I think it is better described as warm quinoa porridge but either way I very much enjoyed it. It is very filling – quinoa being high in protein helps with that – and as it is made with cinnamon, coconut and vanilla it is really tasty too.

On my last day I asked the kitchen for the recipe and was told that it’s often made up as they go along by adding different fruit, compote or even jam depending on what’s available. But the main principle is cooking quinoa with desiccated coconut and adding flavour with cinnamon, vanilla extract and fruit. In the spa they usually used agave syrup to sweeten the quinoa but when I don’t have that at hand I find that maple syrup works very well too. I recommend using red quinoa in my recipe as I find it has a slightly nuttier flavour but any quinoa would work in the same way.

This bowl of warming vanilla flavoured comfort food makes for a nice brunch on a cold and grey winter morning.

For one very generous portion – or two small ones – you’ll need:

  •  1/4 cup red quinoa
  • 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
  • 2 plums – or any other fresh fruit you fancy (I found apricots worked well too)
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
  • maple or agave syrup to taste 

Put the quinoa, coconut and cinnamon stick in a saucepan on the stove and cover with 1 cup of boiling water and leave to simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. You may find that you need to add a little more water as the quinoa cooks and absorbs the water. Keep an eye on it as you don’t want the quinoa to burn to the bottom of the pan as the water has dried up!

Cut the plums (or other fruit) into small pieces and add to simmering quinoa for the last 10 minutes along with the vanilla essence.

Please note, that if you are using a soft fruit such as mango or berries and you don’t want them going too soft/ falling apart, you may want to cook them for less than 10 minutes so maybe add them for only the last 5 minutes.

The quinoa will need about 30 minutes in total to be cooked through – you want a risotto like texture, with the quinoa soft and the water (or at least most of it) absorbed.

Add agave or maple syrup to sweeten and enjoy!

 

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