Tag: no flour

mascarpone cheesecake with chia & sweet cherry (keto & no flour)

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I’m not a master of baking, I like simple cakes and desserts that everyone could make themselves without feeling of disaster when it’s not going to look as on Instagram. Most probably it’s simply because I don’t have so much patience to spend hours on baking, mixing, waiting to cool down (hate it!) and decorating the cake that will finally end up being sliced and smashed with a spoon or fork. That’s why I admire so much these who can spend hours to bake, prepare layers and than patiently, with watch-making accuracy decorate with all these small beautiful details that someone will just eat. For me it’s a form of art and I would be sorry to just eat something that took someone hours of creative work. Because let’s be honest – these beautiful cakes that you see on Instagram or Pinterest it’s usually hours of sculpting. It’s like you would get a beautiful wooden sculpture, chop it and put to a fire to get yourself warm 😉

That’s why I like simple things, so you won’t find beautiful, art looking cakes on this blog. Although I find some charm in this simple cake forms, a bit rustic and imperfect.

This mascarpone cheesecake was on my mind for weeks or even months. I did it only once, and God knows why only once, because I remember that it was delicious. Velvety, creamy almost buttery and very light considering the amounts of fat it contains. Mascarpone is made with cream, not with milk, so it contains about 80% of fat. It’s like butter 🙂 Due to the high content of saturated fatty acids, is not a product that we should eat every day. It’s like Mary Berry said:

“Cakes are healthy too, you just eat a small slice.”

Mary Berry

That’s actually quite smart, because comparing to “freshly baked in store” sugar cookies I’ve been rumbling about in my previous posts, most probably you won’t be able to eat more than one slice of mascarpone cheesecake. It’s so fulfilling! Unfortunately I cannot say the same about sugar cookies and cheese crackers 😉

Oh and I have to mention about sweet dark cherries and chia that makes delicious topping. I was thinking how to thicken the sauce without using any kind of starch and chia seeds just popped into my head as an obvious answer. They worked like charm. They not only thicken the sauce but also added some interesting texture to it.

mascarpone cheesecake with chia & sweet cherry

INGREDIENTS:

  • 600g mascarpone
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 4-5 tbsp xylitol or other sugar replacement
  • 2 tsp madagascan vanilla extract
  • 2 handfuls of cherries (I used frozen ones)
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • optionally: 1 tpsp of xylitor to add to cherries
  • little bit of coconut oil or butter to grease the baking tray

DIRECTIONS

First prepare baking tray and heat the oven, so both will be ready when you need them. I placed piece of baking paper on the bottom of round baking tray and greased the sides with coconut oil.

Heat the oven to about 140-150°C. My oven is weird and very quickly burns the top of every cheesecake, so I had to lower the heat to 140°C. I also have only an option to bake with a fan, so fan always rise the temperature. If you have the same issue with your oven place a piece of baking paper or aluminium foil to prevent cheesecake from burning.

Beat the eggs with handheld mixer until fluffy. Start adding xylitol, spoon by spoon and keep beating until eggs will triple the volume and become creamy, fluffy and light in colour. Then start adding mascarpone. Do it in parts, the same as with sugar. Also add vanilla extract and mix until it combines. It will be quite liquid, but it’s fine, don’t worry about it.

Pour it to a baking tray and place in the oven. I place it in another baking tray in case it would leak and start dripping on the bottom of the oven. Bake for about 60 minutes. As always cheesecake will rise beautifully and then deflate quite a bit. But that’s how it always ends 😉

Let it cool down in the oven, open it just slightly so the temperature won’t drop suddenly. When it’s cooled take it out of the oven and let it cool down completely.

In the meantime prepare cherries. In a small saucepan heat 2-3 tablespoons of water and add cherries. Simmer until cherries defrost (or if you use fresh cherries until it starts boiling) and add about a tablespoon of chia seeds. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes on a small heat. Then switch off the heat and let chia suck all the liquid. If you like it more sweet than add some xylitol.

When cheesecake is completely cold transfer it from the baking tray on a plate or cake stand and place cherries and chia on top. Because cheesecake deflates more in the middle than on the edges it’s perfect to place cherry and chia topping.

Cheesecake is ready to be eaten. Store it in the fridge up to 2-3 days.

no flour cinnamon biscuits

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If you’re on a ketogenic diet, you’re allergic to gluten or diabetic, this cinnamon biscuits will be perfect for you. If you don’t want to change your diet for Christmas, this biscuits are great replacement for traditional wheat gingerbread cookies.

They are gluten free and low in sugar, also linseed flour contains plenty of fibre, so when you eat a couple you’ll feel full. They are perfect to dip in hot cacao or black coffee, or as a gift for your Santa if his on diet as well 😉

Just before starting shooting for this recipe, I decided to try and make icing. It went out quite well. I’m not a fan of icing – it’s too sweet for me, although I had a lot of fun decorating them. I know they are very imperfect, but I don’t mind. If you’ve never decorate biscuits or gingerbread cookies, give it a try. Preparing icing with powdered sugar or xylitol and little bit of water is extremely easy, 2-3 minutes and it’s ready. I used a teaspoon to decorate, but if you have special tools, you’ll be able to make more detailed decorations.

If you’re looking for more gluten free/low sugar baking recipes have a look: here, here and here. But you can find more gluten free recipes on my blog.

no flour cinnamon biscuits

NOTE: my measuring cup is 250ml regular glass

INGREDIENTS for about 60 biscuits (depending of the size of your cookie cutter):

  • 3 cups linseed (flaxseed) flour
  • ½ cup coconut flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup xylitol (plus some extra for icing)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • about 6 tbsp vegetable milk
  • about 6 tbsp melted butter (use coconut oil for no dairy option)
  • 6 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ginger powder
  • 2 tsp clove powder

DIRECTIONS

I use old coffee grinder to grind linseed, you can do the same, or buy grounded linseed. Although it’s more expensive and less healthy, because ground linseed oxidize quickly. That’s why it’s better to buy linseed and grind only the amount you need. You can also use mortar to grind them, but it’s more time consuming and requires more attention.

In a bowl mix together all dry ingredients: grounded linseed, coconut flour, xylitol, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and clove. Now add butter, eggs and milk and combine them all together using your hand. You might feel at the beginning that dough is too wet, but give it 5 minutes and it will thicken – coconut flour sucks a lot of liquid.

Now prepare a baking tray and line it with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Prepare dough board. Linseed dough is quite sticky, so I used a little bit of regular flour to dust the board and rolling pin. But if you’re allergic to gluten, try to grease the rolling pin with some coconut oil. Split the dough to 3-4 portions and roll each portion gently. Don’t use force like with regular wheat dough, because linseed dough breaks easily, so it’s better to roll it gently. The thinner you roll out, the more gently you have to remove it from the cookie cutter (I rolled the dough to about 5mm). Place biscuits on the baking tray, you can help yourself with a spatula. Bake for about 20 minutes. I baked in 3 batches. Cool them on the cooling rack.

To make xylitol icing, you need to grind it. I used my old coffee grinder. To make icing add to powdered xylitol a little bit of cold water. You will need a very little water, like a teaspoon or two, depending of the amount of icing you want. I prepared icing only for a couple biscuits, so I mixed couple teaspoons of xylitol powder with one teaspoon of cold water. To place icing on the biscuit I used a teaspoon. Considering I made it for the first time, and without proper tools, I think it’s not that bad.

You can store them for about two weeks in the airtight container.

last minute Christmas carrot & cinnamon cupcakes (no flour & low sugar)

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Not everyone are happy to spend their time in the kitchen before Christmas, but everyone likes to eat something homemade and delicious. If you’re this kind of person, or you simply absolutely don’t have time for Christmas baking, this recipe is for you. Moreover, if your on a ketogenic diet or you’re diabetic, and you feel like you’ll need to suffer all Christmas struggling with forcing yourself not to eat sweets, this recipe will be exactly what you need! (also take a look on my other Christmas cake recipe: coconut and orange cake)

These carrot and cinnamon cupcakes are: made with no flour, gluten free and low in sugar, as I’ve used xylitol instead of regular sugar. With couple cheap ingredients and a little bit of your creativity, you can prepare yummy Christmas cupcakes for all the family and friends.

Why you’ll need baking soda and baking powder?

I never remember which one I should use: baking soda or baking powder, so decided to finally make my research and hopefully now I will remember which raising agent I should use and when. So if you’re, also interested, keep reading.

The use of coconut flour and lots of carrots makes the muffin batter very heavy and quite wet. Heavy ingredients thanks to baking soda are lifted at the initial stage of mixing the batter, and during baking this process is enhanced by the effect of baking powder. This prevents from making slack-baked or underbaked cake. In this case it worked perfectly. Baking with coconut flour, like in this recipe or that one makes the cake very dense, but these cupcakes are perfectly fluffy and light like with regular wheat flour.

Baking soda:

causes the batter to rise thanks to the carbon dioxide it produces. Acid is also required for the chemical reaction to produce bubbles. Therefore, baking soda works well for baked goods to which acidic ingredients are added, such as cream, buttermilk, butter, cocoa, honey, molasses, lemon or orange juice or sour fruit. These ingredients also promote the rapid release of sodium carbonate, so that finished cake is doesn’t have unpleasant smell and taste. When baking soda is combined with acidic ingredients, there is an immediate reaction of releasing carbon dioxide and rising, therefore cakes made with baking soda should be baked immediately after combining the loose ingredients with liquid ingredients, preferably at a temperature of at least 200 degrees C. Of course, there are exceptions. If we use too much soda or too few acidic ingredients in relation to the amount of soda, it will cause the dough to have an unpleasant smell and aftertaste. When baking with baking soda, you should be aware of cracks on the top of your baked goods. This is due to the rapid rising of the dough in the first phase of preparation.


Baking powder:

is a product consisting of several substances that act as raising agents, triggers and stabilizers, including baking soda. Triggers are essential because sodium bicarbonate serves its raising role in combination with acidic compounds. Additionally, triggers eliminate unpleasant aftertaste and smell, which is left behind by sodium bicarbonate after baking. Baking powder is used to bake heavy cakes containing a large amount of fat and sugar.
Baking powder works throughout the entire preparation process, which means that the raising reaction takes place both when it is mixed with liquid ingredients and during baking.

So simply:

  • use baking soda when you bake cakes with acidic ingredient, such as lemon juice, buttermilk or yogurt
  • use baking powder when the recipe doesn’t feature an acidic ingredient, as the powder already includes the acid needed to produce carbon dioxide
  • use both when your cake is made with heavy ingredients and maybe difficult to rise, but do not overuse them.

Now when we sorted it out, we can start baking this yummy, flavorsome carrot and cinnamon cupcakes. I did my best not to make cream cheese look like a poo 😉

carrot & cinnamon cupcakes (no flour and low sugar)

NOTE: my measuring cup is 250ml regular glass

INGREDIENTS (for 8 cupcakes):

  • 3 large eggs
  • about 3-4 carrots
  • 1½ cup coconut flour
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp natural rock salt
  • 2 tbsp clarified butter (melted)
  • about 5 tbsp xylitol or other sugar alternative
  • cream cheese for decoration
  • tangerine

DIRECTIONS

Start with carrots – grate them finely, and leave aside.

Beat eggs and xylitol using handheld mixer until fluffy and light. Then start adding dry ingredients: coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, also melted butter. Mix until no coconut flour lumps remain. At the and add grated carrots and give it a good stir with a spatula or a spoon. Batter will be quite thick. Set aside, heat the oven to 180°C and prepare muffin tray.

If you have ready made muffin liners – you’re good to go. If not, you can make your own muffin liners with baking paper. Simply cut baking paper in squares, give them a liner shape using a cup or a glass. Pop them into the muffin tray and you’re ready to bake (for more kitchen swaps click here).

Put about a heaped spoon to each liner, so you’ll have about 8 medium size muffins. If you want them to be quite big, or you want more than 8, you’ll definitely need to double or triple the amount of ingredients. Bake for about 20 minutes.

After baking you can take them out of the oven straight away. Leave to cool down completely. If you have the special piping bag and nozzles, you can make some nice decoration with cream cheese (cupcakes are sweet enough for me, so I didn’t add any sugar to cream cheese, but if you feel like it will be not enough sweet for you, simply beat cream cheese with some xylitol). If you don’t have piping bag, like me, just take a plastic bag, place couple spoons of cream cheese in the corner of it, cut of the corner tip and squeeze it on the cupcake trying your best, not to make it look like a poo 😉

At the end, wash tangerine under hot water, cut in pieces and decorate each cupcake.
They are ready to serve!
Enjoy!

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no flour beetroot brownie

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If you thought that beets are only good for salad or soup, you are deeply wrong. Also if you think that beetroot brownie taste like beetroot, you would be surprise or maybe you wouldn’t even guess that it’s made of beets. Idea for this recipe it’s a compilation of these two cakes: keto chocolate courgette cake and no flour keto chocolate cake.

No flour beetroot brownie is a great idea for those of you on gluten free diet, also if you want to include some more veggies into your kids diet, you can go ahead and smuggle some beetroots into their cake. If you count carbohydrates – 100g cooked beetroot contains about 10g of carbs. As you need about 300g of cooked and peeled beets, whole cake will contain 30-40g of carbs. If you plan to eat whole cake at once – that’s quite a lot, but a piece or two should not make a damage.

Cake is really easy to make, and doesn’t take much effort and time (only waiting time to cook and cool down beets), so it’s perfect for these days when you want something chocolatey and sweet, but you don’t want to be bothered spending hours in the kitchen. Cake is moist and sweet, you can add more chocolate inside the batter to make it even more chocolaty. Serve it on its own, or slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you don’t mind, or with a spoon of mascarpone.

no flour beetroot brownie

INGREDIENTS for 20cm / about 7-8 inch round baking tray:

  • 3-4 small beetroots (about 300g of cooked and peeled beets)
  • 4 large eggs
  • 6½ tbsp xylitol or other sugar replacement
  • 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • small pinch of natural rock salt
  • 4 tbsp clarified butter (regular butter will be fine as well)
  • about 50g 90% cocoa chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Cook or steam beetroots until tender, then place them in a cold water to cool down slightly. Remove the skin with your fingers, should be really easy. Finely grate beets on the small holes of your grater. Set aside to cool down completely. When you make sure they are completely cold, add the rest of ingredients: eggs, xylitol, cacao powder, baking powder, pinch of salt and butter. Combine them all together using handheld mixer. It should become quite fluffy.

Heat the oven to 180˚C and prepare baking tray using a piece of baking paper or greasing the tray with some butter. I used silicon tray, so didn’t need to use any of them.

Break chocolate in smaller pieces. Pour the batter into the baking tray and sprinkle with chocolate pieces. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, check it with a skewer or toothpick – if you pierce the cake and toothpick will come out clean, it means that the cake is ready. Slightly open the oven and leave it to cool down. Then you can remove the cake and serve.

Enjoy!

keto pumpkin cheesecake

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When I saw this pumpkin cheesecake on Family on Keto Instagram page, I knew I have to try to make it. I bought a can of pumpkin puree, to make sure it’s going to be perfect for pie. And I don’t know if it’s the problem of ingredients – my pumpkin puree was rather dark orange than yellow and mixed with basic cream cheese, has made pretty liquid filling. Original one looks pretty fluffy and stiff. Or I did something different than Ines. So if you decide to make this cake keep in mind. Ines used her own puree made with baked pumpkin, so maybe that’s the difference – the type of pumpkin and how puree was made. Although my tinned pure was pretty thick, so maybe it’s cream cheese…

According to original recipe, after at least an hour in the fridge, cake should be ready to be served. But in my case it was still pretty liquid, as you can see on the photos (it stayed about 2 hours in the fridge). Only after 24 hours it was set enough to stay stiff.

Anyway, even though my cake wasn’t perfectly set, it was still really tasty. Delicate, smooth filling, gentle in taste, nutty pie crust with strong cinnamon flavour. Also very satisfying, so one piece is enough to fulfil your craving for sweet. I leave the amount of xylitol to you to decide, add just enough to make the dough sweet enough for you. I do not like very sweet sweets, so the amounts I add may not be suitable for most people.

If you decide to make your own pumpkin puree, remember to choose proper type of pumpkin or squash. Not each one will be perfect for cake. There’s couple different types of pumpkin, I can recommended two I’ve used, and they worked well for cakes, buns, muffins and also soups. First is butternut squash – its shape resembles a huge pear. The butternut squash flesh has no fibers and the taste is nutty and sweetish. Therefore, this type of pumpkin is perfect for everything: as a base for soups, casseroles, as a basic ingredient for bread, muffins, rolls, cookies, cakes and other desserts. You can also make cocktails from it! Second one is Hokkaido pumpkin, which is round and dark orange with golden flesh – I also used it in the past for cakes and it was great. In the shops you can also find kabocha squash (also known as Japanese pumpkin) – this type of pumpkin is easy to recognize – the skin is always green. Although dark green on the outside, the inside of the pumpkin is orange. It’s the sweetest kind of pumpkin. The flesh is fiber free. Perfect as a base for desserts – you can prepare pumpkin cheesecake, muffins, cookies or other sweet delicacy from it.

Photo by Madison Inouye on Pexels.com

Either type of pumpkin you choose or you decide to use tinned puree, don’t be discouraged if something goes not as perfect as you wish. After all, it is the taste and the joy of preparing and eating that are most important. If you feel like something went wrong, you can always crumble pie crust in to small bowls, layer it with pumpkin filling, and decorate with big splash of whipped cream and bunch of raspberries.

keto pumpkin cheesecake

NOTE: my measuring cup is regular 250ml glass

INGREDIENTS for pie crust for baking tray – 20cm/about 7-8inch:

  • 1½ cup ground nuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds
  • 2 tbsp coconut flour
  • 1 tbsp cacao powder
  • xylitol or other sugar replacement to taste
  • 6 tbsp softened butter (I used clarified)
  • pinch of natural rock salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

INGREDIENTS for pumpkin filling:

  • 340g pumpkin puree
  • double cream (or whipping cream) 50ml
  • xylitol or other sugar replacement to taste
  • decoration: 250ml whipping cream or double cream and raspberries

DIRECTIONS

First prepare base for the cake. Combine together grounded nuts and/or seeds, coconut flour, cacao powder, xylitol, butter, small pinch of salt and cinnamon, until you get uniform dough. You can do it using a spoon or your hands. Prepare round baking tray or tart dish, place a layer of baking paper or grease with some butter. Using your hands fill the bottom and the sides of the tray with dough, press with your fingers until you get even surface.

Heat the oven to 180°C, bake pie crust for about 15 minutes. Then remove from the oven and leave it until it cools down completely.

When the pie crust is cold, you can start with filling. Using handheld mixer combine together: pumpkin puree, cream cheese, double cream, add xylitol or other sugar replacement to taste. My filling became pretty liquid, not as fluffy and stable, as the one in the original recipe. Cake on the photos stayed in the fridge for about 2 hours, and it was still pretty liquid, as you can see. After 24 hours in the fridge it was much more set, but still not the same as the one in the original recipe. So probably it depends of the pumpkin puree and type of cream cheese you use.

Fill up the pie crust and keep in the fridge at least for the night (or less if it sets quicker). When filling is set, whip the cream, arrange on top and decorate with raspberries or pomegranate seeds like in Family on Keto recipe.

You can store it in the fridge for about 3 days.

Enjoy!

two ingredients keto crepes with cream cheese and black forest fruits

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Recently I was scrolling Instagram, looking for new inspirations. Autumn is officially here in Scotland, we’ve got dark mornings, rainy days and colourful leaves on the streets. So it’s time for comforting food that will cheer you up on the dark, rainy evenings. As I try to stay on a low carbohydrate diet, I’m doing my best to avoid the tempting sweetness of ice cream that I couldn’t resist all summer. These keto crepes are a great alternative. They give a lot of options to prepare sweet and savoury, also they are so pleasing for the eye – a great idea to set the good mood on Autumn afternoons. I will definitely take an advantage of this idea and make the most of it. So expect more keto crepes recipes.

To make this crepes you need only two ingredients: eggs and double cream (heavy cream or any kind of high fat cream). You need one egg for one crepe, so if you’d like to make a bigger batch, be prepared and have plenty of eggs on hand. Although the preparation of batter is extremely simple, the frying is quite tricky. Keto crepes are gentle and if you don’t have a lot of experience you might have some problems at the beginning to flip them without breaking. It’s good to use crepe pan – it make the job easier. If you’re unlucky and you crepe will fold, no worries – unfold it gently and try again.

To fill my crepes I’ve used regular cream cheese and black forest fruits I had in my freezer. I must highlight that I haven’t use any sweetener either for a batter nor for the cream cheese, so the only sweetness comes from fruits. If you like it to be more on the sweet side, mix cream cheese with some sugar replacement.

Here’s couple tips for you, to make the process easier and pleasant:
  • use a special crepe pan – it will make your job easier – it has a low edge, it’s thin and flat, so it’s easy to spread the batter evenly. If you have regular one remember to heat the pan until very hot and roll the pan from side to side just enough to cover the bottom evenly with a thin layer of crepe batter,
  • it’s best to use a non stick pan – also you can spray it with oil spray, a bit of clarified butter or coconut oil. I always grease the pan before first crepe, after first one there’s no need to do that,
  • heat the pan until very hot,
  • if you have a pan without a non stick layer, grease it slightly before each crepe,
  • flip the crepe when the edges starts to pull away from the pan, shake the pan to make sure that crepe doesn’t stick, if it does help yourself with a spatula, be gentle,
  • use a large spatula to flip crepes or flip it by tossing it in the air and catching it, it will be difficult at the beginning but in my opinion it’s easier than using a spatula,
  • be patient – making perfect crepes it’s an art. If you don’t have any experience it will take some time and a few failures before you get it right.

two ingredients keto crepes with cream cheese and black forest fruits

INGREDIENTS :

  • medium or large eggs (1 egg = 1 crepe)
  • about 10g double cream for each crepe – 2-3 tsp
  • cream cheese
  • black forest fruits (frozen in my case)
  • handful of cacao nibs or cacao powder
  • optionally: xylitor, erythritol or other type of sweetener

DIRECTIONS

Take a cup and using a fork whip together one egg and 2-3 teaspoons of double cream. Heat the crepe pan adding a teaspoon of clarified butter or coconut oil. I always do it with regular crepes, because the first crepe is always a tricky one. After the first one I don’t use anything to grease the pan. I also haven’t used any sweetener, so all my sweetness comes from the fruits. If you like it more sweet, add some sweetener to cream cheese.

When the pan is hot pour the mixture on, and spread out the batter evenly holding the pan and making circular movements. When you see that the edges of the crepe starts to pull away from the pan, take the spatula and very gently flip it over. If it folds , no worries just gently unfold it and try again. It’s quite tricky as the crepes are delicate, but if you have some experience with making regular crepes, you’ll manage with these as well. You can also give the pan a little shake to make sure that it doesn’t stick to it (if it does, shake a bit more or help yourself with a spatula), then make a circle with your hand, tossing crepe into the air. If you’re lucky enough, your crepe should land on the pan with the other side. It should work well with shallow, crepe pan. If you have a regular deeper one, the high edge of the pan might not let you flip crepes easily. This method requires a little bit of experience, so don’t give up if it doesn’t work. If your crepe folds, just unfold it and try one more time.

Choose the best method for you, after couple times you’ll feel more confident.

Prepare fresh batter for each crepe, mixing one egg and 2-3 teaspoons of double cream.

When you have the amount of crepes you need, take some cream cheese and spread it evenly on one side of the crepe. Then fold it in half, and then in half. You can fold it one more time as I did, if you want. Do the same with the rest of crepes. Arrange them on a plate, put some more of cream cheese on top and handful of black forest fruits. Sprinkle with cacao nibs or some cacao powder and serve.

Enjoy!

no flour/gluten free beetroot tart

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I’m a beetroot lover, in any kind of shape or form: cooked, baked, as a soup (oh, deliciousness!), so when I came across the idea of making beetroot tart, I knew I have to try it. The only problem was the tart base, but I immediately realized that this recipe, will make a perfect no flour tart crust (I skipped coconut flour). Recently I’ve seen couple recipes with golden linseed meal and I’m very curious is there any difference in taste and consistency. I know that dough made with brown linseed doesn’t look as appetizing, but I’ve stocked myself with about 5kg of brown linseed, so it will take some time before I’ll try the golden linseed, to see if there’s any difference.

At the beginning I was going to add some tangy and salty cheese like feta, but as I didn’t have any in my fridge (and I try to avoid going to the store, I feel very uncomfortable being forced to wear a mask), so I decided to use camembert instead. Although I think this camembert I had, was a bit to gentle in taste and maybe something more intensive like blue Stilton for example would be much better. Anyway, eventually I finished with: beetroots (I’m lazy and bought already cooked ones), camembert, onion, walnuts, garlic and rocket, sprinkled with some natural rock salt.

But.

I wouldn’t be myself, if I wouldn’t forget about something. I thought that a great addition to this composition of flavours would be an apricot. And I’ve even left couple of them just for the purpose of this tart (usually apricots don’t last for too long in my kitchen because I eat them fast). I had a vision in my mind of nicely browned pieces of apricots laying on a bed of beets … and I forgot to add them.

So just imagine these amazingly browned juicy apricots in between the pieces of melted camembert. Oh well, maybe next time. If I won’t forget!

Eventually tart came out very nice. I’ve rolled the crust pretty thin – linseed is mostly fiber, so it’s very fulfilling, you don’t need a thick crust. Very gentle taste (maybe a bit too gentle, I would definitely add more tangy and intensive cheese next time). I’ve enjoyed it more when it was cold, but that’s just my personal preference – I like camembert cold rather than hot. My partner didn’t enjoy it as much as I did, though. He came back from work, grabbed quickly a piece of tart that was laying on the kitchen counter and started eating. You should have seen his face after first bite: “what the fuck is that?!” He doesn’t like beetroots, so all of it was mine 🙂

no flour/gluten free beetroot tart

INGREDIENTS for quite small tart (about 7-8 inches/15cm):

  • about 1 cup ground linseed (flaxseed)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2-3 tbsp clarified butter (or coconut oil)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
  • 1-2 cooked beetroots
  • 1/2 small brown onion
  • 1-2 garlic cloves
  • piece of camembert (or blue Stilton, feta, goat cheese, something pretty intensive and tangy)
  • couple of walnuts
  • some rocket
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • pinch of natural rock salt (or sea salt flakes)

DIRECTIONS

I used freshly grounded linseed – it’s more healthy option (and cheaper), because grounded seeds oxidize quickly, loosing their nutritional properties. I use old coffee grinder, so it takes 3 minutes to make it. You can also use pestle and mortar, but it will take hell more time and energy. Third option is to buy ready grounded linseed.

In a bowl mix together grounded linseed, baking powder, butter, egg and milk, kenad the dough using your hand. You might need to adjust the amount of linseed meal depending of the size of your egg, if it’s a large egg you might need slightly more of the linseed meal. Form a ball and using a rolling pin and a pastry board (I have a silicon one – it doesn’t take almost any space, it’s easy to store and wash) roll out a round shape. Form the edge using your fingers.

Place thinly sliced beetroots, finely sliced onion and garlic cloves. Arrange couple pieces of cheese. Toss couple of walnuts, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil at the end.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 150° with the fan) and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Give it 3 minutes to rest when you take it out of the oven and then put some rocket leaves. Cut in pieces and enjoy hot or cold.

cacao cream cheese muffins (keto, no flour, gluten free)

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Basing on the idea of this small cheesecakes, I’ve made this cacao cream cheese muffins. Using absolutely no flour, so for all of you who are gluten intolerant or on ketogenic diet, this recipe will be a good option. They are very easy and fairly cheap to make, you can upgrade them using low sugar chocolate chips or white chocolate chips – they will melt nicely giving extra chocolate flavour.

Comparing to the cream cheese cupcakes from that recipe, this one came out completely different. The other ones were very moist, more like real cheesecake. These ones, are very light and fluffy and quite dry, almost like sponge cake. They don’t have eggy taste, and a bit of crunchy walnut on top gives them a bit of nutty flavour.

The same as the other small cheesecakes, they rise nicely during baking, to sadly deflate when the temperature goes down. Why this happens? – you can read right here.

I’ve used raw cacao powder, it’s slightly different in taste (more about difference between cacao and cocoa you can read here), but regular cocoa will work as well, although you might need to use more sweetener, because in my opinion roasted cocoa is much more bitter than the raw one. Also instead of clarified butter, you can add a tablespoon of melted coconut oil. I prefer butter – in my opinion it works much better than coconut oil. For example I’ve been making keto courgette cake and keto chocolate courgette cake with butter and with coconut oil, and the last one always gives the cake that weird oily taste and like it settles on the bottom of the cake. It’s hard to explain, but maybe you’ve noticed that as well. Like the oil couldn’t combine with the rest of the ingredients. While butter not only gives nice flavour, but seems to combine very well with the rest of ingredients.

I’ve also used handmade liners, which is a very handy idea and I think I won’t be buying muffin liners any more.

cacao cream cheese muffins (keto, no flour, gluten free)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 300g cream cheese
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 5 tbsp xylitol (or other sugar replacement) or more – they are not very sweet
  • 1 tbsp clarified butter
  • optionally: handful of walnuts

DIRECTIONS

Melt the butter and leave it to cool down. Beat the eggs with xylitol until light and fluffy using handheld mixer. Add cacao powder, baking powder, butter and cream cheese. Beat again until all the ingredients will combine. You will get quite runny consistency.

Prepare muffin tray and liners. If you don’t have them cut baking paper in about 5-6 inches (15cm) squares and give them a muffin liners shape using a glass turned upside down. It’s very easy and you can get as big (in height) muffin liners as you want.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Pour the batter to each form and place a piece of walnut on top. I’ve managed to fill up full tray of muffins and had leftovers of batter for another few. If you want to make just one round use 2 eggs instead of 3.

Bake them for about 20-25 minutes. They will rise nicely, and deflate later on, that’s normal, so don’t you worry about that.

After baking let them cool down slowly by opening slightly the oven. This way they won’t deflate so much. They can be stored in a room temperature for about 3 days.

Enjoy!

rustic plum tart (regular & keto option)

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Seson for plums, apricots and peaches has begun. I have to admitt that I love fruits and I’ve been missing the a lot on keto diet. But August is the best time for these fruits, so I enjoy them as much as I can, to (probably) come back to keto in winter with no regrets. Nature give us this juicy beauties so it would be a shame to withhold yourself with eating them.

Today I have for you rustic looking tart and very ascetic in taste. Before keto I would say that it’s to ascetic for me, not enough sweet. But because my approach to sweets has changed, I appreciate this not very promiscuous taste. That’s how probably this cake could taste 100 years ago, without artificial additives, colorings and flavor enhancers. Is it tasty? You have to judge it for yourself, 100 years ago it might have been a delicacy, when no one knew yet about food marketing.

If you don’t mind gluten and sugar you can try out the regular recipe. If you do not tolerate any of them, please have a look at the other vertion of the recipe. It doesn’t contain any gluten or regular sugar (it’s also nut free).

rustic plum tart (regular & keto option)

NOTE: my measuring cup is regular 250ml glass

INGREDIENTS for regular tart:

  • 1½ cup spelt flour
  • 125 g cold butter
  • 2 tsp regular sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp kefir
  • 500g plums
  • some sugar to sprinkle on top
  • 1 egg

DIRECTIONS for regular tart

Place spelt flour, cold butter, sugar and pinch of salt on a pastry board and chop them together using a large knife. This way you’ll prevent butter from melting and initially combine these ingredients. Then add lemon juice and kefir and knead the dough as quickly as you can. Because the warmth of your hands butter will start to melt and gets harder to knead, so try to make is as fast as you can. Form it in a shape of disc and put to the fridge for 30 minutes (or freezer for 15 minutes).

Rinse plums, cut lengthwise and remove the stones.

Take a piece of baking paper and using a rolling pin give the dough more or less quite thin, round shape. Arrange halves of plums on the inside of the dough, leaving about 2 inch (5cm) of margin. When you filled the dough with plums fold the remaining dough over it. Use whisked egg to brush the dough (it will let the dough to become golden) and sprinkle with some sugar all over it.

Bake in 190ºC for about 40-50 minutes (keep an eye on it it might need less time depending of your oven).

After baking, when it’s still hot sprinkle plums with some sugar to get more glaze.

INGREDIENTS for keto tart:

  • 1 cup ground linseed (flaxseed)
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup xylitol (or other sweetener)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 2-3 tbsp clarified butter (or coconut oil)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 500g plums
  • some more xylitol to sprinkle on top

DIRECTIONS for keto tart

I use old coffee grinder to grind linseed, you can do the same, or buy grounded linseed. Although it’s more expensive and less healthy, because ground linseed oxidize quickly. That’s why it’s better to buy linseed and grind only the amount you need. You can also use mortar to grind them, but it’s more time consuming and requires more attention.

In a bowl mix together grounded linseed, coconut flour, xylitol, baking powder, butter, egg and milk using your hand. As linseed dough is not as elastic and flexible as regular dough (gluten increases dough cohesiveness and ductility), you might not be able to nicely fold it as you can with regular dough. Make thicker edge instead or you can try to play with it an fold it over the plums, but be prepared it’s not going to be easy.

Take a piece of baking paper and roll the dough using a rolling pin. Give it more or less a round shape, make it quite thin. Again it may brake, no worries, just stick it togeter with your fingers.

Rinse plums, cut lengthwise and remove the stones. Arrange them on the inside of the dough, leaving about 1 inch (2.5cm) of margin if you want to make the edge, or 2 inch (5cm) if you are going to fold it. When you filled the dough with plums, form the edge or try to  fold the remaining dough over it. Use whisked egg to brush the dough and sprinkle with some xylitol all over it. 

Bake in 190ºC for about 40-50 minutes (keep an eye on it it might need less time depending of your oven).

After baking, when it’s still hot sprinkle plums with some sugar to get more glaze.

no flour keto chocolate and cream cake

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I enjoyed this cake so much that decided to play with it a little. And today I want to show you this no flour keto chocolate and cream cake with a hint of coffee. I really enjoy the taste of cream and ground coffee on top. It reminds me oldschool “wuzetka”, the name of the dessert was created at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, probably from the Warsaw W-Z route, near which one of the confectioneries was located. This lockdown keeps me going back with my memories to my childhood years when everything was easier. Or maybe I start going crazy being stuck at home, not being able to work and live my life as before. There’s one thing that we can be sure of: no matter how hard we try or deny it, it’s never going to be the same as before pandemic. And we all have to learn how to live in this new reality, even though it’s not pleasant at all. If you think that everyone already sorted out their lives, and you’re the only one who doesn’t know what to do in this situation, you’re not the only one. If you have a hard time not being able to work or see your family, I’m telling you there’s more people like you struggling sometimes with everyday life. Some days I plan to do so many things (I finally have plenty of time), and I finish with a tub of ice cream and Netflix or You Tube not being able to think reasonably.

Anyway if you don’t like ground coffee taste on your cake, you can add cacao powder or grated chocolate instead. Cake is very easy to make, will be great for everyone on keto diet or low sugar diet. It’s also gluten free, so everyone who does not tolerate regular flour will be pleased, because chocolate layer tastes like it was made with regular flour.

See you till next recipe.

no flour keto chocolate and cream cake

INGREDIENTS for cake (21 cm / 8 inch baking tray):

  • 100g dark chocolate (I’ve used Lindt 90% cocoa)
  • 125g butter
  • 6 free range eggs
  • 1/3 cup xylitol (or any other kind of sugar replacement or regular sugar, if you don’t mind)
  • ½ tsp ground coffee

INGREDIENTS for cream layer:

  • 300ml whipping cream
  • about 2-3 tbsp xylitol
  • 2 tsp gelatine (vegan or animal)

Additional: ground coffee and cacao nibs as topping.

DIRECTIONS

Start with preparing chocolate cake. First grease the baking tray with some butter, so it will be ready when needed. I’ve also placed a piece of baking paper on the bottom of tray.

Break the chocolate in smaller pieces add to a large glass bowl and melt over a double-boiler (pot with some boiling water, glass bowl placed inside, the bowl theoretically should not touch the surface of water but my usually touches and I didn’t manage to burn the chocolate yet, although DO NOT BOIL the water because if it’s touching the bowl chocolate might separate. When you see that chocolate starts melting you can turn off the heat). Add butter and stir until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the pot and let cool to room temperature.

Now it’s time for whipping the egg whites. Separate the egg yolks and set them aside, we will use them later. In a bowl or a pot start whipping the egg whites, first on the slower program, after a minute or so you can use faster one (it will make you sure that all the whites are whipped and nothing stays on the bottom). Start adding sugar replacement and mix until you get soft peaks. I don’t like very sweet sweets, but if you feel like it’s not sweet enough for you, add more.

Turn on the oven to 150ºC.

Now go back to melted chocolate, if it’s room temperature add egg yolks and stir to combine. You can first add one spoon of chocolate to the egg yolks to warm them up, then pour them to the rest of chocolate.

Now slowly spoon by spoon start adding egg whites to chocolate, and stir gently using folding motion. You can easily do it using spatula or a big spoon. Always add egg whites to chocolate not the opposite, because whipped whites will deflate. You should get quite fluffy consistency.

Pour it to the baking tray and even the surface. Set the time for 30-35 minutes. At the end of baking check with a skewer or toothpick if cake is ready. The cake will rise nicely while baking, but when you take it out it will unfortunately deflate. But it’s normal, so don’t panic if it happens. Leave the cake so it cools down completely.

If the cake is cold, you can start mixing whipped cream. But first boil some water. In a small cup dissolve 2 teaspoons of gelatine with 2-3 teaspoons of hot water (always add gelatine to water, not the opposite). Stir until gelatin dissolves completely. Set aside to cool down. Now it’s time to whip the cream. Add xylitol or other sugar substitute, and make it as sweet as you like. When whipped cream is ready, add gelatine and mix to combine.

Transfer whipped cream on the cake, even the surface and refrigerate for about 2 hours. Then sprinkle with ground coffee and cacao nibs. You can also use cacao powder or grated chocolate. Keep the cake it in the fridge for 2-3 days ideally in airtight container.