Slowing down the sugar rush - My Baked Lemon Cheese Cake

I love eating sweet things but can get a really negative sugar rush.   I binge on sugary stuff (a party-sized bag of jelly snakes anyone?  sugar-holics anonymous) suffer the mood swings and actually wake up the next day with a 'hang over'!

I have given up on 'Stevia' and other natural, 'low calorie' sweeteners because they just don't taste good; and so they don't satisfy.  

Xylitol, Erithrytol, Mannitol and Sorbitol all have known side effects and aspartame and those other artificial sweeteners are pure poison!

I discovered that if I want to avoid the sugar rush,  I need to make sure my 'sweet thing' is not pure sugar, but balanced with a quality, low-ish GI food- the catch phrase is 'nutrient dense'.  

Examples:

Dark chocolate: two rows does the trick - Whittakers Dark Ghana or Dark Almond. 

Sugar-free jam* and peanut butter on fruit bread is a winner. (See my easy recipe for fruit bread under recipes posts).  

Honey on rice or barley pudding or porridge is up there with the best of comfort food (I add some raisins too).  

Last week I made a batch of my home-made cream cheese.  I use this cream cheese like 'philly' cheese, it has all the good yoghurt enzymes too!  (See my easy recipe for cream cheese under recipes posts).

While plain cream cheese is yummy I wanted to make something sweet as a treat.  

BAKED CHEESE CAKE 

No crust!

I grated the rind of two lemons and juiced them.  
Added the juice to the cream cheese with two eggs and a can of sweetened condensed milk.  (I used skim and it worked fine!). 
Stirred well and poured the whole lot into a pan lined with baking paper** and put it in an oven on 160 degrees C  for about half and hour.

Fantastic!  

It was a bit like baked custard or lemon pudding.  Next time I will add warmed up frozen berries or bake a banana or apples along with it for a really yummy addition.

I also want to experiment with non-cane sugar -  using a similar quantity of normal milk and use either rice malt syrup, maple syrup or honey.  

I cut the left over cheese cake up into wedges and froze them.  Instant Lemon Ice cream.  

Win win all round.   

*Dick Smith makes a good sugar-free jam - don't try the fig, but the strawberry, apricot and marmalade are great and Aussie made.

** I didn't bother cutting the paper to shape, just laid it over the pan and poured the mixture on top - it formed it's own shape!

CANE SUGAR FREE BANANA BREAD AND APRICOT PRESERVE

A couple of days  ago I posted my recipe for sugar free fruit bread.  

A few posts behind that, I wrote about my sugar free and salt free breakfasts, including my bread and cream cheese recipes.

Now, today, yet another secret recipe is leaving my den ... my super easy, sugar free banana bread recipe.

Shhhh .... don't let everyone know it.  Just enjoy it yourself with cream cheese, tahini, peanut butter, whatever! 

Or, you can spread it with my sugar free dried apricot preserve........ my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Enjoy.

Cane-Sugar Free Banana Bread 

• 3 big bananas, ripe (you can freeze peeled bananas if you have a bunch of over ripe ones.  When you defrost them they they are super mushy!)
• 1 3/4 cup of wholemeal self raising flour
• 2/3 cup of raisins (you can puree the raisins to distribute the sweetness using a blending stick or food processor, or leave them whole) 
• 90 ml of grape seed oil (I use grape seed because it has a higher heat point tolerance than olive oil!)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp heaped cinnamon 
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup of almond meal (this is basically just ground almonds)

Heat oven to 190 - 210 degrees C.  
Line a loaf tin with baking paper.  
Put all ingredients into a bowl, use a potato masher or blending stick or anything else you want to use to mix it all together.

Bung it in the loaf tin
Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.  (After 30 minutes test it with a skewer! Leave it a bit longer if it is not quite ready).

Apricot Preserve

1 packet (about 300g) of dried apricots (I use the brown coloured, un-sulfured type) 
2 apples, roughly chopped
zest and juice of one lemon

Put apricots and apples in a saucepan and cover with water.  
Simmer on low for about 15-20 minutes until the apricots are mushy.  Add the lemon zest and juice, stir,  and simmer for another 5 minutes or so until it is thick.
Remove from heat and allow to cool. 

I kept some in the fridge for a week in a jar, froze some in another container and froze some in ice cube trays for individual portions.  

It is also yummy for dessert on yoghurt,  sprinkled with toasted nuts!

CANE SUGAR FREE, FAT FREE FRUIT BREAD: GUARANTEED YUMMY!

Shhhhhhhh ...... As promised in an earlier post, this is the first of my secret recipes. 

This is for the easiest fruit bread recipe in the world, and also as promised, guaranteed yummy.

There is a vegan and a vegetarian version that I have written below.  I adapted it from a recipe I found online and it has worked every time, no matter how I experiment with it.

It is quite a heavy and dense loaf; the vegetarian version is a bit lighter in texture, but both are awesome.

You can use any dried fruit you like; use only one type or mix and match.

My favourites are raisins, dates, figs and apricots.  I have also tried prunes, apples and currents.  The fruit is up to you.

After the loaf is cool, I slice it up, wrap the slices in kitchen paper, pop them in a big snap lock bag and freeze them.  Then when I want a slice I just toast it, spread it with either peanut butter or tahini, and gobble it up with a nice cuppa tea.

Decide whether you are going to chop the fruit into smaller bits or leave whole.  I am lazy, I leave them whole. 

VEGETARIAN SUGAR FREE FRUIT LOAF: (the 'less dense' version)

The day before:

Soak ½ kg (1 lb) of dried fruit in 1 cup fresh orange juice overnight

Next day:

lightly grease a loaf tin

set the oven for 180 degrees C.

Ingredients:

Stir into the ½ kg fruit/OJ mix

1 cup whey (I use whey from making cream cheese, but you can use butter milk or extra orange juice)

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

1 heaped tsp mixed spice powder  

2 cups wholemeal (or white) self raising flour

Mix together, place in the loaf tin, and cook for 1 hour on 180 degrees C.  Then lower oven to 160 degrees C for an extra half hour, or until cooked.  Stick a skewer in after the first extra 15 minutes, as cooking time will depend on your oven.  If it starts to get a bit too brown, place a brown paper bag over the top of the cake to protect it.

VEGAN SUPER DENSE SUGAR FREE FRUIT LOAF:(the 'more dense' version)

The day before:

Soak 1kg (2 lbs) of fruit in 2 cups of fresh orange juice overnight

Next day:

lightly grease a loaf tin

set the oven for 180 degrees C.

Ingredients:

Stir into the 1 kg fruit/OJ mix

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

1 heaped tsp mixed spice powder  

2 cups wholemeal (or white) self raising flour

Mix together, place in the loaf tin, and cook for 1 hour on 180 degrees C.  Then lower oven to 160 degrees C for an extra half hour, or until cooked.  Stick a skewer in after the first extra 15 minutes, as cooking time will depend on your oven.  If it starts to get a bit too brown, place a brown paper bag over the top of the cake to protect it (ha, a bit of deja vu!)

CANE SUGAR FREE CHRISTMAS CAKE:

If you want to make a Christmas-type cake, substitute ½ cup of brandy for ½ cup of the liquid and add ½ cup of nuts instead of ½ a cup of the fruit.

That is all there is to it.  Hope you like it.

SUGAR AND SALT FREE BREAKFAST IDEAS/RECIPES

I love to eat, and I endeavour to eat slowly and mindfully (enjoying the taste and texture of the food), usually on the couch looking outside, quietly, with no tv or music. I love food and I am fussy; if it isn't good to eat I wont eat it.  

The breakfast ideas below are tried and true.

I try to mix them up.  I am not on a grain or gluten free diet, and I realise that fruit is fructose (a form of sugar), but I am only cane sugar and salt free at this stage. Even the small changes I have made have had a big impact on my well being.  

My breakfast standards/pleasures ... every morning:

Brewed coffee (never instant) with organic milk.

A large green tea with mint and a squeeze of  lemon juice that I sip on while I make breakfast and wait for the coffee to brew. (I sometimes shave some fresh ginger into the tea too).

I also have vitamin supplements: 1x magnesium/calcium, 1x multivit, 2x fish oils, 1x ‘skin/hair/nails’ targeted mix.

Breakfasts:

(All of these meals can also be dinner/lunch/brunch whatever!)

- One lightly cooked egg with mushrooms and spinach (I use grapeseed oil or ghee to cook with as they have a high heat tolerance) on home made bread*.  Slather with lime-infused olive oil and zatar** herb mix for taste.

- Hot oat porridge (or cold as a muesli) with nuts and seeds, cinnamon, frozen berries, chia, some shredded coconut, home made full fat Greek yoghurt*** and honey. 

- Baked pearl barley milk porridge**** with apple and berries, yoghurt and honey/maple syrup.

- Home made, no sugar banana bread or my own fruit bread with either home made cream cheese,*****  tahini or peanut butter and honey or sugar free jam****** 

- Chopped fresh fruit and yoghurt sprinkled with toasted nuts and seeds

- Almond meal and wholemeal flour pancakes.  Top with frozen berries melted in warm maple syrup. 

- Home made bread with avocado, olive oil and zatar

*       Home made bread:  I use a bread maker.  4 cups bread flour, 1 1/2 tsp dry yeast, 410 ml liquid (usually whey or whey and water), 1 tblsp grape seed oil, 1 tblsp rice malt syrup. 

You can add an extra 40ml of liquid and a couple of spoons of chia seeds too.  

**     Zatar: a dry herb mix of thyme, oregano, sumac and sesame seeds:  sprinkle on everything 

***   Greek yogurt: I use the New Zealand Eziyo 'make your own at home' full fat Greek base, and use some of the yogurt for making cream cheese and whey

****  Baked pearl barley porridge: I modified a version I sourced from the blog 'Scandi food'.  Soak overnight 1 cup pearl barley in 3 cups of organic milk. Next day chop in two apples, a tsp of cinnamon and a big handful of frozen berries.  Mix and put in the oven with a lid or aluminum foil on top for 1 1/2 hours on 160-180C until all milk is soaked in.  Yum hot or cold with yogurt and maple syrup.  (Pearl barley is an acquired taste.  I love it!) 

***** Home made cream cheese: Simple, simple, simple.  Use a muslin cloth, put in as much yogurt as you want (I put in half a litre at a time) twist the top of the cloth and put it in a sieve over a bowl with a weight like a saucer on top.  Leave for 2-3 hours (the longer you leave it the firmer it gets).  The liquid that drains out is the whey and I use it for cooking.  Whey freezes well.  

****** In Australia Dick Smith makes a lovely sugar free marmalade; the strawberry and the apricot jams are nice too (forget the fig!), but the jars are dumb! You can’t get everything out and they are too long for a normal tea spoon!

I will get the recipes for the fruit bread, pancakes and banana bread to you next time.

Enjoy your breakfasts.  :)

The baked memories of childhood

Do any recipes remind you of your childhood?  Food that made you feel loved and cared for, and made weekends a huge treat (not to mention the sugar hit guaranteed to zonk you out in time to slop on the couch to watch Epic Theatre (did anyone else feel creeped out by Charlton Heston as the leading man?) World Championship Wrestling (go Mario!) and reruns of Elvis movies).

A wonderful friends’ mum used to bake a divine ‘sand kuchen’ ( I still have this recipe) and would make a yoghurt, whipped cream and fruit confection that was amazing and almost tasted good for you. 

My Mum had two special weekend recipes that I loved, and it seems some of my friends also share these baked memories.

One extra special friend would visit us nearly every Sunday for home made waffles slathered in vanilla ice cream and golden syrup (you know who you are!).

I recently met up with another old friend who reminded me of my mum’s ‘Emperors Pieces’.   I asked mum for the recipe, to share my memory with you.  Make this recipe and feel the love.

Does anyone else have a baked memory? 

Sanja xxxx

Emperors Pieces

4 thick slices stale bread or brioche or fruit bread

1 ¼ cups milk

60 g sultanas

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1 egg

2 tsp sugar

Salted butter for shallow frying

Mix all the ingredients together, except the apple and bread, to make a batter.  Cut the bread into cubes and put in a bowl with the apple.  Pour over the batter and let it soak into the bread (about 15 minutes).

Heat some butter in a frypan (and electric frypan is great for this – big and flat).

Pour in the batter/bread/apple and cook for a few minutes until one side is brown.  Turn the ‘omelette’ and brown the other side for a few more minutes, then tear the ‘omelette’ into pieces with a couple of forks and continue to brown until the ‘pieces’ are cooked. 

Serve sprinkled with vanilla sugar.  

To make Vanilla Sugar put a vanilla pod into a jar or sugar for a few days.

With many thanks to Galadarling for the above image.