Oat Bran Pancakes

Day two of quarantine, and I need a smart way to use the oat milk I found, and leave some room in my tiny fridge, while keeping something fulfilling, light, and fluffy in my freezer.

This was the result;

Meet my Oat Bran Pancakes!

Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it in the comments below!

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🍁 Ingredients (20-25 Pancakes) 🍁

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Oat Bran
• 3.25 cups Plant Milk
• 3 tbps Baking Powder
• 3 tbsps Vegetable Oil
• 3 tbsps Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)
• 3 tsps vanilla extract
• Sweetener to taste (I used 6 tbsps of sugar since I wasn’t going to add anything sweet to it later like syrup)

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🌱 Preparation🌱

1. Combine wet ingredients in a bowl and let rest for 7-10 min.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift flower, then add all dry ingredients and whisk them together.
3. Heat up your pan with some oil.
4. Make an upside-down volcano in the dry ingredient’s mixing bowl, add wet ingredients, and mix well until homogeneous.

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👩‍🍳The Cooking step 👩‍🍳

You want to fill in around a quarter of your ladle, and let the mixture fall in the middle of the pan. Once all holes are completely open on the surface of your pancake, you can flip it. Taste that first one and see if you need to add any sweetener/salt.

Serve with berries, caramelized apples, dry coconut, nuts, maple syrup etc.

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🌻 Vegan Boosts 🌻

Explore the option of making a vegan egg with seeds, instead of using the ACV/Milk mix. I still haven’t tried this for pancakes, only for crepes.

🇱🇧 Lebanese Shoppers 🇱🇧

You shouldn’t have any trouble finding the ingredients for this one. All supermarkets sell what need.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Fitness and the P-word🧘🏻‍♀️

When in touch with my inner yogi, I replace 1 tbsp of flour with 1 tbsp of Vegan Protein Powder (or more).

💸 Going Green all the way to the Wallet? 💸

The vanilla extract is not a must. You can also replace Olive Oil with Sunflower Oil, which is usually cheaper.

I enjoy mine with desiccated coconut and Red Berries, but if you’re on a tighter budget, making some cinnamon apple chunks/paste works really well too!

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Amaretto Galette Frangipane

I don’t know about you, but as a kid, the Epiphany was my favorite day of the year!
The little baker in me loved this day for the traditional “Galette des Rois”, filled with bitter almond and fluff pastry goodness.

Finding a Vegan version of it drove me crazy back home. So I went online, read a couple Vegan recipes for it, and added my little touch with Amaretto and Pecan Nuts!

If you’re feeling creative, you can replace the pecan nuts with walnuts or any other crunch you’d like in your batter.

(I owe a lot of credit to this Recipe, on which I based most of what’s written below)

Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it in the comments below!

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🍁 Ingredients (≈31 cm/12.2 inch diameter puff pastry/≈12 slices) 🍁

• 2 rolls of square or round puff pastry (they’re usually vegan, double check by reading the composition)
• 200 g/7 oz of sugar (vegan)
• 250 g/8.8 oz Almond powder (or homemade grounded almonds)
• 8 g/0.3 / 1 packet / of Vanilla Sugar
  ⚠️ If you can’t find it in stores, it’s the equivalent of 1 tbsp of sugar with 1/2 a tsp of vanilla extract
• 40 g/1.4 ox of starch
• 3 tbsp of Vegetable Oil
• 200 ml/6.75 oz of almond/soy cooking cream (it’s usually one regular box found in stores)
• 3-4 tbsp of Amaretto
• 25 g/0.9 of Pecan Nuts
• 1 “charm” to hide in the cake
• Melted Vegetable Butter (optional) to brush on the surface

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🌱 Preparation 🌱

1. Warm up the oven to 200C/392F.
2. Grind Pecan Nuts.
3. Roll out 1 sheet of puff pastry on a baking sheet, and poke its surface with a fork
4. In a bowl, combine Sugar, Vanilla Sugar, and Oil. Mix well.
5. In a separate container, combine starch and plant cooking cream. Stir well.
6. Once homogeneous, add the starch and cream mixture to the first bowl and mix well.
7. Add Amaretto.
8. Add Almond powder, and grounded Pecan nuts. Whisk until well combined.
   

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👩‍🍳The Baking step 👩‍🍳

Place your batter in the middle of the rolled pastry, and spread. Leave out around 1cm/0.3 inch of the border. Hide the charm inside the batter (I always forget). Brush the border of the sheet with remaining cooking cream/plant milk. Cover with the second puff pastry sheet. Close the edges, and decorate the surface with a knife as you wish!

If you have some plant milk/plant cream aside, melt some vegetable butter, mix them together, and brush the surface for a golden effect!

Place your Galette in the heated oven on a baking sheet. Bake for 25-30min.

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🤓 Student Scheduling 🤓

You’ll be surprised how fast this one will be done. The preparation barely takes 10-15 minutes, and is perfect for a busy student schedule. The only inconvenience would be shopping for its ingredients, which aren’t found easily.

🇱🇧Lebanese Shoppers 🇱🇧

No trouble here. I easily found all the ingredients !
In case you have trouble finding almond powder, you can buy regular almonds and grind them yourself.

💸 Going Green all the way to the Wallet? 💸

The only advice I could give here would be to compare how much it would cost to grind your own almonds vs. buying almond powder. You can also compare almond cooking cream prices vs. soy cooking cream. Also, you can lose the amaretto and go for almond extract and/or cancel out the nuts; you would then be following this Recipe.

🐄🐔No animal was hurt preparing this dish, وكل ثورة وانتو بخير ✊

Dark Chocolate Biscoff Moelleux

This one will go great with your morning coffee, and will give a big hug to your taste buds; it’s soft, warm, and sweet.

The cake base is definitely inspired by different recipes I had used before online; I tried to combine what I learned from each one of them and came up with this!

If you’re feeling adventurous, experiment with different fillings (Biscoff, Jam, fruit bits, nuts…). I was quite disappointed that the Biscoff in mine had disappeared on the inside. The taste remained though, and it turned out great! If you’re really intent on seeing the golden line make it all the way through, try and use whole biscuits instead of grounded ones.

Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it in the comments below!

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🍁 Ingredients (9-inch/23-cm pan) 🍁

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup granulated sugar (vegan)
• 2 tsps of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking soda 
• A pinch of salt
• 90-100 g of Biscoff biscuits 

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup of Plant Milk 
• 1 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar 
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 150 g of dark, vegan, chocolate cooking bars 
• Vegetable Butter (for the pan) 
• warm water (according to consistency desired)
  

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🌱 Preparation 🌱

1. Warm up the oven to 176C/150F.
2. Butter up your pan!
3. Grind the Biscoff Biscuits until completely granulated, set aside.
4. Combine the plant milk and the ACV, stir lightly, set aside.
5. Melt the chocolate in a bowl, set aside.
6. Combine all dry ingredients in a big bowl and whisk to homogenize.
7. Shape the mixture into a reverse volcano in your bowl 🌋 (my favorite part).
8. Add the applesauce to the tip of your volcano and start whisking.
9. Once the paste is too solid to whisk, start gradually pouring the milk/AVC mixture.
10. Once homogeneous, add vanilla extract and Oil.
11. Add the now liquid chocolate to your mixture. Whisk well.
12. According to how “moelleux” you want your cake, add 0 to 1/4 cup of warm water.
    

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👩‍🍳The Cooking step 👩‍🍳

Once satisfied with the consistency, pour half of your batter in a 9-inch, greased pan. Scatter most of the grinded Biscoff over the entire surface, then add the remaining amount of batter. Sprinkle some more Biscoff on top, and place in the oven for 35-40 min.

If you insert a toothpick, keep in mind that it shouldn’t reach complete dryness; just enough to make sure everything cooked. Let your cake cool off for around 20 min before serving.

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🤓 Student Scheduling 🤓

I never time myself while cooking, but I gotta say, this one is an easy and fast one since all ingredients are just up and ready to use.

You can reward yourself for the studying done during the baking step with golden sweetness !

🌻 Vegan Boosts 🌻

For an extra Zinc and Omega-3 boost, you could use one flax egg instead of the applesauce. The texture of the cake might turn out more stiff.  

🇱🇧Lebanese Shoppers 🇱🇧

You might have some trouble finding unsweetened applesauce. Try the big supermarkets that usually import European products; applesauce is very popular in colder countries. I found my jar at a German supplier store in Metro Megastore (Jounieh)

If you can’t find any:
1. Make your own Applesauce! (Highly recommended, and budget friendly!)
2. Replace the applesauce with any other egg substitute: flax egg, 1/4 cup of mashed banana (recommended) etc.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Fitness and the P-word🧘🏻‍♀️

Just enjoy some fat, sweetness, and color every once in a while!

(if you don’t want to though, you can always experiment using some plant protein powder within the dry ingredients, use stevia sugar instead of granulated, or turn this into a regular, biscoff-free chocolate cake). 

💸 Going Green all the way to the Wallet? 💸

A great tip would be to make your own applesauce: all you need is apples, cinnamon, and water!
You can also flour your pan instead of greasing it with vegetable butter, let go of the vanilla extract, use cocoa powder instead of actual dark chocolate tablets, or even turn this into a regular, biscoff-free, chocolate cake.

🐄🐔No animal was hurt preparing this dish, وكل ثورة وانتو بخير ✊

 

Cinnamon Crêpes

Nothing says Holiday season and breakfast fuel for the Revolution in Beirut better than budget friendly Cinnamon Crêpes!

This recipe is definitely a family favorite. Let me know if you try it, tweak it, hate it or love it in the comments below!

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🍁 Ingredients (7 – 10 Crêpes) 🍁

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour or gluten free flour
• 1 Flax Egg
• 3 cups+ of Plant milk
  I always add more depending on the consistency desired
• Lots of cinnamon! (to taste)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (not a must)
• Agave Syrup/Maple Syrup (to taste)
  which one you use depends on your ethical preferences
• 2 tbsp of Olive Oil
  

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🌱 Preparation 🌱

1. Prepare the Flax Eggs:
   One egg is 1 tbsp of grounded flax seeds (you can grind them at home, make sure they’re as thin as flour) mixed with 3 tbsp of hot water. Let the egg sit for 5-10 min.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl
3. Add as much cinnamon as you like, and mix well
4. Shape the mixture into a reverse volcano in your bowl 🌋 (my favorite part)
5. Add the flax eggs into the tip of your volcano, and gradually whisk the dry mixture into it
6. Once the paste is too solid to whisk, start gradually pouring the milk
7. Once homogeneous, add a drop or two of vanilla extract, the syrup of your choice (to taste), and the Olive Oil
   

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👩‍🍳The Cooking step 👩‍🍳

This one really depends on how you like your Crêpes, just make sure to glisten your pan with some olive oil to ensure a stick-free experience, heat up your pan really really well before starting, and remember, there’s no such thing as a good first pancake!

For thinner crepes, use very little liquid and try to spread it across the pan as quickly as possible.

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🤓 Student Scheduling 🤓

Unfortunately, this is a recipe that doesn’t “cook” itself. You will need to sit by the pan and do your thing. Since it might take too much time, you can do one of two things:

1. Prepare enough Crêpes for 4 mornings, and enjoy this activity while watching Netflix
2. Use the amount of time it takes each Crêpe/side as an alternative tool to memorise/revise.

🌻 Vegan Boosts 🌻

For an extra Zinc and Omega-3 boost, I use a mix of grounded flax, pumpkin, sunflower, and hemp seeds for my eggs. I use this mix in my salads, bowls, and smoothies as well!

The one I use is from Holland and Barrett for £5.49/425 g.

🇱🇧 Lebanese Shoppers 🇱🇧

You shouldn’t have any trouble finding the ingredients for this one. All supermarkets sell the seeds you might need.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Fitness and the P-word🧘🏻‍♀️

When in touch with my inner yogi, I replace 1 tbsp of flour with 1 tbsp of Vegan Protein Powder

💸 Going Green all the way to the Wallet? 💸

The vanilla extract is not a must. They will still brighten up your Sunday without it.
You can also replace Olive Oil with Sunflower Oil, which is usually cheaper.

I enjoy mine with Maple Syrup, Alpro Soy Yoghurt and Red Berries, but if you’re on a tighter budget, making some cinnamon apple chunks/paste works really well too!

🐄🐔No animal was hurt preparing this dish, وكل ثورة وانتو بخير ✊