It’s Friday and I have a treat for you! I already wrote about how most of my inspiration for recipes and food shoots comes from nature and beautiful seasonal ingredients and that’s exactly what happened here in this recipe/shoot. Few days ago I had my parents visiting me here in Zagreb and as they always do, they brought some delicious things with them. Some homemade plum jam, sweet Chinese dates (also called jujube) that grow in the south of Dalmatia this time of the year, mandatory Dalmatian prosciutto and the full bag of gorgeous organic lemons from their garden. Those lemons are full of juice and as they are untreated their zest is perfect to use in cooking and baking. So obviously I was inspired! 🙂
I wanted this treat to be healthy too so I decided for a raw dessert and since coconut and lemon flavours go so well together, I created these little squares that are so creamy, have lovely lemony taste, sweetened with agave syrup and are full of great ingredients that are good for you.
Isn’t that great, how we can make delicious desserts that are actually healthy! Nature gives us so many wonderful ingredients that we should always allow to ‘shine’ in our recipes and not be completely covered and taken over by tons of sugar. If you are trying to reduce refined sugar, you can find many recipes here on Travelling oven that can help you with that and those of you who follow me already for a while know that I use natural sweeteners like coconut sugar, agave syrup, maple syrup, honey or dates and only occasionally, like in some Christmas cookies recipes or similar, I use some raw cane sugar.
If you like lemon cakes, I have another great one for you here on the blog, Lemon cake with olive oil & honey, that I make often and it’s so delicious! You can find it here… I already wrote a lot about my health problems that were bothering me about 2 years ago, various gut and digestion issues, nasty symptoms, acne on my face (that I never had before, even as a teenager!), constant fatigue and tiredness, headaches, lack of energy etc.. I know, I know, not fun subject but I just wanted to remind you that I managed to heal myself almost entirely with the help of beautiful healthy food and supplements and very soon I was off any medications. I stopped eating all the processed food, dairy (except hard cheeses and homemade kefir), refined sugar, vegetable oils, white wheat flour, alcohol, coffee… and I started eating a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, nuts, almond milk, kefir, desserts sweetened with natural sweeteners, teas, smoothies, oatmeals, chia puddings, freshly squeezed juices, occasional chicken and very small quantities of red meat.
Obviously it worked for my body as very soon I started to feel so much better and I could stop taking medications, had my digestion and energy levels back to normal. I keep talking about this on my blog because besides my photography and sharing recipes, it’s important for me to share my story too as it can maybe help somebody who is going through something similar. If it helps one person, I will be happy! <3
Recipe in English:
- Base
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup almonds
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 5 tbsp agave or maple syrup
- Filling
- 1 cup cashews
- 4 tbsp agave or maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 4 tbsp coconut milk (or other milk)
- 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
- lemon zest, 1 lemon grated (use untreated organic lemons)
- Note: 1 cup = 250 ml
- To make the base add almonds and coconut flour in your food processor and process until you get crumbly mixture.
- Add all other base ingredients and process again until it's all combined.
- Transfer into a 20x20 cm (8x8 inch) baking pan or similar size plastic container pressing with your fingers or back of the spoon until the base is smooth.
- Put into freezer or fridge until you finish preparing the filling.
- To prepare the filling put all the filling ingredients into your food processor and process until it gets smooth and creamy.
- Remove the tray from the freezer or fridge and scoop the filling over the prepared base, smooth it out with a spoon.
- Sprinkle with grated lemon zest (use untreated lemons!) and put back in the fridge until it hardens a bit. You can also put it for 10-15 min into freezer and after that in the fridge.
- When it's cooled, slice it into squares and enjoy!
Recipe in Croatian / Recept na hrvatskom:
- SASTOJCI
- Podloga
- 1 salica kokosovog brasna
- 1 salica badema
- prstohvat soli
- 1 zlicica limunovog soka
- ½ zlicice vanilin ekstrakta
- 3 zlice kokosovog ulja, otopljenog
- 5 zlica javorovog ili agavinog sirupa
- Krema
- 1 salica indijskih orascica
- 4 zlice javorovog ili agavinog sirupa
- 1 zlicica vanilin ekstrakta
- 4 zlice kokosovog ulja, otopljenog
- 4 zlice kokosovog mlijeka (ili drugog biljnog mlijeka)
- 2-3 zlice limunovog soka
- naribana korica 1 limuna (neprskanog)
- Napomena: 1 salica = 250 ml
- PRIPREMA
- Za podlogu najprije pomijesajte bademe i kokosovo brasno u multipraktiku i miksajte dok ne dobijete mrvicastu smjesu.
- Dodajte ostale sastojke za podlogu (sol, limunov sok, vanilin ekstrakt, kokosovo ulje, javorov sirup) i kratko miksajte dok se sve ne poveze.
- Prebacite smjesu u 20 x 20 cm kalup i pritiskajte prstima dok ne dobijete glatku podlogu.
- Stavite u zamrzivac ili frizider dok ne pripremite kremu.
- Stavite sve sastojke za kremu u multipraktik i miksajte dok ne dobijete glatku kremastu smjesu.
- Izvadite kalup iz frizidera i namazite kremu preko podloge.
- Posipajte naribanom limunovom koricom (mozete je umijesate i u kremu po zelji) i vratite u frizider dok se malo ne stisne. Mozete staviti i 15-ak minuta u zamrzivac i nakon toga u frizider da se bolje stisne.
- Kad je ohladjeno, narezite na kvadratice i dobar tek!
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