Gluten free Lime-Raspberry Cake

 

Gluten free quick lime-raspberry cake

The beauty of this cake is it's simplicity and versatility. You can basically use any flour and add any fruit or flavour, and it will always turn out great. Just stir the ingredients together in five minutes, and 40 minutes later you'll pull a lovely cake out of the oven.

I found the basic recipe on the Romanian site Carte de Retete, performed by Adina's beautiful mini chefs - watch the video, it's too cute, even if you don't understand the Romanian. Originally, it's a cake made with yoghurt and strawberries (prajitura cu iaurt si capsuni). I've made it that way several times and then decided that it's a fantastic base for many variations.

As stated above, you can make it with basically any flour, with or without gluten, it will always turn out yummy.

Since I don't like it very sweet, I reduced the sweetener from 175 g of sugar to a total of 140 g, of which 100 g erythritol (which has only 70% of the sweetness of sugar) and 40 g raw cane sugar. That was plenty sweet for DH and me, but feel free to use the whole 175 g of sugar.

Ingredients for one 24 cm / 9.5 inch round spring form:

• 200 g (7 oz.) flour (any suitable gluten free or normal plain cake flour; I used 100 g/3.5 oz. fine yellow corn flour, 70 g/2.5 oz. sweet rice flour and 30 g/1 oz. potato starch)
• 175 g (6 oz.) sugar (I used 100 g/3.5 oz. erythritol and 40 g/1.5 oz. raw cane sugar)
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. xanthan if using gluten free flour that doesn't contain any gums
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• juice of 1 lime (ca. 3 tbsp. lime juice)
• zest of 2 limes
• 4 eggs
• 5 tbsp. plain yoghurt
• 3 tbsp. oil (I used olive oil)
• 100 g (3.5 oz.) raspberries, fresh or frozen

Preparation:

• Grease spring form and preheat oven to 150°C / 300°F (fan assisted)
• Place all ingredients except for the raspberries in a large bowl, stir together until well combined, pour into spring form.
• place raspberries on top, press gently down a bit.
• Bake the cake at 150°C / 300°F in a fan assisted oven (or slightly higher temp. in a static oven) for 40-45 minutes.
• Let cool completely.
• Top it with powdered sugar or whipped cream or ice cream, or have it plain like we did, just as you like!

Bon appetit!

Gluten-free, low-carb Lemon Coconut Bars

Gluten-free, low-carb Lemon-Coconut-Bars

One year ago, I had my first ever lemon bar. I converted a conventional recipe into a gluten free one, and it was utterly delicious. Not low-carb, though.

So today, I decided to make my own gluten free, low carb version. It uses partly defatted almond flour for the custard. If you don't get this kind of flour, never mind: It works well with smooth white cashew butter instead!

The base is like a soft shortcrust pastry, and the custard is lemony, creamy, sweet and tart.

Here you go:

Ingredients for one 8x8 inch pan:

Crust:

• 1/2 cup almond flour (normal almond flour, i.e. finely ground blanched almonds)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/3 cup flaked coconut
• 1/4 cup powdered erythritol or xylitol (or sugar)
• 6 tablespoons cold butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, cubed

Custard:

• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup lemon juice (this was from 4 lemons for me)
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 3/4 cup erythritol or xylitol or sugar (or something like truvia or swerve)
• 1 teaspoon liquid stevia (I use this one which is glycerine based)
• 2 tablespoons partly defatted almond flour OR 2 tablespoons smooth white cashew butter
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour

Preparation:

Crust:

• Preheat static oven to 325°F or 160° C.
• Line an 8x8 inch pan with baking paper which reaches above two sides of the pan for easier removal of the bars. Grease the other two sides of the pan.
• Combine almond and coconut flour and flaked coconut with powdered erythritol or which ever sweetener you use.
• Cut in the butter or margarine cubes, then work in with your hands until you have a smooth dough.
• Press dough into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes until it is golden brown.

Custard:

• While crust is baking, juice and zest your lemons (or not, if you use bottled lemon juice...)
• Cream together eggs and erythritol/xylitol/stevia, then add lemon juice and zest, stir well, and add flours or cashew butter and coconut flour. If necessary, use immersion blender to get the mixture smooth and without lumps.
• When crust is golden brown, reduce temperature to 300°F or 150°C and pour custard over the crust, put back into oven and bake for another 40 minutes or until custard is set. It will remain a bit jiggly but set after cooling.
• If you wish, sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes 5 minutes before removing from the oven.
• Let cool and chill for about 1 hour.
• If you wish, you can sprinkle the cake with powdered erythritol / xylitol or sugar before slicing.
• The filling remains creamy, but gets firm enough to slice the cake.

Enjoy!

Gluten free, low carb pecan pie muffins

Gluten-Free, Low-Carb Pecan Pie Muffins

American pecan pie muffins meet German grandma's Rosenthal porcelain which meets Romanian grandma's doily ...

There are two reasons why I maintain an English blog besides my German one: First, most of my foodie friends are based in English speaking countries, and second, I love this language.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that I despise my German native tongue, but yeah, it would come pretty close. Why is that?

When I made these muffins, I first planned on posting them in my German blog.

Usually the text for a post starts forming in my head while I'm still in the kitchen, stirring my cauldron and muttering arcane incantations such as "Shall I add one more tablespoon of sweetener??"

In this case, I discussed something not kitchen related with myself while putting the muffins together, so no text appeared in my mind - neither English nor German.

Only when I got them out of the oven, I thought: What a mouthwatering smell!

And that's why I'm anything but fond of my mother tongue. You cannot say "mouthwatering smell" in German because no such adjective exists. Instead of "mouthwatering smell" you have to say "at the smell of these muffins the water in my mouth runs together."

Thirteen words instead of two. THIRTEEN!!! How utterly idiotic.

And there are many more examples for short English expressions which translate into long-winded phrases in German.

That's neither on the point nor poetic, it's laborious and clumsy.

Don't get me wrong - I'm quite comfortable with German being my native tongue, because I wouldn't want to have the misfortune to be forced to learn it. Besides being laborious and clumsy, it's a difficult and illogical language.

And then there are measuring cups.

Ever since I discovered them, I've preferred them to the weighing method - I love them because I find them *way* more practical than using a scale.

Again - why that?

Just recently I came across an article about why Americans keep sticking to their measuring cup method, even though the weighing method is so much more practical.

"Rubbish," I thought, "it isn't! Cups are the best method!"

But I started to wonder and ask myself what made me think cups are more practical than a scale. From a logical point of view, they aren't. But for me, they are.

The answer actually is my way of thinking. I think visually - in pictures. If I try to imagine the amount of flour which I need for something, I cannot imagine one hundred and fifty grams. My mind is unable to make a picture out of numbers because they are abstract. But I can imagine two cups of flour, because they are tangible, they have a bodily form which I can visualize.

So if I make up a recipe, I do it with cups. And sometimes I forget to weigh what I put into the cups, and I have to write a German recipe with cups instead of grams and litres. Or post it in my English blog.

Today I was too lazy to weigh something, and my musing about the long-winded German language and my odd fondness of measuring cups made its way into the computer, so here we are.

As usual, feel free to use any sweetener you like: Sugar, Erythritol, Truvia, Swerve or Xylitol.

And as usual, feel free to up the amount of sweetener to your taste. DH and I found these muffins to be pleasantly sweet, but I know most people would double the sweetener.

The muffins are low-carb, no flour and no sugar except for the two tablespoons of maple syrup. Feel free to omit them and use more sugar, erythritol, xylitol or whatever you like instead.

For the chocolate, I used 85% chocolate sweetened with xylitol.

Ingredients for 10 muffins:

• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
• 3.5 ounces almond flour
• 1/8 cup flax seed meal
• 1 tablespoon psyllium husks or ground chia seeds (or 1 teaspoon xanthan or 2 more tablespoons ground flax seeds)
• 2 ounces dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon erythritol or xylitol
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, cold
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 7 ounces Greek yoghurt (can be made from soy yoghurt, too: just put one pound of unflavoured soy yoghurt into a cheesecloth and let drip for some time - you'll find precise instructions via google, it's really easy to make)

Preparation:

• Grind 1 cup of pecan halves. Then separate 1/3 cup of ground pecans from the rest and set aside for the topping.
• For the batter, combine the rest of the ground pecans, the almond flour, ground flax seeds, psyllium husks (or substitute), 1/4 cup erythritol or sugar, baking powder and vanilla, mix well.
• Chop chocolate and add to batter mixture.
• Chop the remaining 1/2 cup of pecans.
• In another bowl combine the 1/3 cup ground pecans with the chopped pecans, 1 tablespoon erythritol, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and the tablespoon of cold butter. If desired, add some more vanilla to the crumble mixture. Using your fingers, crumble the mixture. You will get a wet crumbly mess, that's fine.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Cream together 2 eggs, Greek yoghurt, 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Beat at high speed for about 3 minutes until you get a slightly foamy pale yellow liquid.
• Grease and flour 10 muffin tins or use silicon tins (I don't know if paper liners will work, but feel free to try and tell me what happened).
• Combine egg cream with the dry batter ingredients, stir well. The batter will be quite liquid. Fill about 2/3 of the muffin tins with batter, then divide the topping between the ten tins.
• Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes (not longer or the topping will burn!).
• Remove the tray from the oven and let cool until the muffins are only slightly warm and feel solid to the touch. Remove from tins and let cool completely.
• They are soft and mellow with a crunchy topping.
• Enjoy with your favourite cup of coffee or tea!

Black Bean Mint Brownies (gluten, dairy, egg free)

Black Bean Mint Brownies (gluten, egg and dairy free)

We don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Germany, but it's fun to make things green and minty.

Specifically the minty part. I love the combination of chocolate and mint, and just today I happened to have some left over chopped pistachios for green decoration.

Actually the first time I heard of St. Patrick's Day was from my mom, back when I was a kid. I loved her stories about her college time in the 1950s, and she told me that once she visited a friend in Berlin who dated a US officer stationed there. So she had the unique occasion to spend St. Patrick's Day in an American Officer's Club. Evidently, they had the time of their life. I tried to imagine the picture, based on 1950 movies which I'd seen, and since then I was totally fond of "St. Patrick's Day".

It also happens to be the day my MIL has her name's day, too. No, not Patrick - her name is Gertrud. And the next day is DH's birthday! So, in some way we do celebrate - I think we could include good old St. Patrick, too.

These brownies turn out to be the moistest, most gooey brownies I've ever made. I know, I know, black bean brownies are starting to get old, but I'm fond of bean cakes and keep creating different versions all the time. After all, they are healthy. They're gluten free, low carb, rich in good protein and antioxidants from the beans and chocolate, no added sugar if you stick to erythritol or xylitol or stevia or a combination. My chocolate chips are sweetened with xylitol, too.

Good fat from the coconut oil and milk and a lot of fibre from the beans and the bran.

The bran which I use is ultra-fine gluten free oat bran with practically no carbs, just fibre which soak up a lot of liquid. Consequently, I had to increase the liquid from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup, but I'd recommend that you start with the 1/4 cup and then go ahead if necessary.

Oh, and not to forget that they're dairy free if you use 70% chocolate chips. I'm not vegan, so I could have used eggs, but then my diet already contains a good amount of eggs, and I don't think it's too good to put them in everything you eat.

Actually I prefer eating eggs in the form of egg dishes.

Kale frittata, anybody?

Um, okay, we're talking brownies right now.

Here you go.

Ingredients for one 8x8 inch dish (I cut them into 9 big squares)

• 15 oz. black beans, cooked (about 1 3/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (or other plant milk)
• 1/8 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1/4 cup cashew butter (or other nut or seed butter)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup erythritol or xylitol or sugar of choice (depending on how sweet you like it)
• 1/8 cup almond meal
• 1/8 cup gluten free oat or rice bran
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• depending on the bran up to an additional 1/4 cup coconut milk (or other plant milk)
• chopped pistachios, for decoration

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.
• Grease an 8x8 pan or line with parchment paper.
• Melt 1/8 cup chocolate chips with 2 tbsp. coconut oil and 1/4 cup coconut milk.
• Combine black beans, cashew butter, vanilla, erythritol, xylitol or sugar and blend with an immersion blender (I didn't succeed in using a regular bender or food processor, but you might try). The mixture should be as smooth as possible.
• In another bowl combine bran, almond meal, cocoa powder and baking powder.
• Pour wet mixture into dry and stir well to combine. You want it to be a stiff paste. If it's too tough, add some more coconut milk, until it's a stiff but smooth paste.
• Add peppermint extract and 1/3 cup chocolate chips, mix well.
• Pour the batter into the pan, smooth top and sprinkle with chopped pistachios, if desired.
• Bake at 350°F / 180°C for 30 minutes.
• Let cool before slicing and enjoy!

What's your favourite St. Patrick's Day dish?

Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Chip Bars

Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Chip Bars

I've been playing around with fermented dough and batter lately. Not just in bread, but generally - there's no reason why you shouldn't ferment your cake batter, too.

Dough and batter with baking powder does not help break down the anti-nutrients like phytic acid in whole grains.

Phytic acid is necessary for grains to sprout; it binds minerals - which is not desirable in our organism, though, because we want to use the minerals.

Soaking and fermenting helps reduce phytic acid in whole grains. Sprouting is great, too, but actually there's no way to convince rolled oats or brown rice flour to germinate. So it's fermentation which we want for this.

I had made these chocolate chip bars several times already when I had the idea to let the dough sit overnight so that at least some fermentation could take place.

The result was terrific - the bars are so moist and yummy that I'll never make them the old way anymore!

Don't let you scare by the olive oil: You won't taste it. If you don't trust me, just use melted virgin coconut oil ;-)

So, here you got:

Ingredients for 14 small bars:

• 3/8 cup rolled gluten free oats
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 3 tbsp. yoghurt of choice (I used soy yoghurt)
• 1 tbsp. water
• 1 tbsp. coconut sugar or rapadura sugar
• 1/8 cup soy flour
• 1/8 cup coconut flour
• 1/8 cup plus 1 tsp. erythritol or sugar
• 2-5 drops liquid stevia, or to taste
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. yoghurt of choice
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• 3/8 cup chocolate chips

Preparation:

• In the evening, combine 3/8 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup almond meal, 3 tbsp. yoghurt, 1 tbsp. water and 1 tbsp. coconut sugar or rapadura sugar. Mix well, cover and let stand in a warm place overnight.
• In the morning, preheat oven to 160°C or 320°F and line a 4x8 inch pan with baking paper so that the paper overlaps the rim of the pan. That makes removing the cake easier.
• Combine soy flour, coconut flour, erythritol (or sugar), stevia to taste, vanilla, baking powder, chocolate chips and add to the fermented dough.
• Add another tbsp. yoghurt and 4 tbsp. olive or coconut oil.
• Mix dough well (I do it with my hands) and press evenly into prepared pan.
• Bake at 160°C or 320°F for 30 minutes.
• Let the cake rest in the pan until it has cooled considerably, then remove from pan and cool on a rack.
• Wait until it's completely cool - yeah, that's hard, I know. But it crumbles less if you wait. So wait until it's completely cool before you slice it as you like.

Easy, right?

Have you ever tried Amish friendship starter or Hermann cake? Do you know a good gluten free version?

Gluten-free Strawberry-Chocolate Muffins

Gluten-free Strawberry-Chocolate-Muffins

Chocolate and strawberries go so well together that I could spend all my time conjuring up new recipes which feature this combination.

But there are other berries, too, and stuff like peaches and apricots ... So maybe this will be the last strawberry recipe for this summer.

They are easy to make, even though the ingredient list seems lengthy, and I discovered that the flavour develops when you freeze and thaw them.

This makes 7-8 berry pretty little beauties.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/8 cup ground nuts or almonds
• 1/8 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/8 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons erythritol or sugar, divided
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon raw cane sugar or brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 package vanilla pudding (not instant!)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 50 ml soy milk (or other milk of choice)
• 1 cup strawberries

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and line 7 muffin tins with paper liners.
• Puree strawberries with egg, vanilla, 1 tablespoon erythritol or sugar and 1 tablespoon agave syrup; this should make about 1 cup
• Mix brown rice flour, ground nuts, 1/8 cup cornstarch, 3 tablespoons erythritol, baking powder, xanthan gum and cocoa powder, add 1/3 cup of the strawberry mix, 50 mil milk and 1 more tablespoon agave syrup.
• Divide chocolate batter between the 7 tins; they should be only about 1/3 full. If you have left over batter, just add one more tin.
• Combine the rest of the strawberry mix with 1 teaspoon (or more to taste) raw or brown cane sugar, pudding powder and 2 tablespoons cornstarch.
• Pour strawberry-pudding mix over chocolate batter.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Let cool in the tins for some minutes, then remove and let cool on a wire rack.

Let completely cool before eating. They get even better after freezing and thawing.

Enjoy!

What's your favourite strawberry recipe?

Healthy Gluten-Free Vegan Blondies

Healthy Gluten-Free Vegan Blondies

Neither gluten-free nor vegan does necessarily mean healthy.

There is as much gluten free industry trash on the market as non-gluten free, and a huge part of the vegan products is so highly processed stuff that a piece of organic meat most probably would be healthier as well as more ethic than those fruits of industrial processing.

If I make things vegan, it's in the first place because I avoid dairy. But even though I don't think that organic meat and eggs are bad for us, I *do* think that it is not necessary to have huge lots of them. Producing meat and eggs for human consumption in huge quantities is a waste of resources and does more harm to our environment than cultivating plants (if they're cultivated reasonably).

Besides that, there are many people who are allergic to eggs, so I like developing decadent, yet healthy recipes with as few allergens as possible.

These blondies are easy to make, gooey, sweet and decadent but not overloaded with tons of sugar or unhealthy fat. The secret ingredient is the pear puree which is sweeter than apple sauce and gives the blondies a fudgier flavour.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium ripe pear, peeled, cored, and diced, with 1/8 cup water or
• 1/8 cup + 2 teaspoons pear puree
• 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil (olive oil works well, too)
• 2 tablespoons soy or other plant milk
• 1/2 cup brown rice or millet flour (or any other gluten free flour)
• 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 cup muscovado sugar (or raw cane sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

• Cook diced pear with 1/8 cup water until mushy (add more water if necessary); you want the consistency of apple sauce.
• Let cool.
• Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.
• Layer 4x8 inch (10x20 cm) loaf pan with non stick paper so that the ends of the paper reach over the brim of the pan - this helps removing the blondie from the pan.
• In a bowl, combine flour, xanthan and baking powder.
• In another bowl, cream together pear puree, coconut or olive oil, milk, sugar and vanilla.
• Stir flour into wet ingredients, then pour into prepared loaf pan.
• Bake for about 30 minutes (check for doneness after 20 minutes).
• Let cool until set, then remove from pan and let completely cool on a wire rack.
• Makes 8 blondies.

Enjoy!

What do you prefer? Blondies or brownies?

Gluten-free Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes

Deep Purple Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cake always fascinated me because of the stunning colour.

But then, the origin of the colour did not fascinate me. Particularly when I red how much red colouring actually goes into "normal" red velvet cake.

I played with the idea of beet juice for colouring long before I read recipes using beets for the colour.

My first attempt was with cooked beets.

To be honest, I have no clue how other people get their cake so incredibly red with beets. The one with cooked red beets had a distinct earthy beet taste, and the colour was an ugly reddish-brown.

I tried to get a decent photo adding some chocolate frosting to the cupcake, but that, unfortunately, looked like a dog had left his big business on top of an ugly reddish-brown cupcake. Yuk.

My next attempt featured one small raw red beet and a half cup blueberries.

I used a lot of acid and raw organic cocoa powder, but still the cupcakes don't look exactly red.

But they taste good.

They are crunchy on the outside due to the erythritol I used, and very gooey on the inside. Gooey, sweet, a bit fruity and slightly chocolate-y.

They don't look gorgeous, but they are gluten free, vegan, moist and yummy, and the colour, even though not as deep purple as my imagination would like, clearly has some purple in it.

If you use other sweetener, the outside most probably won't be as crunchy. Erythritol doesn't give up its crystal structure, so I made the experience that cakes with erythritol may be wonderfully moist on the inside, but the outside gets crisp, and sometimes you even see white crystal structures on top of a cake.

Personally, I don't mind. I don't want to eat tons of sugar, so I accept that baked goods using erythritol don't look like perfect pieces of art and that the texture might differ from what we are used to.

It's an adventure, right? And as long as it tastes good and is healthier than your average piece of cake, it does neither have to be mainstream nor elegant. It's a healthy piece of art on its own.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca starch
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
• 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons raw organic cocoa powder (or any unsweetened not dark cocoa powder that isn't dutch processed)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons erythritol or sugar (I used erythritol with stevia)
• 2 tablespoons raw cane sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 small raw red beet, peeled
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, cooked until mushy with 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted (or olive oil)
• Juice of 1 lime

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C (325°F / 170°C for convection oven).
• Line cupcake tray with 12 paper cups.
• Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix well.
• Puree peeled beet and mushy blueberries with 1/2 cup water and lime juice.
• Combine wet and dry ingredients, let sit for a minute, then pour batter into cupcake tins.
• Bake for 18-22 minutes.
• Remove from tray and cool completely on a wire rack.
• Frost with your favourite frosting or enjoy plain. I like to just eat them plain or top them with some almond butter.

Have you ever tried to use beets for baking cake?

Gluten-free Vegan Strawberry Brownie Cake

Gluten-free Vegan Strawberry Brownie Cake

Spring time means strawberry time!!

As a teenager, I spent one afternoon with my best friend, stuffing ourselves with strawberries and whipped cream.

I didn't like whipped cream nor did it agree with me, but unluckily a teenage brain does not necessarily work the boring logical ways it does about twenty years later.

So I got incredibly sick from the cream, and for years after this event, I was unable to touch a strawberry without feeling nauseous.

At the ripe old age of 32, a beautiful lady introduced me to strawberries with parmesan cheese and *real* balsamic vinegar, i.e. aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena. The real thing. Traditional balsamic vinegar, made from a reduction of cooked Trebbiano grape juice. Thick, sweet-sour syrup with a hint of oak wood, aged 25 years and about 120,- € per bottle (which means 100 ml or 3.5 ounces).

The taste of this was sublime. Not because of the expensive vinegar (at that moment, I had no clue it was so expensive or I would have been petrified with shock) but because of the flavours melting together, and maybe the environment.

Sweet, sour and salty, with the flavour of aged grape juice, caramel, the fresh strawberries, the aftertaste of aged wood - and the atmosphere of antique furnishings and candle light around us.

Since that evening, I am in love with strawberries again.

I cheated and mixed simple organic balsamic vinegar with honey to dip the berries in, and I didn't miss the expensive stuff at all.

It still took me some more years to be able to enjoy strawberries with something sweet again, like ice cream, or in cake or smoothies or shakes.

Now I've completely recovered from my teenage experience and love strawberries in every context, except as flavouring for everything like chocolate, yoghurt, cranberries. Why the heck does anybody want cranberries to taste like strawberries?

Maybe because our tastebuds know more than we do - that strawberries are a true superfood.

No need to seek exotic fruits from distant Pacific islands. All we need to be healthy is right in front of our feet.

Strawberries are a bomb. If conventionally grown, a bomb of toxins as can be seen here.

If organically grown, a bomb of nutrients: They contain more vitamin C than lemons, are high in iron (good for women, particularly gluten intolerant or celiac women), contain ellagic acid which binds certain carcinogens, have a good ratio of calcium, magnesium and potassium and are low in calories. And delicious.

Now how about a melange of dark, gooey, yet healthy brownies and sweet, juicy strawberries?

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup (80 g) non-hydrogenated margarine or coconut oil
• 4.5 ounces (130 g) zucchini, shredded
• 1 pear, peeled, cored, cooked and pureed (1/3 cup or 90 g unsweetened pear sauce; can be replaced by apple sauce, but pear is better!)
• 3/4 cup (100 g) brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup (40 g) cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds or flax seeds or psyllium husks
• 1/2 cup (120 g) erythritol or sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup (or to taste)
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1-2 tablespoons milk of choice
• 1 cup chopped strawberries
• 1 ounce chopped dark chocolate (or more)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla or vanilla extract

Preparation:

• Melt margarine or coconut oil over low heat, let cool while proceeding.
• Preheat oven to 350 °F or 180 °C.
• Combine shredded zucchini and pear sauce in a small bowl.
• In a big bowl, combine flour, starch, baking powder, cocoa powder, ground seeds, erythritol or sugar and vanilla.
• Add zucchini and pear mix into flour mixture, mix well.
• Pour in melted margarine, combine well and add maple syrup and 1-2 tablespoons milk to get a smooth consistency, stickier than cookie dough but thicker than muffin batter.
• Add chopped chocolate, mix well.
• Gently fold in the chopped strawberries, mix well and pour into greased or paper lined 8x8 square dish or 8 inch pie dish (I used a round pie dish).
• Bake for 30-40 minutes.
• It should look dry but feel soft and springy to the touch. The consistency of the baked cake is dense, fudgy and gooey, not fluffy.
• Let cool for about 20 minutes in the pie dish, then carefully remove onto wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

Serve with fresh strawberries and / or strawberry cream:

Ingredients for the strawberry cream:

• 8.5 ounces (ca. 250 g) strawberries
• 2/3 cup (ca. 100 g) raw cashews
• 1 teaspoon chia seeds
• 1/3 cup water
• Vanilla, to taste
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup or maple syrup or other sweetener, to taste (I don't add any sweetener at all because the cashews and berries are sweet enough for me)

Preparation:

• Put everything in a blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth.
• Let stand for 10 minutes, blend again.
• Serve immediately or refrigerate (it will firm up a bit more in the fridge).

What's your favourite way to have strawberries?