chia seeds

Easy Homemade Chia Jam

February 3, 2018 by Katherine Baker 2 Comments

I love me a PB&J. Or an almond butter and J. Both are wonderful. And something I feel I appreciate more as an adult than as a child. Anyone else? Okay, maybe just me.

While I’m a nut butter fiend, I also appreciate a scrumptious jam or jelly. The issue, I find, with many at the store is that they’re so darn sweet.

I’m all about desserts, but when it comes to breakfast foods like yogurt, jams, and oatmeals, I’m very turned off but overly sweet things. Hence, I seek out sweetened-with-only-fruit jams (Crofter’s Organic is my favorite brand, and Trader Joe’s has some good options, as well) or I make my own homemade chia jam.

Chia seed jam is the easiest thing ever. All you do is add chopped up fruit, chia seeds, and a hint of lemon juice if you’re feeling fancy. If you want to up the sweetness factor, go ahead and add a tablespoon or two of sugar, honey, or syrup.

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Easy Vegan Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

May 20, 2017 by Katherine Baker 1 Comment

So I have this weird habit of making some recipe, taking photos of it, uploading the photos onto my computer, putting them in a folder on my desktop, and then forget to ever post the recipe and photos. Like, it happens way more often than it should. WTF.

Or maybe I didn’t post this recipe because the photos aren’t great. I took some on my phone (ie one above) and forgot to DSLR anymore of the finished project. Probably cause I was eager to eat them. Sometimes I wonder why I pour so much time and energy into the stuff I do for other platforms that consistently under or don’t pay me and so little on my own site. I am actively changing this RIGHT NOW. So I’m gonna creep around my desktop, find some old (but new to you) recipes, and post ’em. Starting with this one.

I made these on Easter when I had a baking bug in my pants and wanted a sweet treat but was limited on baking supplies. I also didn’t feel like going to store, so I crept in the freezer, found a bag of frozen strawberries, and got busy.

I was craving a sweet, oaty bar, and googled “oatmeal strawberry bar,” and was directed to one of Ree Drummond’s recipes. Related: low key love watching the Pioneer Woman. Yes, I know I’m a non-meat-eater of 17 years and the Drummonds live on a tycoon cattle ranch and raise animals for the purpose of human consumption. And yes I know Ree makes a bunch of stuff I would like, never want to touch with a 10 foot pole.

But you can’t deny there’s something eerily enchanting about that show. And that the violin theme song is perfect. And that you love learning what’s happening on the ranch that day. And most importantly, you can’t deny that Ree has some good trips and tips for cooking, no matter what your dietary pattern or preference.

So these easy bars were inspired by her. I looked at her recipe, adapted it, veganized it, healthified it a little, and proceeded to watch The Pioneer Woman while baking. It was a lovely Easter indeed.

These bars are lightly sweet, oaty, chewy, and gushing with strawberries (in a good way). I made the jam for the filling using only frozen strawberries and chia seeds. This works tremendously. You just let them jell up. It’s wonderful….

Honey Banana Almond Cake

December 8, 2014 by Katherine Baker 1 Comment

When I’m not baking or cooking or writing for Spoon or Instagramming my dogs or spending hours in health food grocery stores oogling at new products like cashew flour or vegan boxed mac’n’cheese, I actually have a real person job. Gasp, I know. I like, wear clothes (including pants!) and go to work sometimes. And I currently work as an Autism Line Therapist. My job is nothing like I expected and each day and each person is different and I feel like I’ve learned a lot from it.

How does my job relate to this food post? Well, as a recipe maker person I draw inspiration from many random places.

Sometimes I draw inspiration from my work. All I can probably legally say is that this cake was inspired by my job because I had some massive food envy last week from a nameless genderless ageless client who may or may not have a sophisticated palate.

Anyways, I was inspired to create a healthy, beautiful cake with almond flour, natural sweetness, and obviously added my own twists and turns on the cake by making it dairy-free, egg-free, adding a couple things, subtracting a few others, and ended up with and oh so luscious, springy, moist cake.

This baby is addictive. I made it roughly 20 hours ago and there’s about 1/4 of it left. Oops. The almond flour gives it such a wonderful hardiness and substantial feel. The mashed bananas provide some sweetness, reducing the amount of honey or maple syrup needed to sweeten the cake.

If you are totally vegan (I’m like 96% atm) and do not consume honey, opt for maple syrup and you’re good to go. I don’t eat a ton of honey, but will occasionally consume it, and it really just worked well in this cake and we were out of maple syrup. The beauty of cooking, I always say, is that you can make it your own.

The coconut oil adds a really great moisture, subtle flavor, and texture, and I would highly recommend using it, although if you don’t have any, canola oil would do the trick. Chia seeds + almond milk replace a need for eggs, and add a nutritional boost with those #omega-3s baby.

Give this cake a whirl. If anyone can refrain from eating the entire thing in 24 hours of less, please let me know. I will mail you a congratulatory card. Because it’s so moist and delicious and craveable for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert, with coffee, tea…anything anytime. It’s truly the most appropriate, healthy, anytime cake. I should almost change the title of this post to “The Perfect Anytime Cake” but that wouldn’t be very descriptive, now would it?

Happy baking and happy cake eating. And happy December, too. Wishing you a warm holiday season full of baked goods. Tis the season! #nomnom

Honey Banana Almond Cake

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time: 30-40 minutes

Makes one 9″ cake; I’m not going to estimate servings because I ate the whole thing in <24 hours sooooo….serves one hungry cake-lover or I suppose 6-8 normal humans

Ingredients:

2 cups almond meal or almond flour
1 cup oat flour (can sub with another cup almond flour or other flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 mashed bananas (I used 1 1/2 medium bananas, but 2 small or 1 huge one would do the trick)
1/2 cup vegan honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (could also use olive or canola oil)
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 cup almond milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a small bowl, combine chia seeds and almond milk. Set aside to congeal, at least 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine almond flour, oat flour, baking soda, and baking soda. Add honey or maple syrup, melted coconut oil, and chia seed + almond milk mixture. Mix gently with a spatula.

4. Pour batter into a lightly oiled and/or parchment paper lined 9″ cake pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cake is golden brown and begins to pull away from the edges slightly, and/or a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean upon removal.

5. Eat all the cake. All. Of. The. Cake.

Pumpkin Spice Chia Seed Pudding

September 16, 2014 by Katherine Baker 7 Comments

Now that it’s mid-September, it’s officially time to put pumpkin and pumpkin spice in everything you eat. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – pumpkin is practically the best thing that’s every happened to the culinary world. I’m obsessed with it. I honestly will eat canned pumpkin with cinnamon and a spoon. People think this is weird. I know it’s delicious.

But canned pumpkin – besides providing a delicious fall-like umami flavor – is also a great way to bump up the veggie content, fiber, potassium and beta-carotene of basically everything. I use it a lot for both sweet and savory dishes and can’t wait to share many of them right here on kbaked.com.

But first – let’s talk breakfast. I love chia seed pudding. I also love pumpkin. Genius idea: put them together! Add pumpkin pie spice! Eat what tastes like pumpkin pie filling in a bowl for breakfast! Bonus: it’s healthy! Chia seeds are known power foods filled with healthy-fats, fiber and omega-3s, and make an excellent pudding if allowed to plump up in the presence of a little liquid. This works with almond or any other milk, and the pumpkin only makes it thicker, creamier, and more scrumptious. Add as much or as little sweetener as you like. Maple syrup keeps the fall flavor profile on point, but anything will do! Heck, I’d even eat it without any sweetener. I.love.pumpkin.

Anyways, make this the night before. Prepping takes like 46 seconds, and when you wake up all you have to do is take it out of the fridge and eat it. It could not be easier. In fact, it may be the easiest recipe on kbaked.com to date. Enjoy this delicious, healthy treat as breakfast, dessert, or a snack. It will keep you full and happy for at least a few hours, as would pair nicely with a pumpkin spice beverage if you’re into excess like I am. Happy fall and happy eats! xoxo, kbakes.

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Cherry Chia Muesli Bread

July 23, 2014 by Katherine Baker 5 Comments

We’ve been out of bread for like, 52 hours in this house. Which is, in my humble opinion, an emergency. I’ve been picking up whole grain bagels from Panera on the daily to get through these rough times. But last night, when I found myself unable to bear the thought of waking up to a bread less morning, I decided the store was too big a hassle (read: did not want to put pants on) so I dug deep into my dwindling pantry and decided to whip some up to bake in the morning.

sorry for the excessive bread porn..

I was inspired by these weird Muesli rolls I grew quite found of when I studied abroad in Paris. This Monoprix grocery store right by school sold them $0.60 and when paired with some fresh fruit it made for the perfect little breakfast to eat before class (b/c eating IN class was a no-no in Franceland).

Another no-no in France was iced coffee. It was like finding a nice, straight, actually decent non-pig boy at NYU. Basically impossible. I spent a gross amount of money and endured a lot of snickers from Starbucks cashiers who served me my iced Americanos, as they seemingly always enjoyed pointing out their appropriate names.

So in Paris, not as much iced coffee. But great muesli rolls I’ll remember forever. Win some, loose some. Overall one of best experiences of lyfe.

Back to bread: it’s the BEST. Especially when it’s homemade. Like this stuff. I didn’t have raisins like the muesli rolls I ate in France so I used dried cherries which I diced up. I also didn’t have millet seeds (which are GREAT in breads like this) so I used some chia seeds.

The result was frickin’ delicious and a true treat to wake up to baking this morning and eat as a second breakfast because let’s be honest I need to eat within 10 minutes of getting out of bed or I punch people. So it baked as I downed my berries and oatmeal and served as a delicious mid-morning snack-attack buster.

It’s really great warm. Or toasted. Or with almond butter. Would also pair nicely with goat cheese. Or cheddar. Or as part of a sandwich. Sweet or savory. Or just plain. Okay I really like this bread. Go bread. BREAD!! #carbs5ever

Cherry Chia Museli Bread

Prep Time: 4 hours (including rising – if left overnight will be longer)

Cook Time: 22-35 minutes

Level: Easy

Ingredients:

1.5 cups warm water
1 packet yeast
1 tablespoon sugar (to feed the yeast! nomnom #betterrising)
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats, divided half
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mixed nuts, chopped (I used almonds, pistachios and cashews. and tbh this was because I bought an individual bag of these nuts at Walgreens earlier in the day and they were what was around. walnuts would work great. use what you have, always!)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
4 tablespoons chia seeds

Directions:

1. Heat water to 110-115 degrees and sprinkle yeast and sugar into the bowl. The sugar is for the yeast to eat. This will help it activate and your dough to rise. <–this is your mini food science lesson of the day.

2. Let the water/yeast sit for 5-10 minutes until it smells yeasty and looks foamy. Yum. Add flours, salt, and 1/4 cup rolled oats and mix.

3. If using a stand mixer, attach the dough hook and let it work its magic for about 5 minutes. If doing it by yourself (bless your soul) kneed on a floured service for about 10-14 minutes.

4. Place dough in an oiled bowl and allow to rise/double in size. Two or three hours is minimum. I did overnight.

5. Punch down dough. This redistributes the yeast (#foodscienceminilesson2) and transfer dough ball to a lightly floured surface. Knead a few times and use a rolling pin or hands to flatten.

6. Chop nuts and dice dried cherries. Add sunflower seeds, chia seeds, and remaining 1/4 cup rolled oats together. Mix nuts, seeds, and chia together to make muesli.

7. Sprinkle about half of muesli onto flattened dough and then fold dough in half so the muesli is on the inside. Give it one knead then roll out then flatten the dough once more, sprinkling 1/4 of the muesli mix (half of what’s remaining) here and there. Next fold and knead the dough into a round ball orby thing. Honestly I think when it looks a little imperfect it looks more beautiful.

8. Sprinkle what’s remaining of the muesli on top of the dough and allow to sit (shaped) on a gently oiled baking sheet for an hour. This is the second rising aka the “proof”. It’s actually more important than the first. (#foodscienceminilesson3) Don’t skip this step. The proof is in the puddin’ LOL. sorry.

9. While the dough is proofing, relax for a while. Walk your dog. When there are about 20 minutes left in your proofing time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place an empty baking sheet on the lowest rack. This has a purpose I promise. Give the dough ball a slash or two (or three) with a knife.

10. When the oven is preheated and dough is proofed, place bread in the oven on its baking sheet. Pour a large cup of water onto the lower empty baking sheet to create steam which will help your bread brown and develop a beautiful crust. You can also spritz it a few times with a spritz bottle full of water, but this seemed more complicated at the time.

11. Allow bread to bake 22-30 minutes until fragrant and golden and delicious. When it is done, should should hollow when you tap it on the top.

12. Allow it to cool (if you can wait) and slice with a serrated knife. Enjoy plain or with literally any topping because it is so good you can do no wrong. Like, it’d even taste good with ice cream and pickles on top. Probably. Maybe. Anyways, eat up.

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chia seeds

Honey Banana Almond Cake

Cherry Chia Museli Bread

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