These crackers have become an ultimate go-to recipe lately..

SEED CRACKERS

(tweaked from Green Kitchen Stories)

65g sunflower seeds
60g sesame seeds
40g ground flaxseeds
75g flour (almond, oat, rye, chickpea, buckwheat.. I use a 50/50 blend of two of these)
0,75tsp salt
3tbsp olive oil
225ml water


Place a bowl on a scale and first measure sunflower and sesame seeds in, reserving a quarter of the mixture for sprinkling on top. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix. Add olive oil and water and stir until combined. Spread the mixture out immediately on a baking tray, as thinly as possible, (the dough will thicken quickly and then it'll be a lot harder to spread evenly) and sprinkle the remaining seeds (and a little more if you will) on top.

Bake in 150 decrees first for 20 min, cut in squares with a pizza slicer or a sharp knife and bake for another 20-30 minutes. Keep peeking in the oven after 15 minutes or so; the baking time can vary alot depending on your oven. The crackers should get just a little golden on the edges. Break gently into individual crackers and let cool on a wire rack.

Beware of addiction.

I love this season I'm in. I've got so much time in my hands: time to listen, time to rest, time to heal, time to dream, time to be with friends and family, time to eat breakfast slowly, time to try out new recipes, time to make music all day if I want to. I really try to savor every day; I know that in time I'll have my hands full again!

In the summer I tend to not add any dried fruits in my granola because I love having it with fresh berries or fruit (strawberries and nectarine are my favorites). I tweaked my basic granola recipe (coming here as well) a little yesterday:

CRUNCHY CHIA GRANOLA

800ml rolled oats
300ml buckwheat
200ml coconut flakes
200ml almonds
75ml cocoa nibs
50ml sesame seeds
50ml chia seeds
0,25tsp salt
150ml sunflower oil
2 heap tbsp honey


In a big bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Heat up the sunflower oil in a kettle, add honey and mix until they merge. Pour the mixture in to the dry ingredients and mix well. Line an oven tray with baking paper and bake the granola in 150 celsius for about 20 minutes; after baking for 10 minutes mix a few times to bake evenly. Let cool completely before storing.

The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.9

Sometimes words feel inadequate. Like when you really want to thank somebody. Susanna and Mariia have seen so much of the good and the bad and they've been there for me lately when I've really needed them. My way of saying thank you was breakfast.

BAKED CRUNCHY BLUEBERRY OATMEAL

(serves 2-4)

200g blueberries (fresh or thawed if frozen)
240ml oats
1/2tsp baking powder
1/4 ground ginger
a good pinch of salt
1 egg
250ml milk
a pinch of pure powdered vanilla
40g hazel nuts
40g pumpkin seeds
1tbsp coconut oil
30ml maple syrup


Combine oats, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, add milk and whisk well to combine. For the crunchy top layer mix syrup, coconut oil, hazel nuts and pumpkin seeds with your fingers.

Grease a baking dish with coconut oil and spread the blueberries on the bottom. Spoon the oat mixture on the blueberries and then pour the egg mixture over the oats so that everything is evenly soaked. Sprinkle the seed and nut mixture on top and bake in 190 celsius for 25 – 35 minutes (when ready the oatmeal should be set and the nuts and seeds lightly browned and crunchy). Leave to cool slightly before serving.


I quite liked this! I think I'll substitute pumpkin seeds with sunflower seeds next time as their taste is more subtle. And I am tempted to try this version as well.

The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.8

Good things often come about slowly. You should know by now that I really like spending lots of time in the kitchen: have good music playing, put effort into what I'm going to serve, try new things and watch something (in my opinion) almost magical take place as simple ingredients turn out into tasty, nourishing and comforting pastries and dishes. This is one those 24-hour projects but it actually requires more time than work.

DARK DANISH RYE BREAD

(makes 1 loaf)

190g whole rye grains
60g sunflower seeds
500ml boiling water
250ml plain yoghurt, at room temperature
3tbsp clear honey
1tbsp sea salt
1tbsp fennel seeds
125g dried cranberries (optional)
5tbsp carob powder (or cacao powder)
4tsp dried yeast
400g whole rye flour
150g whole spelt flour
60g light spelt flour


Place the rye grains and sunflower seeds in a bowl and cover with the boiling water. Let sit for 15 minuten, then add the yoghurt, honey, salt, fennel seeds, cranberries and carob powder and stir with a wooden spoon. Use your finger to test the temperature of the mixture - it should be just warm. Stri in the yeast. Then add rye flour and stir until you have a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 1 hour at room temperature, until the dough is slightly bubbly.

Gradually add in enough of the spelt flour to form a dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface (I skipped this step, for I find that rye bread doughs are next to impossible to remove from your work surfaces, and kneaded in the bowl instead). Knead for about 5 minutes, adding the remaining spelt flour until it is firmer, but still slightly sticky and quite heavy. Form it into a ball and return to the bowl. Slap some water on the top with your hands. Cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge for 8-10 hours or overnight.

Place the dough into an oiled loaf tin and press down with your fists to get rid of any air pockets. The dough should be quite sticky. Brush the top with water and dust it with rye flour. Cover with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise slightly for 2 hours.

Bake the loaf on the slowest shelf of the oven in 200 celsius for 1 hour. Turn off the heat and leave the loaf in the oven for further a 15 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack for at least 4 hours. This is important to allow the bread to set, which makes it easier to cut. Keep for about a week.


My loaf ended up a little underdone; I felt the dough could have taken in more flour but I wanted to give it a chance since I hadn't made this bread earlier and I didn't really know how it should be like. (Also longer time in the oven could maybe have solved the problem though I already gave it some: after turning the heat off and the 15 minutes I had it in the oven without the tin for a further 8 minutes.) The bread didn't hold together very well when cut in slices, though I waited the 4 hours. Maybe I should've waited more? But it tasted really good and had a wonderful smell of christmas! (I used cacao powder instead of carob and skipped the cranberries. I didn't have light spelt flour so I substituted it and some of the whole spelt flour with wheat flour. Also next time I'd halve the amount of fennels seeds.)


Soundtrack for the recipe: Chopin's Nocturne No.11 by Elisabeth Leonskaja

I finally got around to trying this bread that is basicly just nuts and seeds. (Here's a slightly different version of the same thing.) I was quite pleased with the bread! It is especially good toasted and it holds together better if you store it in the fridge. (The lace patterned plate in the picture, my absolutely most beautiful plate, is from Valkoinen Puu. I am so incredibly inspired by the lovely couple who makes these!)

In this season I love the rustling of leaves, lots of hot chocolate (recipe coming soon) and listening to autumn music. The nights are dark but snuggling on the couch is good.

The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.6

I am at home and I miss everybody a lot (though most of us live in Helsinki being with the family at our parents is just very different from being with them here). And I miss the countryside and feel a little out of place in the city. But I suppose I'll soon get the hang of this again. There are wild things in the air; I'm excited but also looking forward to things settling down again.

I made these crackers at our parents. Very yummy.

 

ORANGE-KISSED SEED CRACKERS

60g sunflower seeds
60g sesame seeds
40g linseed
60g hempseeds (I didn't have hempseeds so I used 80g of sunflower seeds, 80g sesame and 60g linseed)
100g amaranth/quinoa/almond flour (I used half rye, half oat flour)
1,5tsp sea salt
300ml water
60ml olive oil
2tbsp orange juice
1tbsp clear honey


Mix the seeds together and reserve a quarter for topping. Add flour, salt, water and olive oil and mix. (You should have a loose batter. If it is not loose enough, add some more water; it will evaporate as you bake the crackers.) Line two baking trays with baking paper and pour the batter on them. Flatten them out with a spatula as thin as possible. (I accidentally sprinkled the remaining seeds on them at this point; they were meant to be sprinkled after the first bit in the oven, before cutting the crackers, but I think I'll actually stick to doing it this way.) Bake in 150 celsius for 25 minutes. Meanwhile whisk together the honey and orange juice. Remove the trays from the oven, brush them with the orange glaze and cut them (I used a pizza slicer) into 5cm pieces. Bake for 30 minutes more or until the crackers are crunchy. (I baked the middle pieces for an extra 10 minutes or so.) Cool on a wire rack.

These days are slow and easy. I love how here and now matters all the more (however ordinary it might be) when you don't know what the future holds.

I have been making granola for a long time (inspired by my friend Maija last summer) but I never used a recipe. I just mix oats, chopped almonds and cashews and then warm up some oil with organic syrup or honey and then pour that on the oats and nuts and stir until everything is well coated (and warm up some more oil and sweetener, if not). I roast the granola in 175 celsius for 10 to 15 minutes or so, turning it a few times with a spoon to roast evenly. When the granola has cooled down I throw in cacao nibs, coconut flakes and dried cranberries (this was my favorite granola for a long time). Sometimes I use olive oil, sometimes canola and sometimes coconut oil. I've found that olive oil and honey are a good pair and canola oil and syrup; with coconut oil I've used no sweetener. Lately I have experimented a little with seeds, and one of my favourite finds for granola has been dried strawberries!

Green Kitchen Stories posted this granola recipe a while ago and the banana in it sounded so enticing that I had to have a go. I've made jars and jars of this during the last two weeks (we are many here at our parents)!

BANANA GRANOLA

(from Green Kitchen Stories)

700ml oats
120ml roughly chopped almonds
120ml pumpkin seeds
0,5tsp salt

3tbsp coconut oil
3tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
2 very ripe bananas


Combine oats, almonds, seeds and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl mash the bananas with a fork until smooth and add coconut oil and honey and mix. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry with your hands. Spread the granola in an even layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in 200 celsius for 15 to 20 minutes, check at around 10 minutes and turn the granola over and break chunks that are too big.

The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.5

I'd been waiting for strawberry season to get to try this recipe from the book! It was a sunny morning and we had the cake for dessert after breakfast on the backyard. It's good to have family around (some are leaving home soon but then others are coming). Tomorrow we're going to Ahola!

FROZEN STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE ON A SUNFLOWER CRUST

300g sunflower seeds
(2tbsp hemp seeds, optional)
12 fresh medjool dates, pitted (about 225g)
2tbsp coconut oil
1/2tsp sea salt

300g fresh strawberries
juice of 1/2 a lemon
120ml clear honey (or agave syrup, I put 100ml)
500g quark (or greek yoghurt or mascarpone)

250g fresh strawberries for garnish


Toast the sunflower seeds on a baking tray in 180 celsius for 6-8 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and put them (together with the hemp seeds) in a food processor and pulse for about 20 seconds. The seeds should be chopped but not powdered. Add the dates, coconut oil and salt and process until the mixture comes together to a sticky crust. (I don't have a food processor at hand here so I chopped the seeds with a hand blender and mashed the dates with a fork until smooth. Then I first added coconut oil and salt to the dates and mixed them in by hand and last blended the seeds in by hand.) Cover the bottom of a 20cm spring-form cake tin with baking paper, closing in the paper with the sides. Press the mixture firmly over the base with your thumbs. Chill in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Purée the strawberries, lemon juice and honey in a food processor or blender (hand blender worked perfect), pour into a large bowl, add the quark and mix well. Pour the mixture over the crust and put it in the freezer for about 90 minutes. You can keep the cake in the freezer for a few days but then let it thaw for about a half an hour before serving. Garnish the cake with strawberries (and a couple of edible flowers, as the Green Kitchen does). Serve the cake immediately; you cannot freeze it again and it doesn't really last in the fridge either.

We had the cake in the freezer for 2 days but next time I'd freeze it just before serving, I think the consistency will be better then. (I'm actually intrigued to play around with the recipe in order to just chill the cake instead of freezing it; it would be easier to keep.) Also next time I think I'm substituting honey for some cane sugar in the filling; honey's got such a strong flavour. And fresh blueberries or blackcurrants would make a killer cake I bet! I used 2,3% quark but I'm sure greek yoghurt would work well too. I really like the lightly toasted sunflower seeds in the crust, yum.


Soundtrack for the recipe: Onnellinen by Mikki Kauste

The Green Kitchen Stories, recipe no.3

I had my little brother stay over and I wanted to make something from The Green Kitchen for breakfast (I'll soon be done with the breakfast section of the book, dang!) I knew these would be good; will make again!

And happy news: Good Life Coffee now sells coffee beans from the new roastery of The Barn (my favorite café in Berlin)! So good!

 

THIN OMELETTE ROLLS WITH APPLE & COTTAGE CHEESE

(makes 1)

1 egg
1tbsp milk
a good pinch of salt
coconut oil for frying

FILLING:
half an apple, cored and coarsely grated
3tbsp cottage cheese
1tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
a pinch of cinnamon


Combine the filling in a bowl. Whisk the egg, milk and salt with a fork in a glass and pour in a 20cm pan. Fry the omelette for 1 minute on the first side and 30-45 seconds on the other. Place the omelette on a plate, spoon the mixture in the middle and roll up. Cut in half before serving.


Soundtrack for the recipe: Bottles and Birds by Johan Örjansson

The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.2

This was definitely not one of the most enticing recipes in the book. But as I was buying groceries the other day radishes just looked so pretty and tempting that I had to buy them. And as I remembered seeing this recipe calling for radishes, there it was. A pleasant surprise, really. I liked the crunchiness with the soft eggs. The Green Kitchen recommends making their Danish Rye Bread with this but I had some beetroot bread from Goodpie Bakery left in the freezer. On its own the salad is a little lame but on dark bread it's perfect. I am definitely trying their rye bread another time.

 

CRUNCHY CURRIED EGG SALAD

6 eggs
a small handful of pumpkin seeds
1 apple
10 radishes
5 sticks of asparagus spears
(chives)

For the dressing:
120ml organic turkish yoghurt
(2tbsp mayonnaise, optional)
1tsp ground curry
(a pinch of cayenne)
sea salt


Place the eggs in boiling water and let boil for 10 minutes. Let cool in cold water. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a frying pan. Cut the asparagus spears into small sticks and the radishes into thin slices. Halve and core the apple (leave the skin on) and cut it into small pieces. Put everything in a bowl, make the dressing (I didn't use mayonnaise) and mix altogether. Cut the eggs into 8 pieces each and gently mix them in. I forgot to buy chives so I just sprinkled asparagus bits on top.