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Desserts

Unbelievably Good Vegan Half-baked Cheesecake with secret ingredient (healthy)

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You‘ll be like .. cheesecake – vegan?? Seriously? Well, obviously it’s not cheese but really, it is at least as good! The consistency is absolutely amazing (identical to cheesecake) the ingredients are super nutritious, and the flavor is just 100% convincing! I promise!! 

Why vegan?

We probably all have a recipe for a delicious non-vegan cheesecake. So why not switching things up? And honestly, I love a nice challenge. Plus my bestie currently is vegan so I needed to get creative with coming up with a dessert recipe for her! (I already have 2 on my blog, bit we needed something new! Find the banana bread recipe here and the black bean brownies recipe here )

What is special about this dish? 

VEGAN CHEESECAKE! Isn’t that special itself? And then that the ingredients are really wholesome and nutrient dense too!! And of course our special ingredient: silken tofu!! No, it won’t taste like tofu in the end, and yes it works really well. 

Why using silken tofu in a dessert recipe?

Silken Tofu is a super soft tofu, almost a yoghurt consistency. This is great for creams, pudding or as here cheesecake but in vegan. It also has a very mild flavor and when blending it becomes really smooth. When baking, it helps to keep everything stick together while remaining that cheesecake consistency!  

How to make vegan cheesecake:

Here we have two different things to make because we have 2 different layers. The first layer is the crust. Here we do not do a regular cookie layer but more like a baked energy ball one and it‘s heaven. Basically it comes down to blending up oats, almonds and dates and that’s it! 

For the actual „cheesecake“ layer it is really not more difficult! You just need to add soaked cashews, silken tofu, maple syrup, oil, fig preserves and cornstarch to a blender and blend until it is creamy and smooth! If you have a high speed blender you do not essentially need to soak the cashews but if it doesn‘t have too much power, I would recommend soaking them!

When the first layer is done you need to press it into a cake pan and then pour over the blended „cheesecake“ filling. To finish off just top with sliced up figs and bake in the oven! That’s it!

A few notes on the recipe:

After taking it out of the oven, the consistency of the cake will be rather creamy. When you let it sit for a little while it will get firmer! Store in the fridge. About 20 minutes before eating take it out of the fridge. That way it will taste better! 

I hope you really like this recipe and that you‘ll love this little twist to your average cheesecake! 

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Healthy Vegan Half Baked Cheesecake with Silken Tofu

A delicious and healthy twsit onto your regular cheesecake. The silken tofu makes the consistency amazing and it tastes incredible too!

Course brunch, Dessert, Snack
Prep Time 15 Minuten
Cook Time 45 Minuten
Total Time 1 Stunde
Servings 8 slices
Calories 293 kcal

What you will need

For the base:

  • 100 g rolled oats
  • 30 g almonds
  • 200 g dates
  • a pinch of sea salt

For the "cheesecake" filling

  • 250 g silken tofu
  • 40 g cashews soaked overnight
  • 100 g coconut cream (just the firm part of the coconut milk! This is best seperated when putting the can in the fridge for about 2 hours)
  • 100 g maple syrup
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp fig preserves
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 4-5 figs sliced up

How to

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

    To a food processor add all of the ingredients for the base and blend until it forms a sticky paste. When too dry, add more dates or some oil, when too sticky, add more oats.

  2. Line a 20x20cm cake pan (or a springform pan) with parchment paper. Add the blended mixture and press to the bottom so it forms a flat layer.

  3. Into the food processor now add the ingredients for the "cheesecake" layer and blend until very creamy. Pour over the first layer.

  4. Top with the sliced figs and bake for about 45-55 minutes until the top gets golden brown.

  5. Take it out of the oven. The cake will get firmer the longer you let it sit. Store in the fridge and take out at least 20 minutes before eating for best flavor! Enjoy!

Happy cooking, 

Enjoy,

Katie

The only healthy Plum Compote Recipe you’ll ever need

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Plum compote = Zwetschkenröster

Plum Compote – an austrian staple

If you are not from Austria and have never heard of plum compote or Zwetschkenröster I can understand that you may be confused about this. Zwetschkenröster is a compote made out of plums, which mostly is eaten with Curd Cheese Dumplings (Topfenknödel) or Kaiserschmarren. It is sweet and still have fruit chunks in it so it is not the same as jam.

Traditional plum compote & how it is made

There is more than just the country it comes from, that connects me to plum compote. I have always had a passion for cooking from an early age on, and apparently a very big one for plum compote. A few years ago my parents showed me pictures of me, when I was a little kid, 2 years old or so, sitting on the counter in the kitchen and making curd cheese dumplings and plum roaster with my uncle. So yes, this is a very traditional recipe.

In Austria you can find it in pretty much any house hold, which makes sense when you realise how easy it is to make. And how delicious it is to enjoy. Making this actually is pretty simple. It really just is cooking plums with sugar, lemon juice, spices and some cornstarch until the skin separates slightly from the fruit. Then you let it cool down and fill it into jars. That is it.

What it special about this dish?

The only really special thing here is that it is healthy. Regular plum compote comes with loaded sugar, which obviously is not healthy so we are making a healthier version of it. Besides this, not too much is fancy here because we want to keep it quite traditional.

How to make it healthy

The main ingredient, the plums, stays the same of course. But instead of regular, white, refined sugar, we are using a mixture between coconut sugar and dates. Both of these have a great sweetness but are packed with less actual sugar and come with fibre, which makes the sugar be digested better.

How to best have it:

As I already mentioned, you can have this really well with desserts such as Kaiserschmarren (which is like a destroyed dutch baby) or with dumplings. I also love to have it on top of yoghurt with some granola or with some ice cream. I am sure this would also work really well on top of a creamy porridge. It is a great addition to pretty much anything sweet!

I hope that you will enjoy this recipe and that you will also have memories that are as great as mine!

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Healthy Plum Compote

A healthy version of the austrian classic. Perfectly sweet and juicy plums cookeed into a long lasting and super delicious compote!

Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine austrian
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cook Time 1 Stunde 15 Minuten
Total Time 1 Stunde 25 Minuten
Servings 2 jars à 3 servings
Calories 133 kcal

What you will need

  • 1 kg plums
  • 50 g dates
  • 50 g coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • a sprinkle of sea salt
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 50 ml water

How to

  1. Cut all of the plums in half and remove the pit. Slice the dates very finely or cut them into amll pieces. Add them to a pot along with the coconut sugar, water, lemon juice, salt, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for about an hour at medium heat.

  2. After an hour you will see that the skins of the plums started to seperate from the fruit and are rolling in a littlw bit. Now combine the cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water in a seperate bowl and whisk until smooth. Pour it in and stir through the compote very well so everything is combined.

  3. Take off the heat and let cool. Then fill into jars and stor ein the fridge! Enjoy!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

Ultimate healthy and creamy raspberry overnight oats from dahoam

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Summer is a tough time for all porridge lovers. As good as porridge is, who wants to have a steaming hot bowl of oat in the morning when you already start to sweat when you just take a look outside. That’s why we need a cold alternative. Cold oats? Yes, that’s a thing. Overnight Oats. And no, they are not boring or taste like a babyfood.

What are overnight Oats?

As the name already suggests, overnight oats is a form of oatmeal that is prepared overnight. Well not exactly. Usually they are prepared the evening before by mixing together oats and milk and then they chill in the fridge for a few hours, mostly overnight. This way the oats can really absorb and soak up the milk to get soft for the next morning

What is special about this dish?

Well, first, and most important, this breakfast, snack, dessert, whenever you want to enjoy it, is SO EASY to be made from LOCAL ingredients only. Why? Especially here in Austria we have a lot of farmers for local dairy products (but you can find this in most countries). Also, in pretty much any supermarket or bulk store you can find rolled oats that are grown in Austria, because we have an ideal climate here. And lastly, at the moment it is the season of berries, which means nothing is easier than finding berries from Austria right now.

Why is it better to buy local?

There is no single answer to this but I divided it into 4 main reasons:

  1. You support your local economy. Especially during or after a crisis like the one we are going through right now it is important to really support the country you live in. The farmers who produce Austrian products have also been hit by the crisis and as a nation it is important to help together. With supporting the economy you also save and maybe create new jobs, which is very important at the moment, since a lot have gone to loss.
  2. It’s environmental impact: when you buy locally, the goods do not have to be transported for a long time by ships, planes, cars or trains. Especially in a country like Austria, transport way are not very distant and this way we save a lot of CO2 and therefore have a positive impact on the environment.
  3. To be independent: This may sound weird at first but the importance is shown in crisis like the one at the moment. of course raspberries from countries like Spain or Portugal may be cheaper. But when we all keep buying those because they are cheaper, the amount of Austrian raspberries planted will be reduced. And then, when facing a crisis as the current, where delivery and the entire transport system suddenly stops or is interrupted we will not have enough berries to satisfy our needs. So when we consume the products we produce in the country we live in, we, as a nation, are more independent.
  4. Quality: when you buy local products (at least in Austria), you can expect the quality of the product to be at a high standard and you know this. When buying from other countries, where you may not not the quality standards, you may be disappointed and the product may contain some unnatural additives.

Where I get my local products from:

The main ingredient, so the Oats I buy at a bulk store. The one I go to is called Lieber Ohne and it only has organic and unpackaged food, mostly from the region but you can see from any product where it comes from.

The Dairy products I get at Joseph Brot. They are an organic bakery and always have dairy products from Austrian farmers in reusable jars and bottles. A great way to buy local and without producing waste.

The berries I get at a local market. I know where they come from and I can choose the ones I want myself!

The same goes for the honey and nuts. I either get both at Lieber Ohne or I get them at a farmers market!

How to make really good overnight oats:

As I said, overnight oats usually are prepared by solely combining oats with milk. Since this tastes a little boring as you can imagine we are taking a regular version and making it fancier, while still keeping it simple. By adding fruits we add an extra kick and we also use some more ingredients to make it extra creamy and delicious!

This already starts with the oats. Maybe you already know, maybe you do not – there are different kinds of oats. Larger (whole) ones and finer ones. While large ones work great for things like granola, finer ones are best for porridge and overnight oats. This may sound a little stupid because they are the same product in the end of the day but this really makes a difference! Finer ones just absorb the liquid better and therefore make it creamier.

Also, when wanting really creamy overnight oats it is best to add some yoghurt. In here I like to use greek yoghurt because it also is very easy to get in reusable glass jars but any other yoghurt or plant based yoghurt works just fine. Again, this makes it super creamy.

Another two ingredients which I would always recommend to be adding in are chia seeds and a little syrup. The chia seeds will swell up and make everything stick together better. The syrup adds a little sweetness (even if it just is a tiny drizzle) and make it 10 times better!

My last tip on making overnight oats is to add some fruit when making them. You for sure can just add some fruit on top the next day but adding them the night before helps the oats to soak up some of their sweetness, taste and juices, so it’ll infuse the entire dish.

More oat inspiration…

If you do like oats, just as I do you can check out a few other recipes of mine, which you are going to like for sure, like the Mango Overnight Oats, Oatmeal with Caramelized Bananas, Bircher Muesli with Honey Poached Apple, Healthy Peach and Cherry Crumble, Mango Coconut Granola or my Apple and Cranberry Granola !

How to make this dish low waste

Making delicious dishes while not producing much waste is actually pretty easy. If you wanna learn how, then you can read this at my Andalusian Gazpacho Post, My Easy No-Waste ice Cream Sandwiches or my No-waste French Toast with Basil Apricots blog post!

So just to summarise:

  • buy your oats at a bulk store! You can go there with your own jars or Tupperware and buy lots and lots of grains without packaging! A very sustainable way.
  • Get your dairy products at your local bakery. Most times bakeries have a small section with dairy products, which most of the time are packaged in reusable jars or bottles
  • Go to a local market. Getting fresh fruit there often is better than at the supermarket. Primarily, you know where it comes from easily and it most of the times is not packaged in plastic. I am aware that you will not find berries without packaging but mostly they at least come in paper or cartoon.

To sum up

I hope that this little guide and explanation really helps you to understand why it is important to buy locally and also include more local products easily into your daily life. Plus, you have really incredibly delicious breakfast recipe for these late summer days!

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The Ultimate Healthy and Creamy Raspberry Overnight Oats

A delicious, creamy and refreshing summer breakfast for those hot summer days with regional ingredients

Course Breakfast, brunch, Snack
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Total Time 10 Minuten
Servings 2 servings
Calories 414 kcal

What you will need

  • 100 g rolled oats the finer the better
  • 100 g greek yoghurt
  • 200 ml milk (you can also use plant based milk)
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • 200 g raspberries
  • a few walnuts and raspberries for garnish

How to

  1. In a large bowl mash the raspberries until mushy. Add the rolled oats, yoghurt, chia seeds, honey and milk and stir until everything is combined well.

  2. Keep in the fridge for at least 4 hours to overnight.

  3. Take out the next morning and top with extra greek yoghurt, raspberries and nuts. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoy,
Happy cooking,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

No waste French Toast with Basil Apricots

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This recipe post is a very special one to me. I do not just want to introduce a super delicious and healthy recipe to you but I also want to address a topic with this: sustainability and food waste in the kitchen. I believe that there is way to much food thrown away and that way to often we do not care about making conscious and sustainable decisions in the kitchen. With this recipe I designed one that is low to zero waste, that is fully organic and local and that is made of regional ingredients from Austria. Kind of a back to the roots recipe to raise awareness of how wasteful we can be in the kitchen.

But first, what even is French toast?

I think most of us know, but not everyone. French Toast is bread that has been soaked in milk, eggs, and sugar (traditionally) and then is fried in a pan, served with syrup. In Austria it also is very popular with the name „Armer Ritter“. It is something actually pretty traditional in the Austrian cuisine but has only become really popular with the American name „French Toast“.

How to reduce (food) waste with French toast

The great thing about this dish is that it is something we Austrians would call „Restlessen“. This literally translates to eating the remains, so what’s left. It is an amazing (and pretty tasty) way to use leftovers.

  • Instead of throwing bread away that is one week old and already pretty stale, you can use it for this recipe. That way you save food from being thrown away AND you make a super tasty meal. A win win. But it still is by far not popular enough, unfortunately, that’s why I want to encourage you to give it a shot. Next time you consider throwing bread away, try this out.
  • Similar goes for the apricots. I sometimes feel that apricots are like avocados. They are not ripe for a week and then suddenly one day they are and the next they go bad. And if you do not want to make something with the apricots this one exact day when they are good, you are likely to throw them away. Which is sad. When you cook them down, add some lemon juice, a little sweetener and some fresh basil you basically make something like jam (Marmalade). And this will last for several days in the fridge. Again, you do not have to throw anything away and you create something super tasty. What I love most about this is that you can add this „jam“ to basically anything from yogurt bowls, porridge, cake to ice cream or another dessert cream. And no, you cannot only make this with apricots. With pretty much any fruit it works. Peaches, berries, cherries, whatever you have on hand and you feel like you can use up.

What about the rest?

Well, that’s the two main components that are contributing to reduce waste. But what about the rest? We still need milk, eggs, sweetener, oil and yogurt. So one by one.

  • Milk: As for the milk, I love to buy it as Joseph Brot . This comes from Austrian farmers, is all organic and packaged in glass bottles. Glass bottles are amazing because they are reusable. And also if you cannot return them you can use them at home for example when you make fresh smoothies or juices. Reuse and reduce waste.
  • Bread: Joseph Brot to be honest is where I go for most of my organic ingredients for recipes like those. Not only do they have the best and organic sourdough bread in whole Vienna, which is made of grains from Austria but it also comes in paper bags. No plastic.
  • Yoghurt: Moreover they have organic Austrian yoghurt. Another ingredient for this recipe. And again, it comes in glass jars. Whenever such a jar is empty I love to use it for storage. No matter if it is for nuts, dried fruits or a homemade sauce or dip that needs to be stored in the fridge. I just wash them when empty and reuse them. So incredibly handy to have on hand. I am not in any way sponsored by them and I do not want to tell you that you need to go there to buy your ingredients. Most supermarkets (I know Billa and Spar do so) have milk and yoghurt in glass jars. But what I love most about going to Joseph is that I know that the products don’t travel for days because they are all from Austria. This also is better for the environment of course and their CO2 footprint.
  • The sweetener: I love using honey as a sweetener because of several reasons: first, it’s super tasty, second, it is healthier than sugar since it does have some nutrients, third: you get it at every corner in Austria. Plus, most of the times you get it in glass jars. No plastic, less waste, reusable. I have already told you why glass jars are pretty cool but think about this: you empty your honey jar, you wash it and you can store your homemade apricot jam in it. Isn’t that amazing? It is!
  • Eggs: here it is really hard to go no waste. But there are great ways to can get close! When you purchase eggs do not buy them pre-packaged. Either buy them on a farmers market or some supermarkets have places where you can fill them into the boxes yourself. This is really convenient because you an reuse the cartoon boxes several times and you d not automatically take a new one every time you purchase eggs. Another thing that I have seen recently is a reusable egg container. So it is like a cartoon box but made out of plastic (unfortunately) but you can basically use it forever and always refill it. if you want to go 100% zero waste you could also, after using the eggs, compost the shell or if you have a farmer close to you give it to them because they may feed it to their chicken.
  • Oil: last but not least we have the oil. I prefer using something like sunflower seed oil because it is quite neutral in taste but it is regional and often comes in glasswork bottles. But also coconut oil works well (just that it is not regional here) because it has a very high cooking temperature. Also, it most of the time comes in glas containers. Again, you can reuse them. In the kitchen, for storage or even for decoration. If you add some flower leaves and a candle, this makes a beautiful decoration and accounts for an amazing atmosphere.

Why buying local?

Buying local can never harm. There are 2 main reasons I buy local. the first one is the impact it has on the environment. The transportation already makes a huge difference if the apricots come from Styria, which is 200km away or from Portugal, which is 2000km away. They do not need to be shipped by plane, they do not need a cooling system that lasts for days and is energy consuming. They come from Styria, maybe on the same day you purchase and use them.

Secondly, right now, more than ever it is important to support your local economy and local farmers. This crisis has hit every single one of us and some more than others. Of course apricots from Portugal may be cheaper because agricultural standard are not as high as they are here and therefore Austrian farmers have a harder time competing with farmers from abroad. But in order to keep the Austrian system alive and to fight through this crisis together we have to stay strong and support each other.

The last point: why buying organic

I think we have all heard that buying organic (Bio) food is better than purchasing non organic food! But why actually? Several reasons. When jr comes to fruit and veggies I would ALWAYS long for organic food when available. When being produced organic no pesticides or chemicals are allowed to be used. The use of those does not only harm our environment and soil in the long term but it actually is not good for our overall health. All of the things that have been added or injected into the food to help it trow faster and bigger can in the long term really mess up your gut and the bacteria in it and digestion. Those are things our bodies don’t know and therefore do not know how to really handle it. So really, try to buy organic. It is more expensive but your health should be worth the investment.

The other reason is, when it comes to animal products, the living conditions of the animals are better than for non-organic. Unfortunately they are not always much better or good, but organically produced animal products have higher standards.

Why doing and considering all of this? 

See, if we keep our food consumption and buying behavior as is, these are not very good conditions for the agriculture in the future. We need to make a change and we should start now. Producing less or no waste is essential as well as supporting local economy (especially after or while facing such a crisis). Furthermore it is better for our bodies and the environment when we make a change to organic shopping.

I know all of this information may be a little bit overwhelming at once. Still, I wanted to pack it all in one blog post to have the overview and because it is so important to me. I just wanted to give you a brief introduction into all of these aspects but I can also do a more detailed blog post on these topics if you are interested. But for now, I hope that you will love and enjoy this recipe and keep all of this information in the back of your head.

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No waste Apricot Basil French Toast

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cook Time 10 Minuten
Total Time 20 Minuten
Servings 2 servings

What you will need

  • 1 egg
  • 150 ml milk
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • a pinch of sea salt
  • 2 large slices of bread can be a few days old and stale
  • 5-6 apricots
  • 1 handful basil
  • 1 tbsp butter or oil
  • 150 g greek yoghurt
  • 1 tbsp honey

How to

  1. Combine the eggs, milk, honey and sea salt in a bowl. Add the slices of bread and dip them into the mixture. Let them soak in the liquid for about 2 minutes on each side.

  2. In a pan heat up half of the butter. Slice the apricots and finely slice the basil. Add the apricots into the hot pan and sautée them for 2 minutes on high heat. Turn the heat down to medium and add the basil and honey and let simmer for about 5 minutes until it is a bit saucy.

  3. Add the remaining butter to another pan and heat it up. Add the soaked bread and fry on each side for about 3 minutes on medium high. Take the bread out and place it on two plates. Add the remaining egg and milk mixture to the pan and make "sweet scrambled eggs".

  4. In a seperate bowl combine the greek yoghurt with the honey and whisk until creamy and smooth. Top the french toast with the basil apricots and the whipped honey greek yoghurt. Serve with some more honey or maple syrup and enjoy!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisiniere