Product review: Cookies with oat flakes

Yesterday i was wandering around in one of the Delhaize shops here in Belgium and I saw a kind of cookie i haven't seen there before; koekjes met havermoutvlokken (cookies with oat flakes), so i decided to test it out. I had a feeling it might be something like a vegan cookie i love from Norway called Bixit, since they both had similar ingredients and looks. It seems i was right, it tasted just like i remember Bixit tastes like. The size of the cookies differed a bit from Bixit (slightly larger and thinner), but that's no problem, it's the taste that matters ;) They were 1.99 € for 425 g in Delhaize, which is a nice price, and you get a good amount for the money.

These cookies contains oats and whole wheat flour, which is a nice source of fiber. This they promote on more or less all 4 sides of the box. It does also contain sugar and fat though, so it's not health-food, but maybe a healthier cookie-alternative?

The taste is sweet, grainy and a bit salty (and you can also taste the fat if you try to), and it seems like there's pieces of sugar, oats and salt that you encounter while eating these cookies, instead of it all being blended up into a homogenous mass. This makes the cookies more exciting to eat. The cookies are so sweet that they don't seem healthier, and maybe they aren't either if they have more sugar and fat than other cookies xD The pieces of oats helps with chewing resistance which is nice. These cookies would be nice to bring as a snack for outdoor trips, like walking, hiking, jogging or biking.

Since i often do the "let's try to be a bit healthier by adding whole grains, and try to forget about the amount of unhealthy stuff we add", these cookies are definitely within my way of doing things. They are also cheap, which is a bonus since i'm not really the richest person =) And of course yummy, which is quite important =D I'm happy to have found this vegan cookie in Delhaize. I feel that Norway has more availability of vegan cookies than Belgium (thanks to Sætre!), so it's nice to have found another cookie here that is vegan, especially since it taste like Bixit =D Will buy again if i find and if i feel like cookies xD i'm trying to be healthier, so shouldn't buy too often though xD

Mothersday

Yesterday (9th February) was mothers day in Norway, so i decided to do something nice for my mother =p

When me and my sis and bro were kids we used to give breakfast on bed for this occasion (if i remember correctly xD). Last years though she normally wakes up before us so then it's a bit harder xD

This year i wanted to surprise her with breakfast though so i putted my alarm at 7:30 (but i woke up before 7 xD) and made pancakes (with this recipe from vegetarbloggen *norwegian*). That's my favorite pancake recipe. I replaced half of the flour with whole wheat flour, and i used only half of the sugar, so it would be a bit healthier =p

I figured it would be a bit awkward though if i went into her room with food while she was sleeping, so i cleaned the kitchen a bit instead and made it a bit cozy. Then when she and my dad came, we enjoyed pancakes for breakfast ^.^ (my sister and brother were sleeping so i didn't make for them xD). I forgot to take pictures of the pancakes, but they looked more or less like pancakes xD

Then later i made pineapple upside down cake (recipe from veganeren *norwegian*) and peanut butter cookies with chocolate pieces (recipe also from veganeren *norwegian* who got her recipe from theveganzombie here *english*).

I also had a blueberry banana ice cake in the freezer (basically frozen bananas blended to cream, then frozen blueberries added, followed by some soaked almonds and dates and a bit of vanilla sugar, blended good, put in cake shape and stored in freezer).

Everyones favorite was the pineapple upside down cake. It was really fresh and tasty and so easy to make! I will definitely make it again! :D

The peanut butter cookies with chocolate pieces were also pretty good :p they kinda tasted just like they sound like xD So if you like peanut butter and cookies you will like these cookies :D

The blueberry banana ice cake was nice as well xD This one is more healthy and could probably have a bit better taste xD Actually it is so healthy that you can eat it for breakfast every day without feeling guilty xD It is practically a frozen smoothie, and it can be made with infinite varieties and can be made raw xD

We kids also gave my mom an orchid flower since she likes them :D

So i hope it was a nice day for her =)

Caramelized almonds

We always make caramelized almonds during xmas at home  =p I got some with me to belgium for xmas but i kinda ate almost all myself and didnt leave much for my bf, so i promised him i would try to make some more =p I kinda ate almost all again though xD Maybe i must make even more =p Still got about 100 gram almonds left ;p

This is the recipe my mom use =p First time i ever tried making them myself @_@

Ingredients:
200 gram almonds
200 gram sugar
2 dl water
2 tablespoons margarine

 Heat the almonds, sugar and water in a pan until it starts boiling, then turn the heat down and simmer until the water is gone. This can take 0,5 - 1 hour or even longer. When the water is evaporized add the margarine and turn heat up again. Stir all the time until the sugar and butter is melted into caramel. Then transfer the caramelized almonds to a baking paper (either using 2 forks to transfer one and one almond, or do like me and pour it all on if you dont care about having nicely seperated almonds xD).

I forgot to turn the heat down after it started boiling so i kinda panicked when all turned into sugary almonds after like 15 minutes or so when all water was evaporized, but i just added margarine and turned heat up again and it melted into caramel after a while ^.^

Its prettier if you use a fork to remove the almonds from the pan, but works to just pour all out too xD

Oatmeal cookies

These cookies were superyummy! =D

I found the recipe here  

Since it is in cups i'll write it in dl on my blog instead since cups are annoying, and ill also add some changes =p I skipped the icing btw and they are perfectly fine without too =D I also didnt have brown sugar so used white instead, but its probably yummier with brown =p And i replaced the oat flour with whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon flaxseeds
1 dl oat flour or whole wheat flour
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
0.25 teaspoon baking soda
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vegan margarine, softened
0.5 dl (brown) sugar
0.25 dl sugar
0.25 dl applesauce
0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 dl oatmeal
0.5 dl raisins

First make flax mixture by mixing together the flaxseeds with 1.5 tablespoon water and set aside.

Mix together margarine and sugar, then add the flax mixture, applesauce and vanilla and mix it nicely.
 Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and add it to the wet mixture.
Add oatmeal and raisins and mix it well.
Make flattened balls from the dough on the baking sheet and bake in oven on 175°C for 10-12 minutes or until cookies starts getting lightly brown on top.

And enjoy (when they have cooled a bit) =D

Boller

This recipe i got from my mom who got it from her mom =p

Ingredients
50 gram fresh yeast or 1 bag of dry yeast
150 gram margarine
1/2 liter plantmilk
1 1/2 dl. sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cardemom
Ca 15 dl flour

I also add vanillasugar, raisins, and possibly tumeric to make them yellow (mostly thats for 13th december though xD)

Melt the margarine and add the milk, heat it up to around 30-37°C or so, but not too high temperature because then you kill the yeast. I usually test with a finger in it, if i burn myself it's too hot =p If you use fresh yeast lose it up in the margarine/milk mixture, if you use dry yeast add it with the dry ingredients. Add all wet and dry together and mix well. Put aside on a warm place (but not too warm; dont wanna kill the yeast!!) for 1-1.5 hours so it raised to double size or so. Form into whatever shapes you wanna, for example cinnamon rolls or spheres and set aside more for it to grow more.

Bake in oven on 225°C for 10-15 minutes until nice and golden color.

If they are like the picture below they have been in the oven for too long =p

Here tumeric is added to make them yellow for the lucia-day (13th dec). These are nice and golden color like they should be (mom made them), and not black like the above ones when i made them xD

 

And here are some with 1/3 whole wheat flour, that also were not burnt =)

 

Kakemenn

Dunno what the word for it is in english, directly translated it's "cake men" which sounds kinda wrong xD Lets go for cookiemen or something instead since they are more cookie-like than kake-like =p In Norway it's normal to bake/eat these in december =p We often have to make several batches since they disappear pretty fast, which means they are yummy ;p

This recipe my mom got from someone on her work, and it's the best kakemenn recipe that i know =p

Ingredients
100 g melted margarine
2 dl milk
3 dl sugar
1 liter flour
1 teaspoon "hornsalt" (aka ammoniumhydrogenkarbonat NH₄HCO₃ which is kinda hard to find @_@ i once used baking soda instead since they dont really have hornsalt in supermarkets in Belgium, i think i used 2-3 teaspoons baking soda since hornsalt is stronger. Using baking soda does not give the same taste though, so now i brought hornsalt from Norway ^.^)

Mix all the ingredients, roll it pretty flat, like 0,3-0,5 cm with a rolling pin (for those lucky ones who have that, i miss it =s) and shape figures with a figure shaper or so if you want to (its possible without too xD). Bake them in the oven on 200°C for 6-8 minutes.

Mine dont look so cool since i was too lazy to shape them after finding out i couldnt roll/squeeze them flat with a spoon >.>

Raisin scones

These scones i've made several times. They don't taste a  lot by them self except for the raisins but you could add cinnamon and nuts and stuff to fix that, or do butter and jam on or something xD But they are yummy without that also ^.^

The recipe i found on vegweb here (english): Really Good Vegan Raisin Scones

Here's what i did, more or less following the recipe from the link above:

Ingredients

4 dl flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
0,5 dl softened margarine or vegetable oil
1 dl raisins   
1,5 - 2 dl soymilk

Here is what i did:
I mixed the dry ingredients together and added the margarine/oil until the dough got crumbly. Then i added milk and raisins and mixed well. Then i putted them on a baking sheet and had in the oven on 230°C for about 10-12 minutes.

Jam cookies

Some days ago i found a new blog, and i wanted to test out a recipe i found there: Jam cookies

I liked them a lot! =D I have no idea what shortening is though but i think its some kind of butter, so i used half oil, half apple sauce (jam) instead xD (i don't like using butter since its bit expensive xD and i saw someone use apple sauce instead of oil since its more healthy so i wanted to try that as well =p). Btw I'm lazy, so in my head 1 cup = 2 dl in all recipe i make, always works out well XD

So here's the recipe, copy-pasted from here. All the credits goes to the author of the recipe and not to me =p

Vegan Jam Cookies

This recipe is based on a thumbprint cookie recipe, and these cookies have become one of my favorites over the years. I like that they add a bit of natural color to the cookie tray.

• 1/2 cup shortening (Spectrum’s Organic Palm shortening) (i used here 1 dl oil and 1 dl apple jam/sauce, remember all places where it says cups i translate 1 cup = 2 dl xD)
• 1/4 cup organic brown sugar
• 1 prepared EnerG egg replacer (i used "No-Egg" egg replacer since that's what they got in Norway)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour  (1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup white flour)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• jelly (i used strawberry jam, but other tastes would be yummy as well! =D)

Combine shortening, sugar, “egg,” and vanilla. Mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flours and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir. Use your hands to further mix the dough. Roll the dough into 1″ balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie to make a well for the jam. Fill each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of jelly. Bake at 375ºF (=190°C) for 12-14 minutes until just barely starting to brown around the edges. Do not over cook. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet, and then remove to cool on a cookie rack. Makes about 16 cookies. (i got 13 xD)

 
I will definitely make these again! =D

Fabulous cookies =p

Sunday i was at club with my friends, and i got an sms saying that i could bring some food it i wanted, and ofc i wanted so i decided to make cookies! =D

I use the recipe i found here, i recommend reading more of the blog also if you understand norwegian, or is interested xD I translate the recipe though, since it's original on norwegian =p All credits goes to the author of the recipe and not to me =p

Fabulous cookies

Ingredients
4 teaspoons "no-egg" (egg-replacer (powder))
6 tablespoons (90 ml) water
225 g vegan  margarine
150 g white sugar
170 g brown sugar
1 ts vanilla sugar
5,25 dl flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
100-200 g vegan chocolate, chopped
About125 g (hazel)nuts, chopped (i used almonds since i didnt have hazelnuts =p)

Procedure
Set the oven on 190°C. First, whisk together no-egg and water until the mix gets a slightly thick consistency. Mix margarine, white sugar and brown sugar well together, and then add the no-egg mix. Then mix together flour, baking soda, salt and vanilla sugar, and add it gradually in the wet mix until it becomes a nice batter. Add the chocolate and nuts in the batter. Use a tablespoon and lay the batter as small medium-squeezed balls on the baking tray (they will get more flat during baking-time). Set the tray in the oven and let the cookies bake for about 8 minutes (more if you make them very big). Let them cool down before you start moving them, they are very soft when they come straight from the oven, but they get yummy and crispy when they cool down.

 

The cookies were a success! =D My friends asked for recipe, so here it is ;) Enjoy! =D