Tag: nuts

Oat florentine and how to adapt it

I based this nuts and oat florentine on oats and on a variety of nuts. There is lots of space for accommodation around your taste.

Florentine cereal bar

Those tips were posted in a post I placed on this blog and you may not have seen them. Consider them, they are convenient. Now feel free to add other ingredients than oats to your base, for example you can add silvered almonds or corn flakes.

Tip 1 – the “glue” of your oat florentine

In the end, I realised it doesn’t matter too much what you want in it, it is important to make sure you have a good “glue”.  I looked at a number of recipes for that binding mix and opted for my own made with simple ingredients (butter, honey and brown sugar), so no glucose syrup or other fancy items.

Tip 2 – you need salt in your florentine

One thing I did wrong was having a little too much salt. So put salt but go slowly, once added you can’t remove it

Tip 3 – solid ingredients: let yourself go! There are no limitations there. You need to think of the flavours you are combining together, this is crucial but not too hard. if not sure, stick to a few nuts, seeds or dry fruits in addition to the oats.

Mine was a little extravagant as I went through the pantry nuts jars: brazil nuts (cut), shredded coconut, pepitas, walnuts, roasted hazelnuts, macadamia pieces. And some dry cranberries.

Now for he new tips:

Tip 4 – bake your florentine until nice and brown, do not hesitate to go to a nice coloured brown as it means the florentine will be more solid. The caramel is what binds the ingredients together. If it is too light, it will not hold.

Tip 5 – the slice shape is so much easier to handle, but the florentine round shape is pretty.  My round shapes are enormous, too big really but fun!

Ingredients:
  • 250 g of rolled oats
  • 175 g of brazil nuts, cut in pieces
  • 50 g of shredded coconut
  • 100 g of pepitas
  • 100 g of walnuts broken
  • 150 g of roasted hazelnuts, cut in pieces (quarter size roughly)
  • 100 g of macadamia, also cut in pieces
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • Wet mix:
    • 100 g of melted butter
    • 120 g of honey (you may need to heat up the honey if it is solidified)
    • 150 g of brown sugar (or up to 200g if you like them quite sweet)
  • 180 g of dark cooking chocolate gently melted for the top
Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.  Line a baking tray or slice tray with baking paper.
  2. Prepare the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them.  Prepare the wet ingredients in another bowl.
  3. Mix dry and wet ingredients.
  4. if using a slice tin, press the mix to a thickness of 1.5 cm to 2 cm. If doing florentines, use a tablespoon of mix minimum and press down to a 1.5cm thick disc.  The width will depend on the amount of mix.
  5. Bake in the middle of your oven for 1/2h to 40 minutes until nicely brown (the time will depend on your oven)
    Florentine cereal bar
  6. Cool down before covering with melted chocolate. If doing a slice, cut when the chocolate has almost hardened.

Florentine cereal bar

 

Florentine or nuts and oats bars

Have you ever wanted to choose what to put in your florentine? Mine can be considered as a florentine or nut and oats bars. Here are a few tips and my recipe.

Through a trial at making the florentine I really liked, I ended up with a pretty good cereal bar. I was after an oat and nuts dark chocolate coated florentine.  I am not a big fan of the dry candied fruits in those, neither of the cornflakes nor of the very high dose of sliced almonds.

Tip 1 – the “glue” of your florentine

In the end, I realised it doesn’t matter too much what you want in it, it is important to make sure you have a good “glue”.  I looked at a number of recipes for that binding mix and opted for my own made with simple ingredients (butter, honey and brown sugar), so no glucose syrup or other fancy items.

Tip 2 – you need salt in your florentine

One thing I did wrong was having a little too much salt. So put salt but go slowly, once added you can’t remove it

Tip 3 – solid ingredients: let yourself go!

There are no limitations there. You need to think of the flavours you are combining together, this is crucial but not too hard. if not sure, stick to a few nuts, seeds, or dry fruits in addition to the oats.

Mine was a little extravagant as I went through the pantry nuts jars: brazil nuts (cut), shredded coconut, pepitas, walnuts, roasted hazelnuts, and macadamia pieces. And some dry cranberries.

Florentine cereal bar

 

Greens and nuts are good for you!

Greens and nuts are good for you! Not new, I know. I don’t pretend to be a dietician. Greens bring such a diversity of flavours and forms and nuts are quite filling and crunchy and versatile.  Anyway, you probably don’t need much convincing.

Poelee of italian pine mushrooms and greens

I did not go unfortunately in the Blue Mountains or Bellanglo State Forest to pick italian pine mushrooms this year.  If anyone lives that way, I would love to know if they are still in season and if the bushfires have affected the areas of growth!  You can find those mushrooms at small markets or some vegetable stores like Harris Farm in season sometimes.

They are great in risotto and in vegetable stir fries with butter and garlic. Whatever you do, don’t forget the butter and the garlic! Check HERE for the recipe I posted.

The key in sauteed vegetables is to not hesitate using garlic and butter and to add the vegetables according to their cooking time.  Using nuts to complement the dish adds a little complexity and crunchiness.  You can also add a little chili.

peas brocoli pine mushrooms
Poelee of italian pine mushrooms, peas, brocoli and chestnuts, here served with drilled pork chops

Chocolate and nuts toasted muesli

This is my second muesli recipe. The first was with dry fruits and nuts (HERE), this one is chocolate and nuts (HERE).

nuts and chocolate toasted muesli

Next week

Next week, I will post this recipe, my own brownies recipe. Yum! I made that recipe one day super quickly for some friends.  A good brownie for me needs to be soft and gooey in the middle, not too sweet and quite chocolatey.

chocolate and nuts soft brownies

Chocolate and nuts toasted muesli

This is my second toasted muesli recipe.  The first one was with nuts and dry fruits.  This one is a chocolate and nuts toasted muesli.  Not much difference in the doing really, just in the combination of ingredients.  I love toasted museli with yogurt and a little milk.  This is one of my favourite breakfast.  I have been doing mine to be able to control the amount of sugar (I like it with only a little sugar much less than commercial toasted muesli) and the nuts of my choice of course!  nuts and chocolate toasted muesli

This recipe uses rolled oats, seeds, nuts, cocoa and good quality dark chocolate.  Feel free to adapt the ingredients.

Ingredients:
  • 750 g rolled oats
  • 200 g good cooking chocolate (I use the 70% Nestle Plaistowe which can now be found in most supermarkets in Australia)
  • 2 large tablespoons of cocoa
  • 1 cup of walnuts kernels
  • 1 cup of whole hazelnuts
  • 1 tsp of cinamon
  • 1/2 cup of pepitas
  • 1/4 cup of poppy seeds
  • 1/4 cup olive oil (use any good vegetable oil of your choice)
  • 1/4 cup of liquid honey
  • 1/2 tsp salt

You could use almonds also or swap walnuts for almonds.  If your taste tend to be on the sweet side, add 2 tablespoons of demanura sugar to the oat mix.

Method:
  1. For the hazelnuts, place in a shallow baking dish at 160 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Then remove, and place the hazelnuts in a tea towel, wrap the tea towel around and rub the nuts to get the skins off. Once the skins are removed, chop on a large choping board with a large knive to about a quarter size.
  2. In a large roasting tray, place the oats, poppy seeds, cocoa, salt, cinamon.
  3. Pour honey and oil over the oats. If the honey is not liquid, put the honey and oil in a small bowl, heat up 15 seconds in the microwave. Using your hands, coat all the ingredients
    nuts and chocolate toasted muesli
    Just toasted

    as much as you can.

  4. Then, bake on 170°C for about 20-30 minutes until just toasted. Every 10 minutes, use a fork to move the muesli around. You will know when toasted when the colour is slightly darker.
  5. Once cooled down, add the pepitas, toasted hazelnuts, walnuts, and chocolate cut into little chunks.

nuts and chocolate toasted muesli

Figs and nuts toasted muesli

If you want to control what goes into your toasted muesli (and also half the price of the supermarket box), you can make your own.  It does not require specific equipment: an oven and a small food processor, a chopping board and a knife.  You can even do without the food processor.

This recipe uses some dry fruits and nuts.  Feel free to adapt the ingredients, for example you may want more nuts of various kinds and no dry fruits, or you may substitute the apricots with shredded coconut.  I did not write down my first attempt to toasted muesli, it was a lot of nuts, chia seeds and coconut.  One guiding rule: use (based on weight) round 60% weight of rolled oats. Commercial toasted muesli are most often 80% rolled oats.

muesli homemade

Ingredients:
  • 750 g rolled oats
  • 150 g dry apricots
  • 150 g dry figs
  • 150 g pepitas
  • 150 g hazelnuts
  • 150 g raw macadamia
  • 1/4 cup olive oil (use any good vegetable oil of your choice)
  • 1/4 cup of liquid honey
  • 1/2 tsp salt
Method:
  1. With a large knife, cut the figs in strips and the apricots in small pieces up to 5 mm long
  2. Place the nuts (macadamia and hazelnuts) in a small food processor and blend to reach small to medium size. For example, you want each hazelnut cut at least in two and each macadamia at least in four.  I find that there will be some full nuts left and I will cut those with the knife on the chopping board.  There may be a few whole nuts left, that’s all right.
  3. In a large baking tray, place all dry ingredients, roughly mix.
  4. Put the honey and oil in a small bowl, heat up 15 seconds in the microwave and pour over the mix.  Using your hands, coat all the ingredients as much as you can.
  5. Then bake on 180-200°C. After 10 minutes, use a fork to move the muesli around. Repeat every 10 minutes until toasted.
  6. Once cooled down, transfer in a storage jar .

muesli homemade