Almond cheese cake

For the cheese portion of the cake I make yogurt cheese.  The yogurt cheese takes 4-8 hours.  So beware of that before getting too excited.  This is not a difficult recipe, but it is certainly for the more patient.  I just hang my yogurt as soon as I get home from the store so that I have it ready to go since I can throw it back into it's original container and keep it refrigerated until time of use.   The awesome part is that the total active time on this dessert is maybe 30 minutes.  So it isn't time consuming, it just requires patience.  And the reward couldn't get much better.

Oat flour oil pastry:
Which is flaky, delicious and alright for those avoiding cholesterol or animal products (for other pies and tarts).

• 1 heaping Cup oat flour  (pulse rolled oats until fine in a food processor)
• 1 shallow cup of whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/3 Cup -1/2 Cup olive oil
• pinch of salt

Blend all in a bowl until well combined the oil makes the flour stick to itself and you can pat out 4 small tart shells or one large one.  It is pretty easy to just press it into a tart pan without trying to roll it out which can take a little bit of wizardry to succeed.  Preheat oven to 450 bake 12-15 minutes checking to make sure its not over browning.  Take out let cool. Once the shell is cool - fill it with the blended filling.

Cheesecake soft filling:  (which you'll need to adjust for your tart pans size)

3/4 Cup whipping cream (liquid state)
3/4 - 1 Cup yogurt cheese  (solid state)
3 TBSP light brown sugar
1-2 TBSP honey or agave (agave is better for diabetics and can replace brown sugar as well in a slightly smaller amount)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract   (if doing fruit topping just use vanilla and leave out the almond)

Approximately 10 almonds for topping, chopped until able to be eaten easily with the cheesecake.

Beat the hell out of the whipping cream until smooth but quite thick, too much and it starts to look like it has curds.  In a bowl put your yogurt cheese, sugars, extracts and beat so that the sugars are well combined and smooth with no chunks. Fold in the whipped cream until thoroughly combined.  Spoon into your tart shell and cover with almond pieces.  Place into the refrigerator for at least one hour.  More time is better but I know it is difficult to wait.  2-4 hours is ideal.  It makes a really lush texture.

Even though the yield for the recipe above is for an 8 inch by 2 and 1/2 inch deep cheese cake... the pieces are rich, creamy and satisfying. Making 8 pieces like the one shown. So share it or horde it!

So simple Banana muffins.

No eggs?  No problem.  Eggs are often thought of as a must-have for baking.  This is because they are an excellent rising agent (I almost typed eggcellent, would you have ever forgiven me?).  Along with eggs, baking soda, honey, and yeast help as well.  So one part the egg does that yeast and baking soda don't do is also help bind the ingredients together.  For that bananas are wonderful, however they do not really aid in rising so along with them you'll need baking soda like in most egg baking as well.

You can also use bananas and/or applesauce in a pinch for recipes that require eggs when you are out.  Or a bit more oil than you'd like to use in a recipe?  Swap some or all of it out for applesauce.  If you want it to have LESS banana flavor use slightly greener bananas.  The less ripe the banana the less banana flavor, but they'll still bind like a champ.  I recommend if your plan is to stay away from the bad stuff (MSG, broken proteins or amines), then using just spotty bananas will suffice for banana flavored things.  It has really good flavor without too much of the bad stuff (blackened bananas are bad for you. sigh. I love them - but nature is right, rotten isn't good for me or you).

Banana anything is usually good but often not amazing.  Whenever folks would cook for me as a vegetarian they'd usually serve up a banana something for dessert.  And it was generally decent tasting but nothing to rave on about.  Bananas cooked in rum or over a campfire might send me, but alas no muffin did that.  It was always. "yum" in the tiniest print.  I think there are two fruits that go extraordinarily well with bananas: strawberries and blueberries, but they get to fight over who wins.  You win by eating them.  These muffins can be made with fresh or frozen blueberries OR fresh or frozen strawberries.  These have blueberry.  See the bounty!

So on with it.  Banana muffin time. 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• 1 and 1/2 Cup whole wheat flour (as usual, you may use the flour you favor or do a combo)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp allspice (this is my favorite spice in this recipe and I feel makes it less ordinary)
• 1 Cup slightly heaping blueberries (or strawberries)
• 2 lightly spotted bananas
• 3/4 Cup olive oil (you can get away with less and always add up to the 3/4 to make sure the flour combines)
• 3/4 Cup vegan sugar ( or sneak less in there until the family noticeably gets irritated with you)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Yield is approx. 1 dozen

I had forgotten salt when making these on a whim, it was not missed -so I left it out.  I do find this recipe to be a tad sweet for me, Jason would not have me change it for the world so your family may also like it as is. I plan on probably sneaking less in next time as the bananas and the blueberries are quite sweet and don't rely as heavily on the sugar as other fruits may - like cranberries.

Combine dry ingredients except sugar (sugar always goes with wet ingredients).  Add the 1 Cup auxiliary fruit and toss to coat in flour.  Chop bananas in a separate mixing bowl until small bits, cover in the oil, sugar and vanilla.  Beat senseless until nearly fluffy like eggs or butter would be and once well combined scrape into the dry ingredients and combine well until no dry flour remains. I use a 1/4 Cup scoop to pour into paper lined muffin tin.  Cook for 20-30 minutes. My oven in Portland, Oregon took 28 minutes the longest of all my muffins your oven in Istanbul may take longer.  The tops should have golden brown kisses and start to crack with fault lines and when pressed spring back just so.  Then perfection.