About me

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I've changed my life around and now I am enjoying The Lighter Life. I love cooking and especially baking lovely desserts, but I wanna stay away from little no-no's like too much sugar and fat. I live in Belgium where the 'low-carb and low-fat movement' is just starting to begin so I found myself looking for recipes with easy to find ingredients and metric cooking measurements. Since they were hard to find, I decided to make my own! My desserts may never win beauty contests, for baking with bio ingredients will mostly give you flat cakes and pies. But lord will they win over your taste buds and still have you fitting into your skinny jeans. I invite you all to try out some recipes, adapt a couple where you see fit and above all, learn to enjoy the lovely taste of freshly baked, healthy goods.
Posts tonen met het label vanilla. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label vanilla. Alle posts tonen

zaterdag 31 augustus 2013

Soy cake with crumble base

It's been a while but I'm back with a new recipe , tried and tested (much to my own enjoyment) and ready to be baked in houses all over the country.

I present you, my low-fat, low sugar, yogurt cake with a crumble base.




Did I read low fat? 
Granted, there is butter in the base, but apart from that, the yogurt and milk add up to about 5g of fat....and that's the good kind of fat people because if you choose soy based products, you ingest the good saturated fats...the one the body just simply needs.

Did you say low sugar?
Two tablespoons of sugar go into the base. The yogurt and milk are naturally sweet and the additions of two tablespoons liquid sweetener just gives all you sweet tooths out there (I know I'm one of 'em) that extra satisfaction.

Why the crumble base?
You can use store-bought cookies and mash them up to make a crumble base. But this way is just way more fun. Get your hands dirty and start kneading that dough. Also, store-bought cookies are, apart from high in bad fat, also filled with extra additives to make them look good and hold their color. Therefore, take the extra ten minutes and just make it yourself and that way, you know exactly what went into them.


Ingredients:

For the crumble:
100 gr soft butter, cut into cubes
150 gr white flour
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cold water

For the filling:
250 gr plain soy yogurt (I used my all-time favorite Alpro Soy)
100 ml Light Vanilla Soy drink
2 tbsp liquid sweetener
2 eggs
100 gr buckwheat flour

Way to do it:

  1. Sift the white flour in a bowl and add sugar, cinnamon and the salt and give it a little mix until they are combined. Add the sugar and use your hands to knead the dough. It needs to form a nice consistent ball. Not too sticky but definitely not too crumbly. Add a tbsp of water if you feel like the dough needs it to stick together.
  2. Fold the ball of dough into a tinfoil and let it rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
  3. To make the filling, add all it's ingredients in a bowl (use the one from the dough, nobody likes doing dishes right?) and mix until air bubbles start showing. Place in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.
  4. Take a round baking tray and gently oil it. Line the tray with your dough. Pour in the mixture and place into a preheated oven at 200 degrees C for about 20 minutes.
  5.  

Take the cake out of the oven if the outsides are set but the middle is still a little bit wobbly. Let it cool completely (COMPLETELY Stevie, have some patience) before you take it out of the tin.  

You can choose how you wish to decorate the cake. I saved some pieces of the dough and rolled them into long strips to make the circle design. It's your cake and your creation, so do whatever you like. You could even write out a person's name if you are making this cake as a birthday gift.

I enjoyed mine with a cup of coffee in my new favorite mug :)


Enjoy
xx

dinsdag 12 maart 2013

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Hi Everyone,

I just can't stop making cookies!
I love them with a cup of tea to end a stressful day or with a cup of coffee in the morning for that sweet kick-off. This time, I shelved my almond and went to work with coconut and man did that work out.
If you try only one thing on this entire blog, try this! They are easy to make and low in carb.

Ingredients:

2 large Eggs
3 tbsp low fat cream cheese
150 gr soft butter
a tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
120 gr shredded coconut
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
60gr melted dark chocolate( the less carb the better. Mine was 16gr per 85gr
60gr dark chocolate chopped

How to do it:


  • Preheat over to 170 degrees C.
  • In a bowl add butter, cream cheese and sweetener. Then add the eggs, vanilla extract and the melted chocolate.
  • Add the baking powder,salt and shredded coconut.
  • Finally, gently stir in the chopped chocolate

  • I made 11 big cookies with my dough. The dough is strong enough for you to roll little balls with, making a nice shaped cookie. Place them evenly on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Bake for about 15min at 170 degrees C. During the baking, the cookies will loose some fat. Don't worry about that. It's normal and it results in an even 'healthier' cookie.

    Afterwards, gently move them to a plate to cool.

    Depending on how big you make them and which ingredients you use, this entire recipe contains about 22gr of carbs. So that's about 2 gr of carb per cookie. Still way less than any cookie you can buy in the shops. And less expensive. Besides, they make your house smell amazing all day.

    Do leave them overnight if you can resist their smell because I found the taste and texture is better the next day.

    Note: You can also add some white chocolate chunks or replace the melted chocolate with non sweetened cocao powder for a cookie with even less carbs. Use this recipe as a base for further recipes and add maybe maple sugar for a sweet cookie, or more sugar and vanilla for a rich vanilla cookie. Experiment, you know I will....

    Enjoy
    xx

    zondag 10 maart 2013

    Chocolate Birthday Cake

    Hi Everyone,

    I'm back with my first cake recipe so read on if you enjoy delicious jet low carb desserts!

    It was my birthday on the 8th of march and for a dinner celebration on the 9th at my family's house, I really wanted to indulge in a nice dessert. One I could share with the entire family but that didn't leave me feeling like a cheater. Therefore, I took out my favorite cakes cookbook (this one, an old one but so good with many lovely and easy recipes) and adapted it to a low carb successful formula.

    I hope you like it. This makes a very dense cake so you probably won't need to eat more than one piece.

    Ingredients for 1 cake:

    100gr almond flour
    1 tbsp instant coffee powder
    3 big eggs
    2 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
    60gr dark chocolate
    60gr ground coconut
    a couple of drops vanilla essence
    1 tsp baking powder and salt to match it

    175g cream cheese
    15ml Amaretto
    2 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
    2 tbsp soft butter


    How to do it:

  • Preheat over to 190 degrees C.
  • Separate the whites from the yolks and beat the whites stiff.
  • In the bowl with the yolks add the sweetener, melted chocolate, coffee powder, baking powder, vanilla essence, ground coconut and almond flour.
  • Gently fold in the egg whites. This will give the cake it's height and make your dough more moist.
  • Bake for about 25minutes at 190 C. Check while it's cooking because all ovens are different.

  • Afterwards let the cake cool and in the meantime we can make the filling.

  • Mix the cream cheese with the sweetener, soft butter and add the Amaretto.
  • I would suggest putting it in the fridge to harden. This will make the smearing a lot easier.

  • At this point you could add some extra topping. I didn't because the cake is moist enough. But anyways, here's the ceipe if you want to do it.
    You'll need:
    120gr soft butter
    3 tbsp sweetener
    3 tbsp cocoa powder
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    1 egg yolk


  • Whisk the butter in a bowl to loosen it up and make it creamy.
  • Add the sweetener, vanilla extract and cocoa powder.
  • The egg yolk is optional but I would suggest you use it. It gives the topping a nice glaze.

  • Now it's time to assemble the cake.

  • Cut your cake in half horizontally, making two nice flat discs.
  • Generously add the cream cheese filling and put both halves back together. Don't push them down, you want the extra height.
  • Finish with the optional topping. You can decide wither you want a thick layer on top or if you want to wrap the entire cake in chocolaty goodness. It's your cake so do as you please.

  • And there you have it. A wonderful yet low carb choclate cake for the entire family to enjoy. The carb amount on this one is higher than my other recipes, but hey, It's my party and I'll indulge if I want to.

    Till next time,
    Enjoy
    xx

    zondag 3 maart 2013

    Almond Macadamia Cookies

    Hi Everyone,

    I'm back with a new recipe!
    After my hazelnut cookies really did the trick of keeping my sweet cravings in check, I decided I needed more! I made another batch of cookies because I love how they are so low in carb and I don't have to feel bad for indulging.
    My cookie routine: I have one in the morning before my meals with a nice cup of strong coffee and in the evening, I have another one (or two...) with some lemon tea and really, it doesn't even feel like I'm dieting.

    Ingredients:

    2 large Eggs
    150 gr butter
    a tsp vanilla extract
    5 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
    200 gr Almond flour
    1 tsp baking powder
    dash of salt
    60gr Macadamia nuts, chopped

    How to do it:

  • Preheat over to 190 degrees C.
  • Separate the whites from the yolks and beat the whites stiff.
  • In the bowl with the yolks add the vanilla extract and butter.
  • Add the sweetener and mix again.
  • Add the baking powder,salt and almond flour.
  • Gently fold in the egg whites. This will give your cookie it's height.
  • Finally, gently stir in the chopped nuts

  • Divide the dough evenly into about 15 little heaps of dough and place them on a cookie sheet. Make sure they are far enough apart because they will spread out a little. Bake for about 12 minutes at 190 C for soft cookies, go to about 17 minutes for crunchier ones.

    Afterwards let them cool before you move them to a plate.


    Depending on how big you make them and which ingredients you use, this entire recipe contains about 17gr of carbs. So that's about 1,2 gr of carb per cookie!

    Leave them overnight because I found the taste and texture is better the next day.

    Note: You can also add some white chocolate chunks but I couldn't find any with reduced calories. Now I found some on so I'll be back soon with some white chocolate creations :D

    Note 2: For added yummyness, you could smear the top of the cookies with some low sugar jam. Only do so right before you're about to eat them because otherwise, they will make the cookie too mushy.



    Enjoy
    xx

    zaterdag 23 februari 2013

    Hazelnut Cookies

    Ingredients:

    2 large Eggs
    150 gr butter
    a tsp vanilla extract
    3 tbsp sweetener
    120 gr Hazelnut Butter (you can use peanutbutter if you prefer)
    1 tsp baking powder
    dash of salt
    40gr of Stevia dark chocolate chunks (try and find the one with the less carbs, I found mine in a bio shop)

    Way to do it:

    1. Preheat over to 190 degrees C.
    2. Separate the whites from the yolks and beat the whites stiff. In the bowl with the yolks add the vanilla extract and butter.
    3. Add the sweetener and mix again.
    4. Add Peanut butter and mix till well combined.
    5. Add the baking powder and the salt. Then you add the chocolate chunks
    6. When your batter is done, gently fold in the egg whites. This will give your cookie it's height and yummyness
    7. Divide the dough evenly into about 15 little heaps of dough and place them on a cookie sheet. Make sure they are far enough apart because they will spread out a little. Bake for about 15 minutes at 190 C
    Afterwards let them cool before you move them to a plate.


    Depeding on how big you make them and which ingredients you use, this entire recipe contains about 20gr of carbs. So that's about 1,5 gr of carb per cookie!

    Enjoy
    xx