Last weekend, I came from a family reunion in Bulacan and, as the Filipino tradition of taking home leftovers from big feasts goes, instead of taking home actual viands of food (ulam), I brought home the unprepared/uncut veggies leftover from the salad bar. It was a bunch of carrots, cucumber, and cabbage brought in from relatives all the way from Nueva Ecija, which I think were homegrown (and organic? Haha). With these in hand, I couldn't bear to have these produce go to waste while they were still fresh, so I tried to come up with recipe ideas for them.
First up was the carrots: in the reunion, there were carrot cakepops so I started craving for them and wanted to come up with a healthy recipe for it.
(excuse the blurry photo)
I grated and pureed the carrots (bad idea though because pureeing ruined the texture), and for a lower carb alternative to flour, I used my Bob's Red Mill Low Carb Baking Mix (1tbsp) and Soy Flour (1tbsp), and added Sunny Select Pancake Mix (2tbsps) for a more bread-like texture.
To make the bars more fudgey, I added a tbsp of Better Body PBfit powdered peanut butter, and sweetened with a packet of Coconatura coconut sugar (which is lower in GI) and some honey. For flavour, I added a sprinkle of cinnamon and a bit of vanilla extract. Add 1 egg and a splash of cashew milk and it was ready for baking.
After 200 degrees and around 15 mins in the oven (dependent on your tray + oven), they came out fudgey and moist, but lacked enough bread-like consistency. Although the taste was good, my mom said it could have used more carrots for taste and for texture.
I topped them with cream cheese to offset the sweetness that the honey brought.
Overall, the recipe can be improved but overall I'm happy with how it turned out because it didn't taste like the usual "yummy food that turned earthy when it tried to turn healthy;" it tasted like actual carrot cake, with a healthy secret. 😉
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