Oatmeal-banana-carrot gingerbread
8 servings
60 minutes
This recipe is a hybrid of traditional Russian gingerbread, carrot cake and granola, since it uses whole oat flakes instead of flour. And also dates and banana as sweeteners. Depending on how much water you add to the dough, it will have either a dry, gingerbread consistency, or a wet, sticky, almost like pudding. Everyone will decide for themselves which is tastier. In any case, a slice of this honey-date pie is an ideal companion for your morning black unsweetened coffee. It is also important that it is better to put in the dough not regular rolled oats, which are boiled for 15 minutes, but quick ones, which can be soaked in boiling water. This is slightly less healthy, but with them the crumb consistency will be more tender.
1
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
2
Meanwhile, grind the oatmeal into flour (for a fluffy cake, you need 1.5 cups of this flour, and it's better to use traditional Hercules; for a dense, moist pudding cake - 1.5 cups of quick oats, and the flour will be significantly less), add half a cup of whole Hercules oats to the flour.
- Oat flakes: 2 glasss
- Oat flakes: 2 glasss
3
In a blender, mix 0.5 cup of water, 2.5 peeled bananas, and 5-6 pitted dates (I use 'kaspiaran') or honey to taste — though it can certainly be simplified to sugar. Add a pinch of salt and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to this mixture (I also add 1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil for aroma, benefits, and juiciness, but this is optional) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract if available.
- Bananas: 3 pieces
- Dates: 5 piece
- Dates: 5 piece
4
If we make the version that should rise a bit like banana bread, add 0.5 lemon juice to the blender, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the dry mixture (soda is not needed for a low, dense cake).
5
Mix the dry mixture and banana mass in a large bowl, knead, and add 0.5 cups of grated carrots or pulp from carrot juice (can be slightly more than 0.5 cups).
- Carrot: 300 g
6
Finally, gently mix the remaining 0.5 banana (chopped into cubes) and a handful of frozen berries — blueberries, currants, cherries — into the dough. Thin slices of apples/pears, finely chopped nuts, or a handful of soaked seeds will also work.
- Bananas: 3 pieces
7
It's better to bake a moist pudding cake in a wide pan with a thickness of 3-4 cm, and for a 'cake', a loaf pan or individual muffin molds are ideal. Both options bake for about 40 minutes.
8
The cake didn't ask for cream, but the gingerbread does. As a natural and whole cream, blend cashew paste with a couple of dates or honey and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice - it results in a thick, sweet cream without excess fat.