HONEY GELATO

Mmm gelato. The ultimate holiday food. I dont know about you, but gelato is pretty much all I eat when I'm on holidays. It just makes me happy, and I feel adventurous wanting to try the gazillion flavours that are usually presented at a gelateria. Even the most humble gelateria I've come across has had at least 10 to 15 offerings. I'll usually have two flavours - in a cup please (sorry, cones are not for me!). Sometimes I'll have three flavours. And if calories weren't an issue and I could eat all I wanted without having to worry about not fitting into my jeans, then yes, I would had probably even gone for a cup containing six different scoops. With some whipped cream and sprinkles on top. That's how much I love gelato.

Anyway, strange that I had never tried making it at home. Plus, my ice cream machine even has a gelato function- it churns much slower then on ice cream mode. Slow churning means less air which explains the dense creamy texture gelato has.

What I also loved about making gelato is that it is eggless. One day I will tell you why I prefer sweets that are eggless... it's a long story so I will save it for another time :)

The only issue at hand now was what flavour should I try? The answer seemed evident- I wanted to make honey gelato. I had once made homemade honey ice cream, and I still remember how fantastic the taste was. It was pure bliss, and nothing compared to commercial honey ice cream. There are some flavours that just taste so much more better at home- for instance pistachio is a good example in my opinion. Well the same applies for honey. Homemade versus commercially made is like night and day. You cannot even compare. Do you know what I mean? Not only the taste is different, but the colour too. Honey ice cream at home is white- not some light brown colour. You get that naturalness with pistachio too- none of that radioactive fluorescent green colour at home!

However at the last minute I threw in some bits of speculoos...although to be honest with you, this addition gave a bit of a wintery feel and darker colour to the end result. But it was good nonetheless!

Wanna try some?

Recipe for honey gelato:

300ml milk

300ml liquid cream

100gr honey

300ml cold milk + 1 tablespoon cornstarch

In a pot, heat 300ml milk with the cream and honey in a pot. In a cup, mix the cornstarch with 300ml of cold milk- make sure the cornstarch has dissolved completely, then add to the pot and keep mix over heat for two minutes. Remove from heat, chill in fridge for at least two hours before transfering to your ice cream machine. Follow manufacturer's instructions, and enjoy either immediately or place mixture in freezer for a couple of hours. You can optionally add chopped nuts or cookies of your choice for some crunch when transfering cooled mixture to your ice cream machine.

BEAUTY CAKE!

Alright ladies (and gentlemen!), clear out your beauty shelves, set your skin cream jars & tubes aside, and make some space for this beauty cake! Yes, that’s right: beauty and cake are two words that can be written side by side. And I’m not talking about a “beautiful looking cake” (because clearly, this cake I’m posting about doesn’t score much points in terms of good-lookingness), I am talking about a cake that can make your skin look more beautiful.

So why is it that I’ve given this cake the name of a “beauty cake”? Of course, it all has to do with the ingredients. Take a closer look at this wonderfully scented cake with a melt-in-your-mouth texture which miraculously enough might also be beneficial for your skin.

In general, my cooking rules is try to make everything as healthy as possible without compromising on taste. I am a firm believer in this, and having grown up on a Mediterranean diet, you can imagine that our household consumes an above-average amount of good-for-you ingredients such as olive oil, almonds & Co.

This cake is in line with my culinary beliefs, as it contains no butter (and no, I have not substituted butter with apple sauce or gelatin or what not), no egg yolks, and no sugar (and no, the sugar hasn’t been replaced by aspartame!).
What it contains is this: egg whites, high quality honey, almonds, dried figs (with no sugar added), and sunflower oil (yes, you can bake cakes with sunflower oil).

Now being the research freak that I am (always googling stuff up!), all the ingredients of my beauty cake recipe have been documented about to be skin-friendly (and good for cardiovascular health too! )

Let’s start with the obvious ones: almonds is super packed with Vitamin E- and we all know that Vitamin E is your skin’s best friend. Vitamin E is actually an ingredient that helps keep your skin smooth & supple, that’s why it is so common to find in skincare products (did you ever notice the sheer amount of skin creams that contain vitamin E?) (and these are words coming from someone (me) who has worked on skincare products!)

Sunflower oil has been known for years to help skin retain moisture and is also, like almonds, rich with Vitamin E. Many beauty products actually contain sunflower oil for the softening factor, and some people apply sunflower oil directly on their skin.

Honey has been repeatedly studied to contain antioxidants. Now take a minute and think about what most anti ageing skin creams read… yes indeed, they all stress on the importance of anti oxidants to keep fine lines at bay!

Now interestingly enough, egg whites have been used in home-made masks to treat wrinkles! So egg white goodness does not just stop on it’s protein loaded and virtually fat free content (which makes it a fave for celebs who diet all year long i.e: Victoria Beckham hehe).

Finally, dried figs are packed with beauty nutrients such as potassium, iron, calcium & magnesium which are great for healthy skin and hair.


They say there are always exceptions in life, and this might just be one.

Doesn’t it feel good for once to enjoy a slice of cake without the guilt factor?
Recipe for the Beauty Cake:

4 egg whites
120gr good quality honey
50gr sunflower oil
20gr whole grain flour
100gr ground almonds + some chopped almonds to add in the batter
6-8 dried figs, diced

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/th4. In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until they become fluffy. Then add in the honey and mix. Add the vegetable oil, mix. Follow with the flour & ground almonds, mix well but gently. Finally, add some chopped almonds and the diced figs, mix gently with a wooden spoon or spatula. Transfer batter to mould, bake for 30 mins, check with a knife to see if cake is baked. If not, extend cooking by sequences of 10 mins, checking with a sharp knife after each sequence. Remove cake from oven and let cool.