BOWL CAKE

• both sweet, with fresh and dried fruit, chocolate or cocoa
• than salted with meat, cheese, fish, eggs and vegetables.

• satisfying each dietary requirement (it can in fact be prepared excluding gluten, nuts, dairy products, soy, eggs, refined sugar)
• recovering what you have in the pantry (everything can be added to the dough: flour or cereal flakes, bran, muesli, granola, nuts and oilseeds, fresh or dried fruit, vegetables, meat, cheeses, fish, eggs or egg whites only)
• increasing the content of fibers (when using wholemeal flours or flakes and vegetables among the ingredients) and opening the door to a alimentation more balanced not exceeding with any type of ingredient that can cause “food sensitivity”
• being very hearty (when the ingredients include eggs, nuts, dairy products and cheeses, meat and fish)
• you can decide if add some baking powder and which baking powder for desserts or baking soda (perfect when among the ingredients we find ricotta and remove the egg yolk).

• it is usually cooked in the microwave (for 3 minutes at 750 W power)
• for those who do not have a microwave oven I decided to try cooking it in a traditional oven and I assure you that the result is very pleasant.

Vegan apple bowl cake

Ingredienti per una bowl cake:

• 40 g of cereal flakes of your choice
• 45 ml of water 3 table spoons**
• 1 table spoon of chia seeds*** + 2 table spoons of water  ◊  or  ◊ 1 egg  ◊  or  ◊ 1 egg white
• 100 g of apple
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt (optional)

How to prepare the bowl cake

Chop the cereal flakes in powder with the baking powder and salt.

Blend the apple.

If you use chia seeds to bind the dough: mix the water and chia seeds in a bowl, cover the bowl with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Chia seeds will form the gel that will replace the egg.

In a bowl add all the ingredients and mix well.

Pour the mixture into the bowl if you bake in the microwave by covering with cling film, or in the oven mold you prefer if you bake in the traditional oven.

I baked my dough (in 3 small silicone molds with a diameter of 6 cm deep 3.5 cm) in the traditional oven preheated to 180 ° C for 20 minutes (remember that each oven is unique, always check the cooking), covering the mold with parchment paper or a lid.

** The liquid part can be water, vegetable milk, traditional milk or it can be replaced with 100 g of fresh cheese such as ricotta.

*** If you do not have chia seeds in your pantry, you can replace them with flax seeds, psyllium, agar agar as regards the cream. Here find my post dedicated to natural thickeners.

• The bowl to be used for a single portion is deep, between 13 and 15 centimeters. The bowl cake swells containing baking powder and is therefore likely to overflow into a smaller bowl.
• The average cooking time in the microwave oven is around 3 minutes, but this may depend on the microwave power. Find the ideal cooking time that allows you to cook without drying the cake too much. If you don’t know your oven well, program the cooking in 2:30 minutes to start and check until the right cooking time is obtained. Also in the traditional oven it is good to check the cooking the first time.
• Cover the bowl with the lid of the container or, if you don’t have it, with a plate or cling film. In this way the dough will remain moist and softer. The bowl cake must be very soft and almost free of external crust!
• You can also use the bowl cake to prepare spoon desserts which have as a base a cake with wets and creams.
• Glaze, garnish, accompany the bowl cake as you like.
• In the savory version it can also be a “single dish”.