So Odd I don't even know what to call it.... Manna cake and hummus perhaps?

in Foodies Bee Hivelast year

This post goes out to @carisma77 as it was inspired by her Apple CookiesClick and see the post. It is also inspired by @sirenahippie who has encouraged me in my initial posts and is vegan.

This is a long post with two recipe's.

The first is standard hummus. Easy to make but hard to make just right.

The second item is made using the leftover water from cooking the chickpeas in the hummus. The leftover water is called Aqua Faba and it can be used as an egg substitute. What did I make? I'm going to call it Manna Cake. Why Manna? Because "Manna" meant "What is it?" in the bible and that very much suits this cake.

It is a cake made using chickpeas, soy beans, banana peel, apple peel, blueberry, flour, sugar, lemon and oil. Except it doesn't really fit the mold for cake, loaf or square. At the end of the day I don't really know how to classify it! Maybe someone better versed in cooking can come up with a name. Hopefully something other than disaster 😁




Part #1 : Hummus

Now hummus is actually very simple to make. You just cook up some chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and blend it together with lemon juice, cumin, salt, oil, lemon juice, garlic and sesame seeds. It might sound simple but getting the blend just right has taken me a long time to get down!

Let's start with some dried chickpeas.

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I used 3/4 cup of 218g of dried beans ($0.47)

Take the beans and then cook them in a slow cooker at high heat for 6 hours. Of course cover with enough water to make sure they don't dry out. Please don't try cooking dry beans, it just won't work. Yes, when I tried to make hummus the first time I didn't now the beans had to be cooked and almost broke the blender in the process (I'm not a good cook))

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Once the beans are cooked

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Once the beans are cooked it is time to get the hummus ready to go. Now we won't be using the liquid the beans were cooked in for the hummus. Most people would just discard the water down the sink. However I will be using that later to make the Vegan Manna Cake.

So... The beans get drained

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The water water goes in the fridge and the chickpeas cool down while I get everything else prepped for the hummus.

Ingredients (hummus)

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  • 2/3 cup of Lemon Juice ($.52)
  • 2/3 cup of Canola Oil ($.48)
  • 1tbsp of garlic powder (or 5-6 cloves of fresh garlic) ($.13)
  • 1tbsp of cumin ($.10)
  • pinch of salt (1/4 tsp?) (negigible)
  • 3/4 cup of sesame seeds. ($1.73)

Total cost : $3.42 / 1000g

Now some people use tahini paste to make their hummus. Great idea because it is a lot easier that way. However, Tahini paste is just sesame seeds turned into a paste so I make my own. Easy. Put Sesame seeds, oil, lemon juice and spices into the blender and let it do its thing for a while. Result: blended sesame seeds in something resembling a paste.

Step by Step:

Measure 3/4 cup of sesame seeds

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Measure 2/3 cup of Canola oil and Lemon Juice

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Then throw them into the blender and blend until pureed

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You might need to pause every now and then to do some spatula work to move the splattered seeds from the side of the blender back to the bottom.

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Then its time for spices

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1/2 tablespoonful of garlic powder

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A heaping tablespoonful of cumin

And a pinch of salt added to the blender
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Followed by all the cooked chickpeas.

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Now its time to blend it all together.

Now I wish I could just say hit blend and its all good to go in a minute. However that would be an outright lie. It will be way too thick to blend nicely. You will likely get something that looks like this:

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Now some people may like chunky hummus but they certainly won't like it that chunky! So its time to add water little by little until you get a nice smooth consistency (or maybe a little chunky if you like). For me that means about 3/4 cup of water in a blender on puree for about 2 minutes as I like it very smooth.

However, I've also had 1/2 cup of water for 1 minute and that was also quite tasty.

SIDE NOTE: Some people take the skin off the chickpeas before making the hummus saying it makes a smoother blend. I've tried and it is way too much work in my opinion. I just let the blender do its work and that is good enough for me.!




Final Product

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When it is smooth but still holds its form (don't want it runny) then its ready to go. Notice the waves in the blender (not a smooth top). Its nice when it holds its form a bit but not super thick and chunky,

Now its time to spoon it into a holding container and into the fridge.

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Now I did weigh it all and I got just slightly over 1000g of hummus from the recipe. Compared to store bought on sale:

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I made about $11 worth of hummus for a total of $3.42 a savings of about 70%




Part #2 : Manna Cake


Now that the hummus is ready its time to go back to the water left over from cooking the Chickpeas. Did you know that it can be used as an egg substitute in baking? In Vegan cooking it is known as Aqua Faba and it works as a great emulsifier between oil and water which is what the egg normally does in baking. Yes, the aqua faba also adds some structure to the baking as well.

Now my original idea was to take @carisma77 recipe and turn it into a vegan cake.

However, I wanted to make some substitutions to her recipe. She used apple bits for her cookie and discarded the apple peel. I wanted to make sure to use the peel. In addition I decided to use some banana peel as well. I had some left over from eating bananas so why not add a banana flavour as well? She used rasins which are fine but I don't care for the texture and I had some dried blueberries so I figured I'd use those instead. As for the texture? Banana peel, apple peel and dried blueberries have awful texture....but turn them into powder and they add all the flavour without affecting the texture of the cake!

Also, cake is very low in protein so I decided to add some Okara flour that I had left over from when I made soy milk. You can check out that recipe here.

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This is the dried Okara (soybean pulp) before I blended into flour.

Of course using eggs isn't vegan friendly so that got turned into the Aqua Faba from the chickpeas. What did ChatGPT give me as a recipe?

If you only have 35g of okara and you want to use it in your vegan cake recipe, you can adjust the flour amounts accordingly. Here’s how you could modify the recipe to incorporate the available okara:

Ingredients:
2 dried apple peels, powdered
2 dried banana peels, powdered
Dried blueberries, powdered
3 tablespoons of aqua faba (as a substitute for eggs)
100 grams of canola oil (instead of butter)
100 grams of sugar
310 grams of all-purpose wheat flour (subtract the 35g of okara from the total flour required, making it 275 grams of flour)
1.5 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Juice of a lemon

With that I got to work.

Make Banana Peel Powder.

  • Wash then peel banana (cutting off the ends)
  • Place in Dehydrator
  • When fully dry place in blender and make powder.

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(oops didn't take pictures of the dried and powdered peel...but it works the same as the apples).

Dried apple peels

  • Wash and peel apple
  • Put peels in dehydrator
  • Place dried peels in blender and make powder.
    Should look similar to banana peels

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The Blueberries are no different.

Same procedure except I dried these blueberries years ago. I just found them sitting in the cupboard so I decided to use them.

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Where to go from here?

Now that all the fruits and okara are powdered its time to get all the more traditional ingredients ready to go!

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That means all the dry ingredients go into one bowl and all the wet ingredients in the other.


Dry ingredients

  • fruit and okara powder

  • Flour
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  • Sugar
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  • Baking Powder
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  • Cinnamon
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Use a whisk and mix it all up then put it aside.

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Now for the wet ingredients:

  • Oil
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  • Lemon Juice
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  • Aqua Faba
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As you can see they don't really mix well (oil and water). But take a whisk and mix for a short time and you get a nice emulsion.

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Now this is where things went wrong

What should happen next? Easy. Mix the liquid and dry ingredients gently and them put into the oven to bake.

Sounds like a great idea except when I tried that I got a dry mess than couldn't be formed into anything.

So, I doubled up on the amount of oil, vinegar and aqua faba and ended up with this:

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It was very dry and crumbly. Maybe..it could have been turned into a cookie but it looked too dry for even that.

Time to innovate:

I decided to add a cup of water and see what happened.

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It came out pretty thick but it did turn into a batter of sorts.

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I decided to throw it into the oven at 325F for 35min and see what happened

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It came out as sort of a loaf.

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The knife is there because I wanted to do the "done" test. Unfortunately because it was such a dry loaf it came out clean even when it wasn't ready to go. I let it cool, Tried to get a slice and got a gooey mess.
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It was a tasty, gooey mess so I put it back into the over for another half hour to see if I could get an edible loaf out of this.




After another 45min at 325F

Not what I hoped for.

I wanted either a cake or a loaf. I got some very tasty bits of something. Too crumby to be called a cake. Not dense enough to be called a loaf.

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I was able to cut them into something vaguely resembling a square. I enjoyed them so did my mother in law. As for my son (the true taste test) well, he doesn't get home for another half hour or so.

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Oh yeah...

Nico really enjoyed it even if the consistency was off.

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End results

At the end of the day the Hummus came out really well.

The Manna cake came out very tasty but with very poor consistency. Next time I think it would do much better in a shallow tray at a higher heat but for this time...well, certainly edible even if it looks awful :)

Thanks for dropping by for a recipe that didn't quite go as planned.

Sort:  

Hi @tergan

Sorry for the delay. When I saw your post I started to write a comment and then the power went out in my area...situation that happens every day and affects my work.

I am glad you were motivated by my work to make these two great recipes. I wanted to tell you that when you have recipes like this, extensive, it is good that you fraction your work, that is, that you publish each recipe separately.

Now, regarding the chickpea hummus, it was just right, delicious, spicy, with texture (I like it that way too), ideal for dressing and to use as a spread.

As for your manna cake, I'll tell you that sometimes it's very complicated to make vegan cakes if you don't have a previously tested recipe, because you don't get enough cohesion and structure. I would recommend two things: One is to beat the aquafaba at high speed, with electric sticks, to aerate it, this helps to give more structure to the preparation; and the other is that you add one or two chia or flax eggs, but instead of using the whole seeds, minutes before hydrating them, grind them dry and then hydrate them with hot water and activate them for about 30 minutes. The mucilage provided by these seeds is ideal to give cohesion to vegan cakes and cookies. In fact, I have already veganized traditional Venezuelan dessert recipes and I get a better result by replacing the chicken eggs with chia or flax eggs prepared in this way, grinding the seeds minutes before using them (if you grind them before, they become bitter).

I love the use of the banana, apple and blueberry powders, that's a great job, just getting those powders would have looked ideal in a post, as it's a time and effort consuming elaboration. I think they added flavor, color and fiber to your recipe; the only thing I would recommend is that they were 100% organic fruits to avoid consuming toxic elements.

I have no doubt that the taste of your manna cake was delicious, even if it didn't turn out beautifully.

Hugs.


Hola @tergan

Disculpa la tardanza. Cuando ví tu post comencé a escribir un comentario y luego se interrumpió el servicio eléctrico en mi zona... situación que se presenta a diario, afectando mi trabajo.

Me siento contenta de que te hayas motivado en mi trabajo para hacer estas dos súper recetas. Quería decirte cuando tengas recetas así, extensas, es bueno que fracciones tu trabajo, o sea, que publiques cada receta por separado.

Ahora bien, con respecto al hummus de garbanzos, quedó en su punto, delicioso, especiado, con textura (a mí me gusta así también), ideal para aderezar y usar como untable.

En cuanto a tu pastel maná, pues te diré que a veces resulta muy complejo el hacer pasteles veganos si no se cuenta con una receta previamente comprobada, pues no se alcanza la cohesión y estructura suficientes. Yo te recomendaría dos cosas: Una, batir el aquafaba a alta velocidad, con varillas eléctricas para airearlas, esto ayuda a que provea más estructura a la preparación; y por otra parte, que añadas uno o dos huevos de chía o de lino, pero que en vez de usar las semillas enteras, minutos antes de hidratarlas, las muelas en seco para luego hidratarlas con agua caliente y activarlas por unos 30 minutos. El múcilago que proveen estas semillas es ideal para darle cohesión a los pasteles y galletas veganas. De hecho, yo antes he veganizado recetas de postres tradicionales venezolanos, y logro un mejor resultado sustituyendo los huevos de gallina por huevos de chía o de lino, preparados de ese modo, moliendo las semillas minutos antes de usarlas (si las mueles antes, se ponen amargas).

Me parece estupendo el uso de los polvos de banana, manzana y arándanos, ese es un súper trabajo, sólo la obtención de esos polvos habrían quedado ideales en un post, pues es una elaboración que requiere tiempo y esfuerzo. Creo que le añadieron sabor, color y fibra a tu receta; lo único que recomendaría es que fuesen frutas 100% orgánicas, para evitar el consumo de elementos tóxicos.

No dudo que el sabor de tu pastel maná haya sido delicioso, aún cuando no haya quedado hermoso.

Abrazos.

I really wanted to split it into two posts. Honestly I did. However one time I posted about making hummus in the #hivelearners and I know that #foodiebeehive doesn't like duplicate posts. The dilemma was I needed to show how I got the aquafava but didn't want to run foul of the guidelines.

Result: The post went way longed than I liked 😟

I considered just showing how to make powdered apple but again, I understand the community to make actual dishes and powdered apple and banana is just making an ingredient not an actual dish 😟

I do like experimenting and I have tried the chia egg before and will likely try it again. I'll probably redo this fruit bread sometime and hopefully you won't mind me posting a second time....hopefully with better results :)

Thanks for reading,
and I know I'm new to the community, I'll take any advice you have so I can abide by the rules and be a good foodie poster. Even if I prove to be an unusual one 🤣

I like that you are honest. It was a good idea then to make a long post, because in this specific case, it was necessary. In the future you can repeat the recipe a second time, mentioning and sharing the link in this post, and I also hope you have a good result. I think you will have it. Greetings and happy Sunday!

I do try to follow the rules :)

Lying on a public blockchain doesn't really work well in the end :)

Hi! I really enjoyed your post hahaha it made me laugh the way you prepared the almost cake or almost bread, well whatever you call it.
Thanks for mentioning me in an honor.
I have also prepared Hummus in fact it is in one of my publications, I think yours was very good.
As for the almost cake, I find it very interesting how you turned the Apple and Banana shells into powder, that's great.
You have made a great attempt and I think the dog enjoyed your recipe, anyway the most important thing is that it tastes good!
Greeting!

A bit of bad news on the cake. While I was busy mowing the lawn my dog ate the entire plate and made a big mess. I guess he must have really enjoyed it :) My son got one and said it had great taste but the texture wasn't great.

As for the apple and banana peel....Yeah, I like using unusual ingredients. I'll probably end up putting carrot or strawberry leaf powder into something in another post. It just seems to be a waste to throw it in the compost when it is edible and has nutrition in it.

Thank you for reading my post.

It is nice to know someone is watching :)

Hahaha what a funny doggy but that means he really liked your cake :-).
Well in gastronomy we are always learning, for the next one you will make a better cake for sure :-O
Greetings!

Delicious cake
this looks so yummy

Thank you.

It tasted great (even though my dog got to it and ate most of it) but the texture was all wrong. If it had better texture and a bit of icing...yum...

Next time I'll get it right (or the time after that...or...well, sometime ;)

Again, appreciate you taking a look and sending a note

Your welcome

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