Wow oh wow, it's been a while! I must confess, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I shared an actual recipe on this blog. It might even be years, dare I say it. So I knew when I finally reappeared with a recipe, I'd have to come back with a bang. 

And I know what you're saying... "Oh Anna... why are sharing an oatmeal recipe in summer?!"  

Now while this was an absolute nightmare to make look nice in photographs, because let's face it, it's basically stodge (the good kind of stodge.) I can promise it tastes 100% better than it looks.

Since stumbling upon Madeleine Olivia's Baked Banana Oats recipe, I've been hooked. I tweaked this recipe slightly by adding blueberries and flaxseed, and let me tell you, it's addictive. These baked oats are like eating warm blueberry muffins, straight from the oven! But the best part? You can eat this for breakfast without the guilt.

I've been eating these baked banana & blueberry oats non-stop for months now and let me tell you, I'm still not sick of them. Which is why I knew I had to share this recipe with you. I've also found it's a nice and easy way to cook your oats, without having to stand by and stir continuously. Stick it in the oven, put on a timer, and go snuggle under a blanket!

Most of us are aware of the power of blueberries these days, often known as the king of antioxidants, they are an amazing way to start your day. However, flaxseed is an incredible superfood that often gets overlooked. Good in porridge, bread or smoothies, flaxseed is high in Omega-3 fatty acids. So if you're a vegan or vegetarian, flaxseeds are a great addition to your diet. Not only that, the ground flaxseed in this dish really helps to bind the oats and make them extra cakey. 

And if all that deliciousness wasn't enough, once warm and golden from the oven, you can top with whatever you like! I like to top mine with lashings of almond butter and an extra drizzle of honey/maple syrup. It doesn't get much better than that.

These Baked Banana & Blueberry Oats taste like warm blueberry muffins, straight from the oven! Perfect for a winters day, it makes a delicious, warming breakfast or even a cosy dessert. You wouldn't believe it's gluten/dairy free - and vegan too!

Baked Banana & Blueberry Oats

Ahhhh, today is officially Heart + Bowl’s 2nd Birthday!!

Can you believe it’s been two years already?!

The past couple of years have been quite extraordinary. I could never of imagined the opportunities I’ve been given thanks to blogging! In the last year alone, I’ve been featured in not one, but two cookbooks! I’ve also teamed up with some fantastic brands who I really admire, and hosted some really fun giveaways!

It’s crazy to think how much Heart + Bowl has changed me, and in so many different ways. I’ve discovered a new passion for food photography, it’s given me so many fantastic contacts and I’ve made loads of amazing foodie discoveries!

So I thought I better follow up all that awesomeness with something equally awesome, that will kick-off my next year of blogging!

So for this very special occasion, I’ve teamed up with Gnaw Chocolate, to help celebrate my 2nd year blogiversary in styyyyle. As birthdays are basically just an excuse for cake – I’ve made this Chocolate Celebration Cake with the help of some incredible Gnaw goodies!

For those of you who’ve not heard of Gnaw, they are the producers of the most amazing chocolate, and they handcraft it right here in my home county of Norfolk!! They source natural ingredients, and ethnically sourced cocoa beans, to deliver a chocolate bar that’s packed full of flavour and love!

You’ll be spoiled for choice where Gnaw is concerned, From Rocky Road to Lemon Meringue – there’s so many unique and exciting flavours. While I avoid eating dairy, there’s still an impressive range of dark chocolate bars for me to choose from. I’ve pictured just a few above!

While they are all incredible, my personal favourite is the Coffee + Mint bar. I love mint chocolate, and I also love coffee, but I’d never tried or even seen a combination of the two before trying Gnaw. The flavours pair so, so well – and it makes the perfect after-dinner treat!  I love that Gnaw strives for really fun and bold flavours, that you don’t see anywhere else.

With Gnaw having such high quality, natural ingredients – it also means it’s great to bake with! I’ve used two plain Dark Chocolate bars in this cake recipe to make this Chocolate Celebration Cake extra special! The cake is also gluten, wheat and dairy free – and made from all natural ingredients!!!

The cake does however, use a craaazzzyyy amount of eggs. But shhhh, I won’t tell if you don’t. Although, the eggs are vital to make this cake super springy, airy and delicious! With that being said, I think this has to be my best attempt at free-from baking yet! Even my normal-cake-eating-friends enjoyed it, and couldn’t believe it was gluten and dairy free!

Ok, so now I’ve talked for hours about cake and chocolate… Hungry yet?! I just wanted to finally say a MASSIVE thank you, to all my amazing readers. You really are the most important people of all! Without your support and enthusiasm over the last 2 years, I would not have been able to keep on going! So thank you for all the comments, retweets, likes and double-taps! It means the world.

Here’s to the next year of blogging, and all the exciting, new opportunities it brings!

Heart + Bowl's 2nd Birthday – Chocolate Celebration Cake

You know what? I think – I think… it maybe Easter.

Based on all the chocolate around, and the eggs, and the baby chicks… I’m gonna make an educated guess.

I only have to take one quick glance at my Instagram feed to see the latest Mini Egg or Creme Egg creation. Uuuughh.

Don’t get me wrong, Easter is great and all, but it’s not exactly inspiring for those of us who can’t eat dairy. Thankfully, in this day and age, we have a lot of free-from alternatives to enjoy, but a lot of these tend to be loaded with refined-sugar.

So seeing as this is a season of gluttony – I’ve tried to make some naturally sweet treats that you can enjoy guilt-free! (Instead of crying into that fifth Easter egg, full of chocolatey, chocolatey regret.)

I designed these little treats to be gluten, dairy + refined-sugar free. The natural sweetness comes with the help of some juicy medjool dates. They make the most amazing chewy-fudge chunks too!

They can also be made vegan by swapping out the honey for maple syrup.

In order to make them even more Easter-y, I’ve made some au naturel mini eggs for decoration – with a little ground almonds and almond butter!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend + enjoy these Rice Crispy Treats! Let me know what you think of them in the comments below, or show me your creations using #heartandbowl.

Guilt-Free Rice Crispy Treats – Easter Weekend

It’s no secret – I’m a massive tea drinker. Gasp! A British girl who likes tea? Well I never… Yes, we’re a tea guzzling nation like no other, and I’m just another tea junkie. But in recent years I’ve grown out of my bog standard English Breakfast addiction, after discovering a huge variety of different blends. Who knew there was a whole big, exciting world out there filled with tea?! Fragrant, floral, spiced, iced, fruity, minty – I’ve tried them all.

I’ve become well travelled in this tea world, and toured the diverse landscape of earl grey, green, chai, herbal and fruit blends. I’ve brewed hundreds of tea bags, loose leaf blends and matcha lattes. Each one of them delicious in their own right. Some of my favourite shops and brands to try are teapigs, Whittard and Kandula.

But no matter what the blend, I’m always on the look out for the perfect cuppa accompaniment. Enter  – Apple Spiced Tea Cookies! Are you ready for a tea-cookie sensation? With just the right amount of sweetness from dates, nuttiness from coconut and spice from cinnamon, they partner with loads of different blends.

Not only that, but these Spiced Apple Tea Cookies are so super healthy – you might even be tempted to have one with your morning brew. While these cookies will go with most tea blends, I’ve included some suggestions in the recipe notes that may rock your world. Yes… your metaphorical world of tea.

Apple Spiced Tea Cookies

There’s nothing quite like a good cup of coffee on a peaceful sunday morning. Within the last year, my partner Dan has introduced me to what good coffee really means. Before – my idea of a posh cup of coffee was Douwe Egberts’s Gold Blend instant. Yep. All baristas – cover your ears. Sorry.

But within the last year, we have gone from bog standard instant blend, to a Dolce Gusto coffee machine, to a no frills cafetiere, to finally an Aeropress coffee maker. If you would have asked me what an Aeropress was 12 months ago, I’d have thought you were talking about some kind of space equipment an astronaut might use. Now that the Aeropress is on the scene, we’ve never looked back – and Dan didn’t let us stop there. We stopped using generic supermarket instant brands in favour of grinding our own coffee beans straight from local coffee independents and suppliers.

I’m a big lover and supporter of local produce from my home county of Norfolk. For those of you not familiar with Norfolk – we’re a very remote and quaint (to put it politely) part of the UK. But that’s part of it’s charm for me. So when I found out about local coffee roasters Grey Seal – I was ecstatic. Shocked even. Coffee… being roasted… in Norfolk?! I had to get me some of this. These chaps carefully select and import small batches of coffee from all across the big wide world, but freshly roast it right here in Norfolk – only 2 miles from the sea, and a few miles further from my home. You can even visit the Roastery to have a little chat about coffee, brewing methods or to try some samples. This is coffee with a personal touch.

After months and months of drinking and sampling different batches of Grey Seal Coffee – I decided it was high time I used some of their beautifully rich little beans in a recipe. Especially after recently reading up on some of the quite surprising health benefits of said coffee.

I’ve always enjoyed the classic combination of coffee and chocolate – everyone does right? Ok, well if you don’t – I find that a little bit weird. In the nicest way possible! Hand me a tiramisu or some chocolate coffee cake ANYDAY. Needless to say, I figured chocolate and coffee cookies might be the way forward. Mocha Cookies even. That’s a bit catchier.

As these are flourless cookies, the main ingredient is primarily chocolate!!! So you should definitely opt for a really good quality one for these. I would recommend anything from 70% cocoa upwards, and potentially organic if you can afford that little extra. I’m a big fan of Green and Black’s Organic Dark Cooking Chocolate. But I’ll leave it up to you to choose your favourite!

For the mocha part of the cookies, I ground up some of Grey Seal’s Guatemala Huehuetenango on the day of use, so the coffee was as fresh as possible. The smell alone after grinding the beans was incredible. It was enough to get me salivating before I’d even started prepping the cookies.

Without the mass of flour in this recipe, it really allows the key ingredients of the coffee and chocolate to shine. The flavours are intense – in a good ‘give me more’ kind of way. The cookies have a beautiful crisp and shiny shell when they come out of the oven, but are soft and squishy in texture as you bite into them.

“But how do I get my hands on some Grey Seal Coffee?” – I hear you cry. Well – never fear! The kind folks at Grey Seal Coffee have given me some of their Mexico El Cuarenteno to giveaway! This coffee has rich body, citrus and honey notes and a cocoa aroma. Ideal for making your own flourless mocha cookies!

Enter below in the rafflecopter to be in with a chance of winning. You’ll be introduced to a whole new world of wonderful coffee, that’s for sure.

For postage reasons, I’m only accepting UK entries only. Accept my huge apologies to those readers from the rest of the world!

Baked Goods

Baked Banana & Blueberry Oats

Heart + Bowl's 2nd Birthday – Chocolate Celebration Cake

Guilt-Free Rice Crispy Treats – Easter Weekend

Apple Spiced Tea Cookies

Flourless Mocha Cookies + A Giveaway