After betraying my love for smoothies for a couple of weeks and trying liters and liters of different juices, the blender - and the smoothies - are back. I could have called this one a winter smoothie because the spices do add warmth to it but I decided to go with the pretentious name. 

Oriental smoothie
(vegan, for one)

20 cl almond milk (or any non-dairy milk)
2 dried figs (35 g)
1/2 frozen banana
1 teaspoon rose water
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground star anise

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.


Smoothie oriental
(végétalien, pour une personne)

20 cl de lait d'amande (ou autre lait végétal)
2 figues sèches (35 g)
1/2 banane congelée
1 c. à c. d'eau de rose
1/2 c. à c. cardamome
1/2 c. à c. de badiane

Mettre tous les ingrédients dans un blender et mixer jusuq'à ce que le mélange soit homogène.

Honouring my blog name

I chose the name Oh, Almonds because I love almonds. I was the kid who sniffed glue because it smelled like almond. The "Cleopatra glue" is my madeleine (you don't understand any of this, that's ok, for the glue see this link and for the madeleine Freudian-ish reference see Memory under Themes in this wikipedia article). I also begged my mum to keep the bitter almond extract in the cookie cutter box so the smell would overwhelm me when I opened it and that was a good plan as I used the cookie cutters a lot when I was a kid (I still have the box and it still smells of bitter almond). I like the downy feel of green almonds and the  pastel colours of almond trees in blossom and this painting by Van Gogh and of course I like eating almonds. As it turns out, almond flour is a great-gluten free flour and I'm happy with that.

I used almond flour and almond yogurt in this light and moist cake and fresh figs that are still in season, but not for long unfortunately.

I make my own almond flour just by grinding unbleached almonds in my blender (it works with a food processor, but the result will be a coarse texture).

If you'd like to know how to make your own almond butter and milk, please see my friend Maëlia's post on her blog. She even posted a recipe about how to use almond milk leftovers! A little almond heaven!

Cardamom fig cake
(vegan, gluten free)

100 g gluten-free flour
75 g almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt (do not omit)
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
30 g raw sugar

6 + 2 fresh figs
2 flax eggs
85 g agave syrup
125 g non-dairy yogurt (I used almond)
44.5 g olive oil

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Mix the dry ingredients until well combined, add the wet ingredients, except the figs, and mix well. Cut 6 figs in small pieces and add them to the batter. Pour into a cake mould. Slice the remaining figs and carefully position them on top of the cake. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and then transfer to wire rack.