About different kinds of fat

Fats: The good, the bad and the really ugly

When it comes to fat and the human health, it is difficult to figure out what is really happening, not to mention forming an educated opinion. Until recently, scientists promoted polyunsaturated oils to keep cholesterol levels under control. Now it seems that the experts might have been wrong by condemning saturated fats. I, a humble lay person, cannot help but feel confused. Maybe all this scientific research cannot be taken too seriously. After all, there is always somebody paying the bills and this might influence the outcome of any research.

For me it is time to apply some common sense to the subject: I strongly believe the more natural the fat, the better. That means in short: I trust butter and cold pressed oils. Generally I use only butter and olive oil in my kitchen. However, now a book has changed my mind: In future I will include cold pressed coconut oil as well.

In the book “Coconut diet” (ISBN-13: 978-0-00-727284-6, available from HarperCollins Publishers India) the author Cherie Calbom provides some interesting information about coconut oil. According to her, coconut oil got a bad reputation due to negative media reports during the latter half of the previous century. Saturated fats were widely held responsible for the increase of heart disease in the USA, condemning butter as well as coconut oil. Polyunsaturated oils were hailed as healthy.

Nowadays it seems exactly the opposite may be true. I believe refined vegetable oils – even if they are polyunsaturated – are bad for our bodies. Vegetable oils produce highly damaging trans fatty acids when refined or heated. These trans fatty acids, according to latest research, are the really ugly when it comes to our health. The clog our blood vessels and they inflate the fat cells on our hips in no time at all, not to mention they become quickly rancid, flooding our body with poison. Most packaged food contains oil of questionable quality.

On the other hand, saturated fats like butter and coconut oil are absolutely vital for the human body (the following points are taken from the “Coconut diet”):

• About half of cell membranes are made from saturated fatty acids.
• Our bones need saturated fatty acids to incorporate calcium.
• Saturated fatty acids protect the liver and enhance the immune system.
• Tissues retain omega-3 fatty acids better when you eat saturated fat at the same time. (Check Kornelia's Kitchen  ).
• The heart muscle is embedded in tissue made from saturated fat.
• Short and medium-chain saturated fatty acids combat harmful microorganisms.

More recipes at Kornelia's Kitchen
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Triple-Nut-Guglhupf

 

Guglhupf – a rotating sun for the emperor’s breakfast

A guglhupf was a common sight on our dining table: My grandfather could not get enough of his favorite cake. His guglhupf was made with yeast and a lot of eggs – light dough melting in the mouth, crowned by roasted almonds and dusted with icing sugar. My grandfather shared the habit of eating guglhupf with royal Europeans. According to legend around 1800 the Austrian Emperor discovered the guglhupf, making it his daily breakfast. Following Emperors like Franz Joseph and his wife Sissi could not imagine beginning the day without guglhupf.

The original guglhupf goes a long way back:  Archaeological excavations near Vienna show Romans used a mold for ring cake in the form of a rotating sun identical to the guglhupf.

Childhood memories came rushing back when I discovered a guglhupf mold recently in my favorite home appliance store. This one had nothing to do with the antique Italian copper molds decorating my kitchen here. It was made from high tech flexible silicon which can support high temperatures. It needs buttering only for the first use. Following the first use you just fill it with the batter, stuff it in the oven and wash it – very convenient. I had to have this fruit of modern technology which was made in Italy (an added bonus for me), although it carried a sizable price tag.

Back home I wondered which kind of guglhupf to make. I am not a big fan of yeast dough because it takes a long time for rising. Furthermore I like to use whole wheat flour. You cannot make a proper yeast cake with this flour. It just does not taste right. So I did some thinking and developed the recipe for a triple nut guglhupf. 

It combines three different kind of nuts (very healthy) with whole wheat flour, coconut oil, and eggs (very healthy, too). To balance this it also got some chocolate chips for my chocoholic men and of course sugar, but only a moderate amount. I have used a vanilla pod grown in Goa for this recipe. If you don’t want to spend the money for the vanilla pod, use vanilla extract. Experts say artificial vanilla leaves a bitter aftertaste, but I don’t share this opinion. I think real vanilla is only required for vanilla ice cream and custards. When vanilla only contributes to a lot of other ingredients, artificial vanilla extract is perfectly acceptable for me.

Ingredients:

• 150 grams desiccated coconut
• 100 grams roasted almonds
• 100 grams roasted cashew nuts
• 100 grams chocolate chips made from dark cooking chocolate
• 6 eggs
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup cold pressed coconut oil
• 1 cup milk
• butter for greasing the mold
• icing sugar for dusting the guglhupf

 

Method:

Prepare your vessel: Spread butter carefully over the inside of your guglhupf mold. If you don’t have a guglhupf shape, you can take any round, big cake mold. A silicon mold needs greasing only the first time you use it.

Spread the almonds and the cashew nuts over a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven. Keep the flame low and pay attention: Nuts burn easily. They are done when the cashew nuts have turned golden brown and the almond skins show some dark brown spots. Let the nuts cool down and grind them finely. The easiest way to do this is using a blender. Take a piece of dark cooking chocolate, place it on a cutting board and shave off chocolate chips with the help of a big knife.

Place the eggs into a big whisking bowl. Slice open the vanilla pod and scrap out the insides. Add these aromatic bits and the sugar to the eggs. Beat everything with a hand mixer until you have a light colored, thick cream. Incorporate the coconut oil, the nuts and the coconut flakes into the mixture.

Combine the flour with the baking powder and stir it into the batter. Finally add the milk. Fill the batter immediately into the mold and bake it for 1 ¼ hour at lowest temperature in the oven. The guglhupf needs quite a lot of time for baking as it is a big cake. You can check if the cake is done with a toothpick. Stick it into the cake: If it comes out clean, the cake is done.

Choco-Coco-Muffins

‘Can't you make some different muffins?’

My son asked this question some time ago with the impatience of a little maharaja. Being an obedient Mama, who loves her only offspring dearly, I set out to work.  I read my way through a couple of recipes in cookbooks and cooking websites. Then I entered my kitchen with a concept in mind. Like always I tried to combine a maximum of nutritious ingredients with a minimum of not so healthy stuff…and failed miserably. 

My first attempt at muffins produced not even a lukewarm response from my men. ‘Really not my favorite, sorry’, said my Italian husband after the first bite. ‘They taste so much like oats’, complained my son. ‘What is wrong with oats? I like oats’, was my resigned response. I ended up eating most of the high fiber muffins myself. They definitely tasted like oats, but not in a bad way…

That’s why I decided to play it safe. With my men that means chocolate, lots of chocolate - or in the case of these muffins cocoa powder. What’s more, I got inspired by a book I found with the title ‘Coconut diet’, in which the American author Cherie Calbom reveals everything there is to know about this ‘secret ingredient for effortless weight loss’ (that’s how she refers to the humble coconut). I have written a short summary about coconuts for my first book, (check Kornelia's Kitchen  ).

After some more experiments in my kitchen with results, who found gradually more mercy in the eyes of my men, I am happy to present the recipe for my ‘Choco-Coco-Muffins’ to you. They are loaded with nutritious ingredients like coconut oil, grated coconut, whole wheat flour, oats and cacao (check Kornelia's Kitchen )

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as my men do. They make a great breakfast or snack and I put them into my son’s tiffin boxes.

Choco-Coco-Muffins

Ingredients (for 22 small muffins or 12 big muffins):

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup cold pressed coconut oil
• 100 grams desiccated, grated coconut
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 and ½ cups milk
• butter to grease the muffin moulds
• paper lining for the moulds
• icing sugar for dusting the muffins
•  

How to make Choco-Coco-Muffins:

Start with greasing the muffin moulds. The easiest way is getting your hands dirty by grabbing a piece of soft butter and wiping it all around the moulds. Then place a piece of paper lining into each mould and make sure the lining sticks properly to the sides all around. This takes a bit of patience, but it is the most demanding job when making these muffins, so don’t despair…

Next step is switching on your oven to 190 Degrees Celsius. When making dough with baking powder it is always better to preheat the oven. The baking powder loses its power waiting around to be cooked. Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and add the vanilla essence and the sugar. Stir with a hand mixer until the ingredients are combined. Then sift the cocoa powder over the mixture, add the grated coconut and the coconut oil and mix everything well. Finally blend the baking powder and the baking soda with the flour and put this into the mixing bowl. Join the oats and give everything a stir, so the dough is roughly combined. I use baking soda and baking powder because the combination of both has more power to raise this rather heavy muffin mix.

Distribute the dough evenly in your muffin moulds and bake the small moulds for 25 minutes, topping the baking off with 5 minutes of grill. If you use big moulds you have to bake them 5 more minutes in the oven. Just be careful not to overcook them. Overcooked muffins tend to turn dry. Dust the muffins with icing sugar, once they have cooled down.

Fats: The good, the bad and the really ugly

When it comes to fat and the human health, it is difficult to figure out what is really happening, not to mention forming an educated opinion. Until recently, scientists promoted polyunsaturated oils to keep cholesterol levels under control. Now it seems that the experts might have been wrong by condemning saturated fats. I, a humble lay person, cannot help but feel confused. Maybe all this scientific research cannot be taken too seriously. After all, there is always somebody paying the bills and this might influence the outcome of any research.

For me it is time to apply some common sense to the subject: I strongly believe the more natural the fat, the better. That means in short: I trust butter and cold pressed oils. Generally I use only butter and olive oil in my kitchen. However, now a book has changed my mind: In future I will include cold pressed coconut oil as well.

In the book “Coconut diet” (ISBN-13: 978-0-00-727284-6, available from HarperCollins Publishers India) the author Cherie Calbom provides some interesting information about coconut oil. According to her, coconut oil got a bad reputation due to negative media reports during the latter half of the previous century. Saturated fats were widely held responsible for the increase of heart disease in the USA, condemning butter as well as coconut oil. Polyunsaturated oils were hailed as healthy.

Nowadays it seems exactly the opposite may be true. I believe refined vegetable oils – even if they are polyunsaturated – are bad for our bodies. Vegetable oils produce highly damaging trans fatty acids when refined or heated. These trans fatty acids, according to latest research, are the really ugly when it comes to our health. The clog our blood vessels and they inflate the fat cells on our hips in no time at all, not to mention they become quickly rancid, flooding our body with poison. Most packaged food contains oil of questionable quality.

On the other hand, saturated fats like butter and coconut oil are absolutely vital for the human body (the following points are taken from the “Coconut diet”):

• About half of cell membranes are made from saturated fatty acids.
• Our bones need saturated fatty acids to incorporate calcium.
• Saturated fatty acids protect the liver and enhance the immune system.
• Tissues retain omega-3 fatty acids better when you eat saturated fat at the same time. (Check Kornelia's Kitchen  ).
• The heart muscle is embedded in tissue made from saturated fat.
• Short and medium-chain saturated fatty acids combat harmful microorganisms.

More recipes at Kornelia's Kitchen
Sign up for my monthly newsletter