Vegan by Nature
Just another WordPress.com weblogAmaretto and Raisin Nanaimo Bars
The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.
Before this challenge I was ignorant to the glorious creation that is nanaimo bars. I found a Vegan recipe for the custard layer from Sarah Kramer’s ‘Vegan a-go-go’ made with my own homemade powdered sugar and an added dash of amaretto. I also made my own chocolate topping straight from cocoa butter, cocoa powder, vanilla, pinch of salt and soy milk. My base layer was a combination of the leftover spice crumb base from our Christmas cheesecake recipe and some raw coconut ice sweeties I had in the freezer. I shoved some sultanas in with the raisins, just for effect. All gluten-free and all natural sugars too!
Here we are, frosty from the freezer:
And then some…
…with ice cream?
Salvaged Gingerbread House: December Daring Bakers
The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.
I had a bit of a disaster with my house. Everything was going fine until the dough came out of the oven. In retrospect I should have realised that gluten-free flour would have been more prone to crumbling and therefore not ideal for creating a solid structure. Nonetheless I still had pieces big enough to create a small, minimalist version of my original plan and, I quite like it 
I used the cut out ginger cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar.
Spelt Cinnamon and Raisin Bagels
I used a recipe from Fernley-Whitingstall’s River Cottage Bread Handbook and substitued the bread flour with spelt. I also used the overnight rise method. First time success
The key is to poach them in some molasses water first and then bake them. Really beautiful.
Hello Sunday
Blueberry swirl cannoli cups
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
I decided to use the vegan version of this (recipe follows) but I substituted the flour for spelt flour, the marsala wine with grape juice and brandy and the sugar with fructose!
I filled them with a mixture of blueberry jam and homemade cream…
…a mixture of soy protein powder, fructose, brandy and soya milk until you reach quite a thick spoonable consistency (sorry I was rushed and didn’t have time to measure exactly)
The cannoli dough:
2 3/4 cups spelt flour
2 tablespoons fructose
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 flax egg (whisk 2 tablespoons flax powder/meal with 3 tablespoons water)
2/3 cup marsala wine
serves 10
Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180 C/350 F
Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, shortening, flax egg (whisk 2 tablespoons flax powder/meal with 3 tablespoons water), and wine together to make a dough.
Chill in the fridge for about 1/2 hour.
Roll out dough on floured surface to about 1/8 inch think.
Cut out 4 inch circles and then roll them one way so they turn into ovals
I made mine into little cups but traditionally the are rolled around cannoli forms (needless to say I didn’t have any)
Daring Baker’s October French Macaroons!
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.
To make the Vegan version of this, I used ener-g egg replacer instead of eggs, ground almonds instead of almond flour, and used my home made powdered sugar which uses fructose. I also reduced the recipe to yield a smaller batch.
Mine were Vanilla flavoured with a choco-currant filling.
For the filling:
cocoa powder
soya yoghurt
blackcurrant jam
fructose
(this bit was less measured I’m afraid)
Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.
Yield: 10 dozen.
Caramel Experimentation
I have been meaning to try this caramel recipe for some time and eventually got round to playing with it. The results were pretty good!
The macaroon is made from potato, icing sugar and coconut topped with chocolate and coconut.
Dried apricots produce a lovely sticky consistency when soaked and blended in a processor.
Add in 1/4 cup of margarine, I like to use the vegan kind and a touch of barley malt syrup is also a nice addition.
Continue processing and as the mixture is spinning, slowly pour in some milk of your choice, I like soya, just enough to make it smooth.
Suit yourself on that one.
Once made it is lovely spread on anything: biscuits; toast, baked apples… me I made caramel shortcake.
Furthermore, if you have time heat the caramel in a pan over a low heat, continually stirring to prevent burning. This will make it sweeter and stickier. Plus sweet things warmed up on rainy mornings like today are always welcomed.
Un-cheese cake! Blackcurrant and cherry.
This is a big achievement for me and I finally feel like I have perfected the recipe without the use of fake cream cheese. Hooray!
Here goes:
1 avocado
1 packet of silken tofu approx 300g (I used homemade from 2litres of soy milk)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp barley malt syrup (could sub with maple or rice syrup here but if using maple increase arrowroot quantity)
juice of 1 lime
fresh vanilla or 2 tsp good vanilla extract
4 tbsps fructose (it is 3 times sweeter than ordinary sugar so adjust accordingly)
2 tbsps arrowroot
For the base:
I made a random graham cracker recipe with a basic biscuit recipe subbing some gram flour and wholemeal spelt for the ordinary flour. This one’s good http://www.animalsnotingredients.co.uk/2008/10/02/shortbread-biscuits/
1/3 cup melted dairy free margarine
1/3 cup fructose
1 tbsp barley malt syrup
1. Once baked and cooled whizz the biscuits in a processor until it resembles sand.
2. Slowly pour in 1/3 melted dairy free marg followed by the fructose and then stop the processor. Add in the syrup, then back on until combined.
3. Press into a springform cake tin and refridgerate while making the filling.
4. Whizz all the ingredients together in a processor until thick creamy consistency. Pour on top of the base and cover with topping of your choice. I like blackcurrants and cherries myself.
5. Refridgerate overnight minimum, but if you can wait longer it’s soo worth it.
A Day of Baking
What a horrible day outside today, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to make it happy on the inside! This meant some baking. I was planning on making frangipanes for the MacMillan Coffee Morning at my work anyway so why not. I ended up with these:
Peanut and Oat Bars
3 cups oats (whizz them in a food processor so roughly chopped)
1 cup dried dates
2 Tbsp applesauce
1/3 cup apple juice
1 cup peanut butter
some mixed spice (to taste)
Mix the dates in with apple juice in a saucepan over a low heat until softened
Add in the applesauce spice and peanut butter and continue stirring over the heat
Keep on the heat until thickened slightly
Pour the mix into the oats until well combined
Pour into a greased tin, lined with baking paper, press flat and leave to completely cool.
Slice and eat!
Puff Pastry
(Recipe to come in a later post)
Flax and Pear Balsamic loaf
This is pretty much the same as my spelt loaf except I used white flour, pear flavoured balsamic vinegar instead of cider vinegar and half olive oil/half flaxseed oil. Very tasty.
Frangipanes with Cherry Filling
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
1.5tsp baking powder
1 cup ground almonds
1 tbsp applesauce
1 tbsp amaretto
1 tsp almond extract
150ml water
Cherry jam
Homemade marzipan (made from dates and ground almonds with almond flavouring)
Preheat to gas 5/200 c
Sift together the dry ingredients
Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl until well combined
Mix the wet with the dry and scoop into lil cases
Bake for around 30 mins or until the tops are slightly golden (these will be moist due to the applesauce)
Allow to cool completely, fill with cherry jam and top with a disc of marzipan and some almonds.
Pretty no?
Sunday Sticky Apple and Spelt Cinnamon Buns
I was originally quite dubious about making these since I normally have bad experiences with yeast breads, but seriously these work a treat. They are also free from refined sugar, wheat and low in fat but super sweet! I used fructose and other various substitutions in my recipe but feel free to replace these with a sweetener of your choice.
(Makes approximately 6 rolls)
For the dough:
1 Tbsp dried yeast
1/2 tsp fructose
1/8 cup warm water
Mix these together in a bowl and allow to sit until nice and frothy, about 10 mins
1/4 cup dairy free milk
1 Tbsp fructose
3 Tbsp applesauce
Mix these into the yeast mix until well combined.
1 1/3 cups wholemeal spelt flour
3/4 tsp salt
Gradually mix in the flour and the salt until combined.
2 Tbsp dairy free margarine
2 Tbsp applesauce
Finally add the marg and the applesauce into the mix, ensuring the marg is all mixed in.
Dough will be pretty sticky. Turn it out onto a well floured surface and knead in more flour (about 1/2 cup) for about 8-10 mins. Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a dish cloth. Set aside to rise in a warm place for around 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until doubled in size.
For the Filling:
1/4 cup fructose
1 Tbsp Barley Malt (or 1/4 brown sugar)
1/2 cup your favourite nuts, I used pecans and almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cloves
1 Tbsp Barley malt syrup + 2 Tbsp water or 1 Tbsp maple syrup
4 Tbsp melted dairy free margarine
1/2 tsp fresh vanilla bean
While the dough is rising make the filling. Mix all the ingredients above and set aside. Once the dough has risen, turn out onto a well floured surface, it will still be sticky so feel free to use flour as needed. Knead for about 4 mins. Cover with a cloth and allow to rest before rolling out.
Flour a rolling pin and roll out the dough to about 30cm x 15, not too thin or the filling will escape!
1/2 cup chopped apples
Spread the filling mixture over the dough, leaving a small border around the edge. Spread the chopped apples evenly over the filling and press gently into the dough.
It gets a bit messy here. Carefully fold over one of the 15cm edges and begin rolling the dough into a sausage.
Using a sharp knife cut into 6 equal sections and arrange onto a greased pan, all snug together. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rest either in a warm place for arounf 2 hours/doubled in size or in the fridge overnight. I rest mine overnight. If doing this be sure to leave the buns out of the fridge for around 20 mins before baking.
Pre-heat to gas mark 5/375 f/200 c. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Food explosion
What better than to have a whole day to poduce some really good food. Here is what I came up with today.
The Entree: Chips and dips
1/2 cup gluten-free flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum (if possible)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fructose
1 1/2 cups water
Lightly grease a frying pan
Sift the dry ingredients together
Whisk in the water until well combined
Heat the pan on a medium heat
Do a test pancake by dropping some of the mix into the pan, it’s hot enough when the mix starts cooking right away
Pour a generous tbs of the mix into the pan and with the back of a metal spoon quickly swirl the mix around the whole base of the pan to get the thinnest possible pancake
Once the mix is no longer wet on top, flip it over and cook on the other side until slightly brown.
Tortilla chips:
corn pancakes
cornmeal
oil
seasoning
Cut some corn pancakes (previous post) into triangles.
Sprinkle some cornmeal on a baking sheet and ensure both sides of the pancake are well covered with cornmeal
Spread them out
brush with oil
sprinkle on some seasoning (i used some paprika on some of mine)
Bake in a really hot oven until golden edges appear then turn the heat down to medium and bake for a further 20 mins or until the chips are nice and crisp.
Chutney:
1 tbs + 1 tsp tomato paste/puree
smoked paprika
1 tbs lime juice
salt and pepper
1/2 chopped red onion
2 baby onions
1 tbs water
Microwave the onions for about 4 mins until softened
Put these and the rest of the ingredients into a processor
Add more water if necessary
season to taste
Pea and Endamame Guacamole:
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup endamame beans
1/4 cup water
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp olive oil
salt
chopped corriander
Cook the peas and beans in the water until softened
Blend the peas, beans, lime juice, oil and salt together until smooth
Mix in the chopped corriander
The main:
Clean tasty roast veggies with edamame beans, blanched green beans and crispy soy tofu/meat-free hot dogs
The Dessert:
Simply:
1/2 nectarine (de-stoned)
1 tsp lime juice
lime zest
grated nutmeg
Wrap in some foil and bake in a moderate oven until soft and sticky around 50 mins
Blackcurrant cream:
sweetened soya milk
blackcurrant jam
Mix until gloopy or to suit your preferred consistency
Some bread:
21/4 cups wholegrain spelt flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp fructose
100ml water
150ml sweetened soya milk
2 tsps vinegar
60ml or 1/4 cup olive oil
Preheat oven to gas 4/180 C
Grease a 2lb loaf tin
Sift together the dry ingredients (I like to do this with a whisk to make things nice n light)
Whisk together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl
Gently mix the wet into the dry, careful not to over mix, just enough so that things are nicely combined
Pour batter into the loaf tin
Bake for 50 mins and then remove from the tin and bake for a further 10 mins
