Vegan by Nature
inherent recipes from a passionate cookDaring 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
Monome Birthday Cake (Vanilla with Sour Cherry Buttercream/Frosting)
For my brother’s 23rd I decided to make a cake in the shape of a lovely device known as a monome. It is used in music making and more information about this can be found at his site http://firebrandboy.com/.
I can however bring you the other lovely details about how I made this cake:
Sponge recipe
2 cups flour (I used a gluten free mix if using ordinary flour add an extra 3/4 cup)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsps xanthan gum (if using gluten free)
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
2 Tbsp water
1 3/4 cups Non-dairy milk Milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup non-dairy margarine
1 cup fructose ( or 1 1/2 cups sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract + seeds of one vanilla pod
3/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 375F/Gas 5
Grease two 8″ cake tins
Combine cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the ener-G with 2 Tbsp water with a small whisk or a fork. Mix for 30 seconds to a minute, until smooth and creamy. Mix the ener-G mixture with almond milk and 1/4 cup water. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. I like to use electric beaters for maximum air incorporation. Add vanilla extract, almond extract, and 1/4 cup water, beat until smooth and combined.
Add the flour and the almond milk to the margarine. Be sure to combine well if using gluten-free flour but with regular flour do not over mix as the cake may come out more chewy (unpleasant?!) In both cases fold the mixes together instead of beating them to ensure the cake stays light.
Pour 1/2 the mixture into each cake pan. Bake until the centers spring back noting that it may not brown much on top. Remove from oven and cool for about 2 minutes. Invert cake onto a rack. Cool completely before frosting, about 1 1/2 hours.
Sour Cherry Frosting
3 tbs non-dairy margarine
9 tbs soy protein isolate powder (found in most health food shops)
1/2 cup cherry jam
2 tbs lime juice
1 cup fructose (or 1 1/2 cups sugar)
Beat the margarine until it turns white and fluffy (electric beaters work best)
In small batches, beat in the soy powder until combined (your mix may be quite dry)
Add to this the jam and lime juice, beating some more.
Then add in your choice of sweetener.
Beat for around five minutes until well combined. If the mix is still quite dry add in some more jam (Jams will vary in water and fruit content) until it resembles a stiff but spreadable mix.
August Daring Bakers! Chocolate, mmm
The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
My torte is both vegan and gluten free. It is chocolate and lime flavour. I served it up with lime nougat and vegan raspberry ice cream. I used Karina’s recipe for the sponge from her blog as the gluten free goddess and used substitutions for the original recipe elsewhere. Enjoy!
Making home made tofu
In my area it has become increasingly difficult to purchase silken tofu and I was getting very aware of not having had “cheese”cake in quite some time. My only options were to pay a fortune in the city or, of course, make my own.
So I began researching the process involved in making tofu and found further obstacles. Most recipes called for a product called ‘nigari’ (a natural coagulant) which I could only find online. Others used epsom salts which I found in my local pharmacy but after some research discovered that too much magnesium (the epsom salts) could be harmful to your health. Not keen to take that risk I opted for the less popular use of lemon juice which ‘tends to produce a more sour taste’. This time I only made a small batch due to the uncertainty of my results. But it came out so good I will definitely be making more, and my nigari is in the post.
Here’s a rough recipe with instructions below:
Scald 400ml soya milk
simmer for 5 mins
turn off the heat
add 150ml lemon juice
allow to sit for 15 mins
pour into cloth covered/pierced box
put weight on top
leave to drain for a while.
Voila!
This produces a silken type tofu and is ideal for cheesecake or other cheeses.
Craftster Edible Challenge
I decided to go savoury on this one. I am very used to making things from cakes and really wanted something to challenge this routine. The bread is made from a hand made loaf that I made earlier in the week. The rest are vegetables. The cross stitch is really threaded through some holes. I ate all this at the end. It was a very edible sewing box!
Vegan by Nature 