Cocoa Oatmeal Muffins

A baking post to mix it up.

Looking for a way to use up some pantry ingredients, I found this recipe online & veganised it.

Cocoa Oatmeal Muffins

• 1 1/4 cups plain flour (I used half wholemeal, half normal)
  
• 1 cup caster sugar (you could use half applesauce, half sugar, or another natural sweetener like agave syrup)
  
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
  
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  
• 1 TBS baking powder
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 2 egg replacers (I used Orgran)
  
• 1 cup soy milk
  
• 1/2 cup Nuttelex, melted
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 cup nuts, chopped finely (I used walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 170C & grease a 12 hole muffin tin. Stir together flour, sugar, oats, cocoa, baking powder and salt in large bowl.

Beat egg replacer, soy milk, Nuttelex and vanilla together in a small bowl. Add wet mixture and nuts to the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the tin bake 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

I've lost the photo of these muffins so you'll just have to take my word for it - they're awesome. Chocolatey, wholesome (if you use wholemeal flour & natural sweeteners) & no-fail so far. Also a real crowd pleaser - I took multiple batches of these to work & they always got eaten on the same day.

Sweet Treats

Here's a few sweet treats I've been baking lately. First up - the most recent.These are the 'Raspberry Oatmeal Bars' from The Joy of Vegan Baking.Another great recipe from a great book - everyone at work loved them too. The only change I made was to use Mum's home made plum jam (thanks Mum!) as I didn't have any raspberry. I'd recommend this one to people looking for a quick & easy sugar fix - it's a good basic recipe, using ingredients you'll have in the pantry.
This is a veganised version of caramel slice, made because I needed to use up some soy condensed milk. As you can tell from the photo the caramel was too runny. So runny I didn't end up taking the slice to the afternoon tea I had cooked it for. I read somewhere to add cornflour to the mix to thicken it, which I did, but it didn't really work. Oh well - we live and learn.
And here are some Oatmeal Apple Pancakes with Blueberries. I really like these - it's another quick dish, and also surprisingly nutritious - good for a weekend breakfast. Warning - they are pretty sweet, so stay away if you're normally a savoury person. The recipe comes from a free iPhone app which I have posted about before - Whole Foods Market.

Oatmeal Apple Pancakes

• 1 cup rolled oats
  
• 1/2 cup applesauce
  
• 1 egg replacer (I use Orgran - flaxseed would work really well)
  
• 2 TBS maple or agave syrup
  
• 1 TBS Nuttelex

Combine oats, applesauce, egg replacer & syrup in a food processor & puree to make a smooth batter. At this stage, I added 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries & pulsed a few times to chop the berries.

Melt 1/2 TBS of the Nuttelex in a large frypan over medium heat. Working in batches, drop 2 TBS of batter into the pan to form 5 pancakes, spacing them a couple of inches apart. Cook, flipping once, until golden brown & cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining Nuttelex & batter.

Serve warm with your favourite pancake toppings.
Finally, these are Chewy Muesli Squares - kind of healthy with those wholegrains, nuts & seeds but also kind of not with all that sugar & Nuttelex. Delicious though :-)

I'm not sure where this recipe came from - let me know if I've stolen it from you.

Chewy Muesli Squares

• 1/4 cup cup golden syrup
  
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
  
• 1/2 cup Nuttelex
  
• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
  
• 2 cups breakfast crisp (I used weet bix)
  
• 2 cups puffed brown rice
  
• 1/2 cup cup sesame seeds
  
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Melt golden syrup, peanut butter, Nuttelex & sugar in a saucepan over low-medium heat & simmer for 5mins. Combine with remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Press this mix firmly into 20x30cm shallow tin. Refrigerate until firm & cut into squares.

Sunday brunch

Here's a nutrient-packed brunch recipe for you. It comes from an Iphone app - '21-day Vegan Kickstart'. The app is basically a meal plan designed to help people transition to a vegan diet. It's got some good ideas & a few interesting recipes - so, even if you've been vegan for a long time like me, it can help you get back into healthy eating habits.Spinach and Mushroom Frittata

• 1/2 cup water (I used 1 TBS olive oil instead)
  
• 1 onion, diced
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
  
• 2 tsp dry basil
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
  
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  
• 1/4 tsp celery seeds (I didn't have any, so just left them out)
  
• 1 package frozen spinach, thawed (I used half a bunch of fresh spinach)
  
• 1 package silken tofu (about 300g)
  
• 2 TBS dry couscous
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk
  
• 1 tomato, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees & grease a 9 inch pie dish. Heat the water or oil in a large frypan over medium heat. Add the onion & garlic & cook until soft, about 5mins.

Add mushrooms, basil, salt, pepper, nutmeg & seeds. Cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are soft, about 5mins. Stir in spinach & cook, stirring often, until mix is very dry. Remove from heat.

In a food processor or blender, process tofu until very smooth. Add to spinach mix, along with couscous & soy milk. Stir well.

Pour the mix into the dish & arrange the tomato slices around the outside edge. Bake 25mins, remove from oven and let stand 10mins before serving.

The frittata was tasty, but there are a couple of things I will change next time:

• Adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast - for flavour & colour.
  
• I didn't let the spinach mix dry out enough - meaning the final product was a bit watery.
  
• Using half silken & half firm tofu (or firm tofu mixed with soy milk) - to help the frittata firm up a bit - it didn't come out of the dish neatly.

Overall, this was a satisfying meal - it would be great with some potatoes or avocado or maybe even a salad on the side. For me, there's a bit too much prep involved for a lazy Sunday morning - but if you have someone to share the workload with, you'll be enjoying your brunch before you know it :-)

The other positive? It's healthy, probably much healthier than Chelsey's pancakes, which I had for breakfast yesterday. They were delicious though :-)

Mega post of pre-Christmas baking

Rather than spam you with individual posts, here's one big catch-up post of everything I made in the lead-up to Christmas.

This is Potato Wedges - I just cut up the potatoes, put them in a baking pan with a slurp of olive oil, then sprinkle some salt/pepper/rosemary over the top. Then I bake them at about 190C for 30-40min - delicious!The cauliflower is Lisa's Roasted Cauliflower. This didn't turn out so well for me - but I didn't follow the recipe properly so it's definitely my fault :-). I didn't have any onion & I used a little too much sesame oil & rosemary so the flavours were all out.

Here are some gingerbread men I made from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I made them to take to a pre-Christmas afternoon tea but they were barely edible so didn't make it out of my kitchen :-(This is the first thing I have made from my favourite cookbook that didn't turn out. I think it was the molasses - the recipe called for 2/3 cup, and I used blackstrap molasses. I should definitely have used a lighter molasses or less of the blackstrap because the flavour was so overwhelming I had to bury them in icing to make them edible.

Because my gingerbread men didn't work out, I made these lovely Orange & Blueberry Muffins instead, also from The Joy of Vegan Baking.These were perfect - more like a cupcake than a muffin & the orange & blueberry were just perfect together. The recipe is for Lemon & Blueberry, but I only had an orange on hand & citrus is easy to substitute, so I wasn't disappointed.

This dish is Creamy Mushroom Pasta (see recipe below). I don't make it often, but I really do like it. The sherry is the secret I think - it really lifts the flavour of the mushrooms.
Creamy Mushroom Pasta

• 500g pasta (I used wholemeal penne)
  
• 2 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
  
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 1 tsp dry basil
  
• 1 tsp dry oregano
  
• 1 tsp dry thyme
  
• 3/4 cup cooking sherry
  
• 2 TBS soy cream cheese (I use tofutti)
  
• 1 cup soy milk
  
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• Salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta until tender. Saute onions in a little oil over medium heat for 5mins, until translucent. Add mushrooms & stir until heated through. Add herbs & season to taste.

When mushrooms are cooked, add sherry & mix in cream cheese. Let reduce a little & add milk. Add garlic & continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Serve over the pasta.

Nearly at the end now - this is a salad I threw together one night after a tiring day at work. I was in a hurry so served it slightly warm, but it would be equally good cold.First, I sliced a zucchini thinly, placed the slices in a baking pan, sprinkled olive oil over the top & baked it for about 15mins. Then I sliced 1 bunch of asparagus & blanched it in boiling water for about 1min. Then I tossed the asparagus & zucchini together in a bowl with baby spinach, 1 diced tomato & 1 can of chickpeas. I poured a little more olive oil over the top & added salt & pepper. It was really good, which is always a relief when I'm making up recipes as I go - I haven't had much success with this in the past.

Last but not least, here are some Felafel Burgers from my other favourite cookbook - The Vegan Table.The recipe suggests baking or sauteing these in a frypan. I chose the baking method but they turned out a little dry. Still yummy in a wrap though - I think we had these with hummus, tomato & spinach.

The Monster Calzones

In all the years I have been baking I have always stayed away from making my own pizza dough (or any bread for that matter). I think I may have tried it once & failed, so since then whenever we have home-made pizza it's always on a pita-bread base.

But last weekend I had an afternoon to fill so I decided to give it another go. I chose the Spinach & Tofu Calzones from Vegan Planet. The recipe uses a traditional pizza dough and a pretty standard spinach & tofu 'ricotta' mix.

I was so surprised at how easy it was to make the dough! I checked it about 10 times during the hour that it was rising & was so excited to see it getting bigger, then when it was time to roll it out I was like a little kid. It was just like the dough I see in pizza shops - smooth & stretchy & beautiful! So, I think I'm a convert to home-made pizza dough now... it's just a shame you need to leave it for that hour, because it pretty much means I'll never be able to make it on a weeknight.Now for the Calzones themselves. Firstly - they were huge! The recipe said to split the dough in half & make 2, so that's what I did. I think next time I'll split it into 4 (or maybe even 6). The dough cooked beautifully though - all golden & crispy, just the way I like it.D & I both found the filling a bit bland. It needed a fair amount of sauce to make it interesting. Next time I will probably use the tofu 'ricotta' recipe from The Vegan Table, which I have previously made here.

Jam & Oats make a muffin

Here's another recipe from my favourite cookbook author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. These are the Jam-Filled Oat Bran Muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking.Following the theme of everything else in the book the recipe is quite easy. The muffins are filled with oat bran, oat milk, walnuts, cinnamon & strawberry jam - which sounded like a winning combination to me. The oat milk was optional, but I'm glad I used it - I think it gave a nice rich flavour to the finished product.As you can see from the photo above, I probably wasn't careful enough when dropping my jam into the batter, because it mostly ended up seeping out the sides of the muffins, making them stick to the pan.

That also meant that when cut open, my muffins didn't look nearly as pretty as Colleens did.They did taste pretty damn good though. The only downfall for these muffins was that they didn't hold up too well the next day. They lost the nice crumbly texture & quickly became quite moist & dense. So just make sure you have some friends around to help you polish them off on the day you make them :-)

Mum's scones

I've been eating these scones ever since I can remember - it's my Mum's recipe & it seems like she used to make them at least once a week (but it was probably more like once a month). Then I grew up and started making scones myself. And then I became vegan, but that was OK because the recipe was easily veganisable.

This time I made them for breakfast - they only take about 30min from prep to eating.The photo makes it seem like there are tons of the things - but I used a small cutter (5cm I think) so they're really more like mini scones.

Mum's Scones

• 3 cups SR flour
  
• ½ tsp salt
  
• 3 TBS Nuttelex, cold
  
• 1 ½ cups soy milk

Preheat oven to 210C & grease or line an oven tray.

Combine the flour & salt in a large bowl, then rub the Nuttelex in with your fingertips until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Add milk & mix until it just comes together.

Turn dough onto a floured board & pat out until 1-2 inches high (don't overwork the dough). Use a floured scone cutter or glass to cut out the scones. Place them onto the tray with edges touching & brush the tops with a little extra soy milk. Bake 10-15mins until golden & they sound hollow when tapped on the top.

I know there are lots of ways to customise scones but I pretty much just leave the recipe alone - after all, I know it works!My toppings of choice are jam (this is Raspberry) & Nuttlex with Marmite. D thinks putting marmite on them is disgusting but I really like it and no matter what he says I don't think I'm crazy :-)We had a few scones left over after breakfast, so they served as afternoon tea as well. This is raspberry jam again with some Soyatoo Whipped Cream. I haven't had the cream before & I don't really like it - too much of a soy flavour for me. I definitely wouldn't serve it to a non-vegan.

Strawberry Coconut Bread

I bought a really big punnet of cheap strawberries from the market on Saturday - turns out they were cheap because most of them were bruised or on their way out. So I decided to make this bread - I've made it a few times in the past & it's super easy & pretty hard to stuff up. I don't know where the recipe came from, so apologies if I'm stealing anyone's idea. To intensify the strawberry flavour, you could serve this this with some fresh strawberries or even a strawberry coulis. Cashew cream would also work well.Strawberry Coconut Bread

• 1 punnet strawberries
  
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
  
• 1 tsp bi-carb soda
  
• Pinch salt
  
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
  
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
  
• 2 egg replacers, lightly beaten (I use No-Egg)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 1/2 cup light olive oil (I use half oil, half applesauce)
  
• 3/4 cup cup buttermilk (just add about 1/4 tsp of white vinegar to soy milk)

Preheat the oven to 180C & grease or line the base of a loaf tin.

Puree the strawberries in a food processor or blender. Sift the flour, soda & salt into a large bowl. Stir through the sugar & coconut. In a separate bowl mix together the egg replacers, essence, oil & milk.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients & add the wet ingredients. Mix until it just comes together. Fold through the strawberries - stir only 2 or 3 times - you want the swirly pattern to stay.

Pour into loaf tin & bake 50-60mins until golden brown & a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Dust with icing sugar to serve (can be served warm or cold).

I also added a mashed banana to the mix because I had an over-ripe one, but the flavour of the banana does tend to overwhelm everything else.

The baking machine

I was a BAKING MACHINE when I got home last night! My motivation was to use up the veges in the fridge because I'm away this weekend & there's no way D will use them - I'm not sure he even knows where the vegetable crisper is in the fridge :-).

First up on the menu was a Baked Pumpkin Risotto for dinner - loosely based on this one. I've started making it regularly, basically because it's simple, delicious & pretty impossible to stuff up. Last night I used leek, pumpkin & silverbeet. There ended up being about the twice the weight of vegetables than the recipe called for, so I added some extra rice & stock to compensate.
While the risotto was in the oven, I started on a double-batch of Chickpea & Mushroom sausages, first attempted last week. I'm freezing these for D to eat while I'm away - he tends to subsist on a diet of frozen pizza if I don't provide a healthier alternative, plus, I had a huge bag of mushrooms to get rid of.

I didn't have any onion, so I just fried the mushrooms with some onion powder, plus some garlic powder thrown in for good measure. I also threw in about half a bunch of coriander which I had to use up. I went to mix in the breadcrumbs & realised I only had about half the required amount & didn't even have any bread in the house to make more. So I added some rolled oats instead. Finally, because there were so many of the damn things, I decided to bake, rather than grill them. You can see the result below. Yes, I KNOW what they look like, you don't need to tell me - but I stick by my assertion that it's the taste, not the presentation, that counts :-). The baking did make them a little dry, but that's nothing that lashings of tomato sauce won't fix.
Finally, I wanted to get rid of 2 beetroots - I decided to make a massive batch of Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes for freezing. I figure I'll always have some on hand now which will be very handy in cupcake emergencies.

I doubled the recipe, which ended up making a whopping 34 cupcakes! I had to pull out my nifty new cupcake carrier to store them in.
Three hours later I was completely exhausted & I never want to see a kitchen again. I figure that at least now I know how much I can cook in 3 hrs, which is:

• A risotto for 6
  
• 24 sausages
  
• 34 cupcakes

Luckily, I'm visiting Mum & Dad this weekend, so I'll be able to revert to childhood & let Mum look after me :-)

Drowning in cupcakes

We have a really cool tradition starting up at work - a Masterchef inspired bake-off to support Jeans for Genes day. It only started last year and was really successful so they decided to do it again. I decided on 2 entries this time - Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes with Rose Icing (I wrote about my first attempt at these here); and Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing (which I have made before but haven't written about - see recipe below).

And guess what... I won 2nd prize for my chocolate-beetroot cakes! So exciting! My prize was a tin of Byron Bay Cookies which unfortunately aren't vegan; but I'll donate the biscuits to the library team & take the cute tin home :-)I love cooking vegan food for non-vegans - it shows that just because we eat ethically doesn't mean we miss out on good food. I was a little annoyed they didn't display my little signs that said 'vegan' with the cakes so people didn't know that they were eating that 'crazy vegan stuff'; but maybe it's better they didn't know - I've seen people change their mind when they realise something isn't filled with 'tasty' artery-clogging animal products :-)

Here's the Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes.

Here's the Carrot Cupcakes.

And here they all are in my cool new cupcake carrier - it has two levels, a little tray to hold the cakes in place (which can be inverted to hold a normal cake, or biscuits/slice; and the bottom layer can be removed if you aren't making that much.



Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  
• 1 egg replacer (I used Orgran, but you could use applesauce or banana or whatever you like)
  
• 1 cup firmly packed finely grated carrot
  
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
  
• 3/4 cup self-raising flour
  
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice

ICING

90g Tofutti cream cheese, softened

30g Nuttelex, softened

1 tsp finely grated lemon rind (I used lemon juice instead as I didn't have a fresh lemon)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 TBS pepitas, chopped finely

1 TBS dry apricots, chopped finely

1 TBS walnuts, chopped finely

Preheat the oven to 160C & line 9 holes of a cupcake or muffin tin.

Beat the oil, sugar & egg replacer until thick & creamy. Stir in the carrot & walnuts, then add the sifted flour & spice.

Pour the mix into the tin (about 1/2-3/4 full) bake 20mins, until golden brown. Stand 5mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

ICING
Beat the cream cheese, Nuttelex & rind until light & fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Pipe onto cooled cakes with a 2cm fluted tube (I can't pipe, so I just spread it on with knife) & sprinkle with combined pepitas, apricots & walnuts.

Pastry heaven

I think Palmiers are one of the clearest memories from my childhood. I remember always choosing the palmiers over all the other goodies in the cabinet at the bakery when Mum would let me have a treat. The ones from my childhood usually had some kind of icing - vanilla or passionfruit - I think this is an Australian bastardisation of the original recipe. I haven't made mine with icing before - the trouble is, I'd have to wait for the palmiers to cool down & then ice them & then wait for the icing to set. Which would all take too long - this recipe is the one I use when I'm need of a quick sugar fix. They definitely don't look much like the French version, but they're yummy & super easy to make.

Anyway, tonight, it was actually D who asked for 'pastries' as we call them, so I'm feeling a little less guilty about so much sugar this early into the weekend :-).

Step 1
Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Take 1 Borg's puff pastry sheet & wait for it to thaw out. Fill a small dish with water.Using a pastry brush, brush the thawed-out pastry with a decent amount of water - make sure it covers the edges.

Step 2
Sprinkle about 3TBS of caster sugar over the pastry - I only use raw sugar, which is why it's a little brown. At this point you could add any flavourings you like - e.g. cinnamon or even grated chocolate.

Step 3
Fold the 2 edges of the pastry towards the middle, pressing down firmly as you go. You're now left with 2 long rectangles.

Step 4
Fold each of the rectangles in half length-ways - you should have 2 long rectangles about 1 inch wide.

Step 5
Fold the pastry in half length-ways & press down firmly - now you will have 1 long rectangle about 1 inch wide.

Step 6
Using a sharp knife, cut the pastry into 1/2-1cm widths. The width here is completely up to you. I prefer narrower because that way I end up with more palmiers!

Step 7
Lay the palmiers cut side down on a tray lined with baking paper. Make sure you leave a little bit of room between each for spreading - remember, it's puff pastry so it's going to puff out. Using your fingers, press each one down firmly - don't squash them completely flat.

Step 8
Bake 15-20mins. If you're keen, you could flip them over half-way through. I never bother with this, because I cut them so thinly, they cook through well enough without being flipped.

Experimenting with mango

I bought some dried mango a few a weeks ago, intending to experiment with the Apricot & Walnut balls recipe. I only just got around to it this afternoon. I've never eaten dried mango before - it's delicous! I had to force myself to stop picking pieces out of the packet so I'd have enough to cook with. 1000 Vegan Recipes suggests a mango & cashew combination, but I wanted to try mango & hazelnut. As it turned out, I didn't have enough hazelnuts or cashews so I decided to try a few different combinations.

Left - Almond & Mango; Middle - Hazelnut & Mango; Right - Cashew & Mango.

The recipe also called for 1/3 cup of icing sugar, but I decided to substitute this with some agave syrup and a handful of dates. My favourite is definitely the almond & mango - the flavours balance really well. The cashew & mango is a bit bland while the hazelnut and mango don't go together as well as I'd hoped.

Mango balls

• 1 cup dried mango, soaked in boiling water for 10mins, then drained
  
• 2 cups nuts (I used 1/2 cup hazelnuts, 1/2 cup almonds & 1 cup cashews), toasted separately
  
• 4 tsp agave syrup
  
• 3/4 cup pitted dates, soaked in boiling water for 10mins, then drained
  
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Process the mango with the different nuts separately. Add 1-2 tsp of agave syrup to each batch along with a handful of dates. Process until the nuts are finely ground & the mix forms a ball. Roll tablespoonfuls into balls, toss in coconut and refrigerate 30mins until set.

Another quinoa stew

Wow, I've been cooking a lot today! You know something? I'm really enjoying spending more time in the kitchen, but I'm REALLY sick of washing up. Seriously, I'm washing up 2-3 times a day, it sucks! Now I understand why Mum wanted a dishwasher for all those years...

Anyway, this is my lunch for next week - chickpea, quinoa & vegetable stew. Inspired by my previous effort, but using regular quinoa, without the tomatoes, different vegetables & chickpeas as the protein. So, not really the same at all. Just as yummy though, looking forward to lunch tomorrow already :-)

Chickpea, quinoa & vegetable stew

• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed & drained
  
• 2 carrots, chopped roughly
  
• 3 celery sticks, chopped roughly
  
• 1cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
  
• 1 cup kale, finely chopped (or whatever greens you have on hand)
  
• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
  
• 3/4 cup vegetable stock
  
• 1 tsp each of ground cumin, coriander & hungarian paprika
  
• Salt & pepper to taste

Cook the quinoa in boiling water until tender, about 10mins, then drain well. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a frypan - saute the carrot, celery & ginger over medium heat 5mins. Add the kale & saute another 5mins. Add the chickpeas, stock & spices. Lower the heat & simmer, stirring occasionally, 10mins, until the stock has almost all evaporated. Stir through the quinoa & add salt & pepper to taste.
The fresh ginger gives this a real kick and it's super healthy, score!

A simple banana bread

I had a couple of over-ripe bananas to use and figured banana bread was as good a way to use them as anything else. I was going to freeze it, but I think I'll give it to D for his morning tea this week instead. This is really simple recipe, yet another one that has made it into my big book from somewhere mysterious. The reason I like it is that it's not a 'substitute' one. As in, I don't need to use processed egg replacer or soy milk or Nuttelex. Just easy, healthy, ingredients.

Basic banana bread

• 2 bananas, mashed
  
• 1/4 cup applesauce
  
• 1/4 cup canola oil
  
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
  
• 2 TBS molasses (I used golden syrup)
  
• 2 cups plain flour
  
• 1/4 tsp bi-carb soda
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees & grease a loaf tin. Mix the banana, sugar, applesauce, oil & molasses well. Stir in the flour, soda, spices and salt until just combined. Pour the mix into the tin & bake 50mins, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

As you can see I slightly overcooked it - a little brown around the edges :-) The taste? Like you'd expect from banana bread - moist, fairly dense & completely satisfying.

Mmm... beetroot and chocolate

True to my word, I made chocolate-beetroot cupcakes tonight using this recipe for inspiration. I did some research about how to convert a cake recipe for cupcakes & basically I just lowered the baking temp about 5 degrees & cut the cooking time by about 1/3 (they took just under 25 mins). I also used 1/2 applesauce & 1/2 oil, because 3/4 cup of oil seemed like a lot. I stuck with the icing recipe, doubling it to make enough for all my cupcakes (LOVE the tip about using beetroot juice to colour it). Right at the end I decided to add 1/4 tsp rosewater which really lifted the flavour.
Here they are waiting to go into the oven - isn't the deep rich chocolate red colour just gorgeous!





Just out of the oven...












And finished with my rose buttercream icing - so pretty!

The verdict? They're yummy, rich & moist. Possibly a bit dense - I think the recipe would work better as a normal cake, as I prefer my cupcakes a bit lighter & fluffier. Didn't stop me eating 3 in a row though :-)

A fruity dessert

My sweet tooth just will not be tamed at the moment! I'm trying my best to fulfill the cravings with healthier desserts, rather than oreos & skittles (both at the top of the list of my favourite ninja vegan products). Flicking through The Joy of Vegan Baking I found a a recipe for fruit candies that was sugar free. The recipe called for walnuts, dried dates, dried apricots, raisins & coconut. I didn't have quite enough walnuts, so I subsituted some almonds to top up the mix. I also didn't have plain raisins, just a dried fruit mix (which included cranberries & orange peel). I popped everything in the food processor & the poor thing really struggled. I thought the motor might be about to give up forever, but it soldiered on (which is good, because I've had it for about 10 years & really don't want to buy another one). I also added some agave syrup at the last minute, because it wasn't quite sweet enough for me.

These are quite yummy, but not as yummy as the Apricot & Walnut Balls. Definitely healthier though - the apricot balls have about 1/4 cup of sugar in them.

The vegetable delivery arrived late tonight, I was starting to worry that we would starve :-). This week we got:

• Capsicum
  
• Onions
  
• Potatoes
  
• Ginger
  
• Cauliflower
  
• Broccoli
  
• Beetroot (I'm thinking chocolate & beetroot cupcakes that I can take to work)
  
• Celery
  
• Carrots
  
• Tomatoes
  
• Some weird leafy green vegetable - like silverbeet but kind of crinkly - I have no idea what it is!

Here is a close-up of the leafy green one, I thought it could be kale, as I don't think I ever seen kale before, but I looked up some photos & I'm not so sure. Can anyone help?

Decadent Dessert

I bought some dates yesterday, I've never bought them before & had no idea how cheap they are! I remembered a recipe for sticky date pudding that I wanted to try (not sure where it came from), and OH MY GOD... it was amazing! I haven't eaten sticky-date pudding since my pre-vegan days & I'd forgotten how sweet & rich & fulfilling it is. I highly recommend this recipe - it's easy & scrumptious!

Self-saucing sticky date pudding

• 1 cup finely chopped dried dates
  
• 1 1/2 cups SR flour
  
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
  
• 3/4 cup soy milk
  
• 2 cups boiling water
  
• 1 cup brown sugar
  
• 30g Nuttelex, chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees & grease a shallow ovenproof dish (2L or 8cup). Place dates in a heatproof bowl – add boiling water to cover. Stand 10mins, then drain. Sift flour & caster sugar into a bowl – add dates & milk & mix well. Spread into dish.

In a large heatproof jug combine water, brown sugar & Nuttelex – stir until melted. Carefully pour mix over batter. Place dish on oven tray.

Bake 40mins until browned & centre is firm to touch. Stand 5mins before serving.





I only wish I'd had some soy cream or ice-cream to serve this with, that would have taken it to a whole other level.