Triple Christmas Cookies

It is only 11 days til Christmas, and I am in full christmas baking mood!
Up until now I've made rather untypical christmas cookies (for me at least), but they were good nonetheless. In just a few days my sister and my brother will be home too and then we will bake those typical, yummy and perfect christmas cookies. (recipes & pictures included).

But for now....

Coconut Macaroons

makes about 20

Ingredients:
4 tsp. egg replacer ( I used Orgran No Egg)
90 gr dessicated coconut (unsweetened)
25 gr ground almonds (I used ground hazelnuts, works just fine)
50 gr almond paste
a pinch salt
1/2 sachet vanilla sugar
80 ml water
60 gr sugar

Preheat oven to 125°C (250F).
Whisk together egg replacer and water. Mix in sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt. Slowly add dessicated coconut and ground almonds, as well as the roughly cut almond paste. Take a teaspoon and form little balls and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes.
I figure, mine would have needed 5 - 10 minutes more, they were rather moist.

Optional: Melt some dark chocolate and dip the macaroons in the molten chocolate. This makes them extra yummy!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

The recipe is from The PostPunk Kitchen, from my brandnew copy of 'Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar'. Like most recipes from the PPK, these cookies are now one of my favourites!! Chewy and crispy at the same time, ultra-chocolatey and the spicy kick of the cayenne pepper = awesomeness!

Marzipan-Scone Sandwich Cookies, filled with Raspberry Jam & dipped in chocolate

Don't be fooled by the picture (it is a bad one), these are so yummy. The base is a scone-like cookie, topped with raspberry jam with a almond-paste-cut-out on top, all dipped in bittersweet chocolate...

Ingredients:

Scone-cookie:
160 gr flour (I used spelt)
75 gr sugar
65 gr margarine
40 ml soy milk

150 gr almond paste
200 gr bittersweet chocolate
raspberry jam

Cream together sugar and margarine, then add flour and soy milk until you have a kneadable dough.
Chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 160°C (320F).
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to desired thickness (3-5mm) and cut out shapes (it is easiest to make circles). Arrange cookies on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.
Let them cool for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the almond paste and cut out the same shapes as the cookies. Get your raspberry jam and spread a bit on each cookie and cover with an almond-paste-cookie. 


Melt the chocolate in a waterbath. Dip each cookie gently into the molten chocolate and let cool on a cooling rack, until the chocolate hardens. 





Happy christmas time & enjoy!
Florence

I'm back!!

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted something. I guess I am sorry, but some things in my life were more important than blogging here. Well, I'm back and firstly here's a little résumé of what I've been up to the past few weeks:

> enjoying the last warm and wonderful autumn days, taking many pictures
> trying out some new recipes as well as creating my own
> sadly not taking a lot of pictures of food


Please read on after the jump....

Vegan MoFo 12 / Pumpkin Barley Risotto

I am still in the middle of my preparations for my A-Level exam next friday, so I'm just popping in to share a delicious & easy recipe with you....

Pumpkin Barley Risotto

feeds 4-5 people

Ingredients:

250 gr pearl barley, rinsed

1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, finely cut

veggie broth

1/2 butternut, peeled and cubed 

olive oil

dried herbs 

salt & pepper

 2 Tbsp. oat cream

optional toppings: nutritional yeast, chopped nuts, pumpkin seed oil, vegan cheese

those were just half of my butternut pieces

Preheat oven to 180°C (350F). Start by preparing your butternut. After you've peeled and cubed it, place the pieces in a large bowl. Add some olive oil, so all pieces are lightly (!) coated. Now add salt & pepper, some dried herbs, and more spices if you like. Spread on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper and roast for about 25 minutes, until tender.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and add the finely cut onion. Sautee for a few minutes, and add the well rinsed pear barley. Stir good and just before the barley will stick to the pan, add veggie broth, until well covered. Let cook for 25 - 30 minutes, and until all excess liquid is gone.

When the butternut pieces are ready, puree with oat cream. Add more cream if you like. Now add the butternut mixture to the barley risotto, stir and let cook for a few minutes. You can still add optional toppings, or fold in some vegan cheese pieces, as I did.

Enjoy!

Florence

Liebster Award

 I feel so honored, realising that I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by Caitilin and Rachael! I really love participating in this year's vegan mofo! It has been so much fun, thank you for all your dear comments! This really means a lot to me! :>

 

 

 

 

The idea behind the award is to give recognition to blogs that have less than 200 followers.  Liebster is a German word for dearest, beloved, or favorite.  What you do when you get an award is:

1.  Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2.  Link to 5 of your top picks and let them know they’ve been nominated by leaving a comment on their blog.

3.  Post the award on your blog.

4.  Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the interweb!

Okay, so I am not a 100 percent sure, that my chosen blogs have less than 200 followers, but they are great, nonetheless! Spread the love! <3

1. Janet at the tastespace

2. Chow Vegan

3. Kiersten at Vegan Awakening

4. What would Cathy eat?

5. The French Fry Conundrum

Vegan MoFo 11 / Death by chocolate - Layer Cake

 Let's just say, this chocolate layer cake is so worth making! Everyone who tried it, raved about it! But just one word of warning: 1 piece of this will probably satisfy your chocolate cravings for some time :)

Death by chocolate - Layer Cake

make 2 or 4 layers

 adapted from Maple Spice

Chocolate Cake:
190g spelt flour
150g  sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
30g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
80ml canola oil
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
240ml sparkling mineral water
 => make twice for 4 layers!








Preheat oven to 180°C (350F). Line a 22cm springform pan with parchment paper. Now mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix together canola oil, apple cider vinegar and sparkling mineral water. Now pour it into the large bowl and mix until well combined, be careful not to overmix. Pour the mixture in your lined pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Then cut in two layers.

Chocolate Mousse Filling:
300g dark chocolate
300ml soy whipping cream, chilled
4 Tbsp. icing sugar
3 Tbsp. coffee liquor





Break your chocolate in small pieces and place in a water bath. Stir regularly until melted. Now remove from  heat and let it cool to room temperature. In a large bowl mix the chilled soy whipping cream and icing sugar and beat for 5 - 10 minutes. Okay, so it is really important to wait long enough, until the whipping cream and melted chocolate are at about the same temperature. And trust me, it is so worth it, as you will end up with this chocolatey goodness! Lastly, carefully stir in the coffee liquor.

Assembling:

 The basic process is the same for every layer: Drizzle with 1 - 2 Tbsp. coffee liquor (don't skip this step) and spread about 1/3 of the chocolate mousse on it. Repeat for the next layers.
The top layer doesn't need any chocolate mousse on top, but save some to straighten out any holes. Mine wasn't perfect, somehow one of my layers is a bit inclined.Place the cake in the fridge for 1-3 hours, so that the filling can set.

Chocolate Ganache:

200 gr dark vegan chocolate

170 ml oat cream

20 gr conut oil

3 tsp. coffee liquor

Chop the chocolate in small pieces and place in a bowl. In a small pan heat up the oat cream and coconut oil until it melts and it all just comes to the boil. Now quickly pour it over the chocolate, let stand for a few seconds and then start stirring until the mixture is smooth. Let cool to room temperature, stirring now and then. 

When you think it's ready take your cake out of the fridge and place on a wire rack, with some parchment paper underneath to catch any dripping chocolate. Now start pouring the ganache all over the top, so that it coats the sides. I only used a palette knife to straighten out the sides, but didn't use it for the top, as I like the glossy look already.
Place your cake again in the fridge, so the ganache will set.

the box for some of my baking & cooking equipment <3

Enjoy!
Florence

Vegan MoFo X / Seitan Cutlets

This blog post comes later as promised, sorry about that. But I was busy studying (still), doing scout stuff and preparing my best friend's birthday gift & cake! (The recipe for her "Death by chocolate layer cake" will come soon!)

And now on to the recipe for this delicious seitan cutlets! Until now, I was not a big seitan fan, as it mostly turned out spongy, which I don't like at all. On the other side, I've made some tasty seitan sausages, and those turned out really wonderful!

But these seitan cutlets and their preparation method changed everything! Who would have thought of using a rolling pin and rolling the individual seitan dough pieces out....!? Apparently, I didn't, but from now on I will definitely do that more often...

Seitan cutlets

adapted from this recipe

 yields12 cutlets

Ingredients: 

Dry:

1 cup gluten flour

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1/3 cup chickpea flour

2/3 Tbsp. tapioca starch

1 tsp. poultry seasing

1/3 Tbsp. dried parsley

2/3 tsp. onion powder

2/3 tsp. herb salt

1/3 tsp garlic powder

black pepper

Wet:

75 gr medium-firm tofu

25 ml cold water

2/3 Tbsp. oil

more cold water as needed

Broth:

veggie broth (as much to cover all cutlets)

1/6 cup nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning

1/3 Tbsp. dried parsley

1/3 Tbsp. herb salt

Mix all dry ingredients, until well combined. Puree the tofu with 25 ml water, until smooth. Add as much water to get 200 ml. Whisk in 2/3 Tbsp. oil.

As it didn't quite work mixing the dough with my kitchen machine, I recommend using it to mix the dry and wet ingredients, but then doing the kneading by hand. This worked well for me. So knead the dough for as long as you can ;). Until the dough seems well combined and stretchable.

Prepare your broth, by combining all ingredients in a big pan. Don't forget, you can still add more veggie broth, when all cutlets are in the pan, so pour in too much at the beginning. Don't heat up yet!

Now break the dough into 12 equally sized pieces. And here it comes: take your rolling pin and roll out each piece as thin as possible and place in the cold broth. If necessary, add more veggie broth, so that all pieces are just covered. Let stand for 10 minutes. Now turn on the heat, cover and bring to a fast simmer. Then reduce the heat and cook for 1 hour. If possible, try to rotate some of the cutlets at the top, so they cook through evenly. 

Take the pan off the heat and let cool, for about 1 hour or so. Now you can remove your cutles and prepare them as you like. I simply coated 2 of them with chopped almonds and roasted for about 10 minuted. They turned out delicious & tender. The rest I layered in an airtight container between sheets of parchment paper, as suggested! 

That's how my cutlets looked just before preparing...

Enjoy!

Florence

Vegan MoFo VIIII / Sunday Dinner

Sorry for my lack of posting, but I am busy studying! Nevertheless, here's what I had for dinner on Sunday night.

Scalloped Cauliflower, Spaghetti with Mushroom Gravy and Seitan Cutlets! 

That was so good, especially the seitan cutlet! I have tried several seitan recipes before, and this was the best yet! So very tender and crispy on the outside.

Scalloped Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, washed and chopped into florets
lemon juice
water for boiling

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt, pepper

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
3 Tbsp. breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. chopped nuts
1 Tbsp. olive oil
5 Tbsp. oat cream
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
a splash of lemon juice
salt, pepper

Put the cauliflower florets in a pan, cover with water, add a splash of lemon juice and let boil until tender.
Mix the apple cider vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. Place the cooked cauliflower florets in a baking dish and cover in the vinaigrette. Let stand for 10 - 20 minutes.Preheat oven to 160°C (320F). Mix the remaining ingredients and spread over the florets, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Mushroom Gravy
olive oil

1 small onion, chopped
a handful of button mushrooms, chopped
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
veggie broth
oat cream
dried herbs

Heat up the olive oil, and add the onion and button mushrooms. Sauté for a few minutes, add the cornstarch. Stir, so everything is covered with cornstarch. Add veggie broth until the mixture reaches your desired thickness. Let cook for a few minutes and add some oat cream and dried herbs.

The recipe for the seitan cutlets I will post tomorrow, so look out for it! :)

Vegan MoFo VIII / Veggie Calzone

Today is sad day in my vegan baking history... I decided to take a break from baking!! So no cupcakes, cakes, brownies, cookies, etc... I'll probably allow some creamy and fruity desserts, but not that often. Reasons?
Well, although I enjoy baking, it is just too much at the moment.. too much cake, too much sugar, too much dessert, not enough savoury meals! And it gets difficult if I am the only one eating what I bake, I don't want to gain weight... after I lost 15kg in the last year! :)

So, here's the Calzone I made tonight for dinner.... There were actually 4 of them, two vegan ones, and the other two made my mum for my brother and dad. Even though they like the vegan version, they prefer their meat.. :/

Veggie Calzone

the dough makes 4, the filling 2

Dough:

1/2 cube of fresh yeast ( you can substitute instant yeast: 14g)

1 tsp malt (or any sugar)

1 dl lukewarm water

1 - 2 Tbsp. spelt wholemeal flour

350 gr spelt wholemeal flour

1 tsp. herb salt

 2 dl water

You start by making the sponge. In a large bowl, mix the fresh yeast with the lukewarm water until it dissolves, then add malt and whisk. Lastly add the flour and sprinkle it over the sponge mixture. Let stand for about 15 minutes, or until the mixture shows bubbles. 

Now add the flour and the salt and start incorporating it with the sponge. Slowly add the water until the flour is just incorporated, make sure it is not too wet. Take the dough out and knead on a floured surface, for about 5 minutes. Put it back in the bowl, cover and let it rise until about double the size, but it doesn't matter if you don't have that much time. In the meantime prepare your filling.

Filling:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 zucchini, cubed

1 clove of garlic, finely cut

1/2 eggplant, cubed

5 leaves of savoy cabbage, finely cut

1 tomato, cubed

1 vegan sausage, cubed

lemon juice

worcester sauce

salt,  pepper

spices

350 gr silken tofu, soft

lemon juice

1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast,

salt, pepper

spices

 Heat olive oil in a pan, add zucchini, garlic, eggplant, savoy cabbage, tomato and vegan sausage. Sauté for about 5-10 minutes, stir often. Add some lemon juice and worcester sauce, so the mixture won't scorch! Let cook for about 10 minutes, until the veggies are soft. Add any spices you like! While the mixture cooks, whisk silken tofu in a bowl until smooth, add nutritional yeast and spices. Here as well, add the spices you like. In the end, combine the silken tofu with the veggies. 

Alternatively, you can use any filling you like! Be creative....! I even added some caramelised onions (I am obsessed!!) on top of the filling! This was so delicious, as it balanced out the spicy filling quite nice!

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350F). Take your dough and split in 4 equal parts. On a floured surface, roll each piece into a circle. Spread your filling on one half, and make sure to leave an edge of 1 cm. Now take the empty side of dough and close your calzone. Repeat, for the other ones and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Sorry, no picture of the filling, I was too busy eating!! :D

Enjoy!

 

Vegan MoFo VII / Carrot Cake

Lately I've been studying a lot... I guess I'm getting somewhere with all this information! To take my mind off things, I like to bake! And what's a better excuse than Vegan MoFo!? The whole thing is a bit overwhelming, how the hell am I supposed to get through 200-300 blog posts everyday?? So I'm just picking out the really good stuff and the ones with beautiful pictures... lots of inspiration there!

Vegan Carrot Cake

with Lemon icing and candied nuts

yields a 8×8″ cake

Ingredients:

1 cup + 2 Tbsp. spelt flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. ground flax seed

90 ml warm water

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup shredded carrots

1 c pecans, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C (350F). Line your pan with parchment paper or grease it. In a large bowl mix together ground flax seed and water, let stand for a few minutes. Sift together dry ingredients in an other small bowl. Add sugar and oil to the flax seed mixture and beat. Add vanilla extract and carrots and mix until combined. Now add the dry and stir until well incorporated. Fold in pecans and pour into your pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Lemon Icing

100 gr powdered sugar

3 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. hot water

Sift powderer sugar in a bowl and add lemon juice and hot water, mix until well incorporated. I used it as a filling as well as a frosting.

Candied nuts

1/2 cup pecans

1 Tbsp. vegan butter

2 Tbsp.  sugar

Melt vegan butter on medium heat in a pan, add nuts and sprinkle in sugar. Stir + watch well, until the sugar has melted, the nuts are roasted and caramel has formed. Let cool and sprinkle on the icing! 

 Enjoy, 

Florence

Vegan MoFo VI / Sweet Potato & Leftover Gratin

For Sunday night dinner, I had some leftover risotto with different vegetables. I decided to spice it up a bit, and in my mind I had the recipe for a shepherd's pie with sweet potatoes, so that's my take on that!

Sweet Potato Top-Layer:
2 sweet potatoes, peeled
1-2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vegan butter
pepper, herbs, paprika, curry

Cut the sweet potatoes in small pieces. Heat some olive oil in a pan and sauté the sweet potatoe pieces for a few minutes, and sprinkle with sugar and salt. Add some water, just until the pieces are covered. Now cook until tender. Drain the sweet potatoes, and mash with vegan butter. Add spices if desired.

At first, I mixed my vegetable risotto with about 2 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast, and added some mushrooms, that I simply roasted for a few minutes and added some spices. I spread the risotto-mixture in a greased baking dish and on top I added some caramelized onions and lastly I spread the mashed sweet potatoes and some chopped walnuts. Bake with 160°C for about 25 minutes and let sit for 5 minutes before serving!

Notes:
You can use almost any leftovers as a filling. If it is too dry, add some vegetable broth, mixed with some soy sauce.

Trust me, if I say so, this was utterly delicious!! I couldn't get enough! The balance between sweet and salty is perfect, and makes this improvised dish very special!

Vegan MoFo V / White Russian Cupcakes

I was busy doing this...

 Lately I made these incredible White Russian Cupcakes! They consist of 2 layers, a coffe one and a cream one. It was a good excuse to use some of my coffee liquor and some vodka, left from my homemade vanilla extract. I doubled the recipe and made 24 cupcakes and 4 times the frosting recipe, and brought everything to a party at my best friend's house. Everyone liked them, and I guess they are also very good without the frosting...

...eating this for breakfast every day!

 

I have been dreaming of a beautiful fall!

White Russian Cupcakes

yields 12 cupcakes

adapted from cute & delicious

Coffee batter:

½ cup soy milk
½ tsp apple cider vinegar

1 ¼ cup spelt flour
1 Tbsp corn starch
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp canola oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp instant espresso powder
2 Tbsp coffee liquor
1 tsp vodka

Cream batter

½ cup soy milk
½ tsp apple cider vinegar

1 cup + 2 Tbsp spelt flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar

4 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vodka

White Russian Frosting

1/4 cup vegan butter
2 Tbsp coffee liquor
2 tsp vodka
1 cup powedered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 170°C (350F). Fill your cupcake tray with funny liners, because white ones are boring!
As suggested in the original recipe, it is best to make both batters at the same time. You'll need 4 bowls, 2 for each batter. Start with mixing soy milk and apple cider vinegar in seperate dishes. Now mix together the dry ingredients for each of the batter in 2 seperate bowls. In the other 2 bowls, mix all the wet ingredients, adding the soy milk mixture last. Now mix the wet and dry of both batters. Start filling your liners with the coffee batter. Lastly, fill in the cream batter and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then let them cool completely on a rack.

For the White Russian Frosting, beat the vegan butter until smooth. Add the coffee liquor and vodka and beat until combined. Now sift in 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth again. It depends on the texture of your frosting, how much powdered sugar you want to add! If you want to pipe the frosting, you'll have to double it.

Enjoy!
Florence

Vegan MoFo IV / Pear Frangipane Tart

I am a bit late in my Vegan MoFo schedule, but nonetheless I don't want to stress myself out to much, about posting enough....

The next recipe is a Pear Frangipane Tart! A recipe resulting from improvisation with another recipe, and it still turned out delicious! For the crust you can use any vegan pie crust recipe, or your favourite. Mine was a bit off at first, as my vegan butter was not cold enough, I guess. But it turned out beautifully crumbly and not too sweet, just as I like it. For the filling it doesn't get any easier! Just processing almond paste, cornstarch and soy yoghurt in your blender...! Ah well, on to the recipe:

Pear Frangipane Tart

yields a small pie pan

=> For the crust, half of a normal pie crust recipe would be enough, as I used a small pie pan.

Filling:

80 gr almond paste

1,5  Tbsp. cornstarch
4 Tbsp. soy yoghurt

2 tsp. vanilla sugar (optional)

2 Tbsp. ground nuts / panko breadcrumbs  

2 pears, sliced

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. soy milk

Preheat oven to 160°C (320F). In a food processor, blend the almond paste with the cornstarch, vanilla sugara and soy yoghurt until smooth. The mixture should not be too runny or it won't thicken up while baking. Set aside.

Take your crust, roll it out  and and press pieces it into a greased pie pan. With a fork make some holes in the crust. Spread the breadcrumbs on to the crust. If you have any ground nuts on hand, take those as a substitute! Now pour the almond mixture on top of the breadcrumbs. Coat the sliced pears in lemon juice and arrange them on top of the almond mixture in any pattern you like. If you have some of the crust left, press it onto the pears at the edge of the pan. Brush the edge lightly with soy milk. Sprinkle the tart with some sugar. Bake until the pears are soft and the crust perfectly golden, about 35 minutes.

I enjoyed this tart warm, fresh from the oven, but it is also so very good the next day!

Vegan Mofo III / Roasted Potatoes & Tomato Basil Falafel

For my third Vegan MoFo-Post I'll show you what I had for dinner. This is so easy, yet delicious. I love roasted potatoes! The Falafel were also very good, the best I've had!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled
3 potatoes
olive oil
worcester sauce
salt, pepper
dried thyme

Preheat oven to 200°C (395F).Cut the potatoes and sweet potatoes in long, thin, chips-like pieces and toss them in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and some worcester sauce and season with salt, pepper and dried thyme. Place on a baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes or until crispy.

Red Pepper & Carrot - Sauce
1 small onion
1 red pepper
1 carrot, peeled
white wine
1 tsp. bouillon concentrate
2 tbsp. soy yoghurt

Cut onion in small pieces and heat in some olive oil in a small pan. Add the red pepper and carrot in small pieces and let them fry for about a minute. Now add a splash of white wine and the bouillon concentrate and some water if needed. Let it cook for about 15 minutes, until tender. Take the pan from the heat, add the soy yoghurt and puree the mixture to your desired consistency.

Tomato Basil Falafel
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and peeled
4-5 dried tomatoes in oil
1 small onion, cut
10 fresh basil leaves, cut
worcester sauce (optional)
4-5 tbsp flour
salt, pepper
dried herbs (optional)

Preheat oven to 160°C (320F). Add the chickpeas to your food processor and process until crumbly. Then add the dried tomatoes and continue to blend. As you add the basil and onion, also add the salt, pepper, herbs and worcester sauce as much as you like as this is optional. When you blended everything start adding flour bit by bit, until the dough forms. Now you only have to form balls, place them on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.



Enjoy!

Vegan MoFo II / Vegan Pumpkin Syrup

 I feel like I'm doing good with this whole Vegan MoFo regular blogging. Days have been good lately, I was busy renovating and dressing up for an elegant (vegan) french dinner. It was a friend's birthay gift, and as we cooked at my place, it was all vegan. There was ratatouille, vegan soy-chicken, tarte aux pommes, some amuse bouche, and lots of wine! It was really nice to have such a nice distraction from studying. 

 

But on to the next recipe. Vegan Pumpkin Spice Syrup! I had some leftover pumpkin puree, and that was a very good use for it. This syrup is spicy and sweet, perfect for Pumpkin Spice Lattes, mixing it into smoothies or frostings and poured over delicious Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. 

I also used it as a filling for a Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake I made last week. It was amazing!

 Vegan Pumpkin Spice Syrup

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
3 whole cinnamon sticks
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla  (or 1 whole vanilla bean, split lengthwise)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and place over medium heat.
Stirring occasionally, allow the mixture to come to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from the heat and allow the syrup to cool to room temperature.
When the syrup is cool, strain into a clean jar through a fine mesh sieve.
If you store it in the fridge, this syrup will keep for up to 2 months.

Vegan MoFo / I

I am really excited to be part of this years Vegan Month Of Food! Being part of the vegan blog community is still feels new, but it's gonna be epic! So I'll try to blog as often as possible, as I am currently studying for my A Levels that are due in a few weeks! Wish me luck, and for the first entry for Vegan MoFo I share with you a long-lasting family recipe. It is super easy, and turns out delicious!!

This is my mum's go-to bread recipe, she doesn't have it written down, and it may have changed over time. But I remember eating numerous slices of this bread, still warm with lots of butter, when I was younger. She has always baked this kind of bread, and it is so easy, once you've done it a few times, and I  promise you won't need the written-down recipe anymore...

Simple Homemade Bread

yields 2 big loafes, or 4 small ones

Ingredients:

1/2 cube of fresh yeast ( you can substitute instant yeast: 14g)

1 tsp malt (or any sugar)

1 dl lukewarm water

1 - 2 Tbsp. spelt wholemeal flour

1 kg spelt wholemeal flour

4 tsp. herb salt

9 dl water

 You start by making the sponge. In a large bowl, mix the fresh yeast with the lukewarm water until it dissolves, then add malt and whisk. Lastly add the flour and sprinkle it over the sponge mixture. Let stand for about 15 minutes, or until the mixture shows bubbles.

Now add the flour and the salt and start incorporating it with the sponge. Slowly add the water until you get a relatively wet dough. This bread dough won't need any kneading from you, but you should stir it for at least 5 minutes... So be aggressive and work with the dough, until it gets smooth!  Cover the bowl with a damp towel and place in a warm place. Let the dough rise until it reaches the top of your bowl. I guess I let it rise for about 1.5 hours.

 Prepare your baking pans and line them with parchment paper. I used 1 big loaf pan and 2 small ones. Pour the dough into the pans and now you could add nuts or oats if you want to. Preheat your oven to 200°C (392F) and let the dough rise a second time, until the oven is ready. Bake for 15 minutes then turn the temperature down to 180°C and bake for about 30 minutes. The baking time really depends on the size of your pan and how wet your dough is.

In my opinion, this recipe makes the yummiest bread ever. It is airy, with a nice crust and it tastes so good! You can either use savory or a sweet spread, this bread matches everything.

Happy Vegan Mofo! , Florence