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 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 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 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 / 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

Pumpkin Pie Layer Cake

 

I had the idea of creating my perfect vegan birthday cake. Since it was almost beginning of fall, and I like to argue that my birthday (17 september) is already in fall, pumpkin seemed ideal! So coincidentally I stumbled upon the idea of using a crustless pumpkin pie as cupcake frosting and it struck me - why not create a vegan pumpkin pie filling? 

And so it happened, and my vegan birthday pumpkin pie layer cake was born!

Vegan Pumpkin Pie Layer Cake

This cake requires you to plan and make some things ahead (the day before).

   

• 4 Vanilla-Pumpkin-Layers
• Homemade Dulce De Leche
• Pumpkin Pie Filling
• Whipped Frosting

Vanilla-Pumpkin Layer

this makes 2 layers, so please bake this twice to get the 4 layers.

230 gr spelt flour

100 gr sugar

240 ml sparkling mineral water
40 ml canola oil
1 sachet baking powder
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 heaping Tbsp. pumpkin puree (optional)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 160°C. Mix all ingredients for 5 minutes with a hand mixer, slowly pouring the sparkling mineral water in last. Next grease a 20cm round pan. Line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper, this will make it easier getting the cake out of the pan to cool. 
Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until the top is slightly brown and a knife inserted comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes, then cut the cake in 2 layers and let them cool completely on a cooling rack. 

Dulce de Leche
Recipe from seitan is my motor .
I used about 3/4 of the batch I made.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

340 gr silken tofu

450 gr pumpkin puree

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp gingerbread spice

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

80 ml canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 Tbsp apple syrup (or molasses)

250 gr soy yoghurt (drained overnight)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine all ingredients (except soy yoghurt) in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour into a greased baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the edges start to get brown. Let the pie cool completely before putting it into a large mixing bowl. Add the drained soy yoghurt and mix thoroughly with a wisk until smooth. 

Whipped Frosting

250 gr soy yoghurt (drained overnight)

500 gr soy whipping cream

2 sachets vanilla sugar

2 sachets of whipping cream stabiliser

1 pinch salt

Beat together the soy whipping cream, sugar, salt and 1 sachet of whipping cream stabiliser until peaks form. Then slowly add the soy yoghurt and the remaining sachet of whipping cream stabiliser and beat for 1 minute. 

 

Notes:

•  You can use your favourite pumpkin pie recipe, but mixing it with the drained soy yoghurt gives the filling the desired creaminess.
• Next time I'm gonna add more of the soy yoghurt to the frosting to make it even yummier and creamy!

In the end I was really pleased how this cake turned out, it tasted even better on the second day! The only thing I regret is not taking pictures in better light... but well, life stepped in and hindered me.

If there are any questions regarding the recipe, please ask, I'll be glad to answer! :)

Florence

Brownies!

I have been on the long journey of finding the perfect vegan brownie recipe for the last 9 months! I've had ones with banana, silken tofu, applesauce, cacao powder or melted chocolate... but not until now a recipe was worth posting or even mentioning! These brownies turned out wonderfully chocolatey and fudgey, yet not too moist! What is your perfect vegan brownie recipe? I really look forward to my further journey to vegan brownie heaven....

Vegan Brownies

 adapted from Alien's Day Out

 

Ingredients:

2 cups spelt flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 Tbs instant coffee powder
1 cup water
1,5 Tbs ground flax seeds
2 cups organic unrefined sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pecan nuts 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C. Prepare your baking pan by lining it out with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and coffee powder together in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, add about 1/4 cup of the water and the ground flax seeds. Whisk until it gets thick and gooey, this may take some time. I started with 1 Tbs of ground flax seeds and added at least 1/2 Tbs in the process.  Add the rest of the water, along with the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and salt. Whisk well.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until everything is almost all incorporated. Then fold in in the nuts. For my taste, the more the better!
5. Pour the batter into your prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle more chopped nuts on top, next time I'll use even more, they turn absolutely delicious while baking.

6. Bake in oven for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let it rest about 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

Notes: I didn't have coffee extract, so I substituted with the instant coffee powder, which gave the brownies a nice and subtle coffee taste and brings out the chocolate flavour even more. 

Plum-Blueberry-Rolls

This should be a warning! Once you've made this incredibely tasty, not overly-sweet yeast rolls with a rich plum-blueberry-filling with just the faintest hint of fresh rosemary, your friends/family are going to force you to make more and more (preferably with varying fillings)!

And let's not forget the homemade vegan Dulce de Leche! It is so good you are going to try spreading it on everything you're eating!  

Well, maybe that's just me then..... :)

Vegan Plum-Blueberry-Rolls with homemade vegan Dulce de Leche

all credit goes to seitan is my motor ! I'm glad I was able to hold back and don't change the recipe, as it turned out so deliciously!

I really recommend this recipe, and generally seitan is my motor, there are loads of great and easy vegan recipes waiting for you!

Florence