June Daring Bakers!!!

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Hooray! I did mine today and made them especially as a father's day gift. I played with the rules a bit and my pastry is in the shape of a bow rather than on the bottom. I also made the frangipane vegan and wheat free. They are strawberry flavoured and the only non fruit sugar used is the wee dots of icing on the tops. I found this challenge very therapeautic. Nice one.

Finally cracked the cookies and something of interest...

It has taken me many failed attempts to crack this and boy was I determined this time. I followed Dreena's Homestyle Cookies recipe but made a few adjustments so the recipe looks more like this:

1 cup spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp baking soda
1⁄4 cup fruit sugar
1⁄4 tsp sea salt
1⁄3 cup apricot syrup (see note)
1⁄4 tsp blackstrap molasses
1 - 1 1⁄2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1⁄4 cup melted soya margarine
1⁄3 cup non-dairy chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine the apricot syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined.
Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not overmix).
Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little.
Bake for 12 minutes, until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out).
Let cool on the sheet for no more than 1 minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes 8-10 large cookies.

Note: I didn't have the maple syrup and had bought these amazing organic dried apricots the other day, you know the dark kind, not the orange, sulphur coated ones. I soaked these in some water and then poured the lot into a food processor until it resembled the consistency of a syrup.

I also got a bit experimental and had some left over pineapple, mango, banana and apricots which was getting to the fermenting stage so instead of throwing it out I popped the lot in a pot and boiled it all up. God the neighbours might have thought I was developing my own brewery. It got pretty heady in my kitchen. But I was off out and left the mix to cool. When I returned I had decided to try making flap jacks with the mix and this is what I came up with:




Tropical Mango and Basil Flapjacks:

1/2 cup chopped pineapple
1/2 cup chopped mango
4 dried organic apricots (the dark unsulphored kind)
1/4 pineapple juice
1 chopped ripe banana
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
handful finely chopped fresh basil
2 1/2 cups porridge oats

Put all the ingredients in a container and let sit for a few days in the fridge until things get pretty perfumed. I think it's the pomegranate that aids this process but I'm just guessing.
Transfer to a pot and bring to the boil, let simmer until everything gets soft, add more juice if necessary. Cool slightly.
Preheat oven to gas mark 5/200 C/375 F.
Whizz the lot with a mixer until pureed.
Add in the basil and oats (adjust the amount of oats accordingly, mix should be quite dense but not too dry).
Spread evenly into a dish lined with greased parchment paper.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden on top.
Turn out onto a cooling rack.
Once cool, refridgerate overnight. These will be much more chewy in the morning.
...and enjoy!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

This recipe did worry me a little bit as gluten and I aren't the best of friends but it was surprisingly straight forward and had the most impressive results. In fact, I found the whole process extremely therapeutic, using my whole fore arm to stretch it out. I filled my strudel with blackcurrant and raspberries and served it up with some blueberry ice cream. Will do this one again!

(OOOh, just look at all that sticky juice bursting under the pressure of a plait!)

See the layers, can you seen 'um?!

Sunday Apple Galette

I have an affinity with all things French and indeed all forms of baking. So suitably I prepared this apple galette for breakfast. I put a light coating of oil around the pan before pouring in some orange juice. To this I added one apple, diced, covered with mixed spices and half a teaspoon of honey. On a medium heat, I browned these apple in the pan.

I then made a batter from gluten/wheat free flour, sweetened soy milk, pinch of salt, sprinkle of fruit sugar, baking powder to form a thin pancake like consistency. This was poured over the apples until the bubbles became stiff on the visible side. I popped it under the grill to finish the batter off with a nice golden colour.

This was the result (once flipped out):

It's my Granda's birthday tomorrow and I'm in the habit of making cake presents for people. One of his favourite sweets is a Nestle Walnut Whip so I veganised the ingredients and hey presto!

Its vanilla cake with a cavern of vegan whipped cream and walnuts in the centre. Topped with Vegan Chocolate Ganache and of course, more walnuts.

Daring Bakers April Challenge: "Cheese" cake!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I decided to go all out on this challenge and make everything from scratch. I ended up with an Orange and Dragonfruit Vegan Cheesecake with Strawberry Lime Sorbet.

I started with the graham crackers and baked these with wheatgerm, gram flour, free from white flour and soy marg. These then got crumbled with some fruit sugar and pineapple huice to make the crust.

My "cheese" part was made from silken tofu, avocado, soy marg, lemon and orange juice, lemon and orange zest, fruit sugar and arrowroot. I whizzed this mixture and set the microwave to low and cooked until thickened. It took me a while to get to this recipe and I tried many other variations before hand including: gram flour cheese cake, tofu and nutritional yeast etc. But found the simplest to be the most effective.

My topping was made from dragon fruit and pure fruit orange spread. I simmered this with some fruit sugar and left the lot to set overnight. My sorbet was a combination of fizzy water, fruit sugar, strawberries, lime and bicarb of soda. Today I ate some. Oh how I smiled.

This is my first official piece of business for my cake making enterprise. I was asked to make a straight forward square cake for an eightieth birthday. The cake is made from vegan sponge and filled with raspberry and pomegranate spread. As far as I know, it was well received!!