Mocha Muffins

I have been meaning to make these since I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago.

I followed the recipe pretty much as given. I had to smash up some dark chocolate as I couldn't find dark choc chips in the supermarket, but this was the only substitution.  At one point I did consider replacing half of the soya milk with some Kahlua for a kick, but was dissuaded of this idea by Thom who looked aghast at the idea.  

The recipe states that it makes 12 muffins, so, intending to take some into work, I doubled the recipe.  I'm glad I did, as my batch made only 15 muffins.  I therefore think it unlikely the original amounts would  have stretched to even 10 muffins.

 

The result - the muffins rose nicely, and have a lovely moist texture.  I was expecting them to be sweeter, and initially suspected I'd made an error measuring out the sugar. I'm still undecided on that one. The dark chocolate I used certainly is more bitter, and doesn't sweeten them up in the way that chocolate chips would have done.

Having said this, once I got used to the less sweet flavour I really liked it and the bitter chocolate gave them a lovely dark flavour.   In an effort to save my waistline I took some to work and they received numerous compliments..

I will certainly be making these again...and I am still tempted by the Kahlua idea...

Banana Bread

Satveer turned up today demanding banana bread.  Far be it from me to disappoint such a deserving lady, so banana cake it was. 

We pulled up our all-time favourite banana bread recipe from theppk.com.  To the basic recipe we made a couple of adaptations:

1) After putting half the batter in to the loaf tin, we put a whole banana on top, running the length of the tin, then covered it with the other half of the batter.   This brilliant idea was initially suggested by Sour Cherry at one of our baking days, and creates a delicious, moist centre to the loaf.

2) I sprinkled a mixture of cinnmon and brown sugar on the top of the batter to create a really tasty crunchy caramelised top to the cake.


As always this recipe turned out a really delicious, moist cake which remains a firm favourite.

Moussaka

I was recommended this recipe for moussaka by a vegan friend.  I didn't have any lentils so I swapped for soya  mince.  Outcome- very creamy and pleasant dish, although the oil content might put me off making it very often.

Q: What the hell do you put on a vegan pizza? A: Anything the hell you want.

First off, pizza hasn't always been all about the cheese.  It originated in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries, where it took the form of a flat bread, sometimes topped with oil and herbs.  Later on, when buffalo and tomatoes became available, people started adding more topping.

Anyway, it's really easy to create one at home - making pizza base dough is dead simple.  Just ensure you make it an hour or two in advance, then you can leave it to rise while you go and do something else, like bake cupcakes, for example.

I used this recipe by Jamie Oliver simply as it was the first one that came up when I googled 'pizza dough'.  However I've used loads of different ones over the years and never had a problem.  Trick is to roll it out as thin as possible, then pick it up and flip it about a bit to help stretch it out even more.  Don't bother about making it round.  Mine didn't work out too thin this time as my dough was a bit too dry.  Keep it was wet as possible without it becoming too sticky.

Once you're done with your base, you're ready to load it up.  First thing is your tomato base.  Make sure you don't just put tomato puree on, as your pizza will be tasteless.  Instead you could buy a jar of pasta sauce of your choice, or just cook up some passata or chopped tomatoes with some garlic and herbs (oregano, thyme), salt and pepper, and boil until you have a paste-like consistency.  Spread a thin layer on your base, then shove on whatever you want.  I put on some onions, capers, sultanas etc in an attempt to create something like the Pizzza Express Venezia, but was unable to resist also piling on a ton of other stuff like mushrooms, sundried tomatoes.  With some olive oil drizzled on top this would have made for a mighty tasty dinner.

However, this time I did go down the fake-cheese route, and grated on some (shitloads of) Cheezly mozzarella style cheese and also some 'Vegerella' which I found in Infininty Foods the other day and thought I'd give a try.  Vegerella has a very odd texture, really rubbery - I wouldn't eat in a sandwich, which I occasionally do with Cheezly, but it worked out ok melted on the pizza. 

After cooking (and taking the photo) I also added some rocket.  Tastiest pizza I've had in a while.

Triple Apple Cider Bundt Cake

A while back I found an amazing recipe for Apple Cider Bundt Cake on the facebook page of one of my favourite sites,  www.theppk.com.   A good excuse to buy a cake ring pan, and also to pretend that a slice of cake is one of your 5-a-day.

Bodge 1: Not realising that when Americans say 'apple cider' they mean cloudy apple juice, I went to the co-op and bought a bottle of alcoholic cider.  When I got home I realised my mistake but was damned if I was going back for apple juice, so went ahead anyway.  A bit scared of creating an alco-cake, I boiled some of the cider before adding to the recipe to try and reduce its alcohol content.  

Bodge 2: I had a slight problem when it came to the flaxseeds as I didn't have any ground ones.  Tried my blender which just moved them round a whole lot, then tried using pestle and mortar, which after about half an hour's physical exertion yielded about half a tablespoon.  So I shoved that in, plus some ground almonds, as that was the nearest thing available in my cupboard...

Anyway I'm pleased to report the cake tasted really good and went down really well with my omni friends.  All loving the stuffing in the middle.  I reckon baking the cake for an hour gets rid of most of the alcohol, and the flavour from using cider is a much better option than just using apple juice.  Next time, won't bother boiling the cider for the batter, and will ensure have the ground flaxseed, as my cake didn't rise perfectly and that may well be why.  An excuse to buy a spice grinder, anyway...

Strawberry Cheesecake

Since a Banana Flan disaster in year 9 Food Economics (in which, as a vegan, I was definitely not the teacher's pet), I have not attempted a tofu-based dessert.  Given that this was 14 years ago and I have since been fed a decent vegan cheesecake, I decided it was time to  give tofu another chance for sweets, and attempt a strawberry cheesecake.

I tried out an online recipe for a plain cheesecake, however to the blender I added about 10 strawberries to make the topping taste of strawberry and look pink rather than white.  As this would increase the water content I missed out the soya milk to make sure it didn't come out too sloppy.  For the base I used 250g co-op digestives and some melted vitalite.  Shoved the base in the oven for a few minutes before adding the topping and cooking for about 45mins.  Recipe came out pretty good - I'd cook the base for a bit longer next time to make sure it was nice and crunchy.

Granola

Super-tasty granola recipe from BBC Good Food.

For the fruit I used sultanas and some dried cranberries which gave a beautiful colour.  Dried cherries would be great.

Swap out the honey for golden syrup or more maple syrup or whatever's your bag.

Only problem is it's too moreish.