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Posts Tagged ‘Baking’

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Say Hello to Strawberry Season

In Food, Glorious Food, Recipes on June 4, 2014 at 2:39 pm

crumbleMy husband visited a strawberry farm earlier the other day so when I arrived home I discovered he had plunked two containers of fresh strawberries on the counter that needed tending to. Strawberries are one of the fruits that can be quite toxic, so always go for organic. Although I don’t always list “organic” as part of my ingredient list to save space (and I’m a lazy typist), it’s always implied as you’d be hard pressed to find non-organic ingredients in my home!

Now I’ve never made crumbles before and didn’t realize it was so easy! Apparently the trick is to not over mix the crumble part. I literally just threw this together on the fly and was quite pleased with the results. Perhaps it was beginners luck.

 

Vegan Strawberry-Coconut Crumble

Ingredients

3 cups                              fresh strawberries, roughly chopped

 

Mix together

3 tbsp                                 coconut sugar

3 tsp                                   vanilla

3 tsp                                   water

 

Mix together

4 oz                                    whole wheat or gluten-free flour

1 ½ tsp                              baking powder

2 tbsp                                 coconut sugar

4 tbsp                                 shredded coconut

4 oz                                     rolled oats

4 oz                                     coconut oil (melted)

 

Method

Chop strawberries and line bottom of baking or casserole dish. Mix sugar, vanilla and water together until sugar dissolves. Pour over berries. Mix flour, baking power, sugar, coconut and oats with fork until blended. Add melted coconut oil and stir until crumble forms being careful not to over mix. Top berries with mixture and bake in preheated 350°F oven until crumble is browned and fruit is bubbling. Approx. 20 mins. Enjoy!

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Spooky Vegan Skeleton Cookies

In Food, Glorious Food, Recipes on October 31, 2013 at 11:36 am

cookiesHappy Halloween! Don’t be a scaredy cat. Go ahead and try this delicious recipe — it makes a wonderful vegan cookie batter that can be whipped up for any occasion.

For these spooky skeleton cookies, I used a standard (approx. 3-inch) gingerbread cookie cutter to make the bodies and then iced them to fill in the bones. Have fun!

 

Cocoa Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

Beat together

¾ cup                coconut sugar

¾ cup                coconut oil or vegan shortening

Add

1 tbsp               ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water (or 1 egg substitute)

1 tsp                  vanilla

Mix together

2 cups                whole wheat flour

¼ cup                 almond flour

1/3 cup              cocoa powder

½ tsp                  baking powder

¼ tsp                  salt

Icing

Mix together

2 ½ cups             icing sugar

3 tbsp                  soy, almond or hemp milk

Method

Beat sugar and coconut oil. Add flax egg and vanilla until combined. Separately mix dry ingredients then stir into sugar mixture in two additions to make smooth dough. Divide dough in half and refrigerate discs about 1 hour until firm. Can be made ahead and refrigerated overnight.

On lightly floured surface, roll out each disc to ¼-inch thickness. Cut out desired shapes and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake in preheated 350°F oven until edges darken (approx. 18 to 20 mins.) Cool on racks.

To make icing, mix icing sugar with milk to make a smooth icing that can be piped using a piping bag with small plain tip.

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Wholesome Harvest

In Food, Glorious Food, Recipes on September 30, 2013 at 8:49 am

apple

Call me old-fashioned but I love the feeling of satisfaction one gets from making things yourself. So you can imagine my delight when my husband decided to harvest apples from our own backyard. We’ve had two old apple trees since we moved into our house some 15 years ago. Not sure what variety they are. The local birds and squirrels have always been happy to make short work of them. Not this time though, we beat them to it.

According to my better half — this is as organic as it gets although I figured they’d be wormy from neglect and well past their prime. Much to my surprise, all eleven of the apples harvested were actually quite fine and tasty, too. Have apples? Make cake.

cake

 

Apple Almond Cake

Ingredients

Beat together

2 cups                   brown sugar

1 cup                     coconut oil

2 tbsp                   ground flaxseed + 6 tbsp water (or 2 eggs)

2 tsp                      vanilla

Mix together

1 ¾ cup                 whole wheat flour

¼ cup                   almond flour

2 tsp                      baking soda

2 tsp                      cinnamon

½ tsp                     fresh ground nutmeg

Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture until well combined. Stir in

4 cups                   apples (peeled, cored and chopped)

¼ cup                    sliced almonds

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare oblong baking pan. Beat sugar, coconut oil, flax eggs and vanilla until combined. Mix dry ingredients then add to sugar mixture. Stir in apples and almonds. Smooth into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven until golden, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan about 10 mins. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.

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Craving Cupcakes?

In Good Eats, Recently Reviewed on September 16, 2013 at 1:48 pm

cupcakes

Sweets from the Earth has done it again by adding their own vegan offerings to the plethora of choices out there in the current cupcake rage. Beautifully decorated, these cupcakes could easily sit beside any bakery version but are ideal for anyone wishing to avoid nuts, dairy, eggs and all the other additives found in many mainstream baked goods. 

Sweets from the Earth Nut Free Cupcakes The variety package of four caught my eye as I was perusing the dessert section in the freezer of my local health food store. PRODUCT NOTES Although the combinations vary each cupcake has distinctly different flavours: Lavender packs an unexpected lavender punch in the icing atop a chocolate cupcake (personally I prefer my lavender in soap but it was surprisingly good); Cookies ‘n’ Cream tasted more like mocha coffee but was delicious nonetheless; Cream Filled features a dense chocolate brownie-like cake with an equally lovely glaze; Vanilla was the plain Jane of the bunch but not without its merits. BOTTOM LINE Although a bit on the sweet side for my liking, they certainly are less sugary than confections you’ll find elsewhere and definitely made with higher quality organic ingredients. Definitely splurge and special-occasion worthy. Invent an excuse.