Steamed banana bread with chocolate pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Suet far from a vegan ingredient - I can't even describe it for you because it grosses me out.  But I didn't let that stop me from finding a way to make a super delicious pudding cake!  Instead of baking in the oven, British pudding cake is steamed by placing a heat proof dish in a saucepan of water and covered with a lid.  It was my first time cooking a dessert this way, and it does take a lot of paying attention so that the water doesn't all boil away to nothing. But the result is soo worth it!

I definitely got my chocolate fix from this challenge, and little Preciosa got a nice suprise in her lunch when I gave her some leftovers the next day.

Steamed banana bread with chocolate pudding:

Vols-au-Vent - victory or defeat?

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Puff pastry cannot be made in a hurry - the process takes several hours and patience is key.  It was easy enough to substitute Earth Balance instead of butter in Michael Richard's recipe, but I'm not sure if my pastry is missing the visible horizontal layers because of the EB or my lack of skill at rolling the dough!  I'm pretty sure it's the latter ;)

Often in Daring Baker's challenges we are given free range of flavours and this month was no exception.  Savoury or sweet, we were left with the task of filling our Vols-au-Vent's with whatever our hearts desired.  The first thing that came to mind when I saw these was Happy Herbivore's mock tuna.  I've used it to make "tuna" casserole and sandwiches, and I knew it woud be the perfect filling for this recipe. It did not disappoint!  Thank you Steph for hosting this month's challenge, and thank you Happy Herbivore for the "tuna"! 

Deeelish Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

The monthly Daring Baker's Challenges are always challenging, and making a vegan version of the recipes that are selected by the hosts makes it even more so.  Usually I stick to healthy cooking, making low fat and low sugar substitutes whenever I can - but that was all out the window for this confection!  

The Dobos Torte was supposed to be a five-layer sponge cake, and apparently some recipes end up with 12 layers!  That would be quite a tall slice of cake.  I think that the omission of eggs attributed to less batter in general for mine, and alas, I only had a three-layer cake.  

I love how the chopped hazelnuts matched the dark chocolate "buttercream"icing, and the caramel topping was amazing.  As I mentioned, this is an extremely sweet dessert, and just a small slice will satisfy any sweet craving. 

Mallows & More

Sorry I have been away for so long.  I just moved to a new apartment and am finally settled in and have an internet connection again.  I haven't been able to find the battery charger for my camera battery though, so lately my photos have been really quick snapshots with my fingers crossed that the battery stays on long enough to let me take the picture!  So I'll apologize in advance for the less than stellar photos you're about to see.

Anyhoo, I am very, very late in posting the July Daring Baker's Challenge.  Better late than never?  I hope they don't kick me out for posting it so late!


The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I can't even remember the last time I had marshmallow anything, so I was very excited about this challenge.  These chocolate treats remind me of Viva Puffs with the little strawberry jam suprise in the middle that I used to eat when I was a little girl.

I bought vegan marshmallows called Dandies from Vegan Essentials for this recipe.  I subbed flax meal for the eggs in the yummy lemony Milan cookies and I have to say, this was a fun recipe to make and I really like these mallow cookies.  They are a heavy and hearty cookie and one is definitely enough to satisfy any sweet tooth cravings.

Here's one cut in half so you can see all the layers.  YUM!!!!

When I ordered the Dandies from Vegan Essentials, I also ordered a book called "Benji Beansprout Doesn't Eat Meat"  It's about a little boy named Benji who gets teased by kids at school because he's a vegetarian.  I thought it would be a cute book to read to my little vegan Gordita at bedtime.  She is really picking up words quickly now, and just today I taught her how to say "tofu" while we were at the grocery store.  Here she is chomping on some watermelon during a visit with her great-grandparents:

And now for some random food porn:  Kashi Go Lean cereal with vanilla almond milk and chopped apple:

Brown rice elbow pasta with avocado, tomato and cilantro, in a light tossing of nutritional yeast and unsweetened organic soy milk

More brown rice pasta - this time shells with peas and a crumbled veggie patty.  Leftovers make a great lunch the next day which is what you see here:

 

 And now I'm off to bed.  It's going to be a busy weekend around here, so stay tuned for more vegan delights :)

The Bakewell Tart & my 101st Post!

Last time I posted I didn't realize it was number 100, so I'm celebrating post #101 with a successful Daring Bakers' Challenge. 

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.

I honestly can say I've never heard of a Bakewell tart, so I hope I make all my English ancestors proud that their English heritage lives on through this vegan version of this delicious treat.

Bakewell tarts feature three elements: an eggy custard, frangipane and jam.  Instead of custard, I worked in some mashed very ripe bananas.  Chocolate chips made their way in as they seemed to be a better compliment to bananas than jam.  And who bought all the almonds in the supermarket?  Can't make frangipane without almonds...or can you?  I couldn't bring myself to go to another store with a cranky baby when I did my initial grocery shop, so I opted for cashews instead which worked well and I was very pleased with the way all of the ingredients complimented each other, right down to the cinnamon garnish.

Almost Sugar-Free Sugar Free Mango Strudel

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.

 How awesome is it that the recipe was already vegan?  Well, except that it called for butter which was easily substituted with Earth Balance.  It was too easy to make! The dough is supposed to be stretched and made very thin but even if it tears a bit, any minor imperfections are hidden when the dough and filling is rolled up into a log.  Love that part!

Linda and Courtney made apple filling for theirs, but as part of the challenge, they gave free reign to us to come up with whatever filling we wished, be it sweet or savoury.

I diced a mango and tossed it in a couple of tbsp's of rum before rolling it up and baking it in the oven. 

I used a baking stone, as I do with pretty much everything that I bake, be it cookies or pizza or whatever.  Here's the finished product before I sliced it up:

 

I chose not to use sugar and cinnamon, but decided instead to keep it as sugar free as possible.  Mango is so sweet already, so all I did was drizzle on a bit of agave nectar before indulging in this treat - and I had only a teeny bit of guilt about eating it at 10pm right before going to bed.

 

 

Lasagna a la Vegan

 

Time for this month's Daring Baker's challenge!  The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Making a savoury dish this month was perfect for me because I had leftovers for days and didn't have to cook much else for the entire weekend that I made it.  The main part of the challenge this month was to hand make the pasta, (I made this spelt-chickpea pasta from Bryanna Clark Grogan) and include a bechamel sauce.  Instead of topping the lasagna with cheese, I scrambled up some medium-firm tofu with nutritional yeast and smoked garlic chipotle salt.  This combined with the white bechamel sauce was really tasty!  The vegetable layer of the lasagna was a simple saute of white onion, celery, carrots and zucchini.

I'm seriously all lasagna'd out after eating this for three days straight.  The rest of it is going in the freezer and may end up in my lunchbox one day.

Avocado Ice Cream & Chocolate Valentino Cake

 

Whew, this month flew right by.  It's already time to post February's Daring Baker's Challenge.  Rules being what they are, we're required to paste word-for-word the following sentence:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

 ***

The flourless cake that was chosen involved 5 eggs, so there were a lot of choices out there to make it vegan.  I chose to use silken tofu instead, which turned out all right, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other vegan daring bakers did.  For the ice cream, I decided to make vanilla ice cream with a twist ~ soy-free, almost sugar-free vanilla ice cream featuring...avocado!  It may sound a bit strange, but it tastes great and it has a gorgeous green colour.  I used my favorite agave nectar instead of sugar, so that's why I say "almost" sugar-free.

When All Else Fails, Read the Directions!!!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

"Traditionally, tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. Once set, their shape resembles the curved French roofing tiles for which they're named."

I was fascinated by the suggestion that you make a stencil template and then use a spatula to spread the dough over the template.  Kind of like a reverse cookie cutter.  I had nedver done it before...and I have to say, I don't really look forward to doing it again in the near future because I totally suck at it.  For my first attempt, I cut out a palm tree template using a piece of cardboard.  This was no easy feat, there are a lot of tricky angles.

As I peered into the oven to watch them bake, my heart sank....I was horrified to see they had melted into blobs of liquid.  I had never seen cookies do that before.  And then it hit me.  I forgot to add the flour.  I was completely stunned.  I had already tossed my cardboard template in the garbage I had to re-think what shape I was going to do. 

So I thought, okay, my daughter is turning 1 this month, I'll make them shaped like the number 1!!  However, this time around, my batter was so thick it stuck to the template and the dough barely touched the cookie sheet.  By this time I was getting really frustrated at the fact that I must be the only person who can't make these cookies and how could I screw it up not once, but twice.

Attempt number three is far less glorious than my original intention, but it worked.  Simple rectangles left to cool on wooden rolling pin.  At least I had to pair it with something interesting...how about guava-strawberry mousse?

Yule Love This French Log

It's time to introduce this month's Daring Bakers Challenge!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.

They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. 

This multi-layered frozen dessert features six elements:  Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake), Mousse, Ganache, Praline (Crisp), Creme Brulee, and Icing.  We were given a lot of leeway in terms of flavours this time, and I have to say that my favorite part ended up being the mousse.

I chose to make a maple mousse, which was actually quite simple.  I used one box of mori-nu silken tofu and 1/2 cup maple syrup.  Blend in food processor for 2 minutes.  That's it!  It's so light and full of flavour, I wanted to eat it all on its own without adding it to the yule log but instead I resorted to licking the spatula ;)  It was well worth the wait though, because it is absolutely delightful once it's frozen.  I think this summer I might toss this in the ice cream maker and see how it fares as "ice cream".

 Also, since I've pretty much had enough chocolate over the holidays to last until next year, I went with a vanilla ganache.  My vegan creme brulee was more like a blanc mange (vanilla pudding) but at least I kept with the french theme?!  With all of the vanilla and maple layers it's hard to distinguish one layer from the next other than the almond cake and chocolate praline, but they each have their own flavour that blend harmoniously with the other layers.  It takes a bit of time to put this together but it really is a nice dessert to serve if you have guests over.  

You can find the original (non-vegan) recipe posted at Florilege Gourmand.

(Vegan) Caramel Cake With Caramelized "Butter" Frosting

No, that's not a giant donut.  It's this month's Daring Baker's challenge from author Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater and her signature caramel cake.  The challenge was hosted by Dolores, along with Alex,  Jenny, and alternative baker Natalie.  If you have the need to satisfy a sweet craving, this recipe may well cure you of that forever.  It is S-W-E-E-T!  Too sweet for me, actually.  I mean, I'm always trying to cut sugar out of my recipes, and here I am eating it by the pound for this challenge.  I stopped counting the sugar after the first 4 cups of it!  Here's to hoping it doesn't go straight to my hips or butt ;)

I had to make a few substitutions like Earth Balance instead of margerine, ground flax instead of eggs, and almond milk instead of dairy milk.  I've never made caramel syrup before, it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be.  But I have to admit, I was wearing heavy oven mitts after reading the disclaimer about having a bowl of ice water ready to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin. 

Once it was all said and done, I gathered up some girlfriends and we dug in.  Everyone thought it was fantastic, though we all felt naughty eating it because it has about, oh, a zillion calories.  I'm gonna work those calories off tomorrow at the mall doing some speed shopping...or trying to, anyways. 

Tossed Pizza - Oh Mia!

This month's Daring Baker's challenge was a hand-tossed pizza crust from “The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread” by Peter Reinhart.  I've made many a pizza crusts, but never had I attempted to hand toss them.  And now I know why.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I totally suck at it.  I have a new found admiration for the guys in the Italian pizzaria down the street who toss thier dough and end up with perfectly circular pizza pies.

                  BEFORE                                              AFTER

After I tossed the dough in the air it looked more like one of the Hawaiian islands than a pizza!  I even tried singing "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore"  in a really bad Italian accent but it didn't help at all.  But once my pizza was cooked it didn't look so bad, and it tasted really good.

I made a pesto sauce and then topped it with freshly roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and mushrooms.  I added some fresh ground pepper right before I chowed down becuase pepper is yummy on just about everything and this is no exception.  Yes, the dough takes 2 days to make, but it's worth it.  The recipe yields six crusts, so I put the extra dough in the freezer so I wouldn't overdose on pizza.  You'll see how those ones turn out over the next few weeks.

I tried to cut and paste the recipe here twice, and both times my internet window crashed :(  But if you come across “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart, give the “Pizza Napoletana” recipe a try.

Fabu-lash Lavash

I was completely thrilled to discover that my second ever daring baker challenge was vegan!  No substitutions necessary, just a straight up Lavash Cracker from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread.  I strayed only slightly from the recipe in that I used whole wheat flour instead of unbleached all purpose flour, I added 1 tbsp of guar gum, and I sprinkled ground pumpkin seeds on it right before baking in the oven.

The instructions say to roll the dough paper thin, and this is probably the most important step, as I learned the hard way that if the dough is too thick it ends up being pita-like.  Still tasty, but I don't think it could really be called a cracker.  My second attempt turned out much better after I realized just how thin paper thin is supposed to be.

The other half of the challenge was to make a dip for the lavash.  I decided I wanted to try making something raw, and I came up with a delicious spinach & artichoke dip which was a hit with my friends - they couldn't believe that I made it by just tossing random ingredients into the food processor.  Seriously, there is no chopping or preparation of ingredients needed.  It's that simple.  Raw can be so easy, I really should eat more raw foods.

*UPDATE:  as someone pointed out, the artichokes aren't raw so I fudged that up.  Hmm maybe raw isn't so easy!

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

1 16 oz can white kidney beans, drained
1 small jar of artichoke hearts in oil, drained
1 cup fresh spinach
3 cloves garlic
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
pinch of salt & pepper
pinch of cayanne pepper

Blend everything in a food processor until smooth.