Rhubarb and Apple Crumble

This is probably a rather healthy desert – I mean, it’s pretty much muesli disguised as pudding! (Although, probably anything could disguise itself as pudding if it sprinkled a bit of sugar on itself). With lots of fruit, seeds, and oats, it does provide a chunk of nutrition. And sugar… for energy…? The trick with crumbles is to use lots of apple; they’re nice and sweet, cheap, and bulky, so provide a good base to full out the crumble, and use smaller/more expensive tasty fruits for the flavour.

INGREDIENTS

3 Apples
2 branches Rhubarb
3 Plums (or another branch of Rhubarb)
1 Tblsp Sugar
3/4 C Flour
1/4 C Margarine
1/2 C Oats
1/4 C Brown Sugar
2 Tblsp Pumpkin Seeds
2 Tblsp Sunflower Seeds
A pinch of cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Peel the apples, then slice them up as well as the rhubarb and plums. Chuck them in a pot, sprinkle with the sugar and cover with some water. Bring to the boil, and let it do so until the rhubarb is nice and soft.

While you’re waiting for the fruit, in a food processor (or with your fingers) blend together the flour and marg to form crumbs. Then blend in the oats, brown sugar,  seeds, and cinnamon.

Drain the fruit, layer onto a dish, then sprinkle the crumbs on top. Bake at 200ºC until it starts to brown on top.

  *Authors note: If I wasn’t writing this for Tahini Sauce, which claims to be “low in sugar, low in fat”, I would probably also grate some chocolate onto the fruit before putting the crumbs on, and mix in some maple syrup.

Passionfruit Cheesecake

Jessie takes credit for this - I'm just posting it for her x

Cheesecake is probably a vital piece of baking in an activist-vegan’s arsenal. I mean, it’s CAKE made out of CHEESE (well, not really, at all, but, you know..). No one would ever imagine they could go vegan and still have CHEESEcake, but now they can! Next time someone asks you that annoying question, “so what can you eat!?”, you can whip out a cheesecake and eat it in front of them.

INGREDIENTS

Base

1 C Ground Almonds (or almond flour)
1/2 C Soaked Sultanas
2 Tblsp Coconut Oil
2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Cheesecake

2 C Cashew Nuts, soaked overnight, drained
1/4 C Coconut Oil , melted
1/2 C Lemon Juice
1/4 C Maple Syrup
3 Tblsp Vanilla Essence
1 C Water

Topping

5 Passionfruit
1/3 C Maple Syrup

INSTRUCTIONS

Blend all base ingredients and press into tin.  Put in freezer. Blend all cheesecake ingredients, slowly adding in the water. Keep blending until smooth and creamy – this takes a wee while to become creamy. Bear with it, it will eventually. Drizzle atop of base and place in freezer. Mix passionfruit pulp with maple syrup, add more syrup if need be and blend well so that the passionfruit flavour distributes amongst the syrup. When the top has sufficiently solidified, drizzle the topping on top and freeze.

You may like to eat this straight out the freezer (like Jess), or leave it to sit for half an hour so it’s not freezing cold when you put it in your mouth (like me).

Dark Chocolate Ganache Tart

Jessie takes credit for this - I'm just posting it for her x

This is what I imagine a ‘Death by Chocolate’ pudding would be made from – just add chocolate ice cream! It was adapted from a raw recipe book, which talked about how bad unhealthy foods are, which means DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!! This is totally healthy and good for you! (Just like that Banana Cake). Unlike the banana cake though, this is really rich and so somewhat self-moderating – and when I say something is rich, you should trust me on that.

INGREDIENTS

Tart Crust

3/4 C Cocoa
3/4 C Ground Almonds (or almond flour, if preferred)
1/2 C Maple Syrup
1/4 C Coconut Oil
Pinch of Salt

Ganache Filling

2 1/4 C Cocoa
2 1/4 C Maple Syrup
1 C Coconut Oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Tart Crust

Blend all ingredients in a food processor and press into base. Chill until set.

Ganache Filling

Blend all ingredients. Pour onto base. Chill or freeze until firm (approx 3 hours). Lick spatula. Get overtaken in a frenzy.

When cutting, be sure to do so with a hot knife, then clean and heat it between cuts. It’s sticky.

Peanut Brownies

More traditional food of my people.

Don’t get our brownies confused with chocolate brownies, American-style. These are biscuits, or “cookies”, as you types may refer to them.  They are best enjoyed with a big glass of soy milk.

My  mum is addicted to these crack-like biscuits, so now she can make some for us to share when we visit. Pay attention Ma! 

They’re both crunchy and chewy.  You like what you see? You like it? Aw yeah you do. So do I. For this reason tonight I’ll be featuring a beetroot salad on Tahini Sauce.

INGREDIENTS

125g margarine
1 cup sugar
1.5 cups flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch salt
1 cup peanuts
1 tablespoon of water

INSTRUCTIONS

Blend all ingredients, except peanuts, in a blender. Mix batter with peanuts. Roll into balls, press, bake on a greased tray at 180ºC, until springy to touch and cooked through.  When you remove them from the baking tray they will be bendy so let them cool on a cooking-rack; they’ll firm up and the final result will be a chewy-but-crunchy biscuit.

Upside-down Apple Pie

Do you have a pie dish? I don’t! Which means I make all my pies ‘upside-down’. If you do have one, feel free to make yours the right way up. I imagine it will still taste as good.

This is a great way to use up any apples that are getting old, or home grown ones that just don’t look appetising enough to bite into.

INGREDIENTS

4 Apples
1 tsp Sugar
Pastry

INSTRUCTIONS

Peel, cube and slice the apples. Put them in a pot of boiling water with the sugar for about 10 minutes, until they are soft. Drain of the water completely.

Split the pastry into 2, and roll out both of them. Lay one piece on a greased oven tray, pile the apple in the middle, and then place the second piece on top. Roll up the edges of the pastry, if you’ve made your layers the right side this should seal the pie up.

Poke a few holes in the top with a fork, and bake at 180ºC for about 20 minutes. Leave to cool for a few minutes, and then serve with cream.

Dessert Pastry

Pastry is a quick and easy base for many a pudding. While it often isn’t hard to find vegan pastry in stores, it’s cheaper to make at home and is reasonably fast to throw together.

The important think about this recipe is it’s more about the ratios than the actual measurements. To tell the truth, this was the first time I’ve ever measured the ingredients – the things I do for you guys. In general, just chuck in 1 part marg to 2 parts flour, enough water to bind, and make as much pastry as you need.

INGREDIENTS

150g Margarine
2 C Flour
1 Tblsp  Sugar
3 Tblsp Water

INSTRUCTIONS

Chuck the margarine, flour and sugar into a food processor, and blend to form ‘crumbs’.  Tip into a bowl, and mix in the water to bind it all together. Roll into a ball, put into a sealed container and refrigerate for at least 30 mins.

Once it has been cooled, roll it out on a floured surface to do whatever you need with it.

Some recipes may require blind baking, whereas others you’ll cook the pastry once you’ve filled it with yum stuff. Either way, cook at 180ºC for about 20 minutes or until it starts turning golden brown.

As I said, it’s the base for many a pudding; and now I’ve told you how to make pastry, you can count on it that I’ll be sharing some more desserts using pastry.

Ultimate Cupcake Recipe

Got some Vegan Solidarity Baking to do?

Got a community project on? Selling cupcakes in a bake-sale?

This is your basic fail-safe recipe.

It’s extremely cheap to make, has a good consistency and it’s quick to throw together. We have made hundreds of cupcakes before, using this recipe.

You can add variety by mixing up the frosting flavours, or you can flavour the mixture by adding: lemon, vanilla, cocoa, raspberry or mint – whatever you like.

Makes 12.

INGREDIENTS

1 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
6 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 cup water

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients. Mix well. Fill paper cupcake cups*. Bake until springy to the touch (approximately 15 minutes). Frost.We make simple frosting by blending generous helpings of margarine, icing sugar, food colouring and flavour (in this case, raspberry).

*We use large sized paper cups, and rest them in a muffin tray so they hold shape. We added 1/4 cup of mixture to each cup.

Fresh Whipped Cream

There comes a time when you have made every non-cream-including pudding out there, and you really are starting to crave some; be it trifle, chocolate-chip cookie log, or cream filled donuts.

You can usually buy a vegan cream from an expensive organic, gluten free, or other such speciality store. But why buy it, when you can make it for a lot cheaper (and without that nasty soy after-taste).

An electric beater would be recommended here, to make the cream light and fluffy and to make it easier on your arm. But they aren’t necessary – I made this whipping everything by hand.

INGREDIENTS

1 tsp Cornflour
1/2 C Soy Milk
100g Margarine
3 tsp Icing Sugar
a few drops Vanilla Essence

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the cornflour with a tablespoon of the soy milk into a paste. In a pot, bring the remaining soy milk to the boil. Remove from the heat, then pour the boiling soy milk into the paste – beat until well combined. Return this to the pot, and heat for another couple of minutes until the mixture starts to thicken (it should be quite bubbly, but won’t flow around the pot). Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

While the milk mixture is cooling, beat the margarine till it is also light and fluffy. Once the milk mixture has completely cooled, beat it into the margarine part by part. Then beat in the icing sugar one teaspoon at a time. Taste as you go along  to make it as sweet as you want it to be. Finally, beat in a few drops of vanilla essence.

I found it remarkable how much difference the vanilla essence made. Up until it’s inclusion, it tastes like margarine with a small amount of icing sugar. The addition of vanilla essence transforms the mixture into cream. The moral? DON’T MAKE THIS IF YOU DON’T HAVE VANILLA ESSENCE.

Rich Mud Cake

I made this cake for Jess’ birthday. She wanted a plain chocolate cake with chocolate icing and coconut sprinkled on top; but that wasn’t what I wanted to make. Personally, I love mud cakes for birthdays and so (perhaps somewhat selfishly) I made Jess a mud cake instead. Fortunately, it was amazing and she liked it so much I don’t think she minded.

INGREDIENTS

125g Margarine
1/2 C Sugar
2 Tblsp Golden Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
80g Chocolate
2 C Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 C Cocoa
3/4 C Water

METHOD

Soften the Margarine, then beat in the sugar and finally the golden syrup and vanilla essence. In a pot over low heat, melt the chocolate. Mix this into the marge mixture. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix until combined. Add in the water and mix one more time.

Pour into a lined/greased tin, and bake at 180°C for 1 hour.

The icing for this cake was plain chocolate icing (cocoa, icing sugar and water) with dessicated coconut sprinkled on top.

If you aren’t bound by a sugar sensitive person like I am, you may want to make the cake even richer. Add more melted chocolate to the batter, and think about putting chocolate in the icing as well (melt some chocolate, mix in a bit of coconut milk then stir in icing sugar).

A Berry (and Apple) Delicious Cake

I wanted Cake. I think Jess wanted cake too. So I made up a recipe, straight out of the blue, with only a vague idea of where it would be headed. Turns out I’m a GENIUS – the cake was AMAZING.

INGREDIENTS

150g margarine
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons golden syrup
1/2 cup raspberries
3/4 cup of water
2 apples, sliced

METHOD

Soften the margarine, then beat in the sugar and finally the vanilla essence. Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the golden syrup, raspberries and water and mix to form the cake batter. Taste some (for science).

Line a cake tin with some baking paper, and then layer the base with one of the sliced apples. Pour the batter over the apples (have another taste). Use the second apple to add a top layer of apples on the batter.

Bake at 180°C for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

You probably want to add some caramel sauce to this (we still haven’t told you how to make it, have we?), or some other sugary drizzly thing.