Vegan MoFo 2014 - Bourbon biscuit spread

Another lazy post today - I'm super tired (again) and couldn't be bothered making the thing I'd intended to make.

Remember Speculoos spread? Of course you do because you never stopped eating it. But in case you aren't familiar, it's a peanut butter-like spread made from caramelised cinnamon biscuits. It's made out of cookies (probably NSFW).

Not to be outdone, Tesco decided to make a series of cookie-based spreads. And the Bourbon biscuit spread is vegan! Obviously I bought some. You may or may not be surprised to learn that it tastes pretty much just like Bourbon biscuits. In fact, I would say it's better than Bourbon biscuits. Yeah, it's really good. I've been eating it on bread because carbs (and fat) on carbs.

I think at the moment you can only get it at Tesco Extra. But if you live near one and want a chocolate version of Speculoos, you should look for it. I think I found it in the aisle with the PBs and jams and such.

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Sunday Baking: Bakewell tart

I'm having an allergy attack today, so I don't have the energy to be clever, which means this will be a short post.

I'm sure I've mentioned this, but I love Bakewell tart.  It's just so good!  I don't know why I don't make it more often, other than because I'd eat too much.  I'm actually surprised at my restraint in not having had any yet.

I made pretty much the same recipe last year (Sainsbury's shortcrust pastry, seedless raspberry jam, and the cake part of the Bakewell cupcake recipe in the Ms Cupcake book), only this time I remembered the sugar before I put the cake mix on top of the jam/crust.  Below is the finished product.

badly lit slice

It was tasty, as expected.  I'm taking a bit to the office tomorrow, which marks the first time I'm taking baking to this office.  I hope they like it, and if they don't, they can suck it.

As you can see I put some chocolate drizzle (cocoa powder, icing sugar, water) on top.  I made a bit too much, and Mike came in to the kitchen while I was trying to decide what to do with it.  He decided that he'd use it to make chocolate milk.

before stirring

after stirring

It looks like regular chocolate milk, doesn't it?  It was not.  I had a couple of sips, and it was good/gross.  It almost tasted like a milkshake ... that had sugar added to it.  It was so sweet.  Maybe that's why I didn't have any tart after I made it.

Vegan MoFo 2014 - Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate

Last night, Mike wanted to make hot chocolate. I'm not the best at remembering ratios and stuff for how I like my hot chocolate, so I looked up some recipes to jog my memory. And boy howdy did I not like what I saw. Yes, there was a how to that took 10 steps even though it called for hot chocolate mix and a microwave. But then I saw a recipe that called for cashews (with an hour+ soaking time) and dates. And then I saw some of my most hated words - paleo, no refined sugar, clean eating.

Nope.  Nope nope nope.

Friends, these are not words and ingredients to be used in connection with hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate is a treat. It should have sugar. It should not have dates. And it sure as shit wasn't around in the palaeolithic era.

Instead of my righteous rant against food policing and woo peddling, I give you a recipe for hot chocolate rich in most of the things that are freaking people out right now (I don't have any MSG so couldn't include everything).

Filthy Toxic Hot Chocolate

Serves 2

Handful of chocolate chips

1 c soy creamer

1 c soy milk (more/less depending on how you like it)

1/4 c cocoa (I used Hershey's to make it extra dirty)

1/4 c sugar (more/less to taste - probably less for most people because I like mine super sweet)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Mini marshmallows

Place the chocolate chips and a couple tablespoons of the creamer in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and stir until melted. Slowly stir in the remaining creamer. In a separate small bowl, make a paste of the cocoa powder and sugar with some of the soy milk.  When it's as lumpless as possible, add it to the pan along with the rest of the milk. Add in the salt and heat to your desired temperature. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour into two mugs and top with mini marshmallows.

I used the new Freedom micro mallows, which contain both carrageenan and hydrolysed soy protein! In case you're keeping track, that's non-organic processed soy, fat, sugar, salt, and carrageenan all in one delicious cup of hot chocolate. It was like drinking a melted candy bar.

Sorry about the terrible picture - it was late when I made it.

If you're even remotely familiar with me, you know that I'm all about comfort and convenience foods, so this ramping up of food shaming (which, let's be realistic, is mostly aimed at and hurts women, and disproportionately restricts non-animal foods) is really pissing me off.  Luckily I'm not the only one.  PPKer MissMuffcake's theme is about vegan finds at Target and was spurred by a series of posts about food shaming.  And really, the PPK is great for calling out food policing and woo.  Because veganism is about the animals, first and foremost, and restricting yourself until you have almost nothing to eat doesn't help the animals (especially when you decide that veganism is the problem and go back to eating them).

So, fuck food shaming.  Eat what you want and do the least harm possible.

Review - Considerit Chocolates

Apparently there's a Saturday market on Grassmarket!  I had no idea.  On one hand, I love that there are so many markets springing up all over Edinburgh - there also seems to be one just off Princes Street nearly every Saturday (I can't remember the name of the street, but it's next to the HSBC branch), and every once in a while one pops up at New Kirk Gate Centre (down at the bottom of Leith Walk).  On the other hand, they almost never have anything vegan, apart from things like marinated olives.

I'm in a local vegan Facebook group, and, Claire, the proprietor of Considerit Chocolates, posted that she'd be selling there this weekend, so I went along after buying nearly all of the tofu from The Engine Shed at the farmers market.  Pro tip - If you go right to the back of the farmers market, there's a stair that leads onto the bottom of the Grassmarket.

Claire had two tables loaded with a huge variety of truffles, truffle bars, and Halloween chocolates, all of which was vegan and gluten free.  I went with the deal she was doing for 5 truffles and a truffle bar for £7 - quite a bargain as it would cost about £8.50 for a similar purchase from The Chocolate Tree, and they don't have nearly the same selection of vegan options.

The truffles, from left to right, are salted caramel (x2), amaretto, cinnamon, and vanilla.  The skull is a plain chocolate truffle, and the bar is a mint truffle bar.  Plus bonus Zebby nose - he was more curious about what I had on that plate than when I brought out my lunch of VBites fish-style steaks.

The truffles were amazing - I really wish I'd bought more, because I ate them all (except the skull) in about 5 minutes.  The salted caramel was a liquid centre, but the rest were ganache.  The flavours worked really well and weren't too subtle as to be overwhelmed by the bitterness of the chocolate.  Claire does a great job of balancing the flavours (they're obvious without being a punch in the face or feeling like the flavour comes just from extracts), and she clearly knows from chocolate.  I honestly couldn't even tell you which was my favourite as they were all delicious in their own way.

I think I'm gonna have to make at least a monthly if not bi-weekly trip to the Grassmarket to get a box of truffles.  If you can't make it to the Grassmarket, or want truffles sooner than next Saturday, you can order from the website (linked above).  I'm so pleased that this wee business exists and wish Claire all the best of luck so that she keeps making these delicious chocolates.

Sundae Sunday - Toffee in a tin!

A few weeks ago, I wondered out loud (on Facebook) if you could do with condensed soy milk what you can do with condensed dairy milk - boil the tin to make toffee.  No one knew because it's so hard to come by condensed soy milk (and then no one buys it because they don't know what to do with it).  Well, I sacrificed myself (and my condensed soy milk) for science and did this experiment.  Turns out, it totally works and is delicious.  I left my tin boiling for an hour and 45 minutes, and it was pretty runny, so I'd do at least 2 hours next time.

On to the sundae!

I made Mocha-Maca Rocket Fuel from Vegan a la Mode via Tami's website.  This is a cooked recipe, and I usually don't have great success with cooked recipes (except the jam ice cream I made last week).  Also, maca has a really weird smell.  Frankly, it smells like burning.  So I wasn't sure about this one.

I'm really glad I tried it, because it's great.  The maca adds a sorta buttery/butterscotch flavour to the mocha.  Topped with warm toffee, it was AMAZING.  Unfortunately, it didn't get very solid in the ice cream maker, and it didn't freeze much in the quick freeze drawer of the freezer, so it was a bit melty.  Once I put the warm toffee on it, it was pretty much a soup of shades of brown - not very attractive.  But I assure you it was fantastic.

I really need to get Vegan a la Mode.  Maybe I'll ask for it for Xmas.

Homemade Luna Bars, or slightly less sugary rice crispy treats

One of the things I've been spending a lot of money on lately is a new breakfast bar from Kellogg's.  It's a chocolate-chocolate chip All-Bran bar with added vitamins.  They're really good and great as snacks (if I wanted to eat a biscuit for breakfast, I'd eat a real biscuit), but pretty expensive when not on sale.

In the interests of saving money, I decided to try to make my own bar.  A while back, I found this recipe from V K Rees (probably best known as the photographer behind the amazing photos in Isa and Terry's latest books) for pumpkin Luna bars.  I didn't make those because I'm trying to wait until at least October before busting out the pumpkin everything.  But it led to the original recipe by Chocolate Covered Katie, upon which I based the recipes for the two batches I made.  The first recipe is also somewhat inspired by some treats that Sal made for a PPKamping trip a few years ago.

Speculoos Crispy Bars
Inspired by Chocolate Covered Katie and Sal

 3 c rice crisp cereal
1/2 c Speculoos (crunch or smooth)
1/2 c sticky liquid sweetener (I used rice syrup)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 - 1 1/2 c chocolate chips*

Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper and put the cereal in a large bowl.  Put the Speculoos, sweetener, and vanilla in a small, microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 15 - 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until everything is melted and blended together.  Pour this mixture over the cereal and mix well, making sure all the cereal is covered.

Pour the mixture into the pan and freeze for 30 minutes.  A few minutes before taking these out of the freezer, melt the chocolate chips (either over a double boiler or in the microwave).  Pour the chocolate over the cereal mixture and smooth over to cover the entire top, then put everything back into the freezer for another 30-odd minutes.  When the chocolate is solid, cut the bars into your desired size.


PBJ and White Chocolate Crispy Bars**

3 c rice crisp cereal
1/2 c peanut butter (or PB substitute, like Freenut Butter)
2-3 tbsp raspberry jam
2 tbsp raspberry syrup (or more jam)
2 tbsp sticky liquid sweetener
1 - 1 1/2 c white chocolate chips (vegan, obvs)

Follow the instructions as above.

*I used about a cup, and it barely covered my stuff.  If you want a thick layer of chocolate, use more.
**I only just put these in the freezer, so a) there's no pic and 2) they might suck.  I'll try to remember to update about their quality.

Vegan MoFo VI, Bonus! - Cookbook Challenge - Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! (and breakfast)

As I mentioned last night, I was gonna make the Oreo Wafflewiches from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! for dessert, but it was far too late once we got to the dessert stage of the night.  So I made them for breakfast!  And since it's daylight, I actually took a picture!

Sorry about the spill - I didn't notice it when I took the picture.

 

 These were pretty quick for waffles - or as quick as waffles can be given my hateful kitchen and my slow-ass waffle maker.  I subbed a bit of black cocoa powder for some of the regular cocoa powder for a bit more Oreo realness, but I don't know how much it helped.  Maybe I should use half and half next time.

 

These were fairly similar in taste to Oreos, though obviously the cream tasted fresher and less of chemicals.  It was kinda like eating half a packet of Oreos in one go - delicious, but now I feel a bit ill, though I don't feel particularly full.

 

I'm definitely gonna have to go to the gym soon.

 

Since I finally got around to taking a MoFo pic, I discovered that I had loads of photos of my cat, Zebedee, on my phone.  So, bonus Zebby and Mike photo!

 

Sunnin'

 I don't always sit here, but when I do, I step all over his junk.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 14 - Sunday Baking - Cake Balls!

It's Sunday, so I'm baking from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too!

As I mentioned yesterday, my best good friend Eva was visiting from Newcastle, and since we love Tex-Mex, I decided to make the Gluten-Free Mexican Chocolate Torte.  But it turned out she didn't plan for cake, so she didn't have any.  It kinda worked out, because it took almost twice as long to bake as the directions said, and then only about half of it came out of the pan.  Oops.

Mike and I both had a piece, and it was really, really tasty.  But I had planned on taking the leftovers to work as a treat to the two gluten-intolerant people in my office (especially as one of them occasionally gives me a lift home).  Considering that it fell apart just by slicing it, I didn't think it would go over well at the office.  But what better excuse to make cake balls than a cake that could only be held together by copious amounts of frosting?

I made a quick cinnamon frosting by creaming together 2 tbsp each of margarine (Vitalite) and shortening (Trex), then adding a couple of drops of vanilla and almond extracts and about 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and alternating icing sugar and soy milk (I didn't measure either of these - just dumped them in until I had the right consistency).

I kinda chopped up the rest of the cake, then mixed it into the frosting.  It quickly disintegrated, so it was clearly a good plan.  I also melted a good cup or so of chocolate chips in the double boiler.  I balled up the cake/frosting mixture and put it on a plate covered with parchment paper, then let the balls set in the fridge while the chocolate cooled (because hot chocolate + frosting = cake soup).  Once the chocolate was cool enough, I rolled the balls in it and put them back on the plate, then back in the fridge to set the chocolate.

The result?  Well, it's a ball of cake and frosting covered in chocolate - how could it possibly be bad?

I haven't actually put this week's MoFo plan together yet, but I already have most of it planned out in my head.  I just need to decide what to make from the cookbook challenge book, which I'll talk about probably on Tuesday!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 5 - British Food Friday

Yay, I stuck to my theme today!

For the first British Food Friday, I made the classic Bakewell tart.  According to Professor Wikipedia, the Bakewell tart hails from Derbyshire and consists of a shortcrust pastry, jam filling, and almond sponge layer.

I've only ever eaten Bakewell tart once - I think it was during the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale this year.  I actually got the train to Glasgow and built a day out around going to a bake sale.  That's what not having a working oven does to a person.  I really, really liked it, but it wasn't quite jammy enough for me.  I swore I would make one myself one day when I had a working oven, but I'd have a massive jam layer.  So, naturally, this was the first thing I thought of for this theme (in fact, I think I decided I wanted to make this and treacle tart and built the theme around that).

Last night, before I met Mike for dinner, I bought a block of frozen Jus Rol shortcrust pastry.  I figured it would be thawed by the time we got home.  Not so much, but I just defrosted it in the microwave.  But because I'm a genius, I decided that it would be awesome if I made 2 tarts after 10pm and take them in to work when only 13 people were in the office that day.  I mostly made this decision based on the fact that you're meant to use the crusts within 24 hours of defrosting and can't refreeze them.

I decided to make what I always thought was the standard - cherry Bakewell.  I thought cherry Bakewell meant that the jam layer was cherry, but apparently it's just cherry because it has almond icing and a glace cherry on top (what?).  But, whatever, whatever, I still used cherry jam.  That was my first one.  I decided to get a little experimental with my second one, so I made a PBJ Bakewell - raspberry/cherry jam layer (because I had extra cherry jam but not quite enough raspberry) with a Freenut butter cake topping.

For the sponge on the classic, I made a half recipe of the almond cake in Have Your Cake and Vegan Too (which I think I talked about in my first post).  For the jam layer, I used some reduced sugar cherry jam from Sainsbury's that, because it had whole cherries, I blended until smooth (I don't like bits).  I topped it with a simple water glaze (icing sugar mixed with water - I didn't even measure it).  For the PBJ, I made the PB cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and I used the last of my seedless raspberry jam mixed with a bit of leftover cherry jam.  I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave with a couple of splashes of soymilk to drizzle over the top of this one.

These weren't quite the hit that the almond mocha cake was, but I think that's partially down to the office being half empty (there were 3 people working away from the office, 5 PT people who don't work Fridays, and 4 who were on holiday).  The people who ate them loved them, though the classic was the clear favourite.  I think people here really just don't do PBJ.  I ended up coming home with a full pan (half of each).  But I think it was a success for the first attempt!

I think I'm gonna try to make something savoury for the next BFF because I think my co-workers are gonna be a bit caked out after too long (especially since I'm taking something in on Monday and another person said he'd bring something on Tuesday).  Also, I think I'm PMSing, because even though these weren't as good as the almond mocha cake, I wanted to cram both of them in my face all day, so I need to personally lay off the cakes too.

So, any ideas for what I can make next week?

Vegan MoFo VI - Product Review - Alpro/Provamel Puddin' Cups

I was gonna do the Blue Plate Special from Vegan Diner tonight, but I dicked around too long and finally decided that I didn't feel like making the waffles because it takes about 10 minutes per set of waffles.  So I ended up eating another burrito (mmm...burrito) and decided to do a product review.

I'll say right now that I don't get free stuff from companies.  I bought all of these at some point (apart from the one a friend gave me) and I'm reviewing them because I feel like it, not because I'm compelled to.  But hey, if Alpro (or any other vegan company) wants to hook me up, I won't say no.

So, I'm not entirely clear on this, but I think* Provamel and Alpro are essentially the same company, but Provamel only makes organic stuff, whereas Alpro mostly does non-organic but with a few organic things.  Basically, they have about the same products give or take a few, but the Alpro stuff tends to be fortified (and, at least for the vanilla soy milks, sweeter).  Alpro is sold in big box grocery stores, but Provamel is only sold in health food shops.

Both brands just call these things desserts, but if we were in the US, we'd be talking puddin' cups.  Different countries have different varieties on offer.  In the UK, Alpro offers vanilla, caramel, dark chocolate, and "smooth" chocolate (which I guess is meant to be like milk chocolate), while Provamel offers vanilla, chocolate, caramel and "moka" (according to their website - the package I have says cappuccino).  But other countries might have other things - I know for sure that Belgium gets Alpro speculoos puddin' cups, the lucky bastards.

The good stuff.

So how are they?  Well, I'll admit two things:  a) I've never tried the vanilla of either brand as far as I can recall, and 2) I can never remember which of the chocolate varieties I like.  That said, I quite like the Alpro caramel, though I prefer it mixed with chocolate.  The Provamel moka/cappuccino is good on its own (though I don't know where they get off calling it moka, which implies chocolate, when there's no chocolate in it).  And I think I like one of the Alpro chocolates, but I'm too cheap to buy both to figure it out because then I'll have a package of stuff I don't like (though I'm sure Mike would eat them).  Of course, the standout winner is the speculoos stuff, but I've only had that once (well, one package of 4) because, like I said, it's only available in Belgium.

They're also kinda diet friendly, if you're looking for that kind of thing.  My bff, who isn't even veg, loves the dark chocolate for a dessert, not only because it's tasty, but because it usually fits within her calorie budget.  (I can also confirm that the Alpro Light Chocolate Soya Milk works well if you need a hot chocolate fix but don't want to consume 500 calories in one cup.)

I'd definitely recommend giving these a try.  They're usually pretty tasty, not too bad for calories, and almost always on sale somewhere (at least the Alpro ones are - usually 2 for £2.50 at Sainsbury's and/or Tesco).

*Thanks for clearing that up, Professor Wikipedia!  Also, they're from Belgium, which is why the Belgians get all the good stuff first.

Still hungry

Oh hai!  I haven't blogged since the end of last year, so, just over 6 1/2 months.  Part of it is, as I'm sure you'll realise, laziness.  However, in fairness, I did move house, and the oven in our new(ish) place doesn't work.  So most of the time, I barely feel like cooking, let alone blogging about it.

However, I felt the need to blog about this.

This

...is a single serving of Mornflake Chocolatey Squares cereal*.

Look at that!  You can almost count the number of biscuits in the photo!

I wanted to title this blog post "People at Mornflake are on crack", because clearly there are drugs involved when you think that amount of cereal is gonna be filling for a grown-ass adult (the box is brown and doesn't have any cartoon animals on it, so I'm calling it an adult cereal).  Also, if you were to taste this cereal, you'd know that it's next to impossible to eat that little.  It's so good.  So. Good. The only cereal better than this is Speculoos cereal.

One 30g serving (dry) has about 143 calories.  And I've been eating probably thrice this amount plus milk with every bowl (and I like a lot of milk in my cereal).  I guess at least I'm getting a lot of extra vitamins and iron.  But this solves the mystery of why I've been gaining weight even though I'm working out 5 times a week.

I think I'm gonna go back to oatmeal** in the morning.

*Though not verified with the company, who would probably give me the "traces of milk" line, several thorough readings of the ingredient list assure me this is vegan.

**I recently bought 2 slow cooker cookbooks, and one of them, The Vegan Slow Cooker, has a few oatmeal recipes.  The author, Kathy Hester, has loads on her blog as well.

Catching up to finish the year

I took pictures of things that I made and then didn't bother to blog about them.  That's because I'm lazy.  But here they are.  First up, I finally made Mo's kolaches!

As you can probably tell from the picture, I did mine a bit differently from hers.  I actually remembered having kolaches when I was younger, and this is pretty much what I always got - sausage in bread.  These were good but, because I didn't have enough filling, they were way too bread-y.  I'll almost certainly make these again, but I'll probably use different sausage (and more of it) and make them smaller.

Next up is Xmas dinner!

I made porkless pie with Granose sausage mix and the buttery double crust (vodka variation, no sugar) from Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  It wasn't exactly traditional, but it was probably the best porkless pie I've ever eaten.  I served it with leftover rice (I think I was ill and couldn't be bothered) and roasted broccoli.  Nom!

Dessert was yule log!  It was better than the last one I made, but that's not saying much.  Well, both were tasty, but this one was better looking, if only because it didn't fall apart as completely as the last one.  I used the chocolate cupcake and chocolate buttercream recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for this.  I'll probably try my hand at the log again, but I'll make a few changes - a) different filling (shocking as this is, I thought it was too much chocolate) and 2) use a bit of black cocoa powder for the buttercream to give it a darker, more log-like appearance.

And finally, our last meal of 2011!

This is the new Redwood's haggis with noochy Smash and steamed broccoli.  REDWOOD'S HAGGIS?!  It's really, really good - meatier texture than any other veg haggis I've ever had (it uses vwg), spicy, moist.  I haven't had f'real haggis for ... 8 years, and I think this might be the best fake I've ever had.  It's not just a bunch of kidney beans!  It could maybe be a little oatier, but otherwise it's excellent (as far as I can remember to compare).

I just had a look on the Redwood's site, and they don't even have it on there.  I think this might be a super secret Scotland-only product!  First time ever!  It kinda makes me feel special.  I hope no one is able to burst my bubble and tell me they have it in London or Brighton or something.

Anyway, last post of 2011!  I don't have much to say about 2011 - it was a mixed bag of mediocrity for me (including buying the flat, considering the work we have ahead of us), and I've heard a lot of people didn't have a great year.  So, here's to hoping that 2012 far exceeds 2011 in awesomeness!

PPK package swap!

It's the most wonderful time of the year ... that's right - PPK package swap time!  The swap always seems to happen around November/December, which is both good (treats are always good) and bad (let's just say I'm glad I already bought a party dress that's a bit too big).

The pic at the top is a bit small, so I'll just say what I got.  From left to right - soy curls, candy cane Joe-Joe's, TJ's maple cream cookies, dark chocolate bar, sea salt chocolate bar, Taza drinking chocolate, Clif spiced pumpkin pie and peppermint stick bars, two each of Go Max Twilight and Buccaneer bars, Sugar Plum Spice tea, agave sticks, and honey-flavoured agave nectar.  And everything is sitting atop an adorable Oregon tea towel!  We've already eaten a few Joe-Joe's and maple cookies, Mike had the peppermint stick Clif bar, and I made hot chocolate with the Taza chocolate.

It's such an amazing package, and I'm once again overwhelmed by the awesomeness and generosity of PPKers.  I also kinda feel like a dick because the package I sent was nowhere near as awesome.  I left out some stuff because postage was starting to cost more than the items themselves.  But then I got this, and she clearly spent more on shipping than on the stuff inside.  So I think Imma buy some more stuff and send her a second package (though maybe after Xmas so it doesn't get stuck in a warehouse for 2 weeks).

Oh, and bonus picture of the Taza drinking chocolate in action:

Lookit the foam on that bastard!  This was the first time I'd done proper Mexican hot chocolate (with the foaming, though I used my electric mixer with a whisk attachment instead of a molinillo).  It was pretty good, though it was kinda bitty.  Oh well.  The point to make here is that is a giant-ass mug, and it's half full of foam.  Mmm...foam.

I can't wait to see everyone else's swap packages!

Vegan MoFo - Quick dessert, quick post

Mike took me to dinner tonight.  We went to Bonsai.  I love Bonsai - so much that I've already done a MoFo post about it!  So I had to figure out something else to blog about for tonight.

On my way home, I decided to make cookies, since I figured they were something I could knock out between getting home and leaving for dinner.  I've never made anything from Kelly Pelosa's The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, even though I've owned it for a year, so I decided to make something from that.  I already knew I wanted to make chocolate chip, so I flipped to that section of the book.  I picked a recipe that I liked the look of, only to discover that my applesauce had gone off (I really need to start freezing it in portions).  Then I chose another recipe but couldn't decide if I could go ahead and use actual soy yogurt instead of making the fake soy yogurt concoction the recipe calls for (a mixture of soy milk and cornstarch warmed up).  By the time I decided I could probably just use soy yogurt, it was too late to make the cookies.

And this is why I'm posting at 11.30pm - I've just finished making the cookies.  We got home from dinner, I sat around for a bit trying to decide if I'd rather just make blondies, and then I sucked it up and made the cookies.  I finally decided on Kelly's Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These won't replace my favourite chocolate chip cookies, but they were really tasty and pretty easy to make.  The recipe didn't say anything about flattening them, so my first batch was pretty puffy.  It also says it makes 16, but I managed to get 25 decent-sized cookies out of the dough.  This seems like one that would make decent sammich cookies, since the dough feels stiff enough to roll into a log and slice uniformly, but I just did the roll-and-squish method of dough shaping.

The book is packed with recipes I'd like to try, so I'm looking forward to having more time with it.  I've already decided to make another recipe for my office Xmas party.

Do you have the book?  What's your favourite recipe from it?

Vegan MoFo - Cookbook Challenge: The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet (pt 1)

Holy crap am I tired.  It's 11.30pm and I've only recently finished cooking for the evening.  I made soup, bagels, burgers, and cake, and I'm exhausted.

Today starts week...something (I can't be bothered to check) of the Cookbook Challenge.  This week's book is The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni-Marie Newman.  I've chosen a lot from this book, but I'm already pretty sure I won't be able to get through it.  We'll see - I've also started testing for Terry's new book, so I might not have time for everything.  I actually made a tester recipe today, but it's one of those "tastes better the next day" deals so I'll reserve judgment until tomorrow.

I started off with the Bacon and Egg Burgers and the Bagel Buns.

The buns are what you'd expect - taste and texture of a bagel, but without the hole.  They were a bit time-consuming, but no more than any other yeast bread.  Actually, they were pretty easy.  I used a bit of wholemeal flour to make them a little healthier.

The burgers were kinda meh.  They were a little flavourless, which is odd considering how much stuff goes into them - garlic powder, onion powder, bacon bits.  I'm hoping that the flavours will develop overnight and they'll taste better tomorrow.

I also made the Espresso Chocolate Chip Cake.  I didn't take a picture because it kinda fell apart and didn't look great.  But it tasted amazing!  It's very chocolaty - I barely detected the coffee, despite it having as much espresso powder as cocoa powder and 1/4 c of coffee liqueur.  I honestly wasn't sure about it when I tasted the batter, but it really works.  It's fluffy and moist and slightly gooey from the chocolate chips.  It's kinda everything I want in an unadorned chocolate cake.  OK, I'd be happy if it did the same thing with half the fat, but what can you do?  Oh, word to the wise - eat this with a glass of your non-dairy milk of choice at hand, because you'll need it.  In fact, maybe keep the carton out.

I'm feeling better about this book than the last, especially with a success right out of the gate.  Hopefully today's burgers were a fluke and everything else will be comparable to the cake and buns.


Are you participating in the cookbook challenge?  What are you planning from this one?

Vegan MoFo - Cookbook Challenge: 500 Vegan Recipes (pt 2)

Seems like yesterday's ailment was just run-of-the-mill allergies.  Back on form today, but I still ate convenience food, but here's why:

We found out that the flat we want is being offered to us at 75% of the original list price.  That is freaking amazing.

Anyway, I came home from work and shopping to this news, then waited for Mike to get home to share with him.  By the time we finished talking about it with each other, talking to his dad about it, and looking at furniture on the IKEA website, it was nearly 8pm.  And I just so happened to buy a bunch of new frozen convenience foods, so I decided to cook that instead of fresh food.

Mmm...beige.

We have here another plate of nothing but convenience foods.  The small things are in Sainsbury's newly revamped frozen free-from line called Love Soya - mini sausage rolls (btw, the whole range is on sale, but check the ingredients - not everything is vegan).  The large one just behind those is a Linda McCartney sausage roll (I had 2 left and wanted to get rid of them).  The pile of beige to the right is noochy Smash, and the veg is frozen broccoli and cauliflower.

I'll be honest - I prefer the Linda McCartney sausage rolls.  But maybe if I'd cooked the Sainsbury's ones a little less, I'd like them more.  As always, noochy Smash is a winner, but the veg was kinda meh.  I think I'll stick with the steam bags (which I love).

But I still managed to do something for the Cookbook Challenge.  I made the Chocolate Breakfast Cake from 500 Vegan Recipes.

Oh dear lord, you must eat this with something on it.  To give you an idea of how not sweet this is, it has more cocoa than sugar.  Right out of the pan, it's dry and kinda icky (though I have to admit, the banana flavour isn't very strong at all).  However, spread with a bit of raspberry jam, it's actually pretty good.  Since I had to make a point of buying a banana, I don't think I'd make this again, but it was nice to try something different.


In other fabulous news, it looks like another American import shop is opening up in the 'burgh.  It's in the same shopping centre as my preferred Sainsbury's, which is slightly more convenient than Lupe Pinto's.  Unfortunately, it looks like it's mostly candy and junk food (most of which I'm sure I can't eat).  However, I saw 12-packs of Mug root beer and Wild Cherry Pepsi.  Hell. Yes.  Hopefully since it looks like they're more exclusively American, they'll be importing more of everything and therefore have it available for less than LP's (which would be awesome - £1.10 for a can of A&W is a bit ridiculous).

Vegan MoFo - In which I fail due to sickness

This will be a short post.  I had to come home early because I'm ill.  It's probably just allergies, or at least I hope it is.  So I didn't really do anything today.  I couldn't be bothered cooking, so I ate convenience foods that I've already talked about, and I drank a lot of hot chocolate that I already talked about*.  So, apologies to those who are actually checking my blog for new content.  Hopefully I'll be back on form tomorrow and able to post some actual food-related content.

*OK, so I can kinda talk about the hot chocolate mix again.  The recipe calls for 1/4 c mix to 1 c hot water.  I think that's way too much.  I use a giant mug that's easily 1 1/2+ cups, and I use 1/4 c in that.  So I would say it's maybe 2 heaped tablespoons per cup of hot water.  Also, I think the mix itself needs at least another tablespoon of cocoa powder.  So, there's your food-related content.  Oh, and we went through that mix so quickly that I already had to make another double batch, and now I'm out of soy milk powder.  *sadface*

Vegan MoFo - Another lazy dinner

I had another convenience food dinner tonight.  Cooking was involved, but not a single thing actually eaten was hand-made by me.  I didn't even bother taking a picture because it was so simple and full of packaged goodness - a Redwood's quarterpound burger with a bit of smoked cheddar Sheese (made in Scotland!) between two pieces of store-bought bread (Alinson's batch baked wholemeal, in case you're interested) with mustard, Infinity Foods' smoked garlic mayo, and ketchup, with a side of microwave-steamed veggies (frozen 4-pack from Sainsbury's).  Simple, but quick and delicious, though I feel a bit guilty writing about it.  But it is Saturday, and I technically don't have to do an entry today, so whevs.

OK, so the guilt got to me and I did something.  It's not much, but it'll serve me well in coming months - homemade hot chocolate mix.

I used the Go Dairy Free recipe, which has always been decent.  Another quick and easy thing that will come in handy when Mike wants hot chocolate but I can't be bothered standing over the stove to make it from scratch.  I went with the plain recipe because I like to be able to customise my hot chocolate each time and don't want to be tied to a particular flavour.

I did end up putting a bit of cinnamon in this, and topped it off with vanilla soy milk to cool it faster and make up for using less-than-vanilla-y vanilla sugar.

BTW, do us a favour and check out PPKer Jen's blog, That Pain in the Ass Vegan, a couple of times a day.  She's trying to get a million hits during MoFo so she can donate the money generated to her local food bank and animal shelters.  Unfortunately I can't help (other than trying to get the word out) because only US hits count.  Boo-urns.  So click it, share it with your friends, and then just keep refreshing the page all day.  That would be swell.

Vegan MoFo - Restaurant Review: Heavenly

I took today off from work and took myself to Glasgow for a day of eating and museum-ing.  Usually when we go to Glasgow, we don't stay long or do much because Mike's a bit of a homebody and doesn't like to stay out long.  Also, when we go to museums, he has a tendency to get bored quickly (because he reads faster and finishes sooner), so I end up getting rushed and not seeing everything I want to see.  So this time, I was by myself and could go at my own pace, and it was great.

I started off with lunch at Heavenly.  They're a fairly new all-vegan restaurant - they've only been open since May.  Heavenly became my favourite restaurant after my first meal there, and it remains firmly in first place after today.  It doesn't hurt that they don't have much competition, but they easily quash the few other contenders with a varied menu that doesn't seem to be based around vegan stereotypes (elaborate salads and every other dish full of nuts).

They just debuted their winter menu today, so the lunch service was a bit off due to having just received the ingredients.  There were a few things on the menu that I liked the look of but weren't available, but even with that I had some tough decisions to make.  I started out with a new item, garlic mushroom crostini (picture below).  It was gorgeous - so much so that I got it again at dinner.

Luckily for me, the one thing on the old menu that I'd not been able to try made it to the new menu, and they had that ready to go, so that was my main - bangers and mash with red onion gravy.

As you can see, the gravy was nice and thick.  The sausages were a bit overcooked, but it didn't detract from the taste (neither did the fact that they're clearly Redwood's or similar).  The whole dish was tasty and comforting.

The only dessert I fancied wasn't ready yet, so I moved on to my next destination.

I went to the Kelvingrove for the AC/DC exhibition.  It was really good.  It not only contained your standard photos, ticket stubs, backstage passes, clothing, and other memorabilia, but interactive bits like a guitar with tabs for some of the more famous songs, and a couple of screens showing concert footage and interviews.  And it was only £2!  I'm glad I went - I still have "For Those About to Rock" in my head.

After that, I did a bit of shopping.  I went to Roots and Fruits, which seems to have reorganised and shifted half of the shop to the new (2nd) location on Argyle Street.  However, I did manage to get some Tofutti Sour Supreme, so hopefully I'll get it in gear and make the Deli Reubenettes from American Vegan Kitchen.  After that I went to Lupe Pinto's and bought Bisquick.  I will make the I-40 Blog's sausage balls.

Then it was time for me to meet PPKer Debbie for dinner, again at Heavenly!  I was going to get the polenta cakes, but then I realised they had pesto, which was made with pine nuts (allergen), so I had the crostini again.

Sorry for the green-ness - we sat at The Smiths booth, which has a green-shaded light overhead.  This was even better than earlier - loaded with creamy, garlicky mushrooms and slightly crispy - I could eat it daily.

Debbie had the soup and sandwich combo.  The soup was leek and tattie, and the sandwich was the New York Doll.  I don't recall what she thought of the soup, but she said the sandwich was good but messy, and the seitan was a little less firm than she would've liked but still tasty.

My main was the roast vegetable pie with mash and gravy (which they inexplicably call sauce here, but that there is white gravy, I don't care what they say).  The pie was a little odd - really large cuts of veg, including leek, piled on top of each other and sandwiched between two rounds of puff pastry.  It was tasty, but kinda weird.  But the mash and gravy were good, though I prefer brown gravy on my mash.  But dessert made up for it.

I got the gingerbread with cinnamon custard - the chocolate sauce was a pleasant surprise.  This is hands-down one of the best - if not THE best - desserts I've ever had at a vegan restaurant.  I always bemoan the fact that no one seems to be able to make a simple damn cake with no crap in it - no nuts, no dates, no raisins, just cake and icing.  Though not exactly "just cake and icing", this was brilliant.  The gingerbread was very cakey, and the custard was a perfect complement, and the chocolate sauce tied it all together nicely.  If I hadn't been so full, I might have gotten a second serving.  It was delightful, and I'll be sad if they don't have it next time I'm there.

So, in case you hadn't worked it out, I would absolutely recommend Heavenly.  We've been a couple of times when it wasn't very full, so we worry a bit that they'll stay open.  But with the new menu moving away from, as Debbie put it, everything looking like the one vegan option in most non-vegan places, to truly unique and creative dishes, I hope it's soon regularly packed and in no danger of closing, because every other restaurant now pales in comparison.

Vegan MoFo - Alcoholic Ginger Beer (Bread)

Someone from Cake Liberation Front posted in the giveaway thread about a giveaway they're doing, so I checked out the blog.  They had a recipe for Alcoholic Ginger Beer Bread - a cake-like quick bread with ginger, ginger beer, and chocolate - so I decided that I needed to give it a try.

The first step here was finding Hollows Alcoholic Ginger Beer as Crabbie's is, apparently, not vegan.  I'd never seen it before, so I contacted customer service, who sent me a list of retailers the next day.  The contact person also said they'd send me some free samples if I found it in a shop that wasn't on their list.  Well, after I bought it from Earthy Foods & Goods (on my first visit; I also bought my favourite rooibos chai and my favourite dark chocolate - The Chocolate Tree's sea salt and caramel dark chocolate), I happened to spy a bottle in Real Foods (which is kinda funny because I didn't even think of looking there, even though it's exactly the kind of thing they'd sell and I'm there a couple times a week).  And, true to her word, the contact person asked me for my address to send me some samples!  I eagerly await them - it'll brighten my work day, since that's where they'll be delivered.

Anyway, I digress.  So, I made the bread, and I had some ginger beer left over.  I don't think I've ever had straight alcoholic ginger beer, but I've had the non-alcoholic stuff.  I like it enough, but only sparingly, as I find it has a bit of an ohgoditburns! quality to it.  This, however, did not taste like burning.  It has a mild, pleasant flavour, definitely ginger but not so strong that it hurts, but it also doesn't taste like alcohol.  I would definitely order this in a pub - it's more refreshing than cider and less vile than beer.  Unfortunately, I only had about 1/4 of a bottle left, and Mike drank most of it, so I couldn't judge the level of buzz one might get from it.

On to the bread:

I like it a lot, though I wish it had come out a little more cake-like.  As you can see, it's loaded with chocolate chips (which I used in place of chunks because I'm lazy and had about a kilo of chips vs no bars/chunks), and the chocolate flavour almost overwhelms the ginger.  Despite having 2 tsp of ginger and 12 oz of ginger beer, the ginger flavour is actually pretty subtle.  I'm hoping that will change with a bit of a sit.

BTW, the company that makes the alcoholic ginger beer is owned by Fentimans, who bring us Curiosity Cola and Victorian Lemonade.  They make good stuff.

I'm super excited about tomorrow - I'm going to Glasgow for eating, meeting up for cake and beverages, and going to museums.  Two things - new menu at Heavenly, and AC/DC exhibition at the Kelvingrove!  More about that when I get home tomorrow evening!