Dark Chocolate Brownies

One of those 'throw stuff in a bowl and see what happens' recipes. I wanted brownies, and I wanted to use my bar of dark chocolate to make them. So I did. It makes a fairly small amount (enough for an 8" diameter tin).

1 100g bar dark chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup soy milk
1/3 cup soy yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Put glass or metal mixing bowl on the saucepan, so that the bottom of the bowl is touching the water but not the bottom of the pan. Add the chocolate and the butter and melt together, stirring until there are no lumps.
Add the sugar to the chocolate mix and stir in. Remove from the heat, but keep the bowl over the water.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, before adding the liquid chocolate mix and folding together.
Add the soy milk and yogurt, and mix thoroughly until no large lumps remain.
Mix in the lemon juice.
Pour the mixture into a greased/non-stick baking tin. Cook at 180c for approx 25 mins, until a knife comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Notes:
-The lemon juice is just to cut through the sweetness of the mixture; if you want the brownies to taste of lemon, add another tbsp of juice and a tbsp of lemon zest.
-For extra-chocolatey brownies, add 1/3 cup cocoa powder and another 1/4 cup soy milk.
-Experiment with the types of chocolate. There's a spiced orange bar I really want to try this recipe with some time, replacing the lemon juice for orange juice and adding a pinch of cinnamon.

Mushrooms Alfredo

A veganised recipe for an old favourite; Alfredo Sauce. With mushrooms!

1 tbsp butter
3/4 cup mushrooms, chopped or diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp cornflour (corn starch)
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tbsp vegan parmesan
Chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add mushrooms and simmer for a minute until mushrooms start to soften.
Add garlic and simmer for another minute, stirring constantly to stop garlic from burning.
Add cornflour and stir until no large lumps remain.
Pour in soy milk slowly, stirring as you do.
Keep stirring, sauce should start to thicken. If it thickens too much, add more milk until it is the desired consistency.
Add parmesan and stir. You can add more/less to taste.
Just before serving, stir in parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:
-Great on pasta, or toasted ciabatta bread.
-Mushroom step can be removed if you don't like them; it still makes a good sauce.

Pancakes!

Picture the scene; it's nearly midnight, I'm having a cooking show marathon whilst tucked up in bed, when I suddenly get the most intense craving for pancakes. And not the thick American-style ones I've grown accustomed to (as that's the only kind I've found decent vegan recipes for). Rather, I'm craving the beautiful, fluffy, thin, British ones like my mum used to make (and like I used to, before the dairy and egg embargo). Back in my lacto-ovo days, I was known in my household as the queen of pancakes. I got to wondering why exactly I should retire just because I no longer ate two of the key ingredients of my infamous recipe. Surely, if I was truly a pancake deity of some sort, then I would be able to create a vegan-friendly recipe that was easy to make and tasted fantastic. Or at least find one online.

A quick search, however, only seemed to deliver results that included mashed bananas and egg replacer and other ingredients I did not have in my cupboards. I realised two things; that I needed to go shopping, and that if I really wanted those pancakes I'd have to make the recipe up. So I did the latter first, using only the ingredients I had lying around, and put off the former until tomorrow. And what I ended up with was a recipe that turned out the perfect British pancakes. Makes around 6-8.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp rapeseed (canola) oil
2 tbsp sugar
Soymilk
Water

Mix together flour, baking powder and sugar, preferably in a jug.
Add canola oil to the dry ingredients and stir in.
Begin adding soy milk, starting with about 1/2 a cup and increasing the amount as you mix it in. Stop just before it's a good pancake consistency; when it's roughly the consistency of a thin yoghurt.
Add a splash of cold tap water and mix in.
Heat a frying pan (mine's about 6" in diameter) on the hob until it's warm, add a little vegetable fat if it's not non-stick and wait until that's melted.
Pour in pancake batter (this is where the jug is useful) and spread around the pan. Flip it over when the top is no longer liquid; it should be a nice golden-brown on the bottom. If it's not, you can always flip it back over.
Best served with sugar and lemon.

Notes:
-The measurements for the ingredients are approximate; I threw everything together without measuring properly.
-Don't let the pan get too hot. The pancakes end up with weird, thin, curly sides if it does. They taste just fine, it just looks a little odd and makes it harder to flip 'em. This is not a vegan-pancake-exclusive problem.
-Damn, I love pancakes.

The Feisty Red

One thing I like to do is drink. Anyone who is not of legal drinking age in their country, look away now. Just stop reading. Close your eyes and navigate away from the page. In that order.

Are you gone?

Good.

As I said, I enjoy a nice drink every now and then. And as it's getting warmer up north (I know, who'd have thought it?), I've resumed making cocktails. They're just perfect for the summer, and I like to think they count as one of your five-a-day.* So without further delay, here's my recipe for the Feisty Red.

1 shot vodka
1 shot grenadine
1 shot tequila
3 strawberries, tops cut off, plus another for decoration.
Apple cider
Cherryade

Blend/crush the strawberries so they form a paste.
Add to the paste the grenadine, vodka and tequila.
Mix well in a cocktail shaker.
Pour into a glass.
Fill glass halfway with cider.
Top up with cherryade.
Add strawberry to the rim of the glass for decoration. Also doubles up as a tasty post-cocktail snack.

Notes:
-Measurements for alcohol don't have to be exact; I tend to just chuck the stuff in.
-If you can't get hold of grenadine, cherry liqueur will do the job.
-Experiment with the ciders; try it with a pear or berry cider, or mess with the strengths. I prefer a fairly sweet apple cider with a low alcohol content for this particular cocktail. If you're thinking of using strongbow, GTFO.
-If it's a REALLY hot day and you want some ice, either freeze some cherryade or cut up a pink freezepop to add to your cocktail.

*This should be closer to nine-a-day, but nobody understands what I mean when I say that.

P.S. Pictures of all my recipes will be added over the course of the summer, when I have access to a good camera that actually uploads stuff. At the moment, my camera refuses to connect to anything, and my phone camera doesn't exactly show things in the best light (as in, everything looks blue).

The Healthy Cake

As promised, the healthy cake recipe. Three versions of the cake were made in the cookery demonstration, I'm posting the one that came out the best with my own adjustments. Bear in mind, this makes a pretty big cake.

1.5 cups wholemeal flour
3/4 cup soy yogurt - plain works well, but I found it better with an apple flavoured one
2 tsp agave syrup
1/4 cup rice milk
Whole bar dark chocolate, grated
One apple, de-cored and grated
One courgette (zucchini), grated
One red pepper, grated
1/2 cup brazil nuts
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Lemon zest (optional)
2 tsp Cinnamon (optional)

Mix together flour, chocolate, fruit, vegetables and nuts.
Add yogurt, syrup and milk, and blend until the mixture is slightly thicker than a normal cake mixture. If it is too firm, add a touch more rice milk. It needs to be slightly thicker, because the fruit and the vegetables will release moisture when baked, softening the cake.
Add cinnamon and lemon zest if required - I like it best with the cinnamon, but without the zest. Gives it a nice kick.
Bake in the oven for about 20 mins on 180, or until cakey.
Allow to cool (if you can wait, it's pretty tasty warm).

Notes:
-Cranberries can be substituted for red cabbage
-Nuts are interchangeable; cashews work well too, or use your favourites. If you're allergic to nuts, take them out of the recipe and reduce the amount of soy yogurt slightly.
-I haven't tried this yet, but I bet a mashed up banana or two would go quite nicely in place of 1/4 cup soy yogurt.
-Try different types of dark chocolate; some with orange, or hemp seeds, for example.

Chocolate & Strawberry Cookies

For my first post, I thought I'd share a recipe I've been making for years. It's fairly quick and simple, and easy to make in any quantity, so it's perfect for filling the home cookie jar or making larger amounts for bake sales and parties.

1/2 cup strawberry jam
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup rapeseed (canola) oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F/180C/Gas Mark 4.
Mix together the jam, sugar, oil and extracts until they form a paste.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt.
Add the paste to the dry ingredients in small amounts, mixing well. When you are done, you should be left with a dough.
Break off bits of the dough and roll them into walnut-sized balls. Place them on a cookie sheet/baking tray a reasonable distance apart - the dough spreads quite far. Flatten each ball just a little.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 mins, then leave to cool.

Notes:
-Try different flavoured jams - raspberry and blackcurrant work well.
-For a crunchier cookie, bake for longer.
-The dough can be made in bulk, wrapped in cling film and put in the fridge. Then, when you want a couple of cookies, you can just break a bit off and bake them to order.