Banana bread with no added sugar [vegan]

Some time ago I stumbled across this recipe for fruit sweetened vegan banana bread, and bookmarked it for a future date when I might have 15 overripe bananas to hand. That hasn’t happened yet, so I scaled the recipe down by two thirds instead.

The unusual recipe involves cooking the bananas down to purée in a slow cooker over sixteen hours. I was impatient, so used a saucepan for three hours instead. The banana purée is the only source of sugar in the recipe, and the resulting loaf is less sweet than common banana breads, with the spices and the caramelisation of the bananas giving it a flavour similar to black gingerbread.

When I bring banana bread into work I often joke that a third of a loaf is ‘one of your five a day’, but with the number of bananas crammed into this loaf it really does make a noticeable contribution to your daily fruit intake.

Vegan Mofo Day 18: The J Cake

Today was the last day of one of my fellow volunteers and I asked if they would like a vanilla or chocolate cake. I tried to come up with an impressive and elegant design but I settled on something simple instead.

I made a chocolate sandwich loosely following the Happy Birthday Cake from Chloe's Kitchen but with 1/3 cup less flour, 2/3 cup cocoa powder and a smidge of chocolate extract. In between the two layers is some plain vanilla buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. On top I dusted over a hand cut 'J' stencil. (it's their initial, not just for funsies)

The volunteer who was leaving provided another cake, this one shaped like a penguin, and some of the staff brought cakes and cookies. I'm on a total sugar high. I'm not playing favorites here so I'm not going to tell you my cake was best but I will tell you it was delicious.

Vegan Mofo day 11: Chive Rolls

You could say that I'm a bit of a chive collector. I can't get rid of a chive plant, or say no to a free one. I've had one on the balcony since I've had a balcony and in the two years I've had an allotment I've managed to gain three onion chives (the regular kind) a garlic chive and a siberian chive. They're pictured from left to right up there. There is very little that chives can't improve but today we're going to make rolls with them. This recipe uses your everyday onion chive and makes just enough for two people but can be doubled quite easily.

Chive Rolls
(makes about eight)

175g of strong white bread flour
3.5g of dried yeast (that's roughly a teaspoon)
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoon of chopped onion chives. Feel free to heap those teaspoons.
1 tablespoon of olive oil
105ml water

Mix everything together in a big bowl. Knead, either by hand or by mixer, until the dough is lovely, elastic and happy.

Shape into a round and leave to rise, covered, for around an hour and a half or until doubled in size.

After the bread has risen pre-heat your oven to 190c and oil a tray for the rolls.

Gently knock back the dough and divide into eight pieces.

Roll those pieces into snakes, about 3cm thick, and tie in a knot. Leave to prove for 30 minutes or so.

When they are ready place them in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Enjoy hot or cold.

Vegan Mofo Day 7: Sweet Chocolate Pretzels

I'm slightly confused that I managed to survive a week of mofo but it's day seven so I must have. These Sweet Chocolate Pretzels from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar helped.

Just a little tip though if you want to make them: make sure your pretzel shaping skills are up to scratch. Otherwise they can end up looking a bit... (wait for it)... like crap.

Golden oat cookies [vegan]

Some of the most delicious cookies I've ever had are the oat crunch cookies made by local Devonian producer Teoni’s; my only complaint being that they’re a little too crunchy. So began an ambitious project to produce a cookie with all the flavour but none of the jaw-achingness. After many, many experimental batches (oh, how I suffer for my art!), the recipe is now perfected.

This is a recipe that’s very ‘me’: the ingredients are in exact ratios, it’s efficient (you only need one bowl), and it’s full of golden syrup. We use the original Lyle’s Golden Syrup, in its retro tin that features an illustration of bees around a lion’s carcass and the slogan “Out of the strong came forth sweetness” (references to a biblical tale). It’s also available in a plastic squeezy bottle, but the tin has the advantage of being more recyclable. Other brands are of course available, although I understand it’s uncommon in America. Maple syrup can act as a substitute, but will give a rather different flavour.

Ingredients (makes 12 cookies)

50	g	vegetable oil
100	g	golden syrup
1	tsp	vanilla extract
50	g	light brown sugar
1/4	tsp	salt
1	tsp	baking powder
150	g	plain flour
50	g	oats

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Put the vegetable oil, golden syrup, and vanilla extract in a bowl and stir to combine. Stir in the light brown sugar, followed by the salt and the baking powder. Finally stir in the plain flour and oats to produce a crumbly mixture.

Take small handfuls of the mixture and roll into rough balls, about three centimetres across. Press down onto the baking parchment until about a centimetre thick.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Vegan Mofo Day 2: Chili and Sea Salt Crispbread

Okay so I'm slightly obsessed with making my own crackers.Mostly because I'm really obsessed with eating crackers. Someone with less linguistic restraint might call me crackers for crackers. Luckily I'd never say such a thing. This recipe is a variation on the cracker, cut into strips and liberally salted and chillied this is my Chili and Sea Salt Crispbread. Taylor made for dipping into hummus. You know, when you've bought a lackluster pot from Tesco and need a little zing.

Chili and Salt Crispbread
(makes about 16)

170g flour
60ml water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of chilli

Preheat the oven to 200C and oil two trays

In a small bowl mix together the salt and chilli

Pour the olive oil into the flour and start mixing. As your little hands are mixing everything in slowly add the water until you're able to form a ball of dough.

Once you've got your dough ball all happy flour your surface and roll out the dough as thin as you can get it. go for about 3mm

When it's all rolled out sprinkle with the chilli salt mixture and run the rolling pin over one more time to make sure it all sticks.

Cut into rectangles and transfer to the baking tray. In ten minutes it will be cooked and starting to brown on the edges. take it out and in another ten minutes it should be cool enough to enjoy.

Vegan Mofo Day 1: Receiving And Giving

It's Vegan Mofo again and I'm starting with a lovely pie that I made at the end of last Mofo; the Pear Frangipane tart from Vegan Pies In The Sky.

Our friend with the pear tree came through again and offered us a bag of pears along with the heavy hint that she would love it if another one of those tarts turned up. So who was I to resist? I made some pastry, mixed up the frangipane, sliced up the pears and sent the tart back with Stephen. Like the first one it was very well received and I received some gracious thank you emails. Along with the leftover pears. Sometimes it's nice to be known as the crazy cook in your group.

I'd no idea what to do with the leftover pears. I'm not the biggest fan of eating them raw, though I don't mind cooking them. They were just taking up room in my fruit bowl until last night when I decided to embrace the insomnia and stay up knitting, bright and painfully perky, until 2am. I finished my socks watching Sweets Made Simple and as I arrived grumpily into the next morning I couldn't resist making up the Pear And Ginger Coins. 

And... well, can I just say woof? These things pack a seriously gingery punch with plenty of sweetness and a little tart zing coming out to play at the end. They would be wonderful to warm you up on an autumnal walk. On a muggy, overcast summer day here in the English Riviera they work just as well, bringing a massive smile to my face. One of ginger, pears and community.

Golden Syrup Cupcakes: A bit of a disaster

I had dreams with these cup cakes. Big fluffy dreams. I'm not really one for fancy, fancy cake making. I little cake, in a little cup with a little smear of butter cream or a drizzle of chocolate is usually enough for me. But thesw where going to be different. I'd taken out Ms Cupcake: The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town from the library. My intention the golden syrup cupcakes. Skull and Crossbone cases would contrast with the mountain of swirled buttercream, delicate yellow sprinkles and drizzle of syrup. What happened?

In Which I Learn To Hate Self Raising Flour

The above picture was not the first time I made these cakes. I tweeted a picture of the first time I made these cakes. It looked like this:

Why? Well the cupcakes rose it the oven then deflated in the centre. As I tried to pick them up they tore and fell. The book suggested too much raising agent as the culprit so I took out the bicarb and baking powder and made a second batch.

In Which I Learn To Hate Buttercream, Piping Bags and My Hands

A day later than I'd hoped and it was time to decorate the cakes. I made a big batch of buttercream and popped it in the piping bag. Then I squoze, and I squoze, and I squoze. Then I frantically stopped squeezing and started screaming. The nozzle had flown right off the bag and the icing was coming out everywhere. It was too thick to come out of the nozzle so it just burst the whole contraption.

After stalking off in a mood, flinging myself to be bed and ranting at a teddy bear for a few minutes I came back and just smeared the buttercream on. I no longer cared.

In Which Our Heroine's Efforts Are Rewarded With Cake

The taste was fantastic though. And a nostalgia hit. When I made cupcakes at university I couldn't necessarily afford vanilla so I'l put a little golden syrup in the batter to give it some taste. My cakes looked ugly then too.

Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate and rosemary is of Stephen's favourite combinations so when I saw that Isa Chandra Moskowitz had post this recipe? I was on it. Where are my ingredients?

If you haven't tried them yet you are so missing out. That's all I'm going to say on the subject.

The Halloween Cake

Quick! Tell me the most haloweeny ingredient that you can think of. Raspberry right? No? But consider that both blood and raspberry are red. And they both go great with chocolate. Cannibalism humour aside (I know it's not everyone's cup of entrails... stopping now) I love, love, love the Raspberry Blackout Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance.

For a year I've been toying with the idea of turning it into a graveyard. First I'd make the Ganache-y Icing all bumpy and wild, then I'd sprinkle some shaved chocolate on top for a freshly dug grave and then have a hand reaching out. Spooky!

This is my picture, hail the glory of office lights.

Of course reality hit when I was making my cake. I'm not the best cake decorator. I'd like to learn but I haven't yet. I've done a bit of marzipan with my guides so I knew how to knead the colour into the marzipan and a little bit about how to shape it but I lack the delicacy of someone who really knows what they are doing.

As for the floor of my little graveyard I spread the icing on the top so perfectly smoothly that I had to go back and mess it up. I've never spread icing smoothly in all my life so no idea what that was all about. Then for the life of me I couldn't get the sides smooth. Some things stay the same at least.

This one is from Amy

I carried the iced cake to Stephen's work where I finished assembling the grave with a sprinkle of dirt and I ceremonially attached the headstone. The hand was installed without fuss but when I called Stephen's co-workers over all hell broke loose.

I have a lot to learn about decorating cakes but I love this one anyway.

Autumnal Sweets

Me obsessed with autumn? Never. And I would never use the season as an excuse to ply people with sugary snacks.

Last week we had the last night at guides before Halloween so I got out my copy of Vegan Cupcakes, the extra black food food colouring and some sugary pumpkins.

Super simple, just chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream. The extra black turned it into a bit of a biohazard though. Combined with the girls habit of eating a cupcake frosting first we ended up with a couple of mouths dyed black. Which I did not find at all funny (yes I did!)

As well as finishing off the cupcakes Stephen and I has some toffee apples. At least that was the intent. I bought some adorably small apples and coated them following this recipe. Stephen hated the mix of toffee and apple and refused more than a bit of his. I got extra.

Feeding myself this autumn has been a success at least...

Pear Frangipane Tart

Making a tart seems so much more grown up than a cake or a biscuit. Making Frangipane seems like magic because proper bakers make that stuff you know? But I knew I had to make something special with these pears. Half of them came from a friends tree and the other ones where... foraged... from an abandoned tree.

The Frangipane was a breeze to whip up and while laying the pear slices down was delicate work, it was fun delicate work. I just followed the recipe from Vegan Pie... and it turned into a terrific tart. All but a sample slice has been sent into work with Stephen.

Rosemary Bread-sticks

Rosemary is one plant I can not fail to grow. It sits loyally in it's corner of the balcony growing in summer and winter. It needs an occasional water in exceptional dry spells and I shape it by pulling bits off to eat. Otherwise it's a perfect plant. It tastes perfectly good too. So here is to rosemary...

Rosemary Bread-sticks
(makes 7 if you are as scruffy cutting them as I am. I think you can do better though)

250g plain white flour
1 teaspoon of yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
160ml water
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

Mix together the flour, yeast, salt olive oil and water and begin to knead.

When the kneading is almost done add in the rosemary and continue kneading to incorporate.

Shape the dough into a round and leave to rise for one and a half hours. Until roughly doubled in size.

Gently knock back the dough. Roll out until about a centimetre thick and slice into sticks with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.

Spread the sticks apart and leave to prove for half an hour. Just before you go off and leave them turn your oven on to 250 C.

Put the sticks in the oven and bake for 10 minutes when they should be lovely and crisp.

Carrot Flapjacks

I came up with the idea of putting carrots into flapjack last summer. I was baking for the volunteer days at work and I was trying to think of ways to insert more of our organic vegetables into baked goods. Grating carrot into flapjack produces a beautiful orange-speckled treat with a slightly more wholesome taste. I've baked these in a loaf tin to give a thinner but taller bar.

Carrot Flapjack

(makes 5 bars)

100g Demerara Sugar

175g Vegan Margarine (vitalite, as always, for us)

1 tablespoon of golden syrup

2 small carrots (about 75g) grated

160g oats

Pre-heat the oven to 150 c and grease a loaf tin

In a small saucepan melt the margarine with the sugar and syrup, stirring often to prevent burning.

When the mixture in the pan has melted together turn off the heat and stir in the oat and carrots.

Press the mixture down into the bottom of the loaf tin. and cook for 40 minutes. It should still be a bit wobbly to the touch when you take it out of the oven.

Leave to cool before cutting into bars. 

Muffins, Part One: Pumpkin

I'm going to be busy over the weekend so I thought I'd put out a couple of posts on the same theme. Muffins!

This orange cake of deliciousness is The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. I was inspired to make them after seeing the ones Suburban Vegan made. I am so, so, glad I did.

How Delightful...

Beginning

I don't think, and other Lancashire folk can correct me if I'm wrong, that English Muffins are native to my bit of England. A muffin to me is a Lancashire Oven Bottom and the first time I had an English one was from McDonalds. Since then I've grown to love them.

Middle

I love their springiness, their chewiness, their firm bottoms. They captivate me every time I made them. Like any bread they have flour, salt, water and yeast. They take their time to rise, and prove. The magic happens when it's time to cook them. You cook them on a hot plate or in a pan. On the stovetop. It's enchanting. It's awesomesauce.

End

It's probably one of the easiest breads to cook. I actually made them for the first time in my first mofo and haven't shut up about them since. You can see that I no longer burn them though. 

Fun With Mini Pizzas

I have no idea how many blog posts I've written with the title pizza night, or how many are just pictures of home made pizza. But really can you go wrong? I like the base from Vegan with a Vengeance and here it's topped with a little passata and, in picture one, spinach and onion.

Here in picture two though we like our pizza with a little tomato, onion and the famous achocha from yesterday's harvest. I've been attempting to grow this bugger for four years now so I'm glad to say that it tastes great. Like a bell pepper with a hint of cucumber. Looking forward to trying it in a few more dishes.

If you are wondering why it's taken me so long to get a crop, I kept trying to grow these guys on the balcony which was just too windy. Now they are in a fairly sheltered corner of the allotment they are as unfussy as a plant can be. If you want to grow your own (and are in the UK) you can get seed from Real Seeds. What can it hurt? Nothing. Unlike the exploding cucumber. That will get you. Apparently, I'm too frightened to grow it.

I Bought A Book: Whole Grain Vegan Baking

Whole Grain Vegan Baking is exciting. I've had to limit my whole grains recently because they weren't doing me any good. It was driving me crazy. I missed buying cool flours and eating amazing brad from local bakers. Also I kept getting pitying looks in cafes when I asked for white instead of  brown Or comments about how I must have been 'treating myself' nice assumptions there.

I was so so excited when I could nibble on those whole grains again. I was even more excited to get Whole Grain Vegan Baking in the post. And that's the back story. Let's just dive into the food pictures shall we?

First up is the Better With Beans Brownies. Rich, decadent, awesome. A very grown up brownie that, yes, contains beans. Most importantly it's moist and chocolaty and has has a deep dark richness that's tempting me to make another batch rather than write about them.

The Jam Crumble Bars (with blackcurrant here) are perfect if you are on a baked goods for breakfast kick. Sweet, spicy and just the right. It will keep you going until lunch. Then you can have another.

The last bake in this test run was the Whole Grain Sandwich Bread. It was tasty but I think it was way too strong tasting to be a sandwich bread. If it had it with a sandwich I could barley tell I had filling. Toasted it worked a lot better. Especially smothered in Marmite.

I recommend checking this one out. There are some fabulous recipes inside.

Whole Grain Vegan Baking: More than 100 Tasty Recipes for Plant-Based Treats Made Even Healthier-From Wholesome Cookies and Cupcakes to Breads, Biscuits, and More