VEGAN BANANA BREAD

A lovely simple recipe for Banana Bread from Domini Kemp's Saturday page in the Irish Times Magazine, which I veganised (and reduced the sugar in) with great results. Bananas are a natural raising agent so they deliver a lovely high, springy loaf. Gorgeously banana-y too!

2 over-ripe bananas
100g light brown sugar
125g wholegrain spelt flour
125g self-raising flour
50ml soya milk
50ml rapeseed oil
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsps NoEgg mixed with 4tblsps water (or 2 beaten eggs for non vegans)


o Preheat the oven to 160˚C
o Grease a loaf tin
o Break the peeled bananas into a bowl and whizz with the sugar (I used a hand blender)
o Add the NoEgg mix (or eggs), oil and soya milk and whizz again
o Fold in the dry ingredients & pour into the loaf tin
o Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Test with a skewer.
o Gorgeous hot or cold, on its own or with soya cream/custard/Alpro 'yogurt'

VEGAN DATE & ORANGE BARS

I love dates and find them a brilliant sweetener in cakes and slices. I've adapted this recipe from one in Rachel Allen's Bake, a book that my sister gave us as a wedding present. I added an orange because it's a flavour that goes so well with dates. As usual, I've reduced the sugar in the original recipe. Most recipes use far too much sugar IMO. Sugar ages you, people, and generally you can reduce it with v little effect to sweetness.

200g chopped dates
Juice and zest of 1 large orange
150ml water
175g plain flour
125g brown sugar
100g porridge oats
175g vegan margarine
half tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

o Preheat the oven to 180˚C
o Grease a square cake tin (20cm x 20cm). Line the bottom with greaseproof paper.
o Heat the dates, orange juice, water and zest over a low heat until soft (about 10 mins). Allow to cool
o Sieve the flour and baking powder
o Mix in the sugar, salt and porridge oats
o Rub in the vegan marg until it all sticks together in clumps
o Press half the mix into the bottom of your tin, tamp it down
o Plop blobs of the date mix onto the base at intervals and smooth down
o Put the rest of the oat/marg mix on top until the dates are covered. Tamp down.
o Bake for 40 minutes, until golden-brown.
o Cool in the tin before slicing into bars

VEGAN FLAPJACKS

Flapjacks are the easiest thing to make. OK, they are not super healthy except for the porridge oats but they are yummy. The recipe is a veganised version of one from a book called Porridge by Margaret Briggs which is full of no-frills, good recipes.

125g vegan marg

75g brown sugar

3 tblsps golden syrup

250g porridge oats

• Preheat oven to 180C

• Lightly grease a shallow baking tray
• Melt the sugar, marg and syrup together in a pot

• Mix in the porridge oats

• Flatten out on the baking tray with a wooden spoon

• Bake for 25-30 minutes

• Mark into squares or bars

• Leave to cool in the tin, then remove

Vegan Rhubarb and Pear Crumble

My friend Debbie brought us rhubarb from her garden in Kilconnell and I couldn’t decide whether to make my rhubarb cake or a crumble with it. Mr Vegan loves crumble so, as it’s a bank holiday week-end, and we actually get some time together, I went for that. The recipe is spliced from several different ones and I threw in a pear for sweetness. It’s nice and spicy and the crumble is good and thick. We had it with soya custard. Yum!

Topping

100g spelt flour
70g vegan marg
45g brown sugar
50 g porridge oats

Filling

4 stalks rhubarb, chopped
1 pear, peeled and chopped
¼ tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
juice and zest of an orange
50g brown sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Stir the filling ingredients over a low heat until the sugar melts and the fruit starts to soften
• Pour the mix into a pie dish and let it cool while you make the topping
• Rub the marg into the flour
• Add the sugar and oats and mix through with your fingers
• Pour the topping onto the fruit and pat down with your hands
• Bake for 30 minutes
• Serve hot or cold, with soya cream or custard

VEGAN WEDDING CAKE

We got married in May (in lovely New York) and on Saturday last we had a family lunch here in Ireland for which I made our wedding cake. It's my Christmas Cake recipe and it turned out great. I cheated and bought the fondant icing but it was easy to put on and looked nice.

Wedding cake ingredients ready to go

Our vegan wedding cake

 

The top of the cake

Vegan Rice Krispie Buns

I am a hunger monster at the moment. Is it boredom? Frustration? Madness induced by motherhood?! All three?!? Anyway, what ever it is I am obsessed with goodies. Today I wanted homemade biscuits (cookies, to my American pals) but I didn't have the right flour.

OK, I thought, flapjacks will do, I'll make them. Guess what? Hardly any porridge oats. Grrr.

So what did I make? Essentially, vegan rice krispie buns. Do our American friends have these? They are a birthday party must-have in Ireland. They are Rice Krispies mixed into melted chocolate, then left to set.

There has been a bar of vegan couverture chocolate in the press since Xmas. Mr Vegan got it as part of his Xmas box from someone. I don't think the someone realised it was posh cooking chocolate.
Anyway, out it came today and I inspected it closely: it's organic, vegan and has raisins and almonds in it. Mmmm. There is so much written on the wrapper it's hard to know what's what. Anyway, the gist is it's by Organica, as part of their Vegan Diets range, and it's made in Switzerland for a company in England. The web address is www.seriouslyorganic.co.uk and they do lots of lovely stuff.

So I present to you, Vegan Rice Krispie Buns:

VEGAN LEMON & SESAME SEED LOAF

On last night's Desperate Housewives, Bree said baking is 'all about precision'. Not with me Mrs Van de Kamp-Hodge. No, here it's all about cravings and experimentation (the latter not always successful).

Today's experiment is Lemon and Sesame Seed Loaf. Hmm. We had delicious Lemon and Poppy Seed muffins in Paperchase in London at the week-end and I've had lemon cake cravings since Easter, so here we are. Our local veg shop, which also sells seeds, didn't have poppy seeds so instead I bought sesame and just sprinkled them on top. It turned out grand - not very sweet but the lemony-ness makes up for that. Add another 25g to 50 g sugar if you like a sweeter loaf.

Here's the recipe:

150 g of wholemeal spelt flour
100 g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
25 g of light brown sugar
25 g of caster sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp NoEgg mixed with 2tblsps water (or 1 beaten egg for non vegans)
150 mls of soya milk
juice and rind of one large lemon
1 tblsp vegetable oil
a handful of sesame seeds


* Preheat the oven to 160˚C
* Grease a 2lb loaf tin (or line with paper liner)
* Zest the lemon, then squeeze it
* Sieve the flour
* Mix flour, sugar and spice
* Make the NoEgg mix as per pack
* In a jug, mix together the soya milk, oil and NoEgg mixture
* Make a well in the flour and beat in the milky mixture
* Fold in the lemon zest and lemon juice
* Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Gently shake to flatten the top
* Sprinkle with the sesame seeds
* Bake for an hour in the top of the oven. Move down a shelf if top browning too quickly.
* Test with a skewer to see if it is baked through
* Cool the cake in the tin