Avocado Frosting

I tried my hand at another vegan frosting idea. Having found two beautiful avocados in my CSA from Bewise, I decided to put them to use in a sweet way. I'd seen Alton Brown and Joy the Baker use them, so I thought it might be worth a try.

Although I'm a buttercream fan, I cant stand the thought of using anything but real butter for it, so the thought of using margerine was out for me. I'm happy to use tofu, or maybe coconut cream, but I wanted an alternative.

I'd say this was fairly successful, it did sit on the cake, but it refused to firm up enough to pipe into a pretty swirl, and the flavor is distinctly of sweet avocado, which I found unusual. The color is pretty alarming too! My friends at bookclub loved it though, so it was a hit for most people!

It will come in handy for the times I want green, but dont want to dye my frosting!

Avocado Frosting

2 large avocados

1 lb powdered sugar (add to taste)

juice of 1 large lime

Mash up the meat of the avocados then mix with powdered sugar until it thickens. Pipe onto cupcakes

Another weigh in and another healthy recipe, quiche

Oh dear, I've been a lazy blogger, I dont seem to have a lot to talk about since I'm trying to be healthy!

I did want to discuss this quiche, I've made this several times and I actually prefer it to an eggy quiche, which is good, since eggs seem to give me a terrible stomach ache of late.

Looking back, I realise that I've mentioned this recipe before!

I think it deserves a repeat performance though. This time I strayed pretty far away from heidi's recipe! This is a particularly forgiving recipe, the important thing is to add lots of flavor since tofu can be bland. Sundried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, a little veggie stock and caramelized onions are all great ideas. I also mentioned last time that much as I love heidi, I think I must be more of a whirlwind in the kitchen since I can usually whip this up in around 30mins active time plus 30 mins baking time.

Since pastry isnt terribly great for the waistline I was careful to roll it really thin, and also use one part whole wheat pastry flour to one part all purpose flour. This time I used butter so its not really vegan any more.

Eggless Quiche adapted from 101 cookbooks
your favorite savory tart recipe, baked blind
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tbsp sundried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch of greens (I used kale)
1 tsp better than bouillon stock

1 package firm silken tofu
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
Salt and Pepper

Cook the onions and garlic with some olive oil until nice and caramelized, add the washed and chopped kale and the sundried tomatoes and sautee for around 5 mins. Add salt and pepper, stock and set aside.

Put the tofu, nutritional yeast and vinegar in a food processor and process until smooth then add the greens mixture and pulse a couple of times to mix.

Place in the tart shell and cook for around 30 mins, cover the pastry with foil to prevent burning.

10 in 10 progress:
I've lost another pound! Total loss of 2lb! I've also had a great time on the bike team and I went up a group, plus I managed an extra repeat on torrey pines hill. I'm really enjoying my exercise these days...

Daring cooks make masala dosa!

What an interesting challenge this month! The dish is of Southern Indian origin. When I travelled in India I didnt really enjoy masala dosa, but that may have been that they are traditionally served for breakfast, which just didnt appeal!

These were delicious. It was fantastic and rich and totally vegan, we really didnt miss the animal products here. My husband doesnt usually enjoy my curries, but the dosas mopped up the sauce and he was very impressed, so this may be added to my rotation. I think in the future I'll make big batches of everything and then it will be just a case of reheating the dish. I followed the recipe almost exactly, I got a bucketload of the coconut sauce, it will last for weeks!

Please visit Debyia for the recipe and her approach to the dish.

Pear and Berry Trifle, delicious and vegan too!

I've been ogling all the lovely classes at Millenium that 'Albion Cooks' has been attending and I was lucky enough to visit the restaurant with my Mum and Grandma this time last year. I finally opened the cookbook to find a vegan dessert for my Buffet class final. I'm so glad I did. Millenium are really clever with the use of nuts to make a creamy dessert, this was very pretty and festive. I did a trial and then made the recipe for the 40 people who attended our final class for the buffet. It went pretty well, and it was really fun, if a little stressful to be making dessert for that many people!

If I'd been braver, I'd have tried the agar to thicken the mousse a little bit. The recipe calls for 3/4 tsp agar powder. This would have made the mousse thick enough for piping, giving a more professional looking dessert.

This would be a great dessert to prepare for a party, you can make all the components ahead of time, but assembling at the last minute would keep the cashew crumble crispy. I think a cashew as an additional garnish would be a nice subtle warning that it has nuts in for people with allergies.

Pear and Berry Trifle adapted slightly from The Artful Vegan

Pear Mousse

6 to 8 Bartlett or French butter pears peeled, cored and diced (about 4 cups)

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsps white grape juice

1 cup unsalted cashew pieces

6 tbsps florida crystals (or sugar)

1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds reserved (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

pinch of salt

2 1/2 tbsps arrowroot, dissolved in 1/4 cup water

6 ounces extra firm silken tofu

Berry Sauce

1 1/2 cups of fresh berries-blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, huckeberries all work

1 cup white grape juice

1/4 cup florida crystals or sugar

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp arrowroot, dissolved in 2 tbsp water

Cashew Crumbs

1 cup unsalted cashew pieces

Chopped zest of 1 lemon

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract.



2 Bartlett or French butter pears, cored and sliced thinly for garnish.

Preheat the oven to 350f

First get started on the mousse. Place the pears, cashews, vanilla, sugar, grape juice and salt in a large saucepan and boil until the pears have gone mushy, around 10 minutes. Add the tofu, then take a hand blender and thoroughly blend until smooth. Bring back to a simmer and add the arrowroot, dissolved in the water and heat for another minute, stirring. Chill for at least 4 hours, if possible.

Berry sauce-heat the berries, grape juice, sugar, lemon juice in a saucepan until the berries have broken down. Add the arrowroot in the water and heat, stirring for a further minute. Set aside.

Cashew Crumble-Combine the cashews, lemon zest, flour in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour in, then pulse until combined. Spread on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, then mix the crumbs and bake for a further 10 mins or until brown. Keep a really close eye, they burn really easily.

Assemble the trifle with layers of mousse, berries and crumble. Garnish with a pear and a roasted cashew. I would have liked to have piped the mousse, to get a better finish, but I didnt have time to get it to set up enough.

PS sorry about the terrible photo. I think my new years resolution is definitely making sure to get better pictures!

Vegan Cookies for Christmas!

For my birthday my dear friends from home sent me this wonderful cookbook, Veganomican and jokingly said that I needed to Fedex them some of the things I'd made from it.

I thought with the holidays coming up it was an ideal opportunity to make them some delicious vegan cookies and send them over. I hope they dont read this before they get there!! I also gave a few to my friend whose son is allergic to eggs.

The cookies are lovely and simple, they call for raspberry jam, but I only had cherry jam on hand, which combined really nicely with the chocolate.

Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies adapted from Veganomican

Makes 2 dozen

1/2 cup cherry conserves
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup veg oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350f, prepare baking sheets with silpat or parchment

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa.
Whisk together the other ingredients then combine with the dry.
Form the mixture into balls, then flatten slightly onto the baking sheets, they wont spread so they can be around 1/2 inch apart.
Bake for 10 mins then cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then further on a cooling rack.