Vegan Gluten Free Choc Coconut Fudge!

This fudge was very popular at the Festival, I didn't make it though it was made by Catherine who also gave a talk on a book she is writing about the history of vegetarianism in NZ. So here's the recipe, I tried this fudge and it was sooo good.

Here is the recipe - quantities are a bit approximate as i tend to guess
rather than measure ...

Ingredients:
one and 1/2 cup Simple brand gluten free flour (you can use wheat flour if
not gluten free)
1/2 cup to 1 cup dried coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa
2 large tablespoons raspberry jam
125 g vegan margarine
1/2 cup raw sugar

Melt margarine, cocoa, sugar and jam in a saucepan, until sugar dissolved.
Allow to cool slightly, then mix in dry ingredients - should be slightly wet
without being totally runny. Spread about1 cm thick on a greased tray (baking paper is good too, and you can usually reuse it). Bake at 180 C for
15-20 mins or till cooked. Ice with chocolate icing (olivani, cocoa, lemon
juice, sugar) while still warm. Enjoy!

Thanks to Catherine for sharing this wonderful recipe!!

Vegan Veggie Rolls

These are super yummy and super easy! I was so excited to discover new way vegetarian pastry. I found this recipe online and adapted it to kiwi ingredients.

Ingredients:
2 courgettes grated
2 carrots grated
red onion very finely chopped
2+ cloves of garlic crushed (depending on how much you like)
1 large orange kumara diced finely and boiled till soft
small tin of tomato paste
1 cup of crushed rolled oats (i use wholegrain- instant is fine too)
mixed herbs
sweet chilli/bbq sauce or any other sauces you like
1 packet of new way vegetarian society approved pastry

All you need to do is finely chop the onion and crush the garlic and fry in the pan on a low heat till it becomes transparent. Then add grated courgettes and carrots and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Drain away any excess liquid and set aside.

Once kumara has been boiled, drain away all liquid and mash it up. Mix in the courgette/carrot mixture with the rolled oats. Once the mixture is all mixed up together it should be a lovely orange with green speckles from the courgettes, add the sauces, herbs, paste and salt and pepper. I also like a little bit of spice so add some paprila and chiili.

Take the pastry sheets out and spooon the mixture across the bottom 1/4 of the pastry sheet, then roll up and puncture with fork holes! Bake in the oven for about 20 mins until hte pastry has browned slightly. Serve hot or cold, they're delicious either way!

P.S. You can make them as big or small as you like, for a dinner with salad or for a work morning tea snack!

Vegan Banoffee Pie Cupcakes!

Ingredients base:
1 packet budget malt biscuits
1 cup melted dark choc chips
1 cup melted vegan margarine (possibly more just add a little as you go)

So first you need to crush the malt biscuits really well so they resemble a fine powder at the end, you can do this using a rolling pin and a large bowl or pot. If you have a good food processor use that. Once the biscuits are fully and finely crushed melt the dark choc chips and marg together, then pour into the biscuit mixture. Mix it all up and if it’s still too crumbly add a little more margarine/choc mix until the biscuits are sticking together and they can be pressed into cup cake tins. Once you’ve got the mixture sticking then press into cupcake papers inside tins, or if you just want to make a pie then press into a large pie dish.

Ingredients vegan caramel:
1 ½ cups soft brown sugar
1 Tbsp water (or enough to dissolve the brown sugar
1 cup coconut cream
1 Tbsp arrowroot powder
1 Tbsp cornflour

First you need to pour the sugar into a pot and add 1 Tbsp of water, it will start to dissolve immediately put it onto a very low heat (the lowest) and let the sugar dissolve fully, adding 1 tsp of water at a time if you need to. Once the sugar and water mixture is full dissolved add the coconut cream and heat till it it dissolves into the sugar mixture turning a lovely light brown colour. The mixture will be quite runny, so this is where you add arrowroot and cornflour – turn the heat up to boil the mixture and it should start to thicken, you need to stir it constantly using a whisk to get rid of any lumps and once it starts to thicken turn the heat down. After 5 mins or so if the caramel isn’t thickening add more arrowroot and cornflour a tsp at a time and make sure the heat is high. Once you are happy with the thickness of the caramel (you can use this mixture for a caramel sauce on any desert so you may want it thinner or thicker – you can achieve this with more or less arrowroot/cornflour) then remove it from the heat and let it cool completely, perhaps overnight in the fridge.

Ingredients Choc Ganache:
1/3 block whittakers 72% dark chocolate
2 tsp margarine
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

To make the ganach all you need to do is melt the marg and whittakers dark choc in a double boiler on a low heat, add the water, stir in the icing sugar slowly while mixing until it reaches a smooth, buttery consistency. You can either use a plastic bag and cut a hole, or an old school icing decorating tube with the rosette nozzle on the end and decorate!
Assembling:

So your biscuit base should be in the cup cake papers, so now you need to use a spoon to spoon the caramel mixture into the biscuit cases – don’t overfill as you will also need to spoon mashed banana on top of the caramel. Once you’ve filled all the biscuit bases with caramel take 3 bananas, mash them up or you can slice them if you want too and then add this to each of the bases on top of the caramel. Then use a piping bag or spoon depending how fancy you want the ganache topping to look and decorate with chocolate! I used an icing decorating tube as I’m a bit unco and it’s easier for me than the bag. So decorate with chocolate topping and allow it to set then serve or refrigerate and serve later!

FYI I did make this recipe up myself, so sorry if it seems a little vague in some parts, it’s better to be cautious and add a little of one ingredient first than too much because as they saying goes, you can always add more but it’s harder to take it away! Also if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I hope you can all replicate this!

Vegan Gluten Free Lemon Poppy Teacake

This was a hit, and the poppy seeds make it look soooo pretty, so when you make this cake - don't bother with the icing on top, we actually made a double mixture and did two layers with the icing in the middle and I grated some lemon rind on top to add some extra colour and it looked amazing!

Ingredients:
2/3 cup rice milk
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup potato flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 1/2 Tbsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup stewed apples
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp pure lemon extract/juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

Heat the oven to 165 degrees, lightly grease the cake tin with oil. Now onto the mixture you need to pour the rice milk, vinegar and poppy seeds into a small bowl, but do not stir; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, xanthum gum and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, stewed apples, vanilla, lemon extract/juice and zest and stir until the batter is smooth. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the poppy seed mixture into the batter and combine until just blended. The batter will expand slightly.

Pour in the prepared tin and bake for about 35 mins, until golden brown and springy and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in tin for 20 mins then gently run a knife around th edge and invert onto a board or plate, then use another board or plate to re-invert right side up. Either cut and serve warm or wait until completely cool before storing.

Thanks to my wonderful helper Michelle for doing this cake - she was amazing on Friday I couldn't have done nearly as much, without her. However due to her help we had over 15 different vegan items and about 6 different vegan gluten free items on the stall!!!

We also made a plain icing using about a tsp of vegan margarine and a 2 tsp lemon juice and icing sugar, then we added a little bit of water to thicken it and spread it on the bottom cake and put the top cake on top!

Vegan Gluten Free Choc Chip Cookies

So after the Vegan Cake stall at last years festival, we received feedback that it would have been nice to have vegan gluten free baking! We felt sooooo bad, we hadn't even thought about it as none of us were gluten intolerant, which is terrible. So this year, I made an effort to research gluten free vegan (which is actually difficult- there are very few recipes that cater for both), and I really wanted to have a good selection for all of those gluten free, dairy free people out there.

I found a fabulous link with three gluten free vegan baking recipies and made them all for the festival! So first up here is the cookie recipe - it was really easy, and I love gluten free baking it feels lighter in your stomach and it tastes a little different but good different! I'm going to try eating less gluten, it can't be a bad thing!

Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable oil
6 Tbsp stewed apples
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp vanilla essence
1 1/4 cups raw sugar
2/3 cup rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
2/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup ground linseeds
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum (gluten replacement)
1 cup vegan choc chips

Mix together stewed apples, oil, salt, vanilla and sugar. Then mix in the dry ingredients, and stir until a grainy dough forms. Gently fold in the choch chips, don't over mix. Then roll into balls and place on a lined or greased oven tray and bake in the oven at 190 degrees for 15-20 mins. Remove and let them cool on a wire rack!! Store in an airtight container and eat within 3 days! It's really that easy!

Vegan Chocolate Berry Cake

So this is a slightly different version of the cake that won an award at the 50s bake off... This one had extra berries, which was a hit with the festival goers. So this recipe is exactly what I made for the festival today... So feel free to use more or less berries or adapt it slightly if you don't have everything... Feel free to ask questions and I'm happy to give advice.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
2 cups raw sugar
2/3 cups cocoa2 tsp baking soda1 tsp salt
2 cups warm water
2 tsp vanilla essence
2/3 cup stewed apple or vegetable oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
frozen raspberries and mixed berries

Ganache:
1/3 block whittakers 72% dark chocolate
2 tsp margarine
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

So first of all you need to mix together all of the DRY ingredients in a BIG bowl till it's all even an a light brown colour. Add more cocoa if you want it more chocolatey.

In a SEPARATE bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients so they blend together really well. Once you've mixed that all up make a well in the dry ingredients bowl and pour in the wet then mix it all together nicely. Split the mixture in half to make a double layered cake. Make the first layer slightly bigger than the top layer, bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about 30 - 40 mins (stab a knife in to check).

After about 25 mins you need to remove the bottom layer cake and pour on the raspberries so they don't sink right in but sit on the top and melt down a little to make a raspberry type sauce. Pop it back in the oven for another 10-15 mins until it's cooked right through. Then remove, cool on a rack till its completely cold and repeat for the top layer, but instead of raspberries use mixed berries.

Once both the bottom and top layers are cooked, got their berries on and are completely cool, pop the mixed berry layer on top of the bottom raspberry layer and then make your choc ganach and decorate with rosettes around the side.

To make the ganach all you need to do is melt the marg and whittakers dark choc in a double boiler on a low heat, add the water, stir in the icing sugar slowly while mixing until it reaches a smooth, buttery consistency. You can either use a plastic bag and cut a hole, or an old school icing decorating tube with the rosette nozzle on the end and decorate!