Making shortcrust pastry the vegan way
Sara Kidd explains how to make the best shortcrust pastry using vegan butter, cold bowls and some patience.
The end result is great and you can apply this shortcrust pastry to any tart recipe.
Grab the recipe at Sara Kidd's website.
Baking With Josh And Ange | Gluten-Free Vegan Banana Bread Brownies
Josh and Ange bake gluten-free vegan banana bread brownies in this wonderful video.
"This healthy take on the traditional brownie is packed with bananas, peanut butter and a little chocolate. Perfect for those with food restrictions who still have a sweet tooth!"
Check out their YouTube channel
Sara Kidd's One Bowl Vegan Cup Cakes
Episode #1 launched and Sara creates a modern classic, the cup cake, with a vegan twist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4v-pFCQrpQ
You can get the recipe at https://www.sarakidd.com/recipe/one-bowl-vegan-cupcakes/
Subscribe to Sara Kidd's YouTube channel and happy baking!
Bake Vegan Stuff with Sara Kidd launching January 23rd 2019
Here's the trailer for a new show called Bake Vegan Stuff with Sara Kidd that launches on 23rd January 2019 on YouTube. It's a new show showing how to bake vegan and ties in with Veganuary.
Head over to Sara's YouTube channel, Vegan Cakes by Sara Kidd, for more trailers and also check out the Veganuary Facebook page!
Caitlin Shoemaker's Fluffy Vegan Banana Bread
Vegan or plant-based food is all the rage right now and banana bread recipes are super-popular. So watch this video from Caitlin Shoemaker for how to a make fluffy, healthy, gluten-free, vegan banana bread.
We love bananas, and we love bread and Cailtin's video shows us how to make something healthy out of what we love. For the full banana bread recipe visit: https://frommybowl.com/fluffy-banana-bread/
Vegan Chocolate Brownies
A really quick video for vegan chocolate brownies from Tasty, via YouTube. You can see the recipe in the video, or go to https://tasty.co/recipe/the-best-ever-vegan-brownies for an easy-read. The recipe for "The Best Ever Vegan Brownies" serves 9 and takes less than 90 minutes to prepare and bake. Why not make this part of your 2019 Veganuary?
Happy baking!
Vegetarian Nut Roast Recipe
Besides all our suggestions for baking Vegan Christmas cake let's not forget that not everybody will be tucking into Turkey on the 25th. I spent some time looking for nut roasts in the supermarket, and also on menus this time of the year. Is it me or are there fewer nut roasts on offer now? Maybe the ingredients are proving difficult with many more requests for vegan / plant-based options. So I went looking for a decent nut roast recipe to cook at home.
Nut Roast Recipe on BBC Good Food
To make my vegetarian nut loaf I used the BBC Good Food's Nut Roast Recipe . It's a really tasty combination of lentils, chestnut mushrooms, red pepper, carrots and mixed nuts. I can also adapt it, as you'll see. This recipe includes dairy but there's ways of substituting these elements to bind everything together for a vegan nut roast and to reduce the fat content, though it is high in fibre and protein.
The main ingredients I use are:
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 tbsps of olive oil
- 15g of butter
- 300g chestnut mushrooms finely chopped
- 2 large grated carrots
- 2 sticks of celery finely chopped
- 1 red pepper diced
- 100g red lentils
- 500ml of vegetable stock
- 3 x eggs, butter
- 100g grated cheese
- 150g of mixed nuts like cashews, brazils, walnuts
- 150g breadcrumbs
The recipe takes a while to put together, the lentils need some time to cook (25 minutes) and baking takes 2 steps, 20 minutes covered and 30 minutes to brown. So allow a few hours to enjoy a tasty glass of something nice and tune into Elf to get you in the seasonal mood.
Nuts About Nuts
The great thing about this recipe is also choosing the nuts - I used Tesco's mixed unsalted nuts which includes walnuts, hazelnuts and cashews. Previously I tried toasted peanuts as they added a bit of flavour. In all honesty, the only thing I skimped on was smoked paprika as it can be quite an overpowering flavour.
The recipe suggests letting the lentil mix become quite dry but I found this time round, leaving it a little moist meant the resulting slice wasn't too dry or concentrated. Also, using a high-sided wok I was able to make 2 nut loaves as they freeze and re-heat really well.
Though there is a sauce included in this recipe, I found making a nice veggie gravy with a red onion mix, serving with roasted cauliflower, broccoli and roast potatoes was very satisfying.
Check out the BBC Good Food Nut Roast Recipe - Merry Christmas!
Other Nut Roast Ideas
We looked at making a nut "loaf", but here's another idea which uses a galette base with nuts and roasted squash and caramelised onions. Watch Anna Jones on Jamie Oliver's Food Tube as she makes this tasty nut roast.
Got any comments or ideas for other articles? Get in touch and let us know!
Why Not Make A Vegan Christmas Cake This Year?
We found this vegan Christmas cake recipe video via Om Nom Health and their recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, is suitable for vegans and vegetarians and has no refined sugar. "The cake of dreams!" That should please everyone.
The ingredients (in the video) are:
- 450g homemade mincemeat
- 225g buckwheat flour
- 3 teaspoons of baking powder
- 150g of coconut sugar
- 150g coconut oil
- 175g dried mixed fruit
- 50g chopped walnuts
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- Zest and juice of one orange
- 1.5 mashed ripe bananas.
Bake for 1.5-2 hours at 170c. Please watch the video for the method and explanation of the ingredients and how to know when your vegan Christmas cake is baked!
You can find the whole recipe here at https://www.omnomhealth.co.uk/single-post/2016/12/08/Gluten-Dairy-Free-Vegan-Christmas-Cake
Don't delay, there's Christmas cake to be made. Ho ho ho!
Other Christmas Cake Recipes
If you're looking for other Christmas cake recipe ideas, why not try Delia Smith's Creole Christmas Cake recipe and video? And if you want a nice alternative main course for Christmas Day, try this vegetarian nut roast recipe.
Happy seasonal baking!
How to Make Christmas Cake | Tesco Food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw_lWcbaZMw
Try this simple and delicious Christmas cake recipe. Jo takes us step-by-step through the rich ingredients, right through to decorating for a perfect festive treat.
Mary Berry's American-Style Baked Cheesecake Recipe
This is a baked cheesecake Mary Berry has created with a summer fruit topping. We love baked cheesecake and this one is a real winner with a buttery chocolate digestive biscuit base for extra flavour using full-fat soft cheese and eggs beaten with vanilla extract and softly whipped double cream, baked for an hour. The cheesecake continues to cook as it cools.
Watch the video
The recipe for Mary Berry's baked cheesecake uses crushed plain chocolate Digestive biscuits and melted butter for the base, full fat soft cream cheese, double cream, 2 eggs and vanilla extract for the top. This bakes for an hour at 140c in a fan-assisted oven. As Mary says, the recipe is very easy to make and it's quite an authentic cheesecake though some versions use egg yolks as well to give it extra richness.
Different Styles Of Cheesecake
We know that cheesecakes come with either a biscuit base or a dense, more cake-like consistency. A number of bakeries in London's East End, including Rinkoff's, produce baked versions. This was the most useful definition we could find to describe the New York / Amercian-style:
New York-style cheesecake, made famous by Lindy's and Junior's Deli, relies upon heavy cream, cream cheese, eggs and egg yolks to add a richness and a smooth consistency. Also called Jewish-style, it is baked in a special 5- to 6-inch tall springform pan in many restaurants. Some recipes use cottage cheese and lemon for distinct texture and flavor or add chocolate or strawberry to the basic recipe. A NY cheesecake is high, dense, and firm.
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/30266
Or refer this link : http://www.crumblycookie.net/2010/09/12/cheesecake-comparison/
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, cheesecake is typically made with a base of crushed, buttered biscuits and often topped with a fruit compote.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesecake
While searching for a cheesecake that looked like the one I had in mind,I found Mondo Mulia's pictures that looked just perfect. Check out the post, Baked New York Style Cheesecake.
The base of a cheesecake can differ, using any of crushed biscuits or crackers, sponge or pastry. In Mary Berry's recipe the chocolate in the biscuits gives extra flavour to the base.
Link to the recipe
If you liked the video, you may want to make Mary Berry's Cheesecake. Take a look at the Lakeland website for all the details.