Cherry Pie

As April is coming to an end, so is my month of baking from The Joy of Vegan Baking. However, it is not the end of a long list of recipes I wanted to try from the book, so rest assured you will see more of it in the future.

I have wanted to bake a cherry pie for ages. Like, years- but have never seemed to get around to it. I am obsessed with cherries and the combination of sweet cherries in a buttery short crust just makes me salivate all over the keyboard.

Thanks to some left over canned dark cherries, last weekend was spent making and inhaling the Cherry Pie from JOVB.

Recipe notes: This recipe required two components to be made 1.) the cherry pie filling and 2.) the short pastry crust. Since the cherries in the filling where already in sweetened syrup, I decided not to add any extra sugar. Also, I replaced the corn flour for arrowroot powder to make the gelled part. Turned out fine.

Now, for the short pastry crust- I have to admit, using vegetable shortening is not something I have ever done in pie making. I used 100% Nuttelex and the pastry turned out perfect. The only shortening available in Australia is Copha and I strongly suspect it has high amounts of trans fat, despite the nutritional label saying otherwise. Of course, I am not a big pie maker, so I had some trouble decorating the damn thing.

Review: Well, I think the pastry on its own needed a bit more sweetness. But it complemented the sweet cherry filling perfectly.

Will I make this again?: Yep. I might try with fresh cherries and a dollop of cashew cream next time though.

Are you sick of JOVB yet? Fig Date bread, Butterscotch Pudding & Pear Tart

Ok, so it may seem like all I have done the past few weeks is bake from the Joy of Vegan Baking, but it is not true!

I have been working on my (almond) croissant recipe. So far I am nearly there, just a few more technical improvements. It will be a while before I am satisfied though.

So in the meantime....

Fig Date Bread

This went so quickly that I didn't manage to take a picture in time. The Not Chef and I pretty much bought this tasty delight into work everyday as a wonder snack. And I am telling you now, RUN don't walk to your favourite fruit and veg provider to get fresh figs for this one. (To be honest, I had never seen a fresh fig before until I moved over here from the west coast! How embarrassing...)

Recipe notes: I thought the amount of sugar was too much, considering the amount of dates in the recipe. So, I took out my handy-dandy US sized tablespoon (There is a 5mL difference between Aus and US T) and put in about 3-4 T of golden syrup instead.

Review: I used one of those new strange silicone baking pans for this recipe. So I don't know if it was that, my oven, or the much-later head-palm discovery that a huge heavy metal pan thingy may be blocking the essential heat to my baking, but it took almost double time to cook. Regardless, the bread turned out well.

Will I make this again?: Yep. Maybe next time I may be quick enough to include pictures even!


Pear Tart

This was gone in just under 2 days.

Recipe notes: I made this exaclty as-is. No changes at all. Well, I did make this with a springform pan instead of a pie tart. I was worried at first when making the crust, as it contracted a bit during baking, but after adding and cooking the filling, it contracted about the same amount, so all was well.

Review: Yumyumyum.The only downside is that is requires as 'cream cheese' analogue, which depending where you live may be hard to find &/or expensive. To be honest, I was a bit surprised at how delicious this tart was. I didn't think it would turn out special, but it was our favourtie of the lot I made.

Will I make this again?: YES.

Butterscotch Pudding

Recipe notes: Another one I made 'as-is.' The exception is the white chocolate whipped tofu topping. What I did was blend 1/4c soy milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice), 300g firm silken tofu and 200g of melted vegan white chocolate (the only brand I know that is relatively easy to get in Australia is Sweet Williams). I let it set for a few hours, pumped it into a piping bag and added big towering swirls. Then I grated some vegan dark chocolate over the top.

Review: I was worried that it might be too sweet, but as the pudding cools, the butterscotch flavour is more pronounced. And the white choc tofu cream/butterscotch pudding combo was a tasty winner.

Will I make this again?: Maybe. Only because I am not a major pudding person.

Apfelkuchen from The Joy Of Vegan Baking

I have been flipping through all my cookbooks recently and have realised that I have not baked much from most of them. Like most humans tend to do, I find a few dishes I like first time cooking and keep making them, forgetting about all the other recipes. To circumvent this, I have decided to occasionally set aside a month were I bake recipes from predominately one book I have.

The upside of me doing this too is that if a particular vegan cookbook has captured your eye, but you want to know more about the sweet baked recipes, you can come here and have a look to see how I did. I find this valuable, especially when looking at other's blogs to see if a recipe from a book turned out the same way or wether I might have done something scarily wrong to produce a wonky result.

So, the cookbook I am focusing on in April is The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.

Colleen's book is fantastic, especially for those new to vegan baking. She details different replacers for eggs, milk and butter, explaining how the replacements work and in which baked goods to use them in. The book is divided into sections (ie cakes; pies and tarts; quick breads; etc) and at the start of each section she has even more helpful information on how to bake the goods successfully. More small helpful tips are on the page of most individual recipes, with some having little 'food lore' blurbs with tidbits on the origins of the baked good. If the recipe requires a little more work than usual, she will label it as 'advanced preparation required'- helpful if you need to bake something fast.

As with Colleen's book, I have been guilty of only making and remaking two recipes from it- Cinnamon Rolls (MAKE THESE NOW) and the Holiday Nog (creamy, delicious and drool-worthy). So, the first non-cinnamonynoggy I have tried was the German Apple Cake (Apfelkuchen). This cake comprises of a cake base with a sugar and sliced apple topping. I chose it because we had some left over apples after making sauerkraut and dumplings for dinner. Delicious organic granny smith apples, the perfect amount for this recipe.

Recipe notes: This recipe didn't take long to make- the longest time was spent waiting for my damn oven to heat up to the right temperature and peeling + slicing the apples. Collen calls for ginger + cinnamon as spices- I did not have ginger, so I replaced it with allspice. For the cake itself, I reduced the amount of sugar to 1/3 c- I find most US recipes are just a tad too sweet for me. When I finally popped the cake in, I had to use the extended cooking time of 40min. My electric oven is a temperamental darling.

Review: This cake is delish! The cake part itself was perfect- not too moist or dry and a bit fluffy. The apples and topping went well together- the brown sugar slightly caramalised the apples. Together, it was the perfect balance of sweetness, flavour and texture. The cake itself is not pretty- sure I could have spent time laying out the apple slices perfectly, but uh, I was hungry.

Will I make this again?: Most assuredly! Now onto the next recipe!

Mohnstrudel - showcasing the humble poppyseed

There are many ingredients in the baking world that seem to not be popular enough to be used to their full flavour potential. Peanut butter, chocolate and cinnamon to me have been oversaturated in sweets.

What of other tantalising delights, such as kiwifruit, pistachios, and poppy seeds?

Poppy seeds especially have been misunderstood in their potential, being shoved into the nearest citrus flavoured cake or sprinkled on top of bread. Their potential shines when finely ground with a spice/coffee grinder and boiled with sugar and milk to produce a sweet, tasty and dare I say- addictive filling.

My favourite variation of using poppy seeds is the mohnstrudel.


Mohnstrudel comprises of two components: the sweet yeast dough that will be used as the 'pastry' and the tasty poppy seed filling (mohn is translated as poppy seed). Some people may find this strudel unusual, being used to the flaky pastry layers of strudel dough used in the popular apfelstrudel. This dough is also used to make a strudel variation using walnuts and is used in many sweet dumpling recipes.

One of the best recipes online for mohnstrudel is found at Bernhard's Austrian Cooking. I modified the recipe ingredients slightly for vegans below, but I do recommend to go over to his website and follow the excellent instructions to make tasty mohnstrudels of your own.

Instructions and filling recipe for mohnstrudel by Bernhard's.

Vegan recipe for sweet yeast dough:

- 3 c flour
- 1 1/4 t dry yeast
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4c + 2 T vegan milk (add more milk a tablespoon at a time if dough is too dry)

Bernhard mixes all the ingredients together, however I gently heat the vegan milk and sugar together first, until the sugar is mostly dissolved and the milk is lukewarm- not burning hot (or you will kill the yeast!).

I add this liquid mixture to the yeast to activate it and watch for it to start foaming. Then I stir in the yeast/milk/sugar mix with the flour.

Strudel filing:

Follow ingredients for filling, but replace honey with:
- 2 T rice syrup

Of course, the best bit is always eating the filling!