Best Date Balls Ever!

I have tried many variations on date balls, always seeking one that is easy and reasonably light / light on the blender (don't have a powerful one), doesn't involve any cooking, and uses only things that are not too expensive or fancy and we usually have in stock... and never quite found it...

I bought a pack of dates not long ago, maybe I was thinking about making date square? I hadn't done much with them... Then I noticed there was a recipe for date balls on the side and decided to give it a whirl... 

Perhaps this is the date ball recipe I have been looking for!

150 g / 5.3 oz dates (normal ones, pitted - not medjool), coarsely chopped

100 ml plant milk (used oat)

80 g / 2.8 oz oats

50 g / 1.76 oz desiccated coconut

20 g / 0.7 oz cocoa powder 

additional cocoa powder, desiccated coconut, or freeze-dried fruit powder for rolling

 

Blend dates and plant milk until smooth. Scrape into a medium bowl.

 

Blend oats slightly to break them up, then add to the date mixture along with the coconut and cocoa. Stir well together. 

 

Make balls of a size you like, and roll in something - e.g. cocoa powder, orange zest, desiccated coconut, freeze-dried fruit powder, sesame seeds...

 

 

I did some rolled in freeze-dried strawberry powder (left over from s's birthday cake) - which were a big hit with s; and also some rolled in cocoa powder and some in desiccated coconut. All were good, the strawberry powder was the best.

 

I'd be curious to play with adding ground spices e.g. cinnamon, ginger, cayenne; and also with using nuts/seeds - e.g. sesame seeds; walnuts. I have some blackcurrant powder which was a spontaneous purchase when I bought the strawberry powder - might be good with that as well... Lots of space for variations! 

 

Possibly slightly less plant milk would have been good. Might also be good to figure out a quick n dirty cup measuring version as my scales are in ounces and the amounts are awkward. Apart from that, I really liked this recipe!

 

Edit: I have made these a few times now, as s actually really loved the version with strawberry powder on the outside. The next time I did a mix of blackcurrant and strawberry powder (although the favourite is still strawberry, the blackcurrant powder is not as nice...). Still keen to try a version with a lot of spices and maybe some sesame seeds (toasted? instead of the coconut?). Always seem to be a hit! 

 

The mixture is quite sticky so I rolled them with nitrile gloves on the last time, which I think was a good idea. 

Amaranth granola

At Easter, we met a bunch of Germans in a house by a lake in northern Germany. Three boys who went to school together, and their partners, and their sons - one each, aged 5-7. One partner was missing though - the Swedish opera singer had to stay in Berlin to do Wagner. But she provided us with lots of goodies, including a jar of delicious granola based on popped amaranth. Which made me realize it could be time to mix up my granola game - I've been making variations on the same recipe using oats since forever - I love it, but this one was good too! Granola is great in general - simple and tasty and good to eat alone or sprinkled on top of almost anything... I asked L for her recipe but she wasn't sure if she had one, so I used this one for guidance/inspiration.

I was feeling lazy and tried to order the amaranth already popped. But when it arrived it turned out it was just the seeds. So first thing I had to do was try and pop it (I looked to here for help)... which actually, it turned out, was quite fun - the seeds are tiny (only about a mm diameter), but they pop just like popcorn! So cute...

2 cups puffed amaranth (I think I popped about 10-12 tbsp of seeds to get this much - but do a bit too much, it should store OK)

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or use pecans)

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground vanilla

3 tbsp coconut oil 

1/4 cup maple syrup

First pop the amaranth. You could do this in advance and keep until needed. Heat a big high-sided metal pot (dry) until pretty hot, then put in one tbsp of amaranth seeds, give it a few seconds, shaking it a bit, until it all pops - then tip out into a big bowl. If it doesn't pop and burns instead, the pan isn't hot enough - discard, let it heat up a bit more, then try again until you hit the right temperature. Keep going, 1-2 tbsp at a time (should not be more than a single layer in the pan), until you have enough. Let cool before putting in a storage jar or going right ahead to make the granola.

When ready to make granola, heat oven to 180C and line a big baking tray with baking paper.

Mix dry stuff (excluding the dried fruit) in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, warm the coconut oil gently until it is liquid (if it is not already), then mix with the maple syrup. Add wet to dry and mix well. Spread out evenly on the baking tray, transfer to the oven, and bake for c. 15 min (try less next time) until lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and let cool 20-30 min before putting in a storage jar.

 

I love this stuff, a really interesting taste / texture. Maybe a bit too much salt and syrup - could reduce next time. Also maybe a tiny bit too long in the oven - try 12 min next time. Also wasn't very clumpy - consider adding some psyllium husk next time?

Now I am wondering what else I can use popped amaranth for! Also, what else can I pop - quinoa, perhaps?

4th Birthday: Stegosaurus Cake

Little s turned 4! Emphatically (emphasis all his) not little any more…

It was the first of his birthdays where he had plans / expectations - we’ve been working on a birthday list since about March. Also the first one with no limit on allowing him to have cake any more, really. So I wanted to do a good cake. Last year was a truck, he was into cars. This year I decided it should be a dinosaur… which sounded like a big challenge! But then I hit on the idea of making a stegosaurus with biscuits as plates, and all of a sudden a plan came together and I felt like it was on… So I made a stegosaurus cake. 

The cake is the chocolate marble Bundt from my German baking book (Luisa Weiss - Classic German Baking). I’d been wanting to try the marble cake for ages so I could use the Bundt tin again, but then for this purpose I actually baked it in a loaf tin and springform tin to give more sculptable pieces. I added a bit of green gel colouring to the white parts, otherwise followed the recipe.

I think it might be a good idea to use Bundt cake recipes for 3D sculpted cakes - Bundt recipes tend to be quite dense and good at holding shape. I've not easily found tasty-sounding recipes that I’m confident would hold their shape before - weirdly most cake recipes don't mention whether they are good for sculpting.

The biscuits are chocolate gingerbread from here. I made the full quantity of dough but it was too much so I froze half. Even a half quantity was too much - a quarter would have been enough to make the stegosaurus-plates! But I was glad to have spares / different ones to choose from.

The icing was my favourite cream cheese icing, which has featured on every s birthday cake so far!

For the biscuits:

(make these in advance - they need to be baked and cooled before cake assembly, and will keep for a good few weeks in an airtight box)

 

150 g plain flour

25 g cocoa

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

60 g butter, cubed

60 g brown sugar

70 g golden syrup

 

Prepare paper templates for the stegosaurus-plates - I did five different sizes, at least six of each size, to have several of each kind to choose from when assembly / spares in case of accidents - and remember they come in pairs on the dinosaur, so a good idea to aim for even numbers. I made them pointy on both ends, thinking a point should help them to stick in the cake.

Heat oven to 180C. Beat together flour, cocoa, ginger, butter and sugar until you can’t see any lumps of butter. Dribble in the syrup and beat to a smooth dough.

Take about half of the dough at a time and roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper to the thickness of a £1 coin. Peel away the top layer of paper and cut shapes, using a small knife to cut around your paper templates. Peel away the trimmings and lift the shapes onto baking paper on a baking tray. Roll some shapes for the spikes as well - again, remember you are aiming for 2 matching pairs. When you have used all the dough and have plenty of shapes, put in the oven and bake for 12-13 min until firm (they catch easily because of the syrup and it's hard to spot because of the cocoa - be careful!). Take out and let cool for 10 min, then move to a rack to finish cooling, before storing in an airtight box until needed.

For the cake:

(do the day before or earlier the same day - needs to cool before assembly)

100 g dark chocolate (c.70%), chopped

100 g white chocolate, chopped

250 g butter, softened

250 g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 eggs

250 g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

c. 1 tsp green gel food colouring 

2 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

Heat oven to 180C. Butter and flour the cake tins (I used one round springform and one loaf tin).

Put the chocolates in two separate bowls and heat in the microwave in 30 sec bursts, stirring every so often, until melted. I found the white chocolate took much longer to melt, but we got there eventually. Set aside til needed.

Beat the butter in a large bowl with the sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. 

In a separate, medium bowl, mix the flour and baking powder with a fork. Then beat the flour into the egg mixture. Scrape one third of the batter back into the flour bowl. Add the white chocolate to the larger portion of batter, along with green food colouring, and mix until no streaks remain. Add the melted dark chocolate, cocoa and milk to the remaining one-third of batter and mix until no streaks remain.

Scrape half the white batter into the bottoms of the prepared cake tins. Then put in all the dark batter. Then put the rest of the white batter on top. Swirl with the blade of a knife to marble, and flatten the tops. Bake for 30-45 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Start checking at 30 min. My round cake took 30 min, and my loaf cake took about 40 min.

Place the tins on a rack and let cool for 10 min before unmolding and letting it cool upside down. Let cool completely. Keep in the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm, until needed - good for a few days.

For the icing:

1/2 pack butter, softened

1 1/2 packs cream cheese, at room temp, drained

3-4 tbsp vanilla sugar

1/2 tsp green gel food colouring

Beat the butter on its own first, until smooth. Add the cream cheese and beat some more. Add the sugar to taste, and the green food colouring until you like the colour. Chill until needed (should be OK in the fridge for a day or so) / until the texture is good for decorating.

Assembly and decoration:

Two dark-green mini M+M type sweets

Cocoa powder

Build the dinosaur shape: I used the middle part of a round cake (baked in springform pan) for the bottom part of the body. Then made the top part of the body from most of the loaf cake (loaf pan). Most of the rest of the loaf cake became the head, and the edges of the round cake were good for the tail (naturally curved) and legs (matching pairs). A few gaps needed filling with offcuts, but in general it's good to stick to as few pieces as possible to avoid crumbs that get in the icing, and bits falling off. It worked surprisingly well.

When the shape looks OK, put a layer of icing all over to fill in small gaps. I prefer a relatively thin layer of icing so there were a few escaped chocolate crumbs in it, but I figured for a dinosaur's skin that was OK. And then I also sprinkled on some cocoa powder to add some more dinosaur-y texture / dirt anyway.

I used a couple of mini m+m type sweets for the eyes, and cut small holes in the icing through to the dark cake inside for nostrils. Finally, I stuck in the biscuit plates and spikes.

Wait til as close to serving as possible to decorate, especially to stick in the biscuits - I did it all the night before and the biscuits softened overnight, and a couple of them flopped over and had to be rescued with extra icing. Although actually I quite liked the taste of the softer biscuits.

Date and oat balls

I got really behind on writing up recipes... I made these ages ago, they were good, s liked them too (and I took some to the park and shared them with C and little m and gave an untrue impression of being an organized mum). Could have included a bit more cocoa? Every time I make date balls I wish for a proper blender. I think I nearly ended up buying a Vitamix as a result of these.

1 cup dates (normal dried ones not fresh or medjool)

2 cups rolled oats 

3/4 cup desiccated coconut 

1 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 tbsp almond butter

 

Cover dates with water in a pan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and drain, setting the liquid aside. Put drained dates, oats, coconut, cocoa and almond butter in a blender or food processor. Add about 1/4 of the date liquid to the mix and blend (aiming for a good rolling texture - add slowly). Roll mixture into approx. 12 balls. Roll in extra coconut if desired. Keep in the fridge or freezer.

Third Birthday Cake

Little S turned three on Tuesday. He is crazy about cars / vehicles at the moment, so this year he clearly had to have a car for his birthday cake. I thought about a fire engine, but it seemed like you'd have to have the colour, shape, writing etc bang on for it to look recognizable, and I wanted to allow myself a bit more leeway.

So I went for a dumper truck. Still a favourite, still easily recognizable, still a truck - but could be any colour I want, no writing needed, and somehow felt like it would still look ok even if the shape went a bit wrong.

The cake was this one, baked in a loaf tin. I cut it into three pieces: about a third from one end to make the front part (standing on the cut side), all the rest except a couple of inches to make the back part, and then the last piece to cut into six wheel shapes. Then I shaped the front, cut out the hopper, shaped the wheel beds and evened out the wheels.

The icing was this one. Instead of cinnamon, I added a few different powders to colour it: the icing on the back part of the truck is with freeze-dried raspberry powder, the icing on the front part is with acai powder, and the icing on the wheels is with cocoa. I considered a few other powder (spirulina or matcha for green; turmeric for yellow), but then realized it took quite a lot of powder for a get much colour and I more wanted it to taste nice...

The decorations are: mango-coconut balls for the load and lights, dried kiwi slices for the wheels, and raspberry-apple fruit 'spaghetti' for the writing, window shapes and stripes on the back part. It would have been best presented straight after decorating, but it looked ok the next morning.

It tasted good but yet again I made a sage birthday cake that failed to rise properly (it rose beautifully, and then dropped a lot). This time I had even decided to follow a proper cake recipe to the word to prevent this... Oh well, the icing works!

And, most importantly, S liked it and recognized it as a dumper truck. He got a yellow dumper truck from the 1950s from my dad so it all fit together perfectly.

Chocolate almond butter balls

These were delicious - very decadent.

100g coconut oil, melted
100ml maple syrup
125g cocoa powder, plus 2 tbsp for rolling
170g almond butter
Pinch of sea salt

Mix the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, cocoa powder, nut butter and sea salt in a bowl. Pour into a wide, shallow dish (the wider the dish, the faster it will cool), then put in the freezer for 20 minutes, or until set.

Use a tablespoon (and dry hands) to roll the mix into large, marble-sized balls. Put two tablespoons of cocoa powder on a plate and roll each ball until covered on all sides. Store in the fridge until needed.

Banana tahini chocolate cake

I got on a bit of a roll with tahini baking after making these - couldn't believe I hadn't done more of it before! This was the next thing I tried - was also delicious, although I wished I could taste the tahini...

2 large ripe or overripe bananas (approx 250 g weighed with skins on / ¾ cup mashed)
60 ml veg oil
50 g tahini
1 large egg (at room temp)
50 g caster sugar
35 g soft dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
60 g flour
25 g cocoa
¼ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100 g dark chocolate chips
1-2 tsp sesame seeds (to sprinkle on top)

Heat the oven to 170C / 150C Fan / 325F. Grease and line a 1 lb / 450 g loaf tin (approx 21 x 10 x 6 cm / 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 in). Peel and mash the bananas in a large bowl, then beat in the tahini, followed by the oil, then the egg, and finally the sugars and vanilla. Mix flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt together with a fork in a separate, medium bowl, and then slowly beat into the batter. Fold in the chocolate chips. Add the batter to the prepared tin, smoothing the top, and sprinkle over the sesame seeds.

Bake for 45-50 min until risen and firm to the touch, and a skewer comes out almost clean (bearing in mind chocolate). It will probably crack on top. Let cool completely in its tin on a wire rack. Once cold, remove from tin and wrap in parchment then foil and leave it for a day before slicing and eating.

Date balls

We bought a couple of boxes of juicy dates (dadler) lately. They are so sweet, they are like candy. Halfway through the second box I thought of doing something other than just eating them as they are, and decided to try some kind of raw date balls. They perhaps don't sound that delicious, but they are really good - just enough chocolatey-ness from the cocoa, nice crunch from the almonds, sticky sweetness from dates. Not to mention, they (obviously) don't require any cooking and came together in about ten minutes.

(makes 10-12 depending on size)

1 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup whole almonds
2 tbsp cocoa powder
desiccated coconut for rolling (optional)

Put pitted dates, almonds and cocoa in a blender and whizz until reasonably pasty but still with nice chunks of almond. Switch off and unplug, and then scoop out teaspoon sized pieces with a teaspoon and roll into balls in your hands. Scatter some desiccated coconut (if using) on a plate and roll the sticky ball in it. Transfer to a storage box. Repeat for the rest of the mixture. Store in the fridge (if they get that far).

Chocolate raspberry hazelnut muffins

All weekend I was resisting a craving to cook, all the time... We had pretty epic evening plans: Friday was dissection party followed by cabaret in the Dome of Visions. Saturday was Sonar Copenhagen (Zebra Katz!). So daytimes needed to be a bit chilled. It wasn't quite as sunny as some days recently, so cooking and chilling didn't seem like a bad use of time.

Biggest part of the craving was baking-related. I am very much hooked on anything with chocolate, hazelnut and/or raspberry at the moment. So made these muffins, with all three. Hazelnuts just on top, as I find they are wasted mixed inside a cake. Had been a while since I baked anything with egg, and these are appropriately light and fluffy. Slightly adapted this recipe.

(makes 12)

200 g / 7 oz plain flour (used about 70:30 plain and white spelt)
25 g cocoa powder
15 g / 1 tbsp baking powder
115 g / 4 oz sugar
100 g dark chocolate, chopped (used 50 g)
2 medium eggs, beaten
150 ml / ¼ pt milk (used yoghurt mixed with water 50:50)
115 g / 4 oz butter (used coconut oil), melted
200 g / 7 oz raspberries (skimped a bit)
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts

Heat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/GM 4. Prepare a muffin tin. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate nd make a well in the centre. Mix the eggs, milk, and melted coconut oil/butter together and pour into the well, then stir until just combined. Fold in the raspberries. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases. Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top of each one. Bake for about 25 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Best still warm from the oven, but still good when cooled.


Hit the spot, predictably. Very light and tender.

S's birthday: chocolate hazelnut (nutella) cake

With all the moving and then the moving again, S's birthday kind of crept up on me this year. I remembered about making a cake middle of this last week and cast around for inspiration... He likes nuts... Decided on chocolate hazelnut, partly inspired by seeing this recipe - she has the same squirrel biscuit cutter as we do! Partly, I just realised, by a nutella-filled croissant I ate (and loved, when usually I can take or leave croissants) at brunch the other day.

I followed that same recipe for the cake part - we had milk and eggs left over from making pancakes so it seemed like an excellent use of them (especially wanted to use up the milk, we never get through milk, even when it is in European size cartons).

Then I spotted nutella in the supermarket (another thing I've always had a soft spot for but couldn't have when being vegan^, and decided to go rogue and nutella-based for the icing. Goodness knows I've had sooo many icing disasters, but still always seem to think I can just chuck stuff in a bowl and make it up as I go along...
DR
Our current apartment has all these mod cons, like microwave and food processor - so I could grind nuts in processor, melt choc in microwave etc. Got to admit it felt quite labour saving!

(makes a rather massive 2 layer, ~8 in round cake)

For the cake:
3/4 cup hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
good pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 heaping tsp coffee granules dissolves in 3/4 cup boiling water

For the icing / decoration:
1/4 cup hazelnuts, plus 3
~25 g butter, softened
~1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 jar nutella
75 g 70% chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp coffee granules
~2 tbsp plain yoghurt

Heat the oven to 175C / 350F. Grease and line a high-sided 8 in cake tin with removable base*. Grind 3/4 cup hazelnuts in a food processor until quite fine, then transfer into a large mixing bowl. Put the 1/4 cup hazelnuts for the decoration on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 min in the oven as it warms up, then set aside to cool. Add sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt to the ground hazelnuts and whisk together. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and oil. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Add the hot coffee and mix again. It is a pretty runny cake mixture. Pour into the prepared tin and transfer to the oven. Bake for about 60 min (start checking at 45 min)*. It is done when a skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let sit for 10-15 min before turning out onto a cooling rack and leaving until completely cool.

While the cake is baking prepare the icing and decoration. Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth, then add the nutella. Add the melted chocolate and coffee, beat some more, add the yoghurt and beat until well combined. At room temperature it is quite soft but it goes hard in the fridge, so you can try and optimise the consistency for when you assemble the cake. Keep it in the fridge while the cake cools. Rub most of the skins off the toasted hazelnuts, then transfer them to the food processor and process just a little, until roughly chopped. Transfer to a bowl and keep until ready to assemble.

To assemble the cake, first trim and even out the top (mine was pretty craggy and high)*. Then cut through the middle parallel to the base to make two layers. Put the bottom layer on a plate, then spread half of the icing onto it (if the icing is too solid you can heat it a little in the microwave but be careful not to overheat). Put the other half of the cake on top and spread the rest of the icing over that. This is enough icing for the middle and top but not to go down the sides - I don't like too much icing and quite like to see the layers. Place the squirrel cutter gently in the middle of the cake and carefully sprinkle the chopped toasted hazelnuts all around it, so that the top of the cake is covered in chopped nuts except for the silhouette of the squirrel. Pack the nuts down around the edges of the cutter then carefully remove the cutter. You should be left with a neat squirrel silhouette. I put an appropriately sized and shaped piece of nut to be his eye, and then arranged three whole hazelnuts as if he might be holding / chasing them.

^Actually, I just noticed the Fotex brand nutella (which tastes just like the real thing to me) is actually vegan. Go Denmark! So it would be dead easy to make this icing vegan. In fact, I think it would be just fine to use straight nutella as the icing...
*Original recipe called for two tins, but I had one so that's what I used. Using two would be preferable as it would significantly reduce baking time (to more like 30 min) and give more even rising.


Actually, the icing worked really well. I wanted the yoghurt and coffee to lighten the nutella and add some sour / bitter. And the chocolate to deepen and richen, and also add some bitterness and thickness. Think it worked. And mmm nutella. It was kind of a conscious decision to cover the top with nuts as I always think chocolate icing can look a bit like poo. But also I just ended up with quite a lot of chopped nuts and felt the need to use them all. I'd kind of intended to just use them to fill in the squirrel shape originally. Or without a squirrel cutter could have made a paper template or just covered the whole top with chopped nuts. S said it's like Ferrero Rocher. This is true, although it hadn't occurred to me until he said it. Perhaps unwrapped Ferrero Rochers would make good decorations if you didn't want to go the squirrel route.

Note: I wanted to make a proper cakey cake this time, but for a flourless style nutella cake this Nigella one looks delicious.

Kahlua cakes

It's baking season now. Nights are getting cold and dark. The urge to switch on the oven is here. Also trying to use things up: in this case it's kahlua and cocoa powder. I tried this recipe.

(makes 12)

1/4 cup fake milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup cold coffee (used an extra 1/4 cup kahlua instead)
1/2 cup kahlua
1 tbsp ground linseed
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup veg oil
3 tbsp coconut oil (softened)
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F and prepare a muffin tin.

Whisk together the fake milk, vinegar and coffee. Add kahlua and ground linseed and whisk some more. Let sit for 5-10 min. Add the sugar, oils and vanilla, and beat with a fork.

In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add dry to wet and mix until combined. Fill prepared muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 min, until a skewer comes out clean.


These were OK. Not great. Perhaps using the coffee instead of extra kahlua would have been better.

Chocolate and cinnamon biscuits (gluten free)

First community garden workday tomorrow. Some gluten-free baking in order. Tried a new recipe. This one.

(makes ~22)

2 tsp demerara sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup / 130g brown sugar
1 cup / 100g fine brown rice flour (used 125g TJ's GF flour mix instead of brown rice flour and cornstarch)
1/4 cup / 25g cornstarch
1/2 cup / 60g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup / 60ml fake milk
1/3 cup / 80ml veg oil (used grapeseed)
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g chocolate, chopped

Heat oven to 180C / 350F. Grease and/or line a baking tray with baking paper.

Mix demerara sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix brown sugar, rice flour, cornstarch, cocoa, bicarb, 1 tsp cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Make a well in the middle and put in fake milk, oil and vanilla. Mix to a firm dough. Add the chopped chocolate and mix.

Take small lumps of dough (~2 tsp), roll into balls and flatten slightly, then place on the prepared baking tray, leaving a little space for spreading. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-demerara sugar mixture, then put in the oven and bake for 10-12 min. Let cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a rack to finish cooling.


I wasn't sure about these at first: think they improved after sitting in a box overnight. Pleasant, soft texture; held together pretty well for GF; very chocolate-y / cocoa-y; all disappeared @ lunchtime so I guess that was a good sign.

Spiced cocoa rice pudding

J left half a bottle of milk in the fridge. I wondered what to do with it, then thought I may as well cook with it. With the days getting crisper and the nights colder, rice pudding suggested itself. And, when it did, I couldn't resist putting all sorts of things in it - I guess I fancied hot chocolate or chai as much as I did rice pudding. I didn't feel like switching the oven on or waiting a long time so used a stovetop method, based on this rice pudding recipe.

150 g risotto rice
500 ml milk
500 ml water
4 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
pinch ground cayenne
pinch desert salt
1/8 cup raisins
1/8 cup toasted flaked almonds

Put rice, water and milk in a pan and bring to a steady boil. Boil (uncovered) for about 15 min. Add sugar, cocoa, spices and salt and simmer gently for another 15 min, until thick and creamy. Mix in the raisins and almonds before eating. Store in the fridge and eat whenever you like, warm or cold.


Well, it's what I wanted. All those spices and additions might not be everyone's idea of a good rice pudding but I'm enjoying it. I was thinking of the rice pudding at my first primary school - either chocolate (we loved the skin) or plain with jam swirled through (I ate some today with added plum jam). Probably the only thing I remember liking from school dinners.

Spicy cocoa and almond cookies (gluten-free)

It was A's birthday last week and I wanted to do something for it. But he didn't want. Quite emphatically. However, he was excited about going to volunteer at Drumlin Farm (where our friend D works) on Saturday, so I decided to try to make his day there as awesome as possible. Obviously a birthday needs sweet treats. Cake wouldn't have been practical, but I was daydreaming about cocoa-spiced cookies. A doesn't eat gluten so they needed to be gluten-free, but I had some eggs left he'd given me from his farmshare so an egg was do-able. I browsed over at this blog to see if there was anything that would save me making up a recipe (my time was short!), and found exactly what I was looking for, so followed that recipe.

We ate these on our lunchbreak at the farm, along with some peaches from a neighbouring farm and a whole yellow watermelon that was so ripe it had split during harvest that morning. The cookies were good: everyone seemed to like them. They were also very quick and easy to make - I threw them together in half an hour before going out on Friday evening, leaving them to cool til I got back (nb my almonds were pre-toasted). It felt good to give something back, both to the farm by volunteering and to D and A via cookies - all of them have given me a lot!

(made 11 big ones - would make more if smaller)

1/2 cup (55g) ground almonds
1/2 cup (60g) rice flour (brown or white)
1/4 cup (25g) cornstarch
1/2 cup (55g) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) demerara sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder / cayenne
1/2 cup (65g) lightly toasted almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 cup ( 60g) chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup (60ml) veg oil (used safflower)
1 egg (or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2 1/2 tbsp boiling water)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 tbsp fake milk

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Line a oven tray with baking paper or grease with oil. Put dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well together with a fork. Add chopped almonds and chocolate and mix. In a separate, small bowl mix together the oil, egg and vanilla. Add wet to dry and mix to form a soft dough, adding 1-2 tbsp of fake milk until a moist (but not wet) consistency is obtained. Roll 2 tbsp of mixture into a ball, flatten and place on oven tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 12-15 min until just cooked. These cookies do not flatten out much more once cooked. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool on the tray.


Big thumbs up from everyone: gorgeous balance of sweet, spicy, bitter, crunch and squish - not too dry or too crumbly. Note, I want to try out making cookies with roasted cocoa as described here - didn't have time to experiment this time but another batch soon!

Cocoa plum jam

This is a variation on my basic plum jam - I couldn't get the idea of including cocoa out of my head. While I do love plain plum jam I still have some in my storecupboard so it seemed OK to make a variation this time. I got the plums from L, who harvested them with LUrC (along with peaches, pears and crabapples - her kitchen was overflowing with fruit when I went over to help prep it).

(makes ~5 small-medium jars)

3 lb plums, halved and stones removed
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
150-400 ml water
3 lb sugar
5 tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence*

Prepare the plums (I had just over 3 lb, unprepared weight; I prepared them and froze them for a couple of weeks until I had time to jam them - this works well for high-pectin fruit like plums). Put the plums in a large pan along with 150 ml water and lemon juice (I added the lemon juice because I wasn't sure if freezing might have affected the pectin in the plums. Turned out the set was just fine and I don't think I would have needed it). Bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, until the fruit is tender and much reduced.

Mix the cocoa with the sugar. Add to the hot fruit, along with the vanilla and almond essences. Bring to a hard boil and boil until setting point is reached. Let cool for 10-15 min, then carefully transfer to sterilised jars and put lids on immediately. Wash and label the jars once they are completely cool and sealed.

*this is as a substitute for the flavour imparted by plum kernels


The jam set perfectly (fairly firm). I think it has a good balance of plum and cocoa flavours, but I need to try more later to be sure.

Edit: it's good, I like it a lot. I ate some last night with a pot of coconut yoghurt I'd been hoarding. I miss yoghurt sometimes. A says it reminds him of Asian hawthorn candy. Only negative is that the cocoa powder makes for a matt texture and you lose the jewel-like quality that jam normally has, but that is entirely aesthetic.

Biscuits (or cookies?): chocolate-pecan vs brazil nut

I was bemoaning the lack of biscuits while I took a teabreak with my labmates yesterday. Last night, on reflection, I decided I should stop moaning and take action: just make some! The obvious place to find effective biscuit recipes was ppk, so there I looked and there I found - happily without margarine, I dislike that stuff (palm oil) - decided to try two, slightly different methods - choc-pecan with ground linseed, and brazil nut with tapioca. I guess these may be cookies really, but I still want to call them biscuits...

Chocolate-pecan
(makes ~ 20)

1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp ground linseed
1/2 cup pecan pieces
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fake milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Add the oil, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined, going in with your hands to make sure it's all together. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.

Brazil nut-brown sugar
(makes ~24)

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup coconut oil (liquid state)
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brazil nuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl with a fork: beat for about 2 min,until it resembles smooth caramel. Mix in the vanilla. Add 1 cup of flour, bicarb and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the brazil nuts. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 (+less if they are small) – until they are just a little browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.


The chocolate pecan ones were super simple and came out really, really good: rich and intensely chocolatey, masses of pecans and chocolate pieces, sweet and slightly salty. I followed the recipe to the word.

The brazil nut ones didn't go so well. The batter was really oily and sticky so I added a little more flour (total ~2 cups instead of 1 1/2), so then I could shape them, but they didn't really spread or brown in the oven. They taste OK but the texture is kinda cakey instead of biscuity, and they don't look so nice as they are really pale all over. Perhaps this is all because I used coconut oil instead of canola? Dunno, but if looking for a quick, effective biscuit recipe the choc-pecan assembly is the way to go... Edit: although... I took the first half of each batch to woodturning clean-up and the boys pounded the brazil nut ones and left almost all the choc-pecan ones. Different tastes? Also I ate a brazil nut one about 6 days later and thought they had really improved with age.

Little chocolate-tahini cakes

I got all into the idea of using tahini in baking after I made (and fell in love with) a hot cross marmalade tart a few weeks ago. I came across this other recipe with tahini in it. As well as the tahini, it featured a couple of other ingredients I really like and happened to have in the house: Kahlua and dark chocolate. Sounded like a delicious combination, so I made these as a pudding to follow the mushroom and walnut ravioli, as a nice dinner for S.

(I halved the original recipe to get the quantities below, and it made 9 little, dense cakes in my muffin tin)

3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar, plus more for dusting
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/6 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (use a bit more if you don't have D-p)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (or use chips)
1/4 cup / 60 ml soy milk
1/3 cup / 80 ml Kahlua
1/4 cup / 60 ml tahini
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F / 180C / gas 4. Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin tin (you will likely need only 9 cups). Mix the flour, icing sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. Put the chocolate in a separate bowl. Heat the soy milk over medium heat until it begins to steam and almost comes to a boil. Pour the soy milk over the chocolate, then add the Kahlua, tahini, and vanilla. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is melted. Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Use a spoon to transfer the mixture to the prepared tin, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Bake for 15-20 min, until the tops are firm but the inside is still slightly soft (test by inserting a skewer). Transfer the tin to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then invert and let cool completely, about 15 minutes. Lift off the tin and the cakes should come out easily. Dust with icing sugar if you want to prettify them. Best eaten the day they're made. We ate them with a dollop of soy yoghurt.


Nice: rich, slightly squishy in the middle, chocolatey and slightly nutty. A little dry around the edges. Not amazing, although strangely compelling.

Chocolate-vanilla 'zebrafish' buns

My lab will celebrate its 5th birthday tomorrow. Apparently when S (my boss) started he thought it might all be a joke because his start date was April 1st. A and I decided, last minute on Friday, to have a little birthday celebration tomorrow. I made marbled (ie stripey, like a zebrafish?) chocolate buns, with chocolate ganache and iced decorations.

I found almost exactly the buns I wanted to make in 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World' - my stepsister gave me the book for my birthday and so far it seems like the ultimate vegan baking bible - their gluten-free buns were a huge hit, and I identified some yummy vegan cupcakes (almond+apricot) at L's rollerskating birthday party as being from it too!

(makes 12)

For the cakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
4 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp boiling water

For the chocolate icing:
1/4 cup fake milk (almond)
4 oz plain chocolate (<70%), chopped
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the decoration:
icing sugar
fake milk

Heat oven to 350F and put liners in a muffin tin. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and oil together, then add the vanilla, almond and cornstarch and beat some more. Measure the fake milk into a cup measure and add the cider vinegar, giving it a minute or two to curdle. Alternately add some of the flour mixture and some of the milk mixture to the oil mixture, stirring as you go. In a separate bowl, beat together the cocoa and boiling water, then add a cupful of the cake mixture to the cocoa mix, and stir until well combined.

Put a teaspoon of vanilla mixture and then a teaspoon of chocolate mixture into each paper liner, continuing to alternate between the two batters until the liners are full. Then use a skewer (or thin metal knitting needle) to swirl the batters together. Put in the oven and bake for approx 25 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

To make the chocolate icing, heat the fake milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the chopped chocolate and the maple syrup and beat with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is all melted and it makes a thick sauce. Let it cool at room temperature, to room temperature.

Ice the buns with the chocolate icing when they are both at room temperature. Then mix some icing sugar with fake milk until it is a thick, pipe-able consistency. Spoon carefully into the corner of a plastic bag, then snip off a little bit of the tip of the corner and pipe whatever decorations on top you like (I did binary and real style zebrafish, and some #5s).

St. Patrick's Day: Potato-Stout Cake

When I realised St. Patrick's Day was today I got this idea into my head, and I couldn't stop thinking about it until I made it. I couldn't find Guinness sold singly, so ended up with chocolate stout, which was perhaps even better for the job. The mashed potato sounds weird, but less so the more you think about it - it's just another starch really, with the added advantage of moistness, and I think it worked brilliantly. I've had Guinness-chocolate cake before (I'd consider it a classic, originally introduced to me by my former colleague Des), and I'd seen potato in cake here and stored the idea away (this recipe is loosely based on that one).

1 cup plus 2 tbsp mashed potatoes (unseasoned)
1 1/4 cup chocolate stout (or any kind of stout)
1/4 tsp coffee granules
2 cups flour (incl ~2-3 tbsp cornstarch)
1 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup veg oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 cup fake milk

icing sugar to finish

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 inch cake tin with removable base. Mix mashed potatoes, stout and coffee in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the flour and cornstarch, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a third, large bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, vanilla, vinegar and milk. Add the flour mix and the potato mix alternately to the sugar mix, starting and finishing with the flour. Check consistency and add a little more milk if too thick. Pour mixture into the tin and put in the oven. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool until touchable (about 10 min), then pop off the outer ring and leave until completely cool.

To serve, I cut a shamrock shape (um, perhaps it was more like a 4 leaved clover) out of paper to make a stencil, laid it on the cake, then dusted icing sugar over the top before carefully removing the template.


This cake is moist and intense with chocolate and stout flavour. I was really happy with both texture and taste. It rose nicely and didn't sink. Only thing is, it's huge! I mean, a good size for a cake, but huge for S and I to eat alone. I'll be giving some away...

I am tweaking an idea for a thick icing with mashed potato in it - used as a thickener the same way you would cornstarch, also Irish Moss / carrageenan. So then you could ice the cake with a fluffy, vanilla-y icing to make it look a bit like a pint of Guinness (which would perhaps work better with cupcakes - it'd cook quicker in that form too). But I wasn't quite happy with the icing. Also, the cake is so rich and dense that I actually prefer the simplicity of the shamrock patterned icing sugar dusting.

Hamantaschen (vegan and gluten-free)

L-R: normal dough with prune-poppyseed filling, GF dough with apricot-almond filling, GF dough with spiced fig-cocoa filling

Before I came to the US I knew little about Jewish culture. Then we moved into a historically Jewish neighbourhood (our nearest shops are a Jewish bakery and a Jewish butchery; most of the businesses around here close on Saturdays). And I discovered that really quite many of the people I'd befriended here are Jewish. However much they do or don't practice the rest of the year, they've done a good job of educating me about important festivals (and the food involved). My friend A in particular (my partner in baking for awesome cakes) has invited us for her version of Passover and Rosh Hashanah celebrations every year, and also fed me my first Hamantaschen.

Ever since I tried Hamantaschen I wanted to make them, and to make them vegan (and GF so my friends A+H can eat them). They are basically a free-standing jam tart, folded into a triangular shape, with some sort of fruity or seedy filling in the middle. They are traditionally eaten for Purim.  Loosely, Purim: is 'like the Jewish Halloween' ie people get dressed up; you're supposed to get so drunk you forget the difference between good and evil (or something like that); Haman is a villain involved somewhere; Hamantaschen are supposed to represent Haman's hat (?). Purim is always around this time of year, although it varies and this year it was actually late February, when I was very much distracted by Pancake Day and S's birthday, so I didn't get around to Hamantaschen until I was reminded by this post - it seemed like exactly the recipe I had been dreaming of. I decided to follow the recipe to ensure success for some, and make a series of deviations for others.

Normal dough
(makes 20-25 - taken from this recipe)
1/3 cup coconut oil (solid state)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 7/8 cups flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Gluten-free dough
(makes 20-25)
1/3 cup coconut oil (solid state)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1 3/4 tsp vanilla essence
1/8 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup almond meal
3/4 cup gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp chickpea flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum

Prune and poppyseed filling*:
4 oz dried prunes, chopped
1/8 cup poppyseeds
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp rum
1 tbsp orange juice
water

Apricot and almond filling*:
4 oz dried apricots, chopped
1/8 cup almonds, finely chopped
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp rum
water

Spiced fig and cocoa filling*:
(inspired by the delicious Fichi Girotti (stuffed fig sweetmeats) we ate in the town of Amelia in Italy)
4 oz dried figs, chopped
1/8 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp mahlab
2 tbsp candied orange peel
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/8 tsp almond essence
1 tbsp rum
water

* Each filling recipe given here makes enough to fill approx 1/3 of the total from the combined GF + normal dough quantities above. Other alternative fillings are any kind of jam, thick stewed fruit, nutella, anything you like really.

To make dough, beat the coconut oil and sugar together in a mixing bowl with a fork until well combined (will still be a bit crumbly). Warm the milk to about hand hot and add it to the bowl gradually, beating to incorporate. Add in the essence(s) and zest (if using). Separately, mix together the flour(s), cornstarch, baking powder and salt (and xanthan gum if using) with a fork. Add about half of the flour mix to the oil mix and beat until combined. Then add the rest of the flour and mix until a stiff dough is formed. It will still be a little soft. Wrap the ball(s) (make two if doing a double quantity of either dough) in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 30-60 min.

In the meantime, make the filling(s). Put the dried fruit in a small pan with the nuts or seeds, sugar and any dried spices. Measure the liquid ingredients into a measuring cup and make the quantity of liquid up to 1/4 cup by adding water, then add the liquid to the pan. Cover and simmer until the dried fruit are soft and squishy. Add more water if it seems to be getting too thick - it should end up like a thick jam.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two or more baking sheets with baking paper. Flour a clean surface, then take a ball of dough out of the fridge, remove clingfilm and roll out to about 3mm thick. Cut into circles about 3 inches diameter (I used a Coke glass). Put a tsp of filling in the centre of a dough circle, then fold up three sides to create a shape like a tricorn hat, pinching the corners together tightly. Repeat for all the circles, moving the completed tricorns to the baking sheet when done. Gather the excess dough and roll out again to make more circles and continue with the process until all the tricorns are filled. Bake the biscuits for 18-20 minutes, checking and rotating the sheets after 10 min. The bases will colour golden, but the tops will remain quite pale. Cool on a wire rack.


My favourites of all these variants were the GF dough with apricot filling - if you were going to make one kind of dough and one kind of filling that's what I would recommend. The GF dough held its shape much better than the normal one - I think mainly because it puffed up less. Half to two thirds of the normal dough ones came undone at the corners while cooking, and where I'd used a runnier filling especially they ended up as circular cookies covered in jam. In those cases, plenty of jam slid off onto the baking sheet and I was very glad I'd lined the sheets with paper - would have been a huge pain to clean otherwise.

All in all, I thought these were great (they took me a while to make, but that would be much reduced if you stuck to one kind of dough and one kind of filling). And all the ones I took to a seed swap this morning disappeared (a particular hit with one little girl), so they seemed to be a success. There's loads of scope for varying the recipe (even more than I did already) - was thinking a savoury version might make a great canape. I love the cleverness of the simple folding - you can make an open tart without needing any kind of a baking mold.