Cocoa Cookies with Chocolate Cream

These are a chocolate cookie recipe which has a layer of chocolate cream between two layers of cookie. I just used the cookie recipe for my Batman cookies because they do not rise and keep their shape although are very crumbly and delicate!

Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

125g vegan butter, softened

75g icing sugar

115g plain flour

40g cocoa

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 160C and line cookie trays with baking paper.

Beat sugar and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Sift in flour, cocoa and cinnamon and mix to form a dough.

Place dough between two sheets of baking paper and roll out to 3mm thick.

Note: If you find it's the dough is sticking use cocoa instead of flour to reduce stickiness.

Peel away the top layer of baking paper and use your cookie cutter (round if using the cream) to cut out the rounds.

Use a spatula to carefully lift them onto the cookie tray.

Bake for 15 mins. Leave to cook completely before adding cream.

Chocolate Cream Recipe

Ingredients

125g vegan dark or milk chocolate

50ml vegan thickened cream

Method

Place chocolate pieces and cream into a saucepan and heat on a low heat until melted and mixed well.
Leave to cool then refrigerate for 2 hours.
Once cold, spoon between two layers of cookie.
Alternatively you could use vegan margarine instead of cream.

Hummus

This is a simple but delicious hummus recipe that you can build on. Original recipe from Vegan Easy.

Hummus

Ingredients

1 400g can chickpeas

1/8 cup water

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp tahini

Juice of ½ lemon

1 small garlic clove

Salt

Method

Place all ingredients (using only a small amount of salt at this stage) in a bowl, or blender.

Blend together until smooth.

Taste and add further salt if required.

If the hummus is a little too stiff add extra water until it is at your preferred consistency.

My Birthday

I had a costume party for my birthday last weekend and I got so many compliments on the food.
My best friend still goes on about it, he had no idea we ate such great food!

Here is some pics of what I served with some links to the recipes...

Hummus with vegetables

Mexican Corn Dip

Baba Ghanoush

Guacamole

Olive Tapenade

 Risotto Balls

Falafel

Vegan Sausage Rolls

Sushi (avocado & teryaki tofu)

Batman Cocoa Cookies

X-Men Cupcakes (I know they look so lame!)

Risotto Balls

Also know as Arancini, these were a bit of work (for my lazy arse anyway) because you need to make the risotto first, wait for it to cool then make them into balls, crumb and fry them but they are so yummy! Great use of leftover risotto as well! A definite crowd pleaser. Recipe from Vegan Easy

Risotto Balls

Ingredients


2 garlic cloved, minced

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cups Arborio rice
½ cup white wine
4 cups water
2 'chicken style' stock cubes
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives, basil)
1 tbsp savoury yeast flakes
½ cup pine nuts, toasted and chopped
½ cup plain flour
¾ cup vegan breadcrumbs
Oil for deep frying
1 jar salsa/marinara sauce (for serving)

Method


Place the water, stock cubes, mixed herbs and black pepper into a saucepan, bring to a boil then lower heat so it is just simmering.
Heat a little olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat and fry onion and garlic until soft and just starting to brown.
Add the rice and cook, stirring continually for about 2 minutes, do not allow the rice to brown.

Pour in the wine and continue stirring until it has been absorbed.
Add the stock, a little at a time, stirring until absorbed before adding more. Continue until all stock is used.

Roast pine nuts in a 180C oven for 5-10mins.

Turn off the heat and stir through the savoury yeast flakes, fresh herbs and pine nutes. Taste and add extra seasoning if required. Leave to cool.

Stir the flour into the rice mixture. Then take a spoonful at a time and roll into balls, slightly smaller than a golf ball. Roll each in breadcrumbs until well coated.
Heat about 3-4 cm of oil in a large pan. Then fry the balls a few at a time until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper.

Vegetable Curry

This a great recipe by Jo at Vegan Easy. Original recipe is here. It's simple and you can just use what you have in the house.

Vegetable Curry
Serves 4

Ingredients

1 large onion, diced
2 carrots
1 sweet potato
1/2 cauliflower
20 mushrooms
1 tablespoon curry paste (I used Laksa paste)
1 tsp garam masala
1 can tomatoes
1 cup water
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
Handful of english spinach
½ cup frozen peas


Method

Chop vegetable into large chunks.
In a large saucepan fry onion until soft.
Add the carrots, sweet potatoes, cauliflower and mushrooms and continue to cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the curry paste and garam masala and continue to cook while stirring for a further minute.
Add the tinned tomatoes, water and stock powder and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and cook on a low simmer, stirring occasionally, for approximately 45 minutes.
Stir through the frozen peas and spinach leave for a further 5 minutes.
Serve with papadums and basmati rice.

Cinnamon Christmas Cookies

I've been trying to recreate a Hungarian cinnamon cookie that my Grandmother used to make so I've been trying out a bunch of recipes. I think these are Norwegian and are different from my Grandmother's but are still very good. Everyone at the office loved them and probably didn't even realise they were vegan he he.

Cinnamon Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

200g vegan margarine (I used Nuttalex)
200g caster sugar
300g plain flour
2 Tbls golden syrup
3 heaped tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
Vanilla sugar/nuts etc (optional for topping, I used vanilla sugar)


Method

Preheat over to 180°C and cover cookie trays with baking paper.
In a  mixing bowl cream the margarine and sugar with electric beaters.
Add golden syrup, cinnamon and baking soda and mix through.
With a spoon fold in the flour until cookie dough is mixed.
With your hands roll into a large ball and leave in the bowl and refrigerate
 for 30mins - 1 hour.
Once hardened take out of fridge and roll 1/4 of mixture out on a floured surface. It's quite a sticky mixture so make sure you flour your roller, surface and top of the dough.
Roll as thick as you like, they won't rise very much.
Use your cookie cutters to make shapes, pressing firmly.
Use a spatula to gently lift cookies onto tray. Sprinkle toping onto cookies.
Bake in over for 10 -15mins then lift baking paper with cookies onto cooling racks.
You may need to do a few batches.
They are very soft when they first come out so wait until they cool before touching them.

Rum Balls

These are rich, more like truffles but sooo good. And they make excellent presents!

Rum Balls

Ingredients

450g vegan dark chocolate (I used Kinnerton)
2/3 cup vegan margarine (I used Nuttalex)
1 egg replacer (I used No Egg)
1 1/4 cup icing sugar (sifted)
1/2 cup rum (I used 1/4 cup of OP rum)
1 tsp instant coffee (optional, I didn't use this)
Cocoa or chocolate sprinkle to cover (I used Lieber's vegan chocolate sprinkles)


Method

Melt chocolate however you like. I like to melt it in a bowl over some boiling water on the stove. (Note, wear gloves when holding the bowl or you might get a steam burn.)
Using an electric mixer cream the margarine then slowly add in the melted chocolate.
Blend in egg replacer and icing sugar.
Once blending slowing add rum continuing to mix.
Pour mixture into a bowl or container and leave in fridge for a few hours till hard.
When set, spoon out a tablespoon of mixture and roll in your palms and then into the desired covering.
Don't worry that they melt a bit in your hands because they will set again afterwards.
Store in a container in the freezer until needed.

Rainbow Rice

Last night I had some left over cooked rice in the fridge that I wanted to use up so I thought I'd try to experiment (which never ends well). It's around 20% rice and 80% vegetables. Just add whatever vegetables you have - hence Rainbow Rice!

Rainbow Rice

Ingredients

2-3 cups cooked cold rice
1 red capsicum, washed and chopped
2 carrots, washed and chopped
1 Tbls minced garlic
1 Tbls minced ginger
1/2 chinese cabbage, washed and chopped
I bunch chicory, washed and chopped (I found the chicory a bit bitter and overpowering)
1 Tbls oil for frying

Sauce;
1 Tbls seaseme oil
4 Tbls soy (I used tamari)
2 Tbls sambal oelek
2 Tbls sweet chilli sauce
4 Tbls peanut butter


Method

In a large pot heat the frying oil on a medium heat. Add carrots and capsicum and fry until softening.
Add chinese cabbage and fry until wilted.
Add chicory (or spinach) and fry until wilted.
Add rice and simmer on a low heat until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Add all the sauce ingredients into a bowl and whisk together then add to pot and stir through.
Test the flavour and add more/less as desired.

Veggie Burger

Well actually it's more like a veggie toasted sandwich but still yummy. Not really much cooking required either so it's very quick. I used GF bread from Shepherd's Bakehouse.

Veggie Burger

Ingredients

Bread of your choice
Veggie burger patties (I used Nutrisoy Tempeh patties that were marinated in a chilli seaseme oil)
Beetroot sliced (I used tinned)
Pineapple sliced (I used tinned)
Sliced tomato
Sliced vegan cheese (I used Tofutti American Cheese Slices)
Sauce of your choice for serving


Method

In a pan fry a small amount of oil on a medium heat and add your veggie patties. You can also do this on the BBQ.
In the open or grill toast your bread or roll on both sides.
Once one side of the veggie patties has browned flip to the other side putting the cheese slices on the upturned cooked side. Cheese will slowly melt.
If you want to fry your pinapple do it at the same time as the patties.
Once patties are ready place on burger bun followed by beetroot, tomato and pineapple (and any other salad items you like). Serve with your favourite sauce.

Note: if you use canned pineapple and beetroot make sure you drain well or your bread will get soggy.

Party Popcorn

This is a recipe by Nigella Lawson. Original recipe can be found here. It's an easy recipe to make your popcorn a little bit more interesting.

Party Popcorn


Ingredients

1 tablespoons sunflower oil
1/2 cup (un-popped) popcorn maize
2 Tbls butter
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground paprika
4 teaspoons table salt (can be a a bit salty so start with 2 tsp)
4 teaspoons sugar


Directions

Put oil into a large saucepan that has a lid and heat on high until oil is hot.
Add the popcorn and quickly put on the lid. Let the popcorn pop, shaking the pan every now and then to keep the kernels moving. You will hear it but don't be tempted to look, unless you want to get shot at, and once it has stopped popping - a couple of minutes or so - take it off the heat.
Melt the butter in the microwave, add the spices in and then pour it over the popcorn and mix well.
Serve in large bowl.