Royals, royals, royals

Ever since I discovered the Vegan Meringue Facebook group (and subsequently became vegan), I have been meaning to make vegan Royals.

Finally got to it today. They are easy, but time consuming. There is no particular cooking skill required to make these. And they are delicious.

I will tackle some other bickie favourites in future.

Wagon Wheels, watch out, I'm coming for you!!!

Please note that this was an experimental recipe, so the amount of marshmallow I made was far too much for the number of cookies. I got 21 cookies out of this mix, however also keep in mind I had a five year old steal a piece of dough ;)


You can choose to make the same amount of marshmallow and double the cookie recipe and the amount of chocolate you melt.  Alternatively, you can make snowballs with the remainder of the marshmallow mix.

Enjoy and let me know how you go!

NOTE: The cookie recipe is a modified version of my Pasta Frola dough. The marshmallow is the same I used for the snowballs :)

Biscuit

Ingredients

180gms white spelt flour
6 gms baking powder
65gms nuttelex
50gms caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS aqua faba

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Line two cookie sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
3. Sift flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
4. Place Nuttelex in a bowl. 
5. Using a hand mixer to beat it until it is creamy. 
6. Add sugar 1/4 cup at a time, and keep beating. 
7. Once sugar is all incorporated, add one tablespoon of aqua faba, keep beating, then add the other tablespoon of aqua faba. Add vanilla, and beat until just incorporated.
8. Add the flour mix to the nuttelex mix and using a flat knife gently fold it in, until a dough is formed.
9. Gently knead it for a few seconds until it all comes together. You may need a bit more flour. Do not over knead.
10. Roll it out thinly (parchment paper helps to keep it from sticking to your bench), around 1/2 a cm, and cut out with a circle cookie cutter (I used a 4cm in diameter cutter).
11. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until slightly coloured.
12. Set aside to cool.

Mashmallow Filling

Ingredients

2/3 cup of aqua faba
1 cup of sugar
1-3 drops of pink food colouring (optional)
1/2 TBS strawberry flavouring (Queen)
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 pinch of cream of tartar

Method

1. Pre heat your oven to 100C (212 F). 
2. Place aqua faba in your stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment. Add cream of tartar and set to whisk on high until light and fluffy. Start adding the sugar one tablespoon at a time until it is all incorporated. Keep whisking.
3. Add flavourings, and mix well. Then add xanthan gum, and whisk for a couple of more minutes. The mixture will start to pull away from the sides. Add food coloring if using.
4. Let it sit for about 10 minutes then, place it in a piping bag with a large piping tube. I used a Loyal round tube No. 20. I bought it from eBAY and it was perfect for this.
5. Squeeze the bag over the cookie, pressing the tip initially into the cookie then lifting up, until you get the size you want, then twist the bag around, pulling up, until you are able to detach the tip from the marshmallow. Repeat until all the cookies are covered.
6. Place them in the oven for 45 minutes, or until they feel dry to the touch, they should not stick to your fingers. You do not want them to be crunchy or to have any color. If they start to color then your oven is too hot. Leave the door ajar and leave them until the oven is completely cool. This is the step I didn't follow, and the marshmallow was too soft. Doing this with the snowballs, meant perfect texture snowballs.

Coating

Ingredients

400gms vegan chocolate (I used Callebaut - please note that not all Callebaut chocolate is vegan friendly)

Method

1. Using a double boiler, melt your chocolate. They are tricky to dip, if you are an expert at dipping things in chocolate, you will have no trouble. I tried a few different methods. 
2. Method 1 - coat the whole cookie, turning them around in the chocolate, and then trying to drip any excess. Try to over up the finger marks once you put them on the baking paper lined cookie tray. 
3. Method 2, coat the bottom of a few cookies, then let them dry, and then do the tops. 
4. Method 3, coat the tops, and do the bottoms after the top is dry. 

I think Methods 1 & 2 are just as successful. Not too keen on 3.

Enjoy, let me know if you have any feedback.

Waffles, not the prettiest but very yummy!!!

Every year my team at work has an "Evil Santa" gift exchange instead of Kris Kringle. I bought an animal shaped waffle maker. I figured that if no one wanted it, I would be happy to take it home with me.
Alas! It was very popular and several people stole it off each other. I decided to buy another for myself, as the holidays were coming and I thought my daughter would like some waffles.

It was the first time in my life to make and eat waffles. I made them with eggs and milk, as I was vegetarian at the time.

This morning my daughter asked me to make her waffles. I had read in the Vegan Meringue Hits & Misses facebook group that people had successfully  made waffles with Aqua Faba (water from a can of chickpeas.

So vaguely remembering the omni recipe, I started with my conversion.

The mishap that I had with these was that I forgot to oil the waffle maker until it was hot, and then it was too hard to get the oil into the grooves, and the waffles stuck a little. Yet they were crispy and delicious. I highly recommend them being made in a regular waffle maker which has been properly oiled before heating.

Ingredients

90gms aqua faba
90gms spelt flour
90gms oat milk
1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
Pinch of salt
20gms maple syrup

Method

1. Oil and heat your waffle maker.
2. Place the aqua faba in a bowl or in a jar so that you can beat it to stiff peaks. I have a stick blender with a whisk attachment, so I had my aqua faba in a tall plastic cup.
3. In a bowl mix all the other ingredients to form a thick batter.
4. Add two tablespoons of the stiff aqua faba to the flour mix, to loosen it a little.
5. Add two more tablespoons but be a lot gentler this time, continue two tablespoons at a time until it has all been incorporated. The mix will be light and bubbly.
6. Cook on your waffle maker as per instructions.
7. Serve with syrup, fruit or chocolate sauce.

Fake Orecchiette & Stuffed Zucchni flowers

A few days ago, I saw this post on twitter. I love making homemade pasta, so I started to do some research on how to make Orecchiette, which translates into little ears, however look more like little shells to me :)

I thought, "Super easy!!!" after watching a parade of nonnas on youtube making these little gems with ease. Alas, when it came to it, mine would just NOT turn out. I tried a few different shapes, and when I was just about to give up and make spaghetti instead, I thought of cutting them with a circle



cutter and pinching the sides.

I made the dough with aqua faba as I thought it would be better than just water. I am not really sure. The dough was fabulous, but having never made it with water it is hard to make a comparison. I will try just water next time.

I went to the market this morning and hubby requested zucchini flowers. I have never made them before, actually I have never eaten them before either!
But I bought them, and thought of stuffing them with something and chickpeas. So with this meal I used a whole can of chickpeas including the brine (aqua faba).

I hope it is not too confusing. Let me know if it is, and I will separate the recipes :)



Ingredients
1 425gm can of chickpeas
1 red onion
250 gms of sweet potato
300gms semolina (coarse)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 handfulls of green beans (Ends cut, and cut in half)
1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 a bunch of basil
1 tsp dry thyme
1 tsp dry oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 cloves of garlic
salt to taste
10 zucchini flowers
3/4 cup of spelt flour
3/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of pine nuts
3 tablespoons vegan parmesan
5 shitake mushrooms
Olive oil for frying fritters

Method

1. Drain the chickpeas, and reserve the liquid(aqua faba). Set both aside.
2. Place the semolina in a bowl, and add 135gms (9 tablespoons) of aqua faba.
3. Knead to make a smooth dough. Wrap with glad wrap and set aside.
4. Cut sweet potato into small cubes and boil until soft. 
5. Cut the red onion in half. Cut half of it in slices, and set aside. Chop the other half finely, and place in a bowl with the sweet potato.
6. Add 100gms of the reserved chickpeas to the sweet potato mix and mash all of it with a fork.
7. Add thyme, oregano and one crushed clove of garlic. Add salt to taste. This will be the filling for the zucchini flowers.
8. Gently remove the stamen from the middle of the zucchini flowers, then wash the zucchini making sure that the two don't come apart.
9. Using your fingers, fill the zucchini flower with the sweet potato mix. Set aside.
10. Cut the dough into six pieces. Work with one piece at a time, covering the rest while you work. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin or a pasta machine. Cut with a round cutter. If you like you can press the dough on a gnocchi former to get some lines, then pinch one two sides to form a shell. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Leave the pasta on your bench to dry up whilst you finish with the zucchini flowers and the vegetables that go with the pasta.
11. Heat a large frying pan, and add one tablespoon of oil. 
12. Sautee onion and 2 cloves of garlic.
13. Add, sliced mushrooms, green beans & asparagus.
14. Chop basil and add to the frying pan. Season with a little salt, and set aside.
15. Cook pasta for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water, drain and mix with the vegetables in the frying pan. 
16. In the mean time, in a bowl, place the remaining AF. Whisk until frothy. Add garlic powder, salt, and flour. Add some of the water, until you get a batter thick enough to coat the zucchini flowers.
17. Fry in hot olive oil, turning over once. Drain on kitchen paper.
18. If you have any of the zucchini stuffing left over, add the reaming chickpeas, mix and form into balls. Dip into remaining batter and fry till golden.
19. Re-heat pasta, add pine nuts & vegan parmesan and serve.

Eggless Chocolate Macaroons (Vegan)

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups of almond meal
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup of Aqua Fava (Water from a can of chickpeas)
4 tablespoons of cocoa 
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar









Method

1. Preheat oven to 145 degrees celcius.
2. Cover two cookie trays with baking paper. Set aside.
3. Sift flour, almond meal and cocoa together, and set aside. The purpose of sifting is to remove any lumps from the cocoa and to mix all the ingredients together. Do not discard the larger bits of almond meal that are left in the sieve, put them in the mix also.
4. Place aqua fava in the bowl of a stand mixer with the cream of tartar.
5. Beat on low until it gets foamy and increase the speed. Beat until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla at this stage.
6. Start adding sugar to the meringue one tablespoon at a time, ensuring it is well mixed each time.
7. Remove bowl from mixer and add all of the dry ingredients, fold them in until well incorporated.
8. Pipe them onto the cookie trays using a large piping tip or place them on the tray with a tablespoon.
9. Bake for 25 minutes, they should not brown.
10. Set aside and cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the tray.
11. Store in an airtight container.
12. Enjoy with a nice cuppa!!!!

These macaroons improve once stored in an airtight container for a few hours. They become more chewy. This recipe was an experiment. I think that next time I make them I will reduce the sugar amount by about 1/4 cup, as they can be a little sweet. But oh my!! they are delicious and moorish!!

Aqua fava is all the rage at the moment in the vegan world after it was discovered that it can be used to make lovely meringues.

For more information and recipes join the Vegan Meringue - Hits and Misses! group on facebook. There are hundreds of people on there sharing their recipes using AF (aqua fava), their failures and successes.

This is really great news for not only vegans but for people that have egg allergies.

Enjoy!!!