Iced Vovos - vegan

I have been having some fun veganising some classic sweets in the last few weeks. Using aquafaba (the juice from a can of beans, mainly chickpeas), sweets with marshmallow have been fairly easy to make.

Iced Vovos have been on my list of things to veganise for some months, I got the final push when a lady (a member of Australian Vegan Foodies) mentioned a lovely story about her granddad and how iced Vovos reminded her of him. 

So here is my first attempt. I think the cookies are a bit on the dry/crunchy side. They probably could do with less cooking at the start and letting them dry out more once the marshmallow icing is drying in the oven. I baked the cookies for 15 minutes but seeing the final results I think that 8 minutes would be sufficient.

Ingredients

For the cookies

90gms of nuttlelex (or other vegan butter/margarine that is able to be creamed)

200gms of raw caster sugar

80gms of aquafaba

370gms of flour

2 tsp baking powder

For the icing

120gms of sugar

70gms of aquafaba

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp vanilla extract

Queen pink food colouring (optional)

To assemble

150 grams of finely grated dessicated coconut
300gms of raspberry jam

Method

To make the cookies

1. Sift flour and baking powder and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
3. Prepare two cookie trays by lining them with baking paper.
4. With hand mixer, cream the nuttelex until it turns pale. 
5. Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time, and keep mixing on high with the hand mixer until all the sugar is incorporated.
6. Add one tablespoon of aquafaba at a time, while continuing to mix on high.
7. Once all aquafaba is incorporated, add the flour mix, and using a flat knife, mix it with the butter mix.
8. Turn out the mix onto a floured surface, to make a soft dough. Do not over knead, just enough to bring the dough together.
9. Roll out the dough between two pieces of baking paper, roll it to approximately 4 millimeters.
10. Cut the dough into rectangles using a cutter or with a knife. 
11. Place on a baking tray covered with baking paper, and bake for 8 minutes.
12. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

To make the icing/marshmallow

1. Place aquafaba in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Mix initially on low speed and turn it to high when the mix is frothy.
3. Mix for approximately 10 minutes until stiff peaks form.
4. Add one tablespoon of sugar at a time, and continue mixing, until all sugar is mixed in.
5. Add food colouring if desired.
6. Add the xantan gum and mix for two more minutes.

To assemble

1. Place the mashmallow mix in a piping bag with a small star tip.
2. Pipe stars all long each long edge of the cookie, and cover imediately with coconut.
3. Once all the cookies are done, shake off any excess coconut and place in the oven at 100 degrees celcius for 20 minutes. This will allow the marshmallow to set.
4. Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool.
5. Heat the raspberry jam in a pot on the stove. When it has become runny, strain it using a fine mesh metal strainer.
6. Spread the hot strained raspberry jam down the middle of the cookie and allow to cool.

Store in one layer in an airtight container.

Makes 24.

Alfajores de dulce de leche cubiertos en chocolate

I love love love alfajores. I do not make them often, and I've never made them covered in chocolate before.

But here they are, they are easy, and yummy!!!

I used Callebaut dark chocolate buttons, but you can use any vegan chocolate of your choice.

Ingredients

120gms Plain flour
120gms Self Raising flour
125gms Nuttelex (or other vegan butter/margarine that can be creamed)
100gms raw caster sugar
4tbs (60gms) aqua faba

To assemble

1/2 a can of soy "dulce de leche"
300gms of vegan dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining with baking paper.
3. Sift flours together and set aside.
4. Cream the nuttelex with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.
5. Start adding sugar to the nuttelex whilst mixing, ensuring that it stays light and creamy.
6. Add the aqua faba,  one tablespoon at a time, whilst you continue to mix. Ensure that each tablespoon is fully incorporated before adding the next. This will ensure that the nuttelex/sugar/aquafaba mix stays light and fluffy and doesn't separate.
7. Using a spoon add all the flour to the mix and then gently fold in.
8. Scrape all the contents of your bowl onto a well floured bench.
9. Lightly knead, until the dough comes together. Do not over knead of the dough will become tough.
10. Roll out to about 5 millimeters between two pieces of baking paper.
11. Cut with a round cutter, i used one that was about 4cm in diameter (about one inch), and place on the prepared cookie trays.
12. Bake for approximately 8 minutes. The cookies should not brown.
13. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
14. Once cool, spread about 1 tsp of "dulce de leche" on a cookie, and press another cookie to join together.
15. Once sandwiched all the cookies with the dulce de leche, melt the chocolate.
16. Dip each cookie in the chocolate, and remove using two forks. Place on a cookie tray to set.

If you can't get dulce de leche, you can fill these with anything you like, but it is traditional to use the caramel. You may also like to try making a caramel with dates. 

Enjoy!!

Edited 6 Nov 2016
After posting this recipe, I was given this link by Katrina Stuart of Plantified, for a vegan soy condensed milk which can be turned into Dulce de Leche.

Yesterday I tried it, I doubled the recipe and did not add the butter. I ended up simmering it for three hours. It is superb. So for those who cannot get dulce de leche ready made, then this is the best option. Actually, it is the best option hands down. I will never buy the ready made dulce de leche again. This one is too good. I want to play around with the sugar used to get a more carmelly flavour, but the texture is amazing. Thanks Katrina!!!

For those in Australia, I used 2 litres of Soy Milky, and raw organic sugar from Woolies.

Spelt bread rolls

Ingredients

170gms cannellini bean aquafaba
140gms warm soy milk
30gms oil
3 TBS Rice Bran Syrup
1 tsp salt
560gms white spelt flour
1.5 TBS Wheat Gluten
1 tsp psyllium husk powder
1 pinch of powdered ginger
1 pinch of citric acid
2 tsp dry yeast

Method

1. Sift together the spelt flour, wheat gluten, psyllium husk, ginger & citric acid. Set aside.
2. Place ingredients into your bread machine in the order listed above, then add the dry sifted ingredients and finish with the yeast.
3. Turn your machine to the dough setting.
4. Remove dough from the machine once it has risen, and punch down, cut into 10 pieces and roll into balls or other desired roll shape.
5. Place rolls on a tray covered with baking paper.
6. Cover rolls with a clean tea towel and set in a warm place to rise (for about 30 minutes).
7. Preheat oven to 200C.
8. Optional: Whisk together 2 TBS of olive oil and 2 TBS soy milk, brush on the top of the rolls, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.
9. Bake rolls for 20 minutes or until they've developed a nice golden colour.
10. Eat warm with soup or buttered or however you like.

Enjoy!!!


NOTE: If you want to do the knot keiser shape and haven't done it before, have a look at youtube, they have a lot of keiser roll recipes where they show how to shape them.

Snowballs

Yesterday after I got home from work I decided to make two dinners. One for that day, and one for tonight.

So I made a stew with dumplings for last night's dinner, and an eggplant, chickpea and sweet potato curry for tonight.

That left me with the juice from one can of chickpeas. Of course, it could not be thrown out. I had to do some experimenting. Although I have used aquafaba for so many things in the past, I have only made meringues once. I have not tried marshmallow, or macarons.

I decided to just start with the meringue, not sure at the time what I was going to make. I then decided to add some xanthan gum to see what would happen, and then one thing lead to another, and voila!!! Vegan snowballs :)

I had been thinking about making snowballs for a long time, but these were really not planned.

Please note that I have never worked with xantham gum before, so I have no idea if they really need baking or they would set on their own. To err on the side of caution, I would make them again, exactly the same way :)

I must say, I never imagined that they'd be so easy. It takes long because of the waiting for them to cool, but if you know how to work with xanthan you may find that you don't need to do all the waiting or baking. Let me know please :)

Ingredients

2/3 cup aqua faba ( I used the juice from one can of Macro Organic Chickpeas from Woolworths)
1 cup caster sugar
1 pinch of cream of tartar
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1-2 tbs strawberry flavouring (I used Queens, but any flavour you want to use is fine, just as long as there is no oil in it)

1 block of vegan chocolate (I used Whittakers Dark Ghana, however found it a bit too bitter, I would prefer the Coles Dark Chocolate or another brand)

2-3 TBS of desiccated coconut

Method

1. Pre heat your oven to 100C (212 F).
2. Prepare two cookie trays by lining them with non stick paper.
3. Place aquafaba 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.
4. 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.
5. Let it sit for about 10 minutes then, place it in a piping bag with a large piping tube. Preferably round, however I only had a star tip (Loyal No 17) so that is what I used.
6. Squeeze the bag, 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 mix is used up. You do not need to space them more than two or so cms as they do not expand.
7. Place them in the oven for 30 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. I left mine overnight.
8. Using a double boiler, melt your chocolate. One block is able to cover most of the marshmallow. I used a plastic glove to grab the marshmallow and dip it in the chocolate, making sure all sides were covered, then placed on a piece of non stick baking paper. Once you have one tray done, sprinkle lightly with coconut.

Try not to eat them all at once. They're really good!!!!!

Creamy Pasta Primavera

Yesterday I decided to try to make vegan creme cheese for the first time. I thought it would be a daunting task. Alas, it was super easy and quick. I followed this recipe

Avocado & Ales Cream Cheese Recipe

However, I made the following modifications. I used:

1. 1 tsp of citric acid instead of the lactic acid
2. Macadamia oil instead of canola
3. Oat milk instead of soy milk.

Some advice, I was too quick in adding the oil to the aquafaba and my mix did not emulsify. Take it really slowly.
However I still followed the rest of the recipe and added the cashew mix to the liquid, and voila. It seemed to work anyway. Yummy creamy vegan cheese :)

Now to the pasta recipe! Such an easy and quick weekday meal! Especially if you made the cream cheese the day before :)


Ingredients (serves 4)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 large red onion, cut into 4 and then sliced thinly
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup of frozen corn
Two large handfulls of washed baby spinach leaves
100gms of green beans, topped and tailed and cut into small pieces
1/2 a small red capscicum (bell pepper) sliced
3 tablespoons of pine nuts
375 gms packet of San Remo Vegeroni (or other egg free pasta of your choice)
1/2 cup of vegan cream cheese






Method

1. Cook the pasta while you are cooking the veggies as follows.
2. In a large frypan, heat the olive oil and then sautee onions until translucent.
3. Add the beans and cook for a minute.
4. Add frozen peas and corn, and stir until warm.
5. Add the capsicum and stir for a minute or until it is as cooked as you like it, i like it still firm, so didn't go past the minute.
6. Turn off the heat, then add the spinach. Stir through to wilt.
7. Add cooked pasta, and stir through the cream cheese and pinenuts.
8. Serve immediately.

I think that a crushed clove of garlic would go really well at the time you cook the onion, however didn't add this as it's a weekday and we do not want to stink out our work colleagues in the office ;)

Please note, other recipes using Aquafaba (a wonderful egg replacement) can be found on the facebook group Vegan Meringue Hits & Misses