Shay's Strawberry Tart

My little sous chef arrived the other day with a notebook in which she'd copied down recipes from a children's cookbook she'd checked out of the library. She was so excited to show me and to ask we could cook one. One problem... her notes didn't actually contain any measurements!

Rather than disappoint her, I decided to take the basic premise of one of the recipes and wing it. In the end, I was able to simplify it so much that this nine-year-old chef was able to do it entirely on her own (with careful supervision, of course).

Shay's Strawberry Tarts

Ingredients:
1 pkg mini graham cracker crusts (the Keebler ones are accidentally vegan)
1 qt fresh strawberries
1 sm jar all-fruit preserves

Directions:
Spray the crusts lightly with baking spray and pre-bake according to package directions. Cool five minutes. Slice strawberries and arrange in crusts. Place preserves in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Pour into strawberry-filled crusts. Cool tarts in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes until preserves are set. Top with vegan whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.

Miracle Minute Vegan Fudge

I was going through a box of my old recipe cards the other day and found the recipe for my mom's microwave fudge. I used to love this stuff when I was a kid, even though it never really set up like real fudge. Well, problem solved through veganizing! Since vegan shortening or butter tends to stay firmer than dairy butter, this has a very authentic fudge consistency. People will think you made it the old-fashioned way!

It's so easy that even non-cooks can make it. I've come up with two different delicious flavors. Best of all? It only takes a max of five minutes!

Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan shortening or butter (I use 1 stick of Earth Balance shortening)
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond milk)
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

Creamy, delicious peanut-buttery fudge!

Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper (or wax paper). In a microwave-safe bowl, mix the first three ingredients. Cut the butter into pats and drop into dry ingredients. Microwave 1 - 2 minutes until butter is melted. Add milk and stir until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Microwave one minute, add vanilla, and stir until smooth. (If it gets too firm to stir effectively, microwave 30 seconds and stir again.) Microwave 30 seconds and pour into prepared pan. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Cut in squares and serve.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegan shortening  or butter (I use 1/2 stick of Earth Balance shortening)
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond milk)
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (optional)

Instructions:
Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper (or wax paper). In a microwave-safe bowl, mix the first two ingredients. Cut the butter into pats and drop into dry ingredients. Microwave 1 - 2 minutes until butter is melted. Add peanut butter and microwave 30 seconds. Add milk and stir until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Microwave one minute, add vanilla, and stir until smooth. (If it gets too firm to stir effectively, microwave 30 seconds and stir again.) Microwave 30 seconds and pour into prepared pan. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Cut in squares and serve.

Currant and Walnut Applesauce Cake

This is the quickest, easiest egg- and dairy-free cake imaginable. It takes under five minutes to prepare and comes out perfect every time. I can't take all the credit: this is a modified version of a recipe from PETA's cookbook, The Compassionate Cook. (Which is a cookbook totally worth the five or so bucks on Amazon.) Here's my version:

Currant & Walnut Applesauce Cake

1/2 cup vegan butter (1 stick of Earth Balance)

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

2 cups all-purpose flour (organic white or wheat)

1 cup packed organic brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice blend

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup currants (or raisins)

1 cup crushed walnuts

2 tbsp organic powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Spray the bottom of an eight- or nine-inch square pan with organic cooking spray. (I use a Corningwear dish.) Melt the butter (either in a pan on the stove or in a microwave-safe bowl). Mix all the other ingredients except the powdered sugar into the pan/dish with the butter. Stir just until combined. Pour into the sprayed baking dish. Bake for 35 - 45 minutes until a knife slid into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar and serve. 

Halvah cookies! They're gluten-free, MoFos!

One of the treats I grew up with was halvah - a delicious sesame candy that you'll most often find in Jewish delicatessens or Middle Eastern markets. To people who've never had it, I always describe it as "sesame fudge", and while that gets the point across, it's not wholly accurate. There's something totally unique about the flavor and texture. It's not really quite like anything else... until now! 

This variation on a sesame cookie (such as Whole Foods' non-vegan recipe) has more of the flavor and texture of halvah, but in convenient cookie form! Imagine a halfway point between halvah and a peanut butter cookie and you're there. 

Halvah Cookies 15 oz container of tahini
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp ground flax mixed with ¼ cup warm water
Sesame seeds for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flax and warm water; set aside to thicken. Mix the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, add the flax mixture. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment paper. Press dough in a crosshatch with fork.  Bake for 10 minutes or until edges start to brown. Immediately sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cool for 10 minutes on the pan before removing.

Note: It's important to make sure the edges are starting to turn golden before removing from the oven, and to allow them to cool for the specified time, otherwise these cookies will crumble. When you take them out, they will still be very soft. They firm and solidify as they cool. If you go to remove the first cookie and it crumbles, even though you've allowed it to cool, return the cookies to the oven for 3-5 minutes and then cool again.

It's Mandel Brate, MoFos!

We have one true family recipe in my house, one recipe that everyone knows and loves, handed down for generations - Great Aunt Roz's mandel brate. (Before anyone fusses, this is the way we spell it. I know it's not Wikipedia-approved.) Of course, everyone seems to have their own slightly different version: Mom's has walnuts, her brother Frank's has coconut. My sister Jenny's version is soft in the middle, where Mom likes hers cooked through. But no matter how they tinker with it, some essential part stays the same. Somehow, it always tastes like home. And for three years, I have not had a single bite of it. Until today!

Well, to be fair, I had an approximation of it yesterday. That's because my first attempt at veganizing it fell short. I took a piece to my mother - the final authority on the tradition, having received the recipe directly from the source - and she pronounced yesterday's batch "edible." Damned with faint praise.

But today's recipe? She took a bite and said, "You got it right." And a choir of angels sang! My joy knew no bounds.

 Aunt Roz's Mandel Brate - Veganized!

6 tbsp ground flax
¾ cup warm water
3 ¼ cups unsifted flour
1 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp vanilla
1 cup oil
6 oz choc chips
6 oz chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ground flax and warm water. Set aside for 5 minutes. Combine dry ingredients (excluding chocolate and nuts). Add wet ingredients and flax mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, or spray lightly with cooking spray. Split dough in half and form into two loaves. 

Bake at 350 for 38 - 45 min, or until edges turn golden brown. Let cool for 15 min. Slice into bars.

Alternate ingredients: In place of chocolate and walnuts, try 1/2 cup diced apricots, 1/2 cup slivered almonds, and replace 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract with 1/2 tsp of almond extract. That's my variation on the original.

Enjoy the taste of tradition! 

Recipes: Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

Let me be really clear: this is not health food! Proceed at your own risk.

We were having a potluck at work today and I wanted a dessert I could eat, but it had to be something easy since I was also cooking a main dish. So I decided to try a twist on an old non-vegan recipe, dump cake. It'd been a long time since I'd made it and I also wanted to use different flavors, so I wasn't sure how it would come out. Well, pretty darn good!

Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

Ingredients: 

3 cans cherry pie filling
1 Devil's Food cake mix
1/2 cup vegan butter

Note: check the ingredients on your cake mix carefully. I found a vegan one at Aldi.


Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour the cans of cherry pie filling into a 9x13 cake pan and spread evenly. (No need to grease the pan.) Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the cherries, breaking up any large lumps. Cut (or spoon, if using a tub) bits of butter and spread around the surface of the cake mix. Bake 40 minutes, or until cherries bubble around the edges and the cake is reasonably firm. Cool and serve.

Notes on butter: You can use more than 1/2 cup vegan butter, if you prefer a moister cake topping. With a half cup, it has a consistency like a shortbread cookie. Also, if you'd ever previously made this with conventional butter, you may be used to cutting the butter in fairly thick pats. But vegan butter has a lower melting point, so it's better to cut thinner pieces, and more of them.

Recipe: Pina Colada 'Ice Cream'

Delicious, creamy, and dairy-free!

When I created the recipe for Mighty Fruity Ice Cream-y, I wondered if I could make it easier (and lower on the glycemic index) by replacing the sugar syrup with agave. Well, if you were wondering that too, wonder no more! It works like a charm.

The other thing I wondered was if I could make it creamier - "milkier," if you will - with coconut milk. This also worked like a charm! Thus, pina colada vegan ice cream was born.


Ingredients:
1 8.5 oz can Cream of Coconut
1 cup coconut milk (not coconut water - the thick stuff)
1 cup pure pineapple juice
1 cup agave
1/3 to 2/3 cup of crushed pineapple, depending on how chunky you like it.


Instructions:
Combine first four ingredients in a freezer-safe container and cover tightly. Freeze, scraping the edges and stirring every 30 minutes for the next 4-6 hours until it has an evenly slushy consistency. Add crushed pineapple and stir. Let freeze until firm (4-12 hours depending on freezer and container), stirring once more after it's mostly firm. Serve or store in freezer.

Recipe: Mightee Fruity Ice-Creamy

So this is the long-promised vegan ice cream recipe, except that there's a bit of dispute over whether I can really call it ice cream. The consistency is milkier than sorbet, but icier than ice cream, and more substantial than sherbet. Rather than call it ice sorshercream, I'm just calling it ice-cream-ish... Ice-creamy.

There are five things you should know about this recipe:

1. This is not a health food. There's plenty of sugar and a bit of fat in it. But with only 4-5 ingredients, you know exactly what you're getting.

2. There is no special equipment required; anyone can make it at home with a pot, a bowl, and a spoon. 

3. It's incredibly delicious.

4. While the work involved is minimal, it does take a whole day to freeze. Believe me, it's worth the wait.

5. It's SO DELICIOUS YOU SHOULD MAKE IT NOW AND THANK ME LATER.

Tangerine and mixed berry flavors are modifications I've tried. See the end note.

Mightee Fruity Ice-Creamy Recipe

2 cups fresh squeezed citrus juice plus 1 tsp zest
1 can (8.5 oz) cream of coconut
1.5 cups demerara sugar (or other vegan sugar)
1.5 cups water

Juice and zest citrus. Combine 2 cups juice, zest, and cream of coconut. Set aside.

Bring 1.5 cups of water to a boil. Add sugar .5 cups at a time and stir until dissolved. Boil for fifteen minutes over medium to medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let stand for about 15 minutes until it becomes syrupy but doesn’t harden. (If it cools too much and hardens, simply put it back on the heat until it softens again.)

Combine with juice mixture in a freezer-safe container and cover tightly. Freeze, scraping the edges and stirring every 30 minutes for the next 4-6 hours until it has an evenly slushy consistency. Let freeze until firm (4-12 hours depending on freezer and container), stirring once more after it's mostly firm. Serve or store in freezer.

Note: I first made this with fresh squeezed lemon juice. I love lemons, but for some people that might be too tart. Even I could only eat it in very small servings. I next tried tangerines, which gave a milder flavor but were also delicious. Finally, I decided to try mixed berry, using two cups of 100% juice berry smoothie (about 50% berry and banana puree and 50% juice) and omitting the citrus zest. All of these worked well, but unanimously we liked the tangerine best.

Note to Floridians: This is an excellent use of the extra citrus on the tree in your yard, or your neighbor's yard, or your coworker's yard that got foisted off on you because they didn't want to see another [lemon, key lime, grapefruit, orange] this year.

If you make this and try a different flavor, let me know how it turns out!