Cheesecakes, vegan and not

Vegan: based on this one from Carnation, quantities as written

Biscoff 175g and flora plant butter 25g for the base.

540g violife cream cheese (3 packs!) +100g Carnation 'condensed milk' for the main part.

Plus a pinch of salt, vanilla, a little maple syrup. Blackcurrant compote on top.

Texture held up well, after I was worried about it being too soft. Wouldn't mistake it for full dairy cheesecake but it was OK.

Non-vegan: Nigella but made half as much again of base and filling as I just could not spread the base thin enough to cover the tin! I used biscoff, added lime instead of lemon (and a bit of zest). Absolutely delicious, unsurprisingly, but definitely benefited from the tangy blackcurrants and the lime (could use more zest if anything).

190g biscoff + 110g butter (somewhat different ratio to above!)

450g cream cheese mixed with 90g sifted icing sugar + 70g greek yogurt*; folded in 300ml double cream (whipped), tsp vanilla, tsp lime juice, zest

*as I only bought 300ml cream for the original recipe which needed 250 so 375 for the scale-up... probably would have been fine without?

To "lightly whip" double cream needed quite some time before any difference was observable. Made it to very soft peaks. Maybe whipping cream next time.

For each: topping was blackcurrants previously simmered with a little water and sugar. Took half a pint, heated and dissolved half a pack of vege-gel, then added a few whole blackcurrants in at the end. 

Banana bread

Good, reliable recipe by Jack Monroe:

Mash 3 ripe bananas with 50g brown sugar and 75ml oil.

Sift together 220g flour (any combo - half and half wholemeal and white is good) plus 1tsp baking powder, pinch salt, tsp mixed spice. Mix wet and dry mixtures.

Optionally add choc chips or sultanas.

Bake in lined loaf tin for ~50 mins @ 160°C fan.

Carrot cake / muffins

Vegan carrot cake from the Plant Based School

Makes 12 large muffins, baked for 25 mins (turn tray) +12 mins (150°C).

Reduced sugar to 150g.

300g carrots was 2.5 med-large allowing for peeling and ends.

Podium Pie (pear and pecan)

Another one from Hannah Grant @dailystews, podium pie is based on sweet potato like the race cakes, but this time it's added raw. Blitzed up with oats, pecans, eggs, dates and peanut butter, with diced pears folded in and a few sliced for the top. The spicy golden milk protein powder from Purition is a fab addition. The original recipe used coconut oil but with peanut butter as a suggested replacement, and happily I just had a delivery of Yumello salted date crunchy PB. Overall a great snack, not too sweet.

Would work well with figs and walnuts too, I think.

The whole mix made the 20cm cake shown (=8 wedges) plus a couple of well-filled muffin cases, call it 10 servings at 167 cals, 5.6g protein, 18.8g carbs, 8.1g fat.

Sweet potato race cakes

I found this recipe via Hannah Grant, @dailystews on Instagram - I love her training-friendly recipes! Made as described, the cakes were tasty but very soft and not really portable, and a bit too oily for my preference. I also froze them as the soft texture suggested they'd begin to go furry quite quickly at room temperature.

My variation was to omit the fat (to be honest I meant to add a small amount but forgot!), and have both oats and protein powder. I had some trial 40g sachets of Purition and chose to add one turmeric and one almond. I added a good spoonful of ground ginger, and with no suitable fresh fruit to hand I used jumbo raisins, pushing 4-5 into each cake and smoothing over the top. They turned out delicious and much more robust than the first batch. Slightly lower in calories and higher in protein, of course.

I like them as a quick snack, or for breakfast with Greek yogurt and fruit.

Per cake (made 12): 167 cals, 7g protein, 22g carbs, 6g fat.

Update: added a tbsp of cocoa powder, orange zest instead of lime, and a scattering of dark chocolate chips. Warmed before serving, OMG.

Black bean brownies

Original recipe from ifoodreal via 200 is plenty sweet. These are low in sugar and high in fibre.

1 400g can black beans, rinsed
2 large eggs
140g no-sugar apple sauce
48g cacao powder
60g dates
80g dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp bicarb
(optional) 40g protein powder
(optional) milk of your choice to loosen

I used 2 x Ella's Kitchen pear baby food (70g each) for the 'no-sugar apple sauce' (as I couldn't find any other option, and no time to make my own), and I chopped 70% dark chocolate rather than using chips. I added 40g of plain protein powder that I had been given as a sample, and some oat milk to loosen the batter (due to the powder and only having medium eggs). My food processor did't get the mixture super smooth but it's not a problem.

Baked at 175C for 30 mins in a 20cm x 20cm tin, cut into 16. It did stick to the paper a bit so there were plenty of crumbs - would use non-stick baking paper in future. Per piece: 130 calories, 9.3g protein, 2.7g fibre.

It's quite a dark, intense chocolate flavour and the inclusion of chocolate pieces in the batter is definitely needed, but it suits me perfectly as I don't like things too sweet. Using your own apple sauce rather than the quite thin baby food might be better, but it's still a good fudgy texture.

(yes, I ate one before the photo...)

Chocolate hazelnut "bliss balls"

Aldi has discontinued my favourite flavour of their Palaeo bars (cacao-hazelnut, not that I ever saw the mythical brazil-cherry that was on the shelf tag as that sounded awesome too...). I figured I could make something similar, and found this recipe from A Cupful of Kale.

80g hazelnuts (whole or chopped - I did not bother roasting mine)
200g dates
1.5 tbsp cocoa / cacao powder (5g?)
2 tbsp peanut butter (40g)
2 tbsp maple syrup (40g)

In a food processor, chop the nuts if you have whole ones, then add the rest of the ingredients and process until roll-able into balls. I had about 350g of mixture so made 17 balls of about 20g each. Two of them would be about equivalent to one of the bars.

They taste great, but could use even more cocoa flavour so next time I will add more of that, and a little salt.

Picnic loaf (pan bagnat)

I have fancied trying this for a while, and a shared picnic gave me the opportunity. I used this recipe from Delicious mag but it's really simple and flexible! A large round loaf, some grilled veg, cheese and herbs, and some time.

The base is a crusty white "boule" loaf - mine was from Waitrose, 400g. It would have been handy for it to be a bit taller, but there wasn't any choice. It still worked. I cut a lid off and then scooped out the insides. The recipe said to leave 2-3cm of bread at the crust, but this was too much and I would leave a thinner border next time; it was quite bready to eat and I had leftover veg and cheese that wouldn't fit in. The bread can't be too thin or else it will fall apart, but I think it would be fine with 1-2cm. Also, I think my bread was fresh (instore bakery) on the day I constructed the loaf, rather than day old as specified, but I did the cutting and scooping and left it under a teatowel while I did the veg, so it did dry out a bit.

For the veg I used 2 medium courgettes sliced diagonally (0.5cm), 4 portobello mushrooms, and average sized red and yellow peppers cut into sixths. The grilling was the most time consuming element, but it was worth tending to them to get good and even browning. I marinated the grilled veg in oil, red wine vinegar, garlic and fresh basil, as per the recipe, for a couple of hours.

I spread tapenade into the bread bowl before layering up the marinated veg with some sliced ball mozzarella and more fresh basil, pressing everything well into the outside edges underneath the lip. Even packing it in, I still had enough leftover veg and cheese for lunch the next day! You could probably spin out a single mozzarella ball to do this recipe if you sliced it thinly enough.

The finished loaf was wrapped tightly in clingfilm and left under a baking tray weighted with six tins of beans (~3kg), a bit more than suggested in the recipe. After being pressed for a couple of hours I sliced it into 6 wedges (not 8) and left it in the fridge overnight. It was well recieved at the picnic and I'd make it again for a similar occasion .

Variations I would try:

• include olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, peppadew peppers or artichoke hearts (easy to make a tasty vegan version with some of these and no cheese)
• add salami or other flavourful meat
• try goat's cheese or feta
• swap tapenade for pesto
• individual versions in bread rolls

Lentil and spinach curry

An easy weeknight veggie recipe from Prima. This was really tasty and very simple. My modified version used no chilli, and no stock as the tinned lentils were already cooked and needed no extra liquid. Even without it, the curry was quite soupy.

Fry a chopped onion until translucent, and add 3-4 tbsp (or to taste) of curry paste and a little water. This time I used Patak's Rogan Josh. Tip in 2 drained tins of green lentils and one of tomatoes, plus a small tin of coconut cream/milk (I used cream) and simmer while you cook the rice. With about 5-10 mins left, drop in several blocks of frozen spinach (I used about 7 since that's what was left in the bag!) and cook until defrosted and heated through. This made 4 polite portions or 3 hearty ones.

Next time I'd add a load of finely chopped mushrooms with the onion, to bulk out the curry and add a different texture. Definitely one to cook again.

Moroccan potato bake

This recipe came via Tinned Tomatoes, although is not original to that blog. It fulfilled both a need for an easy extra meal this week (menu planing fail) and more veggie meals. I liked it and would make it again!

My tweaked version:

Cook 750g potatoes in vegetable stock to the just-cooked point. I used charlotte as they are my favourite combination of flavour and texture. When you drain them, save some of the stock!

Chop a red onion and 2 cloves garlic. Soften in a pan with oil first, then a splash of stock and the spices (to taste: smoked paprika, cumin, ginger, sumac) plus tomato puree, a chopped preserved lemon, and white wine or cider vinegar. Also add chopped jarred (roasted and skinned) red peppers and peas. Simmer for a few minutes then add the potatoes and reserved stock, and bash around a bit so they start to break and add thickness to the sauce. Simmer further to the desired consistency.


The main edits I made were to use a whole onion (nobody needs half an onion hanging about), add sumac for a bit of extra zing, and peas for colour and extra veg. It could do with some protein so next time I'd add chickpeas, or chicken or sausage if I didn't want it to be veggie. But the lemon, vinegar and sumac made for a different-tasting dish and that was the best bit.

Stollen spirals and other festive gift goodies

Stollen spirals - really just festive Chelsea buns I guess...

BBC Good Food recipe

Take 1 (test run, not a gift):

All went fine except I crammed too many in the tin and the middle ones were too doughy. Next time space them out better/use more tins. Also use more fruit, and slice the marzipan rather than using a big wodge in the middle.

Take 2:

Made these dairy free by subbing in coconut oil for butter, and soya milk for the milk. Not a deliberate choice, just what I had in the house to make them for a dairy-intolerant recipient. Also made the changes as above, and happened to use more sultanas and cranberries, no mixed peel, no nuts, and no icing, purely for time reasons. They fit perfectly, with room to expand, at 12 to my big roasting tin, with the remainder (I hesitate to say rejects) in a smaller tin. The 12 were frozen as soon as they were cool, defrosted in the car while travelling, reheated in a low oven for half an hour or so, and hoovered up in no time, so this recipe is definitely a keeper!

Take 3:

Easterised as follows: soak the fruit (a sultana/cranberry/cherry mix) in a mix of tea and amaretto; sprinkle it in the buns along with grated marzipan and dark chocolate chips. Serve warm so the marzipan and chocolate are a bit gooey.


German cinnamon star biscuits

Outdoor Chics recipe

These went OK but cooked too quickly in my oven at 200°C, so were a bit toasty. They have a chewy macaroony texture. I put allspice in the icing, as I'd run out of cinnamon, and some lemon zest. The icing was very sticky to apply, and I also found the mixture a bit crumbly and liable to get stuck in the points of the star cutter,


Nigella's bar nuts

Recipe

Sweet, salty, spicy, herby roasted nuts. Yum. Again, made with coconut oil not butter - no difference.


Ginger cupcakes

A Jamie Oliver recipe

I was a bit worried by the amount of oil in these but they didn't come out greasy at all. Would be good with some sort of spicy dark chocolate topping.