Anyway, it’s Halloween so today has mostly been about carving pumpkins and getting the chidlers ready.  However I did end up with a lot of pumpkin flesh from doing the Jack O Lanterns.  Due to the nature of scooping it wasn’t really suitable for a dish that required pumpkin chunks, so I ended up with a big ol’ bowl of pumpkin puree.  I know I could have made Pumpkin Ziti but meh, how much fun would that have been?! Instead I made cupcakes, cookies and muffins!!

First the Pumpkin Cupcakes (sans Choc Chips cos I forgot!) from VCTOTW.  First time making these but they’re beautiful, the flavours are so subtle and the texture is so light…it won’t be the last time I make them.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies from the PPK recipe database…now these I added chocolate chips to (I was determined to use chocolate somewhere!!), these were very popular whilst still warm, and soft, oh my goodness are these soft? (Yes, they are).

and last (but by no means least)

the much tried and tested Pumpkin Muffins from VWAV. Not sure what I did this time but I ended up with smooth muffins when normally they crack and look a bit more rustic!!??

Don’t Panic, we won’t be eating all of these ourselves, theirs an Autmn Fayre tomorrow so some of each will be winging their way there.

Now onto the other things that occupied today…

Happy Halloween 2008!!!:-D

4oz margarine

1oz icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

5oz flour

Cream margarine, essence and sugar together. Add flour and beat until a stiff dough forms. Pipe in swirls onto lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 18 mins or so at Gas 4/350F/180C

I made half the mix chocolate though so added probably 1 dsp cocoa and an extra tsp water to make up for the extra dry ingredient (cocoa).

When cool sandwich together with jam (I used Strawberry) and vanilla frosting. In the case of the chocolate ones I used a dairy free chocolate spread and vanilla frosting.

However, seeing as I was relying on frying the tofu I thought I’d better try it a lower fat, healthier way as frying isn’t exactly condusive to helping weight loss!

This is my first attempt at baked tofu, and whilst it was a little rubbery (left it in the oven too long methinks), I actually really enjoyed it.

I made a spicy sauce, and after flouring the tofu brushed some onto the tofu before baking. The rest of the sauce went into the stir fry vegetables…served with rice noodles.  A quick, healthy, tasty dinner – result!!:-)

Spicy Sauce recipe

1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon dry crushed red pepper

just over 1/2 cup vegetable stock

2 teaspoons cornflour/cornstarch

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon asian chili-garlic sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

I’m using

3 oz Self Raising Flour

1 1/2 oz Gram Flour

Salt & Black Pepper

1 cup soya milk with 1-2 tsp Cider Vinegar.

Preheat some sunflower oil (about 2 Tblsp) in a HOT oven. Sieve flours and seasonings together.  Add Cider Vinegar to Soy Milk and leave to ‘curdle’.  Add milk mixture to flours and beat until nice and bubbly. Pour batter into hot oil (oil should be hot enough that it sizzles and the mixture starts bubbling when added). Bake for about 30 mins at Gas mark 7.

This shows how a traditional (read milk and egg based) Yorkshire Pudding should look, so you can quite clearly see there is some MAJOR tinkering to be done to achieve a successful vegan yorkshire pudding (and I really don’t want to have to use egg replacer) OR it is one of those culinary delights that just doesn’t work entirely successfully veganically.

To which end I made the Pecan Crumb Pumpkin Cake from V’Con…and added in some Chocolate Chips as I just *happened* to have a bag already open that needed using;-)

I also at long last got around to making a Cookies N’ Cream Cake….only made possible to the sheer generosity of JamboxRocks (Vegan HomeMade) who sent me some Newman O cookies.  Now we do get Oreo cookies over here in the UK but they aren’t vegan because they have whey in them….quite why the UK version needs whey when they US version doesn’t is a mystery to me, but hey-ho I made Cookies N’Cream Cake (and also some Cookies N’Cream Icecream) and it made me very happy.

Anyway, today I made the Pumpkin Ziti from V’Con for the first time

and also, because it’s not something I’ve seen posted very often (if at all), the Chocolate Bomb Pudding Cake from the PPK home page.

Got to say, this pudding is just awesome…I’m really, really surprised I haven’t seen more about it on any of the vegan food sites.

The tempeh wingz recipe is from Don’t Eat off the Sidewalk Blog

Chilli/Lemon Butter

Finely chop one red chilli, mix it and 1 Tblsp Lemon Juice into about 100g/4oz dairy free spread.

Place ‘butter’ back in fridge to firm up.

For the potatoes, boil some whole new/baby potatoes until just tender, drain and transfer to a roasting tin. Using the back of a fork crush the potatoes until the skins burst and the inner potato is visible. Dot each potato with a little of the chilli/lemon butter and roast at Gas Mark 6 for about 40 minutes until the potatoes are just starting to turn golden.

Voila!

firstly Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

and Oatmeal Raisin

*right now* they were totally worth blowing off the essays for, however, I may not say the same thing when I’ve done a couple of late-nighters trying to get the work done!!

Recipe as follows:-

Ingredients (makes 4 slices)

1 Block vegan puff pastry (approx 500g)

Vanilla Custard (filling)
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1-1/2 cups vegan milk
1 tbsp. margarine
1 teas. vanilla

Icing
roughly 200g Icing Sugar
about 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Water (only enough to make a thick, but still spreadable, icing)
Few squares of dark chocolate, melted.

Roll the pastry out to about 15inch x 15 inch, mark 8 rectangles off prior to baking (makes it easier to get a clean cut when cooked), prick well with a fork and bake at gas mark 5 until just starting to turn light golden brown. Cut rectangles out of pastry and put on a cooling rack to cool.

To make the vanilla filling, combine sugar, salt and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add milk and whisk together. Bring the mixture to a light boil over medium heat while whisking constantly. Lower to a simmer and whisk until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add margarine and vanilla. Pour into a bowl and let cool, stirring every few minutes. Filling will continue to thicken as it cools. Leave until cold.

Assemble pastry slices with custard filling in middle.

Put icing sugar, vanilla essence in bowl, add in cold water a bit at time until you’ve got a smooth, thick, icing. Spread icing on top of vanilla slice.

Drizzle chocolate in lines across top of icing and ‘feather’ using cocktail stick or skewer.

Chill for a while and then eat!

Made using Cherrys recipe at www.parsleysoup.co.uk – it’s in the Easter section.

but with a couple of adjustments, I had no citrus peel so subbed a Tblsp of Organic Marmalade instead, and I also used some thinned down Marmalade as glaze as I didn’t have any demerara in that the recipe called for.