Mango-Raspberry Yummies

I made these sherbert/smoothie desserts for my family the other day.

 Recipe:
(makes 3)

Ingredients
2 very ripe mangoes
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 cup ice
1/4 cup raspberries (plus some to garnish)
Mint leaves to garnish

1. Cut mango into chunks and freeze them for at least an hour.

2. Blend about 1 cup ice (or more) and set it aside.

3. Blend mangoes until smooth.

4. Add blended ice and blend together briefly.

5. Pour into glasses.

6. Mash or blend about 1/4 cup raspberries with a tablespoon agave nectar.

7. Pour onto mango mixture.

8. Top with raspberries and a fresh mint leaf!

Agave Sweetened Home-made Jam Recipe

I went strawberry picking with my friend's family last week. We picked over 30 quarts! His family are jam enthusiasts and generously sent me home with a box of pectin and some mason jars so I could try my hand at some canning too. 

When I read their recipe I was astounded that it called for 4 cups strawberries and 7 cups sugar! I didn't want to be spreading sugar over my toast all year so I brainstormed some alternatives. I thought of agave nectar and googled it to see if anyone had tried making jam with it before. I got a few recipes (admittedly none of them look too official but I trusted them). I used a mixture of their guidance and the pectin box recipe and came up with some amazing jam.   

Here is the recipe!

Ingredients

Around 5 cups ripe, washed and hulled strawberries*

1 1/4 cup agave nectar (I used amber nectar)

1 box pectin

Jars**

*Follow the instructions of the pectin box regarding the amount of strawberries.

1. Mash about 5 cups strawberries until you have 4 1/2 cups mash.

2. Mix agave nectar, strawberry mash and 1 standard box of pectin together.

3. Give it a hard boil. Mine needed about 15 minutes to thicken. 

4. Test if it will set by using a spoon left in ice water to scoop out some jam. If it sets in the spoon it's good to go.

5. Scoop into jars for freezer jam or scoop into sterilized jars ( heat jars at 250C while making the jam)  for a longer-lasting shelf jam. If you're trying to preserve it boil some water at the bottom of a pot, tighten the lids of the jars once the jam is in them and boil them with the lids down in the pot for a few minutes. The lids should come out firm or else something has messed up. If the lid isn't firm then the jam won't keep and you should store it in the fridge.

**I'm not sure of the yield. According to the sugar recipe I was supposed to get a whole 4 jars of jam but I only got 1 1/2. I think it's because since I added more liquid (agave nectar) instead of solid (sugar) it had to boil down more.

My witches brew!

I labelled the jam "June agave nectar-strawberry jam" and when I woke up the next day the label was replaced by this! I guess it's a crowd-pleaser at my house. It does well on some vegan french toast too.

Admittedly I did add sugar over the toast too, but it's just because it's fancy orange flavored sugar!

Peanut Butter Pasta à la Vegan à Go-Go

 Today the temperature was 40°C with the humidex. Somehow I wandered down into my un-airconditioned kitchen and decided it was not only a swell idea to use the stove top but also to make a spicy dish. Not to say I regret it, it was well worth all the heat. 

I hadn't made anything new to me in awhile and tonight I only had myself to cook for so I flipped through Vegan  à Go-Go and happened upon this little recipe. I've had peanut butter pasta before and loved it so I hopped to it. Sadly as I pulled out the ingredients I realized that although I had broccoli I didn't florets. For some odd reason, someone in my family must have taken all the florets of off every stalk of broccoli in our fridge...

WHY?

 I ignored this setback and just chopped up some of the broccoli anyway, but much less than the 3 cups the recipe calls for. I also had to substitute the Bragg's for ordinary soy sauce and leave out the Worcestershire sauce entirely.

Peanuts, Pasta and Garlic, who would have known they could make such a tasty little threesome?!

All in all the pasta turned out pretty darn tasty if I may say so myself. It's nutty, sweet, and has an awesome (garlic and cayenne pepper) kick.  I would give it a solid 8.5/10 today. It would probably be a 9 if it were winter.

Vegan CupcakesThat Make Even Non-Vegans Swoon

Okay, so there was no definable swooning. And it was my boyfriend trying them, so I guess it was a little biased. But we did love them and they honestly didn't taste like they were made with zero dairy ingredients!

I love chocolate. But I am a chocolate cupcake snob, for me it has to be decadent, or I'd rather have vanilla. These darling cupcakes were rich, decadent and moist. They were ascetically beautiful too, so dark against the white icing, which was nice because I made them just as a treat for my love. And pretty simple! I had all the ingredients in my kitchen. What more can you ask for?

POW! Try these cuppycakes.

So here is my modified recipe of "Basic (Vegan) Cupcakes" À la Chow.com

I chose to add extra vanilla instead of a different flavor, upped the amount of cocoa and grated some dark baking chocolate flakes into the mix. 

"Wet" Ingredients (Bowl #1)

- 1 cup soy milk (I used plain Silk)

- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar* I might try half a teaspoon next time, they had an odd aftertaste I need to trouble shoot

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1/3 cup oil (I used vegetable oil)

- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

-1 square dark baking chocolate (check that it's vegan)

- 1 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/3 to 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular

- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Whisk together the soymilk and vinegar in a large bowl.

2. Set it aside for 3 minutes to curdle.

3. In a separate bowl sift all dry ingredients together.

4. Add sugar, oil and extracts and beat until foamy. (It doesn't take much, I used an electric beater)

5. Mix together and beat out large lumps. Small lumps will remain, just make sure all the dry bits are mixed in!

6. Preheat to 350F.
7. Shave the chocolate square and add in  3/4 of the shavings to the mix and stir.

8. Grease muffin tins and fill mix 3/4 up each cup. Sprinkle the remaining shavings on top of some cupcakes. I chose to make half tiny cupcakes and half regular.

9. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Watch them if you are doing small ones! Check by inserting a toothpick or fork all the way into one. If it comes out clean they are ready.

I used their icing too. It was very creamy, but made twice as much as I needed which gives me the excuse to make more cupcakes soon. I would have loved to try the Oreo version (yes Oreos are vegan!) but didn't have any on hand. Half the recipe to avoid this. It also took longer than the recipe's claimed 8 minutes, but maybe that's just me. I hand sifted the icing sugar which made it take longer.

Chow.com's Vegan Fluffy ButterCream Frosting (What a lovely name!)

- 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening

- 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, I used Becel vegan (so easy to find in stores!)

- 3 1/2 cups powdered icing sugar, sifted if clumpy

- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

- 1/4 cup vegan milk, I used Silk light vanilla  (or vegan creamer)

1. Beat the shortening and margarine together in a large bowl. I used a electric beater. Make sure you beat until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.

Decorating time! This is of course optional, but it is the most fun of the whole process. I put my large cupcakes into red cupcake holders, and used a very silly nozzle in a reused plastic bag to make designs. I sprinkled some with chocolate sprinkles. To make them extra special I put them on my glass cake plate and sprinkled it with icing sugar. A great Valentines-y treat. If you could only guess what made them extra special!