Rhubarb Tart (vegan, dairy free, egg free, nut free)

We are in the middle of the rhubarb season in Scotland, and we have eaten a load of it this year. A lovely colleague provided us with some, as well as the usual supply from my parent's garden, so we've eaten plenty of rhubarb crumbles. But I fancied something a bit more adventurous too.  I spotted Chloe Coscarelli's Vanilla Pastry Creme recipe in her book Chloe's Vegan Desserts last year and decided I just had to have a go at making it and using it in this rhubarb tart.  I cannot praise this stuff enough - its so easy and very very very tasty!

Rhubarb Tart

Ingredients
Pastry
225g Plain Flour
130g Dairy Free Margarine (I use Pure Spread, Trex, Cookeen or block Stork)
1 1/2 tbsp of Sugar


Creme Patisserie (Vanilla Pastry Creme by Chloe Coscarelli)

1/4 cup non dairy milk
1/4 cup cornflour or arrowroot
1 can coconut milk - full fat
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Topping

7 stalks of Rhubarb
5 tbsp Sugar
6 tbsp Water



Method

1.  Make the pastry first. Place the flour in a Classic Batter Bowl add the vegetable fat and mix well using a pastry blender, or rub in using your fingers. Once you have fine breadcrumb like texture, add the sugar and stir through.  Add 1 1/2 tbsp of water and mix into a smooth ball. (If it is still a little crumbly add another tbsp more of water.)

2.  Place the dough on a well floured surface. Roll the pastry out to fit your tart tin, and then pick up over your rolling pin and place in the tin. Use your fingers to smooth the pastry up the sides and cut off the edges with a table knife. Place in the fridge to cool for 30 mins.

3. Now make the pastry creme: Mix the non dairy milk and cornflour or starch in a small bowl with a whisk till well combined.  Place the coconut milk and sugar and salt in a pan and heat gently until just bubbling.  Add the cornflour and non dairy milk mixture whisking continuously.  Heat till boiling and boil for two or three minutes until very thick, stir frequently.  Remove from the heat, mix in the vanilla and put into a small batter bowl.  Cover with a layer of cling film on the surface of the creme to prevent a skin forming. Refrigerate until cool (this can take up to 3hrs).

4.  Place baking parchment over the pastry and add baking balls, or dry rice and blind bake in the oven at 200°C for 10 mins or until pale golden.  Remove the baking balls and parchment and leave to cool on a rack in the tin while you prepare the filling.

5.  Chop the rhubarb into lengths to fit your baking tin.  Place the sugar, water and chopped rhubarb in a pan and heat very gently for ten minutes until the rhubarb starts to soften.  Leave in the juice to cool.

6.  Once everything is cooled, add creme to the pastry case (you will have spare), and arrange the rhubarb on top.  Drizzle over the syrup from the rhubarb and serve.

Mincemeat Crumble Slice (vegan, dairy free, egg free and nut free)

Yum

I know mincemeat slice doesn't sound very vegan, but honestly, this is mincemeat in the sweet sense; made of sultanas, raisins, apples and peel mixed with spices and is a staple of Christmas cooking in the UK.

I like this recipe for mincemeat from Pig in the Kitchen, but I've found most supermarket brands are actually vegan anyway.

I love making mince pies at Christmas time - I don't allow myself to do it until the 1st December though as it makes me feel Christmas is fully on the way then.  This mincemeat slice, however, is a lot less hassle, much faster and tends to be cooked as soon as I get my hands on a big jar of mincemeat in the supermarket!

Mincemeat Crumble Slice

Ingredients

500g Self Raising Flour
200g sugar
250g non-dairy margarine (I use solid Stork or Pure Spread)
100ml non-dairy milk, divided
600g mincemeat (about 1 and a 1/2 jars)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C

1.  Place the self raising flour, sugar and margarine in a Classic Batter bowl.  Use a Pastry Blender (my new favourite add on!) or a Mix n Masher to mix them together to create a sandy, breadcrumb mixture.

2.  Remove half the mix to another bowl.  Add 60ml non dairy milk to one of the bowls and mix it all together with your hands to create a dough.  Press this into the bottom of a Medium Bar Pan and smooth out to create the bottom layer.

3.  Spread the mincemeat across the layer of pastry and smooth out so there is an even layer.

4.  Now take the other half of the crumb mix and add 40ml non dairy milk.  You want to now create a rubble style of crumble with this, not a single ball but lots of little bits, so get your hands in and get squishing!  Spread this evenly across the mincemeat and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

5.  Leave in the bar pan to cool for about 15-20 minutes before cutting or it will crumble.  Use a Mini Serving Spatula to remove from the bar pan and serve. This keeps well in a sealed container for 3-4 days.

Carrot and Courgette (Zucchini) Muffins

Its World Vegan Month in November.  Why not try these wee vegan cakes? No-one will believe that they are egg and dairy free!

Yum

We've had a huge amount of courgettes (we use the term courgette in the UK instead of zucchini) growing in our garden this year which has left me searching for new recipes to use them up. My favourites have been this lovely recipe from Alexx Stuart for Roast Zucchini and Basil Rosettes. And these amazing wee carrot and courgette muffins. The kids prefer the cakes! I've adapted Chloe Coscarelli's recipe for Maple Glazed Carrot Cupcakes from Chloe's Vegan Desserts, so they work beautifully as just carrot cupcakes (use 2 cups of grated carrots).

I've also made these as gluten free versions, and they work really well.  You may want to add a tiny bit more orange juice to make them as moist, as gluten free flour tends to absorb a little more liquid.

I make a batch of these every few weeks as they are so quick and moreish!

Carrot and Courgette (Zucchini) Muffins
(Egg free, dairy free, vegan and can be gluten free)

Ingredients


1 cup sultanas
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1 cup peeled grated carrot
1 cup grated courgette (peel if old but if young leave on the skin)
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon cider apple vinegar


Method

Makes 18

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.

1. Measure out the orange juice and sultanas using the easy read measuring cups.  Place both in a small batter bowl to allow the sultanas to soak up some of the orange and become nice and plump and juicy.

2.  In a Classic batter bowl, add the plain flour and sugar. Then measure out the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice using the adjustable measuring spoons and add to the classic batter bowl.  Use a stainless whisk to mix them together well and aerate the flour.

3. Peel and grate the carrot and courgette using a microplane course grater and add to the wet ingredients in the small batter bowl.

4. Measure out the oil and cider apple vinegar and add to the wet ingredients.  Stir with a mix n scraper.

5.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry in the classic batter bowl and mix with the mix n scraper until everything is combined.

6. Use the large scoop to measure out the mixture evenly into 18 cupcake wrappers in a stoneware 12 cup muffin pan or muffin pan.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

8. Cool on a stackable cooling rack. Then watch them disappear in super quick time.

If you want to ice them a basic "butter" icing made with Pure spread and icing sugar and a few drops of lemon juice.  It tastes amazingly like cream cheese icing when added to the cakes.

Dairy Free Tablet

If you haven't come across tablet before its a Scottish speciality.  Every bake sale and coffee morning, and particularly church sales, requires at least one of the local star bakers to make a batch, or there is a riot from disappointed members of the public! Its a bit like fudge but without the squish factor.  You expect a good snap from a piece of tablet rather than the softness of fudge, and I suppose it tastes a bit like toffee but its not chewy.  Hmmm its proving more difficult than I thought to explain!

Anyway, tablet is usually made traditionally with condensed milk, but my granny's recipe just used normal cows milk.  So I've experimented with it and substituted in other non-dairy milks to see how it works.  Well, I couldn't quite believe how well it works! My milk of choice is soya but feel free to use whatever you prefer.

Although this recipe is always well received by children, I wouldn't recommend them helping in the kitchen with this one as the sugar reaches a rolling boil and can cause severe burns if it lands on skin. Please be careful!

Dairy Free Tablet

Ingredients

900 g sugar (I like golden granulated but thats just my preference)
370ml milk of your choice
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp dairy free spread (I use Pure Sunflower)

Method

1. Put the sugar, milk, syrup and vanilla extract in a large, heavy based pan.  I use my jam pan as the sugar really increases in volume as it boils and needs lots of space.

2. Melt everything together slowly and once boiling, reduce to a simmer for 25 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent sticking and burning.

3. Once the mix has boiled for 25 minutes it should be a golden brown caramel colour.  Remove a teaspoonful from the pan and place it on a cold plate.  In about 30 seconds it should be thick and sticky and form a set of ridges when pushed with a finger. If not, boil for another few minutes and try again.

The tablet on the right is underboiled, not caramel coloured enough and will not set, but remain a bit wet.

4.  Remove from the heat and add in the teaspoon of Pure spread.  Now beat it like mad with a bamboo spoon for about ten minutes until the mixture moves from a smooth caramel texture to a cloudy, slightly grainy texture.  It is then ready to pour into a medium bar pan, lined with greaseproof paper.
(I did try it with an electric mixer too, and that works much more quickly and without the arm strain but them I didn't feel like I'd earned the privilege of eating it!)

5.  Let the tablet set for at least 30 minutes before cutting up and enjoying. Wrap it in greaseproof paper if you're sending it off into the world to your local bake sale.

Alternative Easter Treats - Hot Cross Cookies (Egg Free, Dairy Free, Vegan and can be Gluten Free)

My blog has been getting a massive amount of hits in the past few weeks with people popping in to have a look at my Hot Cross Bun recipe which I posted two years ago.  I love it to bits but I reckoned it was time for a change this year.  So I've made Hot Cross Cookies instead!  I spotted a recipe for them in Good Housekeeping magazine, but it was completely unsuitable for my family, being full of eggs and butter, so I had a go at inventing my own based on the Good Housekeeping recipe and my favourite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, and they worked out pretty well...

To make these gluten free simply substitute in your favourite gluten free flour mix.  I tend to use Dove's Farm but have recently tried Bob's Red Mill and loved the texture.

Hot Cross Cookies (Egg Free, Dairy Free, Vegan and can be Gluten Free)

Makes 30 cookies when using the small scoop

Ingredients
2/3 cup Pure Spread
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 small jar baby applesauce (unsweetened) or 1/4 cup applesauce, mashed to remove lumps
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 heaped tsp mixed spice
1/2 cup sultanas
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup mixed peel

Icing
3 tbsp icing sugar
2 tsp water

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C

2. In a classic batter bowl, mix together the Pure Spread, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla and applesauce with a mix 'n' scraper till smooth. I use a Measure all Cup to measure all of these ingredients out.

3. In a stainless mixing bowl combine the flour with the bicarbonate of soda, salt and mixed spice, measured using an adjustable measuring spoon, and whisk together with a stainless whisk.

4. Add mixtures together and combine until creamy. Stir in the raisins, sultanas and peel until well mixed.

5. Using a small scoop drop the dough onto flat stoneware such as the medium round stone, medium bar pan or rectangular stone.  Flatten each cookie slightly with the heel of your hand or a spoon dipped in a little water to stop it sticking. Make sure you leave spreading space between each cookie as they do like a bit of extra room!

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cook a tiny bit longer if you like your cookies on the crispy rather than chewy side.

7. Leave to cool on the stone for a few minutes before removing with a large serving spatula to a stackable cooling rack.

8. Once cooled, ice a small cross one each biscuit using water icing in a squeezy bottle with a small plain nozzle from the decorator bottle set.