Heide’s carnival cookies

Did you notice I don’t have a single biscuit recipe on this blog? There’s a slice, lots of muffins, a handful of desserts and far too many drinks in the sweet treats section. Well today I’m going to remedy that omission and guess what, it’s vegan!

Vegan Schmegan! How can a biscuit without sugar, butter or flour taste any good? 

Oh my goodness, domestic goddess supreme Heidi Swanson’s done it. A dairy-free, gluten-free (it your oats are untainted), egg-free and even (added) sugar-free sweet treat that has people coming back for more. Even the chocolate-vanilla-y aroma of these “cookies” has me salivating.

But first a little nomenclature: Being an Anglo-file, at least where language is concerned, makes me baulk at calling these cookies. Beyond semantics, I tend to pigeonhole a biscuit/cookie as a disc of something sweet and crispy. The carnival cookies (suitably Americanised due to their country of origin) certainly evoke the spirit of a biscuit but are also reminiscent of an unleavened version of my muffins. The banana makes them soft and a little doughy.

Whatever. They passed muster and weren’t ruined by my habitual tweaking. A tad more chocolate on hand than recipe called for, no problem, you can never have too much chocolate in a sweet morsel. Not a huge fan of peanuts? The walnuts substituted nicely. I also ground my own almonds, gave the rolled oats a quick whiz (rather leaving them whole as indicated in the original recipe), popped the corn, passed a cinnamon stick over a fine grater and was a little heavy handed with the remains of my homemade vanilla extract.

The might look a little well done but it's just the chocolate the chocolate that includes chunks and powdery goodness

Carnival cookies

(adapted from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day: Well Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen)

4 small or 3 medium bananas, mashed

1.5 teaspoons natural vanilla essence/extract

60g coconut oil, melted

120 g rolled oats, blitzed for a couple of seconds in a food processor

60 g almonds, blitzed to make almond meal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 tsp good quality ground cinnamon, or half a cinnamon quill finely grated

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

100 g walnuts, lightly crushed but still chunky

180 g chopped dark chocolate (70% plus) or good quality chocolate chips

1 heaped tablespoon popping corn, popped with a little coconut oil (about 20 g of popped corn)

Preheat oven to 180c

To make the popcorn: Heat a large pot with a tight fitting lid. Add a scant teaspoon of coconut oil, throw in the corn kernels and put on the lid. Shake pot every minute or so and let the kernels do their thing. Once the popping has subsided remove from the heat and carefully take off the lid. Allow the popcorn to cool, discarding any unpopped kernels.

In a large bowl combine mashed banana, vanilla and coconut oil. In another bowl assemble the dry ingredients: the oats, almond meal, baking powder cinnamon and salt. I ground everything myself in my powerful mini food-processor, one by one blitzing the oats, almonds and chocolate.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir til combined. Gently fold through the chocolate, then the walnuts and lastly the popcorn. The mixture is quite wet but have faith because it will hold together ok.

There is enough mixture to fill two baking sheets. I only have one so cooked them in two batches. The first following Heidi’s instructions to use a heaped tablespoon of dough, shaped into a ball by hand, came out quite large and round, needing about 18 minutes of cooking.

The second tray I used less, barely a level tablespoon of mixture per cookie, rounded to a ball by hand then flattened slightly on the tray. This batch took about 14 minutes to cook in my oven. The smaller size is perfect for a mouthful of something sweet with coffee or a treat. The small mouthfuls have also been a hit impromptu festive gift.

Update January 2013:
I've made a second batch, no measuring this time and all came out fine. Yippee, I so love baking intuitively rather than with the accoutrements of a pseudoscientist (like something out of the Ponds Institute).

Variation: This batch was made with cornflakes leftover from my dad's visit, I subbed them for popcorn. The combo of chocolate, cornflakes and walnuts was reminiscent of Afghan biscuits from my childhood. That's a good thing.

Further variations I'd consider in the future include desicated coconut and dried cherries. Possibly together. With chocolate of course.

This is a wonderfully adaptive recipe and non-vegans love the biscuits equally as much as those eschewing dairy and eggs. A perfect replacement for my (non-vegan) banana-based muffins.

Hate banana? Try some applesauce or a chunky, cooked apple puree. I reckon that would work just as well.

summer of vegan cooking round up

When you live with a Gemini, anything can happen. Eight years ago, when we met, the Significant Eater was a smoking, drinking, caffeine slugging, omnivore. Over the years his eating and living choices have gone through many twists and turns. This summer he’s a clean living, “wholefood” vegan.

Despite being a self-confessed Food Nazi, compared to him I’m a moderate. Though others may not think a diet without meat or dairy inhabits the middle ground, it’s been consistent for well over two decades. So dropping the eggs and fish from the home menu shouldn’t be a challenge, should it?

While I embrace the opportunity to increase my intake of wholegrains, beans, seeds and nuts (the cornerstones of vegan protein) on a daily basis, the biggest issue has turned out to be quantity and diversity, rather than actual ingredients. The SE is an active guy who even at the height of his meat loving could still devour a leafy green salad made from the entire contents of the fridge’s veggie crisper.

It’s been a tough summer for me for entirely different reasons. While I haven’t entirely gone off my tucker, it’s certainly dropped down in my priorities. If ever there was a time when I’d be happy to come home from work and just eat a boiled egg and some lettuce from the garden, this is it. Instead I’ve had to plan ahead to soak beans, cook up pots of quinoa, brown rice and millet, bake/fry/steam tofu and tempeh, and cut, peel, julienne, dice and grate a truckload of vegetables.

So, onto the culinary highlights

Porridge probably shouldn’t be summer highlight but it was – a massive fruit salad with either oat, millet or quinoa/amaranth porridge. Toss in some seeds and nuts and it’s an amazing start to the day.

Heidi’s (not so) wild mushroom tacos. With fresh tacos from Casa Iberica, guacamole and using Asian mixed mushrooms and small cubes of smoked tofu to her chilli/wild mushroom recipe. Made a nice change from beans.

A Japanese inspired broth (1+ litre veg stock, a knob of finely julienned ginger, 2 tsp mirin, 2 tsp tamari – to taste) with soba noodles, tofu, veg (carrot, green beans and zucchini – spring onion would have been good). Simple and nurturing.

Madhur Jaffrey's spiced rice with cashews. An old favourite, still a delight. (There’s an online adaptation here).

Mushroom risotto, like this earlier version but sans butter and booze. Sometimes you just need a little ballast in your gut after all the salads.

Vegan BBQ – whole corn in the husk, portabella mushrooms tossed in olive oil and garlic and a biodynamic soy burger (from Tofu trek, very tasty and didn’t dry out). With a cucumber, tomato, red onion salad – with the dregs of the mushroom marinade and a splash of balsamic vinegar. (Grilled eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes are also lovely. I sometime pre bake jacket potatoes til 2/3 cooked, then slice, toss in oil/garlic/rosemary and grill on bbq)

More salads than you can poke a stick at

The SE’s super salad made from quinoa, grated beetroot and carrot, salad greens, plus steamed spud and pumpkin. Dressed with tamari, toasted sesame oil and lemon juice dressing. When I replicated it I ditched the cooked veg and add fried tempeh. Yum.

Kitchen sink salad with chickpeas – blanched green beans, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, (red onion might have been nice), toasted cashews and itty bitty capers. Dressing made from orange juice and zest, sherry vinegar, walnut/olive oil, a little garlic, mustard and salt. An ok salad uplifted by a stellar dressing.

Seaweed salad with (I found some old wakame in the pantry, it’s hard to get now due to the radioactive contamination around Japan) grated carrot/finely sliced cucumber and celery salad with dressing of rice vinegar (Tetsuya’s nori vinegar)/tamari/sugar/roasted sesame oil/chilli flakes.

Did I document the food I made this summer? Nope...sorry...not sure how this one ended up in the camera

Rice noodles, smoked tofu, grated carrot, cucumber, mint and coriander. Dressing lime juice, sugar, chilli and tamari (I did miss the fish sauce but it was still nice).

Roasted veg salad (spuds, onion, beetroot, pumpkin) with fresh chives and a vinaigrette mixed with cashew butter and garlic.

Carrot/daikon/cucumber salad (adapted heavily from The Asian Vegan Kitchen). Mix the finely sliced veg with toasted sesame seeds. Dressing equal parts rice vinegar and sugar, a touch (or a lot) of green chilli, pinch of salt and 2-3 drops roasted sesame oil. (I made this one a number of times)

Sweet things

Finally cracked Tony Chiodo’s chocolate tart made with silken tofu (it’s the delectable dish on the back of the book). It was a labour of love but worth the effort.

And the more wholesome and happily hippy raw fruit pie.

The winning ingredient of the season?

Kimchi. You’ve got to search for one made without fish sauce or MSG, but it’s worth scrummaging through all the tubs in your favourite Asian grocery store). It got thrown on top of brown rice with other salads and bits and pieces, in homage to Yong Green’s Dragon Bowl. A handy, no fuss meal with lots of zing.

Tempeh and kimchi gyoza

As you know I’m a sucker for a good gyoza and figured kimchi and tempeh would make an inspired filling. And yes it did. I salivate for it now, just writing about. If you don’t know how to make gyoza use this equally delightful vegan version as a template. For the filling use equal quantities of tempeh and kimchi, whizzed up in the food processor for a finer consistency. Serve with the same rice vinegar/tamari/chilli oil dipping sauce.

So what have you been eating this summer?

watermelon salad and the summer of love

My golden rule for cookbook buying these days is that I have to actually cook from it in the first week or two of ownership. Otherwise after that initial flick through it tends to be cast aside, relegated to mere food porn. I guess like the real thing, being a spectator’s one thing but it’s a heck of a lot more fun to participate.

In New Zealand I made an impulse purchase of Heidi Swanson’s lovely new cookbook. The current generous exchange rate always makes me feel so rich whenever I go home and was happy to spend some it in a local, independent bookstore.

As a longtime fan of 101 Cookbooks I knew it wouldn’t be hard to find something to cook within the critical timeframe. With eat.drink.picnic promising a stellar 30c day, the watermelon salad was a no brainer.

Did I take photos? No, in the rush to head off to the gardens I forgot. But it’s a simple dish – watermelon balls (note to self: must improve balling technique), toasted pistachios, slivered dates, a squeeze of lime and a dash of rosewater. Next time round I’ll throw caution to the wind and add more lime and roses and toss in some fresh mint.

The picnic was one of the best I’ve been to for ages. Perfect weather, a great mix of people (old and new acquaintances, all delightful), pétanque, vegan desserts (oh how I love to be able to eat a dairy-free dessert) and a delightful location. With the annual Village event next door providing some enjoyable music, by 5 pm our little pocket of Edinburgh Gardens was covered with so many blissed out park goers that it looked like The Summer of Love.

Thanks so much to everyone who turned up (and sorry if any shy souls arrived and couldn’t find us, like a blind date I should have been wearing a pink carnation in my lapel). I really want to make Michael’s vegan caeser with Black Ruby’s stunning GF bread, Carla’s I can’t believe it’s not pate and Johanna’s vegan nutella fudge*. The Significant Eater is determined to buy me an ice cream maker to recreate Kristy’s balsamic strawberry ice cream.

Notable mention also goes to Claire’s wonderful prawns and Ed’s proseco. Not that I’m picking favourites, just two days after a 5 hour feast this is the best my mind could muster. Surely a good sign that it was an excellent day,




P.S. Some random thoughts while writing this post

Independent stores – books, locally made clothes, food…are awesome. If you have to buy things for Christmas, it’s nice to support the little guys.

We must have more picnics! There’s talk of a bloggers end of year “break up” at Barefoot Bowls. (Though Christmas may be loosely translated to early in the New Year).

We need to make all food related gatherings, whether it be friends, family or food lovers, as inclusive as possible. That doesn’t mean 100% gleegan but it’d be nice is half of it is. Everything was delicious.

Summer of Love? Yes please.

I really don’t watch porn (or not in the past two decades at least!)