Syrup sponge pudding (NEW RECIPE #38!)

This 15 minute vegan recipe might not be the prettiest thing I’ve cooked lately, but it was absolutely delicious!

The recipe was one to cook in the microwave, so it actually only took around five minutes to cook all in all, which made it dangerously quick for the future of my waistline!

The pudding was gooey and oozing with beautiful maple syrup, and the just the right level of stodgy and satisfying. It’s a shame that it looks slightly anaemic, but otherwise it is exactly the sort of pud that I would be delighted to serve at a big gathering after a roast dinner.

The level of moistness meant that no custard was needed, but I’m also fairly sure that custard would have gone brilliantly with it too.

4.5/5 (and it would be 5/5 if appearance didn’t count just a little bit!)

Sticky Toffee Pudding (NEW RECIPE #24)

Oh, BOSH! What can I say? The sticky toffee pudding is the very first recipe I have tried from the BOSH! cookbook, and I adored it.

This was no hippy, sugar-free and trendy recipe. This called for traditional baking ingredients, and lots of them.

The spice mix was divine, and the gooey sponge was just the right amount of oozy and stodgy. By the time you threw the toffee sauce over the top, it was sheer perfection. The recipe says it serves six, and I am not ashamed to admit that we ate the entire thing between the two of us in just two sittings.

The recipe called for a 25x15x5cm baking dish, which I do not have – mine was a little larger, which made the pudding thinner. Accordingly, I tried reducing the cooking time a little, but actually, I think I should have stuck with the recipe, because I’d say that mine was a touch underdone. That’s a lesson learned for next time.

Overall, if this recipe is in any way indicative of the quality of the cookbook, I’m in for a delightful time of it as I work my way through lots of recipes!

4.5/5

Balsamic tomato and red onion tarte and pea fritters! (NEW RECIPES #22 and #23!)

Date night was another 15 minute vegan double bill. I’ve needed an excuse to make the pea fritters for ages, and I thought they’d go nicely with this very special tarte.

The tarte itself used ready-made puff pastry, which has always produced really impressive-looking meals with a minimum of faff. The pastry bakes while you prepare the filling, in this case a fantastic mix of red onion, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. The end result was really rich and tangy, with layers of savoury tastes that made for a very posh meal!

The pea fritters, on the other hand, were pure comfort food. Oily, stodgy and dense, they were absolutely nothing like the description that suggested bursts of fresh flavours, but for me were perhaps even better for it. I had to add a lot more peas than the recipe at first called for, as the pea ration was very stingy, but the end result was tasty!

I would make both components of this meal again, either together or separately, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Tarte: 4/5

Fritters: 3/5

 

Apple crumble (NEW RECIPE #16)

Now the weather is getting colder, we have started having roast dinners on a Sunday again, followed by warm puddings. What could be nicer than a hot apple crumble on a chilly Sunday?

I adapted a recipe from Vegetarian nosh 4 students, with my normal substitute of dairy-free margarine for butter. I also jazzed it up a little, throwing in a handful of raisins and some extra spice.

It turned out absolutely beautifully, and I would be very happy to have this as my go-to crumble recipe. Next time, I think I might try adding oats to the crumble mixture, just for a bit of variety and a crunchier topping.

I served it with Alpro custard, bought from my local Morrison’s, which I’d never tried before and was absolutely lovely. I know it’s been a while since I tried the ‘real thing’, but I don’t think I would have been able to tell it apart from standard dairy custard.

This recipe gets a 4.5/5!

Brown bread (NEW RECIPE #14!)

After my recent white bread success, I decided the time had come to tackle a brown loaf. Or rather, according to the bread book from which I took the recipe, I tackled a wholemeal cottage loaf.

The recipe wasn’t anywhere near as simple as the white loaf, as it started by melting butter (I used marge) and making a starter for the yeast before mixing. However, it wasn’t too complicated, and it rose beautifully.

I completely disregarded the shape suggestion of two squashed balls on top of one another (which seems to be what makes it a ‘cottage’ loaf), mainly because we use our loaves for sandwiches, where a traditional rectangle shape tends to make life easier.

The bread turned out perfectly, so I would have no qualms using this recipe again.

Rating: 4/5.

 

 

White bread (NEW RECIPE #7!)

I have an amazing bread book. It’s been in my life for so long that I can’t remember whether it actually belongs to me or to my husband, and whether we bought it or it was a gift. What’s certain is that it is so so good that it is like pornography for carbohydrate-lovers like myself.

This is the book: Step-by-step bread. It’s filled with magical photographs, and I dare you to flip through it without saying ‘ooooh!’ ‘ahhhhh’ or ‘mmmmmm’!

It’s not a vegan or even a vegetarian cookbook, but the majority of the recipes are vegan-ifiable and a few are actually vegan. It is from this cookbook that my favourite bread of all time comes: the heavenly rosemary focaccia. This is my husband’s party piece, as it’s quickish, easy and absolutely incredible, as well as being accidentally vegan without any need for substitutions.

Anyway. I digress. Bread can do that to me.

I was looking for a new bread recipe. My husband normally makes all of our bread, and has done since university, when I bought him a bread maker for Christmas, and we never looked back. The bread maker has since given up the ghost, but we still use the same recipe, which produces a nice, tasty, reliable loaf. I fancied having a go at baking a loaf myself, but wanted something new, and turned to the bread book for ideas.

The recipe is for a ‘white loaf’, which sounded simple enough for me. It only has four ingredients, all of which are vegan, which is a good start.

The recipe was simple to follow, although kneading bread is EXHAUSTING! My arms were aching after the ten minutes of kneading were done.

The hardest part about baking bread was definitely all the waiting around. I was excited to try my loaf, but it was over three hours between opening the recipe book and biting into a crust of warm fluffy bread.

The loaf went really well, and I’ll be using the recipe again. I think I ever-so-slightly overcooked it, but the end result still had a really pleasing combination of firm crust and soft middle. It worked well for toast, for sandwiches, and for stuffing straight into my mouth with a drizzle of olive oil (my personal favourite way to eat bread).

All in all, I would rate this recipe a 4.5/5.