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Culinary Quandaries: A Vegan Dinner Party & a Giveaway!

There are so many amazing new cookbooks popping up at the moment! This one is slightly different in that it’s an eBook- an interactive one at that!

“ A Vegan Dinner Party” is part of an eBook series called Culinary Quandaries designed to show readers how to cook to different dietary requirements, whether they have recently adopted a new diet themselves or would like to learn how to cook for someone else with requirements or preferences that they are unfamiliar with, or even if they are already well-seasoned vegans, vegetarians, gluten- and lactose-intolerant people themselves and are just looking to pick up some fresh and exciting new ideas for extending their culinary repertoire.

The introduction is especially useful for newbies as it explains veganism, what is and what isn’t vegan, and where to find some of the more unusual ingredients those not used to cooking vegan are likely not familiar with.

The recipes in the book have been contributed by experienced vegan chefs and bloggers, Anya Kassoff of Golubka Kitchen, Allyson Kramer and Janet Malowany of The Taste Space, so you know they’re going to be good!

The recipes range from the extravagant to the more classic, homey type, so you’ll be sure to find something to suit whatever mood you’re going for with your dinner party.

I would have loved to actually host a dinner party and make a few of the recipes from the book to serve to my guests but I just haven’t had the time lately. I’ve been happily testing out the recipes for my everyday meals though.

I kicked off with the Tamarind Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas. I’ve had a half jar of tamarind concentrate in my fridge forever (luckily it lasts a long time) but don’t remember what I’ve made with it, other than the Tamarind Lentils from Veganomicon, which I’ve made many times, and the Tamarind BBQ Tempeh & Sweet Potatoes from Appetite for Reduction. Anyway, I was glad to find another use for it and this curry is certainly one I’ll make again and again. I served it with homemade naan but I think it would be good over rice too, maybe with a side of greens.

Mains I’ve particularly got my eye on to try next are the Hazelnut Burgers with Roasted Tomatoes and Avocado and the Melon Basil Summer Rolls.

Next up was the Chickpea & Apricot Salad with Pineapple-Ginger-Cilantro Dressing. This came from the Starters section but I think it’s better suited as a side-dish or a lunch option, which was how I ate it. I liked all the different textures going on here, and this dish was actually what got me back into adding fruit to my salads.

Other Starters include Baked Veggie Spring Rolls (including homemade spring roll wrappers!), Fig and Kale Salad and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Dippers.

As I mentioned, this eBook is interactive, meaning it’s not just a simple PDF, and there are drop down menus, separate ingredients lists and instructions, etc. Once purchased, you can view it directly online via the Erudition website or downloaded to iBooks or Kindle format.

I found it much easier to read/use the ebook on my iPad rather than a computer or laptop as it’s quicker to scroll through the directions rather than clicking through to a new page for each step. I love that some of the more complicated recipes are broken down step-by-step with visuals and even videos to guide you through.

To note: A couple of the recipes do call for slightly more processed ingredients which I don’t tend to use in my own cooking, such as TVP, vegan cheese, vegan cream cheese or vegan butter, but these are definitely in the minority, so there are still plenty of recipes to suit my tastes.

You didn’t think I’d skipped dessert did you? I had a tough time choosing a recipe to try but in the end went all out with the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie with Almond-Coconut Crust. Gosh is this delicious, but most definitely a dinner party recipe! Meaning, it’s very very rich and not one for every day! Good thing I halved the recipe as it would be dangerous having too much of this around.

For my next dinner party it’s a toss up between the Pineapple and Mango Tart and the Vegan Panna Cotta Tea Cups with Raspberry Compote…

You can buy the eBook online here…

I’ve also been offered a copy of the eBook to give away to a lucky reader. As it’s an eBook, anyone anywhere in the world is welcome to enter. Please follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below and the winner will be announced in a week’s time!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Banana Doughnuts with Caramel & Chocolate (Vegan & Gluten-free!)

Before I get to the subject of the day, I just wanted to announce that Coconut and Berries won 2nd place in The Vegan Woman’s “Top 20 Vegan Blogs to Watch” (See the new little badge in my sidebar)! I’m thrilled to be featured, especially alongside so many bloggers I follow and admire.

All the wonderful support from my readers is what keeps me blogging so it wouldn’t have been possible without you! Maybe one year we’ll get on the “Top 10 Vegan Powerhouse Blogs” list!

I just went back and forth about ten times between the spelling “doughnut” and “donut” and the more I looked at them the more wrong they both looked! Anyway, it turns out we usually use “doughnut” here in the UK, and since my writing gets more and more American…probably from all the US blogs I read…I thought I better stick to my country’s own spelling!

Naked banana doughnuts

If you’re reading this, the chances are you’re into cooking, and therefore likely appreciate the joy a new piece of kitchen equipment can give! Certainly the case with me and my new doughnut pan. I somehow restrained myself from buying one until now. I don’t know what finally made me crack but I don’t feel too guilty about it as it’s been a lot of fun playing with it, and now I get to share this recipe with you!

Topped with date caramel and dark chocolate

These Banana Doughnuts with Caramel & Chocolate are vegan, gluten-free, yeast-free and baked not fried! It took a few tests to get what I was looking for- I kept ending up with muffins in doughnut shape or hockey pucks, neither of which were exactly what I was looking for. I also wanted to keep these gluten-free as a lot of you have requested gluten-free recipes, but that did complicate things a little.

In the end I hit on Ashley Mclaughlin’s book “Baked Doughnuts For Everyone” and adapted one of her recipes to produce these little yummies.

They have a light, springy texture and a tighter crumb than muffins. They’re also not too sweet so I could top them with a thick layer of my favourite date caramel and a generous drizzle of dark chocolate without taking the sweetness overboard.

They’re very easy to make but do require one ingredient which might not be a staple in your pantries- Sweet rice flour/ glutinous rice flour. It’s not the same as regular rice flour so please do not substitute! It’s not too hard to find online though as it’s used frequently in South East Asian cooking for desserts (you might have tried Mochi?). Give them a go and let me know what you think!

Banana Doughnuts with Caramel & Chocolate (Vegan & Gluten-free!)

Yield: 6 standard-size doughnuts and a few minis OR 8 standard-size doughnuts

Banana Doughnuts with Caramel & Chocolate (Vegan & Gluten-free!)

Ingredients

Banana Doughnuts
1/2 C Oat flour
1/2 C Sweet rice flour
1/4 C Coconut sugar
2 Tbsp Almond flour/Ground almonds
2 Tbsp Coconut flour
2 Tbsp Ground flaxseed
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp Almond milk
1/3 C Mashed banana (approx 1 small banana)
3 Tbsp oil
1 tsp Vanilla extract
*1 Recipe Date caramel (you will have leftovers)
50 g Dark chocolate/ 1/3 C Dark chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Lightly oil a doughnut pan.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir until just combined (do not overmix!).
Leave to sit for 5 minutes. The batter will be very thick and not pourable.
Spoon or pipe mixture into your prepared doughnut pan, filling to just below the top of the pan. Gently smooth out the tops with a spatula.
Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and a tester comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a rack to completely cool.
When cool, spread with a thick layer of date caramel and place in the fridge while you prepare the chocolate.
Melt and drizzle the chocolate over the doughnuts any way you like. For drizzling, I like to break up the chocolate bar into chunks and place in a sealed freezer bag. I then immerse the bag in a bowl of boiling water until melted, snip off a tiny corner of the bag with scissors and then drizzle straight from the bag.
Refrigerate briefly to allow the chocolate to firm up again.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2014/06/23/banana-doughnuts-caramel-chocolate-vegan-gluten-free/

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Healthy Mocha-Hazelnut Shake

Do you drink coffee? I actually don’t! I’ve just never got into it, despite having lived in Italy and France, both places with serious coffee cultures.

I love love love the smell of coffee, but the taste isn’t for me EXCEPT when it’s combined with chocolate of course! In that case, I adore it!

I’ve been making fresh almond milk probably twice weekly for some time now but was feeling like a change. We all know chocolate and hazelnut is one of those magical flavour pairings (Check out my Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Muffins or Raw Chocolate-Hazelnut Strawberry Jam Thumbprints if you agree!), so it made sense to give my mocha shake a hazelnutty base.

Hazelnut milk is just as easy to make as other nut milks- even easier in fact because hazelnuts don’t need soaking, since, unlike a lot of other nuts, they don’t have any (or very little) enzyme inhibitors. If you haven’t made your own nut milk before now’s your chance! You can make it as creamy as you like depending on how you plan to use it and avoid any unnecessary preservatives or fillers.

All you need is a high-powered blender. I use the Optimum 9400 from Froothie which is fantastic. It’s even more powerful than the famous Vitamix and Blendtec but much more affordable!

I also recommend a nut milk bag, like this one as it just makes things even easier and is reusable too. You can also use cheesecloth or a very fine sieve though.

One you’ve got your lovely creamy hazelnut milk and it’s nice and chilled, you’re ready to make the best shake you’ve ever had! And it’s healthy to boot! I used Organic instant coffee powder for the coffee flavour but you could use strong chilled espresso or even coffee extract if you want to keep this completely raw.

Rich, chocolat-ey and nutty. What more could you want?!

I was flying after drinking this. Maybe it was the little caffeine jolt for someone who’s not used to it…

Healthy Mocha-Hazelnut Shake

Serving Size: 1-2

Healthy Mocha-Hazelnut Shake

Ingredients

Hazelnut Milk:

1/2 C (75 g) Hazelnuts, soaked overnight
2 C (500 ml)Water

Shake:

3/4 C Chilled hazelnut milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp Hazelnut butter
2-3 Medjool dates, pitted
1 Tbsp Raw cacao powder
1 Tbsp Cacao nibs
1-1/2 tsp Instant coffee
1 Small frozen banana
1/3 C Ice

Instructions

Hazelnut milk:
Blend together nuts and water using the highest setting on your blender, until as smooth as possible.
Strain the liquid through a nut milk bag, or a cheesecloth, draped over a bowl.
Squeeze, twisting from the top down, to get all liquid from the fabric and leave a dry pulp behind.
Store in the fridge ( I use these Luminarc glass jugs with lids)
For the smoothie:
Blend together hazelnut milk through to coffee until smooth. It may take a little time to pulverize the dates, depending on your blender. Add the frozen banana and ice and blend again.
Serve in a chilled glass.

Notes

For drinking the hazelnut milk plain or for cereal, tea, etc. I make it a little thinner with an extra 1/2 C water. Also, after straining I return it to the blender and blend in one large date and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2014/05/25/healthy-mocha-hazelnut-shake/

Even if you don’t think you like coffee I urge you to give this Healthy Mocha-Hazelnut Shake a try. The coffee enhances the chocolate and really gives the shake its wow-factor.
Enjoy!

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Raw Chocolate-Hazelnut Strawberry Jam Thumbprints

Cookie time! It’s been weeks since I shared a cookie recipe here. I know I said I’m typically more of a muffin girl, but the truth is I love them both! And these Raw Chocolate-Hazelnut Strawberry Jam Thumbprints definitely got me excited about cookies.

I recently got the chance to try a few products made by Windy City Organics, a US company specializing in raw, vegan and organic products. You may have heard of Rawmio and Dastony before, two brands of raw nut butters, and if you haven’t been lucky enough to have tried them yet you’ll just have to believe me when I say these are the best nut butters EVER.

They’re so so smooth, it’s hard to believe they’re raw. The Rawmio Chocolate Hazelnut Butter is honestly like liquid silk! Rawmio actually make another product called “Rawmio Hazelnut Silk”, which is White Chocolate Hazelnut Butter, so I can’t even imagine how heavenly that one must be.

I’ve got another recipe coming up using one of the Dastony nut butters…but for this recipe I used the Rawmio Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

Who doesn’t love strawberries and chocolate together?!

I decided to make a raw strawberry jam to fill my little chocolat-ey cookies, but you could use your favourite berries, or, if you’re not fussed about keeping them raw, you could simply use a good-quality jam from a jar. You might have tried raw jam made with chia seeds before and I’ve made my own blackberry version before. I made this one smooth and thick rather than chunky-style though by blending the berries with the chia seeds and adding dates to thicken it further and add that jammy sweetness.

These cookies are super fudgy and quite different to your typical nut/date based raw cookie. I based them on my Raw Berry Cream Brownies (my most popular recipe to date!), using coconut flour as the base which gives them their unique texture.

Hope you enjoy!

Raw Chocolate-Hazelnut Strawberry Jam Thumbprints

2014-04-07 13:13:01

Serves 6

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Raw Strawberry Jam

5-6 Medjool Dates, pitted and diced
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 C Strawberries, washed, hulled and diced
1 Tbsp Chia seeds
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract (optional)
Pinch of salt

Raw Chocolate-Hazelnut Cookies

1/4 C Rawmio Chocolate Hazelnut Butter (Original), melted
2 Tbsp Coconut sugar
3-4 Tbsp Almond milk
1 Tbsp Ground flax
1/16 tsp Salt
1/4C + 1 Tbsp Coconut flour
2 Tbsp Almond flour/ground blanched almonds
1/2 Tbsp Raw cacao

Instructions

Make the strawberry jam first. Blend together all your ingredients in a high speed blender until perfectly smooth. You may need to scrape down the sides several times to get everything incorporated. Refrigerate while you make the cookies.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the chocolate hazelnut butter, coconut sugar, almond milk, flax and salt. (To melt the chocolate hazelnut butter, which is solid at room temperature, place the jar in a bowl of hot water or in a dehydrator for a few minutes).
Stir together the remaining ingredients in another bowl.
Add wet to dry and stir together to combine well. It will be very thick but shouldn't be dry. If it is, add almond milk 1 tsp at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Divide the mixture into 6, roll into balls and flattened with the palm of your hand. Use your thumb to make small indentations in each of the cookies and fill with a small amount of the strawberry jam.
Drizzle with more Rawmio chocolate hazelnut butter for extra deliciousness!
Store in the fridge.

Notes

If you are using another brand or homemade chocolate hazelnut butter it will likely be much thicker than Rawmio, and more or less sweet so you may need to adjust the amounts of almond milk and coconut sugar accordingly.

Coconut and Berries http://www.coconutandberries.com/

US folk, you can buy Rawmio products here. You can also buy direct from Windy City Organics- just get in touch for a shipping quote. I gather they’re also working on getting more stockists worldwide so fingers crossed that happens soon!

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Hazelnut Butter-Chocolate Chip Muffins

I’m more a muffin than a cookie girl. Maybe because I can more easily justify eating muffins for breakfast…unless they’re my Apple and Raisin Oaty Breakfast Cookies that is- a recipe created especially for the first meal of the day! Breakfast aside, I still usually prefer muffins for some reason and it had been far too long since I’d made any.

A lovely friend who came to stay recently brought me a jar of this hazelnut butter as a “thank you for having me” gift. She clearly knows that food presents go down well around these parts! As much as I’ve been enjoying it slathered on sprouted grain toast with a spot of apricot jam, I felt it deserved to be used for something a little more special.

Muffins were the answer! Hazelnut Butter-Chocolate Chip Muffins! I love using nut butter in baking for the rich flavour and moisture it gives, which also means you can cut back or eliminate added oils. I had my fingers crossed when I shut the oven door as admittedly I’d cobbled this recipe together fairly quickly, but they turned out so tender with a lovely crumb.

Hazelnut butter is fairly widely available these days, but if you can’t find it it’s easy to make at home! Here is a simple how-to.

I couldn’t resist adding chocolate chips as everyone knows that chocolate and hazelnuts is a classic combination, but you could do chopped apricots or crystallized ginger and hazelnuts, or whatever sounds good to you.

This recipe makes only 6 muffins so you’ll probably want to double it!

Hazelnut Butter-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield: 6 Muffins

Ingredients

3/4 C Light Spelt flour
1-1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/8 tsp Salt
1/4 C Apple purée (unsweetened applesauce)
1/4 C Coconut sugar
1/2 Tbsp Ground flax
3 Tbsp Hazelnut butter
1 Tbsp Oil (e.g. sunflower OR melted coconut oil)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 C Almond milk
1/2 tsp Apple cider vinegar
1/4 C Chocolate chips
2 Tbsp Chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C/350F, Line a muffin tin with 6 paper cases.
Stir together the first three ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together apple purée through to apple cider vinegar.
Add wet to dry and stir just to combine.
Fold in the chocolate chips and hazelnuts, if using.
Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cases and bake for approx 20 minutes, until lightly browned and firm on top, and a tester comes out clean.

Notes

* To make these gluten-free: Replace the spelt flour with 1/2 cup each of oat flour and 1/2 cup blanched almond flour and 2 Tbsp tapioca starch. Increase flax to 1 Tbsp and baking powder to 2 tsp. Omit oil.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2014/03/17/hazelnut-butter-chocolate-chip-muffins/

I’m submitting this recipe at the weekly link-up, Wellness Weekends.

Muffins or cookies?

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