Trying something new without commiting

It's interesting that in my last post I was writing about marriage and in this post I want to focus on trying new things without having to commit fully.

Sun setting over the clouds

Back in May I wrote a post about trying a week without milk. It was something really different for me because I really love dairy. I mean REALLY love it!!! I would probably go through about 5 litres of milk a week and then cheese; cheddar, cottage, brie and then yoghurt and whey protein and ice-cream. The list goes on and on but the main point is I consume a lot of dairy. In fact, when I think about it I would probably say that the majority of my protein came from dairy sources. I used to be a vegetarian for years and while I switched back to including white meat and fish when I moved in with my fiancé, I still wouldn't eat a huge amount of it. Therefore I got most of my protein from dairy and I loved it!!

KerryMaid Country

However recently I have been doing some thinking and soul searching. Now I am not, absolutely not, going to stand here and criticise anyone else. Neither am I here to preach because lord knows I have consumed enough dairy in the last few years to feed probably about 5 people, so..... But there are a lot of people out there advising against too much dairy, for a variety of reason and I guess I have started to wonder if eating this much dairy is right for me?! And right now........ I'm not sure what the answer to that is.

So, I've decided to try something new, without making a massive commitment. So before the Vegan police descend - I cannot and will not tell you, or myself that I will never consume dairy again. In fact, I think I will probably deliberately leave myself the possibility of consuming dairy for ever, in a limited way, in one form or another. I mean I'm a baker, for goodness sake, and not a massive believer in overly processed substitutes. I may well be converted one day. However for the moment I have decided to try going dairy free for a little while and see how it is.

Also another side note to the Vegan Police - I am not Vegan, I do not claim to be Vegan. I have good people in my life who are Vegan and I respect them and their, at times, difficult choices for the benefit of animals. I believe in making some Vegan choices and you will see a number of Vegan recipes or alterations on my blog. However as a baker, a food blogger and a psychologist there is one thing that I firmly believe in and that is spreading hate and attacking people is never okay!! I understand that you view meat as murder, it kind of is, and I realise that living in a world where this is the norm frustrates you greatly. However I WON'T EVER agree that hateful behaviour towards others will successfully promote your cause. If anything it will shut down the very conversation you wish to start. So I compel anyone who finds this blog and feels the need to attack me or anyone else for where they are on their journey with food to just leave. This is not the place for you! 

That said I welcome and am excited by anyone who would like to share with me their story with dairy and their experiences with dairy-free too!! Particularly any tips! Please?!

So this week I tried an exciting new recipe and I wanted to share. You may remember if you read my previous post about giving up milk that I am on a bit of a quest. If there is even the slightest hope of giving up milk then I need to find something to put in my tea. As a born and bred Irish person, tea is an essential part of the day. In fact you can almost chart my mood based on whether I have had tea, and carbs but that's another story. So I need, NEED a dairy-free milk that will work in tea or this dairy free life is not manageable. I appreciate that this sounds dramatic, but I have come to know myself a little bit and I know I need tea.

So when I discovered this easy homemade cashew milk I jumped for joy!! It's creamy, milky and has minimal lumps. It works perfectly with cereal, amazingly in coffee but ..........awful in tea. So my quest continues but that doesn't diminish my love for cashew milk because this stuff is amazing!!!

Cashew Milk

225g/ 1.5 Cups Cashews
1.4L/ 6 Cups Water
2 Dates
1/2 tsp vanilla

You need - a blender
                 - an airtight glass jar
                 - a sieve (optional)
You Do Not need cheese cloth or any other special straining equipment

1 - Put the cashews in a jar cover with water and let them soak for at least 3 hours.

2 - Drain and rinse the cashews

3- Add Cashews and 1/2 the water into a blender and blend until smooth. At this point add the dates
     and vanilla if you want.

This is now a perfect consistency for creamer if that's your thing, so if you want that then stop here.

4 - Add the rest of the water until you have reached the desired consistency.

5 - Store in an airtight container in the fridge for  3 days, some say 5.

Then just enjoy in a delicious coffee...

This was full at one stage but I honestly couldn't resist it long enough to get photos

Note of caution ; It has been drawn to my attention that there can be an issue with raw cashews and mycotxins and although I have also found research that claims that properly treated and stored cashews contain little or no toxic substances. However I have yet to complete my own research on this subject and if you have any concerns I suggest that you do the same and reach your own conclusions.

A Dairy-free Birthday Treat

Every year, on my birthday I bake a cake. Not this year, although I went back to dairy this year I decided to give myself the time to work on something else that I have been craving - Almond Butter cups!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we recently took an amazing trip to Vegas! It was wonderful to be in Vegas but also to be in the states again. There were so many things I had missed from my time living there. There were also so many new things that I wanted to try. When you follow various food blogs you get to see some of the delicious new things people are loving in America and around the world. Since my time living in the US, it seems that healthy eating has become much more prevalent and, with it, a whole bunch of exciting new healthy products. One of the things that had tempted me was the Justin's products and particularly his heathy peanut butter cups. However when I went to get some I saw that he included sea salt, which is something that I don't eat. So I disappointedly walked away =(

(It's an unfortunate belief that sea salt is more fancy or healthy than normal salt and therefore many healthy food companies include sea salt in an attempt to appeal to the healthier customer, however it ignores those that cannot take it)

However I never gave up on the idea of a healthy nut butter cup, and preferably my favourite nut butter - Almond! So for this birthday I decided to dedicate my baking time to chocolate work.

Almond Butter Cups

240g Dark Chocolate Chips
100g Almond Butter
50g Almonds, toasted and ground
1-2 tbsp Agave Nectar
1 tbsp Coconut Oil
1 tsp Salt


I used some of my delicious 70% + dark chocolate. I melted down two thirds of it and then added the final third to bring down the temperature and temper the chocolate. Then I poured them into my mini-cupcake cases

For the almond butter centre I mixed store bought almond butter with more toasted ground almonds to thicken it, coconut oil for smoothness, salt in enhance the flavour and a tiny bit of agave nectar for sweetness. I then made little balls and pushed it into the hardened chocolate cases

From there I froze the cups to cool everything and facilitate the covers hardening. Then poured on the bottoms from the tempered chocolate.And then I simply let them hardened et voila...

As you can possibly see, the bases are not completely flat. This is due to the container having a raised lip. However I appreciate the thick bases as it's a nice chunk of chocolate to balance the almond butter.

As you can also see I left some lovely chunks of almond, but this is obviously optional! So now I have my dream treats and I will definitely be making these again, even if they leave a little bit of clean up.....

I would highly highly recommend making these. They are incredibly delicious, vegan, healthy and full of goodness. The best part is that it lasts so much longer than cake. I ate one of these while I typed this tonight and there is still plenty more =)

Vegan Peanut-Butter Cookies

This week I have been incredibly busy, apparently finishing a doctorate is not easy! Between presentations, essays, literature reviews, and work it’s hard to find a minute in the day! This week has also been challenging because my favourite person (bf) has been away and so for his return today I planned a special meal with an even more special dessert. In fact this dessert was designed for two people in my life that I was missing this weekend. 

 

One of my bf’s favourite flavours is peanut-butter and therefore this weekend I found a peanut butter cup ice-cream to finish off the delicious dinner I planned for his return. However ice-cream alone does not a dessert make and therefore I decided to make a few peanut butter cookies to be gently heated and go with the ice-cream and of course the only way was peanut butter.

Now since they were going to be peanut flavoured I knew that I could also make this recipe for another important person that I really missed this weekend and who has a particular penchant for peanuts, so hopefully she enjoys the recipe and maybe we can make it together this Christmas. This, however necessitated the cookies to be vegan. They are not only vegan but also wheat free, not that many people need that! So actually these cookies are kind of healthy, although not very and whatever you do………..don’t tell my boyfriend!!

 The cookies are crispy on the outside and have a delicious crumb (to sound all Mary Berry on you!). They are intensely peanut flavoured with a little sweetness although if you prefer them sweeter, feel free to increase the sugar by about 50%. They went perfectly with the ice-cream but I can also imagine them going excellently with coffee! And……………. they go with the ice-cream two ways, so read to the end! 

Vegan Peanut-butter Cookies (Gluten free, in case you’re celiac) (adapted from thebigmansworld.com)

250g Peanut-Butter (Chunky or Smooth, your choice)

100g brown sugar

100g white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax seeds with 3 tbsp water, allowed to sit for 15 mins)

75g ground almonds

50g 70% dark chocolate chips (more if you want)

11.      Prepare your flax eggs and preheat the oven to 170’C/325'F/Gas mark 3.

2

22.       Add the sugar and whisk until light and frothy

3

33.       Add the peanut-butter and stir.

4

44.       Finally add the almond and dark chocolate and stir everything together

5

55.       Form into little balls and then flatten, then bake for 15 minutes but keep an eye on them.

6

66.       They are done when they have browned around the edges then allow to cool. They will get    

         firmer as they cool

    

    Alternatively you can make cookie dough for ice-cream, since they can be eaten raw w/o issue!!!

1.       Form into tiny balls and then flatten on a plate.

2.       Put the plate into the freezer.

3.       Add to ice-cream for a cookie dough sensation!!!

Gingerbread and reflections

Today I considered not posting. I had planned this post since last week but somehow in light of what's happened in Paris and Beirut somehow happy seasonal food recipes just don't seem as important anyway. However this morning I decided it would be better to post and talk a little about the many many wonderful times I have spent in Paris.

So, it being the middle of November, it is starting to feel seasonal but yet it's not really reasonable to start indulging yet. These gingerbread bites are the absolute business. They are vegan, wholegrain, fat-free, and (unless you cover them with icing sugar for aesthetic purposes) refined sugar free!! They taste really good too and they hit that cake craving nicely! I also used the lovely Sweetpea Pantry ginger giggles mix that includes barley and rye flour. But before you eat me for using pre-made mix on a baking blog, know that it's just an ingredient and my own recipe!

The last time we went to Paris was very funny! My boyfriend and I have a habit when we go away of getting a little apartment style hotel room or hostel place and walk around everywhere to learn the area and pretend for a week that we live there. Paris is such a lovely place to do this because you can establish your local boulangerie/patisserie for a week and even within that limited space of time I get the impression that the boulanger will get to know you, which adds to the experience massively! Another wonderful thing about the pretending to live there part is that you have oodles of time to sit around in parks observing people and really soaking in the culture. Some of my happiest moments have been in france and sitting in a park with my bf just taking it all in forms the basis of a good few of those.

Back to the recipe

Vegan, Wholegrain Barley and Rye Gingerbread Bites (makes 15 inch square cubes)

200g Ginger Giggles Mix
Egg- replacer (use your product directions for the equivalent of 1 egg)
150ml Apple sauce                                                                

1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp Agave Nectar






1- Preheat oven to 180'C/ 350'F/ Gas mark 4.

2- Mix everything together  (could it be simpler)

3- Line a bread tin and pour in the mixture

4- Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown on top

5- Let cool and slice into cubes to enjoy

So I'll finish off with one of my favourite memories of paris and the wonderful people who live there. On our last visit there myself and my partner were walking around trying to find a great place to eat. We had been walking for a couple of hours sight-seeing and the like and we were pretty hungry. You know the type of hungry that takes on a life of it's own?! Well our seperate hungers were leading and each had a different goal in mind. We searched and searched and looked at so many delicious restaurants but each time, either I wasn't satisfied or he wasn't. Well, this had been going on for about an hour and the hunger was bad when we finally found a place that met all the criteria, Halleluia! But..... the kitchen was closed, in fact all the kitchens were closed until dinner time! Devastated!! We alked away starving and depressed and headed to the only thing we could see that was still open - McDonalds. You can imagine how unexcited I was, except I was forgetting that this was France. My McDonalds meal was the freshest and most delicious Mc Donalds I had ever had, with real dijon mustard and a much needed coffee on the side! Not only that but there was some tables outside and a group singing for some reason I never gathered. Now I'll grant you, my hunger may have added to the flavour but one thing cannot be denied - Parisians can add class to anything!! Which is exactly what we have seen in the wake of this tragedy! Parisians out holding their heads up in the face of terrorism and calling on others not to allow the acts of a few extremist segregate the muslim community in France. Now this is not and never will be a political blog and I am aware that there are several aspects of this situation that are more complex. However I would like to focus on the good and on my happy memories of paris, while I pray for all those involved and affected this weekend!

Look after yourself and enjoy this little post, til next week, a bientot =)

Vegan Ice-cream! All of the yum and none of the dairy

This past weekend we went for a visit to my sister's place. The weekend was filled with lots of enjoyable outings (tamper included) and some local sight-seeing but my favourite part had to be the vegan ice-cream. We had discussed ahead of time that we would be preparing this and I was very excited at the notion. I had never made traditional ice-cream (with an ice-cream maker) before, let alone a vegan variety, so needless to say I was very excited about this activity. Given my severe lack of experience and my sister's relatively little experience we decided to consult an expert - Isa Chandra Moskowitz and adapt her pumpkin vegan ice-cream recipe.

This recipe is surprisingly simple and although it requires specific pieces of equipment, it is relatively simple. The longest parts are the boiling of the cashews and the churning and chilling of the ice-cream. However these do not require your attention so you can be doing other things while your ice-cream is being made for you, almost!

In terms of flavours we went for a coconut and cashew ice-cream with hazelnut croquant pieces inside. The flavours come together deliciously and could be augmented with some vegan caramel, I found a delicious looking recipe here but on to our recipe.

Hazelnut Croquant Vegan Ice-cream

Equipment: Ice-cream maker, blender and saucepan

2 Cups Unroasted Cashews
2 cups Coconut Milk (1 can)
1 cup distilled water
3/4 Cup maple syrup
1/4 cup golden syrup
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt

1 cup hazelnuts
3/4 cup sugar

1 - Boil your cashews for 45 minutes.

2 - Meanwhile to make your croquant - melt your sugar in a thick bottomed saucepan and swirl, do not mix, until golden brown, then add your hazelnut and stir quickly before pouring onto a piece of greaseproof paper and let cool.

3 - Once your cashews have boiled, drain the water and add them to your blender. Now add your coconut milk, water, vanilla extract, maple syrup, golden syrup and salt. The blender will look like a delicious ombre bubble tea!

4 - Now blend until completely liquified. The finished product should coat the back of a spatula and hold a line if you run your finger down the middle.

5 - Follow your manufacturer's instructions to churn your ice-cream, first for 20-25 minutes.

6 - Meanwhile chop up your hazelnut croquant with your blender on the chop setting.

7 - Now add your chopped hazelnut croquant and continue churning for another 20-25 minutes.

8 - Move to an air-tight container and eat now, like a soft serve ice-cream or freeze overnight for well frozen traditional looking boules.

Study snacks

I have to start this post with an apology. I sincerely intended to post last week and was travelling home for my birthday so it made the perfect opportunity. I brought my big camera and even baking bits necessary for a really beautiful cake to blog about. However sometimes ironically living life gets in the way of blogging about one's life and I returned after the trip with a grand total of 2 photos. This is ridiculous and I'll explain why. There was so much to blog about. I celebrated with my family at a Michelin star restaurant, where the food came under glass service covers filled with special smoke to enhance the experience. Everything was beautiful and decadent but the setting was too sophisticated for me to pull out a huge camera, or even my phone.

Following this I prepared my cake and made it into the beautiful basket of roses that I imagined but unfortunately time constraints meant that as soon as i had completed the cake I had to work on my own appearance and the party was beginning in 45mins. So no pictures yet again. I have just one photo that a friend took as I was blowing out the candles, which I may add to this in a little bit with permission.