Around the World in 80 Plates: Lebanon

Again, for this entry, I had to ask for my mom's help and the recipe I used is from World Vegan Feast. This time it was Yellow Semolina Cake with Lemon Syrup (Sfoof) from Lebanon. As the name would indicate, it is made with semolina flour and is soaked with a lemon syrup after it's baked. It also has a traditional ingredient of turmeric to give it a bright yellow hue (and no joke, it's yellow!). Bryanna says in the header of the recipe that she added the less traditional lemon flavouring to the cake and a lemon syrup as well but I think it was a great addition. I love lemon cakes, they may just be my favourite of all the cakes so when I read over this recipe, I knew I had to try it.

It goes together quite quickly with the assistance of a stand mixer and the top is studded with slivered almonds which makes it quite pretty. I also love that it will hold for a few days though I'm not sure how long it will last around here. This cake is seriously moreish. It is dense and moist and full of lemony flavour. It's surprisingly not as sweet as I would have imagined with the syrup poured over top. Its just right. Mac loved it too and the fact that we are eating cake at 10:30 am too!

Also, you have until tomorrow morning at 10am EST to enter to win one of nine cookbooks (you get to choose). It is open to anyone, worldwide and all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (http://threeandahalfvegans.blogspot.ca/2012/10/around-world-in-80-plates-finland.html).

This is my final Vegan Mofo post, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I found some great new blogs to follow and ate a bunch of delicious food thanks to some wonderful vegan cookbook authors. I do plan to keep up on the trip around the world just not at this pace. Hope you will come back to join me for those as well!  

Around the World in 80 Plates: England (cont)

My Nan was my favourite person when I was growing up. She was funny and loving and she loved to be in the kitchen baking buns and making jam and I loved being by her side to be her taste tester! I like to think I take after her like that and every time I'm in the kitchen I think about her and what she would think of me making things from scratch.

Another memory that always stands out is how she would say she wasn't hungry and would just like a few berries with cream instead of supper. It always amused me that she wanted to forgo the heavier meal but always had room for something sweet.

Today I present something that I know my Nan would have passed on supper for...Trifle! It is a dish I used to make before but previously I had used a store bought angel food cake and tinned custard. I wasn't really sure I could replicate the cake...until I found the perfect recipe for Vegan Sponge Cake in Bryanna Clark Grogan's World Vegan Feast. Bryanna has included a recipe for a delicious sounding trifle but I only used the cake recipe for this particular one. I had already imagined based on my Nan's love of berries and cream what I wanted to layer with the light and airy cake. Fresh Ontario strawberries sprinkled with just a touch of sugar, a healthy dose of Healthy Top, a jar of homemade strawberry jam from early in the berry season (I used the recipe from Canning for a New Generation), a little bit of Lavender Lemon Curd (recipe from Joni's new book Vegan Food Gifts) and a bit of custard I made using a mix which was less than perfect so I used it sparingly). I skipped the traditional bit of sherry since Kiddo would be eating it and we don't really have any alcohol in the house but you could totally add it for a more traditional flavour. I baked the cake in small tube pans and tore it into bite sized pieces to make it easier to serve and to make sure you got a bite of everything in each spoonful. The cake is absolutely perfect and tastes delicious. It was quick and simple to make, Bryanna is truly a genius but I'm sure we all know that by now!

Mac seriously loved this dessert and has been talking about it since and how we should make that again...really soon he always adds. You can see below he couldn't contain himself and got right in there with his little fingers as I was taking my picture of all those beautiful layers. After finishing off his first taste of it, he quietly reached over and pulled the trifle bowl closer to him and grinned at me and without saying a word I knew he wanted seconds, just like Nan would have.

It might look a little messy but it tastes like heaven!

Oh so yummy dessert

I'll admit it...we are dessert people. There I said it! Every night after supper we have something, just a little something sweet. Sometimes it's fruit but I won't lie, most of the time its not. Popsicles and Smooze (or push pops as Mac calls them) are a favourite of Mac's. Homemade vegan ice cream is also a favourite. This morning I made Baked Oatmeal Squares by Mama Pea for breakfast...how does this relate to dessert you might ask? Well, it uses half a block of silken tofu I answer to that. And what else do you do with half a block of silken tofu but make homemade vegan ice cream?? Exactly (even though I'm sure there are a million other uses for it)! So today I made some Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream and served it with Speculoos cookies and oh my gosh it was a match made in my mouth. Mac saw the ice cream, picked up a spoon and asked Daddy "Can you get me a bowl for this spoon?" for which he got a bowl and a big laugh which is a big win for him. Here's a picture just so you can dream about it tonight! And yes, it is rich and creamy and sweet and spicy...in short, it's delicious!

My First Macaron

I recently borrowed Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky from the library. I had taken a peek at it before at the book store and quickly decided to add it to my Christmas list but I couldn't wait and lucky for me, the library had a copy. I waited patiently on the list and then my time finally came to borrow this beautiful book. I have to say first off, I'm really impressed with the overall look and quality of this book. Vegan cookbooks are definitely becoming more and more glossy and full of photographs and thank goodness! I love pictures and this book is full of Hannah Kaminsky's beautiful work. I went through the whole book in one go (which is impressive considering I have a four year old who wants my attention all the time) and immediately had at least ten things I seriously had to make right away. I decided the first recipe I would try is the Chocolate Mint Macarons. It was like Hannah's warning that they were tricky made them irresistible to me. I have been watching a lot of Top Chef Just Desserts and these macarons were all over the place. I have never ever had one so I have no idea what the craze is all about but they are seriously precious. I always love those photos where they have lined up all the different colours of them like a little rainbow.

I broke out the stand mixer and the food processor and collected up all my ingredients...I was ready to face this challenge! I mixed up the first batch and they didn't look quite right. I was looking for ribbons of lava and I had a thicker mix than that. I blamed it on my stand mixer which has never had the right bowl. Lucky for me, my mom has her own stand mixer and she lives with us so I grabbed hers and gave it another go. The second batch worked only slightly better but I decided to pipe them anyways hoping that I was wrong about it being wrong and maybe I would get the results I was hoping for in the end. They didn't look right at first but after a minute they settled and spread out a bit and looked more promising. They have to rest for an hour and a half so I patiently (yeah right) waited and looked and waited and wanted to pick at one but resisted and waited. The true telling point would be once they were baked. Unfortunately that batch didn't work either.

But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I went straight to Facebook, sent Hannah a message asking for some help and within the afternoon I had my answer. My super strength microwave was killing my egg replacer and it wasn't getting the body I needed (which I should have known right away because the thing is seriously on steroids). By this point it was too late in the day to start again but I went right back at it and this time used 50% power on my microwave and low and behold...it worked! I got a big fluffy bowl of meringue to which I added the ground almonds and icing sugar. I piped the little guys and went to play a game of Candy Land with Mac to distract me. Once they were baked I knew they were much better than my previous attempts. They even had the little "feet" that their non-vegan counterparts have! The icing for this recipe was minty and I'm not a fan so I just opted out of the minty extract, adding a bit more vanilla extract. They are so delicious and couldn't be cuter. Ryan is in love with them, even just the plain shells. He says that he loves the crunch of the outside and the chocolate flavour on the inside. They really are a special treat and I will definitely make them again. I might even get brave enough to play around with the recipe some day for different colours and flavours.

I do want to say again to Hannah...Thank you sooooo much for your help! I really wanted to try these and I really wanted them to work and I wouldn't have been able to do that without your help. I can definitely say that vegan cookbook authors are the best and most helpful (and available) people around! I'm pretty sure only vegans can say that they emailed the author of their cookbook and got an answer within an hour or two. I can't wait to try more recipes from this beautiful book and hopefully there's one under the tree for me this December too! (hint hint Mom, if you're reading this!)