ACORN CAFE - Nice Cream

To my amazement and joy, I discovered that the Acorn Cafe on Albany has single servings of Nice Cream. I also learned that Nice Cream is amazing. It was a dream come true. I am never eating salad for lunch again.

They also have tasty food and a delicious vegan blueberry banana muffin. 

SUNDAY MORNING FRENCH TOAST

French toast. Because it's Sunday. I have some of the Vegg that I brought from America. They're practically giving it away over there. You can buy it online here, but it's expensive.  I used the french toast recipe from the Newman Improved blog available here, but I didn't make it gluten free.  Instead I used some ciabatta bread that had been sitting around the kitchen so it was a little stale. French stale bread is the best for FT, IMO, but this was a close second. I didn't use a blender, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. I think next time I'll also use a little Alpro soy cream for half the soy milk, or something. Overall it turned out pretty darn well.

There were strawberries at the farmers market this week, and I has some market raspberries in my freezer, so I made a basic fruit sauce to go on top. Recipe follows.

Fruit Sauce

Ingredients:

1 pint strawberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
2 tablespoon sugar
1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Method:

1. Wash and cut up the strawberries.
2. Put them in a saucepan, add raspberries, heat on medium.
3. Add the sugar.
4. Cook for a while at a simmer. Maybe 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add a little water if it seems too thick. I like it pretty thick so I don't even worry about it.
5. Mix the cornstarch and water.
6. Add to the saucepan. It should thicken almost immediately.
7. Remove from heat. Done!

RASPBERRY AND RHUBARB SPELT MUFFINS

There is a simple truth to me. I love muffins. I like spelt muffins because they're dense, and I love rhubarb muffins because they're sour. These are sour dense muffins. I made these by adapting a recipe from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The original recipe, Blueberry Ginger Spelt Muffins, is an all time fave.  The book is one of my favorite recipe books.

Ingredients

2.5 C spelt flour 

3/4 C brown sugar

1 T baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 T mixed spices, or pumpkin pie spice, or any spice blend that's got cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and those sorts of spices.

1/2 C soy yoghurt (I used King Land mango and peach)

1 C soy milk

1/3 C oil

1 C raspberries

1 C rhubarb

Brown sugar (optional)

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 200. Grease the heck out of a muffin tin.  Not only does it make it easier to remove the muffins, but it makes the outside (crust?) a little tastier, IMO. 

2. Mix dry ingredients.

3. Mix wet ingredients.

4. Mix wet and dry, add raspberries and rhubarb. Next time I make these, I'm going to add a handful of walnuts. 

5. Spoon into muffin tin.

6. Sprinkle just a little brown sugar on the top, if you want. You could also cut the brown sugar in the recipe to 1/2 C and then sprinkle some on top.  

7. Cook for about 35 minutes, or until brown on top. 

8. You could let them cool and then remove them from the tin, but I normally let them cool only a tiny bit and then I run a knife around the edges to break up any thick, jammy bits where the fruit has affixed itself to edges. Then I eat them directly from the tin over several days, as custom dictates in my particular household. 

PEAR & HAZELNUT CREME TARTLET (topped with cocoa nibs and coconut whip)

I made a pear tartlet back in North America using vegan creme cheese. I can't really access any here that's reasonably priced, so I tried making one with a hazelnut-based filling that had the same kind of cream cheese bite. It worked out pretty well, although I recently realized that I could order cream cheese online, so I might give that a shot. It turned out well, but I think next time I'll use more of the creamy filling and keep it in the oven for slightly less time.


Ingredients

Pastry
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 + 1 T coconut oil
pinch salt
1 T brown sugar
4 T ice cold water

Filling
1 C raw hazelnuts, soaked overnight
1 C silken tofu
2 T lemon juice
1 t salt
2 T sugar
2 T soy milk
1-2 ripe pears (the riper the better)
melted butter or margarine to brush on the pears

Coconut whip
1 can coconut, chilled overnight
3 T icing sugar

Method

1. Make the pastry. I found my pastry got a little too crispy, but it was fairly flaky. I'm going to play around a bit with it. I think the trick will be to avoid handling it as much as possible after the water has been added, but handling it a little more before the water is added. I mixed everything in the food processor, and then rubbed the little beads of fat with the flour once it came out. I'm used to working with Earth Balance, and I learned to make crusts using butter, so I can't get used to the feeling of solid coconut oil which is much different. I found that the oil doesn't stick to the flour in the same way, and you want to coat the flour in the oil so it doesn't get glutinous once you add the water. Next time I'll be sure to use pastry flour, or maybe even blend in some rice flour or something with no gluten content just to make it easier. Anyhow, rubbing the oil with the flour a bit more solves this problem to some extent. Add the water just enough to form a ball. I really think the trick to any pie crust is not adding much water. I like it to barely hold together, and then when you're rolling it inevitably gets mashed together and even if the outskirts crumble and break apart, who cares. Also patching the bottom of a pie crust is better than having a tough crust, IMO. So add just enough water to be able to force it into a ball, and put it in the fridge.

2. Make the filling. Blend everything except the pears. Blend it for a long time until it's as smooth as possible. After this, I actually put it through a sieve to make it extra smooth. I saved the leftover nut pulp and spread it on some toast with some butter later. Anyhow, put it through a sieve, if you want, but this is by no means necessary.

3. Slice the pears super thin.

4. Roll the pastry. Unfortunately my tartlet pans are somewhere floating across the ocean, so I used a mini-springform pan instead. Hence the lack of aesthetic beauty. Put into your tartlet pan or pie pan or springform cake pan or whatever.

5. Add the hazelnut filling.

6. Nicely arrange the pears on top.

7. Brush on the melted vegan butter. I would also actually sprinkle a tiny bit of salt here.

8. Bake for 30 mins, or until the top starts to look a little golden and pretty.

9. While it's baking, take the coconut out of the fridge and turn over. Open the can. Pour off the liquid coconut water. Take out the coconut cream and whip it. Add the icing sugar. Continue to whip it until it actually looks just like whipped cream. Put the bowl back in the fridge until it's time to serve.


10. Remove tartlets. Let them stand for 10 mins. Take them out of their pans, place on a plate, and add a dollop of coconut whip. Throw on some cocoa nibs if you've got them.

I would recommend eating it while it's still a little warm, and letting the whip get a little melty on top.