{26 Things I Made}: 21 & 22/26 - Florentine Slice and Christmas Mince Pies

I love baking for Christmas, and luckily I have a husband with a sweet tooth like mine who loves to eat my baking.  Win, win.  I bake, and someone else can eat most of it!  This year we will be hosting some of Alex's family for morning tea on Christmas day, so I thought I should make some special festive treats.  These two recipes are favourite Christmas treats in our house.


Florentine Slice


An easier version of the traditional Florentine biscuit.  The recipe originally came from one of my mum's Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks, but I have adapted it to be vegan.  The key ingredient is soy condensed milk, which I buy online from the Cruelty Free Shop in Auckland.   I have not tried to make my own soy condensed milk, but I understand it is not too tricky to make, so that might be a project for next year.

400g vegan dark chocolate (I use Whitakkers Dark Ghana or Bittersweet Block)
1 1/2 cups sultanas
4 cups crushed cornflakes (crush lightly in a bag, then measure out)
1 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
120g red glace cherries, chopped
1 tin Soymilke soy condensed milk

1. Prepare two 28cm x 18cm slice tins by lining with tinfoil and greasing lightly.  Preheat oven to 190degC.

2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave jug, stirring until smooth. Pour half the chocolate into each tin and spread out evenly.  Refrigerate until set.

3.  Combine all other ingredients in a large bowl.  When chocolate is set, spread mixure evenly over chocolate.

4. Bake for 15-20 mins until just starting to brown.  Leave in tin to cool.  When cool, cut into squares with serrated knife.

Makes about 48 squares.  Freezes well.

Note:
I find that sometimes the chocolate bubbles slightly from being baked.  The original recipe called for cooking chocolate, which I guess can cope with being baked.  After researching similar recipes online, next year I will try to bake the topping first and then "ice" the bottom of the slice with the melted chocolate after baking, to preserve the look of the chocolate.  Despite the bubbles, it is still as rich and chewy and delicious as ever!


Vegan Christmas Mince Pies

For this recipe you definitely need a food processor for both the fruit mince and the pastry.

I used Alison Holst's easy fruit mince recipe, online here.  The only change I made was to substitute chopped dried apricots for the mixed dried fruit as I am not a huge fan of mixed peel.  The recipe made enough fruit mince for just over 3 dozen pies (made in normal muffin tins).

For the pastry I used this recipe.  A single batch made enough for 12 mince pies.  I cut the bases out using an 8cm diameter round cookie cutter and the tops using a 7cm star cookie cutter.  I sprayed the muffin tins, put in the pastry bases, put in a dollop of fruit mince and popped a star on top.  I brushed the tops with a little soy milk and baked them at 180degC for 15-17 minutes.  Cool in the tins, then take out and cool on wire racks.  Sprinkle with icing sugar just before serving.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Alex and I tag-teamed in the kitchen a couple of weeks ago to make some chocolate cupcakes for him to take to work for his birthday.  I realised that I hadn't shared these recipes on my blog, so here they are for all you chocolate freaks, my favourite chocolate cupcake and icing recipes.  I have made these countless times for work morning teas, birthday parties, celebrations or just because I needed a chocolate hit. This makes light, chocolatey, moist cupcakes or cake.  And the icing is rich, fluffy and lick-the-bowl-icious.  Who needs eggs and dairy?



Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (or Cake)
(adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)
Makes 12 cupcakes.  Can be easily halved to make 6 cupcakes (if you want a chocolate hit, but don't want to make a whole batch!)

1 cup soy milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (you can use white vinegar if you don't have ACV)

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup white flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder (I use Sun Valley brand)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. 

3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).  

4. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before icing.

Notes: 

1. I have made these at different times using my kenwood mixer, hand held mixer and just beating by hand.  I have found that the cupcakes were much fluffier and moister when I used a mixer to beat the mixture rather than just mixing by hand. 

2. To make a cake, pour mixture into a greased 20-23cm round cake tin and bake for 32-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  If you want to make a layer cake, double the recipe and make two cakes and then sandwich with some icing or jam or stewed berries in the middle. You may need extra icing for a layer cake.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

(adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking)

1/2 cup (112g) non-dairy butter (in NZ use Olivani or Olivite)

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/3 cup cocoa (I use Sun Valley brand - much richer than Cadbury or Nestle)

1 tsp vanilla essence 

3-4 tbsp water or non-dairy milk

With an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.  With the mixer on low speed, add the icing sugar and cream for about 2 minutes.  Add the cocoa, vanilla and milk/water and turn the mixer to high speed once all the ingredients are relatively well combined.  Beat on high speed until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add 1-2 tbsp (15-30ml) more milk if it is too dry.  Pipe or spread onto cupcakes or cakes.  Lick the bowl and the beaters afterwards!

Makes enough for one 23cm cake or about 12 cupcakes piped. If you are not going to pipe the icing on your cupcakes, you could probably halve the recipe, but when it comes to cupcakes, the more icing the better!

Chocolate Peppermint Slice

I had to make something for a morning tea at work and had pinned a couple of Chocolate Peppermint Slice recipes that I thought I might be able to adapt to make them vegan.  Mint + Chocolate is one of my favourite flavour combinations, but I've not had Peppermint Slice since I became vegan.

This recipe is a result of combining a couple of recipes and adjusting some quantities.  The slice was a great hit, both at work and with my favourite baking-tester (Alex).  Here is the recipe in case you would like to try it too.  Beware, it is very rich and sweet, so small pieces are a must!

Chocolate Peppermint Slice
Makes approx 48 pieces

For the base:
1 ½ cups self raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup dessicated coconut

½ cup brown sugar
, firmly packed
125g vegan margarine, melted

Filling
:
60g Kremelta, melted

4 cups icing sugar

4 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon peppermint essence



Chocolate topping:
200g dark chocolate

50g Kremelta

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter a 16cm x 26cm slice tray. Combine flour, cocoa, coconut and brown sugar in a bowl, stir in melted margarine and mix until well combined. Press mixture into slice tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until starting to brown. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Do not overcook as you don't want it to be too crumbly.

To make filling, place icing sugar in a small bowl, stir in melted Kremelta, soy milk and peppermint essence. Spread filling over warm base using a spatula or the back of a warm spoon. Place tray in fridge for about 30 minutes until filling is cold.

To make the topping, melt Kremelta and chocolate together either in a microwave proof jug or in a bowl over hot water.  Stir until smooth. Pour chocolate over peppermint filling - you can tip the tray from side to side to get it evenly covered.   Leave at room temperature to set and then slice into squares.   Use a sharp warm knife (run under hot water then dry) to cut the slice - the warm knife helps you to cut the chocolate without it cracking.

Eat, go into a sugar coma.  Come back for round 2.

Hottest Home Baker Challenge Week 2: Vegan Afghan Biscuits

The challenge this week was to bake 3 things in 2 hours that would appeal to children and be suitable to sell at a school gala.  The contestants had to bake their first item in 45 mins.  If you didn't see the show, you can watch it on demand here.

I decided to just make one item in 45 minutes.  To help me decide what to bake, I conducted a some quick market research with my ready-made focus group a.k.a. my class of Year 2 (aged 6-7) children.  I asked them what baking they would buy at a gala.  After quite an animated discussion (lesson for next time - make the topic of discussion edible and all children will be engaged!), the most popular turned out to be cookies with coloured icing and sprinkles or lollies on top.  Cake pops and cupcakes came in a close second, but I didn't think I would be able to make and decorate them in 45 mins.  I considered shortbread or gingerbread men (one girl in my class said she only liked "gingerbread ladies, not gingerbread men"!), but settled on a New Zealand classic - Afghan Biscuits.  Alex needed something to take to work for a morning tea on Monday and I thought I could adapt Afghans to make them appeal to kids as well as adults.

The recipe I used is adapted from the Edmonds cookbook and is below.  It is a quick and easy recipe and makes a lovely rich and chocolatey biscuit.

The only change I made to the adults version was to top them with almonds as I didn't have any walnuts.  The kids versions were topped with raspberry icing (made with icing sugar, raspberry essence and a bit of water - sickly sweet but bright enough to appeal to kids I think) and rainbow sprinkles.





  Vegan Afghan Biscuits
(Makes 18 biscuits)

175g vegan margarine (I used Olivani)
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 c white flour
1/2 c cocoa
1 1/2 c cornflakes
Walnut halves to decorate

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C.  Grease an oven tray.  Cream margarine and sugar together until it lightens in colour and is fluffy.  Beat in sifted flour and cocoa to make a stiff dough.  Check the dough holds together by pressing a small handful of crumbs together.  If it is too crumbly, add a tablespoon or two of soy milk to the dough.  Add cornflakes and mix through evenly.  Roll tablespoonsful of mixture into balls and put on greased tray.  Flatten slightly with the back of a fork.  They do not spread during cooking, so you can place them close together.  Bake for 12-15 mins.  Cool on tray for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling racks.  When cold ice with chocolate icing (see recipe below) and press a walnut half into the icing.

Chocolate icing
2 c icing sugar
2 heaped tbsp cocoa
2 tsp vegan margarine
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 tbsp hot water

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl.  Put margarine, vanilla and 1tbsp water into a small bowl or mug and stir until margarine is melted (it may help to microwave it for 10 seconds or so).  Pour into the icing sugar and cocoa.  Stir to make a spreadable icing, adding more water (a tsp at a time) to get desired consistency.

Hottest Home Baker Challenge Week 1: Vegan Empanadas

New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker has just started again on TV.  I don't watch a lot of TV, and hardly any reality TV, but this show really appeals to me (along with Project Runway of course!).  I decided this year that I would play along and try to follow the challenges at home each week, which would give me an excuse to bake more and maybe try some new recipes.

The first episode challenge was to bake a sweet or savoury dish in 90 minutes.  Each contestant randomly chose a sweet or savoury card, but I decided to opt for savoury since I always bake sweet dishes.  I was inspired by one of the contestants to try Empanadas, something I'd never baked before.  After some research, I decided on Roasted Acorn Squash and Black Bean Empanadas from the Veganomicon, transcribed here.

I subbed Crown pumpkin for Acorn Squash, but followed the rest of the recipe pretty closely, except that I cut in the vegetable shortening using my food processor.  They took me longer than 90 minutes, so I failed on the time limit rule.  But my impartial judge (Alex) declared them delicious and devoured them for dinner.  I have to agree that the combination of sweet pumpkin and red onion with black beans and a bit of spicy heat made for a delicious filling.  The pastry was simple to make and I'll definitely try these again and experiment with different fillings.

Diced pumpkin

Mixing the dough

Filling the dough

Ready for the oven

Fresh out of the oven

Yum, yum!