More ginger biscuits

I had so much fun making ginger biscuits the other day that I decided to try out another recipe. These ones are oaty ginger biscuits and a little bit stickier than the others.

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/180°C.
• Melt 115g vegetable spread, 85g sugar and 1 desert spoon of syrup on a low heat.
• Add 115g oats, 115g self raising flour, 1 heaped tsp ginger and a pinch of salt and mix well.
• Teaspoon out onto a baking tray and cook for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Recipe source: My mum again

I also baked some bread (which was some combination of flour, yeast, salt, water and olive oil)...

Spot the hedgehog!

... and some carob cornflake cakes, which are the less well known cousin of chocolate rice crispie cakes. I made them with 100g carob, 3 tbsp syrup, 60g vegetable spread melted together with 90g cornflakes.

I should probably have remembered to buy paper cases...

Ginger biscuits

I've been thinking lately that I need to bake more biscuits. Mmm, and some home baked bread. And maybe one day soon I'll try making a carrot cake that actually turns out well. I've made many in my time, but they always end up just too greasy. Anyway, back to biscuits... The other day, I made some tasty ginger biscuits...

I'll definitely be baking some more biscuits soon!

Here's the recipe:

• Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5 or 6 (190-200°C).
• Mix together 115g self raising flour, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp mixed spices (I didn't have mixed spices and they still tasted pretty good without) and 55g vegetable spread.
• When the mixture reaches a breadcrumb like consistency, add 55g sugar and 1 large tbsp syrup.
• Roll into balls and place on a greased baking tray, flatten slightly with a fork.
• Bake for 5-7 minutes, maybe a little longer depending on the size of the biscuits, til golden brown.

Recipe source: My Mum. In my first semester at university, when I hadn't long turned vegan, she came to visit me and brought my a big cake and various different biscuits, along with the recipes. They were really tasty so I don't know why I didn't make some more sooner!

(not) Honey biscuits

I was given this copy of the recipe when I came to uni

One of my favourite recipes when I was younger was this one for honey biscuits. Me and my brother used to make them when we went round to Jo, Rachel, Seth and Ruby's house. I figured that I could pretty easily adapt them to be vegan... Apart from the honey. Most of the reason I don't eat honey is because I think that hey, if I'm going to be vegan, I should do it properly. But having looked into it a bit, I do find I have other reasons too. Also, agave nectar is much tastier. So I used it to replace the honey, and the biscuits tasted great!

Apparently you can replace sugar with agave nectar too

Emma and Genevieve try out old and new recipes

Banana loaf and slightly grilled cookies (oops...)

This afternoon, Genevieve, a friend from the Lishi (tai chi) class at the university came over to listen to Beatles records, have a tour of our new house and meet some of the resident spiders. Oh yes, and most importantly of all, to bake cake! First, we made a banana loaf which a friendly cake baker called Melina recommended to me through a vegetarian/vegan couchsurfing group. Melina says that this one is her favourite, plus, cakes are a great way to use up very ripe bananas. And the end result was yummylicious! Genevieve and I also made some coconut and cashew cookies. These are from a recipe which contains egg, and up til now I've just cheated and used egg replacer because I was scared of messing up the cookies... Today, though, we used flaxseed (a great source of Omega 3 which can be added to anything you may be cooking) and my fears turned out to be unfounded; the cookies taste great! Anyhow, without further ado, on with the recipes... :)

Melina's banana cake

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
• Mix together the following ingredients: 225g soya/vegetable spread, 250g sugar or agave syrup, 2-3 very ripe bananas, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp baking powder.
• Next stir in 250g flour (Melina recommends a mix of dinkel and amaranth flour).
• Finally, stir in (optional) 50g crushed walnuts and 25g chocolate pieces (we used cacao nibs and came to the conclusion that whilst slightly odd on their own, they're not so bad in cake).
• Pour into loaf/cake tins.
• As a finishing touch, Melina adds a few clove heads, spread evenly across the top.

Coconut and cashew cookies

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
• Cream together 150g vegetable/soya spread with 135g sugar.
• Mix 1 tbsp ground flaxseed with 3 tbsp water (This is roughly equivalent to 1 egg. There are various other ways of replacing egg, like with banana for example. If in doubt, Google it!) and add to the sugar mix.
• Stir in 150g self raising flour (if you don't have self raising, just add 1 tsp baking powder for every 75g).
• Next, add 100g dessicated or grated creamed coconut (either works well, it just depends what kind of texture you want), 2 tsp ground ginger (optional) and 200g cashews.
• Add small balls of mixture (it'll be fairly sticky) to a greased baking tray and bake for around 15 minutes.
• Eat!

Recipe source for banana loaf: Melina (Thanks!)
Recipe source for cookies: Vegetarian Nosh 4 Students (This book has some really great recipes, although a lot of them do contain quite a bit of cheese.)