Banana Apple Walnut Cake (Vegan Of Course)

Howdy Kittens!

So today we have a no fail cake. This the go-to cake I make that usually garners generic but consistent responses such as, 'this is pretty good', ' I like this cake, rheea', 'nice cake'.

Of course all bakers dream of more nuanced replies, but it will have to do for now.

This is a tea cake that goes hella good with coffee/ tea and makes you feel like you are eating something vaguely healthy. Not really, but still.

I made a version for this last week for a dinner party and it was a winer item. Although I had omitted the apples in that one (you can too, just add another banana instead)

Here's What You Need

2 cups flour
1 banana
1 red apple
1/3rd cup oil ( I used olive)
1/2 cup soya mylk (or any other plant-based mylk like coconut, cashew or almond)
3/4th cup brown sugar (use white if you don't have it, but I recommend brown)
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 tablespoons cinnamon powder
3/4th cup broken walnuts
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
3/4th cup desiccated coconut (optional)



How to Make

First peel, core, and cut you apple into pieces. Blend into applesauce using your blender. Add some water to it so it blends well.

Fresh Applesauce

In a large bowl pour your apple sauce, oil, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in. Give it a good stir. Now add your banana in and start to mash it up real good. Once it's integrated well into the mix add your soya (or plant-based mylk) as well. Stir it up.

Pre-mashed banana

Using a sieve pour in your 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and soda. Add the coconut if you are using it and the walnuts. Blend well. It should be a thick but pourable batter. If it's too dry add a few tablespoons more of soya mylk until you have a nice cake batter consistency.

Let it look like this, kk?

Pre-heat oven to 180c. Pour batter into a loaf tin. Pop that baby in for 35-40 min. Check with a toothpick or knife to see if it's done in the middle. This cake takes a little more time to bake, so start doing check after 30 minutes or so.

Parchment Paper, so worth it cats

Let it cool. If you were smart you used parchment paper to line the loaf tin. After 30 min or so take out the cake. If you didn't use parchment paper, make sure you grease the pan well and then loosen the sides with a knife before popping the cake out.  Slice them up and offer it to people you like.

YAY! Where's the coffee?

Till then. Keep it kind. Keep it real.

Fancy French Vegan Chocolate Croissants ( Cheating Method)

Sexy Chocolate Croissants

Ola Puppers!

During my pre-vegan days there was this one thing I always picked up from Au bon Pain in Bangalore. It was their Pain Au Chocolat (French makes everything sound fancy). Basically it's a chocolate croissant. The thing is Au Bon Pair is a fairly mediocre cafe with mostly underwhelming bakes, but this one thing was simple enough for me to like. What's not to like about flour, sugar, and chocolate after all?

Well the thing is croissants aren't the easiest thing to make. They require patience and and nimble hands. I don't possess these qualities. Of course I cheated big time. The required time to allow the dough to set, knead out, chill, and then actually get to baking them takes like 4-5 hours. Not me, no folks, I cheated the system and got my croissants just fine. Delicious floury croissants with a dark chocolate middle. So good with coffee.

My hand-held kneader. You can also just use hands.

We nix the butter and use virgin coconut oil instead. You'll ideally need a hand held dough kneader,  but you can probably do it with your hands. In fact I am pretty sure you can. It will be goopy, but it's worth it.

Here's what you need to make these vegan treats


3 cups flour (maida)
2 tablespoons salt
1/3rd cup sugar
7 tablespoons + 4 tablespoons  cold coconut oil (should be firm, stick your oil in the freezer for 15-20 min)
1 cup water
3.5 teaspoons bakers yeast
12 squares of vegan dark chocolate( I used Amul dark chocolate) chopped
3 tablespoons of a plant- based mylk (like soy) for 'washing' the dough on top for shine (optional)


How to Make

Warm up your cup of water (can't be too hot, just lukewarm) I recommend zapping it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Or else let it warm on the stove top and then cool it down so that you can stick your finger in without yelping. Add your spoons of bakers yeast to this and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.

Ok so first you get a big-ass bowl. Dump your flour, salt and sugar into it. Blend in with your hands.

Now, use your hands or a dough kneader (on slow speed) as you slowly pour in the water-yeast mix.  Add your tablespoons of firm coconut oil, this basically acts as a butter substitute on a texture level as well. The chunks of oil help create a flaky pastry.

Keep blending for a few minutes. You should have a sticky, stretchy mixture (thanks yeast!)
On a clean surface sprinkle 1/4th cup of plain flour all over and then work your dough. Fold it multiple times and stretch it out with your hands. Do this for about 7-8 minutes. The dough will feel a lot more workable by then. Now cover your dough in a bowl with a wet cloth and let it rest for at least an hour. Ideally you let it rise for 2 hours, but hell I am too impatient for that.

Goopy

After 1-2 hours, your dough would have risen a bit. Now knead the dough again, this time get your extra 4 tablespoons of firm (chilled) coconut oil, and spread a table spoon on rolled out dough, and then fold it up. Repeat that 4 times. Then you basically keep playing with the dough by folding it as many times as you like (like you would a piece of paper), rolling it out a bit, folding it again. After you've lost your mind doing this, pause and think about how well your efforts will pay off. very soon.


Technically you're supposed to now allow this dough to chill in the fridge for an hour. But I don't have time for that. So instead roll  it out one final time, got it all stretched out, and then you cut it in half. From there cut 4 inch strips from it.

Way Better (dough worked with after 1 hour)

Now take your crushed chocolate and put some in the centre and some more towards the bottom of your strip. Roll it up quick. Repeat that process for all your strips.

That's an example of the dough 'folded' keep rolling it out and folding it back till you want to cry

We're almost there!

Use a brush to dip in soy milk (or maple syrup, or jaggery syrup) and brush the tops of your rolled up dough. This is for shine and totally optional.

Pre-head your oven to 200c. Pop those babies in for 12 minutes. After that turn the heat down to 170 and let it bake for another 8-10 minutes.

All rolled up and ready for the oven

Let them cool for a few minutes. But do eat them warm. They are puffy-flaky pillows of joy. They are chocolate surprises that will make you a believer. Sort of.

Ta-Dah!

Will I get away making more baked goods by cheating time and fair baking protocol?  Only time will tell.

Keep it kind. Keep it real.

Oil-Free, Gluten- Free, Vegan Chocolate Brownies (For Real)

Hiya Hedgehogs!

First up, disclaimer. I am not obsessed about things being healthy when cooking. I also eat plenty of gluten and have no allergies. While I know there are many people looking for grain-free and low-fat plant based recipes because of allergies and health, the reason I experiment with such things is just to see the tremendous possibilities out there.

The most compelling thing I've learnt about baking is how many nonsense myths are out there about what you 'need' to make something sweet and delicious. First myth? That you needs eggs for baking, I mean that is straight up crap. Eggless baking is the easiest thing in the world. I know there are plenty of vegan replacements for eggs ( chia seeds in this recipe for example) I'd argue for simple cakes you don't even need those.

So then I had to take it to the next level. Could I make chocolate vegan brownies without fat (oil) and  without flour or even wholewheat flour? The answer is hell yes.


There is much inspiration to be had on youtube for plant-based baking in all its variations: gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and even raw.

So here's my spin on baking these stellar brownies. But don't fool yourselves ya'll, it's still got sugar in it. And sugar is sugar. Although you could use jaggery syrup or blended dates, but that would give it a different flavour.  Jeez if you did that, then they would be oil-free, sugar-free, vegan brownies.

Chia seeds, cocoa powder, dark chocolate, almond flour 

Anyway, here's what you need


1 cup almond flour ( 3/4th cup almonds finally blended)
1 cup uncooked oats ( you can blend it if you want, but I used mine whole for a chewy-texture)
3/4th cup plant-based mylk (coconut, almond, soy, cashew) (I used almond)
60 grams (about 9-10 squares) of Amul Dark or Bitter chocolate (or any vegan dark chocolate)
1/4th cup pure cocoa powder
2 tablespoons chia seeds soaked in 7 tablespoons water
2 pinches of salt
3/4th cup brown or white sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5teaspoons baking powder



How to make

In a large bowl dump almond flour, oats, salt, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Blend in well with your hands or a large spatula. Set aside.

In a small pot add 2-3 tablespoons of water on low heat. Add your chocolate squares. Slowly stir it up till it melts fully. You can do this like a professional too with a double boiler, but I am way too lazy.

Lazy chocolate melting

Add the  melted chocolate  into your dry mixture. Now add your chia seeds and pour in your vegan mylk. Mix well into a glossy thick mixture that you can 'spoon in' to a baking pan.

Right before you add the chia-seed mix and vegan mylk

Grease a pan or a cake tin. Spoon in the thick batter into the pan. Level with a spoon.

Pop-in to a pre-heated oven (180c) for 20-23 minutes.

Let it cool. Slice up. You can garnish them brownies by dusting powdered sugar on top.

 Ain't that chocolate goodness rich?


Till next time!

Vegan Maple Syrup Cookies ( with a dash of almond flour)

Yo Peacocks !

So my mother just came in from Denver this morning. She visits Bangalore every 6 months to see me. This time she brought me a bunch of vegan swag. Vegan breakfast bars, plant-based protein powder, nutritional yeast, and even vegan mac & cheese boxes. I know, vegan hipster to the epic hilt. But the one glorious thing I really wanted was maple syrup. Because it's just way too expensive here.

So of course I am going to be annoying and tell you how to make maple syrup cookies fully knowing that it's really too much money to spend on a cookie ingredient. But, the thing is you can still make these cookies with quarter the amount of maple syrup (for the flavour) and use sugar for the rest. That way you can make good economy with your maple syrup.

flour, almond flour, and that liquid gold

Since I got a bunch of maple from the land of plenty, I went all out and made these cookies with zero sugar and 100% maple syrup.


These are super simple to make and taste so good. I have used 3/4th cup of almond flour (added to  the regular flour) for some extra yum-num and texture. Crispy on the outside and moist inside. Just a solid cookie.

Here's what you need

2 cups flour
3/4th cup almond flour (just blend almonds in a blender and sieve)
1 cup maple syrup (or use 3/4th cup powdered sugar +1/4 cup maple syrup)
1/3 rd cup oil/neutral oil like sunflower
1/4th cup coconut mylk (or any other plant-based mylk)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vinegar (optional, but for extra moistness)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla essence


Make it

Sieve your flour, almond flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Gently mix.

Flour, Almond Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, salt + Excitement to make this dope!

In another bowl mix your oil, coconut mylk,  vanilla, vinegar (if you are using it),  and maple syrup. It will look like crap, but trust, k?

It's not a looker. But trust. Coconut mylk, maple syrup, vanilla, oil

Now slowly pour your wet mixture into your dry mix and keep mixing. You have to get a dough going (it can be a bit sticky). Now knead that dough with your hands.

Pop it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. After that roll out into long tubes and cut circles of dough with a knife.

Cut the cookie dough

Preheat oven to 180c. Place your cookies on a greased pan or on parchment paper. Add any decoration like sprinkles, crushed almond or a dash of powdered sugar.

All ready for that oven

Pop those babies in for 12-15 minutes. Depending on the size of your oven  you might have to do 2 batches.

Let them cool for a few minutes. Now share. Best had with black coffee. But that's biased advice because I think in genereal, life goes best with black coffee.

Till  next time, keep it kind and keep it real!

Easy Vegan 3 Nut Ice Cream ( Heavy on the Pistachios, Lovers)

Ola Sugar gliders!

We're back to recipes for now.  My last article took a huge shift from the usual and while it was my most popular post ever, it had the resulting ape-shit negative/positive polarity that results in vegan opinion pieces. In any case, I am glad it got conversations rolling.

Now, let's get to what summer weekends were made for, Ice-Cream! I don't have an ice-cream maker, so for sure we can all make this nice, soft (but creamy and thick) ice -cream that's 100% vegan yo!

This is quick in terms of actually making it, but long because you have to let it freeze for about 3-4 hours and make sure to stir it up every 1 hour. Perfect for that day you are lounging about at home.

It's got 3 nuts, but the flavour emphasis is on the Pistachios.


Here's What You Need

1 cup shelled pistachios

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup cashews

1 cup coconut cream (try to strain out the watery parts from the tetra pack coconut milk)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

3/4th cup almond/soya/cashew mylk

1/3 cup sugar (use castor/icing sugar for best results)

1 tablespoon vanilla

a pinch of salt

My Veganarke Supply ran out had to use store-bought almond Mylk

How To Make

First get a bowl and pop it in the freezer and let it cool for 10 min at least. This helps your ice-cream set when you pour it in.

First blend your nuts separately into nut flour. It's ok if it's a little rough.

These Nuts Got Blended

Now set your nut powder aside and add your coconut cream, coconut oil, vanilla, salt, sugar, and almond (or any other plant based) mylk into the blender. Dump in your nut powders and blend it real well for about a minute off and on. Now pour your amazeballs ice-cream 'batter' into your cold bowl/dish. Pop it in the freezer.

Stir it up every hour for at least 3 straight hours.

Stir your ice-cream every hour like a good person

Your good to scoop out this creamy-delight-thing after 4 hours. Garnish with almonds or slivers of vegan dark chocolate.


Tell people you made it. Expect them to owe you presents.


Have a grand weekend. Keep it kind. Keep it real.

Bangalore Vegan Treat Alert: Coco Truce Cashew Cheese and Mayo Spreads

Herby, eh? Photo Cred: Coco Truce

Yo Yo Zebras!


You gotta love this city. This Bangalore, I tell you. The amount of local homegrown vendors making vegan treats is on the rise. This means plant-based substitutes is going to be way more accessible and even affordable.  Heads up, I'll be featuring  local vegan companies a couple times a month on my blog so that YOU can dig in, support, and celebrate local food and people making  kind, ethical, and sustainable treats.

So today we have the very spectacular Coco Truce. This Bangalore based homegrown company is run by a couple of vegans in the city. They are offering Cashew Cheese spread and Vegan Mayonnaise for right now. I think they also do a beetroot Hummus too.

Looks like Coco Truce has been Hella Busy. Photo Cred: Coco Truce

This week I got a jar of the cashew cheese and the vegan mayonnaise. First of all, the jars are pretty large. I was expecting tiny bottles, but listen-up coco truce, your camera angles make the jars look smaller than they are. I'd reckon we are getting 250 grams in each jar.


So let's get down to how they taste. The cashew cheese is lovely, right amount of tang, right amount of creamy. This is great on a sandwich or on crackers. I'd say surprise your friends with a fruit, nut and cracker board with this cheese and watch your big mighty jar be finished on the quick.


Let's get to the mayo. So, this is not your traditional mayo. I was expecting it to be a mayo substitute.  In the market a lot of the diet-eggless mayonnaise brands are default vegan. That means a lot of oil, but you know, whatever, it's mayo. But Coco Truce's mayo is more like a delicious salad dressing. I didn't find it oily at all. I used it as a millet-salad dressing, thinned it out with some water, added a chili for extra spiciness and a lump of jaggery to balance it out and it was so good! This spread can be used on sandwiches, pasta salads, and even be used in place of chutney.

Vegan-up your lunch. Photo Cred: Coco Truce

What I really loved about these guys were the amount of herb garnishing on top. Adds that oomph. It's almost sexy.

Each jar of cheese is 250 rupees and the mayo is 200 bucks, which is very reasonable given the amount and the ingredients.  I haven't tried the cheese on pizza yet, but you can bet I'll be doing that this week.

Masala Papad and Coco Truce Spreads were made for each other. Photo Cred: Coco Truce

 This weekend I really scored.  I got Coco Truce treats on Friday, and this Sunday met some vegan friends for lunch and scored a batch of Vegitein Spicy vegan hotdogs and veggie meat strips from the founder of Vegitein, Salona Lutchminarain. I have tried them before and they are amazing. The veggie meat strips just need to be fried up. The texture is amazing. The price to is amazing. 200 bucks for 5 hearty sausage links or 400 grams of veggie meat strips. Listen, mockmeat is the future of meat. We have a huge-ass problem with the industrialised meat and dairy.Whether you are vegan or not, consider using mock meat for some of your meals. It goes a long way in creating a compassionate sustainable future. Let's do this, yeah?

Sneak Peak of my Vegitein swag (Hotdogs + Veggie Meat strips) - stay tuned for a blog on this! 

                                                                                Photo Cred: Coco Truce

I'll be doing an interview with Carrots (which was the first vegan restaurant in Bangalore) and talking about Vegitein in upcoming blogs. So watch out, that vegan fever is going to bite you, albeit compassionately. Haaha, don't you love lame vegan jokes?

Photo Cred: Coco Truce

Alright ants, to order Coco Truce spreads, click on their FB link here and inbox them. Have a solidly super week people!

Peanut Butter Power Balls (Vegan, Yes)

It's kind of hard to make protein balls look good. But meh, Instagram filters.

Hi Cats!

I was way lazy to write a blog today. It's Monday after all.


But I made these protein balls and had enough foresight to take pictures, so I am like I might as well write this thing. But still, I am like typing stream of conscious. Can you tell?


Anyway.


So these little babies have no oil. It's all protein, all nutrition. Only oat flour (no maida/flour), and there is jaggery instead of sugar. That doesn't mean jaggery is any better for you, but it has more minerals in it, so whatever, feel better about it. It also requires no real cooking or baking. Yay!

All the good stuff

Here's what you need

1 cup oat flour (just take a cup of oats and grind it in the blender)

1/2 cup almonds

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons jaggery syrup or melted jaggery (add more if you like it sweeter)

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

2 tablespoons plant-based mylk or water

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder

11/2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

How to make

In a giant bowl add everything.

That's everything. Although I ended up adding more peanut butter.

Ok wait. Before that chop up half of your almonds into bits (rough cut) and blend the other half into almond flour. Mix it with your oat flour. You can also just add half the almond and cup of oats to one blender along with your flax seeds and make one powder.

Ok so now add your oat flour/almond flour/flaxseeds powder into the bowl. Add your chopped almonds, chia seeds, vanilla, jaggery syrup,  pinch of salt, and peanut butter on top. Now slowly mix. It will be all lumpy and show no signs of ever coming together. But keep mixing. Now add your two tablespoons water/plant mylk. Now get your hands dirty and start squeezing it into a dry dough. It might be very dry, that's ok.

It will seem daunting at first. Things get better.

Start to make balls out of the dough, it will be tougher than making  oil-laddos because the mixture is not that wet, but keep working at it. If it's really way to dry you can add a tablespoon more of water.

And that's it! Makes about 8 medium protein balls. Since are nutrient packed and not that sweet they're great to start your day with. It's also a solid post- workout snack choice.

See, they look nice and healthy, right?

I'll see you guys when it's the weekend again. Until then, make it through the week cats! I know you can.

Stuffed Chocolate Ice-Cube Surprise ( Vegan, That's No Surprise)

Gourmet it is!

Howdy Labradors!

I was scrolling FB and my childhood friend's mom Shobha Auntie had shared this video that showed us how to make some killer stuffed chocolate. You could totally dismiss my stupid blog and just watch the video here.

Or. You could go through my blog and see how I did it myself. Let me tell you this was super fast one and you can stuff it with whatever you fancy. You just need a good giant bar of dark chocolate, an ice-cube tray and coconut oil.

A nice loaf of, err, chocolate

Here's what you need

1 giant bar of Amul Dark/Bitter Chocolate (it's vegan) (you can also use any other brand of dark chocolate, but you will need about 3-4 small regular sized bars if you can't find a big one)

1/4th cup virgin coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Fun Fillings I used just a few of these, to be precise: almonds, coconut, jaggery syrup, pistachios, and strawberries. but here is a list to help with the imagination:

almonds, fruit, coconut , caramel , jaggery , Pistachios , cashews , walnuts, jelly, even espresso beans!



How You Make It

First get all your chosen fillings and set them aside where they are easily accessible. Now grease your ice-cube tray with coconut oil, good and proper, this is VITAL to them popping out like good little children.

Take out your giant chocolate bar. Chop it up. In a pot, add your coconut oil and add the chocolate pieces.  Add vanilla and salt now too. Stir on low fame. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to get it to be a little thinner (it should still be thick).

Switch off flame and stir, you should have a nice glossy chocolate paste.

Glossy Saucy 

Add a spoon of the chocolate to each of the sections in the ice-tray, make sure it covers the sides, and is filled a little less than halfway. Now add your toppings.


I did a mix of three flavors : almonds &coconut, Pistachio &jaggery syrup, and strawberry.

Do your Filling Thang

Once you've done our filling thing, top it over with the remaining chocolate. You can add a little water to the chocolate if it has thickened but stir and then pour it over. Your ice-tray won't be neat, that's ok, move on. Pop that tray in the freezer for one hour, or better yet give it 2 hours.

Then take out, give it a shake and pop out your chocolate ice cubes!

Ice cubes ain't got nothing on these babies

YAY! it's fancy, it's gourmet, it's super exquisite,  and people will think you are God. Really.

Inside looking good!

Now eat and go back to being a nice person. Keep it real!