Four variations on Jamie Oliver's vegan brownie recipe.

Jamie Oliver's vegan chocolate brownie recipe is my new favourite, favourite vegan brownie recipe!  It's soo good.  And simple to make.  And has no faffy ingredients. 

You can find Jamie Oliver's vegan brownie recipe here.  

Recently we threw a big party and I made loads of brownies to feed our guests.  Here are the different variations I came up with,

Vegan chocolate brownies with chocolate chips and sugar stars.

I found myself looking at my brownies and wondering how to make them less, well, brown.  So I sprinkled some colourful sugar stars on top before baking, as well as missing out the nuts from the original recipe and adding a metric-arseload of vegan chocolate chips.

Vegan chocolate brownies with Oreos.

For this batch I broke up half a packet of Oreo's and mixed it into the batter.  I added bigger chunks on the top before baking.  And lots of chocolate chips, because chocolate chips. 

Vegan chocolate brownies with macadamia nuts. 

This was an easy variation, I just swapped the pecan nuts recommended in the recipe for macadamias - yum.

Vegan chocolate brownies with vegan fudge.

I made this variation of Jamie's chocolate brownies with vegan fudge instead of nuts.  I use Fabulous Freefrom Factory's Dairy Free Fudge, cut up into smallish cubes, mixed into the brownie batter and scattered on the top before baking.  I also added chocolate chips.  Because I'm a fan of chocolate chips.

This has quickly become my go to recipe, and I see many many more Jamie Oliver vegan brownies in my future! 

(Although I still have love for my old fave vegan chocolate brownie recipe too!)

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A yummy vegan chocolate fudge crispie cake recipe.

I love chocolate nest cakes at Easter!  This is my own vegan chocolate fudge version,

You will need

200g dark vegan chocolate

2 big dessert spoons of golden syrup

1 tea spoon of vegan margarine

pinch of salt

rice puff cereal

vegan ready to roll icing

a bowl, spoon, microwave and a serving dish.

How to make vegan chocolate fudge crispie cake

First melt the chocolate in the microwave, then add in the syrup, margarine and a pinch of salt and mix it all together thoroughly.

Pour in the rice cereal a bit at a time.  It's a bit tricky to mix, because the chocolate mixture goes quite fudgy, but persevere and don't worry too much if there are some bits of cereal that won't get covered.

Press the mixture into whatever dish you want to serve it in, I've used a cute little Pyrex one.  You can also make individual ones, each in a small dish, bowl or tea cup. 

Then decorate it!  I've used some ready to roll icing to make mini eggs to go on top.

Pop the cake in the fridge to set, then serve for pudding on Easter (or breakfast?  Well it is chocolate day!).

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Vegan rice krispie treat recipe, with Freedom Mallows vegan marshmallows.

These vegan rice krispie treats are sweet, light and yummy!  I was sent some vegan marshmallows from Freedom Mallows to try, they're delicious to eat on their own, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to whip up some lovely vegan treats!

You will need

1 75g packet vanilla Freedom Mallows

2 desert spoons vegan margarine

2 or 3 cups of rice krispies

Pan, spoon and a tin or tray.

How to make yummy vegan rice krispie treats

Melt the margarine in the pan over a gentle heat.

Add the vegan marshmallows and stir until they've melted.

Add rice krispies slowly into the pan, until they're covered with a light coating of the marshmallow mixture and are sticking together.

Push into a tin, tray or pyrex dish and firm and flatten out with the back of a spoon.

Chill in the fridge, then cut into squares and enjoy!

Freedom Mallows come in vanilla and strawberry flavours, and they're free from egg, dairy, gluten, gelatine, soy, GMOs and nuts, and they're suitable for vegetarians and vegans!  Phew!  They're also yummy, soft and melt in the mouth-y.  

My chief omnivore taste tester, Joe, say's the Freedom Mallows are just as good as non-vegan mallows and that my homemade vegan rice krispie treats are just as good as the Kellogs ones he buys from the shop. 

Have you tried Freedom Mallows yet?

Disclosure - I was sent the Freedom Mallows to try.  I only work with brands I like and all opinions are my own.  

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3 ways to eat vegan yogurt, and a Koko dairy free yogurt review.

Koko dairy free sent me some of their vegan yogurt to try.  It turns out that if you haven't eaten yogurt for 10+ years because you're vegan and can't eat soya you probably don't know what to do with yogurt!

However, with a little help from the internet, and a little sweet inspiration from the past, I've come up with 3 ways to eat vegan yogurt. 

Here they are,

Naan bread.  I found a naan bread recipe online and veganised it

by swapping the dairy milk and yogurt for Koko dairy free versions.  (Other changes I made the recipe?  Added in nigella seeds, kneaded the dough after it had risen and rolled the naans out a lot thinner than recommended!). 

I made plain ones and a yummy garlic and onion version with finely diced spring onion and garlic kneaded into the dough.  I've made naan bread before, but the addition of vegan milk and yogurt made the texture loads lighter and fluffier and the taste is richer and yummier.

 

Frozen yogurt and fruit.  I saw this idea on Koko dairy free's Instagram.  Mix a little icing sugar with vegan yogurt, spoon blobs onto a baking tray covered in foil, top with fruit then pop in the freezer for a couple of hours.  I've used tinned mandarins and chia seeds on mine, they're a nice, refreshing treat.

Chocolate and coconut vegan yogurt.  My mum had a yogurt maker when we were kids and me and my brother were allowed to add either cocoa powder or strawberry nesquik and desiccated coconut to our yogurts.  I always chose cocoa, a little bit of sugar and loads of desiccated coconut on top.  I haven't eaten yogurt for years, but this took me right back to eating little tubs of homemade yogurt as a little girl.  Except better, 'cos this version is vegan.

Koko Dairy Free original plain alternative to yogurt is really nice, it's also dairy free and soya free - yey!  It's very close to dairy yogurt, in taste and consistency.  When you eat it plain there's a faint coconut aftertaste, which I quite like, but when used in something savory, like the naan breads, it's not coconutty at all.  I love that all the Koko dairy free range has added vitamins and calcium, it makes me feel like I'm eating something good for me as well as something yummy!

What's your favourite kind of vegan yogurt?  Have you tried Koko dairy free?

Disclosure - I was sent some Koko dairy free yogurt to try.  I only write about brands I like, and I like Koko dairy free, and all opinions expressed here are my very own.

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Koko dairy free, a review and an easy vegan microwave cake recipe.

I've been searching for an acceptable vegan friendly 'milk' for as long as I've been vegan (which is 9 years this month!), so I was really glad to be sent some Koko Dairy Free to try - especially as it turns out I really like it!

 

Koko dairy free comes in original (like semi-skimmed), light (aka skimmed), chocolate and strawberry.  They're all UHT, low fat and have added calcium, and vitamins D2 and B12.    

I'm notoriously fussy, and if a dairy free milk has a funny aftertaste I'll always notice and be put off by it.  Koko dairy free milk alternative doesn't have an aftertaste and all the varieties are yummy!    Joe (who isn't vegan and usually has cows milk in his hot drinks) says Koko tastes right in his tea and coffee, and it doesn't curdle either.

I've been using Koko in my cooking too, I made some yummy vegan buckwheat and coconut milk pancakes, sweetcorn fritters and a delicious chocolate microwave cake too.   

Here's my recipe for quick and easy vegan chocolate microwave cake,  

You'll need

3 dessert spoons self raising flour

2 dessert spoons drinking chocolate (the type with sugar and coco powder in one)

1 dessert spoon sugar

1 dessert spoon melted Koko dairy free coconut oil (or vegan margarine)

125ml Koko dairy free chocolate milk

pinch of salt

Recipe

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Add the melted coconut oil (or margarine) and chocolate Koko dairy free and whisk together until it's a smooth cake batter.

3. Cover the top bowl with a piece of kitchen towel and put into the microwave for approx. 4 minutes.  Check it after 2 minutes, then every 30 seconds to make sure it doesn't burn.  It's ready when the top is firm and you can't see raw batter around the outside edge of the cake or bowl.

Makes enough for 2 or 3 servings.

Koko dairy free also make yummy virgin coconut oil for frying or baking, I think the jar is so cute and it tastes great too, sweet and coconutty. 

You can find Koko dairy free on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for loads of vegan ideas and recipes. 

Have you tried Koko dairy free?  What's your favourite vegan 'milk'?

Disclosure - I was sent some Koko dairy free to try out.  I only write about companies I like and my opinions are, as always, my own.  

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Vegan Easter, Vegan Sticky Hot Cross Buns, from Vegan Life Magazine Issue 4.

This month's subscription issue of Vegan Life Magazine pinged into my Magazine App and I practically drooled flicking through it. 

Photo C/O Vegan Life Magazine

I couldn't wait to try out the 'Sticky Hot Cross Buns' recipe.  I've never really made bread before, as is evident below, but I don't think I can blame the recipe for that!  The steps were really easy and the recipe really clear.

The recipe makes 12 vegan hot cross buns, I scaled it down to make 4.

I decided to make hot happy buns, instead of hot cross buns!  So I gave them smiley faces!  They looked a little, erm, horrific when they came out of the oven, so I quickly picked off the face bits (and ate them!) and carried on with no-cross buns!

I glazed them and then ate one hot from the oven! 

Even though my hot cross buns don't look a lot like the photo in the magazine, they're still super yummy!  I usually make flatbreads, I think this might be the first yeasted bread I've ever made as an adult,  I clearly need to work on my bread-making skills.   I'm very proud of myself for making some edible, non-burnt, tasty buns, even if they weren't perfect.

Boyfriend's reaction was 'ooh heavy' and 'like a bagel', but he did say they tasted nice!

You can find the recipe yourself in issue 4 of Vegan Life Magazine.  Let me know if yours turn out better than mine!

I'm linking this post up with Aniko's Make Thrift and Tell challenge, for March the theme is Domestic.  

You can subscribe to Vegan Life on paper or digitally.  There's also a handy app for digital subscriptions.  You can even read some articles for free on their website before you decide to subscribe!

 

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing this publication.  I have my own little page in the bloggers section on their lovely website.  All opinions are, of course, my own.

Vegan Pancakes, Happy Pancake Day!

This is a repost of an old recipe, but it still counts, 'cos it's pancake day today and I will be making these bad boys later!

Happy pancake day!  Hope you have eaten many battery, lemon-y, sugar-y pancakes! My vegan pancakes were particularly delicious this year, so I thought I'd share some of my tricks with you (it's my 7 year vegan-iversary this month, so I've had 7 pancake days to perfect it!).  They're dairy free and soya free too!

1. My recipe is really simple and makes 4 pancakes, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil and enough water to make a medium thickness batter (still runny but not thin and watery...slightly thicker than non-vegan pancake mix, it needs to be thicker to help it hold together, as it doesn't have eggs or milk to bind it)

2. Use more oil in the pan than you would for a non-vegan pancake, about a teaspoon per pancake, otherwise it WILL stick to the pan.

3. Make a thicker pancake than you would a non-vegan version...you won't get a really thin, crepe type pancake from this recipe, cos it needs to be thicker to hold together (it's the no eggs thing again!).

4. Get the oil really hot in the pan, pour a quarter of the mix to make a thick-ish pancake into the pan then leave it alone...don't prod it or poke it or try to lift up the sides for about 3 minutes to let it form a crust so it hold's itself together (there's a theme here right!?).

5. Trying to flip the pancake is probably a bad idea..it will fall apart, turn it over gently with a flipper thingy, then leave it to go brown

6. Slide onto a plate, cover with enough lemon and sugar to make your teeth hurt, and enjoy!

Do you have a vegan pancake recipe?

Linking up with Frugal Days Sustainable Ways.

Vegan Oat, Flax Seed and Coconut Flapjack Recipe.

My breakfast's were leaving me hungry mid morning, so I decided to add a bit more variety to my morning feast.  These are quick and easy to make and definitely fill you up until lunch time!  Although they are nice to eat at any time in the day, of course!

If you click on the emboldened text in the recipe, you can see that I've linked to the nutritional details of each ingredient, because that's something I'm thinking about these days.  (Unfortunately finding nutritional info was hard, I had to resort to Wikipedia, if any of you know of a better source for nutritional info online I'd appreciate it).

2 desertspoons vegan margarine
2 desertspoons golden syrup
2 desertspoons white sugar
2 desertspoons desiccated coconut
3 desertspoons golden flax seeds
1 desertspoon poppy seeds
Oats

Melt margarine, syrup and sugar together in the microwave.

Add enough oats to soak up the mixture but still remain wet enough to stick together.

Mix in the coconut and seeds.

Line a baking tray and fill with the mixture.  Press down.

Sprinkle sugar on top if you want a crispy finish (I used soft brown sugar).

Bake in the oven until firm, about 15-20 minutes, cool, cut into as many pieces as you want, then store in an airtight container.

Yummy!

Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Vegan Chocolate Brownie Cake Recipe...

My friend made me this cookbook years ago...

Inside is this magical recipe for vegan chocolate brownies.  They're really simple to make, and have the taste and texture of brownies or chocolate muffins, rich, a bit sticky and very chocolaty.  

I've written it out incase you can't see it clearly ...

Ingredients - 2 cups plain flour, 1 cup sugar, 2/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup of oil/margarine (melted marg. makes for a more gooey mix and I often add less oil), 1 heaped tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract, pinch salt.

Instructions - Pre-heat the oven to medium/low, mix together all the dry ingredients, add the oil or melted margarine and other wet ingredients and mix very well, add water to mix if you feel it's too dry, put ingredients into a greased and lined baking tin.  Cook on medium low for between 20-30 minutes, or until the top is not shiny.

 I added vegan buttercream icing (margarine and icing sugar and vanilla extract mixed together), sprinkles and edible glitter.  The dinosaur candles turned it into a birthday vegan chocolate brownie cake!

Vegan Pancake Recipe...

Hello! 

Happy Pancake Day!

Just wanted to re-share my vegan pancake recipe, and tips, in case you're in dire need of vegan pancakes today!

Hope you have a ponkonculous day!

Linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

Vegan Chocolate Fridge Cake Recipe...

This is my go to recipe when I have to quickly make a dish to take to a party or meeting.  This one is to cheer up an 8.30am staff meeting tomorrow.  It's super easy to make.

This recipe makes enough mix to fill one square dish sized 22cm by 22cm AND one round dish measuring 16cm across (I didn't have a dish big enough!) 

400g packet of vegan digestive biscuits

3 dessert spoons cocoa powder

4 dessert spoons vegan margarine

3 dessert spoons golden syrup

pinch of salt

200g vegan chocolate

Sprinkles and edible glitter (optional)

Put the digestives in a bowl and crush using the end of a rolling pin, add the cocoa powder and pinch of salt.

Put the margarine and syrup in a bowl in the microwave and blast for 30 seconds, then remove and stir, repeat until it's melted, then tip onto the biscuit mix.

Stir together and pour into a foil lined container.  Push it firmly down into the corners and make sure it's packed tightly.

Break the chocolate and put into a bowl, melt in the microwave for 30 seconds, remove and stir, repeat until it's melted.

Pour the melted chocolate onto the biscuit mix and spread out to cover it all.  Add sprinkles now if you want them!

Put in the fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight) then cut into squares.  Keep in the fridge.

P.S. 'Scuse my badly lit photos, I cook in the evenings, so it's hard to get a decent photo!

Linking up with Lakota at Ta-dah Tuesday and Frugally Sustainable.

Happy Pancake day....Plus Vegan Pancake Tips...

Happy pancake day!  Hope you have eaten many battery, lemon-y, sugar-y pancakes! My vegan pancakes were particularly delicious this year, so I thought I'd share some of my tricks with you (it's my 5 year vegan-iversary this month, so I've had 5 pancake days to perfect it!)...

1. My recipe is really simple and makes 4 pancakes, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil and enough water to make a medium thickness batter (still runny but not thin and watery...slightly thicker than non-vegan pancake mix, it needs to be thicker to help it hold together, as it doesn't have eggs or milk to bind it)

2. Use more oil in the pan than you would for a non-vegan pancake, about a teaspoon per pancake, otherwise it WILL stick to the pan.

3. Make a thicker pancake than you would a non-vegan version...you won't get a really thin, crepe type pancake from this recipe, cos it needs to be thicker to hold together (it's the no eggs thing again!).

4. Get the oil really hot in the pan, pour a quarter of the mix to make a thick-ish pancake into the pan then leave it alone...don't prod it or poke it or try to lift up the sides for about 3 minutes to let it form a crust so it hold's itself together (there's a theme here right!?).

5. Trying to flip the pancake is probably a bad idea..it will fall apart, turn it over gently with a flipper thingy, then leave it to go brown

6. Slide onto a plate, cover with enough lemon and sugar to make your teeth hurt, and enjoy!

Did you have a happy pancake day?  Do you have any vegan pancake tips for me?

Ridiculously Easy Biscuits...

While we had the oven on last night I decided to try out another baked recipe I'd seen on the TV this week (I can't remember which programme it was on unfortunately) for palmiers or elephant ear biscuits...they're supposed to turn out looking like this...

Mine did not turn out like that...I was using up some ready made puff pastry that I found in the freezer and there was only half of it left, so mine were very small and also I didn't roll them up tightly enough, so I made strange little piles of puff pastry and sugar...my goodness they were yummy though...I rolled out the pastry a little on a sugared surface, I used soft brown sugar mixed with a little white, which made them lovely and caramelly, then I sprinkled more sugar on top, rolled them up, cut the roll into 1cm segments, put them on a lined baking tray and baked for about 10 mins...they were so good we ate them in one go!  The sugar sort of melted out around the bottom of the biscuits and went all hard and crispy and tasted all syrupy....

  Have you baked anything exciting recently?

The BEST Vegan Chocolate Courgette Cake Ever...

I usually make awful cakes, as in they're more like dried up biscuits and don't ever, ever rise, or taste nice...so I'm especially proud of this chocolate courgette cake, which has risen and tastes delicious!  It's also massive, but that's not really a bad thing is it?!  You can find the recipe here (you have to scroll down a bit)

Yummy!