Planet VegMel picnic

It has been aaaaaaaaaaaaages since I last blogged due to slackness, tiredness due to non sleeping toddler & general life stuff getting in the way but am feeling a bit inspired at the moment so am going with it!
Today was the Planet VegMel picnic (also world fingerpainting day - who would have guessed??) & it really reinforced why I started blogging.  To sit in the sun eating amazing food with fantastic people who I would not have met otherwise is a pretty awesome thing.  I remember when I was thinking about going vegan & I used to read all these blogs & read about potlucks & it sounded like an amazing little community that I wanted to be a part of & now I am a part of it & it really is an amazing & supportive community.

So on to the food.  I decided to make rice paper rolls with a peanut dipping sauce after Mandee mentioned them during the week & I could not get them out of my head!  Unfortunately these were really bland &  boring & I was generally pretty unhappy with them & didn't even take a photo. 
My dessert on the other hand, I was really happy with.  I wanted to make something peanut buttery & when cleaning up my bookmarks I came across an incredibly easy recipe for peanut butter balls so decided to make them.  Yum!  They were like peanut butter cups in ball form but did end up a bit melty at the picnic.

Peanut butter balls (adapted from The Kitchenarian)

Ingredients

•  3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
•  7 tbsp almond meal
•  3 tbsp maple syrup
•  Dark chocolate (I used about 3/4 of a Whittakers block)
  

Method

1. Mix peanut butter, almond meal & maple syrup together until well mixed.
2. Roll into balls & refigerate 
3. Melt the chocolate
4. Roll pb balls into the chocolate & refigerate until set.

And this is what happens after you eat too much & are all tired out from trying to grab food & chase after birds, aka, post potluck nap.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

For my dessert to take to Carla's Winter Warmer Potluck at the last minute I decided to make a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake in slice form.

I based it on this recipe & de-glutened it by making the base from crushed Leda choculence biscuits mixed with melted nuttelex.  But then I stupidly used a soy milk that isn't gluten free in the cheesecake.  This was alright but it wasn't as amazing as I hoped it would be.

Gluten free vegan sausage rolls

For Carla's recent Winter Warmer potluck I decided to try de-glutening the famous Where's the Beef sausage rolls.  I actually just bought gluten free pastry & then went to make them & realised that there was quite a bit of gluten in the filling that needed to be changed as well.  Even with the changes that I made these turned out really well & I think they were just as good as the gluteny version.

This is the original recipe ingredients with my substitutions in red, the method can be found in the Where's the Beef post, but basically you just whack everything besides the last 3 ingredients in the food processor, roll in pastry & sprinkle sesame seeds on top then bake until golden brown - easy!

Vegan sausage rolls

125g pecans
stale bread to make ~1/2 cup breadcrumbs 1/2 cup Orgran corn crispy crumbs
1 onion
300g silken tofu
1 cup rolled oats 1 cup cooked quinoa
1 Massel beef-style stock cube
1 teaspoon garlic powder  Crushed garlic

3 tablespoons soy sauce 3 tablespoons tamari
ground pepper, to taste
3-4 frozen puff pastry sheets 3 Pastry Pantry GF pastry sheets
water ofor brushing pastry
sesame seeds

I have blogged about these previously here & some of the other lovely Melbourne bloggers  have blogged about them here, here & here.

Cupcake kebabs

When Greg & I decided to host a potluck (blogged about by Kristy here), he decided that we should make cupcake kebabs which I thought was the best idea ever!  I decided to make them completely gluten free & thread cupcakes, mini donuts, biscuits & lollies on the skewers.  I had a disaster with the first lot of cupcakes I made, so ended up making some mini choc chip muffins instead using this recipe:

Ingredients

• 340 grams self raising gluten free flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 120 grams caster sugar
• 120 grams nuttelex
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar 
• soy milk, to mix
• vegan chocolate chips - about 3/4 cup

Method

1. Rub the dry ingredients in with the nuttelex.
2. Add the wet ingredients, adding a little milk at a time to get a soft dropping consistency.
3. Beat the mixture well to combine & stir through the chocolate chips.
4. Add paper liners to the muffin tin and fill with the mixture.
5. Bake at about 190 degrees Celsius until cooked through & brown (about 10-15 minutes for the mini muffins)

I then made mini donuts using my donut maker, yes I have a donut maker which I have now used a total of two times.  I used this recipe from the Sunbeam website which worked really well:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free plain flour
• ½ cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
• 125g butter, melted
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (I used egg replacer)

Method

1. Preheat Doughnut machine. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Whisk in the butter, milk and egg until mixture forms a smooth batter. Transfer to a jug.
2. Spray machine with cooking oil. Pour batter into preheated doughnut rings. Close lid and cook for 6 minutes or until doughnuts are golden and cooked. Use a non-stick spatula to transfer doughnuts to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter to make 10 doughnuts in total.

I then added halved Leda choculence biscuits & topped each skewer with Organic by Nature Cheery Bear lollies (these lollies are so good!!)  I think my gluten free baking still needs A LOT of work but the kebabs turned out ok & looked very impressive!!

Gluten free cheese & spinach rolls - gluten free picnic part 2!

There was so much deliciousness at this picnic, I got nowhere near trying everything.  My highlights were Craig's potato cakes of deep fried amazingness & caramel slice - I have no idea who made this but it was so good!  I used to love caramel slice & haven't eaten it for a very long time, now I definitely want to try making it myself.

I changed my mind so many times when trying to work out what my savoury food was going to be for the picnic.  I had originally planned to make a layered mexican dip with one of the layers being a cheesey queso, then changed my mind to cheese & pesto scrolls & then at the last minute decided on cheese & spinach sausage roll type things.  Bec had previously mentioned that you can buy a gluten free, vegan frozen pastry & even though it is really expensive (3 sheets for $10) it is super easy so I found some at Coles in Coburg & used this.

For the filling I pretty much made it up as I was going but the approximate recipe is:

• 2 boxes frozen spinach (thawed & drained)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 packet silken firm tofu
• 3/4 tub tofutti cream cheese
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 cup grated mozzarella cheezly
• 2 sheets Pastry Pantry pastry

Preheat oven to 220 degrees 

Defrost pastry sheets

In a food processor blend the cream cheese, tofu & nutritional yeast

Transfer to a mixing bowl & add spinach, garlic, cheezly - mix well & season well

Cut each pastry sheet in half, add filling & roll up

Place on oven tray & cook until browned - I think mine took about 20 minutes

Gluten free carrot cupcakes for a gluten free picnic

Friday night was a gluten free potluck picnic (Steph has blogged here) which was originally cheese themed so I decided to make my food gluten free & cheesy.  For my savoury food I changed my mind heaps of times when trying to decide what to make but right from the start I thought that for my sweet food I wanted to make gluten free carrot cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting.

The first batch of cupcakes I made were these from A Gluten Free Day.  I made them earlier in the week before the picnic planning to freeze them since I like to be organised.  When they were freshly baked they were beautifully light & fluffy but because they don't actually have grated carrot in them (which I didn't realise until I started making them) they were not what I wanted.  So I left them for us to eat but they were incredibly stale by the next day.

 

So it was the night before the picnic & I started worrying about how I was going to have time to prepare anything, especially given that Thursday nights are a struggle for me because I go to prenatal pilates in the evening.  But for some reason I managed to have an amazingly productive thursday the day before the picnic - worked a completely hectic 10 hour day, did 2 days worth of dishes, got dinner ready & made a new batch of cupcakes all before I went to pilates. I was hoping that these cupcakes would work because I really did not want to be making a second batch later that evening & luckily they did!  These were really nice - full of chunky bits due to the walnuts & raisins & really tasty.  Unfortunately they had started to go a bit stale by the next night but apparently that is just the way it seems to be with gluten free baking.  I based these cakes on a recipe from recipezaar which is apparetly from Gluten Free Goddess but I did change quite a few things so my recipe is below.

Ingredients

Carrot Cupcakes

• Orgran egg replacer equivalent to 3 eggs)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup apple sauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 cups orgran self raising gluten free flour
• 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
• 1 1/2 cups carrots, shredded (about 4)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup walnuts

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
2. Prepare cupcake liners or grease a muffin tray
3. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg replacer & oil and beat; add the brown sugar and beat until smooth.
4. Beat in the apple sauce, vanilla, cinnamon and spice.
5. Add in the flour and beat until combined. (The batter should be a bit thicker than wheat flour batter.).
6. Add in the coconut, carrots, raisins, and nuts; stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
7. Put the batter evenly in the cupcake liners or muffin tray and place the pan in the center of a pre-heated oven.
8. Bake until the cakes are firm, and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean, about 15-20 minutes (or longer if necessary).
9. Cool on a wire rack and frost with cream cheese icing.
10. For cream cheese icing, beat tofutti cream cheese with icing sugar

 

Gluten free sponge cake - CNYE potluck

When I was invited to Steph's place for a CNYE potluck I immediately panicked because I don't really make much in the way of Chinese food.  I decided that for my dessert I would make mango pudding.  My best friend's sister owns a Chinese restaurant & when I used to go there when I was omni she would always give me delicious mango pudding so I got her recipe & gave it a go.  The first time I made it I used gelatine free mango jelly in it & it was absolutely disgusting.  So I gave it another go using agar agar & while it was better it still wasn't super tasty. 

Then I threw a bit of a tantrum (because none of my savoury food was working either) & decided that I would just make a cake.  In a nod to CNY, I decided to include lychees so I made a sponge filled with lychees, strawberries & soyatoo.  I wanted all my food to be gluten free so everyone could eat it & found a recipe from a blog called Cooking with Dia which looked really easy & didn't have 4 different types of gluten free flour.  This recipe is super easy & turned out really well - my only problem was that it didn't make nearly enough to make 2 cakes & I actually had to make a second cake for the other layer.  

115gm vegan spread (I used nuttelex)
115gm gluten free self raising flour (I used the orgran brand)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg replacers (read back of box for instructions)
115 gm unrefined caster sugar
icing sugar

Cream the vegan spread, extract and caster sugar together.
Slowly add in the egg replacers and mix in with the vegan spread and sugar.
Meanwhile sift the flour twice and slowly fold into the mixture.
Stir together until nice and creamy.
Split the batter evenly between to 6″ sandwich tins.
Bake at 180°C (356°F) for 20 minutes.
Turn out on cooling rack.

I actually broke the top layer when I was taking it out of the tin which is why there is a massive crack in the top of the cake - oops!

Muffaletta

I have been dying to go to a potluck forever so was very excited to be invited by Cindy to a potluck in Princes Park. I wanted to make something very picnicky & had no idea, so did a bit of googling & came across great advise such as "don't wear a fur coat to a vegan potluck" (seriously!) & in the end decided to make a muffaletta.

I bought an enormous loaf of bread from La Panella, in hindsight I brought the wrong bread because it was quite chewy, but it still tasted ok. I filled the loaf with:

• homemade basil & cashew pesto (spread on one side)
  
• roasted red capsicum
• grileld eggplant
  
• artichoke hearts
• kalamata olives
• baby spinach & rocket
• tofutti cream cheese with semi dried tomatoes mixed in (spread on the other side)

I made it the night before, wrapped it tightly in cling wrap & weighed it down with a big wooden chopping board & a baking dish.