Neverending Winter Cookies

After a 23 month hiatus, Hungry in Halifax is back, dear readers! There will be an update and new project news coming soon, but in the meantime, my friend Jacqueline has shared this post for almond flour chocolate chip cookies--a recipe that can be made with little ones. I'll post an update when I make a batch myself.

Thanks, Jacqueline!

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Life in Halifax this winter has had its challenges. It has been long, cold, snowy and icy. Being home on maternity leave, with two little ones, in the dead of winter is not always as much fun as it sounds. Not to mention our family is missing some special friends that moved away last year, that we love to cook and dine with. What else is there to do than take to the kitchen? 

So I’ve been trying out some new baking recipes with my daughter Clara. Most days we are going for healthy, butter-free, sugar-free and white-flour-free sweets. 

Here's a recipe we have been enjoying that I am so glad to share on this blog. I think I originally found it on a paleo-diet site, but I can’t remember where exactly. This recipe is easy, chewy and delicious – especially still warm from the oven. If you don’t feel like chocolate, try substituting something else for the chocolate chips, like dried cranberries or blueberries. Enjoy!

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

Takes 30 minutes

Makes 2 dozen cookies

2 cups almond meal

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ cup coconut oil, softened

3 Tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla

½ cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Mix the dry ingredients together, add the wet, mix it all up, and fold in the chocolate chips. 

Roll them into flattened balls, and bake on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet for 8–9 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges. 

 

So easy, healthy and delicious!

Jacqueline

Queen Elizabeth Cake

This might be the best vegan dessert I've ever made.

A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned a craving for something called Queen Elizabeth Cake. Her grandmother would make it at Christmas-time. I was intrigued, especially when I heard it was a date cake topped with a broiled coconut icing!

I did some research because of the name of the cake. There are many stories about the cake online. Some say it was a recipe made by Queen Elizabeth (there's debate about whether the younger or the elder), and the only cake she made herself!  Some stories say the recipe came together during the war. The cake contains a very little amount of butter or eggs, which would make sense if ingredients were rationed. Another part of the story is that the recipe was sold as a fundraiser.

I'm not sure what to make of all of these stories. It seems to be a very Canadian cake though as I can't find the recipe in British cook books. It's kind of like sticky toffee pudding in cake form.

When my friend made it, it was so good!  Really moist cake, dotted with dates, not too rich!  And the frosting was so good!  Creamy with lightly toasted coconut!  When I saw the recipe, I knew this cake would be perfect for vegan experimentation. It's a simple recipe, and the flavor comes from the ingredients, dates and coconut, not so much butter and eggs.

The vegan version is dense and moist, I upped the amount of dates from the original recipe, and substituted coconut oil for butter.

Enjoy!

Queen Elizabeth Cake

Adapted from Amy Murphy's recipe (Thanks, Nanny Murphy!)
Makes 1 cake

Takes 1.5 hours

For  Cake:

1 1/2 cups baking dates, coarsely chopped

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped, lightly toasted walnuts (or pecans or hazelnuts or almonds)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon white vinegar

For Icing:

5 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp Coconut oil

1/2 cup dried coconut (I used unsweetened)

3 tbsp coconut milk (perfect to make alongside a thai curry or kuku paka)

In a heatproof bowl, pour 1 cup boiling water over the dates. Cover and let soak for 1 hour.

Mix the ground flax seed with the 1/4 cup of water.  Mix together thoroughly and let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Grease a square glass baking dish (make sure yours is broiler proof--mine wasn't, so I used a spring form pan, lined with parchment paper and foil.  I didn't do this on purpose, but I always end up ripping the lining, and thought a double layer to protect against the cake running out the bottom!)

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1/2 cup of nuts.

In another bowl, beat together coconut oil and sugar until well-combined and fluffy.  Add vinegar and the flax seed mixture and beat well. Add the dates and water and combine.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until it just comes together. Pour into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a tester comes out clean.

When the cake comes out of the oven, place an oven rack on the slot second to the top, and turn the broiler on high. Boil together in a sauce pan on medium high heat the brown sugar, coconut oil, dried coconut, coconut milk, and 1/4 cup of nuts. 

Boil for three minutes and quickly pour over the still warm cake before the mixture becomes hard. Broil for about 5 minutes, watching carefully to make sure the coconut doesn't burn.The frosting will bubble madly!

Take the cake out and let cool. You will have this pretty lacy topping for the cake.

 

Eat! It's even better the next day.

Koo koo for Kuku Paka

I've been reading The Settler's Cookbook: A Memoir of Love, Migration and Food by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Yasmin was born in Kampala, Uganda, and her parents' families were originally from South Asia. She writes about coming of age in the 1960s, the era of decolonization and youthful rebellion. It's a great book, a peek into the life of the south Asian settlers who lived in East Africa for generations before they were harassed into fleeing Kenya and Uganda. Yasmin tries to be fair to the settlers, who attempted to find a place between the exploitative British and the resentful Africans, but ultimately made allies with neither group. It's a great first-person story about how colonialism divides people who should be able to find common ground.

She remembers her mother as an amazing cook who kept her family together in tough financial times.  Yasmin shares some of her mother's recipes, but also some of her own, made in Britain but recalling her former home. She writes so evocatively, I've been excited to try one of her recipes since I first started reading the book.

Here's my vegan version of Kuku Paka, a coconut milk and chicken stew, made with what I had in the fridge. Yasmine writes "Sometimes Mum bought a kuku paka and on those nights I went to bed with my nightdress splashed with pale yellow sauce and smelling of coconut, dreaming of the next time, possibly!"

I can understand why young Yasmin would dream of the next time, kuku paka is spicy, creamy, tangy, tasty delicious! I think this would be great with a lot of different vegetables: Squash, broccoli, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms.  See where it takes you!

Disclaimer: as this recipe is written it is not hot!  It is very flavorful and spicy in the full of spices sense.  If you want it hot, throw a couple more chiles in!

Kuku Paka

Makes 4 servings

Takes 2 hours

1 small bunch cilantro, chopped

1 giant garlic pod, minced fine

1 inch piece ginger, peeled and minced fine

juice of 1/2 lime

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 carrot, cubed

1 block of tofu, cubed (all should be the same size)

3 potatoes

1 large onion, diced

1/2 cup raw cashews

1 stick of cinnamon

2 cloves

1 cardamom pod

1 dried red chili (or fresh)

1 tsp. tumeric

1 14 oz. or 400 ml can tomatoes

1 14 oz. or 400 ml can coconut milk

In a bowl, mix together half of chopped cilantro, all of garlic, ginger and lime juice.  Add about a tablespoon of oil and toss the sweet potatoes, carrots and tofu with the marinade. Let soak together while the oven heats up.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.

On a baking sheet, spread the sweet potatoes, carrots and tofu out evenly. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 325, turn the veggies/tofu over and bake for 10 more minutes.  When they are finished, put them on paper towels to drain the oil.  Save the marinade, and keep the heat on!

Parboil potatoes.  Cut them into even-sized quarters and put them in a pot with salted cold water.  Bring to a boil and boil for 6 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  Cut them into cubes that are about the same size as the roasted veggies/tofu.  Set aside.

In an oven proof pot, saute onions on medium high heat until they are nice and browned (stir occasionally so they have time to brown but do not burn).  Turn heat down to medium, add cashews and spices and saute for about 10 minutes, until it is really sizzling.  Add tomatoes and cook for a further 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are completely broken down and it is a thick paste.  Add coconut milk, turn down heat to a low simmer and let everything come together. Add salt to taste and Indian red chili powder or cayenne if you want it spicier.  Turn off heat, and stir in the roasted vegetables/tofu and parboiled potatoes.  Top with remaining marinade. 

Put into hot oven, and cook for 15 minutes.  Turn oven to broil and brown the top for 5 minutes.

 

Sprinkle the remaining cilantro over it.  We ate this intense curry with simple steamed spinach and rice.  And hot sauce!  I'll bet it would be good with Aloo parathas too!

Thanksgiving Update (with Recipes!)

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry.  I am a bad blogger.  Your memories of Thanksgiving are packed away, and I am about to tell you how my meal went.  Bear with me.  There will be so much holiday baking in the next few weeks, all will be forgiven.  That is my hope.

First, what went wrong.  I tried to make a seitan turkey.  I read so many blogs, and thought I would do bee-yew-ti-full-y, but no, I was left with a dense rubbery mass of wheat meat.

The before:

And the during.

I'll leave the after to your imagination.  I don't know what wrong!  I kneaded, I made dashi, I simmered.  Oh well.  I will not be deterred, and I will make delicious seitan one day!

For the almost perfect, I present a gluten-free, vegan pumpkin coconut pie with a pecan crust.  It's actually quite hard to find a recipe that is both gluten-free and vegan.  At our thanksgiving, we had someone with a gluten allergy and someone who is allergic to both dairy and eggs.  I knew it was going to be tough, but I felt sure that I could make a pie that was vegan and gluten-free and delicious.  And it was!  Too bad the filling never quite set.  Rather than messing with various starch flours to make a pastry crust, I made a delicious nut crust.  The filling was classic Libby's with some vegan experimenting.

Recipe at the end of the post.

Now for what went right...This fig crostata.

It was conventional baking perfection!  Buttery crust, rich filling, and the consistency was perfect.  I've never made a lattice crust before, and I was a little nervous, but it comes out so prettily that I've nearly forgotten the tense moments of broken pastry!  I've had my eye on this recipe since last year's Gourmet Thanksgiving issue.  And I might make it again for Christmas, it has a dark, fruity, filling like mincemeat.  I did need to bake it longer than the 30 minutes in the recipe.  More like 45 minutes for the crust to get golden and the filling to set.

It was a wonderful meal with good friends and good food!

Here's the recipe for the pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Coconut Custard Pie

Makes 12 servings

Takes 2 hours

2 cups crushed pecans
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. vegan margarine (or almond oil) 
3/4 cup brown sugar 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
4 Tbsp. cornstarch, sifted
15 oz. Pumpkin Puree (Not pie filling) 
1 can (15 oz.) light coconut milk


Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. 

If you are using margarine, soften by placing it in your pie pan and heating it in the oven while it comes to temperature.  Remove before it gets too hot.

Toss the nuts with the brown sugar and then thoroughly mix with margarine in the pan.  Use your fingers to press the nuts into a firm and even layer all around the bottom and sides of pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  (Keep an eye on it because the pecans will burn if your oven is too hot of you leave it in for too long!).

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium heat, add all filling ingredients.  Stir until combined.  When it begins to steam, turn heat down to low, and stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (Watch out!  The pumpkin will bubble and can burn you and make a mess of your kitchen if you leave it be!).

At this point, I am not sure how long you should stir for, or if you should add more corn starch.  I felt my filling had thickened, and poured it into the cooled pie crust.  But!  It never fully set.

We ate it cold and it was so delicious!  Like yummy pumpkin pudding with a pecan praline crumble. 

If you try this pie, please let me know how it goes!