Microwave Muesli Bars (Egg-free and Dairy-free)

The kids are eating soooo many muesli bars these days, I can barely keep up! To make matters worse, Uncle Toby bars have milk powder in them and a large number of the rest contain nuts, which are a no-no for school. So I found a recipe that is quick & easy to make. These get devoured very quickly, so it's just as well that they are easy to make!

Microwave Muesli Bars

Ingredients

• 75g non-dairy spread e.g. nuttelex
• 5 tablespoons light brown soft sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 150g rolled oats
• 75g sultanas*
• 75g dried apricots, chopped*

Method

1. Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a microwave safe bowl and cook on high power for 1 to 2 minutes, or until butter is melted.
2. Stir in the oats, sultanas, and apricots and mix thoroughly.
3. Press mixture into a small greased and lined baking dish. (I used a medium-sized rectangular pyrex dish)
4. Cook on high power for 4-5 minutes or until the centre is bubbling. Allow to cool then cut into squares.

Notes

1. * all that is required is approximately 150g of add-ins. You can split it any way you like: e.g. 50g sultanas, 50g apricot, 50g glace cherries, or just all sultanas. Try nuts or chocolate chips if your family can take it
2. I know it's tempting to cut it while it's still warm, but I found that this makes it disintegrate a bit as it is not set yet.
3. You don't have to line the dish, but it is easier to remove the bars if you do.

Persimmon Cookies (Egg-free and dairy-free)

When I was little, persimmons were a rare treat. They were also astringent, which means that the skin is inedible. So we had to wait until they were soft and squishy on the inside, and then scoop the sweet pulp out with a spoon.

These days you can buy persimmons with edible skin, and eat them hard like apples, or wait until they become so ripe that they're soft and mushy. We had a few too many mushy ones, so I decided to try making some persimmon cookies.

These cookies are quite easy to make. The Carnivore's sister helped me do the mixing. The cookies are a bit soft & cakey on the inside and remind me a little of gingerbread. These yummy treats only survived two days in our house, and I made four trays of them!

Egg-free and Dairy-free Persimmon Cookies

` Makes about 40

Ingredients

• 2 ripe persimmons, pureed (I also peeled mine)
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 egg replacer (1 heaped tsp No Egg with 2 tbsp water)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup (100g) non-dairy spread e.g. nuttelex
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced/350°F ).
2. Stir flour, bicarb soda and spices together, set aside.
3. Cream together nuttelex and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add egg replacer and persimmon and beat until combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients from step 2 and mix with the beater.
6. Stir in nuts and raisins.
7. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Note: These cookies don't really spread much when cooked, so you can place them fairly close together on the tray

A wonderful Mother's Day present!

Well it is Mother's Day, and that means I get to have what I want for breakfast: PANCAKES! But not just any old pancakes, Jamie Oliver's One Cup pancakes. (Told you I like Jamie Oliver!) These pancakes are so easy to make: 1 egg, 1 cup self-raising flour, 1 cup milk and a pinch of salt.

"But what about the Vegan Carnivore?", I hear you say. Do we make his special non-dairy and no egg pancakes? Well, no! Today is a special day. Today we finally get to do a baked egg challenge! So we will use one egg and some oat milk, and fry in oil and see how it goes....

And......

He was ok!!! Hip hip hooray!!!! We can bake with eggs now!!!!

Don't worry, I'll still write about living with no eggs and occasionally bake no egg recipes. I still have lots of friends who have egg allergies. Plus, that's only baked egg. We aren't up to whole eggs yet....

ANZAC biscuits (egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free)

On ANZAC Day, I thought we should make some dairy-free ANZAC biscuits for the kids. Luckily they are already egg-free, so the only substitution is nuttelex for the butter.

Today I was talking to some people about making them, and someone pondered how they would have coconut during the war. So I did a quick search on the history of ANZAC biscuits. Did you know that the original ANZAC biscuit was called a wafer or tile and was incredibly hard? It also didn't have any coconut.

I have a few books with ANZAC biscuit recipes, but the CWA one seemed the most appropriate to follow. Here it is.

ANZAC Biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup sugar

125g nuttelex, melted

2 Tbs golden syrup

2 Tbs boiling water

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced) and grease baking trays/line trays with baking paper.
2. Sift flour into a bowl. Add dry ingredients (oats, coconut, sugar) and stir to combine.
3. Add bicarbonate of soda to boiling water and mix
4. Add melted nuttelex, golden syrup and boiling water/bicarb.
5. Mix with a spoon to a firm consistency.
6. Place spoonfuls of mixture onto the tray.
7. Bake until brown (approximately 15 minutes).

Notes

• Nuttelex can be melted in the microwave, just zap for about 30-40 seconds
• Shredded coconut can be substituted for dessicated coconut.
• Leaving space to spread is really, really important! Otherwise you will end up with a big sheet of biscuit. You can cut/break it apart and it still tastes ok, but it won't be as pretty. You can see the results below from overcrowding.

Here is what happens if you use a tablespoon and put your blobs too close to each other! It's better to put too few on and make more trays. But the kids certainly enjoyed snapping bits off and eating this "disaster"!

Healthier Chocolate Pear Muffins

Ever since I saw this on Better Homes and Gardens, I've wanted to try this Chocolate Pear Muffin recipe. It looked pretty easy and yummy, and it was already egg- and dairy-free, so I didn't need to make any substitutions.

So I bought the magazine, planning to make these yummy muffins. That was in November last year! I have to say though, it was worth the wait. This recipe is fairly easy and it is delicious as well as fairly healthy.

As for no substitutions, well, I did have to make a couple of little ones as I (yet again) didn't have all the ingredients! Luckily, this recipe was forgiving of my last-minute switches.

Healthier Chocolate Pear Muffins
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 25 mins
Makes 12

Ingredients
250g wholemeal self-raising flour
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g golden syrup (I had to substitute half this with treacle)
2 large pears, peeled, cored, grated
100g raisins, chopped (or use sultanas or currants)
100g extra virgin olive oil
185mL non-dairy milk
Extra 1/2 pear, finely sliced

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (fan-forced 160C)
2. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases
3. Sift flour, cocoa and cinnamon into a bowl.
4. Combine syrup, pear, raisin, oil and milk in a separate bowl. Beat into flour mixture.
5. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and top with extra pear (the cases will be almost full to the top if you make 12).
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Notes

• 28 April '12: I originally posted that ordinary cocoa powder is fine. I substituted Nestle baking cocoa for the dark cocoa powder as that's what we currently have in the pantry. As Jappy pointed out, it may contain traces of milk. If you need to strictly avoid milk, then please use dark cocoa powder and always check the ingredient list on your purchases.

Gluten-Free Five Cup Loaf

I went to visit a friend whose boy is on an elimination diet. So I modified the Five Cup Loaf recipe to try and fit with their current restrictions: gluten-free, soy-free, additive-free. So I substituted gluten-free flour, rice milk and fresh apple and frozen berries.

How did it go? Well, it worked out kind of ok, but it was completely flat. It also needed a lot more cooking, about another half hour. Next time I might try adding some xantham gum, something I've avoided buying so far. At least it tasted good!

Here's the recipe again, with the substitutions.

Gluten-free Five Cup Loaf
Ingredients
1 cup gluten-free self-raising flour (or ordinary gluten-free flour + 2 tsp baking powder)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup frozen berries
1 cup rice milk

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and set aside.
2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. A spoon will do.
3. Pour into lined loaf tin.
4. Bake for 60-90 mins until cake springs back when lightly touched in the centre.

Five Cup Loaf

Ever looking for things to buy, recently renewed my long-forgotten membership of Simple Savings. Ironic, perhaps?* Still being in a splurge mode, I bought a copy of the $21 Challenge book, even though I figured a lot of the recipes would not be egg or dairy free.

Inside was a recipe for Five Cup Loaf***. It doesn't have any eggs and I realised the recipe could be easily modified for non-dairy milk. It's a nice, easy recipe, something I really like!

Five Cup Loaf
Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup sultanas (or any dried fruit, I used a mix of currants & orange peel)
1 cup oat milk (or other non-dairy milk)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and set aside.
2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. A spoon will do.
3. Pour into lined loaf tin.
4. Bake for 40-45 mins until cake springs back when lightly touched in the centre.

Notes

• Don't leave the mixture to stand too long, I left mine for a bit and the currants all ended up on the bottom
• I used a large loaf tin, but I think you could do this in a small loaf tin and not cook it for as long, as it doesn't rise that much. The $21 challenge book says 25 min, but this wasn't the case for me.

* Simple Savings is a website devoted to teaching you how to save money. It can actually be very helpful, but initially you do have to fork out some dough!**
** Or just sign up for the free newsletter.
*** I've since found this recipe is quite common elsewhere. OK, that's probably enough with the asterisks now!

Icing for Gingerbread Cookies

My last post was about making Gingerbread Cookies. Here's how we ice them.

Icing in a makeshift piping bag
Ingredients
Icing mixture
Water
Food colouring (if desired)
Plastic snaplock bag (sandwich size is good)
Rubber band

Method

1. Mix icing mixture and water until a thick paste
2. Add food colouring as desired. Be careful - a little goes a long way!
3. Place icing into a snaplock bag. I find it helps to line a cup with the bag and flip the bag over the edge so the cup holds the bag and there's a nice big space to put the icing in.
4. Push the icing into one corner, squeeze out the air and seal the bag. For extra help, put a rubber band just at the top of the icing. This will help stop it escaping and make it easier to push out the bag.
5. Cut a tiny, tiny hole in the corner for the icing to come out. Make sure you don't make too big a hole or it becomes very messy.
6. Decorate!

Here are pictures of Omnivore Girl doing some piping, to compare using the rubber band & without. It still works, but it's harder to control without the band.

Egg-free and Dairy-free Gingerbread Cookies

One of my sister's rituals is to decorate gingerbread cookies with Omnivore Girl. I couldn't leave Vegan Carnivore out of the action this time, so this was a recipe for him.

Egg-free and Dairy-free Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup treacle or molasses
1/4 cup plain soy or oat milk

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour (or a mix of both)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

spice blend:
1/2 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

Method

1. In a large bowl beat together oil and sugar for about 3 minutes. Add treacle/molasses and soy milk. The treacle/molasses and soy milk won't really blend with the oil but that's ok.
   
2. In a separate bowl, sift together all the other ingredients.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in batches. Mix together with a firm spoon or spatula until well combined. You should have a pretty stiff dough.
   
   
   
   
   Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in cling wrap and chill for an hour or up to 3 days in advance. (If you chill longer than an hour you may want to let it sit for 10 minutes to loosen up a bit before proceeding).
4. Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Lightly grease your baking trays or line them with baking paper.
5. On a floured surface roll your dough out to a little less than 1/4 inch thick. You can do this in 2 batches if you don't have the space. Cut out your shapes with your cookie cutters and gently place on cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let them cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then move to a cooling rack. They will still be a little soft, but they will firm up a bit as they cool. Wait until they are completely cool before icing.

Cookie Notes

• This recipe is quite sweet, it is good to cut down the sugar.
• I am lazy so I roll out my dough between sheets of baking paper so it doesn't stick and it's less messy. I also line my baking trays with baking paper. My sister uses cling wrap for rolling.

See my next post for how to ice the gingerbread.

Egg- and Dairy-free Chocolate Cupcakes

Time for a family celebration, so I made some chocolate cupcakes for the vegan carnivore with the help of the carnivore's big sister. It rated pretty highly on bestrecipes so I thought it would be a safe enough experiment. And sure enough, it worked! I made half the recipe and made 20 small cupcakes.

Got to love recipes that work first time and don't need an egg beater! A nice one to cook with kids.

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Egg-and-Dairy-Free-Chocolate-Cake-L6971.html

Ingredients (half-batch)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Line cupcake tin with patty pans and pre-heat oven to 160° Celsius fan force (or 180°C bake)
2. Sift flour, cocoa, caster sugar and salt into a large bowl.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix well (a spoon will do).
4. Pour mixture into a prepared patty pans.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

To start... Apple and Strawberry Friands!

Well this is my very first post. My infant son is allergic to eggs and cow's milk. Since I am have to experiment with egg- and dairy-free recipes, I thought I might as well share my successes and failures. Hope it helps other people cooking for kids with allergies!

My first experiment that I'm sharing with you is a friand recipe. I've had a friand pan for a long time, but I've never got around to using it. With the little Vegan Carnivore (aka my little boy) asleep, I thought I'd try out a recipe I saw in a magazine, but modifying it so it's egg-free. The original recipe calls for 5 egg whites!

Apple and Strawberry Friands
Adapted from Apple & Blueberry Friands recipe, Winter Coles magazine

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup self-raising flour
• 4 heaped tsp "No Egg" with 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (approximately)
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 100g almond meal
• 1/3 cup oat milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup pie apple (no sugar), roughly chopped
• 1 cup strawberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan-forced). Lightly grease 10 holes of non-stick friand mould pan.
2. Combine flours, icing sugar, almond meal and cinnamon. Add oat milk, oil, apple and strawberries and stir until just combined
3. Mix No Egg with water until fairly stiff paste is formed. Add to mixture and add baking powder. Carefully fold into mixture.
4. Spoon into prepared moulds and bake in oven for 25-30 minutes
5. Sit friands for 10 mins before turning out onto a cooling tray and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Notes

1. I used oat milk, but you can use soy milk.
2. I used my stewed apples and fresh berries, but (defrosted) frozen berries would also work, you don't have to stick to these quantities, just make up a cup and a half of whatever fruit you like and it should be ok. (I certainly didn't stick to the original recipe!)

Hope you enjoy this recipe, it's always a nice surprise when an experiment turns out!

Edit: 26/6/11 - No Egg is used in a heaped measure; it's the equivalent of 6 egg whites.