Sunday, September 25, 2011

Björnakaka (Bear cake)

Björnakaka is a cake with soft cinnamon sponge and rich butter cream. The cake is a local favourite and the name comes from the small village of "Björna". Björn meaning bear and kaka meaning cake.

You will need:
  • 2½ cup (6 dl) Plain White Flour
  • 1 1/4 cup (3 dl) White Sugar
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 3 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 2/3 cup (4dl) Dairy Free Milk
  • 100 ml Melted Vegan Margarine
  1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
  2. Mix the melted margarine with the milk and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well using electric beaters to get lots of air in and to avoid lumps.
  3. Add your batter in a greased and bread crumbed spring tin and bake at 345 F / 175 C for 30-45 minutes. Always test your cake before taking it out of the oven by gently poking the middle with a wooden cake tester (or wooden toothpick) When the tester comes out dry and clean and the cake feels bouncy by touch it is ready to come out of the oven.
 

For the filling you will need:
  • 100 g Margarine
  • 1 2/3 cup (4dl) Icing Sugar
  • 4 tsp Vanilla Sugar (powder style or use vanilla extract)
  • 1-2 tbs Plain Oil (this is to represent the fatty part of the egg yolk used in the non-vegan version)
  1. Start by mixing the margarine with the two sugars, then add your oil. Just do some at a time until the filling gets smooth and creamy.
  2. When your cake has cooled down completely (very important the cake isn't warm) Cut the cake in half and spread with the filling and place the top back over the filling.
  3. Powder with icing sugar and enjoy. Left over cake is stored wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge or cooler.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

Autumn Puffpasty+Crumble Spiced Apple Pie

Use your own apples, local store bought apples or your normal day to day apples from the supermarket. This apple pie has it all, flakey puff pastry base, spicy apple filling and crumbley topping.




You will need:

  • 1 sheet of Puff Pastry (most shops sell vegan friendly, dairy free puff pastry)

Crumble:

  • 3/4 cup Plain Flour
  • 3/4 cup Rolled Oats
  • ½ cup White Sugar
  • 1 tbs Baking Powder
  • 100 grams Dairy Free Margarine (room temperatured)
Filling:
  • 6-8 Apples (I used 8 small home grown apples, use less if you get bigger apples)
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • ½ tsp Ginger
  • 1 dash of Nutmeg
  • 1/3 - ½ cup White Sugar
  • 3 tbs Dairy Free Margarine
(I used the variety of apples called "Transparente Blanche")

Preparation:
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C / 390F.
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients for the crumble in a bowl. Add the margarine and mix well using your hands or a mixer with dough-hooks. Make sure all the margarine has been mixed in well.
  3. Clean your apples and cut them into small even sized chunks. (peel your apples if the peel is hard and thick. If not you can leave it on) Add the apple chunks to a bowl and mix with the spices and sugar. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough. Add more spices if desired.
  4. Grease your pie tin and cover with the puff pastry. Add all your spiced apple chunks and evenly spread small nobs of margarine. Now cover with the crumble mix.
  5. Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes. Make sure you don't take it out of the oven to early as the risk might me that the puff pastry isnt baked enough.
Serve warm with soft vanilla ice cream


Saturday, September 3, 2011

Potato Pizza

Easy, tasty and filling. This pizza has the easiest base, almost pie like, crispy and flakey. Here topped with our own new potatoes, brown onion, garlic, olive oil and herbs.




Pizza Crust (will make 2 pizzas):

  • 1 2/3 cups (4 dl)  Plain White Flour
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1/4 cup (½ dl) Olive Oil
  • 2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 2/3 cup (1½ dl) Non Dairy Unsweetened Milk or Natural Yoghurt 
  1. Mix all the ingredients for the pizza crust. Work until smooth.
  2. Wrap in plastic and leave to cool in the fridge until you have prepared the pizza topping.

Topping:
  • 6-8 Potatoes
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Mix Herbs (rosemary & thyme)
  • 1 medium Brown Onion
  • 1-2 cloves of Garlic
  1. Clean the potatoes and slice them thinly. Also slice the onion.
  2. Mix herbs, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil in a bowl. Taste.
  3. Add the onion and potato slices to the oil mix.
  4. Take your pizza dough out of the fridge and cut in half. Roll thin and place on a oven tray with a baking paper.
  5. Top the dough rounds with your onion and potato mix. Make sure you have some olive oil on the top to avoid the pizza toppings getting to dry after baking.
  6. Bake in a 350-390 F (175-200 C) pre-heated oven until the potato goes soft and the edges are golden. Around 20 min.
(Spice the oil maybe a little more than what you think, if not the pizza could come out a little bland)