Vegan Green Tea Doughnuts (抹茶ドーナツ)

I love green tea sweets! They're, truly, one of my favourite things! Green tea is so versatile! It can go with just about anything.

There are really no limits to what kind of sweets you can make with green tea. Green tea ice cream and chocolate are really popular (just to name a few).

Today, I'm going to be doing another popular green tea sweet. I'm going to show you how I make Matcha Green Tea Doughnuts that  are vegan and require no pan.

Pretty sweet, huh? ;P

This recipe is for doughnuts which are soft, and moist (the best kind really). And can be made without a pan (although, if you wanted to use a pan you could. Just make the mixture a bit wetter by adding 1/2 cup more milk, and pour the mixture into the moulds!)

Green Tea Doughnuts (抹茶ドーナツ)

Makes: 12

Prep Time: 1 hr, 40 mins

Cook Time: 11 mins 

Ingredients:

Doughnut

• 1 1/2 cups of vanilla soymilk (or plain is fine too)
• 1 tsp. of vanilla paste (liquid vanilla is okay :) )
• 1/4 cup of oil (I use rice bran oil)
• 1/4 cup of agave (or liquid sweetener of choice)
• 1 sachet of yeast (about 5g)
• 2 cups of plain, all purpose flour (I like to use wholemeal so it's slightly better for you, but you can use white flour if you like)
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 2 Tbs. of Matcha Green Tea Powder
• 2 Tbs. of Coconut Sugar (or other sugar of choice.)
• 1/4 cup of apple sauce

Icing

• 2 cups Icing Sugar
• 1 Tbs. Green Tea Powder
• 3 Tbs. Coconut cream (optional)
• 1 Tbs. Water or milk

Directions:

• In a medium-small sauce pan, put the milk, vanilla, oil and agave and bring it to a boil. One it is boiling turn off the heat,  and set aside until the liquid is lukewarm (about 30 minutes).

• After the mixture is lukewarm, add the yeast and wait for 10-15 minutes (until the mixture becomes kinda foamy and lumpy). 

• Put the flour in a large mixing bowl, and use a whisk for 10-15 seconds. This a lazy way to sieve flour ;P

• Once you have "sifted" the flour *wink, wink*, add the other dry ingredients and mix until the mixture is a soft, pale green.

• Add the secret ingredient - apple sauce! This will ensure that your doughnuts remain delicious and moist.

•             Finally, add the soy milk mixture you set aside, gradually. The mixture should turn into something resembling half a dough and half a batter. 

•       Set aside in a dark, preferably slightly warm place for 1hr until the mixture almost doubles. (I usually put mine in an off oven, which had been on the lowest setting about 15-20 mins before I put it in. So, this way it still has some of the warmth, but it's not going to cook the mixture. This is what my mum used to do! ;) )

• Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Roll out dough, so that it's still thick (about 1.5 inch, or 3 centimeters). Get you cutting instrument of choice (can be anything from a cookie cutter, scone cutter, or in this case a glass), cut out the doughnuts and place them on a tray lined with baking paper. Put them into the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Icing

• Now for the icing. To make a creamy icing, you want to use the top, thick part of canned coconut milk. I usually put the can into a freezer for 20 minutes so that the top layer becomes easy to separate from the rest. Take the top layer (about 3 Tbs.) and add it to the other icing ingredients.

• Ice the doughnuts (once cooled) by dunking them upside down into the icing. To double glaze them, simply wait until the first layer of icing hardens, then dunk them into the icing again.

After being dipped for the second time ;)

• These are best eaten in a few days. You can store them in the fridge in an air-tight container, or freeze them for up to 6 months.

Ta-da!

Hope you likey.

Itadakimasu! (いただきます) Let's eat!

<3
Usagi.

Eggplant Dip

Second to last recipe before the site update - are you excited? ;P

You should be! I've been working on a logo, banner and watermark. :) It should be updated within the next two weeks (tops!). I just have a few last things to finish, (like the tons of info that needs updating on here).

Anyway, (getting a little side tracked here...) I present to you, for your snacking needs; Eggplant Dip. 

Woo!

My housemate and I were wondering how eggplant got it's name, and after some research we came up with this:

1. The original eggplant looked more like a goose-egg and was a yellowish colour 

2. The eggplant is actually the fruit of a plant called eggplant

I'm not sure which one is correct, although it's more likely they are both correct, at least partly, but I did find out that the origin was China. :)

Eggplant Dip

Ingredients 

• 4 medium sized eggplants
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons of oil (rice bran, vegetable, canola etc.) + a little extra for coating
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder
• 2 teaspoons of sweet chili sauce
• 2 teaspoons of salt or vegetable stock
• a handful of parsley 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 50 minutes 

Preheat oven to 180C (350F), then line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the four eggplant onto the tray, sprinkle a little oil and vegetable stock on them, rub them until mixture spreads all over, then place them in the oven for 40 minutes. (You can check at the 20 minute part to turn them).

After the egg plant have been in the oven for 20 minutes:

In a medium-large pan, on a medium heat, put the 1 tablespoon of oil, sliced onion and garlic, then cook for 2-3 minutes.

Next, add the spices to the pan and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until the mixture is fragrant. 

Add the roughly chopped tomatoes, and sweet chili sauce to pan, and cook until the tomatoes begin to get soft. (5-10 minutes) 

It should be about time to take out the eggplant from the oven. They should be mostly soft and mushy (it's okay if they're not completely for they will cook a little longer in the pan)

Roughly tear the eggplant into large chunks, then add it to the pan with the rest of the ingredients. Allow to cook for a further 5-10 minutes so that it combines.

Let it cool for 10-15 minutes, then put it into a blender and blend until it's a thick, smooth, creamy paste. 

You can have this dip with just about anything. ;)

I like mine with wedges! ^^

Hope you liked this one. See you in my next update, which will be the last one before the site upgrade!!! :O

xo.

Moonlight

Salted Caramel Apple Crumble

I've been trying to go a bit more seasonal with my food lately, and since we're in the cold months here, what could be more seasonal than apples?

I sent my housemate and myself on a quest to find the most appealing apple dishes to make, and we found a lot of things; caramel apples, baked apples, apple pies, apple cobblers, apple cheesecake, apple bars, apple cakes, ginger ale, ginger pop, ginger beer, beer bubbles, bubbleade, bubblecola, double cola, double-bubble-burple-cola, okay I'll stop quoting Wonka now, but you get the picture. ;P

Strangely enough, we couldn't actually find a recipe which reflected exactly what we wanted; something hot, gooey, rich, and flowing with rivers of fudgy caramel. So, I just decided to invent one. 

Now, I'm sure there's recipes for salted caramel apple crumble around, but I couldn't find any that did it like this one and were also vegan.

You're in for a teat, oh, and did I mention that it's a lot healthier than a normal crumble? It's got so much coconut in it, it's practically good for you! ;P

Salted Caramel Apple Crumble 

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients: 

For caramel sauce:

• 1 can of full-fat coconut milk (400ml)
• 1/2 cup of coconut sugar (or brown sugar if you prefer)
• 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt (it would be best to slowly as this in and taste as you go. You may find that you don't want it that salty, or you may want it even saltier).
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (I use vanilla paste)
• 2 tablespoons of vegan butter (I use Nuttelex) 

Optional: 

• Cornflour (if you want your sauce a bit thicker quickly) 

For crumble:

• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt
• 2/3 cup of coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
• 3 tablespoons of vegan butter
• 3 tablespoons of coconut oil (or you can just use 3 more of the butter)

For apples:

• 4-6 small, granny smith apples
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of vegan butter
• 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes 

Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) then start making the caramel sauce. 

In a small-medium sized saucepan mix the sugar and butter until it has melted. Bring this to a boil then pour the coconut milk in slowly, stirring as you go, then add the salt and vanilla to the mix.

Let that boil away, without a lid, on a medium heat for 15 minutes to thicken (you may need to stir it occasionally). While the sauce is thickening, you can cut the apples into wedges. Once they've been cut, put the lemon juice and butter in a large frying pan, on a medium heat, then add the apples once the butter has melted. Cook the apples for 2-3 minutes, then add the salt (which will help the apples let out their moisture). Turn the heat down to medium-low, and let them simmer away while the sauce is thickening. 

As they are cooking you can make the crumble topping. 

Put the dry ingredients for the crumble in a large mixing bowl, then add the butter and coconut oil. 

Mix the ingredients together (preferably with your hands), until they become soft, buttery cookie crumbs. 

Once the 15 minutes are up the sauce should be thickened, but if you want it thicker then add a little cornflour to help it. 

Pour 2/3 of the sauce into the pan with the apples and let it cook for a further 2 minutes until they are properly combined.

Pour the apple mixture into a baking dish of choice, and tap down lightly with the back of a spoon, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top. Put it into the oven for 20 minutes.

When you take it out the crumble mix should have puffed slightly. Serve immediately for best results (although it's still delicious if you want to refrigerate it and heat it up again later).

You can top it with vegan whipped cream and the remaining caramel sauce.

Tell me if you liked this one. ^_^ I know it did!

xo.

Moonlight

Mini Vegan Pizza Pies

how did my foot get in this picture? :/

Pizza pies, ah, is there anything better?

Well, to be perfectly frank, yes.

Mini Pizza Pies! :D

(Although they look rather gargantuan in the picture, I assure you, they're mini).

Just the idea of a pizza pie brings me back to that one summer I was living with my housemate and her (now ex) boyfriend, and how all we used to do was sleep all day and eat pizza pies at night.

Well... I guess we did other things to like play video games, watch movies, and groan like zombies when we were plastered to the floor from the brutal heat...

 

But mostly, I remember the pizza pies flowing in abundance. 

It was a good life. It was a fat life. 

But these pizza pies are different!

They're not loaded with lots of bad fats and they're just as delicious as "normal" ones, which, in my opinion, makes these the superior pizza pies! ;)

And, of course, they're vegan! :P

Mini Vegan Pizza Pies

Ingredients 

• 1 medium sized onion
• 300g of Tempeh 
• 1 tablespoon of Vegan Butter
• 2 cans of Diced Tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of Tomato Paste
• 2 cloves of Garlic
• 2 teaspoons of Soy Sauce
• 2 teaspoons of Salt
• 2 teaspoons of Nutritional Yeast Flakes
• 2 teaspoons of dried Oregano 
• 2 teaspoons of Onion Powder 
• 1 tablespoon of Rice Bran Oil
• Simple Vegan Pastry
• Thick 'n' Creamy Vegan "Cheese" Sauce

Note: If you have olives, then feel free to add olives to the tempeh mixture. I completely forgot to, lol. 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 180C (356 Fahrenheit).

Dice the onion and garlic and add it to a pan on a medium heat with the tablespoon of rice bran oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes until they begin to sweat and lightly brown on some parts.

Next, dice up the tempeh into small cubes. Alternatively, you can steam or boil the tempeh for 10-15 minutes and then mush it together with a fork (or potato masher) so it become more of a "mince" consistency, but I quite like them as chunks so that's what I did. :)

Add this to the pan with the onion and garlic and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.

As the tempeh is cooking you want to then roll out your pastry until it's about 1/2 centimeter thick. What I do then is cut it into squares and then place the squares of pastry into muffin molds. I cut around the edges, once they're in the molds, so that they become circular. 

ha, ha, I'm so messy with these kind of things. :P
You can spend more time making them neater, if that's your thing. :)

I put the newly formed pie pastry into the oven for 10 minutes to partially cook.

While the pie bases are cooking in the oven, add the rest of the ingredients (except the "cheese sauce") to the pan, and cook while the pastry is cooking. 

After it has been 10 minutes, take the pie bases out. Now's the fun part (well, apart from the eating them part). 

Fill each pie with about a spoonful of the tempeh mixture, and on top of this put about half a spoonful of the "cheese" mixture. Then put the tray back in the oven for a further 15 minutes.

Pop them out of the muffin tray and eat them a your leisure. The hardest part will be trying not to eat them all at once, trust me. :) 

Makes: 18-24

 xo.

Moonlight