Brownies

Back in the day, when I stopped being a Physio (though one could argue I barely started) and decided I wanted to be a teacher, I started going to uni at night. I was in a class with about 12 other amazingly, special people! We made a special bond and I consider them some of the most amazing people I know. We took prodigious care of each other and would often bring food to carry us through the late afternoon/night classes. Emma, a dear friend bought these eggless brownies one day and they were truly amazing. If you are indeed intolerant of eggs, simple replace each egg with 1/4 of blended silken tofu. It works a treat and I for one can't taste the difference.

Ingredients

• 375 g butter
• 375 g dark chocolate ( use something with at least 60% cocoa solids, don't worry it won't be bitter)
• 6 eggs or 1 and a half cups of silken tofu (ie 1/4 cup tofu = 1 egg)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 500 g caster sugar
• 225 g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 300 g chopped walnuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius or 350 fahrenheit

Lovely, unctuous melted chocolate....mmm

Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan. Use a nice low heat and you can avoid having to use a double boiler. The chocolate will melt and become lovely and glossy.

Make sure you leave this to cool to room temperature to avoid the unfortunate scrambled eggs scenario.

Beat tofu/eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. I use the team beat lightly, you just want to break-up the eggs because brownies are quite dense so air is in fact the enemy.

Add the chopped walnuts to the chocolate mixture and slowly incorporate this into the eggs and sugar. I add a little at a time to make sure it's cool enough. If you're not keen on walnuts, pecans or macadamias also work brilliant, heck...why not do a combo?

Chop these as big or as small as you life. If you're particularly finicky, use a food processor or as my husband does....a mortar and pestle. 

Finally add the flour and salt and mix!

Pour it into your prepared ban and pop in the over for 35-40 mins. Basically you want the center to be slightly sticky, not liquidy.

These brownies are amazing warm and even better if you leave them a couple of days.

Lavariya

This is a post dedicated to my cousin Ruwanthi who specifically asked for the how-to. I don't claim to be an expert, only that I have executed the process with some success.  Some, being the operative word. Lavariya as I know it is basically a caramelised coconut wrapped in a string hopper. Great with a cup of good Ceylon tea.

Ingredients

Pani Pol

• Treacle
• 1 cardoman pod
• 3 cloves
• 1/2 stick of cinnamon 

Lavariya 

• MDK Stringhopper flour
• Water

Instructions

Pani pol

Kithul Treacle - available from good Lankan groceries.

I make my pani-pol by heating the kithul treacle in a pan with the spices. 

Once it comes to the boil I simply add the un-sweeted desiccated coconut and stir. 

I leave it on the heat for about 10 minutes until the coconut has absorbed the pani and becomes dark and caramelly. 

Lavariya

I make my string hoppers the cheats way. That is, I get my mum to send me the MDK flour which you mix with cold water and bam....string hoppers....almost. This stuff is so easy to use and  it makes having string hoppers for dinner really simple.

Simple mix the stringhopper flour with enough water to make a sticky dough. I can't give you the exact amount because like all doughs, it varies. But here is a picture of the consistenty I got.

I then scoop it into my stringhopper maker and pipe it onto a circle of baking paper. 

I place a tea spoon full of the cooled pani-pol mixture onto the string-hopper and use the baking paper to fold, making sure the edges are pressed together. 

I then place it on a string-hopper mat and into the steamer for 5 minutes to steam. Yummo!

Dairy/Soy free Banana Bread

Have I told you about my lovely husband that always reminds me to buy bananas when I go shopping and then lets at least one of them rot in the fruit bowl. Well now you know. This has forced me to have a variety of banana friendly recipes to use up the soft bananas....good thing I lurrve banana bread. 

Now that I can no longer eat the king of all foods (butter) I've had to change a few of my recipes around. They now include dairy/soy free milk, butter and would you believe it, sour cream! 

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dairy/soy free margarine (I used Earth Balance)
• 1/4 cup olive/canonal oil
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used WAYFARE)

Instructions

1. Grease 1 large loaf pan and preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C
2. Add the margine, eggs, vanilla and olive oil to the mashed bananas and mix well
3. Finally add the sour cream and blend again
4. In a second bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and pour into the load pan. 
6. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour or until a skewer comes out nice and clean.

Enjoy with some dairy free spread...yummo!

Dairy and Soy Free Vanilla Cupcakes

Ahh the unending joys of motherhood, I've been put on a fabulous new diet. Dairy and Soy free. The doctor hopes it'll help Mister C stop spitting up so much. I'm hoping it'll help drop those post pregnancy pounds  that refuse to budge. This new diet has a multitude of challenges that come with it, first there's the obvious "no butter"....that's like saying no air to a baker like me. Secondly did you know that soy is in everything, vegetable oil, mayonnaise, chocolate....everything. I've become that person that obsessively reads labels and the one that comes to a party and says "I've already eaten"...because it's so much safer.  

This week was our last official mother's group and we had a pot-luck afternoon tea. I decided to take this cupcakes along...and even though they are dairy free and soy free...I promise they're not taste free. 

Ingredients

•  1 1/2 cups vanilla  almond milk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
•  2 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup white granulated sugar (I prefer unrefined cane sugar)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp  vanilla extract
• 1 egg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line muffin pans with 16 cupcake liners and set aside.
2. In a small bowl or cup, combine the almond milk and lemon juice, whisking until combined. (Mixture will curdle.) Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the almond milk mixture with the canola oil, vanilla extract and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined. Portion the batter in to the prepared pans and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire cooling rack completely before icing with Dairy-Free Frosting of your choice.