i saw the inspiration for this post on foodgawker a while back and the idea has since stuck in my head. i wanted to make the dish with my own twist so i chose chamomile tea instead of white, agar agar as a vegan alternative to gelatin, and a mix of seedless mandarin oranges with sweet oroblanco grapefruits, which are hardly tart at all.
if you struggle as i do with sweet cravings, this is a lovely little snack that helps satisfy. the flavors of the jelly are so subtle, but they hold together piles of sweet citrus that pop in your mouth.
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it’s probably too late for anyone to actually make these for valentine’s day but i thought i would share what i made for my valentine.
a few weeks past i exclaimed that it is the peak of orange season. i also mentioned that i used many of the seedless mandarin oranges i got from the farmer’s market to make orange spice and red wine marmalade for chirstmas – which is rich with flavor from a dash of red wine and spicy from ground cloves, cinnamon and ginger. i gave one jar to my boyfriend and he was quite smitten with the stuff, so when i found an extra jar in my fridge i decided to play with those same flavors in a new way. this recipe, while essentially a simple sugar cookie, features the flavors of the marmalade just perfectly.
it doesn’t matter if it’s too late to make these for your valentine, you can make them all year round and swap out different jams and preserves for endless possibilities!
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this recipe started as a far cry from what it ended up as. it began with a gingerbread persimmon upside-down cake that was a true disaster. all the persimmons stuck to the pan, the cake wasn’t sweet or moist enough, and most of all it had no chocolate. but 4 or 5 tries later and the result is an amazingly fluffy and moist squad of cupcakes with little chocolate chips tucked inside of them.
to top them off is a recipe i’ve been playing around with for the past few months. i grind some fresh cardamom pods and infuse soy milk with them to make a truly unique tasting frosting. if you’re not familiar with the flavors of cardamom it is actually closely related to the ginger plant, which may explain it’s slight spiciness. it is sort of like a cross between black pepper and cinnamon.
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you’re probably asking yourself how it can be both raw and hot at the same time. without actually cooking, if blended on high for a few minutes anything will warm up. it’s a tip often used by raw foodists to make raw soups more appetizing.
after a few minutes of blending the combination of fresh homemade buckwheat milk, raw chocolate powder and agave syrup gather a froth just like the real thing. but this treat is much lighter, raw and free of most allergens, like dairy, gluten, soy, nuts and refined sugar.
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we got a bit caught up – as is expected of foodies on the most culinary-centric day of the year for some – and didn’t find the time to post this recipe. but luckily, these would be great for christmas too, any time of the year really!
the topic of sweet potatoes vs. yams has come up many times in the comment section and it’s something i should finally address. i get orange-fleshed, brown-skinned tubers from the farmers i work for at the market. they call them yams, so that’s usually how i refer to them, but i’ve been corrected many times, that in fact they are sweet potatoes.
wikipedia says that yams are traditionally white inside, but the orange variety of sweet potatoes are marketed as yams to distinguish them from the white-fleshed sweet potatoes. so perhaps everytime i’ve said yam in the past i should have said sweet potato, but i often still call them yams because that’s what i called them growing up. it doesn’t matter the name, if you get the ones that are orange on the inside it’s hard to go wrong.
this is a new take on the brown sugar and butter heavy version we usually made for thanksgiving, topped of course with marshmallows. instead i coated each piece with a pumpkin pie spiced cookie crust and crunchy bits of pecans, which are just sweet and spicy enough to satisfy a sweet tooth, but just light enough that they won’t send you into sugar coma.
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last year i made homemade pumpkin applesauce, a real fall favorite. packed with cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar, it was a decadent traditional treat made fresh with organic ingredients. but i’m on a low sugar kick lately and wanted to make a much lighter version.
instead of brown sugar, i sweetened it with the fresh juice of fuji apples – the first of the season. and since asian pears and yams are in abundance at the farmers’ market i thought they would mimic the flavors of apples and pumpkin quite well, even adding a hint of vanilla from the pears and a creaminess from the yams.
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people think tarts are so fancy, so european. but in reality, all you need to make one is the pan. the crust that you press into it isn’t far off from that of a pie and the filling is much simpler – just dice up fresh fruit, arrange it in concentric circles and voilà! you have yourself a certified fancy dessert
and like the pizza i made a few weeks ago, this treat just happens to be gluten-free. i used ground cashews and oats for the crust, which got crispy on the edges, but left the center gooey and cobbler-like.
this is the perfect dessert to end a lovely summer meal. use whatever fruit is seasonal, it would be great with any stone fruit, cherries, blueberries, apples or pears!
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i remember fondly the trips to the grocery store when my mother let me get that ooey gooey caramel sauce they stack next to the apples in the produce section. if you eat it on fruit it must be healthy…right? not in the copious amounts i managed to wrap around a tiny wedge of apple.
now that i am older i have a better appreciation for the fruit to sugar ratio, as well as a taste for a little salt with my sweets. so i came up with this, a lighter version of the caramel sauce i once loved. it’s still creamy and sweet, but not as thick, so you get a thinner layer over that slice of apple.
but don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to eat it with fruit. it’s also amazing to drizzle over soy ice cream or swirl into a batch of brownies. enjoy!
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Also posted in sauce | Tagged caramel, dipping sauce, salty |
i don’t understand why it’s considered normal to eat super sweet food first thing in the morning. if i wake up and eat a blueberry muffin my blood sugar will be bouncing up and down all day, let alone pancakes or waffles stacked high and drizzled in syrup. that’s why i usually look to the not-so-sweet to satisfy my early morning hunger – a slice of whole grain toast, porridge or a scone.
this simple recipe is hard to screw up. if you’re feeling creative throw in flavors like vanilla, cinnamon or lemon zest, and feel free to replace the apricots with another fruit or leave them out completely. i added them because i love their fresh tart taste and they are so cheap at the market right now, as low as $1 a pound!
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i’ve been baking vegan treats for at least 2 or 3 years now and i can safely say that i’ve got the cookie down. there are so many cookie recipes already that leave out eggs or substitute oil for butter, that a vegan cookie recipe is easy to come by and hard to screw up.
but for some reason, all this time, the cupcake has successfully eluded me. i envied so many other bloggers who seemed to flawlessly pull off those soft-looking treats, with piles of sweet frosting and a dash of sprinkles. every time i followed a seemingly simple recipe it resulted in flat, dense blobs that never attempted to rise and whose taste can’t seem to justify their heavy texture.
finally, i stumbled upon an amazing recipe. somehow, just a small amount of vinegar gives this cake the soft, moist texture that doesn’t taste vegan. and the frosting just substitutes vegan margarine for butter. i’ve just made a few adjustments, i substituted rice vinegar for white since that’s all i had and added pluots, since they are one of my favorite fruits that just came back into season!
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