Chickpea Ketchup Curry – Vegan MoFo Day 30!

It’s the last day of Vegan MoFo 2015! I hope everyone has enjoyed it.

For the final day, the prompt is “Fusion Challenge“. I decided to combine probably my two most used cuisines – British and Indian. This meal is unabashedly tasty, junky, comfort food. Like pizza, or mac and cheese, or a thick hot chocolate on a cold day…this is a meal that can become a classic food for when you need cheering up.

If you are a connoisseur of fine Indian cuisine, look away now. I don’t claim this curry to be authentic, but isn’t that what British curry is about? We took the cuisine and mish-mashed it into our own thing. And this takes that one step further.

This is a curry with chickpeas and ketchup…all served on a bed of chips from the local chippy!

We have a set way of making this. First, we make the curry on the stove top.

Then, we turn off the heat, cover it with paper/towel/whatever (this is just to keep any nasties out), and pop down to the local chippy, which is less than a five minute walk from our house.

For you non-Brits, a “chippy” is a shop where they sell mainly chips. Chips are “fries”, specifically thick cut ones. Chip shops usually also sell fish and other meaty things but you can buy chips on their own, which is what we do.

This is a bag of chips!

If you can’t get chip shop chips (I feel sorry for you) then serve this over potato wedges, steak cut fries, or just rice if you want.

Anyway once we’ve got our chips, we head home, fire up the stove again (add a little hot water to thin the curry if needed) and then spoon it over the chips. And enjoy!

Chickpea Ketchup Curry


Ingredients

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp chopped ginger (use about a half inch square piece)
  • 1 can chickpeas, drained
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
  • 5 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Salt & Pepper
  • hot water
  • Chips, to serve.

Directions

  1. Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger until the onion is soft.
  2. Add the spices, salt, and pepper and let cook for a minute or two.
  3. Stir through the chickpeas and let them cook for another couple of minutes.
  4. Add the tomato ketchup, and enough hot water to make the sauce fluid.
  5. Cook for about 5 minutes, adding more hot water if needed. Stir through the lemon juice.
  6. Serve on top of chips!

Road Trip Snacks! – Vegan MoFo Day 29

The penultimate prompt for Vegan MoFo 2015 is “What would you bring on a vegan road trip?” Now, if hypothetically I was going on a vegan road trip and had unlimited funds, I’d probably buy expensive vegan chocolate and snacks from specialist stores. But…although that’d be super tasty, I can’t afford that and I haven’t done that! So I’m sticking with what I know.

When we go on “road trips” (there’s only so much road to trip in the UK!) I tend to stock up on cheap and easy snacks. Mostly sweets and things that aren’t so great for you – but who cares, are holidays really meant to be healthy?

So here I have a selection of the treats I like to buy, all of which clock in at £1 or less!

First lets start with the savoury. These Rosemary & Olive oil Ritz crackers are awesome, and I get them from any supermarket. Bring along a pot of hummus to dip them in!

I love Pringles – and they’re great because they have a little “tick” next to the word vegan on their ingredients list if they’re safe! But these are also really good and only £1. Tesco’s version. Their plain ones are also vegan.

Marmite crisps!! Make sure to get the Walkers brand, as the other older brand of marmite crisps are not vegan. These are recently back and are strangely good. Can buy in packs of six from supermarkets.

Ok that’s it for the savoury, on to the sweet. Where would a vegan snacks list be without Biscoff? These Lotus biscuits come in handy snack-size packets, ideal for dipping in tea or coffee. Found in packs of 16 in pound shops.

These little fruit flakes are actually kind of healthy. You can get them in all different flavours, they are made from condensed fruit purees and are like mini gummies. From supermarkets or pound shops!

And of course Oreos! These are a pack of 10×2 packs I got from a pound shop. You can get rolls of them too, but here in the UK only the regular and the Golden flavours are vegan.

Bon Bons! Tesco’s own make and delicious. Blue Raspberry is such a nostalgic taste.

Skittles! Skittles are now vegan – they didn’t used to be vegetarian either but they changed the recipe and made it suitable for both vegetarians and vegans. My favourite is the sour flavour.

Talking of Skittles…these are basically Vimto flavoured skittles – you can get them from pound shops. Delicious!

So there you have it, my cheap and cheerful road trip list!

Bean and Mince Tacos! – Vegan MoFo Day 28

Today’s prompt is a question – “Tacos VS Burritos?” I’ll be straight up and admit that I haven’t really cooked much Mexican food. When I was a kid, we used to have tacos from an Old El Paso kit, and sometimes “fajitas” and “enchiladas” too. But it wasn’t very often – and I don’t think I ever had a burrito!

So please excuse the lack of authenticity in this post. I did not really have much of an idea of just how to make a taco before I researched for this post! I did have a go at making a burrito, but it was most certainly not blog worthy!

I used hard-shell tacos because that’s what I know as tacos, and filled them with a mixture of beans and mince, which I made separately. Topped with lettuce, Tofutti sour cream (delicious!) and a jalapeno and they were very nice!

So now that I have ventured into the world of tacos, I’ve decided they’re pretty good, and we should have more of them over here in England!

Bean & Mince Tacos


Ingredients

    for the beans
  • 1 can kidney beans, drained
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • pinch cayenne
  • 150ml water
  • for the mince

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp marmite
  • 100ml water
  • 200g soya mince
  • 4 hard shell tacos
  • shredded lettuce
  • vegan sour cream
  • jalapenos

Directions

  1. In a frying pan, fry the onion and garlic until soft.
  2. Add the marmite and tomato puree and stir through the mince.
  3. Pour in the water, and leave to cook until all has been absorbed.
  4. Meanwhile, make the beans. In a saucepan, heat the beans and water together, and stir through the spices.
  5. Using a potato masher, mash the beans until almost completely mashed. Leave to cook until thick.
  6. Once the mince and the beans are cooked, assemble the tacos.
  7. Place 2 tbsp of the mince mixture in a taco, followed by 2 tbsp of the beans, then some lettuce, sour cream, and finally a jalapeno.
  8. Repeat with all four tacos and serve!

Basil & Walnut Pesto – Vegan MoFo Day 27

The prompt for today is to talk about our favourite herb or spice. I love using different herbs and spices and it’s always so hard to choose a “favourite”. But I decided this was a good time to use up my HUGE basil plant.

The above picture was a few weeks ago, it had grown even bigger! But it was starting to get a little overgrown, and basil season is almost over, so I decided to cut it all down and make pesto!

I used quite a lot of basil here because I had a lot, and the recipe probably made about four cups of pesto which is a lot considering you don’t use much in meals! I’ve put the extra in the freezer though – if you freeze it in individual portions you can just heat it through and use! But if you have less basil, just halve the recipe.

I made a pesto mashed potatoes with some of the pesto – just make your usual mashed potatoes, and stir through 2-3 tbsp pesto. It wasn’t very pretty though, although super tasty!

In my pesto recipe, I used walnuts instead of pine nuts. I love the taste walnuts give – and it also makes it a whole lot cheaper than the traditional pesto recipe!

Basil and Walnut Pesto

  • Servings: about 4 cups
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Ingredients

  • 275g basil, washed
  • 100g walnuts
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 125ml olive oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 100ml lemon juice
  • Salt & Pepper

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients except the olive oil in your food processor.
  2. Set the processor running, and slowly pour in the olive oil through the top.
  3. Run the processor until the pesto is mostly smooth! Taste and season.
  4. Serve stirred through pasta, potatoes, on bread, however you like. Can be frozen.

Carrot & Butterbean Soup – Vegan MoFo Day 26

It’s cold, and rainy, and there’s a snow drift outside your door. What are you going to make with the ingredients you have?


I took this prompt to basically be a mostly “storecupboard” challenge. If I was stuck behind a snowdrift, I wouldn’t be able to get out to go and buy fresh vegetables. So what would I make with only what I always have in the house? If it’s cold and rainy, I want something nice and warming. And tasty of course.

For me, soup was the obvious choice! Soup and garlic bread. I do a “cheats” garlic bread which involves pitta bread (I always have some in the freezer) and vegan butter and garlic cloves (always have those). My soup is one I actually often make when it’s cold and nasty because it’s lovely and thick and warming. And so nutritious too – full of carroty goodness so you’ll be able to see in the dark easily!

This soup uses a LOT of carrots – I used 8 fairly large ones – but this gives it the body it needs, so that it isn’t watery.

You can add more water when you blend if you want it to be more liquid – but I like it thick and warming!

The garlic breads are really easy – I just mix together a spoonful of vegan butter with a chopped garlic clove, and spread it on top of pitta breads. Then whack it under the grill (broiler) and grill until golden brown!

Carrot & Butterbean Soup


Ingredients

    for the soup:
  • 8-9 large carrots, roughly chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tin butter beans, drained
  • 1 tsp vegetable stock
  • boiling water
  • salt & pepper
  • for the garlic bread:

  • Pita breads (as many as you like)
  • 1-2 tbsp vegan butter
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Fry the onion and garlic in a saucepan until translucent.
  2. Add the carrots and seasoning and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
  3. Add the tomato puree and stock powder, stir, and pour over the boiling water until it just covers the carrots.
  4. Cover, and cook for 8-10 minutes until carrots are soft.
  5. Meanwhile make the garlic bread. Mix together the butter and chopped garlic and spread on top of the pita breads. Put under a preheated grill for approx 3-5 minutes until the top is golden and bubbling.
  6. Add half the butterbeans and cook for two more minutes.
  7. Either transfer soup mixture to a blender, or use a hand blender, and blend until smooth.
  8. Back in the saucepan, mix the remaining butterbeans with the blended soup and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
  9. Serve in bowls with the garlic bread!

Samosas! – Vegan MoFo Day 25

The prompt today is to write about my favourite cuisine. Now, I love to cook from all different cuisines! Some, I don’t cook so much – I don’t know much about east Asian cooking, for instance, although I’d love to learn – and some, pretty often – if pasta counts as “Italian”! But one cuisine I love cooking is Indian. I grew up in Leicester, where there’s a big Indian population (and a ton of awesome Indian food shops!), and both my parents have spent time in India, so it was something I grew up eating!

One memory I have is that we used to stop off and buy samosas and pakora and bhajis on the way home from church on a Sunday afternoon – lovely. Luckily I married into a family who also shares my love for Indian snacks as well!

Since we moved away from Leicester, I have not found a place to get my samosa fix yet – so what should I do? Well, simple, I just make my own. It’s actually a lot easier than I expected – and you don’t need a deep fryer, just oil in a saucepan will do!

I’ve put together a little step-by-step image tutorial for actually folding the samosas – but once you get the hang of it it’s just second nature.

First, you have to make the filling. This is just onion, garlic, potatoes, peas and spices. Leave it to cool before you make the samosas.

Make the dough, and break off a ball about the size of a ping-pong ball. Or a small plum, if you’d rather. Roll it into a circle about 15cm/6in wide. and slice down the middle.

Now, fold the semi-circle into a cone in your hand, so the edges overlap. Seal with a bit of water.

Make sure it’s all sealed and there’s no holes, and fill with the samosa filling. Leave just under a centimetre at the top so you can pinch it closed. Seal it off well with water, you want to make sure there’s no holes.

Heat enough oil to just cover the samosas in a saucepan (I use a small saucepan so as not to use too much oil, and fry one samosa at a time). Using a bit of spare pastry, test to see if the oil is done. If it immediately fizzles and turns golden, it’s ready!

Place one samosa at a time gently in the oil (use a spoon to do this – but not a plastic one as it’ll melt!), and fry for 30 seconds max on each side, until blistering and golden.

Remove the samosa and place on a kitchen towel to absorb any excess oil. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling!

Let cool a little before eating. You can eat them warm or cold, and even freeze them for a quick heat-up-in-the-microwave snack!

Pea and Potato Samosas

  • Servings: about 20 samosas
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Ingredients

    for the filling:
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 500g potatoes, diced into 1cm cubes
  • 1 chilli, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 100g peas
  • Salt & Pepper
  • for the dough:

  • 300g plain flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 tbsp oil
  • 100ml hot water
  • Oil for deep frying

Directions

  1. First, make the filling. Heat the oil in a saucepan, and add the cumin seeds. Fry for less than a minute, until toasted and fragrant.
  2. Add the onion, garlic, and chilli to the seeds. Fry until the onion is softened.
  3. Add the turmeric, salt and pepper, and cumin powder, and mix.
  4. Stir through the peas and potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
  5. Cover the pan, and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender.
  6. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
  7. Next, make the dough. Mix the salt and flour together, and rub in the oil.
  8. Slowly pour in the hot water and mix until a smooth dough is formed.
  9. Knead until the dough is smooth.
  10. Now, assemble the samosas. In a saucepan, heat up enough oil to just cover the samosas. To test when it is hot enough, drop in a small piece of pastry. If it instantly fizzles and crisps up, it is ready.
  11. Lightly flour a work surface. Break off a small piece of dough, about the size of a ping pong ball, and roll out into a circle 15cm/6in diameter.
  12. Slice the circle in half to form two semi-circles.
  13. Roll the semi circle into a cone shape, with the edges overlapping. Seal with a little water.
  14. Scoop the filling into the cone, leaving roughly just under a centimetre gap at the top. Seal this well with more water.
  15. Place the samosa in the hot oil (careful, very hot!) and fry, turning occasionally, until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the oil and place on a piece of kitchen towel.
  16. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling until all is used up and samosas are made!

Roasted Vegetable Soup & Seeded Soda Bread – Vegan MoFo Day 23!

Today’s prompt is “Autumn Equinox Eats”. I will admit, I don’t know much about the Autumn equinox – sure you hear about the summer/winter equinoxes, but not the Autumn one. Turns out, the Autumn equinox is smack bang in the middle of Summer and winter, and is the day when the day and night are the same length, balancing each other out. Which is pretty cool, really.

I still didn’t really know what food to make though. But, looking into it, the sort of food/celebrations people have for the Autumn equinox seem to be pretty similar to what I’m used to as “harvest” food. Here, around this time of year, churches and communities will celebrate the Harvest, holding harvest festivals and lunches full of seasonal food. Fresh baked bread, soups, etc are all in abundance.

That being said, I decided to make some easy bread and a nice roasted vegetable soup. I had some squash left over from yesterday’s risotto and I went to Leicester market and picked up a few bags of vegetables. I had potatoes, carrots, peppers, courgette, mushrooms, tomatoes, and squash all roasting. You can use whatever you have – it’s all about being seasonal and celebrating the flavours available to you.

I made three trays of roasted vegetables, but probably only used about half of them in this soup. I froze the rest to use another day – having roasted vegetables in the freezer makes for some really easy meals!

For the bread, I didn’t have time to make one that needed to rise so I decided to go with a soda bread! Quick and easy, soda breads don’t need kneading, or rising, and pretty much just come together then get thrown in the oven. Rustic looking, they fit well with the harvest theme. I put a handful of mixed seeds in mine – you can get bags of seeds from supermarkets. My recipe also has oats for that extra rustic taste!

Bread before baking

Bread after baking!

Roasted Vegetable Soup with Seeded Soda Bread


Ingredients

    for the bread:

  • 650g plain flour (or use a mix of plain/wholemeal)
  • 110g oats
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup
  • 50g mixed seeds
  • 25g vegan butter
  • 400ml milk of choice
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • for the soup:

  • Mixed vegetables (I used carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, potatoes, peppers, and courgette), diced, approximately 4-5 cups worth
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp stock powder/1 stock cube
  • boiling water

Directions

    Preheat the oven to 200C/390F
  1. First make the bread. In a jug, mix together the lemon juice and milk. Set aside (it will curdle, that is good).
  2. Mix the flour, oats, bicarb, salt, and seeds in a large bowl.
  3. Rub the butter in with your fingers, and then slowly pour in the milk mixture.
  4. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix or it will not rise! Shape into a rough circle.
  5. Place on a baking sheet and score a large cross through the middle of the dough.
  6. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until it sounds hollow when tapped, and is golden brown.
  7. Next, make the soup. Spread the vegetables on baking trays evenly – you don’t want them layered up.
  8. Put the vegetables in the oven for 20 minutes, after which remove them and stir so they do not stick to the bottom.
  9. Put the vegetables back in the oven for a further 20 minutes, or until they are soft and starting to blacken.
  10. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in a saucepan until softened.
  11. Add the roasted vegetables and tomato puree and mix.
  12. Stir through the stock powder, and pour over the boiling water until it just covers the vegetables.
  13. Cook for a couple of minutes, and season with salt and pepper.
  14. Using a hand blender, blend the soup until almost completely blended. Leave a few chunks of vegetables whole. Alternatively pour into a stand blender and blend.
  15. Serve hot in bowls with the bread and butter!

Butternut Squash & Fennel Risotto – Vegan MoFo Day 22

First of all, I would like to apologise for the terrible photos on this post. Ultimately, I just forgot to take them during cooking, and the lighting was terrible after! Also risotto is quite hard to make look “pretty”. It does taste really good though!

Today’s challenge was to create a meal using all seasonal ingredients. Butternut squash is my absolute favourite autumnal ingredient so that was an obvious starter, and I decided to add fennel to that too. Fennel is something I’ve only recently discovered and it is so good! Raw, it has a slightly aniseedy taste to it, and yet cooked it goes soft and silky and slightly sweet.

I roasted the vegetables in the oven – the butternut squash first for twenty minutes, and added the fennel for the final twenty so it didn’t overcook. Meanwhile I made the risotto, adding the vegetables for the final five minutes so they had time to break down into the rice.

Its such a warm, cosy meal, and perfect for putting you in an autumnal mood!

Butternut Squash & Fennel Risotto


Ingredients

  • 1/2 a medium sized butternut squash, diced
  • 1 bulb fennel, sliced
  • olive oil for roasting
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 180g risotto rice
  • 1.25 litre vegetable stock
  • 1 tsp dried sage
  • 1/2 tsp dried coriander
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • salt & pepper

Directions

    Preheat the oven to 200C/390F
  1. Put the diced squash in a roasting tin along with salt, pepper, and a couple tbsp oil – enough to just coat the squash cubes.
  2. Place the squash in the oven for 20 minutes.
  3. After 20 minutes, remove from the oven and stir through the sliced fennel. Place back in the oven for a further 20 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, make the risotto. Fry the onion and garlic in a large pan until softened, and add the herbs and spices.
  5. Add the rice and fry for 1-2 minutes, until the rice starts to glisten.
  6. Spoon a ladle of stock into the pan, and stir until the rice absorbs it all.
  7. Repeat step 6 until the rice is becoming tender and most of the stock is used up.
  8. Add the roasted squash and fennel into the rice mixture and stir well.
  9. Continue spooning stock in and stirring until completely cooked.
  10. Serve on its own or with bread.

3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cup: Vegan MoFo Day 21

Day 21! That’s three weeks of Vegan MoFo done, wow.

For today, our prompt was “What three endless food supplies would you take if you were going to be stranded on an island?”.

I wasn’t sure what to do – I could go the easy route and just take three foods I love to eat and just write about them (maybe three kinds of chocolate!) but I figured that wouldn’t be very interesting for you guys to read about.

So, I thought maybe I could choose three ingredients I could make something with! But what can you make with just three ingredients? Well a fair bit actually, but I decided to go with something super tasty that isn’t often vegan…

…Peanut butter cups! Now, I hear you can get vegan PB cups in the US, and occasionally you can find them in special stores here in the UK, but they’re expensive and these are so easy and cheap – why not make them? Just three ingredients.

These are the three ingredients I started with, peanut butter, icing sugar (powdered sugar) and dark chocolate.

First, you melt half the chocolate.

Mmm…melted chocolate. Don’t eat it yet.

Then, arrange your cases (I used “petit four” cases so they ended up mini cups) on a baking sheet on a tray. Put a blob of the melted chocolate in the bottom of each cup (don’t worry about them being messy!) and drop the tray lightly on the table a couple of times. This evens out the chocolate so it covers the whole base of the cup!

Told you it was a little messy!

Next, mix your peanut butter and icing sugar together in a bowl until you get a fudgy mixture. Roll it into small balls (slightly bigger than a chickpea!) and place one in each cup, on top of the chocolate.

Next, melt the rest of the chocolate and spoon it over the peanut fudge balls. Once again, tap the tray on the table to get the chocolate to settle.

I then put the tray in the freezer for 30 minutes so they could set, but you could just put it in the fridge if you prefer. Leave them to set entirely before you remove them from their cases.

Keep in the fridge and enjoy!

Bonus: Inside shot!

3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cups

  • Servings: 24 mini cups
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Ingredients

  • 400g chocolate
  • 125g creamy peanut butter
  • 125g powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Set up a baking tray with your cake cases. Use petit four cases for mini cups, or cupcake cases for regular sized.
  2. Melt 200g chocolate (I did this in the microwave).
  3. Put a small blob of chocolate in the base of each cup case. Once each case has chocolate in, tap the tray on the surface to even out the melted chocolate.
  4. In a bowl, add the peanut butter and sift in the powdered sugar. Mix well until a fudgy mixture forms.
  5. Form the peanut fudge into small balls – slightly bigger than a chickpea, or even larger if you use full size cupcake cases.
  6. Add one ball to each case, placing it in the centre of the chocolate.
  7. Melt the final 200g chocolate and spoon it over the peanut butter balls.
  8. Again, tap the tray on the surface to even out the chocolate.
  9. Put the cups (still on the tray) in the fridge or freezer and leave until set.
  10. Enjoy! Store in the fridge, else they’ll melt!

Dr Isaac’s Nutty Crunch Cookies – Vegan MoFo Day 20

Today’s prompt is to veganise an old family recipe. I immediately thought of these cookies – they remind me so much of my childhood and were probably the ones my mum made the most! Super easy and tasty, they go well as a snack or with a cup of tea.

The name of these cookies, “Dr Isaac’s Nutty Crunch Cookies” is a bit odd, because nobody really knows who Dr Isaac is, they don’t have any nuts in, and while they do have a little crunch, they are actually fairly soft cookies. But, that’s their name and it always has been, so I guess it stays!

When I asked my mum for her recipe, I was anticipating having to veganise it – as the prompt goes – maybe switch out the egg or some milk or anything. But…it turned out they were already vegan! So long as you use vegan butter they are actually already vegan cookies. So, maybe it doesn’t count because I didn’t have to actually veganise anything but I still wanted to share!

They’re really simple to make and don’t take long at all so are great for an “emergency cookie” situation (we all have them…right?).

When you bake them, make sure you place the dough spaced apart as they do spread quite a bit. If you’re not careful you end up with a giant single cookie on the sheet (not bad, but, not quite what you want)!

Dr Isaac's Nutty Crunch Cookies

  • Servings: 20 cookies
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Ingredients

  • 110g vegan butter
  • 140g sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup (use agave, maple, etc if you don’t have golden syrup)
  • 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
  • 2 tbsp boiling water
  • 170g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 110g oats

Directions

    Preheat the oven to 190C/375F
  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
  2. In a separate cup, dissolve the bicarb into the boiling water, and then add it to the butter/sugar mix.
  3. Add the vanilla and golden syrup, and mix well.
  4. Stir through the flour, baking powder, and oats, and mix until a stiff paste is formed.
  5. Place walnut-sized pieces of the dough on a baking sheet (no need to flatten them) spaced well apart.
  6. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until turned golden brown (they go a lovely orangey colour!).
  7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the sheet.