Hungarian Chocolate Chestnut Cake - no bake!

As I mentioned in a previous post, this is a cake that my mum veganised from my great grandmother's recipe.

This delicious combination of chocolate and chestnut is indulgent and rich - a family favourite for a very good reason! It is often that final piece of food that sends us into a food coma at family gatherings and parties...

It consists of two layers sandwiched with jam and coated in chocolate. No baking required, just freezing overnight.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of my very talented mum. I hope you love it as much as we do!

Hungarian Chocolate Chestnut Cake

1 15 Oz/450 gm tin of unsweetened chestnut puree (French the best)

7-9 vegan biscuits crushed, such as Arnott's 'Nice' biscuits or vegan arrowroot biscuits

120 gm caster sugar + a few more tbsp for the topping

120 gm Nuttelex or another unsalted/low salt vegan margarine

120 gm vegan dark cooking chocolate + about 80 gm for the topping

1-2 tbsp of rum (or brandy)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

5 tbsp apricot, strawberry or cherry jam

Melt/soften the margarine and blend with the chestnuts, biscuits and sugar until it forms a creamy paste like consistency.

Halve the mixture into 2 bowls.

In one bowl, add melted chocolate together with a dash of coffee if available.

In the other, add vanilla and rum and mix well.

Line a sandwich tin with greased baking paper, leaving enough to cover the cake on top.

Spread the vanilla half into the tin.

Spread the jam gently over the mixture. You may need to warm the jam for easy spreading. 

Then spread the chocolate half of the mixture evenly on top.

Fold the paper over the top and push gently down.

Freeze the cake overnight or until needed. Before serving, take out the cake, tip upside down onto a plate and remove the paper. 

Cover with a thick sauce made with the 80 gm chocolate, and about 4 -6 tbsp caster sugar, and a splash of water or coffee. The topping needs to be smooth and very hot (remove when it starts to bubble). 

Cool slightly and pour over the frozen cake. Allow to defrost further, but keep cool and serve with vegan cream or ice cream.

Mountain High Pies

Mountain High Pies

293 Great Western Highway Wentworth Falls

Blue Mountains

Phone (02) 4757 3737.

I was nearing a large pie shop that I regularly go past on my way to work, on the Great Western Highway in Wentworth Falls (a couple of towns before Katoomba), for some reason I decided to go in. To my suprise, they had a great range of vegan pies - they even had vegan cake! One of the chefs is vegan and she is passionate about creating them.

If you come up to the mountains for the weekend, it's worth a drop in. Also, remember Rubyfruit (vegan bakery in Leura with to die for cakes) and Papadinos Pizza in Katoomba.

Papadinos Pizza in Katoomba

Papadinos Pizza

48 Katoomba St, Katoomba
(02) 4782 1696

Papadinos is a great pizza shop in Katoomba, Blue Mountains. Although they are not fully vegan, they have vegan pizza (yes, cheese included) and a couple of other dishes which look fabulous. The person I was with was guten free as well as being vegan and they accommodated us. To top it all off, they made us vegan, gluten free donuts for dessert. Excellent meal, great atmosphere, highly recommended :)

Doughy adventures: Chocolate coated play pretzels and playdough

Sylvia had the idea recently to make 'chocolate pretzels', which were made on a television show she watches.

We used the recipe for Play Pretzels from Vegan Lunch Box. They are simple, include wholemeal flour and you don't need to wait for the dough to rise. 

Pre-chocolate

There is something irresistible about freshly baked dough coated in chocolate. Sylvia had so much fun making different shapes out of the dough. She loved eating them, too! We've made these several times in the last few weeks. 

Post chocolate

These are not fancy, and I probably wouldn't make these to serve to people, but they are yummy and it is a great activity to do with kids. For the times when chocolate simply must be consumed (often at our place), these pretzels are great as they are pretty healthy when compared with most other chocolatey sweet treats.

S for Sylvia!

And on the topic of dough, for all those in search for the perfect homemade playdough recipe, try this one from Green Gourmet Giraffe. It's the best one we've made yet - thanks Johanna!

Chocolate coated play pretzels (slightly adapted from Play Pretzels in Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann)

2/3 cup all purpose white flour

2/3 cup wholemeal flour

1 sachet of yeast (7gm)

1/2 cup warm water

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 cup vegan chocolate chips, melted

Preheat oven to 220C.

Mix together the yeast, sugar and water and set aside for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the flours and salt in a bowl. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and mix well. Knead for a minute or so until smooth. The original recipe says to leave the dough for 10 minutes. We did this the first time, but not the other times and they turned out fine so I don't think this is essential.

Break off bits of the dough and roll into long strips to make shapes. Bake for about 10 minutes. 

Leave them to cool for a few minutes, then coat in the melted chocolate. Leave to set or eat immediately!

Random deliciousness

With all the other things happening in our lives at the moment, my cooking has been a bit fragmented. I find myself making dishes from random cookbooks and blogs, depending on what idea jumps into my pregnancy-addled brain. I'm still as feverish about cooking as ever!

Here are some yummy things we've eaten lately:

Vegan mayo

It was quite a revelation making this mayonnaise from Vegan Dad's recipe. It was so creamy and much much superior to bought vegan mayo.... and cheaper and no funny additives. It is made with soy milk, oil (I used sunflower oil), white wine vinegar, sugar and salt. I'll never buy vegan mayo again!

Savoury spinach pancakes

These are from Vegan Mother Hubbard and I loved them. I used fresh spinach instead of frozen, some different herbs and spices and left out the vegan cheese, and they turned out beautifully.

White bean and spinach wraps

This is a winning combo if you love garlic - smooth white bean spread based on this recipe, and spinach wilted with a bit of olive oil and garlic. These are still not as popular as our standard tangy bean wraps, but lovely nonetheless!

Food ideas for toddlers

I have heard that some toddlers eat whatever is placed in front of them. Although my little two and a half year old girl eats pretty well and generally tries most foods, she is definitely not one of those toddlers.

Vegan or not, most of my friends with toddlers share my experience.  

I am always trawling blogs on the lookout for new ideas for food that Sylvia might enjoy, so I thought I'd share some of our recent food successes - hopefully they work for someone else too!

Guacamole face

Borrowing yet another idea from the TV show Play School, I made guacamole dip with avocado, chopped tomato, garlic, red onion, lemon juice and salt and cut up a variety of veggies. Whoever said you shouldn't play with your food?

This is Sylvia's creation: 

 

Healthy cinnamon crackers

This is a great recipe from the blog Peas and Thank You. It is actually meant to be a cereal, but Sylvia just loves them as crackers served warm from the oven. They are made with chickpea and millet flour, so pretty nutritious!

Sushi

I've blogged about brown rice sushi before. It was delicious, but Sylvia wasn't too keen on it. She prefers this version made with regular seasoned sushi rice and filled with avocado, capsicum, cucumber and carrot. Dipped in large quantities of tamari or soy sauce, of course!

Pesto pasta and broccoli

I made this pesto with basil leaves, olive oil, nutritional/savoury yeast, garlic, walnuts and lemon juice. I mix the broccoli with a bit of salt and Nuttelex.

Like adults, children have their likes and dislikes. These might change. They are still exploring tastes and textures. I understand them feeling reluctant to try new and unfamiliar things, especially when they feel pressured to do so.

I think it's a lot about control and independence. I find that Sylvia is more likely to try and eat food if the setting is relaxed and she doesn't feel compelled to try it. She is more interested in the food if she is involved in making it.

Toddlers test boundaries and I don't think food should be a battleground. I'm fine with giving Sylvia the freedom to occasionally have not so healthy foods containing sugar etc. and to try foods that may not be 100% vegan in social settings if it means that she has a relaxed and healthy attitude toward food and is happy eating our vegan food at home most of the time.

Almond-jam muffins using leftover almond pulp

I am still chasing down the recipe for my mum's Hungarian Chocolate Chestnut Cake. In the meantime, I wanted to share these delicious almond-jam muffins:

I have been making almond milk quite a bit lately - I seem to be craving it! I hate to waste all that leftover almond pulp, so I googled ways to use it and came across this recipe on Veg Web. 

I loved these muffins. This is the most successful recipe I have found via Google in quite some time! And I have had some disasters, believe me.  

 

I used cherry jam for the filling and a couple of tablespoons of apple sauce for the egg replacer. 

 

To make the almond milk, I soak 1 cup of almonds overnight, then blend it with 4 cups of water, a bit of maple syrup, a dash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt until smooth. I then pour it into a fine strainer (straining it though cheesecloth would create a smoother, less grainy result but I don't mind the tiny bits of almond). It's really easy and tastes so much nicer than bought almond milk.  

 

Now, I think I will probably make the almond milk just to have the pulp to make these yummy muffins!