This toffee, once finished, looks beautiful and makes a great gift. But it's incredibly easy, and only takes a few minutes of active cooking.
VERY IMPORTANT: You will need a candy thermometer!
Vegan Scottish Toffee
Ingredients:
-1 cup margarine
-1 cup brown sugar
-250 g (or 9 oz) dark chocolate chips
-1 cup crushed almonds
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1 tsp. fine salt
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Spread almonds in a baking/cookie pan (a 9"x13" would be perfect, or 8"x16", make sure it has at least a 2" high rim) and toast in oven for 6-10 minutes, watching carefully. They should be slightly toasted/browned looking and smell nice. Remove from oven and turn the oven off. Pour 1/2 of the almonds into a separate bowl and set aside. Spread the rest of the almonds around the pan evenly.
Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and mix together the margarine and sugar, stirring constantly. Keep stirring as it bubbles and take the temperature with a candy thermometer at 1-2 minute intervals until the temp is 280-300F (this is the right temp for hard candy which cracks).
Once the toffee is the right temperature, remove from heat and immediately mix in the vanilla and salt. It will boil - keep stirring to combine. Then, immediately pour the toffee into the cookie sheet (evenly). At that point, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee and wait a minute for them to melt, then use a spatula to spread the chocolate out evenly over the toffee (so the toffee is completely covered). Sprinkle the remainder of the almonds over the chocolate, and place the whole pan in the freezer for at LEAST 90 minutes.
Remove from the freezer, twist the pan gently to try and get the candy to separate from the sides, bottom, and up-end the pan onto a cutting board or similar surface. It should come out in on large slab. Then use a knife or your hands to crack it into the sized pieces you desire. I put mine into a little cardboard gift box.
If you have a food processor, you can make bread with only 5 minutes of hands-on time. But I call this "Saturday bread' because the longer you let it rise before baking, the better it will be. You can put in whatever herbs or fillings you like!! I made mine with chopped red chilies and rosemary.
Homemade Herbed Saturday Bread
Ingredients:
-1 cup whole wheat flour
-2 1/2 cups white flour
-1 tsp. salt
-2 tsp. active dry yeast
-1 cup (+ a couple tbsp) water
-2-4 tbsp herbs of your choice (or fresh chopped chives, chilies, olives, sundried tomatoes, etc etc! You could really do almost anything here.)
Method:
In the food processor, combine the flours, salt and yeast. With the processor running, slowly pour in the water. It should become the consistency of a only slightly sticky dough ball which turns around and around against the wall of the processor bowl. It definitely should not leave any liquid on the wall. If it isn't sticking together, add 1-2 tbsp water and let it combine again. If by chance you add TOO much water and it gets a bit too sticky, just add 1-2 tbsp flour and mix again. Keep mixing until you get a good bread dough consistency.
(It's hard to describe here but if you YouTube search it, I am sure you'll find a video showing what the right consistency is.)
Take the dough out, knead it just a little bit with your hands, and place it in a bowl and cover it with Saran wrap. Let rise for AT LEAST 2 hours, or up to 5-6 hours. As long as you want, really. I went out and did errands. :)
Uncover the dough and knead a bit - this is the time when you will knead in your herbs/additions. Sprinkle a surface with flour and shape the dough into whatever you want - 1 large boule, a baguette, smaller boules, individual-sized rolls, etc. Put onto a floured surface and cover with a tea towel and let rise again, for at least an hour but up to 3-4 hours.
When you're ready, preheat the oven to 400F, preferably with a pizza stone in there. If you don't have a pizza stone, that's ok. Once the oven is preheated, transfer the dough to a pizza stone or onto a metal baking tray dusted with flour. Using a sharp knife, slice 1-2 lines into the top (only a bit less than 1 cm deep), then pop into the oven. Lower the heat to 375F.
Bake 25-45 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the internal temperature of the bread is 210F. (You can use a meat thermometer for this.)
Enjoy warm!
I love soups which are thick and creamy, but omit the cream! This one achieves that with the addition of white beans. You can use a hand blender for this recipe but I just put it in the regular blender in 2 batches and then put it (blended) back on the stove.
Hearty Pumpkin-Chipotle Soup
Ingredients:
-2 tbsp. olive oil (I like pepper-infused, but regular is fine)
-1 medium yellow onion, chopped
-3 large garlic cloves, chopped
-2 tsp. chipotle Tabasco sauce
-1 1/2 tsp. chipotle powder
-3/4 tbsp. cumin
-3/4 tbsp. dried oregano
-4 cups vegetable broth
-1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree (make sure it's only pumpkin, not "pumpkin pie mix" with spices)
-1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
-1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
-1 tbsp. honey
Method:
Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat; once hot, add the onion. Stir for a few minutes until onion is a bit soft. Add in the garlic, Tabasco, chipotle powder, cumin, and oregano. Saute for 2-3 minutes until aromatic.
Add the broth, pumpkin puree, and beans to the pot and stir until combined. Then simmer for 20-30 minutes (uncovered) until your kitchen smells fantastic. Add in the vinegar and honey. At this point, I used a ladle to move about 1/2 of the soup to my blender, and then blended until very smooth. Then pour the blended soup into a bowl and set aside. Repeat with the remaining soup.
Pour it all back into your pot and keep it warm until ready to serve. You can top with another sprinkle of chipotle powder or with paprika!
These truffles are so easy to whip up, and so rich and delicious, you only need one to satisfy. :)
Vegan Chocolate-Coconut Truffles
Ingredients:
-1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
-1/8 cup + 2 tbsp. almond or soy milk
-1/8 cup + 2 tbps. graham cracker or cookie crumbs (finely ground)
-1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1/8 cup + 2 tbsp. coconut rum
-coconut shavings for rolling
Method:
Melt the chocolate chips and almond milk in a double boiler, or in the microwave (on low heat, stirring after every 10-15 seconds to make sure it doesn't burn). Once creamed together, add in the cocoa powder and mix well (no clumps). Then add in the crumbs and the rum. Once blended, cover and put in the refrigerator for at least 5-6 hours (I left mine in overnight).
Take the mix out of the fridge and use a spoon to scoop out a heaping tablespoon of the chocolate. It should be pretty hard, but that's a good thing so it doesn't melt completely when you roll it into a ball in your hands. Once it's in a ball shape, roll in the coconut shavings (or, if you prefer, powdered sugar or even more unsweetened cocoa powder) and put in mini cupcake liners. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
