December 16, 2010: Xmas pudding bites

For the month of December, Robyn picked a very seasonal recipe to display in the calendar.  (She also mailed me another totally original home-made calendar full of fab recipes for 2011 - yippee!)  Fruit puddings have never had much of a role in my family's Christmas traditions and their heaviness doesn't appeal to me in our summer setting.  But this is a recipe for bite-sized balls of choc-topped pudding and I could buy into that.  (It turns out that such mini puddings are a Christmas tradition of their own in some families.)

This kind of presentation - the ball rolling, the suspended-mid-drip white chocolate 'custard', and the holly-coloured sprinkles - is fancier that what I usually go in for, but it's really not too difficult.  What I mean is, it's not piping.  (Oh, lord, how I hate piping.)  It just calls for a knife, a teaspoon, and a wee bit of patience.  And you get a whole lot of cute for your efforts.

I made my first batch keeping almost true to the original recipe (making a couple of minor convenience substitutions) and shared them with my colleagues at our work Christmas party (they're pictured up top).  Then I made some more substantive changes and contributed a second vegan and gluten-free batch to Lisa's Xmas potluck (pictured just above).  Here I replaced the crumbled sponge cake with the only vegan and gluten-free biscuits I could access, Leda Gingernuts, used Bonvita rice milk white chocolate on the advice of my vegan Facebook brains trust, and scrounged some leftover red jellies from my icecream party in lieu of the long-gone glace cherries for the garnish.

I reckon my vegan, gluten-free mini-puddings looked just as great, if not better than, my first more traditional run.  They tasted pretty good too, though the crumbled biscuits had them a little sandier and more sugary than the originals.  If you can find a light cake that fits your dietary constraints, I'd definitely recommend it over the biscuits.

This was the perfect calendar recipe - something I wouldn't normally choose to make, nudging me to expand my skills, with a rewarding result that I'd happily make again.  These just might become a new where's the beef? Christmas tradition.

Xmas pudding bites
(it looks very much as if Robyn sourced the recipe from here)

original ingredients
1 cup raisins, chopped
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup dry roasted almonds
300g sponge cake, crumbled
200g dark chocolate
100g white chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
pistachios and glace cherries to garnish

vegan, gluten-free alternative ingredients (also a half-quantity)
1/2 cup raisins, chopped
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon brandy
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/4 cup dry roasted almonds
155g packet vegan gluten-free gingernuts, crushed
100g vegan dark chocolate
50g vegan white chocolate
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
pistachios and vegan gluten-free red jellies to garnish

In a small saucepan, stir together the raisins, currants, brown sugar, brandy and orange juice.  Simmer the fruit for 3 minutes, then set it aside to cool.

Blend the almonds to a coarse meal in a food processor.  Mix them together with the cake/biscuit crumbs in a large bowl, then stir through the cooled fruit mixture.  Gently melt the dark chocolate and add it to the bowl, stirring to combine.  The mixture should have formed a firm and slightly crumbly dough.

Roll inch-diameter balls from the pudding mixture, place them on a lined tray and refrigerate until firm.

Finely chop the red and green garnishes.  Gently melt the white chocolate and oil together so that they're silky and quite liquid.  Drizzle the white chocolate over the pudding balls and sprinkle over the garnish.  Refrigerate until the chocolate has set, and continue to store them there until serving.  (They can last at least a few hours out of the fridge in cool conditions.)

November 18, 2010: Pizza pull-apart loaf

Pizza pull-apart loaf is our calendar recipe for the month of November.  I imagined it being just the thing to bake in the morning and pack for a picnic but I actually ended up preparing it for a weeknight dinner, roasting some broccoli and garlic on the neighbouring oven tray.

This pull-apart loaf is not quite like the light bready ones I've encountered at bakeries; it reminds me more of damper.  On the couple of mornings that I lightly toasted a leftover wedge for breakfast I remained full for hours longer than usual, uninterested in lunch until mid-afternoon.  So it's lucky that it didn't go stale for days - I needed a good 24 hours to work up an appetite for another slab!

Pizza pull-apart loaf

4 cups plain flour
2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
90g butter, cold and chopped into cubes
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 green capsicum, chopped
3/4 cup tasty cheese, grated
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup tomato-based pasta sauce

Preheat the oven to 190°C.   Line a baking tray with paper.

In a food processor, briefly pulse the flour and baking powder.  Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Transfer the butter/flour mixture to a large bowl and stir through the sun-dried tomatoes, capsicum and 1/2 cup of the cheese.  Add the milk and egg, combining it all to form a dough.  Knead the dough lightly, form it into a 20cm round and place it on the baking tray.

Use a knife to cut not-quite-through the to the bottom of the dough, so that you've marked out eight wedges.  Fill the wedge cuts with pasta sauce, then sprinkle the remaining cheese over the loaf.

Bake the loaf for 35-40 minutes, or until it's golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped at the base.  Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

October 23, 2010: Fancy mushrooms and spinach on toast

I’ve been getting quite enthused with the home-cooked weekend breakfasts lately, so I was more than happy to take charge of this month’s calendar recipe – a mushrooms on toast dish that, with its truffle oil and fancy feta, wouldn’t look out of place on most cafe menus.

It’s all pretty simple – pop some bread in the toaster, do a little bit of pan-frying, add a few toppings and you’re done. And it’s well-worth the minimal effort – the rich, chunky mushrooms kept us going for hours and were set off by the earthy truffle oil and salty fetta. Having some good bread is important - we’d gone to the trouble of grabbing some fresh bread from the newly re-opened Filou’s Patisserie and I think using supermarket bread would have greatly reduced our enjoyment.


Sauteed mushrooms on toast with baby spinach, fetta and truffle oil

3 cups mushrooms, cut into chunky pieces
4 slices of fresh wholegrain bread
2 cups baby spinach leaves
4 tablespoons fetta
2 tablespoons white truffle oil
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil


Saute the mushrooms in the vegetable oil over high heat, until they’ve softened and started to caramelise. Season with salt and pepper.  Pop the bread in the toaster when your mushrooms are nearly cooked – don’t leave it too late or else your spinach will wilt away to nothing.


Add the spinach and parsley to the mushrooms and fry for a minute or so, until they start to wilt. Remove everything from the heat.

Arrange the toast on a plate. Toss the mushrooms mixture over it and crumble the fetta on top.

Lightly drizzle with the truffle oil and season with extra black pepper.

September 30, 2010: Grapefruit vinaigrette

Our dinners for the week turned out to be a hodge-podge of delicious improvisation, which fitted in with having salad dressing as our calendar recipe for the month. We made a basic greens and carrot salad to have with our beany polenta dinner and I knocked this dressing together to accompany it.

It's all very quick and easy and it added a nice citrus tang to our fairly plain salad. I'm not really a massive grapefruit fan and I may have enjoyed this a little more with a slightly sweeter citrus base, but I'd still say this was a success.

Grapefruit Vinaigrette

2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grapefruit juice
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon agave nectar
a few pinches of salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a glass jar with a proper lid and shake to combine.

May 15, June 12, August 13, 2010: Buttermilk (& 'buttermilk') scones

The absence of a May calendar recipe on this blog may have escaped your attention.  I did make it; it's just taken me several more months to make vegan and gluten-free analogues of those buttermilk scones.  If anything, this scone recipe is a little more adaptable than your standard batch.  The fat comes from buttermilk rather than butter, and it's just stirred into the dry ingredients instead of all that pesky rubbing.  I didn't particularly notice the buttermilk in the final product but some maple syrup adds a distinctive sweet note.

I baked the first batch to team with a pot of savoury harira soup.  These did not top the traditional approach and technical skill employed by my friends D and Lissy, who are famed in some circles for their particularly fine scones, but it's an easy and quick recipe that still tastes very good fresh from the oven.

Almost a month later I prepared a vegan version and teamed them with the June calendar recipe for carrot-maple soup (this was Robyn's original intention).  The trick here is to replace the buttermilk with a mixture of soy milk and white vinegar.  It doesn't taste the same straight up but it sure does the job in a dough like this. I did find, though, that this scone dough was more wet than the original.  I had no hope of flouring and kneading it, and instead I just dropped scoops of it directly onto the baking tray.

Then more recently I went the full vegan/gluten-free monty, replacing the plain wheat flour with Orgran's gluten-free mix.  This dough was sloppier and lumpier still and I didn't hold much hope for its taste.  Actually these unconventional scones tasted very nearly as good as the other versions, with only the faintest chalkiness in their texture.  Slathered with your favourite topping, you'd barely notice the difference.

Buttermilk scones

2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat an oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. In a separate, smaller bowl whisk together the buttermilk and maple syrup.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they're just combined. Divide the dough into half a dozen blobs and place them on the baking tray. Bake the scones until they're cooked through, up to 20 minutes.

'Buttermilk' scones

1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 cups plain flour (optionally a gluten-free mix)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat an oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with paper.

In a small bowl stir together the soy milk and vinegar, allowing them to sit for 10 minutes.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

Whisk the maple syrup into the soy milk mixture.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they're just combined. Divide the dough into half a dozen blobs and place them on the baking tray. Bake the scones until they're cooked through, up to 20 minutes.

August 10, 2010: Goat's cheese fritters (+ a surprisingly tasty alternative)

Our August calendar recipe for goat's cheese fritters perplexingly did not include ingredient quantities. Lucky for me, a brief google search revealed that Robyn had sourced the recipe from Taste.com.au.  With that, it was easy to draw up a shopping list and schedule them for dinner.  There was a lot more mixture than the recipe hinted at (I made far more than just '12 walnut-sized balls' from the dough) but otherwise it came together without too much fuss - mash together the ingredients until smooth, coat them (messily) in breadcrumbs, and give them some time in the fridge to firm up before frying.  The frying got a little ugly, what with the cheese wanting to melt'n'all, but most of my fritters remained intact.  They were quite a treat with a little tomato chutney and a lot of green salad.

For the first week or so of this recipe decorating our wall, it seemed clear that I could deglutenise it without too much effort (some gluten-free flour and rice crumbs would do it)... but veganising a recipe consisting primarily of cheese and egg?  This seemed like lunacy.  Then, on that tenth day of August, an idea struck me that seemed as brilliant as it did bloomin' obvious.

Tofu.

Tofu, with the right seasoning, might do a perfectly good job of standing in for all the cheese and egg.  I thought back to Isa's fantastic vegan omelettes and decided that my gluten-free flour substitute should be besan (chickpea flour).  A little 'chicken' stock powder and savoury yeast flakes and I thought I might just be able to concoct a decent little fritter.

We bought silken tofu for the task and this proved to be a little too watery; I ended up with a pancake-like batter that could not be crumbed.  But it fried up quite easily anyway, and I was thrilled to present Michael with hot golden fritters that looked astoundingly like fried cheese.

And the taste?  They had the velvety texture of ricotta and a subtle salty savouryness that fits the cheese niche, even if it doesn't taste exactly like cheese.  They were some fine fritters, and I was inordinately proud of them. 

Goat's cheese fritters
(based on a recipe from Taste.com.au)

250g ricotta
200g goat's cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour
2 teaspoons thyme leaves, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
sunflower oil, to shallow fry

In a bowl, use a fork to mash together the ricotta, goat's cheese, flour and thyme. Add in the egg and stir the mixture until it's all smooth. Gently roll the cheese mixture into walnut-sized balls and coat them in breadcrumbs, flattening the balls slightly with your hand. Refrigerate the cheese balls for at least 30 minutes to firm up.

Heat the oil in a fry pan and shallow-fry the cheese fritters until they are crisp and golden on both sides. Allow them to drain on absorbent paper before serving.

Cheesy tofu fritters

300g silken firm tofu
1/2 cup besan (chickpea flour)
2 tablespoons savoury yeast flakes
2 teaspoons 'chicken' stock powder
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons chopped thyme leaves
pinch of nutmeg
sunflower oil, for shallow frying

Thoroughly mix together all of the ingredients, except for the oil, in a bowl. Taste the batter and adjust the flavourings to your preference.

Heat the oil in a fry pan and drop generous tablespoons of the batter into the oil. Shallow-fry the fritters until they are crisp and golden on both sides. Allow them to drain on absorbent paper before serving.

July 18 & 27, 2010: Twice-shy chocolate crème brûlée

July's calendar recipe promised to be quite a treat - chocolate crème brûlée!  With my first under-the-grill vegan crème brûlée working out quite well last winter, I was pretty sure I could get this right.  The custard was no problem, essentially just chocolate and cream thickened and set with egg yolks.  But I found I had to re-learn the process of caramelising that toffee sugar crust.  (Incidentally, did you know that the crème brûlée's sugar crust was originally burned using not a blow torch, but using a specially designed iron? Very cool, but probably one for the 'inessential utensils' list.)

I was careful to ensure the grill was very hot before sliding the cold custard cups in, yet still found that the custard edges burned badly before the sugar had melted.  I unhappily scraped the top centimetre off each serving before digging in to the still-delicious custard. 

On my second attempt, where I developed a vegan and gluten-free version using coconut milk and arrowroot, I used a thicker layer of sugar in an attempt to protect the custard from burning.  It mostly worked, though I was reluctant to let the sugar brown to hard toffee and risk more charred custard.  The glassy surface you see above was nicely crunchy but really too thick and sweet and no complement to the rich chocolate at all.

And that's the conclusion I ultimately came to - both versions of the baked custard are magnificent and they don't need any kind of sugar coating.  Instead I'd be more inclined to seek out a fruity accompaniment in future.

Chocolate crème brûlée, original recipe

100g dark chocolate
200mL cream
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup castor sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
pinch of salt
1-2 tablespoons Cointreau

Preheat the oven to 120°C.  Arrange 3-4 ramekins or oven-proof cups in a roasting tray, and set a kettle full of water on to boil.

Gently melt together the chocolate and cream in a saucepan.  In a small-medium bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale.  Whisk in the chocolate mixture, salt and Cointreau.  Pour the custard into the cups, ideally straining it as you go, making sure to leave at least 1cm of space at the top.  (I found that my custards expanded in the oven and deflated again while cooling.)

Pour the boiling water from the kettle into the roasting tray so that the water comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  Bake the custards for 25-30 minutes, until they're set through but still a little wobbly.  Allow the custards to cool on the bench and then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

For the toffee top (which I don't especially recommend), sprinkle a teaspoon of castor sugar on each custard and swish it around gently to coat the top evenly. Bring a grill to its hottest heat and place the custards under it for a minute or two - the aim is to melt and brown the sugar without burning the custard.  Keep a close eye on the custards and remove them promptly.  Allow the crème brûlées a minute or two to cool so that the sugar hardens again before serving.

Chocolate crème brûlée, vegan & gluten free

100g dark chocolate
400mL coconut milk
1/3 cup castor sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon arrowroot

Preheat the oven to 120°C.  Arrange 3 ramekins or oven-proof cups in a roasting tray, and set a kettle full of water on to boil.

Gently melt together the chocolate, coconut milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan.   When it's all smooth and well mixed, whisk in the arrowroot.  Pour the custard into the cups, ideally straining it as you go, making sure to leave at least 1cm of space at the top. 

Pour the boiling water from the kettle into the roasting tray so that the water comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  Bake the custards for 25-30 minutes, until they're set through but still a little wobbly.  Allow the custards to cool on the bench and then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

For the toffee top (which I don't especially recommend), sprinkle a teaspoon of castor sugar on each custard and swish it around gently to coat the top evenly. Bring a grill to its hottest heat and place the custards under it for a minute or two - the aim is to melt and brown the sugar without burning the custard.  Keep a close eye on the custards and remove them promptly.  Allow the crème brûlées a minute or two to cool so that the sugar hardens again before serving.

June 13, 2010: Carrot-maple soup

Our recipe calendar is very seasonally appropriate, so as the cold weather came in this month, it offered up a perfectly warming soup recipe.  This is a neat combination of flavours, with the ginger and maple syrup adding a bit of sweetness and bite to what is otherwise a straightforward carrot soup recipe. The whole process takes a bit of time - you've got to roast everything first and then turn it into soup, but it's all quite simple to do and the end result is worth the effort.  It's quite sweet, but it feels healthy and hearty and was perfect for a cold night at home.

Carrot and Maple Syrup Soup

1kg carrots, sliced 2cm thick

2 onions, roughly chopped

4cm piece of ginger, grated

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup maple syrup

4 cups vegie stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Toss together carrots, onions, ginger, garlic, oil and maple syrup with salt and pepper.  Spread them out on a lined baking tray and roast, turning a couple of times, for thirty minutes.  The carrots should have just started to brown a bit.

Tip the vegies and juices into a big pot and pour in the stock.  Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until everything is tenderised.  

Mush everything up with a stick blender, doing your best not to spray the kitchen with carrot juice - it should be thick and smooth.

Serve it up and drizzle with maple syrup to garnish.

April 10-11, 2010: Basil ice-cream, dairyful and dairy-free

On arriving home from our holiday, I was keen to get back into the kitchen and took a cue from my recipe calendar.  April was all about basil icecream.  The recipe doesn't use the usual cream, eggs or milk at all, instead deriving its rich creaminess from mascarpone and yoghurt.  For my vegan/gluten-free challenge I simply replaced these with coconut cream (this is the paler of the two scoops pictured).

The coconut cream-based version was sweeter and mellower, while the original recipe had the pleasant tang of a cheesecake.  Both taste 'green' in the best possible way - fresh and summery, the perfect embellishment to a fruit salad.

Basil icecream

dairyful ingredients
1/2 large bunch fresh basil
250g castor sugar
125g mascarpone
600g Greek-style yoghurt

dairy-free ingredients
1/2 large bunch fresh basil
250g castor sugar
800mL coconut cream

Roughly chop the basil, including the stems, and place them in a food processor with the sugar.  Blend them thoroughly, until they're a uniform powdery mixture.  (You may need to stop the blade and scrape down the sides a couple of times.)

Transfer the basil-sugar to a bowl and whisk in the remaining ingredients.  Chill the mixture thoroughly and churn it in an icecream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

March 14, 2010: Cheezy mushroom croissants

Well, foolhardy ol' me set myself the task of veganising and de-glutening this year's calendar recipes. January was a cinch, February was more success than failure, and March just about defeated me before I'd even begun. Croissants - little more than butter and flour - are surely the antithesis of a vegan, gluten-free diet. I ditched my gluten-free aspirations and focused on a vegan rendition. Here's what I came up with:

Croissants: Croissants are just puff pastry, right? So why not use Borg's excellent vegan puff pastry for the job? I watched Emmanuel Mollois roll croissants on Poh's Kitchen a few weeks ago and figured I could give it a shot. (You can watch it too - it's at the 14-minute mark in the Family Favourites episode, archived here.) Mine were nothing special. Their shape was just barely evocative of a real croissant, and they were compact and heavy. Chewy, even. Fail.

Mushrooms: I stayed relatively true to the original recipe, just replacing the butter with Nuttelex and omitting the cream altogether. They were still delicious.

Brie: I wasn't in the mood for elaborate vegan cheese-making, and instead thought that Vegan Brunch's cheesy sauce might be a nice alternative (even if it doesn't resemble brie in the least). It's a fab sauce, but ultimately I didn't really think it matched the mushrooms.

Not a meal worth repeating. Still, there were enough pleasant (if mis-matched) elements here to contently eat my way through what I'd cooked. And I reckon experiments like this one are doing me and my cooking skillz more good than harm.

____________

Mandee's been going mad for vegan, gluten-free French food recently - check out her culinary creations here (including croissants!) and here.

March 13, 2010: Mushroom & brie croissants

March's calendar recipe of creamy brie and mushroom croissants looked devastatingly rich. Not only does it involve the creamy brie and buttery croissants of the title, but the mushrooms are also cooked in butter and cream! I was pleasantly surprised to find that, once cooked, the mushrooms weren't at all gluggy - much of the moisture had evaporated off and the white wine gave them a terrific acidity that counteracted all the fat. In fact, the mushrooms, brie and croissants worked together very well. (I was initially sceptical - but proven wrong! - about the brie/croissant combo.) It all still calls for a whopping garden salad on the side and no dessert to follow, but it's worth that latter sacrifice.

Mushroom and brie croissants

20g butter
1 clove garlic
200g Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
100mL white wine
1/3 cup cream
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 croissants
100g brie, sliced

Melt the butter in a frypan over medium heat. Add the garlic and mushrooms, sautéing them until soft (3-5 minutes). Add the wine and simmer for a couple of minutes or until the wine has evaporated. Stir through the cream and thyme leaves and simmer the mushroom mixture for 3-4 more minutes, until thickened. (I actually found that most of the moisture evaporated.)

Slice the croissants in half and place them cut side up on a tray. Toast them under a grill for just a minute or so. When they're ready, set the tops aside. Arrange the mushrooms and then the cheese slices on the croissant bases and return them to the grill for a couple of minutes, just until the cheese melts. Pop the croissant tops on and serve.

February 21, 2010: Lemon slice, twice

You may have noticed the increasing frequency of vegan and gluten-free recipes on this blog. We have a number of friends embarking on such diets (and one even taking on both simultaneously!). I reckon our vegan cooking skills have developed enormously over the past year and I'm keen to become a similarly confident gluten-free cook.

With this in mind, I'm challenging myself to produce a vegan and/or gluten-free version of each 2010 calendar recipe. January was a breeze - the original salad recipe ticked both boxes right away. February brought a lemon slice, with all the wheat flour and egg-and-milk custard you'd expect. Nevertheless, I had a few substitutions in mind and planned to bake half-batches of the original and tinkered-with recipes on the same afternoon.

The base is a relatively typical biscuity affair of butter, sugar, vanilla and flour. It was just as easy to blend together Nuttelex, sugar, vanilla and a gf flour mix with a fork for my alterna-slice. Both versions proved sticky and awkward to mush into their papered loaf tins - I had no hope of pressing them in with my fingers and tried instead to spread them out with the back of the spoon. The more golden-looking one on the left is the original version.

The original came out of the oven looking much more golden again. I'm not sure whether it's the butter or the flour substitute but the alterna-crust barely coloured up at all, even though it was clearly cooked and even starting to dry out.

The lemon custard was always going to need some more creative thinking - I needed something to replace the eggs and ensure it would set. Based on the orange-Szechuan pepper icecream I recently made, I got to thinking about arrowroot. (Why I didn't just think about No Egg powder, I'm not sure.) I just threw it into the vegan 'custard' by the tablespoonful and hoped for the best. This time it was the distinctly golden caramel-looking layer, up against a very eggy-looking classic custard.

I plonked them into the oven and waited. And waited and waited. In fact, I made two careless mistakes that meant these slices were sitting in a ~100°C oven for about half an hour before I got them to the advised temperature. After they'd had their turn and more, I pulled them both out of the oven - the original recipe was looking eggy but well set. By contrast, much of the alterna-custard was still liquid. I was a little disappointed, but not devastated. I figured this kind of baking mis-step would be inevitable on the road to gobble-worthy gluten-free baked goods.

I was pretty surprised when I returned 20 minutes later and discovered that the alterna-custard had set completely as the slice cooled. In fact, this was a rather handsome and tasty lemon jelly-on-shortbread combo! Some of the edges were a touch burnt and the jelly was getting stuck in my teeth but I suspect these both come from over-baking. I think this recipe's just a reduced-bake away from satisfaction. (Well, almost - I committed a gluten-free FAIL by substituting dairy milk with evil, glutinous oat milk. I'll get me some proper gluten-free vegan milk next time. Or even just water - I'm not sure that milk's necessary here at all.)

While I was rather pleased, all up, with my alterna-slice it was clearly not what the original recipe intended. Here the base unexpectedly rose into an almost cakey affair, with the custard forming a thinner frothy layer on top. This was very nice indeed. I wonder if a bit of baking powder in my alterna-slice might encourage this effect. (I'm in two minds as to whether I'd even want that, though.)

I couldn't have asked for more success in my naive conversion of a traditional recipe. Though my new version is a very different beast to the original, it has its own charms. What's more, I've learned a bit about arrowroot along the way and am keen to continue playing with it. I wonder if it'd make a nice agar replacement for that pie I made last year.

Traditional lemon slice
(from Robyn's 2010 recipe calendar)

base
125 g butter, softened
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups plain flour

filling
4 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 cup milk
grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the base and sides of a small baking tray with paper (I would use something measuring about 20cm square).

Prepare the base by creaming together the butter, sugar and vanilla - if your butter is well-softened you'll be able to do this by hand with a fork. Sift over the flour and mix it in well. Transfer the mixture to the baking tray, using the back of a spoon to spread it out across the base and ideally also an inch up the sides. Bake the base for about 10 minutes or until it begins to brown. Set the base aside to cool.

Whisk together all of the filling ingredients until well combined and pour them over the base. Bake the slice for a further 20-25 minutes or until just set. Allow the slice to cool before slicing and serving.

Vegan and gluten-free lemon slice

base
125g Nuttelex
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups gluten-free plain flour

filling
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 cup castor sugar
1 tablespoon gluten-free plain flour
1/2 cup vegan gluten-free milk
zest and juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the base and sides of a small baking tray with paper (I would use something measuring about 20cm square).

Prepare the base by beating together the Nuttelex, sugar and vanilla with a fork. Sift over the flour and mix it in well. Transfer the mixture to the baking tray, using the back of a spoon to spread it out across the base and ideally also an inch up the sides. Bake the base for about 10 minutes or until it just begins to dry out. Set the base aside to cool.

Whisk together all of the filling ingredients until well combined and pour them over the base. Bake the slice for a further 20-25 minutes. Don't worry if it's still liquidy! It will set up as it cools. Once the slice is cool and set, slice and serve.

January 26, 2010: Savoury baklava and orange-olive salad

Savoury baklava. The idea of it was irresistible to me, even more so when I read an ingredient list that included sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, fetta, dates and cinnamon. But I needed to make a hearty dinner that would extend to a couple of leftover lunches, so I decided to sub out the rich, salty fetta for firm tofu. Then I figured, why not try veganising the entire thing? I've been wondering how filo fares when it's brushed with oil instead of butter.

The answer is that it fares rather well indeed. I think the flavour's a little different, but no less delicious. I infused the tofu with a little extra flavour by stirring through a little salt and some of the sun-dried tomatoes' marinating oil and didn't miss the cheese one bit. The one ingredient that was surprisingly conspicuous, though, was the almonds. Perhaps my chopping was a little too rough, but they retained much of their crunch and didn't really blend in with the rest of the filling. I suppose I could chop or even grind those almonds a little more finely in future but actually they got me to thinking about pine nuts as a potential replacement. Then I started thinking about preserved lemons instead of the dates, or even dried apricots? Other herbs, other bakeable vegetables... this recipe could serve as a basic outline for dozens of different pies (one of them, most obviously, being spanakopita).

A filo pie needs a salad, and there was one waiting in my new 2010 recipe calendar. Michael's mum Robyn generously hand picked twelve more recipes and made me another calendar for my December birthday and it looks even better than last year's! I was expecting this January mix of rocket, watercress and witlof to be a bitter battle but with the sweetness of the oranges and some richness from the avocado (and pastry!), it was the ideal side. My only blunder was dressed it all right away, meaning the leftover leaves were a little soggy and sad in my lunchbox the next day.

Savoury baklava
(a veganised version of this recipe on Gourmet Worrier, which itself is adapted from The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Elia)

2 red onion, finely sliced into circles
3 cloves garlic, minced
100mL olive oil
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon sugar
200g sun-dried tomatoes, some liquid reserved
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup fresh dill, finely chopped
300g firm tofu
salt, to taste
250g almonds, roughly chopped
10 dates, pitted and finely chopped
~150g filo pastry
agave nectar

Over low heat, gently cook the onions and garlic in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the cinnamon and sugar and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions a caramelised (I gave them at least 10 minutes). Add the sun-dried tomatoes, water and dill, and cook for a further 5 minutes or so, until most of the liquid has evaporated or been absorbed.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Crumble the tofu into a bowl, sprinkle it with a few tablespoons of the sun-dried tomatoes' marinating liquid and season it with salt.

Brush a large rectangular baking dish with some of the remaining olive oil, and set out the filo pastry on a damp teatowel to prevent it from drying out. Layer about five pastry sheets in the bottom of the baking dish, brushing a little olive oil between each layer.

Spread half the tomato-onion mixture over the pastry, then sprinkle over half the almonds, half the dates and half of the tofu. Repeat with five more filo pastry layers, the remaining tomato-onion mixture, almonds, dates and tofu. Top with more oil-brushed pastry and a light splash of water.

Bake the baklava for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Allow it to cool slightly before drizzling it lightly with agave nectar, slicing and serving.

Orange-olive salad

1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine or champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon castor sugar
100g rocket
1 bunch watercress
1 small head of witlof
3 large oranges, peeled and sliced into segments
1 avocado, sliced into chunks
1/4 cup kalamata olives
1/4 cup almonds, roughly chopped

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegars and sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and gently toss them through the dressing.