Gone Banana's...Bread, that is

This is part two in the series, Baking with The Hungry Vegan Bear.

What goes better with banana bread than a cup of coffee?

As the heat climbed up and up this morning, I found myself craving a cup and since my former flatmate, Linda, has left for the Santa Barbara region, and I now find myself as the sole coffee drinker in our flat, I was left to my own devices, which meant hiking over to Target to get a bag of Pete's.  As the coffee was brewing, I pulled out the maple syrup and coconut milk in preparation.  In my humble opinion, coffee is best with maple syrup especially when the other option is just boring sugar.  I mean, come on!  Pure 100% maple syrup is beyond addictive.  During the fall season I find myself adding it to my cup out of comfort and nostalgic for the days when I could see the changing colors of the trees at my grandparents cottage in the Midwest.  This yearning also lead me to the kitchen and my affection for my mom's banana bread, so this weekend I took a stab at making vegan banana bread.

Tools
bowl
fork
plastic spoon
bread pan

Ingredients for Goin' Banana's Banana Bread
2 bananas
2 c. flour (dealers choice of wheat, unbleached, etc.)
2 Tbsp ground flax seed (mix with 3 1/2 Tbsp of warm water to create an egg replacement)
1/2 c. canola oil
3/4 brown sugar
1/2 c. water
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. chopped almonds
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

First, create the egg replacement and set to the side.  Next, mash the two brown banana's in a bowl with a fork.  Once the banana's are mashed properly, add in the dry ingredients and follow with the ground flax.  I do not own a hand mixer, so I folded all of the ingredients by hand.  Lastly, add in the chopped almonds and fold into the mix.

Make sure you use either margarine or a cooking spray on the bread pan prior to adding in the completed mixture.

This recipe makes one loaf of bread.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 or until golden brown.

Veganpendance Day Extravaganza!

 Frozen Vanilla Soy Dessert Topped With Toasted Coconut Doused In Cognac And Drizzled With Warm Chocolate

The Hungry Vegan Bear couldn't help but
have seconds of this cool tasty treat.

Ingredients

1/2 bag of coconut

frozen soy dessert

1/2 bar of dark chocolate

I toasted a half a bag of coconut in the oven on broil, stirring the coconut until it was golden brown.  Once the coconut was ready I added it to a skillet on a medium high setting on the burner.  Next, take the cognac and add in enough to cover the coconut.  Make sure that you are not standing directly over the skillet as a high flame will shoot up once the cognac hits the pan. 

Remove the skillet and coconut from the burner.  The flame will die out once the pan is off the heat.  Top the cognac doused coconut to the frozen soy dessert.  I used a dark chocolate and warmed it over the stove top.

This recipe will serves three, of course, all of us had seconds.

Cactus On The Grill

Ingredients

1 lb cactus

salt

black pepper medley

Ceyanne pepper

First, use a knife or peeler to strip the cactus of all the needles.  I managed to stab myself in the paw with one of these buggers, which lodged itself under my skin, but was quickly popped out like a splinter with a tweezers.  I don't recommend getting one of these prickly spears in your paw, so be carefull as you are working on these nifty plants.

I used a pound of cactus and boiled it on the stove for about a half hour.  Once the cactus is boiled, handle the cactus to ensure that all of the needles have been extracted from the plant.  After the cactus was tender and ready to serve, I squeezed lime over the top of the cactus and then added salt, black pepper medley, and Ceyanne pepper to the cactus while it was on the grill. 

Sinfully Berrilicious Tarts

It's a sin to eat only one.

All right, I'll admit it, I'm not a baker.  My sister, on the other hand, is an amazing baker and she loves to pass the time, especially during those cold Midwest winter months, baking cookies, cakes, breads, pies, etc.  Personally, I'd rather have a very large very heavy brick dropped on my head several times over.  Basically, what I'm saying is that when The Hungry Vegan Bear bakes it's gonna be quick, easy, and sinfully delicious.

Tools

plastic spoon

bowls

cupcake tin

knife

fork 

spoon 

chopping board

Berry Mixture
1 lime
fresh strawberries
fresh blackberries

After washing the strawberries and blackberries, slice the strawberries in a large bowl and follow this with squeezing a lime over the berries and stir the mix until the lime juice is coating all of the berries.  I like to leave the berries in the refrigerator overnight to soak up a bit of that lime juice to give them a real zing.

Lime juice and lemon juice are great to preserve your berries/fruits.  Also, I like to keep the discolor at bay, so I use a plastic spoon to stir the concoction.

Cream Cheese Mix
1 container of Trader Joe's vegan cream cheese*
1c. powdered sugar
1 Tbsp margarine
1/4 tsp Trader Joe's bourbon vanilla extract*
3 lavender ends

Take a medium bowl and drop in the cup of powdered sugar, add cream cheese, margarine, and the bourbon vanilla extract.  Chop the 3 lavender buds and add into the mix.  Then stir the glaze with a fork and spoon until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  (Yes, go ahead and use a hand mixer, but by using a hand mixer you should feel guilty for not using your own muscles.)

Fillo Dough
Preheat the oven to 325˚F.  Cut the fillo dough into squares and tuck into the cupcake tin mould.  Repeat this step until each mould contains a fillo cup.  Once the oven is preheated, then bake the cups for 10-13 minutes until golden brown.

Once the fillo dough cups are done, add a dollop of the cream cheese mix to the bottom of the cup.  Take the berry filling and spoon the mixture on top.

*I used the vegan cream cheese from Trader Joe's.  The color is not as white as Tofutti, but it tastes the same.  Also, the bourbon vanilla extract is from Trader Joe's, but, again, you can use another brand, if you prefer.