Chewy Berry Nut Bar

I made up this recipe in no time flat, inspired by something I saw at a Starbucks.  I know, I’m admitting I was in a Starbucks.  I had a gift card and went to go buy a soy chai.  They had this nice looking blueberry bar that looked tasty, other than the fact it was probably way too sweet, full of dairy, and overpriced.

Anyway, I wanted to make cookies tonight but not the same old thing.  And I was feeling lazy.  So this is also a really easy recipe.

I started with a basic shortbread–1 stick earth balance, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups flour.  I whisked that up (butter and sugar first) until it was like coarse sand.  I reserved about a cup of this mixture and pressed down the rest in a buttered baking dish (9×13).

I had some mixed berries in the freezer and the end of a bag of raspberries (you can use whatever berries you want).  I think I used about 2 cups total.  I added a few tablespoons of sugar (not much) and cooked on the stove until it was bubbly.  I whisked it to break up the berries and spread evenly on the pressed down dough.

I chopped up about 1-2 cups of pecans and walnuts (again, you can use whatever nuts you want) and mixed with the remaining dough.  I sprinkled this over the top and baked at 350 for about 30-40 minutes (until the bottom gets a bit browned).

They ended up super tasty and chewy.  It’s hard to believe that the chewy, solid bottom is made of exaclty the same thing as the crumbly top!

Chocolate chip bar cookies

I also baked a quick batch of cookies last night.  I’ve got a kitchenaid stand mixer, so the whole process takes about 5 minutes (plus 15 for baking).  They make super delicious bar cookies that satisfy vegans and non-vegans alike.  I mean it.  They’re everything you want in a cookie.  The recipe is really easy, and easy to remember.

1 stick earth balance
1 cup of sugar
1 3/4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
a few tablespoons soymilk
vegan chocolate chips

Oven at 375.   Cream the earth balance and sugar.  Add the flour (with the salt and baking powder mixed in), and mix until it turns into fine crumbles.  Add just enough soymilk (with the vanilla mixed in) until it comes together into a ball when you squeeze it.  It doesn’t take much, less than a quarter cup.   Add as many chocolate chips as you want, and maybe some pecans or other nuts if you want.  Dump it out into a greased 9×13 pan (I use a standard pyrex one) and press it down evenly with your hands.  Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 15-20 minutes.  Cut them before they get too cold, they have a tendency to stick to the pan.

Perfect with a glass of unsweetened soymilk, or served still warm with some high-quality vanilla vegan ice cream on top.

Almond Custard

This was a really fun experiment.  I was reading “On Food and Cooking” by Harod McGee (thanks for the gift, Ariel!) and found these tantalizing words: “Thanks to the tendency of the nut protiens to coagulate, cooks can thicken nut milks with acid into the equivalent of yogurt, and cook them into a cross between a pudding and custard.”  There was also an old medieval recipe-

“Take almond milk, and boil it, and when it is boiled take it from the fire, and sprinkle on a little vinegar.  Then spread it on a cloth, and cast sugar on it, and when it is cold gather it together and leche [slice] it in dishes, and serve it forth.”

I started by blanching and skinning the almonds.  I used 1 1/2 cups of almonds.  It’s kind of a pain to get all the skin off.  I’m sure there’s a trick, but I just squeezed each almond out.

I blended them in my food processor with about half the water (I used a total of about 4 cups) until it was totally blended and added the rest of the water.  I strained it through a kitchen towel and squeezed out all the liquid.
 
Obviously this is just a nice thick almond milk recipe.  I don’t think this recipe will work with store bought almond milk because there just aren’t that many almonds in it.
 
Then I boiled it for about 45 min or an hour, I think.  I also added a little lemon juice.  I cooled it, added a touch of vanilla, and whisked in some sugar.  Sure enough, it thickened up!  To thicken it more I baked it in a ceramic dish.  After that cooled I put it under the broiler with some extra sugar on top.

It was fantastic!  The texture was somewhere in between ricotta cheese and custard.  It had a mild but rich taste, and a mouth-filling texture.  It would work great as a filling for pastry or with fresh berries.

I had some left-over almond meal and so I whipped it up with some Earth Balance, sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder, and baked it up into some cookies that turned out nice and moist and tender.

It was a hit with non-vegans at a new year’s eve party.  Even though it was tasty, I think I had more fun playing around in the kitchen making it than I did eating it.