Desserts

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup organic sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup non-dairy dark chocolate chips (or little pieces of non-dairy chocolate)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a half-sheet pan with unbleached parchment paper. In a large pot, combine oil, bananas, sugar, salt, and cardamom; warm over low heat for 2 minutes and whisk to incorporate; remove from stove top and set aside. Sift together pastry flour, all-purpose flour, and baking soda. Add 1/2 cup at a time to the oil mixture and gently combine with a rubber spatula until no flour spots remain (about 2 mins). Gently fold in chocolate chips and walnuts until well incorporated and forming a ball.

Place dough ball onto a cutting board. Roll into a rounded log, approximately 16" x 3". With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 even pieces. Place on the cutting board and press down, rounding the edges, ensuring that all pieces are evenly sized. Using a small spatula, transfer to the half-sheet pan.

Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let set on sheet pan for 5 minutes.

This egg free, wheat free and dairy free brownie is delicious and simple to make.

300 gms dark cooking chocolate
100 gms jaggery
50 gms chickpea flour (besan)
100 gms whole rice flour (or optionally wheat flour)
50 gms fine corn rice (polenta)
2 tablespoons baking powder
4 tablespoons cashew butter
250 ml plant - based milk (soya / rice/ almond)
100 ml peanut oil or other oil
100 gms walnuts

Break the chocolate in small pieces and put it in a saucepan with a bit of the milk. Let it melt in a bain - marie.

During this time all the dry ingredients and the oil and cashew butter. Add the melted chocolate and add the rest of the milk slowly. The batter should be a little thicker than cake batter. Pour the mixture into a pre-greased cake tray. Cook at 180 – 200 degrees C for about 30 minutes. Test by inserting a fork to see if it’s ready. If the fork comes out clean – it’s ready. Cool. Cut when it has cooled completely.

What’s magic about this cake? It contains no eggs, no dairy, and it’s super easy to make. Another gem from Jennifer Raymond’s 'The Peaceful Palate', this recipe never fails. It’s decadent, moist, and dangerously delicious. Makes one 9-inch cake or 8 cupcakes. I have found that doubling the recipe (for both the cake and the frosting) is perfect for a two-layer cake.

1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
3/4 cup sugar or other sweetener
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
1 cup cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 (175) degrees. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl and stir with a fork until mixed. Make a well in the center and add the vanilla, oil, vinegar, and water. Stir with a fork until well mixed. Pour into a 9x9-inch baking dish (or cupcake pan), and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely, then frost with Chocolate Cream Frosting (below).

Chocolate Cream Frosting
Makes enough for one 9-inch cake or 8 cupcakes
2 tablespoon non-dairy butter, softened (we used organic cashew butter instead of this and reduced the sugar to 1/3 what the recipe calls for)
1-1/3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons water

Cream the margarine in a small bowl then add the sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and enough water to make a thick but spreadable frosting.

1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon all-spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup grated carrots
1/3 cup slightly diluted date syrup or 1/3 cup maple syrup
1 cup water
1/4 cup canola oil
Preheat the oven to 375oF (190C)

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (flour through cinnamon) and the grated carrots. Add all of the wet ingredients, maple syrup through oil. Mix well.
Pour the batter into a lightly oiled muffin pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Serves 6 to 8

Use any fresh, ripe seasonal fruit - mangoes, strawberries bananas are good options.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 8

4 cups sliced fresh fruit
1/3 cup fruit preserves (jam or even fruits which have been cooked with a little unrefined sugar and lemon)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons pure date syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).
Place the sliced fruit in a bowl. Combine the preserves, lemon juice and nutmeg together in another bowl. Spoon over the fruit and mix gently. Sprinkle the flour on the top and then mix again. Place in a 9 inch pie plate. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes till the fruit is cooked.
Place the oats and cornmeal in a bowl. Combine date syrup and vanilla and pour over the oat mixture. Mix well.

Remove the cobbler from the oven and reduce heat to 350 F (175 C). Crumble the oat mixture over the pie filling and return to oven. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving. Scoop the cobbler out with a large spoon and serve with homemade vegan ice-cream for a special treat. May be served warm or cold.

This ice cream is not only delicious but also healthy and vegan. No sugar, milk or eggs! Warning - it should be eaten within 12 hours of making it as it tends to chrystalize if stored, but it tastes so good so this will not be a problem.

Take approximately equal volumes of thick fresh coconut milk, ripe smashed bananas and dates and blend in a blender. Freeze the mixture. Let it set. Serve.
Variations - you can try this with different nut milks, or even soy milk with a little sesame butter for creamyness. Dates can be replaced with other dried fruits which should be soaked in the milk for a while before blending. Bananas can be replaced by any fruit with similar consistency (mangoes, chickoo, papaya) If you want to use a juicy fruit like pineapple then add a little more sesame butter to give the creaminess. Nuts can be added if desired.

1/2 packet tofu
1 tbsp sesame butter
6 tbsp date syrup
1/2 cup walnuts

Put all the ingredients in the blender and whisk. Stop to leave the mixture an uneven texture. Serves 1-2

Easy healthy cookie recipe with all good ingredients! No white flour, no sugar, no eggs or butter, yet delicious!

1 ripe coconut grated
1 cup peanuts coarsely ground
1 tablespoon sesame butter or peanut butter (optional)
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup jaggery sugar or raw palm sugar
Enough whole wheat flour to make the dough a rollable consistency.

Knead the mixture into a dough adding wheat flour as required to make the dough.
Taste for sweetness, and add more jaggery if required.
Roll into 1/2 inch balls, flatten and put on a baking tray. NO greasing of the tray is required.
Place in an oven at 250 degrees. Turn over when lightly brown and bake the other side. Allow them to cool, and enjoy.
Because of the natural oils in the coconut and peanuts and the sesame/peanut butter, no refined fats are required and there is no need to grease and the tray. All the ingredients are healthy, and the recipe is quite flexible - i.e. you can replace the peanuts with cashews or the raisins with date pieces or cranberries. Sesame seeds (high in calcium) can be added for taste too. Desiccated coconut can be used in place of fresh coconut and wheat flour can be replaced by ragi or other grain flours. Whatever you do it usually comes out well and is very quick to make.

This versatile recipe lends itself to your creativity. Personally I find it heavy but I found that many in the workshops loved it. Its healthy, filling and most important tasty.

4 tbsp roasted whole sesame seeds
4 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp date syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Grind lightly the roasted sesame seeds, and mix with the other ingredients. Roll into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Cool and serve. Makes about 18 - 24 balls.

Variations.
Sesame can be replaced with nuts like cashews or peanuts that a lightly crushed.
Tahini may be replaced with other nut butters.
Date syrup can be replaced with maple syrup, jaggery, rice syrup or any other sweetener, or the sweetener can be replaced altogether with tiny pieces of dried fruits like raisins, dates. Be creative and go by your own tastes.

This recipe is from 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen' and I tasted it at Angelica Kitchen in New York.
This simple, low fat cake is a good place to start if you have never baked before!

For the cake
1 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup pure maple syrup (we substituted this with 3/4 cup jaggery dissolved in enough water to make up 1 cup. This was cooked a bit to dissolve the jaggery)
1 cup cold water
1/3 cup pure olive oil (we used saffola oil)
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the sauce
1 1/2 kg plums halved and pitted
2/3 cups pure maple syrup (again we substituted with jaggery syrup)
2/3 cup apple juice
2 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 vanilla bean

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175C). Lightly oil a 9 inch springform pan and dust it with unbleached white flour.
In a mixing bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla,
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir just until combined, taking care not to over mix.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Set the cake pan on the rack to cool.
Meanwhile prepare the sauce.
In a 3 litre sauce pan, combine the plums, maple syrup, apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the saucepan. Drop in the bean as well. Bring the mixture to boil over a high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover and raise the heat, and boil for 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.
Remove and discard the vanilla bean and cinnamon sticks. Cool slightly.
To serve, unmold the cake from the pan and cut into wedges. Serve with warm sauce spooned on top, and with the cream custard below if desired.

At the Angelica Kitchen, this cake was served iced with this cream custard.

Take a mixture of one or all of the following - Coconut milk, Cashew milk, Rice milk
and Soya milk. These milks are mixed so as not to give the cream any specific taste. This can easily be done by adding warm water to a mixture of cooked rice, cashews, and coconut gratings in the blender and straining the puree. Soy milk can be added later. The total liquid including the sweetener (below ) should measure about 1/2 litre.
Rice syrup, Maple syrup or jaggery
Salt
Vanilla extract of vanilla beans
Agar agar

Add enough sweetener to the milk so that it is just sweet enough. It should not be very sweet. Add a dash of salt and the vanilla beans or extract so that it tastes good. Add some agar agar (about 2.5 tsps of flakes works with 1/2 litre of liquid or 1.5 tsp powder to 1/2 litre of liquid). Put in a pot on a slow fire and allow it to simmer so that the agar agar dissolves. Put a little bit of this in a spoon in the fridge to check if the agar is enough to set it. If it does not set, add more agar. It should not become hard. If it sets, thicken with a bit of arrowroot powder. Pour over the cake and let it set in the fridge.
Pour the plum sauce over this before you serve it.

These are two varieties of sweets that you simply cannot resist

1 packet of the best quality black dates with seeds
100 gms Walnuts
100 gms Almonds
1 Tbsp Jaggery

Slit the date and carefully remove the seeds without breaking the date.

Variety 1:
In half the dates in the place of the seed, stuff with a piece of walnut so that a part of the walnut sticks out. That's it! And it tastes great.
Variety 2:
This one needs a little more effort but it's nice to serve the two kinds together.

Pour boiling water over the almonds and wait 3 - 4 minutes. Peel them. Grind them along with the jaggery to make a paste. Roll the paste into little seed shaped ovals and stuff the dates with these.Serve both varieties together.

1 cupful whole grained vermicelli
1.5 cups thick 1st pressed coconut milk
1.5 cups thin 2nd pressed coconut milk
5 tablespoons jaggery
3 tablespoons raisins
3 tablespoons broken cashewnuts
2 pinches powdered cardamom

In a heated pan roast the vermicelli at a low flame for about 2 - 3 minutes. No oil should be used for this. In a separate saucepan, heat the thinner coconut milk to a boil. When it begins to boil switch off the flame. Add the vermicelli and cover to keep the heat so that the vermicelli can soften in the milk. After 5 minutes add all the other ingredients, stir well and taste. Add more jaggery or cardamom if needed. Refrigerate till served. Serves 4 - 6.