Lebkuchen - German Gingerbread

I am a big fan of silicone bakeware, for two reasons:
Firstly it doesn't require "greasing" so my recipes remain as low-fat as possible and secondly, the "pans" are easy to clean and store. For someone who hates washing-up as much as I do, this is a bonus. Plus, space is a premium in Polly's Kitchen, what with all the vintage china and all, so baking pans which squish down... well, there's no contest.
I'm going on about silicone because last week I bought a copy of Baked and Delicious, a new publication comprising a baking magazine (*wow*) and items of silicone bakeware. I won't buy every issue because I don't need all the pans (or all the recipes, for that matter,) but I will get the odd issue, as they come available. Last week's came with some cupcake cases, which Ive wanted for ages, so I'll make some cupcakes soon.
One of the recipes caught my eye and I have adapted it slightly to make it vegan* and nut-free. I am sharing it here, but must apologise... no photos! They were scoffed too quickly for me to take pictures - a testiment to their tastiness, but trust me, they look as lovely as they taste!

Lebkuchen

Ingredients:
325g/12oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder or bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
zest of 1 lemon or orange, or equivalent chopped candied peel
200ml/7fluid oz organic honey* or agave nectar
85g/3oz vegetable margarine (eg Pure)

Method:
Mix the dry ingredients and lemon/orange peel in a bowl.
Melt the margarine and honey in a pan and mix together.
Add the honey/margarine to the dry indredients and mix thoroughly.

Mould spoonfuls of the mixture into small balls and place on a baking tray.
Press the balls into circles and bake in an oven (180℃/350℉) for about 15 minutes.

You can ice these or add nuts, pieces of chopped ginger or icing sugar to the top, but you'll have to be quick, because if your lot are anything like mine - they'll be gone in minutes!



* I have used honey, but to be truly vegan, use agave nectar or fructose syrup.

Mr & Mrs Gingerbread-Oats on their Ginger Bed

Whenever I feel a bit down, nothing cheers me up more than making a nice cake and some cakes are a lot more fun than others. Take this one, for example. Who could fail to be cheered by these two relaxing
in happy repose, blissfuly unaware of their sugary fate...

You will need:

1 ½ cups plain flour

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ cups rolled (porridge) oats

1 ½ cups dried fruit

1 ½ cups milk

1 tablespoon black treacle

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon baking powder

Icing sugar for decoration

You will need to:

Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly.

Add the treacle and the milk, stirring everything together to form a firm mixture.

Pour into silicon moulds and bake on 180 degrees C for ½ hour or until firm. (check with a skewer to see if they are done.

(I used three silicon moulds: 1 square and two which are shaped like a gingerbread man and a gingerbread lady. If you don't have moulds n this shape, get some cookie cutters and make 2 square or 1 rectangular cake and cut Mr and Mrs Gingerbread-Oats out of one, constructing the ginger bed from what is left.)

When the cakes are ready, take them out of the oven. Let them cool a bit, then remove them from the moulds (cut them out if necessary.)

Lay the square cake on a large plate and sprinkle icing sugar all over it, through a sieve. This is where it starts to look a bit like a Tracey Emin art installation, so take care! (Top tip: Use a bit of syrup or milk gently brushed onto the areas you want sugared and use the icing sugar sparingly, otherwise it will go up your nose!)

Now lay Mr and Mrs Gingerbread-Oats on top and, shielding their faces with a piece of paper, and sprinkle more icing sugar on top. 

Now eat them!

Poor Mr Gingerbread-Oats! He never stood a chance.=(

Scottish Clootie

I celebrated Burns' Night with a group of friends, with vegan haggis, neeps & tatties and a fine clootie with custard for afters.
We read poetry and talked for hours. It was a perfect way to spend a winter's evening, even though we were lamentably far from Scotland.
As promised, I'm sharing my clootie recipe here:

Clootie Dumpling

Serves 8

175g/6oz Self Raising Flour

175g/6oz Breadcrumbs

175g/6oz Vegetarian Suet

1 teasp Bicarbonate of Soda

2 teasp Ground Cinnamon

1 teasp Ground Ginger

100g/4oz Currants

175g/6oz Sultanas

100g/4oz Soft Brown Sugar

2 tbsp Golden Syrup

360ml/12fl.oz. Soya Milk

Place a clean tea towel or cloth (cloot) in boiling water to soften.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl to form a soft mixture.

Wring out the cloot and lay flat on a surface. sprinkle a good handful of flour in the centre and spread it out. Place the mixture in the centre and gather up the sides evenly and tie with string. Make sure you leave enough air in the parcel so the pudding can expand.

Place a heatproof plate in the bottom of a large saucepan and add enough boiling water to cover the pudding. Bring to the boil and carefully lower the pudding onto the plate. 

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 3 hours.

Remove the clootie from the water and drain well. You can place the whole thing in the oven on a low hear to warm it up for 10 minutes before serving if you wish.

To serve - carefully untie the cloth, gently easing it away before inverting it onto a plate an peeling the cloth away. 

Serve in wedges with custard. Watch it all disappear before your eyes!

Vegan Haggis

With Burns' Night coming up next week, I'm listing some of my favourite vegan-friendly Scottish dishes.

Today I turn my attention to haggis. Traditionally, haggis contains the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep, (along with oatmeal and some other ingredients) and is cooked in the animal's stomach for 3 hours! Now, you'd need a pretty strong stomach yourself to eat that, but some people like it. Nowadays, a lot of folk (including non-veggies) prefer a vegetarian option.

This is the best veggie Haggis recipe I've found. A lot of commercial vegetarian haggis contains peanuts, which I prefer not to use, so I crack open some walnuts to make this.

If you want to leave the nuts out altogether, you can substitute sunflower seeds or cooked (& drained) rice.

Ingredients
2 oz (50g) margarine
2oz (50g) rolled oats
2oz (50g) pinhead oatmeal
2oz (50g) mixed chopped walnuts (or any other nuts of choice)
1 large carrot
4oz (100g)mushrooms
1 large onion
small can kidney beans (drained)
2 oz vegetarian suet
1/2 teaspoon yeast extract
1 tablespoon (or more!) whisky
1 teaspoon (at least) freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1 lime
3 teaspoons of dried herbs

Method

Melt 1oz margarine in an ovenproof saucepan / casserole.

Add oats, oatmeal and nuts and cook for 3 minutes. Put aside.

Chop the carrot, mushrooms and onion finely and fry in 1oz margarine, along with the kidney beans for approx 2-3 minutes

Stir in the rest of the ingredients and the oats and nuts.

Mix it all up and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Transfer the mixture into a loaf tin or shape into a fat sausage shape on a baking tray.

Cook in the oven at 390ºF (200ºC) for 40 minutes.

Serve with Neeps and Tatties and a generous dram!

"Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin'-race!"