Trifle with berries and vanilla custard

I was looking at some of the gorgeous food pictures on 101 cookbooks and followed a link to this blog, Whole Food Cooking, which is written by Australian cookbook author and real food activist, Jude Blereau. I love all things pudding-like so when I saw this recipe for vegan custard I had to try it. I've changed just a few things in the ingredient list because I believe some common ingredients in Australia are different than here in the States. Also a few quantities were metric so I changed them to standard.

For the vanilla custard:

1 cup blanched almonds

1 1/2 teaspoons agar powder

scant 1/3 cup maple syrup

1 vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract)

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup coconut milk

Put the blanched almonds and 3 1/2 cups water in a blender. Blend well. Peg 4 layers of muslin onto a jug or bowl and pour the almond mix through. Squeeze out the remaining milk from the muslin. This should give you 3 cups almond milk. ( just use my nut milk bag. You could probably use store bought unsweetened almond milk in a pinch but fresh is definitely better!)

Measure out 2 1/2 cups almond milk into a saucepan and add the maple syrup. Whisk in the agar to stop it clumping. Lay the vanilla bean flat on a chopping board and, using a small sharp knife, cut down the length of the bean. Open the bean up and flatten to collect the seeds - add these to the milk. (Or, just add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste)

Stir together and bring very gently to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Stir frequently as agar loves to sink to the bottom and stick as it dissolves.

Add the cornstarch to a small bowl and mix to a slurry with 1/4 cup almond milk. When the agar is dissolved, remove the milk mix from the stove and whisk in the almond milk and cornstarch. Return to the stove and stir constantly as it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and pour into a clean bowl. Place some parchment paper on the surface and refrigerate until cool.

When set, put what will be a fairly solid mix back in the blender. To this, add the remaining almond milk and coconut milk. Blend for a few minutes until silky smooth.

Now, to make this into a trifle all you have to do is layer it with plain cake of some kind and fresh or thawed berries or other fruit that would go well. Some people drizzle different liquors on to the cake layers but I never have them on hand and don't like buying something for just one recipe. It can go from economical to expensive really quickly! I'm sure the custard could be eaten as is too. It's really delicious.

I am going to make mine with thawed strawberries and this yellow cake recipe off of recipezaar. I'll post a picture later when I make it.

The Ultimate Uncheese

Swiss Cheese...sort of

Peanut Butter Fudge Pie...Yum!

How could one resist checking out a book called the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook? Cheese is one of my weaknesses...its one of the foods I can't seem to give up no matter how hard I try. So, after having such great success with the smoky cheese dip I was really excited when I found this book. So far I've made 3 recipes out of it: Swizz Cheez* and Peanut Butter Fudge Pie with a Granola Nut Crust. I was particularly excited to try the cheese recipe because I've never tried to make a vegan block cheese, nor do I know anyone who has. Unfortunately I felt that the final product was a bit too lemon-y. It definitely resembles swiss cheese in flavor but the lemon juice seemed a bit strong. The pie was much tastier and the crust was even better than the filling in my opinion.

*I can't stand it when vegan dairy & meat substitute recipes have such cutesy titles. I realize its not real cheese but come on, did you fail 5th grade grammar?

"Chocolate Pudding"

My friend gave me this recipe and its unbelievably simple and tastes very much like the dairy version of chocolate pudding.

This makes one large or two small servings. You'll want to eat it within 2 days because it won't last in the fridge very well after that. It never lasts that long in my house because I eat it up!

Here is the basic recipe and below are the additions I've made with good results.

1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
1/8 cup cocoa or carob powder

Process in a food processor or blender until smooth.

The last time I made this I added:

1/2 cup coconut meat from a young Thai coconut
a few tablespoons agave nectar
somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of a cup of soy creamer