Vegan Nanaimo

 I'd literally never heard of these until we went to a VR parkrun in Winchester, long before the pandemic. 

They're Canadian in origin, and are biscuity, chocolatey, coconutty, custardy goodness. 

I know we ALL hate it when people write reams and reams before the recipe, so I'll get straight into it. 

Ingredients

Base

200g digestive biscuits (you can use hobnobs etc, depends on what you have)

150g sunflower margarine

100g desiccated coconut

50g ground almonds

40g cocoa powder

60g caster sugar 

Custard layer

60g Flora Plant Butter at room temperature(essential if you want a sturdy custard, but you can use margarine and just reduce the milk if you're not fussed about structural integrity)

250g icing sugar

3tbsps custard powder (Birds is vegan!)

3tbsps plant based milk

Chocolate topping

200g plain chocolate

3tbsps sunflower margarine

Method

1. Start by lining a square brownie tin with cling film (this makes it easier to turn out. If you have a silicon pan, definitely use it).
2. Melt the margarine in a pan on a low heat, once melted, stir in the cocoa powder and sugar until fully combined
3. Meanwhile, crush the biscuits with a rolling pin, add to a big mixing bowl along with ground almonds and coconut. 
4. Combine all base ingredients, spoon into prepared tin and press down to make an even layer. Freeze for at least an hour.
5. While that chills you can crack on with the custard. Literally all you need to do with this is put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer. Then once the base is chilled, spread evenly over the top, and then back into the freezer for an hour.
6. Final stage! Break your chocolate into chunks, and put it in a bain-marie (bowl over a pan of boiling water to us lay-folk) along with the margarine, melt, stir and then pour onto chilled layers. Back in the freezer for at least half an hour, and then you can eat it! I'd recommend cutting it into 16, but 9 works too. Top tip - keep it in the fridge unless you want it to go squidgy.

I have tried out lots of different variations of this, but the above recipe is has turned out perfectly every time. 

Unsophisticated Baking: Tiramisu Ⓥ

When we went to Sicily last summer not only did we find an excellent vegan restaurant for a date night while we were there, but they had pistachio tiramisu. This may not be common knowledge, but tiramisu is one of the things I've missed the most since becoming vegan. I vowed to work out how to make it when we got back to Bristol, but it wasn't until Christmas that I gave it a go.
I've tried it twice more, with varying degrees of success, but have finally got round to writing up the recipe.

Excuse the state of my hob!

Sponge ingredients

• 250ml plant milk
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g sunflower spread
• 220g self-raising flour
• 230g caster sugar

Mascarpone ingredients

• 270g raw cashews
• 120 ml maple/golden Syrup
• 5 1/2 tbsps melted coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 120ml plant milk

Vegan whipped cream ingredients

• 2 x 400ml tins coconut milk (chilled in fridge overnight. Make sure it's the kind that separates)
• 30g icing sugar

 Coffee syrup ingredients

• 100g granulated sugar (caster works fine for this too)
• 120ml water
• 2 tsps instant coffee granules (I use Nescafe Azera because I am a woman obsessed)
• 4 tbsps Kahlua

And cocoa powder for decoration!

Stage 1 - The Sponge

Preheat the oven to 180°C & line two 7 inch cake tins with baking paper. 

Put the plant milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract and sunflower spread  in a small saucepan over a low heat to melt. Once melted, pour them into your mixing bowl along with the sugar and self-raising flour. Fold together and pour into your prepared tins. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean, and leave to cool.

Stage 2 - Marscapone

While your cake is in the oven, you can get cracking with the marscapone. Boil the cashews for 10 minutes then pop them in your blender along with the other marscapone ingredients. Blend and place in the fridge. 

Stage 3 - Whipped Cream

Remove your tins of coconut milk from the fridge and do not shake them. Flip them upside down, open them and pour off the coconut water to use another time. Then you should be left with the solid coconut cream. Scoop this out and whip in a bowl (you WILL need an electric mixer for this bit) until it forms peaks. Then add in the icing sugar and whip again. Grab your marscapone mixture from the fridge, fold the two together and then put it back in the fridge. 

Stage 4 - Coffee syrup and assembly

Add the sugar and water to a saucepan and heat until it starts to create a syrup. Remove from the heat and add in the Kahlua and coffee granules. Stir until combined and let it cool before you assemble your tiramisu. 

Grab your dish and place the first sponge in the bottom, face down, so that the glossy side on the bottom of the dish. If your dish is like mine then you will almost certainly have to trim off bits of cake to make it fit. Pour over half the coffee syrup so your sponge absorbs it. Then add half your marscapone mix, smooth down and freeze until reasonably set (I didn't time this, sorry!). Then repeat the process with the second sponge, top with syrup and marscapone, sprinkle on your cocoa powder and whack it in the fridge until you're ready to serve it. 

And there you have it. It's a lot easier than it looks. You could make individual ones if you fancied by baking a 'sheet cake' and cutting out your layers (next on my list once I've found dishes I like). You could even play around with the flavours and maybe make a lemon version with limoncello and top it with lemon zest. 

Enjoy!