Sweet potato, raspberry and cinnamon brownie (recipe to come)

It’s been a bit of a sugar-heavy couple of days. My friend Emma came to stay last night and during our 6-hour adventure around London we consumed the following:

• 2 vegan/gluten free cookies from Cookies and Scream at Camden Market
• 4 cocktails from The Gilbert Scott and 2 pots of smoked butter popcorn
• 4 mini cupcakes from Lola’s cupcakes (they do buy one get one free when they’re due to close for the night)
• 2 mojitos, 1 woo woo, 1 mai tai
• 3 scoops of ice cream from Gelupo on Cambridge Circus

We thought we were all sugared out, but then she made the mistake of telling me that someone had made her some sweet potato brownies and they weren’t very nice.

With 4 sweet pots about to go off in the fridge, we decided to give our own sweet potato-based confectionery a go.

Here was the result:

They weren’t at all what we were expecting, but they were pretty good all the same.

I have a couple of ideas for what could improve them, the main one being to shove in a huge handful of dark chocolate chunks.

So watch this space and I’ll update you with the new and improved recipe very soon.

In the meantime, here’s a cool picture of the mixture:

Fighting the French: an egg battle

Bonjour!

I got back from France last night, and just before we left my parents and I popped into a supermarket to get some breakfast for my stepmum, who left for work early this morning. She normally likes her M&S brioche, so she went straight for the brioche section of the supermarket. Being in a rush for the ferry, none of us thought about the ingredients.

Back in England this morning, my pa realised that brioche has eggs in it and that, being French, those eggs aren’t free range (M&S uses free range eggs in all of their products, so I guess it’s something they’ve stopped thinking about).

So, my mission this morning was to write to the company who made the brioche we bought, Pasquier, and ask them why they don’t use free range eggs. I will copy the email I sent them below, and keep you updated on the response.

Please excuse the less-than-polished French 🙂

Cher(e) Monsieur/Madame,

J’étais en France jusqu’à hier, et j’ai acheté un paquet de votre pains au lait. Je n’avais pas le temps de regarder les ingrédients donc je n’ai vu pas jusqu’à maintenant que vous n’utilisez pas les œufs de poules élevées en plein air.

Je suis très malheureuse comme cette, et j’ai jeté le paquet parce que je ne mange pas les œufs de batterie, qui je pense que vous devez utiliser.

Cependant, aujourd’hui j’ai acheté un paquet de brioche de Marks and Spencer, qui était fabriqué en France, et il contient les œufs de poules élevées en plein air.

Donc mon question est cette : pourquoi vous n’utilisez pas les œufs d’origine éthique dans vos produits, quand je sais que c’est possible.

C’est très surprenant de devoir venir en Angleterre d’acheter les produits traditionnels de France qui considèrent les éthiques animaux, puisque ils n’existent pas en France.

Merci de votre compréhension et j’attends pour votre réponse.

Translation:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was in France until yesterday, and bought a packet of your brioche. I didn’t have time to look at the ingredients so I didn’t see until now that you don’t use free range eggs.

I’m very disappointed about this, and I threw away the packet because I don’t eat battery eggs, which I think you must use.

However, today I bought a packet of brioche from M&S, which was made in France, and it contained free range eggs.

Therefore my question is this: why don’t you use eggs from an ethical source in your products, when it is possible to do so?

It is very surprising to have to come to England to buy traditional French products which take into account animal ethics, since they don’t exist in France.

Thank you for your time and I await your response.

Vegan Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole is my favourite meal in the world, so I wasn’t buying the idea that batter needs eggs to be batter.

After the resounding success of making a batter that consists of only two ingredients (yes, only TWO), I’m wondering if eggs were superfluous all along.

Note: when I had a search on the web for vegan toad in the hole recipes, most of them used an egg replacer, but in my opinion egg replacers are expensive and not using them has never seemed to affect my culinary creations. My advice would be: if a recipe suggest egg replacer, just don’t bother using one and see how it turns out.

So, this recipe is really quick, really simple, and requires a total of five ingredients you probably already have around the house, plus a couple of spices (if you have them), and just salt and pepper if you don’t.

I’ve now made this three times, and the third time I made it for my omnivorous family, as I convinced them through the medium of photography and enthusiasm how amazing the recipe was. I think they enjoyed it, and my only piece of info for meat eaters reading this is: the flavours and textures are a little bit different to traditional toad in the hole, but if you go in and try it without any preconceptions, you’re definitely going to enjoy it.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• A handful of chopped mushrooms (enough to fill the base of whatever oven tray you are using – choose the size of your tray based on the number of sausages you’re cooking)
• 1 chopped onion
• 70g Self raising flour
• 120ml Dairy free milk alternative (I’ve tried soya and almond and both have worked really well)
• 4 vegan sausages (Linda McCartney’s plain sausages are vegan – when I went into the supermarket the other day they were selling them for less than half price and I scooped about 12 packets into the trolley in one go – they are really versatile, make great sandwiches, and can be used as meatball alternatives for pasta sauces and stroganoff)
• Rosemary
• Salt & pepper

Method

Heat oven to 220 degrees, gas mark 7.

Chuck the onions, mushrooms and sausages into your baking tray, splash a good amount of oil over them and pop into the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until the oil is really hot.

While it’s cooking whisk the flour and milk together just like you’re making pancake mixture. The mixture should be quite thin and runny, so if it’s a bit gloopy keep adding milk until it’s the consistency of double cream.

Add some salt and pepper and chopped rosemary if you have it (I was given a rosemary plant as a Valentine’s present – way more useful than roses and hopefully shouldn’t die as quickly) to your taste.

When you think the oil is hot enough, pull the tray out the oven, pour the batter mixture over the sausages and veg, and get it back in the oven as quickly as possible.

Cook for about 25 minutes and don’t take it out of the oven during this time or it won’t rise. Check it at this point – I’ve had some trouble with the bottom not being cooked while the top is burning, and I think this might be because my oil wasn’t hot enough. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that even when the top has burnt it’s still completely yummy, so don’t stress too much.

—

The mushrooms and onions are a really nice non-traditional touch to this meal and are like little surprises when you get to the bottom. The meal is good with gravy but also on its own with some fresh veg.

I really recommend trying this recipe out – it’s one of those satisfying vegan AND indulgent meals that people not in the know don’t realise exist.

We finished this meal off with ripe mango and Alpro vanilla yoghurt!