Coconut-Green Tea (Matcha) Ice Cream

Back in April Germany was blessed with sudden bursts of warmth and sunshine and, naturally, I immediately started to long for ice cream in all variations and flavours. Most of the vegan ice cream flavours that can be found at the shops here in Germany are very simple: chocolate, vanilla and various fruit-sorbets. I love chocolate ice cream and will pick it over vanilla eeevery time, but sometimes it's just nice to branch out a little and to try something unusual or new. I wanted to make my own ice cream as soon as possible, but I also wanted to keep the process relatively simple so I choose coconut milk as my base and matcha powder for an intense flavour. Mhmmm... Shall we get started? :)

Coconut - Green Tea (Matcha) Ice Cream
1 can thick coconut milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs matcha powder
1 tbs powdered vegan lecithin

1) Put all ingredients into a blender and blend on high for about a minute (the sugar needs to be dissolved completely).
2) Pour the mixture into a plastic container, then close the lid and move the container to the freezer. Use a container that is not too small as you will have to stir the mixture later on.
3) Use a strong fork to stir the mixture every hour or so until it's ready for serving.
[You can skip step 2-3 and use an ice cream maker instead, if you own one... Lucky you!^^]


Notes:
• Lecithin works as an emulsifier and stabilizer and thus it helps to freeze the ice cream mixture evenly. I used sunflower lecithin that I bought from eBay, but I think soy derived lecithin should work equally well and it is more easily accessible.
• Matcha can be found in most well stocked asian grocery shops.
• While this ice cream is easily made without an ice cream maker, it will unfortunately harden quite a bit the longer it sits in the freezer. An easy solution would be to use ice lolly/popsicle moulds, this way you don't have to worry about the scooping issue, but you still get to enjoy a creamy iced treat. Another possibility is to prepare the ice cream in the morning so that it'll be ready for immediate consumption at dinner time.

Lemon Cake

Lemon Cake

Since the weather has been so lovely lately and the flowers are slooowly starting to bloom, I thought now would be the perfect time to share the link to my favourite vegan lemon cake recipe with you. I took the photo two years ago, soon after I discovered the recipe on the internet, but have since made this cake countless times and it's still my absolute favourite cake, lemon or otherwise. The recipe is simple, no fancy ingredients or baking techniques, but the outcome is perfect. Moist and delicate and full of flavour - everything you could dream of, so to speak. :)

LINK: Vegan Lemon Cake (via boredbutbusy.com)


On an unrelated note: Previously, you had to log in with google/blogger or other social media networking sites to leave a comment on my blog. This is something I wasn't even aware of this until today (thanks for e-mailing me Julia!)... I changed the settings this afternoon, so you no longer need to register/log in with any services to leave a comment. I'm sorry if this has been an inconvenience to anybody.

Sugar Cookies / Plätzchen

Seems like the blogroll is in full-on Thanksgiving-mode today. Happy Thanksgiving to all those of you who celebrate it, I hope you're all spending some quality time with your family and friends! All the festive food I've been seeing has me craving for a hearty meal, no fair. 

Cookie season has officially begun in my kitchen and it started off with a classic: The sugar cookie. The recipe is from my Oma (Grandma) and truly a childhood favourite. We made them multiple times every year  during the holidays and I am so grateful to have something that reminds me of her, as I never got to meet her because she passed away when I was just a baby. Our family doesn't really have a lot of traditions, so I cherish the ones we do have. It is comforting to return to this recipe every year, even if it is a veganised version. The recipe uses ground almonds, but sometimes we'd use ground hazelnuts instead - they're both very tasty, but the almond ones were always my favourite so that's what I'm sticking with now that I'm old enough to rule in my own kitchen. ;)

My Mum wrote down the recipe in 1988, a year before I was born. The page has some stains, but thankfully it's still in readable condition.

Dough pre-rest.

Sugar Cookies / "Butterplätzchen"

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup pastry flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbl margarine
1/2 - 3/4 cup ground almonds
1 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 tbl vanilla sugar
dash salt

1) Combine all ingredients and knead to a smooth dough. You can do this by hand, but I let my food processor do the work as warm hands can make it hard to work the margarine into the dough.
2) Form dough into a ball, wrap in tinfoil and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
3) Preheat oven to 180° C / 375° F and grease your cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper.
4) Dust some flour onto your workspace and roll the dough out (I like mine thin). You may need to work some extra flour into the dough if it is too soft to work with. Time to use your cookie cutters!
5) Place cookies on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
6) Let cool and decorate with icing or dust some powdered sugar on them while they're still warm. Store in an airtight container.

Done!

Ha, see those wonky lines on that snail (you probably can't tell it's a snail from that photo..)? Yeah, I'm not very good at applying icing.

Mhmmm!

By the way: We had our first snowfall last night. It really feels all Christmas-y now. :)

Caramelized Almonds

Caramelized Almonds.

Christmas markets are an essential part of Christmas season here in Germany and when I woke up this morning and turned on the radio, the DJ mentioned that it was finally time for the first markets to open their doors today! What a nice thing to wake up to. Caramelized nuts, usually almonds, can be found at every other stand and I would always ask my parents to buy me a bag whenever we went to one of those Christmas markets. Unfortunately a lot of sellers will use butter to prepare the glaze, but it is incredibly easy to make them at home and I thought today would be a perfect day to show you how I prepare them. :)

Almonds! Almonds!

RECIPE FOR CARAMELIZED ALMONDS

Ingredients
1 cup almonds
4 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs water

1) Put all ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl and mix well. The sugar does not need to be dissolved.
2) Grease a large plate with a thin layer of oil.
3) Place bowl in microwave and microwave on high (see notes) for 3-4 minutes. You only want to stir once, after 1-2 minutes, and ONLY if you're using a large bowl. Not stirring will give you an even and see through glaze that you might not archive when stirring the mixture.
4) Put on your oven mitts and remove the bowl from the microwave. Pour almonds onto the greased plate and let cool down to room temperature. You may need to use a spoon to get the almonds out, the faster you are the better as the sugar will harden quickly.


Notes
• Sugar Brown sugar here in Germany is different compared to what I've encountered abroad. In my experience brown sugar in other places of the world is often sold in tightly sealed plastic bags to keep the sugar slightly moist. Here in Germany brown sugar is granulated and dry, much like ordinary white sugar. I'm not sure if this will make a difference in the recipe, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone encounters problems. If your almonds come out funky, try using 2tbs of white sugar and 2 tbs of brown sugar instead. 1 tbs of white and 3 tbs of brown sugar could work well too.
• Microwaves Cooking time will vary from microwave to microwave. 3 minutes on 900 watt did the trick for me. The almonds started to make a few 'popping' sounds towards the end, you can probably take them out if you hear that sound.
• Try to be patient and let the almonds cool down completely before you try them. The almonds will taste a bit weird straight out of the microwave (and hot, don't burn yourselves :)), but they'll be nice and crunchy once they've cooled down.

Ingredients assembled.

VARIATIONS

• Nuts
You don't have to use almonds, of course. Other nuts, like hazelnuts or macademia nuts for example, would be just as good.

• Salted Caramel
Add 1/4 tsp of coarse sea salt for a sweet and salty combination. (before microwaving would be easiest. Though you could sprinkle it on the nuts after, but you'll have to be quick or else it won't stick!)

• Cinnamon Caramel
Add 1 tsp ground cinnamon before microwaving.

• Ginger Caramel
Add 1/2 tsp dried ground ginger before microwaving.

• Using extracts
You could use a couple of drops of extract, like vanilla, to add some extra flavour.

• Sprinkles
Add grated dried coconut, cocoa nibs or other sprinkles after you transfer the nuts from microwave to plate. Be quick or the sprinkles may not stick, because the sugar will harden quickly!

After microwaving.

Almond Goodness

- ALMOND MILK -

After having success with homemade nut butters I couldn't wait to try my hand at making nut milk and quickly found a promising recipe here from ChoosingRaw. Gena posted a detailed direction for the entire process, from nuts to milk, so there really isn't more for me to say.

But I do have a few tips and notes:
• Add a dash of salt, it helps bring out the flavours.
•  1/4 cup of agave made for a rather sweet milk, this would be great for oatmeal & co., but I'll try 1/8 - 1/6 cup next time. 
• I always wondered, is it more common to own a blender or a food processor? I'm guessing most people do own a blender (those lucky folks!), but a food processor will work just as well: I combined the almonds, salt, sugar and vanilla with one cup of water and let it run for a minute or so, then I added the remaining 3 cups of water and turned it on for about 5 minutes. I don't know if that was really necessary, but I wanted to make sure it was all well combined.
• I'm hoping I'll get a nut bag for Christmas, but until then a finely meshed sieve and a muslin cloth will serve me well. I poured the milk through the sieve first, then placed a triple layer of muslin cloth in a larger sieve atop a second container and poured the milk through that and used the muslin cloth to wring out some extra drops of milk. The milk has been in my fridge for a couple of hours now and there's no visible layer of pulp on the bottom of the bottle, looks like this worked out well.
•  I  was pleasantly surprised to realise that this works out cheaper for me than buying soy milk! I pay approximately 1,80€ ($2.45) per litre soy milk, the bag of almonds I bought will be enough for two batches (a little less than 2 litres) and only cost me 1,30€ ($1.77), even with the added agave nectar I'll pay less for two batches of almond milk than for 1 pack of soy milk. Yay!

- ALMOND PULP COOKIES -

I was left with a nice amount of almond pulp from making the milk and I knew that if I threw it in the freezer it would probably never come out again, so I searched the internet for some advise. Now, there are a lot of recipes floating around, but most of them require a dehydrator and that isn't an option for me at the moment. Luckily I stumbled upon this Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe by Elana (from Elana's Pantry). I made a few modifications to suit my ingredients, but I'm sure the original recipe will make for some great (gluten free!) cookies too.

Vegan Choc Chip Cookies (from Elana's Pantry) - Modified

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup almond pulp
1 1/4 cup pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbl vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Visit Elena's Pantry for the original recipe & directions.

Notes
• Almond Pulp The almond pulp should be as dry as possible, I tried to squeeze out as much water as possible (I used a muslin cloth).
• Oil The original recipe calls for grape seed oil, but I used canola oil and that worked well.
• Sugar Because I used almond pulp (wet) instead of almond flour (dry) I used granulated sugar instead of agave nectar, I was worried that the dough would be too wet otherwise. Worked like a charm.

• I'll experiment with different amounts of pulp in future, I wanted a quick solution and the cookies came out great and I thought it'd be nice to share this with you, but there's still some room for improvement. I will probably reduce the amount of oil and sugar next time too, they were a bit too sweet for my taste.

- DRYING ALMOND PULP -

I wasn't sure how the cookies would turn out and halved the recipe to be on the safe side, which left me with some left over pulp, so I wanted to see if I could dry it and then process it to almond flour later. A lot of people use a dehydrator for this, but I think the oven would probably work just as well, just make sure to use the lowest temperature setting (50°C/122°F for my oven). I didn't feel like using the oven for such a small amount and started a little experiment with my radiator: I placed a sheet of baking paper on a sushi matt, spread the almond pulp on top of the paper and placed the entire thing on top of my radiator. To protect the pulp from dust I placed an old casserole dish upside down on the matt. The matt provided some much needed stability, though I have to say that my radiator has a flat grid on top and I wouldn't know how you'd go about this with other type of radiator. Because it is always rather toasty in my room, around 24°C/75°F during the day but less at night, I thought this would be a fantastic way to dry the pulp without wasting extra money to use the oven. I have no idea if this will work, but I'll keep you updated!

EDIT: This worked very well. It was dry after 9 hours, very clumpy so you may want to grind it to a more flour-like texture in your food processor. Put it in the freezer for future use. 

- ROASTED ALMOND BUTTER -

Wow, step away peanut butter, I have a new favourite! This is SO tasty and it was so easy to do too. Just roast a couple of almonds in the oven (few minutes at 350°F/180°C, though I'll try a lower temperature next), let them cool before you throw them in a food processor with a dash of salt and some sugar, then blend. I didn't even have to add extra oil, the roasting really helped a lot. I ate some with a banana right after I made it, yummm. I can't wait to use this up so I can try a caramelized almond version for a Christmas season!

Indonesian Steamed Tapioca Layer Cake: Kue Lapis Sagu

Here's another Indonesian snack/dessert. This one requires a lot more work and a steamer, but it's so worth it! It looks a bit like jello, but it's actually chewy and sticky so if you're not into mochi and the like you should probably skip this one.

After steaming.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup rice flour
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (adjust to taste)
1 cup + 1 tbl coconut milk
pandan extract, juice or paste (see notes)
food colouring

1) Add water and sugar to a pot and bring to a boil while stirring, turn off the heat once it starts to boil, stir in coconut milk and set aside. The sugar syrup isn't supposed to be thick, as long as the sugar is completely dissolved you're on the right track.
2) Combine tapioca starch and rice flour in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the coconut-sugar-water mixture and mix to a smooth batter.
3) Divide the batter into three even parts and add food colouring - I made one part green, one red and left the other one white. Divide each of the three parts into three smaller parts, you should end up with 9 parts altogether, three of every colour. One part equals one layer.
4) Heat up your steamer. I use something like this (click), so I just have to put some water in the pot and bring it to a boil. I'm not sure if a rice cooker/steamer would work as well?
5) Grease a small cake pan and put it in your steamer. It can be a bit tricky to find the right size, but here is what you can do: pour the batter into the container before you devide it to see if it fits, pour it back to your bowl and proceed as normal. The container should be fairly deep or you'll end up with very thin layers, I used a heat resistant Tupperware container.
6) Pour one part into the container and steam for 5 minutes, repeat with the rest. I screwed up the colour order, but the plan was: white -> red -> green, white-> red-> green etc.
7) Let the cake cool down when you're done, I put mine on the kitchen counter for an hour and then put it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
8) Oil a cutting board and loosen the cake out of the pan. Grease a sharp long knife to slice the cake into even pieces. Grease each slice with a bit of oil and wrap it in plastic wrap. Store in fridge. Done!

Notes
• Tapioca Starch Can be found at Asian grocery shops, but I've seen it at 'normal' shops too, so ask around.
• Rice Flour Same as tapioca starch, check the gluten free aisle.
• Coconut Milk You could use any coconut milk, but I recommend the ones sold in tetra packs rather than tins (too thick and fatty).
• Pandan We didn't have any at home so I omitted it, but my cake tasted pretty bland as a result, so don't do that. Pandan flavouring can be found canned as juice, in thick pastes or bottled in tiny bottles as extract. If using juice: reduce the amount of water to 1/2 cup and add 1/4 cup of pandan juice. Extract & pastes: You'll have to experiment with this, I don't like the extracts and I can't get the paste here so I don't have a whole lot of help to offer, but I'm guessing one tsp would be enough?!
• Food Colouring Use as many different colours as you like, ideally you want 9 layers in your cake, so keep that in mind when you divide the batter.

The best? You can pull the layers apart! I loved doing this as a kid and I still do.

Mocha Date Nut Balls

You've probably all eaten or at least seen something like this before, seems like everyone has a personal recipe and there are probably a billion recipes for this kind of snack out there on other blogs, so have a look around, but this is just my personal favourite and maybe some of you will like it too. It's a quick and very easy recipe and a good way to get your daily nut fix throughout the week, so I make a new batch every week and usually eat 2 of them per day. The good thing is that you don't need a powerful mixer or food processor at all, I use an attachment with my immersion blender and it works just fine. You can eat them plain or crumble them over a bowl of müsli or oatmeal instead of nut butter. Yumm!

Ingredients
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup almonds
5 x dates, pitted
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbl flax seeds
1 tbl Dutch cocoa
1/4 tsp instant coffee
1 tbl + 1/2tbl water
Popped amaranth or other for coating (see notes)

1) Dump all of the ingredients, excluding water, into your food processor and blend to the desired texture, I like some crunch (see photo below).
2) Add water and blend for another couple of seconds, this is just to distribute the added water, you could also use a spoon or fork for this.
3) Form into balls (approx. 1 tbl per ball) and roll in popped amaranth.
4) Use an air tight container to store these in your fridge.
Done!

(Makes approximately 13 balls)

Notes
• Almonds I used the cheap kind from the baking aisle instead of whole almonds. You can use raw whole almonds with or without skin if you want.
• Dates Adjust amount depending on the kind of dates you're using, mine were medium sized.
• Raisins Raisin haters can leave these out and just add some more dates instead or reduce the amount.
• Coffee Instead of instant coffee, you could replace the water with freshly brewed espresso.
• Coating I had some popped amaranth around, I like it for it's neutral taste and apparently you can even make this yourself: How to pop amaranth @ eHow. Alternatives: grated coconut, cocoa powder, toasted sesame seeds, cookie crumbs, chocolate shavings or sprinkles, oats.

This is what the 'dough' should look like, just slightly wet.

Where's Waldo?

Schneeflöckchen/Snowflake Cookies

So, you're scrolling through the blogroll and you catch a glimpse of these photos and you're thinking 'What the heck? Those don't look like snowflakes at all! It's a scam!', huh? You're absolutely right! Schneeflöckchen, as we call them here in Germany, are little pale cookies that may not resemble snowflakes in their looks, but they certainly behave like snowflakes! Don't get me wrong, they won't fall from the sky (although you're free to give them a little 'help', but I'm not cleaning up, ok?), but these cookies will melt on your tongue like nothing else. They are the most delicate cookies I've come across in my life, even more so than shortbread thanks to the cornstarch and a good deal of margarine. Give them a try this upcoming christmas season and let me know what you think. :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup pastry flour
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1/2 cup + 1 tbs powdered sugar
3/4 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
1 tbs vanilla sugar (or 1/4 tsp extract)

1) Combine sugar, vanilla and margarine to a slightly fluffy paste.
2) Sift in flour and cornstarch and and knead to a smooth dough.
3) Wrap the dough in tinfoil and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4) Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Lightly grease a baking sheet or place a sheet of baking paper on it.
5) Take the dough out, unwrap and use approximately 1 tbs of dough to form a small ball, place on baking sheet and continue with the rest of dough until you've filled the baking sheet. These cookies will spread a little when they bake, so leave some room in between cookies.
6) Use a fork to flatten the cookies, this will create a pattern that is characteristic for snowflake cookies.
7) Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Make sure they don't brown, they're not supposed to be golden and crispy.
8) Let cool and store in an airtight container in a cool place.
Done!

Almond Chestnut Cocoa Spread

In my head, this spread was going to be different. I was going to use hazelnuts and the finished spread was going to taste like some sort of nougat-y piece of chestnut heaven. Well, things didn't work out. I didn't have hazelnuts for starters (and I never do, I don't know what I was thinking when I dreamed this up!) and I forgot that chestnuts are starchy and that ultimately meant there would be no sticky nougat business happening in my kitchen. I am so glad things didn't work out as planned, though. The almonds in this give the spread a mild marzipan flavour that reminds me of all things Christmas and I already know that I'll be having this with waffles as soon as I wake up on Christmas morning.

Almond Chestnut Cocoa Spread
1/2cup almonds
1 cup chestnuts, cooked and peeled
2 tbs grape seed oil
3-4 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs cocoa powder
3-4 tbs water or milk

1) Put almonds into food processor and grind. Grind some more. And some more. Ideally you'll end up with almond butter and if your food processor isn't strong enough you'll end up with oily crumbs like me. Don't worry though, just make sure to grind them up as finely as you can and move on to step 2!
2) Add oil, sugar, cocoa powder and water and blend until well combined.
3) Add in the chestnuts and blend until you have a smooth, thick paste.
Done!


Notes
• Almonds I used blanched and slivered almonds, they're cheaper than whole almonds and they save some time with my mediocre food processor. You could use also use almond butter and start from step number 2!
• Chestnuts I'm a lazy chestnut lover so I like to buy the pre-peeled/cooked kind. I don't know what kind of magic is involved in the making of these, but I have a feeling that somewhere, in a remote place in france, there must be an army of squirrels working overtime just so that I get to be lazy.
• Grape seed oil It's what I had on hand, but any mild tasting oil should work.

• Store the spread in an air tight container in the fridge, my best bet is that it should be good for up to one week, but I ate it up in three days so I really wouldn't know, heh.


What to do with it
• Eat it on bread, stir some into a warm bowl of oatmeal or add it to smoothies or milkshakes.
• My favourite way to eat this, is to mix a generously heaped table spoon of it with some water until I get a a fluffy, creamy pudding type of texture. This makes the best waffle topping ever! Also good on pancakes or maybe as a filling in layered cake/torte? :)
• I haven't had the chance to try this yet, but I think this would make a lovely filling for cinnamon rolls.

Japanese - Korean Curry

Up until this year I wasn't a big fan of asian cooking, sure I'd eat fried rice and noodles every now and then or ramen when I was lazy and I've always been fond of sushi, but I wouldn't touch anything spicy with a 10-foot pole and I was a very picky eater, so anything 'odd' looking scared me off immediately. You know how kids can be, once they've made up their mind about something there is no changing it. But then, earlier this year, I got into the whole Korean Wave thing, oh boy did that change things. Going crazy over Korean films, dramas and eventually music I started to become interested in Korean cooking and decided to try out some dishes. Let me tell you this: when you have 2 pounds of  home made hot kimchi in your fridge you better pray you'll develop a love for it or you'll be screwed. And fall in love I did! By now I've made my fourth batch of kimchi and it's stored in a large, especially bought container that is unfortunately taking up half of the fruit & veg compartment in my fridge. Kimchi and I are friends, big time. After falling in love with Korean food I am now slowly starting to discover foods from other Asian countries like Japan for example. Japanese curry is one of my favourite new discoveries and the recipe I'm posting today also happens to contain one of my favourite Korean ingredients: gochujang! Gochujang is a dark red and thick hot pepper paste that is used a lot in Korean cooking. Together with the Japanese curry mix and silken tofu it makes for an amazingly rich and creamy curry that will warm you right up!




Japanese-Korean Curry
2 tbs olive oil
1 1/2 cups butternut squash, cubed
1 cup zucchini, sliced
1 cup carrot, sliced
1 cup onion, chopped
some water
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 S&B mild golden curry brick
1 generous tbs of gochujang
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 cup silken tofu, pureed
10 lentil balls
1/2 cup peas
dash of pepper (optional)

1) Pour 2 tbs of oil into a pan and heat it up on medium-high heat.
2) Add onions and sauté for a minute. Add squash, zucchini and carrots and continue to sauté for about three minutes.
3) Add just enough water to the pan so that the veggies are barely covered and cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes or until all the veggies are done, stir every now and then and add a little (!) more water if needed.
4) Stir in gochujang, garlic, soy sauce, curry brick and sesame oil. It takes a while for the brick to dissolve completely, but the sauce will soon start to thicken up. Continue to stir and add the silken tofu.
5) Lastly, add the lentil balls and peas. Stir, then turn off the heat - peas don't need a whole lot of cooking so the remaining heat should do the job just fine.

Done, serve with some freshly cooked rice and enjoy!

I used these lovely red lentil balls in the curry, you can find the recipe here over at Veggie Num Num. (The Dal Kofta recipe looks awesome btw.)


Notes:
• Gochujang looks pretty scary for first time users, so adding a table spoon of it will seem insane to you, but korean hot peppers are actually rather mild. You can leave it out if you don't like hot food or use a smaller amount if you want to use a different hot sauce.
• Silken tofu is what makes this curry sooo creamy, so I urge you to use it if you have access to it. If you don't or simply don't like the taste of it (though I personally can't detect it in this dish) you can use a vegan creamer that is suitable for cooking and try your luck. You may have to use less water to archive the same level of creaminess, but it should work.

This is what the package of S&B Golden Curry looks like. There's also a medium and hot version and from what I've heard those are not much spicier than the mild version, but I don't know how true this is, so go easy on the gochujang if you're using the medium or hot version! :)

Indonesian Glutinous Rice Cakes: Klepon

One of my favourite things about Indonesia is the giant variety of sticky desserts and snacks one will encounter there. They come in an array of tastes, colours and shapes and many of them are traditionally vegan, how great is that? Unfortunately a lot of them are not very easy to make and/or require a lot of work, but the recipe I'm sharing with you today is one of the easiest, so don't be intimidated.

Klepon
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbl pandan juice
150ml lukewarm water
200gr glutinous rice flour
grated coconut
javanese palm sugar
green food colouring (optional)

1) Combine salt, pandan juice and water in a large bowl. Add food colouring, if using.
2) Sift in the glutinous rice flour. You want to do this bit by bit, don't just dump it all in or you'll be kneading that dough for a looong time.
4) Use a sharp knife to cut the palm sugar into small pieces, I used less than 1/4 tsp per ball.
5) Fill a big pot (with fitting lid) with water and bring to a boil.
6) Take a bit of dough and flatten it in the palm of your hand, place a small piece of cut palm sugar in the middle and form to a small, smooth ball. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
7) Drop a few balls into boiling water and close the lid. They're done once they've floated to the top.
8) Place a generous amount of grated coconut into a large bowl and use a spoon to roll the cooked rice cakes in it until they're evenly coated. The dough can get quite hot so please don't use your hands and let them cool down a bit before you take your first bite. :)

Done!


Notes:
• Pandan juice can be bought at most Asian grocery stores, check the the canned goods aisle. You can use pandan extract instead (dissolve 1 tsp into 3 1/2 tbl of water), but I've had bad experiences with them and do not recommend them.
• Glutinous rice flour can also be found at most Asian grocery stores, it is also known under the following names: sweet glutinous rice flour, mochiko. It is important for the texture to use glutinous rice flour and not plain rice flour.
• Javanese palm sugar. I am not sure how easy it is to track this ingredient down, I haven't had trouble finding it, but I have a feeling this might be one of those things that can be hard to find. Javanese palm sugar is dark brown in colour and has a unique flavour to it, it is used in a lot of traditional cooking and baking and shouldn't be replaced. It is known as Gula Jawa in Indonesia and is usually sold in the shape of small whole or sliced cylinders.

• The dough should be firm and dry, almost a little crumbly. Add more flour if your dough is too wet or more water (one tsp at a time) if your dough is too dry.
• Klepon should be stored in an air tight container in the fridge. They may harden a little but a couple of seconds in the microwave should do the trick.


The money shot:

Matcha Latte

If you're anything like me, you LOVE coffee but not it's evil companion Mr Jitters. He doesn't show up every time, but often enough to make me avoid coffee (almost) altogether and when I do drink it, I usually resort to decaf just to be safe. Tea however, is a completely different story, even though some blends contain just as much or more caffeine than coffee. Odd, huh? Well from what I've read, it has to do with the different ways in which the human body reacts to the two beverages. Anyway, if you love lattes but want to go the coffee free route, then matcha might be a good alternative for you. Packed with tons of antioxidants, chlorophyll and amino acids the tea is bound to give your body a nice healthy (and tasty!) boost. Plus, anything green is automatically awesome, right?!


Matcha Latte
(makes two small servings or a big one)

1 tsp matcha powder
1 tsp sugar or agave nectar
1/4 C warm water
1 1/4 C soymilk
ice cubes (optional)

Combine the matcha powder and sugar in a tall measuring cup, add warm water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Add soy milk and blend with an immersion blender for a couple of seconds.

Pour into a tall glass, add ice cubes and enjoy!


Notes:
• you can use any non-dairy milk, but soy milk will give you the best foam
• immersion blenders are not made to deal with ice cubes (boo!), but if you are lucky enough to own a mixer do yourself a favour and blend the hell out of them. (just don't tell me about it, mixer-envy is no joke!)
• if you're lazy smart you can combine 1/4 cup of matcha powder with 1/4 cup of sugar for an even quicker preperation. Just store the mixture in an airtight container in a cool and dark place, use two tea spoons for a big serving or one tea spoon for a small serving.