Vegan chocolate peanut butter babka( ish)

Last week I made a  no-knead loaf and thought, why not separate out a bit of the batter and see if I could create some sort of sour dough starter. It had added yeast and was quite feisty, so I let it sit out on the counter and it grew quickly. I read that I could store it in the fridge, so I moved it in there and today gave it a feed.

This loaf is made by letting the dough sit for 12-24 hours of proofing, and baking in a preheated casserole.

When I fed the jar, I had scooped out some of the batter and spent some time thinking about what I wanted to create.

I decided to make a fake vegan chocolate babka.
Fake because I chose to just wing it. Vegan just because…

The dough:

  • ⅓ cup sour dough starter ( flour, water, yeast from the no knead dough recipe)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • Enough water to make a nice bread dough- ¾ to 1 cup ish

Mix it, knead it( yes, this one I chose to knead), let it sit covered for 2 hours, because that’s how much time I had.

Preheat the oven to 375F

Roll out into a square or rectangle about 1 cm thick on a lightly floured surface.

The filling

  • 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips – melt in microwave 30 second bursts
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter – stir into the melted chocolate
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon- sprinkled on the filling

Pour the filling onto the dough and roll it up into a log.

Cut through the centre of the log lengthwise, leaving 2 cm dough still attached at one end.

Braid the two pieces carefully, and gently place into a lined loaf pan or greased pan.


*probably could let this proof more now, I chose not to .*

Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean. Technically a babka would have a glaze, I’m going to skip that step and just try it as is for this time around…or maybe make a simple vanilla icing sugar glaze… but for now:

tada!

Sweet potato cheesecakelets- egg free and vegan option

 

Sweet potato eggless cheesecakes
Ingredients
For the homemade cookie crust:
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter/ margarine, room temperature 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
For the filling:
2- 250 gram packages cream cheese, room temperature or 1 blocks medium firm 454 grams- drained and pressed lightly
2⁄3 cup mashed sweet potato
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or combination cinnamon, cloves, ginger/allspice
1 3⁄4 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar
 6 tablespoons milk (dairy or non dairy)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
Directions :
For the homemade crust:
1. Grease a 9″ springform pan on the bottom and up the sides. Or fill 24 muffin cups with paper
2. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (176 °C).
3. Place the crust ingredients in a food processor. Process for about 30 seconds or until when pinched together, it easily holds together.
4. Pat over the bottom and up the sides of the prepared springform pan. It won’t make it all the way to the top. Or divide evenly amongst the 24 cups and tamp down with the bottom of a glass.
5. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until lightly brown (prepare the filling while the crust bakes).
6. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before pouring in the cheesecake filling.

To bake the cheesecake:
1. Poke and microwave your sweet potato for 3-4 minutes on high until baked through. Allow to cool slightly, then peel and mash/ puree.
2. Turn the oven down to 325°F(163°C).
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese < or drained soft tofu> and sugar using an electric hand mixer at medium speed. Beat just until well combined and creamy.
4. Mix together the milk and cornstarch until no lumps remain. Add this, the mashed sweet potato and the remaining ingredients to the cream cheese mixture. Beat on low until well incorporated. Over beating will make cracks so don’t over mix.
5. Pour over the crust/ divide evenly amongst the muffin cups.
6. Bake for 45 minutes for the full cake, 15-20 minutes for the muffin cups. The middle will still be a little jiggly.
7. Remove to a rack to cool for 2 1/2 hours.
8. Use a knife to run around the inside of the pan to loosen the crust from the pan.
9. Chill for at least 4 hours before cutting.
10. If the homemade oat crust is very firm and too difficult to cut straight from the fridge, let the cheesecake sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
11. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers for up to 5 days. It can also be frozen whole or in pieces and thawed overnight in the fridge.

Original recipe this is based on:

Chick pea chocolate chip cookies

It has been a while!  But tonight I had some chickpeas that I puréed and decided to go sweet… so I searched through my recipes and found one that I modified to create these fibre filled beauties!

Tavalonia’s Chickpea chocolate chip cookies:

preheat the  oven to 350

1 can of chickpeas (14?ounce), drained ( save your aqua faba!)

purée them up well!

add:

⅓ cup chunky peanut butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp each baking powder and soda

Mix well and add:

1 tsp vanilla extract

⅓ cup unsweetened coconut

⅓ cup rolled oats

Mix well and scoop out 12-14 cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Add chocolate chips to the top of each cookie( this makes the clean up easier as the melted chocolate stays on the cookies) . I usually add 3-4 per cookie.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Enjoy! And share with your gluten free, vegan friends!

playing more with watercolours…

More morning glories – cause they are so pretty!

These are “Artist Trading Cards”  – so the size is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches and I cut a sheet of watercolour paper to play with these smaller scale pieces.

Version 1:

stoping now: added texture and highlights

Version 2:

Final version with highlights

Watercolour adventures….

Having started my holidays with a plan to try more arting, an online workshop happened to be guiding the painting of thistles 💖 in watercolour😎…

so here’s what that has resulted in….

Stylized Thistles in watercolour by TAV
Morning Glory 1 watercolour by TAV
Morning Glory 2 by TAV
Blue cornflowers in watercolour and acrylic by TAV

Gonna go do some crazy baking next!

Part of something bigger- a mosaic to inspire….

I saw the ad on Instagram. to be a part of a mosaic of tiles created by artistic all across Canada… go here to see it coming together : MURALMOSAIC

Yes, I paid to be part of this- and we pay for therapy, experiences and supplies to help focus our tension on something positive all the time.

I am very pleased with the art I created, and I have some friends who joined in the journey and contributed  their own creations…

yay art!

Once I received the kits, I then offered up the choices to my friends. Blue went quickly, and then I awoke at 4:30 am with a vision for the red, so I chose it, sending green off with the third artist!

Reel of my iPad procreate video

and then I painted this with the acrylic paints provided:

And then I felt like I wanted to do more…

So I found some 6 inch ceramic tiles and created a quartet…

Please note that the red tile is a rough reproduction of my original one for the Canada Mosaic Project…it’s proportions are not quite the same, but it works and it’s all good!

 

digital arting again….

Thanks to a quick response from the fabulous SM Carriere this morning, I decided to share this little quick clip and possibly start adding more arting clips to my YouTube channel!

When inspired, one must ART!

Digital drawings are a fun way to quickly create without getting messy… and I am grateful that I am able to afford and use the equipment I have for this  – I use it for business mainly, but it’s helping when I’m not as booked with sewing clients…

and previously this week I had shared this one on my insta of my furry Muse @SprocketMinPin….

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tracey Vibert (@tavalonia)