Vegan Recipe of the Week- Shortbread

I love shortbread, it is so easy to make and you can use it as a base for lots of variations.

Here is my recipe:

125g Hard Stork in the foil packet
60g Caster Sugar
180g Plain Flour
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 170C fan/190C conventional.

Cream together the sugar, vanilla and margarine until smooth, then sieve the flour into the creamed mixture, add the salt and work together until in forms a soft dough.

Roll the dough out until it is around 1/2 inch thick and cut into fingers, circles, stars, hearts or whatever you like. Sprinkle with caster sugar and prick with a fork.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven for around 16-18 minutes until golden brown and then transfer onto a cooling rack.

Variations on the recipe include adding dark chocolate chips into the dough before rolling, adding chopped cherries or raisins to the dough before rolling or after baking drizzle with lemon or vanilla glace icing.

Eat and Enjoy!

VVx

Vegan Vox Reviews...Meridian Nut Butters

Recently, I was lucky enough to be sent some delicious jars of Meridian nut butters to sample for my blog and I couldn't wait to share them with you. I love the range Meridian have, they do not use any palm oil in their nut and seed butters, they only contain natural ingredients and they have an organic range available as well. I was sent a jar of their Smooth Cashew Butter, Smooth Peanut Butter and Smooth Almond Butter. 

My favourite was the almond butter, it was delicious spread on crackers, bagels and as an ingredient in my homemade almond and oat cookies. It uses roasted almonds and this really brings out the flavour of the nuts.

The peanut butter was salty and smooth, just right for toast and I used some a in stir fry sauce with tahini, soy sauce, chilli and ginger.

And finally the cashew butter, which I used in some flapjacks, on bagels, and in some protein balls. It was lovely. Mild taste and a lovely natural sweetness. Goes really well with coconut flavours in baking.

Meridian's butters only use nuts and seeds and contain no added ingredients, they are high in protein and they never use palm oil. They are suitable for vegans, vegetarians and are gluten-free, soya-free and GMO-free. They come in smooth and crunchy varieties and are perfect on their own or as an ingredient in vegan recipes, savoury and sweet. Meridian nut and seed butters are available at selected Sainsbury's, Ocado, Holland and Barrett, Tesco, Morrisons and independent health food shops and start at around £2.30 a jar. There is a link to stockists on their website.

Have you tried any of the Meridian Foods Nut and Seed Butters? What are your favourites? What recipes do you use them in? Let me know in the comments below.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Ginger Snaps

This week I am going to share my Ginger Snaps recipe which I mentioned in my blog post last week on the UK Vegan Food Swap as I included some in the parcel I sent out. These are perfect for Autumn evenings, spicy and warming, sweet and delicious (a bit like me! ;-))

Ingredients:

120g Self raising flour, sifted

60g Vegan butter - I used Stork (foil packet)

75g Caster sugar

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp Ground ginger

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste

0.5 tsp Nutmeg

1 tbsp Golden Syrup, I used Maple flavour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan.

Put all of the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Melt all of the wet ingredients together in a small saucepan over a low heat - vanilla bean paste, butter and syrup and stir to combine.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the melted mixture into the well, then mix together to form a dough.

Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and taking small pieces of the dough, roll them in your hand to form a ball and place them on the baking sheet, spaced apart.

Once you have 12 dough balls, squash them flat with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the preheated oven on the middle shelf for 10-12 minutes.

Take the tray out of the oven and leave it for 5 minutes.

Then place the biscuits on a cooling rack for 20 minutes until cool.

Eat and enjoy! Let me know what yours turned out like in the comments below!

Come back next week for another yummy vegan recipe and don't forget to check out the 'Recipes' tab at the top of the page for all of the previous recipes in one handy place!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Coconut and Oat Biscuits with Chocolate Orange Drizzle and UK Vegan Food Swap pt.1

This month, for the first time, I took part in the UK Vegan Food Swap (#ukveganfoodswap) organised by tohappyvegans.com. If you would like to take part too, you can sign up here.

The way it works is you are assigned a sending partner and a receiving partner. The sending partner sends you your box of vegan goodies of their choice spending a budget of £10 and the receiving partner gets sent a box from you. For my first month, my receiving partner was one of the founders of the scheme - Sasha from tohappyvegans.com. I decided to send her a mixture of sweet and savoury snacks, some cooking sauces, a vegan lip balm, some organic tea and a batch of these fab biscuits with the recipe so she can make her own. I also received my box from the lovely Chrissie which I will blog about next week.

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Hill Biscuits and I promised to include a biscuit recipe or two on my blog, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all as well.

Vegan Vox's Coconut and Oat Biscuits with Chocolate Orange Drizzle.

(Makes 16 Biscuits)

Ingredients:

85g porridge oats

85g desiccated coconut

100g plain flour

100g caster sugar

100g vegan butter/spread

1 tbsp golden syrup/maple syrup

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp boiling water

1 small packet vegan choc orange buttons

    

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas mark 4

Place the oats, sugar, coconut and sieved flour in a mixing bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the golden syrup when melted. 

In a cup mix the boiling water and bicarb of soda together and add to the saucepan.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.

Take spoonfuls of the mixture and place on a greased/lined baking tray leaving a gap for them to spread.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10 minutes until golden and then place on a rack to cool.

Whilst the biscuits are cooling, melt the chocolate buttons over a pan of hot water or in the microwave and stir. 

Drizzle the melted choc orange button mix over the biscuits when they are cool and then place the tray in the fridge to set the chocolate.

                               

Eat and enjoy!

These biscuits will keep in an airtight container for a week and are lovely wrapped in baking paper, tied with ribbon and given to friends as a gift.

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Click here for a previous Vegan Recipe of the Week!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx