Björnakaka (Bear cake)

Björnakaka is a cake with soft cinnamon sponge and rich butter cream. The cake is a local favourite and the name comes from the small village of "Björna". Björn meaning bear and kaka meaning cake.

You will need:

• 2½ cup (6 dl) Plain White Flour
• 1 1/4 cup (3 dl) White Sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 3 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 2/3 cup (4dl) Dairy Free Milk
• 100 ml Melted Vegan Margarine

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix the melted margarine with the milk and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix well using electric beaters to get lots of air in and to avoid lumps.
3. Add your batter in a greased and bread crumbed spring tin and bake at 345 F / 175 C for 30-45 minutes. Always test your cake before taking it out of the oven by gently poking the middle with a wooden cake tester (or wooden toothpick) When the tester comes out dry and clean and the cake feels bouncy by touch it is ready to come out of the oven.

 

For the filling you will need:

• 100 g Margarine
• 1 2/3 cup (4dl) Icing Sugar
• 4 tsp Vanilla Sugar (powder style or use vanilla extract)
• 1-2 tbs Plain Oil (this is to represent the fatty part of the egg yolk used in the non-vegan version)

1. Start by mixing the margarine with the two sugars, then add your oil. Just do some at a time until the filling gets smooth and creamy.
2. When your cake has cooled down completely (very important the cake isn't warm) Cut the cake in half and spread with the filling and place the top back over the filling.
3. Powder with icing sugar and enjoy. Left over cake is stored wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge or cooler.

Autumn Puffpasty+Crumble Spiced Apple Pie

Use your own apples, local store bought apples or your normal day to day apples from the supermarket. This apple pie has it all, flakey puff pastry base, spicy apple filling and crumbley topping.

You will need:

• 1 sheet of Puff Pastry (most shops sell vegan friendly, dairy free puff pastry)

Crumble:

• 3/4 cup Plain Flour
• 3/4 cup Rolled Oats
• ½ cup White Sugar
• 1 tbs Baking Powder
• 100 grams Dairy Free Margarine (room temperatured)

Filling:

• 6-8 Apples (I used 8 small home grown apples, use less if you get bigger apples)
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• ½ tsp Ginger
• 1 dash of Nutmeg
• 1/3 - ½ cup White Sugar
• 3 tbs Dairy Free Margarine

(I used the variety of apples called "Transparente Blanche")

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C / 390F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients for the crumble in a bowl. Add the margarine and mix well using your hands or a mixer with dough-hooks. Make sure all the margarine has been mixed in well.
3. Clean your apples and cut them into small even sized chunks. (peel your apples if the peel is hard and thick. If not you can leave it on) Add the apple chunks to a bowl and mix with the spices and sugar. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough. Add more spices if desired.
4. Grease your pie tin and cover with the puff pastry. Add all your spiced apple chunks and evenly spread small nobs of margarine. Now cover with the crumble mix.
5. Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes. Make sure you don't take it out of the oven to early as the risk might me that the puff pastry isnt baked enough.

Serve warm with soft vanilla ice cream

Potato Pizza

Easy, tasty and filling. This pizza has the easiest base, almost pie like, crispy and flakey. Here topped with our own new potatoes, brown onion, garlic, olive oil and herbs.

Pizza Crust (will make 2 pizzas):

• 1 2/3 cups (4 dl)  Plain White Flour
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1/4 cup (½ dl) Olive Oil
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 2/3 cup (1½ dl) Non Dairy Unsweetened Milk or Natural Yoghurt 

1. Mix all the ingredients for the pizza crust. Work until smooth.
2. Wrap in plastic and leave to cool in the fridge until you have prepared the pizza topping.

Topping:

• 6-8 Potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Mix Herbs (rosemary & thyme)
• 1 medium Brown Onion
• 1-2 cloves of Garlic

1. Clean the potatoes and slice them thinly. Also slice the onion.
2. Mix herbs, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil in a bowl. Taste.
3. Add the onion and potato slices to the oil mix.
4. Take your pizza dough out of the fridge and cut in half. Roll thin and place on a oven tray with a baking paper.
5. Top the dough rounds with your onion and potato mix. Make sure you have some olive oil on the top to avoid the pizza toppings getting to dry after baking.
6. Bake in a 350-390 F (175-200 C) pre-heated oven until the potato goes soft and the edges are golden. Around 20 min.

(Spice the oil maybe a little more than what you think, if not the pizza could come out a little bland)

The Huffington Post

So so very happy! 
Thanks to you all for voting on my recipe. I made it and the recipe for "Swedish Vegan Chocolate Balls" has today been featured on The Huffington Post. Also a huge thanks to Nil Zacharias, Co-Founder of One Green Planet.
 


Click here to veiw the article.

These classic Chocolate Balls is a Swedish no-bake sweet, served at birthdays, special occasions and as an everyday treat. This ball is rolled in something Swedes call Pearl Sugar, a rough cut type of sugar that won’t melt, even if baked in the oven. It is used as decoration on cakes, cookies and on our all time favorite, the Swedish Cinnamon Scroll!

Making Vegan Chocolate Balls is as easy as it gets — just measure, mix and roll, making it a fun activity for the whole family. Parents can measure the ingredients and let kids have fun using their hands to mix it all together. This usually results in a big mess, but you won’t care when you see how much fun they’re having, and the end result is something beautiful and delicious.

Ingredients

• 100 grams of Dairy Free Margarine (room temperature)
• ½ cup White Sugar
• 1 tbs Vanilla Sugar (or vanilla extract)
• 2-3 tbs Dark Cocoa Powder (European style)
• 1 1/4 cup Rolled Oats
• 2-3 tbs Cold Strong Caffeine Free Coffee

Garnish/ To be rolled in:

• Pearl sugar, dessicated coconut or your favorite sprinkles.

Preparation

1. So just like I mentioned before, measure all the ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Mix well and roll into 30 even sized balls.
3. Coat them with your choice of garnish by rolling them in it.
4. Eat straight away or leave the chocolate balls to cool in the fridge.

Tip: The chocolate balls can be stored in the freezer for a long time, just take them out 5-10 minutes before serving.

Swedish Pancakes

This recipe was featured on Onegreenplanet today, so I wanted to share it with you all here too.

So here is the secret to make the perfect Swedish vegan pancakes!

Ingredients:

Pancake Batter:

• 600 ml Dairy Free Milk (make sure you use unsweetened milk if you are making savoury pankcakes/ crêpes)
• 1 cup Plain White Flour
• 4 tbs Soy Flour
• 1 pinch of Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 4 tbs (or 50 g) Dairy Free Margarine (+ extra for frying the pancakes)

Sweet & savoury filling/ topping suggestions:

• Raspberry or strawberry jam with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (this is the true Swedish way)
• Fresh squeezed lemon and sugar
• Creamy mushroom, topped with vegan cheese. (baked in the oven until the cheese has melted)
• Creamy “shrimp” or “ham”, topped with vegan cheese. (baked in the oven until the cheese has melted)

Preparation:

1. Melt the margarine and leave it to slightly cool.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients and add half of the milk whisking well, electric beater is recommended.
3. Add the rest of the milk and the melted margarine. Leave the batter for 15-30 minutes, this will allow the batter to slightly thicken before use.
4. Use a small nob of margarine to fry around 100 ml of batter in a non-stick pan (remember add you pancake batter and swosh it around in the pan to spread it thin and evenly). This recipe will make around 10 pancakes.
5. Eat them straight away with your sweet topping of choice or fill them with your favourite savoury filling and roll them up. Sprinkle with vegan cheese and bake in a   390 F oven until the cheese has just melted and turned slightly golden.

If you feel like eating a large pankcake-cake this recipe will make a good and big one.

Tip: If you have pankcakes left over, store them in the fridge and make a snack. Spread your cold pankcake with a thin layer of margarine and sprinkle with sugar. (optional some cinnamon)… Roll up and enjoy.

Everyone, please remember have a look at ONEGREENPLANET regularly for lots of inspiration.

Puff Pastry Cups w/ Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Strawberry Jam and Vanilla Custard

This is one for that special occasion, the dessert you dream about and want to have again and again after eating it the first time. WOW! So nice and can be made so quick. In this recipe we will take some shortcuts, using pre made (unbaked) vegan puff pastry, store bought strawberry jam, ready made dairy free vanilla ice cream and making vanilla custard using vegan friendly custard powder. 

You Will Need:

Vegan Puff Pastry

(have a look at your local grocery store, most frozen and chilled pre-made puff pastry doughs are vegan)

Vanilla Dairy Free Ice Cream

(I use a swedish brand called TofuLine, also know as Swedish Glace in some countries)

Custard Powder Mix+required ammount of milk/sugar

(Most custard powders that requires you to simmer them adding milk is usually vegan and by adding a vegan milk substitute the custard will be vegan friendly)

Strawberry Jam

Dark Chocolate

(Alot of dark chocolates are vegan, even if it isn't labeled as that on the wrapper. Read the ingredients and choose a semi-sweet chocolate)

Strawberries

Icing sugar 

(ofcourse you can do all these parts home made too)

• Defrost your puff pastry dough if frozen, grease a large muffins cup tray and cover them with the puff pastry forming a cup. To keep the puff pastry from puffing up too much cover the top of the dough with a baking paper and fill the inside of the cup with "pie baking weights" or uncooked rice. (this step is only to weigh the dough down while baking)
• Bake at a 175 C / 340 F oven for 20min. Take the puff pastry out of the oven and gently remove the weigh filling. If your puff pastry still is very light and soft, bake until golden without the weight filling.
• Mix your vanilla custard according to the directions on the packet, it should be more of a creamy texture than a saucy one. Leave to cool down.
• When your golden puff pastry cups have cooled down, fill them with a few tablespoons of custard each and a few tablespoons of strawberry jam. 
• Get your ice cream out of the freezer and leave out until just soft.
• Melt your chocolate.
• Now add one ice cream scoop of vanilla ice cream on to each puff pastry cup and then dip your strawberries in the chocolate. Add the strawberries straight on to the ice cream to have a nice effect of the melted chocolate dripping down over the vanilla ice cream and setting hard.
• Dust with icing sugar and serve.
• Enjoy!

Rhubarb Crumble

The Vegan Swedes Love OneGreenPlanet. 


What a great family to be a part of, with so many great vegan tips, ideas and recipes posted there regularly. I am happy to be a part of the team and encurage everyone to have a look and hope that you all will find great vegan inspiration.


Our newest post there was for our Swedish Rhubarb Crumble. YUM!