Vegan Baklava

Baklava is a dessert from south-eastern Europe. It reminds me of a very moist strudel, as it contains nuts and phyllo dough.

I hadn’t eaten baklava for years. One day, my vegan friend asked me whether I knew how to make this dessert and I haven’t stopped thinking about baklava ever since (I really think a ot about food, you know). Thinking it would be best to go back to the roots, I called my grandma in Bulgaria, asking her for advice. She promised to tell me something more during my stay in Varna and I got additional advice from my aunt, who is a very talented cook and baker.

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Making a vegan version of baklava was not difficult, since the only non-vegan thing in the original recipe is butter. I always use Sanella as a substitution for butter and have had very good experience so far. We planned to bake in the beginning of September and therefore make a more autumn-style version of the recipe. So we put in fresh figs between the phyllo layers. We also used walnuts AND hazelnuts as a filling.

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For me personally, it was just the right thing to eat along with a cup of tea during the first days of my already exhausting school year. (Nuts make your brain run faster :P) For more vegan ideas and vegan food guides, please visit Nhi’s blogs here and here. I promise you won’t be disappointed :) Oh and you won’t be disappointed it you try this recipe.

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Vegan Baklava:

1/2 packet phyllo dough (depending on your pan, I had Bulgarian dough especially made for baklava)
150 g vegan butter
150 g ground walnuts
150 g ground hazelnuts
3 figs, the large kind, cut into slices

250 g sugar
250 ml water

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and disslove the sugar over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until it has thickende (this will take some time). When the syrup is done, let it cool on the counter. One of the secrets of baklava is to have add cool syrup to the hot cake or hot syrup to cold cake. So you will want your syrup to be cooled until the cake is done baking.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).

Slightly grease a pan (20 x 30 cm/ 8´´x 12´´) and place 2 layers of phyllo dough inside. Melt the butter and spread 1 tbsp on the dough, then evenly spread nuts and figs on top. Place another two layers onto the filling, then repeat the procedure until you have used all the filling. End with phyllo.

Cut the baklava into small squares of about 3 x 3 cm (1´´ x 1´´). Place in the oven and bake untill the top turns amber brown.
Take the baklava out and pour the syrup on top. If you hear a fizz, the difference between the temperatures is right. Let the treat sit – it tastes best after one day, when the dough is soaked with syrup.
Keep in the refridgerator or at some other cool place.

Lava Cakes

My brother ha a new food love – lava cake. Since my Aunt in Bulgaria serve some while during our stay in Burgas, he has been asking me to make it at home very often.

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There is no big story behind this recipe, I just googled “lava cake” and tried the first recipe I found. Luckily, it turned out great and the cakes were a success. Success means: my brother ate 3 cakes for breakfast.

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I made some in procelain and others in aluminium cups. The ones in the metal cups turned out better, somehow more fluffy. The secret to the liquid center is a watchful behaviour – check on your cakes every 3 minutes with a toothpicker; the centre should be liquid (I like it more the creamy way) and the edge done. Every oven is a bit different and the baking time also depends on the size, shape and material of your molds. But believe me, it is not difficult to succeed if you have an eye on these babies.

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Lava Cakes

source: Backen-Mit-Spass.de

85 g (3 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
85 g (3/8 cup) butter
3 eggs
80 g (3/8 cup) sugar
45 g (1 1/2 oz.) flour

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).

Melt butter and chocolate in the microwave, heating not more than 30 seconds at once. Stir in between and microwave until the ingredients have completely melted.

Transfer the butter and chocolate mixture into a larger bowl and stir in the sugar. Then add the eggs and flour, combining everything well with a mixer.

Oil 4 molds (depending on their size, of course) and fill them up to 2/3 with dough. Bake in the oven until they reach the consistency you desire. The original recipe says about 8 to 10 minutes and the blogger in my source says 17, but I had cakes with a perfectly creamy centre after 14 minutes! So decide by yourself when to put them out.

Serve warm and definitely with a scoop of ice cream! :)

The Smurfs’ World Cake

Hello y’all. Today I have something for you to look at. My cousin celebrated his birthday last month and as a fan of the Smurfs, he deserved a theme cake, of course.

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I piped the grass with coloured heavy cream onto the blueberry cake layers, then added the fondant elements.
The mushroom houses are made of two muffins covered in fondant and put on top of each other.

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Play world for murf figures done.