Nut free, Egg free and Dairy free (Vegan) Doughnuts

Nut free, Egg and Dairy Free Doughnuts

I've been playing around with doughnut recipes for a while. Mostly they have been egg free recipes and gluten free ones. The results have been mixed and varied. This one is the best so far - without egg or dairy. I'll have to work on my Gluten free Vegan doughnuts further and get them post-worthy! When that happens, I'm sure you'll hear about it! But for now, here are my.....

Nut free Vegan Doughnuts

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 cup strong flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon applesauce
1 tablespoon soy or coconut yoghurt
1 tablespoon sunflower oil

Method : Combine all the ingredients together and knead to a soft and elastic dough. Cover and leave to rise till dough doubles, about 30 minutes. Roll out to 1/4" thick and cut out doughnuts with a cutter. Cover cut out doughnuts with a damp tea towel and leave to rise again. Lift out carefully and fry in hot oil over medium heat. Glaze them as you wish or toss in cinnamon sugar. Note not to over fry, or the doughnuts become hard. Best eaten fresh.

F1 Musings in Singapore...revving down memory lane...

Formula 1 cake for Team Renault 2008

The F1 night race in Singapore is on for this weekend and I'm really excited! I've been an armchair follower of the happenings on the circuit for over 10 years! Bit of a departure here, on this blog, from the usual subject matter, but hey, I do have some Formula 1 cake stories and photos to share around.

Presenting Fernando Alonso with cake

I have been a follower of F1 Driver, Fernando Alonso for a very long time and when I was given passes to a pre-race launch by Renualt (this is 2008, I'm musing about, folks!), naturally I jumped at it. While watching the qualifying rounds of the race, I played around with some fondant and shaped the 2008 Renault Formula 1 car. ........I'm remembering that moment when Alonso clocked the best time during the qualifiers!

The smile and thank you!!

So here I had a sugar crafted car, that needed a cake as a base. Fast forward, a Chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate frosting, covered with pale yellow fondant featuring a checkered flag motif was created to be taken to the party. A grand one it was and I had my moment in the sun, when I was asked to present Fernando Alonso with the cake.  He accepted it with a sweet smile and a thank you........4 years on, I'm still basking ..........

F1 Ferrari cake with hand painted prancing horses

Nut free & Gluten free Vegan Vege-balls (meatballs)

Pasta with Vege-balls

Here's a great recipe for a vegan vegetable based spaghetti & 'meatballs' dinner. The millet (told you, millet is my mantra!) in the recipe helps to bind the other ingredients together. The beet adds meat-like color and sweetness to the vege-balls. Shitake mushrooms or if you like, porchini better, add flavor and some bite to the them. These are baked in the oven, not fried, once again a personal preference. Add them to your favorite pasta sauce just before serving and you are set to go. These vege-balls freeze really well so you can freeze left overs for a rainy day. Yum!

Nut free Gluten free Vege-balls

Nut free & Gluten free Vegan Vega-balls (meatballs)

1 cup millet
2 cups tomato juice or vegetable stock
1 cup grated beetroot
2 cups chopped shitake mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoon oat bran (I'm sneaky in that way)
1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
3 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method: First cook millet in tomato juice and keep aside. Next, in a separate pan, sauté onions in olive oil. Add mushrooms and garlic and sauté till soft and any liquid from the mushrooms evaporated. Add beetroot next and keep cooking till mixture is dry. Next add the cooked millet, oat bran and chopped parsley. Mix well and adjust seasoning. While the mixture is still fairly warm, form into small balls, spray with cooking spray and cook for 10 minutes till browned in a hot oven (200 degrees celcius). Take out from oven, cool before stirring into prepared pasta sauce. Serve with your favorite pasta.