Sweets

APPLE CAKE- Armenian inspired.

Ingredients for soft pastry:

1 cup margarine

¾ cup raw sugar

1 dessertspoon of almond essence

1 ¼ cups plain flour

1 cup of almond flour (almond meal is too heavy)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Ingredients for Filling:

1 large can of apples

1 dessertspoon of cinnamon

Pinch of powdered cloves

4 tablespoons coconut sugar.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and mix well. Cream the margarine and sugar until fluffy, adding the almond essence. Stir in the dry mix. Turn this onto your benchtop and lightly knead until it blends well. Divide the dough into two, wrapping them separately in plastic food wrap, and refrigerate while you prepare the apple filling.

Mix the apples with cinnamon, cloves and sugar.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (180 °C). Line a 30cm x 20cm oven tray with baking paper, take one piece of dough and line the base, taking the dough in a thin strip up the sides. Cover it with the apples. Cover the apples with the remaining dough. Press down ever-so-gently. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cake is golden, and when tested, the skewer or straw comes out clean, remembering that the apples will not be solid.

Serve hot or cold alone or with vegan cream.

BAKLAVA SARAGLI- a sublime harmony of crisp, golden phyllo pastry enveloping a rich, nutty filling drenched in fragrant syrup infused with lemon, cinnamon, and clove.

Historically, Baklava's origins are traced to the 8th-century Assyrian Empire, where layered unleavened flatbreads were filled with chopped nuts. Over time, the ancient Greeks and Romans refined the dish, creating thinner dough and adding sweet syrup. The Ottoman Empire perfected it further, replacing the bread with delicate layers of paper-thin phyllo pastry. During Ramadan, Ottoman sultans would gift hundreds of trays of Baklava to their elite soldiers in a grand tradition.

Baklava remains a cherished delicacy across cultures, gracing weddings, births, and religious celebrations. Its intricate layers symbolize patience and artisanal skill while sharing this sweet treat fosters unity and strengthens communal bonds. Saragli, equally rich and decadent, offers a delightful twist- identical to the recipe but presented in small, elegant rolls instead of in less handleable, layered slices.

Ingredients for the syrup:

2 ¼ cups of raw sugar

1 ¼ cups of water

2 sticks of cinnamon

4 tablespoons of glucose

6 whole cloves

The finely scraped zest of lemon

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Add the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, glucose syrup, cloves, and lemon rind in a saucepan and place it on medium heat. When the sugar melts, remove the saucepan from heat, add the lemon juice, stir and set aside to cool.

For the Saragli:

1 ½ cups of refined coconut oil (only use refined as this has no taste)

1 ¾ cups of crushed but not powdered walnuts

1 cup of crushed, but not powdered, shelled pistachios

¾ cup of crushed but not powdered almonds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 packet of phyllo pastry sheets

1 wooden, round stick about the size of a medium-sized finger.

For garnish:

About a cup of ground but not powdered, shelled pistachios

Preheat the oven to 160 °C (320 ° F). Oil an oven tray. Suppose your coconut oil is solid; warm it to liquefy. Spread out the phyllo dough on a clean working surface. Lay one sheet of phyllo dough separately on your working surface. Paint or drizzle with coconut oil, making sure not to let the brush directly touch the phyllo. Without pressing the filo sheets together (you need air between them to get the desired crunch), add another sheet of phyllo and drizzle it with oil. Liberally spread the nuts over the entire surface. Do not be generous, or you won't be able to take the next step. Working from the narrow end of the pastry sheets, place your wooden stick at the edge of the filo and gently but firmly, without pressing, roll the pastry not too tightly around the stick until you have a roll of pastry and nuts wound around your stick. Gently push the ends of the pastry along the stick under you have a wrinkled, much smaller roll. Remove the stick and place the roll on your prepared tray. Repeat the same process until the baking pan is full of Saragli rolls. When the pan is full, drizzle oil over the saragli rolls. Bake for 70-90 minutes.

When ready, remove from the oven and immediately pour the cool syrup over the scorching hot Saragli rolls.

Allow them to soak up the syrup for an hour. Take a sharp knife and divide your rolls into three pieces, sprinkle with ground pistachio nuts.

Serve warm or cold.

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 ½ cups coconut sugar

2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed plus 6 tablespoons tepid water)

1 ½ cups light olive or other light vegetable oil

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

2 ½ cups of carrots- freshly grated & tightly packed

½ teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

½ cup orange juice

Frosting:

Your choice, I use a WELL& GOOD plant-based Whipping Cream.

Preheat oven to 180 °C, oil, and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Break walnuts into small pieces, lightly dry roast them in a pan on the stovetop, and set aside to cool. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, spices, salt, coconut, and walnuts.

Prepare flax eggs by mixing ground flaxseed with tepid water and leaving until the texture becomes gluey. Beat the oil, orange juice, and vinegar until creamy. Add the sugar and whip until extra creamy. Add the flax eggs and whip again. Mix the dry ingredients by hand and add the carrots. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared tin; cover it with plastic for ten minutes.

Bake for an hour, testing with a skewer after 50 minutes. Depending on the oven, this carrot cake can take up to one hour and fifteen minutes to bake. Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the container until cool.

Frost with your desired frosting.

CHOCOLATE TART, gluten-free and vegan.

Ingredients for Tart shell:

2 cups of finely ground almonds

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup melted refined coconut oil

3 tablespoons coconut sugar

½ teaspoon finely ground pink salt

Make The Crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Stir together crust ingredients in a bowl until evenly combined. Place a tart pan with a removable bottom on a large, flat baking dish to make handling your Chocolate tart easier until it is solid. Press the crust mixture evenly into the base and up the sides. Bake for about 20 minutes or until it feels dry and firm. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Ingredients for Chocolate filling:

1 can (about two cups) coconut cream

1 dessertspoon vanilla essence

a pinch of chilli powder

¼ teaspoon fine salt

500g Lindt dark chocolate (gluten-free) or Nestle's Plaistowe dark chocolate (supposed to be gluten-free but may have a skerrick of gluten), broken into pieces.

1 tablespoon of salt flakes for decoration.

Make The Chocolate Filling:

Heat the coconut cream on the stovetop over very low heat.

While stirring, add the chocolate chunks and stir until the mix is smooth.

Stir in the vanilla extract and the finely ground salt until combined.

Pour the chocolate filling into the baked crust. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Serve chilled, sprinkled with salt flakes.

Note: Do not use milk or low-quality cooking chocolate; your filling will not be set.

DATE & WALNUT ROLLS OR LOG.

Make Egg Wash Substitute.

2 tablespoons of almond milk

1 tablespoon of maple syrup.

Combine and put aside till needed.

Make the filling:

100g vegan butter

220g chopped walnuts450g stoned dates

1 cup of plant milk

1 tablespoon of powdered cinnamon

1 dessertspoon of vanilla essence

¼ cup of rose water.

Over low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the dates and milk, and cook until the dates become a soft pulp. You may have to add more milk, depending on the age of the dates. Remove from the heat, stir in the walnuts, cinnamon, and rose water. Set aside to cool.

Make the pastry:
170 g softened unsalted cultured butter

500 g plain flour, sifted, plus extra for rolling
4 tablespoons of caster sugar plus one teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest, grated
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup oat milk or another creamy plant milk
7 g sachet dried yeast
¼ cup of unsweetened apple sauce
2 tablespoons vegan cream

1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

Stir the lemon juice into the cream and set it aside. Rub the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the raw sugar, lemon zest and bicarbonate of soda and combine well.
Heat the milk to lukewarm, then stir in the teaspoon of sugar. Add the dried yeast, mix, and set aside in a warm spot for 10 minutes.
Make a well in the centre of the flour, add the milk/yeast mixture, the apple sauce and the lemon-infused cream, and mix to form a smooth dough that is neither too wet nor too dry. If it seems too dry, add a little more cream. Knead the dough briefly. Place the bowl on a warm, draft-free spot and set it aside for ten minutes. Seal it with plastic food wrap.

Heat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Roll the pastry out thinly, cut into saucer-sized rounds or rectangles, spread the dough with filling, and roll it into a sausage. Alternatively, divide the pastry in half, roll each out separately as thinly as possible, spread each with filling, and then, starting from the short end, roll each piece into a separate log.

If you have formed little logs, place them on a lined tray about two fingers apart. If you have two logs, place them separately on a lined oven tray. Brush the tops of your logs with Egg Wash Substitute. Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven, place on a wire rack and leave till cold.

FLORENTINES. The origin of Florentines is shrouded in delicious mystery! Some tales trace these deep golden, fruit and nut-studded delicacies straight to the heart of Florence, as their name suggests. But another story whisks us away to the opulent court of Louis XIV, where his royal chefs supposedly crafted them to impress Italian guests at Versailles. So, were they born in Renaissance Italy or as a regal French homage? The debate is as rich as the cookies themselves!

Ingredients:

½ cup slivered almonds

½ cup glacé cherries, halved

½ cup toasted muesli

½ cup currants

½ cup mixed peel

1 can of sweetened, condensed coconut milk

90g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and oil a mini muffin tin. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and place a teaspoon of mixture into each greased muffin round. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. When cold, turn them over to have the smooth side up, melt the chocolate, and spread a layer over each round.

Note: If you are short on time, this recipe can also be made into a slice by spooning the mixture into an oiled oven tray and baking it for around 25 – 30 minutes. Once removed from the oven, spread a layer of chocolate over the top, leave it to cool, and slice it into pieces.

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