Vegan Pear and Rhubarb Cake

We get veggie boxes delivered these days, although I'm hoping that one day we'll grow so much fresh food that we won't really need to. I love the lucky dip nature of it, it's different every week and you figure out what you're going to make when it comes. Surprisingly though, it comes with pears pretty much every week. Much as I love them I've struggled to use them up in such quantity, leading to experimental cooking like this. This creation turned out fantastic!


Vegan Pear and Rhubarb Cake
Ingredients
3 ripe pears
4-5 rhubarb stalks
1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar (I use raw)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp brown sugar

To make:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2.  Core 2 of the pears and chop into 1cm or so cubes, don't worry about peeling the skin. Chop the rhubarb stalks into 1cm lengths.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the soy milk, oil, sugar and vanilla together.
4. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and chia and mix well to combine.
5. Grease a loaf tin (or a small round tin) well and line with baking paper.
6. Pour in the batter. Slice the remaining pear and use it to decorate the top with whatever pattern you like. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife (or skewer) inserted into the middle comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan and then use the sides of the baking paper to lift it out and serve.

Makes 1 loaf or 1 small cake. To make a full size cake you'll need to double the recipe.

Pear & Mandarin Dessert Soup

I'll be honest with you on this one - this delightful fresh fruity dish is completely inappropriate for the weather we are having at the moment! But if you're living in the Northern Hemisphere than this is absolutely what you need right now. So why am I posting such a seasonally perverse dish? Well, the theme for this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop is raw desserts. I almost gave it a miss - for 2 reasons. Firstly, because I generally don't recommend raw food diets and secondly, because it's freezing cold here and raw desserts really don't hold much appeal right now! In fact, as I type this I'm sitting looking out the window at the pouring rain wearing big fluffy socks, a large cardigan and a beanie - and I'm still cold!

But I really can't help myself, I always like to accept a challenge. So I rolled [down] my sleeves and decided to give it a red [cold] go, even though this is not my favourite theme. This soup is delicious, but if you're living in Australia then you might want to bookmark it and try it during warmer weather! This is perfect for the end of summer, when those warm Autumn days bring you plenty of seasonal pears and mandarins.

In good news, however, I'm excited to announce that I'll be escaping 5-6 weeks of winter this year and heading overseas on holiday! We're travelling in Scandinavia for 5 whole weeks and although I'm hoping to post you some pictures and updates along the way, that means it may be a quieter 5-6 weeks on the blog than usual. I'll be scheduling some posts that I've got on file and I'll also be helped out by some other wonderful bloggers with some guest posts. But I could definitely use a couple more - so, if you're a food blogger and you rather like my site, then please consider helping a brutha out (yes, I'm a dork) and contributing a guest post. I'll be more than happy to repay the favour any time you need it. Get in touch with me via email, facebook, twitter or whatever, if you're interested. It's a great way to get all my readers reading your blog, and vice versa.

Pear & Mandarin Dessert Soup

Ingredients
2 pears, cored and chopped
1 orange, peeled and chopped
4 mandarins, peeled
2 passion fruits
Pinch of salt (optional)
2 cups sparkling apple juice
Fresh berries, to garnish (optional)

To Make
1. Combine the pears, orange, mandarin segments (check for seeds and remove any that you find first) and the pulp of the two passion fruits in a blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Strain the fruit blend through a fine sieve, catching the strained liquid in a bowl. Use a spoon to press out as much of the liquid as you can and then discard the pulp.
3. Stir the salt and sparkling apple juice into the strained soup and stir gently to combine. Serve.

Serves 2-4 (depends on the size of your bowls really).

Variations ~
~ For a special occasion, substitute the sparkling apple juice with champagne
~ You can also enjoy this as a cocktail - simply add one measure of vodka or rum per 2 people.
~ In summertime, include fresh strawberries or raspberries to give it a summer flavour.
~ For a warming winter drink, heat on the stove over a low heat and add a pinch of cinnamon (or use whole spices as you would for mulled wine)

Peek-a-Pear Tart (Vegan & Sugar Free) PLUS Cookbook Giveaway

I've been featuring Dutch recipes this month (when I've managed to get around to it, as I've been a bit behind on posting this month!) and what I've found, apart from lots of delicious spiced cakes, biscuits and bread, is a whole list of dishes with adorably cute names. Like the other day I posted a dish called "Naked Babies in the Grass", a name which - quite frankly- made me insanely happy. I've also posted some Lazybones Buns, another great name! So, even though I invented this dish myself, I thought I'd have a go at giving it a cute name in honour of Dutch food month. You can keep your eye on the blog for the rest of the month too, as I have a couple of other Dutch dishes with lovely names to post as well.

This lovely dish came about when a patient of mine turned up to her appointment bearing a big bag of luscious pears from her tree, I love my job! I also love seasonal produce, which is the theme of this month's Sweet Adventure's Blog Hop. So I thought it would be a perfect time to share the pear tart which I made with my big bag of wonderful fresh pears. I made it sugar free, using a peach that I had lying around the house for extra sweetness (because I love experimenting with stuff that I find lying around). It was delicious and quite frankly I felt damn healthy and totally guilt free eating it!

But wait!!! There is actually more!

I'm giving away a shiny brand new copy of the Masterchef Australia Cookbook! This is the first volume of the book and is a fantastic book for cooks of all levels. It's perfect for beginner cooks, because it talks a lot about cooking techniques and how to hone your skills to perfection. But it's also great for accomplished cooks looking for a challenge. Including spectacular Adriano Zumbo recipes such as Chocolate Mousse cake, Vanilla Pannacotta and a superb croquembouche. Unbelievably delicious stuff! To enter the giveaway just checkout the details below.

Disclaimer - I'm sure somebody will come out with criticism because I've labelled this sugar free but obviously the fruit contains sugar. In my opinion a dish is sugar free if I haven't added any sugars myself (cane sugar, coconut sugar, rapidura sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar or any other type of sugar) but I'm simply relying on the natural sweetness of fruit.

And now... the actual tart!

Ingredients
4 dried dates
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup blanched almonds
2 tbsp self raising flour
1 ripe peach
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
500g ripe pears
1 tbsp lemon juice

To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Soak the dried dates in 1-2 tbsp hot water for 5-10 minutes.
3. To make the base: Place the oats, almonds, flour and spices in a food processor and process to form a coarse meal. Drain the dates (keep the liquid aside).
4. Add the dates and the sliced peach to the food processor and process until well combined. It should form a thick ball of dough which is not too sticky to touch, but moist enough to stay together and not be crumbly. However, the actual consistency may vary depending on the juiciness of the peach you use.If it is too sticky, add a little more flour, if it is too crumbly and dry add a little of the date soaking water until you get the consistency just right.
5. Grease a tart tin with a removable base and line the bottom with baking paper. Press the base down in an even layer all over the bottom of the tart tin. Press it down and smooth it out with the back of a spoon and then bake it in the oven for 10 minutes (keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get brown on top).
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, meanwhile reduce the oven temperature to about 170. While it is cooling, take about 1/4 cup of chopped, peeled pear and place it in your food processor with 1 tsp water and the tbsp lemon juice. Purée until it is a smooth liquid. Set this aside and get slicing the rest of your pears (no need to remove the skin this time!).
7. Arrange the sliced pears over the base and brush the top with the pear and lemon puree. Put it back in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the pears are tender to pierce with a knife.
8. Serve hot (preferably with a big scoop of vanilla soy ice cream - although that will negate the 'healthy' and 'sugar free' aspects of this dessert! Do it anyway though...)

Serves 6-8.

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