Ⓥ Organic Vegan Raspberry, Date, Cacao & Cashew Love Truffles

Being the season of love, I thought I would try to concoct some truffles for myself.  Gramondo could have a few as well, if there were any left over.

First, using my Excalibur Dehydrator I dehydrated around 200g of raspberries, forgetting of course to take any photographs of this stage of the proceedings.  It took around 16 hours to get them nice and crisp and dry.

Then I soaked a cup of organic cashew nuts for about one hour.

I chopped up a cup of organic dates and processed them with the nuts, raspberries, 1/4 cup of organic cacao and four table spoons of organic maple syrup.

I rolled the mixture into small truffle sized balls and placed them on a board, then put them in the freezer.  I thought freezing them would help later when covering them in chocolate.

Around one hour later, I melted various chocolate (including an Organica Chocolate Couverture bar) that I had managed not to scoff; it was around 140g in total.

Then I rolled each truffle, coating it in chocolate. Freezing them did help a great deal here I think. The chocolate hardened very quickly.

There you have it, fairly healthy, truffles, made from lots of raw organic ingredients, that take less than 30 minutes to make.  The raspberry is really intense, and works well with all the other ingredients.

Ⓥ Artisan Vegan Cheese - Pub Cheddar with Chives

Since I blogged the Air Dried Cheddar  he  recipe in January, I have been going through the Artisan Vegan Cheese book, albeit very slowly, testing various recipes.  Apart from the Smoked Provolone Cheese, (I have realised I don't like smokey flavours in general), I have really enjoyed every one I have made. Gramondo has enjoyed all of them, so we are both very impressed with the book and would highly recommend that you get yourself a copy.

So, here is another cheese from the book to take a look at.

I set Gramondo the task, to find me an ale to use in the recipe.  He did very well, finding one in the Co-op that was not only a vegan ale, but an organic, Fairtrade and vegan ale.  The ale is brewed for The Co-op by the Freeminer Brewery in the Royal Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.  The malted barley is grown in the Cotswolds and on Salisbury Plain and handcrafted by Warminster Maltings - Britain’s oldest working floor maltings.

First stage is to soak the cashew nuts for 3 to 8 hours.  Then blend them, together with your rejuvelac,
miso, yeast flakes and salt.  You have to leave this to do its thing for 24 to 28 hours at room temperature (about 67f/19c).

Next stage is to thicken the cheese.  You heat the ale, together with the agar powder and then add the cheese.  After you have been stirring it for about five minutes, it becomes smooth and glossy.  You then remove it from the heat and add your chives, I used dried as I could not find fresh.

  

Pour into a glass mould and allow to cool.

Artisan Vegan Cheese