Vegan Baked Bananas

This is a great last-minute treat. It only takes about 30 minutes: 10 hands on and 20 to bake and only uses one bowl. This is a great example of a recipe that really relies on the flavor of the food. This is also a great idea for when you need to make something but don't have a recipe with you. It's easy to remember the important parts and you can totally wing it. You do need to eat them immediately after they're done, you can't wait for them to cool. I love to use the leftover sauce in the bottom of the pan for fake ice cream topping.

Ingredients

enough bananas for everyone you want to feed (makes enough sauce for 4 bananas)
2 tbl fake butter
2 tbl lemon juice
2 tbl brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350. While it's heating, put butter and lemon juice in a glass pan or dish and put in oven to melt. Next, peel and slice bananas (first in half shortways then in half longways), take the pan out of the oven and roll the bananas in the melted butter/lemon juice. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle over bananas. Put the pan back in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Yummm.

Vegan Black Rasberry Oat Bars

My roommates christened this dessert "Jam Crisp" and that's pretty much what it is. It's made of two layers of crispy oaty-ness with jam sandwiched in the middle. You can use whatever kind of jam you want, it really doesn't matter. It also doesn't matter whether you use jam or jelly or preserves. Preserves are a little easier to spread, but that's about it. The recipe wants you to spread the jam evenly over the bottom crust, but I couldn't get it to work and it turned out just fine. You also want to save enough of the topping to really cover the jam, otherwise the jam itself gets a little crispy, which is gross. When we were at the store buying the jam, my friend and I realized that we really didn't know the difference between jam/jelly/preserves etc. so when I got home, I did a little research and this is what I found out. Jelly is made from fruit juice not whole fruit and has the most amount of pectin. This makes it sort of a gel with a smooth consistency. Jam is made from crushing or grinding whole fruit and has a little bit less pectin than jelly. This makes a spread with pieces of fruit that still holds its shape. Preserves are also made from crushed fruit and have less pectin than either jam or jelly. This makes a spread with largish pieces of fruit that spreads easily. So, for this recipe, it's all a matter of preference. This is a one-bowl recipe that took me about 40 minutes to make: 5 hands on and 35 to bake.

Ingredients

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup allpurpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup oats
1/2 cup fake butter
3/4 cup preserves

Preheat oven to 350. Oil an 8in pan. In a medium bowl combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Add butter and mix it in with your hands until it's crumbly. Press 1/2-2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Spread jam up to the edge but not touching it. Sprinkle the rest of the crumb over the top and press it gently into the jam. Bake for 35 minutes and let it cool. I know it's tempting to start eating it right away, but this one really needs to cool first or the bars fall apart. Happy munching!

Vegan Irish Brown Bread

I made this totally awesome soda bread a couple of days ago. It's rich and moist and weighs about twenty pounds (not really). It only took me about 40 minutes to make - 10 hands on and 30 to bake. I only had to use one bowl too, which is really awesome since I'm lazy and don't have a dishwasher. It does dry out really fast so keeping it in a gallon-size ziploc is a good idea. The flavor gets more soda-y over time, which I really enjoy. Plus, I just love Irish food. I can't decide whether it's just because I think Irish stuff is cool, or because I have some kind of genetic predisposition to like it, or because it's just tasty. Anything that's been around since 1840 is bound to be pretty good, though, right? I found out the reason they eat bread like this in Erin. I guess the climate prevents the raising of hard-kernel wheat, which keeps the bread from rising as easily as normal wheat bread, which means that yeast doesn't always do the job, hence the baking soda. So there's your education for the day. I think this recipe may have worked particularly well because I used home-ground wheat, but it's definitely not necessary. Without further ado, the recipe:

Ingredients

2 cups nondairy milk
2 tsp white vinegar
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purose white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup rolled oats
2 tbl fake butter
(opt) 1 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 425 and grease 9in cake pan. In a measuring cup, combine fake milk and vinegar and let sit while you get the rest ready. In a LARGE bowl mix the flours, baking soda, salt, oats, and possibly the raisins. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingers until you can't find any more big pieces. Stir in the fake milk and vinegar combo. Knead the dough in the bowl 10 times and shape into a flatish circle. Put it into the pan and cut a cross in the top. Bake for 30 minutes. Try a piece while it's still hot. I like it with fake butter and cinnamon.

BTW, legend has it that the cross is to ward off the devil.