Spring *Brack*

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Made Irish tea brack this week to share at work since VGF Irish soda bread is nothing special.  OK, I’ll give myself credit; it’s nothing special outside my household.  In class this week, we were discussing how the ancient Romans and Greeks defined one’s family as one’s household.  Being a student, my household is a complicated matter.  I realised last week that I rarely spend more than three to four nights in the same place (you can’t assassinate me, hah hah!).  In a two-week span, I could be home for three nights, at my grandparents’ house for a night, at school for four nights, at my aunt and uncle’s for three nights, and so it continues.  Spring break will be an exception to that pattern since I will be in one place for more than a week (but just barely).

ZOMG, if you could smell the house right now…I just finished baking “Date and Walnut Focaccia” from The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread by Laurie Sadowski.  All’s I can say is greasing the parchment with olive oil makes this.

This is my second successful yeast bread in two days as I also baked Sadowski’s “Maple-Raisin Bread.”

Here’s a side view.  I let it rise too long since I decided to go shopping at 11:00 and got stuck in midday traffic.  The loaf might’ve collapsed a bit, but it tastes fine.

 I used dates and hempseeds instead of raisins, though.  I also switched out the flour combinations due to lack of certain ingredients and taste preferences.

First dish of the week was Avobachoco.

I had a frozen avocado that needed utilisation before I left school for break.

Avobachoco

Modified from Reinfeld, Mark and Jennifer Murray.  “Live Chocolate Mousse.”  The 30-Minute Vegan.  Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2009.  254.

Makes ~40 ounces

1 avocado, frozen

4 dates, soaked in 1/3 cup water

1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa OR raw cacao powder

3 very ripe bananas, frozen

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons almond butter

1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk

water to make it go (at least 8 ounces)

Choose your strongest whirly device and blend/process until no chunks remain.  Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

I dipped an apple in a jar of it for dessert on Tuesday.

I ate a frozen and defrosted yoghurt container of this pudding this morning and it tastes like a chocolate cake donut.  Good stuff.