sweet tea ice cream, vegan.

When Wheeler’s Frozen Dessert asked if I would like to take part in their virtual book tour, coinciding with the release of Wheeler del Toro’s newly minted Vegan Scoop, I couldn’t resist.

They even sent me a snippet of recipes from the book to try out (as if I needed convincing) and my sweet tooth socks were knocked right off. Oh Fig Ice Cream, how do I love thee – let me count the ways.

Prior to learning Wheeler’s secret to vegan ice cream success, I had struggled with making my own homemade vegan ice creams. Tofu: you know I love you, but you are not welcome in my ice cream. Fruit sorbets have never been an issue (they’re easy to make awesome) while ice creams have been a different story, until now.

How cool and generous is Wheeler’s, for sharing the secret to great homemade vegan ice cream? With Vegan Scoop in hand, everyone can make their very own awesome dairy-free ice cream at home. It’s easy – the book is very simple and straightforward to follow.  And a big plus, the ingredients are easily obtained and won’t break the bank.

Don’t have an ice cream maker? Do not fret – Wheeler’s has tips on how to make ice cream without one here.

More importantly, the ice cream on offer in Vegan Scoop is delicious. The texture is perfectly creamy and smooth. The flavours are inspired and, with the summer heat and humidity upon many of us, nothing beats a frosty bowl of creamy ice cream.

In a word, yum.

To celebrate the release of Vegan Scoop, Wheeler’s is sharing an exclusive new recipe with the sweet readers of Madcap Cupcake: Sweet Tea Ice Cream.

I really like this ice cream. It’s beautiful. It’s creamy. It’s sweet. It’s sophisticated – yes, sophisticated – elegant even. You could serve this ice cream after a swanky meal in a martini glass and it would fit in just fine – or go ahead and scoop it up high in your favourite cereal bowl and sit under a tree in this searing heat, cool off and be refreshed in style.

The secret ingredient here is black tea – but the possibilities are endless. I’m eying a box of chocolate chai tea for my next batch.

Enjoy, friends.

Sweet Tea Ice Cream
For Madcap Cupcake by Wheeler’s Frozen Dessert

1 cup (235 ml) soymilk, divided
2 tablespoons (16 g) arrowroot powder
2 cups (470 ml) soy creamer
3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
8 bags black tea
4 teaspoons agave
1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) soymilk with arrowroot and set aside.

Mix soy creamer, remaining 3/4 cup (175 ml) soymilk, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Place teabags in mixture and steep for 20 minutes.

Remove teabags, add agave, then heat mixture over medium-low heat. Once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. Add vanilla. The arrowroot will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Yields: 1 quart (approximately 600 g)

daring bakers, bakewell tart.

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

Don’t our hosts both have such great blog names? Both conjure up such delicious imagery for me. Thank you to our hosts for choosing something unique and for affording me the opportunity to try something different.

I completed this challenge just under the wire (again). The super hot and humid weather is not exactly conducive to spending time in front of a hot oven – yet I was determined to prevail.

I chose cherry jam as my filling. In order to veganize the original recipe (which you can find in full here) I used earth balance in place of butter (omitting the additional salt) and chose to replace all of the eggs with a flax meal and water combination. Normally flax is my favourite egg substitute.

If I were to make this recipe again however I would go a different route with my substitutions. For the crust, I would choose soy yogurt for at least part of the egg substitution – perhaps in tandem with flax meal. For the frangiapane I would go a different way altogether, probably using a starch such as arrowroot or cornstarch – something lighter than flax meal. Flax meal, while delicious, ended up being too heavy for this implementation – the frangiapane settled more than I would have liked and was somewhat gooey. Tasty, but gooey. Definitely not photogenic. Meh.

I could think of worse things than making more tarts to perfect the technique.

Be sure to check out the spectacular work of the the Daring Bakers at the Daring Kitchen.

a vegan brunch.

When Natala at Vegan Hope offered to give away a copy of the newly minted Vegan Brunch, I knew I had to jump on the chance to get my hands on what will undoubtedly be my favourite cookbook ever. To say that I’m a big fan of brunch is a colossal understatement. Breakfast is my favourite meal and brunch is like an extended, multi-course breakfast.

The condition for the giveaway was that we must cook a brunch worthy vegan recipe for someone who is not vegan. Now, in my badly-in-need-of-a-second-coffee haze I misread the instructions. I thought that we were meant to make a vegan brunch with said recipes for that someone today and then post about it on our own blogs, today, before tomorrow’s deadline. So I looked up three of my favourite online vegan brunch recipes, whipped them up and carted them off to share with my grandmother, whom I was planning to visit. She gave me that pretty tablecloth in the photos – my sweet mama.

Silly me. Upon revisiting the original post at Vegan Hope and after rereading said instructions (3 coffees later), I now see that I was meant to promise to make one of the recipes from the book – as in make in the future - not cook today.

So what did I make for our impromptu vegan brunch? The deliciously satisfying Vegan Omelette from FatFree Vegan Kitchen, the scrumptiously perfect 5 Minute Vegan Pancakes from Recipezaar, and the sweetly toothsome Buckwheat and Banana Pancakes from GOOP. You can’t have too many pancakes.

I’ve made each of these recipes countless times and will unreservedly attest to their awesomeness.

For the Vegan Omelette, I doubled the amounts to make two omelettes. Easily done. I also like to increase the nutritional yeast by about 50% (so an extra tablespoon for two people), double the onion powder, add a pinch of garlic powder per person, definitely use the paprika and reduce the turmeric by half (sometimes I leave it out). Whatever I do to this recipe it never lets me down, ever. You can use whatever filling you like. I’ve even made this omelette naked, and liked it. The omelette was naked – just thought I’d clarify that. I blanched some veggies for today’s omelette – asparagus, spinach, snow peas, broccoli, red and yellow pepper.

Don’t let the pictures fool you – there are no eggs here. This omelette is egg and dairy free, low fat, chock full of protein and so, so tasty.

I have made the 5 Minute Vegan Pancakes a zillion times. The recipe says to use whichever flour you prefer and I’ve tried quite a few. For me, the best result comes from unbleached all-purpose flour or that mixed half and half with unbleached whole wheat pastry flour. So delicious. They puff up high just the way I like it. Maple syrup seals the deal.

Nothing is lacking in these babies.

For the Buckwheat and Banana Pancakes I usually follow the recipe to the letter. I once substituted apple cider vinegar for the lemon juice and it worked fine. I haven’t tried this recipe with rice flour but they offer it as a gluten-free option – good to know. The only thing I like to add to this recipe is extra bananas. They say one banana, I say three. I like to cover the top of each pancake completely with slices of banana before flipping them. The bananas caramelize and become incredibly sweet. It’s entirely delicious.

Slathered with copious amounts of organic maple syrup, the deliciousness is hard to beat.

I may have jumped the gun a bit, but that’s okay. My mama and I had a lovely meal together and I got to indulge in some of my favourite treats – plus I got to share my faves with you. Trust me, I could live on pancakes. If I could only bring one food to a deserted island, it would be pancakes. As for the vegan omelette: let’s just say that I wanted to kiss the ground that Susan from FatFree Vegan Kitchen walks on after coming across that one.

Clearly, I need to eat a good vegan brunch before reading instructions.

apple strudel, coffee house style.

It’s Daring Baker time and this month’s challenge is Apple Strudel.

Now, it’s not just any humdrum apple strudel. In true Daring Baker style, there is some technique to this month’s choice. This strudel is made in the eastern European coffee house tradition: with breadcrumbs, walnuts, raisins and rum – and wafer thin dough. While I have eaten many of these over the years (any time I visited my Hungarian grandmother) I had never made a strudel in this style before today. I almost didn’t find the time to tackle it but on the very last day I decided to try throwing it together during a few spare hours.

I am so glad that I gave it a shot. The strudel looked much more daunting than it actually was to make in the end – and I forgot how much I love working with dough.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I have had my eye on Kaffeehaus since it came out and so I was quite happy to be able to test an example from it. My first impression based on this particular experience is that it is quite authentic. The apple strudel couldn’t have been closer to what I remember eating all those years while I was growing up.

What makes this strudel different is the wafer thin dough. I’m talking thin – paper thin – like, you can see through it thin.

At first I thought there would be no way I would be able to get the dough that thin. I rolled it out onto my floured cloth and then used my hands to stretch it out the rest of the way – almost as much as the recipe directed.

I made a double batch of dough and, for the sake of nostalgia, used the traditional apple filling recipe provided to make the first strudel. As soon as I read the ingredients – rum, raisins, walnuts, breadcrumbs – I knew I had to make that filling. It’s exactly the strudel of my childhood memory. I’m headed to a dinner party at the weekend so I’ll use the extra dough later this week with a filling of my own making. I’m thinking peach, plum, or maybe even both.

Did I mention that this is strudel is naturally vegan? No dairy or eggs in sight. No need for substitutions. There is a call for brushing the completed dough with butter but that is easily swapped out for non-dairy butter.

You can find the entire recipe for both the dough and the traditional apple filling at our host’s blog here.

I essentially followed this recipe to the letter. I don’t have a stand mixer so I did it all by hand using a large bowl and a wooden spoon.

After combining my ingredients in the bowl to form the dough I transferred it to a floured surface and kneaded it for about 5 minutes. I then left the dough to rest for a good four hours while I went hiking with the dogs and then made the filling on my return. I used dark rum instead of light. I don’t think the raisins minded.

I highly recommend that you give this strudel a go yourself. I imagine it would be lovely with any of a multitude of fillings. I’m looking forward to testing that theory.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the Daring Bakers are up to at the Daring Kitchen.

sorbet, mango.

The warm weather is finally here and there is absolutely nothing better after spending time in the bright hot sun than cooling off with some homemade sorbet or frozen yogurt.

My favourite frozen treat ever is not only dairy-free but also unbelievably easy to make. All you need is a food processor or a good blender and you’re all set. Thank you Mark Bittman for pointing me in this tasty direction.

I’ve made this sorbet, or a variation of it, more times than I can count.

Mango Sorbet

1 medium container plain soy yogurt (mine was 425 grams)
1 bag frozen mango (or your favourite – I used a 600 gram bag)

Add yogurt and frozen fruit to food processor and process just until smooth. Pause processor occasionally to scrape down the sides and make sure fruit is making contact with blades. Don’t over process or the sorbet will start to melt. The fruit is so sweet there’s no need for added sweeteners.

Transfer to glasses or bowls and serve immediately.

Enjoy the yumminess.

coconut cardamom arborio rice pudding.

This scrumptious spin on my favourite rice pudding is like a warm bowl of coconut cream pie. It is absolutely delicious, completely satisfying, toothsome comfort food.

Who doesn’t like pudding?

You can go ahead and use your favourite non-dairy milk , however making it with unsweetened almond milk makes this incredibly rich, complex flavoured dessert downright lo-cal. That means you can have extra, right?

Coconut Cardamom Arborio Rice Pudding
Serves 2

1/4 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or your favourite non-dairy milk)
1 – 2 Tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you like it – I’ve tried it both ways)
1/4 vanilla bean, split (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
Pinch of cardamom (my 1/4 tsp measure was about 1/3 full)

In a large saucepan, place all the ingredients (except extract, if using). Bring to a gentle boil and turn down immediately. Allow to simmer gently, stirring often (or it will stick to the bottom) for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on how thick you like it. A silicone spatula makes an excellent stirring tool, allowing you to easily scrape the pudding down the sides and off the bottom of the pan. The rice should be soft and significantly plumped up. Check it often towards the end of cooking to ensure it does not get overdone or burn.

Once it’s cooked to your liking, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Serve immediately in the cutest bowl you can find, if you like it hot – otherwise let it chill in the fridge and enjoy later. It can also be reheated. Enjoy.

seed & nut bars that make you go zoom.

I have been craving something of late – not just anything and, no, not all-out sweets for a change. I wanted something super tasty that would not only satisfy my taste buds, but also provide a healthy energy boost. Oh, and make it quick and easy please.

What is more energy-laden than seeds and nuts? These tasty whole food wonders pack a nutritional punch that takes a back seat to nothing else. Packed with vitamins, healthy oils and essential fatty acids, nuts and seeds definitely fall into the category of things that make you go zoom.

Grab a bunch of my favourite ingredients and throw them together = scrumptiously energetic success. And an added bonus: no refined sugar, dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free.

This recipe is so versatile that I’ve already made it 5 different ways in the space of 24 hours. It’s delicious and it really hits the spot when you need a boost – and if you’re on the go, it’s the perfect take-away snack.

Marathon Seed & Nut Energy Bars

1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coarsely shredded coconut
1/3 cup Thompson raisins
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup raw almonds or pistachios, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp flax seeds
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325F.

Lightly toast sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, coconut and nuts in the oven for ten minutes. Make sure the coconut is in its own pan and stir it after 5 minutes – check often as it will toast faster than everything else. You may need to remove the coconut earlier to prevent it from burning.

Remove toasted nuts, seeds and coconut from oven and transfer to a large bowl. Add flax seeds, raisins and cinnamon, and stir everything together.

If you like, you can warm the brown rice syrup for ten seconds in the microwave so that it pours more easily. You can also spray your measuring cup with a spritz of vegetable oil before measuring so that the syrup slides out more readily. Add the brown rice syrup to the bowl with one hand while mixing ingredients with the other. Stir until well combined.

Line a jelly roll pan or rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper and transfer seed and nut mixture to pan. Use a silicone spatula (which won’t stick) to spread the mixture out evenly and press it flat. The mixture should be less than 3/8″ thick, or about 1cm. Try to get it as flat as possible without crushing it. The above ingredients fit rim to rim in a 13.5 x 10-inch pan, but you could definitely use a larger pan and just have extra space left over.

Return pan to oven and bake for ten minutes (check at 8 minutes and monitor frequently – remove if seeds start to brown).

Place pan on rack to cool completely. Break into pieces or cut into squares.

Eat. Enjoy. Run a marathon.

not cheesecake, times three.

Guess what? It’s Daring Bakers time – and when this month’s challenge was revealed to be cheesecake I was thrilled. Why? Until now, I had not been afforded the opportunity to make cheesecake since going vegan and, I must say, I’ve been quite anxious to try my hand at making one for some time.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Truth be told, even when I was free to eat them, I was never a huge cheesecake fan. Too rich. Too heavy. No, not for me. Well, let me tell you something – these vegan versions have turned me. Light textured, smooth as silk, decadently delicious, delightfully toothsome, these babies knocked my socks right off.

I am now, most definitely, a fan. And guess what? No dairy, no egg, no cholesterol, low-fat – plus all that protein from the tofu practically makes this dessert nutritious. Yeah, I know – whatever, pass me another slice.

In order to choose the appropriate vegan recipe, and since I’m a vegan cheesecake novice, I looked to someone who knows exactly what they’re doing – finally settling on Sarah Kramer’s basic recipe for Apricot Tofu Cheesecake from La Dolce Vegan, which you can conveniently find in its entirety here.

I really wanted to make up for lost cheesecake time and thus planned to make as many flavours as possible in the allotted time. Using Sarah’s basic recipe as my base, I added several elements for a total of three different cheesecakes: Lemon with Candied Figs, Black Cherry Syrup & Blackberry, Key Lime with Candied Key Limes, Clementine Syrup & Pistachio, and Chocolate Peanut-Butter with Rich Chocolate Ganache.

First I prepared the basic recipe, including everything but the lemon juice and lemon zest. I then divided the filling into four separate bowls. I added lemon and lemon zest to one bowl, as per the original recipe – I just quartered the required amount. I added key lime juice and zest to the second bowl. To the third bowl, I added 3 tbsp of all-natural peanut-butter (just peanuts). The fourth bowl received 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted.

The lemon and key lime cheesecakes were made in tiny 4-inch springform pans. I followed the original recipe for the crust – adding a layer of coconut to the crust of the key lime cheesecake. The chocolate and peanut-butter bowls were layered in one 9-inch springform. I added crushed dark chocolate (vegan) digestives to the crust.

Then it was time for candy – candied key limes and candied figs to be exact. After using it with great success when making candied clementines and bundt cake, I revisited this method from VeganYumYum blog for candying the fruit.

Candied key limes were then added to the key lime cheesecake along with clementine syrup and crushed pistachios. Stewed black cherries were combined with the candied figs before adding as a garnish to the lemon cheesecake along with the blackberries.

The peanut-butter chocolate cheesecake received a simple layer of rich, decadent chocolate ganache. To make the ganache, I used 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of soy creamer, 2 tbsp maple syrup. Heat soy creamer on the stove, remove from heat, stir in chocolate chips and maple syrup, allow to cool.

Based on this experience I’d say without hesitation that Sarah’s recipe is excellent, both on its own and as a base for other flavours. Beautiful texture. Luxurious. Delicious. This is company’s coming quality stuff.

Be sure to see what the other Daring Bakers are up to at the Daring Kitchen.

nutella, homemade.

I grew up with Nutella – couldn’t get enough of the stuff. I haven’t had any since eliminating dairy from my diet, until now.

If I had realized how incredibly easy it is to make this delectably toothsome treat, I’d have done so ages ago. Chocolate and hazelnut are two flavours that are made to go together. When you’re looking for a quick and simple sweet treat, nothing could be easier than slathering a decadent dollop of chocolatey goodness on a bit of rustic baguette that’s been toasted ever so slightly. Oh, yes.

I have collected several chocolate-hazelnut spread recipes. I decided to give this LA Times version a whirl first because it is so simple and spare. Some toasted hazelnuts, a little cocoa, sugar, vanilla, peanut oil and you’re done. The recipe calls for hazelnut oil – I used peanut oil instead and it was lovely. Store bought Nutella has milk in it and there are several recipes out there that, rather sensibly, incorporate soy milk powder. I fully intend to give that method a try too. Expect a homemade Nutella, take two post soon.

You know what the best part is, after the gorgeous taste? Calorie per calorie, you’re getting a lot more nutritional goodness out of the homemade stuff. The number one ingredient in store bought Nutella is sugar (number one!) – in the homemade stuff it’s hazelnut. Hazelnuts show up third in the ingredient list for store bought Nutella, after oil.

This version will do just fine. Chocolate. Hazelnuts. Pass the crusty bread.

sweet pasta dough, mixed berry compote, sorbet.

It’s Daring Baker time – and this month is all about making fresh pasta dough.

Actually, the challenge title has the word ‘lasagna’ in it. Now, I have to admit that I was a bit perplexed when the challenge was announced. Lasagna? Savoury? When I think Daring Bakers I think sweet. I think dessert. I think, here’s an excuse to make something sinfully decadent. Make no mistake – I’m a big lasagna fan. I am. There is, however, a monstrous sweet tooth to consider here. Monstrous.

While I was deflating I thankfully read the fine print in the challenge post: for those of us who favour the sweeter side of life – a sweet pasta (a.k.a dessert) was also allowed. Hallelujah! With that welcome illumination my creative juices started to flow.

The heart of this challenge was to make our own pasta dough. A savoury recipe was presented along with a link to a sweet pasta recipe: Strozzapreti dolci al profumo di cannella (Cinnamon Flavoured Sweet Strozzapreti). This recipe for sweet pasta is very simple and easily veganizable – there are no eggs to substitute and the milk is easily swapped out in favour of plain soy milk. Since the recipe specifies weight quantities, and my kitchen scale is in need of a new battery, I relied on an online cooking conversion utility to convert them to volume measurements and hoped for the best.

From the beginning my imagination was in overdrive with regard to presentation. Once I knew I was going the dessert route with my pasta dough, the aesthetic possibilities really opened up. I immediately thought of a rolled form, like a crêpe. With that decided, I started to think about fillings – so many possibilities.

I first thought of doing a traditional Hungarian dish with walnuts. The walnut noodle dish is called ‘dios metelt’ which translates as ‘walnut pasta. There are many Hungarian noodle-based dishes, some savoury, some sweet. The walnut and sugar combination is probably my favourite – sometimes citrus peel (orange or lemon) or jam is added into the mix. My grandmother adds raisins. My mum likes to add breadcrumbs. Poppy seeds and sugar is another popular variation. Traditionally, the noodles for these dishes are made by hand, cut into short pieces, boiled and then stacked with your chosen fillings. Cream is also often incorporated into the mix.

Once I started thinking of incorporating a sweet cream, my imagination went in a different direction: berries. Mixed berry compote to be exact. Yes.

My sweet pasta vision was beginning to take shape.

First I made the dough and set it aside to rest. Then I whipped up a batch of light Dream Whip. Dream Whip is an oil-based non-dairy whipped topping product available in Canada. It comes in an aseptic container in liquid form and is kept in the refrigerated section of the dairy department where they keep the whipping cream. You whip it up with an electric beater in the same way that you would whip up cream. This is the light version (it comes in both ‘light’ and ‘regular’ versions). Easy peasy. Next, the mixed berry compote came to fragrant life on the stove. Then I went back to my resting dough.

Since I had already decided on a rolled crêpe form, I thought: why not prepare the dough like a crêpe too? So that’s exactly what I did, using a crêpe pan to prepare each circle of sweet dough.

When it came time for assembly my lofty crêpe-shaped plans promptly went out the window. I used up half my dough in vain trying to make it bend to my will. Those discs of sweet dough did not want to stay put in a neat roll, no sirree. Also, note to self: mixed berry compote is difficult to photograph + my bursting crêpes = not pretty. Oh well – maybe I should have boiled the dough.

Plan B. Out came the cookie cutter and voila, individual towers of dessert. I saved the berry delicious syrup for after the photos this time.

Sweet spicy pasta dough. Dapples of billowy cream. Tangy mixed berry compote. Yum. There’s something perfect about the hint of cinnamon in the dough in concert with the tang of the berries.

But wait, there’s more. How does a side of mixed berry sorbet grab you? I’ve been on such a sorbet kick lately – ever since the last Daring Baker challenge. I hadn’t tried making mixed berry sorbet yet and thought this would be the perfect way to introduce it. It’s so refreshing – and the colour is just dreamy. So good.

There you have it:  a sweet dessert that is seemingly as far away from lasagna as you can get, yet at it’s heart it’s the same – fresh pasta dough. Before this challenge I had never made my own fresh pasta. It’s so simple you can be sure I’ll be making a lot of fresh pasta in the coming months, sweet and savoury.

Sweet Pasta:

Adapted from Strozzapreti dolci al profumo di cannella (Cinnamon Flavoured Sweet Strozzapreti)

1 cup all- purpose flour
3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp breadcrumbs
4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup soy milk

Add dry ingredients to food processor and process until combined. Add soy milk through top spout while processor is running. A ball of dough will form quickly – stop the processor when it does. If you don’t have a food processor you can mix the ingredients together by hand in a bowl. Place dough in a bag to rest for at least ten minutes.

Divide dough ball into quarters. On a lightly floured surface, roll one quarter into a ball. Use a rolling pin to roll it out in a circle – make it as thin as possible.

Keep the remaining dough in the bag until you’re ready to use it.

Heat a greased crêpe pan or skillet on medium heat – flick it with water to test if it’s ready. If the water jumps in the pan it’s hot enough. Place dough on crêpe pan and cook for approximately one minute. Flip and cook for another minute. Remove from pan and place on a waiting plate. Repeat for each remaining quarter of dough.

Mixed Berry Compote:

2 cups mixed berries, frozen
juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix everything together in a small pot and heat over medium-low heat until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Mixed Berry Sorbet:

1/2 package frozen mixed berries (about 2 cups)
1 cup vanilla soy yogurt
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1 ripe banana

You can adjust the amounts of these ingredients to suit your taste. Add everything to food processor and process until smooth – be sure to scrape down sides of bowl part way through. When mixture is smooth, transfer to ice cream maker and follow manufacturers instructions (mine was ready in about 15 minutes). The sorbet is best served right away. Transfer extra sorbet to air-tight container and store in freezer. Allow frozen sorbet to soften before serving again.

Many thanks to this month’s Daring Baker hosts: The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Be sure to check out the new home of the Daring Bakers, the Daring Kitchen.