Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

I made a HUGE focaccia one this time-- in  a 17" x 12" rimmed baking sheet.  I usually make fruit focaccia with my Crusty Artisan Bread dough from my book "World Vegan Feast", but I decided to try making a no-knead dough out of the Apulian Potato Focaccia recipe from that same book. This amounted to simply adding 1 1/3 cups more water to the dough, letting it rise for a few hours on the kitchen counter, then refrigerating it for a few more hours before using.





Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S SIMPLE, CREAMY ORANGE & PEAR SORBET
Servings: 10
Yield: 5 cups
This so easy and it's the perfect way to use up excess ripe pears without lots of calories and fat!
NOTE: You could use 3/4 cup sugar instead of 1/2 cup if you prefer sweeter, and you can achieve a more pronounced orange flavor if you use the optional orange zest and/or orange liqueur.

3 cups peeled, cored, diced ripe pears
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water
1/2 cup light organic granulated sugar
3 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
Optional:
1 Tbs grated orange zest
1 Tbs orange or pear liqueur

Puree all of the ingredients in a blender until very smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it according to directions for your machine.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/2 cup serving):
 80 calories, less than 1 calorie from fat,less than1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 1.3mg sodium, 115.7mg potassium, 20.8g carbohydrates, 1.7g fiber, 17g sugar, less than 1g protein.

Enjoy!

Lime-y Avocado Sorbet
 
                  Easy Three-Berry Vegan Frozen Yogurt

I had to laugh after I told my husband that we were  trying out a rather unusual sorbet after dinner.  he said, "It's not avocado is it?" (He had seen it, evidently.)  I said, defensively, "It's lime!"  Which was true, up to a point.  So, I served it (as pictured above and below) and he loved it, at which time I confessed and he admitted that he should be more open-minded.




Printable Copy

Crabapples are tart and tangy, and beautiful to look at. Their red or pink skins turn any product you make with them a gorgeous hot pink, too! They also grow well in my area (Western BC, Canada). Unfortunately, you need to have a tree growing in your yard, or know someone who does, because they are an old-fashioned fruit and you can't find them in stores. I sincerely hope that they come into fashion again, because I see lots of possibilities for this fruit beyond jelly and spiced or pickled crabapples-- chutney, pies, sauce, fillings, juice....

The trees evidently do well even when stressed for water. It's hard to find information about the nutritional and/or medicinal benefits of crabapple, but I was sure there would be some. After all, they contain pectin, which is excellent for helping clear arteries, and fiber, and that pink color must be a source of antioxidants! Apples are one of the best sources of antioxidants, so it stands to reason that crabapples would be, too.

Brazilian researchers place apple second only to cranberries in phenolic content and antioxidant activity, so crabapples would also fall into that category. In other research, when several fruits were tested ‘in vitro’ on human liver-cancer cells, apple rated third in antiproliferation activity. They concluded that “dietary cancer prevention is proposed to provide a new alternative biomarker for future epidemiological studies in dietary cancer prevention and health promotion.”
‘Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of common fruits.’ Sun J, et al. Dept. of Food Science, Cornell Uv., Ithaca, New York, USA. J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Dec 4; 50(25):7449-54.

That tartness in crabapples indicates lots of vitamin C, as well.

A friend gave me a big bag of crabapples last week, and I finally got around to using them. I don't like making jelly and I was short on time, so I just picked through them and cooked them all, whole, in two large pots with some water until they started to burst. Then I ran them through my trusty food mill and ended up with a 20 cups of hot pink pulp! (Unfortunately, I didn't weigh the bag before I cooked them!)

I decided to use 12 cups to make a batch of crabapple butter in my slow-cooker, 2 cups to make a sorbet, and I froze the remainder for later. Both experiments turned out very well! So, if you can find someone who wants some crabapples taken off their hands, take them up on it!

Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S MAHOGANY SLOW-COOKER CRABAPPLE BUTTER
Yield: 12 cups/ 6 pints
This is the most beautiful, tangy, mahogany-colored fruit butter! It would be delicious as a change from cranberry sauce with seitan roasts and cutlets, or on sandwiches and wraps. It's east to make in a slow-cooker because it doesn't require much attention and it will not scorch. I go easy on the spices because they can get too strong after long cooking.

12 cups raw crabapple pulp (see text above)
5 cups sugar
2 medium organic oranges, grated zest and juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/8 teaspoon ground fresh nutmeg
3/8 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice

Combine all of the ingredients in a 6 qt. slow cooker and turn to HIGH. Cook with the lid off for 8-10 hours, or until the mixture thickens and cooks down by half.

Stir the mixture throughout the cooking, every hour or so.

When done, the mixture should mound gently in a spoon, and when you place a spoonful of it on a plate, no liquid should exude from it. The mixture will be shiny and mahogany-colored.

You can water-bath can the butter for 15 minutes in half-pint or pint jars.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 2 Tablespoons): 55.6 calories; 0% calories from fat; 0.0g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 0.7mg sodium; 29.8mg potassium; 14.4g carbohydrates; 0.5g fiber; 10.4g sugar; 13.9g net carbs; 0.1g protein; 1.0 points.

Sparkling Crabapple-Cider Sorbet  and fresh green grapes from my stepson's garden, sprinkled with rosewater

Printable Recipe

BRYANNA'S SPARKLING CRABAPPLE-CIDER SORBET

Servings: 8
Yield: 1 qt. 
This is super-easy to make and not only beautiful, but tangy and delicious, too!

2 cups raw crabapple pulp (see text above)
12 oz (341 mL) dry (alcoholic) or sweet (non-alcoholic) sparkling apple, peach or pear cider
2/3 to 1 cup sugar (light organic granulated) (amount depends on how tangy you like it!)
Optional: 2 teaspoons Instant Clear Jel OR 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan gum or Guar gum  (See this post about Instant Clear Jel.)

Blend all of the ingredients in the blender until smooth. If the mixture is not cold, refrigerate it until it is. Process in your ice cream maker according to the directions in your manual. Scoop it out of the machine and place in a covered container. Freeze until firm before serving.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/2 cup serving): 112.9 calories; 0% calories from fat; 0.1g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 2.6mg sodium; 101.4mg potassium; 29.1g carbohydrates; 0.8g fiber; 16.7g sugar; 28.3g net carbs; 0.1g protein; 2.1 points.


Enjoy!

 Chocolate-Orange Sorbetto ready to be scooped out of my new Cuisinart ice cream maker and ready to enjoy!

  UPDATE: The Chocolate-Orange Sorbetto recipe is in my newest book, World Vegan Feast.

I'm so glad I got my new ice cream maker in the summer! I can make delicious frozen treats-- low-fat ones, too-- for company and for just ourselves. The other day I made two very different sorbettos. A sorbetto is the Italian way of saying sorbet, a frozen dessert that is usually fairly intense in flavor and creamy in texture, but containing no dairy products, or even dairy substitutes. They could be called a "water ices", but that sounds so dull! Nothing dull about these treats!

I added Instant Clear Jel (which I talk about in this post) to ensure a creamy texture and no rock-hard freezing. But you can leave it out, if necessary.



Printable Recipe
BRYANNA'S GREEN TEA AND KIWI SORBETTO

Servings: 8
Yield: 1 quart

A friend gave us some large kiwis, but DH isn't fond of them, so I thought I'd make a sorbetto with them, using green tea as the liquid. This is a variation of a recipe that's going around the internet, so obviously, I wasn't the only one with this idea!

3 cups water
2 1/2 tablespoons your favorite green tea leaves
3/4 cup organic unbleached sugar
8 large kiwifruit, sliced in half lengthwise
zest of one organic lime
1 teaspoon Instant Clear Jel OR 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum

OPTIONAL: Green tea doesn't necessarily make a green brew, so if your mixture looks kind of "blah" or brown add a few drops of green food coloring or green food color paste (For natural brands see Cooking Tips below.
PS: Here is an article about making your own natural food colorings.)

Directions
Bring water not quite to the boiling point in a small non-aluminum saucepan . Remove from the heat and stir in the tea leaves.

Cover and steep the tea for 5 minutes. Strain the leave off (discard) and pour tea back into the saucepan. Add the sugar. Over medium heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Raise the heat to high and simmer about 5 minutes, or until the tea becomes syrupy. Stir in the lime zest. Set aside in the refrigerator until it comes to room temperature.

Now you need to scoop the kiwi out of it's skin. Hold one half of a kiwi in the palm of one hand, and, using a grapefruit spoon, scoop out all the green kiwifruit. If the white membrane in the center is tough, discard it. Repeat with the rest of the kiwifruit.

Place the scooped-out kiwi fruit and cooled tea syrup into a blender or food processor, along with the Instant Clear Jel, and puree it until very smooth.
If the color is not pleasant, add some of the food coloring (be careful not to add too much!).

Prepare your ice cream maker and add the mixture. Freeze according the the directions that go with your machine. Scoop the mixture into a container and freeze until firm.

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per 1/2 cup serving): 128.1 calories; 2% calories from fat; 0.4g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 6.3mg sodium; 302.5mg potassium; 32.3g carbohydrates; 3.1g fiber; 18.7g sugar; 29.2g net carbs; 0.9g protein; 2.0 points.

Cooking Tips
NATURAL FOOD COLORINGS (available online):
Here is an article about Chefmaster Food Dyes, which the author says are"All Natural Vegetable Food Dyes for the Allergy Sufferer, Earth-Conscious, or Chemically Sensitive".  I haven't verified this, but they are available from amazon.com

Another brand is India Tree, also available from amazon, but you have to mix your own colors from 3 basics.


Enjoy!