Oat Milk

Oat Milk

makes about a litre

Ingredients:

About 65g (3/4 cup) whole oats
1-2 dates
About a litre of COLD water

Method: 

Place the oats with the date or dates (stone removed) in a high speed liquidiser (blender). Add enough cold water to make it up to about 500ml. 

Blend on high speed for up to about a minute. 

Pour into a fairly large-meshed sieve over a wide jug, then use about 200ml more water to rinse out the liquidiser container and pour over the sieve. Use a teaspoon to collect the pulp on one side so that it all drains through. Do not try to squeeze out any extra, but pour a little more cold water over if liked. 

Now use a fine-meshed sieve such as a tea strainer over the jug or other container where you plan to keep the oat milk in the fridge. Pour the milk from the large jug slowly over it, using the teaspoon to stir gently or remove any more pulp so it all flows through. Use any remaining cold water to pour over the sieve or rinse the large jug to get as much of the milk as possible. There should be around a litre of milk, which needs to be refrigerated. 

Oat milk can be used like any other dairy-free milk as a substitute for cow's milk. 

Chocolate sorbet

Chocolate sorbet
makes about 900ml

Ingredients:
560ml water
160g sugar
40g cocoa powder
pinch of salt
180-200g dark chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

Method:
Break the chocolate into individual squares or smaller pieces, for easy melting. 

In a large pan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, salt and about 375ml of the water. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then allow it to boil while whisking for about 45 seconds.

Alternatively, make a paste with the cocoa powder and a little bit of the water in a large pyrex or similar jug, then stir in the sugar, salt, and water up to 375ml. Bring to the boil in the microwave, stirring well every minute, then allow to boil for about thirty seconds, ensuring it does not boil over. 

Remove from the heat (or microwave) and immediately add the chocolate pieces, stirring well until completely melted. Add the rest of the water and the vanilla essence. 

Cool for at least an hour, then refrigerate for several hours until well-chilled. Pour into an ice cream churn and it should take about twenty minutes to become thick. Transfer to a litre container with a lid and freeze until needed.

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So long as you use vegan/dairy-free dark chocolate, this recipe is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. I find it works perfectly well with the cheapest own-brand dark chocolate, such as that from Lidl, although more expensive chocolate would make it even more luxurious.

You really do need an ice cream churn for this, although the mixture does thicken a little in the fridge while it's chilling. You could put it in the freezer at that point, but would have to remove it and stir every hour to stop ice crystals from forming. 

But a churn works extremely well. Do ensure the mixture is very well-chilled, down to no more than 3 degrees Celcius, before churning.  The churn itself, of course, should be prepared according to its instructions: mine requires at least 24 hours of freezing before use. In hot weather I put a couple of frozen ice packs underneath it while it's working. 

This is excellent with stewed fruit or any kind of cake. If you don't like the very slightly gritty texture that can sometimes occur, you can use a liquidiser to blend the mixture after adding the vanilla and extra water, before chilling. However, this creates extra kitchen equipment that needs washing. I have made this for several different people, and nobody has mentioned the texture. 

Lemon Slices

Lemon Slices
Makes about 24

Ingredients:
Base:
225g dairy-free spread
150g wholemeal flour
150g plain flour
50g icing sugar

Topping:
4 medium eggs
400g white sugar
4 tbsp white flour
120ml lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Method:
Mix the base ingredients together in a bowl or food processor. It should make a dough-like ball. Press into the base of a greased or lined pan, about 32cm x 22cm and at least 3cm in depth. Use the flat of a large spoon or a spatula to ensure the mixture reaches the whole base, and flatten as much as possible. 

Bake in an oven set at 160C for 18-20 minutes; it should be turning golden but not brown. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a large bowl, with an electric mixer if possible, then gradually beat in the other topping ingredients. Carefully pour over the base, then return to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes. The top should feel firm to the touch when it's ready, and golden in colour. 

Cool in the pan, then refrigerate until needed. Cut into squares before serving. 

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I read about lemon slices - or squares - in a novel, and searched online for a recipe. I found hundreds of them, all roughly similar but with minor variations. Most had measurements in cups. So I converted the recipe to grams, chose the variations that suited us, used half wholewheat flour in the base, and experimented. 

For my first experiment I made 75% of the recipe which fit perfectly in a 25cm x 20cm pan.  Cutting the squares proved a bit messy, and the resultant squares did not look all that appetising. But they were extremely tasty! 

Lemons are widely available where I live, during the winter and spring, so this was an ideal dessert to make over Christmas. It proved so popular that I made it again, also in smaller quantity, a few weeks later.  When we were given a large crate of lemons, I froze several containers of the juice in the right quantity to make this through the rest of the year. 

More recently I tried the full recipe in a large takeaway pan, to take to a potluck meal. Once again, they slices didn't look all that wonderful, although I cut them and left them in the container to serve, but everyone who tried them were surprised at how good they tasted.  They are somewhat reminiscent of lemon meringue pie, but so much easier to make with the shortbread-style base and the all-in-one topping. 

If you eat dairy-products, you can, of course, use butter in the base, and if you don't have wholewheat flour, all white flour is fine.