Thursday 9 September 2010

a whole lotta slice

Danni's parents came to town, and Danni's mum declared a preference for having some goodies baked by me, as it had been some time.

So I went for the newest standard, the coconut jam slice.

coconut jam slice by request

I really enjoy baking this. I've been happy with this since the first iteration, easily veganisable even with the original having all that egg; the simmering jam; all that coconut. And it always works, so long as you bake it for the right amount of time, but even that's pretty flexible. It's good! So it's a standard.

I wanted a failsafe, because Em suggested this lemon squares recipe, to which I made a couple of mods, and about which I was not sure.

lemon slice

It was gooey, sweet and tart, all at once. It was delicious! Would definitely make again. I had been concerned that it wouldn't work, but it did. Hooray!

Lemon Squares
modified from vegweb

ingredients

base
1 cup plain flour
7 tablespoons of Nuttelex/margarine (I found 5 was not enough)
1/3 cup castor sugar

filling one
1 pack of vegan cream cheese (I used tofutti, which I think is 400g but I could be wrong)
1 tsp lemon zest
about three tablespoons of icing sugar

filling two
3 egg replacements
almost 1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
half tsp baking powder
shake of salt
zest and juice of one large lemon (it was a really big lemon)

method
Combine the base ingredients, and mix together (perhaps with your hands!) until it's all bread crumble-y. Press into a pan of about 20cm square. I don't actually know the sizes of my pans and trays, I just tend to guess. Anyway, bake this base! I baked this for 13 minutes at 175C.

After 13 minutes, pull it out of the oven (keep the oven going, though!) and let the pan sit on your stove top whilst you beat together the first filling layer, and then the second filling layer. Don't beat them together! Mournfully look at all the dishes you have created. Then pour the first filling layer, and spread carefully out; follow this with the second filling layer, also spreading it carefully out. Doesn't it look delicious?

Now shove it all back in the oven and bake for another twenty minutes.

Leave to set in the pan before cutting.


Next time, I think I'd like to top it with some lemon zest shavings or something like that.

4 comments:

Hannah said...

Oooh, you know, just yesterday I was looking at a lemon squares recipe trying to think if it woudl be veganisable, but all the egg in it put me off. I *love* lemon sweets, so I'll have to try this!

Theresa said...

I love lemon squares, but the only time I've tried to make them was based on The Joy of Vegan Baking, and it did not work very well. Cream cheese layer sounds yummy!

vegiebug said...

yum yum yum yum yum! i still love that jam slice. So australian - so delicious!

em! said...

Put the broiler on for 10 min before removing the lemon squares... the top browned amazingly and it was so pretty with the speckles!!!
I have tasted both of your delicious baked goods; I want to make that jam slice soon. I also made a slice today - banana date slice. OMG.