Recipe Post 2022 - Homemade Vegan Sausage Rolls

 Hola a todos!

For this week, I would like to incorporate a new idea of clean eating into my baking this year. One of my favourite treats to have from the Greggs menu, once in an occasion, are their vegan sausage rolls. These rolls were introduced in January 2019, and have been a hit since. I have been sitting on the fence about baking something savoury, and have decided this would be the first perfect introduction to savoury baking and healthier eating altogether. Overall, eating vegan/plant-based is greener for the earth, and reduces risks of particular diseases, such as cardiovascular.

Without further ado, the ingredients you'll need are:

1 tbsp of coconut oil

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves

70g of chestnut mushrooms

50g of walnuts

400g of tin of white beans such as butter beans

2 tbsps of nutritional yeast (I'll link where I brought my ingredients below)

½  tsp of dried rosemary

For the pastry:

30g of coconut oil

75g of gluten-free flour ( plain flour can be used if you do not need to use gluten free)

75g of ground almonds

7 tbsps of water

1 tsp of agave syrup, or other sweetener available to you 

1tsp of unsweetened almond milk (or other plant-based milk)

Method:

Firstly, heat oil in pan before adding onion and garlic. Fry until softened

Next add in mushrooms, cooking onto softened before placing all the above into a food processor, along with the rest of the ingredients and briefly blending together until just combined. 

To make pastry, preheat the overn to 180℃/ 160 ℃ Fan/ Gas Mark 4. 

Together within a bowl, incorporate the coconut oil, ground almonds, flour and salt together, with 7 tbsps of water until it moulds into a firm dough. 

Use baking paper on the counter and sprinkle flour on the rolling pin and surface of paper.

Pull the pastry dough apart into two equal pieces, and roll each into an thin, even rectangular shape.

Using a sharp knife, with precaution, cut dough vertically in half and then cut horizontally into 5 pieces. 

Take a heaped teaspoon of filling into the centre of each rectangle of pastry, then roll one side of the pastry over top of filling, creating a "blanket" of pastry. 

Mix the agave syrup and almond milk together, and with preferably a pastry brush, swipe this over the tops of the sausage rolls.

Bake in the over for 20 minutes, until pastry is firm to touch and golden brown.

Y voilà!! 

The step by step photos:

My last thoughts:

Linked ingredients for recipe:

Coconut oil (still good quality, despite price)

Chestnut mushrooms (organic lot, however the regular ones will do)

Walnuts 

Butter beans

Nutritional Yeast (found in most health food shops, I've linked one)

Dried rosemary (fresh is ideal)

Rice flour(gluten-flour, however always check labels)

Agave syrup 

Book of the month:

What If? by Randall Munroe

I am currently reading this book, which is extremely interesting and wittingly funny. I would recommend this book to all ages who would like more insight into scientific and mathematical thinking in a hilarious and hypothetical sense !!

YouTuber of the month:

Lavendaire

Her latest video has been super motivational to me and has encouraged me to share the following quote of the month.

Quote of the month:

That's all for me, have a lovely day!

#sweetreats 

Recipe Post 2022 - No.2 A Goal Without A Plan Is A Wish

Bienvenue tout le monde!

I hope you all had a lovely New Year, and are rearing to go!

                           

When a new year comes around, especially after the previous years we all have had, it always seems to spark an new enthusiasm to grow more positive and aspire to become even better than before. So, when I came across the following quote "A Goal Without A Plan Is A Wish", struck out to me as the remedy to fixing the inevitable. As the years have
passed, quotes do not tend to usually influence my moods and decisions as much as they used to. However, seeing this quote was the very reason why I decided to  go ahead with explaining what my goals for BakingBoutique are in 2022, hence why I put the quote in the title, in the hope of influencing someone else the same way it had for me.

1. I would like to elevate this blog to the new era of clean eating. I suppose you would question how a blog designed for baking sweet treats aims to do that(don't worry I have a few ideas up my sleeve). 

2. Of course this blog continues to be authentic to its title and the theme of suavity of my recipes as I definitely favor sweetness over saltiness. However, I would like to explore savoury- tasting bakes to broaden my culinary knowledge and share those aspects as well. 

3. I still would like to make my recipes accessible to everyone, no matter what level of baking you are at and everything is fool-proof - I usually test a recipe first before uploading it to ensure that. 

4. For me, posting is definitely more about QUALITY over quantity. Of course consistency is important, however without the quality, I would not be happy with the content I am posting to the world, which is more important.

Although I am ending this post on a short note, I feel this is a good preview on what to expect, without giving away too many surprises! 

My last thoughts:

Please take inspiration from the purpose of today's post and this quote, in order to start working towards desired targets and goals:

Song of the month:

Steven Lacy - Dark Red

Recommended website: If you would like the latest updates with the baking world, I would recommend the following:

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.hXUi4qL0G-7K-egoVOezFwHaHa?pid=ImgDet&rs=1

Let me know in the comments what you plan for the month, or for the months ahead?

C'est tout pour moi ! A la prochaine !

#sweetreats

Recipe Post 2022 - No.1 Happy New Year !!

I am delighted to announce BakingBoutique is back for the New Year, ready to share a fool-proof, quick and easy recipe as part of the celebration of making it to a new year in good health (free of Co-Vid)!!!, Returning back to what feels like my own little corner of the internet, where I can share my creations and inspire others to bake is AMAZING!

One of my New Year Resolutions is re-establishing my hobbies and interests.  I am also striving to take care of myself and not to feel pressured or obliged to upload, especially if I am not in the right place to do so. As a result, I am no longer setting a strict upload deadline. I still aim to upload on weekends, however there will no longer be the pressure of posting weekly or bi-weekly. What matters most on BakingBoutique is being able to concoct new and interesting food combinations which are extraordinary and surprisingly goes well together all while sharing my culinary passion through tips and tricks I have picked up along the way :))

I hope you are all well and healthy in the New Year , and would also like to take up baking as a new hobby, or reinforce baking as part of your pastimes, aside from other things like watching Netflix or sitting around. Let's make 2022 count! 

Without further ado, let's start with this recipe of chocolate cupcakes:

100g of plain flour

20g of good quality cocoa powder

140g of caster sugar

1½ tsp of baking powder

¼ tsp of vanilla extract

120ml of whole milk

40g of unsalted butter (make sure it's at room temperature)

For the chocolate buttercream:

20g of cocoa powder

100g of unsalted butter

400g of icing sugar, sifted

Method:

Firstly, the cupcakes will not cook themselves, without the oven preheated at 180℃/ 160℃/ Gas Mark 4. 

Pour the flour, cocoa powder, butter, caster sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt with either a free-standing electric mixer or handheld mixer. 

Beat on a slow speed under you get a sandy consistency as shown below:

Next, whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together in a jug. Be careful not to overbeat this, as it'll cause the cake to taste eggy.

Pour around half the milk mixture into the flour mix. Beat to combine at a high heat Scrape any mixture from the side of the bowl.

Pour in the remaining liquid and continue to mix for a few more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Once again, be carefully not to overbeat as it may cause all the air to be beaten out of the mix. 

 Distribute the mix into 12 paper cases, around two thirds full.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

I chose to decorate the cupcakes with piping the buttercream onto the cupcakes. For more information on icing techniques,  I'll leave a link at the end :)

I then embellished the icing with pearls which adds a extra sweet touch. However, I would believe as it is the New Year, adding sparklers to each cupcake certainly would be an option. 

Here are inserts of photos from the method, I have added the photos in chronological order, the first picture being step one and the last picture being the last step. 

   

Buttercream being whipped

  

Cupcakes with a cup of hot chocolate

 
 

My last thoughts...

Were any of you lucky enough to safely use and fire fireworks on New Years?

I did not need to turn on the TV with fireworks as the same display was happening in my back garden😂😂:

Link to icing techniques post: https://bakingboutiquebirds.blogspot.com/2016/03/baking-post-n08-piping-decorations.html

What are your New Years Resolutions? Let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear!!

That's all from me! Hope to see you again soon ,

#sweetreats xxx