sweet miscellany

seasonal vegetarian recipes

snack

Raspberry & Lemon Thyme Tea Cake

By 4 Comments

So I appear to have broken my no-oven sabbatical sooner than I thought.  After suffering through 100 degree temperatures, we finally got a reprieve this week with a welcome cool front.  It was in the 60s this morning!!  It was perfect out this morning for enjoying a piece of this tea cake with a nice cup of tea…or coffee if that’s your thing.  If I had the luxury of having a lazy morning, I may have done just that on my little balcony as I listened to the birds wake up the world.  There’s something about cooler temperatures that makes me feel content, inspired, and energized.

This tea cake is just sweet enough to be a dessert, but not too sweet that you couldn’t enjoy a slice at breakfast.  The raspberries add a bit of a tart contrast and the lemon thyme adds a nice earthy quality  The millet flour adds an almost corn-like flavor and lovely yellow hue which works well with the berries.  I ended up using lemon thyme in this because my little plant has gotten huge and it’s readily available but feel free to use regular thyme.  This ended up being the perfect little snack that quelled any remaining cravings I had for a certain coffee chain’s berry coffee cake.  And, it’s possible that I may or may not have had this for dinner last night.  I mean, no I didn’t because that would be crazy 😉

…

Read More »

Lemony Macaroon Cups with Blueberry Basil Compote

By 2 Comments

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of macaroon recipes that float around the interwebs every Easter/Passover.  I suppose this makes them a sort of quintessential spring recipe, both infinitely customizable and infinitely easy to make.  All of the recipes out there are pretty much made up of sugar, egg whites, and coconut.  This is fine for the average person, but I like to think that you come here for the not-so-average take on things.

As I have developed my baking style over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to practically sever any ties with animal products in my baked goods (with the exception of honey).  This means that I’m not going to whip up a batch of macaroons using egg whites anymore.  That would be too easy.  Instead, I’ve combined some unconventional ingredients to give you what, in my opinion, is a superior macaroon.  Since I couldn’t leave well enough alone and just give you some vegan and grain free macaroons, I decided to form them into cups and fill them with a blueberry basil compote.  I think if you bring these to an Easter, Passover, or spring get-together, you just may be the hero of the meal.You’ll notice that the cups use coconut butter, not coconut oil.  Though it can be bought in stores, you can also make it at home if you have a food processor.  Simply place unsweetened dried coconut flakes into your food processor and process about 5 to 8 minutes until the butter forms, making sure to scrape down the sides as you go.  About 2 and 2/3 cups dried coconut will produce roughly 1 cup of coconut butter.

…

Read More »