Dough

• 1¼ cups warm water
• 2 tsp baking yeast
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt

Spice spread

• ¼ cup margarine
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Sugar spread

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cut walnuts

Method

1. Make the dough as per usual (combine the water, yeast and sugar; let the mix sit for 10 minutes; mix in the flour and salt; knead for 5 minutes).
2. Roll the dough out as thin as you can without it tearing. Try to aim for aim for a rectangular shape.
3. Mix and smear the spice spread thinly across the entire surface.
4. Sprinkle the sugar spread evenly across all the surface save for one edge (which will become the outer rim).
5. Roll the dough up from the inner rim to outer.
6. Slice the long roll thick disks. About 12-15 rolls should come from this.
7. Cover and let rise for 2 hours before baking at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.
8. Let cool before icing. A mixture of 1 part icing sugar and 1 part Tofutti cream cheese has worked well for me.

It really doesn’t get simpler than this. Take some ripe bananas, chop them up into smallish chunks, freeze them, blend them, done.

It’ll have the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Add some peanut butter or whatever for extra flavour. Freeze it after blending if it’s too soft. So easy, so tasty.

Now that I’ve discovered vegan marshmallows that melt properly, a small but crucial range of desserts have opened up to me. Smores, deluxe hot chocolate, crispy squares. In honour of this occasion, I present the following invention: dessert sushi.

Just make your rice crispy batch as per usual (I’ve opted for Special K as it was on sale and functionally equivalent), then treat it like sushi rice. I’ve opted for a peanut butter mix with a strawberry jam centre and a cocoa dusting nori in this example, but I believe the possibilities to be extensive.

Following up on the pie in a jar notion, I’ve extended the same idea to cheesecakes. The following recipe is from La Dolce Vegan with minor modifications for convenience.

Filling

• 300g silken tofu
• 2 cups tofutti “cream cheese”
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract (I also added one vanilla bean)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (I think I put in 1½)
• 1 tsp lemon rind, finely grated
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup flour

Glaze

• 1 cup jam
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• ¼ cup water

Method

1. Using a premade graham cracker crust (much faster), ground it up and split it between 8 jars.
2. Blend the filling in a food processor (wets first, drys second) and pour into the jars on top of the crust.
3. Cover and leave overnight in the fridge.
4. The next day, bring the glaze to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly (make sure to mix the water and cornstarch first to avoid clumps).
5. Split the glaze between the 8 jars and refrigerate again for an hour.

Just about any pie recipe can be easily converted into jar pie. It’s really just a matter of form factor. Prepare a bunch, leave them in the freezer, thaw before use and bake at 375°F for 45 minutes. Couldn’t be simpler.

Alternate ideas: layer on multiple pie flavours, or partition them horizontally with the aid of construction paper. The photo below is cherry on the left, blueberry on the right.

• ½ “butter” (Earth Balance works better than margarine here as consistency is important)
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1½ cups icing sugar

Cream the “butter” and mix the rest in slowly, one at a time. When you’re done, you can coat each with melted chocolate (as pictured above), roll them in cinnamon, top them with an almond perhaps. These keep fairly well in the fridge when they’re done, although I’m no chocolatier, so venture with caution.

This recipe works well both as fondue (while hot) and a soft fudge (while cold).

• ¼ cup margarine
• 225 grams dark chocolate
• ½ tbsp flour
• ½ cup corn syrup
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp soy milk

1. Melt the chocolate and liquids in a double boiler.
2. Sift in the flour to thicken the mixture up.