Irish Boxty, vegan-style

When I was a kid, one of the things I most remember about my North Carolina grandmother was her breakfasts. They weren’t exactly healthy and they were most certainly not vegan, but they were rich and delicious. One thing I recall her and my mom making when we’d visit was potato pancakes, usually made with leftover mashed potatoes and eggs (to bind), and for the last several years I have wished I could find a similar no-egg recipe. When I was looking for Irish recipes for St. Patrick’s Day, I kept seeing recipes for Boxty, which is such a common food in Ireland that it even has rhymes and sayings created in honor of it:

Boxty on the griddle, Boxty in the pan, If you don’t eat Boxty, you’ll never get a man.

When I finally took a look, I was pretty excited. Despite the minor differences from what I experienced growing up, this was pretty much the recipe I had been longing for for years, and when learning more about Boxty, I discovered that it doesn’t always have eggs. It’s a bit of work and takes a little time, but it’s so worth it to make every few weeks or months for breakfast – savory, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

My biggest recommendation is that you make mashed potatoes the night before to save time, and a minor suggestion from a personal flavor perspective would be to grate in an onion along with the grated potatoes.

Irish Boxty
Recipe based upon a Boxty recipe on the BBC

• 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, cooked, mashed and cold
• 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, peeled, grated
• 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
• 1-2 tablespoons melted vegan butter
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 3/4 cup vegan milk
• Olive oil
• Maple syrup, to serve

First, if you do not already have mashed potatoes available, peel, cube and boil about 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes until they are tender.

Preparing mashed potatoes for Boxty

Drain and rinse the potatoes under cold water, then cool them down quickly by putting the bowl or container of boiled potatoes on top of some ice and water in another container. This will help to bring the temperature of the cooked potatoes down. Mash the potatoes well, but don’t worry if you still have lumps. To save time, mash the potatoes and refrigerate the night before using in this recipe.

Mashing potatoes for Boxty

Peel and grate your other 7-8 small to medium-sized potatoes, then rinse well.

Grating potatoes

Wrap the grated potato in a clean kitchen towel and/or paper towel and wring well to get rid of any excess liquid.

Removing excess liquid from grated potatoes

Transfer the mashed potato and grated potato to a mixing bowl, then mix until well combined. Add the flour and baking powder to the potato mixture and mix again until well combined. Stir in the melted vegan butter and season, to taste, with about one to two teaspoons salt and a few dashes of black pepper.

Mixing together the potatoes and dry ingredients

Add the vegan milk, a little at a time, to the potato mixture, beating after each addition until the milk has been fully incorporated into the mixture. When all of the vegan milk has been incorporated into the potato mixture, it should resemble a thick, heavy batter. If the mixture is too sticky, add more vegan milk as necessary.

Adding the vegan milk

Meanwhile, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium to high heat. Add spoonfuls of Boxty batter into the oil, leaving enough space around each spoonful for the mixture to spread. Fry them on medium to high heat for about five minutes on each side, or until the patties are golden-brown and the grated potato is cooked through.

Frying it up!

Remove the Boxty patties from the pan and set aside to drain on paper towels and keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining Boxty mixture. You may need to continue adding oil each time you add a fresh new batch of batter.

Draining on paper towels

Serve with maple syrup, if desired, and some vegan breakfast meat (I had some yummy Yves breakfast patties). If you refrigerate these for later, you can get them crispy again by sticking them in your toaster oven for about five to 10 minutes or you can warm them up on the stove over medium to medium-high heat for about the same amount of time.

Fried Boxty goodness!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Do you have a favorite Irish recipe?

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to tell you that I am a little surprised with myself that I have not shared a chocolate chip cookie recipe with you yet. It’s not like I never make them – I probably make these every few months. Plus it’s not like I don’t like them either, because if you put one of these things in front of me it would be hard for me to resist them. When it comes to cookies, these are my weakness.

So hard to resist!

So here I am finally with a pretty fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe. I don’t remember the blog where I first came across this recipe, but I do know that it can be found in Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton, and I have to say that this is the best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve come across. As far as flavor is concerned, they have a perfect balance between chocolate and cookie, a nice hint of saltiness, and a buttery sweetness to top it off. Also, although they do firm up, they are still a little bit chewy the next day, and even nicer if you warm them up for a few seconds in your microwave or for about 30 seconds to a minute in your toaster oven.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about a dozen regular-sized cookies. Based upon the chocolate chip recipe found in Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup white or unrefined sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract OR 1 1/2 teaspoon rum or brandy and the seeds of 1/4 of a vanilla bean pod
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined.

We ran out of vanilla extract, but I had some vanilla bean pods on hand, so I took the seeds of about 1/4 of one of the pods and let it sit in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of rum for a few minutes. Here’s a nice video on how to split open a vanilla bean in case you’re interested in trying it out for yourself.

Scraping the seeds out from a vanilla bean

In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. As you can see, it separates quickly, so just before you add it to your dry ingredients give it another quick stir.

Liquid ingredients for chocolate chip cookies

Lately we’ve had a hard time finding vegan chocolate chips, so what I’ve been doing is chopping up Trader Joe’s Pounds Plus 72% dark chocolate which is vegan (here’s a handy .pdf which Trader Joe’s provides showing all their vegan products, and this product is on the list). Here you can see I chopped up six squares.

Chopped dark chocolate used in place of chocolate chips

Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not overmix).

Chocolate chip cookie batter

Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little. Alternatively you can roll a spoonful in your hands and then press down a little on the baking sheet (this is what I’ve done).

Chocolate chip cookies about to go into the oven

Bake for 11 minutes until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out). Let cook on the sheet for no more than one minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack.

Homemade vegan chocolate chip cookies

What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

Since no work was permitted on the Sabbath, they prepared Saturday’s meal in advance, assembling a stew, a cholent, with potatoes, barley, and sometimes a piece of meat. A sweet and savory pudding made from leftover bread simmered within the stew. Her mother removed the pot from the coal stove and covered it with brown paper, then tied it around several times with string. Sala wrote their name on the paper and carefully carried the large pot around the corner to Shimon the baker, who inserted it on a long paddle into the recesses of his giant oven. together with dozens of other pots from neighbors, each tied and identified, ready to be served hot for the next afternoon’s meal.

-Sala’s Gift by Ann Kirschner

Bread pudding is both good and weird at the same time. It tastes sweet and filling, yet I sit there thinking that it’s a weird texture for bread – but yet again, it’s not exactly bread anymore; then I think that it’s a weird texture for pudding, but it’s not exactly pudding either. It’s almost like it is in this in between state of bread and pudding: not quite one or the other. A twilight zone of sorts.

This bread pudding turned out well, though. And oh my, it smelled wonderful while it was baking. I could have hyperventilated at the rate I was trying to intake that sweet and vanilla smell.

Bread Pudding
Based upon a bread pudding recipe from Everyday Dish

• 5 cups bread cubes I used about 2/3 of a loaf of Matthew’s Whole Wheat Bread
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup raisins
• Ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together soymilk, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Add the bread cubes and let sit about ten minutes, or until bread is soft and has absorbed most of the milk. Add the raisins and a few sprinkles of cinnamon and gently mix together. Don’t over mix it. Scoop mixture into prepared pan. Lightly sprinkle top with a little more cinnamon.

Bake pudding in preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until puffed and golden and milk has been absorbed.

I didn’t measure out the vanilla on this one and I have to say that that was probably a good thing. I may have put in twice as much as it called for and it had the most wonderful vanilla/creamy flavor. Mmmm…

Another thing I did was sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar before I put it in the oven. What resulted was a sweet and slightly crunchy covering, and it was a great contrast to the mushy “pudding” part.

One thing that I totally could have left out, which surprised me, were the raisins. I enjoy raisins in bread, but in bread pudding? Not necessary at all. This bread pudding stands on it’s own without raisins.

I am not likely to make this again any time soon, but it’s a quick dish. It is perfect for breakfast, dessert, or as a sweet snack. For anyone who is lazy (like me), this is a great one to throw together.