St Pats Naked Irish Oatmeal Cupcakes

If you squint your eyes, and look really, really carefully, you can see I'm Irish..
Some of my great(etc+) grandparents came to Australia from Ireland, 211 years ago.
There could also be green blood, a wee bit closer, somewhere in there, but that's not yet known..
My husband says he's Irish American- so far it seems to me, we're probably similarly nano-decimal-Irish.. but then, he does have a cool Irish name.



When we were in Portland, OR, last october, I had many delicious slices of Irish Oatmeal cake (vegan), from New Seasons [truly the friendliest store around!]..
It came close to being my favourite cake -ever..
So, being St Pats day and all, I decided to try to make my own version.

I found this recipe, and veganised it, subbing:
1/2 canola oil for the butter (oops, it should have been 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup granulated evaporated cane juice - instead of white sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup - instead of brown sugar
2Tbs ground flax seed, mixed with 2Tbs water - instead of 2 eggs
1 1/3 wholemeal flour - instead of white

I also added:
1/2 cup of applesauce, along with the oil
1/2tsp baking soda, along with the baking powder
Omitted the salt
1/2 cup rolled oats, just before spooning into liners

I didn't make the topping, because I was unsure of a condensed milk sub, and anyway, I was planning on doing a vanilla buttercream frosting..
Which I tried, but it was just too rich and sweet for my liking.
So, naked they stayed.

While these were yummy, they didn't touch on the bring-you-to-your-knees-delicious-ness of the Portland cake.
Gotta keep on trying :)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Two posts in one day!? ack

Due to a bloody moth invasion, my pantry is very bare, still I had the required ingredients for oatmeal raisin's.
They are also my husbands favourites.. and it is sort of his birthday week.

I altered the recipe from "The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook"
When I got to measuring out the flour, I realised my organic wholemeal flour had been infested- So I nixed that and decided to use 1/2 rice flour instead.
I've never used it before- but I guessed it would be more nutritous than white flour.
Am I being delusional?

If you want a real gooey-chewy cookie- a lot of people like their oatmeal raisin's that way:
Add more 'fat', either in applesauce or canola oil.

Edit 3/11/07: I think I was just so starved for a vegan cookie, any vegan cookie, that these tasted good. Don't get me wrong, they weren't terrible.. but ordinarily they wouldn't have hit my cookie spot. Definitely more fat needed!! And rice flour was a bad idea!

Recipe (I only made a 1/2 batch)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soymilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups rice flour (or like I wanted- wholemeal flour)
1 1/4 cups white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch of salt
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins (pre-soaked in orange juice or hot water)

Method:
1.Cream apple sauce and oil together. Cream in sugar.

2.Add soymilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

3.Beat in flour, baking powder and salt.

4.With a spoon, stir in oats and finally the raisins, until well combined.

5.Bake at 180C/350F oven, for about 10 minutes, or until undersides just start to brown.