Vegan Raspberry Bars

 Nine Emperor Gods Festival is coming closer (and closer), when people who're Gin je (it means eating vegetarian food) don't eat dairy product or egg, some baked sweets are prohibited.

But we still need something sweet and delicious, luckily that right now we have a lot of choice. In this cookie bar, I use the Non-hydrogenated rice barn oil shortening instead of the butter, so there is no dairy product here, plus there is no egg too. The filling is boiled sweetened raspberry (very easy to make ^^, just boil it until lightly thicken and the heat in the oven will finish the rest of the work). The base and the crumble is the same dough, so there are no time to waste, make only one dough, very easy, right? 
You can cut it into small or large pieces depend on how you want to serve, serve it with a cup of black tea is the best combination (in my opinion) but hot black coffee is another great choice, so choose the one that you like. 

Vegan Raspberry Bars

Make 18cm cookies (you can cut into 9 or 16 small pieces)

Base and crumbs 
230g .............................. All purpose flour
85g ................................. Granulated sugar
90g ................................. Brown sugar
1/4tsp ............................. Salt
1/2tsp ............................. Lemon zest
160g ................................ Shortening (Non-hydrogenated rice barn oil shortening)

Filling
250g ............................... Raspberry (Fresh or frozen)
45g ................................. Granulated sugar
1/2tbsp .......................... Corn starch

Topping
3tbsp .............................. Icing sugar
....................................... Water

I use this Shortening  (non-hydrogenated rice barn oil shortening).

Brush 18cm pan with shortening and line the base with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 180C.

 Put flour, both kinds of sugar, lemon zest and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine.

 Put the shortening into the bowl, use a pastry cutter to cut the shortening into the flour mixture until bread crumbs formed.

 And use your fingers to press everything together. 

 Put 420g  of the dough into the prepared pan, press to smooth and level it.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Keep the rest of the dough in the freezer, until you're ready to use.

 Meanwhile, put the raspberry into a saucepan, sift the corn starch into a sugar bowl and mix them together, then pour it into the saucepan, and stir to combine.
Place over medium heat, when the mixture become boil, lower the heat and simmer it for 2 minutes.

 Remove from the heat, set aside until you're ready to use.

 When the base is ready. Remove the base from the oven (don't turn off the oven).
Place over a wire rack.

 Pour the raspberry mixture over the base.

 Crumb the rest of the dough over the raspberry mixture.

Return to the oven. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Put the icing sugar into a small bowl, pour the water drop by drop then mix until you got smooth and thick mixture.
Drizzle it over the cookies let it dry and cut into pieces.
             

Vegan Raspberry Bars

Macaroni and Broccoli gratin

My niece love cheese, and I think many children (and many adults) love it too. Esp. me, haha I want to add it into any recipe if I could. 

But I know that eating a lot of something is not a good thing, "balance" is we need to remember. So when I told my niece that I will make Macaroni gratin for her, I think about adding vegetable into it (she doesn't eat enough vegetable in my opinion). The one that I choose is Broccoli, after baking the texture of it will become soft and go along with the macaroni well. Boil it before baking to ensure that it will cook throughly. 
If you don't have a pan that you can put in the oven, make the white sauce and mix it with boiled macaroni and boiled broccoli and pour into an pie pan instead (or any oven safe dish). Serve it hot or warm is the best because the melted cheese is so tempting, hehe. For cheese, you can use any kinds of meltable cheese (as long as you love it, ^^). 

Macaroni and Broccoli gratin

Serve 2 

90g ...................................... Macaroni 
1/2 ....................................... Small onion, finely sliced
90-100g .............................. Broccoli, cut into small florets
1/4tsp .................................. Finely slice garlic
250ml .................................. Milk
100ml .................................. Whipping cream
15g ....................................... Unsalted butter
1 1/2tbsp .............................. Sifted all purpose flour
100g ..................................... Meltable cheese (Mozzarella,  Gruyère, Fontina or whatever you have)
2tbsp ................................. Bread crumbs
........................................... Olive oil
........................................... Nutmeg
........................................... Salt and pepper, to taste  

Preheat the ven to 220C.

Put water into a small saucepan, and bring to boil, sprinkle the salt (about  1/2 tsp) into the water.
Pour the macaroni into the saucepan, and boil until tender (about 1 minute longer than the time on a package instruction).

 Remove the boiled macaroni from the water (don't need to turn off the heat) and put into a bowl, mix with 1tsp of olive oil.

 Put the broccoli into the same saucepan, boil for 2 minutes.
Remove from the water and put in a bowl of cold water.

Put the whipping cream and milk into a microwavable jug, warm it in the microwave for 2 minutes (medium power). Set aside.
Place 22 cm pan over the low heat, put 1 tsp of olive oil into the pan.
When the pan become hot put the onion and garlic into the pan, stir until softened.
After the onion become soft put the butter into the pan. 

After the butter melt, pour the flour into the pan, stir until combine.

Pour the warmed milk mixture into the pan, stir to combine.

Cook until the mixture thicken, stir from time to time.
Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

 Remove from the stovetop, and pour the cooked macaroni and broccoli (drain it from the water before putting into the pan).

Stir until broccoli and macaroni are covered with sauce.
Sprinkle the cheese over the top and sprinkle the bread crumbs over the cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 
Remove from the oven, and serve.

Macaroni and Broccoli gratin