It’s time for another Food Blog Battle and this time I’m taking on the very healthy Veggie Girl. Be sure to check out her creation on her site. We picked the ingredients and decided to try a Vegan style challenge where both dishes had to be completely meat and dairy free.
I’m always up for a good challenge and this was a tough one. I mean she clearly has a pretty large advantage on me as I’ve never purposefully tried to make a vegan dish although sometimes I make one by accident I’m sure.
To make things even more difficult, these were are chosen ingredients: Fruit preserves and raisins!
I'm pretty much at a loss.
Honestly, I’m not sure what I would’ve done even if I could’ve used meat and/or dairy. I poured over recipes for days trying to think of something that would work with both of these things and satisfy the Vegan deal. I decided to use an Apricot preserve that I had left over from my very non-vegan calzones. No real reason other than it was in my pantry.
This is the approximate thought process that eventually got me to my recipe:
“I want to make something good. Something with apricot and raisins. Maybe I could make a sauce? And put it on what? Salad? Gross. Tofu? Ugh. Veggies? That wouldn’t be filling enough. Yes. Filling. I want something filling. Something filled with apricots and raisins. Ok. I’m really on a roll now. Wait. Roll. I can make a roll. A roll with filling. But my filling would be a jelly. A JELLY ROLL. Kick ass.”
And the dessert was born: Vegan Apricot Raisin Jelly Roll
I had two huge problems right away: 1) I’ve never made a jelly roll. I knew they have eggs in them though. 2) I’ve never substituted anything for eggs or baked anything Vegan at all.
I did some research and found this eggless baking guide. I decided to do a mix of two different substitutions and use some banana and some silken tofu in place of eggs. Why? I have no idea. I’ve never done this before. It just felt right okay?
Who needs eggs?
This was the recipe I ended up with.
Vegan Jelly Roll (Adapted from Baking Sheet)
- 1 banana, mushed up
- 1/3 Cup Silken tofu
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 3/4 Cup sifted cake flour
- 3/4 Teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
With a hand mixer, I combined my banana and tofu until they were fairly smooth and then added my sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl, I sifted together my flour, baking powder and salt. Then I mixed them all together.
No animals were harmed in the making of this batter.
To make the roll you need to make a very thin layer of cake that is moist and flexible. The last thing you want to do is overcook this batter.
I got a large baking sheet and lined it with parchment paper. Then poured the batter and spread it out to form a thin layer. At this point, I figured I had about a 10% chance of success with this.
Here was when failure became a distinct possibility.
Bake that for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. You might need up to 10 minutes, but definitely start checking it early. You don’t want the cake to crisp up at all.
Meanwhile, get a large kitchen towel and sprinkle it with powdered sugar. By sprinkle, I mean cover.
When the cake comes out of the oven, loosen the edges around the parchment paper, take a deep breath, and flip the parchment paper over onto the towel! If you have any kitchen karma points stocked up, now would be a good time to cash them in.
Peel back the parchment paper and dust your cake with more powdered sugar. If you are lucky, you might see this:
Oh glorious day!
Start on one of the shorter ends and roll the cake up with the towel! Basically, the dish towel is acting as the jelly while the cake cools. Set the entire towel deal on a rack to cool.
Cool it down.
As this was cooling, I decided to focus on the jelly filling. While I could just mix together the preserves and the raisins, I thought I would kick things up a notch with some of this Vegan ingredient:
Whiskey = Vegan!
I soaked the raisins in about 1/4 Cup of whiskey for 20 minutes or so. Stirring every few minutes. I probably used 1/2 Cup of raisins.
Drunken raisins.
Then I added the whiskey and raisins to about 2/3 Cups of preserves. Yes. This makes this dessert alcoholic. At this point I figured it would give the dessert some kick and also someone would probably need to be drunk to try it anyway…
Goop!
When your roll is completely cool, you can unroll it, spread your filling on and roll it back up! That part is super-easy.
Umm... okay.
Once it is rolled up, sprinkle it with a good dusting of powdered sugar and you are all set!
Success?!
This turned out much better than I thought it was going to turn out.
I know... Overkill on the sugar.
A few honest assessments on this recipe:
1) The cake part wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t quite as fluffy as if I had used eggs I think , but it was still decent. It tasted like bananas and you couldn’t taste the tofu at all.
2) The filling was super sweet. If I were to for some reason make this again, I would add probably 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice to cut the sweetness.
3) The entire time I was making this, I was singing the Coolio classic, “Rollin’ with the Homies.”
Check out Veggie Girl’s dish and don’t forget to vote for your favorite! Voting closes on Sunday at 9AM EST.
OH MY GOODNESS I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD AFTER READING THIS!!! Your sense of humor and willingness to do this food battle are amazing – you rock, Nick. Good luck!! :-D
Hi Nick! I found your blog through Veggie Girl’s, and I must say – both of you did a wonderful job! I’ve never made a jelly roll either, so I think it’s great that not only did you take on a vegan baking challenge, but you also created something that you didn’t have any experience with prior to the challenge! kudos to you!
You should win! All Veggiegirl does is take other people’s recipes and make them vegan (if it isn’t already), gluten free, and switches carob for chocolate. She does no recipe creating of her own. You win just based on that!
Since you aren’t vegan I think you did a good job. If you ever make this again, I recommend flax “eggs” replacing the banana because it almost always leaves behind a banana flavor when you don’t want it there! Just mix 1 T flaxmeal with 3 T warm water…it won’t impact flavor and works like a charm everytime.
whoaaaa, this battle is neck and neck!!! way to go on trying something you’ve never done before … that jelly roll looks DELICIOUS.
OMG, I tied up the battle with my vote just now. I think Macheesmo should be the winner. You were much more creative with your entry, Nick. Also your blog was hilarious today, with many interesting pictures, as always. Informative and fun, that is why I keep coming back here. I luckily found you through Amateur Gourmet by clicking on a comment you made, and now I like coming here, and to The Food in My Beard, as you both have great blogs. I have been following all the food battles closely.
Veggie girl has the exact same blondies all over her webpage, and she simply made a different topping. I can’t believe so many people voted for her. She could look into whole grains if she wants to be healthier, in my opinion, as all purpose flour is not good for us, it is a refined grain even when it is organic.
Both of you could look into whole grains, they are so delicious. I did not mean to sound down on Veggie girl, her blog is also interesting and her entry was healthy and delicious sounding! :)
Despite your self-criticism, this thing looks awesome. Whiskey and apricots… yeah. I’m sure Coolio would be proud.
Despite being vegan this looks pretty good (yup, I’m a disbeliever in tofu as a sub). I’m still laughing about rolling with the homies!
Ah, I came too late to vote. But you should have won that one hands down.
such a fun battle! :) both of the recipes are great!!!
Damn, I missed the voting period!! (lousy too long RSS news reader list). I would have totally voted for you. Whiskey = genius. Who won?
I just love “veggie girl” this is wonderful and I teach a canning class in the fall, will certainly share this link with my class. Tried to email you but my message was returned. Your site is just the best…you need to win a reward…Oh you did already? Oops. Keep doin what you’re doin…awesome.
Denay
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