Next Time: Strathcona

Let's chat one more time this summer about cafes. Just one more time. Anyway, it's that time for lamenting when we're all trying to hang on to the last breeze of summer and psyche up for all the pumpkins and apples and squash.

I'm going to lament in this post about a neighbourhood that we casually strolled through in Vancouver, one that I promised myself I would visit again the next time around. It's the beautiful neighbourhood of Strathcona. Beautiful houses, quiet streets, a huge park, cute corner stores that double as cafes, not to mention a beautiful young lady bicycling down the street selling gourmet, Popsicles. It's like a neighbourhood that I dream of living in "when I grow up" whenever that may be. We spent our last day in Vancouver camped out on a bench, napping, re-living our two week adventure that seemed to pass by way too quickly.

We only managed to visit a few places in Strathcona, and sampled only one coffee -- from The Wilder Snail. Our perfect bench was right across from this grocery store/cafe. It kept us caffeinated and satisfied with gourmet, locally-made energy bars and hot drinks, as we waited patiently, our backpacks stuff to the brim, for time to pass so that we could make our way up to the airport and say good-bye to Vancouver. 

We also strolled by Union Market which I've heard so much about -- namely their treats. I had read about addictive chocolate macaroon bars and irresistible cinnamon buns, but seeing as our stroll was later in the day, the only treats to be found were a few sugar-dusted orange cookies. At 75 cents for two, they made for a perfect strolling snack. Cakey and light, with a big hit of orange and slight almond flavour, these treats didn't last too long, and I was wishing that we had bought more. They'll always be next time .. right?

To curb my Strathcona cravings until the next time I visit Vancouver, I made a batch of orange scented, almond cookies. I kicked it up with some ground cinnamon and nutmeg and instead of dusting with powdered sugar, which I didn't have, went for a sprinkling of crunching demerara sugar. If you're in the mood, adorn each cookie with some flaked almonds and powdered sugar like the original recipe. I think I'll try it like that next time.  Perfect way to console a summer longing that will have to wait until next year.

Spiced Orange Almond Cookies
adapted from Shutterbean
makes about 20 smallish cookies

3/4 cup of ground almonds
2/3 cup of brown sugar
zest of an orange
1 cup of spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of orange juice
demerara sugar, for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl, combine the ground almonds, brown sugar and orange zest. With your fingers, rub the zest into the almonds and sugar to bring out the oils.

2. Add the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well. Add the egg, olive oil and orange juice and mix to combine. You should get a fairly sticky dough.

3. On a parchment-lined sheet, drop spoonfuls of dough making sure that you leave about 2 inches between each cookie -- they expand quite a bit. Wet your fingers and flatten each cookie. Sprinkle with coarse sugar (or flaked almonds)

4. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies get golden brown and your house spells like oranges. Enjoy with your coffee.

Memories of Matchstick

A few days before our trip to Vancouver, when I was in the midst of wrapping up another school year, my partner asked me "What are you most excited to do when we get to Vancouver?" In my foggy brain that was still focused on report cards and marking and cleaning up the classroom, I blurted out "Drink lots of good coffee." And so the search began.

With a few tips and a little research, we developed a little list of coffee shops we wanted to visit while in Vancouver. Although we didn't get to do all of them, we did sample a lot of coffee on our vacation. I had many many iced americanos and countless cups of drip coffee, along with quite a few coffee shop treats. One of the first (and favourite!) places to went to for coffee in Vancouver, was Matchstick. It seemed to pop up out of no where (there's a trend .. finding coffee shops when you least expect it!) while we were trekking downtown on our first day in Vancouver. And it was on the list!

 And we loved it. They roast their beans in many different varieties in house and bake all their goodies right on site. The coffee did not disappoint. The americanos and cappuccinos were smooth and flavourful and the many different varieties of drip coffee available are single-brewed to order. Although there were many many different treats to choose from, we were recommended to try to chocolate almond berry scone. 

Let me tell you about this scone: first, it's vegan (which I didn't even realize until the next day when I actually read the sign) and also, it's made with hearty, nutty spelt flour. It was a dense, flavourful kind of scone, oozing with dark chocolate chips and fresh raspberries and blackberries and I definitely tasted a distinct but not over-powering coconut flavour. It was perfect with our coffee and I made a note to myself to try to re-create it at home.

Check out my drink! It's a home-made iced chai soy latte! You freeze a concentrated chai tea in ice cube trays and add your milk of choice! Recipe here. But I cheated .. and just used chai tea bags instead of regular tea with whole spices.


My scones turned out a little bit lighter but tasted quite similiar. I was sure that Matchstick used coconut oil in their recipe, but seeing as I haven't jumped on the coconut oil craze just yet, I settle for coconut flavoured Earth Balance, which worked perfectly. Ground almonds, almond milk, spelt flour, vegan chocolate chips and of course, fresh-from-the-market raspberries are also in the mix. These scones were a perfect morning and afternoon treat and were gone in no time. I'm already planning a second batch ..


Vegan Chocolate Berry Scones
inspired by Matchstick
recipe adapted from Post Punk Kitchen
makes about 10 medium-sized scones

1/2 cup of ground almonds
1 cup of spelt flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 cup of organic cane sugar
1/3 cup of coconut Earth Balance
1/2 cup of fresh raspberries
1/4 cup of vegan dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup of almond milk

1. In a large bowl, stir together the almonds, flour baking powder and sugar.

2. Add the Earth Balance and, with your fingers, rub the mixture together until you get a coarse mealy-textured mixture.

3. Add the berries, chocolate chips and almond milk. Gently stir the mixture until it comes together in a semi-sticky dough.

4. Drop 1/4 cup-sized mounds of dough on cookie tray and bake at 375 for about 15 minutes, or until the tops get nice and toasty brown.

5. Enjoy with your coffee.  Thanks, Matchstick!!

Trying my hand at Pie

I almost made a pie once.  But then I didn't.  I turned it into a maple oat crumble and ate it on the day before labour day while watching In the Name of the Father and lamenting about school beginning again. Bummer.

This summer I tried making a pie again. What, you don't believe me?  Here's the proof.

This was a strawberry, rhubarb crumble pie. The filling was delicious, but that's never the hard part. The hard part is always the crust, which I always want to make vegan. In this particular case, the edges of the crust were perfect, but that bottom fell apart, turned soggy and in some spots, didn't even cook properly.

So I tried again this long weekend, on the dreary Sunday that got a little wet and chilly later on in the day, when making pie seemed like the perfect excuse to not to work that I brought home with me. I was totally inspired by the lovely vegan baking goddess over at have cake will travel. Her plum and almond tarts looked so delicious, but I wanted something with apples. While browsing foodgawker, I stumbled upon this dutch apple pie over at Beyond Sweet and Savory. The almond press-in crust totally sold me. It was decided from there.  Apple pie it was.

I made mine with a almond spelt crust, using canola oil and almond milk to bind it instead of butter, and a nice spelt flake crumble on top. To keep the crust from turning soggy, I stuck it in the freezer for a bit, and then pre-baked it for 20 minutes before adding the apples and crumble topping. That totally did the trick. No soggy, uncooked pie bottom. The crust held together nicely and was crispy and flavourful from the ground almonds. If you're expecting a buttery, flaky crust, this isn't the place to look, but it was still delicious enough to merit a mound of cinnamony lemon-kissed apples being piled on top.

A note about the apples: the original recipe calls for 1 cup of brown sugar! If you like your pie super super sweet, go for it, but I put in about 1/4 cup and found it plenty sweet. But then, I had just found perfect Jonagold apples at the market that didn't need much help in the sweet department.

This has been the most successful vegan pie-making experiment to date. Do you think I could pull of vegan pumpkin pie, with a vegan pumpkin custard filling?  Whoa... that's a tricky one.  Stay tuned!

Vegan Apple Crumble Pie with Spelt Almond Crust
inspired by have cake will travel, and Beyond Sweet and Savory

For the Crust:
1 cup of spelt flour
1 cup of almond meal
1/4 cup of natural cane sugar
1/4 cup of canola oil
3-4 tablespoons of almond milk, as needed

For the Filling:
3 large to medium apples (I used one Matsu and 2 Jonagolds)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
juice of half a lemon

For the Crumble Topping:
1/2 cup of spelt flakes
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup of brown sugar
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons of canola oil

1. Make the pie crust. Blend the flour, sugar, and almond meal together. Add the canola oil and stir gently with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Slowly, a little at a time, at the almond milk, stirring between additions, until the dough stays together when pinched. You can do this in a food processor too, and pulse until you get the right texture.

2. Bring the dough together with your hands, just enough so that it chunks off, and then press it into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate, making sure that you're going up the sides evenly.  There's a perfect pie crust. No rolling!  Woo hoo!  Place your pie crust in a freezer for about 15 minutes.

3. Make your filling. Peel and core your apples and slice them thinly (the original recipe suggest 1/4 inch thick .. I'm not sure how thick mine were..). Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice. Toss with together and set aside.

4. Your pie crust is ready for the oven now! Bake it for about 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until it just starts to firm up and get some colour.

5. In the meantime, make your crumble topping. Place the spelt flour and flakes in a bowl. Add the brown sugar, lemon juice and canola oil and mix to form a crumble.

6. Take the pie crust out of the oven. Pile your apples on top and sprinkle over the crumble. Throw it all back in the oven and bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until the apple juices start bubbling up, and the crumble topping is a deep golden brown.

7. Yay!  Vegan apple pie!