My NEW Job!

As you may have read in my previous post, we've just moved to the beautiful city of Canberra, are living in an amazing little house in the inner suburbs, I'm studying patisserie at a school near us (which is amazing!), and I recently got a new job at a vegan bakery!! BAKING! 

I know, I know, dream job yada yada. :-P 

It IS pretty amazing though. 

The cafe is called Sweet Bones Bakery, and it is located on Lonsdale St, within the Lonsdale St Traders in Braddon (a suburb just out of the city). It is very groovy, and hip, and I am far too nerdy to be socially adequate in many of their cool situations, but it is seriously, the best job I've ever had!

They bake vegan wedding cakes and cupcakes, and make so many cool things! I've so far made their lemon cheesecake (YUM), cupcakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, pretzels (yummy!) and I'm sure there's more. 

The only down side to this job is that I am surrounded by delicious and decadent vegan food all day, and there are chefs there who are willing to make me a tofu burger any time.. Sounds upsetting right? Yeah, well my waistline is not happy about it!! 

:-P So if any of you are ever in Canberra, feel free to drop in and try some ah-mazing food and come say hello! 

Did any of you check out my vegan croissant recipe? It's up! And it's beautiful :) PLEASE tell me if you make them, and if they turn out well! 

Sleepy Domino says hi! 

Vegan Croissant Recipe (with pictures)

For anyone who is vegan, I know there are many things you think you'll never eat again, including delicious flaky croissants.

Think again! 

These babies were made using completely cruelty free ingredients! 

And we know they're not perfect, they're all a little oddly shaped. But they are all delicious! 

This is what happened when I pulled one apart: 

Flaky deliciousness!

Of course I quickly smothered it in more Nuttelex and devoured it. 

Enough drooling over the pictures! Let's get baking!!!! 

Ingredients:

Butter:

60g   Shortening (I used Crisco, but you can use any form of vegetable shortening)

100g Vegan margarine - preferably with a high fat content (I used Nuttelex Original)

Dough:

20g   Shortening

30g   Vegan margarine

275g Plain flour

12g   Sugar

6g     Salt

5g     Dried yeast

100g Water (cold)

50g   Rice/Soy milk (cold)

Glaze:

50g  Sugar

50-100ml Water

Method:

1. Mix all dough ingredients together in a Kitchen Aid (or similar) until dough is elastic. Add more water (cold), or flour as needed. 
2. Transfer dough to a floured bowl, sprinkle flour over the top, cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour-ish (I'm a very impatient person, so you can refrigerate for less or more time, more preferably) 
   
3. Melt the shortening, mix through the margarine until completely combined and smooth. Refrigerate. 
4. Remove dough from fridge and roll out into a rectangle. 
   
5. Remove butter from fridge once semi-set and lay down cling wrap on bench.
6. Place the butter on the cling wrap, and mould into a flat square around half the size of the rectangle dough. 
7. Cover butter square in cling wrap, and replace in fridge until cold.
8. Once cold, unwrap the square of butter, and place on one half of the dough. 

   

   I actually broke up the pieces of butter and spread them out more evenly on the half after this

9. Fold the other half of dough over the buttered side and leave to acclimatise to each other. (around 10 mins)
   
10. Once acclimatised, grab a rolling pin and roll out the rectangle (forward and back - not sideways to create a long rectangle) until about 2-3cm thick. NB Please be gentle in this section! You do NOT want the butter coming through the dough! If you do, get a pinch of flour and sprinkle over before continuing to roll, and do not roll much further.
    
11. After rolling out, take one side of the rectangle, and fold it 1/3 of the way over the middle, then fold the other side over the top - These are the beginnings of the beautiful layers! 
    
12. Rotate the folded dough around until a folded side is facing you. It should look a bit like an S shape facing your body. 
13. Roll out again, forward and back, until the dough is around 2-3cm thick. If the butter starts coming through please be careful, and sprinkle some flour over the top. 
14. Repeat 11 again. 
15. Place on a chopping board and cover in cling wrap, refrigerate for around 10 mins. 
16. Take out of the refrigerator and place on the bench so that the folds are facing you again to repeat the rolling process again. Re-fold, place the folds to you, and re-roll.
17. Once the dough is flat and long, make sure it is as squared as can be, then grab a knife and cut a diagonal line from the left corner to about 10cm from the bottom left corner \
    
18. Continue cutting along from left to right, leaving around a 10cm gap between cuts.
19. Using the second cut from the left as the starting point, slice down to the bottom left corner, to create 2 triangles. Follow along the dough in the same way. NB Sharp knives are the best for this, the dough won't bunch up as much when cutting.
20. Take your first triangle, and make a small cut between the top 2 points of the triangle, and stretch out the sides. 
    
21. Roll the dough up from this side, stretching out the tip slightly to elongate the roll. 
22. Place the tip on the bottom of the rolled dough, and attach the two ends to each other to create a weird circle. 

    

    Look at these little cuties!!!

23. Let the little croissant prove while you complete the rest of the rolls. Place somewhere warmish to prove. 
24. Place on a well greased tray in oven at 160C for around 15-20 mins depending on your oven. Mine is not great, and not fan forced, nor is it gas :( so it kinda depends on how yours operates, but i prefer to cook mine for longer at a lower temp to make sure it cooks all the way through. 
    
25. While the little beauties are baking, place water and sugar in a saucepan over moderate heat. Dissolve the sugar, and let it simmer until it becomes like a watery syrup, then take off heat.
26. Once the croissants are baked, take out of the oven and cool until they can be handled. 

    

    Waiting for the croissants was tedious for myself, and the cat.

27. Dip the top of the croissants in  the glaze and let set - PLEASE NOTE that if you want these to be savoury croissant, e.g. with a yummy vegan queso or something in it (recipe soon!), then DON'T glaze!!! 
28. If you're not choosing to sugar glaze yours, brush them with some melted vegan margarine before baking. Et voila! 

Mmmmmm

Ta Daaaa! Delicious VEGAN croissants for everyone to enjoy :)

Let me know how you go, and if you can think of anything I may have missed… xo

Vegan Croissants!

Holy mother of vegan baked goods!

I know what all of you are thinking:

"Impossible"
"What a nut-bag"
"How the?"
            etc etc.

FEAR NOT! Vegan croissants are possible!

I made this baby today after many many weeks of procrastinating:

Adorable little croissant!

I am so gosh-darned proud of myself right now!

I will have a recipe up soon!!!

Vegan Baking

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I have started a patisserie course here in Canberra.
It is pretty amazing. So far we have completed 5 weeks of baking with yeast.
Some photos below of some of the (non vegan) products we've made so far:

Baguettes

Chelsea Buns, or Cinnamon Scrolls depending where you're from ;-)

A little tin of smiling chelsea buns

Un-cooked little croissants - how adorable are these??

Finished products - Croissant

Cherry and apple danish

Aren't they cute? It has been SO much fun learning how to bake properly, in a proper kitchen, with proper equipment!

Here are some photos of some VEGAN goodies that I baked at home, so that Travis and I didn't feel so deprived after looking at all my scrumptious goodies from school:

Some basic bread rolls

Choc-chip peanut butter biscuits

Hot Cross buns (i didn't have a piping bag handy, so the "crosses" are a little skew-iff)

 My piping practice on some delicious chocolate cupcakes

Being Slack & Moving

WHAT A LONG TIME IT'S BEEN! 

I cannot believe it's been 6 months since my last post… SLACK!

Since my last post:

• I've been to Bali and had a ball with my sister, boyfriend and friends - Pics below
• Quit my job in Sydney, started another job
• Quit that job
• Boyfriend got a promotion
• Moved to our nations loooovely capitol (CANBERRA)
• Started a Patisserie course
• I got a job at a VEGAN bakery
• Started working out like a crazy woman

SOOOO that's a lot of changes being made to my life in the last 6 months! 

I have obviously kept up with my vegan lifestyle with my beautiful partner, and we have been very busy with our 2 little rescues and 1 nosy kitty. 

Our lives in Canberra so far have been fairly hectic, namely because Travis has been jet setting a lot with his new promotion, travelling over the country doing training and being special, while I've stayed at home and looked after our fur children… It has been great, but stressful, and a little lonely!

The house we're living in is adorable (pics to follow), and the area we're living in is beautiful. I am grateful to have what we have here :) and we are making friends slowly (which is probably the best way to make friends) 

So I will be posting more frequently again, and will be MUCH more dedicated to doing some fantastic things in and around Canberra!! 

Many things to follow. WATCH THIS SPACE! 

Some photos from Bali

The Scarecrow

My sister sent me this link yesterday saying "this is right down your alley", so I checked it out, and she was right! It is an amazing clip, with an even more amazing message to convey.

The cartoon was made by fast food chain Chipotle, and it is aimed at factory farms and food chains who use steroid enhanced, and cruelly treated animals for their products.

I love everything about this ad: the presentation, the music (Fiona Apple, Pure Imagination - from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), the story, and most importantly the message is gives. Absolutely beautiful.
Everyone should watch! :)

Documentares that helped us transition to Veganism

Lately Trav and I have been trying to learn more about what we eat... or don't eat. Which means watching a lot of documentaries! (Not to mention the hours of research done in our own time.)

I thought I'd present to you a short list of a few of the documentaries that have impacted on us the most - whether it be the message or the story, I think there is something in this list for anyone interested in learning  a little more about where their food comes from! (Whether you're vegan, vego or omnivore!)

Our first foray into the world of factory farming expose was Earthlings.. We jumped right into the deep end with this one....



Earthlings Poster

It took us 2 nights to watch - not because of the length, but the content. I simply couldn't sit and watch a lot of it (I couldn't see the screen at times through the tears and hiccups).
It is a beautifully created masterpiece (narrated by Joaquin Pheonix, score by Moby) full of gut-wrenching footage of some truly inhumane practices including the "kosher" slaughter of a cow, euthanizing cats and dogs, and the general disgusting practices within places like slaughterhouses, factory farms and circuses.
I would recommend everyone watch it, but I would also recommend a box of tissues.
You can watch Earthlings for free on their website.

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
I LOVE documentaries like this one! I love transformations, people gaining new life skills (healthy eating), and I love seeing people come out of their shell!
This documentary starts by following Joe Cross, and Australian businessman, from Sydney to America on a quest for better health.... by juicing...



Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead Poster - Joe Cross

So I have always been a little sceptical of juicing being that amazing for anybody, but this documentary showed how much Joe's health improved just by drinking green juices for 60 days! Everything is improved for him by fasting, then by following a vegan diet after the 60 days of fasting is over.
It is amazing to watch him become visibly healthier.
Joe then meets another man who is overweight and sick, and he then helps him to start his own journey.. It is quite amazing. I sat there absolutely floored by the improvements in both men.
After Trav and I watched this one we both started raving on about buying a juicer.. it is yet to happen, but I'm sure it will... We're both suckers for a health craze. (unless its an ab machine.. we're not that silly)
The only negative I can think of with this film is Joe's accent... I guess I understand that the Australian accent sounds funnier when it is exaggerated (loved travelling in the US and replying to the "where y'all from?" with "'Straya".. because it's fun), but in this film, it made Joe sound uneducated every single time he said "g'day mate".... Ugh. The Crocodile Dundee/Steve Irwin accent isn't an accurate representation of how we truly speak... some of us can be quite well spoken. (Please do NOT look up Australian accents on YouTube)
This film can be bought on Amazon.

Vegucated is the most recent film we've watched. I found this while looking at a few other films about veganism. This one is about a vegan who decides to try to convert 3 meat-lovers (found on Craigslist) to veganism (makes it sound like a religion! Haha).
So the idea behind this is that if someone tries it, and sees how easy it is to live vegan, then they will realise that it isn't so crazy/extreme/hard after all! It's a good idea, and all of the people she enlisted showed amazing signs of improved health after only 6 weeks, but the fact that some were resistant to the change made it a little more of an uphill battle. There was one girl that frustrated me to no end, and it was like watching an episode of a reality tv show through parts of it, but overall I enjoyed watching people's perception of veganism change throughout the course of their experiment. :-)

Forks Over Knives is the one that changed Travis' mind about veganism. He was a little undecided on the whole idea until we watched this one.. And I am eternally grateful to T. Colin Campbell and Caldwel B. Esselstyn for the amazing research they have done!

This film has definitely been my favourite of all that we have watched so far. The research that was done prior to this film being made is SO thorough and comprehensive, that I don't really understand how everyone isn't living vegan? The evidence is there that this diet can prevent so many issues and diseases, and yet people are still dying from heart disease, diabetes etc. every day when some of these deaths could have easily been prevented by eating a healthier diet.
Travis' reaction to this movie was: "I don't want to die from drinking milk" and from that moment he went from vegetarian to a devout vegan. <3

Supersize Me is a common one that most people would have heard of, and our reaction was the same as most peoples to that one - pure disgust.
The World According to Monsanto is one that isn't focused on veganism, but is about the big business of food, and in my opinion is one that most people should watch to learn where their food comes from, and who is profiting most from small businesses/farms losses.
I think it is a good idea for people to educate themselves on not only what they're eating, but where the food they're eating comes from - GMO's are bad y'all.


Have you watched any documentaries or films that have been particularly inspiring lately? I'd love to hear about ones you've watched that have interested you, or made you make a change in your life that you wouldn't normally have considered. :-)