Lazy Sunday

I thought about going to lab, then decided against it. While there are definitely things I could work on, there's nothing that I *have* to work on, so I decided to just have a nice carefree day. Of course, that included cooking! For lunch I whipped up two more recipes from Appetite for Reduction that I've been meaning to make: Butternut Apple Soup and Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits. I actually had the pleasure of trying the biscuits yesterday at Isa's demo at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market (she made Roasted Vegetable Thai Green Curry Stew and these biscuits). So, I already knew they were good. The soup had been on the schedule to make for weeks with said butternut squash hanging out on the counter, but it's just been so warm here lately that it didn't sound good. I just sucked it up and made the apartment ridiculously warm by having the oven and stove going--sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Anyway, the soup was fabulous. While the process of peeling and cutting the butternut squash can be a little daunting, on this lovely, relaxing day it went smoothly--and Isa's instructions helped too! I used Fuji apples here because that's what I had in the fruit bowl and once all the prep is done this comes together quite easily. The pairing of the soup and the biscuits is quite nice too. The soup is sweet and spicy and the biscuits are a very different sweet and they blend beautifully. This makes a TON of soup, so be prepared for lots of leftovers or halve the recipe.

I also decided to make some sweet treats for people at school. I had originally decided on chocolate-covered strawberries, then I thought those might be difficult to transport without melting and sticking together, so I searched around for something using those ingredients that might be more carry-to-school friendly. I found these cookies from Messy Vegetarian Cook and decided to give them a try. They looked adorable, like little chocolate strawberry love letters. Here's how mine turned out:

I think I was a little too generous with my filling. While they're not all going to win awards for beauty they do taste good--had to do something with those ones that completely fell apart. I did have some that turned out really good though, like this one:

Some lucky soul will get that beauty tomorrow! Lesson of the day: less can be more when it comes to filling chocolate fruit cookies (or just cut larger squares). I followed the directions except I needed to add a little soymilk to my batter in order to get it to hold together, maybe 1 tablespoon total.

Hope everyone has a fabulous remainder of the weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day!

MoFo 11: Caramel Corn

I've never been a fan of popcorn. While other people munch away happily at the movie theater (in fact I've known people who want to go to the movies sometimes just so they can get some popcorn) I don't see the appeal. However, if you cover it in sugar then I'm a believer! I picked up a bag of Divvies caramel corn as a sweet snack while in Disneyworld last year and ever since then I've been wanting to make my own (I've also recently tried their kettle corn, which is also great). This was my first attempt. I found the recipe on VegWeb (using their handy dandy iPhone app). It was pretty good. It wasn't super special though. A few days later I tried again and using the variations I left out the margarine and added peanut butter. Wow was that a winning combination! My only complaint is that the popcorn doesn't get firm. And after a few hours it was a little bit soggy. There's a recipe in the latest VegNews for a chocolate caramel corn and it has directions to bake the popcorn after adding the caramel to firm it up. I think I'll try that one next!

This was also the first time I tried popping my own popcorn kernels. I found them in the bulk section and followed these directions from wikihow.

Blog posts to peruse:

1) I grew up making just about nothing from scratch. My parents were busy and it was convenient not to. In fact, I honestly didn't know until my adult cooking years that it was even possible to make certain things without a bag mix (silly, I know). The first time I made a cake myself I was amazed. I had a bit of that same old feeling when I saw this post on pumpkin nog over at Manifest:Vegan. I have no idea what's in traditional eggnog (egg?), but it's another one of those things that never occurred to me to make from scratch or to make a different version. This one sounds great. So warming and perfectly spiced for this time of year.

2) Oh, Isa. Another fabulous looking recipe over at the PPK, this time for Cashew Vegetable Korma. I was looking at this post at school and I had someone come up to me and ask me what I was looking at because it looks amazing. I have to agree!

3) I've made several different recipes for chana masala (here's one, and another). I love it. I've been wanting to find a recipe for one that's a little saucier and this one over at Oh She Glows looks like it might fit that bill perfectly! Also, this recipe for garlic pumpkin mashed potatoes with spinach that Angela wrote up later the same day sounds sooo good.

4) mmm...these baked tofu steaks with mushroom gravy look so tasty. This recipe is from Veggie Belly and the texture of that tofu looks perfect!

5) Pretty much the only way I'll eat cauliflower is if it's curried (here and here) or spiced up like crazy (like here). So, naturally this spicy cauliflower with sesame seeds from 101 Cookbooks spoke to me. It said "eat me." Who am I to argue with talking cauliflower?

6) This gingerbread house post from the gluttonous vegan has visions of sugarplum fairies dancing in my head. I can't believe it's almost Christmas-time! Her gingerbread house looks adorable (and tasty). It reminded me of when I first went to DisneyWorld with my family (heavy on the Disney in the post, but I love it...). It was on Christmas eve and decorated so beautifully. The details they go to are just unbelievable--I mean check out this gingerbread house! It is actually the size of a house. Now if only it were vegan...

Win! Robin's at it again. This time she is offering up a copy of Vegan Unplugged. Noelle over at an opera singer in the kitchen has some coconut products from Coconut Secret up for grabs.

MoFo 5: Double Chocolate Orange Cookies

I had originally set out to make the chocolate mint cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking, but alas I was out of peppermint extract. I had almond and orange available, so I decided to go with orange. Who doesn't like chocolate and orange?! It reminds me of those gigantic chocolate oranges they sell at World Market; I was only ever allowed to have those around the holidays, usually they were a gift in our stockings. I haven't had one in years, I doubt they're vegan.

Anyway, these turned out quite good. A little zest along with the extract would have been better, but it's hard to go wrong with a double chocolate cookie!

Here are some blog posts that I especially liked today:

1) Step-by-step directions to make your own Double Chocolate Hazelnut Candies on G Living. These are super cute! I've only ever tried my hand at making candy once but I'd like to try it again since they make such nice gifts or party treats.

2) Monday Baker has settled on quite the original theme for MoFo: using a phone application to randomly pick a recipe for dinner and then make a vegan version. Today was the unveiling of the first recipe, Pepper Seitan Cutlets with Chocolate-Port Sauce. It didn't turn out well, but it's fun to read anyway. Wishing better luck on tonight's dish!

3) Delicious looking pumpkin muffins (with recipes!) over at LunchBoxBunch. Again with the pumpkin, Nichole?! I know, sorry, but these looked too good to pass up--especially that cream-topped one!

Win! Lazy Smurf has a giveway for a pack from Tasty Bite and over at Vegan Planet Robin has a coupon for a tub of Nasoya Tofu Plus.

Happy Birthday S'more Cupcakes

My birthday was the end of May. I had a lovely girls' night, we went out for dinner, drinks, and to see Sex and the City 2. While the movie wasn't as fun as I was hoping, the company sure was. My boyfriend took advantage of the fact that all the ladies were out and arranged a guys' night at our place. That fact made it even sweeter that he took time to find a recipe, shop, and make cupcakes during that time. These are the s'more cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I knew something was up when he called me to ask which store had vegan graham crackers. Now he's not the most experienced in the kitchen, so these ended up a little undercooked in the middle and the frosting was too thin, but the thought left me speechless. I came home with my friends to him shaving chocolate on the tops, it was adorable!

Amaretto Amore Cookies

I was in the mood for a different type of cookie and couldn't find anything that sounded quite right. Instead, I found a recipe that sounded promising and tweaked it to suit my cravings. I started with the recipe for Booze it Up cookies from 500 Vegan Recipes. I used the recipe from the book, which apparently had a typo, it was missing cornstarch. I think that would make a good addition to my version as well as they could definitely use a little thickener. I'm adding it to the recipe below. Amaretto makes a great drink, so of course it made a great cookie. Trader Joe's has a great low-priced bottle.

Amaretto Amore Cookies
makes about 18 cookies

1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup almond butter
3/4 cup Amaretto
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking sheets.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the canola oil, sugar, almond butter, Amaretto, almond extract, and vanilla extract.
3. Add all the dry ingredients, except for the chocolate chips. Mix until well-combined.
4. Add chocolate chips.
5. Place well-rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 16 minutes. Let cool slightly and then transfer to a cooling rack before enjoying.

For even more almond love, add some chopped roasted almonds to either the batter or on top before baking.

Bush Berry Parfait

My brother came across this lovely looking dessert from Tofu 'N Collards on the This is Why You're Thin Blog (I have a post on there too!). We were hanging out the other night and after getting stuffed on awesome burritos from Chipotle we hit up the store to buy everything for this. Adding Tofutti Better than Sour Cream to get the tart flavor of yogurt is pretty genius. I really liked the "yogurt" base, although maybe a tad sweet. The frozen mixed berries we found had strawberries mixed in, so those we chopped up while cooking them to make the syrup, but I think the berry layer would have been really good all blended up. We put these in the freezer for a few hours before eating so that it would be more like frozen yogurt; the flavor was excellent, but biting into a whole frozen berry was no fun, so that's why I think the blending would make that better. It made 4 perfect-sized servings and was enjoyed by all (including someone a little freaked out by vegan foods).

Snickerdoodles

I had a mad craving for some snickerdoodles after reading so many posts about all the vegan bake sales that have been going down. I'm not a fan of plain sugar cookies, but put some frosting or some cinnamon-sugar on there and I'll apparently gobble them right up. I used the recipe from Vegan Yum Yum (there is a very similar one in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar). Because the dough gets refrigerated for an hour after mixing this is a bit of a delayed indulgence, but the wait is definitely worth it--they came out great!

There was no exact proportion in the book for the amount of cinnamon or sugar to roll on the outsides, so I just sprinkled a little of both on a plate, mixed it up and went with that. Also, when I went to smush them from ball form to cookie form with a fork a lot of the edges broke and those four in the pic above were the best-looking. That was a little disappointing, but obviously doesn't matter once you get them in your mouth. These didn't seem to stay fresh very long, after a couple days they were quite crispy. We just chowed down on them and finished them up (poor us), but it's definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

Note: I believe Lauren has a recipe for these on her blog, but the site is not working today so I can't post it.

Brownies

I had high hopes for these brownies from the PPK. I have yet to find a vegan brownie recipe that knocks me off my feet, these had great reviews, but they still didn't quite hit the mark. Maybe the problem is that I grew up on baking mixes and had never had a number of things from scratch (let alone knew where to start in making them that way). When I bite into a brownie I'm hoping for the taste of one from a mix: the nice crispy-flaky top with the chewy insides. These were too dense, a bite or two (especially of an edge) was alright, but more than that was too much for me. This version is much better than the one I've tried from The Joy of Vegan Baking (those ones I didn't even want to eat they were spongy and I think they could have bounced if I had tried it), but I'll keep looking. The brownie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar states that it is reminiscent of a baking mix, so I'll try that one next and see what's up.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

A good friend from college came to visit this weekend and knew that she wanted to make some cookies. I sat her down with VCIYCJ and this is the recipe she decided on. I'd also had my eye on these but thought that they looked like a bit too much work for standard cookie baking times. They do take a bit more time to prepare as first the peanut butter balls need to be rolled out and then covered in the chocolate dough, but the results were fabulous. We had a couple other friends over for a game night and they all got happily gobbled up.

I thought they looked more like UFOs than pillows. Luckily, they tasted like neither.

Happy Valentine's Day: Red Wine Spaghetti with Broccoli Rabe and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Since most restaurants are overcrowded and underwhelming on Valentine's Day I prefer to make our own seductive meal. This year I decided to go with this beautifully colored pasta from the Food Network. It uses an entire bottle of red wine, so this can be as cheap or as expensive as you like really. The spaghetti gets cooked in the wine and just soaks up all the color. It also takes on a delicious sweet flavor. The broccolini gets cooked in olive oil, garlic, and red peppers then everything is added together for this showstopping dish. I just omitted the Parmesan; my boyfriend covered his in Parma, so it could go that route too. It was very tasty, and if you couldn't tell yet I thought it was very pretty! We served this with some garlic bread (I didn't think ahead with using all that garlic though, we both had lovely breath for the rest of the evening).


For dessert I dipped some cleaned, prepped strawberries in chocolate and put in the fridge to set. Fantastic! So simple and yet so amazingly tasting; whomever thought up dipping fruit in chocolate I applaud you. Luckily we have several more of these in the fridge for later.

Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies

There's something special about Dreena Burton's cookies; they're always so fantastic! It's a good thing her recipes make only 10-12 because they are always polished off in less than 24 hours (Once I made her Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies when a couple friends were over and the four of us finished them all before they even got cool). I fear what having more around would do.

These cookies from Vive Le Vegan are also a winner. The chocolate cookie with chocolate chips inside and toasted almonds to set them off...wow. They taste very decadent. When they were gone (so two days later) I was asked to make them again, so I did yesterday and now there are two left. Her cookies are so good it's not even fair really. We don't buy sweets so we make a fair amount of cookies (they're quick and store easily), probably once every couple weeks, so I'll have to make a point of trying the rest of Dreena's recipes.

Gigantoid Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

This cookie holds fond memories for me. It was the first vegan cookie I ever made; it was also the cookie I would make for people to show them how amazing vegan cookies are! The recipe is from Vegan With A Vengeance. I have had many people tell me these cookies are evil because they taste so good and the recipe is oft asked for. For a long time I was always asked to bring a batch of these cookies with me to any gathering I attended.

I hadn't made these in well over a year (from above, I had made them a lot and had gotten a bit tired of them) and we were in the mood for some cookies last night. Having no chocolate in the house these seemed like a sensible option. Do yourself a favor: if you've never made these before try them out!

ps. that's not a dinner plate, the cookies are about 3 inches wide though!

Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

This cookie is from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. This was the first recipe I tried from it before it was even published; Isa was so kind as to post it on her blog. I made them the first time in addition with some lemon tea cookies as a thank you gift for a group of people I was working with. They were both big hits. This chocolate cookie especially. The first time I made them I halved the cayenne because I wasn't so sure about it--I'm not a big fan of chili and chocolate together--and it was still too much for me. Other people loved them, but I couldn't even eat a whole bite of one. Hello, gag reflex. However, the texture and the flavor seemed really great until the cayenne kicked in, so I wanted to try them again without any cayenne.

So that's what I did this time. Much better. Without the cayenne this is a nice crispy cinnamon and chocolate cookie. That's a winner in my book!

Happy New Year and Coffee Cake

First of all, welcome to Twenty-ten! Now...


Look at that crumb topping, and the mini chocolate chip layer! Oh, and there are raspberries in there too! This recipe is from Vegan Brunch, and despite having some hiccups, turned out well. I picked up a springform pan at the local kitchen store the other day and this was a perfect recipe for it. I'd never used one of these pans before, but after breaking one of my other cake pans (my crappy IKEA knives actually cut right through it, yeah crazy) I decided to try this little baby out. If you've never used one before it's pretty awesome, just unhinge and the cake slides right out.

It also helped me save this cake from ruin. I baked on the upper end of the allotted amount of time. I then stuck in a toothpick and was greeted with gooey raspberry and chocolate, not so good for determining doneness. So, I took it out. Isa says to let it sit for an hour before eating, but we were starving, so after about twenty minutes I tried to cut slices out. The whole middle was still a gooey doughy mess. Luckily, I was able to just refit the outside of the pan back on, throw it back in the oven and disaster averted! It took an extra twenty minutes to get it fully cooked. To check I just stabbed and then swirled the toothpick to make sure it was definitely done in the center.

After getting it fully cooked and cooled (of course not an hour, like 20 minutes) we were able to dig in for real. It was a fabulous combination. I don't know if this would even be worth it if it didn't have chocolate. I loved that the chips got really crispy as it melded with the crumb topping. Fabulous!

Sparkled Ginger Cookies and Mexican Wedding Cookies

These ginger cookies are from Vegan with a Vengeance and they're a favorite in our house. They're beautifully spiced (ginger, cinnamon, and clove) and bedecked with a sugar topping. They have a nice winter feel so they made it into the Christmas cookie bags I put together for everyone at work.


The second cookie in the cookie bag are the Mexican Wedding Cookies (or Snowballs) from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I'd never had these before but they seemed appropriately festive. They were mighty tasty I have to say. Messy, but tasty. I used a combination of pecans and hazelnuts for the chopped nuts. This recipe made so many cookies: 3 cookie sheets of balls, something like 75 cookies; it was supposed to make 36, so I guess I made them small, but I followed the directions with 1 teaspoon per ball. The size worked well, allowing many cookies per person and perfectly bite-size cookies (they're quite cute). It also took me probably close to half an hour to roll all those balls. These bake longer than any other cookie I've made before, about half an hour.

I can't even think about eating anything with sugar in it now. Hopefully everyone likes their treats! Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas Cupcake!

So, I decided to put my colleagues in a perma-sugar rush for Christmas this year...

First up, cupcakes. Because honestly, what occasion doesn't call for them. I started with the chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added 10 chopped up candy cane Joe-Joe's from Trader Joe's (basically candy cane Oreos). I also used the buttercream frosting recipe from VCTOTW and threw in mini chocolate chips at the end. To top it off is some crushed candy cane and a piece of candy cane. Pretty, yes?! I'm not sure how well they'll fare making it to work tomorrow, but they'll still taste fine. I've had problems the last couple times I've made frosting from this book, it's just a tad too runny. I need to remember to either add more sugar or less soymilk, hopefully that will fix this problem. Alright I've written that down, we'll see if I remember for next time.

Up next...cookies!

Lemon Bars

Prior to being vegan I had actually never had a lemon bar before. So, these aren't anything that I missed or could make a good comparison for. However, these little beauties from Vegan Cookies and Veganomicon are good! As soon as my boyfriend looked through VCIYCJ all he could think about and want were lemon bars; unbenownst to both of us this recipe was also in V'con (I've never made a dessert from that book actually, so I didn't notice these there until the other day). I finally remembered to get fresh lemons at the store--now he's happy.

Just a warning, these guys require about 4 hours to make and set, so if you want them for a special occasion, prepare ahead. First the crust is made, refrigerated, and baked.


The filling comes next. Other than zesting and squeezing the lemons, this part's pretty simple.



The filling gets poured over the crust and it goes into the fridge for the next three hours. Of course, my boyfriend couldn't wait that long and cut out a piece after about two. These really don't last that long, it's been two days and the crust is already starting to get a little soggy. Be sure to have plenty of friends around to help you eat these, or I'd suggest making only a half batch.

Spiced Cocoa

Mmm...cocoa. One of the best things about cold weather (others: fires and sweaters). Until I became vegan I had never made cocoa from scratch (like a lot of things) before, always relying on little paper packets. Big mistake. Quick to make in a saucepan and worth every minute.

Spiced Cocoa

makes ~2 cups

1/8 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch salt
1/3 cup hot water
2 cups soymilk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine cocoa, sugar, spices, and hot water in a saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until boiling, then stir about a minute more. Add soymilk. Heat through. Remove from burner. Add vanilla and serve.

Variation: leave out cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Instead, once removed from heat add 1/4 tsp mint extract.

Yes, this is great with vegan marshmallows! I'd really like to try it with soy or rice whip too.

Brownie Bites

This was the first recipe I tried from The Urban Vegan. Yum, in a word. In several, these were rich, chocolaty goodness. I didn't have two of the flours called for (soy and spelt), so I subbed a couple different ones (chickpea and all-purpose), but everything worked out just fine. Although, I did have to bake these for about 20 minutes instead of the 8 specified; I don't know if this was due to the subbing or not. I also didn't add espresso powder, and just added a little more cocoa powder.

These were the perfect size (mini muffin sized), and had a great consistency. There were also chunks of chocolate mixed in. Needless to say these didn't last too long.

Citrus Glitters

These little sparkly beauties also come from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They're a lovely citrus version of a sugar cookie.

I was not a fan of the preparation for these cookies. It required using a hand mixer; mine is crazy and always makes a mess (I place a towel over the mixing bowl and use that to keep most of the flyaway contained. The resulting batter then resembled wood shavings, it was very odd. I just had to take a handful of the crumbles/shavings and start pressing them together and they would stay, but I'd never seen anything like it before.


Sugar cookies aren't my favorite, but these were definitely an improvement on the traditional.