Did You Say Cookies?

 I've slacked on holiday baking the past few years so I think I made up for it when I made four different kinds of cookies and they were all delicious. I made my most requested chocolate chip cookies from The The Joy of Vegan Baking and the Mexican Wedding Cakes from a tattered piece of paper in my mom's recipe box. There are recipes for both of these in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar that I should also try since they are probably equally, if not more, amazing. Since I make those two every year, I wanted to add some variety and try at least one cookie that would challenge me. Done and done!

The Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies from VCIYCJ are serious crowd pleasers. Everyone who tried these was in love at first bite, no joke. I tested one while transferring from sheet to rack and immediately texted my sister something like, "these cookies are effin' bomb". I can't do an exact quote because I am smart and deleted all my text messages yesterday. Anyway, these are incredibly rich but without being too much, if that makes sense. You can probably get away with only eating one, but you'll be back in half an hour for another fix. Make these when you want to win someone over or just to hang onto what you've already got. They're that good, promise.

For my "challenging" cookie I wanted to do the Starry Fudge Shortbread, but freaked out that piping cookie dough and making ganache, each for the first time, would be pushing it. So I made the variation with candied cherries instead and they were still good. My piping skills are still under construction so I hope to do much better next time. I really want to try the ganache version soon, but I am almost out of buttery sticks. I think I had five at the beginning of the month and now I only have one, one and half at the most. Maybe I won't feel I have to bake as much in 2012 now!

Vegan Mofo V Day 22 : Time for Treats

We're having our Friday "Dinner and a Movie" tonight since last night was too hectic. Since my sister is cooking dinner, I decided I would make dessert. We won't have any of the kids next weekend so this is kind of our last Halloween hurrah.

I did chocolate cupcakes with orange-ish buttercream on top, both recipes from VCTOTW of course. Then I put chocolate sprinkles on top of that. I don't have a proper cupcake carrier (yet) so they don't look very pretty in the makeshift rig I've got going right now. I didn't want to do the sprinkles on the table and make a bigger mess than I already had.

When I told my sister the cupcake idea she wasn't too thrilled. I took it the wrong way and got upset for a minute until she reminded me that we had chocolate cupcakes a few weeks ago and again a few days ago from the bakery. It was a good point, but not as good as the argument that you can never really have too many cupcakes of any kind. She suggested cookie sammiches, but I wasn't really in the mood for those. I wanted to practice my piping, which still needs practice (see pics).

Luckily I was able to find a solution. I would do my cupcakes and the cookies, just not cookie sammiches. I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies, probably the only one I will ever use until forever. It's from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I am going to bring six cupcakes and a dozen cookies, so each of us will get one cupcake and two cookies. I'm probably going to bring my own almond milk along too. It's been a while since I switched from soy to almond milk but the other day I had my first sip of vanilla Silk in ages. It was so sweet I couldn't believe it. I love my o.g. almond breeze but am going to try the unsweetened one since it's probably just as good, if not a million times better. What is your go to beverage for washing down desserts?

Blueberry Bombs

We had a wonderful time celebrating my cousin's 50th birthday this weekend. It was especially great to reunite with some cousins I haven't seen since we were kids. We have plans to hang out soon so I am excited for that, hope we can keep it up. I think my cousin felt bad we couldn't eat any of the lovely cakes she made so she sent us home with the fruit that was also out with the desserts. There were cherries, green grapes, black grapes and blueberries.
I knew the others would get eaten up on their own but I wanted to do something with the berries. After looking through lots of cookbooks for a blueberry muffin recipe I decided on the "Blueberry Lemon Muffins" from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I might put a bit more lemon zest next time because we really like our lemon around here, but they are quite tasty as they are. I'm glad we're going to get a break in the weather this week but had I known that sooner, I probably wouldn't have made these yesterday. 400 degree oven and 90 degree weather, not the best idea.

I Make Dough, But Don't Call Me Dough Boy(chucker)

I have been wanting soft pretzels loaded with mustard for about a week now. Today I decided to do something about it. I used the "Soft Pretzels" recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I've never worked with yeast before, partly because I was afraid of it not working out and also because I have hardly any patience. So this was a 2-for-1: get over fear of unfamiliar ingredients and learn to enjoy waiting. I had a blast rolling and shaping the dough, my niece not so much. I think next time I will roll the balls into sticks and then she can shape the pretzels. She got frustrated and it took away from the fun. Luckily they bake up quickly and everyone was happy as soon as she had a pretzel to snack on. As of this writing, only 7 pretzels remain (I had 3 and my niece had 2). Next time I will have to do a double batch or make sure someone else is here to confiscate them as soon as they exit the oven. I totally want to make pizza pretzels now!

Li'l ball of dough

All grown up now



Dough babies



My wannabe Wetzel's Pretzel twists

O.G. pretzels, half by me, half by my niece

Super salty the way I like 'em

Naked ones to be cinnamon-sugared  later

Ready to eat, no more time for pictures!

Truffle Shuffle

As a single gal, I am a reliable, and yet slightly boring Valentine. Every year I buy my sister and niece the same box of Sjaak's truffles. I buy one for myself too, because I love me, and I might as well get the most out of the shipping charges. We had our traditional V-day dinner last night and ate way too much food. I wasn't even going to break out the purchased treats, since we have homemade ones that will expire much sooner.

By request, or rather, pushy demand, I made cookie sammiches. These have been a favorite since the first time I made them. They're also the reason I load up on EB sticks and shortening whenever we make a run to the "nearest" veg friendly store. I hope to be able to remove the quotation marks one day but I think we'll move closer to a major area  
before they bring any goodness out our way.
For a surprise, I decided to finally make the Oreo Truffles I printed out ages ago. I feel bad I do not remember where I got it from and can't link to it or give credit. I know it is all over the internets though, so seek and ye shall find. I'm still trying to figure out if my food processor sucks because it is too small or because it shares a motor with a blender, or because I just put too much stuff in it at once. I seriously thought I killed it when I added in the cream cheese but I pushed a few other buttons and it worked just fine. I will read the instructions before I use it again, don't worry.

The rest of it was easy, kill time while the "filling" refrigerates, melt chocolate in your makeshift double boiler and dunk the little balls of yum into the melted chocolate. Of the two of us, my sister is the one who makes chocolate covered sweets so I was not as adept at fishing the truffles out and nicely laying them on the wax paper. I know if we were racing side by side she would have totally kicked my butt because I take way too long, trying to make sure each one is sufficiently coated. Meanwhile the chocolate starts to solidify and there is not nearly enough left to finish since I don't get it right until halfway through the process. Luckily I had more chocolate to melt and learned to be less picky about how they turned out. They're incredibly rich and remind me of brownies, which is fine by me since I love brownies but have yet to make them just right.

Next year I'll remember to either make or buy treats but not to do both. It's far too much of a good thing. If I really get a good thing going maybe someone will be treating me by then.

Vegan Mofo IV Week 4: Coffee (Cake) Talk

One of my favorite things to eat in my pre-vegan days was Entenmann's Raspberry Swirl coffee cake. I could eat the whole thing in a sitting. I actually did once on a T ride home after a night out, no joke. I think I was drunk, but that was still ridiculous. Why did I even admit to it just now?

Today I made the jam swirl variation of "East Coast Coffee Cake" from Vegan Brunch. I would have made it a lot sooner but I didn't have any raspberry jam. I got some last weekend, but decided to wait until after all of the Thanksgiving madness to make it. This eventually backfired on me since every time I baked a holiday dessert my sister kept asking me why I wasn't making the coffee cake instead.

I have never made a coffee cake from scratch so I was curious to see how it would turn out. I've only ever made the Aunt Jemima ones in the paper pans, so that was my frame of reference. The batter was really thick and I know next time not to use a silicone whisk to mix it. A fork will do, I switched to one after about ten seconds. Making the topping was fun. I used the 1/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. of oil because I wasn't sure I had enough crumbs, might be able to do with less next time. I will keep a closer eye on it next time since it got a little too brown on top, but I had a quick taste and it was no worse for it. I bought an oven thermometer last week and it is showing a 75-100 degree difference from the dial so I'm still figuring that out.

Since she starts work late tomorrow I thought I would treat her to dessert and another light snack. I made the coffee cake today and in the morning I'll make the Chard Florentine on Toast Points from Vegan Yum Yum. Waiting an hour to slice into it is the hardest part of the process. I didn't cut it until about an hour and ten minutes and it was still a bit warm. I only ate half of the piece in the picture because I know my sister will be mad at me for starting without her. I know she'll have some when she gets home from her date, and I'm not sure how much will actually be left for the morning.

Vegan Mofo IV Week 4: Whip Appeal

Since everyone loved the pumpkin cheesecake, I decided to make another one. I bought extra supplies in case this might happen, mom taught me to always think ahead. Sometimes I get it right. When we were enjoying the first cheesecake, we wished we had a whipped topping for it. I would have bought some at Mother's but they didn't have any.

I remember my first attempt at vegan whipped topping years ago. It was probably the first time I really tried to make holiday desserts. None of them worked out very well. My desserts have come a long way since then but I've never revisited the whipped topping until today. There is a recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking so I decided to try that one since that book has been an excellent resource whenever I'm not baking cookies or cupcakes since Isa and Terry have those covered. I do love Colleen's chocolate chip cookie recipe though!

Everything was loaded in the processor and blended to perfection. It tasted great when I was transferring it from the processor to a container. I put it in the fridge to let it chill and just took it out a while ago to try it with the cheesecake. I think it will be even better tomorrow. The recipe said to let it chill for several hours, but I only waited four to try it. I am an impatient gal and I wanted to get another entry in so I don't end this mofo as a failure. Tune in tomorrow for an update, and possibly coffee cake.

Vegan Mofo IV Week 4- I Like Big Bundts and I Cannot Lie

I forget how it started, but I remember calling bundt cakes, butt cakes, when we were growing up. I don't know whether they had a popularity flare up in the early eighties of if that is just when my mom got into them but I remember there was a brief burst of bundt activity in our home. I liked the special pan and the fun drizzly glazes that were usually involved. This was all before I was really allowed to help out, unless licking the beaters/bowls clean counts.

My mom's old bundt pan is still hiding in a cupboard somewhere, but I am a stubborn brat and had to get my own. I wanted to get the Bavaria one when it was on sale, but I didn't for some silly reason. After that I was on a mission to get any fluted pan, even if it was the o.g. bundt I grew up with. I finally found one on sale, with the accompanying cake keeper for about $20.00, and it was red, even better. I know I mostly was paying for the keeper but I'm a sucker for cute packaging, and my bundt is gonna get around, okay?!

I was super excited to make a bundt of my own and had the perfect "bring to the family dinner" recipe thanks to Vegetarian Times. They had a gorgeous Maple Bundt Cake I knew I had to make, especially after my first taste of TJ's Maple Cookies, which set me on the road to maple madness. I reviewed the ingredient list and thought I had everything until I got to the end where it listed maple extract. I just sorted out my baking supplies and I have tons of extracts, but not a drop of maple. I looked for it at the health stores but couldn't find it. Avert your eyes, I had to get imitation maple at the regular grocery store. I'll have to dig deeper to find the pure stuff for next time, but it only needed 2 tsp. so hopefully it will not suffer too much. Don't tell anyone I faked it!

If it tastes half as good as it smelled, I know I will be making this again. Depending on how late we stay, I will have to report back on how it really turned out. I am waiting to dust the sugar until it's time to serve so I will have to get a photo of that as well. I know it would be more dramatic with the Bavaria pan, but this bundt is still booty-ful.

Vegan Mofo IV Week 2: Sweet Savings

Today we went to Sprouts Farmers Market in Brea since it is so much better than the one by our house. We have a Sprouts, a Henry's and just got a Trader Joe's last year. I know I shouldn't complain since some people might not have any of those at all, but I so dearly wish we would get a Whole Foods out here already. Anyhow, we went to the Brea store about a month ago when we were on other O.C. errands. They had the Tofutti Yours Truly and some yogurts my mom liked, so we decided to make a special trip just for those and the TVP that Henry's didn't have the other night.

I found my TVP, so I grabbed two bags just in case I run out in between runs to Mother's. Their quinoa pastas were on sale but they were out of the shells and elbows which are my new go-to mac. I did get lucky with the baking supplies though. The Bob's Red Mill big bags of flour were 2 for $5. I also got some shredded coconut, a new bottle of vanilla, and more canned pumpkin. Since I miss the Vitasoy chocolate peppermint drink I am going to try the Westsoy version. They were 2 for $3, so hopefully we like it and can go back for more. Almost all of the baking essentials were on sale so if you're running low on supplies and cash-you should definitely check them out. Usually their prices are a bit higher than other stores, but today I got lucky. Did I mention their tofu was only 99 cents?

My favorite thing I bought was the Florida Crystals sugar in the paper bag. It looked so cute all dressed up like the sugar I used to buy. I didn't really need any since I just bought the plastic jug of it a week ago, but it was so adorable I had to bring it home with me. The baking section of the pantry was even more overcrowded after these purchases so I had to reorganize it. I went to Big Lots and got a plastic sterilite box to put all my extracts, spices, baking cups and other small items into. It is still a bit cramped but it looks so much better than it used to. I'll bet it looks super messy to everyone else but I have to share the cupboard with omni's so it's the best I can do with the amount of space I have right now.

Seitan is simmering on the stove  as I type this. It's only my second attempt, so let's hope I have a success story to share tomorrow.

P.S. I had pumpkin waffles for breakfast this morning- amazing! My mom tried a few bites and she liked them too which is a triumph since she usually says vegan things taste odd.

Somebody Give This Guy A Muffin!

A banana surplus is not always a bad thing. If I didn't mess up and buy too many, there wouldn't be any banana chocolate chip muffins to welcome my niece and sister home after three weeks of house-sitting. I thought it would be a vacation for me and a test-run for them, but it wasn't what any of us thought it would be. My niece was still here a few days after school each week until my sister or her fiancé could collect her. I went to "their" house for dinner once each week, but it wasn't as good as at home. We complain about our kitchen being so small but it does have all the equipment we need (though there are a few things we still want of course). I think my favorite part of the visit was not having to clean up afterward.

Anyway, back to the muffins. I was going to wait for the others, but just couldn't. They turned out lovely. I really do need to get an oven thermometer before the holidays though. The baking time was 20-30 minutes so I set my timer for 20. Somewhere between 10 and 15 it started to smell like they might be burning so I opened the oven to find out they were indeed done, and a few overdone. Not a big deal, just penciled a note about the time in my book and put the toastier ones aside. I enjoy food just on the edge of burned, but I wouldn't serve it to anyone else.

Tricky oven aside, it was a great recipe from The Joy Of Vegan Baking by Collen Patrick-Goudreau. I love her recipes and I am still mad at myself that I lost the library's copy of The Vegan Table before I could even get a good look at it. I'm hoping to find it somewhere in this house. I already bought a replacement copy for the library, so if I find the old one it's mine to keep.

Fillin' Good

Last week when we were at Babycakes I was the only one stupid/nice enough to let everyone else have a taste of my dessert. I wanted to get more treats to try later but since they would have to sit in the car during the Sparks' game as well as the drive home, it wasn't a good idea. I did not get a bite of the cookie sandwich my niece chose, but I heard it was delicious.

Today I made cookie sandwiches of my own (sort of). I did all the work but I used the recipes my favorite bakers to do so. The cookies were from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. She is a genius and I cannot believe I have only made four recipes from it so far. These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. I slacked a bit on the uniform sizes so I yielded eighteen instead of a dozen, and they were still on the larger side. Actually there was a nineteenth cookie that no one is supposed to know about so shhhhhhh.

After I had the excellent cookies, it was time for the amazing icing. I already knew I would use the "Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Icing" from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (my vegan she-roes, Isa and Terry!). It was my first time making half the recipe so I had to get down with some fractions before I started. I was good until I needed 1/8 cup of soymilk. I had to look that one up. For everyone else who didn't know, 1/8 cup= 2 TBSP. I penciled it in for next time (and there will be a next time). The icing turned out just as lovely as when you make the full recipe and it was the perfect amount to fill the cookie sammiches.

We each had one full sammich, half before dinner and half after. The ones we had after dinner were even better because they were nice and cold from the fridge. Just in time for summer!

p.s. I'll have to try the original Babycakes recipe to see how these compare. I already had everything I needed to make them this way.

holi-daze

While at Target this afternoon I found out there are only 45 days left until Christmas and only 16 (I think) until Thanksgiving. I have not planned my menu or tried out any possible new editions. I did make Tofurkey roast last night and it was yummy since I loaded up the casserole dish with veggies and basted like a mofo. I will have to get cracking if I want to do any tests in the next two weeks. I definitely want to bring a pumpkin tofu cheesecake for my co-workers to try and also because I don't think anyone else at home likes it as much as I do and I do not need to eat the whole thing, even though I can. I also need to finally make the pumpkin brownies which are also featured in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (it invaded my mailbox today)

Since I ate way too many halloween cupcakes I am trying to get back on the right track. I made black and white bean soup for the billionth time today since I had leftover veggies I didn't use in the roast and I have way too many cans of beans in the cupboard. It just finished cooking so I can start putting it into jars and packing some up for tomorrow. Yay! That and some extra walks might take care of some of the cupcakes, but now I have to watch out for vegan cookies. Maybe I should start with the breakfast ones?

Did I mention I went to Target today? We have been swamped at work for the past few months but I think it is finally going to slow down (so they tell us). In the meantime everyone has been stressed out, bogged down and riled up so I did what I would normally not do and jumped on the commercial Christmas bandwagon really early. I bought a 3' lighted tree, two tubes of $1 bulbs (one disco, one glittery) and a mini stocking for each of us plus glitter glue to write our names. Since we can't have candles around all that glorious paper I also bought a reed diffuser that is supposed to smell like cedar and pine. I would have preferred to get a real tree but since we might be gone for two weeks I feel bad for how that would turn out. I was so excited for all my purchases, the only thing I could not find was a package of reasonably priced hooks, but isn't that what repurposed paperclips are for?

wake up and smell the coffee cake (vegan mofo day 6)

welcome to the working week, a.k.a. mondays invariably kick my butt. i can't fall asleep sunday night because i am so excited for all of the things i plan to do as soon as i get home from work the next day. after not nearly enough sleep and the drain that only monday can bring, i haul myself home and that's about the end of it. but i reminded myself, must...keep...blogging.

after a snack and a cat nap, i realized that not needing to make dinner was not a good enough excuse to leave the kitchen alone. i have been wanting chocolate chip cookies for weeks but i didn't feel like making them tonight. flipping through the library of underused cookbooks i looked for something i already had all of the ingredients to make. it was a toss up between banana chocolate chip muffins or cinnamon coffee cake from the joy of vegan baking. since we didn't have enough ripe bananas, coffee cake won.

too bad the saints lost, i think this is my worst week for the season. i'm not a football fiend or anything, but i would like nothing more than to whip the executives in the office pool. i'm still in first place by one point, phew!


p.s. hello to my fellow mofo's who've been reading/commenting these past few days.