Vegtastic!

I have two BBQs and a birthday party to attend today. [I'm not used to being this social.]

So, I baked cupcakes. All recipes are from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

One batch of the book’s Fluffy Buttercream Frosting produced enough to top 36 cupcakes (errr, 34 — David and I each ate one un-iced). I mixed up everything for a single batch except for the extract, then divided it into thirds and added extracts, food coloring, and additional ingredients accordingly. (Since the recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, it ends up being 1/2 tsp extract per 1/3 of the recipe).

Coconut

Start with the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes. Sub out 1 tsp of the vanilla for coconut extract. Adding some shredded coconut to the batter would probably be nice, but I didn’t do so. Sub out half of the vanilla extract in the 1/3 batch of frosting for coconut extract (1/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp) and add a couple tablespoons shredded coconut. Frost with a 1M tip.

Lemon

Start with the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes. Add a lemon zest (≈1/2 a lemon) to the batter and sub out 1 tsp of the vanilla for lemon extract. Sub out half of the vanilla extract in 1/3 batch of frosting for lemon extract (1/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp) and add the zest of the other half of the lemon and a couple drops of yellow food coloring. Frost with a #21 tip.

Gluten-free chocolate

The batter tastes strongly of flax, but baked these cupcakes turn out marvelously; not to be cliche or anything, but they are so moist and tender that I really can’t tell that they are gluten-free.

I needed to sub garbanzo bean flour for the quinoa flour Isa+Terry recommend, though the result is still delicious. Something to note: tapioca flour (as called for in the recipe) is the same as tapioca starch. I prepared the frosting following the directions 100% and added food coloring to get a green color, then striped my pastry bag with blue food coloring for the contrast. Frost with a 1 M tip.

Green and blue are my frisbee team’s colors (BBQ #2); since I’m terrible at frisbee, I wanted to show them that I’m at least good at something — baking.

If you’re looking for a cute way to control dessert portions, look no further than brownie pops.

Brownie pops are an easy trick to transform a regular plate of brownies into something a little more elegant and fun– a sweet treat on a stick.

I baked a batch of these for the most recent Sidecar for Pig’s Peace bake sale. Hope they raised some money for the piggies!

You’ll need:

• 1 recipe for brownies
• brownie pop mold
• cookie sticks
• chocolate chips, for melting
• decoration

You’ll do:

1. Preheat oven to whatever temperature your brownie recipe tells you. For the one I have linked above from VegWeb, it’s 350 degrees.
2. Mix up your brownies.
3. Fill each section of the mold about 2/3 full.
4. Bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, insert a stick into each one and bake 10 minutes more.
5. Cool brownies and remove from pan. Repeat with remaining batter.
6. Melt chocolate and dip brownies in it. Roll in some sort of decor– I used coconut, but sugar sprinkles or those tiny colored balls would be cute. You can really decorate them how you want; some folks get clever, but the lazy method is just as tasty.

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693…

I’ve always thought that the first 30 or so digits of pi would make a lovely nerd tattoo, if I was into either body art or math.

Pi is used so frequently in the hard sciences that were I a mathematician or engineer, I would probably find it very handy to have a reference inked into my flesh.

There’s something very comforting about a mathematical constant: divide any circle’s circumference by its diameter and you get pi.

C/D = π.

The lid of a jar. A lens cap. Columbus circle.

I’m not that into math. I am, however, very much into pie.

But here’s a little fun with numbers: if I have a 9-inch pie pan, the circumference of said pie must be 28.27433 inches.

Yup– that’s my kind of arithmatic.

Filling (from Group Recipes)

• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 6 or 7 apples (or one ginormous one and 3 normal-sized ones), peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup  whiskey
• 2 tbs lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix all filling ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
3. Place flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl; mix thoroughly.
4. With a pastry knife, cut in Earth Balance until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
5. Add 6 tbs of the water and the apple cider vinegar; form a ball of dough, adding extra water if needed and handling as minimally as possible.
6. Divide dough ball in two; wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. Roll half the dough out onto a clean, floured surface; place in bottom of pie pan.
8. Fill with filling.
9. Roll out the other half of dough and place on top. Cut vents in top to let out steam.
10. Bake 25 minutes at 425, then reduce temperature to 350 and bake 45 minutes longer or until crust is brown and juices are bubbling.

Remember how in elementary school everyone got a valentine on Valentine’s Day?

You’d construct mailboxes out of paper or shoeboxes, and then at lunchtime on February 14 the whole class would deliver their little notes of friendship and love.

Most of your haul were probably the crappy commercial-type cards– characters from cartoons or popular movies, with some cheesy saying and the sender’s messy handwriting signifying who it was too or from.

Maybe you (or your mom) made even your own. I think I did that one year, and then never again– you know how many kids are in a California public grade school class? That’s a lot of doilies and glitter.

Things are a little different as an adult, but perhaps you still want to give your coworkers a little something special. Like I’ve said before, I’m not really into Valentine’s day from a romantic perspective, but it’s still fun to give people things.

Since you don’t want them to know you have no life, making everyone a homemade Valentine is not an option, and the “I love you beary much” and “take a walk with me” messages on the seemingly innocent little pieces of cardstock sold at the grocery store, while perhaps appropriate for the 3rd grade crowd, become a recipe for an employment lawsuit.

(Not to mention the discomfort associated with giving Awkward IT Guy a holographic gorilla proclaiming him to be a “wild animal”– yeah, that’s an actual Valentine I didn’t buy at Walgreens.)

The go-around is to make bon bons.

Okay, they do take a bit of effort, but it’s the acceptable kind– the sort of effort that involves chocolate and crumbled sandwich cookies.

Much better than corny cards from a box. (Though yeah, I did give some of those too.)

Vegan bon bons (From Food.com)
makes 20-25

• 1 (1 lb) package Newman-Os
• 8 ounces Tofutti Cream Cheese
• 16 ounces chocolate

1. Crush cookies in a food processor or a zip-lock bag. You’ll be tempted to eat a few. Don’t.
2. Mix cream cheese in with crushed cookies.
3. Roll into small balls and place on waxed paper on a cookie sheet; place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Melt chocolate.
5. Dunk balls in chocolate and place back on waxed paper. Allow to cool.
6. Optional: melt a second flavor of chocolate (like vegan white chocolate, if you can get it) and drizzle over balls.

Hand pies. So hot right now.

Some people are claiming they are the successor of the almighty cupcake. They’re single serving, portable, easy to bake in a variety of flavors (sweet and savory), and — most importantly — they’re cute.

Oh yeah– and tasty.

I could not be happier. My dad is a master pie baker, and though he definitely is not vegan, his pies are– he favors a shortening crust. I grew up with pies filled with the apricots from the tree in our yard.

If Dad has any leftover dough, he spreads it on a cookie sheet and sprinkles it with cinnamon and sugar like his mother used to– nothing goes to waste. This comes out of the oven all gold and flaky, sweet and spicy. It’s a treat in and of itself.

I was super pumped when a new pie shop opened in my neighborhood, and bummed to read that the shop prides itself on its all-butter crusts.

What’s a pie-lovin’ vegan girl to do?

Break out the rolling pin and get baking.

These are heart-shaped in honor of Valentine’s Day, but you can also use a round biscuit cutter to make crescent pockets, or just cut the dough into rectangles and fold them over.

Pie. Yessss.

Cherry Hand Pies (veganized from The Complete Book of Pies by Julie Hasson)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup cold Earth Balance, cut into small pieces
• 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• canned cherry pie filling

1. Place flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl; mix thoroughly.
2. With a pastry knife, cut in Earth Balance until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Add 6 tbs of the water and the apple cider vinegar; form a ball of dough, adding extra water if needed and handling as minimally as possible.
4. Divide dough ball in two; wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Roll dough out onto a clean, floured surface.
6. Cut out an even number of hearts. Place a spoonful of cherry pie filling on each one, cover with a second, and carefully crimp edges together, being sure that the filling does not spurt out. It’s probably a good idea to slash the top to let steam escape (I didn’t do this).
7. Bake on a parchment-covered cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Three words: chocolate raspberry ganache. Make that four words: vegan chocolate raspberry ganache.

These make an incredibly rich and decadent dessert for a party or other special occasion– maybe a New Years’ Eve party? (more…)

Those of us in-the-know realize that streusel is synonymous with laziness, but the average pie consumer does not.

Substituting streusel for a top crust means there’s no need to roll one out, yet your non-baking friends, family, coworkers, classmates, book club, support group– whatever– will swoon over the melt-in-your-mouth sweet crumble, and– dare I say it– elegance that streusel adds to desserts.

Not needing to roll out a top crust also saves you the effort of rolling out a bottom crust. Just press an oil-based dough into the bottom of a pie plate, fill with filling, sprinkle streusel, pop in the oven and call it a day.

This isn’t the prettiest pie that you’re ever going to make, but it’s also one of the quickest and tastiest.

Seriously. Easy.

Ridiculously easy vegan apple pie

Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3 tbs soymilk

Filling:

• ≈4 cups of apples (I used two giant honeycrisp clocking in at almost a pound each), peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash ginger
• 2 tbs cornstarch

Streusel topping:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 tbs oil
• handful of chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl; set aside.
3. Mix together the 1 1/4 cups flour, sugar and salt for the crust. Add the oil and soymilk together and mix with a fork until lumps resembling coarse breadcrumbs form. Form the dough into a quick ball and press into the bottom of a 9″ pie plate.
4. Combine brown sugar and flour for streusel topping; stir in oil until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Stir in walnuts then sprinkle evenly over the apple filling.
5. Bake for 1 hour.

Magazines that promise “savings worth more than this issue!” don’t often draw me in, but if they’re the only reading material at the gym (old issues of The Economist hardly count as gym-appropriate literature), I’ll flip though the pages.

I wasn’t too impressed by the middle-American-SAHM-oriented content of All You! until I came across a recipe for what promised to be the most delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie ever: dried bing cherries, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and chopped walnuts combined with rich brown sugar and nutty oats. The majority of the magazine stayed at the gym; the recipe came home with me.

Swapping out the butter for non-hydrogenated soy margarine and the eggs for ground flax or egg replacer yields a vegan version of this decadent treat. Allowing the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the tray before removing them to the cooling rack is the trick to crispy, slightly chewy, melt-on-your mouth disks of goodness. (more…)

May is the best month to bake apple cake.

This statement may sound odd considering that apple season peaks in September/October/November. In those months, you buy fresh apples from the farmers market or grocery store, rinse them off, and eat them straight– crisp and juicy at the end of summer, mealy and cloyingly sweet the closer you get to the new year.

By May, apples are long-forgotten reminders of autumn that appear out of nowhere in the refrigerator during spring cleaning. Like Betty White, these refrigerator apples are shriveled and old, yet some not-to-be-overlooked spark remains. You certainly wouldn’t want to eat them as is, yet you can’t bring yourself to toss them. So what do you do?

Bake an apple cake.

David’s birthday is in the middle of May, and having several of these Golden Girl apples on hand, I decided to bake him an apple cake with maple frosting– a winning combination, in a Vermont-y sort of way. Many apple cake recipes produce dense loaves of glorified bread, but I wanted a lighter, layered, birthday cake-type of cake. I found a basic recipe on Country Living, and modified it to fit the confection in my head. (more…)