vegan bake sale

today i donated some vegan goodies to the vegan bake sale that was raising money for haiti disaster relief. it was a really good cause and there was so much food! thanks to everyone's baking and volunteer work, they raised over $2,000 for doctors without borders. which is really really awesome.

i decided to do something different for the bake sale, something i hadn't done before. i've always wanted to try to make vegan cannoli, so i saw this as a good opportunity. but just to be safe i also planned on the always tasty fluffernutter cupcakes.

so i ordered some cannoli forms online, and found a basic recipe for vegan cannoli. it was pretty easy to make these, just super time consuming. first i made the cream and let it chill for a day so it could really firm up. then i had to make the dough for the shell. once i rolled out the dough and wrapped it around the cannoli forms, i had to deep fry. now i don't have a deep fryer (it might be a good idea to get one if i plan on making these again) so i had to heat some oil in a deep pot. i highly suggest using a deep fryer. the mess i created on my stove top, the oil i have to dispose of, and the smell of hot oil for days in my house are all good reasons you should use a deep fryer (outside) for this. but i made it work. so if i can do it then so can you. a few dough rolled forms came un-rolled during frying, so i just ate them. i ended up with 18 cannoli shells, though, so i think it worked out. the next day i melted some chocolate and spread it inside all the shells, then stuck them in the fridge to harden. then i filled with the cream. a little dusting of powdered sugar before packaging, and voila! yummy vegan cannoli!











if you haven't already, do something to help those in haiti. donate money, clothing, food, anything you can. they need our help.

palmiers

so easy and so tasty!

christmas goodie bags

instead of buying my coworkers gifts for the holidays, i like to bake. i think receiving something homemade is really special and means a lot - you know the person worked really hard and did it with good intention and of course thought about you when making it. it's so easy to buy a gift card or coffee mug for someone, but baking takes a lot more thought.

this year i kind of went crazy with the baking. i suppose i was a little ambitious (as usual), but everything turned out really great (if only i could say the same for christmas morning, my cinnamon rolls didn't rise and breakfast was a failure).


first i had to bake some vegan cookies for a holiday party. left to right: vegan chocolate chip cookies (a veganized version of betty crocker's recipe), vegan snickerdoodles (a veganized version of martha stewart's recipe), and vegan chocolate chip candy cane cookies (betty crocker + extra candy canes in my house)

then i used martha stewart's linzer cookie recipe for these pretty treats. most linzer recipes call for almonds, but martha uses hazelnuts. the taste is much more rich and nutty, but i think it's nice.

i was making three batches of gingerbread cinnamon rolls for my coworkers...

luckily i had the space in my fridge to store them!

they came out really nice. i topped them with a lemon icing - i added some lemon juice and a little zest to the normal icing recipe.

all wrapped up for gifts!

i also made some chocolate cherry muffins, but they didn't come out too great. i tried to make them in a christmas tree shaped muffin pan, but it's actually really hard to get pointy muffins out of a tin. i messed most of them up, so they were not picture worthy.

after all of this, i think i can safely say i'll be staying away from the kitchen for a while. well, not too long. my friend's birthday is in two days and i think i have to bake a cake...

thanksgiving 2009!

oh my goodness. what a week. i spent all of last week baking for thanksgiving, and then spent about 20 minutes eating it all up. isn't it funny/annoying/sad that so much time goes into planning for thanksgiving dinner, and then you're so excited to eat that you inhale everything and it's over in a flash... at least i can look back on it and think how delicious everything was (oh and ps i totally ate too much this year, had to excuse myself from the table because i thought i was going to puke. that's not normal, right? i have a problem).

anyway, here come the photos.

first, i made an apple crumble pie. you can't have thanksgiving without apple pie. i love making lattice crust tops - people are always so impressed with lattice tops, and they're really not that hard to make. after you've done it once, you'll be able to do it really quickly on all your pies. this pie was good, it gelled really nicely and wasn't runny at all. secret? apple sauce!


next, i had the pecan pie tarts. these are so so so good. and they are so easy to make. the crust is basically just butter and cream cheese, and the pecan filling is nuts, sugar, egg and butter. good, simple ingredients=delicious food. these were the perfect size and a big hit, especially with my brother.


i decided to spice things up by adding a cake to the list of thanksgiving desserts. i found this recipe for a pumpkin sandwich cake on the better homes and gardens website, and i love pumpkin and i love cream cheese frosting, and this recipe combined the two, and then added chocolate (drools). when making the cream cheese frosting, i think it was a little too tart for my taste. but when inside the cake and with the chocolate ganache, the tanginess complimented the rest of the cake (which was all really sweet). cakes are fun to make, but you really have to have the patience.


and of course we can't forget the pumpkin pie. i made a brandy pumpkin pie, and it was some of the best pumpkin pie i've had. there was just enough brandy in the recipe where you couldn't really taste the alcohol, but you knew there was something a little special in there. the custard was so smooth and silky, not too thick like some pumpkin pies. and the crust came out really nice and crispy. this recipe is a keeper!


i also made a vegan pumpkin pie for scott. according to him, it's delicious. i didn't try it - by the time he got to eating it i was done with pie and just looking at sweets made me sick. but he said it was good, so i'm happy about that.


i hope you all had a great and tasty thanksgiving, and didn't eat to the point of nausea (like me). i really enjoyed baking this year, i'll probably tone it down a bit next year, though. four desserts? yeah, a little crazy.

bring on the christmas cookies!

holiday pies

hi! i'm back. i had to take a week off because of the swine flu, and then i wasn't too keen on baking and getting my germs into cupcakes and such. but i am better now, and more than making up for it with pies.

on sunday night scott asked if i would make him an apple pie. i ran out to store and bought some apples and soy milk, then came home stoked to make my first pie of the season. so i get home, make the crust, put it in the fridge to chill, then get out my vegetable peeler to start the apples. on my first apple, on the third stroke, i nicked my ring finger. i don't cut myself when cooking, i'm usually really careful. so of course i saw blood and FREAKED. i ran screaming to the bathroom, luckily scott was there to dress my wound. i almost passed out...

scott was nice enough to finish peeling and slicing the apples, and once my finger stopped throbbing i continued to make the pie. i used the pie crust recipe from veganomicon (love that pie crust, its so easy and always turns out amazing) and then adapted the apple pie recipe from my better homes and gardens special edition new cook book. it was easy to veganize, apple pie is pretty standard..

it came out pretty darn nice, i was pleased.
i couldn't wait for it to cool, we had to eat it within a few hours of coming out of the oven. probably should have let it sit so the liquid could gel up a bit. oh well. it was still delicious.
soy vanilla ice cream for scott

tonight i decided to make a pumpkin pie for my boss who just moved into a new house. pie is her favorite baked good, so what better way to say "welcome to your new home" than with pie! my boss is not vegan, so i just did a plain ol' pumpkin pie. i used my better homes and gardens cookbook again, only because this recipe seemed so easy (pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, sugar, egg, half and half).
yumyum
i'm proud of my crust. i'm a fan of crust.

i know i said i wanted to test drive some of the recipes i chose for thanksgiving dessert, but instead i've been making these. oh well! i guess it will be a surprise on thanksgiving.

vegan apple coffee cake

i bought a big bag of apples from the store, and the first one i bit into was mealy. i HATE mealy apples. i did some research online and found out that cooking the apples will sort of disregard the mealiness. so i sliced up the apples and cooked them down with some brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. THEN i thought about adding this apple mixture to a coffee cake.

i made this coffee cake as a combination of like, four other recipes, so i can't link you to one recipe (sorry). but that should be all the more motivation for you to make up recipes on your own! i wasn't 100% pleased with my results - it was really delicious, but i was missing the light, fluffy texture that usually comes with coffee cake. since i did a vegan version, i'm sure i lost something along the way that would have helped it rise. but it's ok, better luck next time.

vegan cinnamon rolls

scott had been bugging me for a while to make him cinnamon rolls from scratch. it took me a while to decide to make them because they're so time consuming - you have to make the dough, let the dough rise, then knead, then roll out, then make the cinnamon rolls, then let those rise, then finally bake, then ice...aye yi yi. so i promised him it would be the first thing i'd bake once i moved into my new condo.

i kept my word! i made these for him for a saturday morning, and i have to admit, i am really proud of these. they turned out so well, the dough was great, the cinnamon sugar was delicious, and the icing was perfect. there was no way in hell anyone could think these are vegan - i couldn't taste any sort of soy flavor. i'm sure all the cinnamon and sugar covered that up, anyway. i could easily sell these and make the big bucks....maybe one day.

anywho, here are some pictures, and here's a link to where i found a great recipe (you always have to make little adjustment though to make the end product uniquely yours).

dandies marshmallows

i've never been a huge fan of marshmallows (expect for s'mores. i am a fan.). so when scott brought me a bag of vegan marshmallows and told me to make something with them, i was at a loss for ideas. rice krispy treats and s'mores were the only thing that popped into my head when i thought about what i could make.

but the chicago soy dairy's dandies marshmallows are really, really good. they're vegan, and since they're not made with gelatin, they seem a little denser, a little less puffy. but they aren't as sweet, and that's what appealed to me. i've never been able to eat a plain marshmallow, it's too sugary even for a sweet-tooth like me. but since these ones are a little less sweet, and have a little more substance, i was happy to eat them.

so for my first dandies cooking experiment, i went with the good ol' rice krispy treat. i made these for a summer party i had, and everyone enjoyed them - vegan or not. i knew i had to step it up for the next marshmallow recipie. i decided a rocky road cupcake would be a fun idea, because who doesn't like rocky road ice cream?

i made a basic chocolate cupcake, but shoved a few marshmallows in the batter before sticking it in the oven. once they came out of the oven and cooled (and deflated), i covered them with chocolate ganache, then threw some chopped almonds on top and a few more little marshmallow pieces.


VERDICT- really yummy, could use a little more work to get the marshmallows spread throughout the cake.


next, i decided to try a fluffernutter cupcake. my mom was on a recent kick of fluffernutter sandwiches for breakfast. she's a health nut, so she found some healthy peanut butter, and sugar free marshmallow fluff. so i figured if she can make it healthy, then i could definitely make it vegan.

first, i made a vanilla cupcake. as they were cooling, i melted down the dandies with some earth balance, then piped the marshmallow fluff into the cupcakes.


then i smeared the extra marshmallow cream on top of the cupcake.


then i spread peanut butter buttercream on the top, and then found some vegan chocolate sprinkles that i threw on top as well.



VERDICT - a big hit. people seem to know me for this cupcake (oh you made those good fluffernutter cupcakes!). still, i need to work on that peanut butter frosting. i've tried it multiple times and i just can't get a good consistency. but i'm determined to get it right.


next, i went with a non-vegan s'more brownie recipe that i used for a work bakesale and loved. i veganized it, which was a little difficult. finding vegan graham crackers is near impossible (if you know where i can get some, please enlighten me!). i was about to give up, until i strolled by the pre-made pie crust section, and found the graham cracker crusts, which were vegan! success! these brownies have a graham cracker bottom, brownie center, and melted, toasty marshmallows on the top.


the marshmallows melty wonderfully, better than when i used regular marshmallows. i mean, who wouldn't want to eat this?


VERDICT - people loved these. i brought these to a party and they went fast. when you make something like this, people don't even question why it's vegan. who cares, it's a brownie. with marshmallows. and graham crackers. YUM.


finally, i was at a loss for my next marshmallow creation. i thought, 'well, i've made cupcakes, i've made brownies, i've made rice krispies, are there cookies i can make?' yes, yes there are. i made mallowmars, or moon pies as some of you may call them. i started with a basic vegan shortbread, then put some marshmallows on top and let them get melty and soft in the oven.


i let that cool down and then threw the cookies in a big bowl of melted chocolate. i let the chocolate harden, and then feasted on these delicious cookies.



VERDICT - amazing. these are so so so good. i could easily package these and sell them. after posting a picture of these on my facebook, i received tons of comments from people who were about to eat their computer screen. next time i've got a party to go to, i'm bringing these.


so! if you want to cook with vegan marshmallows, use dandies! hey, if you just want to cook with marshmallows, these are a great choice. visit their website HERE.