Pumpkin Tiramisu

Today has been an incredibly productive day. I got up early, even though I went to bed late. I made myself breakfast and starting baking. I caught up on all sorts of things that had been piling up. I ran a work errand and a personal errand with a friend so we had time to catch up. I came home, finished baking and cleaned up all my messes. I watched a movie. I talked to some friends & family. I took a bath full of seaweed and lavender and drank a glass of skullcap tea. I am trying my hardest to get a good night's rest to prepare myself as best possible for the last half of my work week. Things are starting to get very hectic in the bakery. Another person has left and no one has applied for the position yet. The holidays are rapidly approaching, and I am starting to panic. I know that things will work out. After all, they always do. And everything else is going so well in my life. There have to be a few minor bumps to help us appreciate those good things.



Pumpkin Tiramisu
makes 6 individual dishes or 1 loaf pan

1 batch lady fingers from Vegan Desserts
1 batch coconut whipped cream
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 container Tofutti cream cheese
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbl cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
In mixing bowl with the whip attachment, mix all ingredients (aside from the lady fingers and whip cream) until fully combined and slightly airy. In dishes, arrange a layer of lady fingers, a layer of pumpkin cream and repeat. Top with a layer of whipped cream. Allow to chill for at least 8 hours before serving. Once chilling is done, top with a heavy sprinkle of cinnamon

Maple Pear Cobbler

I keep getting caught up in waves of things. This weekend was a whirlwind of fun, and now I am deep into cleaning mode. I am going through my closets, and the kitchen, and my endless shelves of bakeware. I even managed to make it through the spice drawer. Living with four other people has it's benefits (i.e. cheap rent), but you always end up with redundancies of things. We had 4 jars of cloves, 3 jars of cinnamon, 3 jars of nutmeg, 3 jars of thyme, 2 jars of dill, and on and on. I managed to condense everything down to at least 2 jars or less. Small wins. Now it is on to tackle the endless dishes and silverware. I probably need to invest in even more plastic containers to keep things as neat as possible. I would start researching storage solutions on pinterest, but I know it would devolve into a dangerous spiral and soon I would be trying to fishtail braid my hair into some elaborate up-do or painting zig zag stripes on the seats of all out kitchen chairs. At least I know my weaknesses.
These cobblers were a good use of finishing up a few ingredients. I polished off the remaining red pears, emptied a mason jar of flour & an older bottle of maple syrup. I don't even want to admit that the Earth Balance I needed came from three separate end bits of Earth Balance sticks I found in various fridge drawers. There isn't a whole lot to the cobblers. They are easy and simple and best of all they smell like brunch. It's like eating a pear compote topped plate of warm french toast. I sort of compiled my own recipe from two other recipes. The maple pear filling is based off of this recipe from Smells Like Home, and the biscuit topping is an alteration from the Very Berry Chocolate Chip Cobbler in Vegan Pie in the Sky. Also, I used regular Earth Balance because I wanted to get rid of as many things as possible, but they just released a new cinnamon spread that would probably be pretty dreamy here.

Maple Pear Cobbler
4 four inch individual cobblers

For filling
2 red pears, chopped into 1/3" pieces
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tbl flour
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cloves
1 tbl Earth Balance
All the pears, maple syrup, flour, and spices to a medium sized bowl and mix with hands until the pears are evenly coated. Portion into oven safe ramekins. Add tiny slivers of Earth Balance to tops of each dish, cover with foil or place a sheet pan over top of all the dishes and baked at 425 for 15 minutes.

For topping
1/3 cup almond milk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp maple syrup
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbl sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbl Earth Balance
a few teaspoons cinnamon sugar for sprinkling*
Combine almond milk, vinegar, and maple syrup in a cup to curdle. Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and spices to a bowl. Cut in the Earth Balance using a fork until tiny pea sized balls form. Fold in the wet ingredients just before your timer goes off on the pear mixture in the oven. Dollop on top of the dishes until you have your desired coverage, I ended up not needing all of the topping. Sprinkle on a bit of cinnamon sugar and continue baking at 425 for 15 to 20 more minutes until the biscuit bits are firm to the touch and golden. Best when eaten warm.
*If you don't keep a jar of cinnamon sugar handy at all times, you should. I use a ratio of 1 cup of sugar to 2 tablespoons cinnamon.

Local Favorites: Franklin Fountain

This weekend while we were in Philadelphia, we ate a lot of amazing food. We always make multiple stops at Grindcore House and Blackbird, but this time we also tried a few new places. We got chicken ranch sandwiches at HipCityVeg that were pretty decent. But the highlight of new food was definitely the pumpkin sundaes we got at Franklin Fountain! They make a coconut based vegan ice cream, a caramel sauce, whip cream, and throw in a handful of salted pecans and a pinch of malt powder on top. It really surpassed all of my expectations when I heard about it. I feel like generally when non-vegan shops try to create vegan ice creams they tend to fall a little short, but this was certainly not the case! If you haven't been here before and are in the area, you should definitely check it out. The people also own a little candy shop that is a few doors down. I didn't ask about most of the candy because I was already maxed out on sugar, but it did appear that several things were likely vegan!

Local Favorites: Larriland Farm

This year was the first time that I have ever gone apple picking! I have actually never gone fruit picking at all. I think in elementary school I might have picked some cotton at a local farm on a school trip, but this was a whole different experience. The whole place was so neat. We picked a few bags of apples, got a jug of cider, ate a bag of kettle corn, and I tried to feed a goat. I even saw a llama! The farm is less than an hour away and have all sorts of other crops to pick too. I can't wait to go back during berry season! My CSA was pretty cool, but it's way more interesting to pick my own fruit instead of having someone else do it for me.

Fall Leaf Sugar Cookies

I saw these really adorable leaf cookies on HGTV. I knew that I had to make a batch of my favorite vegan sugar cookie dough and tint away. In retrospect, I wish I had went with a more maroon shade of red, because no matter how much red dye I added to the dough, it still baked up a bright shade of hot pink. Barbie would approve, but I do not. I also would have added either spices or extracts to the dough. I don't use dyes very often and I forget how bad most of them taste!
I am spending the weekend in Philadelphia. I am so excited to be away from DC for just a little bit again. Going home was nice, but it wasn't as relaxing as it could have been. So now it's time to eat pizza, go to a haunted house, and see a lot of friends! I was doing a really great job posting every day this month, but I think I might miss a day soon because I have been spending a lot more time working and doing things with friends than in the kitchen. But I won't stress about it. I never got a perfect attendance award in school, so why start now?!

Cider Poached Pear Sorbet

Originally when I made my first "to do" list for this intense month, I placed poached pears on it. A few weeks later, I had seen so many baked fruit dishes on the internet that I got a little less interested. I spent the evening yesterday skimming through a few cookbooks, and saw a recipe for Cider Pear Sorbet in Hannah's Vegan a la Mode. I knew this was the perfect way to still poach my pears but also make a more interesting dessert out of it. I used a local spiced cider and a mixture of Bosc and Red Anjou pears. I didn't peel my pears, because I wanted a bit of texture in the sorbet. The sorbet ended up a beautiful color, a light peachy pink with flecks of spices and pear. I loved it! If you are intending to share this with anyone besides yourself and maybe your best friend, then you should just go ahead & double the batch. You won't regret it.

Pear Muffins with Candied Walnut Streusel

Pear Muffins with a Candied Walnut Streusel
This will make 6 jumbo muffins or a dozen standard size.

1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/3 cup Turbinado
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk
2& 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 large pear, chopped

Streusel topping
1/2 cup candied walnuts*
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl turbinado
2 tbl Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream Earth Balance and sugar. Add applesauce, vanilla, & milk. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder salt, and cinnamon. Add half the dry mixture to the wet, mix to incorporate, and repeat. Fold in the pear. Fill liners 3/4 full with batter.
Chop candied walnuts to very tiny pieces. Combine all dry streusel ingredients. Melt the Earth Balance, drizzle it over the mixture, and blend using a fork and some patience. Sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake for 28-33 minutes or until toothpick comes out cleanly.
*There are tons of recipes for candied nuts, but the one I used was from Vegan Food Gifts