Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Post-move I have been trying to reduce the amount of baking supplies I hoard. I found a pre-made Oreo crust at the very bottom of my box of supplies and knew it had been there for so long that I didn't remotely have a clue how old it was. A chocolate cookie crust called for one thing, pudding pie. Chocolate pudding pie is a tried & true classic. I have blogged about it before, so it's not enough to warrant a new post. However this time around I used So Delicious's new coconut whipped topping. While I think it tastes remarkably like Cool Whip, the texture was a little off for me. It was very heavy and quite hard to spread on top of the pie even though I had let it thaw overnight in the fridge & then beat it for several minutes to try to make it fluffier. I think if it were something that I was going to pipe whipped cream onto, it would be perfect for that & probably hold it's shape remarkably well. I have another tub in the freezer and a few more ideas for what I am going to do with it next.


Every year in DC my friend's host a vegan Thanksgiving dessert potluck. After 9pm once we have all gotten through dinners with our friends & family and maybe foraged through the meal to find the bits & bobs that are vegan, we get together to eat dessert together. Since I spent the last few years up to my knees in pie every holiday season, I decided to take a new route for the dessert potluck this year. I made an apple gingerbread bundt cake, tweaked from the apple cider cake recipe on Pickles & Honey. It went too quickly for me to photograph well. However, in my post-food coma I was wise enough to grab a few of the cookies I made to snap a photo of the next day. I saw these maple walnut cookies during Vegan MoFo on Shannon's blog. I decided to fore-go the frosting since there would be so many desserts and opted for a maple glaze & sprinkles instead.


Greg was in Europe for two weeks and while he was kind enough to bring me back German chocolate bars that are more amazing than I could have even expected, I also got a little stir crazy. I used that momentum to buy a bus ticket to New York and convinced my friend Melanie to go with me. Despite walking around in the pouring rain for almost 8 hours in a city that neither of us are fond of, we had a pretty nice day. I got an amazing hot dog made solely of root vegetables and then topped with more pickled vegetables and a kale caesar salad from Yeah Dawg. But most importantly and the sole purpose for the trip, I got a dozen macarons. Sweet Maresa's released her winter flavors, and I knew I needed to try them. Pictured are hot chocolate, gingerbread, black licorice, carrot cake, caramel pecan, and pistachio. All phenomenal, but I think the gingerbread macaron is one of my new favorites.
I have also fallen pretty under the spell of copper lately. I bought my first copper pan because it was beautiful and not too expensive. Greg's mom, who is an amazing hunter of antique & vintage goods, was kind enough to buy me these copper pots & pans. Just look at that double boiler! A very good start to my newest collection.


And almost a whole year after they were posted in Kristy's cookie swap, I finally made the gluten free turtle cookies I bookmarked. Considering that we are now almost halfway through this year's cookie swap, one could say that I am a little behind in my pleasure baking. I'm going to an in-life cookie swap this weekend, and I am struggling to try and figure out what I want to make. I have tossed around many ideas. Traditionally I feel like I should make gingerbread or snickerdoodles or maybe some snowflake & mitten sugar cookies. But I think I might mix it up. Maybe eggnog cookies? I made a batch of pistachio pudding cookies that I want to tweak and make a little better, so that might be a good option. The pressure of making something with no restrictions whatsoever. It's almost overwhelming.


One of my main routines since my move to Philadelphia has been drinking too much coffee and eating doughnuts. Dottie's Donuts has been growing super rapidly. Originally wholesaling on the weekends to a few coffeeshops, they have now expanded to 6 days a week and are being carried at so many shops! While my favorite is the classic cinnamon sugar, Dottie's really specializes in their interesting flavor combinations. The donut shown here was a Little Baby's exclusive with a glaze of Little Baby's smoked cinnamon ice cream, chocolate drizzle, and waffle cone chunks. Other favorites have included horchata, apple cider, and sweet potato. But they just keep cranking out amazing flavors like Silk nog and cranberry tangerine. If you are in the Philly area and haven't tried these doughnuts yet, you are really messing up.

Maple Bacon Donuts

I have heard every sort of argument for whether the baked good above is spelled doughnut or donut. I've been told that fried versions are spelled doughnut, and baked cake versions are spelled donut. I've heard that artisanal shops are the ones who can use doughnut, but fast food chains need to use the abbreviated spelling. This is a subject I have thought long and hard about. I generally use "donut" because it's less letters to type, and if I am anything, it is concise.
A few weekends ago while I was driving home TED radio hour came on. When I heard the topic was big data & culturomics I almost turned the program off. Luckily I refrained because it answered some of my questions about the usage of "doughnut". These two scientists, Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean Baptiste Michel, teamed up with Google to create something called Ngram Viewer. It's basically a highly addictive program that allows you to look at the use over words over extended periods of time. What this all boils down to is that while Teddy Roosevelt suggested changing the spelling to donut in the early 1900s in an effort to abbreviate the English language to make it easier to learn, it didn't pick up any momentum. And the spelling "donut" wasn't really used until 1950 when Dunkin Donuts opened in Boston! Ta-da. Here's your cultural lesson of the day. Apparently there's still a lot of heated debate between the Oxford English Dictionary and Garner's Modern American Usage about which spellings can be used in which contexts, but who really cares about the nitty gritty. Let's get to the sweets!


I used BabyCake's cake donut recipe from BabyCakes Covers the Classics for the base. I am not partial to bean flours, but the quarter cup of vanilla extract goes a fair way in covering up that flavor. It had a nice consistency, and I will definitely make the donuts again. The glaze is simply powdered sugar, maple syrup, and a bit of Frontier maple flavor. I don't know how to properly measure things for glaze, because I tend to just mix things until I get both the right flavor & consistency. I also sprinkled on Phoney Baloney coconut bacon because we had a bit in the cabinet, but I highly suggest making your own! It's so easy. My favorite recipe is from Cupcakes & Kale, but most of them are fairly similar. Just go easy on the liquid smoke or your house will smell like a campfire for weeks.

Apple Cider Donuts

I am a perfectionist. It drives me crazy when I make something and I know that it’s okay but it could be better. This was the case with my first two batches of apple cider donuts. I found this Vegetarian Times recipe online in the middle of last winter when it was a bit too late for cider donuts. I made them in September and thought they were just alright. The apple taste wasn’t really as strong as I wanted it to be. So I tried again. The next time I boiled down 4 cups of cider to a shy 1 cup and replaced the milk in the liquid with extra cider. While that batch was a bit more appley, it was still just lacking.
A few weeks later, I made the caramel stuffed apple cider cookies and was wowed with their flavor. It hit me that I had a few packets of instant apple cider powder left, and I got to work getting these donuts right. The third time sometimes really is the charm. Apple Cider Donuts
adapted from VeganYumYum, makes approximately 8 large donuts

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 packets Alpine Spiced Apple Cider
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Ener-G egg
4 tablespoons Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 350. Grease donut pan. In medium bowl mix together flour, sugar, apple cider powder, spices, baking soda, and salt. In small saucepan heat the Earth Balance, almond milk, and egg replacer until the Earth Balance is completely melted and the mixture is warm but not scalding. Stir the vanilla extract into the wet ingredients, and then fold all of it into the dry. Spoon the batter into the pans until they are approximately half full. The donuts will rise a fair amount during baking. Bake approximately 12 minutes, until the donuts spring back when touched.
When these were done baking I brushed the tops of the donuts with reduced apple cider and coated them in a cinnamon & Turbinado mixture. I used 1 teaspoon of cinnamon for a half cup of Tubinado. I love the crunch that the raw sugar adds, but if you prefer you can use regular granulated sugar. These also taste great with just a light glaze or powdered sugar.

Coffee & Donuts Cupcakes

I was making donuts for a bake sale for a few months ago and had a bit of batter left over from several batches. I make a few mini donuts to check their quality, but then realized that they had much more potential than being a half pint donut. A few minutes later,I was whipping up a batch of mocha frosting. Pipe that onto a dark chocolate cupcake with a hint of espresso powder, top it with a sprinkled donut, and you have what I deemed "the breakfast of champions." Hopefully, Kurt Vonnegut approved.



Chocolate Cupcakes
recipe adapted from VCTTOW

1 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground espresso
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons coffee extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (Valrhona if you can find it)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Curdle the milk with the vinegar. Add the espresso, sugar, oil, & extracts. Whisk rapidly. Sift together dry ingredients in large bowl. Add met and mix until combined and smooth. Fill liners 3/4 of the way and bake 16-20 minutes.

While your cupcakes are cooling you want to bake your donuts & make your frosting. If you are a great multi-tasker, you could even bake your donuts and cupcakes at the same time. If you are gonna attempt this, I recommend prepping all your ingredients first. I do the dry ingredients for both items, then the wet. In this instance, I scooped my cupcakes while I was melting the butter for the donut batter. Then I tossed the cupcakes into the oven while I was making the donut batter and filling the pans. By the time you are finish with that they will both be ready to pull out of the oven at roughly the same time. Just be sure to put your donuts in the oven gently so that your cupcakes don't fall!


Mocha Frosting
very minorly adapted from Sweetapolita

1 cup Earth Balance
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons coffee extract
5 oz quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled
1/4 cup almond milk

Beat together the Earth Balance and powdered sugar. Add the extracts and mix again. Slowly pour in melted chocolate while the mixer is on. Add almond milk to desired consistency. You may not need all of the almond milk, but you could need a bit more. It's up to your preferences and a lot of little factors, like humidity and what not.


These cupcakes sold out so quickly that I was shocked. Everyone kept crooning over them and taking pictures on their fancy phones. I was all pink and my cheeks hurt from grinning. It felt so good that I made another batch to box up for a friend's birthday. I baked them in blue polka dot liners, put them in a pink polka dot box, and wrapped the box with baker's twine & tied a candle into the center of the bow. Major cute factor. Basically what I am saying is that these cupcakes will impress everyone. You can't lose.

Blueberry Cake Donuts

Last month I realized that it's a lot easier for me to deal with things in my life when I am baking. If I miss someone or want to thank someone, my gut reaction is to handle the situation through flour. I couldn't think of a more 'me' way to say goodbye to two of my favorite people except through a box of treats & a note left on our kitchen counter.
I have made this baked blueberry donut recipe from Nikki of the Tolerant Vegan a few times now. I find them to be one of my stand-by donut recipes. I have mentioned before that I prefer my donuts baked; I feel like it allows the flavors to really shine through. You don't wanna lose all that berry goodness in the taste of oil. And since they are really low in fat & contain fresh fruit, it's not terrible if you eat a few for breakfast right?! That's my kind of compromise.


If you aren't into blueberries or are just looking for a standard donut batter, this recipe will definitely work. I tossed a handful of mini donuts in a cinnamon-powdered sugar mixture. It was really great, and a nice cross between a cinnamon sugar donut and a powdered donut. You don't want to toss them too soon before they are going to be eaten, because any humidity or moisture the donuts come in contact with will dissolve the sugar.


I have a really long list of things to bake, but it's hard to get through it when I keep re-making so many recipes I have found. That's not a complaint. It's just a fact. What are your favorite recipes at the moment? Is there a cookbook you are currently swooning over? I have one that I will be sharing with you all soon!

Pizza, Soda, & Donuts, Oh My.

Unless I am traveling home to Tennessee to visit with my parents & friends, then I am traveling with the intention of eating wild food. Vegan food tourism is something that I whole heartedly buy into, which is maybe why I am so jealous of Kristin at Will Travel for Vegan Food!
We had a whirlwind weekend in Philadelphia and NYC for my partner's birthday. We drove from DC to Philly Friday afternoon, which ended up taking almost four hours! Traffic was so terrible, but we had a batch of fresh baked vegan M&M cookies (post coming soon!) to keep us content. As soon as we arrived, we ate at Blackbird pizzeria (for the first of 3 times). Their cubano sandwich is phenomenal if you like smoked tofu. Their pizza crust is also amazing. I generally stick to the plain or veggie slices, but if you want a lot of toppings you should definitely get the Haymaker! Blackbird also carries a few sodas, but I am always intrigued by the DRY flavors. This time I got a vanilla bean DRY soda, and it was by far my favorite that they offer.
We got breakfast Saturday morning at Grindcore House, another steady favorite. I always get a whole wheat everything bagels with scallion cream cheese, iced coffee, and a Vegan Treats cannoli. Greg always gets a Vegan Treats peanut butter brownie. We are definitely consistent.
After lots of walking around Philly, another trip to Fante's kitchen supply store, and lunch at Blackbird again, we took a Megabus to NYC.
Our bus ended up being pretty late. While we missed out on ice cream at Lula's, we still made it to a friend's birthday BBQ and our main plan for the weekend. If you haven't heard of Sleep No More, you should immediately look it up. It's an interactive theatre performance set in a 6 story hotel. The performance is a 3 hour production of Macbeth set in the 1920's. It is three hour long loops with a finale at the end. Once in the hotel there is no speaking, you must wear your mask at all times, and you are responsible for your own experience. You basically are allowed to wonder around this giant hotel, touch anything, and follow any character. It is mindblowing! We are already determined to go back again.


Strawberry sprinkle doughnut from Dun-Well
Sunday morning, I was insistent on getting Dun-Well Doughnuts before our bus left. I have had their donuts before, but never been to their shop. My housemate brought some home on April Fool's Day and hid them from us. When I found them, I bit into what I thought was a chocolate glazed donut. Much to my disappointment, it turned out to be a Mexican hot chocolate donut. I am not a spice person at all, so I got pranked twice. Needless to say, I was excited to judge them on their other not spicy flavors. Between the two of us we got a dozen and a half donuts. I ate six donuts in two days. I got a chocolate glaze, raspberry jelly filled, blueberry glaze, strawberry glaze with sprinkles, and two cinnamon sugars. I wasn't a huge fan of either the strawberry or blueberry glaze. But the rest of the donuts were really solid. My partner's favorite is easily the PB&J. He got I think 4 or 5 of them. Even though I am not a big PB&J fan, I took a bite of one and it was really great. I know their flavors vary every day, depending on what they make, so I am excited to try more in the future!
I also had an odd realization after eating so many donuts. While Dun-Well's were all delicious, it dawned on me that I really prefer baked donuts. I feel like all the subtle flavors in the glaze and in the donuts themselves get lost in the overwhelming taste of oil.


Assorted dozen from Mighty O
Do you love donuts? I really LOVE the donuts from Mighty O. When Greg visited Seatle for work, he mailed me a dozen donuts! He really gets me. Maybe someday I will also make it to Las Vegas so I can get a few from Ronald’s, or Portland so I can get VooDoo! Then I think I will have all my vegan donut bases covered.

Baked Speculoos Donuts

Speculoos, Biscoff spread, cookie butter... call it what you will, but it's just as delicious by any name. I had a fear that cookie butter was going to be a seasonal item at Trader Joe's so I bought two jars to save. In the same week, I saw not one, but TWO recipes for baked speculoos donuts & realized that Biscoff spread was consistently available at a World Market near my gym.
When one of my friends and I scheduled a baking date but weren't able to make the pignoli cookies she had hoped for, I knew it was time to crack open the jars of cookie butter.
So we set in for a long afternoon of mixing, dough rising, and the heavenly smell of donuts baking. We used both Celine of Have Cake Will Travel's yeast recipe & Nikki of the Tolerant Vegan's cake donut recipe. All in all, it took us around 4 hours to complete both recipes and induce sugar comas. We started Celine's recipe first as it needs such a long time to rise. As you let the dough do its first rise, you have plenty of time to complete the cake donuts. We frosted the cake donuts during the second rise of the yeast donuts. By them time we had finished decorating the cake donuts, it had only been around 30 minutes but I knew I couldn't wait any longer to put the yeast donuts in the oven. They still rose quite a bit during baking, so I don't think it made a huge difference.


I definitely preferred the texture of the yeast donut. It was thick and dense, with a heavy crumb. The extra spices added to the batter really pumped up the flavor of the speculoos. The cake donuts were also incredibly delicious, but their texture just wasn't as interesting to me. However, I definitely preferred Nikki's cookie butter ganache. The chocolate ganache was nice, but the chocolate sort of overwhelmed the speculoos flavor. If you were only going to make one batch of donuts, I would also halve the chocolate ganache recipe. I made a half batch and it went very, very far.
We went for a mish mash of donut and ganache combinations. Their was dipping and drizzling, and crumbling cookies on top. If you are looking for speculoos like cookies, Trader Joe's had a brand called Bistro Biscuits or you can maybe find a bag of Biscoff cookies at a World Market.
These donuts were all phenomenal, but my favorite combination was the yeast donut with cookie butter drizzle and a handful of crushed cookies on top.
We used a jar and a half of speculoos for this project! If you are looking for something else to bake with the speculoos, I've also used it to make snickerdoodles and frost cupcakes. Happy baking!

Baked Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Donuts

As I told you over the weekend, I got a lot of use out of my thrifted donut pans. The recipe that I have been using the most of one from Vegan Yum Yum. However, I add an extra teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and only add the tiniest shake of cinnamon to the batter. For a chocolate cake donut, I simply replaced ¼ cup of flour with cocoa powder. I made one batch of chocolate and two batches of vanilla bean. Each batch made about 10-12 donuts for me.


I played a lot with different toppings, to try and allow for a lot of various flavors. I made a simple glaze from powdered sugar and water to dip the chocolate donuts in. For the vanilla bean donuts, I dipped a few in a pink sugar glaze and threw on some sprinkles to create a ‘Homer Simpson’ donut. I also made a lemon glaze, and threw a handful of coconut on top of those. I made a chocolate glaze using Valhrona cocoa powder and almond milk (Valhrona cocoa powder is much richer than normal baking cocoa, and I highly recommend giving it a chance. It’s worth the price for the extra flavor). I threw sprinkles on part of the chocolate dipped donuts, and crushed Chick-O-Sticks on the remaining. The Chick-O-Stick flavor didn’t come through as much as I would have liked, so if I play around with them again in donuts, I might add a handful of ground candy to the batter.


I also learned an important lesson. If you are baking several dozen donuts the night before you serve them, you might not want to wrap them in an aluminum pan with plastic wrap. Mine got a little too wet, even though they had all fully cooled before I wrapped them. They were fine after a few hours of sitting unwrapped again, but I think it would have been better to just let them sit in an open container overnight.
I equally love cake and yeast donuts, but I need to attempt making yeast donuts again soon. I would also like to work on a blueberry and raspberry cake donut! Do you have any favorite donut recipes? My friend Jenna made a resolution to make a batch of donuts every other week this year. I am excited to see her progress and all the flavor combinations she comes up with!

Cardamom Spice Gluten Free Donuts

I have had a mini donut pan for a few months now, but earlier this week I found a pair of regular sized donut pans at a thrift store for less than five dollars! Today I spent most of the afternoon baking donuts while watching Stranger Than Fiction. Maggie Gyllenhaal's character has my dream life. And her partner brings her flours! I swoon.
A friend had asked me when I started this blog if I would work on gluten free donuts, and I was happy to attempt. I started with a recipe from Jeanette's Healthy Living because it sounded the most appealing and I happened to have all the necessary ingredients at hand. When I first mixed the batter I felt like it was way too thing to possibly bake properly, and so I added more of the flour mixture until it seemed to be a workable consistency. I would guess that I used 200-250 grams of the total 400 grams I made. These donuts also became cardamom spice, I dumped tons in when I failed to realize the plastic cap was missing from the spice jar. Baking blunders, you gotta love 'em. Thankfully I was able to remove quite a bit of it, and the flavor wasn't too overwhelming.


This batch made 7 donuts for me. If you aren't familiar with using a donut pan, it takes a little practice to gauge the correct amount of batter. I highly suggest attempting to make one donut first to have an idea. You might feel like there is no way the tiny amount of batter you place in the tray will expand so much, but trust me it will. These donuts were also really fragile. One crumbled in the cinnamon sugar mixture, even though I was turning it very carefully. If I were to make this recipe again, I would probably add a bit of xanthan gum to help hold it together. Also, I couldn't taste the pumpkin in the batter (even before I dumped in too much cardamom), so I wouldn't make it hoping for a very pumpkiny flavor.
I feel like this was a solid first attempt at gluten free donuts for me. I think I might also try BabyCake's recipe in the future and play with various toppings.
I have more donuts that there wasn't daylight to photograph! So I will share those with you soon. Do you have a favorite donut? I have had some pretty amazing donuts from Mighty-O in Seattle. But I haven't had the chance to try Dun Well yet in New York. I hear they have a root beer donut?!