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.

Caramel Apple Puppy Chow

Memory works in mysterious ways. I have always been a person who associates a specific event or person or book with a food. While some of this might make sense, let's say associating waffles with Parks & Recreation. I mean it's not possible to watch more than two or three episodes of Parks & Rec without craving a waffle, am I right?! However, some of these associations are a little more ambiguous. For example, I associate Gilmore Girls with puppy chow. Puppy chow, muddy buddies, sweet minglers, whatever you call it. I don't make this link because Lorelai or Rory ever ate puppy chow or mentioned puppy chow ever in seven years of the show, but solely because I ate a whole batch of it while I watched the last episode of Gilmore Girls at the end of my freshman year of college. So when Gilmore Girls got added to Netflix, I started craving puppy chow. I restrained myself for a few weeks or maybe even a few months, but I finally caved and fell back in love with the crunchy, sickeningly sweet, totally addictive snack. If you haven't ever made it, you need to because it's simply & satisfying & combines three of my favorite things: chocolate, peanut butter, & breakfast cereal. Here's the Chex official recipe for basic puppy chow.


Once I knew that I was heading to the store solely to stock up on boxes of Chex cereal and towards that slippery snack slope, I started stumbling around the internet looking for variations on puppy chow. I found this recipe for caramel apple puppy chow from The Smart Kitchen Blog. I knew I had vegan butterscotch chips tucked away in my baking supplies and decided it was time to pull it out. If you haven't ever had the need for butterscotch chips before, the King David brand is vegan & can be found here. I modified her recipe a bit. Leaving out the coconut oil and adding peanut butter like classic puppy chow. This made the coating really thick and helped cut the cinnamon flavor on the cereal a tiny bit more. I am not entirely sure that this puppy chow is caramel apple flavored. But it's great, so don't question it and just go with it. I mean just look at the picture below. That bowl was all that was left in the morning after a movie spree. And I had to turn a few of those leaves over because I got powdered sugar on them picking pieces that "didn't look right" out of the bowl while I was snapping the pictures.



Caramel Apple Puppy Chow

1 box Apple Cinnamon Chex cereal
10 oz butterscotch chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar to coat

Pour your cereal into a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan, melt the butterscotch chips and peanut butter. Add this mixture to the cereal and fold until covered. Allow cereal to cool for a few minutes. In a larger tupperware container or in gallon ziplock bags, combine the cereal and powdered sugar. Shake really well. Let totally cool and then try to not eat the whole batch in one sitting. It's easier if you aren't watching Gilmore Girls.

Peanut Chew Cheesecake

I am writing this from my desk on the first rainy morning where I'm calling a new city home. The last month has been wild and busy and emotional. I have repeatedly tried to wrap it all up into a few neat paragraphs, but the words just kept eluding me. For a few years my parter, Greg and I have been telling everyone that we were going to move to Philadelphia. After a year or so, it seemed to folks like maybe we were crying wolf. But we finally felt like it was the right time & mustered up the courage to leave a city that we love and venture to somewhere new. Everything was going smoothly, but then Greg got in a bike accident and broke his collar bone in a few places. He needed some surgery and got a metal plate put in his shoulder. So while it's really cool that I'm dating a bionic man, it wasn't conducive to moving. I was able to pack everything up alone and we convinced some friends and family to help us pack up the moving truck in DC. We left behind a queen size box spring since we couldn't fit ours down the stairs of our old bed room. We got it up the stairs by opening a window. But then we repaired the banister on the stairwell, and the extra two or three inches that we added made it impossible to bring it back down.
I narrowly escaped demolishing a tiny gas station in the city in my first ten minutes in our 14 foot U-haul, and then almost hit a cop car as soon as we got to our new block. But the ride in between wasn't too bad. Just small moments of nervous energy as I had to approach a toll booth or merge across 4 lanes of traffic. We got to Philly and thirteen amazing friends came to help unload the truck. You know you are moving to the right place when you already have as many friends helping you on your first day in town as you did at your going away party in the last city.


photo by Massimo Catarinella
Our first week has been pretty quiet. We are unpacking slowly, working on a few projects everyday. I'm almost done assembling the kitchen, obviously the most important room in the house to me. Even though it's large for an apartment, it's half the size of what we left. And in the last three years I have acquired a ton of bakeware. I'm hoping that an ingenious storage solution will strike me at any minute.
One of my favorite candies happens to be a Philadelphia creation, so it seemed very appropriate to share this cheesecake with everyone. If you haven't had a peanut chew before, you should see if they are available in your area or let me know and we can swap candy! It's a molasses caramel filled with roasted peanuts and then dipped in chocolate. Heaven. The factory is still in the city but I maybe already checked into it, and they don't give tours. This shows you my list of priorities. Touring the peanut chew factory > finding homes for all my displaced tea cups & saucers > hanging curtains. But eating sweets will always be at the top of that list. We moved two blocks from an ice cream shop, so things are about to get dangerous. If you have any suggestions of places to eat or visit or things you love about the city, please let me know. I am pretty well versed in Philly vegan food, but there are still so many places I haven't tried before.



Peanut Chew Cheesecake
one 9" or several mini cheesecakes, varying based on size of pans used

Peanut Graham Crust
9 ounces peanuts
3 ounces graham crackers
10 tbl shortening

Pulse the peanuts and graham crackers to crumbs in a food processor. Melt the shortening. Pour over the cookie and peanut crumbs and mix with hands until fully incorporated. Press firmly into the bottom of your springform pan(s). This is not a sweet crust. If you would prefer it to be a little sweeter, replace two ounces of peanuts for more graham crumbs. I used gluten free graham crumbs, but they should be interchangeable with regular graham crackers.

Cheesecake Filling
24 oz non-dairy cream cheese, I prefer Tofutti
2/3 cup sugar
3 tbl blackstrap molasses
2 tbl Ener-G beaten into 1/3 cup hot water
6-10 peanut chews cut into small pieces, depending on how much candy you want in each slice

Make your cheesecake filling by beating the cream cheese, sugar, molasses, and Ener-G together until smooth. Place some candy around the bottom of the crust. Pour half of the batter into your springform pan. Add rest of candy and top with remaining cheesecake batter. Smooth surface & bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes until the cheesecake appears set. Allow to cool for at least 4-6 hours before attempting to slice the cake. I find that overnight is best.

Ganache
1/3 cup dark chocolate
1/4 cup non-dairy milk of choice
1 tablespoon agave nectar

In a double broiler heat all ingredients whisking frequently until the chocolate has totally melted and the ganache is smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool for several minutes before assembling the cheesecake.

Assembly
Once your cheesecake has cooled for several hours or overnight, top with ganache shortly before serving. I also chose to add additional peanut chew pieces around the top of the cheesecakes to give it a little more height & decoration. If it's already on the sweet side for you, additional sprinklings of peanuts would also be lovely.

Cherry Jello

Even with the last minute snow, spring is officially here. Yesterday I saw the first daffodils. It's a good sign. It's time to crawl out from under my comforter and stop watching so much television & reading too many novels. It's time to repair my bike & ride around the city. It's time to make some plans for my future & stick with them. It's the time to fight to be the person that you want to, because the long days and cool nights are on your side. It's ok to sleep a little less if you're out enjoying the sunshine and smiling endlessly. Spring is when I finally feel motivated again.
Springs also a good time to look back at the last few months and assess my position. Whatever aspect of your life, it's always a nice time to change directions and work on something new & inspiring. Just because things have been quiet around here, doesn't mean I haven't been working hard on things. I just haven't been digitally documenting them like I use too. I dropped the camera that I borrow to photograph things for this blog while photographing these macarons. Maybe because I was in a hurry to eat my Valentine's sweets but probably because I am the most klutzy (so it's actually a little surprising that I didn't drop it ever before in the last year). One time at work I dropped a five gallon glass jar of coconut oil. Of course it was summer in a bakery, so the coconut oil was molten. I cut three of my fingers and ruined a pair of jeans trying to gather up all the little shards of glass in the slippery mess. The camera was a little less dramatic, but has had more lasting effects on my life.


Winter decided to spurn me one last time by leaving me with a super swollen throat & sinusitis. I spent most of yesterday afternoon gargling salt water and craving jello. My jello of choice & what's pictured here was the unflavored Natural Deserts jel pack & tart cherry juice left over from the frozen bins of cherries I order for the bakery. In the last few months, the company seems to have stopped making their jel must to my avail. I have searched high & low and have only found two boxes of flavored powders. I found a substitute for my old standby made by a brand called Simply Delish. Their strawberry was good, and the raspberry was even better. The texture is ever so slightly tougher than Natural Desserts jellos were, but my main problem is that Simply Delish doesn't seem to offer an unflavored powder so I can control the flavors like I would prefer. I know that I can use agar powder to make what whatever flavored jello I want, but the packets are so nostalgic. And if spring makes me anything, it's wistful.


While I have waxed poetic before about my best friend Jenna and I having same-brain, she also shared some similar feelings regarding the approach of spring & talked about some of the exciting life changes she is going through on her blog Kitty Cat Stevens recently. I hope you will seek her out on the internet and encourage & help support her business if you are a book lover too. There's nothing more wonderful than giving a friend a gift that someone has poured so much of themselves into. One of my favorites gifts in the last few months was the napkins photographed here. They were a beautiful present from my housemate for feeding her cats while she was away for the holidays. I mean of course I would feed two of the best cats in the world no matter what, but the textiles screen printed by Sara Lee Parker were the icing on the cake. So if you're looking for something nice to give to a special person here are two great places to start. Here's to spring, feeling re-energized & ready to start anew.

Sweet Maresa's Macarons

I have heard the cliche phrase "never knew what you were missing" used in all sorts of dramatic & ridiculous ways. But I never really got quite what it meant until I tried my first macaron. I didn't realize that this amazing category of sweet had been missing from my life until I tried one of Sweet Maresa's little beauties. As I have never had an egg white laden macaron, it's hard for me personally to compare Maresa's to the traditional French version. But I hear tell that they are indistinguishable. Either way, these vegan macrons won't leave you wanting for anything. Maresa uses all natural, organic, fair trade, & GMO free ingredients. She also never uses palm oil! If you didn't know, palm oil is one of the leading sources of deforestation.


While I might not have known what I was missing, once I did, I quickly made up for lost time. I ordered multiple boxes of macarons three times in the span of 5 weeks. So now I have done my homework and can offer all sorts of solid opinions. The staple flavors are rose, vanilla, pistachio, & almond. Without a doubt, almond is my favorite. It's so perfectly almond-y and always beautiful. The pistachio is my second favorite. Maresa recently reformulated the pistachio macaron to also include a pistachio paste buttercream, so I'm sure it's gotten even better since I last tried it. The vanilla is good & I would suggest it for those without an adventurous palette, but I am just not a vanilla-sorta girl. I adore vanilla beans, but mostly as a base for pairing with other flavors. And when there are so many other interesting flavor combinations offered, I just can't not chose them instead. I have an intense hatred towards rose (I know, I know, I'm a freak), but a friend who I ordered that flavor for said they were quite swoon-worthy.
I have also tried several of the baker's choice flavors. The burnt caramel pecan is at the top of my list for those. I am a sucker for pecans, and the burnt caramel filling just puts it over the top. The jasmine macrons were easily the most beautiful macaron I have ever seen. They also tasted great & were perfectly floral without being overpowering. I also tried cocoa vanilla & black hibiscus! There hasn't been a single flavor I wouldn't order again. There's a few more on my bucket list: lavender, chocolate raspberry & creamsicle! Plus Maresa is always dreaming up all sorts of new concoctions based on what ingredients she finds at local markets, so there's always new combinations to lust after.


If you have ever interacted with Maresa or Lagusta either in person or online, you know without a shadow of doubt that they are the sweetest people in the world. So the next time you need to spoil yourself or buy a gift for someone you love, you should order something from their shop! Support small, woman-run, vegan businesses that work hard to source the best ingredients for the earth & the people on it.
Have you ever tried a macaron from Sweet Maresa? What did you think, and what flavors did you try?! I haven't ever been to the shop in New Paltz, but I am hoping to make a little pilgrimage there someday. It will be a dangerous trip, because I have no restraint around macarons or chocolate. Since I was already paying for shipping with my macarons, I also ordered a few chocolate goods from Lagusta's Luscious! Because it made economical sense, not because I have an insatiable sweet tooth. There were cute vinyl records & beautiful anatomical heart chocolates that made great Valentine's Day gifts. But now I'm already thinking about the amazing cream eggs & chocolate bunnies they just added to the shop! The Bluestocking Bonbon series is incredibly inspirational, so you should check that out too. Sorry if I am getting carried away, but it's hard not to gush when people make things this magical.

Kerfluffles Marshmallows

Over the summer I mentioned how excited I was that Kerfluffles was creating vegan marshmallows. I was happy to test their some of their initial batches (you can read about that here), and I couldn't have been more pleased when some new flavors arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. I was going to blog about it then, but I was knee deep in Vegan MoFo and didn't want to tease you will all the delicious flavors before they were actually available for sale!


The pictures you see here are only of the chai tea and cookies n' cream marshmallows, not necessarily because that was all I had (I got to try all the flavors), but because these were the flavors that had enough left to photograph after Greg and I finished our initial taste testing. We might have some problems with our sugar consumption? Greg's favorite was mint chip, but mine was a tie between banana bread & cinnamon roll (what can I say, I like cinnamon?!). They were all great. I don't even like chai tea, and I still ate a handful of the chai marshmallows happily because they were done so well. The french vanilla is the perfect marshmallow for s'mores & rice crispy treats. And I can attest to their meltability & perfect gooeyness in both of those! The cookies n' cream is the only vegan marshmallow that contains gluten, but if you aren't sensitive to wheat than you have to give it a chance.
You should head over to Kerfluffles and try the vegan flavor sampler! You should also read about how their little business got started. It's a super inspiring story, and they are sort of a Kickstarter legend. They stand by their principles in avoiding artificial dyes, chemical extracts, and strive to source organic ingredients. I know that they do it all from scratch, because I may have gotten a Snapchat or two of piles of lemon zest and marshmallow fluff being whipped to perfection.


Also I was not paid to endorse Kerfluffles in any way. I did get some free marshmallows for my input on their process, but I am saying all these great things because I genuinely love their sweets. And Jenna.

Pain au Chocolat

Let's make something totally clear. I am a huge fan of buying rolls of puff pastry. It's not that the stuff is hard to make. It's just that it's really labor intensive, and I generally can think of several other things that I would rather spend my time doing. However, if you have never tried to make puff pastry from scratch I think it's worth the attempt just to have an understanding of how great an invention frozen pastry is. Vegan Dad has a really great recipe and explains the process perfectly.
I wanted pain au chocolat. So I took my prepared puff pastry and rolled it out to a 9x13" rectangle. I pressed mini chocolate chips into around two inches of dough and then cut that into 6 pieces along the 13" side using a pizza cutter so that you have 6 strips, each 2x9" with two inches of that coated in chocolate. Now roll it up starting with the chocolate. Place it onto a parchment lined sheet tray with the seam down. Brush the tops with coconut milk and sprinkle lightly with sugar. I baked them at 400 for about 15 minutes, until they were totally golden and flaky. Let them cool a few minutes before you bite in, or you will burn your tongue on molten chocolate. The temperatures and times will vary on your pastry and oven, but start with whatever the recipe you are following says and then just check your oven frequently to make sure they are browning evenly.
Whatever you do, make sure that your pastries are on parchment paper and not wax paper. I feel like recently I have heard several stores of people spending their whole days making puff pastry from scratch and then putting their croissants into the oven only to have a smoky mess a few minutes later, because they accidentally used wax paper. Don't let this tragic tale become yours.


I was curious about gluten free pain au chocolat and found a recipe in BabyCakes Covers the Classics. Obviously it isn't a laminated dough so it couldn't be the same, but these were more like cookies to me. I will have to dig a little deeper and find a gluten free puff pastry recipe to give a whirl.


Also today is the most magical day of the year. It's DC VegFest! So I will be spending my whole day in this beautiful 70 degree weather, eating snacks and talking to all my favorite local businesses and non-profits. If you are in the area, I highly suggest coming out. It's from 11-6pm at Yards Park! I will be at the Conscious Corner table (booth 6) for most of the afternoon if you want to come say hello in person or buy a cupcake!

Sweet & Salty Rice Crispy Treats

You know that thing that your mother tells you countless times (especially if you have siblings that are close to your age so you're more prone to bickering and harassing each other like children do)? If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all. While I feel like that is generally a good rule of thumb, it's not helping me out right now. I have plenty of nice things to say about these rice crispy treats, I just don't have any words to pair with it. Cat's got my tongue? Maybe it's like the Buffy episode Hush, except that instead of being unable to speak, I can't type my thoughts? These rice crispy treats are delicious. They are adorable. There's all sorts of layers of crunch and texture and just enough salt. I feel like that's all you need to know? Maybe it's true that a picture is worth a thousand words, because I definitely have several of those?!


Sweet & Salty Rice Crispy Treats
makes one 9x13" pan

6 cups rice cereal (Erewhon is always GF & there's a new Rice Krispie GF version too)
1 1/2 oz (or a large single serving bag) potato chips of choice
1 cup sprinkles*
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
one 10oz bag Dandies
5 oz (half a tub) Ricemellow
2 tbl Earth Balance

In a large mixing bowl combine cereal, crumbled potato chips, sprinkles, and sea salt. Mix until combined. In a medium sauce pan melt Dandies with Earth Balance and Ricemellow on low heat, stirring consistently. This will take several minutes, just be patient. Once totally melted scrape marshmallow mixture into mixing bowl and press into the cereal. Don't be afraid to use your hands. Press into a parchment lined 9x13" pan, then press additional sprinkles and sea salt into the top if you want a prettier, brighter appearance. Let cool in fridge for 2 hours before cutting with a sharp knife into squares.
*I have had luck finding confectioner's glaze free rainbow sprinkles at bakery supply stores. You just have to be patient. If you can't find any, then use the tried and true Let's Do… sprinkelz or make your own using this recipe!


I suppose I'm just getting a little sleepy. Trying to do too many things at once. Last week I fell asleep with an open but uneaten ice cream bar in bed. And today I left the pint of ice cream I bought at work. When you start losing track of your ice cream, you know things are getting rough.

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.

Rice Pudding

Two of the books that I read last month were focused on Southern desserts. I already mentioned Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe this week, but the second was DamGoodSweet, a New Orleans-centric cookbook. It's interesting looking at the two books back to back, and realizing all the similarities and differences between the two parts of the south. There are a few things quintessentially Southern that you will find in any "Southern" book. We're talking red velvet cake (on the covers of both books!), coconut cream pie, and any sort of cobbler, crumble, crisp you can think of. Because if the South has anything, it's fresh fruit everywhere in the never-ending heat of summer. Something that probably doesn't come to mind as a top Southern dessert is rice pudding.
Rice is a huge crop in the South, especially in the Arkansas/Louisiana area. Mahatma is one of the most recognizable brands, generally associated with Cajun & Creole food. But when you have a lot of a crop in one area, you find as many ways as possible to use it. I haven't seen a rice fritter in quite a while, but I haven't hard a warm bowl of rice pudding in several years. There's a few things you have to decide when you're making rice pudding. If you don't like Mahatma or other normal white rice, you could switch it up and use basmati like Loveless. I prefer my pudding made with cinnamon, but some people just top it with cane syrup. Whatever you do, don't you dare put raisins in my rice pudding! I just don't get it.


Rice Pudding
inspired by DamGoodSweet

2 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 cup almond milk
1 cup long grain white rice (I prefer Mahatma)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp cinnamon
sprinkle of sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes to keep rice from sticking to bottom of pan. Because coconut and almond milk both get pretty frothy, you might not be able to keep the cover on your pan. It will take a little longer, but just keep cooking until the rice is done. Remove from heat, stir, and leave covered for ten minutes. Portion into 4-6 small cups. Serve immediately with an additional sprinkle of cinnamon.
If you need to make this ahead of time, you can reheat the pudding but you will need to add additional milk to bring it back to the proper consistency.

Garam Masala Snickerdoodles

One of my friends recently had a birthday potluck. I always view potlucks as a challenge to make something interesting, and she helped me along with her theme:  Tim Curry! All dishes must contain some sort of curry & everyone voted on their favorite Tim Curry film to watch after eating. When challenged to come up with a curry flavored dessert I was a little overwhelmed initially. A quick google search revealed a lot of curry infused truffles, but I knew I wanted to bake something. In bumbling about our spice cabinet looking for curry powders, I found the garam masala jar. As soon as I opened it, I knew it would work perfectly for spicing up some snickerdoodles.


While not quite a recipe from one of the cookbooks I read (Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats), it's only the tiniest of modifications from Allyson Kramer's snickerdoodles. Aside from adding two teaspoons of garam masala to the cookie dough, I didn't have any millet flour on hand, so I replaced it with a mixture of brown rice flour & almond meal that worked out well. I rolled the cookies in a mixture of sugar, garam masala powder, and cinnamon. The garam masala blend I used was from McCormick (coriander, black pepper, cumin, cardamom, & cinnamon) but I feel like the mix from Penzey's would be even better if I made these again (coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, kalonji, caraway, cloves, ginger & nutmeg). 
Have you made anything a little out of the ordinary recently? The only bizarre ingredient I can't get behind in my desserts is beets. They just taste like dirt to me no matter what I do to them. Beans, throw it in! Potatoes, we can definitely work with that. Spinach? I'm sure we can sneak a little puree in somewhere. Beets, get the frak out! If you get the reference, we should totally be friends.

Mochi & Passion Fruit Sorbet

There isn't a ton of great ice cream options as far as DC goes. There are generally a few flavors available at some of the local gelato shops, and if you're lucky, there is soft serve as the DC soul food restaurant Everlasting Life. My main go-to for "ice cream" dates throughout the summer is the non-dairy frozen yogurt carried at a number of shops like FroZenYo. My cup normally consists of a tiny bit of frozen yogurt & tons of fruit & mochi. If you haven't ever had mochi, they are like pillowy sweet little marshmallows. Most people make daifuku, which is filled mochi. But that's not what I want in the cup with the rest of my dessert, so I didn't worry about the extra steps.
Buy a pint of Ciao Bella passion fruit sorbet, a box of mochiko (glutinous rice flour) at your local Asian market, and you probably have everything else you need at home. I used Vegan YumYum's recipe, and it takes around ten minutes start to finish. If you cut the mochi with a pizza cutter, it's even faster. Which I realized half way through my process of cutting tiny half inch squares with a chef's knife. After it cooled totally, I tossed the squares in a mixture of half powdered sugar/half potato starch. Easy peasy last minute end-of-summer treat!

Brown Sugar Pecan Banana Bread

This recipe is brought to you by inspiration from the cookbook Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe. I grew up in rural Tennessee, and Loveless Cafe was the stuff of legends. The last time I was in town, I drove by and there was still a line out the door just like normal. While their cookbook is probably one of the least vegan things you can look through, I found it super comforting. It sent me on a hunt for sorghum & made me yearn for the blackberry bushes & fresh peaches outside my front door. Most of all the Loveless cookbook reminded me that my insatiable sweet tooth is totally a normal thing in the South. We are talking about a place where people pour chocolate gravy on a pile of biscuits for breakfast. So it's no wonder that by the time that I finished flipping through the pages, the banana bread I was making that afternoon couldn't be just banana bread. I had to add extra brown sugar & pecans. Pea-cans y'all. 


Brittany at Real Sustenance, came up with the best vegan gluten free quick bread base recipe. The following recipe is her's just tweaked with a little spice & some sugar swapping.  
Brown Sugar Pecan Banana Bread

2 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose flour blend
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup full fat, canned coconut milk
1 tsp white vinegar
1 1/4 cup banana puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 335 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients and mix until evenly distributed. Puree bananas. In a small mixing bowl combine sugars, oil, coconut milk, vinegar, banana puree and vanilla. Mix wet and dry until no visible lumps. Fold in pecans. Pour into greased loaf pan (I normally make mini loaves, but this was an 8x4" pan). Top with additional pecans and brown sugar if you can't restrain yourself likes me. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is the best gluten free quick bread I have ever bitten into. It's got a phenomenal texture & no beany aftertaste. I also tried the recipe with pumpkin purée, but that was no where near as enjoyable. The garbanzo bean flour in the Bob's Red Mill AP blend was too strong for such a subtle flavor. I know this recipe will become a mainstay in my gluten free recipe bank. 

As it gets cooler out I have been craving more breads & muffins, so I have a feeling something similar will show up here again soon.  What's your favorite quick bread/muffin flavor? I don't think anything can ever top blueberry streusel, but I am always willing to give things a chance. 

Gluten Free Roll-Out Pie Crust

 

This is the end of my thirty day cookbook challenge and the begining of the month long madness known as Vegan MoFo. I originally toyed around with the idea of recreating a recipe from each of the cookbooks that I read, but I quickly realized that there wasn't a recipe I was interested in trying from each book. My theme is a little more informal this year. I am solely focusing on pushing myself to keep learning & baking things I have never attempted before. I have an idea to also have weekly themes, but I think even that might be a bit restricting for me. At least the majority of this first week I will be focusing on gluten free sweets. I am not sure yet what else this month will bring. Cookies? Cake? Eclairs? I can easily eat ice cream everyday for a week, so that's something that will likely show up here!


The recipe for the pie crust is from The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook by Cybele Pascal. She is an amazing baker, & I was totally blown away by this cookbook. It's free of the top eight allergens, which makes it a phenomenal resource for so many families. She has a few other cookbooks that I haven't had the chance to check out yet, so hopefully I will find those soon. The pie dough rolled out fairly well after a little bit of chilling, & it cut nicely to boot. Not that you can tell because there's no photos to document the filling (AKA did it ever really happen)but it's a tart cherry pie.


Since I somehow happen to be out of town & away from my laptop during Vegan MoFo again this year, this is my first time attempting to use the Blogger iPhone app. I can already tell that some of the formatting is really wonky on these posts. I will fix it as soon as I am back in town so just bare with me! Here's to a hectic, wonderful month!

Gluten Free Fruit Tart

Secrets are not really my thing. I have never been good at keeping them. I have never felt the need to be illusive. I don't really even understand how to be discreet. As soon as I am attempting to keep a secret, I will start to get all twitchy & awkward and everyone who knows me will figure out what is going on. I haven't ever been able to keep a crush hidden or consider some new venture in my life without busting at the seams and talking about it to my close friends extensively.
For the most part, I live my life fairly openly. Every recipe I enjoy, I end up blogging about. Every cookbook or restaurant ends up getting mentioned. I talk about the bakery, and what products I am working on developing. There is one thing that has remained a secret. I won't tell anyone my pastry cream recipe. I have worked on it for years now. Tweaking away slowly to get it perfect. I will give people hints and point them in the right direction, but I just don't want to divulge all the little details. It's something I have worked so hard on perfecting that I want it to remain truly mine. I'm sorry if that means you have lumpy or too sweet pastry cream, but I am happy to make you a fruit tart to share over a cup of tea. We can talk about some of my other "secrets".


After I made a few friends some gluten free pies, I realized I had never made a gluten free tart before. I know in making pear frangipane tarts I have used an almond crust before, but generally all purpose flour is added to the almond meal as well. I also didn't want the crust to taste intensely almondy, but more subtle. I decided to use my regular shortbread crust recipe with half almond meal and half brown rice flour. It tasted delicious, but was a bit too crumbly. I think on the next go I might try to add a little starch and see how that helps the consistency. Do you have a favorite gluten free pie or tart shell recipe to help me find my way?

Rocky Road Fudge

My freshman year of college I told my mother that I didn't want a birthday cake. I told her that I had eaten a lot of cake in the last few weeks and was sort of over it. She set out to find a birthday appropriate cake alternative. I came home to find a 3 tiered fudge "cake". She had made batches of both chocolate and peanut butter fudge and let them set in cake pans. After popping them out, she stacked them up and stuck several candles in the top layer. There must have been 15 pounds of fudge. Even with the help of many friends I couldn't eat it all. I remember having plastic wrapped chunks of fudge in my freezer for most of the year. So maybe that is why I associate fudge with birthdays. Maybe it's because fudge is so rich and indulgent. Maybe it's because I refuse to let fudge just be fudge and feel compelled to make it even more elaborate.
Yesterday was a friend's birthday, and she is someone who I felt definitely deserved something extra special. Originally I set out to make both rocky road and turtle track fudge, but things didn't quite go as planned. I was trying to mix the marshmallows into the molten fudge by hand and I just wasn't quite quick enough. The fudge was starting to crystalize already, and I knew that I didn't have time to separate it into two bowls to add the different mix-ins. So I just went with rocky road for now. If history could repeat itself, I just would have made the fudge base in halves but now you can learn from my mistakes. Also, I don't have an electric hand mixer, but that would be really useful for this project. My fudge still turned out beautifully and everyone involved was content.


Rocky Road Fudge
base veganized from Kraft's Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup Earth Balance
2/3 cup full fat coconut milk
12 oz semisweet chocolate
1 bag Dandies, halved
1/2 cup Ricemellow Creme
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Line a 9" square pan with parchment. Chop almonds and half of the dandies into small 1/4" pieces. In a heavy bottomed, large pan combine the sugar, Earth Balance, and coconut milk. Stir continuously over medium heat until it comes to a rolling boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes. Stir in chocolate, vanilla, Ricemellow creme, and the uncut Dandies. You will need to stir quickly. I highly recommend an electric mixer. Fold in almonds and remaining marshmallows and pour into the pan. I reserved a few marshmallows and almonds for the top to add a little more visual appeal. Allow to cool for at least 2 hours before slicing into squares with a sharp knife. It's also best if you can find a knife without indentions on the side. You will get a much prettier cut.


I have made this fudge a few times before tweaking the recipes in various ways. One time I made it using 7oz of Smucker's Marshmallow topping, which is chemically vegan. It tasted great, but definitely was a much softer set & had to be kept in the fridge. I have made it with all Dandies. It tastes wonderful and has the same consistency as this batch. I haven't made it using only Ricemellow yet, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. I used a mixture because I had a jar of the creme that had been lurking in my fridge for a few months that I wanted to finish and already needed to buy a bag or marshmallows to make the flavor combination I wanted.
I will definitely be revisiting my turtle tracks idea too. I have caramel and pecans just dying to be swirled into fudge. I also wouldn't mind trying a moose tracks version. I am thinking chunks of peanut butter cups mixed in would be really ridiculous?! I should probably just turn all of my favorite ice cream flavors into fudge. Cookie dough? Nutty buddy? A girl can dream.

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?!

Faux-Butterfinger Milkshake

It has been so long since I have turned on my oven! For a week I was in Tennessee, and then I spent a 4-day weekend in the Midwest. Despite it being the coldest week yet this winter, the only things I can think about are ice cream and milkshakes. While I was in Chicago I drank the two best milkshakes of my life. One was the chocolate chip cookie dough peanut butter milkshake from the Chicago Diner and the other was a strawberry milkshake from Pick Me Up Café.
While I was in Tennessee I also finally found Chick-O-Sticks again! Chick-O-Sticks are a delicious gluten free candy made from coconut and peanut butter. They are the closest thing to a vegan Butterfinger that I have ever found. Toy Joy in Austin makes a Chick-O-Stick milkshake that I had the pleasure of trying last fall. Ever since I have tried it, I knew I wanted to create my own version. There’s was a little thing because it is made from soft serve ice cream and lacks the hint of chocolate that really brings out the ‘Butterfinger’ness I desired.


Chick-O-Stick Milkshakes
Makes 2 large glasses

1 pint vanilla ice cream
1/3-1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
2 large Chick-O-Sticks or 20 individually wrapped bite size pieces
4 tsps chocolate syrup

Pour chocolate syrup in glass and set aside. Grind candy to a fine powder. Add to ice cream and milk and blend until desired consistency. Serve immediately.


I used Tempt ice cream because I had never tried a hemp-based ice cream before, but I was not a fan. If I were going to try this again, I would have used coconut or almond. Normally when I am making a chocolate syrup to drizzle, I melt chocolate with coconut oil. Unless you want a crunch, I would recommend using shortening, as coconut oil will produce a ‘magic shell’ like gets poured on top of sundaes. You don’t have to worry about that if you happen to have a store bought chocolate syrup around. Alternatively, you could also just throw a handful of chocolate chips in the blender with the milkshake. If you washed your glass right before you decided to make the milkshake, I also suggest making sure it is very dry because any remaining water will mix with the chocolate. Note the discoloration of the chocolate at the bottom of my glass (whoops!).
What’s your favorite flavor for a milkshake? I highly suggest checking out the restaurants/cafes mentioned above if you are in those areas!

*If you live in the DC area and like vegan snacks and punk music, you should check out Venomous Fest this Saturday. My friend Sheena and I will be having a vegan bake sale. There will be tons of cupcakes, cookies, donuts, rice krispie treats, and even a few savory snacks.

Rice Crispy Treats

I have been on the hunt for vegan marshmallows for about two weeks. It has been a complete test of my patience. When I get obsessed with a recipe I can not be distracted by anything. That is how I have felt about rice crispy treats and s'mores thumbprint cookies (coming soon!) recently. Sticky Fingers normally has Sweet & Sara marshmallows in stock, but they were out of everything except strawberry last week. A friend went to Pangea and offered to bring me some back, but I denied because I was heading to Root's Market the next morning. I shouldn't have turned her down, because Roots only had coconut covered marshmallows! I started getting desperate, and in a frenzy called Roots on Monday morning to see if they were getting more in soon. They had gotten a shipment overnight, and I detoured on my way home from work solely to buy two containers of vanilla marshmallows.
Last night I FINALLY made rice crispy treats. I only made a small batch, because I have grand plans for the second tub of the marshmallows. I know that people frequently make rice crispy treats with Dandies marshmallows, which makes sense because I know from experience they melt really easily in hot chocolate. Sweet & Sara's have a flavor that I think is superior, but they definitely don't melt as easily. After a lengthy period of time on the stove, I realized it was futile and resorted the microwave.

Rice Crispy Treats
~Enough for a square 4-6" pan

5oz container Sweet & Sara vanilla marshmallows
2 tbsp Earth Balance
2 tbsp Smuckers marshmallow topping
heaping 2 cups rice crispy cereal*
Optional chocolate, caramel, or peanut butter for drizzling

In microwave melt marshmallows and Earth Balance, for approximately 2 minutes. With a spatula, quickly stir in marshmallow topping and cereal. Spoon into a plastic container or pan lined with parchment paper. Gently press down. Let cool in fridge for at least 2 hours.

*To make these gluten free, make sure you use a brand of rice crispy cereal that is certified gluten free such as Erewhon. Most of the cereals have barley malt extract added, which isn't suitable for a gluten free diet.


I melted dark chocolate with a teaspoon of coconut oil to drizzle on mine. My partner reports that they are the best thing I have ever made, which is funny because they are probably one of the easiest!
Do you like your rice crispy treats plain or do you prefer to add mix-ins?