Vegan a la Mode (Giveaway!)

It's no secret that I love ice cream. It is quite possibly my favorite form of dessert. I have Hannah's two other cookbooks, and adore them both. So when I heard she was writing an ice cream book, I pre-ordered it months in advance. I bought my standing mixer attachment, and anxiously waited. And then being the ditz that I am totally forgot I was waiting for a cookbook to come in the mail.
I got an email from SkyHorse Publishing asking if I would like a review copy and immediately said yes. So I got two copies in the mail. One of them has got a few splatters of almond milk and cocoa powder on it already, so that one will stay tucked away in my shelf. But the other shiny new copy is up for grabs! If you are interested in receiving a copy of Vegan a la Mode, comment here by noon on September 22nd. Congratulations, Lauren! And happy churning!
Now I'm going to let you know all the reasons that you want to have this cookbook. Hannah is pure brilliance. Her classic flavors are tried & true, but her innovative flavors are where she really shines. The gravel path, her take on rocky road, and her german chocolate are wonderful. Her vanilla ice cream recipe is the best that I have ever tried… and I own three books dedicated to ice cream and have tried several other recipes from the blogosphere. However, my absolute favorite is the toasted marshmallow ice cream. It's pictured below on some chocolate chocolate chip waffles. A perfectly sinful breakfast!

I would have taken more pictures of the ice cream, but it was devoured a bit too quickly. I also don't want to show you pictures that don't do the ice cream near the justice that Hannah's photography does. If you want to know more about Vegan a la Mode, Celine of Have Cake, Will Travel gave a much more eloquent review than I could hope to muster.
I still have a few more recipes that I am hoping to get to soon. Especially her blue moon ice cream! It's such a vibrant shade. And I'm a sucker for bright colors. I know September might seem a little late for ice cream, but that's just false! I will confess that even though it was so chilly in my house last winter, I took a hot bath one night just so that I could eat ice cream while I was in the tub. No shame.
Have you bought Hannah's cookbooks? Do you have a favorite recipe?

Apple Tarts

I have had apples piling up for about two weeks now. I eat a lot of apples, but somehow I still don't enough apples to keep up with fruit share deliveries from my CSA. I eat an apple almost every day, but I somehow still had a basket with 4 or 5 just hanging around when my share came last week. I knew it was time to start preserving them in some way before they spoiled. So I made a batch of homemade apple sauce.



Fresh Apple Compote
makes one large mason jar

6-7 small apples
2 tablespoons cane sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
roughly 1 cup water
You can use whatever apples you happen to have around. I used a mixture of red delicious, golden delicious, & granny smith. Peel & core your apples. Chop them roughly to 1/3" size pieces. Throw them in a sauce pan with 1/2cup water and the sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Allow the apples to simmer, covered, for roughly forty minutes. Check the apples every twenty minutes to stir and add a few more tablespoons water if the water is evaporating before the apples soften. After the apples have cooked down to a sauce, remove the pan from heat & stir in the vanilla. Mash with a wooden spoon to desired consistency. I prefer my apple compote to have a quite a few intact apple pieces.


Apple tarts look a lot more difficult than they are. You just need a batch of tart dough, some apple compote, and a few apples to slice for the top. I used 4" pans, but feel free to make a 6 or 8" tart. The apple slices are actually a lot easier to arrange in an 8" tart. I used the shortbread tart dough from Vegan Pie in the Sky. I gave more extensive directions on filling the pans when I made fruit tarts a last winter. The only difference in the baking. You don't need to blind bake these tart shells, since we want to bake the apples. Just fill the pan with dough, level it, add a thin layer of apple sauce (I used three tablespoons for a 4" tart), and arrange the apple slices. If you can make thin enough apple slices, you can fold rosettes for the center of the tart. I also sprinkled lemon sugar on top of the tart just before baking. I zested a half of a lemon into 1 cup of sugar a few months ago, and pull it out when I need a little hint of lemon in my tea or on my baked goods. You could also use vanilla sugar!


I also made a second tart from an apple I hard recently seen. Pink pearl apples are so lovely. They are a beautiful shade of pink when you cut them open, and as I was dying to know, remain pink after they are baked. The apples are similar in taste to a granny smith, so they are tart & wonderful when paired with the sweetness of a nut butter. The texture was a little mealier than I would have preferred, and the apples weren't the easiest to slice thinly. But they baked up nicely. Can you imagine serving someone a pink apple pie?! It's perfect for a tea party.


Have you ever tried a pink pearl apple? Or do you have another favorite apple? I am pretty partial to the honeycrisp myself, but I normally bake with granny smiths. I am so glad apple season is finally here. Prepare to be inundated with apple recipes. At least Rosh Hashanah is almost here, so I have an excuse right?! We are also filling the bakery shelves with apple flavored items. I just put out a few dozen apple cakes and am working on a caramel apple cookie too.

Soft Pretzels

These pretzels are making me thirsty! I had to say it. I couldn't not say it. I mean c'mon. I hear it in my head every time I eat a pretzel. If you have a standing mixer with a dough hook and a few spare hours, then you should give these a shot.
I don't know why people feel like soft pretzels are so elusive. At the last bake sale that I did, they were the first thing to sell out. Pretzels really aren't difficult. The folding just takes a little bit of finesse. But after a few dozen, you'll be throwing the dough around like any Auntie Anne's employee. Heck, you don't even have to shape them like standard pretzels. Get creative. Spell your name or make your favorite sport's team's logo or just make circles. They will all taste just as good.
Most pretzels recipes are pretty similar. My recipes of choice is Alton Brown's, just substitute the butter and the egg wash for Earth Balance. But do melt the Earth Balance you're using for the egg wash step. This is one time when I really prefer weighing the flour. Doughs can be a little finicky, and it's just easier to know that you aren't too fair a hand with the flour. I also know a few people who like to throw a teaspoon or two of vital wheat gluten into the dough, but I don't find it necessary.
If you want to make a fancy snack platter with the pretzels, you could make a few dipping sauces. Maybe an agave dijon or a cheddar cheese sauce? Either way, you won't regret your foray into the saltier side of things.

Orange Chocolate Chip Scones

Maybe it's just the cool weather in the mornings and the rapid approach of fall, but I have been craving warm baked breads for breakfast. These are orange chocolate chip scones. I'm not sharing my exact recipe, because I sell them in the bakeshop, I can give you a few pointers on making your own scones. I really like the recipes from Art of Dessert and Savvy Brown. I definitely suggest using canned coconut milk when making your scones. This is one time when you really want the higher fat content. I also think it's a great idea to grate your Earth Balance and then let it sit in the freezer for a few minutes before you cut it into the flour. This will help keep you from overmixing the dough. You don't want to eat tough, rubbery scones!
I can't wait to start rolling out more fall flavors in the bakeshop. Pumpkin, cranberry, apple! I feel like I always get really excited by the changing of the seasons. I love phasing in new fruits and vegetables every few months. It's always a nice change. Do you have any favorite fall baked goods or flavors?

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!

S'mores Stuffed Cookies

I remember seeing a picture of a s'more stuffed chocolate chip cookie for the first time. My first thought was that's TOO much. But the longer I thought about it, the more that I realized that it's perfect. If I can put vegan nutella or chick-o-sticks in a cookie, than a s'more really isn't that different. People put oreos in cookies all the time, right?! And I know that I have made s'mores cookies before, but these are so different. A girl can't ever have too many marshmallows.



S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes approximately 8 large cookies

1 cup Earth Balance
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tbl Ener-G (beat with 1/4 cup water)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
heaping one cup chocolate chips
2 whole graham crackers (Nabisco brand are honey free)
4-6 vegan marshmallows (I used Sweet & Sara, which are slightly larger than Dandies)
1/2 bar dark chocolate

Make your cookie dough first. Break each of your graham crackers into quarters. Cut your marshmallows in halves or leave whole, depending on the amount of gooeyness you want in your cookie. I made mini s'mores similar to the pictures here. Now it's time to wrap those s'mores in cookie dough! I found it easiest to use a large scoop to portion out sixteen pieces of dough on a sheet of parchment. I flattened all of those with my palm, set the mini s'more on top, and set another piece of flattened cookie dough on top. pinch all the edges together, and bake for 12-18 minutes at 350. The baking can be pretty variable depending on how thick your s'mores are.
Be sure to give these cookies plenty of room! They spread like nobody's business. I baked 4 per cookie sheet. I tried to make my cookies a little smaller than the 6-8" ones I had previously seen, but they were still at least 4-6".
Make sure you have plenty of almond milk handy to wash them down.

I'm gonna be honest here. I didn't find these cookies to be near as revolutionary as I expected them to be. I thought they were gonna alter my perspective on baked goods, and I was just a little underwhelmed. If I were going to do this again, I would probably use a sugar cookie dough like I did with the nutella cookies. The piece of chocolate along with all the chocolate chips in the cookies was just not my thing(I know. I can't believe I am saying it either). I also think that the taste & texture of the graham cracker get a little lost in the cookie dough. The texture gets a little moist during the baking, and the brown sugar in the dough sort of covers up the graham taste. So I think that if you used a sugar cookie dough and rolled it in graham cracker crumbs before you baked it, then you would have the real deal. Maybe someone will try it & let me know how it goes?

Raspberry Popsicles

Time between my blog posts keeps getting longer. I haven't stopped making sweets, but all my words have somehow slipped away, and so this little blog has gotten a little neglected in the last few months. When I first started blogging almost eight months ago things were so different. I was working on my phD and sitting in front of a computer several days a week. Now I am baking full time and rarely have time to read all the posts from people I follow with Google Reader. For the first few months the bakery was open, it only stimulated my desire to make new things. While it is exciting to work for people who want me to create organic and fair trade vegan sweets, I also found it a little limiting creatively. There were still so many things that I wanted to experiment with that I couldn't do in the bakeshop. I wanted to make things with the vegan M&Ms I finally got a hold of, and I have trouble holding back from anything that I can cover in sprinkles.
However, in the last few weeks the full reality of running a bakery has hit me. I have hired 4 assistants in the last eight weeks, three of whom have already had quit or had to be let go for various reasons. My fourth assistant started a few weeks ago as full time, but recently switched to part time. So I now only have twenty five-ish hours of help a week. The rest of the time it's basically my sole responsibility to do all the ordering, the tweaking of the recipes, the majority of the baking, developing new products, sourcing packaging for those products, scheduling deliveries of the baked goods, and all sorts of other little things that get slipped into the everyday flow of things.
There have been many thirteen hour days. There has also been a lot of sweat and even tears. When I allow myself to stop thinking about everything I still need to do and realize how much has been done since the doors opened in May, it's pretty amazing.
Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and let yourself enjoy something simple like these popsicles. Something you didn't have to spend hours making and that feels refreshing. The raspberries also are tart enough to counteract the sugar. Because no matter how badly I want to tell people that I have not overdosed on sugar, there are definitely days where I don't want to test another cupcake or cookie or cinnamon bun for a very long time.


Raspberry Popsicles
adapted from Family Kitchen


1.5 cup frozen raspberries
1 cup coconut water
1 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons agave nectar

Combine all ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. Freeze for at least 2 hours before snacking. Quantity will vary based on the size of your popsicle molds, but this made 8 for me.