Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

In the summer, I have a tendency to keep the bowl for my ice cream machine in the freezer as often as possible. This allows me to make ice cream as soon as the urge hits. Which happened late at night this past week. It was too hot in the house to even consider turning on the oven, and a popsicle or smoothie wasn't going to cut this craving. The fro-yo place closest by was already closed, and I knew it was time to learn to make it myself. I made chocolate, because that was the ingredient that I had on hand. But I am going to make it again with fruit (Raspberry with dark chocolate chunks?! Top of the to-do list).
I have been trying to eat a little less sugar at home while my recipe development at work is at a recent high. I have been working on a new gluten free product line, and while that's really exciting, it has led to several stomach aches from constantly nibbling on cookies and quick breads that I am in the process of tweaking. So this recipe has just enough sugar to take the bitter edge off the yogurt, but not enough to give you a sugar buzz.


Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
makes 1 quart

1 cup almond milk
9 ounces chocolate (I used Agostoni Gianduia)
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups yogurt (I used Amande almond yogurt)

In a small pan combine almond milk, chocolate, and sugar. On medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is totally melted and smooth. Allow to cool several minutes and whisk into the yogurt. Chill batter before adding to your ice cream machine, freezing as directed.
If it is the middle of the night and you need your frozen yogurt now, then you could take a shortcut by simply throwing the almond milk, chocolate, and sugar in your blender and pureeing until as smooth as possible. Then you could add the yogurt and pulse is briefly before throwing this mixture directly into your ice cream machine. It will not be as smooth as the melted version, but you will save an hour or two & the little chocolate chunks you end up with aren't so bad. Not that I know from experience.

I used an unflavored almond yogurt which tastes much less sweet to me than the coconut yogurt I normally eat for breakfast. If you opt to use coconut yogurt in your fro-yo, you might not need to add any sugar at all. It's all about personal preference, but I like mine fairly tart. Also the chocolate that I used is hazelnut flavored, which lends a bit more kick to the yogurt. I am sure that it would be equally delicious with plain dark chocolate, but you could add some chopped hazelnuts to replicate the flavor I enjoyed & add a bit of texture. If it hadn't been near midnight when I was making this, I probably would have stirred in a few teaspoons of instant coffee to enhance the chocolate flavor.

Somebunny Wants Marshmallows

If you know Jenna then you are probably already sick of our love affair. Unfortunately for you, I am not. My best friend is finally coming to visit me in DC next week, and it is all I can do to continue to focus at work and not shout it from the rooftops. I am going to take her to all the very best spots (here's lookin' at you Malcolm X park) & encourage her to eat more food than humanly possible. I have a list going of all the things we have to do, but I also know that there is an 80% chance we will be too busy laying on my bed talking about all the little things we have missed in each other's live the last few months to actually accomplish them all! If you have ever been here, I am curious to hear what your favorite things about the District are. And if you are nearby but haven't visited the monuments after 10pm, then you are sorely missing out. Consider that fair warning.


Jenna happens to work for a lovely little all natural marshmallow company called Kerfluffles. Now that they have created endless magical flavors like strawberry shortcake and dreamsicle, they are working on their vegan recipe! I was so excited to get a sample of their first successful test batch. Keep in mind that these are purely experimental & could be totally different from where they end up in a few months, but they were delicious none the less. I had to remove the bag from Greg's hands so that I could save a few to melt in my hazelnut hot chocolate. I drank a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows made by my best friend, on my porch in a cool summer evening's rain storm. Things can't get much more dreamy than that.


I will be really excited to see more vegan marshmallows for sale. It's always nice to have multiple options! It's a luxury that I sometimes forget exists. Also can we talk about how cute their branding is? I couldn't help but break out my bunny bowls. It's the only thing I thought could rival their postcard in "aww" factor. Ya know, aside from all the disgusting pictures Jenna and I are gonna take together next week.

Cherry Cheesecake

I have been incredibly nostalgic these last few weeks. Ever since I graduated college it feels like time just slips by at a faster & faster pace. It was just winter, and all of a sudden I can't walk outside without smelling honeysuckle. Every time I catch a breath of it I am reminded of growing up in Tennessee, reading books in little swings made of grapevine hooked between the trees & playing in the the ravine we affectionally called FernGully. I grew up in a place very different from my friends. For most of the life that I remember we lived on a 20 something acre piece of land that mostly consisted of forest. I went to a public school that had less than 300 children enrolled. The kindergarteners were just down the hall from the high schoolers. I was always a little out of place in that school, and though I wasn't really bullied or tormented by anyone, I also didn't have very many good friends.
Once I got to college and was surrounded by more people, it wasn't difficult to find my niche. But I often think about how much quieter and more solitude my growing up was and how that has probably shaped me to have different expectations of life than most people. I am quite comfortable being alone. I really only need a book or a kitchen at my disposal, and I will be content for most of the day.


In college it seemed so easy to fit it all in. I took fifteen or more credit hours a semester, worked part time in a laboratory, and still managed to spend an indecent amount of times with my friends. These days I feel like no matter how little I sleep it's never quite enough to do everything I want. I am sure that a fair part of it is being "an adult". There's always errands to run. There's doctor's visits to schedule & bills to pay. But goodness do I miss having a whole summer to just do whatever I wanted to. I didn't think twice about buying a place ticket to visit a friend in another state or hopping into a bus with ten of my friends to drive across the country. How do we find the balance in that fun spontaneity and the responsibility of keeping up with our lives? Even though I love my job, spending so much of my life working is also a fairly disappointing thing.


Cherry Cheesecake
filling adapted from Emily Manquist's Sweet Vegan

Crust
13 ounces graham crackers or speculoos cookies
1/2 to 3/4 cup Earth Balance margarine.
Crush the cookies to crumbs in a food processor. While those are being pulsed, melt the Earth Balance in the microwave. Pour over the cookie crumbs and mix with hands until the butter is fully incorporated. Start with 1/2 cup of melted Earth Balance. If the cookie crumbs still aren't wet enough to hold together when you squeeze it in your hands, then add the remaining spread. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 or 10" springform pan.

Cheesecake Filling
24 oz non-dairy cream cheese, I prefer Tofutti
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbl vanilla bean paste or scraping from 3 vanilla beans
2 tbl Ener-G beaten into 1/3 cup hot water
Make your cheesecake filling by beating the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and Ener-G together until smooth. Pour into crust filled pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes until the cheesecake appears set. Allow to cool for at least 4-6 hours before attempting to slice the cake.

Tart Cherry Topping
24 oz tart cherries
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup cherry juice
1/4 cup cornstarch
In a sauce pan combine cherries, 1/2 cup of cherry juice, and sugar. Allow to come to a boil over medium heat. In a small bowl whisk together cornstarch and remaining juice to create a slurry. Whisk the slurry into the boiling cherries and reduce heat to low. Allow to cook until mixture is thickened. Allow to cool before spreading on top of cheesecake


One of my favorite things about baking at home is taking time to do everything. I am not worried about multi-tasking in the way that I normally am. Instead of sifting powdered sugar while Earth Balance is creaming in the mixer and and whisking something every few minutes as it cools, I can really focus on what I am doing and enjoy it. I can look at the patterns the vanilla bean makes as it is stirred into the batter. I can anticipate actually serving the food to people I care about & seeing them enjoy it too. Those are the things we remember in a few years, the things we become nostalgic for.

Tin Roof Sundae & Chocolate Milk

Aside from Just Like Honey & Ricemellow Creme, I have found a third product that I really love from Suzanne's, their Chocolate Rice Nectar . The easiest thing to liken it to is Hershey's syrup. It's thick and pourable. It's smooth and chocolatey and sweet. The best part is it doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup, potassium sorbate, vanillin, and other artificial flavors. Their rice nectar is just brown rice syrup and cocoa powder. It stirs into almond milk to make chocolate milk, much like Hershey's syrup. The chocolate syrup also makes a great topping, in case you too wanted to make a sundae. A tin roof sundae is generally vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and spanish peanuts. I didn't have any spanish peanuts around, so I just used what was lying around in my cabinets. I also used Luna & Larry's Vanilla Island coconut ice cream. It is currently my favorite store-bought vanilla ice cream. Homemade will always be better.


I know it's a little late for spring cleaning, but I have been feeling that urge strike me. Maybe it's just because people are moving in and out of my house again. Maybe it's because I am feeling a little too cluttered. Last night I finally hung up some of the artwork I have had leaning against a wall since January. This week I am hoping to clean out my closets and get rid of all the clothes I never wear anymore, or don't fit, or bought intending to alter but won't get to. I also want to clean out the kitchen cabinets and donate all the pans and dishes we don't need.
I feel like I have to purge a lot of my possessions about once a year to keep myself from gathering way too many unnecessary objects. In the last week I have been given a second ice cream machine and a milkshake machine! While neither of those are going anywhere, I also have at least one broken blender, a griddle I have never used, and two panini presses.
There is a shed full of bicycle parts that haven't seen daylight in years. They have been stacked in there with half used bottles of spray paint and gardening equipment since several seasons before I moved in. I am hoping to tackle it all. Let's hope I can keep up this motivation to get further than just reorganizing the spice rack again.

This week I have also cleaned up my Google Reader finally too. I decided to switch to Bloglovin, since I have heard a few dissapointing things about the way pictures look in Feedly. I pared down my reading list and am hoping to feel a little less overwhelmed when I unplug from my computer for a few days in a row. If you want to join me on Bloglovin, you can do so here!

Just Like Honey Baklava

Sometime's I run across a business that I am really pleased with, and Suzanne's Specialties is one of those groups. They are responsible for Ricemellow, a vegan marshmallow creme that I adore. It's great for making creamy fudge or sticky rice crispy treats. A few months ago while browsing around a local natural food shop I found a few of their other products, and knew I would have to give them a try. I had previously bought a jar of honey flavored agave before, but I didn't feel like the taste was really there. As soon as I cracked the seal on the jar of Suzanne's Just Like Honey, I knew it was the best faux honey I would find. I meant to bake with the remainder of the jar, but its contents kept slowly disappearing into cups of tea (and sneakily being spooned into mouths). I finally got a second jar, and used it for my original intention. I have never had baklava before, but I feel like the taste of this is very close to the "real" deal.


Baklava
adapted from the Pioneer Woman Cooks

1 jar Suzanne's Just Like Honey (agave or brown rice syrup should work as well)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1 package filo dough (thawed for several hours)
1 1/2 lb walnuts, chopped into small pieces
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 tablespoons Earth Balance, Melted

In a saucepan combine Just Like Honey (or 2 cups of either agave, brown rice syrup, or a mixture of the two), water, & sugar. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes until the mixture has reduced slightly and formed a syrup. Stir in vanilla bean paste. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine chopped walnuts and cinnamon. Melt Earth Balance in another small dish. Remove filo from package and trim filo to fit easily in 9x13" baking pan. I lined my pan with parchment paper to easily remove all the baklava, but you could just butter the pan instead. Place 4 sheets of filo in the bottom of the pan. Brush the top sheet with butter, sprinkle with a thin & even layer of walnuts. Top with two more sheets of filo and butter again. Sprinkle with another layer of nuts. Repeat this until you are nearing the end of your filo dough. You want a lot of layers! Place 6 sheets of filo on top and butter it one last time. Cut the tops of the filo with a sharp knife into as many pieces as you desire. I cut approximately 20 squares. Bake for 45 minutes until the pastry is golden. While the baklava is still hot you want to slowly pour the cooled syrup over it. I poured it in thirds, allowing the syrup to soak for a few minutes before I added more. Once that is finished allow the baklava to sit overnight at room temperature before eating it. It's difficult I know, but it is something that gets better as it rests. If you want to play with flavors a little, you can substitute the vanilla for a little rosewater or orange blossom water. You could also add orange zest. Rosewater and pistachios might make a really interesting twist on the classic! I have also seen people use almonds or pecans instead of walnuts. I feel compelled to infuse lavender into everything this time of year, but I do feel like this would be a great place for it. Lavender & honey are an amazing flavor combination.

I highly recommend Just Like Honey. It is great drizzled on a peanut butter banana sandwich, especially when heated up in a panini press. It dissolves nicely in tea, with just the right amount of sweetness and flavor shining through. It won't do much for your allergies, but it's great by the spoonful regardless. I haven't tried it in a honey cake yet, but I don't see how it could fail.
Is there a new ingredient that you are crazy for? Have you ever tried Bee-Free Honee? I hear it's a little less honey flavored, and a little more appley.

Strawberry Blood Orange Popsicles

I know technically it's still a week and a half away, but that summer feeling is in the air. Maybe it's just because I live in an attic that is already sweltering, but I can't get summer off my mind. I am craving popsicles, fresh squeezed lemonade, & pitchers of iced tea. I just want to wake up in the cool of the morning and go to a farmer's market and head home with a basket overflowing with local produce.
Since I haven't been quite able to do all of that, I took a little shortcut with these popsicles. I used a pound of frozen strawberries and a bottle of pre-squeezed blood orange juice. Because my strawberries were already frozen, it only took an hour for my popsicles to re-freeze after blending. If you use fresh strawberries, it will take a few hours. As I made the mixture, I realized that I put away my popsicle molds at the end of last summer and can't remember where I stored them. In a moment of desperation I decided to use a set of silicone cupcake liners and wooden spoons to improvise. I see a lot of people use paper cups, so this is even a little more eco-friendly. It also doesn't hurt that it made the popsicles look like little flowers.


Strawberry Blood Orange Popsicles
variable yield, depending on popsicle mold

1 pound strawberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cup blood orange juice
1-2 tbl agave, depending on desired sweetness
Add all ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth. If using frozen strawberries, this will immediately result in an amazing smoothie (only half of my puree ended up in popsicle molds, the other half ended up in a mason jar with a straw). Pour into popsicle molds and allow to freeze until firm.

This morning I got to sleep in, and tonight I get to sell lemonade and cupcakes at an event for the store. Tomorrow I am heading to Six Flags for a day in the sun with several of my friends. I will ride most of the roller coasters at least twice. And probably be on the drop tower at least 4 times. I even get an extra day off this week since I worked so much the last few weeks, so this weekend we are sneaking off to Philadelphia again. All sorts of wonderful things happen in warmer weather. I'm sure there will be ice cream. I'm so happy to have a few days to recover from the craziness that has been this spring. It's important to take time to let yourself rest and enjoy life. Sometimes I forget just how crucial that is to maintain my sanity.

Local Favorites: Fasika & Dama

Today is my birthday! Things have been so hectic for the last few weeks, months, year, etc, that I decided it would be best to have a really relaxed birthday. I slept in, got bagels with Greg, and made myself a cheesecake. We walked around the portrait gallery for an hour, watched some TV, and are headed to my favorite local restaurant for a small dinner with friends. Fasika is in the Petworth neighborhood of DC. If you have never had Ethiopian food before, then DC is the place to try it. DC has the most dense Ethiopian population of everywhere that isn't the country itself! So you know it's going to be authentic. Their vegetable platter is unbelievable and a ton of food. Greg and I can eat dinner with a 25% tip included, for $20, and be stuffed for several hours afterwards.
In the last month, Fasika paired with Dama Bakery to offer a large selection of vegan desserts! Their case is always stocked with a selection of tea cookies and there is a large assortment of cakes. I have had the fruit cake and the rum cake, but nothing quite compares with their mille-feuille. Akin to an icebox cake, it's simply layers of filo topped with pastry cream and a dusting of powdered sugar. As the cake sits for longer, the moisture from the pastry cream seeps into the filo making it softer and more cake like. I have talked about another local bakery's napoleon that I also hold near and dear to my heart, but Dama's is just a teensy bit better than Chez Hareg's. For $4 a slice, you have to try this cake.


After two slices of this cake, I became obsessed with it. I spent a solid two hours on the internet learning everything I could about mille-feuille and trying to figure out exactly what they make their pastry cream from. I am still stumped. But I did learn a few really interesting things about Dama Bakery. Dama is run by a pair of sisters. Almaz, the sister who is responsible for the sweeter side of things, was the pastry chef for President Clinton! I don't care what political affiliation one does or does not hold, it's pretty amazing that you can buy vegan desserts fit for a president at your local restaurant.
I will undoubtedly be recreating this dessert soon. Do you have a favorite pastry cream or pudding that you recommend? Sometimes it's the simplest things that are really the most important. Vanilla pudding is one of the easiest things to make, but I feel like it's one of the trickiest things to make that actually stands out in someone's mind. Somehow Dama has created something so special, that it's the only thing I want to celebrate my birthday eating!