Resolutions

Another year is on it's way, and with that I thought I would compile a list of things I want to practice or learn in the upcoming months to help keep me focused and motivated.

1. Tarts & Pies:
I have mini 4" tart pans and a brand new 9" tart pan. I recently thrifted a ceramic pie dish. AND I even have a fancy dough cutter to make beautiful lattices and a copy of Vegan Pie in the Sky that hasn't been broken in! It's time for me to fix this. I think I am often discouraged from making whole pies just because they aren't as convenient to share with friends in multiple locations as cookies or cupcakes.


photo by the PPK                                          photo by Randy Mayor

2. Cakes:
I have a few Wilton course books on cake decorating that I would love to break out. Similarly to how I feel about pies, I feel about tiered cakes. I really want to practice torting, icing, and fondant work, but there aren't many occasions to bust out such a cake for. I will have to make up some excuses!


photo by Sprinkles Bakes

3. Sugar Cookies & Gingerbread:
I would love to be able to produce batches of sugar cookies that are really intricate and also consistent. I also really want to attempt making my own cookie stencils rather than relying on standard cookie cutters! Also, I have never made a gingerbread house. I plan on fixing that next winter, though I doubt I can produce something as breathtaking as this gingerbread brownstone by Kitchen Table Scraps.


source unknown                                          photo by Kitchen Table Scraps

4. Confections:
I've never made candy before. I want to attempt to make fancy chocolates, as I have no actual experience in tempering. My friend Sheena went to pastry school, and I think she might be able to help me out here. I also want to make a few batches of caramel and figure out what works best for me.

5. Assorted:
Crème brulèe is something that I have always though about but never actually attempted. A kitchen torch would also be handy for toasting marshmallows! Now that I have a standing mixer, I think I might get the ice cream attachment and try a few batches of vegan ice cream! I doubt I will ever be able to touch Lula's Sweet Apothecary, but cashew based ice creams are something my dreams are made of.

Do you make lists of resolutions? If so, what are the things you hope to accomplish in 2012?

Cake Mix Muffins

I was back in Tennessee for a week. There was lots of snuggling cats, catching up on sleep, and TV watching. It was nice to see that the small town grocery store had expanded their selection of vegan foods. They even carry Daiya and Tofutti cream cheese now! An even bigger shock was that I got home to find a dozen muffins waiting for me!
My mom had seen this recipe on a show called Hungry Girl. You just mix a box cake with 16oz of canned pumpkin and bake. The pictures you see are from a spice cake mix, but the original ones she made were using a chocolate cake mix. The chocolate was definitely my favorite. I’m going to refer to it as a muffin, but it straddles that muffin-cupcake boundary that is so vague. It’s sweet like a packaged muffin, but with a little frosting could easily be passed off as a cupcake as well. If you threw in a handful of mini chocolate chips, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and the Otis Spunkmeyer muffins I remember eating out of the vending machines during high school. The spice cake had a pretty subtle flavor even though she sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the tops before baking, so I would recommend adding additional spices to the batter. To make them more muffin-like I would also throw in a handful of nuts and dried fruit. To make the crust crisper, you could also sprinkle Turbinado or another large crystal sugar on top.
Making cakes from scratch is easy enough that I don’t ever think of buying a mix, but it’s convenient if you aren’t in your own kitchen or are out of a few ingredients. There are a few other routes for boxed cake veganizing as well. A can of soda gives variable results, but can work out. Apple sauce normally works pretty well too. Just make sure that you read the labels on the mixes! There’s not a consistent approach to what brands/flavors are dairy & egg free.


One of my other stand-by mix recipes is for brownies. Combine a package of brownie mix and a pureed can of black beans (liquid included) and bake according to the box. The best box mix to use is the Ghiradelli double chocolate mix. The resulting brownies are really fudgy, so if you like firm brownies this might not be your best option. I use to make that recipe a lot for film screenings for my animal rights’ group when I was an undergraduate. People never suspected that they were eating beans, and the brownies have added protein and nutrients compared to when made with oil and eggs. Using beans in baked goods might sound a little odd at first, but Chocolate Covered Katie does it too!
On a complete unrelated note, here are the cuties that I cuddled with while I wasn't sharing my kitchen antics with you!




Do you take any baking shortcuts when you are super busy or out of town? I love freezing an extra batch of cookie dough and thawing it when I want to make more.

S'mores Thumbprint Cookies

My grand plans for the rest of the Sweet & Sara marshmallows and Smuckers marshmallow topping, were these s'mores thumbprint cookies. I had seen the idea on a non-vegan blog called How Sweet It Is, and wanted to veganize them so, so badly. I started with the chocolate thumbprint cookie recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance. I used a mixture of regular and dark cocoa powders. I also subbed vegetable oil and almond milk for the peanut oil and soy milk, and added extra flour to make the dough a little thicker since I didn't have time to chill it.
I rolled the dough in small balls, slightly smaller than a quarter. Half of the balls I coated in crushed graham crackers prior to baking. After 6 minutes in the oven, I either pushed in half a marshmallow or made a large thumbprint. I baked them for another five minutes. While still warm, I filled the thumbprints with marshmallow topping. I also dusted the tops of all uncoated cookies with graham cracker crumbs (and even a few that I did roll, because I am overzealous like that). The marshmallows do get quite puffy in the oven and expand. Let them cool on their own, because if you squish them down with your hand, you will get large craters in your cookie. They will deflate quite a bit.


Personally, my favorite cookies were the ones with half a marshmallow in them and rolled in graham cracker prior to baking. However, none of them were disappointing. I attempted to broil the cookies to make them appear more s'more like, however my oven was uncooperative. You could try that, or use a kitchen torch if you happen to own one. The slight brown color I did get on the edges of the marshmallows is so similar to the color of the graham crackers, that it's difficult to differentiate.
I wonder what recipe I will get obsessed with next? I have a long to bake list, but am leaving town tonight to visit my home in Tennessee for a week. Does everyone else have huge folders of potential baking projects? It's normal to dream about cookies too, right?


I also just heard about this site called Spencer's Market. It's basically a Vegan Cuts or Living Social type site that it is specific to vegan food! I mean, who doesn't want to know about new vegan snacks, right?!

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?

Sugar Cookies

I am finally done with my 3rd semester of graduate school! I spent my first truly free weekend in months by making sugar cookies. I found this recipe about a year ago, and it has been my go to recipe for sugar cookies since. The only changes that I make are adding vanilla bean paste rather than extract, and I normally throw in a tablespoon or 2 extra cream cheese. The dough is incredibly thick, so if you aren't making it in a standing mixer be patient and prepare for the upper body workout.
Definitely don't skip the chilling step. I normally refrigerate the dough for at least an hour or two before I start the process. I always roll the dough out between parchment paper with extra flour under the dough and a bit sprinkled on top. The cookies will be really soft when you take them out of the oven, but do firm up quite a bit as they cool.


I have seen an overwhelming amount of Christmas cookies lately, so I thought it would be awesome to make a batch of Chanukah cookies. I also threw in a few snowflakes because I haven't used those cookie cutters yet this winter either. Piping royal icing is something that I both love and hate. I think of it as an endurance sport, because I spend at least 3 hours decorating just 2 dozen cookies. I hope one day to get to the skill level of Bridget who runs Bake at 350, but for now I am pretty pleased with where I am. The most important thing I have learned about piping sugar cookies is how important it is to have the proper consistency of icing for outlining and flooding designs. Outlining icing should be similar to the consistency of toothpaste, while flooding icing should be similar to shampoo. I don't really follow a recipe when I make royal icing, I normally just mix powdered sugar with a bit of corn syrup and water until it's the right consistency. I used vanilla extract in this frosting, which is why the shade is more of an off-white. If you want truly white frosting, you need to either use a clear vanilla extract or something like almond or lemon.


It was getting dark pretty quickly, so you might be able to tell that some of the icing isn't dry yet in these photos. These cookies take so long to dry. Be patient, and don't stack them until the next day! I also recommend baking the cookies the night before you plan to frost them. Do you have any other tips or tricks for elaborate piping?

Kitchen Sink Muffins

Finals week is a rough time, no matter how prepared you think you are. You eat terribly and sleep sporadically. You search for tasks that you can do instead of studying for an exam or writing the last page of a paper nearing its deadline. These are the times when I decide that it's appropriate to clean out the fridge finally. In doing so, I need to find a use for the small portions of food piling up in assorted tupperware containers and mason jars. The perfect recipe for that are these muffins from Bake & Destroy.
These bad boys may not be beautiful, but they were warm and (some what) nutritious. I used a mixture of whole wheat and spelt flours, turbinado, coconut milk, shredded coconut, cranberries, dried blueberries, and granola. I thought about throwing in some chia seeds, but since I had already eaten those in my morning oatmeal I just stuck with the ground flax seed.


In order to further delay the writing of my last paper I did three loads of laundry, took out the recycling, washed all the dishes I could find strewn around the house, went to the gym, and then used leftover chocolate from the cookie bars to make this rolling pin. I really don't use my chocolate molds enough. This one is from Bake It Pretty, a great shop for molds and cupcake liners and what not!


Does anyone else play this game when they have an approaching deadline? I try to tell myself that it's ok because it teaches me how to work well under pressure.

Speculoos Caramel Cookie Bars

I got my holiday gift a little early this year. My partner and I are both pretty impatient when it comes to surprises, so we exchanged presents on Monday. I sponsored a chicken for a year in his name at Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary, which I thought was pretty neat. However, I got outdone! He surprised me with a pistachio KitchenAid standing mixer! I have been wistfully staring at pictures of this mixer on their website for many months now. I couldn't believe that it was finally mine! After grinning incessantly and taking a few photos, I decided it was time to put it to use making him something extravagant.


I had seen this recipe on Seitan is My Motor earlier this month and knew it wouldn't be long before I cracked open my second jar of Speculoos spread to attempt it. I have made a dulce de leche before, but this time something went wrong. My caramel never firmed up even though I cooked it for quite a while. In attempts of saving it, I threw in some agar. This made it thicker so that it was no longer a liquid, but it gave it the texture of a custard. I knew that it was going to be too thin for successfully cutting the bars, but I used it anyways.
I really enjoyed the cookie crust from this recipe. It was firm and not too sweet, which balances the super sweet cookie butter layer. I melted two teaspoons of coconut oil into the dark chocolate I used for the top layer, and spread it with an offset spatula.


All in all, my bars were a mess because of my caramel error. But I will definitely attempt these again. They remind me of a Twix bar with a subtle hint of cinnamon. In fact, next time I might try the caramel from this vegan Twix bar recipe. I might also try using the 'dulce sin leche' recipe from VCTOTW, which uses brown rice syrup as a main ingredient.


Sometimes it's good to have a reminder that baking is a trial and error process. At least I have a beautiful mixer now! Did you ask for kitchen or baking supplies for the holidays? I think I have a never ending list of things I would love to have.