May Daring Bakers Challenge

Mono + Daring Bakers Challenge = oops. I forgot. And I don't have the ingredients in my house. And I'm posting this a day late anyway. I'll have it by the weekend--promise!

Doughnut-Cake-Coffee Cake-Awesomeness

Classes just finished, right? I mean, did I miss something? Oh... yeah... the part about me adding French to my course load so I can get enough semesters in to hopefully get into a good Comparative Literature PhD program next year. Sigh.

And you know what class means? Coffee. Actually, French isn't too bad. I took it back in high school and I'm more interested in translation than conversation, so I'm not stressed at all about it. It should be an easy GPA boost. HOWEVER, my schedule is a bit wonky with scholarship apps (ahhh Fulbright, Marshall, Mitchell, and Bobby Jones... four apps.... ugh...), studying for the GRE, pulling together enough poetry for a good portfolio for MFA programs, reading Deleuze and Beckett for my thesis, and hopefully cracking Being and Time. Did I mention that I'm working part time for two different jobs too?

This. This is why I need coffee. And coffee cake!

I'm in love with Vegan Visitor. It's true. I like the layout, the photography is gorgeous, and the recipes are tasty as hell. If hell were tasty--which I'm not sure it is... Anyways. After reading the post and recipe for the Also Goes With Tea Coffee Cake, I knew I needed to make it. Need is a rather open term for me, but it applies. I swear.

After substituting pecans for walnuts, adding a bit of chocolate, baking in a bundt pan, dusting with powdered sugar--oh my gosh fingerlicking good. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of the layering of the coffee cake. It was eaten a bit too quickly. Oops! The Poet gave it two thumbs, two big toes, and a happy belly up. Personally, I think it tastes like a doughnut, and then a cake, and then coffee cake--all at the same time. It goes great with coffee, tea, soy milk, after dinner, before dinner, whenever. I had to give half of it away. Otherwise I'd eat it all. In a period of two days. Summer--the perfect season for baking induced weight! Right?

Doughnut-Cake-Coffee Cake-Awesomeness

1 c Granulated Sugar
1/2 c Earth Balance Margarine, softened
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 c Soy Vanilla Yogurt
1/2 c Plain Soy Milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 c All Purpose Flour
1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour

For the Topping:
1 c Pecans broken
1 c Vegan Chocolate Chips
1/3 c Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Toss the pecans, chocolate chips, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream the sugar with the margarine, then add the baking powder and continue to mix until fluffy.

In a measuring cup, combine the yogurt, soy milk and baking soda.

Add half of the yogurt mixture to the creamed sugar, then half of the flour, mixing until each is combined, repeating with the remainder.

Lightly spray and dust a bundt pan with flour.

Add half of the cake batter to the pan. Add half of the walnut topping. Finish with the remaining batter, then evenly sprinkle over the last of the topping.

Bake in the center of the oven for 45 - 50 minutes.

Cool completely in the pan before turning it out to a serving plate.

Long Bean & Grape Tomato Salad--for David

I'm back! The beach was good (well, as good as it could get for me). Being bedridden with a view of the Atlantic tide rising and falling every day isn't too bad. Watching flocks of pelicans congregate, honk their voices out, and skim for fish isn't too bad. Having six good friends rally for your health isn't too bad either. And thankfully I am feeling a lot better. My posts should be a bit more regular now that my appetite is back and my throat doesn't object to solid food!

I actually made this recipe awhile ago, but it's never too late to post. I'm blessed with the Your Dekalb Farmers Market which flies in goodies from all across the globe, so Chinese long beans are usually at my disposal. When I saw Smitten Kitchen's Green Bean & Cherry Tomato Salad, I knew I had to make it. Besides, it's so much fun when non-vegan bloggers make delicious vegan food. Of course I didn't have all the right ingredients, but basalmic vinegar is delish (as I'm sure red wine vinegar is). Instead of regular green beans, I used the long beans, but cut them in half in order to fit them in my pot. I also used grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes--again, this doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

My friend David was wigging out over finals a few weeks ago (he graduated this semester) and scared to death that he wouldn't pass a class and actually graduate, so he practically locked himself in the library for a week to study for finals and write papers. While I was supposed to be writing papers, feeding poor freaking out college students is way more fun. In order to make a meal out of the salad, I heated up some left over couscous, layered the green bean salad on top, added some fried tofu, and drizzled the extra vinaigrette on top. He thought it was so good that he told me to teach him how to make it before he moved to New York City.

Unfortunately, David is en route to the city right now to start his new life as a paralegal at the District Attorney's Family Violence Unit (sounds like a cheery job, right?), and I never taught him how to make it. At least I can send him the link, right? So here you go David--make this with the fresh veggies I know you'll buy at the Union Square Green Market. And yes, I'm living vicariously through you.

Long Bean and Grape Tomato Salad

1 pound long beans
1 pound grape tomatoes
1 large shallot
2 tablespoons basalmic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Cut off the tips of the beans, cut in half, and parboil them in salted water until tender (4-5 minutes). Drain and immediately spread them out on a towel to cool.

Cut the tomatoes in half.

For the vinaigrette, peel and dice the shallot fine and put it in a bowl with the vinegar and salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Taste and adjust the balance with more vinegar, oil, or slat, as needed.

Toss the cherry tomatoes in with the vinaigrette; this can sit for a while. Do not add the green beans until just before serving or they will discolor from the acid in the vinaigrette.

Serve!

Recuperation!

Remember this?
Well, I'm off to the beach to recuperate for a few days. I'll let you know how the virgin margaritas and Bloody Mary's go. Actually, I don't think I could sip a Bloody Mary sans vodka...it's worth a shot (badumdum--pun intended). But hey, it should be fun anyway!

Be back later this week!

Sick!

Yours truly managed to get Mono during finals! Woohoo!

Ok, really, it's not exciting. But it does explain why I kept passing out on my couch when I tried to write papers or study for my one final exam. It also explains why I haven't posted anything on here for awhile. I've hardly been cooking. Let alone writing blog posts about it.

So the first day or two that I was sick (last Friday maybe?) I rummaged around my pantry looking for anything edible. I really wanted to make soup, but I didn't have any soupy items besides lentils, so, even though it's totally off-season, I decided to try another lentil soup recipe. Luckily I had most of the ingredients that the PPK called for, minus the crusty bread, so I mixed up some biscuits to serve it with.

Overall impressions? Not bad--for a winter stew. I mean, it just felt weird eating lentil soup when it was 80 degrees outside. But it helped my throat for a little while, so that's good and all. I have a lot of leftovers, so I might do that pie thing again to get rid of them. Don't get me wrong, I love lentils, but this just isn't my favourite all-time way to eat them in the summer.

French Lentil Soup w/ Tarragon and Thyme

2 cups french lentils
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 large white onion, diced medium
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
A couple of generous dashes fresh black pepper
6 cups veggie broth

Heat olive oil in the soup pot. Add onions and cook about 10 minutes over med-high heat, until onions are browning and even a little burnt. Add the garlic , herbs and spices, saute 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and a little splash of water if necessary and stir to deglaze the pot. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add salt, 4 cups of veg broth and cover to bring to a boil. Add the lentils and bay leaves and cover again. Simmer about 45 minutes until lentils are almost totally tender. Add 2 more cups of broth, cover and bring to a boil again, about 15 more minutes. If it looks to thin, uncover and simmer for a couple of minutes. If it looks too thick, add a little more water.

Serve over biscuits.

Vegan Crab Cakes & Chipotle Tartar Sauce

One of the things I love about finals is procrastination. It normally bites me in the ass, but seriously, it tastes really good. Tonight I should have written a paper on the political animal. Instead I made vegan crab cakes. So worth it.

Jhenn over at Vegan Ronin posted a good looking recipe for crab cakes, and since I had tofu sitting around in my fridge and not much else (I need to go grocery shopping like I need to not bake more stuff), I decided to go for it. But the crab cakes needed something to go with. I picked up my Food & Wine Magazine 2001 Cookbook, flipped through the pages, found a lima bean and mint salad, decided to modify it, and serve both on a toasted baguette slice with tartar sauce (also modified from Food & Wine). Several mods later, I plated a damn tasty meal.

Vegan Crab Cakes & Chipotle Tartar Sauce

For the Crab Cakes:
2 slices of bread (any type)
2 Tbsp soy milk
1 Tbsp vegan mayo
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning (copy-cat recipe)
1 lb firm tofu, drained & pressed
salt to taste (no more than 1/4 tsp)

**notes: I did not have any parsley, so I chopped up ~1 tbsp fresh chives. I also didn't have Old Bay, so I used a pinch of everything noted in the copy-cat recipe that I had (again, I left several spices out). The mix and pinch method worked well for me though.

In a mixing bowl, tear up the bread into small pieces. Add the milk to moisten the bread. It will be a little sticky.

Except for the salt, add & mix the remaining ingredients, crumbling the tofu. Now add the salt to taste.

Mix with your hands to make sure the tofu is really crumbled up and everything is all stuck together.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat, with just a little bit of oil.

Form the mix into (about) 10 patties. Pat them with pressure to make sure the air is out, and that they will stick together.

Fry until golden brown (just a few minutes). Be gentle when flipping the patties.

**Notes: I cooked up one or two cakes at a time and saved the remaining mixture in an airtight container. It kept well for the three or four days I had it sitting in my fridge.

For the Lima Bean Salad:
1 10-oz package frozen lima beans
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
**Notes: I used 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar because I didn't have white wine vinegar. It tasted fine.

Cook the beans in a medium saucepan of boiling water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain.

Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly. Stir in vinegar and oil. Season with salt and pepper.

For the Chipotle Tartar Sauce:
1 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1 tbsp chipotle pepper
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp tarragon, finely chopped
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning (again, I did the pinch method of the copy-cat recipe)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Keep refrigerated.

Daring Bakers Cheesecake Bites

It's been awhile since I managed to successfully complete a Daring Bakers challenge. I tried the yule log back in December, but my gluten-free, vegan version fell apart and I just didn't have the heart to post my mess. But I'm back!

This month's challenge was posed by Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. They found a cute concept recipe based on turning cheesecake into bite-sized pops on a stick (or something like that).


I originally planned on making the recipe as written (all dairy/egg ingredients included), but decided at the last minute to veganize it, because, really, I wanted to eat it too. This might have been a mistake though...I ate waaay more of the cute, little, enticing cheesecake bites than I should have.

Unfortunately I had a few time constraints (I started making the pops on Sunday afternoon for a Sunday night potluck) and couldn't find any lollipop stick things, but the end product (post-multiple-freezes) was delicious, apparently non-vegan tasting, and quickly eaten by my potlucking friends.

As always, go check out the now-plethora of Daring Bakers to see what everyone came up with!

Vegan Cheesecake Bites

For the cheesecake:
2 14 oz package firm silken tofu (NoriMu)
2 8 oz package Tofutti cream cheese
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place silken tofu and vegan cream cheese in the food processor. Process for 1 minute, then add sugar. Process until smooth and no sugar granules remain, 3-5 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the soy milk and vanilla and almond extracts. Pour mixture into the food processor and process until very smooth. Pour into a foil lined 9" springform pan and bake for an hour and a half.

Allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours, then refrigerate overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours. (I sliced the cheesecake into squares instead of scooping balls.)

For the chocolate coat:
8 oz vegan chocolate (I use Baker's semi-sweet baking squares)
2-4 Tbsp Earth Balance

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the Earth Balance, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and butter are combined. Stir until completely smooth. (Add more Earth Balance if needed to get a more viscous consistency. I ended up adding a few tablespoons of soymilk because my bites weren't frozen and collapsed in the heat of the chocolate.) Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Assembly:
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.