Apple Cinnamon Ktastic-cakes

One thing I really enjoy about knowing how to cook--at least a little bit--is experimentation. Granted, I have far more failures than successes while experimenting, as evidenced by the scones I made on Friday.

I set out to make some cranberry-apricot scones because I like cranberries and apricots and especially scones. Unfortunately, I started mixing ingredients before I checked to see that I actually HAD all of the required ingredients. Sadly, I was about half a cup short on soymilk.

"A little water and oil will certainly do the trick!" I assured myself.

I, as you may have guessed, was sadly mistaken.

So, after serving a batch of oily, oily scones--and oh, I ate lots of those damn scones. I was really hungry--I knew I had to redeem myself somehow. Enter the old standby: pancakes.

My pancakes are a case of successful experimentation, however, as I am pretty sure they are the best damn pancakes I have ever made. They resulted from a combination of having already cooked pancakes too much for pancakes to be impressive and having a few apples lying around.

Also, this is probably the first recipe I ever made up on my own! Neat.

Apple Cinnamon Ktastic-cakes
-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-2 tablespoon sugar
-2 tablespoon baking powder
-1 tablespoon vegetable oil
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-2 1/2 cups soy milk
-1/2 apple (I used Cripps Pink but I'd also recommend Pink Ladies or Gala)
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/2-3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Combine the dry ingredients, like you knew you were gonna have to do anyway.
  
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix, but not too much. Some lumps are okay.
  
• Chop up your apple. You could probably grate it, but my grater is MIA so I tend to just chop things up! Fold the chopped up apple into your pancake batter. Now it'll look super-lumpy and a little scary. Don't worry.
  
• Heat a little oil in a frying pan over low-medium. It's the right temperature for pancake-cookin once you can sprinkle water droplets over it and they sizzle a bit.
• There are two options for cooking your pancakes. Making bigger cakes results in mushy insides (which tastes great, don't get me wrong, it's actually a very pleasant texture) with a crisp outside. Smaller cakes cook more thoroughly but still have a nice, crisp exterior--almost cookie-ish. Personally I liked the little ones better, but it's good to experiment. So drop some batter in your pan according to how big you want 'em.
• Flip the pancakes after the uncooked side starts to "bubble up." Cook both sides to a golden brown.
  
• While you're going through the batch, you can keep your pancakes warm by throwing them in a 200F oven.

So there you have it: I made something up and it was actually GOOD. What a concept. You can slice up the other half of your apple for a delicious garnish and throw down some microwaved soysage, if you're REALLY going to get into the whole cooking breakfast thing. Which you know I am.


Enjoy!

Delightful Pizza Dough

If I could, I would probably be eating pizza at least once a day. In fact, I'm probably eating pizza, right now, as you read these words. I can't help it--there's not much in this world that is better. There are a few great places round these parts that'll make you some pretty fine vegan pizza if you ask them nice enough--though nothing beats a home-baked pie in my opinion.

I probably inherited my addiction to all things pizza from my parents. When I was growing up, we'd have pizza nights about twice a week; one night we would order-in and one night we would make it. Making pizza was of course my favorite because I got to use the tiniest bit of sauce (hated tomatoes) and a ridiculous amount of olives (of which I have always been a true fan). My mom is the greatest because she would set out a veritable buffet of toppings, each in its little bowl. My parents would make a big pizza for themselves and I'd get a personal-sized one because I was just special that way.

We never, however, made our own pizza crust. This, I think, is a travesty! For people as picky as my parents, you'd think they'd want to control every aspect of their pizza experience, right down to the base. Instead, they've always opted for the vacuum-packed Boboli-type crusts. Someday I will show them the error of their ways.

Now, this is sort of a recipe cop-out because I have made this pizza dough before and other than the dough, I didn't really create anything exceptional for this meal. However, I figured since I made the pie and I had the pictures, I might as well share my favorite dough recipe. I'll have a new, original recipe up in the next day or so, however.

Delightful Pizza Dough
-1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
-3/4 cup warm water, plus some more on hand
-2 1/4 cups flour, plus some more on hand
-1 teaspoon salt
-pinch of sugar
-1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for other stuff
-herbs and spices of your choice (I use a tsp of basil and oregano)

• Put the yeast in a small bowl or cup with 1/4 cup of the water. Stir to dissolve. Put this aside for 5-10 minutes.
• In a bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add to this the olive oil, yeast mixture, and remaining 1/2 cup of water. Your dough will still be pretty dry and crumbly at this point so don't hesitate to add a little more water if you need it to stick together a bit more.
• Spread some flour out on a flat, dry surface and drop down the dough. Knead the dough ball until it's nice and elastic--about 3 minutes--adding water if it is still too dry or crumbly. Overall, I usually end up adding about 1/4 cup more water to the dough after the initial water dump.
• Spread some oil in a large bowl and transfer the dough ball. Spread a little oil on top of the ball and cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap. Set the dough aside for about 1 hour while it rises. It will double in bulk. The picture above is of a full-risen dough ball.
  
• If you want to use the crust immediately: Preheat the oven to 450F. Punch the dough down on a lightly-floured surface and roll it out into a circle. You can make this dough as thick or thin as you'd like, but I usually keep mine about 1/4 inch. Transfer to a pizza stone or lightly oiled pizza pan or baking sheet. Bake on the bottom rack for about 10 minutes before adding toppings and baking your pizza.
• If you want to use the crust later: Store in the fridge for up to 8 hours or in the freezer for 3-4 weeks.

And, in case you were wondering, here's how I make my pizza:

Kelly's Delightful Pizza
-1/4 green bell pepper
-10 vegan Lightlife pepperoni slices
-1/2 block Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella cheese
-1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms
-1/2 cup fresh organic mushrooms
-a handful of green olives
-a handful of black olives
-some garlic salt, garlic powder, fresh garlic (I like garlic, what can I say)
-salt and pepper
-pizza sauce of your choice

• Making a pizza is pretty self explanatory. Other than soaking the porcinis for about half an hour, all you have to do is chop everything up and throw it on your pizza.
• Then, bake at 450F for 10-15 minutes, depending on how well-done you like your pie. I go with 12 minutes.
  

This is just the right size for two hungry people. I don't use a whole block of cheese because I like the suggestion of the taste rather than a bunch of gobs of vegan cheese in my mouth. Plus, your non-vegan friends and family won't notice the difference!


Enjoy!

Simple French Toast

Breakfast might be my favorite meal to cook. When I have house guests and people in from out of town, I love to get up early before everyone is awake to start cooking. I'll usually whip up some pancakes, keeping them warm in the oven as I go through batch upon batch, waiting for everyone to get up and get ready for the day. When I dragged myself out of bed on Saturday morning, however, I was starving, sleepy, and in desperate need of something a little faster than pancakes.

Now, in my non-vegan past I would always grab a Slimfast or a Diet Coke and run out the door, usually about to be late for class. But on a lazy Saturday morning, I needed something a bit more substantial. Besides: who serves Diet Coke to guests for breakfast?

I flipped through a few cookbooks, looking for a recipe that would be fast and that I could make with ingredients I already had in the kitchen. What I found was a recipe called "Phenomenal French Toast" in the Vegan Vittles cookbook. Vegan Vittles is a great cookbook if you're looking for healthy, basic vegan meals. It's got some great soups and one of my favorite pasta dishes, "Unstuffed Shells."

Even though the book calls these "phenomenal"--and they are quite delish--I think it's a bit of an overstatement considering how fast and easy these are to whip up. I tweaked the recipe a bit, as per usual, and it turned out a great breakfast for two. I served it up with soy sausage from the Publix Greenwise brand. It certainly wasn't the classiest or most impressive meal I've come up with, but it's a damn lot better than breakfast from a can.

Simple French Toast
-6 slices of bread
-1 cup nondairy milk
-6 tablespoons flour
-2 & 1/4 teaspoons nutritional yeast
-pinch of salt
-maple syrup (to top the toast when it's done!)

• Whisk together the milk, flour, nutritional yeast, and salt. Pour the batter into a shallow bowl or pan.
• Dip the slices of bread in the batter, making sure both sides are well-saturated.
• Oil a large skillet and put it over medium-high heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the battered slices in a single layer. (If you can't fry up all the bread at once because you've got a tiny skillet like me, heat your oven to 300 and keep the finished bread slices warm on a baking sheet until you're done with all the batches)
• Once the bottom is nice and browned, flip the slices and cook until the other side matches!

This is about as simple as you can get with a home-cooked breakfast. Serve with a little tea or coffee and some soysage and, voila, happy houseguests! It was my first attempt at French toast (or... Freedom toast?), vegan or otherwise, and it was enjoyed by all--despite the fact that I was half-asleep the whole time.


Happy Breakfast!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Frosting

My parents make fun of me for cooking and it's become apparent, after vacationing with them this summer, that they will never stop making fun of me for cooking. Cooking in front of my parents is, for me, what public speaking is for most. I get tense, embarassed, and am haunted by premonitions of my own inevitable failure.

My father came home from work yesterday and surveyed the scene: dirty dishes and cupcakes scattered around the kitchen.

"What are these for?" he asked.
"They're cupcakes, Dad."
"So?"
"So, they're not for anything," I explained. "They're for eating."
"Oh. I guess sometimes you just gotta bake, huh?"

In any case, I found the recipe for these cupcakes at Post Punk Kitchen, a great vegan website that you probably already knew about, recommended to me by my friend Jackson. (Someday, Jackson and I are going to open a bakery-slash-art gallery together, even if he doesn't realize that I'm serious yet). The recipe for the chocolate frosting comes from VegWeb.com. I have lifted both recipes almost exactly from these sites, adding my own helpful hints along the way.

These are quite different from a typical cupcake. The Grand Marnier and orange peel really adds an interesting and light element to the decadant chocolate. The cake is more flavorful and crumbly than what I'm used to, while the frosting is rich without being overwhelming or too thick. Between melting chocolate, zesting oranges, and being terrified that I was going to burn my frosting, making these cupcakes in my parents' kitchen was a harrowing--but in the end, worthwhile--experience.

Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes:
-2 cups flour
-1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder*
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon sea salt
-1/2 cup canola oil
-1 cup maple syrup
-3/4 cup soy milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
-4 tablespoons semi sweet chips
-1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel

*So, I'm not gonna lie--I didn't know what Dutch processed cocoa is. I mean, I looked it up and apparently you're not supposed to use regular cocoa in a recipe with baking powder because of some sort of chemistry issue. I couldn't find any of this at my grocery store, though so instead I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa--a mix of Dutch and traditional cocoa. Mine turned out fine, so I think it's nothing to stress about.

• Preheat your oven to 350F
  
• Put the chocolate chips in the microwave on high for about a minute so that they can start getting melted. Set them aside.
• Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa (it's best if you sift them, but don't stress too much about it).
• In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until they're a little foamy. Add the orange peel.
• Nuke the chocolate chips for one more minutes. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Then, fold in the melted chocolate.
  
• Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 of the way full. Cook for about 20 minutes (20-25). This should make about 15-18 muffins.

So, once your muffins are out of the oven (or while they're baking, if you're talented), you're ready to tackle the frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

-1 cup sugar
-6 tablespoons corn starch
-4 tablespoons cocoa*
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons oil
-1 cup water
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*I used the same Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa for the frosting. I would recommend staying consistant here with whatever cocoa you chose for the cupcakes.

• Sift together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa. Sifting will make it vastly easier to avoid lumps
  
• Add the water and whisk it with the dry ingredients until it's smooth.
  
• Heat the mix over medium-low heat while constantly stirring. This is the most labor-intense part because the frosting WILL begin to get too sticky and taffy-like at the bottom unless you stand there and stir it the whole time.
  
• Heat the frosting until it's about the consistency of donut frosting--thicker than glaze but thinner than icing. Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla.
• Dip the tops of the cooled cupcakes into the still-warm frosting.
  

By the way: this frosting can also works great on cakes. Just allow it to thicken more on the heat and then let it cool before frosting your cake.

As a finishing touch, I took orange slice candies and cut each candy into three slices, lengthwise, before laying two slices on each cupcake.



Enjoy!

So You Have a Blog Now

Yeah. It's pretty exciting!