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!

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!