Cookies for Your Pleasure...

Warning: These cookies are awesome. Awesome was an actual adjective used to describe them. Awesome was used with feeling. There may even have been a fist pump to go with that awesome. One man who works in my building came downstairs twice to tell me how good they were. I cannot say for myself how awesome they were, because I never actually got to try one. I'll just trust the judgement of those who did eat one. Now that you have been sufficiently prepared:

Look a little closer now...

I got the recipe from here, though it was originally the recent winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. I made these as the adapted recipe stated, only instead of honey, I used agave nectar. Because, you know, honey isn't vegan. Duh. Anyways. When asked what I made them with, I said, "magic." Right on.

Spooning Kittens

It is so hard to believe that they will be 12 weeks old this Wednesday. This is just two of the six. Rarely do you find more than one passed out at a time. The other four were causing mass destruction in the kitchen. They love to help me cook or bake, and by "help," I mean that they lay in the kitchen floor so I am constantly jumping over them like little, furry hurdles.

Last Tuesday, I set out to make my very first crisp for a work party the next day. I never really thought about making a crisp before, they just seem so simple. I like a challenge when I make a dessert. Sadly, I hadn't the time for a challenge. I used this recipe for Plum Berry Crisp. I made it as is, without any additions. I used demerara sugar in the fruit and the topping. I love how bubbly and juicy it came out of the oven. It kind of looked like The Blob. After it cooled, I added a glaze to it, because as my mom stated, a glaze makes everything better. At the party the next day, I got many compliments for the crisp. It was sweet and tart and juicy. And glaze really does make everything better. It's not the prettiest dessert, but damn was it good with vanilla soy ice cream. I don't believe I have ever gotten as many compliments on a dessert as I did with this one. One woman I work with had two of her sisters and her brother stop by to taste it, and to get a copy of the recipe. She told me it was the best thing I have brought yet.

Mmmm, bubbly.

This morning I made another coffee cake, same recipe as the last one from VWaV, only with black and blueberries. Once again, using half agave nectar and half brown rice syrup instead of maple syrup. All glazed up and ready to go to work in the morning:

Makin' a mess

Ah. I love long, holiday weekends. Anytime away from work is good for me. Friday night I was to meet up with a friend and her husband and son. I never go anywhere empty-handed, so I made brownies and experimental muffins. The experimental muffins were the brainchild of my friend, Maggie. She gets complete credit for them (or else she might hurt me). It's a loaded muffin: bananas, strawberries, walnuts and chocolate chips. I believe she named them "Chocoberrynananut Muffins." I'm not for sure on that, though, so I will just call them "Loaded Muffins." The base recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking. It's the chocolate chip banana muffins. I reduced the sugar to half a cup, put in a half cup of chocolate chips, a half cup chopped strawberries and one cup chopped walnuts. I also used soy milk instead of water. There was a lot of batter for just 12 muffins, so I filled the cups completely full and they came out with big, domed tops. They were beautiful.

Juicy top-shot:

My kitchen lighting is terrible, my apologies. While I pulled these off with no trouble, I had no such luck with my brownies. I used my usual go to brownie from DEOTS, and doubled it for a 9"x13" pan. I melted one and a half cups of chocolate chips and half a cup of Earth Balance margarine, and proceeded to out it in the fridge to cool down. I made a half-ass attempt to clear some space for the bowl, put it on a shelf only for it to promptly fall right off and spill into the kitchen floor. I think I have mentioned I have 6 kittens in the house, yes? I have spilled chocolate and six kittens headed straight for it. I was tossing cats left and right just trying to get them out of the way long enough to clean up the mess, all the while putting sailors and pirates across the world to shame with the colorful variety of swear words spitting forth from my mouth. It was not pretty. It didn't help that my phone was ringing every two minutes either. I was out of chocolate chips at this point, so I chopped up a Ritter Sport Extra Fine Dark Chocolate bar and two Lindt 70% Cocoa bars, and tried one more time. I ever so carefully placed the chocolate in the fridge and continued on without any more trouble. They better have been some damn good brownies.

Such innocent looking brownies. Who would know they gave me hell?