Baking on a Tuesday...?

Yes, indeed. Tuesday night was full of baking. Three hours of baking, plus another hour and a half this morning. I was tired after all that, but it was for a good purpose - a party. We're always having some kind of party at work. ALWAYS. Today was a breakfast for all our different departments, and there's a lot of us, so we had to make sure there was enough food. I did my part. First, I made a double batch of cinnamon rolls. The same ones I made a couple of weeks ago, only double (duh). I did everything but bake them last night, and stuck them in the fridge to chill out until this morning so I could bake them fresh. They got huge in the fridge. Once again, I used flax as my egg replacer. Everything else was the same (x's two!).

Pretty in the pan.

Gooey

Up close and gooey

While the dough for those was rising so I could roll them out, I made Pumpkin Streusal Cake from Veganomicon. I made no changes to this one, it was awesome as is.

This cake was moist and perfect.

After the cake, I gave up for the night. I woke up bright and early (4 am) and made scones. Specifically, Chocolate Chip Scones from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I had a tiny problem with these. I kept adding flour and no matter how much I added, I couldn't get them not sticky so I could shape them. So I just scooped them up and dropped them on the cookie sheet. They came out fine. Fluffy and sweet and chocolatey.

Sprinkled with demerara.

There's the spread. Vegan sausage, pancakes with apples on top, pumpkin streusal cake, cinnamon roll and fruit. There was a scone, but I ate it before the photo. Like a true southern dweller, I washed it all down with a Diet Sundrop. Breakfast of Champions.

Why is there cat hair in my mixing bowl?

Oh. Nevermind. Mystery solved. On to other matters...(yes, I washed the bowl before using it).

I've been very lax in my food porn, as I have made tons of things lately, but never pulled out the ole camera to prove it. This past weekend I made Mom's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vegan Planet and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Did I take pictures? Nooooo. I made them to take on a visit to some friends in Nashville, who I was staying the night with. The oatmeal raisin cookies killed, as usual, and the chocolate chip cookies had a surprisingly different, yet awesome flavor. I wouldn't have made them if not for the fact that I was out of margarine, and needed an oil based cookie recipe. I'm glad I did though. They came out flat and chewy, and the recipe called for maple syrup, but I used brown rice syrup instead. Here's what I made the weekend prior to last that I managed to get pics of:

Cranberry Sesame Cookies, courtesy of Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel. These cookies definitely needed to sit overnight to develop their flavor. I tried one still warm, and was like, 'meh.' I took them to work the next day and they flew out of the container and into people's mouths. I tried another, and was like, 'now, that's a cookie.' Amazingly sweet and nutty, and healthy tasting in a good way.

I also had a bundle of bananas that were beyond rotten - just the way I like 'em. So I pulled out my trusty Veganomicon and made the Lower-Fat Banana Bread. Perfect, as always, and with walnuts inside and granola sprinkled on top to make it pretty.

As I mentioned, I was visiting friends this weekend. During a trip to an evil chain pet store which shall remain nameless (she needed rat chow...), I was peer-pressured into adding two new members into my family:

Meet Thelma and Louise. Two little lives saved. Oh, and they are perfectly safe from all my cats.

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?

Nuts!

A month ago, I wrote 'pistachios' on my grocery list, which hangs on my fridge. I had a specific recipe that I wanted to try, and I needed pistachios for it. Now, weeks went by, and I finally bought a bag Thursday night (on sale - $2 bucks!). For the life of me I couldn't remember why I wanted them, but I knew I needed them. I thought, thought and over-thought some more about what I was going to use the pistachios for (by the way, pistachios is a super fun word). It's still nagging at me, but in the meantime I decided on another recipe: Nutcase Cookies from My Sweet Vegan. Have I mentioned how much I love this book? I cut the recipe in half and followed as is, only subbing pecans for cashews. I got 18 cookies. They were definitely the most colorful dough I have played with in a while:

Here they are on the sheet waiting.

These cookies are strictly 'party on the outside, business on the inside,' as they aren't overly sweet, but will definitely satisfy a nutty craving. By the way, mine look nothing like the picture in the book. You can see the speckles from the Sucanat. Good crunchy cookie.

Pistachios...

I think my peanut butter addiction has become fairly obvious. If it hasn't, then I'm not trying hard enough. Observe:

This is only a small sample. I really wanted to showcase my love for Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butters. LOVE! (Holy cow! I just noticed they have maple flavored peanut butter. Yowza!) I bought a load of it in these small jars on sale a couple of months ago. I zeroed in on the spicy flavor, The Heat is On. Yes, it's also a song by Glenn Frey, and I have had it stuck in my head all morning. You know, the song from Beverly Hills Cop? Yeah...

I've been wanting to do something special with it, as I can't see myself eating it as I would other peanut butters. I tend to use them in sweets, rather than savories. Inspired by mexican chocolate cookies, I made Spicy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe is based on the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I tweaked it by using The Heat is On, instead of smooth or crunchy PB, and adding about 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and the absolutely essential chocolate chips. This was for a half batch. I also nixed the egg replacer since I would have only been dealing with enough for half an egg, and used soy creamer instead of s'milk. I was skeptical of the dough because it was wetter than I was used to peanut butter cookie dough being, but it was fine. The cookies spread nicely. I got 15 large cookies. They are actually good! The heat doesn't really kick in until they start to melt in your mouth, then they hit you like they are pushing you out of bed in the middle of the night; you hit the floor, wake up and wonder what the hell happened. And no harm is done. Or something like that.

Very deceiving cookies. They look like average, ordinary chocolate chip cookies. I forgot to criss-cross the tops. Oh, well. My coworkers are in for a surprise tomorrow. Mwhahahahahahahaha!

Tart and sweet - Just like me

On a note unrelated to what I actually baked today, I think I finally perfected my hummus. I like mine bare bones and spicy, and with garlic you will be tasting for days. Really, I am still burping garlic today. My ingredients: one can of chickpeas, one tablespoon tahini, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper, 1/4 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon salt, approximately 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of dried garlic flakes (I just shook the container, I didn't measure it) and water added for desired thickness. Perfection.

Now on to today's endeavors...

Thursday night I happened upon the most beautiful, bright, ruby red rhubarb I have ever seen. So beautiful, yet so expensive. I only bought two stalks, but that was plenty. Since I am the only person I know that likes the tang of rhubarb, I made only a half batch of muffins, and froze the rest of the rhubarb. I went to the only rhubarb muffin recipe I will ever need, from ExtraVeganZa - Rhubarb Pecan(less) Muffins (I'm not big on nuts). Previously seen here. They were made with all whole wheat pastry flour and agave nectar instead of maple syrup. The book says to bake for 30 minutes, but mine were done in about 23 minutes. Hmm.

It kind of looks like it is floating, eh?

The picture is working my tastebuds into a frenzy. Moist and tart. The way they should be.

To distract myself from their beauty, I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I have tried a lot of oatmeal cookies. A LOT. I have searched for the perfect oatmeal cookie, and I think I found it. Chewy and sweet and delusionally healthy (they have bran in them!). I got a perfect half batch out of it, 21 cookies. I added chocolate chips along with the raisins, and used sucanat for brown sugar. I think it was really the ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar that made these.

Death Row: Where Cookies Prepare to Meet Their Maker('s stomach).

I have many more pics, but for some reason my camera was not in focus and they all came out blurry. Sure, the camera pretended like it was focusing, but it didn't.


Not all the cookies. Somebody (not me, I swear) snuck up behind me while I was wearing headphones and made off with cookies. They are so good, people are ashamed of how many they will eat. I must share this one:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

(this is for a half batch, approx. 21 cookies)

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed, equiv. to one egg
3 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy butter, softened (Earth Balance works best for me)
3/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup oat bran (I used wheat bran instead)
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips (my addition)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly oil 3 cookies sheets or line with parchment paper.

In a blender or food processor, whip together the flaxseed and water until thick and creamy. The consistency will be somewhat gelatinous. By hand or using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and flaxseed mixture until well blended.

In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine the flour, oat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture and mix until well blended and smooth. Stir in the rolled oats and raisins (and chocolate chips if using) until thoroughly combined.

Use a tablespoon to scoop up some dough and, with lightly greased hands, lightly press the cookies to form 1/2 inch thick rounds. Bake until the cookies are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes (it took only 10 minutes for me). Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to firm up for a few minutes while still on the cookie sheet. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Eat, eat, eat!