52 Weeks of Baking: Week 4 - Banana Whoopie Pies

Old bananas? I know I've said to make banana bread or banana pancakes or banana muffins. Not this week. This week I wanted whoopie pies.

Warning: these are sickeningly sweet. Maybe use a regular buttercream or maybe a cream cheese frosting if you don't want to go into diabetic shock when you eat one.

Banana Whoopie Pies

1/4 c softened Earth Balance
1 1/4 c sugar
2 mashed bananas
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 flax egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preaheat the oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment.

Cream together the Earth Balance and sugar; add the banana, flax egg, oil and vanilla and beat until well combined.

Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until combined; don't over mix. I have an 1/8th c measuring cup that I used to drop the dough onto the cookie sheet; whatever you have, just make them about 2 tbsp. You'll make 24 cookies.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. The tops won't get brown but you can use the toothpick test to test for doneness. Let them cool on a rack.

Filling

1/4 c Earth Balance
1/4 c shortening
1 c icing sugar
1/2 c corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Cream the EB and shortening together; mix in the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla and then drizzle in the corn syrup with the mixer on. Beat until it's fluffy and marshmallow-y. If it's too runny, add some icing sugar a tbsp or so at a time until it mostly holds it's shape. It'll still be pretty soft.

Put about a tbsp of filling on the flat side of one cookie and then sandwich together with another.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 3 - Chocolate Coconut Donuts

I love coconut donuts. They were my favourite indulgence at Tim Hortons. They don't sell 'em at every location so it's hard to get a hold of them, plus, you know, not vegan and really not good for you.

But I waaaaaaant them! So I made my own chocolate coconut donuts.

I pretty much just took the Vegan Yum Yum recipe and made it chocolate. And then dipped them in glaze and coated them in unsweetened organic coconut.

Coconut Covered Chocolate Donuts

4 tbsp Earth Balance Coconut Spread
1 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c "milk"
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat over to 350. Spray a large donut pan with whatever cooking spray you like. I got 6 large and 4 mini donuts (could have been 6 mini donuts, mine were too big) out of this.

Put the coconut spread through apple cider in a small pot over low heat until it's all melted together - it doesn't need to be hot or boil, just warm and mixed together.

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the wet and stir together until a fairly soft dough forms. I like to use a piping bag to fill the donut pans. Makes life mush easier. Pop them in the oven for 12 minutes (large donuts) or 10 minutes (minis). Take them out, let them cook for a minute before moving them to a rack and letting them cool the rest of the way.

You can eat them as is or...

Glaze

Mix about 1/2 c of icing sugar with a tbsp or so of "milk," dip in the donuts, then dip them in a bowl of coconut. Leave them to set or, you know, EAT THEM IMMEDIATELY. Just a suggestion.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 2 - LUSH Cupcakes

As you know (or maybe you didn't but now you will) I am participating in the OSPCA National Cupcake Day, fundraising for Guelph Humane Society by selling delicious cupcakes to people. Lush ordered 48 mini cupcakes inspired by the Valentine's Day products for their Rockabilly party on the weekend, and I was only too happy to oblige!

 I did Magic Mushroom last year so that was already in the bag; this year, however, they have a lovely new sweet citrussy massage bar called From Dusk Til Dawn.




















It smells more sweet than, say, Each Peach massage bar, so I decided that maybe adding a bit of almond extract would be a good way to get that in there. The massage bar is lemon and orange, so I used lemon and orange extracts too, and then grated a good chunk of orange peel into the frosting. And then dipped them in gold sanding sugar to complete the look.

From Dusk Til Dawn Cupcakes
 *adapted from the VCTOTW recipe

1 c almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
 1 c sugar
1/3 c oil
1 1/4 c flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp orange extract
1 tsp lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 350 and line 12 full size or 24 mini plus 3 full size wells.

Mix the milk and vinegar and set aside for a moment. Mix the oil and sugar; beat in the milk and extracts until frothy. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir well, until mostly mixed; a few lumps are okay.

I find an ice cream scoop best for filling big cupcake tins and a tablespoon best for minis. Bake minis for 13 minutes and full sizers for 20. Let 'em cool and then frost.

Orange Frosting

1/2 c 'butter'
1/4 c shortening
3 c icing sugar
grated zest of an orange
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp silk creamer or plain almond milk

Beat the butter and shortening together until fluffy. Add half the sugar and beat until incorporated; add half the liquid and beat that in, then add the rest of the sugar, then the liquid and extracts, and beat until smooth and pipe-able. If you like the 'nipple' look that my cupcakes had, pipe using a large open round tip and then dip in gold sanding sugar.

*note: the frosting recipe will do 48 mini cupcakes, not just 24, unless you like to pipe huuuuuge mountains on them thar cupcakes. It will do 12 large cupcakes pretty generously with a little left over.

52 Weeks of Baking

I need to bake more. It seems like I do a lot, but there are so many things that I have going on in my head that need to come to fruition. Thusly, I am endeavoring to bake something (new) every week for a year. And then blog about it, because as everyone knows, why even bother doing anything if you're not going to blog about it? Perhaps I'll pin my own food too (masturpin isn't as good a term as masturtweet, but I'm coining it anyway) because pinning is the new black.

Let's pretend our week started Monday, January 25th. Banana Chocolate Chip Donuts. NO GREEK YOGURT.

Let me tangent for a second. Greek yogurt does not need to be in everything. I'm so annoyed by it popping up *everywhere.* GO AWAY. I think part of my irritation is because yogurt is gross, and part of it is because I hate the concept of 'good for you' baked goods, which is what most of these baked goods recipes containing Greek Yogurt call themselves. Dude, you do not EVER need to eat baked goods. I'd rather eat one delicious, full fat, totally bad for me baked good than pretend that I'm doing myself a favour and eat a 'healthy' baked good. Eat a head of broccoli. Admittedly, however, I *did* actually work out how many calories are in one of my donuts and it was a mere 150. Not really too bad, all things considered. You're not blowing your whole diet if you indulge. And there's no effing Green Yogurt.

Anyway.


















Banana Chocolate Chip Donuts
makes 14ish big ones, I imagine. I made 12 big ones and 6 little ones. 

1 tbsp ground flax
1/3 c almond milk
3 tbsp soy creamer (you can probably use more almond milk instead.)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 med - lg very ripe bananas, well mashed
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c melted Earth Balance (you might try with canola oil?)
2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. You might want to spray or somehow grease your donut pan(s); I didn't and then had to scrub off banana donut bits. Annoying.

Mix the flax, milk, creamer, and vinegar together.

Mash the bananas up good n proper, add the vanilla, sugar and Earth Balance and beat kind of well. Add your curdled milk mixture and beat until everything is really well incorporated.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt right on top of the banana mixture and stir until everything is mostly mixed together; it's okay if there are some streaks or lumps, because now you're going to fold in your chocolate chips and that'll make sure everything is mixed well without overmixing.

Use a piping bag to pipe the donut business into the pans. Bake for 8 minutes if you're making wee donuts, and 12 if you're making bigguns. Let them cool in the pan for a couple of minutes and then remove to a rack to cool the rest of the way. They keep pretty well covered for a day or two. If you're looking to add a little something extra, I would suggest a chocolate glaze.

I am the ruler of all that I see.