Pumpkin Donuts 2.0

I made pumpkin donuts a while ago, just veganizing the Blue Eyed Baker recipe that is so popular (at least on pinterest) when the cooler months rear their beautiful, non-sweltering heads.        

Today I decided to veganize the one I found on King Arthur Flour. I changed it up a bit because with 3 eggs to omit and no milk in the original, you can't just leave them out without missing the liquids.

Also, I feel like maple and pumpkin are natural buddies, so instead of the 'classic' cinnamon sugar coating, I opted for maple glaze. With sprinkles. Because sprinkles are yummy and pretty. Not that you need a reason to add sprinkles to anything, of course.

As is, these are pretty non-complex in the flavour department, although they are definitely yummy. I think next time the addition of some molasses might add some depth.

My favourite food blogger camera angle. AVALANCHE!!!

Pumpkin Donuts 2.0
Adapted from the King Arthur Flour recipe

1/4 'milk'
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp water
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c pumpkin
1/2 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 c flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray your donut tins. I made 48 minis and 6 full sizers. The recipe says it makes 18 full size donuts. Use your discretion.

Mix the milk and vinegar; separately, mix the flax and water, and let both mixtures chill while you get the rest of the ingredients, except for the flour, into a bowl. Then add the flax & milk and mix everything together well. Add the flour and stir it in gently, you don't want to overwork it here.

Divide up into your tins and pop mini donuts into the oven for 10 - 12 minutes and full size ones for 12-14 minutes.

Pull out and cool in tins on racks for a few minutes before removing them from the tins to cool the rest of the way.

Leetle ones

Scientific Maple Glaze Recipe

1 c icing sugar, plus about a quarter cup
2 ish tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp maple extract

Stir everything together until smooth, then dunk the donuts in. If you want, you can follow that by immediately dunking them in a bowl of sprinkles, but I hand-sprinkled these ones for fun / less mess / less waste / a more rustic look.

Rustic looking, right?

Rice Krispies Squares

I found a container of Suzanne's Ricemellow Creme in my pantry the other day.

I don't usually condone artificial vanilla, but it has a home in rice krispies squares.

I don't know what I bought it for, or how long it had been there, only that one thing came to mind: rice krispies squares.

Looks pretty okay... but read on...

I followed the recipe from Olives For Dinner because it sounded like a direct veganization. It is, and the taste is great, but the consistency? Not so much. They just fall apart.

What is the meaning of this?

You can hardly cut them and you definitely can't hold on to them. So I'm disappointed / annoyed and now have to go find some Sweet & Sara marshmallows in hopes that they give better hold. We don't have dandies, or I would try those too and have a great Rice Krispies Square Tasting of '13.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 15 - Lemon Cream Pie

Don't get bored of lemon things. It's my outlet for baking 'spring' things on a day (MAY TWELFTH) when it's freezing and snowing / hailing. HAILING AND SNOWING I ask you. Unacceptable.

Anyway, it's Mother's Day (hope you called your mother) and we went to my aunt's for dinner as is family tradition. She usually orders Chinese. Nom nom. My mom made a chocolate cake in celebration of my uncle's birthday - chocolate is his favourite - but I offered to make something and my aunt said that would probably be appreciated. Why have one dessert when you can have two?!

I struggled for a bit with what to make. Cupcakes + chocolate cake seemed too redundant, even though cupcakes are always yummy, so I finally decided on a tart. My tart pan hasn't had enough use by far.

I was too lazy to make a regular crust so I went with a spice cookie crumb crust. Easiest crust ever. And Dare Simple Pleasures Spice Snaps are vegan. Perfect. I had already chosen to do lemon, based on the success of last week's lemon curd, but I wanted something a bit bulked up and decided to follow last week's theme even more closely and added some coconut. I came across this recipe which looks like a take on lemon meringue. The topping, however, is coconut with some agar cooked with the water from the coconut, and then the coconut cream is beaten in. I never got it to the solid state that it looks like it was in to top the lemon cream pie in the photo, because then I beat in a full recipe of lemon curd.

HOWEVER... it turns out that whatever happened the thing did not solidify properly and was kind of a creamy mess. I don't know if I should have added more agar or let the curd set better or maybe just cooked the agar more, but whatever happened it was like lemon custard. I mean, it was still delicious, but just don't go and do this unless you want lemon soup stuff.

Looks pretty at least!

Up close

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 14 - Some Cake

My grandma used to make a Springtime Chiffon cake and it was one of my favourite cakes ever. As far as I'm concerned, though, you can absolutely never go wrong with lemon and coconut together. Two of my favourite flavours.

I have never done a white cake before so for my first venture I thought I'd try this recipe. It was fine but the edges cooked up a bit gummy / crunchy for my liking. Also, I don't have a square pan so I used a 9" round instead, which could have been a problem? I also don't use clear vanilla so the cake is more yellow.

In the past I've used VegNews' lemon curd, which is made using coconut milk, so while it's definitely lemony it also has a lovely coconut flavour too. I probably should have used it for the cake, seeing as how I wanted to go with the lemon-coconut thing, but I branched out instead and used this one. It is faaaantastic so it's all good. Eat the rest with a spoon.

Finally I did the coconut milk whipped cream you see everywhere. You know, can of full fat coconut milk in the fridge and then you pour out the water and whip up the cream.

Assembly

Bake the cake. Derp.
Spread half a cup of curd on top.
Whip 1/3 c of the curd and a tablespoon of sugar into the coconut cream. Pile it on the cake and spread it around.
Take a cup of shredded coconut (I used unsweetened but you could use sweetened if you want) and put it in a container. Add 4 drops of yellow food colouring. Obviously this isn't necessary but it's pretty. Shake it the heck up until the coconut is all nicely yellow and then sprinkle it on top.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 11 - Orange "Carrot" Cake

I pinned this recipe ages ago. I love oranges and I love carrot cake and I love chocolate (duh). I haven't made a full CAKE in a long time so I decided to give veganizing this recipe a go, but not wanting a full 3 layer crazy cake, I cut it in half.

It's not pretty. Like... not pretty.

You're bound to have some failure once in a while. What wasn't a failure? The flavour. It's not at all carroty because the orange takes over, so while there's carrot in there it's not at all what I would consider carrot cake; it still tastes pretty fab because, as I mentioned, I love oranges.

I could eat a bowl of them as is.

Next time I would also re-do this at 2/3 the recipe instead of half, or maybe baking it in 2 8" cake plates or something, instead of 1 angel food cake pan and then slicing it in half. The halves were super delicate because the thing was really moist and may have split apart a bit when I was moving them onto a plate. Ah well. Such is life. Lesson learned. All that stuff.

Orange Carrot Cake

1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
4 tbsp applesauce
finely grated rind of half an orange
2/3 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 c + 2 tbsp sugar (although honestly, you can probably omit the 2 tbsp. The cake is pretty sweet.)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c shredded coconut
1 c shredded carrot
2/3 c finely chopped mandarin orange sections

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a pan or 2 . I used an angel food cake pan (?). Mix the milk and vinegar and set aside.

In a largeish bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, powder, soda, salt and coconut. Pour in the milk, applesauce, orange rind, oil and vanilla. Stir until relatively well mixed, though the occasional lump isn't the end of the world. Fold in the carrot and oranges.

Pour into your pan. If you are using one pan, it took my cake 50 minutes to bake; I tested at 35 and it was still straight up batter in the middle. If you are using 2 pans definitely start at 30 minutes instead.

Remove from oven, let cool on a rack in the pan(s) for a minute or two before turning the cake out onto the rack and cooling the rest of the way.

Cream Cheese Filling

3/4 of a container of tofutti 'cream cheese' at room temperature
1/4 c marmalade
1/2 c icing sugar

Beat the tofutti until fluffy; add in the marmalade and sugar and beat until well combined. It'll be pretty soft.

Slice your cake into 2 layers if you used one pan, and put the icing on one side and then top with the other.

Chocolate Ganache

2/3 c silk creamer
8 oz chocolate, chopped

Bring the silk up to a near simmer in a small pot; add the chocolate, turn the heat off and stir until the chocolate is melted and it's all smooth and lovely. Once it's cool and thick, pour it over the cake and spread it around all pretty-like.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 10 - Lemon Lavender Scones with Candied Lemon Peel

Missed a few weeks. Not for lack of baking, mind you. Just a lack of time. The older kid's day care provider went on mat leave 2 weeks ago. Trying to keep a 2.5 year old busy while tending to the needs of a 4 month old is a lot.

This flavour combo is something I've been meaning to get on with for a long time. In the midst of the National Cupcake Day baking (2 of which I still need to get done!) I just didn't get to it. However, here it is, and boy is it good.

Candied Lemon Peel

I didn't know how to candy lemon peel., since I've never done it before, I just knew I wanted it.

The recipe I used required more time than I thought because you have to boil the lemon peels 3 times in plain water and then a fourth time in the sugar water.

Then you end up with a jar of lemony simple syrup, too. I'm thinking of using it for cocktails, maybe to soak a lemon loaf in, to drink straight from the jar, who knows. I'm sure there are many applications.

Oh. The 'recipe.' It's really just a method; switch up lemons for oranges or whatever citrus floats your boat and you'd have something equally tasty.

Lemon Lavender Scones

Adapted only slightly from my go-to scone recipe, which is the Glazed Orange Scones from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's delightful VWAV. 

1 1/4 c milk (almond as always here)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
 zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
3 c flour
1/3 c sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
 1 tsp lavender, finely chopped
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/8 tsp lavender oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a large baking sheet with parchment.

Mix the milk and vinegar; add the lemon peel and set aside. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lavender. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and add the oils. Stir together; dough shouldn't be sticky.

Flour a surface and split the dough into two balls. Put one on the floured surface and pat out into a 6" disk. Cut it into 6 triangles (I used a pizza cutter) and repeat with the other half of the dough. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. They won't really get browned, so don't worry too much about colour. Take them out and let them cool on the sheet for a few minutes before putting them on a rack. Save your parchment paper and put it under the rack to catch icing drips!

Lemon Glaze

I didn't add any lavender to the glaze or the decorating, but you probably can if you want.

1 tbsp melted Earth Balance
2/3 c icing sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
a spoon or two of the simple syrup if you want

Mix it all together. I like mine a little thick so it doesn't make a giant mess everywhere, plus if the scones are a bit warm when you glaze them it falls off if it's too thin to begin with. Annoying. Spread a tablespoon or so of glaze on each scone and top with a few pieces of the lemon peel.

If that doesn't look / taste like Spring, nothing does.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 6 - Cherry Almond Donuts

Saw a recipe for cherry almond cake on pinterest. I won't link it because it was a modification on a box cake mix, and I have strong anti box cake mix feelings. That didn't stop me from wanting the cake, of course. But I don't like making whole cakes because they're harder to share unless you're having a party. I wasn't having a party.

Donuts! The perfect answer to everything.

Let's dispense with the crip crap.

Cherry Almond Donuts

2 tbsp maraschino cherry juice
1/2 c minus 2 tbsp 'milk' (roughly 100ml if you've got a measuring cup with imperial measurement)
1 flax egg
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp Earth Balance Coconut Spread
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 c flour
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
scant 1/2 c maraschino cherries, chopped

Preheat to 350; I made 24 mini donuts and 3 large ones, so spray the appropriate number of pans.

Melt all the wet ingredients together in a small pot over low heat.

Mix together all the dry ingredients; add the wet and stir together, then fold in the cherries. Pipe the batter into the pan and bake for 10 minutes for minis and 13 minutes for full size donuts. Let cool a few minutes in the pans and then remove to racks.

Icing

1/2 c icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp 'milk'
sprinkles if you feel like it

Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl with a fork; if you need to add more liquid or more sugar to make it a good 'dipping' consistency, use your discretion. Put parchment under your racks so that you can dip and then let them rest without fear of big mess making.

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 5 - Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes

One of my lovely friends who donated to my National Cupcake Day campaign is British and said he would like British cupcakes. After turning down my offer to do mushy pea cupcakes (I mean, really, what the heck is wrong with him?!), he suggested sticky toffee pudding and I happily agreed. Sticky toffee pudding is in my top 5 all time favourite desserts. I've never had or made a vegan version before, though.

After one mishap (no one likes burnt cupcakes) I managed to make, what I hope is, a very passable if not altogether authentic sticky toffee pudding cupcake.

The damn things are SUPER messy, by the way. Like, toffee sauce every. where. Not that that's a big problem, obviously; this is just the kind of problem fingers were created to solve.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes (adapted from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice)

2 c chopped dates
2 c boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c Earth Balance, softened
2 c sugar
1/4 c almond milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 flax egg
3 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder

Toffee Sauce

2 3/4 c brown sugar
2 c soy creamer
1/2 c Earth Balance

Put the dates and baking soda in a bowl; pour the boiling water in. Let sit for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line 2 cupcake pans (yes this makes 24 cupcakes) or halve the recipe. Your call.

Mix the milk and vinegar; set aside. Beat the earth balance and sugar until fluffy; add the milk mixture and flax egg and beat them in; stir in the flour and powder, then fold in the dates & their liquid. Use an ice cream scoop to put batter in the cups; bake for 21 minutes.

While the 'cakes are baking, put all the ingredients for the toffee sauce in a pan on medium heat. Let it come up to a boil, the turn it down to a simmer and let it thicken for 10ish minutes.

When the 'cakes are done, pull them out and let them cool in the pan on a rack for a few minutes. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and put the sheet on a rack. Put the cupcakes on the sheet and using a fork, pierce them 6  or 8 times. Pour hot toffee sauce over the cakes, doing it 3 or 4 times to make sure it's really getting into them. You'll have lots of leftover sauce.

Frosting

1/3 c cooled toffee sauce
1/2 c room temp EB
3 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Beat the EB and toffee sauce together; yes it will look curdled, but that's okay. Add half the sugar and beat well; add the vanilla and rest of the sugar and beat until smooth and beautiful. Frost fully cooled cupcakes.

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.

Happy New Year! and Orange Coconut Donuts

Nothing says ringing in the New Year like making a friend a yummy treat on her last day of work. I had purchased some unsweetened organic shredded coconut a week or two ago with plans for lemon coconut donuts; then I got sidetracked, used the lemons for something else, and bought oranges with no particular plan in mind. The two together sounded not too shabby to me, but then I love all things orange and all things coconut. Whatever. The result was delicious. The recipe is the modified version of that from veganyumyum.

Orange Coconut Donuts

1/2 c almond milk (or whatever dairy alternative)
4 tbsp Earth Balance
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp flax + 3 tbsp water
1 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Glaze
1/2 c sifted icing sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, EB, vanilla, and flax egg until the eb melts. Meanwhile, stir  together everything else except the zest. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, add the zest, and stir well. I like to use a piping bag to pipe into the donut tins, but you can use a spoon or your fingers or whatever. Make sure not to overfill; I got 33(?) out of this recipe today, but I generally get 36. Pop them in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove, let cool a few minutes in the tin, then take 'em out and cool the rest of the way on racks.

For the glaze / coconut, stir the sugar and juice together in a wee bowl. Put about a half cup of coconut in another wee bowl. Dip the cooled donuts' top side in the glaze and then dunk into the coconut. Put back on the racks to let it solidify a bit before taking them to your giftee or else nom them as you go, the choice is yours.

Merry Christmas!

I know the thing you've always wanted in your life is Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding.

This used to be one of my very favourite things ever a few years ago; it's out of Food & Drink magazine, which is, as I've mentioned before, the best food magazine ever. It's a little involved since you have to make banana bread first, but totally worth it. Also, this is probably the most delicious banana bread I've ever had / made, so it's something to make even if you don't want to go whole hog with the pudding.

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

Banana Bread
1/3 c almond milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground flax
1/3 c Earth Balance, room temp
1/2 c sugar
1 c mashed banana (about 2 large)
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/2 c roasted chopped pecans (optional; I don't like nuts in banana bread so I just add another 1/4 c chocolate chips instead.)

Bread Pudding
1 carton Silk French Vanilla (I'm sure plain would be fine)
1 can full fat coconut milk
2/3 c sugar
1 tbsp ground flax
6 oz chocolate chips or chopped semi sweet chocolate
1/2 c mashed banana (1 large)

For Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x9 baking dish.

Mix the milk and apple cider vinegar and flax. Beat the earth balance and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the milk mixture, banana and vanilla and beat together. It will look a bit curdled and gross, so don't expect it to come together. I promise it will be delicious. Sift in the flour, powder, soda and salt; stir until just combined. Add the chocolate chips (and nuts) and stir until well dispersed.

Pour into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly; bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until it tests clean. Remove from oven and let cool a few minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool the rest of the way. When it's fully cool you can commence the pudding part.

For Pudding

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x9 baking dish and then line with parchment so that it comes over the sides a bit too (makes for easy, pretty presentation when you can pull it out in one piece).

Put the coconut milk and sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Let come up to a boil, stirring often, and cook for 15 or so minutes, until reduced to 1 c of liquid. (At this point, put your chocolate into a medium bowl). Turn the heat down to low and add the creamer and flax and let it come up to a simmer. Turn it off and then strain it over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is fully incorporated. Stir in the mashed banana. Let the chocolate cool; cut up the banana loaf into roughly 1" pieces and put into a bowl. Pour the chocolate over top and press the pieces of bread in, then let it sit to soak for about 15 minutes. Pour it into your prepared dish. Place the dish into a larger dish and pour about 1" of hot water into the larger dish. Place in the oven and bake for 55 - 60 min. Take out of the oven, remove from bath, and allow to cool fully before refrigerating.

To serve: you can eat it right from the fridge, at room temp, or warm. It's not finicky. A dollop of some sort of whip might be tasty, or maybe even a splash of creamer. We ate ours warmed for 30 seconds in the microwave, without any cream because I didn't think to buy any.

If you don't eat this for next Christmas breakfast, you're going on the naughty list.

Eggsnog Cupcakes

A friend's last day at work calls for delicious cupcake treats. Her request? Eggnog cupcakes. 'Tis the season, after all.

This recipe is more or less the vanilla cupcakes recipe from VCTOTW. Add a couple of spices, rum extract, and make it with eggnog instead of milk and voila! Eggsnog Cupcakes.

Many cakes

Eggsnog Cupcakes
1 c Vegan Eggnog (I used Almond Fresh Noel Nog)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 c GF flour (I used Bob's Red Mill, and added 1/4 tsp xanthan gum)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp rum extract

Preheat the oven to 350; line a 12 cup cupcake pan with paper liners.

Mix the nog and vinegar and set aside.

Sift together all the dry ingredients and give 'em a stir. Make a well in the centre and add the nog mixture and the other wet ingredients. Stir really, really well. No lumps!

Pop in the oven for for 20 - 22 minutes; remove and let cool for 5 minutes before setting on a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Noel Nog. Good in cupcakes, good with rum.

Eggnog Frosting

1/2 c Earth Balance buttery spread (room temp)
1/4 c Earth Balance shortening (room temp)
3 c icing sugar
2 tbsp  eggnog
1 tsp vanilla

Nutmeg for sprinkling

Ian took these pictures and decided ramekins make cool pedestals.

Beat the shortening and butter until fluffy. Add 1 c of sugar; beat until well incorporated. Beat in a second cup; add 1 tbsp of nog. Add the last cup, last tbsp of nog, and vanilla, and beat on high till smooth and creamy. Pipe onto cupcakes; dust with a little bit of nutmeg.

Enjoy!

Salty Oaty Cookies

Last night I had been intending to make a batch of Christmas cookies, but then got distracted by pinterest and these cookies. The cookies have no eggs or dairy in them, and a simple sub of Earth Balance for the butter made them vegan, which is lovely. Sometimes I just want to think about what to sub. The filling calls for 2 tbsp milk, for which I subbed almond milk, as always, and again Earth Balance for the butter.

You could eat them without filling, too.

The ganache was a bit too soft for my liking and I think next time I would probably go with a different recipe, though I have to admit that I did really like the flavour having used cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate like most ganaches call for.

The saltiness is delicious. I used Murray River flakes; I would definitely recommend going the flake route vs the chunky sea salt route. Chunky sea salt might over do it even if you only sprinkle on a couple of grains.

You probably could actually make these as Christmas cookies; I imagine the filling would freeze and thaw just fine. I might actually toss one in a freezer bag and see what happens.

Or I might just eat them all with coffee or tea over the course of this week.

London Fog Cupcakes - Gluten Free!

I wanted to make London Fog (earl grey + vanilla) cupcakes, I wanted to use up my vegan white chocolate, and I wanted this to be gluten free. So I bought some Bob's Red Mill GF flour, because buying a bunch of various flours and mixing them myself gave me 'okay' but not necessarily 'great' cupcakes last time I ventured into the world of GF, some xanthan gum because Bob told me to, and got to baking.

I worked off my old standby, Isa's VCTOTW Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe, just modifying a couple of things to make them London Foggy.

Then I made white chocolate orange blossom ganache frosting that was kind of a fail, but still tastes good. I want to try the ganache again sometime, and soon, because I think it could work. I'm not going to post the recipe for it because it was sub par this time, consistency wise.

So, I mail ordered this in the summer and it melted in the mailbox. Probably the reason it failed.

 

 

 

 

 

London Fog Cupakes

1 1/4c milk (as always, I use almond)
8 tsp Earl Grey tea (I used David's Tea Cream of Earl Grey loose leaf)
1 tsp almond milk
1.3 c canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange blossom extract
1 1/4 c flour (I used Bob's Red Mill GF)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (only if you're using the GF flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cornstarch (not sure if this is necessary with the xanthan, but I used it anyway. Next time I might try
                            without)
3/4 c sugar

The orange blossom flavour. Smells pretty good, actually, and reminds me of Lush.

In a small sauce pan, bring the milk to a boil. turn off immediately and drop in the tea. I use those paper tea bag things you use with loose leaf tea; if you have a tea ball or the like, you might want to put it in a measuring cup and pour the milk over so that it's fully submerged and you get the maximum steepage.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line 12 cups with cupcake liners.

When the milk/tea has cooled down, squeeze as much out of the bags as possible (after the tea leaes have absorbed the milk, you should end up with 1 c liquid. Discard anything more than 1 c) and then mix the milk with the apple cider vinegar. Set aside to curdle.

Sift together all the dry ingredients. Whisk them up and create a well in the centre. Pour in all the wet ingredients. If you're using the GF mix, whisk them together super well until no lump remain; if you just use regular flour, do the normal 'small lumps are okay' kind of mixing. Divide into the cups and pop into the oven for 20 - 22 minutes. Remove, let cool in the pan for a few minutes, and then put on a rack to cool fully before frosting.

Outta the oven, sporting a lovely tan due to the tea!

If you want to make a normal buttercream and flavour it with vanilla and orange blossom extract, I bet it would be super yummy.

You can see the weirdness of the consistency. Still tasted good.

Apple Cider Donuts

I have been wanting to make apple cider donuts for ages and bought the cider a couple of weeks ago for this purpose. I didn't have a recipe in mind so when I finally decided to get down to it this morning, it took me a couple minutes to decide whether I wanted to veganize a recipe I found or just find a vegan recipe. Fortunately, Vegetarian Times has a recipe they published back in 2009, no extra work required.

I used a flax egg instead of that egg replacer stuff, because I don't do the egg replacer stuff, and once again, like the last several times I've made donuts, the recipe makes WAY MORE than it says. It's really weird. I feel like the mini donut pans these people use must be about twice the size of the mini donut pan I use, because I got 48 mini donuts and the recipe said it makes 18. I don't get it.

Numbers aside, these are pretty yummy. I added 1/4 tsp more cinnamon because the person I was bringing these two likes cinnamon things, and coated them in cinnamon sugar rather than superfine sugar. I let Dash have one pretty much right out of the pan (they're tiny, they cool quickly) and not letting him have another inspired a lovely 10 minute tantrum which ended with hm putting himself to bed, so yeah, they're good.


















Apple Cider Donuts

* remember, if you don't have Ener-G, use a flax egg instead of the 'egg replacer + water' combo suggested
* cinnamon sugar = 1/2 c sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon. Dip donuts in melted earth balance first, then coat in
   sugar