Posts Tagged ‘ Baking ’

Fruity Vegan Corn Muffins

I have not cooked anything new for some time now.  I find the one difficulty with having a food blog is that I’m so busy trying out new recipes that I don’t have time to cook some old favorites.  I guess it’s all about balance.

This morning I got up ridiculously early so I decided to bake some muffins.  I can’t even remember the last time I did that.  My plan was to try a vegan cornbread using applesauce in place of the egg.  To my surprise my applesauce is all gone.  Of course I discovered this after assembling 3/4 of the ingredients!  I did a quick look around and was happy to see an aging banana on the counter.  Next to the banana were some organic apples that aren’t as pretty as waxed chemical filled apples so they’re not being eaten.  For the record I’m eating them but no one else is.

The end result is a sweet healthy muffin made from good simple ingredients.  I ended up with 9 muffins using a cupcake pan and they’re an appropriate sized muffin.  I have no clue as to the calorie count but they are way better for you than the mega sized fat and sugar filled muffins that you can buy pretty much anywhere these days.  I used to love store-bought but I just can’t eat them anymore.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup cornmeal
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat white flour (or ww pastry flour)
  • 1/2 teaspoon  each baking soda & baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 over ripe banana
  • 1 small apple grated
  • 3/4 cup soy or rice milk
  • 1/4 cup agave nectar
  • 3 tablespoons canola oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F Lightly grease cupcake pan

Combine the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; add in the soy milk, banana, oil and agave nectar.  Mix using a potato masher to break up the banana

Peel the apple and add into the bowl giving a gentle stir

Distribute the mixture into the pan

Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned approximately 20 minutes

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2010
09/18
CATEGORY
Anytime
Side Dish
Vegan
TAGS





1 comment

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

I should call these peanut/almond butter cookies but that’s just too long of a title.  I have been gluten-free for about 2 weeks now and am quite proud of my perseverance. However, cookies are a favorite food group of  mine and I am missing them from my life.

My intention is not to turn this into a gluten-free recipe blog but since it’s the diet I’m currently eating it seems that my recipes will follow suit.  I’ve tried this before and usually last about a week before a slip up.  From my reading gluten-free living seems like an all or nothing option because even a small amount can affect your system.  I don’t want to bore you with my minor health issues but I suffer from both IBS and arthritis.  From my reading I’ve discovered that gluten may have harmful consequences for both conditions.  More and more gluten is being studied as a possible cause of inflammation.

The difficult thing is that it’s hard to find out how long you have to be gluten-free to feel the results and how I’m not sure how detrimental is it if I have a tiny bit.  I really want to make a tofu scramble for breakfast with 1/2 a veggie sausage link in it.  Does that tiny bit of gluten ruin 2 weeks of hard work?  I can’t seem to find the answers regardless of all I’ve read.

Regardless of medical advice and without wanting to draw premature conclusions, I think I’m starting to feel a difference.  I worked very long hours sitting at my desk which is usually very uncomfortable and after 4 days in a row I felt better than I usually do after 2 days.  This morning I woke up with more energy than usual and went for a walk at 7am!  Also, without grossing anyone out my IBS symptoms seem to be much better.  We’ll see as time goes on if this is a fluke or true change.

On to my recipe,I found a few recipes for GF peanut butter cookies and have adapted them to both my personal taste and my desire for a healthier version.  If you just tasted these cookies you would never know they are gluten-free.  They are moist, rich and crunchy thanks to the peanut butter.  My house has that wonderful aroma of fresh-baked cookies.  This recipe was so easy, I literally tossed the ingredients into a bowl gave a really good stirring and baked them.  It’s a great recipe to have small children help with.

Ingredients

1/2 cup each almond and crunchy peanut butter (or 1 cup of what you have on hand)

1 large egg (or a mashed ripe banana for vegan version)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon each baking soda and baking powder

Directions

Place all ingredients in a bowl, give a really stir very well until all ingredients are incorporated, place by teaspoon on baking sheet and score with tines of a fork if desired.

Bake 10 minutes at 350, very important, let stand on baking sheet for a minute before transferring to a wire rack or they will crumble! Yields about 20 cookies

Have a peaceful day!  Lin

2010
08/03
CATEGORY
Anytime
Dessert
Gluten-Free
Vegan
TAGS





2 comments

Adult Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don’t get too excited, these cookies are family friendly.  I am pilfering a recipe from my daughter’s old blog cookandhook.wordpress.com/ with her permission of course!  This weekend I am working crazy long hours, 10 hours each Friday-Monday so there is no way I am cooking anything.  At the end of the day I’m too tired to handle a drive through window which is ok since I never order from them anyway!

Below is her entire post from 10/4/09 when she was au pairing in Denmark and worked for a wonderful family.  With this experience you will see she knows the comparison between US measurements and the rest of the worlds offering both options.  As a kid in the 70’s I remember being told that metric was the way of the future and that we all had to learn it.  I had 1 or 2 years worth of education ad then it just stopped cold, with no explanation which has left me with minimal comprehension often more confusing than helpful.  Does anyone else remember that?

Ariel’s post:

Adult Chocolate Chip Cookies

No, not the X-rated kind (although they do keep their shape fantastically with cookie cutters…)  These chocolate chip cookies taste a bit more mature (for lack of a thesaurus on hand) than the usual sugary make-with-your-kids tollhouse versions.  Though honestly I did make these with kids, and they loved them even though there is no butter in the batter and about a third less sugar than most recipes I’ve seen.  The parents loved them so much that Friday they let me swap my chores to bake 90 of these cookies (and a coffee cake whose recipe I can’t share on implied death threat from my grandma; you know how secret family recipes are) for a party they had Saturday night.  I’ll take baking over vacuuming any day.

This batch is scaled down from my 90 cookie recipe, but it’ll still yield 30 spoonful-drop sized cookies

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 2.33 deciliters /1 cup vegetable oil
  • 100g /half a cup white sugar
  • 100g /half a cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla (and/or almond extract, delicious)
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 385g / 3 cups flour
  • chocolate chips

Bake:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180′C / 350′F
  2. Mix ingredients in the order listed into a large mixing bowl
  3. Shape and drop on a baking pan (I line mine for easy clean up, but it isn’t necessary to line or grease the pan, there is enough oil in the cookies as is.)
  4. Bake 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of the cookies.  Remove from pan and place on cooling rack when done.

Important Things to Note:

  • Before adding the flour, this is the ugliest looking batter I’ve ever come across.  It is oily and brown and strong-tasting.  Don’t let this stop you!
  • Because of the high-oil content, it is very difficult to shape by hand.  It’ll roll out fine for cookie cutters (and keep the exact shape it has when going into the oven) but if you want round cookies, use a spoon to scoop out the desired amount and another to scrape it off.  It WILL stick to your hands, much more so than other recipes I’ve used.
  • This cookie will not turn golden brown the way buttery, sugary recipes will.  The edges will brown slightly, but the cookie is done when it no longer looks wet on top.  Unless you are shaping massive cookies, take it out of the oven after 12 minutes.  After the first batch you’ll get a good feel for it.

Please don’t let my notes scare you!  This is a very easy cookie to make and a very delicious one at that!  (If it wasn’t, would I have spent Friday morning baking 90 of them?  Especially since Thursday I’d baked a batch with the kids?)

2010
08/01
CATEGORY
Anytime
Dessert
TAGS



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Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

In an attempt to be true to my word I am once again trying my hand at vegan baking.  While my intention at this time is not to go 100% vegan my goal is to eat a predominantly vegan diet.  Previously I have posted my vegan banana bread recipe which is a huge success in my household and among non veg friends.

I am inspired by Chef Chloe Coscarelli who recently won Food Network’s Cupcake Wars.  A show I really don’t like by the way…  However, I am hopeful that food television in general takes her victory as a sign that there is a lot of inspiration in veg/vegan cooking and they will perhaps finally consider hosting a veg friendly show on one of their networks.

Yesterday I woke up early with some energy.  Living in Florida I try to keep my oven off during the day but I figured at 7am and a mere 77 degrees outside, what the heck?  Nothing beats a fresh baked cookie!  Cookies are a favorite food of mine but I am pretty much off the store bought varieties, they pretty much taste like the chemicals they are baked with.

After viewing several recipes online I came up with this one, which is a mixture of several others I looked at.  The ingredients were all in my pantry or fridge and it seemed simple enough.  The result are a rich chewy oatmeal cookie.  While I prefer a crisp cookie these are definitely a great start to creating a really great vegan cookie.


Recipe

3/4 cup vegan margarine room temperature

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

3 cups quick cook oatmeal

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 cup rice milk (soy if that’s what you have)

1.5 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

a pinch of all spice or to taste

1.5 cup total mix of your choice of vegan chocolate chips, cranberries, chopped walnuts, or raisins (I did 1 cup chips and 1/2 cup cranberries)

Directions

Cream together margarine and sugars until smooth, add in rice milk and vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together and then add to wet stirring well

Add your choice of fruit, nuts and chocolate

Drop onto greased baking sheet by the rounded teaspoon

Bake 350 for 10-11 minutes, cool a minute in the pan and move to a wire rack

2010
07/14
CATEGORY
Anytime
Dessert
Vegan
TAGS




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