baking

Healthy Balance

December 10, 2012 by Erica

There are a couple things I’ve made lately that haven’t appeared on the blog.

White wine cake.

Rosemary and cheddar scones.

Vegan brownies.

Why haven’t I posted them, you ask?

Because they tasted terrible.

Over the past several months, a few vegan baked goods have come out well enough for me to be proud of. But the three above – in their non-vegan version – happen to be some of my favorite treats in the entire world. And try as I might, I just can’t make them taste good without butter or eggs.

Baking has been one of my favorite things since childhood, long before I ever enjoyed savory cooking. I love the certainty that following a recipe will produce a delicious end result… the smiles and exclamations from friends/family/co-workers when they eat something amazing I’ve baked… not to mention the fact that I love the taste of baked goods. So you can imagine my dismay when recipes don’t turn out and my friends/family/co-workers and I are unimpressed by something I’ve spent so much time on.

Can you guess where this is going?

It’s going in the direction of butter and eggs.

No more vegan baking, guys. A step back from this vegan thing in general.

This is really no big deal. I still plan on eating mostly plants, and when something can be made vegan or healthier without compromising flavor, that’s what I’ll do. But I’ll also start posting non-vegan and even non-vegetarian recipes and baked goods with eggs, butter, etc. I like making that kind of thing, so I want to share it with you as I go back a little toward the meat-eating side. We’ll see how it goes.

Is this just a holiday cop-out so I can eat my mom’s turkey meatballs and mint meringues when I go home for Christmas? Maybe.

I love that the “whole foods, plant-based diet” advocated in The China Study has given me a new framework for considering what’s healthy and what’s not. Those turkey meatballs are probably more of a splurge than pre-vegan me would have thought. And I love all the healthy new dishes I’ve been trying (and sharing here) because of my 6 months of veganism. Plant-based cooking is way more delicious than I ever could have thought, and I’ve fallen in love with many new veg-based meals. This is not the end of that story!

But let’s move more towards “healthy balance.” A lot of plant-based dinners and healthy snacks, and also some of the awesome desserts that I love sooooo much.

Phew, I’m glad to get that off my chest! Now I can start sharing my Christmas dishes tomorrow (some vegan, some not) guilt-free!

Fudgy Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

November 14, 2012 by Erica

I had planned on posting about something completely different today.

But then I thought that would be unfair, because I’ve had chocolate on the brain all week. So obviously everyone should. Also, do you see this cake?

It is fudgy, pumpkiny and vegan. I really hope you’re not sick of pumpkin yet, because this cake is something special!

Last fall, my roommate and I found this recipe on the Whole Foods website. I’m not sure what we were looking for when we found it (not a pumpkin recipe, I don’t think), but we tried it and it was way better than we expected. It was so good that she made it again to surprise me for my birthday! So sweet. (Miss you Kera!)

I was also pleasantly surprised this weekend when I was able to create a vegan version of this cake pretty uneventfully. (That has not been the case for most of my vegan baking attempts… but more on that some other time.) Probably because it was somewhat healthy to start out with, containing pumpkin and all, the vegan version tasted just like I remembered it. Success!

I’m embarrassed to say that this particular cake spent less than 36 hours on this earth. I had some help… but not much.

This cake isn’t too fancy. It’s good for snacking, or bringing over to a friend’s house to share. It’s sweet, but still pretty healthy!

The one problem with this cake is that it always looks so uneven, you know? Every time you cut a slice, the remaining cake just needs to be evened off a little… now just a little over here… oh shoot, might as well just eat the rest of that row.

And that, my friends, is why there was no cake left when Nate got home on Sunday.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Fudgy Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

Hands-on time

10 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

45 mins

Author: Erica

Yields: 9

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural cane sugar
1 6-oz container plain soy yogurt (3/4 cup)
1 15-oz can pumpkin purée (1 ½ cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups vegan chocolate chips
powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour through salt).
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, yogurt, pumpkin, and vanilla.
Mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Pour into prepared dish. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with fudgy crumbs, about 35 minutes. Set the dish on a cooling rack.
Once thoroughly cool, dust with optional powdered sugar. Slice and serve directly from the dish.

Notes

Adapted from Whole Foods http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-cake

Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Candied Lemons

November 2, 2012 by Erica

Happy Friday!

I’m so excited to share this cake today. Mostly because it’s just SO pretty. (Apparently candied lemons will do that to just about anything. Even a cake that rose slightly higher on the sides than in the middle!)

But I’m also excited to share it because it tastes good! I am typically a frosting person, but this cake is so flavorful on its own that it really doesn’t need much extra. The tart lemon, aromatic rosemary, and rich olive oil are all noticeable in the finished cake, without being overpowering. This made me so happy – I hate it when unique ingredients seem to bake off and are totally undetectable in the finished cake. The spelt flour adds nutty whole-grain flavor, too. All combined, it is both sweet and savory, and something a little outside the ordinary – in a very good way!

I’m lucky that Nate and I had a few friends to help us polish this off. (Thanks guys!) Otherwise I guarantee I would have gone to bed with a big stomach-ache.

While I didn’t intend to use an existing recipe for this cake, once I started researching, it just sort of happened that way. I guess I’m scared of developing my own recipes when baking, or even modifying existing ones, because you can only do so much taste testing as you go. At some point you have to stick it in the oven and commit to any horrible newbie vegan baking mistake that comes out on the other side. I don’t know. I’ll get there. For now, this is a lovely recipe from The Gluttonous Vegan. It may seem to have a lot of components, but it’s really very simple (mix it up and put it in the oven) and fun to make.

If I tell you to bake this cake this weekend, will you do it?

Lemon Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Candied Lemons

Adapted from The Gluttonous Vegan and Eat, Live, Run

Ingredients:

For the cake:
3 cups spelt flour (whole wheat pastry flour would also work)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ cup olive oil
¾ cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp grated lemon zest
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

For the candied lemons:
2 lemons, thinly sliced
½ cup water
½ cup granulated sugar

To top:
Sprig of rosemary

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch cake tin or two smaller tins.

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour through rosemary) in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Pour in the olive oil and almond milk and beat until those are incorporated. Now add the canola oil and mix again. Finally, mix in the lemon juice and zest.

Pour batter into the greased cake in. If you can, mound the batter up in the middle a bit, as the sides may rise more. (I ended up using a spring-form pan because it’s really the only cake-shaped pan I have. If you have a 9 inch cake tin, that should work, or use 2 smaller ones.)

Bake at 350 until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The original recipe said to bake 25-30 minutes, but mine took 42. This will vary a lot based on your oven and the tin that you use! I would say test every 5 minutes starting at 30 minutes. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before glazing.

While the cake is in the oven, candy the lemons. This part is optional, but I absolutely love the way they look (although they served purely as a garnish; we didn’t really eat them). Bring the water and sugar to boil in a large pan. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add in the lemons. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lemons are translucent. Remove with tongs and drain on wax paper, then refrigerate until cooled.

Next up, make the glaze. Sift the powdered sugar into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk in the lemon juice one tablespoon at a time, continuing until you have a pretty runny consistency.

Last but not least, assemble your cake! Once the cake has cooled, place it on your serving platter and drizzle the glaze over. You may not use all the glaze. (In fact, I recommend using only half unless you have a major sweet tooth.) Finally, garnish with candied lemons and a sprig of rosemary!

So pretty. Enjoy!

Whole Foods Trail Mix Cookies

October 24, 2012 by Erica

Whole Foods has been known to inspire food addictions in me. Sprouted wheat “seeduction” bread, Justin’s almond butter, red quinoa… it is a magical wonderland, and I could wander around for hours. Unfortunately, my wallet can only support about 10 minutes…

My most recent obsession is their “mighty omega-3 trail mix,” which was the inspiration for these cookies. Dark chocolate, almonds, walnuts, cranberries, blueberries. What’s not to love? Probably just the fact that I can eat about a pound of it in one sitting, and keep opening the bag back up once I put it away. Actually, let’s not discuss that right now, because I’m too full of cookies to even think about it.

Yeah, so I don’t know that these cookies are really the solution to my problem of stuffing my face with trail mix on a regular basis. They are, however, super delicious, vegan, and a great excuse to eat more dark chocolate and dried cranberries.

Let’s get this straight, though – they are not a healthy cookie. They have sugar and vegan butter in them. Guys, this is one of my first attempts at vegan baking. Let’s not try to make it super healthy baking or anything, OK? I’ve got to evolve slowly.

As a base for this cookie, I used my all-time favorite cookie recipe – Joanne Chang’s Chunky Lolas. Here in Utah they somehow became my signature cookie (not like I was trying to make friends or anything), and Nate asks for them pretty much weekly, even when I’m in the middle or baking something else. (Don’t worry, I made them for his birthday a few weeks ago.) I have plans to veganize those soon, and maybe even healthy them up a little bit! But in the meantime, although that recipe didn’t provide the healthiest base, I decided to use it for a cookie I knew would turn out delicious – and it didn’t fail me.

These are like a yummy chocolate chip cookie with some extra chewiness and crunchiness mixed in. You can definitely switch up the mix-ins to match your favorite trail mix.

I should mention something about timing: These cookies are somewhat frustrating in that you must mix the batter and then let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before baking. Don’t skip this step, though – you don’t want to go through all the effort and then get flat, crispy cookies! That would just be sad, so plan ahead and they’ll come out perfectly.

Last but not least, I realized that of 3 recipes I’ve now posted on this blog, all 3 are sweet! I swear I really do cook dinner, too. And to prove it, there is a savory recipe coming up later this week!

Whole Foods Trail Mix Cookies

Adapted from Joanne Chang’s fabulous Flour cookbook

Makes about 18-20 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks Earth Balance, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 Tbsp ground flax seed

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

8-10 oz dark chocolate chunks or bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup walnut halves
1 1/4 cups dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried blueberries (if you can’t find these, simply omit or sub with cranberries or other dried fruit)

Directions:

First, toast the nuts. Preheat oven to 350 and spread almonds out on a baking sheet. Toast for 2 minutes, then add the walnuts and toast for another 5-8 minutes. This will vary a lot by oven, so keep a close eye on them. Once the nuts are a few shades darker, remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, and chop them.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and both types of sugar with a hand mixer. (You can also use a KitchenAid mixer for this step if you have one.) Beat together until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the vanilla, almond milk and flax seeds and beat until just combined.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour through salt). Add in all of the mix-ins (chocolate through blueberries) and stir until thoroughly combined.

Dump the dry mixture into the large bowl with the wet mixture. Stir until the dough is evenly mixed. At this point, sampling is mandatory. Anyone else in the vicinity would probably appreciate a sample, too. But leaving some dough to bake later is also mandatory, so don’t get carried away! Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to a few days.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper. Remove cookie dough from fridge and scoop out in 1/4 cup balls. Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand. These cookies hold together nicely and won’t spread too much, but keep a few inches between them just in case. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until cookies are a light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool the entire sheet on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Finally, remove cookies from the sheet and place directly on the rack to finish cooling.

I love eating these cookies while still warm, although they will keep for several days in a sealed container.

Enjoy!

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with Banana and Carrot

October 18, 2012 by Erica

Muffins! If you didn’t know already, I’m telling you: You need a fall muffin recipe, and this is it.

This definitely falls into the category of “write this recipe down so I don’t forget it myself” blog posts. I wasn’t really setting out to create something new when I baked these muffins this weekend, but they were so good that I just have to share!

I had planned on making pumpkin pancakes for Saturday morning… but woke up feeling decidedly anti-pancake. Nate suggested muffins – sounded much more delicious – so I scanned my breakfast Pinterest board for muffin recipes. I wanted pumpkin (did I get carried away when I bought several huge cans at Smith’s the other day? hmmm) but I couldn’t really find anything that I had the ingredients for and looked tasty. So I mashed up these summery muffins from Eat, Live, Run with what I had in my fridge, and the result was delicious! These are kind of like banana bread meets carrot cake meets pumpkin muffin. And bonus – they’re vegan and you would NEVER know it. I didn’t use any walnuts here, but will probably add a half cup next time!

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins with Banana and Carrot

Adapted from Eat, Live, Run, who adapted it from The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook

makes 9-10 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup spelt flour

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp clove

2 ripe to overripe bananas

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

2 medium-sized carrots, grated

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices).

In another bowl, mash the bananas (with a fork is fine). Add the pumpkin, maple syrup and oil and stir until combined.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine. Gently mix in the grated carrots.

Grease muffin tins and fill 90% of the way full with batter. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve.

Enjoy!

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