Carrot cake muffin with vanilla soy yogurt

A couple of weeks ago when we went strawberry picking at Boxx Berry Farm, we also had the fortunate opportunity to pick some vegetables from a small farm called Half Acre Farm located on the same property. They had a variety of vegetables ready, but we decided to pick only a couple of items – some Walla Walla onions and two of bunches of carrots. As we dug the vegetables up, we had a really nice visit with the couple who are running this one-acre farm (yep – it’s one acre). They both work full time, but are passionate about gardening, so decided to start up a little vegetable farm. Seems ambitious, but I admit that we were standing there feeling a bit jealous. In our minds, being able to garden and have a positive impact on the community is a worthy combo.

When we got home, Matt opted to juice the carrots which resulted in a rich and sweet liquid. The other thing that resulted was about a cup of carrot pulp that I couldn’t face throwing away. After doing a little bit of research I realized that juicing takes away a lot of the flavor of the carrots, so if you try to make dishes where grated carrots are a large part of the ingredient list, you’ll find that you won’t taste them quite as much. I finally decided to try making some muffins. In the end the carrot flavor was definitely mild, but if you are not a big fan of carrot cake, this may be a viable alternative for you.

Carrot Cake Muffins
Makes about 12 regular sized muffins

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water (or egg replacer for one egg)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 cup grated carrots or carrot pulp
• Vegan vanilla yogurt, optional

Turn on your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners or grease them with vegan butter (or spray with a cooking spray).

In a large bowl, sift your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together. Mix in the brown sugar.

Mixing together the dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, mix together the flax seed mixture or egg replacer, oil, vanilla extract and vegan milk.

Mixing the wet ingredients together

Take the shredded carrot or carrot pulp and mix it in with the wet ingredients.

Mixing in the carrot pulp

Add the carrot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until it is just combined.

Carrot cake muffin mixture

Add the mixture to your cupcake/muffin tin, and then bake in the oven for 25 or 30 minutes.

Carrot cake muffins about to go into the oven

Allow the muffins to cool before serving. You can serve with vegan butter or with a dollop of vegan vanilla yogurt.

Fresh out of the oven carrot cake muffins

The carrot flavor of the muffins was definitely mild, but I felt that what really made these was the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. They added a nice balance of spice with the other ingredients. The muffins were also dense, yet moist.

Also, while I don’t really like nuts or raisins in my muffins, I am sure the addition of a handful of walnuts, pecans, raisins or cranberries would be a nice complement to these.

Carrot cake muffin

Do you ever bake or cook with carrots? If so, what is your favorite recipe?

Pfeffernuesse Cookies

As I am getting older, I am understanding more the whole issue about Christmas – and holidays in general – being about materialism and less about sharing cultural and familial traditions. If you’re anything like me, you find yourself doing some last minute shopping online, hunting around for coupons and wondering what on earth this or that someone would want to receive – and winding up rather irritated by the whole thing. I admit that I did it this year, but I am already thinking that next year will be different. With a little planning and personal ingenuity, I’ll make Christmas more satisfying for everyone.

I confess that I nearly did that this year, but when confronted with five dozen of your favorite cookies, it’s actually rather hard to share. Yes. I have eaten nearly five dozen cookies by myself (and now I seriously need to exercise).

Vegan Pfeffernuesse Cookies
I veganized this Pfeffernusse Cookies recipe from AllRecipes.com
Makes about 5 dozen cookies

• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup vegan butter or margarine
• Egg replacer for 2 eggs (If using flax, you can mix 2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of hot water)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons anise extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground black or white pepper (I used white)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening, and margarine in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until ingredients are well incorporated. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the anise extract, as well as the prepared egg replacer (confession – I forgot to do the egg replacer at this point, but adding it later is okay).

Mixing together molasses, agave nectar and vegan butter

This recipe is all about the spices, so get together all your powdered spices and measure them out separately if you have a tendency to forget what you just added last (raises hand).

Spices for pfeffernuesse cookies

Combine the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper, and salt in a large bowl.

Mixing together dry ingredients

Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combines. You may have to mix together with your hands to make sure it is very well mixed. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Incorporating the wet ingredients

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll the dough into acorn-sized balls. Arrange on baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart. Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes.

Pfeffernuesse cookies

Move to a rack to cool. Dust cooled cookies with confectioners’ sugar.

Dusting cookies with confectioner's sugar

I don’t know what possessed me to make so many cookies, especially when this was experimental for me (this is the first time I’ve made vegan pfeffernuesse cookies – and they were based upon a recipe with honey and eggs), but I really truly lucked out big time. These are AMAZING! If you have never had pfeffernuesse cookies, they are spicy, which can add a little heat, and sweet to take the edge off, but surprisingly, not too sweet (if you counted, you’ll know there are five sugars in this recipe). When you bite into them, they are a little harder on the outside and completely chewy on the inside.

Five dozen pfeffernuesse cookies

I let my husband try part of one and he thought they were awful, so these are obviously not for everyone. (That’s actually one reason I didn’t ship these off – I had visions of cookies going into trashcans. I just had to be the cookie advocate and put them on my thighs instead.)

But if you love pfeffernuesse like I do, and know people in your life who would be up for a tin of these little goodies, they are the perfect solution for your gift-giving dilemma during the holidays. Just remember to wrap them well, and ship them within a day or two of baking them so they are less likely to arrive stale.

Vegan Pfeffernuesse Cookies

Happy Holidays!

These last couple of weeks have been a bit of an adjustment for our cat, Pixel. When we first got him, he was still young and pretty resilient, but I think as he has gotten older he’s become a bit more fussy and picky. Even though we moved very close to our last apartment, he was fairly traumatized and weirded out by the whole thing. Here’s the palatable version – pretty soon his system essentially stalled and we were desperate to figure out how to get things moving along again. After a failed visit to the veterinarian (don’t get me started), we relied on the internet for hints on what to do. One way to get a cat or dog to do its business? Feed it pureed pumpkin.

Now things are back to normal and I had quite a bit of leftover pumpkin, so I decided that I’d use it for less practical purposes and indulge in making some pumpkin muffins for breakfast.

Unfortunately, things don’t always go to plan (I did not fully read all of the instructions on the recipe, plus I’m still getting used to our oven), so my muffins didn’t exactly turn out right. Thankfully not all was lost, so I wound up with pumpkin bread instead.

Pumpkin Bread
For the original recipe that this is based on refer to theppk.com for their Pumpkin Muffins

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or from a can)
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease muffin tin(s) and/or small cake or bread pan with vegetable shortening or vegan butter.

Sift together dry ingredients.

Quick note – I ran out of granulated sugar so without really thinking, I dropped in some turbinado sugar to be sifted as well. The grains are too large, so they would not sift.

Anyway, I just stirred them in later. :)

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.

Pour wet into dry and combine.

If you are making muffins, fill the tins 2/3 of the way, then bake for about 15 minutes (you’ll need to check to make sure they don’t need more time).

If you make pumpkin bread, bake for 27-30 minutes in a baking pan, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Unfortunately, I was doing something else as I was making these and didn’t pay full attention to the original instructions which says to bake your muffins for less time if they are not going to be jumbo muffins. So I wound up with six very sorry and burned muffins. Sadly, they were beyond repair.

Thankfully I did use the rest of the batter in a larger pan and made pumpkin bread. The edges were only slightly singed, but otherwise it turned out pretty well.

Aside from being a bit overdone, these were very moist and chewy. I spread slices with vegan butter, but they didn’t really need it. It was nice, but they were so rich on their own that it was just probably unnecessary.

I definitely plan on making these again – just next time I’d better pay closer attention so I can make sure to not miss out on all of the chewy goodness. Also, I hope that next time I go out and buy pumpkin that it isn’t in a desperate attempt to fix the cat. :)

If you were to ask me what my favorite pie was, I’d probably give you a few answers like blueberry, cherry, and chocolate. But what usually comes up on top is good old homemade apple pie. Perhaps it is because of the spices, or the flaky pie crust, or that when I’m eating it I know that it must be fall.

I’m typically not very good at making pies. I think the primary difficulty for me is the pie crust. Pie crust is tricky for me because you have to make sure it’s not too sticky or too dry, and you have to be able to roll it without ripping it or turning it into a shape that doesn’t quite go with a round pie pan. I’ve been practicing lately, though, and what you’re going to get here is my second successful try (yes the first was also successful) at apple pie. Of course, my mini apple pies were also quite successful, if I do say so myself.

Apple Pie

Pastry Crust (for a two-crust pie)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegan butter
• 4 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Filling

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 8 cups apples (8 medium), peeled and sliced

Note – if you like a spicier pie you can increase the cinnamon and nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon each.

For the crust:

In a medium-sized bowl add your 2 cups flour.

Then add the salt.

Mix together. I personally like using a whisk because I’ve found it mixes more thoroughly than just a spoon.

Next cut in the vegan butter with a pastry blender or a couple of knives.

For this recipe I’m using Earth Balance Buttery Sticks. I actually really like using stick butter if it’s available because it means I can be lazy and follow the measurement guides on the wrapping. Usually when a recipe calls for 1/3 cup of butter I have to figure out how many tablespoons it is since I typically have the Earth Balance or Soy Garden that comes in a tub.

Once you’re done cutting in the butter it should be pretty crumbly and look similar to this:

Sprinkle the mixture with 1 tablespoon of water at a time and mix with a fork. You don’t want to add too much water, so it’s best not to dump it all in at once.

Once the pastry seems wet enough, but also not too dry, you can finish mixing it together with your hands.

Gather the pastry into a ball then divide it in half. Shape them into two flattened rounds, wrap each individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for about half an hour. Refrigerating the pastry makes it much easier to roll out, and it also makes the pastry more flaky once it’s baked.

Once it is ready to roll out take out one of the rounds, and place it on a floured surface. Sprinkle some flour on top as well.

Begin to roll out the dough.

Roll out the dough to a size that is at least an inch or two larger than your pie pan.

Carefully remove the pastry dough from the floured surface, being careful not to tear. Here I am using my rolling pin.

Place it into a pie pan, and press against the bottom and side of the pan. If you have areas of the pan that are not covered you can use extra pastry dough to fill them in.

Cut the excess dough from the pie pan and reserve.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the filling:

In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/4 cup flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Again, I’m using a whisk to make sure this is well mixed.

If you have not already done so, prepare your apples.

I am using locally grown apples from my community supported agriculture group, and to be perfectly honest I don’t know what these are. They are on the sweeter side, though. If these were tart apples I would probably use closer to 1/2 cup of sugar.

Mix the apples with the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Add the apples to the pastry-lined pie pan.

I decided to do a lattice for the top of this pie. It’s not as hard as you would imagine, but it probably does take a little longer to put together than if you were to just put a single layer of pastry on top.

The first thing you do is roll out your remaining dough, then cut into thin strips – depending on how perfect you want this to be you can get as specific on the width as you want, or if you’re like me you’ll just eyeball it. My strips were probably about 1/2 inch width or a little smaller.

Take half of your strips and lay them evenly on top of the filling that is now on the bottom pie crust.

On one far edge of the pie pan fold over every other strip, then take a fresh strip and lay it near the edge of the pie pan and fold the strips back over.

Fold over the other remaining strips of dough, and lay a fresh strip of dough on top, and fold the strips back down. Keep repeating this and ideally you will have a perfectly woven pie crust.

Once you have finished weaving, cut the over hanging pie crust strips flush with the edge of your pie pan, then push together the layered pieces of crust to ensure that it stays together when you slice the pie after it has baked.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes. Check on the pie after about 30 or 35 minutes and turn it if it seems to be getting too brown in the back. You can also alternatively put tin foil around the edge of the pie to make sure the edges don’t burn, then when you have about 10 or 15 minutes left of baking time you can take the foil off to ensure the edges get fully baked.

Take it out of the oven when it is done and let it cool, or you can serve while it is still warm.

By the way, you may have extra pastry dough left over. You can use it to make mini pies, or you can be lazy and indulgent and roll it out, slice it up and bake it as is. Yum. Pie crust.

I always seem to like to do things the hard or more complicated way, but it is usually worth it in the end. The first time I did this type of lattice pie crust I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out, and I thought, hey – this isn’t as hard as it looks. It’s truly not that time consuming either, even though when you present it to your friends or family they’ll likely wonder how you had time to put it together.

The pie itself tasted really great. The spices were pretty light and definitely not overwhelming, and the apples were very nice despite the fact that they were not tart like apple pie apples are usually supposed to be. I’ll probably make this again since it isn’t that difficult to make. I will say that this pie could have probably used another apple or two, but still, it was pretty close to fantastic.

Last weekend I purchased a few apples from the farmers market in Union Square, and had a couple of large ones left this weekend. Usually when I have a bunch of apples on hand I’ll make apple crisp, but I wanted to do something different. Considering I only had two apples, I couldn’t make a full apple pie, so I decided to try making single-serving pies. I had no idea if it would turn out okay, but hooray – they’re great!

I’ve decided I want to expand my apple horizon, and try some other varieties. I’ve only really been acquainted with the standard grocery store apples – Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Fuji, among others. It’s high time that I branch out (no pun intended).

The apples that I purchased last weekend are called Idared, or Ida Red. They are a cross between the Jonathan and Wagener varieties, and have a mostly sweet flavor with just a hint of tart. They are supposed to be great when baked, so I forged ahead with making these little pies.

Mini Apple Pies
This recipe makes approximately 6 mini pies the size of medium-sized muffins

For the crust:

• 1 cup white all-purpose flour
• 6 Tbsp. butter I used Soy Garden
• 2 Tbsp. cold water

For the filling:

• 2 large baking apples, peeled and sliced into small pieces
• 1/3 cup sugar I used turbinado
• 1/8 cup white all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• dash of salt

In a medium-sized bowl put 1 cup of flour. Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry blender/cutter until the mixture has small lumps. Sprinkle the cold water over the flour and butter and stir together until the dough pulls together and away from the sides of the bowl. If the mixture doesn’t seem to be doing this you can add another tablespoon of water. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, then place it in the refrigerator for 20 or 30 minutes so it becomes firm. This will make it easier to work with.

Mix together all of the filling ingredients except for the peeled and sliced apples. After they have been mixed add in the apples (or vice versa depending on your bowl situation) and stir until the dry ingredients have been well incorporated with your apples. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 345 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take your dough out of the refrigerator and split into two. On a floured surface roll out the dough until it is thin (not too thin otherwise it will tear).

Use a small bowl as a guide and slice around the bowl like so:

Then take the circle of dough and press it into your muffin pan:

Score the bottom of the dough with a fork a few times. Fill the dough with the apple mixture so that it comes over the top of the pan (when the apples are baking they will loose a lot of their water and sink down).

Cut the excess dough, but don’t do what I did in the following picture. I should have left more dough, so I’d say leave a centimeter of dough on the outside.

Now cut a smaller circle of dough and put it on top of your pie. Pinch the top dough together with the bottom dough (the centimeter part). Score the top with a knife. If you get really creative you can cut little leaves out of your scraps of dough and place those on top. They may fall off, though, so you’ll need to make sure they are secure (gently mashing the ends into the top pie dough).

Continue doing this process until you’ve run out of enough dough or apple filling. There is bound to be leftovers of both so you can just bake the remaining apples in a separate pan, make a pie with no top pie crust, or make a small apple crisp after all.

Place the muffin pan in the oven, and place a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack below to catch any liquid that may fall from the pan. Bake for about 35 minutes, and check to make sure the apple pies are done.

Once they are done take them out of the oven and let them sit for about 15 or 20 minutes so they get cool enough to handle. It’s not easy taking these little pies out of the pan so you may have to be careful while coaxing them out with a knife.

Now you can serve with some vegan clotted cream (I’d suggest doing more cream cheese than butter) or just eat the little things plain.

I’m not that good at making pies but these turned out so well. It’s probably a more intensive process to make a bunch of little pies than one big pie, but they are so cute and it’s such a good idea for serving to guests. Of course, it’s great for making just for yourself. It’s also a good way to not feel guilty about eating a whole pie (or two or three) by yourself.

They looked at each other now, husband and wife, with such a depth of feeling that the eight feet separating them shrank to nothing. Then, slowly, with a darkling gleam in her eye, Mrs. Marquis raised her plate above her head…and let it drop. A canvasback bone flopped free, the stewed apples few straight up, and the plate blew into a dozen pieces scattered across the red linen tablecloth.

-The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

Edgar Allan Poe has always been one of my favorite poets. His poems, while dark and often morbid, have a certain draw to them. I guess I am not much for flowery poems – anyone can write that sort of thing – but Poe’s poems are other-worldly and mysterious. So when I saw that there was a novel out there to be consumed that had Poe as one of its main characters, I had to grab it. I’m glad I did. This fiction of crime was written in a style that is more reminiscent of authors who wrote novels decades ago, and it had very unexpected twists. Poe was an interesting fixture; he seemed like one of those guys in high school or college that just doesn’t fit in, but goes on to amaze people later in life. He was not the main character, however. That was left to an older, charming man (Gus Landor), who, sadly, probably never existed in real life. This murder mystery was an easy read, and hopefully we’ll see Poe and/or Landor again. Good job, Mr. Bayard. I’m sure to read more of your novels.

Last evening when I was making the stewed apples I kept referring to them as stewed tomatoes. My husband couldn’t resist, so for at least ten minutes I kept arguing with him that I had never made stewed tomatoes and that “tonight is the first time I’ve ever made stewed tomatoes!” He kept proclaiming that we eat them all the time, and that he had just made some last week (which he had).

Finally I realized my error, and while funny, hopefully I won’t repeat it here.

I looked online at several different versions of stewed apples, but the recipe that follows is an approximation of what I wound up doing.

Stewed Apples

• 5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thickly sliced
• 3 Tbsp. butter (I used Soy Garden)
• 3-4 Tbsp. sugar (I used organic turbinado sugar)
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• A dash of nutmeg
• 1 cup water

In a large pan (frying pan would do), melt the butter. Add the apples and saute for a few minutes over medium heat. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and stir together. Add the water, and when the mixture starts to boil lower the heat and let the water reduce to a syrup. Continue cooking until the apples are at a consistency that you prefer. Mine were still a little crunchy when I finally stopped cooking them, but some were also mushy.

This turned out better than I thought it would. I have never been a big fan of eating sweet items at a meal, unless it is breakfast or time for dessert. So what I wound up doing was put this on top of some bread that I had made over the weekend (which I’ll share later). It was really good – similar to putting applesauce on bread.

Even though I enjoyed it, I’m not sure I’ll go to the trouble of making this again. Usually when I use apples in recipes, they wind up in apple crisp, salsa, or smoothies. Or I just eat them plain or with peanut butter. Still, I’ll continue to enjoy my stewed tomatoes, er, apples for the next day or two.