Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake

So many people love red velvet cake and cupcakes. I haven’t ever really been one of them, probably because I was never given too many opportunities to try them. When I finally had a red velvet cupcake several years ago in New York, I was underwhelmed. The flavor wasn’t very memorable – mainly it was just pretty. But then I made them myself a few weeks ago, and I got why they were special: chocolate.

Don’t mistake me – red velvet cupcakes don’t have a very strong chocolate flavor, but you do have a hint of it, which is sometimes all you need. This particular recipe is a winner because the flavor, color and texture is all exactly what you’d want in a red velvet cupcake. It’s sweet, mild on the chocolate, the color is a lovely shade of dark red, and moist, plus the cupcake holds together pretty well. The frosting is not very thick, but it complements the cupcake with a creamy, sugary finish. I shared these cupcakes with some friends, none vegan, and they all agreed that they were delicious!

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
This recipe is taken from Food.com
Yields approximately 12 cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegan granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vegan red food coloring* or two small bottles of red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon chocolate extract, optional (this can be hard to find, so omit it if you cannot locate it in your local store)

For the Frosting:

• 1/4 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups vegan powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin pans with liners.

Whisk together the vegan milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Note that I have only used soy milk in this recipe, so I do not know if other vegan milks will thicken in this step.

Curdling soy milk with apple cider vinegar

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Add the oil, food coloring, chocolate extract (if using), vanilla extract and almond extract to the curdled soy milk. Whisk well to combine.

You'll use about two small bottles of red food coloring

Make well in center of dry ingredients and gently fold wet ingredients into dry, mixing until large lumps disappear. Do not over mix, or your cupcakes will turn out gummy – small lumps are okay.

Finishing up the batter

Fill cupcake liners about three-quarters full as these cupcakes will rise fairly high. And make sure you use the right size of cupcake liners – mine were too small for my pan, but I used them anyway!

Filling the liners with the batter

Place in hot oven and bake 18-20 minutes until done, or until toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in the pan for five mintues, and then transfer to a cooling rack or surface to cool completely.

Cooling on the rack

Using a hand mixer (or by hand), cream together the vegan butter and vegan cream cheese until just combined.

Mixing it all by hand

Whip in the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches. Scrape down the sides and mix until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

Now it just needs to chill to firm up a bit

Keep tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

When ready, spread some frosting on each of the cupcakes.

Spreading frosting on red velvet cupcakes

Then serve and enjoy!

Worth it.

What is your favorite cupcake?

Candy Corn Parfait, a grown-up dessert for Halloween

Even though I never dress up, host parties or go to them, I somehow still manage to get really really excited for Halloween. I have spent literally hours this year poring over recipes and recipe ideas for this holiday, wondering what I should conquer first. Some of these ideas are incredibly easy, while others are a bit more complicated. There are those that are completely kid-friendly, while still others are meant for grown-ups.

Take this easy-to-make parfait, for instance. It can be made for kids, but overall this one is for the adults. With a little orange liqueur and a wine glass, this one is a candy corn lover’s dream, mimicking the yellow, orange and white layers found in this candy often seen in trick-or-treat bags and bowls – a perfect twist for your more sophisticated Halloween party or dinner. The end result of the recipe below serves one, but you’ll have enough lemon curd for 4-6 glasses. Make it kid-friendly by omitting the liqueur and using a sturdier clear bowl or glass.

Candy Corn Parfait
This recipe is adapted from the one found on the Food Network website

Lemon Curd
This recipe is by Kim Garr and can be found on VegNews

• 3/4 cup coconut milk, preferably from a can
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, or the juice of 2-3 medium-sized lemons
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup vegan sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Remaining Ingredients for the Parfait
This makes a single serving, depending on size of glass and preferred amount for each individual serving

• 1 large orange, or 1 10.75-ounce can of mandarin oranges
• 1 to 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, optional
• 3 tablespoons vegan lemon curd
• 1/4 cup vegan whipped cream, like Soyatoo (either in a can or box)

For the lemon curd, cut and juice two to three lemons, then pour into a small saucepan.

Tip: when juicing lemons, juice first with the cut side up, then turn over and squeeze again - this gives you more juice than you would get otherwise

Zest about a teaspoon of lemon peel (ideally do this before you juice your lemons, but I somehow forgot!).

Zesting lemon peel

Pour in the coconut milk. Store the unused coconut milk in your refrigerator.

Use unsweetened coconut milk from a can

Add your remaining ingredients: corn starch, sugar, vanilla extract, turmeric and lemon zest. Per the original recipe, you can stir in the lemon zest after you take the thickened curd off the stove. Stir or whisk the mixture on medium heat for two minutes, then turn to low and continue to stir for several minutes until it begins to thicken.

Adding remaining ingredients

Once it has thickened, take the lemon curd off the heat and pour into a container, then let sit for ten minutes before chilling for an hour.

Thickened lemon curd

Once it has been in the refrigerator for at least an hour, it will be set even more. You can use the lemon curd for other things like spreading on toast or muffins, or as a filling to pies and tarts, or as a lemon pudding.

Thick lemon curd

For the parfait, if using a regular orange, peel and segment the orange with a paring knife, removing the membranes and white pith, then chop the orange segments. If using canned mandarin oranges, drain the juice. Either way, place the oranges into a bowl, then toss with the orange liqueur and let sit for about ten minutes.

Grand Marnier and mandarin oranges

Meanwhile, if making your own vegan whipped cream using Soyatoo, open the box and dump the contents into a metal mixing bowl.

Soyatoo whipped cream

Put the mixer on its highest setting and let it go for about three minutes or until the whipped cream is at the desired thickness. Any leftover whipped cream can be stored in the refrigerator, but it should be used within a few days.

Vegan whipped cream

Using a clean and dry wine glass, place about three tablespoons of lemon curd on the bottom. Then spread a dollop or two of whipped cream on top, creating a flat surface. Add the oranges.

Assembling the candy corn parfait

Finally add a nice finish of whipped cream, then serve.

Finishing touches

This is a delicious dessert, but I admit that the Grand Marnier was a bit much. I would have preferred a touch less, or at least allowing the orange segments to drain a bit before placing them into the glass. Still, I think this is a beautiful parfait and perfect to serve to the guests who love citrus desserts.

A sophisticated and vegan candy corn dessert - Happy Halloween!

Are you making anything fun or special for Halloween this year?

Easy chilled peach soup

Some of you may remember that last summer I discovered that I was seemingly allergic to one of my absolute favorite fruits: peaches. I was extremely disappointed when I found that my mouth felt like cotton and my tongue itched. These are weird sensations to experience anyway, but when it is in direct relation to a long-loved fruit like peaches, it is so disappointing. This year, I seem to not be experiencing the same symptoms – or at least not as strong – so I am trying to still get my fix of summer peaches.

But let’s get to the important matter at hand – cold soup, most specifically cold peach soup. Soup and summers don’t generally mix, but this soup does the trick. It uses what is in season, plus a few other ingredients that are always available at your grocery store, and it’s easy to make. My suggestion would be to serve this at brunch, or as a first course with a small side salad drizzled with a raspberry vinaigrette. And of course, it’s perfect as a refreshing dessert after a heavy or spicy meal.

Chilled Peach Soup
Based upon the Pretty Peach Soup recipe found at Allrecipes.com
Serves 4 to 6

• 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed
• 1-2 tablespoons water
• 3 cups fresh or frozen peaches, thawed
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice, or the juice of 2 small lemons
• 1-2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup peach nectar (you may substitute another nectar or fruit juice if peach nectar is unavailable)
• 1 cup plain vegan yogurt
• 1/4 cup vegan sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

Place raspberries in a blender; cover and process until smooth. If you are using frozen raspberries that have not been thawed, you may find that it will be easier to blend them with one or two tablespoons of water (or even three).

Making raspberry puree

Strain and discard seeds. It will be easier to strain if you use a spoon or spatula to scrape the bottom of the sieve. Once it is strained, cover and refrigerate the puree.

Straining raspberry seeds

Whether you use fresh or frozen peaches, make sure they're pesticide-free

Place peaches and lemon juice in the blender; cover and process until smooth. If using frozen peaches that are not thawed, you may need to add one to two tablespoons of water in case they have a hard time blending. Transfer to a bowl.

Making a peach puree

Stir or whisk in nectar, vegan yogurt, vegan sugar if needed (if fruit is tart) and almond or vanilla extract. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

I taste-tested the soup before adding the sugar in case it wasn't needed, then I whisked it into the soup

To garnish with the puree, drizzle about one tablespoon of the raspberry puree in a large circle on top of each serving. Grab a toothpick or knife to start in on the design.

Now to garnish

Use a toothpick to draw six or eight lines toward the center of circle, forming a flower. Or you can do other designs, too. Just do whatever feels creative and fun for you, and if you mess up – don’t worry, it’s pretty anyway.

Making the final touches before serving

This soup is lovely and would be the perfect accompaniment to any meal. I would only recommend that you do not serve this on its own as it is quite sweet, and really needs something else to balance it out.

Beautiful for serving

Do you have any favorite cold summer soups?

Pretty any way you look at it

Homemade vegan ice cream sandwiches

Officially summer = officially time to make ice cream, even here in the Pacific Northwest. Last week, I finally got my ice cream maker out of its box, cleaned it up and stuck it in the freezer. It was time.

But then I realized I could take my ice cream one step further – ice cream sandwiches. I had never made my own ice cream sandwiches, but it’s really not that hard. It just takes a bit of time and effort, and once you’re done you’re rewarded with some pretty good tasting stuff.

How easy is it? Well, if you’re not up for baking cookies or making your own ice cream, just grab a box of your favorite vegan cookies (any should do) and your favorite vegan ice cream (vanilla is probably best) and start making sandwiches. But if you want to go the homemade route, then read on.

You can make ice cream sandwiches with any cookie. At first I thought I’d go with chocolate chip, and a part of me wanted to go with oatmeal raisin, but then I remembered a recipe for chocolate cookies I had come across a few years ago on FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I only modified the recipe a tad, and they are absolutely perfect for this summer vegan recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

• 1 cup unbleached white flour (or to make it gluten-free, use gluten-free baking flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup soy yogurt or vegan milk (if you use vegan milk, you may need to increase the flour by a tablespoon or two)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Sugar or Celtic sea salt, both optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Mix the flour, soda, and salt together and set aside.

Mixing flour, baking soda and salt

In another bowl, mix the cocoa with the granulated and brown sugars and set aside.

Mixing cocoa powder with granulated and brown sugars

Melt the vegan butter in a medium-sized saucepan. When it is completely melted, take it off the heat and add the sugar and cocoa mixture, then stir to combine.

Melting the butter, then adding cocoa mixture to it

Then add the soy yogurt or vegan milk, vanilla extract and balsamic vinegar and stir until mixed.

Mixing together cocoa mixture with vegan milk, balsamic vinegar and vanilla extract

Finally, add the flour mixture and stir just until it’s combined, but don’t over-mix.

The cookie batter finally comes together!

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Chocolate cookies ready to go into the oven

If you want your cookies to be uniformly round, instead grab a spoonful and roll it in your hands for a few seconds then place the cookie ball on the sheet. It will be more perfectly round that way.

Sprinkle lightly with your choice of vanilla sugar or Celtic sea salt (I opted for the latter on about half of the cookies), and place them in the oven.

Adding a sprinkling of Celtic sea salt to my chocolate cookies

After about five minutes, switch the pans around so that the one on top is on the bottom and the front sides are in the back. Check again in another five minutes. Be careful – depending on the type of pan you use, they can go from underdone to burned in seconds. They shouldn’t need more than 11 minutes and will look soft on top, but they’ll harden as they cool. Note that I baked these for a maximum of 10 minutes because I wanted to keep them a little on the chewy side.

Remove from the oven and transfer onto cooling racks.

A mix of small and large cookies, some with salt on top and some without

Next thing I did was make a basic recipe of coconut ice cream. I also doubled this recipe, but it’s really probably not necessary. I still have some ice cream in the freezer that I didn’t use.

The ice cream was still too soft once it was done, so I stuck it in the freezer overnight. I used a metal bowl and just covered it with plastic wrap.

Perfectly frozen coconut ice cream

I then used a melon baller scoop and scooped out a generous amount of ice cream and placed it on the bottom side of a cookie. Take another similarly shaped and sized cookie and place it bottom down on top of the ice cream and press down.

Finally - introducing the ice cream and the cookies so they can party together!

You can either do one of two things:

1. Eat it right away, but it will definitely be more messy because it will melt fast.
2. Stick in your freezer for a few hours, then individually wrap each in plastic wrap and store in your freezer for up to five days.

Yum - vegan ice cream sandwich

These are fantastic, but I would definitely allow a couple of days to prepare if you are making these totally from scratch for a party, picnic or event. I thought I’d be able to make them in one day, but the ice cream really needs to be pretty well frozen to make it easy to put these babies together.

One variation I wish I had tried: blending a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter with the ice cream mixture. That would have been pretty awesome. A good excuse to make them again!

Do you ever make ice cream sandwiches? What is your favorite combo?

Vegan Jam Filled Butter Cookies

Even though I don’t really celebrate Easter, it is one of my favorite holidays. I love it today for the same reasons why I loved it as a kid – the egg-hunting (What do vegans hunt? Tofu? Chocolate? Seitan?), the Easter Bunny, the basket of goodies, the pastels, the flowers. Plus it’s a holiday that always equals springtime to me and I love spring in ways I just don’t love the other seasons of the year.

Despite the fact that I don’t really celebrate like I used to, I still try to acknowledge it through something sweet and delicious. (Remember this crumb cake? To die for!) This year, I had been thinking I wanted to try to make jam-filled butter cookies. I don’t normally gravitate towards these kinds of cookies, but I wanted to expand my horizons. I am so glad I did – these are so super easy and fast to make, delicious and you can make them with most any kind of jam you like. I made these with strawberry jam, but you can make them with raspberry jam (probably best to go with seedless), and I bet orange marmalade would be great, too.

Note: In the first picture in my post you’ll see cookies made with coconut palm sugar, but in the step-by-step photos I am using regular vegan cane sugar. These cookies tasted good both ways, but in my opinion the cane sugar version tasted far better. When using a recipe like this one with so few ingredients, the unique flavor of the coconut palm sugar comes out more and doesn’t taste quite as good. But feel free to experiment!

Vegan Jam-Filled Butter Cookies
Recipe based on Berry Shortbread Dreams from Allrecipes.com

• 1 cup vegan butter, softened
• 2/3 cup vegan sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup of your favorite jam, or a variety of jams

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a mixing bowl, cream the vegan butter and sugar. Beat in extract.

Mixing together the vegan butter, sugar and extract

Gradually add your flour until dough forms a ball, then cover and refrigerate for one hour or until easy to handle.

See, this is super fast!

Roll into one-inch balls, then place about one-inch apart on ungreased baking sheets (make sure they are far enough apart as they do flatten in baking).

Rolling cookie dough into one-inch balls

Using the end of a spoon handle or using your thumb, make an indentation in the center.

Be sure to not push all the way down!

Fill each hole with a little jam.

Finally filling the cookies with jam

And they're ready to pop in the oven!

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. You may spoon additional jam into cookies if desired as they are cooling, but be sure to let them sit out a little while to allow the jam to set and the cookies to fully cool.

Done!

These are perfect for parties – and again so so fast to make. I made a double batch for a fundraiser earlier this year and they were a hit! Good thing I ate a few to taste test beforehand. ;)

A tasty little Easter basket

What is your favorite thing about Easter?

Pumpkin Cheesecake

I’m not going to lie to you – I don’t like pumpkin pie. I don’t mind it, per se, but I don’t really truly like it. If I am offered a slice, I accept, but I’m mostly “meh” about it. So you can imagine that this wasn’t exactly the first thing on my mind to make and post here.

But when I posed the question to you all on Facebook asking what you wanted to see on Novel Eats for the month of November, I got requests for pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake. Not only that, I got a request to make a gluten-free pumpkin dessert – something I admit I have never intentionally set out to do before (although I can assure you I’ve made many gluten-free recipes in my lifetime by accident). Because I already have a pretty good cheesecake recipe I work with I decided to try turning it into a pumpkin cheesecake, and I also decided to veganize Gluten-Free Girl’s recommended pie crust.

What turned out was something that I think many of you pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake fans will appreciate. The pumpkin flavor is mild, but with the addition of spices like cinnamon and nutmeg the cheesecake comes together smoothly into a dessert that will satisfy. As far as the crust is concerned, I do feel that it could be a milder flavor, however it does hold up well and has a nice texture. If you’re not concerned about gluten, I recommend using the shortbread crust from the peanut butter chocolate cheesecake post I shared last year. You can also use a vegan graham cracker crust.

Vegan and Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake

Gluten-Free Pie Crust
Note that Shauna of Gluten-Free Girl recommends using a scale gluten-free cooking and baking, so I have kept in her weighted proportions in the recipe below. A scale is actually kind of fun to use. This is the one I have in my kitchen.

• 1 1/4 cup (5 ounces) almond flour (this is not the same as almond meal)
• 2/3 cup (2 ounces) gluten-free oat flour
• 2/3 cup (2 ounces) tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) teff flour
• 1/2 cup (3 ounces) potato starch
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) sweet rice flour
• 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon guar gum
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 9 tablespoons vegan butter, cold
• Ener-G egg replacer for 1 egg
• 6 to 8 tablespoons ice-cold water

Filling

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm light silken tofu
• 1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese (There is some debate over whether or not this product is gluten-free, so please use your own discretion on whether or not to use it – if you are uncomfortable using this product, you may use all tofu, although I have not done this myself yet with a vegan cheesecake.)
• 3/4 cup vegan sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan and gluten-free milk
• 1 cup pumpkin flesh (freshly baked or from a can – although be sure to not buy pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• Dash of allspice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions if you are using a fresh pumpkin:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut away the stem of a small pumpkin, then cut the pumpkin in half. You will likely need to insert your knife partway, then cut around the pumpkin instead of cutting straight through it. This will be easier.

Cutting open a small pumpkin

Once it’s open you can scoop out the seeds and stringy flesh, then discard or reserve the seeds for toasting.

Scooping out pumpkin seeds

Lightly oil a baking sheet with vegetable or canola oil, then place the pumpkin halves flesh side down.

About to bake the pumpkin

Add about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of water to the pan, then bake in your oven for about 45 minutes to an hour. Using a fork, you can poke the pumpkin to determine if it needs to bake for longer. If the fork goes in easily, then you’ll know that it is done.

Using a spoon, scoop out a cup of pumpkin and reserve for later in the recipe.

Baked pumpkin

With a whisk mix together all your dry ingredients for the gluten-free pie crust: almond flour, gluten-free oat flour, tapioca flour, teff flour, potato starch, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, guar gum and salt.

Mixing together the dry ingredients

Add small pieces of the vegan butter to the bowl, then incorporate with your hands until it is well mixed. Also add in the Ener-G egg replacer, and add in a little bit of cold water at a time until it feels like it is holding well together. At that point place the dough in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.

Mixing in the wet ingredients

If you are using a springform, cut a circle of parchment paper in the size of the bottom of the pan, then spread vegan butter on the bottom of the pan to allow the parchment paper to stick more easily. Also grease the sides of the pan.

The original recipe calls for you to roll out the dough, but my dough wasn’t holding extremely well together, so I opted instead to press the dough into the bottom of the pan. If you do it this way, you will still have about half the dough left over. Place the pan back into the refrigerator as you are making the filling.

Pressing gluten-free pie crust into the bottom of a springform pan

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Blend together the vegan cream cheese and tofu in a food processor until smooth.

Mixing together tofu and Tofutti cream cheese

Add in the vegan sugar and vegan milk, then blend again until the sugar has dissolved.

Adding in the vegan sugar and vegan milk

Add the pumpkin, then blend well for at least one to two minutes.

Adding the freshly baked pumpkin

Add the remaining spices and vanilla extract and blend, then add the cornstarch and blend for a final minute or two.

Adding in the last of the ingredients

Pour the filling into the springform or pie pan.

Pouring cheesecake filling into a springform pan

If you are using a springform, then wrap the pan in at least 3 layers of foil, then place into another deep pan (the foil creates a barrier between the springform pan and the water so that the water doesn’t seep in and ruin the cheesecake). Add hot water to the other pan. This creates a water bath and prevents the surface from cracking. Here’s a helpful video which shows how easy it is to create a water bath.

The cheesecake is now ready to go into the oven

Bake for approximately 55 minutes, but do not allow the cheesecake to brown. Once it is done, allow it to cool, then using a blunt knife cut around the cheesecake edges until the sides are separated from the pan. Chill for several hours or overnight to allow the cheesecake to finish setting.

Allowing to cool, then using a blunt knife cut around the sides of the cheesecake

Serve with some vegan whipped topping or a vegan caramel sauce.

Vegan pumpkin cheesecake

Do you like pumpkin pie or pumpkin cheesecake?

P.S. I’d recommend also taking a look at Susan’s Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake for comparison.

Learn more about Vegan MoFo.

Vegan Apple Tart

Sometimes, in order to love one ingredient or dish more, you have to move outside of your comfort zone and allow yourself to be challenged in the kitchen. I’m often pleasantly surprised when I do this. I discover that I’ve stretched my skills from one level to another and then another, yet always realizing that I will likely never reach that apex of culinary expertise – which is a good thing if you ask me. You see, there’s just always more to learn, to explore, to mine from something as simple as an apple or a pie.

A few days ago, I came across the idea of making a pie quite differently than I had approached it in the past – the idea was to use phyllo (or filo) dough instead of the pie dough I am so used to making every year. But I changed my mind. Instead of making the recipe I had discovered, I settled instead on making an apple tart – something I had never done before, but was only too happy to try. I decided to give myself one teensy break, though – I’d use pre-packaged phyllo dough.

I don’t normally advocate using ingredients or parts of recipes that you can make yourself, but I’ve made phyllo dough once, and let me tell you – if you’re not experienced at it, it can take you a goodly amount of time to roll it out. If you ever have the time and the inclination, I’d heartily recommend you try making it at least once. At the very least, you will come to appreciate the hard effort that goes into making those mysteriously flaky desserts.

Apple Tart
This recipe is based upon the Apple Crumble Tart on Allrecipes.com

• 1/2 package frozen puff pastry sheets (phyllo or filo), thawed (check the ingredients to ensure it is vegan)
• 1 tablespoon vegan butter, melted
• 3 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped or sliced
• 3/8 cup (or 6 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
• 3/8 cup (or 6 tablespoons) chopped blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup white vegan sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

About two hours before you are going to start working on your recipe, take your frozen phyllo dough out of the freezer to allow it to thaw. You are going to use only one half of the package for this recipe.

Phyllo dough

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Chop your blanched almonds. Don’t worry about making it too uniform. The almonds will get broken down further in a few steps.

Chopping blanched almonds

In a small bowl, mix flour, almonds, sugar and cinnamon together. Add chilled butter and vanilla extract. Cut together with a pastry blender until small crumbs form.

Mixing crumble topping for apple tart

Unfold pastry and place one to two sheets at a time on a large, ungreased baking sheet or on a silicone baking mat on a baking sheet. Brush every one to three sheets with melted vegan butter.

(If you don’t have a pastry brush, I highly recommend that you get one. I didn’t have one on hand, and I can tell you it’s not an ideal way to spread the vegan butter on the phyllo dough – a brush is going to be far easier!)

Spreading butter on phyllo sheets

Chop or slice your apples. This is really a matter of preference.

Sliced Granny Smith apples

Then arrange the apples in the center of the pastry, leaving a 1/2 inch wide border of pastry.

Adding apples to phyllo dough

Spoon almond topping gently over the apples, being careful it doesn’t spill over the edges of the pastry.

Apple tart about to go into the oven

Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

That was easier than I thought!

I had a piece a few minutes after it had come out of the oven, and wow – it was delicious. I am definitely going to be making this one again – sweet, crunchy, flaky – what more do you need?

Yum!

Tip: When you store this, the phyllo dough will no longer be very crispy. To crisp it up again, place a serving on a piece of foil then let it toast in your toaster oven for about 5-10 minutes.

Learn more about Vegan MoFo.

Vegan Witches Fingers

As I am getting older, I am realizing more distinctly what I love about each holiday – and most of the time it almost always has something to do with the food, whether I am making it or eating it. What I love most about Halloween is the creativity and creepiness of the recipes – tombstone cookies, frog spawn tea, eyeball appetizers (although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it?). It’s probably the holiday where the cook or baker has the most creative license to make something utterly horrifying and delicious at the same time.

This year I could not figure out what I wanted to make, but I finally settled on a recipe that I felt would be easy for not just me to make, but for you as well. I decided to make witches fingers – firm, yet melt in your mouth cookies. I knew I had a real winner of a recipe on my hands when, as I was finishing up the last cookies and putting them on the cookie sheet, my husband declared (gleefully) that they looked disgusting and realistic. Perfect!

Witches Fingers
This vegan recipe is a modified version of the Spooky Witches Fingers recipe on Allrecipes.com, and yields approximately 30 cookies if you make larger fingers or 60 cookies if you make smaller fingers.

• 1 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1 cup vegan confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water, or use egg replacer for 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole, blanched almonds

Combine the vegan butter, sugar, flax seed mixture or egg replacer, almond extract and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer.

Mixing together wet ingredients and sugar

As it is mixing gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Mixing cookie dough for witches fingers

Once your dough is well mixed, refrigerate it for 20 to 30 minutes. This will make the dough easier to handle when you are shaping the witches fingers.

Just before you take the dough out of the refrigerator, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease baking sheets, or use silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from your refrigerator, and using a teaspoon or tablespoon scoop a heaping spoonful onto a piece of wax paper.

Tip: If you use a teaspoon you will get about 60 cookies; if you use a tablespoon you will get about 30 cookies.

Spoonful of cookie dough

Use the wax paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie.

Rolling out the cookie dough for witches fingers

Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail.

Pressing the almond, a.k.a. fingernail, into the cookie

Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance.

Giving the cookie a finger-like shape and look

Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets, being sure to give each cookie a little space so that they do not bake into each other.

Witches fingers ready to bake

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden in color. If your cookies are larger, it may take more time for them to bake.

Optional: After you have allowed your cookies to cool, remove the almond from the end of each cookie. Squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel (not all decorating gels are vegan, so be sure to check the ingredients) or melted chocolate into the cavity. Replace the almond to cause the gel or chocolate to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.

Spooky...and yummy!

These are so delicious that I am having a hard time not eating them all at once! I can see how they are perfect for parties – they’re great finger-food! Muhahahahaha!! I am so funny, it’s scary! :)

What are you making for Halloween this year?

Orange Chocolate Brownies

Do you remember those dark or milk chocolate oranges from your childhood? They would come wrapped tightly in bright orange foil, and when you’d open one of them up you would see something like a dozen pieces of chocolate in the shape of orange wedges. Taking a bite, the taste of orange and chocolate would fill your mouth. I think I still see those around, but it’s been years since I’ve had one. Still, the combination of orange and chocolate flavors is a good one and enticing to try bringing into the kitchen.

Part of my bounty of oranges

I recently purchased a large box of oranges, and I am finding that I am the only person eating them. It’s hard for me to keep up, so I have been trying to think of ways to use the oranges other than eating them one by one. I have been craving brownies lately, so I decided to try making orange chocolate brownies. The recipe I based the brownies off of is a basic one, so I really was testing out the use of orange in it. The brownies turned out great, but I will say that they are not solid brownies – they fall apart easily – so this recipe is better used where the brownies are a topping to your vegan ice cream (a suggestion my husband had after trying one).

Orange Chocolate Brownies
This recipe is adapted from Best Brownies on AllRecipes.com

• 1/2 vegan butter
• 1 cup vegan white sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground flax
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 3 tablespoons orange juice, or the juice from 1/2 of an orange
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease an 8-inch square pan. I usually just use Earth Balance.

Greasing the pan with Earth Balance

Mix your hot water and ground flax together with a fork. It will be very thick, because normally you would mix in an additional three tablespoons of hot water, but we’re going to substitute the orange juice in later.

This is what we're using to bind the brownies

Go ahead and grate your orange peel (if you’re using it). I love this Microplane grater/zester – it works really well.

Grating an orange

You can also go ahead and juice half of your orange if you are going to use fresh orange juice as opposed to store-bought.

Juicing an orange

In a large saucepan, melt your butter.

Melting the Earth Balance

When it has all melted, take it off the heat and then stir in the sugar, flax mixture, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla. You’ll want to try to mix it very well, because if you let the flax mixture sit for too long it may not incorporate very well. To be honest, I was very tempted to toss this into the food processor, but I decided not to. That definitely would have made this part of the batter smoother.

Mix well!

Add in the cocoa powder. As soon as I did this, it smelled like that chocolate orange candy to me!

Mixing in the cocoa powder

Mix in the remaining dry ingredients: flour, salt and baking powder.

Nearly done!

Pour it into your greased pan, then stick it in the oven for about 30 minutes. You may want to go an additional five minutes or so in case it is not done in the middle.

Pouring the brownie batter into the pan

When it’s done, allow the pan to cool for a few minutes, then you can serve warm. Again, because these are a little more delicate than other brownies, you may want to use this as a topping to vegan ice cream.

Orange chocolate brownie

This experiment turned out great! The orange flavor was definitely present, but it was not overwhelming, and the brownies tasted really quite decadent.

There are two things, though. These were very greasy – I might cut the amount of butter down by a few tablespoons next time, and to make them a little more solid I might increase the flour a little bit. The key is to not make them cake-like. The point of brownies is to have something that is a lot more moist and dense than cake, so perhaps my next experiment will be to try to find that happy balance.

Bringing back memories of those chocolate oranges from my childhood...

Do you like brownies? And have you ever experimented with making different flavors of brownies?

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?