There has been a lot of baking going on in this apartment this past month; now that I'm working five days a week I want to make the best of my days off, so I've been making an attempt to bake at least one new thing a week, if not two.
Monday's triumph were these vegan cinnamon buns I re-adapted from the already-adapted recipe posted by Hannah at Bittersweet. She turned a non-vegan recipe into a vegan one and I just took it a few extra steps forward.
I only made one prominent change to Hannah's recipe; instead of making a maple glaze I opted for a vanilla one because I don't have any maple extract sitting around. At the request of Mike, I also topped one of the pans with chopped walnuts before putting them in the oven, so that the nuts would toast while the buns were baking.
The results were beyond delicious! The walnut-topped buns were a huge success, perhaps even better than the plain buns! These cinnamon buns make me so proud.

Cinnamon Buns
1/2 Quart Soymilk (2 Cups)
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Packets Active Dry Yeast
4.5 Cups All Purpose Flour, Divided
1/2 Heaping Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Scant Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Tablespoon Salt
1/2 Cup Margarine, Divided
1 Cups Granulated Sugar, Divided
Loads of Cinnamon

Vanilla Icing
1 Pound Confectioner’s Sugar
1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
6 Tablespoons Soymilk
1/4 Cup Margarine, Melted

First off, combine the soymilk, oil, and 1 cup of sugar together in a large pot and place it over medium heat on the stove. Bring it just to a boil while stirring, and then immediately take it off the heat. Let it sit for about 45-60 minutes to cool to below 115 degrees, as anything hotter will kill the yeast.

Once luke warm, add in the yeast and let it get acquainted with the mixture for about 5 minutes. Then, dump in 8 cups of the flour, stir well so that it’s fully incorporated, and cover the whole pot. Let it sit for another hour to rise.

After that hour has passed, (really, there’s a lot of waiting but not much work, you’ll see!) stir in the last cup of flour, along with baking soda and powder, and salt. Now you’re finally ready to get rolling!

On a well floured surface, take out half of the dough and use a rolling pin to coerce it into a very long, rectangular shape. Don’t worry about the exact measurements, but make sure it’s about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick and longer than it is wide. Now, melt down 1/2 cup of the margarine and pore it liberally all over the dough. Spread it on evenly using a spatula, and then top it with 1 cup of the sugar. Next, just go crazy with the cinnamon shaker; I didn’t measure, but just coat the whole slab evenly and generously, and there should be no problems (I went through about 1/2 of my cinnamon shaker, by the way.) Finally, roll the whole thing up into one sugary, spicy snake and cut it into buns about 1 inch wide. Place the buns into lightly greased (I used 8-inch round, but anything goes) pans- It should make about 7 pans in all.

Repeat with the remaining half of dough.

The buns will need to sit for another 30 minutes, but in the meantime, you can start preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Once plump and risen, you can slide those rolls into the oven for a brief 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown and smelling incredible.

While they’re baking away, you can go ahead and make the glaze. Simply combine all the ingredients for it and stir well. Once those buns come out of the oven either drench or drizzle them while still hot.


More pictures:

Labels: cinnamon, vegan, yeast breads

I've had a small tub of cream cheese sitting in my refrigerator for over two months now, I can't make it disappear fast enough! The thought of making cheesecake has crossed my mind, but I don't have the energy to put into such a task, nor do I have to correct pans. Instead, I settled on making Black Bottom Cupcakes; they looked easy and I remembered being impressed the first time I'd ever tried one.
The cake part of this cupcake is delicious! It is dense, with just the right amount of give, and perfectly chocolate-y. I would search around for a different cream cheese topping recipe though; this one was unsatisfying. However, it could be because I cut the recipe in half and had to estimate the amount of egg I used.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of David Lebovitz:

Black-Bottom Cupcakes
(makes 12 cupcakes)

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 T natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 T white or cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

First, make the filling by beating together the cream cheese, granulated sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces.
Adjust the rack to the center of the oven, preheat 350 degrees. Spray or butter a 12-cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring until just smooth.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed.
Let cool, then carefully remove from the muffin tin.

Labels: chocolate, cream cheese, cupcakes

I was curious to bake up a small batch of blondies because they were something I had never tasted before. I have a few more intricate recipes on hand that I've come across over time, but I recently discovered Smitten Kitchen's basic blondie recipe.
Perfect; I don't have much in the pantry as far as "add-ins" go these days, so this was exactly what I was looking for. I cut all the portions in half and added about a half a cup of creamy peanut butter and a handful of chopped up dark chocolate, that's about all I have in the pantry right now, aside from the basics.
Next time, I'd like to use coconut and pecans. The peanut butter was a little overpowering, but that's just how peanut butter is, I suppose. Spread a little Nutella on top of one of these squares and you are good to go.

Labels: blondie, peanut butter

This is a chocolate chip cookie dough filled vanilla cupcake topped with a light layer of chocolate frosting. I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and plopped a ball of cookie dough in the center of each unbaked cupcake; I also made six mini-cupcakes without the cookie dough.
...I seem to be on a chocolate chip cookie kick lately.

Labels: cookie dough, cupcakes

I flagged this recipe after seeing the photographs because I thought the cookies closely resembled the ones my boss makes and sells at work, which are beyond delectable. I envisioned myself walking into work and shouting "HA! I know the secret to the cookies!", with a grin from ear-to-ear.
I mixed the ingredients together yesterday afternoon and set the batter in the refrigerator for a few hours and pulled it out again some time in the evening, followed the second set of instructions, shoved the first batch in the oven and stood around the kitchen waiting impatiently for the moment I could pull them out again. I later took one bite of a slightly cooled cookie and explosions went off in my mouth. Alright, maybe that's a little much, but seriously, these cookies are amazing. And (not to my surprise) they taste pretty damn close to the ones from work! They have a crisp, crunchy exterior but a soft, dense interior because I left them in the oven for an extra minute or two, for that extra crunch. I will bring a few of these into work tomorrow morning, I have a feeling they'll be a big hit.

pre-oven:

post-oven:

Labels: cookies, oatmeal

I don't usually eat food with a lot of cheese or milk in it, and although I will occasionally get a craving for a grilled cheese sandwich, macaroni and cheese is a dish I eat maybe once a year. However, at Costco last week Mike and I picked up a variety pack of pasta which inevitably came with two packs of elbow shaped noodles. I saw these and immediately thought of making macaroni and cheese. I won't go anywhere near artificial mac n' cheese, but the thought of a homemade casserole of the 'stuff intrigued me, so yesterday evening I delved in.
The recipe yielded this round casserole dish plus an 8x8 square pan of more mac n' cheese.... I am swimming in macaroni! What you see there is the dent I made last night; I clearly need to invite people over for a mac n' cheese party or something, because I'm not eating it all - I can't!

Last Sunday marked two years since Mike and I first met/allegedly began 'seeing one another'. I woke up pretty early and passed the time until Mike woke up some time after noon (I, unfortunately, am not one of those people who can sleep all through the morning and afternoon - I'm always waking up hours before him); I gave him some time to wake up and then we started preparing the day's feast.
We started with the soup - a ground/chunk beef, barley and potato spice soup, to be exact. We pre-cooked the beef and barley and then threw all the ingredients into the slow-cooker along with some beef broth and water and let it sit for a few hours. Once we felt the potatoes and beef chunks had softened enough, we each served ourselves a hefty portion and indulged. We didn't follow a recipe, we just kind of winged it and added things as we saw fit, and the soup turned out delicious! There is still plenty of soup leftover in the refrigerator now too; we don't have to cook anything else for weeks!
Our stomachs were plenty full after the soup, so we waited another hour or so before starting on dinner. We stuck two potatoes in the oven to bake and then Mike stuck some fresh broccoli in the steamer and cooked two cubed steaks on the stove. The potatoes took much longer to bake than expected, so we ended up eating the steak and broccoli long before the potatoes, but I had Mike pull them out for a few minutes, just for the sake of the picture; they haven't finished baking here.
We drank a bottle of Monkey Bay chardonnay with dinner (thanks for the wonderful recommendation, Mom!) and I baked up some Monkey Bread for dessert, mini-sized! As far as dinners go, Mike out-did himself here; I can't take much credit for anything other than dessert.
We spent the rest of the night digesting this terrific gigantic meal while watching cartoons and movies and of course, smothering each other with plenty of love. Here's to another year!

Labels: anniversary, soup

This is a not-so-flattering picture of Nigella Lawson's Chocohotpots, the recipe for which I found here. I recently bought two ramekins at Sur La Table's holiday sale and have been searching around for recipes to try with them; I've also been on a chocolate kick this week.

I halved the recipe to make two ramekins full of these, but the ramekins I have are actually pretty large and I probably could have filled just the one ramekin heftily. These have a cake-y brownie-like consistency and are deliciously satisfying when eaten warm. I indulged in one last night after they had cooled down from being in the oven, but I stuck the other cup in the refrigerator for later.

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Today is Mike and I's two-year anniversary of being together. Last year we had dinner at a pretty high-end restaurant in Mount Washington but this year we've decided to spend the day preparing a lavish feast in the comfort of our own home.
On the menu so-far: potato, beef, and barley soup to start, cubed steak with broccoli and a baked potato as the main course, and mini-helpings of monkey bread to finish it all off. We started off with greater intentions, but alas, a late trip to the grocery store resulted in not being able to pick up all of the ingredients we were hoping to get. More on this later.

Labels: chocolate

I've been meaning to make a list of recipes I'd really like to try my hand at this season...

• Tahiti Blondies
  
• Caramel Coconut Pecan Brownies
• Nutella Twist Bread
• Pot Bellies (Black-bottom cupcakes)
• French Pear and Almond Tart
  
• Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches
• Spiced Apple Crunch
• Cinnamon Buns
• Blueberry Crumb Cake
  
• "Aunt Irva's Best Ever" Oatmeal Cookies
  

Cinnamon buns and crumb cake are two things I have yet to bake, so I'm curious. I've never actually tasted a blondie before so there's curiosity in that as well. The oatmeal cookies remind me of the ones my boss makes at work and I'd like to find out if there's any similarity in taste just so I can shout, "Ha! I know the secret behind the cookies!" Everything else on that list just sounds far too delicious. I have an abundance of recipes I've set aside to "attempt later", but they've just been piling up so quickly I can't keep track of them! Perhaps an improved method of organization is needed...

You've probably seen them before, but have you ever actually tried Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough Topped Brownies?- I can't even describe how amazing these are! If you can't decide whether you're craving a brownie or a chocolate chip cookie, this is the perfect thing to indulge in; I'm glad I only made an 8x8 pan of these because I am rapidly consuming them all.

In this picture it looks like the cookie part is slowly consuming the brownie.

Labels: brownies, cookies

I received Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World for my birthday back in October but aside from my usual vegan chocolate cupcake/vanilla frosting recipe, I haven't much felt like undertaking any sort of cupcake from scratch these past few months. It seems likely then, that earlier this week I suddenly felt compelled to make cupcakes from scratch. I decided on the Vanilla and Chocolate Marble Cupcakes, did a small amount of math, and made a half a batch of them.

The recipe calls for both vanilla and almond extract, but I felt these were almost overly almond-flavored, so I may omit the almond extract next time (or use less of it). Otherwise, the cupcake was moist and not overly dense (I replaced the soy milk with rice milk, which makes for a lighter cupcake apparently). I topped these with store-bought chocolate icing and finished them off with colorful dinosaur sprinkles, for more cupcake-eating-fun!

Labels: cupcakes

It seems it's been a while since my last post, but that doesn't mean I haven't been spending time baking! I was vacationing in Arizona for a few days and I've been slowly getting back into the swing of things since. I have a feeling I'll be making a number of posts this week.

As far as holiday baking goes, I made three different batches of cookies this year; half to give to Mike's family for the holidays, the other half to bring with me to Arizona to share with my family. From the top, going clockwise, Espresso Chocolate-Chip Shortbread, Cranberry Pecan Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies, and World Peace Cookies (basically a dense Chocolate Chocolate-Chip cookie). The close-up pictures came out all sorts of fuzzy so this is all I have to show for my days of hard work. Well, this picture and the satisfaction of knowing these cookies must have been delicious because I hardly had a chance to get a taste! I'd have to venture and say that the World Peace cookies were the most popular; the oatmeal cookies were devastatingly delicious, but the shortbreads were in the oven for a few minutes too long and were a tad on the crispy side, unfortunately.

Also, new year, new layout. The colors of the last one were beginning to get to me; this is much more soothing on the eyes.

Labels: cookies