8 posts from February 2009

So, it's Saturday, Feb. 28th . . . and I JUST finished this month's DB challenge. And what a challenge it was! I originally set out to make a vegan version of a flourless chocolate cake (recipe over at Karina's Kitchen -- go check it out!). Alas, I didn't get my stuff together in time . . . without tapioca, xanthan gum, and pumpkin puree, it wouldn't have been possible.

Anyway -- as you'll see below, I didn't quite make the ice cream part either (two strikes). At first, I was going to make the coconut whipped cream I wrote about in my last food-related post. But that didn't exactly turn out either (three strikes, and photo below). But ricotta came to the rescue, and we ate this cake with a fluffy orange-Nutella-ricotta "sauce" . . . we can't exactly decide on what to call it yet.




FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
Recipe from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Preparation Time:  20 minutes

• 16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
  
• ½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
  
• 5 large eggs separated

-Equipment - it is optional to use a heart shaped pan. For a real Valentino, bake it in a heart shaped pan or cut it out into a heart shape. You may use any shape pan that gives you an area of 50” - 6×8 or 7×7.  An 8” spring form pan works with great results as do smaller pans or ramekins.

Note on recipe - the recipe consists of 3 simple ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the same way of French baguette.
-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.
-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.
-Very dense and fudge-y cake that tastes divine.
-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

Method . . .

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. Confession: I actually just put mine in the microwave . . . one minute, stir, and then another minute and stir. Worked beautifully. Just look!

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment. I used ramekins (above) my husband bought me for x-mas :)

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). Confession: As you'll notice, my eggs don't exactly match this description. I don't think I whipped them enough. But the cake turned out well regardless. I'm rather new to eggs, so the fact that I got them to foam at ALL is remarkable.

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold. Serve with your favorite ice cream. Or not.




Now here's my whole deal with the coconut whipped cream. I followed a recipe, and it just didn't form. I think you're really supposed to use plain, SUPER thick, SUPER COLD coconut milk. But I always use the light variety and only put it in the freezer for, uh, 30 minutes (I'm already OUT, so no more strikes). And that's a no-no. Look at what happened!

This is after 5 minutes of extremely fast whipping:


Yuck!!!

Well, here's a simple sauce-mousse creation using ricotta. It's really to your taste, but basically what you'll need is:

• 1 cup ricotta (part-skim)
• 1 - 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon Nutella
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Method . . .

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until it looks like THIS:



Chill the saucy mousse for a bit in the freezer. And perfect or not . . . Enjoy! <3


 

My husband and I have recently increased our mileage to train for the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon this spring -- so I've been focusing foremost on that activity this week. BUT I haven't forgotten about METHOD. This messy pie recipe comes from our Valentine's Day feast last weekend. The pie is vegan EXCEPT for the Cool Whip topping I so lazily slapped on at the last minute. Flickr user Vegan Butterfly shared with me a great vegan topping that would have paired marvelously with the coconut milk base of the chocolate filling: Vegan Coconut Cream.




The crust is AMAZING -- crushed (well, food processor-destroyed -- as well as wheat free, dairy free) Newman-O's mixed with Earth Balance (butter substitute) pressed into a pie pan. And the filling . . . well, let's just say it's the best vegan chocolate pudding I've ever come across, courtesy of 101cookbooks.




VEGAN COOKIE CRUST

What you'll need . . .

• 2 cups Newman-O's wheat free, dairy free cookies (take out the filling)
• 2 - 3 tablespoons Earth Balance (or other butter substitute), melted

Method . . .

1. Pulverize Newman-O's in food processor.
2. Mix together cookie and butter sub. in small bowl until well combined.
3. Pour into pie pan, press until even across sides and on bottom.
4. Put in refrigerator to cool until pudding mixture is ready.

VEGAN CHOCOLATE-COCONUT PUDDING (FILLING)
(Straight from 101cookbooks.com)

What you'll need . . .

• 1 14-ounce can of coconut milk (lite is fine), divided
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder, sifted
• 3 tablespoons alkalized dutch-cocoa powder, sifted (this part is important -- use ALKALIZED)
  
• 1 3.5-ounce bar chocolate (use chips or chop into smaller pieces)
  
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method . . .

1. Shake the can of coconut milk vigorously for a few seconds. In a heavy saucepan bring 1 1/4 cups of the coconut milk, sugar, and the salt (just) to a simmer over low heat.
2. While that is heating, in a separate bowl whisk together the remaining coconut milk, arrowroot powder, and cocoa powder. It should look like a chocolate frosting (see above).
3. When the coconut milk and sugar mixture has started simmering take about 1/4 cup of it and whisk it little by little into the arrowroot mixture, creating a slurry. Turn down the heat to the very lowest setting. Now drizzle the arrowroot slurry mixture into the simmering pan of coconut milk whisking vigorously all the while. Keep whisking until the pudding comes back up barely to a simmer and thickens up a bit, about a minute.
4. Remove the saucepan from heat, continue whisking while it is cooling for about a minute. Now whisk in the chocolate and vanilla. Keep stirring until the pudding is smooth.
   

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER . . .

1. You needn't wait for the pudding to cool before pouring into the cookie shell.
2. Once it's in there, cover with plastic wrap -- place it directly onto the surface of the pudding (to prevent a weird skin from forming).
3. Chill for a few hours (we waited 3) and then enjoy as is . . . or top with toasted coconut shavings . . . or vegan coconut cream . . . or whatever else you'd like.

Our V-Day feast was a big success! We visited Wegmans Friday night (which, by the way, is my absolute FAVORITE time to go there) to get all our supplies. My husband eats fish, so he picked up a huge helping of fresh scallops and shrimp in the seafood section. I grabbed some brie and strawberry/plum jam nearby. Then we made our way to the bakery -- where we selected a hearty loaf of organic sourdough (I, um, snuck a pink and white half moon cookie into the cart as well).

Anyway, for my own main course, I first picked up some pre-made pasta and alfredo sauce. It'd be easy, I thought. But after browsing around some more (and getting supplies for our vegan chocolate pie -- which I'll highlight in a future post), my husband noticed I was in a funk. Just a weird, bad mood.

We took back the pasta.
And the sauce.
And then I stood there . . . confused.

A few minutes later, we traveled by the international foods section and some udon noodles caught my eye. SUMMER ROLLS! That's IT! Then I vowed to take only a few more minutes (because at that point, we'd been at the store for nearly an hour) to get some carrots, sprouts, tofu, basil, hoisin sauce, etc.) . . . and we were on our way.




VEGAN SUMMER ROLLS
(Makes approximately 10 rolls)

What you'll need . . .

• 1 package udon noodles (see photo below)
• 1 package spring roll/ rice paper wrappers
  
• Bean sprouts or regular sprouts
• 2 to 3 carrots, shaved
• 1/2 block tofu, pressed and cut into small-ish rectangles
• 10 basil leaves
• Splash sesame oil (optional)
• Splash low sodium soy sauce (optional)
• Sesame seeds (we used some black sesame seeds that we picked up at an Asian food market in Ithaca)
• Hoisin sauce

Method . . .

1. Fill a large stockpot with water and bring to a boil. Cook udon noodles until soft -- about 7 or 8 minutes (but keep checking to make sure they aren't TOO done). Drain and pour cold water over them to cool.
2. This part is optional, but in a small bowl, mix carrot shavings with sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds.
3. Lay out all ingredients and fill a large bowl (large enough to fit the rice paper) with hot water. You may need to dump and refill with hot water during the process (it gets cool quickly).
   
4. Also lay out a clean kitchen towel. This is where you'll assemble everything.
5. Dip in one piece of rice paper at a time -- keep in water for about 15 - 20 seconds (this really is trail and error if you're a first-timer).
6. Transfer softened rice paper to kitchen towel (it may tear a bit, but that's OK) and add ingredients into the middle of the circle in this order: udon noodles, sprouts, carrot mixture, tofu, and basil leaf.
7. Roll rice paper tightly around filling and then fold over the top and bottoms.
8. Put finished summer rolls on plate and, when ready to eat, serve with the hoisin sauce.

 

Happy Valentine's Day! As you can see, I'm still stuck on Friday the 13th -- but today my husband and I plan to spend hours cooking and baking our V-Day feast! So here's a quick recipe for extremely healthy cookies -- full of oats, blackberries, walnuts.

AND they're vegan.

FUNKY BLACK MAGIC COOKIES

What you'll need . . .

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (or other butter sub.)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1-1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
  
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 cup wheat pastry flour
• 3 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups oats
• 1/3 cup crushed walnuts
• 1/3 cup frozen blackberries

Method . . .

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together Earth Balance (or other butter sub.) and brown sugar until fluffy.
3. Add applesauce, ginger powder, and orange juice -- beat until well combined.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the wheat pastry flour, cocoa powder, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet -- mix until well combined.
6. Add oats 1/2 cup at a time while mixing on low speed.
7. Mix in crushed walnuts and frozen blackberries. You may wish to run the blackberries through a food processor to make the pieces a bit smaller (or not).
8. On a baking sheet (preferably prepared with a piece of wax paper) drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart.
9. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes -- rotating pan halfway through.
10. Cool and enjoy!
    

. . . then please follow METHOD on Networked Blogs. Just visit the Networked Blogs application on FB (http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/) . . . and then search for "makemethod" . . . it's that easy!

<3

What I am about to share with you all is HANDS-DOWN my favorite recipe of all time. To me, there's nothing more satisfying than making something I previously thought could be "great" ONLY if purchased in a bakery. Bagels, at least I thought, would never, EVER turn out well at home. They'd be too soft or chewy . . . but after much investigation, that's absolutely not the case.

So let's get to it . . .



BAGELS! GLORIOUS & HOMEMADE BAGELS!
(Modified from a recipe in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)

What you'll need (to make 10 healthy bagels) . . .

• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1-2/3 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1-1/2 cups wheat pastry flour
• 1-1/2 tablespoons table salt
• Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse salt, rye seeds, etc., etc. (whatever you'd like to top 'em with!)
  
• Vegetable oil (for bowl)
• Plastic wrap
• Parchment paper (I don't think this is absolutely necessary, but it definitely helps)

Method . . .

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the yeast and water. Let stand fo 5 minutes (until foamy).
2. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with the dough hook and -- with the mixer on low speed -- add the sugar, molasses, flours, and salt. I actually forgot to add the salt, and they still turned out beautifully. Knead for about 1 minute (until a slightly tacky -- but not sticky -- dough forms). You may need to add more flour or water depending on what you find. If so -- just add in 1 tablespoon amounts.
3. Continue to knead dough for about 5 more minutes -- then transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap.
4. Let rise in a warm place for 2 hours (until doubled in bulk).
5. Divide dough into 10 equal pieces. Cover with a damp kitchen towel (the book reminds us to make sure the towel is CLEAN, which I find hilarious). Let rest for about 20 minutes.
6. Line two unrimmed baking sheets (no worries -- mine were rimmed, so I don't know the benefit of using the unrimmed sheets) with parchment paper and lightly brush with oil; set aside.
7. With lightly oiled hands, roll each piece of dough into a 6-inch rope. Form a circle around your hand and then press the two ends (rather, roll them) together to seal. There really isn't a great way to explain how to fasten them together -- so go with your gut!
8. Place the bagels 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Cover with a piece of oiled plastic wrap (I used the same one from earlier in the process), and let rest until puffed (about 20 minutes).

And now the fun part . . .

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 C) -- with racks in the upper and lower thirds.
2. Fill a large stockpot (the wider the better, Martha notes) with water and bring to a boil.
3. Gently drop bagels into the water (as many as will comfortably fit without touching each other). After 30 seconds, use a slotted spoon to gently flip the bagels over -- simmer for yet another 30 seconds. (NOTE: I only boiled 2 at a time.)
4. Then, using the slotted spoon again, return the bagels to the parchment-lined sheets. Top them with the seeds or salt -- you must do this when the bagels are still wet so everything sticks to them. Also, I was somewhat anal and used a paper towel to wipe up the extra water that dropped onto my baking sheet.
5. When you've finished this process with all to-be bagels, immediately place sheets in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes and then rotate the sheets and reduce the temperature to  350 degrees F (176-ish degrees C). Bake until golden brown (about 10 minutes -- but mine only took 8).
6. THEN use a spatula (I just made my husband do this part, as he seems to be impervious to heat) and flip bagels over. Continue baking for another 5 minutes -- or until the back-sides are golden brown as well.
7. Transfer bagels to wire rack to cool! Then toast and enjoy with some eggs (or just a generous topping of butter, Nutells, peanut butter, etc.)!

Yes. The process is rather involved -- but it's also easy and well worth the effort.

<3

Work is still a bit crazy, which is, again, why I've not been posting so much. And I haven't forgotten about the blog showcase. I've got some cool sites to share with you all! I *promise* to do that soon. Now to today's recipe . . . people out there who frequent this site know I'm addicted to everything chocolate-peanut butter. And for those of you new to METHOD -- you'll learn fast. I made these peanut butter whoopie pies at 10PM last Wednesday on a whim. I've not had much time for baking these days, so when I get the urge, I go for it.

I've also not baked anything exclusively vegan in a WHILE -- and these turned out wonderfully with a little Ener-G Egg Replacer! My favorite part? The peanut butter center. Oh, and I think the pies taste best straight from the fridge.

(A bit from the book now . . .)

The origins of the whoopie pie remain a mystery, but many believe that the cookie, a specialty of Pennsylvania Dutch country and parts of New England, was created when leftover cake batter was baked, iced, and sandwiched as a treat for children.

PEANUT BUTTER WHOOPIE PIES (VEGAN)
Adapted from a recipe in Martha Stewart's COOKIES book. To get the original recipe, go here.

For the pies . . .

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (or your favorite butter substitute)
  
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
  
• 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• Ener-G Egg Replacement for 1 large egg (I also imagine that 1/4 cup applesauce would do the trick)
  
• 1 cup regular soy milk
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling . . .

• 2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (or other butter substitute)
  
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Method . . .

1. Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder into a small bowl; set aside.
2. Put Earth Balance (butter sub.) and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add Ener-G (or other egg replacement); mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in half the flour mixture, then the soy milk and vanilla. Mix in remaining flour mixture.
3. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely.
4. Make filling: Put peanut butter and Earth Balance (butter sub.) in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add confectioners' sugar; mix until combined. Raise speed to high, and mix until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Season with salt, if desired.
5. Assemble cookies: Spread 1 scant tablespoon filling (or more!) on the bottom of 1 cookie. Sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling. Cookies can be refrigerated in single layers in airtight containers up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Before I go, I thought I'd share embroidery project #2, which is turning out quite well. (Bye!)