year of bread recipe 2/50: whole wheat sandwich loaf

Well, two days ago I set out to make the perfect whole wheat sandwich loaf.  Although I have plans...no, dreams of experimenting with flat breads and rolls and buns and bagels and such this year, making a good loaf of bread was goal number one, because I use it for sandwiches, toast, skillet-toasted croutons, etc. on a daily basis.

My first try was a complete failure.  I don't think it's too difficult of a task, but it was just a fluke.  When I took it out of the bread maker, I knew something was horribly wrong with it.  I believe I either measured something incorrectly, or didn't mix the addition of gluten with the flour well enough (1 cup flour + 1 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten = bread flour).  Lesson learned: slow down.  You're making homemade bread, after all.  The recipe I used doesn't specifically call for using bread flour or the addition of extra gluten, but I've read in various sources that it's a great add-in for most breads, especially whole grain ones, because whole grain flour on its own has a lower gluten content than processed flours.  Vital wheat gluten, a protein in wheat, makes the crust better, among other benefits.

For my second loaf, I decided to leave out the extra gluten entirely, but later when I read these bread-baking tips from Smitten Kitchen, my gluten beliefs were reaffirmed, so I'll try it again next time (and mix better!).

Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf

adapted from Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread for Bread Machine by 100 Days of Real Food

4.25 cups whole wheat flour
.5 tsp salt

1.5 cups warm water

2 Tbsp brown sugar*

2 Tbsp dark molasses*

2 Tbsp olive oil

2.25 tsp yeast

*I subbed brown sugar + molasses for the honey, because I didn't have honey on hand.

I put everything in on the "dough" setting in my bread maker.  If you wanted to make this by hand, I'd recommend checking out the Smitten Kitchen article above.  It is a great guide!  At the end of the dough setting, I took it out, put it in a greased loaf pan, let it rise for 1 hour, then baked for 1 hour (rotating halfway through) at 350 degrees F.

The bread is perfect except that it stuck to the bottom of the pan, so I'll be looking into more ways to prevent that.  Overall, I'm going to call this one a success, though!

my first video blog

Thanks to Sarah and her Jumpsuit Friday vlogs, I've been inspired to make a video blog! I hope it entertains you a little bit. Topics include vlogging and what it feels like to talk to the camera, grad school, and big cookies. Thanks for watching!

p.s. If you've had trouble leaving comments lately, they should be fixed now! I could not figure out what was wrong with them, but they are magically better. So, comment away and I shall write you back!

12 days: writing christmas cards & baking sugar cookies

Welcome to my 12 days of Christmas series! Here's the scoop: Friday was my last official day of school for the quarter, and on the 21st I'll travel to be with my family for Christmas. There are 12 days in between, so I've decided to do at least one Christmas-y thing each day! Finding that "Christmas spirit" everyone talks about takes a little conscious effort...so here we go.

Pre-12-days activity: decorations! Read all about my decorations here in my guest post on Desirous of Everything. I have since added a few more items. My decor is nothing very fancy or expensive, but I love seeing it every day.

Day 1: The first day was Friday. Originally I wasn't supposed to have to go into school that day, but I ended up having a meeting. I finished writing/addressing my Christmas cards while waiting for my meeting to start (unfortunately I did not have a camera at school with me! oops!).

Day 2: Baking Christmas cookies! I am a really serious cookie baker, you guys. I love baking new types of cookies as well as constantly trying to perfect my secret chocolate chip cookie recipe. For these sugar cookie cut-outs, I used this recipe from Allrecipes (it has 4.5 stars and an astounding 4,600 reviews, wow!). I only make vegan baked goods, so to make these vegan I simply used vegan butter and flax and water for eggs (1 Tbsp. ground flax + 1/4 c water = 1 egg). You can just barely see the flax, but since I used sprinkles, it is not noticeable. You can't taste it, if you're wondering. I used the handy Allrecipes tool to scale down the recipe from 60 cookies to 30.

A few tips for rolling out dough: First of all, it is easiest if you are willing to just do it on your countertop and clean it afterward. This is because the countertop stays in place. I hate rolling out dough on something that is sliding around. Second, put flour down on the counter, as well as on top of your ball of dough before rolling it. You don't want it sticking to your surface or your rolling pin. Third, invest in a rolling pin! Seriously! Fourth, divide up your dough into small balls and keep all except the one you are working with in the fridge or even freezer (I put mine in the freezer since I rolled out all the cookies over the span of about one hour). When the dough gets warmer, it becomes sticky and hard to work with. I roll out each piece, make my cutouts, then collect the scraps and throw them back in the freezer. After working through each big piece of dough, I put all the scraps together and make more cutouts from them.

Corey took a few photos of me with some finished cookies. He didn't want to be in any of the pictures, unfortunately! p.s. New glasses!

I was really excited about my Christmas sprinkles!

I also made chocolate icing to dip some of them in. I made it using confectioner's sugar (which I made by blending sugar + a little corn starch in my Magic Bullet), water, vanilla, and cocoa powder. It adds a lot to the tiny circle cookies I made!

The other shapes I had were dinosaurs, hearts, larger circles, and polar bears. My family has a lot of other shapes but I made do. I think they are pretty great, actually! The other day I saw these nifty camera cookie cutters at my local camera store, but with such a hefty price tag I decided to pass on them (still, adorable).


The dinosaur cookies are probably my favorites. Raaawr!

Bonus: Did some thrifting yesterday as well and scored some awesome cloth Christmas napkins as well as a hand-glazed ceramic Santa from the 1960s. Pictures of my thrift store finds soon!

p.s. Check out this extensive list of holiday cookie recipes from various countries via Food Network. When my sugar cookies are gone I think I'm going to have to make some of these!

What sorts of holiday treats do you buy or make as part of your traditions? Do you have any signature cookie cutters?

my thanksgiving in pictures (and a fun holiday tradition)

I baked my first pecan pie. I used my grandmother's recipe but subbed tapioca starch and flax for the eggs (you couldn't tell a difference!).

Homemade bread and my teeny olive tray.

Mashed potatoes by Corey.

Cashew gravy by me (MAKE THIS!).

Lots of pecan pie photos before cutting into it!

And an apple pie for Corey because he doesn't like pecans. I used this apple tart recipe, but simply added a crust on top as well.

Corey carving the Tofurky.

Homemade bread via my go-to recipe (plus I added herbs to it--delicious!). I'm in need of a good wheat bread recipe...suggestions? Looking for something light and fluffy, not super dense.

It's my tradition with my brother to take a picture of our plate at every holiday meal, then label what's on it. My archive goes back at least five years as of now. Since we weren't together on Thanksgiving this year, I asked him to send me a picture of his plate. Here's mine:

And his:

I find both the similarities and differences (when we're together AND when we're apart, actually!) amusing. He had more dishes to sample--the perk of a lot of people being at your Thanksgiving feast (mine was just me and Corey)! We both had Tofurky (my parents are also vegetarian) but he had ham too (funny that they are touching each other). And let's not forget about the olive trays...a tradition in my family that I dutifully observe even when I'm away...I'm not sure if having a serving dish solely devoted to olives is normal for holiday meals (?), so if you are wondering about that, it might just be a family thing!

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?

My other one is that I always watch the Gilmore Girls episode "A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving" (season 3, episode 9)! It is my favorite Gilmore Girls episode. Watch this clip if you haven't seen it...you have no idea what you're missing!

Tomorrow I'll be guest posting about decorating for the holidays over at Desirous of Everything! Pencil it in to your Black Friday schedule so you can be sure to read it!

baking vegan brownies

I love baking, but when I get busy, I always revert to my standby recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I have it memorized and I always keep the ingredients on hand, so it's easy to whip up in a hurry...it actually only takes me about 10 minutes from the time I start to the minute they go in the oven!

But this week I wanted to make something sweet and was tired of cookies. I was going to make this brownie recipe which is my go-to vegan brownie recipe. I don't have it memorized like the cookies but I've made it a number of times. If you make this recipe, you won't be disappointed. It's very good.

However, as much as I like making something delicious quickly with a recipe I trust, I also like stepping out on a limb and trying new ones. So I looked up "vegan brownies" on Pinterest (which I love for finding recipes!) and found this recipe: Gooey Vegan Brownies.

I can appreciate a recipe with the word "gooey" in the title. When I was in elementary school, every year we had a back-to-school picnic at a local park, and one game that was always there was the cake walk. I played it every year and only won once! But I still remember the dessert I won: ooey gooey butter bars. Sounds like a heart attack, doesn't it? The bars came with a recipe card, which my mom let me recreate once before declaring there was simply too much butter in them to make again! Googling that exact recipe title now confirms that what my mom told me was true.

But gooey vegan brownies have no butter in them. They are not the most wholesome thing you will ever eat--as most brownies are not--but I believe in having a few sweet treats here and there. They turned out amazing and as you can see I didn't even get a proper picture of them but instead had to photograph the last one left in the pan! Oops. I have a tip if you want your brownies to be soft and fudgey: don't wait until the middle is done. The recipe says a toothpick will come out clean in the middle but for me they never do. I just take them out of the oven at the time the recipe says they will be done, and let them set up for at least an hour. There are no eggs since these are vegan, so you don't have to worry about that. I added 1 Tbsp ground flax to the recipe to ensure that they wouldn't fall apart, but I don't know if that was necessary. However, they held up well.

These are the best vegan brownies I've made. I would dare say you would not even realize they were vegan if I didn't tell you!

new recipes

While I'm not in classes, it's my goal to try 3-4 new recipes a week. I tend to venture out in the dessert department but not as much with savory foods, so, this week excluded, I hope to remedy that. I've already been bookmarking a lot of recipes for next week, so I hope to share something really new and amazing next Saturday! But for now, here's what I've got.

First of all, lemony zucchini pizza from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe called for goat cheese to be spread on the crust, but rather than do that, I made a chickpea spread. In truth it was hardly altered from my normal hummus recipe, other than I cut way way back on the cumin (only a dash this time) and I used about three times as much lemon juice as usual to accommodate the recipe. The results were amazing! I never make pizza without tomato sauce, but I would totally make this again.

I almost feel that this is cheating, but I altered my tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe by using sliced up baking square chocolate instead of chips and throwing in a handful of walnuts and hazelnuts. Next week I'll try to really use all new recipes, but let me just say this was a delicious addition, and some bites taste like Nutella! Mmm.

And I finally got around to trying this chocolate beet cake in honor of Alex's birthday (my only substitution was flax + water for the eggs). I will say that no one would have guessed the secret ingredient if I had not told them, but I felt I could taste them since I knew they were in there, and that weirded me out just a little. The recipe's baking time is also WAY off (egg sub. could account for a few minutes, but not as much as it was), which probably explains my reluctance to say I was pleased with this cake, because the recipe called for 30 minutes, which I seriously doubted...but it became a big headache and even at 1 hour and 15 minutes (uh, yeah) with the bamboo skewer coming out cleaned, seemed a little too gooey in the middle for me. I still think that THIS is the best chocolate cake I have ever made, and I would recommend that recipe in a heartbeat (I leave out the food coloring and just make a velvet cake, minus the red!).

productive procrastination

Regular procrastinating is when you sit around watching hours of Gilmore Girls (did I say you? I think I meant "I"...) or surfing the internet...or blogging, perhaps? Productive procrastinating is when you do things that, while productive, could seriously wait until after the thing you actually need to do gets done. The things I actually need to do are finish a paper I'm writing and grade the last of my summer students' work. The thing I did instead was bake cookies. I ran out of chocolate chips for my standard quick treat, so I modified my "secret recipe" to accommodate a different flavor. The thing I love about baking is how it's all about ratios, so experimenting can be fun when you stop to think about what each ingredient really does for the recipe and how that ingredient can be changed (Good Eats, anyone?). If you decide to give these a try, maybe you'd better whip them up in the middle of the night, or early morning, given recent temperatures! I made my dough last night and stuck them in the oven while waiting for my morning coffee to brew (and may or may not have eaten a couple for breakfast). I used strawberry jam because it's what I had on hand, but I think these would be excellent in fall with some pumpkin butter. Mmm!

Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies

1.5 c unbleached all purpose flour
.5 c old fashioned rolled oats
.5 c brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground flax + .25 c water (or use 1 egg)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
.5 c vegetable oil
2 Tbsp butter (I use dairy-free Earth Balance)
your favorite jam or jelly

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, butter, and brown sugar until the butter is broken up. Add in the egg or flax plus water. If using flax and water, for better results, heat in the microwave for 15-30 seconds before adding. Stir in baking soda and salt and mix evenly. Finally, pour in the flour and oats and stir until everything is mixed, but do not over stir. Roll the dough into balls on a greased cookie sheet and press each one down with your thumb, then fill with jam. If the dough is too sticky to roll, add a pinch more flour or refrigerate for a bit. Bake 8-10 minutes, allowing them to cool and harden up on the pan after removing (the secret to a soft cookie!). I recommend experimenting to find your perfect cookie-baking time. It varies by oven and by how large you make your cookies. I aim for a consistent cookie size, and with my old oven the best cooking time for me was 8:45 while my oven here is 9:30.

new cooking territory

I have certain recipes/dishes memorized. Like the chocolate chip cookie recipe I "invented" by combining bits and pieces of what I liked from four other recipes. Or like my "famous" salsa recipe, created through trial and error, batch after batch, until one day I thought it was so delicious that I stopped tweaking it and committed what I had done to memory. That kind of cooking is tried and true. It does not disappoint until it becomes too predictable. Then I find myself itching to try something new in the kitchen.

Last week, while grocery shopping, it hit me. I'd never made anything with fresh blueberries. I'd never made blueberry muffins! (from scratch...but is there any other way!?) Blueberries are in season (hoping to find them at the farmers' market soon! but for my first batch, supermarket blueberries had to suffice) so I picked up a package and then looked online for a good recipe when I got home.

The great thing about being an avid baker is that once you have a stockpile of ingredients, you usually only need one or two new things (or sometimes, nothing new) for any given recipe. I've also gotten really good at converting recipes to be vegan, so now I don't even bother to look for most recipes from vegan sources. One of my favorite recipe sources is AllRecipes because of the user comments and ratings. The blueberry muffin recipe has over 4,500 reviews! I usually spend 5-10 minutes reading a few reviews for recipes I plan to try, to see what the general consensus is. Sometimes users make helpful suggestions.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins - my vegan version

* 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup unbleached sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 Tbsp ground flax + 1/4 c water
* 1/3 cup soy (or otherwise dairy free) milk
* 1 cup fresh blueberries
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

And for a crumb topping, I didn't measure this out, but combined:

* vegan butter at room temperature
* flour
* sugar
* cinnamon

Bake in a muffin tin at 400 degrees F, 12-18 min.



Another thing which I had wanted to cook for a long time but which always intimidates me is Indian food. I think the names of the dishes as well as the wide variety of spices is what made me feel like I couldn't do it. So I started paying closer attention. I learned the names of my favorite Indian dishes. I read about which spices went into each dish. I don't have it all memorized, to be sure, but I have a better understanding of it now, and it's not as intimidating. I decided to make chana masala first, a chickpea dish and one of my favorites. I slightly cheated by buying a spice mix as opposed to making my own. I didn't own about half of the spices needed for the dish, so this cut down on the price a lot, and the good news is that the spice mixture is just straight spices, no weird preservatives or anything else bad. It was $1.50 from my local Indian grocer, for enough to make the dish 5 times. Now that I know I can handle making this type of cuisine, however, I'll probably try to start acquiring the spices. Making chana masala was so easy, and it turned out to be quite delicious in its homemade form. If you are interested, I recommend checking out this Smitten Kitchen post on the subject.

snow and solitude

Yesterday I awoke to a blanket of unexpected snow. I think everyone was a little surprise. We don't usually get too much here, and we'd already been snowed in once this winter. I decided to spend the day indoors. I cleaned, cooked, painted, and watched my all-time favorite television show, Gilmore Girls. It was a nice pause.

A pizza from the night before. Tofu, bell pepper, canned pineapple, parsley, zucchini, and onion.

It snowed nearly all day long.

I spent a good deal of my time repainting this table. It used to be my coffee table when I was in the dorm, and it was painted orange. I repainted it mint green with acrylic paint, and will give it a clear coat of varnish as soon as I can make it to the store. It took a long time to get paint in all the small details.

An etching by my friend Alex, and my Oktomat 8-lens plastic camera.

For dinner, I made risotto. I bought risotto rice (arborio) a few weeks ago and finally tried my hand at it. It wasn't from a mix. I was proud of myself for how good it turned out! It was flavored with onion, garlic, Italian seasonings, and homemade vegetable broth. It was delicious.

I also made a salad and biscuits with vegan margarine. Here is the biscuit recipe I used. They were simple and tasty.

There is still snow out today and it's only 25 degrees, but the sun is melting it. I hope to be able to get out tomorrow. They are predicting more snow later in the week!

cookies, cookies, cookies

I've been baking lots of cookies lately! A few days ago, I made these wonderful chocolate chip cookies from Natalie's blog:

I did make them vegan. All I did was substitute ground flax + water for the egg, Earth Balance vegan spread for the butter, and I uses unbleached flour and sugar, and vegan chocolate chips. Baking recipes are very easily adapted!

And these are some peanut butter cookies I made last week. They are displayed alongside one of my favorite coffee mugs and on my freshly repainted bedside table. It's now my favorite color of mint green. I love it! You can find the cookie recipe here, at 101cookbooks.com. The recipe is vegan.

Don't forget that until Valentine's Day, there is a giveaway going on in the post below this one!

when it's over, it's over

Peace.

The BA/BFA Exhibit is up and running! The first opening was wonderful. So many people came and showed their support. I loved it. There is another opening today, and the show runs through December 3rd.

I have less than one month of undergraduate school left! I'm done with almost everything, so I want to spend these last few weeks soaking it all up. It's hard to believe it's almost all said and done. My experience here has been excellent. I know without a doubt that I chose the right place to go to school. I've learned so much, it's hard to put into words how I feel about it. "Real world," I am ready for you.

And some of my latest efforts from the kitchen:


Apple cider donuts (these are the donut holes...yes, heart-shaped!). I made these from the recipe on Smitten Kitchen. The recipe itself was very good, but seeing as I am the World's Worst Fryer, I kept messing them up while trying to fry them, so I ended up baking them. They are okay. They would be better with a crispy outside. If you are good at frying, you will like this recipe.

These are vegan banana waffles (recipe does not say explicitly that they are banana-flavored, but let's be real, when you use bananas as a substitute in baking, the end result is a banana-flavored product, always) topped with natural peanut butter. Soooo delicious. I made these with Corey for brunch on Saturday. We made a few adaptations, such as substituting part of the wheat flour with oatmeal flour (my favorite), and using 2 Tbsp vegetable oil rather than apple sauce (didn't have any). They turned out amazingly. They take like a slice of banana bread in a waffle.

cupcakes from heaven

Tonight I baked these chocolate cupcakes and they are amazing! I adapted the recipe from one of my favorite blogs, The Baking Bird. I'm excited about all of the vegan cooking I've been able to do lately. Being vegan is something I have wanted for a long time, but never felt was feasible. I actually feel like it might easily happen within the next few months. I'm making slow transitional steps. And even if I decide not to be completely vegan, I think the closer I come, the better. It makes total sense for all the same reasons I want to be a vegetarian. I won't go into it right now...but I have many valid reasons.

The recipe from the Baking Bird calls for crushed peanut butter Newman-O's, but I didn't have any type of cookies to crumble so I just added 1/2 cup extra flour to compensate. I also didn't have all of the frosting ingredients so I just made frosting by creaming powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, water, and vegan butter. The cupcakes themselves are fantastic though. Here is the recipe exactly as I made it:

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat till no large lumps remain.
3. Pour into liners, filling three quarters of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely.

just like christopher columbus

I've now purchased my very own microwave and skillet. This must mean I am growing up, I'm almost sure of it. Things are getting checked off my list...only a few more days until the move!

So, the other day I thought relish sounded like a wonderful idea, and rather than look up a recipe, I just gathered up what I could find from the pantry and fridge.

And it's so simple really, that I don't know if it's even right to call this a recipe, but it was delicious just the same, so if you'd like to make it, here's how I did it:

1 can black beans
1 can sweet kernel corn
1 handful fresh cilantro
1/4 c salsa or 1/4 c pureed tomato + 2 Tbsp jalapeno juice
2 Roma tomatoes
1/2 Vidalia onion
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
salt + pepper

Drain and rinse the black beans, then pour them into a medium-sized bowl. Mash them over with a fork once, leaving most of them whole. Drain and rinse corn, chop cilantro, and dice onion and tomatoes. Add those ingredients to the bowl. Stir the salsa and spices into the mixture, tossing everything together in the process. Serve immediately--good, refrigerated--better, the next day--best! This is good by itself, on top of a bed of lettuce, in a corn taco shell or a tortilla, or with chips.


Today, I decided to make these All-Out Best Oatmeal Breakfast Bars. The recipe gives several variations...just fyi I used natural peanut butter as the fat in mine, and I didn't have anything to stir in so I left them plain. I did top them with a sprinkle of honey roasted sunflower seeds. They are very good, maybe a tad on the dry side though, so to remedy that, I served them with a smidgen on peanut butter on top. Mmm.

I also paid a visit to an Indian grocery store I noticed in town a few weeks ago. They had an awesome array of spices in what I consider to be bulk, as far as spices for a personal kitchen go. And they were at terrific prices! I got this 14 oz. bag of sesame seeds for $3.25. Last time I bought sesame seeds, I got a 1 oz. jar made by McCormick brand spices (a very common spice brand here, and I assume elsewhere in the U.S.) for around the same price. I also got 7 oz. packages of cumin, ginger, and coconut powder. All of that was only $10! It's an exciting start to all of the spices I hope to accumulate for the various recipes on my to-cook list. I get a little disappointed at my usual supermarkets when I see all of the high prices on the spice aisle, and for tiny, tiny bottles. Here I felt like I was getting a special deal. I guess Christopher Columbus had a point when he set out for India in search of spices.

I love Indian cuisine and the store was very inspiring. I wish I'd looked up a few specific recipes before going, so I could've gotten some specialty items, but I'm sure I'll be back for another visit in the near future. If you're local and want the address, let me know!