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!).

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.

beagles and birthdays

My dad's birthday is next week. We celebrated early, with a carrot cake.