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!

never too busy to cook

1. sandwich on homemade bread with lettuce, onion, tomato, tofu, olives, and guacamole


2. wheat rotini with veggies stir fried in nutritional yeast


2. basmati rice, lentils, and stir fried veggies


4. pizza on homemade wheat crust, with tofu, bell pepper, onion, and mushroom


5. homemade pumpkin pie granola with soy milk


6. wheat rotini with stir fried veggies and tomato sauce

7. peanut butter chocolate chip cookies...cookie dough was vegan, the chips were not this time

8. salad with roasted red pepper hummus, sunflower seeds, and tofu


9. vegan chicken and dumplings...soooooo good...will write up a recipe asap!


10. amazing salad with homemade croutons and green olives


Amidst the busyness I have still had time for cooking (and these photographs are snapped awfully quickly with only available light from a window or a certain adjustable fluorescent lamp, let me tell you!) because I have put all of my other hobbies on hold until my senior show is up (sewing, reading, drawing, jewelry-making, the list goes on, oy...sometimes even laundry!). I still have to eat, however, and I just really don't believe in having premade, overly processed food at every meal. And so I continue to cook. Easy things, mostly. After my show is up, I have a ton of recipes I have been waiting to try.

stir fries and snickerdoodles

This weekend was my Fall Break...four days off from school should have been enough, right? Not at all! I worked some, did homework, caught up on chores...this word "break" means little to me right now! I got to have a little fun cooking and visiting one of my favorite parks with Corey, though. Here are just a few pictures...more soon.

On Friday night, we did one of our favorite activities...supermarket browsing. I know that might sound funny, but checking out different grocery stores happens to be a pastime of mine. We got some delicious stir fry ingredients including Japanese noodles, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, a special sauce (Corey is the sauce expert, so he picked it out, and it was delicious), nuts, and a few others, then cooked them up in my trusty green skillet.

And these are some vegan snickerdoodle cookies I made...fall is here! (recipe from vegweb.com) This season I am especially looking forward to...

- showing work in the senior art exhibit
- graduating college (eep!)
- turning 23!

And as always, I anticipate...

- cool weather--scarves, coats, and boots

- changing leaves

- overcast days perfect for picture-taking

- the holiday season

too busy for fall

Things I have made lately....1. pumpkin smoothie, 2. stir fry with farmer's market finds + basmati rice, 3. vegan peanut butter cookies, 4. lettuceless salad, homemade croutons, and iced tea, 5. roasted red pepper hummus.

School is so busy, busy, busy for me right now. My life will return to normal after November 12, the opening of the BA/BFA Exhibit. I can't wait to have free time again! It's all I can do right now to keep my apartment clean and throw together these simple foods in what little leisurely time I have.

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.

mamma mia!, it's spaghetti

Since my last post, I moved into my new apartment...then a few days later had all of my wisdom teeth pulled! How wonderful. I've been lying around watching DVDs and drinking smoothies for the past two days. That's not as glamorous as it may sound.

I have yet to take pictures of my apartment (I'm still in the decorating process, anyhow) but here is the first real meal I cooked there (pre-wisdom teeth removal, of course)...whole wheat spaghetti and vegetarian meatballs, with fresh green beans and homemade bread. I did some research on various ways to make vegetarian meatballs, then concocted my own recipe, so here you have it:

Vegetarian Meatballs
2 Tbsp sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp flax seeds
1/3 c dried chickpeas (or chickpea flour)
1/3 c black beans
1/4 c corn
1/4 c whole wheat flour
seasoned salt, pepper, and onion powder, to taste
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
water

Combine sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and dried chickpeas in a food processor (or, I used my Magic Bullet) and grind until smooth. Grind black beans and corn as well, separate from the dry ingredients. Stir together both mixtures, along with the oil and spices, until smooth. Add in the whole wheat flour. The end result should be about the consistency of cookie dough. If the mixture is too dry, add water in small increments until right. If it is too wet, add more flour. Scoop into rounded tablespoonfuls and bake in the oven until slightly browned on the outside, or in the microwave, 6-7 at a time, for about 3 minutes.*

Makes 3-4 servings.

*I had to cook mine in the microwave because, as luck would have it, the stove/oven in my apartment was broken until two days ago! It's a long story. When I started cooking this meal, the repairman had just paid us a visit and we thought it was fixed, but twenty minutes into my culinary endeavor it suddenly went off, and I had to revert to finishing things up in the microwave.

Also, I believe you could easily make substitutions in the recipes if they were pretty equal. For instance, you could use other nuts besides sunflower seeds, other dried beans besides chickpeas, or other wet beans besides black beans. Overall they were very delicious and I plan on making them again soon!

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!

in the kitchen

Today I went to the dentist, got a lot of back-to-school shopping done, and spent some serious time in the kitchen. I re-made various recipes that I've already posted about this summer: sweet potato falafel and Peppy's pita bread, and happy vegan double chocolate cookies.

I also tried a little something new...making croutons from my week-old homemade bread! I used this tutorial as a rough guide (it's not rocket science but I just wanted to see how other people do it). I cut the bread up into cubes, drizzled it with a little olive oil, sprinkled it with garlic salt, and baked for 20 minutes at 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Then voila! Delicious croutons from bread I was about to throw away.

The cookies I will be taking to work tomorrow...it's my last week of work at my internship!

cookies & plaid

Remember these cookies that I baked a few weeks ago? Happy Vegan Double Chocolate Cookies. I acquired the recipe from VegWeb but modified it, adding the "double" part.

Today I was in the mood for some regular chocolate chip cookies and used the same recipe. I also made a light chocolate glaze for the tops of the cookies...fancy, no? And I made them half the size because I thought they'd be cute as minis!

Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Cookies
2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c vegan chocolate chips
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c water

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes (I baked the mini ones for 9 minutes). Makes about two dozen regular-sized cookies or 40 mini cookies.

I made the glaze using just powdered sugar, water, and cocoa powder until it reached the right consistency.

That bowl is one of my latest thrift-store finds. It came as a set of two (the other is a bit larger). The plaid fabric is a remnant from my stash...I have a pillow out of it on my bed!

tomato ceci bread

Today I found myself getting really ambitious after looking for a recipe for tomato bread and finding nothing that appealed to me. Instead of giving up and making my usual loaf of tried and true wheat (delicious in its own right), I decided to step out on a limb and heavily modify that recipe to suit my tastes. The results are terrific! I changed up the recipe so much (the Betty Crocker wheat bread one) that I felt I had to rename it for this variety...and so I deemed it Tomato Ceci Bread (ceci is Italian for chickpea, and this bread has many Italian flavors in it).

Tomato Ceci Bread
5 oz tomato sauce (I used canned--smooth, no chunks)
4 oz water
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp soy milk (regular milk is fine too)
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp minced garlic
2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c chick pea flour
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 yeast packet (or equivalent--I believe that would be 1 1/2 tsp)

Combine tomato sauce and water and warm in the microwave or on the stove to around 90 degrees. Add the tomato mixture along with the rest of the ingredients, in the order listed, to the breadmaker and bake on the whole wheat setting for a 1 1/2 lb loaf (around 4 hours, 20 minutes). Also! You can make your own chickpea flour by grinding dried chickpeas in a food processor, coffee grinder, or Magic Bullet (you could buy it too). This recipe would work without the chickpea flour (substitute the same amount of all-purpose or wheat), but I really love the flavor it added.

And I'm going to be honest, I really hate the taste of butter (or any equivalent to butter) so sometimes I have a slice of warm bread with a smidgen of Vegenaise! What do you put on your bread?

And, aww, check out this pup.

a cracker or two...or twelve

I really cannot resist a good cracker...however, the recent rise in cost of every cracker brand under the sun has been both alarming and extremely disappointing. I need something to go with my hummus and guacamole! So...I decided to make my own! When I found a recipe for cream crackers in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, I knew I had found the perfect thing to try. I was very taken with Papadopoulos cream crackers while living in Greece and have not been able to find a suitable replacement here in the U.S.

The recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian turned out very well and I'll definitely make it again, but the cream cracker resemblance was only so-so, and I'm now on the search for the perfect cream cracker recipe. If you've never had the cream cracker experience, just stay tuned....I will keep you posted on my findings!

In the meantime, make these! They were easy and delicious. If you cook at all, odds are you probably have all these ingredients on hand already...you can really re-do the flour combination however you'd like. I just prefer the whole wheat flour, but added some all-purpose to soften it up a little:

1 c whole wheat flour
1 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/3 c soy milk (or any milk variety)

Mix up all the dough ingredients. Add more milk if necessary, until the dough is smooth but not too sticky. You can add spices or other add-ins, if you'd like. (I left mine plain.) Roll out very thinly onto a floured cookie sheet and slice into pieces with a pizza cutter or pastry wheel. Sprinkle with salt and poke (I can't think of the proper cooking term) the dough with a fork so the crackers will get crunchier. There is no need to separate the cracker pieces, just leave them as they are after cutting, then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Enjoy!

mmm scones!

Today I decided to try my hand at a pastry I have always loved but have never ventured to make--the scone. I'd been searching for the perfect scone recipe for quite some time, and just last week discovered this one on VegWeb for oatmeal cinnamon scones. VegWeb is a great recipe resource because readers post vegan recipes, and many of them are whole grain or healthy in other ways too. This scones recipe is whole wheat and vegan, perfect! So this morning, I pulled up the recipe, did a few minor alterations, and set out to make a batch of the perfect scones.

The biggest thing I decided to change about the recipe was the add-ins. The original recipe called for raisins, and raisin scones aren't my favorite, nor did we have any raisins lying around. The substitutes called for in the recipe were for dried fruit, and we didn't have any of that either. So, I decided to use fresh fruit, and told myself that the worst that could happen would be that I'd have to add in a little extra flour to compensate for the water content.

Apple scones are by far my favorite, so I chopped up a gala apple and sauteed it on the stove with a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and half the brown sugar called for in the recipe--1/4 cup. The other 1/4 cup I stirred in with the dry ingredients as normal. The recipe states that you can add another 1/2 cup of sugar if you are so inclined, but I would advise against this if you are already a scone lover, as you probably won't appreciate an overly-sweetened version.

After sauteeing the apple, I mixed up the dough. The only other way I changed the recipe was that I chopped the oatmeal in the Magic Bullet so that the scones would be smoother on the inside but still have the oatmeal flavor.....oh! And I added a little vanilla. So after that, I made the dough into a round cake like so, that looks something like a raw hamburger pattie in the photo (but was, in reality, much bigger):

Next, I cut it into eight slices, like a pie. Then, I laid each one out on the cookie sheet and topped with a leftover mixture I had tucked away after making banana bread muffins several weeks ago. The topping included oatmeal, cinnamon, brown sugar, and roasted sunflower seeds.

Then the scones baked for 15 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

And then, ta-da! Delicious!

And since I'm not British, but I am Southern, I enjoyed my scone with a glass of iced tea.


Mmmm!

chocolatey, cinnamony goodness

Today was my day off work, so I did a few of my favorite things...thrift store shopping, baking, and Gilmore Girls watching (oh, wait, it's summer, I do that last one every day...). I found a set of three glass canisters (with strawberries on them!) for flour, sugar, and...one more thing...to be decided...tea? brown sugar? ideas?

I also went to the store (I admit it, it was Wal-Mart) in search of seeds to get started on the miniature herb garden I am going to grow...but there were no more seeds! I guess it's too late in the season...but there were still plenty of pots and every other gardening tool you can think of! That's okay. I am not discouraged. There are plenty of other (better) places I can find seeds. I am determined to grow my own herbs (and strawberries!) for cooking. Two years ago, I took a seminar/in the field class called Organic Gardening...and ever since then, I have really wanted my own garden. The problem is that I have no place to grow it.

That brings me to my latest baking venture. Now, I found this vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe and all the reviews said it was the best chocolate chip recipe ever, but I wasn't sure what all the hype was about. After making the cookies, I think I get it. They're delicious! I did vary the recipe somewhat though (of course, right? why can't I just leave any recipe as it is?). You can click the link for theirs, and here's my revised version:

Happy Vegan Double Chocolate Cookies
2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c vegan chocolate chips
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/4 c vegan margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 c water

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen small cookies. Press cookie dough balls down with a fork--the dough will not expand when baked.

The ingredients I adjusted were...used whole wheat flour instead of unbleached flour, added cocoa powder + a little more water to compensate, used 1/2 as much sugar, and used less oil and added a little vegan margarine (a review I read said this was a good idea).

hello, cupcake

I did a little baking today. Cupcakes. Vegan. Whole wheat. Chocolate!

You don't know how I've tried to make a picture in my cappuccino foam! Success!!


Vegan Whole Wheat Chocolate Cupcakes

* 3 c. whole wheat flour
* 3/4 c sugar
* 1/3 c brown sugar
* 1/3 cup cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon
* 2/3 cup vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
* 2 cups water

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes.


Vegan Buttercream Frosting

* 2 tablespoons vegan butter spread
* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 1/4 cup water
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Top with chopped dark chocolate and pistachios.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

a dozen muffins

When I noticed the overripe bananas in the fruit bowl, I decided to try a recipe I'd found for vegan banana bread. The original recipe is here, but of course, I tweaked it to my own tastes and for the amount I wanted, so here's what I did:

2 ripe bananas
4 tsp vegetable oil
1 1/3 c whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mash together bananas and oil. Combine wet and dry ingredients until smooth. For muffins, bake at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes. Yields about a dozen muffins.


I also added an impromptu mixture of plain oatmeal (uncooked), sunflower seeds, and brown sugar to the top of some of the muffins before baking. Yum! The original recipe called for nuts, which I would've added, but this was a spontaneous baking venture and there were none in the pantry.


They are very delicious--I'll definitely keep this one for the recipe box!