Glad I got the sorghum...err...spelt?

When I first started this venture in the Gluten-Free world, I immediately went to the store to grab a variety of flours.  Stupid me forgot to take the list with me.  I remembered there was a flour I needed starting with an "S".  Looking...searching..."wtf is this?!"...hmmm...maybe "spelt" was it?  Sounds good to me.  OK, let's check out and head home.  Once I got home and read my list, I discovered I had picked up the wrong flour....DAMN!  And, spelt isn't even gluten free!  I was pissed, and I threw it in the freezer for a rainy day recipe experiment.  Well, yesterday was that rainy day minus the rain part.

I love, love, love bread, and I love, love, love baking bread.  Bread making is the most wholesome, gratifying, traditional things to make in the kitchen.  My love for bread and it's future role in this gluten free world was my biggest fear when experimenting with a GF diet.  Luckily, I can tolerate small amounts of gluten without being total screwed for the next couple days.  I decided to read up on this spelt flour I bought a couple months back and discovered it is a really cool, highly nutritious, grain!  It is NOT gluten free (so if you have full blown celiac, stop reading now), but it is a low gluten ancient grain many people can digest when being gluten or wheat sensitive.  I decided to give making a loaf of spelt bread a try, and I was so pleased with the results!  Great texture, whole grain, and a smooth sweet taste were what I found in this beautiful little bread.  As for my guts...well, I'll let you know how they feel about it in a couple days.  This was a great recipe; thank you to the contributor!  If you can tolerate spelt in your diet, I highly suggest this beautiful little grain.

Whole Grain Spelt Yeast Bread

*NOTE- I did not use the flax seed meal only because I was out; but, I do love flax, and I think it would be a great addiction for texture and flavor.  As a result, I increased the butter amount by a another half tablespoon due to the lack of oil from my omission of the flax.  I also free formed my bread, as opposed to putting in a pan; so, my baking time was less due to my bread not being so dense in a pan.

Ingredients (makes one loaf):

1 1/2 cups warm water (just barely hot to the touch)

1 package active dry yeast (1/4 ounce)

2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon whole flaxseed ground in a coffee mill

2 1/2 cups whole spelt flour 

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 tablespoon salt

1 3/4 cups whole spelt flour

1 tablespoon butter, melted (vegan butter could be used here)

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon of flaxseed (optional). Mix in 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.

Mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter, 2 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and salt. Stir in 1 3/4 cups of spelt flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with spelt flour until it pulls away from the counter but is still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 1 to 2 cups of spelt flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 30 minutes).

Punch down and place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Allow to rise until dough has topped the pan by one inch. Depending on your yeast this will take between 1 - 2 hours.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not over bake. 

*crickets chirping*

Yep, I'm still alive!  Sorry for not posting any goodies lately, but that sure doesn't mean I haven't been making any.  Basically, for the past week and a half, I have been in the lab (aka: kitchen) creating the perfect vegan original chocolate chip cookie for the Beaver Creek, CO cookie competition.  Check it out HERE.  For all your bakers out there, you know how you really have to understand the science of baking in order to be truly original.  Also, it's hard now-a-days to be truly original in anything!  After batches, and batches of cookies, I think I finally created a close to perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie.  They're pretty sick-awesome.  After I see if I made the finals, or not, in the competition, I may post the recipe....or I may not.  Haven't decided if this is to be my signature secret cookie, yet, or not ;-)  Oh, they're so good!  Here's some pics...

Here they are all nakey...

All packed up, and ready to go!

Now for the poopy part of the story...I'm actually not sure they're going to make it to CO.  Here's the deal, when you send packages to the communities in the Vail valley, some mail carriers deliver only to PO Boxes and some mail carriers deliver to physical address...or something like that.  I still don't understand it, but it's totally ridonculous, if you ask me.  I've dealt with this some when trying to mail stuff to my sister up there, but I totally forgot about that in this case.

So here I've got these perfectly Martha Stewart'y packaged cookies all dressed in their Sunday best.  I pack 'em up super tight, and head off yesterday morning to overnight these bad boys.  In typical Claire fashion, I send a text to my mom and sister to brag about my accomplishment and how much I'm going to kick-ass and take names at this contest, and my sister lays the whole "I hope you sent them to the right address according to which carrier you chose..."  Doh!  AHHHH!  Let's just sum it up by saying I didn't follow directions accordingly, and spent the next hour running all over Denton like a crazed baker chasing down my package from one post office to the next hoping to stop my cookies in their tracks, only to discover they were already in another town on their way to CO. I must say, I have a new respect for the speediness of the postal service after this experience!  

Feeling defeated and in despair, I talk to the postmasters here in Denton, Vail, CO, and Avon, CO, and the cookie competition people trying to see what my options are.  At this point, I could care less about the cookie competition...all I care about is the $30+ I spent shipping these suckers overnight all for nothing!  The postmaster in Colorado told me since the cookie competition was going on, my package had a much better chance at making the delivery due to all the similar packages that would be arriving at the post office.  Soooooo, we'll see here pretty soon after I attempt to call the Avon post office and pull another "begging-crazy-lady" to see if my package could possibly find it's proper home.

OK, that's the last time I'm telling that story.  I'm so sick of it!  I'll keep ya posted on the status of my cookies' odyssey'esque journey.  FINGERS CROSSED!

Spider Web Cupcakes

Being vegan doesn't always mean you're being more healthy.  It depends on your choices.  Therefore, I call all the PETA concerned vegans to embrace these cupcakes!  In regards to the "for health" vegans, well, you'll probably wanna pass on these.  Although, I will say there's nothing worse about these cupcakes than a traditional cupcake, and they taste like a million bucks....so don't be silly, and eat 'em!

Now, I'm not going to post the recipes for these since I don't think cookbook authors like it when you post their exact recipes, but I will tell you it's the chocolate cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  It's ridiculously simple, and the best from-scratch chocolate cake recipe I've ever made, vegan or not.  And, I don't have an exact recipe for the frosting, but it's based on this basic vegan buttercream recipe.

The point, here, is really about the spider webs, which can be found here and placed atop ANY kind of cupcake you want to make.  For fully vegan cupcakes, use non-dairy white chocolate chips.  I used regular white chocolate as I didn't really care, nor wanted to buy a whole bag of vegan chocolate chips when that little spider web could just be taken off by the overly anal vegan.  I couldn't find my icing tips in the mix of random boxes from the move, so I had to do the cut the tip off a plastic bag trick, but having the proper tip would have been better.

Go get your Halloween on!

Vegan Summer Squash Cake

Summer Squash Sweet Cake

We all have gardening friends, right?  Right.  And what do they bombard us with ever summer?  Squash, zucchini, and tomatoes!  Frankly, I don't have any problem devouring all the tomatoes, but the squashes...well, I can admit I get tired of them pretty quick.  Steven's folks, as well as various friends, bring us squash every time we see them.  God bless them for the free food, but damn, I've got squash coming out my ears!  I feel bad just throwing it away, so I got to thinking there just had to be a summer squash sweet bread recipe out there just like there are zucchini and pumpkin bread recipes.  Low and behold, I found one and then veganized it.  

This is a very sweet bread, hence why I called it a cake, so just be prepared.  I omit the spices because I have to be in the mood for cinnamony things, but if you're looking for something more like a traditional zuchini bread then add the spices.  Otherwise, you'll have just a simple buttery, vanilla, slightly coconuty cake.  I'm pleased to introduce Steven's new favorite baked good.  He loves it!

 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs flax seed meal + 9 Tbs.  hot  tap water*
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract
• 1 cup canola oil or coconut oil (if you have it, use coconut oil)
• 2 cups grated yellow squash
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• Optional: 2 tsps each cinnamon and nutmeg

*Grind whole flax seeds in electric coffee grinder to make meal.  Mix water with flax meal, and wisk to combine.  Mixture will become thick and gelatinous, just like raw eggs.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.

Prepare flax meal/water mixture.

In another bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder (and spices, if using).  Set aside.

In a large bowl, add flax/water mixture, sugar, oil, and vanilla.  Beat until thoroughly combined with either hand mixture, or Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  Add flour mixture to wet mixture in three parts, or so, being careful to not over mix.  Add grated squash, and combine (I usually do parts like this by hand).

Grease either a bundt pan, or loaf pan, and pour mixture evenly to distribute.  Bake for about 55 minutes, or so, until slightly golden brown at top and toothpick test comes out pretty clean.  Let sit for about 5-10 minutes, and then release cake onto cooling rack, or cake stand, to thoroughly cool.

Claire's notes:  I've made this twice and did not have a totally clean release from the bundt pan either time.  You might want to grease and flour your pan to be extra careful.

Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!

Finally!  An awesome vegan cookie recipe!  I haven't had the best of luck finding vegan cookie recipes that both taste great, AND bake up well...untill I came across this recipe.   I only had to tweak one ingredient's measurement to bring this recipe to perfection (in my opinion).  Here you go.  The best chocolate chip cookies for both vegans and non-vegans...

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup vegan butter (my faves are Earth Balance, and Smart Balance "light")
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 heaping Tbs. flax seed meal
• 1 Tbs. Ener-G egg replacer
• 1/3 cup non-dairy milk (I use Blue Diamond's almond milk)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 F

In a large bowl, mix milk with Ener-G egg replacer and flax seed meal with electric mixer until creamy and thoroughly combined.

In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the butter, coconut oil, sugars, and vanilla extract to the bowl with the milk/flax seed/egg replacer mixture.  Cream all together until smooth.

Add flour mixture in two parts to the creamed sugar mixture.  Combine the first flour part by electric mixer, and the second flour part by hand incorporating the chocolate chips, as well.

Drop by well rounded teaspoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Do not drop second batch of cookie dough onto a hot cookie sheet.  Try to use two cookie sheets (if you can), and always drop cookie dough onto a cool sheet.  Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes,  or until light golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack, and end EAT!

Best Vegan Brownies (So far...)

I've been on the hunt for the best vegan brownie recipe out there.  So far, I've tried three, and this one is by far the best.  I've even given this brownie to many non-vegans and they have raved, wanting the recipe.  I'm a brownie snob, and even think the best brownies out there come from a box.  I have ONE non-vegan homemade brownie recipe I love, but that's it.  These, on the other hand, are good...I swear.  I actually found this recipe here, but the recipe I post down below has some slight variations to my own liking.

Best Vegan Brownies (So far...)

*Note* Since posting this, I have also made this recipe with melted Earth Balance butter directly in place of the coconut oil, and they turned out wonderful.  I would slightly decrease the salt if using the butter, as the butter has salt in it.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup all purpose flour

- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

- 1 1/4 cup sugar*

- 1/2 cup cocoa powder

- 1/4 tsp. baking powder

- 1 tsp. kosher salt

- 1 Tbs. flaxseed ground into meal**

- 1/3 cup + 2 Tbs. hot water water (hot tap water from the sink is good)

- 1/4 cup coffee

- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp. butter extract

- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs. coconut oil***

- 1/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips (optional)

*I use evaporated cane sugar, or sugar in the raw, but you can certainly use refined white sugar if you like.

**I buy whole flaxseed and use a small coffee grinder to make it into a fine meal right before use.  Flaxseed meal spoils WAY faster than whole flaxseed, so this is a good way to buy in bulk at Whole Foods and save on money and spoilage.  If you happened to have flaxseed meal on hand, just use 1 heaping Tbs. in place of grinding your own flax seed.

***Coconut oil really makes this recipe, but if you don't have it, or don't want to buy it (it's a little pricey), you can substitute with canola or vegetable oil.  Buy the coconut oil!  Chocolate and coconut go great together!  If using coconut oil, scoop out what you think is close to a half cup, put in a small bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds, or until it becomes liquid.  Then pour the oil into a liquid measuring cup to get the desired amount.  Simply pour whatever excess oil you have left back into the container. (Raw foodies would have a fit over this procedure, so you can also fill a pot with water, put the whole coconut oil container in there, and heat up the water surrounding the oil container by placing the pot on the stove, and gradually warming the oil to a liquid state by use of this "water bath.")

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F, and grease a 9X9 square baking pan.

Sift together flours, cocoa, and baking powder into a large bowl.  Add the sugar, salt, and chocolate chips.  Stir to combine.

In a smaller bowl, combine flaxseed meal and water.  Whisk together, and let sit for just a couple minutes.  You will see the texture change a bit, and become slightly gelatinous.  Add the coffee, vanilla and butter extracts, and  coconut oil to the flax mixture.  Combine thoroughly.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Stir until combined.  Pour into greased pan.  Bake at 350F for about 25 - 30 min, give or take depending on how "gooey" you like your brownies.  Let cool before cutting.

Eat the sweets!

Claire

Spiced Cocoa Muffins (Vegan)

I have to have something sweet after every meal.  I ran out of brownies yesterday, so this morning I opened up my new cook book The Joy of Vegan Baking, which I hear is a vegan baker's "must have," and decided to make these muffins.  Yawoza!  Yummy!  You gotta try this recipe!  This is my slightly varied version of the original recipe...

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup turbinado sugar + a tiny bit for sprinkling on muffin tops
6 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1 tsp. salt
 1 Tbs. Ener-G Egg Replacer*
4 Tbs. water
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan butter (melted)
1/2 cup non-dairy semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Ener-G egg replacer can be found at your local health food store

Directions:
(makes 12 muffins)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray.

Sift the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt together in a large bowl.  Add sugar and chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer to whip the egg replacer and water together until creamy.  Add the milk, vanilla extract, and melted butter.  Stir to incorporate.

Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, and fold just enough to combine.  DO NOT OVER-MIX!

Spoon the mixture into muffin pan.  Sprinkle tops with a little extra turbinado sugar, then bake about 15 minutes.  Remove from over, let sit for 5 minutes, then remove to cool on wire rack.

Vegan Choco-Chip Cookies

Vegan "Heart Healthy" Chocolate Chip Cookies

 These cookies are great!  It's a weird cookie prep. process, and I was skeptical, but they turned out fantastic.  I found this recipe here, and made a just a couple adjustments.  I promise you, non-vegans will eat the hell out of these!  They are soft, chewy, flavorful...and much better for you than an original chocolate chip cookie.  I'm also pretty sure these are gluten free.  I did some research on oat products being gluten free, and found that oats, themselves, do not contain gluten, but are often processed in a plant that also processes wheat, barley, and rye products, which DO contain gluten.  Therefore, cross contamination with gluten grains can be a concern if one is highly sensitive to their gluten intolerance.  Basically, it's a personal issue if you feel oat products aggravate your Celiac Disease, or not. 


Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs. coconut oil (canola oil can be used)
  
• 2 cups raw walnuts (best "bang for your buck" at Costco)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1½ cups oat flour *
  
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt (VERY important)
  
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3 3.5-oz. bars bittersweet vegan chocolate, chopped, or 1½ cups vegan chocolate chips (12 oz.)

 * Oat Flour can either be made by processing regular rolled oats in a food processor until a flour like consistency is achieved (the method I used), or oat flour can be bought through a brand like Bob's Red Mill .  I'm pretty sure Whole Foods and Central Market have oat flour in their bulk sections, as well.




Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper.

2. Blend walnuts in food processor 30 seconds, or until ground into a fine meal. Add coconut oil and salt. Blend 2 to 3 minutes more, or until mixture has the consistency of natural peanut butter, scraping down sides of food processor occasionally.

3. Whisk together brown sugar and ½ cup water in small saucepan, and bring mixture to a boil. Pour brown sugar mixture over ground walnut butter, add vanilla extract, and mix in food processor until no lumps remain.

4. Whisk together oat flour, baking soda, and cinnamon in separate bowl. Stir oat flour mixture into walnut mixture. Cool completely **THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! The choco-chips will melt, as you can see mine did a little, if you do not completely cool**.  Fold in oats, then chocolate chips.

5. Shape cookie dough into 2-inch balls, and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry. Cool 3 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

*I found the cooling was the important factor to this recipe.  I think the sugar/water mixture could be made  30 min. ahead of time, let cool, and then added to the walnut butter mixture to expedite this process.  It shouldn't matter whether the sugar mixture cools before adding to the walnut butter, or after.

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

"Non-Vegan Approved" 

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

Yum!  As many of you know, I am an AVID baker.  Baking makes my heart smile.  Before making the switch over to a raw/cooked vegan diet, I was so worried I was going to have to ditch my love for baking, but that has not been the case.  I knew vegan baking existed, but being the food snob I am/was, I was one of those who turned their noses up at "alternative" baking. 

Now focusing more on my health, instead of my tongue, I put my prejudice aside and tried out this VERY yummy vegan pumpkin recipe I found here.  In non-vegan baking, I can usually look at a recipe and determine if it has potential to be a winner, but in vegan baking I have no intuition what-so-ever.  Honestly, I chose this recipe because it came from the book The Joy of Vegan Baking.  I'm not going to lie, I don't trust just any old wiki-recipe (as I like to call them) I find posted on the internet.  Basically, if it's been published in a real live book or magazine, I consider it more trustworthy.  All in all, this recipe baked up beautifully, was super moist, and all non-vegans who have tried it have LOVED it.  Here's the recipe:


Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs ground flaxseed*
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar "Sugar in the Raw"**
• 2 cups whole wheat flour***
• 1 cup all purpose white flour
  
• 1/2 cup non-sweetened apple sauce
• 1 can pureed pumpkin
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 cup canola oil
  
• 1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (or pumpkin pie spice blend)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt (reduce to 1 tsp if using table salt)
  

 * I'm not sure if the measurement was taken before grinding flaxseeds, or after.  I measured out 3 Tbs.of whole flax seed, ground to powder in an electric coffee grinder, and used all of that.

**The original recipe in the book calls for 2 cups refined white sugar (according to the post I received the recipe from).  I went with this particular post's rendition of the original recipe, and used the 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar.  Personally, I have a sweet tooth, and would have preferred it a tad sweeter, so if you're like me, go with the 2 cups of sugar.

***  I also used white whole wheat flour with the addition of the 1 cup all purpose white flour, as it tends to bake up better than using ALL reg. whole wheat flour.  I believe the original recipe in the book calls for the using ALL all purpose flour; the whole wheat route is simply better for you.  I figure if I'm going vegan on this, I might as well go all the way on the health scale.


Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.


Combine ground flaxseed and water in a bowl.  Stir to incorporate, and set aside for 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine flax mixture, apple sauce, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, and sugar.

In another bowl, combine the flours, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Do not over mix!  This is the key to successful quick breads.

Divide into two regular 8in. loaf pans, or four mini loaf pans.  I made one loaf, and I spooned the rest into mini individual bundt cake pans.  Bake the large loaves for about 50 minutes, the smaller loaves for about 35 minutes, and something the size of a muffin for about 15 min - 20min (?).  I'm terrible with timing my baking; I tend to "eye-ball" everything I bake, as I don't blindly trust baking times, or the consistency of oven temps.  The loafs should be slightly browned, and firm to the touch, but do NOT over-bake.  Remove, and cool on wire rack.