Apricot Cupcakes (vegan)

For our friends Alice & Tom‘s Babywarming/Birthday party, I wanted to make something a little different, a little brunchier than my typical uber-rich chocolate cupcakes. Since I have a pantry full of apricot jam I decided to make apricot cupcakes.

I used the “Golden Vanilla Cupcakes” recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World which, by the way, you should own if you don’t already. No cookbook on my shelf is more dog-eared than this one. The recipes are truly delicious and even the most hardened butter lovers will have to admit that these are damn fine cupcakes, rivaling animal product filled-pastries any day. Why vegan, Heather? After all, you eat bacon like it’s going out of style! Well, my husband is lactose intolerant and the percentage of my friends that are vegan is high enough that there’s always a couple of people whose faces will light up when you tell them your cupcakes are vegan. Plus, as I already mentioned, these are fantastic cupcakes in their own right. Frankly, I’ve tried making non-vegan cupcakes and they’re just not as good, not as moist and flavorful. And just look at them!

As I said, I used the “Golden Vanilla” cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I added an extra 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract because almond and apricot are two flavors that go together fabulously. Once the baked cupcakes were cool, I poked a hole in the center of each one and used a chopstick to shove some apricot jam in there. Yum. I made frosting according to the “Raspberry Buttercream” recipe in the same book, substituting about 4 tablespoons of apricot jam for the raspberry syrup. I threw in another 1/4 teaspoon of that almond extract in to boot. The result? Wonderfully moist, apricoty, almondy cupcakes. Happy Sunday!

Chicken Pot Pie

My husband Ed and I are moving in less than a month, so lately I’ve been challenging myself to cook dinners from only what we have in the fridge/freezer/pantry, rather than going to the store to get new ingredients. Ok, so there might be a little laziness involved too, but it’s a fun challenge to make tasty food out of what we already have.

Tonight I decided to finally put to use the AWESOME Breville Pie Maker some dear friends gave to us as a wedding gift. Somewhat on the fly, I whipped up the filling, then broke out some puff pastry and pie maker and went to town. I may have overfilled the pies as I ended up with a bit of a mess, but honestly, they were still beautiful and quite tasty! I only made two pies tonight, but there was plenty of filling left for another four pies for dinner this week.

Don’t hesitate to experiment with this recipe, using different spices, filling ingredients, etc. What’s below is just what we had on hand. Onions, celery, and other veggies would have been great, too. The measurements are my best guess, so don’t feel too compelled to follow them precisely (except for the ratio of butter-flour-liquid).

Quick & Easy Chicken Pot Pies

INGREDIENTS
1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 potatoes
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup margarine (or butter)
1/3 cup flour
salt, to taste (about 1/2-1 teaspoon, depending on how salty your broth is)
pepper, to taste (about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon)
thyme, to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)
2/3 cup soymilk (or regular milk)
Pepperidge Farms puff pastry (1 sheet makes 2 pies; recipe will make about 6 pies worth of filling)

DIRECTIONS

1. About 40 minutes before you’re ready to make the pies, pull the puff pastry out of the freezer to defrost.
2. Cut potatoes into small cubes. Put in salted water and bring to a boil. Boil till tender, 15-20 minutes, then drain.
3. Cut chicken breast into cubes. Cut carrots into rounds. Put chicken and carrots in chicken broth with pepper, thyme, and salt to taste. Bring to a boil. Boil for 10-15 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
4. In a skillet, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. When it’s entirely melted, add the flour and stir constantly for a few minutes. Then add the milk; continue stirring constantly – a whisk might be helpful. Pour in the chicken broth mixture and mix thoroughly. Cook over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens.
5. Add the chicken mixture to the potatoes and stir. Add the frozen peas and continue to stir until heated through and distributed throughout.
6. Heat up your pie maker by plugging it in. (It’s kind of like a waffle iron, with pie-shaped indentations.) Cut pie bottoms and lids out of puff pastry, using the molds that came with the pie maker. Place the larger piece in the bottom of the pie maker and press down with the tool that came with the pie maker to make an indentation. Put filling in pie – filling should be slightly below the crust level. Put the pastry lids on top of the filling and close the pie maker, making sure to latch it. Cook for 8 minutes, and you’re done! Easy as… PIE!! Hah.

Audrey’s Vegan Biscotti

Many years ago, I lived in a house with several friends, many of whom were vegan. One day my housemate Audrey whipped up the most fabulous vegan cranberry biscotti. I just had to have the recipe! She happily shared it with me, but then I sat on it for four years. Good job, Mooflyfoof! Well, today I’m headed to the 10th birthday party of my friend Josie’s dog Milo, so I decided it might be time to finally give this recipe a shot. It did not disappoint. I didn’t have any cranberries so I substituted chopped dried apricots, which worked out quite well. The original recipe also calls for Cointreau, but I didn’t have any so I substituted Disaranno – an almond liqueur.

Vegan Biscotti

From Audrey Penven

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (such as Earth Balance), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons Cointreau, Disaranno, or other appropriately flavored liqueur
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dried fruit such as cranberries or chopped dried apricots
2/3 cup whole almonds (sliced work too, in a pinch)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Cream margarine and sugar.
3. Beat in water, liqueur, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add flour, dried fruit, and nuts; mix well.
5. On a non-stick cookie sheet, shape dough into a loaf 3/4 inch high and 3 inches wide.
6. Bake in a 325°F oven for 35 minutes.
7. Let cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then slice into 1/2 inch slices. Put slices back on the cookie sheet, on their sides, and bake another 10-20 minutes until sides are turning golden. Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

Pot Roast

I know, I know, it’s the middle of summer. Who wants pot roast in July? This foggy San Franciscan does! A few days ago I had a sudden craving for pot roast. I think it’s because I’ve been eating mostly vegetarian lately and I needed to make up for it. My mom had given me a recipe for pot roast that she’s been making, so I decided to give it a shot. Large chunks of meat are generally not my area of expertise so I was excited to try something new.

Pot Roast

Adapted from Relish’s Classic Pot Roast

INGREDIENTS

2.5 to 3 lbs chuck roast, about 2″ thick
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thinly
2 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
2 stalks celery, diced
8 garlic cloves, crushed
1.5 lbs small red potatoes, whole
1 pound mushrooms (crimini/portabello or shiitake), sliced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups beef or chicken broth
8 ounces canned tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups red wine (merlot is good)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves

DIRECTIONS

1. Take the beef out of the fridge and allow it to rest at room temperature.
2. Set up your mise en place: Chop all vegetables. Put onions, carrots, celery in one bowl. Put mushrooms, garlic, chili powder in another bowl. Mix together wine, bay leaves, thyme, tomato sauce, broth in a third bowl.
3. Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat a large, enameled dutch oven (or other non-reactive, oven-safe pot) on the stovetop on high.
4. Sprinkle beef liberally with kosher salt and ground pepper on both sides; rub in. Heat oil (a few tablespoons or so) in dutch oven, then carefully add the beef. Let it brown on one side for five minutes without disturbing it. (Disturbing it will affect its ability to form a good brown crust.) Turn the meat over and brown the other side for five minutes. Remove beef from the pan and set aside.
5. Add a bit more oil to the pan and then saute onion, carrot and celery until lightly browned, about 8 minutes.
6. Add garlic, mushrooms, and chili powder to the pan. Cook 3 minutes.
7. Return beef to the pan, trying to get it underneath the vegetables. Add broth, tomato sauce, red wine, thyme, and bay leaves. Add potatoes and make sure they’re submerged in the liquid. Bring to a boil.
8. Place in oven and cook covered for 3 hours. Remove cover and cook another 1/2 hour, until beef is fork-tender. There will be lots of liquid, which is delicious sopped up with bread.
9. Enjoy with a glass of red wine!



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Olallieberry Jam

A few weeks ago, my friend Rich alerted me that olallieberry season was upon us. We’d previously talked about how much fun it would be to go berry picking, especially for the elusive olallieberry, a hybrid available almost exclusively in Central/Northern California and almost never in the grocery store. So on a sunny Sunday in late June, a bunch of us piled into the car and headed south to Swanton Berry Farms’ Coastways Ranch to pick some berries. We had a great time in the sun, picking strawberries and olallieberries with a central coast ocean breeze whipping our hair about and keeping us cool.

Mella, proud of her haul.

For more photos, please visit my Flickr set.

After a day of picking, we headed back to the Mooflyfood, Inc. kitchens in San Francisco. Rich started on a couple of olallieberry-strawberry pies, while I began the process of making jam. The reason I began canning again in 2008 was because I wanted to make olallieberry jam, but unfortunately I kept missing the season by a couple of weeks. I was excited to finally be making the jam I’d been waiting literally years to make. I cobbled together the recipe from a few different sources on the internet, modifying them extensively to suit my low-sugar preferences. This is what I did.

Olallieberry Jam

This should work fine with blackberries if you don’t have olallieberries in your area.

INGREDIENTS
1 1.75 oz. package Sure-Jell no-sugar pectin (powder)
8 cups olallieberries (about 2.5 lbs)
4 cups sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, crush berries with a potato masher. Stir in pectin and mix well. Heat mixture on high until it reaches a full boil. Add sugar all at once and mix well. Continue cooking on high heat till it reaches a full boil again, stirring constantly. Cook at a full boil for one more minute, skimming foam. Remove from heat. Ladle into sterilized jars and process. For a reminder on how to sterilize jars and process jam, please click here for my tutorial.

Yield: About 6 half-pint jars, maybe a little more.

Apple Pan Dowdy

Another recipe from my childhood vaults — one of my favorites. For the baking-phobic out there, this is a good recipe for you. No precise quantities here! And you really can’t get much more bang for your buck with a dessert recipe. This recipe is so easy and has so few ingredients, but is impressively delicious. People will think you’ve slaved over a hot stove all day. It’s also a good way to get rid of apples that have gone mealy and are on their way out. I threw together this pan dowdy with only two apples, and guessed at the rest of the ingredients. Oh, and did I mention it’s easily vegan/dairy-free?

In case you’re wondering about the name, I like this explanation. It’s true, looks can be deceiving…

My kingdom for a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Apple Pan Dowdy

INGREDIENTS

For the filling:
6-8 large apples
Lemon juice, maybe 1/4-1/3 cup
cinnamon, about 1/2 teaspoon
cloves, about 1/4 teaspoon
nutmeg, about 1/4 teaspoon
ginger, about 1/2 teaspoon

For the topping:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter or non-hydrogenated margarine (Earth Balance does the trick), room temperature

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Peel, core, and slice the apples into thin wedges. Add lemon juice and spices, toss until apples are evenly covered. The amount of lemon juice and spices used is eyeballed. Add enough lemon juice to wet the apple slices, but not so much that there’s soup at the bottom of the bowl. The spices should cover all the apple slices in a very thin layer (I like mine spicy).
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and butter or margarine until the chunks of butter are gone. I use a pastry cutter for this job, but a hand mixer would be fine too.
4. In a large glass baking pan (I think mine’s 10″x14″ — told you nothing was exact here!), put all the apple slices in an even layer. Crumble the topping over the apples. Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Topping should be crispy and apples should be oozing and very soft.
5. Serve with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. Prepare for sugar rush.

(Bacon) Bourbon Truffles

Photo by Edrabbit

I know, I know, it’s a little late, but these rich treats are a perfect Valentine’s day gift. Bookmark this for next year! I made these for my sweetie this year. I made half of them with bacon and half of them without. Both versions are delicious, it just depends on how much you love bacon. They’re dairy free, and if you leave out the bacon they’re vegan!

(Bacon) Bourbon Truffles

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

INGREDIENTS

For the filling:
1/4 cup soy milk (or heavy cream)
4 tablespoons dairy-free margarine, like Earth Balance (butter works too, if you aren’t vegan) (Note: replacing part of this with bacon grease would be good if you really like bacon!)
12 oz semisweet chocolate (I like Guittard chocolate chips, which are vegan)
1/4 cup bourbon (I used Bulleit)
4 pieces of bacon
Cocoa powder, for rolling

For the coating:
12 oz. semisweet chocolate (again, Guittard chocolate chips are great)

DIRECTIONS

1. Cut bacon into bits and cook it in a frying pan. Allow to drain on paper towels.
2. In a heavy saucepan, combine the soy milk and margarine over medium-low heat. Stir until the margarine melts and the soy milk simmers. Remove from heat and add 12 oz. chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. A whisk is helpful here. Pour in the bourbon and bacon bits and mix thoroughly. Pour into a bowl. Cover and freeze until just firm enough to mound in a spoon, about 40 minutes.
3. Line the bottom of a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Scoop out the filling by tablespoonfuls, spacing them evenly. Roll them into rough balls. This will be messy, and they don’t have to be perfect-looking. Cover and return to the freezer for 30 minutes.
4. Pour cocoa powder onto a plate. Roll chocolate balls in cocoa powder to coat evenly. Re-roll balls to even them out — the cocoa powder will help them not melt and stick to your hands. They should look more like actual spheres now.
5. Return truffles to the foil-lined baking sheet, cover, and put in the freezer while you prepare the coating.
6. To make the coating, melt 12 oz. of chocolate in a double boiler until it’s smooth. Remove from heat.
7. Re-roll truffles between your palms to remove any loose cocoa. Gently drop one truffle ball into the melted chocolate coating, tilting the pan if necessary to coat the ball completely. Slip a fork under the truffle, lift it from the chocolate, and tap the fork gently against the side of the pan to allow any excess chocolate to drip off. Using a knife, gently slide the truffle off the fork onto the foil-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining truffles.
8. Refrigerate, uncovered, until firm, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

(Bacon) Beer Bread

My friend Mazzie tipped me onto this crazy stuff. Beer bread is a quickbread, but some reaction between the beer and the flour gives the bread a texture that’s surprisingly similar to yeasted bread (which, of course, takes significantly longer to make). It has a slight sweetness to it, making it somewhat perplexing: is it savory, or is it for dessert? Well, honestly, you could have it either way. It would be great with a hearty stew. You can also put whatever you want in it. I chose to put bacon in it, but chunks of cheese would be a good choice too. Or, if you leave the bacon out, the bread becomes vegan. It takes about 5 minutes to stir together and an hour to cook. Easy peasy.

(Bacon) Beer Bread

Adapted from this recipe

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all purpose flour, sifted*
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 12-ounce can of beer
4 slices bacon (omit for vegan)
1/4 cup bacon grease, or butter, or margarine

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a loaf pan.
2. Cut bacon into bits and cook in a frying pan. Place on paper towel to drain.
3. Mix dry ingredients with beer.
4. Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Pour bacon grease, butter, or margarine over the top of the batter.
5. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from pan and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving

* According to the recipe I used, sifting is not optional. If you don’t want to sift, you can spoon the flour into the measuring cup. The goal is to avoid scooping it out of the container and leveling it off, which compacts the flour. If you do that, you’ll add too much flour and the bread will turn out brick-like. I used the spooning method and it worked fine.

Tom Kha Gai

A few weeks ago we had a Thai-themed potluck at our house. It was a fantastic success. Tom kha gai! Cucumber salad! Banh mi! Spring rolls! Tea salad! Pineapple fried rice! Pumpkin curry! Pad thai! Sticky rice & mango! My contribution was tom kha gai, the delicious coconut milk soup that has always been my favorite Thai dish. I’d never cooked Thai food before, but it turned out to be incredibly easy. The catch is that you have to have access to some ingredients that might be hard to acquire, especially if you don’t live in a big city. But if you can find the ingredients, this soup is well worth making.

Tom Kha Gai

From CHOW

INGREDIENTS
4 cups chicken stock (Swanson’s Organic is good)
1/4 cup Thai fish sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lime
2 crushed kaffir lime leaves (if you can find them – if not, it’s okay to omit)
4-inch section lemongrass
1-inch section galangal, sliced (similar to ginger)
1/4 pound chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk (Chao Koh brand is good)
2 to 10 (to taste) small red thai chiles, slightly crushed
Cilantro leaves for garnish

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring chicken stock, fish sauce, lemongrass, and galangal to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes. Strain if desired (the lemongrass and galangal is not edible).
2. Add chicken pieces, coconut milk, and chiles. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes.
3. Add lime juice and zest and stir till mixed. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve.

Peanut Butter Cookies

When I was a kid, I loved my mom’s old Betty Crocker Cooky Book. I think it was all the colorful cookies that enthralled me. Oddly, I only ever made one recipe from it regularly: Peanut Butter Cookies. They’re fantastic cookies so I never got bored of it. A few years ago for my birthday, my parents gave me a reprinted version of this book, which was originally published in 1963. It was then that I renewed my love of this peanut butter cookies recipe. Tonight I made a vegan version for a bunch of friends and everyone raved about how good they were. Thanks Betty!

Betty Crocker’s Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe is doubled from the original, and produces about 3 dozen cookies.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup peanut butter (best if you use good, natural, unsalted, crunchy peanut butter)
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Mix butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg.
3. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingedients.
4. Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients until well blended.
5. Roll dough into 1 1/4″ balls and put them on a cookie sheet. Mash with a fork in a criss-cross pattern. Bake in a 375°F oven for 10 minutes. Cookies should be very slightly browned around the edges but still gooey and shiny looking in the center. Allow them to cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

To make these vegan, I substituted Earth Balance margarine for the butter, and Ener-G egg replacer for the egg. Two eggs worth of replacer is 1 tablespoon of egg replacer powder + 1/4 cup warm water, whisked together. I found that there wasn’t enough moisture though, so I added some soymilk, a bit at a time, until the dough came together with the right consistency. It should stick together and not be crumbly, but it shouldn’t be too mushy. I also added a little canola oil because some of the peanut butter I’d used was extremely dry.