vegan molasses crinkles

My tummy is not always very happy with a lot of dairy or conventional eggs.  I chose carefully where I want to add those in.  Russell avoids soy because he used to react to it badly.  I decided to try to create a molasses crinkle recipe.  I am learning a lot about good vegan baking from Vegan Cookies Invade the Cookie Jar.

Molasses Crinkles

1/3 cup olive oil

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup original hempmilk

1 tablespoon tapioca starch

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

In a bowl that will fit in your refrigerator, put the oil, sugar, and molasses.  Stir.  Mix in the hempmilk and tapioca starch.

 

Mix in the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon.

 

Cover the bowl with cling wrap and put in the refrigerator at least an hour.  

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Prepare cookie sheets for baking.  Put a couple tablespoons of granulated sugar in a shallow bowl.  Scoop the cookie dough by the teaspoon.  Roll and roll in the sugar.  Place on the cookie sheet.  When the sheet is full, bake for 10 minutes.

 

I like to let these cool on the cookie sheet for about ten minutes before I try to move them.  The way Russell is munching on them, I do believe they are a success.  He cannot tell they are vegan.

the cauldron was brought out for more experimentations in chocolate and peanut butter

We were having dinner with friends yesterday and they had already mentioned that they would gladly put down their taste buds to be testers in my experimentations of chocolate and peanut butter.  Though Russell felt there was no improvement needed in the first recipe.  That made me smile.

This is not perfect yet.  I am still playing with the amount of oil and peanut butter, and the bake times.  But it is darn good.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Brownies

1/3 cup olive oil 

3 ounces semisweet chocolate

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup original hempmilk

1 tablespoon tapicoa

t teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (14 tablespoons) all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch of salt.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Prepare an 8 by 8 inch pan with parchment paper.  

Weigh out three ounces of chocolate.  Put the chocolate and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Keep over the heat until the chocolate is melted.  Turn off the heat and stir in the sugar and then the peanut butter.  Mix in the hempmilk, vanilla and tapioca starch.

 

Mix in the flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and cocoa.  Mix well but it can have  a few lumps.

Bake for 24 minutes.  A knife inserted in the center should come out fairly clean. A few crumblies are okay.

Let cool at least 30 minutes before trying to take it out of the pan.  It has the tendency to be crumbly.  

Anybody who tries this let me know if you think anything needs improving.  The verdict is still out about how much peanut butter!

I do believe this is going to become a throw down recipe. 

Experimentations in chocolate and peanut butter

Russell and I tried a new cafe called Pie in the Sky Pie Company.  It was pretty fabulous.  Think healthy grill food.  We both decided to try pie.  Russell tried the sour cream raison pie.  It was an "Oh my God" delicious.  I will have to experiment for my Dad.  It is his favorite pie from his Mom and has not been replicated yet by anyone in the family.  I had the chocolate peanut butter pie.  It came to the table hot and was out of this world yummy.  Since the combination of flavors is one our households favorites, I have starting experimenting with it.

I took the Espresso Fudge Brownie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero and changed it up a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Farhenheit

3 ounces Enjoy Life chocolate chips

5 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup original hempmilk

1 tablespoon tapioca startch

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3 tablespoons Dutch cocoa powder

a two finger pinch of salt

In a large saucepan over medium low heat, put the chocolate chips and oil.  Heat until melted.  Turn off the heat and mix in everything else, following the list.  That is right, one pan:

This mixture gets spread into a 8 inch by 8 inch pan that has been lined with parchment paper.

 

In another bowl, I mixed up the peanut butter topping:

3/4 cup natural peanut butter

2/3 cup powdered sugar

4 tablespoons original hempmilk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

I dump this all in a bowl and mix it together.  Spread it on top of the fudge brownie mixture.  Bake it for about 24 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out all but clean.

Cool and slice.

Now, this was yummy right out of the oven.  It was much better the next day.  But honestly, it does not meet the same level of uberness as the Pie in the Sky Pie Company.  More experimentations are called for this weekend!

And I have a line of testers who are waiting with anticipation.  None of the not perfect samples were willing to be shared by any of the testers.  That is still praise, just can be better.  I am not a perfectionist!  I am not!  Bring out the cauldron!!!  More experimentations!!!!

When I am out of jam, I make it

I ran out of jam this morning which means that I cannot make for lunch tomorrow what I normally make.  So I need to make some.

I put ten ounces of frozen fruit and one cup of sugar in a heavy saucepan.  Mine is enameled cast iron.  I then set it on medium low heat (three on my electric stove top) and cook for about three quarters of a hour to an hour.  I do stir it occasionally with a wire whisk.  And I do watch towards the end to make sure it does not burn.

Then it goes in a jar and sits in the refrigerator.  It is really that easy.  I do not have to skim the scum off or anything.  I do have to watch a little bit so it does not burn but that really happens only when it has cooked to long and become too thick.  Very yummy!  Especially on peanut butter and jam sandwiches on homemade bread.  It makes me smile.

pasta for dinner

Most of the U.S. thinks that a pasta dinner is a ten minute dinner tops.  Not in this house.  I start with a cup of flour, an egg, a two finger pinch of salt, and a couple tablespoons or so of water in a bowl.  Mix it all up and the knead it.

and knead it

and knead 

For ten minutes.  I do actually time this.  It makes such a difference.

Then it is time to roll out the pasta dough.  It starts out small,

and grows,

Until it is very thin and ready to cut.

I like using a very heavy pizza cutter.

It is then time to cook.  It only takes a few minutes in boiling water.  I usually make a light pesto sauce to go with the pasta, pesto and pine nuts.

It is a simple meal but so lovely in the tummy.  We had this with homemade blackberry sorbet for dessert.  Yum!

All pictures are courtesy of Russell.  Thank you sir!