Homemade Bread!

Recently I’ve really been into the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day ! I just can’t rave enough about how wonderful it is to have fresh baked bread and the sense of accomplishment I feel whenever I make it. AND the added bonus that my kitchen smells wonderful! Here’s a light whole wheat loaf I made:

Whole Wheat Loaf

Sliced Bread!

It’s called “light” because it is a mixture of whole wheat and white flours. It has a light and crunchy texture and is perfect for sandwiches. Like this one:

Veggie Sandwich

Mixed baby greens, avocado, cucumbers, red onions, and a lovely German Stripe heirloom tomato all from the farmer’s market.

Whole Wheat Rye Loaf

This whole wheat rye loaf is delicious! Dense, nutty, with a great crust. The wonderful thing about this book is that you mix a batch of dough that then you put in the fridge and you bake as much as you need. The dough keeps in the fridge for at least a week and the more you leave it in there the more complex the flavors become. It really has revolutionized my kitchen!

Eggless Tofu Salad

This here is a fantastic sandwich on the rye bread. Eggless tofu salad (tofu, vegenaise, mustard, onion, green onion, red bellpepper, salt & pepper), heirloom tomato, cucumber, pickles, and avocado! As you can see, I’m totally into heirloom tomatoes that I’ve been getting at the farmer’s market! Here is a close-up of this great “pineapple” variety:

Heirloom Close-Up

If you are like me and love fresh baked bread I highly encourage you to seek out this book. The money you’ll save in making your own bread will pay for the purchase price pronto!

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S’mores Cupcakes w/Dandies Vegan Marshmallows!

S'mores Close-Up

Not too long ago I won a bag of Dandies Vegan Marshmallows from Chicago Soy Dairy  on Twitter (thanks Dan!). I wanted to make an old school fruit salad with them but alas, when they arrived they had melted together and I had one big blob of Dandies. So I stuck them in the fridge and have been contemplating what to do with them. Then it hit me – S’more cupcakes! I made a cinnamon spice cupcake, filled with marshallow, topped with chocolate and a roasted Dandy – divine!

S'mores Cupcakes

The filling is one 10 oz. bag of Dandies and 3 tbs. of Earth Balance melted together to form a gooey mess and very carefully sticking this in a pastry bag! When the cupcakes have cooled, poke a hole with your index finger and fill the hole with the Dandies goodness!

S'more Halfed

The frosting is 1/4 cup soy creamer, 1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips, and 2 tbs. of agave syrup melted together. I roasted a marshmallow for each cupcake too!

The recipe for the cupcakes I used is a hodge podge from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

3/4 cup soymilk

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbs. molasses

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tbs. cornstarch

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix milk and vinegar and let sit for a few minutes. Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl wisk all wet ingredients and mix with the dry until well incorporated. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I hope the pictures do them justice because they taste fantastic!

Til next time…

Back in the saddle again…

I think most bloggers will agree with me – have you ever had a post that attracted a lot of buzz, the most hits, the most comments, yada, yada, yada… So you decide to leave it up for a while. Then as the days pass you wonder, I am ever gonna be able to replicate that? All of  a sudden nothing seems “blogworthy” and well, you all probably know the rest of the story. So I decided that today is the day I finally post something, anything, and as it might not be as exciting as Daiya cheese here is what I’ve been up to in the kitchen lately…

Testing, testing, testing and then some more testing. I have to admit, I love testing recipes for upcoming cookbooks! Here are some pictures for Julie Hasson’s  upcoming Vegan Diner book:

Dark Chocolate Cherry Cake

Slice o Cake!

Chocolate, cherries, and rum = yum!

Chocolate chip cookies, also from Julie:

Cookies!

Next up is Vegan Latina food porn, Terry Hope Romero’s  upcoming book. Check out these seitan and potato tacos – one of my favorite taco recipes:

Seitan & Potato Tacos

Roasted Corn

Roasted corn like the kind you get from street vendors with cashew cream and ancho chili powder. I could eat this everyday! Oh and look at this lovely horchata:

Horchata!

I almost died when I had this – VEGAN CUBAN SANDWICH – that’s right! Terry is a genious:

Cuban Sandwich!

And finally some bread pudding with mango and guava – delicious!

Mango Guava Bread Pudding

So I guess that’s it for now. Leave a comment and say Hi! if you want, my feelings won’t get hurt if you don’t…