Quick Fruit on the Bottom

Camp season means I don't have time to chew (or blog, if you can tell), so soy yogurt has become my go to breakfast. Last year I kicked it with almond butter, nutmeg, and agave, or almond extract and cinnamon. A little more confident about cooking fruit, I decided to take a whack at creating my own fruit on the bottom substance.

 

 For the strawberries, I didn't hull mine, which added a lot of non-flavor and moisture, so the color dulled considerably before the berries had cooked enough. You don't have to hull them, but I'd suggest it. For the peaches, you can peel yours, but I found it tiresome. You'll see in the recipe that the sugar is not exact. This is because it really depends on how sweet your fruit is. Start with less, then add more if you see that you're not getting a syrup and your fruit is mushing up.

 These jam-like substances are also nice on waffles or toast, ice cream, or oatmeal. 

Strawberry Fruit on the Bottom
(makes about 1 pint)

Ingredients:
1 lb of fresh strawberries, cleaned, de-leafed, hulled, and chopped, bruised spots discarded
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
2 T lemon juice

1. Add all of the ingredients to a small pot and cook over medium low heat, stirring to prevent sticking, until a syrup forms and the fruit is soft. Remove from heat and place in a heat proof glass container. Allow to cool before storing in the refrigerator.

Ginger Peach Fruit on the Bottom
(makes about 1 pint)

Substitute 4 fresh peaches, chopped and bruised parts and pits discarded for the strawberries and add 1 T fresh grated ginger. Follow the directions above.

Lavender Cupcakes

Spring has been busy around here, with work, chorus, writing, and spending time in the now tolerable outdoors. These cupcakes are pure springtime.

 I bought lavender from the farmers market in Cambridge to make this shortbread recipe back in the fall, but made almond and vanilla bean flavors to go with my apple butter instead.

The cupcake recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's white cupcake. Lavender flowers make it elegant instead of plain, and we ate it with my attempt at green tea frosting, which failed miserably. These are great plain and served with tea, either an herbal or Earl Grey.

Enjoy the Spring!

Lavender Cupcakes
(makes about 16 large cupcakes)

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 T vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 T soymilk
1/2 cup plus 6 T Earth Balance, room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
5 Ener-G egg whites (directions on box)
2 T dried lavender flowers, stems removed and gently crushed


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir the vanilla into the soymilk.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the Earth Balance until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of the soymilk. Stir after each addition until just combined.

3. In a separate bowl beat the Ener-G eggs until frothy and soft peaks form. Gently fold one third of the Ener-G eggs into the batter. Add the rest of the Ener-G eggs and fold gently, along with the lavender.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the tins halfway through. Transfer tins to wire racks and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out cupcakes and allow to cool completely. Transfer immediately to an airtight container until serving. Can be kept in the fridge for up to one week. Microwave for 10 seconds to soften, if necessary, allowing to cool before serving.

Iced Masala Chai

Who doesn't love a good chai tea on a chilly day? I was hoping to share my chai recipe with you sometime during the cooler weather, but it never happened, and here we are well into spring.

This recipe starts out hot and then is cooled in the fridge, so you can skip to cooling part of the recipe for hot chai. My recipe is adapted from this one at Cheap Healthy Good. 

As for the type of tea, Veggie Might of CHG uses keemun, but I haven't been able to find it, so I use assam, which is the main tea used in the English Breakfast blend. I have also used Lapsang Souchong, which is smoked black tea, and Mango Black tea from Trader Joes. Whatever tea you use, make sure it's a strong one, otherwise the spices completely overpower it. You can prep this chai black and then add soymilk when you serve if your pitcher is too small (which mine was).

To crush the spices, put the cinnamon sticks in a towel and then hammer them into chunks, and the smaller spices you can grind how you please. I don't recommend already ground spices--the flavor isn't as strong or fresh.

Iced Masala Chai
(makes about 14 cups)

Ingredients:

12 cinnamon sticks, crushed
2 tsp cloves, crushed
2 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
4 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed
1 T allspice berries, crushed
1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
12 cups water
5 1/3 cups soymilk or 4 cups soy creamer
3/4 cup agave
3/4 cup black tea

1. Add all spices to water in a large saucepan or pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Add the soymilk or creamer and agave and bring back to a boil, stirring occasionally.

3. Turn off the heat, add the tea leaves, cover, and steep for ONLY 2-3 minutes. Prepare a fine mesh strainer over another pot.

4. Strain the chai into the other pot and allow to cool to room temperature. Transfer to a pitcher and put in the refrigerator to chill.

Salted Caramel Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

I finally made caramel without burning it, and I have the Sweet Savory Life to thank for it! Her step by step pictures and clear instructions paved the way for many more jars of caramel sauce to make its way out of my kitchen.

This recipe is inspired by a lovely cookbook I received for Christmas from Deb, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Out of the 175 recipes, this one caught my eye first. The chocolate cake is easy to make (no electric mixer!), rich, and delicious. The recipe calls for frosting, but I found it unnecessary, even overbearing. The caramel may harden a little and/or soak through the cake, so they are best eaten the same day they are filled.

 Salted Caramel Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
(makes about 18 regular cupcakes or 56 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 Ener-G eggs
3/4 cup soymilk + 1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice
3 T vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water
Caramel sauce (substituting soy creamer and 1 T Earth Balance for heavy cream and Earth Balance for butter)
Fleur de sel

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the Ener-G eggs, soymilk and vinegar or lemon juice, oil, vanilla, and water. Beat until smooth and combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

2. Divide the batter evenly among muffin tins. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, for about 10-15 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, turning out onto racks after and cool completely.

3. Make the caramel sauce.

4. Cut a cone shape into each cupcake and fill with cooled caramel sauce. Sprinkle a little Fleur de sel onto the caramel. Press each cupcake cone gently into the caramel and enjoy! 

 

Jasmine Tea-Infused Hot Chocolate

Corey discovered tea-infused hot chocolate before I did. Without looking at the site (until just now) I was instantly inspired to try it out. Winter brings out the hot chocolate monster in me--warm beverages are a must, but there's nothing like steamed chocolatey goodness to chase the nip of New England cold away.

I've tried making a few varieties (Earl Grey, peach black, chocolate mint oolong), but the jasmine tea is by far my favorite. It's sophisticated, but comforting. You can use this recipe for any tea, just keep the ratio the same. If you have some of those disgusting Bigelow dessert teas (french vanilla, vanilla caramel, etc.) this would be a fabulous way to get rid of them!

In terms of jasmine teas, I highly recommend Mighty Leaf's Jasmine Green Tea. It has an excellent flavor, but can be very expensive. My next choice is Trader Joe's Jasmine Green Tea. 

Jasmine Tea - Infused Hot Chocolate
(makes 1 large 16 oz cup or 2 8 oz cups)

Ingredients:
2 bags jasmine tea, steeped in 6 oz hot water
10 oz soy milk
hot chocolate mix (I like Ghirardelli Double Chocolate)
sugar to taste

1. Steep the tea for 2-3 minutes in a large cup. While the tea steeps, heat up the soy milk in a microwave safe bowl or over the stove in a saucepan, but not to boiling. Mix in the hot chocolate to taste, slightly stronger than you would drink it.

2. Discard the tea bags and add the hot chocolate to the cup. Add sugar to taste and enjoy!

Grapefruit-Blood Orange Marmalade

I have been going back and forth over whether or not I should make this marmalade. I bought all of the ingredients and then couldn't decide between two recipes: one that lets the grapefruit sit overnight, but requires a candy thermometer, and another one that has a million steps. And then I began to wonder if I would even use the marmalade, or if anyone would like it.

What brought me back to my senses was a box of Honeybells, delivered to my place of work by a kind swim team parent. Honeybells are a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine. Who thought of that? Tangerines are tiny, juicy, and sweet, and grapefruit are enormous, tart, and tangy. Honeybells are essentially big tangerines that are slightly less sweet. Now I'm ready again for citrus, (though, as I eat my Honeybell, I'm reminded that citrus gives me uncontrollable hiccups.)

I went with the recipe of a million steps, because I realized, reading it again, that many of them are canning steps that I know already, and this one is a relatively simple process. The thing that takes the longest is preparing the rinds and fruit, but it's well worth it to follow the directions so you don't have odd textures or some serious bitterness in your marmalade.

Because marmalade requires the rind of the fruit, buy organic fruit if you can. Pesticides don't make for good eats. The flavor of marmalade relies on how you prepare the fruit, so take special care to slice the peel thinly, and to include as little of the pith (the soft white meat that separates the peel from the fruit membrane) as possible--it's incredibly bitter. The same goes for the membrane, which encases the pulp of each section. I didn't put the pulp of the blood oranges into the mixture because I couldn't separate it from the membrane, so I just juiced mine. Slicing the rind from the pith takes a lot of practice, so don't worry about it if some of your peelings are unusable--I only used about 1/3 of the rind out of all of the fruit. It turned out fine!

Traditional marmalade recipes use the membranes, seeds, and sometimes the pith to extract the natural pectin from the fruit to create a set. I decided to go the liquid route for a few reasons: one, taste--I like fruit spreads to be sweet; two, convenience--the balance of sugar to fruit and the time that you boil the mixture is very delicate. If you boil it too long, or there's too much sugar, or not enough sugar, the pectin will lose its gelatinousness, and you'll have syrup instead of spread. If I'm going to spend a few hours making this, it had better work!

Just a quick note, it may take up to two weeks for the marmalade to set, so plan ahead!

Grapefruit - Blood Orange Marmalade
(makes about 4 pints)

Ingredients:
2 large ruby red grapefruits
3 blood oranges
1 1/2 cups water
5 1/2 cups sugar
1 3 oz package liquid fruit pectin

1. Sterilize the jars, lids, and bands according the directions.

Prepare the fruit:
2. Slice each fruit in half length-wise. Slice the peel off of the fruit, leaving as much of the pith on the fruit as possible. With a sharp knife, slice the peel into matchstick width, 1" long pieces. Separate the pulp from the membranes and set it aside in a large bowl with the juice. If necessary, juice the blood oranges.

Cook the marmalade:
3. Add the water and fruit peel to a large pot, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the fruit and juice and repeat, but for 10 minutes.

4. Add the sugar and stir well. Bring to a rapid boil over high heat. Add the liquid fruit pectin and boil hard for 1 minute.

5. Skim off any foam and ladle into hot sterilized jars. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water canner. Let sit on a towel for an hour and check for a seal by pressing down on the lid. 

Cream Cheese Filled Coffee Cake

Wow, it has been a crazy holiday season. I got back from my trip to MD (which was full of wonderful culinary adventures), had a week of swim camp to run (indoor snowball fights, icebergs, and prehistoric megafauna are no joke), and then our regular swim lessons started up again. Over the course of the first week in 2010, I received two more xmas presents from Corey: a subscription to National Geographic and Cooks Illustrated.

I fell in love with Cooks Illustrated ages ago. No, they are not a vegan publication, but I've been veganizing long enough to figure that stuff out myself. In addition, they really focus on the food science, which comes in handy when veganizing anyway. So, no, I won't make the beefiest beef stew, but I will make perfect baked apples, Austrian potato salad, and cream cheese-filled coffee cake.

The topping called for is crunchy and light: lemon-sugar-almond. Unfortunately, Corey does not do lemon, and our friend Adam is allergic to almonds, so I skipped a topping altogether and didn't miss it!

A couple of notes: My batter wasn't like a cake batter--it was more similar to brownie batter. Very thick and difficult to spread. If this happens to yours, no worries, you're doing it right. My cream cheese filling also spread a lot out to the sides and it even baked up to the top of the cake. It actually left a very pretty marble pattern on the top, and the slightly browned edges of cream cheese were a pleasant surprise. Lastly, the cake fell a lot after I took it out of the oven, and I suspect that it didn't rise as well as it should because there was a big delay between getting the batter together and actually baking it--Ener-G Eggs loose their potency the longer you wait to bake your goods. The results were totally delicious anyway. Moist and soft vanilla cake with a drizzle of sweetened cream cheese in every bite? Count me in!

Cream Cheese Filled Coffee Cake

serves 14-16

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/8 t baking powder

1 1/8 t baking soda

1 t salt

10 T Earth Balance, slightly softened

1 cup 2 T sugar 

1/2 T lemon zest
4 Ener-G Eggs
5 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Sour Supreme

Filling:
8 oz Better Than Cream Cheese
2 t vanilla extract
5 T sugar
1/4 c coffee cake batter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 10" tube pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Cake:
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add Ener-G eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in 1/3 of the flour mixture, mixing well until combined, followed by half of the sour cream, mixing well. Repeat using half of the remaining flour mixture and the rest of the sour cream, followed again by the rest of the flour mixture, mixing again until combined. Remove bowl from stand mixer and fold in any remaining flour.

3. Reserve 1 1/4 cup batter and set aside. Spoon the remaining batter into the prepped tube pan and smooth the top.

Filling:
4. Return the mixing bowl to the stand mixer and beat the Better Than Cream Cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla on medium speed until smooth, for about 1 minute. Add the reserved 1/4 cup batter to the mixture and mix until incorporated.

5. Spoon the Better Than Cream Cheese filling into the tube pan, keeping it about 1 inch from the sides. Spread the remaining cup of batter over the filling and smooth the top. Tap twice on the counter firmly to dislodge any bubbles.

6. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes, and a cake tester inserted comes out clean (if inserted into the cheese it will be wet). Remove the pan from the oven and tap firmly on the counter twice to dislodge air bubbles (cake may fall at this point).

7. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 1 hour. Gently invert the cake and remove it from the pan (I needed Corey's help for this part.) and allow it to cool for another hour, then slice and serve.

Fresh Lemon Ginger Tea

I realize I've been neglectful in my posting recently, but my life went on overdrive these past few weeks. I'm getting back into the groove of things, but here's my favorite caffeine-free hot beverage to tie you over until after the weekend.

This is what I drink when I'm sick. It's seen me through sore throats, swine flu, and just plain cold days. It's great to keep you hydrated, and the fresh vitamin C doesn't hurt either. If you have a fever, you can drink this hot or cold--just put it in the freezer for a bit to cool it down. I provide instructions for steeping the ginger, but frankly, I just throw the pieces into the mug and let them steep as I drink it.

Lemon Ginger Tea

Ingredients:
juice of half a lemon
1 2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
8 oz boiling hot water

1. Pour hot water into a mug. Place ginger pieces in a tea strainer and steep in the hot water for 5 minutes.

2. Remove the ginger and discard. Juice the lemon into the mug and stir well, adding agave or sugar to sweeten.

Peppermint Patties, Chocolate-Cherry Kisses, and Chocolate Covered Margaritas, Oh My!

I started making candy last year, on a whim. Again, this new domestic tendency in me wanted more kitchen experience, and giving homemade chocolates to family members as gifts seemed fun, and it fit my budget much better than buying gifts. I was so excited about candy making that I was considering buying chocolate molds and fancy equipment to keep it going. But the novelty quickly wore off and I was ready to move on to something else.

However, I've had both recipe requests and candy requests this holiday season, everywhere from friends to Corey's co-workers, so I'm pulling motivation from deep within and going for it.

This year the plan for gifts was apple butter, but I'm realizing that if I'm going to be making candy anyway, I might as well step up my gift game and pull out the old double boiler again for some serious candy making messery. I certainly can't eat all of it. 

If you have family members who are fans of peppermint patties, cherry bonbons, or any other chocolate covered candy, you can use this recipe to impress them. I'll give you the two variations that were big hits last year (peppermint and cherry) and a new one from this year, but it's very easy to change it up to your favorite filling flavor.

You can also easily change the consistency of the filling by adding less powdered sugar or adding more liquid of some kind. You will get a more gooey filling, which is easy to deal with if you have chocolate molds, but makes a huge mess if not. For the cherry filling I have reduced the amount of sugar, because the cherry juice is already very sweet: it's going to be gooey. If you get frustrated, make bark by mixing the melted chocolate and cherry filling and pouring into a parchment paper lined pan. I recommend using a darker chocolate--if you have to, thin out your bag of chocolate chips with a bar of bittersweet chocolate. Chocolate with a lot of fillers is more difficult to use as a coating.

I've given a few methods of how to make these candies. For the more liquid fillings, freezing or piping with chocolate into swirls, buttons, or kisses makes things less complicated. If piping, use a small sandwich bag and work in batches.You may end up with varying degrees of firmness, as I did (I ended up with both buttons and kisses in the same batch), but they'll all be delicious!

Peppermint Patties

1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup Earth Balance, softened
4 3/4 cups powdered sugar  
3 tsp peppermint extract
1 bag chocolate chips (dark is best)

1. In a food processor fitted with the dough blade, blend together the corn syrup, Earth Balance, and extract. Add the powdered sugar in 1 cup installments, blending well before adding the next cup. The filling will be dry and crumbly.

2. In a double boiler, melt the bag of chocolate chips. Lay out a sheet of parchment or wax paper.

3. Roll the filling into small balls and flatten out. Dip them into the chocolate and place them on the parchment paper to cool.

Cherry Filling

1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup Earth Balance, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
15 Maraschino cherries
1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice
2 tsp cherry extract or flavoring (optional) 

1. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse the Maraschino cherries until finely chopped. Switch to the dough blade and follow the instructions 1 and 2, substituting the cherry juice for the peppermint extract.

2. Fill a small plastic sandwich or ziplock bag, half with the melted chocolate and half with the cherry filling, as diagonally oriented as possible.

3. Snip a small corner off of the bag and pipe gently onto parchment paper into kiss shapes or swirls.

Chocolate-Covered Margaritas

1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup Earth Balance
juice and zest from 1 lime
3/4s of a nip of tequila
1/4 of a nip of cointreau
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar 

1. Follow instructions for peppermint patty recipe 1-2, substituting lime zest and juice, tequila, and cointreau for peppermint extract.

2. Freeze the mixture in the food processor bowl for 1 day for best results, at least 1 hour if not possible.

3. Dab a small amount of chocolate onto the parchment paper. Form medium to large sized patties or balls of the sugar mixture and place them in the chocolate on the parchment paper. Spoon melted chocolate over them to coat.

Pomegranate Poundcake

It's basically winter up here in New England, now that snow has fallen twice in a week. Unfortunately, my kitchen is not ready to give up on autumn yet--pumpkin in the fridge, pears on the table, pomegranate pips in the freezer.

I was inspired to make poundcake after watching the Good Eats episode on the subject. I'm inspired to make anything Alton Brown tells me to.

Naturally, vegan poundcake presents a problem--I didn't think a pounds worth of Ener-G eggs would cut it (they are great, but not exactly like eggs), so I started blog surfing to find a vegan version. Lo and behold, The Blooming Platter. The picture perfect slice on her poundcake post sold me.

And now for that pesky pomegranate. I had pomegranate juice before I ever ate a pomegranate pip, which is a shame, because I like the pips better than the juice. I mean, if you're trying to pound in a ton of nutrients lickity split, then the juice is the way to go, but if you like to take your time eating your food, pomegranate pips are awesome.

When Corey and I were sick we had no appetite whatsoever, but we drank cold or hot water constantly to relieve our fevers or chills. I found that I could stomach frozen pomegranate pips during the last day of my illness--it gave me the fluids I needed to stay alive, it was cold so it cooled me off, and it was in such tiny quantities that it didn't make me nauseous.

Not only does pomegranate pack a lot of fluid and antioxidants, which is what is making it famous these days, it also has a lot of vitamin K, fiber, and folate, plus iron, calcium, and B vitamins. It's got it going on.

The cake itself is very sweet (feel free to reduce the sugar by a half cup if you use the silken tofu I recommend) and the texture is perfect: moist and spongy, and the crust has a crispy, buttery flavor. I used frozen pomegranate pips, but you can use fresh ones, too. They add a slight tang to each bite. Warn your guests that they will encounter seeds--Corey was unpleasantly surprised by them. Lastly, if you have an airtight container your can fit the loaf into, I'd recommend storing it in the fridge that way--refrigerator flavored poundcake is gross. Otherwise, tightly wrap it in plastic wrap.

Pomegranate Poundcake
(Yields 1 5"x9" loaf)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Earth Balance, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup silken tofu, blended or food processed until smooth (I like Nasoya's vanilla flavored silken tofu) 
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup pomegranate pips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 5 x 9 loaf pan.

2. Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer at medium high speed until soft and fluffy. Add half of the tofu and beat for 1 minute. Add the second half of the tofu and beat for another minute. Reduce the speed. Add half of the cake flour and stir to combine. Add the water, extract, baking powder, and the rest of the flour and beat on medium high speed for 1-2 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, fold in the pomegranate pips gently.

3. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top cracks and browns. Separate the loaf from the sides of the pan, but allow to cool before removing it.

Pear-Cardamom Coffee Cake

When Corey and I moved in together, I talked about wanting to always have some sort of coffee cake around to snack on with tea. In the real world, lunches and dinners for the next couple days comes first, so coffee cake has taken a backseat to lasagna, fried rice, and chili-mac.

Not. Anymore.

With this really easy recipe, I'm confident I can whip up a coffee cake a few times a month. Enter the pears!

Let's talk about cardamom. Cardamom is one of those spices that you encounter the first time (if you're a Westerner) with total delight. The first time I had chai, it was the cardamom that held my attention. I haven't had an opportunity to use it in a recipe recently, so I decided that coffee cake was it's time to shine.

This is a super simple recipe -- no creaming of butter and sugar, you just mix together everything dry, throw in everything wet, and stir. It turns into more of a dough than a batter, so don't keep mixing to thin it out or it will become too chewy. The cake is very light in flavor, almost white, and incredibly moist. The pears slice under your fork like butter, but hold their shape under the deliciously sweet, spicy topping.

As you can see, mine developed a really sturdy crust. That's because I baked it for an hour (I was waiting for the topping to brown). I changed the original recipe to include more Earth Balance and sugar in the topping so that it would brown faster.

Pear Cardamom Coffee Cake (adapted from Lanier B&B)

(serves 9)

Ingredients:

Cake: 
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted
3/4 cup soymilk
2 Ener-G Eggs
1 tsp almond extract

1-2 firm pears, sliced

Topping:
2/3 cup flour
5 Tbl Earth Balance, melted
5 Tbl brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt

1. Grease and flour an 8" x 8" pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together dry ingredients for cake, add wet ingredients and mix. Spread in the bottom of the pan.

2. Arrange the pear slices on top of the cake.

3. Mix the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the pears evenly. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve very warm.

Thanksgiving Fever

And I don't mean that in a good way.

Corey and I both came down with a fever and cough Thanksgiving week, and though my fever started to break on Thanksgiving day and Corey's cough was improving, we made the tough decision to miss Thanksgiving at his uncle's house.

This is where we were instead:

'Sup couch? Nice to see you again.

It's no fun missing out on Thanksgiving (I had my wisdom teeth out the day before Thanksgiving when I was 18. I woke up from my Percoset nap, bloody drool dried in the corner of my mouth, saying, "you didn't wake me for dinner?" Apparently they tried. It's strong stuff.), but it's really disappointing to miss out on spending time with Corey's family.

Not that we would have been great company. A 103 degree fever doesn't bring the best out in anyone. Anyway, we're making the best of it now that our appetites are back by making noodle soup and vegan Thanksgiving leftovers: mashed potatoes and "turkey" salad sandwiches on biscuits.

And, we're having better cups of tea.

Easy Vegan Shortbread

That's right, easy. You didn't think it was possible, did you? Well, thanks to VeganYumYum's Lauren Ulm, it is possible.

And when I say easy, I mean easy. It really bothers me when a recipe is described as easy, but you need several bowls, a food processor, and baking pans to make it happen. For me, the amount of dishes left to do factors into the equation. This recipe is a one mixer bowl, one pan, 4-5 ingredient masterpiece.

Lauren's version is a lavender shortbread, which is lovely and all, and frankly, so classy it might just hold up in a tea party, but it doesn't really fly in November. It'd be too weird with all of the beta-carotene flavors going on everywhere else. Time to break out the almond extract.

I put almond extract into everything. Cookies, pancakes, soy yogurt, oatmeal, and now, shortbread.

To make the rounds into accessible (i.e.: not personal pan pizza sized) cookies, lightly pressing a spatula or knife into the baked product allows for clean breaking.
These are crispy, crumbly, and lightly buttery, and the recipe is easily adaptable to other flavors. On the plates above I have almond shortbread and vanilla bean shortbread.

Almond Shortbread
Makes about 6 4.5" rounds

1 cup Earth Balance, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Cream the Earth Balance, sugar, and almond extract in an electric mixer until soft and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium high speed.
2. Mix in the flour by hand with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Do not overmix, just get everything combined nicely. It may be a little crumbly.
3. Divide the dough in half, form into flat rounds, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Divide each round into 3 parts and roll out to 1/4" thickness on parchment paper, forming into rounds of equal diameter.
5. Place the parchment paper with the shortbread on it on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.
6. Using a knife or spatula, lightly score the shortbread into quarters or sixths. Allow to cool.

These are great with tea (obviously), and with fruit spreads, like homemade apple butter.

Voila! A Pumpkin Roll!

Yes. That is (Better Than) cream cheese filling.

 Yes. Those are walnuts encrusting the top.

And yes, that is spicy pumpkin cake rolled up for easy slicing.

This is not an easy recipe. It requires many ingredients, many steps, and careful handling. It requires patience, of which I have very little, especially when it comes to food (which is why Corey handles the pancakes and grilled cheese--it makes the difference between hastily cooked burnt messes and beautifully browned gems of deliciousness). However, the result is well worth the effort. It has wow factor.

Now, you'll notice that there are walnuts on the roll. I've recently, as in two months ago, had a revelation about nuts.

They don't suck.

I don't know how it happened, but one day I bought cashews and walnuts and made plans to cook with them. Cashews ground up into a vegan cauliflower chowder, walnuts toasted and sprinkled on butternut squash soup. That's all it took, and now I don't mind nuts. Now, for some reason, I need a combination of textures to stay interested in what I'm eating. The extra protein doesn't hurt either.

I use canned pumpkin, mainly because I can't be bothered to gut a pumpkin for the very little meat you get out of it, though pumpkin seeds are a lovely snack. I know it's not legit, but there you have it. 
Be very generous in your powdered sugar towel. The sugar is meant to keep the cake from sticking to the towel as it cools. It's also very important to roll up the cake while it's still hot--this prevents it from breaking when you roll it the final time. I've done it by myself in the past, but Corey is going to be home this time, so he'll be my pumpkin roll partner. Hopefully that will make it easier!
When you make this recipe you will come to a point when you need to decide if you want the walnuts on the outside of the roll or the inside. I like the outside for two reasons: 1) It covers up any cake deformities and 2) Many of our friends have nut allergies. Hiding them is just dangerous! When you turn the cake onto the sugar towel, turn it so the walnuts are in the sugar.

Pumpkin Roll (adapted from Libby's)
Serves 10-15, depending on your slicery

Ingredients:

Cake:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
3 Ener-G Egg Replacer eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Filling:
1 8 oz container Better Than Cream Cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Earth Balance
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Also:
1 jellyroll pan
Parchment or wax paper
Nonstick cooking spray
Thin cotton towel

For the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare baking pan with sides (aka jellyroll pan): grease the pan with non-stick cooking spray. Cut the parchment or wax paper to fit the pan and spray with nonstick cooking spray, place on the pan sprayed side up. Use the 1/4 cup powdered sugar to dust the cotton towel well, more if needed.
2.Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a small bowl. Beat the Ener-G eggs and sugar in a large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in the pumpkin. Stir in the flour mixture. Pour into the prepared jellyroll pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts.
3. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until top of cake springs back when touched. It should not be browned. Immediately loosen and turn the cake onto the prepared sugar towel. Loosely roll up the cake and towel together, starting with the narrow end, and allow to cool on a rack.

For the filling:
1. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, Earth Balance, and vanilla extract until well mixed and smooth. Keep cool in the refrigerator.

Putting it together:
1. Once cake is cool, carefully unroll it. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the middle, leaving about 2 inches on each side to allow for natural spreading as you roll the cake. Reroll the cake and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

If your cake breaks as you roll or unroll, not to worry. The filling acts like a glue and will hold it together once you refrigerate it.

We enjoyed our pumpkin roll and shortbread (recipe coming soon!) with Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea.

An English Breakfast Is the Only Breakfast

What is an English breakfast without a stiff cup of tea? Or a tea party? Hmm?

English breakfast tea is a good gateway tea, for those ready to move from cheaper black teas to tea blends. It contains mostly Assam tea, a strong, robust tea grown in Southern India. Other teas found in the blend are Ceylon, Kenynan, and Keemun.

It was made to be taken with milk and sugar, but it's also good without milk. I've recently recovered from a trachea infection, and all I drank (and ate, really) was English breakfast tea with agave and lemon.

Housewarming

The idea of a housewarming is so beautiful to me.

Moving--not so much.

But the housewarming makes it all worth it. After you're settled, you invite your neighbors and friends over, and you lay claim to your space by throwing it a party. Moving hasn't really felt complete as of yet (maybe that has more to do with eating off of milk crates for two months), but I feel that once we have the housewarming, everything will be settled and broken in.

I'm all about seasonal eating, like a grizzly bear (if I could get away with it I'd hibernate all winter, too). So, the housewarming has an autumn theme.

It's pretty easy to get into autumn around here. There's a day where the summer humidity is just not there anymore (this year it was in August--don't get me started). The leaves take their time changing colors, and it gets pretty brilliant, with oranges, peaches, reds, and yellows, still mixed in with the occasional green tree or bluish conifer. The temperature fluctuates between the upper 30s and the low 70s for a while, snow, rain, wind, and sunshine.

Enjoy those days while you can, New England. Subzero 2010 is not far off.

With Thanksgiving a week away, what can a girl make for a tea party that everyone isn't going to eat a few days later?

Apple Butter

Apple picking is, to me, the quintessential New England day trip. I've lived here for a few years, but I never had the chance to go. And, to be perfectly honest, apples are my least favorite fruit.

There. I said it.

I don't like crunchy or crispy foods, and as a child I hated the texture of the skin. I also find most apples flavor to be distinctly boring. So what changed my mind about apples? Apple butter.

In the Chesapeake Bay area, we do not have apple butter. I'd never had or heard of it until I moved up here. It is spreadable and jam-like. Texture issue, resolved. And, you add a myriad of spices to it . Flavor issue, resolved. And it's sweet, but not super sweet, so it's versatile. Great on toast, English muffins, or crackers. Also pancakes and waffles. And also vanilla ice cream. Yum.

The thing with making your own apple butter is that you have to can it. At first I was completely intimidated by the idea, so I looked for ways to do it without canning, but the alternative is just having a lot of apple butter and having to use it in a few days, or risk poisoning yourself and your loved ones.

Awesome.

What really turned me on to the idea is that I could make great gifts. (Last year I made peppermint patties, coconut drops, and cherry bonbons, but they are time consuming and turned me off to powdered sugar for 6 months. I might never forgive them.)

Canning is not difficult if you have the right tools (holler, Amazon!), but you need to follow recipes to the T, and they have to be tested for safety purposes. Also you get points for domesticity.

I'm using a recipe adapted from www.preservefood.com; it's essentially the same but I spice it up more. I've used between 1 and 2 cups of sugar in the recipe, and I like it both ways, but if you don't care for the tartness of apples, use 2 cups. I've also left the cores in the first part of the cooking process. Along with the skin, that's where most of an apples flavor is. I also recommend using a combination of different apples. Pie apples like Granny Smiths and Cortlands will give you a traditional tart apple flavor, apples like MacIntosh, Empire, and Winesaps have a wine-like, or vinous, flavor. Use apples that you like, and you can't go wrong, though very sweet apples like Red Delicious won't give you much of an apple flavor, due to their high sugar and water content.

My first time making this recipe I used whole cloves. They look really pretty suspended in the jars, but if you want a really even consistency, I suggest sticking to ground spices. And usually I'm a stickler for fresh ginger, but its stringy texture will break up the smoothness in your apple butter.

Apple Butter (Recipe adapted from Preserve Food)
Makes about 4 pints

Ingredients:

15 medium sized apples (I like a combination of Cortlands and Empires)
4 cups apple cider
2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves

1. Wash and quarter the apples, removing the stems. Place them in a Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed, large pot. Add the apple cider and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, turning the apples occasionally to cook evenly and to prevent sticking.
2. Press the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove skins and seeds. Return about 10 cups to the Dutch oven or pot.
3. Add the sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until mixture has thickened and turned brown.
4. Spoon the apple butter into hot, sterilized jars, leaving a 1/4 inch head-space. Wipe rims, place the lids on, and screw the bands tightly.
5. Place in a boiling water canner and process for 5-10 minutes (5 for half-pint, 10 for full pint). Carefully remove the jars and allow them to cool on a towel.

Enjoy on oatmeal, cookies, ice cream, or toast!

The Earl of My Heart

I've always been a big fan of Earl Grey tea.

When I was a very young tea drinker, I found the flavor very sophisticated, maybe because I couldn't fathom what made it different from the Lipton black tea I usually drank. Sort of smoky, sort of bitter.

One day I bought Twinings Earl Grey tea, the yellow box having caught my eye as I was choosing which tea to sample next. When I got home I put the water on and waited. During this time I didn't know it was a HUGE no-no to boil water for tea, so I waited for my little friend, the kettle, to whistle me back into the kitchen. I opened up the pouch and inhaled the aroma...

It was love at first scent. It was definitely Earl Grey tea, the same notes were still there, but Twinings Earl Grey had a decidedly more fruity aroma. It was just lovely.

The fragrance and flavor so inspired me that I checked out the facts behind Earl Grey tea. It's flavor comes from bergamot, a citrus fruit that grows in Southeast Asia. Only in Twinings could I really get that fruit flavor. I'm not sure if they use real fruit rind or chemicals to make that delicious scent, but it's by far my favorite tea to drink with milk.

My favorite Earl Grey beverage? The London Fog. I was going through a trying time a few years ago, both physically and emotionally. I'd moved into a new neighborhood, quit my job, and was taking time sorting things out for myself. There was a coffeehouse down the street, the 1369 Cafe in Inman Square, with easily the strongest coffee in town, and a quiet, dark atmosphere, befitting to my mood and the early spring/late winter weather here in Boston. The London Fog is a great drink when you're in need of a little comforting luxury. It is Earl Grey tea with steamed milk and vanilla syrup. Perfect, yes?

It's Tea Time!

This blog is about my favorite things.

Tea has always been my favorite beverage--well, aside from that crazy couple of years dedicated to double espresso lattes twice a day. That was then.

This is now.

Tea is comfort. Tea is refinement. Tea is global. Flavorful, elegant. Tea is always good.

My favourite naturalist (is it weird that I have one?) is, of course, Sir David Attenborough. As young children, my siblings and I were limited to PBS for our televisual pleasure. Every night we watched Wild America with Marty Stouffer, and we were only allowed to stay up late to watch Nova specials. At the time, we thought our parents were crazy, but in retrospect, I can see the value of toning down the constant violence of the Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which is not to say that I didn't watch those shows and love them), and replacing that with educational television.

Thanks mom and dad.

Anyway, I didn't really begin to appreciate Sir David Attenborough until I took home a DVD from the library a few years ago, The Blue Planet.

Oh. Good. Christ. In. Heaven.

I watched it over and over again, and then I went back for the next episodes and watched them over and over again. I couldn't get over the artistic filming, the majestic music, and, of course, the information. I'd given up on nature films for a long time--since I'd had so much of it as a child, nothing surprised me or taught me anything anymore.

But it wasn't only the research, and the newness of the information, it was the presentation. Sir Attenborough has a true appreciation for the intricacies of the lives of animals and plants. He is as in awe of them as I am.

From Blue Planet I went to Planet Earth, and then into the more detailed series, like Life in the Undergrowth. Each was stunning, both visually and mentally. I was hooked. 

And my last favorite thing, as anyone who knows me will tell you, is cooking. I did not grow up a cook. Some kids have parents that love to teach them to cook, but my father was a sort of control freak genius in the kitchen, so my sister and I were confined to making cakes out of boxes. Fast forward to age 18, when I went vegan.

Uh-oh. Suddenly quesadillas and chicken fingers, my staples, were off the menu, and I couldn't live on tomato soup and Oreos forever. Believe me, I tried. So, it was time to take control--I had to learn how to cook.

How on Planet Earth am I going to tie this all together? By hosting tea parties with my friends and watching Sir David Attenborough (hereafter SDA) hosted programmes, of course!