Yet Another Recipe

This time I have my all time favorite kind of dessert recipe. A COOKIE!! I was surfing the web when I came across Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies (vegan of course), I looked at the picture and realized that it was my favorite cookie as a kid. I think if you look at the photo everyone will recognize this cookie. I actually never knew it had a name. Like my grandma used to say, "Ya learn something new everyday."


So I had this baking bug, like not a literal bug- creature - thing, but something that made me want to bake all time, (hence all these posts), so when I found the recipe and saw that I had all the ingredients I couldn't wait to make them. There were a few things that I was a little scant on, like the peanut butter, but was then surprised at how peanut buttery they turned out. So don't worry to much if your a little low on stuff, just be like me and work with it.

When I made these cookie the dough felt really heavy, I had it out for a little bit and then when I went back to it, it was just beautiful. The only thing I like more than a cookie is a great batter.

Here's the recipe,
I found it on blogger! The blog is called Vegan Heartland...


Vegan Peanut Butter Blossoms


Ingredients:


1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup applesauce
1 T. Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
1 t. vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
A small bowl of sugar to roll the dough in (I skipped this step and they were really good. I fell like if I had they would be too sweet... But that's just me.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream together the shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, sugar and applesauce. Add the non-dairy milk and vanilla and beat well.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the wet ingredients. Beat on low until well combined.
Shape the dough into 1-inch balls then roll in the small bowl of sugar, (or don't). Place two inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. I used parchment paper on my cookie sheets to ensure they didn't stick. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

It yields about 2 dozen cookies.

Next, I am not going to repeat the blogger's recipe because the way I did it was really easy and really good. To make the chocolate kisses I just melted a bunch of bakers semi sweet chocolate in a pot and then scooped it and swirled it onto the cookie. SO GOOD!!

Now let's talk about the cookie. It is peanut buttery and the consistency is light and chewy. They really don't taste vegan. Most of them are gone and I only baked them three hours ago. The chocolate really adds to the taste, but they would make really delicious peanut butter cookies, so it's your choice.

Bon Appetit!

I Found A Keeper!

Yep, that's right, after four months of recipe pondering, I found a fantastic recipe... Banana Bread!

There were a couple of problems with it, but they were actually caused by me. So I am hoping that if anybody else tries the recipe they follow my advice so they don't make the same mistakes.

Now, before we get to the recipe, let's talk a little bit about banana bread. I have and believe I always will, HATE bananas. The texture makes my face cringe and the sweetness has always annoyed me. When people eat it, I have to leave the room because the sound is so disgusting.

Knowing that, I will continue to mention that I have only had banana bread once before in my life, and that was when I was a little kid. Recently I became interested in baking breads but my luck with yeast and kneading has always been pretty slim. Plus baking bread is such a huge time commitment that I never really felt like I could accomplish the task to perfection. And believe or not Mom, I do aim for perfection.

My brother came home last month with a gift for my mom of banana and zucchini breads. That sparked my bakers heart and I was determined to make it sometime. Yesterday was that time. I looked up vegan banana bread and was slightly surprised to find all of these recipes that sounded really good. Finally I settled on the one that had so many good reviews I wished that the bread was already baked.

I found this recipe on about.com, and I agree with every good review.

Makes 1 9"x5" loaf

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all- purpose flour
• 3/4 cups white granulated sugar (I prefer unrefined cane sugar) (- that's not me but this is! I actually ran out of sugar so I used as much of a 1/2 cup as I had available and then toped it off with light brown sugar.)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed (I used light brown)
• 3/4 t. baking soda
• 3/4 t. salt
• 3/4 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup plain soy milk or almond milk (I used soy)
• 1 t. apple cider vinegar
• 2 cups mashed banana, from about 4 large very ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 T. maple syrup
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• Walnuts (optional) (I didn't add them)

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a p"x5" loaf pan and set aside.

2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the soy milk and cider vinegar and let stand for 2 minutes. Add the mashed banana canola oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract, whisking until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixing until just prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in to the center emerges clean. Allow the bread to cool on a wire cooling rack for 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

~

I am going to tell you my mistake, so listen carefully. This did not effect the taste at all, so I can tell everybody confidently that it tastes unreal, but it did effect the bake time and the density and bake time. I didn't mash my bananas well enough. I don't know if you can blend them, or if it would mess with the recipe, but make sure that they are REALLY WELL MASHED.

What happened to me was that I thought that they were mashed enough, but there were still chunks in it. So when I baked it a large amount of the chunky banana fell to the bottom and made it so I had to bake it for about an hour longer. It still didn't become fluffy like the top of the bread, but it still tastes good. And in my opinion that's what really matters.

BUT, next time I would definitely make sure that they were mashed like baby food!

Other than that the bread is a great consistency with just the right amount of sweet, it's a really nice batter, and the loaf itself has a great density and it's really moist. If you start to see the edges browning way to much you can foil the edges like you would do a pie. That's what I did after a while.

Enjoy!

An Idea

Don't worry everyone I am still going to be posting about my favorite recipes, BUT, seeing as my time is limited and I haven't been cooking as much, I thought it would be cool to post about things that are surprisingly vegan. Each week I will introduce you to a new food that is beautifully, deliciously vegan and most likely bad for you. Beware, they are going to be short entries.

Since I have one of these products in my house, it will be my first post.

Unfrosted Pop Tarts!

As long as you get the strawberry, brown sugar, or blueberry, you can be taken back to your childhood, without breaking your vegan promise.

And really, who doesn't like Pop-Tarts?

WARNING:

The Frosted Pop Tarts contain gelatin, a substance made from animals.