Bark! The Herald Angels Sing!

I've been baking up a storm in anticipation for Christmas - I'm so thankful to Mattie for his vegan butter recipe (my white chocolate version is found here), as this stuff enabled me to make all my favourite Xmas goodies that call for margarine.  With the allergy crap around here, this white chocolate stuff is the only thing that makes a sub!  And given that everything is so sweet, it goes perfectly!  This year's baking assortment is totally Kyson safe with no allergy stuff.  I've made the usual gingerbread, orange carrot cookies, sugar cookies, ginger crinkles, etc. but I needed to have a few things to whip up quickly to satisfy a nearly-four-year-old's urge to constantly be busy baking something. 

Enter bark!  I used to make a chocolate one with Oreo's, but given the palm and soy content, those were a no-go.  So I whipped up some alternatives...first, a bark with just melted Enjoy Life chocolate chunks (about 1 cup) with about 1 cup of semi-crushed PC Blue Menu Alphabet Pretzels (no soy or other vegetable oil - hooray!) then spread on a cookie sheet with wax paper and chilled in the fridge (of course, once chilled, broken into pieces).  I honestly think this bark has the look and texture of a peanut bark - but is happily nut-free!  The saltiness of the pretzels makes this super yummy. 

I also used up some of my expensive Natural Candy Store order and made crunchy candy cane bark - this time, 2 cups of chocolate chunks (melted) with about 1 cup of crispy rice cereal and about 4 ounces of crushed candy canes.  

I can't decide which one I love more!

I'm getting ready to book Kyson's allergy follow up for May 2012 and am already getting my hopes up that he will grow out of SOMETHING.  If I had to pick, I'd love to have legumes back.  Fingers crossed!

Hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2012!

Merry Christmas!!!

Here's my cookie tray for this year:

Vegan Turtles - Turtles, turtles...rah rah rah! I will post this recipe shortly...yummy!

Gingerbread Bears - Same recipe Tracy uses, except my icing didn't turn out as crunchy.

Chocolate Coconut Clusters - Did I blog about these before? Good! I made them vegan (obviously) and only boiled the mixture for a couple of minutes.

Cranberry Crumble Bars - Not too sweet!

Incredibly Non-Butter Shortbread Cookies - Delish! I added a little lemon juice to my icing and it tasted really good! Recipe is below!

1 cup Earth Balance, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tsp Kingsmill egg replacer

2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. With electric mixer, beat Earth Balance until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in granulated and icing sugars and then beat in egg replacer, water and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into buttery mixture. Transfer dough to work surface; kneed lightly until it forms a ball.
3. Divide dough in half; shape each into disc. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 2 days. Once disc at a time, roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place them on parchment paper lined baking sheets.
4. Bake in centre of preheated 375 F oven for 10 - 12 minutes or until light golden on bottom and edges. Let cool for 3 minutes on baking sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool. Makes 3 dozen cookies. Ice as desired.

Merry Christmas from Ashley! Happy New Year Everyone!

Good Baked Goods!

I was a busy baker just before, during and after Xmas. First, I have to give many thanks to Melissa for her blog on vegan nanaimo bars. They were delicious! And way better than the original version with the tartrazine-laced custard powder which resulted in the gross yellow layer. My mom was a skeptic at first, but insists that they become a new Xmas baking tradition! I'll have to remember to measure the icing sugar next year however, as I made the frosting layer a little too thick, so my chocolate tops wouldn't stay on each piece.

Another Xmas tradition is to make cinnamon buns. Here they are both unglazed and with frosting:

Here's my recipe - I used a bread maker since I'm lazy and don't often have time to knead:

Sarah's Cinnamon Buns

½ cup pure, warm water
½ cup warm soymilk
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
Egg replacer equal to 1 egg (1 teaspoon ER plus 2 tablespoons pure water)
4 tablespoons margarine
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons bread machine yeast


1. Add all ingredients, in this order, in the bread machine. Set to dough cycle.
2. After dough cycle is complete, let remain in bread machine to rise for one hour.
3. Remove from bread pan. Roll dough out into a 14-inch by 18-inch rectangle. Spread another 4 tablespoons of margarine and sprinkle ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon on dough. Roll into a jelly-roll shape. Cut roll into 16 equal slices. Arrange slices into a greased 9x13 inch casserole or 2 greased pie plates. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 45 minutes to 1 hour (or refrigerate overnight, bring to room temperature and bake).
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Make icing with 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 tablespoon margarine, 1 teaspoon soymilk and ½ teaspoon vanilla. Serve warm.

I also created some blueberry muffins since Loblaws had 1-pint containers on sale for $2.99! I didn't want the berries to go to waste, so I made two batches. I didn't write down what I did, but it's a basic whole wheat blueberry muffins with a crumb topping. Lemme know if you want the recipe and I'll type it up.

How to Build a Turkey (Vegan, of Course...)

After making a way-too-dense seitan loaf at Thanksgiving, I decided to go with an old standby: Tofu Turkey, which has been served on numerous occasions. However, this time, I decided to use seitan instead of tofu. I even tried to sculpt the 'hind legs' or whatever those lumps are on a traditional turkey. Here are some assembly pics, as well as the recipe that was originally from Vegetarian Times:

I first laid down slices of seitan on a parchment-lined cookie sheet:

I then formed the stuffing around it:

I then draped homemade pastry over top (and formed 'hind legs' with seitan and stuffing inside), then brushed with vegetable stock:

Once baked, it looks delicious, and much tastier than the 'real' thing!

Combined with a number of other items, it made a delicious Christmas feast!

Here's the recipe in case I've persuaded you to try it next year:

'Turkey'

2 - 1 pound loaves bread
2 tablespoons margarine
2 medium carrots, finely diced
2 large stalks celery, finely diced
1 large onion, finely diced
pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sage or celery salt
½ cup Egg Replacer/water combo (about 2 tbsp egg replacer with the rest comprised of water)
½ cup vegetable broth
3 good size pieces of seitan (I used about half of a recipe for VwaV's Seitan)
pastry for a single-crust pie


1. Break bread into 1 - inch chunks; dry in a large bowl, uncovered, for at least 8 hours or overnight.
2. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery and onion; sauté, stirring frequently, until lightly browned. Transfer to a large mixing bowl; cool to lukewarm. Add pepper, bread cubes, sage (or celery salt), egg replacer and broth. Toss to combine; set aside at least 30 minutes to allow liquids to soak into bread.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Arrange overlapping slices of seitan on parchment paper in a row; mounding in centre. Press stuffing mixture around seitan to cover completely. Wet hands lightly, and press into a neat oval shape.
5. Roll pastry sheets out to 1/16 - inch thickness; arrange, overlapping slightly, to make a large rectangle. Seal edges with dabs of water.
6. Drape pastry over mound; trim excess away around bottom. Use scraps to cut out decorative shapes (leaves, apples, etc.); attach with dabs of cold water. For a shiny crust, brush pastry lightly with veggie broth. Bake 1 to 1 ¼ hours, covering pastry with foil if it browns too much.
7. Transfer ‘turkey’ to a platter. To serve, cut straight down through pastry, stuffing and seitan to make neat 1-inch slices. Serve with gravy.

Gingerbread Mania!

Only four more baking days before Christmas!

First up, Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies from the PPK. They were super, and for a healthier version, I would use nuts instead of chips next time. They were that chewy.



And then four dozen (I lost count) Gingerbread cookies made from Bryanna Clark Grogran's Gingerbread recipe. Delicious!



For a glaze I used icing sugar and 1/2 soy creamer, 1/2 water.

I liked the star-snowflake pattern:



And here are Pete and I captured in an oven-baked moment. Ah, gingerbread love.



Peace on Earth, everyone.

Christmas Baking Continued

Some other items from our grocery shopping included the procurement of ingredients for VWAV's Jerk Seitan, which, if you haven't made it, is absolutely FANTASTIC



and BBQ Pomengranate Tofu, which is also very very good



as well as Earth Balance margarine and non-hydrogenated shortening for Christmas baking! Here are my first goodies:



The recipe is modified from a newspaper clipping from the '80s pasted into my mother's strawberry-fabric covered recipe notebook, so I'll reprint without giving proper credit to whomever composed it.

Peanut Butter Candies

1 cup Earth Balance margarine
4 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 cups smooth natural peanut butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 bag vegan chocolate chips

Cream margarine, sugar and peanut butter. Mix in graham crumbs. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 and 9x9 baking pan (or a really big cookie sheet - it makes that much) to a thickness of about 1/4". Melt the chocolate and spread over mixture. Refrigerate until set and let warm to room temperature before cutting into squares.

I've Overdone It

I made many homemade gifts this year, and have a lot of basket wrapping ahead of me:

Scary thing is, all of the more material goods are under the tree, and it's jam-packed already! I live alone, so I think that's just nuts that I could be giving that much stuff! Tonight, I painted a plate with a cat motif as a gift for my aunt. I was pretty impressed with myself, as it certainly beats last year's attempt at creating glass art:

And now onto food. This weekend, my mom, Sam and I made nearly 1000 cookies. It took 12 hours straight, but it was well worth it! Here are a few of them:

Orange-Carrot Cookies (my fave)

¾ cup Earth Balance margarine
1 cup sugar
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg
1 cup cooked, mashed carrots
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Icing:
Juice and rind from 1 organic orange
1 ¾ cup icing sugar

Cream margarine and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg replacer, carrots and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt, then add to sugar mixture, stirring until combined.

Drop onto greased or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Combine rind with icing sugar. Slowly add the juice of the orange, stirring until correct consistency. You may not use all of the juice. Frost cookies with icing mixture while slightly warm.

Sugar Cookies

½ cup shortening
½ cup sugar
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg
2 tbsp soymilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Using a mixer, cream together shortening and sugar; beat in egg replacer, soymilk, and vanilla.

Blend in combined dry ingredients using a wooden spoon to form a ball of dough. Chill dough in a flat round shape wrapped in plastic wrap, if necessary.

Roll dough between two large sheets of parchment paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes, and place on a greased or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes until golden.

Cool, and frost with icing in various colours to match shapes.

Makes 3 dozen, depending on size of shapes.

Cranberry Crumble Bars (my second fave)

1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups quick cooking oats (not instant)
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup melted Earth Balance
¼ cup corn syrup
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind

In large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar and baking soda. In small bowl, combine melted butter and corn syrup; stir into dry ingredients. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture; pat remaining mixture into a greased 8-inch square baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until very lightly browned.

In bowl, combine cranberry sauce, lemon juice and rind. Spread over base, and sprinkle evenly with reserved oats mixture; pat down lightly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely on rack. Cut into 25 squares.

Chocolate Topped Crunchies

Crunch Base:
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tbsp corn syrup
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
2 tbsp melted Earth Balance
½ tsp vanilla
2 cups bran flakes

Topping:
4 squares semi-sweet chocolate or equiv. choc. chips
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, 2 tbsp peanut butter, margarine and vanilla; mixing well.

Add cereal, mixing well. Press into greased 8-inch square pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate and peanut butter, and spread evenly over baked layer. Cool and store in the refrigerator; cut into bars.

Makes 32 1-inch bars.

Ginger Crinkles

(I was too lazy to put them on a plate - so the pic is through the container)

2/3 cup vegetable oil
Egg replacer equivalent to one egg
4 tbsp molasses
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
2 ½ tsp ginger

Mix oil with sugar. Add egg replacer and beat until fluffy. Stir in molasses.

In another bowl, sift together dry ingredients, then add to molasses mixture.

Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, dip in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.