Doh!

Yesterday I wanted to make a loaf of bread for dinner to eat with the Creamy Squash Soup I was making from the latest issue of VegNews. At lunch I put all the ingredients in my bread machine and set the timer so the dough would be ready at 5pm to take out and bake. When we got home from work I looked inside and the powdered yeast was still sitting on the top.

I tried again today and the dough cycle just doesn’t start. I think the motor is burned out.

Since I like hand-shaped loaves and pizza crust the best, I asked Sarah if she thought I should just buy something to “knead” the dough, like a kitchenaid mixer? I rarely bake square loaves.

Her response:

That is sad.

I thought about the kitchenaid option, but remember that you still have to do all the proofing work. The dough cycle does all that for you. So just keep those extra steps in mind if you go that route.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the happy ending!

We dumped out the ingredients to test the breadmaker without them. After determining the machine was kaputz, instead of throwing the stuff out, I just kneaded it together, let it proof in the oven for 45 min, then shaped into a loaf and baked for 25 min. It was edible!

Thus my analysis:

New breadmaker = $200
Kitchenaid mixer = $300 (but oh, so sexy)
Book = $30

I think for now I’ll research a bread-making book and just try the old-fashioned way for a while.

One for Two

The weather here is not very nice, and like every Remembrance Day, it was miserable. Since I didn’t have any plans during the day yesterday, I thought that I could either a) vacuum and clean bathrooms or b) cook/bake something yummy. Things were headed in the right direction for Option A when I started cleaning my closet to find clothes to donate to charity. Once I finished in my closet, I went into my office closet to find more clothes, only to end up on the computer. I then found recipes that looked fun for Option B. You know where this is headed.

I thought that I should bake up a tasty meal. But given that it was only 9am, I scratched that plan for during the day in order to bake a scrumptious treat. There is a recipe I plan on making for Christmas – vegan buttertarts – so I thought it might be good to test them in advance.

Upon reading the recipe, I noticed that I would make a few substitutions…maple syrup for the brown rice or corn syrup, and as a result, an extra tablespoon of powdered egg replacer with a little less water. Since I didn’t have any pre-made tarts, I decided to make up some pastry and just put it into my muffin tin. Bad idea – everything was going smoothly, until the tart filling puffed up so much and seeped out of the pastry shell. Since the muffin tin was not flexible, it was too hard to get the tarts out of the pan. I decided not to take a photo of this catastrophe.

Next time: I will buy little foil tart pans that are flexible. Good thing I tried this out before committing them to a family dinner!

After reading Thursday’s post by Tracy, I decided that I would give this 5-ingredient cookbook another shot.

I was going to buy store-bought gnocchi, but the ‘lactic acid’ ingredient made me nervous. I remember seeing a homemade gnocchi recipe in VwaV, so I decided to give that a try.

It turned out great! Here is the uncooked result:


I could have used some tips/graphic to show me how to get the fork imprints to stay on each piece, but wow – it was so easy and tasty! Kyle was a pro at making all of the gnocchi – he was way better than I was...so serious:


I made the same sauce Tracy made but with spinach instead of swiss chard. Yum! So for the day, I had one success out of two recipes.

I have now vowed to only make cupcakes once every month, otherwise, I will put on too much weight. Plus, I think I will appreciate them more! I think it’s a wise decision given that I will be making Xmas treats in a few weeks, and it’s hard enough to have willpower to avoid eating whole tins of cookies. I can’t wait to start posting some pics and recipes of our family treats.

Isn't She Loaf-ly?

A while back, I had to buy a new breadmaker. My old Proctor-Silex model was sadly kaput after years of overuse, and had to be replaced. Last summer, Canadian Tire had a good sale on a popular model, so I caved - grudgingly. It took me a good two months to even be able to put my old breadmaker out at the curb. I mainly used the dough cycle, but once, I decided to test out the whole 'horizontal' loaf thing with one of my whole wheat recipes. I didn't have time to wait a long time, so without reading the instructions, I used the 'rapid bake' cycle. The loaf did not turn out well. It was very lopsided. I thought this had something to do with the fact that I used a 1 1/2 pound recipe for a 2 pound machine, so I made a note to self to follow the instructions for the larger loaf next time.

So next time rolled around last night. At 8pm, I decided to make me a loaf of bread. I followed the instructions in my cookbook for the 2 pound version, and got all set to turn on the bread machine. I then remembered that I had to select a setting. That's when I pulled out the cryptic breadmaker instructions (worst instructions ever). I then read that I can only use the 'rapid bake' cycle (1 hour 10 minutes) for ONLY the recipes in the book (of which there are two). I guess that's a useless cycle! My only other option was the 'grain' setting (4 hours 10 minutes). As it was already after 8pm, there was no way that I was going to wait until after midnight to pull that sucker out of the machine to avoid it getting soggy. So I used the delay timer (again, I was reminded at how crappy the instructions were), and decided to set it for 6am this morning.

I was eagerly anticipating my loaf - after all, I used the proper amount of ingredients (2 pound recipe) and the correct setting ('grain' instead of 'rapid bake'). When I woke up this morning, I could smell the faint scent of fresh bread. I opened my bedroom door and ran downstairs to find this:

I may have well just used the 'rapid bake' setting with the darn 1 1/2 pound recipe as the results were nearly the same :(

While on a bread kick, I decided to try a recipe that piqued my curiosity a few weeks ago. I have never tried one of those spinach dips served in a pumpernickel loaf, but found a vegan spinach dip recipe in Extraveganza that didn't seem to call for any hydrogenated Tofutti products. It sounded good! So I mixed this up for a snack, but it turned into my dinner.

It was pretty darn good! I tried serving it (to myself - so sad) in the carved out loaf, but I think my ratio of loaf to dip was off, so it didn't seem very full. Ah well - it tasted good. I can't wait to get nice and close to the co-workers tomorrow, as this recipe had three cloves of garlic.

Speaking of co-workers, they might overlook my hideous breath - I had extra filling leftover from my first batch of Boston Cream Cupcakes, so I made a second batch. I'm bringing some into work tomorrow to try and improve my popularity among the team (and partially because I don't want to get stuck at home alone with 12 cupcakes). The icing was a bit runnier today...come to think of it - maybe I should taste-test one from this batch...I'll go do that now. I was just about to get on the elliptical anyways...

Crisis Not-Quite Averted

Last week, an e-mail went around at work asking for volunteers to bake goods for the United Way Bake Sale. Remembering how complimentary my co-worker Derek was about my Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, I had visions of Experimental Farm employees raving over vegan goodies. I eagerly responded that I would supply 2 dozen cookies. Worried that I would forget, I left reminders all over the house that on Tuesday night, I would bake a whole batch of Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies to take on Wednesday for the sale early on Thursday morning. How hard could it be? I had already made the recipe and it turned out great (see earlier post). By the Law of Sarah, I should have known that this endeavor would not be achieved without a major headache.

On Monday night, I thought how I’d better check that I had all of the ingredients. By late that night, I was too tired and convinced myself that I was well-equipped. My god, I had been cooking/baking all weekend, so I would have noticed if I was missing any critical ingredients. Nevertheless, I told myself that I would check before work. Needless to say, I was running very late this morning, and on my way to work, I even had to turn around and drive back to grab my purse that I had inadvertently left in my front hall before leaving. Cookie ingredients? Never gave it a thought. At work, I wondered if I had all of the ingredients, and knew that I was making a stop at a store next to the grocery store tonight. I told myself that I would do a mental check while I was there, so that I could easily stop and pick up anything I might have been missing.

So, after doing all of the other stuff around the house that I needed to do, I decided to get into my PJs and make some cookies at 9:42. I open the cupboard, and sure enough, I only have 1/3 cup of oats. Since these were "Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies", I thought that this was a critical ingredient. I thought about running to the grocery store, but in my attire, scratched that idea. I then decided I would halve the recipe. Forget the two dozen, the charity will have to be happy with one. However, with the amount of oats I had on hand, I would have to quarter the recipe. Instead, I went through my freezer, and found a ground oat/hemp seed concoction that I had saved from another recipe. I dumped that in and hoped for the best. I rushed to get the cookies on the sheet, then did a taste test. Good idea, since I forgot to add the freakin’ sugar! I tried to mix as best as I could, but one can only hope for the best. I added extra chocolate chips to make up for how disastrous this could be.

Needless to say, I won’t do vegan food any justice at the bake sale. I might be able to salvage a dozen if I’m lucky, but it’s not looking good. I'm probably going to have to re-attempt tomorrow night at some point as they are greasy looking, flat and too crispy :(




Fortunately, my Crockpot Homestyle Applesauce from the Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker cookbook turned out great. I had just finished telling some people in the lunchroom that I was vegan and that that meant no meat, no eggs and no dairy. Not even 10 seconds later, one of the eager listeners asked if I was eating pork n’ beans (my applesauce). I wasn’t offended, since there are a few folks that work for the government that aren’t the *swiftest* characters, so I didn’t take it personally and instead just relished in my apple pork-free treat.