Wednesday, February 24, 2010

{HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE SYRUP}



I got this recipe from my friend Diana. It is great for a sweet treat!

2 T. cornstarch
4 T. water
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 c. water
1 c. sugar or 3/4 c. honey*
dash salt

  • Mix cornstarch with 4 T. water. Set aside
  • Put cocoa, 1 c. water, sugar, and salt in saucepan
  • Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Keep stirring.
  • Using a whisk to stir, slowly add cornstarch mixture to boiling cocoa mixture. You probably won't need all of it, just add enough to thicken. If you make it too thick, just add water until you reach the right consistency.
I put this on sliced bananas with chopped pecans (or walnuts, almonds, etc.). It would also be good on ice cream.

* I made this with a half cup evaporated cane juice and 1/4 t. stevia and it worked great. I tried it with 1/2 t. stevia and no evaporated cane juice, and it didn't taste as good, so I'll have to mess with it more.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

{FRUIT SYRUP}

This was our Valentines' Day breakfast. I made a raspberry syrup to go on the French toast. It turned out really good. I'm going to post what I did, but you can do the same thing with any fruit/fruit juice of your choice. This made 2 cups of syrup.

2 c. fresh raspberries
1 c. raspberry-apple juice concentrate
1 1/2 T. corn starch
1 smidgen stevia*

• Put fruit and 1/2 c. juice concentrate in small saucepan.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until boiling.
• Meanwhile, whisk corn starch and stevia into remaining 1/2 c. juice concentrate.
• When the fruit mixture is boiling, slowly add the concentrate-corn starch mixture.
• Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until syrup is thick.

*1/4 t. stevia is equivalent to 1 c. sugar. So, this was probably about the same as 2 or 3 T. sugar.

{CHEEZY TWICE BAKED POTATOES}

Ok. I actually was not crazy about the end result of the seasoning I chose for this one. It was good, but not wow-fabulous. I'm posting it anyway, though, because I think it's a good idea, and I want someone else to play with the seasonings and come up with something fabulous. You can find the original recipe here.

My 19-month-old loved them; my husband liked them; I thought they were ok; and my 3-year-old did not like them. They were maybe a little too sweet for me? So, I think next time I'll not use nutmeg, but maybe dijon mustard or dry mustard powder instead for a cheesy spice? I don't know. Maybe some cumin? Paprika? Please, someone experiment with this one and come up with something! I think they could be delicious.

I'm going to post what I did; you can play with it and let me know what you come up with.*

4 potatoes
1/2 butternut squash, steamed
2 T. fat-free vegan butter substitute
1 t. garlic salt
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
pinch nutmeg
soymilk


• Bake potatoes at 450 for 1 hour.
• Cut potatoes in half, lengthwise, and scoop insides into a bowl.
• Add steamed butternut squash.
• Add nutritional yeast, butter flavoring, and spices.
• Mash together, adding soymilk to desired consistency.
• Scoop potato/squash mixture back into the potato skins and place them on a cookie sheet or in a baking dish.
• Sprinkle tops with nutritional yeast and pepper.
• Bake at 450 for 10 minutes.



*I tried this again with some revisions and liked it a lot better.  I'll leave the original recipe, in case it's somebody's favorite, but here's the revised recipe:

4 potatoes
1 c. steamed butternut squash

3/4 c. non-dairy milk
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 pinch paprika

• Bake potatoes at 400 for 1 hour.
• Cut potatoes in half, lengthwise, and scoop insides into a bowl.
• Add steamed butternut squash.
• Blend remaining ingredients.
• Add blended mixture to potatoes and squash.
• Scoop potato/squash mixture back into the potato skins and place them on a cookie sheet or in a baking dish.
• Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Friday, February 5, 2010

{MINT CHOCOLATE CAKE}

I found this recipe in a save-the-animals vegan mailer (original recipe here). Saving animals is not my primary reason for being vegan, but the mailer did have some recipes with potential. I just tweaked this one slightly to make it lower fat; I also added salt to the cake, and the icing was a little bitter, so I added some sweetener.

{Chocolate Cake}

2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 c. evaporated cane juice
1 pinch stevia (I was shooting for 1/8 t., or the equivalent of 1/2 c. sugar)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. prune baby food
1/2 T. baking soda
1 1/2 T. white vinegar
1/2 T. vanilla
1 1/2 c. cold water

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Combine and mix dry ingredients until blended well.
• Add wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
• Pour batter into a lightly-oiled 9x13 baking pan.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Let the cake cool completely before frosting with icing (below).

{Mint Chocolate Icing}

1 10-oz. bag vegan chocolate chips
1/3 c. soymilk
1 T. peppermint extract
2 T. evaporated cane juice (I added this because the grain-sweetened chips I used made the icing kind of bitter. You may not need to add it, depending on the kind of chocolate chips you use.)

• Melt the chocolate chips in a saucepan over low heat.
• Add the soymilk and peppermint extract.
• Stir continuously until smooth.
• Allow to cool slightly before icing cake. (I only used 2/3 of the icing for one cake.)

{CINNAMON ROLLS}

My friend (thanks, Heather!) gave me the great idea of making cinnamon rolls using my normal bread recipe. I tried it out the last time I made bread. Fabulous!

Here's what I did:

I used the bread recipe I normally use (using the *wonderslim and lecithin and egg replacer, making 6 loaves)(see link above).

I divided the dough into 6 loaves, as usual. I formed 5 sections into loaves, and kept one section out. I rolled that section out really thin, and lightly buttered it with vegan butter, then I put an evaporated cane juice/cinnamon mixture and raisins on it. I rolled up the dough with the raisins on it to form a "loaf", which I cut into 9 sections to make the rolls. I put the rolls into a greased square baking dish. I let the cinnamon rolls rise the same amount of time as the bread loaves in their pans, then I let them rise for 5 extra minutes while I put the bread in the oven and started it cooking. After 5 minutes, i put the cinnamon rolls into the oven with the bread, and let them cook together for 25 minutes.

For the frosting, I made a glaze out of evaporated cane juice powdered sugar, soy milk, and a tiny bit of butter. Next time, I think I will try it without the butter, and if it needs a butter flavor, I will just add Butter Buds or something. My mom made these, and added honey when she put the raisin/cinnamon/sugar mixture on. She also didn't add any frosting at all, because her family ate them straight out of the oven before she had a chance to put frosting on them.

*wonderslim: prunes, water, lecithin granules, or prune baby food