all the small things

even though i certainly enjoy my fair share of chocolate, i'm not a self-indentified "chocolate person." i like it, i occasionally eat it, but i don't need it. i appreciate high quality craftsmanship and beautiful packaging, but i also love a standard chocolate milkshake from a diner. my point is - i am a fan, not an expert.

i was beyond delighted, however, when lauren gave me this chocolate bar after a recent trip to nyc. yeah, sure, it was delicious, but more importantly, it was tiny - the perfect few bites for after lunch. god, i never tire of small things. this small thing is dubbed "the itty bar," by small-batch chocolatiers Askinosie out of springfield, MO. also, in a way that was hard to tell when it was in the wrapper, there were 2 chocolate bars in there! that realization made me so happy.

with thumbtack, for scale

i don't mean to sell short the really fine taste and quality of the chocolate itself, or all the work that went into it. the folks at askinosie seem pretty dang serious about their chocolate - from farm to wrapper - and they want you to be informed too. see: Chocolate University. it was really, really good. honestly, i don't really have the vocabulary in place to wax poetic about the different notes of the chocolate, but i can tell you that i sort of alternated between little bites of chocolate, and little bites of an almond and indeed, it was divine.

unwrapped, with almond

you know what would be super cute? to tape one of these on a birthday present as a bonus mini present!

love,
emily

1st cake of the fall

the silver lining to all of this chilly rain and gray skies (so relentless sometimes, you can feel the raindrops pelting against your very bones), is that it's finally time to turn the oven back on! the first few weeks of fall still prove to be too pleasant and breezy to have an appliance in the kitchen emitting hundreds of degrees of radiant heat. but now...now is just the perfect time to put on a jazz LP, all fuzzed out against the record player's needle, to make a late afternoon french press, and to dig up old baking recipes banished to the back of the pile.

our first cake of the fall was a truly collaborative effort. lauren whipped the cake up in minutes flat, and i improvised on the filling and the glaze. chocolate, cinnamon, apples, cinnamon, cider and rum - can you think of a dessert flavor profile more fitting for autumn?

Choco Cinnamon Cake w/ Apple Rum Filling & Black Pepper Cider Glaze
takes about 45 mins, 25 inactive
makes 2 round cakes, 2 cups of filling and 1/2 cup glaze
cake recipe adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton

ingredients for the cake:

2 cups +1-2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup regular cocoa (not dutch processed)
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/8 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt (scant)
2-2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 3/4 cup water
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil

ingredients for apple filling:

1 teaspoon vegan margarine
2 medium to large crisp apples, such as gala, sliced thinly
2 scant tablespoons brown sugar
2 big splashes dark rum or brandy

ingredients for cider glaze:

1 cup of apple cider
pinch of cinnamon
3 black peppercorns

- preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

- combine all the dry ingredients: sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt, and then stir in the sugar.

- combine all the wet ingredients.

- add the wet to dry and mix until just incorporated.

- pour the batter into two round pans, lined with parchment paper. pop 'em in the oven and set a timer for 23-25 minutes.

- while the cake is baking, make the filling: put the margarine into a cast iron pan over low to medium heat, and let it melt. add the apples and stir gently until they're softened and slightly browning, about 6 minutes. slightly turn up the flame, and add the brown sugar. let it get melt-y over the apples, maybe 2 minutes. turn the heat up even higher and add the liquor. it should sizzle loudly and caramelize onto the apples. stir gently and taste a piece of apple. does it taste awesome? if so, its done, so turn the heat off. cover the pan and let the apples sit in their stew til you're ready to fill the cake. if the apples do not taste awesome, add a bit more sugar and let it cook for another few minutes.

- the cakes should be done by right around this time. test with a toothpick or knife for done-ness. put them on a rack (still in the pan) to cool.

- put the cider in a non-stick sauce pan over a high flame; bring it to a boil. turn the flame down, add the cinnamon and black peppercorns, and let the cider reduce until it's about 1/2 a cup. it should be syrupy and glaze-y. if it sits for awhile before the cakes fully cool and thickens up too much, you can re-heat and thin it out with a bit of water or more cider. make sure to fish out the peppercorns!

- when the cakes have cooled enough to safely touch the pan, gently wiggle them out of the pan.

- unlike using frosting, you don't have to wait for the cakes to fully cool before adding the extras.
so set one cake on a plate, and spread the apple filling out across the top, making sure to save a few pieces for a garnish. put the 2nd cake on top, and press down very gently. then pour the cider glaze on top, and garnish with a few slices of the apple you saved. serve immediately. this cake will be good for up to 4 days if you keep it in a cake saver!


love,
emily

no stress baking!

i love recipes where you start with a solid base and then can just throw in whatever. usually this kind of laid back approach is confined to cooking, not baking. baking, in fact, is one of those things where people are all, "you HAVE to follow the recipe or it's gonna get all messed up." yeah, i respect that some forms of baking employ a certain careful chemistry that burritos or a stir fry do not, and that's cool. sometimes it's really satisfying to follow every step of a recipe to a T, and produce a flawless sponge cake or a beautiful cream pie (though i don't think i've actually ever made a sponge cake or cream pie...).

but some kinds of baking break away from that stringent, sometimes stressful chemistry and allow for wiggle room. let's call this "casual baking," good for quiet afternoons and any other situations when you want kitchen time to be relaxing, not intense or super focused. for instance, the cookies i made today: they resemble granola in the kaleidoscopic possibilities of fruit, nuts, and sweets that could go in them. and with banana, rolled oats and whole wheat flour, they are the closest to a healthy cookie you can really get without heading into the territory of wheat germ, kelp powder, hemp seeds, and the like. to the simple batter, i folded in chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chunks, and a tiny bit of shredded coconut that was hiding out under some brown sugar on the baking shelf. i topped each cookie with the dregs of a bag of pecans and they turned out so well! any kinds of dried fruits, other seeds or nuts, carob chips, etc. would be great too...see below for the recipe.



"tim's** variation to pat walton's oatmeal cookies"
from the tassajara cookbook
~~makes about 4 dozen small cookies~~
~~takes about 1/2 hour, start to finish~~

-preheat the oven to 375 F.

- mix together 1/4 cup soy or rice milk with 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. set aside.

- cream together 1 mashed banana, 1/4 cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons molasses, 3/4 cup liquid sweetener (brown rice syrup, honey or agave nectar), 3/4 tsp vanilla and 2.5 cups rolled oats. when all that is well combined, add in the soymilk and cider vinegar mixture.

- in another bowl, combine 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground clove.

- add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir gently to combine. then fold in 2.5 cups of whatever morsels you like. the original recipe calls for 1 cup of chopped pecans, 1 cup of chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup flaked coconut. but don't feel held to this! seriously, throw in all kind of odds and ends, the more the better.

- drop rough tablespoon sized pieces of batter on a well oiled baking sheet. your silpat, or any silicon baking sheet (or even parchment paper), is perfect for this, too.

- bake for 12 minutes and immediately transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack.

love,
emily

** who is tim? i don't know, but i like his style.

biscotto arancione

every time a customer at my job orders a biscotto with their espresso, i seethe with jealousy. so crunchy and badass, they hurt your mouth if not dunked in hot coffee first, biscotti just seem like the perfect afternoon snack. far more sophisticated than a cookie, and less decadent (i.e. gross and fatty) than a croissant, with just the right amount of sweetness to elevate the ritual of early p.m. coffee time to new heights. my store carries gilda's biscotti, a cutie pie (no pun intended) bakery run out of philadelphia, and though i love gilda and her mission, her biscotti are certainly not vegan. once when she came in to make a delivery, i asked her if she'd ever considered trying an egg-less version of her wares, and she admitted that she had not. in fact, she said she thought it might not even be possible.

gilda dearest, i strongly urge you to never say such things to crafty vegans. we interpret each "it's not possible" as a very real challenge, not only to our baking skills but to our diet in general!
and so darlings, i present to you (courtesy of the biblos, veganomicon), "biscotto arancione" - everything sounds a little fancier in italian, right?:


these elegant babies are crunchy as hell with a gorgeous balance of sweetness, citrus-ness, and chocolate-ness. and guess what gilda? the recipe is surprisingly simple. so read on, bake up a batch, and relish a quiet afternoon moment, sipping black gold and leisurely leafing through an issue of italian vogue.

biscotti arancione aka orange biscotti (from veganomicon - isa, we heart you!)

- preheat the oven to 350 F. grease up a baking sheet, or line your crappy old baking pan with a silpat, like i did!

- whisk 2 tbsps ground flaxseeds into 1/3 cup of orange juice.

- mix 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup canola oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract into the OJ mixture til pretty well combined.

- sift in 1 and 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 2 tbsps arrowroot powder, 2 tsps baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt, and stir up until a nice dough forms.

- fold in the zest of two oranges (i used blood oranges) and 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips or pieces. knead with your hands to incorporate this stuff evenly.

- spread the dough onto the pan and form with your hands into a rectangle that's approx. 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. it does not have to be a perfect rectangle shape.

- bake for 28 minutes. the rectangle should puff up and look a little crackle-y.

- cool (in the pan), on a wire rack for half an hour.

- once cool and being very careful, transfer the biscotti loaf to a cutting board and cut it into strips that seem like good biscotti shapes and sizes to you. put them back on the pan.

- crank up the oven to 375 F and bake the biscotti again for another 12 to 15 minutes. double baking is what gives them the extreme crunch factor.

- let them cool, then eat three.

love,
emily

and they called it choco-looooove

what is it about the stereotype that all women love chocolate - and eat it in times of need - that so often rings true? or am i confusing it with the stereotype that i, more specifically, love chocolate and eat it any time i can? i will honestly say that this is not due to the upcoming 'holiday', but i've really been on a chocolate kick lately (as proof that it's not because of v-day, i will have you know that i started this post eight days ago and just now am finishing it! laziness, thanks for coming to my rescue on this one).

after i became vegan a few years ago (it'll be my 3 year anniversary in march!), chocolate seemed like it was just one of those things i couldn't have. oh sure, peanut chews are delightful and you might find one or two bars in a gourmet or health food shop if you read every single ingredient label, but i pretty much stuck with baking homemade desserts for myself. a few months ago, i started noticing random bars of chocolate in the kitchen, tucked into this nook or that cranny, nestled between the raisins and the cashews or hidden behind the panko bread crumbs. what is this, dark chocolate with crystallized ginger? ahoy there, 43% soy milk ecuadorian vintage plantations bar. then my mom gave us trader joe's organic dark chocolate truffle bars for christmas and things just skyrocketed from there.

since then, i've been buying, trying, exploring, testing and tasting all different kinds of special, fancy, interesting and/or gourmet vegan chocolate and chocolate products. does someone up there like me? or is the lack of milkfat, whey, buttermilk, milk solids or butter a sign of quality? i'm not one to judge, but i will say that these chocolates are BANGING. wait, i am one to judge.

behold, my newest favorite:


chocolove, i love you. and each chocolate bar has a little love poem printed on the inside. so what if they are mostly cheesy, or boring, or don't really make sense, it's the thought that counts. and did i mention the combination of chocolate and raspberries does things to me that nothing else really can?

yesterday i had a chocolate craving at work and what do ya know, hershey's chocolate syrup is vegan! i wouldn't normally buy or ingest this corn syrup laden product, but in times of desperation, a vegan hot chocolate will surely do!

last night's vegan balsamic fudge drops made by our trusty vegan sidekick, tony, only furthered my cravings for chocolate + a fudgey texture. enter: awesome foods raw chocolate coconut goji berry fudge. i was introduced to the awesome foods brand when i first started working at willow creek, and i do like most of their stuff. i had never bought the chocolate goji fudge because it's rather pricey, but after trying it at work last weekend, i'm hooked. it has a super fudgey texture and coconutty flavor, and a little textural crunch from the goji berries and i guess it's good for me so i don't mind popping one at, oh, 9 am, before breakfast.

lastly, but not leastly, ho ho no, not least, tonight, i will be embarking upon a chocolate journey thanks to one of my favorite blogs, Mac & Cheese. i'm going to make her recently posted Coconut Truffles, as well as last year's Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes. i don't know if she knows it, but i have a food crush on that girl. maybe i'll send her a valentine this year. or maybe a special cookie will suffice. nothing says i love you quite like chocolate. oh wait, there's that holiday talk again. maybe this year, chocolate can just be my lover?