vegan girl's night

On Saturday night, my friend Kristen's apartment was being invaded by a whole wack of Monopoly playing, beer drinking boys (Cornelius included), so she came by for a bit of a respite. Our plan: chill out with some relaxing girl movie dvds and partake in some serious vegan snacking. I had made some chocolate chip gingersnaps just before Kristen rang the bell, but wasn't sure how much I liked them at first. They weren't as gingery or molassey or as dark as I usually like my gingersnaps...plus, they were a lot softer than the traditional 'snap. After indulging in more than a few bites, both Kristen and I declared these vegan beauties a winner. And like all good things, they sure didn't last long.

vegan chocolate chip gingerbread softies
3/4 c vegan margarine, softened
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c molasses
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c cold coffee or water
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 t ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1 T fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/4 t salt
1 c chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the molasses and combine. Add the water or coffee and the baking soda. It will start to look kind of funny at this point, but continue on!

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and spices. Gradually add into the wet mixture and gently combine. Add the chocolate chips and the fresh ginger and stir.

3. At this point, the dough will be very soft. You can either use it right away or put it in the fridge for half an hour. Drop by tablespoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10 - 12 minutes at 350°F.

banana fana fo fana

Cornelius loves bananas. I hate 'em and I welcome their untimely demise. There is only one instance where I welcome their sickly sweet and slimy texture...it's a version of banana bread that won me over at our local bakery, called "UBC cake" which stands for Ultimate Banana & Chocolate cake. It is the ultimate! A crispy cinnamon sugar topping studded with chocolate chips. What's not to like? A few years ago a friend in San Francisco sent me a recipe that she called "Willie Nelson's Famous Banana Bread". I'm not sure if Willie made the bread or if it really was some kind of famous secret recipe, but I baked it and it tasted just like the UBC cake I loved! Ooooh, I was sooooo thankful for the recipe and it's delicious results that I didn't even care that bananas were a part of the mix.

NOTE: When I made the cake this morning, I reduced the amount of sugar the original recipe called for by 1/4 cup. I also reduced the amount of chocolate chips by half. Feel free to stick to the original recipe below.

willie nelson's famous banana bread AKA ubc cake
3 really ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
1 T cinnamon
1 c chocolate chips
1/4 c sugar mixed with cinnamon

1. Mix bananas with eggs and stir well. Add flour, sugar, soda, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well. Add 3/4 c of the chocolate chips into the batter.

2. Pour batter into a buttered square cake pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mix and the remaining chocolate chips.

3. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.

minty goodness

I've always been a huge fan of chocolate and mint. When I was little, I would only eat green mint chocolate chip ice cream and After Eight mints were always a holiday staple in our house and I'd always manage to find my dad's secret hiding spot for them.

When I saw the mint chocolate chip cookie recipe on Crystal's blog (she makes them at the Austin Folk House) I kept them in mind for future holiday baking. This afternoon when I headed out to refill my coffee supply from the local Italian market, I noticed a lonely bag of mint chocolate chips for only a dollar. I immediately popped them into my basket. It was destiny! I practically ran home to whip up a batch. These cookies were beyond fantastic and I'll definitely be making them again during the holidays.

Crystal notes that the cookie dough is a bit stiff. Luckily, I've got my hearty Kitchen Aid mixer working for me...but if you don't, be prepared for a bit of a workout.

Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies (I didn't use name brand chocolate chips!)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 bag (12 ounces) Andes mint chips (my bag was only 10.5 oz but the resulting cookies were still minty good!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips. Drop by well-rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

c is for cookie

After a week of eating lots of salads, I decided it was time for a treat. I made the "killer chocolate chip cookie" recipe from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons. Not only is this a great cookbook but these cookies were delicious. They're definitely the more traditional kind of cookie that I remember eating as a kid (no sunflower seeds, no oats, etc.) and the cookie batter was so delicious that I had to apply serious restraint to keep digging in with a spoon. Toasting the nuts gave the cookies a great flavour and I think I'll try to do that with other desserts I bake. Yum! As for the picture, that is Cornelius' hand just waiting to bite in!

killer chocolate chip cookies
Recipe from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet

1 c walnuts of pecans, chopped
9 T butter, softened
1/2 c packed light brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t salt
1 large egg
1 c plus 2 T flour
1/2 t baking soda
8 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts on a single layer baking sheet for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add the brown sugar and sugar, beating well until mixture is very light in texture. Add the vanilla and salt, and then the egg, beating just to incorporate. With a rubber spatula, fold in the flour, baking soda, chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Spoon rounded tablespoons of dough 2 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the cookies are just a tiny bit golden around the edges but are still white in the centres. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before serving.

short and sweet

Tonight's dinner was left over bbq pork/vegetable stirfry that I made last night to rave reviews from Cornelius. Dessert? Gingerbread chocolate chip cookies from a Martha Stewart recipe. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, as I didn't flatten the dough, nor did I wait 2 hours for the cookie dough to chill. I let it chill exactly 15 minutes and just scooped the batter out with a spoon and skipped the added sugar bit too. It made 30 yummy cookies that are crispy out the outside and chewy good on the inside. So good.

Chocolate Chip & Ginger Cookies

7 oz chocolate chips
1 1/2 c plus 1 T flour
1 1/4 t ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 T cocoa powder
8 T softened butter
1 T ginger
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c molasses
1 t baking soda

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

2. In another bowl, beat butter and ginger until fluffy. Add brown sugar and molasses and mix until combined.

3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Mix half of flour mixture into the butter mixture, then add the baking-soda mixture and the rest of the flour mixture. Mix in chocolate chips.

4. Heat oven to 325°. Roll dough into balls and chill for 15 minutes. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTE: The next day, these cookies were hard as delicious little stones. Still tasty, but they lost that soft/crisp edge.

thanksgiving pt. 2

It seems that good food and good boardgames go hand in hand at my house. I'm sure my downstairs neighbours never want to hear "Corner on wheat!!!" at 2am ever again, but a good, roaring (and perhaps drunken) game of Pit rounded out a great Thanksgiving meal.

I love this recipe! It's the perfect compliment to any meal and I get rave reviews everytime I make this. This Thanksgiving meal was meatless, but this chutney tasted great alongside the richness of the baked macaroni & cheese and a couple of people used the chutney to top their greens instead of salad dressing. Oh yum.

cranberry chutney
1 12oz bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1/3 c cider or red wine vinegar
2/3 c packed brown sugar
juice of 1 orange
grated orange rind from 1 orange
½ t salt
½ t cinnamon
½ t nutmeg
1/8 t cloves

1. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, spices, orange rind, celery, onion, apple, and orange juice in a medium saucepan. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

2. Reduce heat to a simmer, and stir in the cranberries. Cook until the skin begins to pop, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 4 weeks.

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Seeing that I was busy on one side of the kitchen making the chutney and preparing the brussel sprouts, I had Cornelius make this delicious recipe. I have no idea where I found it (it definitely was online somewhere), but I'm making this again. Too delicious for words! I also planned on taking a photograph of this beauty (Cornelius baked it in a pretty bundt pan), but it went really fast. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Pumpkin Chocolate chip cake

1 ¾ c flour
1 t baking soda
2 t pumpkin pie spice*
½ t salt
½ c margarine
1 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
¾ c pumpkin purée
¾ c semisweet chocolate chips
¾ c walnuts, finely chopped

* If pumpkin pie spice is not available, use 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon each of ginger and cloves.

Grease bottom and sides of 9 x 5-inch loaf pan*. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine flour with baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Cream margarine in large mixing bowl. Gradually add sugar and cream at high speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs; beat well. Turn mixer to low speed and add dry ingredients, alternating with pumpkin. Begin and end with dry ingredients; blend well after each addition. Stir in chocolate morsels and chopped walnuts and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched in center. Cool, then glaze with Spicy Glaze.

Spicy Glaze
½ c confectioners' sugar
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 to 2 tablespoons light cream

Combine confectioners' sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Blend in cream until the consistency desired (should be thin).

* We greased and floured a bundt pan.

pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

The great thing about working from home is that I've got cookies in the oven and I'm finishing up an ad for a client all at the very same time. Nice! These cookies are actually Cornelius' favorite cookies and he talks about them all the time. Since fall is here and I'm enamoured with everything pumpkin, I figured now would be the perfect time to share these beauties!

2 c flour
1 c quick or old-fashioned oats
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 c (2 sticks) butter
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 c cooked and pureed pumpkin (I use canned)
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (I usually use more)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Set aside.
3. Cream butter. Gradually add both sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
4. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet, leaving room for cookies to spread. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until tops of cookies are dry and spring back when touched lightly. Remove from baking sheet and cool on racks.

cookies au naturale

For quite a while now, I've been jonesing for some peanut butter cookies. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I had a fantastic peanut butter and chocolate cookie at the "Our Town Cafe" on E. Broadway. For the past week, I started looking for recipes but seeing that we only use natural peanut butter in this household, finding an exact recipe where I wouldn't have to make modifications became quite the chore. Tonight I settled on one that specifically called for natural peanut butter (a real rarity in peanut butter cookie land).

The cookies are in the oven as I type and they smell pretty damn delicious! The batter is pretty stiff and greasy. Depending on how these come out, I may half the amount of butter if I decided to make these again.

Natural Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 c butter
6 T brown sugar
6 T white sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1 c natural peanut butter
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter with brown and white sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in peanut butter, baking soda, and salt. Make sure it is well blended. Add flour and chocolate chips and mix to combine. Drop teaspoons of cookie dough then flatten with fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until it looks done. Don't overcook. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 -10 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

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Update: Well, the cookies turned out pretty good. They're quite filling and heavy but they are tasty. I'm interested to know of any great tried, tested and true natural peanut butter cookie recipes (or any other natural peanut butter baking recipes), so if you've got a favorite, please let me know!