October Celebrations, a trip to Seattle, & delicious Peanut Butter Caramel!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

Oh Fall! I’m not sure I’m ready for you, but here you are! It’s odd, in San Francisco the temperature seems to rise in October giving us 70 degree days, then they drop off to the consistent 55 degrees we’ll see for the next few months. I’m in New York City right now & it’s definitely Fall. We started with some rain & now the temperature has dropped to the mid-40s. I would almost say the heated subways feel good!

Another installation of the brunch cartel occurred awhile back & once again there was no shortage of amazing food! I utilized the apples I picked & made an apple crumble with a toasted hazelnut topping. I made sure to include all the varieties, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, & Fuji. The crumble was great & with the toasted hazelnuts, I was very happy with the outcome! In fact, I wish I had some right now for this cool fall day! I also used the apples to make a vinegar-based slaw with apples cut into matchsticks, plus cabbage & other vegetables. The rest of the crew spoiled us with Vegan McMuffins, Pumpkin Waffles, a Frittata, Home Fries, Biscuits & Gravy, Blueberry Mousse, & Poha, an Indian puffed rice snack. Needless to say, my plate & belly were quite full!

Ryan & I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary at the beginning of October. We kicked off the celebration with a night at Millennium Restaurant for the Aphrodisiac Dinner, which was fabulous! We shared a butterscotch pecan tartlette that seriously rocked my world. On our anniversary, Ryan had to take a business trip, but he was able to get home late that night, so I made a Chicago-style deep dish pizza, inspired by Bazu. For dessert, I made Isa’s Smlove Pie, a rich bittersweet chocolate pie, layered with peanut butter caramel, candied pecans, & drizzled with chocolate. While we loved the whole thing, the peanut butter caramel was the stand out in the dish! It was excellent on the pie, but would also be excellent on ice cream or anything you’d use a caramel sauce for. Additionally, it’s easy to make & you should do so, right away.

Peanut Butter Caramel
Ingredients:
1/3 cup peanut butter at room temperature, preferably natural.
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons brown rice syrup

Instructions:
Add all of the ingredients to a small sauce pan.

Gently heat everything over low heat, stirring constantly, just smooth & heated through.

The consistency should be somewhat thick, but fluid & will fall from a fork in ribbons. If it's too stiff, turn the heat off & add a bit more brown rice syrup. Different peanut butters have different moisture content, so adjust accordingly.

As I mentioned, we loved the peanut butter caramel & men love peanut butter, so I used it in birthday cupcakes for Ryan’s brother. I’m always trying to think of new cupcake combinations & settled on rich chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter caramel & topped with chocolate ganache! They turned out quite well & were quickly devoured by all I offered them to.

That being said, I’m a perfectionist with my baked goods, so I’m still trying to find my favorite chocolate cake recipe. I think I’m quite close, but I’d love suggestions from others as to their favorites. I’m looking for something with deep chocolate flavor, but not too dense in texture, even a bit fluffy. So far, the cocoa based cakes I’ve made & sampled have been a bit bland, but maybe I haven’t had the right recipe. Bring on the recommendations, please!

October also brought on a job in Seattle, a great Vegan friendly city. I made sure to squeeze in some extra time there, so I could eat my way across town. I went to my favorite spot, Sidecar for Pigs Peace to pick up some groceries for workdays. I also went to Carmelita, Araya Thai, & seriously enjoyed a snickerdoodle cookie at Cinnamon Works in Pike Place Market. I was thrilled to see I had food options, even when the crew stopped at Bainbridge Island on the way to Olympic National Park, although Elise & I were content with lovin' on some broccoli!
Of course, no trip to Seattle is complete without going to donut mecca, Mighty O! I couldn’t resist the many types, so I bought a large assortment & brought them home to enjoy in bed with Ryan on a cold Saturday morning. Does it get any better than that?!

Well, I’m back to my insane food fest in NYC. I’ve sampled goods all over town & I’m preparing to bring you the low down on the best eats & treats of NYC in a future post. Until then..

Chocolate Peanut Butter Filled Whoopie Pies & Sweets for my Sweet (chocolate peanut butter, of course)!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

As I've mentioned many times, I love to bake for others. In fact, nothing I make is for myself, it's always to share! I try to keep busy & attend events almost every weekend, so my baking is always for others & I like it that way. One such event was a board game night a few weeks back, of course I volunteered to make treats. A bit burnt out on cupcakes (gasp!), I scoured the internet for a fun treat to bring that was more exciting than cookies, but still individual servings. I happened upon the perfect item, Kittee's Chocolate Peanut Butter filled Whoopie Pies! I can't help but tinker with recipes, so my changes are noted with a star & listed as optional.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa
dash of salt
1 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup Spectrum Brand non-hydrogenated shortening
1/4 cup applesauce mixed with a 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup warm water
*1 teaspoon Instant Espresso Powder (optional)
*2 teaspoons semi-sweet chocolate, melted & cooled (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375F.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cocoa, espresso powder, and salt; set aside. (I like to sift my dry ingredients together, but it's your call!)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, shortening, and applesauce/baking powder mixture & beat for about 2 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients, milk & water into the wet mixture & beat at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add vanilla & melted chocolate and beat again until mixture is thoroughly blended, but do not over beat, it will be moderately thick.

Using a small ice cream scoop or large spoon, drop by rounded tablespoons onto a Silpat or un-greased non-stick cookie sheet leaving room for the pies to spread. Smooth out the tops of your scoops, as this will affect the aesthetic of your pies.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the center springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick comes out clean. These are very cake like in texture, be careful not to over bake them.

Let them cool for a few minutes, then remove them from the cookie sheet to cool on wire racks. They need to cool completely before the peanut butter filling can be spread on.

Peanut Butter Filling
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons soy milk

Instructions:
In a large bowl, beat together Earth Balance and peanut butter.

Add the confectioners' sugar and slowly add the soy milk, beating with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add more milk if needed, then beat at high speed until light and fluffy.

Assemble your Whoopie Pies!
Take one cookie & spread a layer of peanut butter filling in the center, not quite touching the ends, apply another cookie on top & you're golden! woo.

This yields around 16 whoopie pies, depending on the size of your ice cream scoop.

My Notes:
These were delicious & people instantly requested I make them again. The recipe I posted above is halved from the original since it yielded around 35 whoopie pies & I felt like I was assembling them for days! I added the instant espresso powder & melted chocolate to add depth & flavor, as I tend to find cocoa based recipes a bit bland. I noticed the photos of Kittee's pies almost look like french macarons! Mine were much flatter & spread more than I expected, but we're still lovely little fluffy little cakes of joy. Shortly after I made these, the hot ladies at Bake & Destroy Flickr pool started discussing & baking their own versions. Great minds think alike! By the way, Kittee's recipe site & Kittee's blog contain a wealth of information, do yourself a favor & check them out!


Awhile back Ryan & I celebrated another anniversary, 9 years of dating. While most people stop celebrating dating anniversaries once they're married, we thought 9 years was something worth a mention & used it as an excuse to get out of town for a weekend. On a photo shoot, someone had mentioned their friend gave her husband a gift called "Dessert of the Month" & every month he could pick any dessert he wanted & she would make it for him, no questions asked. For our dating anniversary, I decided Ryan should be given the gift of a dessert of his choice every month. The man loves anything peanut butter & chocolate, so his first choice was hardly a shock, Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches. These were inspired by Celine, especially since I was given similar ice cream sandwich molds shortly after her post.

The cookies are straight from Celine's post with a bit of espresso powder added. For the filling, I used a previous recipe I've mentioned for Peanut Butter Gelato, but upped the peanut butter content, threw in a smidgen of agave nectar, & used half almond milk to make sure the ice cream would be nutty & rich! The ice cream was wonderful & we were happy to have some leftover from the sandwiches to cover in Ricemallow & melted chocolate! There was also spaces left between the animal cookie cutter shapes, so I made mini chocolate heart cookies to send with Ryan for work snacking. Ice cream sandwiches are fun to make & went over VERY well, I recommend making these, they keep well for a good amount of time in the freezer, individually wrapped. By the way, are animal shaped foods still vegan? hehe.

I'm pretty sure he's going to ask for something chocolate-peanut butter every month. While the rules stated I wouldn't object to his choices, I must admit I've tried to influence him by sending links & begging him not to request plain peanut butter cookies. I was hoping he'd GO BIG, but that doesn't look to be the case, as he wants peanut butter cups this month. *sigh*

By the way, I'll be working in Seattle next week.

I've been to some great places there, but I'm always looking for more recommendations on places to see, events to attend, bands to check out, & even people to dine with! Feel free to post a comment or get in touch!

Lolo's Baked Vegan Donuts, Glazed or Chocolate covered!

Please head over to my new blog at TheUrbanHousewife.com, where you'll find this post & more!

Last weekend, I attended a fabulous potluck organized through Yelp called the "Vegan Brunch Cartel". Although all food had to be vegan, it was attended by a great group of folks, both vegan & non.

I debated what to bring, as the first edition yielded some dishes people were still raving about as the 2nd one was organized. A mention of donuts was received with fanfare, so I started my search for the perfect recipe.

This recipe comes from the amazing Lolo at VeganYumYum! Do yourself a favor & check out her blog & recipes NOW. I voted for her in the 2007 Veggie Awards & she has an upcoming cookbook I'm excited to get my hands on!

Lolo's Baked Vegan Donuts
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 shake of cinnamon (I was out of nutmeg, so I used all cinnamon & more than a shake!)
1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Egg replacer for 1 egg (I used Ener-G Egg Replacer.)
4 tablespoons Earth Balance or other vegan margarine

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350º F.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk to mix thoroughly.

In a small saucepan, combine wet ingredients over medium low heat & mix until margarine is melted. You should be able to stick your finger in the mixture without burning yourself. Don't make this too hot for the dough!

Add wet to dry & mix until just combined, forming a soft spongy dough.

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough into an ungreased nonstick mini donut pan & smooth out the tops of them. If using a regular sized donut pan (like I did), fill them until just below the rim. Make sure not to overfill them or they'll have uneven muffin tops. If you under fill them, they'll be skimpy, but still edible.

Bake them for 12 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Invert the hot pan over a cooling rack to release the donuts & allow them to cool completely before decorating.

This will yield 20 mini donuts or 6 to 8 large donuts.
If you don't have a donut pan, you can bake them as donut holes in the bottom of a mini muffin pan or make fun shapes in those molded silicone pans!

Glaze for Donuts & other confections
Ingredients:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon soy milk
my additions:
a splash of vanilla (optional)
a bit of agave nectar (optional)

Instructions:
Whisk all of the ingredients together.

Dip half of the donut into the glaze, let some drip off, then dip glaze-side down into sprinkles.

Transfer the donuts to a wire rack with parchment paper underneath, the excess glaze will drip through the rack onto the paper for easy cleaning later.

My Notes:
This makes a great all-purpose glaze for treats! I added vanilla & agave nectar for some extra sweetness & gloss, but it's good without them as well.

Chocolate topping for Donuts
Ingredients:
Your favorite vegan chocolate, approximately 6 ounces. (I use E. Guittard Semisweet chocolate.)

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler & remove from the heat being careful not to get water in the chocolate.

Dip your donuts into the chocolate until completely covered & place on a wire rack to drip off excess chocolate.

My Notes:
I found the dipping process to be a bit awkward, some of my donuts didn't want to leave the glaze & chocolate easily, so I was afraid they'd break! In the end, I took my offset spatula & glazed them thickly, letting the excess drip off the sides, then threw sprinkles on top. This worked best for me, but you may like the ease & speed of dipping them.

I tried two donut recipes, hoping to bring chocolate cake donuts as well, but the results of the other recipe (from a vegan cookbook) were not to my standards, so I did not bring them along. In the end, I was very happy with Lolo's donuts & will definitely make them again! I had extras, so I dipped them lightly in agave nectar, then coated them with a cinnamon-sugar blend; so delicious!

The Vegan Brunch Cartel was a total success! Not only was the food delicious, but the people were entertaining & the Victorian house it was held in was gorgeous. An open kitchen & vintage stove complete with 6 burners & a hot plate allowed dishes to be made right before the meal, as we all stood around & chatted. Cinnamon rolls, blueberry corn pancakes, samosas, apple brown betty, home fries, french toast, & "egg" salad sandwiches flowed freely; we were all stuffed! If you're ever in San Francisco, get in touch, if one of these events is happening, you shouldn't miss it!