Sorbet Season!

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

While this summer in San Francisco has hardly been warm, we've still had a lot of beautiful fruit readily available to us. I love a good Farmers Market & I try to go to Heart of the City Farmers Market weekly. The prices are incredible, I can often stock my home with fruits & vegetables for under $10.

The arrival of an Ice Cream Maker & the large stock of fruit around my home has yielded a wonderful thing; SORBET! I'm not normally a fruit dessert kind of gal, but sorbet is so tasty & guilt free, I consider it a post-dinner refreshment!

It all started with the Lemon Sorbet I blogged about previously, it was so simple & delicious, I was instantly hooked!

My second attempt was a Peach Sorbet, with a mix of white & yellow peaches from a local farm. It was light & delicious, I'll definitely be making this again in the near future!

Next, I made a Cantaloupe Sorbet, mainly for myself, as my other taste testers aren't fans of melon. It was mild & refreshing not too sweet, but not bland either. I think there's serious potential in melons for sorbet.

Due to having a husband who would eat peanut butter in any capacity, some gelato snuck it's way in! I made him a Peanut Butter Gelato with THIS recipe, but used part light coconut milk, part vanilla soy milk. I also added a pinch of cinnamon & a bit of melted chocolate for and extra kick! It was creamy & light, but I feel like the nutty flavor could stand out more. I'll be trying this one again with more peanut butter.

I was given a sample of Asian Pear at the Farmers Market & they were so sweet & crunchy I had to buy some! They translated well to a sorbet, although the texture was a bit gritty. Luckily, the flavor of the sorbet was so gorgeous, the texture was hardly an issue. I think this could be great for a dinner party, a fun way to serve something a bit untraditional.

Some oranges had been sitting around the house, so I decided we needed another round of sorbet tonight! The Orange Sorbet was amazingly good, although I may have put a bit too much juice in it, as it didn't all want to freeze & melted quickly. From what I can tell, fruits with texture seem to work better than pure fruit juice.

What I love about sorbet is the ease of making it, many times I don't plan these ahead, I just decide before dinner to make it & prep it right before I cook. Once we're eating, I pour everything in to the ice cream maker & it's done by the time we've cleaned our plates!

a Basic Sorbet
Ingredients:
Fruit of your choice (2 to 3 whole fruits, half a melon or large fruit, or 5 or so smaller fruits such as lemons, a handful or two of berries)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 to 1 lemon

Instructions:
In a small pot, heat 1/2 cup of water & 1/4 cup of sugar until the sugar dissolves.
Remove from the heat & let it cool for a bit.

Wash, peel, cut, & puree the fruits of your choice in a food processor. (If using berries, strain the seeds, if desired.)

Pour the water-sugar mixture in to the pureed fruit, stir.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon in to your mixture, stir.

Taste your mixture, it should be quite sweet, if not "too sweet".
Add more lemon, if needed.

Once the mixture is to your taste, put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour, until it is cool. (You can skip this, but the sorbet will take longer to form & the results may not be as desired.)

Pour the mixture in to your ice cream maker & follow the manufacturers instructions.

This yields 4 small servings or 2 average servings.

My Notes:
It's all about experimenting with combinations & your personal taste. I like to use less sugar & put in additional lemon juice for sweetness, but many people use equal amount of water & sugar. Lemon also helps bring out flavor in the milder fruits, such as melon, so even if you make yours with more sugar, it's still a good idea to add a tablespoon of lemon juice. On the other hand, if you put too little sugar, the sorbet may be icy. Ice Cream Makers produce a soft serve sort of frozen dessert. A great way to firm up your sorbet is to move it to a storage container & put it in the freezer. Some sorbets tend to get icy or chunky if frozen, if this happens, leave it out to thaw a bit before eating. Enjoy!

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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!

Vegan Food Fever!

Never fear, my friends, despite being busy I've still been baking & of course, I cook dinner just about every night. Lately the baking & cooking have gone a different direction, VEGAN! I've always been a herbivore in the kitchen with my meals, I love having a plant based diet & tend not to rely on processed foods to bulk things up, but my baking is typically traditional & not bashful with butter, eggs, & milk. I've had bad luck with vegan baked goods I've purchased, many of them too dry or too oily & I think many others have had this issue as well, which has scared them off. Well, I'm here to tell you- it can be done & it can be done WELL!

I was partially inspired by a trip to Sidecar for Pigs Peace in Seattle, the 100% vegan store benefiting Pigs Peace Sanctuary. While there I picked up Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly & The Damn Tasty Vegan by Kris Holechek, as well as other fun items. Both books have a plethora of great recipes & ways to veganize classic desserts, quick breads, cookies & other gems.

Additionally, Celine at Have Cake Will Travel always has fabulous vegan foods on her blog, so I've been dying to make some of her treats. I'm geared up to try some of her recipes soon & I know we're all looking forward to her upcoming recipe zine!

So, what have I been making?

This weekend they were showing 16 Candles for movie night in Dolores Park. We went to meet friends for a pre-movie potluck with a mixed audience of vegans & non. I wanted to make things everyone can eat, especially as the vegans tend to get very limited options. I made Potato & Pea Samosas, which were delicious! For dessert, I tried to replicate the Maple Butter Bars from Flying Apron bakery, only with a brown sugar crumble topping & I made Fudge from Sinfully Vegan. I also attended a birthday party that same night & brought desserts to the fabulous birthday girl, Megan! Everything turned out very well & I think I have some new favorite recipes!

Monday, I noticed I had excess bananas, so I decided to make muffins. Of course, I can't just leave a recipe alone, so they became Banana Cocoa Cinnamon Muffins.

The recipe was pretty basic:
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour (I used 1 cup all purpose, 1/4 cup whole wheat)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
I added approximately 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa & 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another, mix them together & bake at 350 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes.
Voilà! You have chewy, dense banana bread muffins! You could also lighten them up with some whole wheat pastry flour if you prefer a fluffy muffin.
I made them in an extra large muffin tin, so it yielded 6 large muffins of joy. Additionally, this recipe is pretty low calorie, even in the large muffin size, they were just under 250 calories each. If you made minis, you'd have great little lo-cal snacks! yum yum.

After I made the muffins, I found out some friends were passing through town, so I sprung to action & pulled together some Peanut Butter Cookies from Sinfully Vegan & another round of fudge, this time with added cocoa, because I am a glutton like that. My husband LOVED the cookies & is already asking for another batch. I thought they could use some sugar, as they were sweetened by maple syrup & on the crunchy side. The friends were fans of the fudge & enjoyed the muffins as well, so I sent them off with a goody bag, so we couldn't consume it all ourselves!

My many trips to Rainbow Grocery & Co-Op have resulted in a new love for bulk bins & trying new things. I brought home some lentils recently & decided to try using them last night. I scoured the internet for recipes & decided to use the red split lentils to make a curry dish. As usual, I couldn't stick to one recipe, so I combined a few, plus came up with my own ideas, especially since I wanted to use a bunch of fresh vegetables we had on hand. Red bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, & garlic started off our journey, red lentils, vegetable stock, tomato sauce, turmeric, cayenne pepper, & curry powder continued it & eventually we had a curry that would make Baby Jesus weep with joy! I'm not often impressed by my own work, but this was GOOD, really good. Lentils & curries are going to be a new staple in this house. I'm also excited that the 1st two Indian dishes I've ever made turned out so wonderfully! woo.

In addition to all of the above, there's been a lot of vegan cupcake baking with my favorite vegan psychopath Laura & the darling & sassy Megan. Sadly, this has not yielded nearly as many photos as cupcakes, but here's two vanilla-vanilla cuties we made tonight. These do not taste like cornbread, thankyouverymuch. Come hang with us, we'll force feed you many delicious cupcakes & show you what vegan baking is all about!

What's your favorite vegan dish? Do you have a favorite flavorful recipe? Share with me!

I was asked to make a vegetarian dish for my Grandmother's upcoming 70th birthday party & I really want to blow them away & let them know just how good food is without the use of animals! I have a few ideas & I know I don't want to use any faux meat, but I'm looking for more opinions & suggestions. Let me know what you would feed to the meat eaters in your life to knock their socks off!