Sweet Treats

Last weekend, and again this past weekend, Jeannette asked about the possibility of me making sweet treats for her to consumer.  For reasons that are unclear to me, I didn't quite get around to making anything particularly sweet to eat last weekend.

When the request was lodged again this weekend I decided that I couldn't put it off any longer, I was going to have to make something on the sweet side of things.

I turned to the Oh She Glows cookbook for inspiration.  Since my parents gave us a copy of this book last spring we've both found it to be a good source for relatively healthy recipes that taste good.  Because all of the recipes are also vegan it is particularly handy.

I soon settled on the Chilled Chocolate Espresso Torte at least in part because it called for 3/4 cup of hazelnuts, which we just happened to have in the cupboard.  Of course, what I didn't know when I settled upon this recipe was that the 'chilled' was really 'frozen' and that the while the prep time for this recipe wasn't all that bad, the final chill was to take some number of hours (like quite a number of hours).

Maybe this is why it is good to read the full recipe (and not just the ingredient list) before you settle on a recipe?

Anyway, before long I had the crust in the oven and was on to preparing the filling.  The only real delay was the baking of the crust, which was delayed by 30 to 45 minutes because our oven has started taking quite a long time to heat up.

Soon enough everything was assembled and the torte was in the freezer for the required chilling time.

When all was said and done that evening we were finally ready to sample the torte.  Much to my surprise, I was a little disappointed by the crust - which was definitely a little cardboardy.  Sadly, I think the my equipment and ingredients may be to blame - as the recipe made sense.  

On the equipment front, I think that even after about an hour in the oven I may not have really toasted the crust quite enough.  I suspect that this process didn't quite manage to impart the desired flavour.  Bummer.  

On the ingredient front, I had a sense that the oat flour I was using may have been a little off even before I used it.  Now I'm almost certain the oat flour is off.  Guess it's time for new oat flour.

That said, I think that possibly using granola instead of rolled oats might be a good improvement to the crust.  Jeannette and I agree that this might be a good way to add a little extra flavour to the dish without really adding much sugar (or other nutritional components we don't want).  Alternatively, we also wondered how this might work with a completely different crust?

Once I realized that I'd begun making a dish that wouldn't be ready for many hours I continued to flip through the cookbook a little more, this time settling on the 'Yolo' recipe.

What was striking about this recipe was the simple ingredient list, really just a handful of ingredients the primary being chocolate chips and dates.

The general premise of the recipe is a date-based faux-caramel enrobed in chocolate.

The date paste takes almost no time to make, though does require some chilling before it can be handled properly.  Even with this chilling I found working with the paste tricky.  I think that the next time I make this recipe I will opt for a much more extended chilling process, and I may even try to find a way to freeze the past in a shape that will be conducive to handling while almost frozen.

Once the date paste is in the desired shape (and chilled again) all you have to do is dip it in chocolate and let it cool.

The end product was amazing.  It was hard to believe it was date.  Had I been served this blind I never would have guessed that they were date based, or that they were so easy to make.  

On Sunday Jeannette finally talked me into making yeast-based doughnuts.  I'd long been putting these off because of the length of the process and because even a half batch of the Joy of Cooking recipe would leave us with about 12 doughnuts.

On the other side of the equation, I've long been curious to try making this style of doughnut (as I've always made cake doughnuts in the past).

Much to my surprise, the Joy of Cooking recipe was relatively easy to veganize.  I think that the only ingredients I had to swap out were the butter and eggs.  

Once I got going what I liked about the process is that though there were several stages, each stage was relatively discrete and simple.  In all, only a few minutes of labour was required before the donuts were to rolled and fried.

The downside of the process was that, like the torte, several hours of waiting are required before the product is ready.

Another downside is that even once we'd made it through all the waiting, the doughnuts were a little dense and fat-clogged.

At least they looked like doughnuts (once we figured out the glazing process).

While I'm glad to say that I went through this process once, I'm not sure I'll be too keen to do this again just to end up with a dozen greasy, not-to-pillowy doughnuts.

Fortunately, aside from the doughnuts, the first two dishes weren't too unhealthy, nor do they demand to be eaten within minutes of being made.

Cameron - 5
Neil - 0

PB & J Bread - 2

Even though I left the PB & J bread dough to rise for a few hours while Jeannette and I ran a few errands (we made it all the way to Greenwood and back) the dough didn't really rise very much.

After kneading the dough again I have now placed it in a slightly warmer location to rise a little more.  I am worried that at this rate not only will the bread not be ready for lunch, but it may not even be ready for dinner or even my evening snack.

Cameron: 17
Neil: 0

PB & J Bread - 1

Because of the success of my dream-inspired waterless pumpkin bread I have been thinking about other non-standard ingredients I might be able to incorporate in a bread recipe.

It really didn't take me all that long to realize that raspberries might be a good choice.  Not only are they full of liquid just waiting to be released, but with a little kneading they would evenly disburse through the dough.  It took me a few more days to realize that I could save myself some time at lunch if I added some peanut butter to the mix and just baked my sandwiches into my bread.

While it would be really great if I could make this a four ingredient bread (raspberries, peanut butter, yeast, and flour), but I think that to be on the safe side I will add a little extra gluten.

As you can see, things are looking pretty red/purple so far.


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Cameron: 15
Neil: 0

Vegans are my favourite vegetarians

I’m not always so hot on vegetarianism generally (especially those ‘vegetarian’ diets that consider fish to be an acceptable food for a vegetarian), but I tend to think that veganism is pretty great.  Not only have they fully committed to the ‘no animal products’ position, but so many of the foods I do my best to avoid are also avoided by vegans.  Because of these dietary similarities I always feel that I have a special bond with vegans and, thus, I do my best to accommodate their needs whenever I preparing foods for vegans.  Even if there are no vegans present, if I have prepared a vegan meal I will often make a point of announcing it to those present (and I will then try to remember the recipe in case I need to prepare food for a vegan in the future).

Given my feelings towards vegans I thought I should come up with a (hopefully only) mildly insulting and very personal list of the six best things about vegans/veganism.

6) Vegans tend to read labels and know what they are eating.  Though I don’t always do this myself, I am in favour of people being informed eaters.

5) Vegans take the heat for picky eaters.  If there is a vegan around I know they will make me look good because I won’t be the pickiest eater present.

4) Vegans never add unnecessary cheese or dairy products to recipes. 

3) Vegans never slip shrimp or the other invertebrate seafood into dishes. 

2) If there’s white stuff in a vegan dish I now that it isn’t mayonnaise, and this is good because mayonnaise is the grossest.

1) The best thing about vegans is that they never add honey to recipes as a sugar replacement.  Knowing that I never have to worry about this makes eating vegan deserts a real treat.

Another round two

During my recent hospital stay I had the pleasure of being served a pumpkin bran muffin. Almost as soon as I tasted this muffin I thought about trying to make a batch for myself. Sadly, the hospital didn't include the recipe, or even a list of ingredients, with the muffin.

Perhaps even more frustrating than the hospital's lack of diligence on the recipe front is that the web seems to have been flooded with recipes for pumpkin bran muffins that didn't appear to be what I was looking for (many had too much spice or other aspects that I found displeasing).

Anyway, after looking at about a dozen recipes for pumpkin bran muffins I thought that I had finally found one that would meet all of my needs. Yesterday morning I got up at about 6:00 AM and threw a batch together.

Not long after I took the muffins out of the oven for the first time I realized that I had a somewhat severe problem on my hands. The outer layer had developed a leathery texture. This problem was paired with another problem, the innards of the muffin were still relatively raw and doughy.

Though I did eat two of these muffins, they were basically inedible. The one aspect of the muffins that I did like was the level of spicing, which was minimal and not exclusively cinnamon (there was also a little ginger and nutmeg and there would have been allspice had I had any).

After this relatively disappointing failure I was still left with the better part of an open can of pumpkin puree so it was clear that another batch of these muffins would be in my future, though this time with a somewhat modified recipe.

Maybe it should have been obvious to me from the beginning, but while thinking through my first failure I realized that I might consider modifying the the recipe I normally use for bran muffins to accomodate the addition of pumpkin puree.

When I got down to doing an ingredient-by-ingredient examination of the recipe I determined realized that I would likely only have to make a few modifications the the recipe. The primary change would be exchanging the molasses and some of the milk for the pumpkin puree. I decided that I would also add the spicing component from the first recipe.

In the end the recipe I settled on in as follows:

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup wheat bran
3/4-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine the brown sugar and then add and mix the eggs, pumpkin puree, milk, and bran. Add the baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and flour and mix. Scoop into greased muffin tray (12 large/medium muffins) and bake at 400 F until done (probably between 15 to 20 minutes).

While I am not sure that this will be the definitive pumpkin bran muffin recipe for all time I am certainly pleased with the results and am inclined plan on using it when I next want to make pumpkin bran muffins.

Round Four

Well, it only took me four tries but I finally got it right, I finally made Afghans without really screwing up the recipe.

As usual, we have been really ploughing through these things. For some reason (I think it is because of their high nutritional value) I am more inclined to eat these than I am many of the other sweet baked goods that I make.

So if you are looking for a recipe that might eventually turn out well give Afghans a shot. And if they don't work the first time just try again, and again, and again.

Score
Cameron 34
Neil 0

Round Three

This summer I learned about a type of New Zealand cookie called Afghans through my friend Nicole's house's cooking blog. Almost immediately I was inclined to try the recipe. Almost immediately I managed to screw the recipe up (and then post about it).

A few days after my first failed attempt at Afghans I tried again. This time with a little more success. Actually, eventually I can to accept that this batch of cookies was pretty tasty. After a few more weeks of reflection I began to idealize these cookies. They seemed like the best cookies I had ever made. Why wasn't I making them more frequently?

When I saw whole walnuts on sale a few weeks ago I decided to buy them to encourage myself to get around to baking them again. Obviously, this tactic wasn't immediately effective.

Anyway, as today is a special someone's birthday I finally convinced myself that today would be a good day for me to bake these cookies (particularly as she really liked the second batch).

As the original form of the recipe called for ingredients to be measured by weight and as I received a new electric scale for Christmas that I had yet to use, I decided to weigh the ingredients I was going to use.

As this is was the first time I had ever weight ingredients, the process was slow. I definitely wasn't quite comfortable with how the whole thing was to work. Though with each ingredient I felt a little more comfortable.

Eventually I had some cookie dough and was ready to put the first tray in the oven.

While the first dozen cookies were in the oven I started to work on the icing, which is a nice thick, fudgey chocolate icing. As I was measuring the sugar I noticed that the quantity didn't seem quite right. After a little investigation I realized that I had failed to notice the decimal point and that I was trying to add one tenth the required volume.

In my defence, the digital scale's digital decimal point is a little lower than the base of the numbers. Furthermore, when one has things on the scale and is forced to look at the screen on an angle it can be difficult to see.

p

This discovery helped me understand why I had added so few cornflakes to the dough. Bummer.

I was able to take unbaked cookies and then add the additional cornflakes before baking them.

So, again I managed to screw this recipe up. Bummer.

Anyway, in the end I think they were edible.

At least everyone has been eating them and no one has died yet.

A Few Quick Notes 493

-For better or worse, since my last update, it has continued to snow. Because of the near-zero temperatures we haven't seem much accumulation since about the time of my last post.

-Earlier today a friend of mine asked for a recipe for some lentil stew that I made about a month ago. Of course instead of providing him with something I of a straight forward answer he got the following:

I don't happen to have the recipe on me at the moment (nor did I the last time I made it), but I am quite willing to try to re-create what it was I did.

The last time I made it I think that I didn't start by adding some onions and oil to the pot, but that is normally how I would start. From there I would add the potatoes and lentils. I base the number of potatoes on the size of the batch I want to make, so maybe 3-4 cubed potatoes. In terms of lentil volume, the original recipe called for next to no lentils, I like to add close to a cup, again, it is flexible. At this point I would also add water and seasoning. As far as seasoning goes, I use vegetable bouillon/stock and black pepper. I would use maybe two tablespoons of the powdered stuff and a teaspoon or so of pepper. Add enough water (or you could use liquid vegetable stock) to cover most of the ingredients. I would say that it is better to start with less water and add more later than too much and need to boil it off.

(I typically use green/brown lentils and let them soak for an hour or two before cooking. I have never used canned lentils, but I presume you could. If you use red lentils I don't think it is necessary to let them soak).

The original recipe calls for carrots and celery, and suggests that they should be added only at the end of the cooking period. I find this works, but many people don't really like almost raw celery and carrots in their stews so I tend to add these ingredients at about the same time as everything else. It should also be noted that basically any vegetables you want should work. (For instance, when you were there I left out the celery because I know Rebecca doesn't like it and replaced it with things like frozen beans and corn.)

The great thing about this recipe is that it is quick, unlike regular stew. In all you probably only need to cook this for about an hour.

I realize this description/recipe has been a bit rambling, so if you have any questions feel free to write back or call.

This was then supplemented with the following nugget:

Also, upon consideration 1 cup of lentils seems like a lot for 3-4 potatoes, I might dial that back a bit.

I am curious to hear how this turned out as these may be some of the least precise recipe instructions I have ever given anybody.

-Last night we managed to lose our ultimate game by a single point. Even more impressive than the margin of our defeat is the fact that the final point was scored with less than a second left on the clock. Bummer.

-This afternoon Jeannette talked me into going to see the movie Black Swan with her and a few of her friends. While I will give this thing credit for being well acted and, at least as far as I could tell, technically well crafted, the experience was somewhat less than enjoyable. Maybe I am just turning into my father, but I really am not too interested watching someone self-destruct on screen, no matter how artfully it is done.

-My pea/lentil soup and bread should be ready for consumption shortly. After dinner I will have to be sure to get back to work.

Newfoundland Bread

So, I guess it was only a matter of time, but last night I decided that I would have to give Newfoundland Bread (AKA Pepsi bread) a try this morning.

As my brief search of the internet didn't turn up any recipes I had to design something myself. Given that this is my first try, I thought that I would stick to a relatively simple recipe/approach - basically my normal approach to white bread but with Pepsi (meaning that no sugar would be needed).

For those of you who are interested, the recipe I settled on eventually was as follows:

1 tin of Pepsi (room temperature)
maybe 2 teaspoons of yeast
maybe 2 tablespoons of butter
about 4 cups of flour

The Pepsi was poured into a large mixing bowl. The yeast and butter were then added to the Pepsi. The flour, basically enough to make a sturdy dough, was added and then kneaded until the dough was relatively firm. The dough was then set aside to rise. I put the dough in a warm oven to help speed things up. Once rise, the dough should be again kneaded and then formed and placed in the desired baking vessel. Bake at 350 F until done.

It should be noted that this does not appear to be a fast rising bread, I am starting to think that the Pepsi may have reacted badly with the yeast. I guess this outcome isn't too surprising. For a while I was thinking that I should consider using flat Pepsi - but then I decided to just go for it and see what happened.

Another thing that I feel that I should note is that throughout the entire process the dough has had something of a distinct smell. Basically, as far as I can tell, this is a Pepsi in dough smell and nothing particularly odd. That being said, I did expect that this smell might have dissipated during the baking process.

Fortunately, strange smells aside, the bread seems to have turned out quite nicely. The resulting loaf is very well formed and pleasant looking. Did I not know that the bread had Pepsi at its core I wouldn't be able to sense that their was anything unusual about this loaf of bread.

Of course, the entire process was also documented on film (or the inexpensive digital version of film) and then turned into a "how to" video so that the entire world will have the inside dope on how to make this recipe.



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While this dough was rising Neil, Rebecca and I were sitting around thinking about other variations on this theme. Both of them seemed to like the idea of energy drink bread. So, if they are lucky, we may have another ridiculous batch of bread coming our way shortly.

What were they supposed to look like?

This morning, while working my way through the posts that accumulated in my RSS reader overnight, I came across a post on my friend Nicole's house's food blog. The post dealt with the making of Afghans, a type of cookie that is popular in New Zealand. Immediately upon reading the post (and the linked recipe) I decided that given the limited number of ingredients required I would give them a shot.

The first problem that I encountered was that the recipe that I had called for ingredients to be measured by weight and I did not have access to a functional kitchen scale. After a little searching I found a few recipes online that seemed similar in ingredient proportions to the one that I first examined. Eventually I settled on something of a hybrid of a few of the recipes (strangely I didn't choose the one that was entirely in units that I could actually measure).

After a few minutes in the mixer it was clear that the dough that I was in the midst of creating was not turning out like other cookie doughs that I have made. The dough seemed particularly heavy on sugar and butter and light on things like flour (or other ingredients that would diminish the 'melting' effect). Of course this effect was likely compounded by the fact that I, almost consciously, confused ounces as a measure of volume with ounces as a measure of weight (a problem that contributed to to the imbalance between the butter and the flour).

Given my unfamiliarity with the recipe I decided to just trudge along and bake the dough that I had in front of me, even though over-melting seemed like a very real possibility. I guess at this point I could have added a little more flour to stiffen things up, but I decided not to as it seemed likely that this batch of cookies was already beyond repair (it is rather unfortunate when you have written off a baking project before anything has even been put in the oven).

Not surprisingly, my greatest fears about the outcome of my cookies were confirmed when the first tray was removed from the oven. The cookies, which were supposed to be ball-shaped, melted into thin disks that were unmovable while hot. Given my lack of access to magic and my unwillingness to resort to additional flour, when the second tray came out of the oven it exhibited similar problems. Fortunately, once cooled, I was able to get most of each cookie from the trays to a cooling rack (though all cookies showed at least some signs of damage).

Sadly, or maybe happily, the icing I made to accompany these cookies turned out quite nicely. Of course because of the brittleness and poor quality of the cookies I didn't ice all of them, or even most of them.

So now I have most of a batch of good(ish) chocolate icing and similar portion of a batch of poor chocolate cookies. I guess the final upside is that our contribution to this week's compost collection will be larger than it otherwise might have been (though as I am sure that we are the apartment that contributes the most already this additional contribution won't be much appreciated by our neighbours).

Amazingly, though I am not sure if it is because of or in spite of today's failure, I am quite tempted to try Afghans again. The original blog post (and that the recipe calls for corn flakes) is still tempting me as much now as it did this morning. Hopefully in round two, if there is a round two, I will be wise enough to at least use a recipe that provides quantities of ingredients in units that I can create rather than units at which I have to guess. I guess the other thing that I could do is try to convert this motivation to bake into a desire to bake bread (as we all know that stuff is almost impossible to screw up, or at least be in a position where a fix isn't possible).

End of Term Essay Recipe

1 to 2 dozen nouns
3-6 handfuls verbs
3 adjectives
14 cups of prepositions
articles to taste

Place the prepositions in a pot on the stove and set the heat to medium. While the prepositions are warming rub each now with a verb, switching to a new verb once the old one wears out (about every four nouns). Place the verb coated nouns in a bowl. Juice the adjectives over the verb coated nouns and then stir. Add articles to taste. Once the prepositions have reached a boil begin to add the noun mix, lower the heat, and allow the combination to simmer. After 1 to 2 hours remove the pot from the burner and allow to chill. Once chilled, the mixture can be poured into an essay mould. Each batch will enough essay content for about four term papers. Typically, a quadruple batch is sufficient for most masters thesis moulds. No matter which mould size is being used at least one night is required for the mixture to properly set. Garnish with punctuation if desired.

Chef's tips:
1) Modal verbs add a nice piquancy that cannot be replicated by any other type of verb.
2) If making enough for a Ph.D. thesis be sure to add a few extra adjectives and nouns to each batch.

A Few Quick Notes 300

-We had another rather overcast day in Halifax, fortunately this wasn't accompanied by much precipitation. Hopefully the forecast isn't accurate and we won't have another few days of gray before we see the sun again.

-A few days ago I planted a few tomato seeds. As we haven't had much sun and as I had stashed the pots in the back of my room I was imagining that I had wasted the seeds. Just as this thought was beginning to take hold I noticed that several of the seeds had started to grow. At the moment I can see the early stages of four relatively undeveloped tomato plants. I wonder if me moving them from the back of my room to a position by the window help? I can't imagine that it did much harm.

I am hoping that a few more plants will become visible in the coming days. I think it might be a little over ambitious for me to expect that all 12-15 of the seeds that I planted result in full-fledged tomato plants, particularly given the conditions.

-As is their habit, my bean plants are continuing to grow at an excruciatingly slow pace. I really don't quite understand why it is that they are growing so much more slowly than the other bean plants. Anyway, I guess I should just be happy that they are continuing to grow.

-Earlier today McGill called to solicit a donation from me. While I am not particularly surprised that they are trying to get donations from me already, I am a little surprised that they have my number in Halifax. I guess I must have made the mistake of giving it to them, but I don't know when or why I would have.

-We had beans with vegetables and corn bread for dinner tonight. By cutting the meat from our meal I kept the total cost of the meal quite low, though surely the corn bread hiked things up a little. I might have some leftover rice and beans as a snack later tonight.

-A few days ago a friend of mine mentioned that she recently made a chocolate raspberry cake and that it turned out quite well. I was immediately quite tempted and asked for the recipe. Of course, once I had the idea in my head I couldn't get myself to wait for her to respond so I scoured the hinternet looking for a recipe for such a cake that didn't require me to head to the grocery store. After a little searching I found such a recipe.

While reading the recipe I noticed that the contributor mentioned that they hadn't made the recipe themselves, but that they had consumed it. This should have been a bit of a tip-off that this likely wasn't the recipe for me. Not only was the recipe somewhat misleading about how much batter would be produced, but also about how much baking soda should be used. I am pretty sure that the recipe called for about twice as much as should have been used.

While the cake is quite edible, I am quite sure that it would be possible to make a chocolate raspberry cake that is much better. Maybe this will teach me a lesson about waiting for tested recipes.

-For a reason unbeknownst to me, I have had the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" stuck in my head for the past number of months.

-We have received quite a number of phone calls in the past few days. If this keeps up I might be inclined to take the phone of the hook for a few hours a day.

Improbable and fun recipes

Recently, I ended up cataloging a few cookbooks, most of which were
prepared by government and focused on traditional Newfoundland dishes
and ingredients (the one on Microwave cooking being a notable
exception). During the cataloging process I had a chance to look
through these books and stumbled on several improbable and strange
recipes, edited versions of several such recipes are included below.

Broiled Grapefruit

2 large grapefruit, halved
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 Tsp. cinnamon

Halve grapefruit. Melt butter and then add sugar and cinnamon, pour
on grapefruit halves. Microwave on high for 6-7 minutes. Garnish as
desired.

A co-worker and I were how readily available grapefruit was at the
time this book was published.

Dandelion Wine

3 quarts Dandelion blooms
1 gallon boiling water
3 lemons
1 orange
3 pounds sugar
1/2 cake yeast
1 slice toast

Pour boiling water over dandelion blooms and let stand overnight.
Strain bloom mixture and add the juice of the lemons and orange and
the sugar. Boil for half an hour then cool. Spread the yeast on
toast and add to cooled liquid. Allow fermentation. Bottle
appropriately when fermentation ceases.

If there were any dandelion blooms around right now I would be very
tempted to try this. Maybe I will remember next spring and try to
make some dandelion wine then.

Does anyone know where I might find yeast in cakes?

Blueberry Wine

2 quarts blueberries
4 quarts boiling water
6 cups sugar
3 cups prunes

Add berries to the pot of boiling water, keep the pot on the stove
until the water returns to a boil before straining. Add sugar and
boil for 5 minutes. Cool and add prunes. Place liquid in a jar and
let it stand for 2 months before bottling.

I keep wondering what causes the fermentation is this recipe as it
doesn't call for yeast. Is it possible that the prunes are the key?

Salt Pork Buns

1 cup salt pork, finely chopped
4 cups flour
8 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. margarine
1/2 c. molasses
1 1/2 c. water

Fry out salt pork to make scrunchions. Add margarine to combined dry
ingredients. Add scrunchions to mixture and mix well. Combine
molasses and water before adding to flour mixture. Mix. Roll the
dough to a ½ inch thickness. Cut desired shapes and place on floured
baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 15 minutes.

As off-putting as salt pork might seem in a desert, I might be
tempted to give these a try. A salt pork Christmas cake that I made
last year worked out quite well, even if the ingredients were a little
hard to come by.

By the way, if anyone tries any of these I would be interested in
hearing how they turned out. I am particularly interested in getting
a report on the Broiled Grapefruit.