Abbe's Apple Crunch Delight

The following recipe is a creation from my fellow-dancer friend Abbe. 

It is no secret that the combination of nuts and apples is such a classic and time-tested duet of flavors. (Just think of peanut butter and apples). By adding a smidgen of cinnamon sugar and honey, there is a pleasant sweetness drawn out of the apples that makes the perfect healthy dessert. A bit of oats makes this reminiscent of an apple pie, without the guilt inducing butter. 

 

Abbe's Apple Crunch Delight 

Topping

2 cups of mixed nuts (pecans, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds)

1 cup oats

1/4 cup almond milk

4 squares of graham crackers

Drizzle

Extra oats

3 tablespoons honey

Filling 

2 chopped Fuji apples

3 tablespoons cinnamon

3 tablespoons sugar

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Pulse topping ingredients in a blender or food processor to a mush-like texture. 

Take apple chunks and coat in the cinnamon and sugar.

Grease a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray. Pour apple mixture into the pan. 

Pour the "mush" over the apples. Top with "Drizzle" ingredients. 

Place the cake pan in the oven and bake for around 40 minutes, or until the apples are tender and browned. 

Serve warm and a la mode. 

Chocolate Orange Scone Cookies

In an effort to prepare for the upcoming Easter weekend, I wanted to get a head start on my sweet tooth mania. After acquiring a delicious bag of Dove dark chocolate nuggets and a big bag of quick cooking oats,  I decided to do a little improvisation on a recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance. 

The result was a hybrid between a cookie and a scone, hence, the creation of the scone-cookie. The baked good is not as dense as the traditional scone, but definitely as flat as a cookie. I do enjoy the hard, crunchy coating because it easily allows the eater to pull off the top, much like a muffin cap, (which everyone knows is the best part). 

Though these are peculiar goodies, I think they are an eclectic addition to any brunch get together, and will have guests pondering with amazement how such a texture could have been achieved. 

Chocolate Orange Scone Cookies

makes around 15 

 2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cups almond milk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/3 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup quick oats

1/4 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons grated orange

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup chopped dark chocolate

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. 

Add the almond milk and the lemon juice together. Let sit for 5 minutes. 

In large mixing bowl sift flour, sugar, baking powder, oats and salt. Add the milk-lemon mixture to the dry ingredients. Add orange zest, vanilla extract, oil and applesauce. Stir in dark chocolate. 

Place tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle the tops with sugar. 

Bake around 20 minutes, until golden brown. Keep an eye on them so the bottoms do not burn!

Bake for around 20 minutes. 

Mexican Wedding Cookies

It is rare that any type of butter is ever in my refrigerator, let alone a large block of it staring me in the face. Leftover from the Birthday Frittata ingredients, I wanted to use up the butter in a delicious, tried and true cookie recipe. 

After researching several recipes, I thought, who better to create a butter-based cookie than Food Network's one and only Paula Deen! I was partial to Mexican Wedding Cookies not only because of their melt-in-your mouth texture, but because they require very few ingredients. Her recipe calls for 1 cup of finely chopped pecans, but I omitted them so nothing would get in the way of them dissolving in my mouth. 

Don't you feel more Latin already? Ole'!

Mexican Wedding Cookies

yields 2 dozen cookies

1 cup butter

1/2 cup confectioners sugar plus more for rolling

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. 

Cream the butter and the sugar. Add in the vanilla while stirring the mixture. Gradually add in the flour and stir until combined. The dough should be sticky, but mine was a little too dry at this point so I added a tiny splash of milk. 

Form 1 inch balls from the dough, and place on a greased cookie sheet. They hardly spread so they can be spaced relatively close together. 

Bake for around 40 minutes until golden. 

When they are cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in confectioners sugar to coat. 

Bacon Cheddar Birthday Frittata

Although I advocate baking vegan,  sometimes a full on indulgence is a very good thing! My roommate is not very into sweets, so for his birthday my friend Abbe and I decided to make him a bacon cheddar frittata! Although this was my first time making both bacon and a frittata, it turned out to be quite a success! Both savory and fluffy, this egg-based dish will hopefully hit the spot whenever my roommate pines for something delicious. 

Happy frittata-ing!

Bacon Cheddar Frittata

serves many!

1 dozen eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 a red onion

4 baby yukon potatoes 

1 package of bacon

1/4 cup cooking oil

6 tablespoons butter

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, plus more for sprinkling on top

1 1/2 tablespoon sea salt to taste

1 tablespoon pepper

Grease a casserole dish VERY well with cooking spray and butter. 

Heat the oil and 3 tablespoons butter on medium high heat in a large skillet. Place bacon strips in the oil and fry until golden brown and crispy on the edges. Remember to flip them during the cooking process so they are evenly browned. Remove strips with a spoon and let drain on paper towels. 

Crack all of the 12 eggs into a large bowl. Whisk in the milk and add the cheddar. Whisk all the ingredients together until well blended. Add salt and pepper to the mixture. 

Pour out some of the bacon oil, and add the remaining butter. Chop the onions and potatoes into bite-size pieces and add to the skillet. Saute for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes have browned and crispy edges. 

Add the potato-onion mixture to the egg mixture. And then pour everything into the casserole dish. Place dish into a 350 degree oven. Bake for around 30 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and the egg has set. 

Serve while still hot!

New Baking Technique for Vegan Brownies!

I was extremely excited earlier this week when I discovered a new technique for baking vegan goodies on one of my favorite blogs, Cookie Madness. So intrigued was I with this new method that I immediately went down into my kitchen, took out my baking supplies, and tried it out, no matter that this was at 8 o'clock in the morning, and I was nearly late to my class.

While these bars are more cake-like than brownie-like, they come out rich in chocolate, and are relatively healthy due to the lack of eggs, milk or butter in them. In fact, baked in a round pan and slathered in frosting, the recipe could easily double as a birthday cake!

Without further ado...

Vegan Brownies (Adopted from Cookie Madness)

serves around 16

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup water

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a brownie pan very well. 

(The new technique part comes next)

Place 1/2 cup of flour and the 1 cup of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until the mixture becomes thick and gluey. 

Stir together the sugar, salt, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add oil and vanilla and stir until well mixed. Add the gluey flour mixture and stir. Add the rest of the flour and nuts and chocolate chips if desired.

Pour the mix into the pan and bake for around 25 minutes. 

Let cool and cut into bars!

Apricot-Coconut Scones

Scones have never been a big deal in my family. We are definitely muffin people. However, after flipping through a relatively new vegan cookbook, searching for something new to bake, I came across a simple scone recipe- very few ingredients, and room for variation. Here was my chance to bake my very first scone!

Rather than the super-sweet, overtly fat-laden muffins we come across so often, a scone is more like a biscuit: crunchy exterior and soft and flaky inside. The recipe, adopted from Vegan With a Vengeance, was for a plain scone, so I jazzed it up with apricot pieces and coconut shavings, lending a tropical flavored result. In the future I would like to try these with coconut oil and macadamia nuts to up the Hawaiian factor. 

Apricot-Coconut Scone

makes around a dozen and a half

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/4 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling on top

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup soy creamer (or soy milk)

3/4 cup soy milk plus 2 teaspoons apple cider or fig vinegar

1/4 cup dried apricot pieces

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Oven to 400 degrees. 

Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, dough should be clumpy, not sticky. Fold in coconut and apricots. 

Drop by 1/4 cup spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Pat down the top into a desired shape. Bake 12-15 minutes, until browned on bottom and firm on top. 

Italy in the Morning

While I am a raging fan of big, soft, chewy cookies, sometimes they do not hold up so well when dunked in my boiling cup of coffee or tea. Because I cannot imagine that I am the only one who hates drinking coffee with big chunks of soggy cookie floating around in it, (although if debris had to be in my coffee than cookies would probably be the best thing), I yearned for a stiff, crunchy goodie that could hold up to my java. Biscotti's were the perfect answer. 

"Biscotti" is the Italian word for "biscuit", and it originated from the Latin derivative, biscotum, which means "twice-baked". Baking the dough twice is a hallmark of biscotti, because not only does it make the end result crunchy and stiff, ideal for softening with a hot drink, but they can be stored for a remarkably long period of time. 

I found an outstanding biscotti recipe from Elie Krieger's cookbook, Food You Crave. Unlike most cookie recipes, this one contains no butter. Though she does make these relatively healthy by using olive oil instead, I wanted to see if I could make them even more wholesome. I replaced all but 1 tablespoon of olive oil with 1 cup of pure applesauce, and used only an egg with a yolk and an egg white, (which was PLENTY, have the flour ready because this dough is sticky!). Finally, I omitted the chocolate chunks, using a good quality trailmix with lots of nuts and dried fruit in its place. 

The end result was quite stunning. A perfectly golden brown, colorfully speckled stick that wonderfully soaked up my coffee, and gave my breakfast an Italian twist. Ciao Bella!

Trail Mix Biscotti

serving size of around 30

1 1/4 cups unbleached flour

1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup applesauce

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup of dried fruit, pumpkin seed and almond trail mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, besides the trail mix. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl, including the orange zest. 

Mix together both bowls, stir in trail mix. If the dough is very very dry, add a small splash of almond, soy or cow's milk. 

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead several times. Shape into a log about 10 inches long and 3 inches wide. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Put out on wire rack and cool for 15 minutes. 

With a serrated knife, cute 1/2 inch diagonal slices. Arrange cut side down on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over and bake biscotti until golden, for about 10 more minutes. 

Cool and serve with a big cup o' joe.