Coconut Pancakes

I couldn't make it up to Scranton for Easter this year. My family doesn't do much for the holiday, but I was still pretty bummed I wouldn't get to see everyone. And on top of it, Ken was working a bunch of doubles in a row, and wouldn't be home at all. Though I love my kitty, the thought of spending any holiday alone with my cat had my grumpy-pants all in a bunch. To cheer myself up, I made some cupcakes. Just look at these things. They're too adorable to not make you smile.

Vegan coconut cupcakes with strawberry 'butter'cream and toasted coconut nests. Jelly bean 'eggs' complete the cuteness.

 Then, late Saturday night, Ken called to say he didn't have to work Sunday morning. He was coming home! Joy of Joys! An Easter miracle. My sour-puss was replaced with a big ol' smile.

Since I anticipated spending the day alone, I hadn't planned much of a menu. Sunday morning I decided to make a nice holiday breakfast for us with whatever we had around the house. I think I did a pretty good job pulling it together.

As a baker, at any given time I probably have the ingredients to make you whatever kind of sweet breakfast you want. Except waffles, because I don't have a waffle iron (hint, hint...). Ken and I are also the kind of people to have things like mangoes, toasted coconut, mango butter, and coconut extract lying around. It makes throwing together a holiday breakfast a little easier.

Sunday's menu: Coconut pancakes with mango butter, fresh mango, and strawberries. Vegan sausage links. Mango Lemonade. Coffee. Boo-Love.

This is a nice basic vegan pancake recipe that works best as thin, almost crepe-like pancakes. Ken loved them. You've probably got all the necessary ingredients right now, and can make them yours with whatever happens to be in your fridge/pantry. Next time you want to make an impromptu breakfast for someone special, this recipe will be your best friend.

Vegan Coconut Pancakes
adapted from Vegan Yum Yum

1 1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp canola oil
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup toasted coconut

Preheat oven to warm, 200 degrees, or the lowest temp your oven will allow. To keep pancakes warm while you make them, you'll stack them on an oven-safe plate inside the oven.

Pour milk into blender. Add all other ingredients except toasted coconut. Pulse a few times. Scrape down sides, and pulse a few more times, but don't over blend. You can place this in the fridge overnight, or use immediately. If using the next day, you may need to thin the batter with a tablespoon or so of water. (*note: I use a blender because I like being able to pour the batter, and also it keeps the dishes at a minimum. A bowl and a whisk would work just as well)

Heat a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat for a few minutes. Pour batter into center of pan. I like to make my pancakes about 4-5 inches across, and swirl the pan slightly to spread the batter and make a thin pancake. Sprinkle coconut on top. After a few minutes, the top will bubble, and the batter will change color from white to a dull yellow. This is when you should flip. If the other side of your pancake is not brown yet, you may need to turn your heat up slightly. If it's over-browned, turn down the heat. Allow to cook for another few minutes, until brown. Place on plate in oven, and continue to stack as you make them.

We served these with mango butter from Trader Joe's and fresh fruit. I'm sure they would have been lovely with a coconut syrup too. Also, making them coconut pancakes was a last minute decision, when I remembered I had the leftover toasted coconut from the cupcakes. Had I planned in advance, I would have probably substituted some or all of the almond milk for coconut milk.

If coconut's not your thing, you can use another extract and add any other filling: bananas, blueberries, chocolate chips, etc. And then come back here and tell me all about it!

Vegan Apricot Scones

Full Disclosure: I don't really like scones. They're usually so dry and flavorless and pointless. I'm aware that in the right hands they can be quite tasty, but they're also pretty easy to mess up. Normally, I'd say my favorite flavor of scone is muffin, and let's move on.

But a few weeks ago some people I really like asked me to make some scones, and since I'm a people pleaser, I got to work.

I started with chocolate chip. They were pretty tasty, and everyone seems to like them, but they weren't special enough to make me change my opinion on the pastry.

Then I got it into my head I was going to make some apricot scones. And let me tell you, these just might convert me to the cult of scones. Especially still warm from the oven. They're lovely. So pretty; so lady-like. They'd be a pleasant addition to brunch or tea with your lady friends. As a matter of fact Gracie LaRoux, the sweetest gal I know, gave these treats her stamp of approval. So there you have it.

The secret ingredient? Lemon zest. Because let's get real, lemon zest makes everything better.

Vegan Apricot Scones
adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking

1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
2 tbsp water
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of Earth Balance vegan butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 cup dried apricots, diced
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1-2 tbsp non-dairy milk for brushing tops
sugar for sprinkling on top (I like Demerara sugar)

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk egg replacer and water together until frothy. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in butter. Continue to cut in until mixture is crumbly, and resembles coarse cornmeal. You can leave some pea-sized chunks of butter, this will keep scones flakier.

Using a fork, mix in the apricots and lemon until incorporated. Add the egg mixture and milk, and using a fork, wooden spoon, or your hands, combine with flour mixture just until moistened. DO NOT OVER MIX. If you over mix, the gluten starts to activate, and will make your scones dense. And then you'll perpetuate the idea that all scones are dry and terrible. Using your hands, gather dough into a ball. You may have some dry crumbs at the bottom, and this is okay. Press them into the mixture, but again, do not knead or over mix. You just want to bring the dough together.

On a sheet of wax paper or table top sprinkled with flour, press out the dough with your hands to form a circle about an inch thick. Cut into triangles (usually makes 8-10), and place on prepared baking sheet at least 1/2 inch apart. If you're making these in advance, you can place the sheet in the freezer overnight at this point, and bake the next day. If baking immediately, brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until tops are golden brown. If scones are frozen, they'll take about 20 minutes to bake. Allow to cool on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes.

These are great slightly warm, or fully cooled. In an airtight container they'll last about 2 days, but are best eaten the first day. Enjoy!

Blackberry Corn Muffins

Oh hai Tuesdee. Thanks for being a lot nicer than Monday. And thanks, Technology, for finally deciding to cooperate. Here's what I planned to tell y'all about yesterday. 

Sunday was quite a gray day. Cold and rainy and mopey. Know what made it worse? I had to be at work at 8:30 AM. For a meeting. Double yuck. 

8:30 am Sunday meetings should be illegal. It's cruel and unusual and downright inhumane. Such is the world of retail, I suppose. To ease everyone's pain, I decided to bring my coworkers some muffins to nosh on as we all miserably watched too many poor-quality corporate videos through half-open eyelids. 

And, like I often do, "maybe i'll make some muffins" turned into a muffin-palooza. 3 batches, 36 muffins. (There's not even 20 of us that work there). I wish I had taken a picture of the basket-o-muffins. It was pretty ridic. 

I stuck with my standard vegan banana muffins, half with and half without nuts, for one batch. They're a crowd pleaser. And some of my co-workers are pretty picky. 

The others, I figured I'd just see what was good at the market. I went to the Whole Foods on South Street, and they were having some kind of earth day festival on the block with lots of eco-friendly vendors and live music. Very nice. Once inside, I found some delicious smelling strawberries on special, and some (slightly beat up) rhubarb hanging around, so I decided to attempt a strawberry rhubarb muffin. They were OK, but mostly disappointing. A little dry, and not sweet enough. They've got potential though, so I'll try again and report back at another time.  

And then I saw some blackberries for real cheap, and got it into my head that blackberry corn muffins would be AMAZING. And they were. 

Oh lordy, are these babies delicious! 

I'm a pretty big fan of a sweet corn muffin. The gritty, but soft texture makes me feel a little naughty. But I didn't have a standard corn muffin recipe. I've made sweet potato corn bread, but not a regular, simple corn muffin recipe with which to play with. So I hopped over to the post punk kitchen, to see what Isa (of Veganomican and VCTOTW fame) had to say about them. This recipe got great reviews, and since she's yet to steer me wrong, I ran with it. 

Let me warn you guys, these things are like crack. They're a little sweeter than I'd normally like and I'll probably cut back on the sugar next time, but otherwise they're perfect. The texture is great, soft yet slightly gritty. They're crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and not too crumbly. And the bit of lemon zest added at the end makes all the difference. Dreamy, really.  Just like Andrew McCarthy in Pretty in Pink or Mannequin. 

These muffins got a one-way ticked to the "make as often as possible" list. For realsies. 

Blackberry Corn Muffins

adapted from the Post Punk Kitchen

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup corn or vegetable oil

3/4 cup soymilk

2 tablespoons soy yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2-3/4 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat oven to 400. Line muffin tins, if you plan to do so, now. In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through sugar). In a seperate bowl, wisk together wet ingredients (oil through vanilla). Fold wet into dry, halfway through mixing add lemon zest and blackberries and distribute well.

Spray muffin tins w/ non stick cooking spray if not using liners. Fill each tin 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm. 

If making in advance, you can warm these up in the microwave later for about 10-15 seconds, and they're still as tasty. (Don't microwave them for any longer, especially not a whole minute, or your whole apartment will smell like burnt muffins for at least 2 days. Ken, I'm looking at you.)

Pear and Ginger Pie

So the Great American Bake Sale- Philly Food Blogger Edition- was today, and it went great! I took tons of pics and met lots of sweet ladies and gents with even sweeter snacks. And then I LEFT MY CAMERA THERE. Epic Fail. Since I haven't gotten it back yet, you'll just have to wait to see/hear about it. But in the meantime, I've got some other things to talk about.

I need to tell you about my dear friend Theresa. She's awesome. She's smart, and beautiful, and sweet and kind. She's tons of fun to hang out with and extremely supportive of her friends, and just generally a top-notch gal. To know Tree is to love her. And another reason why I love Theresa? She loves my pies. In particular, my pear and ginger pie. So for her birthday (which was back around Easter), I made her a little pie to call her own. 

I happened to have some mini-pie crusts in my freezer left over from a pie-a-palooza a few months ago. I had made a bunch of crusts, lined some small disposable tins, wrapped them in plastic wrap and threw them in the freezer. I don't normally plan ahead like this, but I was quite pleased with myself for the foresight. And I'm not usually one to take shortcuts while baking, especially with my pies, but since I was baking and decorating 4 dozen cupcakes that same morning, I thought i'd give myself a break. 

Theresa's not the only one that loves this pie. This pie can convert cake eaters and make boys fall in love with you. There's lots to love about it, but it's quite simple. It's not too sweet. I like to let the pears sing quietly in their subtle sweetness. But just when you thought everything was safe and mild, the ginger lights a match in the back of your throat and kicks you from behind. And somehow, it all works together and marries beautifully and delicately on your tongue and in your belly. And you'll start to find excuses to eat it for breakfast. 

Now I know that many people talk about baking being a science. And it is. I'd be lying if I said I never measure anything because somethings require precision and ratios. Like pie crust. I've fine-tuned my crust-making techniques over the last year and now have a flawless recipe. But when it comes to fruit fillings, I like to play fast and loose.  I don't think I've ever actually followed a fruit pie recipe. I tend to think of them as "suggestions", and just kind of toss the ingredients together until it looks right. But I realize some people need rules, boundaries, maps. So, I'm going to give you the recipe that I didn't follow, which is for a full 9 inch pie. I used every item listed in the recipe, but may have added some as I saw fit. As for amounts and ratios, all bets are off. 

Pear and Ginger Pie

adapted from The Garden of Vegan

One 9 inch vegan pie crust (i'll post a recipe eventually)

4 pears, not too ripe, cored and sliced

1/2 cup dry sweetener

3 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tbsp arrowroot powder

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1 tbsp cinammon sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, I like to pour the sugar over the fruit first, and mix it up, then combine the other ingredients together (except for the cinammon and sugar) in a small bowl, and pour over the pears, tossing to cover. Pour into prepared pie shell, and sprinkle cinammon and sugar on top. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until liquid is bubbling and filling is set. Allow to cool completely on wire rack. Unless you're Theresa, and you can't wait for it to cool or set and need warm soupy pie immediately. Either way, it's delicious. 

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