Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

My good friend Michelle just came back home from 3 months in South America (why do my friends always leave me?!!) and seeing as she is vegan, and hadn't had dessert in so many months, we had her over for American Dinner and vegan cupcakes. I didn't have a complete recipe, seeing as she is the one with 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World', so I pieced something together from my 'Moosewood Desserts' cookbook. It's a take on their Six Minute Chocolate Cake recipe.

These cupcakes are a cinch to make, and incredibly delicious. Andy couldn't get enough of them. They are delicious on their own, but could easily be embellished to make a seasonal cupcake. I pondered putting crushed candy cane on top, but figured I'd go the purist route the first time around. I did decorate with some Pilsbury frosting I had laying around, piping it on to spell out words and silly decorations.

What's in the cupcakes

1 1/2 C unbleached flour

1/3 C cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 C sugar

1/2 C vegetable oil

1 C cold water or coffee

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tblsp apple cider vinegar

How the cupcakes are made

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients, including the sugar, with a whisk. In a small bowl or measuring cup mix together all the rest of the ingredients except for the vinegar. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, then mix in vinegar into mixture with a whisk. The vinegar will react with the baking soda to make bubbles and a bit of foam. Spoon batter into cupcake tins lined with paper, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on rack when done. Prepare glaze as cupcakes bake. Makes 18 cupcakes.

What's in the glaze

4 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips (about 1/4 to 1/3 of a bag)

1/4 C hot water or coffee

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

How the glaze is made

In a double boiler (or a pot of 2 cups boiling water, with a larger metal bowl rested on top) melt chocolate, stirring often until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in water and vanilla until combined and smooth. Spoon glaze over each cupcake (about 1 spoon per cupcake) and using the back of the spoon, spread glaze in a circular motion to cover the cupcake. Place in the refrigerator at least 20 minutes to harden the glaze. If putting crushed candy cane or chocolate chips, or mint UFO's on top, place before putting in fridge. If using frosting to pipe on decoration, do so after glaze is hardened.

Halloween Brownies

Every Halloween Party needs a batch of Halloween Brownies.

Here's my version:

Mix up a batch of Moosewood Fudge Brownie batter, pour into greased baking pan, then sprinkle the top with Reeses Pieces. Bake as directed. Added bonus- ET would be proud.

White Rabbit Salad

This salad is much tastier than it sounds. It's perfect for summer, and I love it since it is a lettuce-less salad. It comes from Moosewood, but I am not sure if they are the originator or if it is known otherwise.  Mary Ann got me hooked on it, and it is a breeze to make.  

What's in it*
3 C cottage cheese

2 Tbl honey, to taste

1/4 C raisins, currants or cranberries (dried)

1/2 C toasted nuts - I like walnuts

1 Tbl poppy seeds

2 tart apples, diced small

Optional additions:

fresh peach or pear slices

seedless red or green grapes

orange sections

chunks of ripe melon - honeydew or cantaloupe

How it's made

Combine everything and chill.

*Please don't actually measure anything for this recipe - the measurements are only there as a recommendation.  It's silly to measure for a salad.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This cake is so easy to make, and so nostalgic for many of our parents. The best part is flipping the cake upside down out of the skillet and seeing the pretty arrangement of pineapples on top. This recipe is from Moosewood, which is why it calls for mashed bananas, to reduce the amount of fat. I made this for Andy's dad's 60th birthday on request, and Mary Ann's birthday as well.

What's in it:

20 oz can unsweetened sliced pineapples, undrained

1/4 C butter

1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

3/4 C packed brown sugar

1/2 C buttermilk 

1/2 C mashed banana

3 Tbl vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 C flour

How it's made:

Drain the pineapple, reserving 1/3 C of juice.  In a 10" cast iron skillet, or oven proof skillet, heat and melt butter on med heat. Add sugar and cook stirring constantly until sugar starts to turn brown (3 min).  Remove from heat and keep stirring.  Add drained juice (1/3 C) and return pan to low heat and stir until sugar is melted again.  Arrange pineapple slices close together in a decorative layer on the bottom of the skillet, reserving any leftovers.

For cake batter combine wet ingredients in one bowl and sift together dry ingredients in another.  Add dry to wet and stir until mixed.  Pour batter over pineapple slices and top with any reserved slices.  Bake for 30-40 min until knife inserted comes out clean.  Cool in skillet for at least 10 minutes, then invert it onto a serving plate, so slices are facing up.

Moosewood Muffin Madness

There's nothing like the smell of fresh baked muffins - any time of day. Usually I try to have bananas on hand all the time for cereal, and when they overripe, they go into banana bread. Today I tried out the Moosewood muffin recipe, instead of my standard banana bread, and it looks great! It's nice because there is a standard base, and then you can add whatever variation you want to make your muffin flavor. It also could be made vegan fairly easily by using egg substitute.

What's in it
Wet ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 C vegetable oil

3/4- 1 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Dry ingredients:

2 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Additional variations 

(must have one of these along with the wet and dry ingredients):

Apple: Add 2 C grated tart apples and 1 tsp fresh lemon zest to wet ingredients.  Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon to dry ingredients.  Optional: fold in chopped walnuts or pecans into batter.

Banana: Add 1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas to wet ingredients.  Optional: Fold in chopped nuts or chocolate chips into batter. 

Blueberry-Lemon: Add 1/2 C fresh or frozen blueberries and 1 Tbls fresh lemon zest to wet ingredients.

Zucchini: Add 2 C grated zucchini to wet ingredients, and 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of ground cardamom to dry ingredients.  Fold 1/2 C raisins or currants, and 3/4 C chopped nuts if you like, into batter.

How it's Made

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients.  In small bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Add appropriate variation ingredients to wet or dry ingredients.  Stir dry ingredients into wet until just combined.  Fold in additional ingredients if necessary.

Spoon batter into oiled standard muffin tins (makes 12), and bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  If using mini muffin pans, bake 10-15 minutes.

Veggies You Love Chowder

Today I received my first shipment for my CSA box from Farm Fresh To You and I spent the afternoon researching recipes that would use a good part of the veggies.  If you are interested in signing up for this CSA program, I can refer you at a discount on the first trial.

After looking through all my Mollie Katzen books (Moosewood) I found one that seemed easy and versatile, Vegetable Chowder.  After making this, I realized the veggie portions are more of a guideline, I would use whatever you have on hand.

What's in it

Butter

2C chopped onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

salt, thyme & basil (whatever else you like as well, I used Caraway Seed)

1 medium potato, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

2 medium carrots, diced

2C chopped broccoli

1/2 lb mushrooms, chopped

frozen or fresh corn

Diced tomatoes, canned and drained

fresh black pepper

1 1/2C water

1 Qt milk, heated.

How it's made

Melt butter in large pot or dutch oven.  Add onion, half of garlic and basil, thyme, salt.  Satue about 5 minutes until onions clarify.  Add potatoes, celery, carrots, broccoli and saute another 5 minutes or so. Add mushrooms, corn and tomatoes, plus lots of pepper.  Saute another 10 minutes.  Add water, cover and simmer about 15 minutes until everything is tender.  Stir in the milk and remaining garlic.  Remove from heat.  Served topped with fresh herbs.

Obviously you can add or subtract depending on your ingredients.  I added half a bag of frozed artichoke hearts I had on hand, because I love them!  Other good additions are cauliflower, zucchini, etc.  Sorry there are not precise measurements for some of the smaller portions, I don't believe in measuring those amounts.  It will depend on how much veggies you have.

This turned out to be an incredibly delicious soup, very creamy and flavorful.  I also picked up a par baked french bread from TJ's and baked it fresh out of the oven, and it was perfect with the soup.  Yum!

Tahini-Lemon Sauce

The abundance of Lebanese restaurants in Portland naturally fuels a lively debate over which one is the best. There are many theories, from Ya Hala to Al-Amir, but it is the first Lebanese restaurant I was introduced to that remains my favorite. Nicholas, the hole in the wall off Grand, vastly out-ranks the others--for only one reason: the tahini. It's ridiculously divine and I am simply incapable of describing it well enough to do it justice.

Every time I go, I order the vegan mezze platter--which last for at least two meals. It includes falafel and hummus, all you can eat pita, a garbanzo dish, tabouleh and more. It's all delicious, but I'm really just looking for that huge puddle of tahini. One dip with a chunk of fresh, hot pita and I'm completely, utterly satisfied. The long wait for a table? Worth it for that one bite.

Here is a recipe I decided to try, since I can't afford to eat out much any more. It's from my trusty original Moosewood Cookbook--copyright 1977. This turned out very well--and far outshined the falafels (from a mix--next time from scratch!) we also attempted. I'm fairly certain it's as close as I'm going to get without the secret recipe from Nicholas' kitchen.

• 1 1/2 cups tahini (sesame seed paste--found near the peanut butter in the supermarket)
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 1 medium clove crushed garlic (I love my jar from Trader Joe's!)
• 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice (around 3 lemons)
• 1/4 cup chopped (or finely-minced if mixing by hand) scallions (I used regular onions.)
• 1/4 cup chopped (or finely-minced if mixing by hand) parsley
  
• Salt to taste
• 1 or 2 dashes cayenne
• 1 or 2 dashes paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin (or more, to taste--I'm a huge fan of this spice...)
• 1 or 2 dashes of tamari

1. Combine ingredients in a food processor and pulse until creamy and smooth. (You can also use a wisk or an electric mixer.) Sample the mixture and add ingredients to suit your taste.
   

Moosewood Fudge Brownies

The Moosewood Collective has become legendary in my recipe book library, and these brownies are not only chocolatey and delicious, they are SUPER easy to make!  If you don't own any Moosewood Cookbooks, I highly recommend them, especially the original (the newest editions have revised recipes to cut down butter and sugar content).

These brownies originated 30 years ago, and have been served in the Moosewood Restaurant ever since.  They take about ten minutes to prepare, and only twenty to bake.  Your friends will be impressed you didn't cook brownies from a box.

Ingredients

1/2 C butter

3 oz unsweetened chocolate (I use TJ's baking chocolate or Baker's Chocolate)

1 C lightly packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 eggs lightly beaten

1/2 C unbleached white flour

How it's done

Preheat the oven to 350 and butter the baking pan.

In a large pot on the stove, melt butter and chocolate together on low heat, stirring to avoid scorching.  Once all is melted, remove from heat.  Add the sugar and vanilla and beat by hand with a whisk.   Add the eggs and beat well.  Stir in flour and mix until smooth.

Pour batter into a buttered 8 or 9 inch baking pan.  Bake for about 20 min until they begin to just pull away from the pan, and still fudgy in the center.  Bake an additional five minutes if you prefer cake like brownies.

This recipe can easily be doubled and baked in a lasagna sized pan.  I also tried using my new dutch oven for this recipe, and it worked great for melting the butter and chocolate, and then once everything was combined in the pot, I popped the dutch oven in the oven.  One pot brownies :-)

I highly recommend whipped cream or ice cream with these.  Oh, and I made a variation called 'Brownie Surprise'.  It's brownies with strawberries cut up on top and marinated for a little bit.