You know Cream Puff loves you!
Just to be sure, I’m saying it with sweet crepes covered in Nutella.
And a few candied hearts, too!
Happy Love Day!
Ciao!
Crepes with Nutella
Inspired by Valvona & Crolla: A Year at an Italian Table.
This is a very easy recipe. For the crepes, I use like to use a crepe recipe from Julia [...]
Last night, in Vancouver, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games had their ceremonial opening with the lighting of a torch inside B.C. Stadium and another outside, by Vancouver’s waterfront.
I am an Olympics fanatic, regardless of where they’re held, but put them in my country, Canada, and it just adds a whole new meaning for me.
While I [...]
Barely unpacked from Disney and school Valentine’s Day parties hover. This is not a time for panic or for any unpredictable recipes. This is the time for Rice Krispie Treats. OK, so Rice Krispie treats with a little spunk. I don’t know what it is about making Rice Krispie Treats that makes me feel so fully ‘a mom.’ It is also impossible not to smile when making them…even when under pressure. This is basically a double batch, pressed into a sheet pan, cut out, stuck on a stick and drizzled. The left-over scraps are for the chef (or for any little vultures at your ankles).
Rice Krispie Heart Pops2 10-ounce bags of marshmallows
1/2 stick of dairy-free margarine ( I used Fleishmann’s Unsalted Margarine)
12 cups Rice Krispie cereal (or the cheaper Target brand!)1.) In a microwave safe bowl, melt the marshmallows and margarine for 30 seconds at a time until soft. I think it took about 1 1/2 minutes for me. Stir until smooth.
2.) Measure the cereal into another, really big bowl. Dump the warm marshmallow mixture over the cereal and mix everything together.
3.) Line a sheet pan with some foil and press the mixture into the pan. Press down hard. Let the mixture cool.
4.) Remove the slab of treats to a cutting board, cut into shapes and insert the popsicle stick.
5.) Decorate as you wish. I made the pink icing with a little powdered sugar, some water and pink food coloring. I made the chocolate by melting some Enjoy Life chocolate chips in the microwave with a little shortening.
6.) Wrap in sandwich baggies secured with twisty ties or ribbon.Makes about 20, depending on the size of your hearts
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Peppermint stick ice cream is a serious issue around here, and I now know these issues come from both sides of the family. When I was growing up, the arrival of peppermint stick ice cream in the Schwan Man’s truck was small town news. Quantities were limited so one family couldn’t buy out the whole stash to put up in the deep freeze. In my husband’s house, arrival of peppermint stick ice cream in the freezer brought yet another thing for the youngest kid to torture his older brother with. His older brother’s mature nature to savor and spread things out over time, did not work well with limited quantities of ice cream that were quickly quaffed by my husband. I’ve since learned that my mother-in-law added greatly to the disappearing half-gallons, one little stolen spoonful standing over the sink at a time.
This year, Bobby, our Schwan’s Man gave us first dibs on his 16 containers of the season’s first…we were good and only took 6. Thankfully, making a dairy-free and egg-free peppermint stick ice cream for the rest of the family was very easy. Now we all can enjoy this little treat!
3 cups plain soy creamer ( 1 1/2 pints)
20 regular-sized marshmallows (about 1/2 bag)
1/2 cup sugar
2 T. mild oil, I use avocado, but coconut or canola would be fine
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (more if you’d like it zippier)
6-8 mini candy canes, crushed in their wrappers
1.) Put the marshmallows in a big microwave safe bowl (I have an 8 cup Pyrex that is perfect for this)
2.) Heat for 1 minute, until soft and puffy.
3.) Whisk the soft marshmallows until smooth, then slowly pour in the soy creamer and sugar.
4.) Microwave for another 3-5 minutes, stirring every so often, until the creamer is hot but not boiling.
5.) Add the oil, the peppermint extract and the food coloring.
6.) Cool down in the freezer or refrigerator before pouring into an ice cream maker. I have a Cuisinart one that works pretty well.
7.) At the end of the freezing, pour in the packets of crushed candy canes and mix them around before transferring the ice cream to a freezer container.
Perfect Easy Dairy-Free Egg-Free Peppermint Stick Ice Cream Recipe
The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks
Crust
4 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups frozen shortening (butter flavored Crisco is reportedly dairy-free)
Ice water (about 1/2 cup)
1.) Crust really is a pain in the butt. I’ve probably made a hundred pies and I still doubt myself every time. I now make crust with my food processor, but it is very easy to make a gloppy mess with it, especially when adding water.
2.) Pulse the flour and salt together in the food processor or whisk together in a large bowl if making by hand.
3.) Add half the shortening and pulse 8-10 times. Add the other half and pulse another 8-10 times. If making by hand, cut the shortening in and blend well with a pastry blender.
4.) Now comes the water part. I hate the water part. Add too little and crust is crumbly and impossible to roll out. Add too much and it is a gummy tough mess, impossible to fix. It is alway better to under-water, you can fix that.
5.) If you are new to crust-making, it is safer to dump the dough into large bowl to add water by hand, but you can do it in the food processor if you’re careful. Take the lid off the food processor and sprinkle 1/4 cup of water on the dough, mix it around the bowl with a spoon. Replace the lid, give it a few pulses and check the dough by pinching it between your fingers. If it seems crumbly add another 2-4 T of water, stir around with a spoon, give it a few pulses and see where you are at. Don’t over pulse!
6.) Divide the dough in 2 blobs, wrap in plastic wrap and shape into flat disks. Freeze until needed.
Filling the Pie
1.) Roll out half the dough and press into and up the edges of a 13 x 18 inch jelly roll pan.
2.) Peel and thinly slice 10-15 apples into the pan. I have a cool peeler-corer-slicer for this task. Add enough apples to fill the pan completely, up to the pan edge.
3.) Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples, about 1-2 teaspoons to taste.
4.) Sprinkle sugar over the apples, about 1 cup.
5.) Sprinkle some vanilla over the apples, 1-2 teaspoons.
6.) Roll out the second half of the crust, very thinly, and place over the apples. Seal the edges the best you can. Cut steam holes in the top.
7.) Put the whole pan in the freezer while oven preheats to 375.
8.) Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the filling bubbles in the center.
9.) Cool a bit before glazing.
Glaze
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Powdered sugar
1.) Mix enough powdered sugar into the juice to make it honey-thick.
2.) Drizzle over the crust in a rogue, non-type-A, come-what-may manner.
Dairy-free and egg-free pie crust, dairy-free egg-free apple pie, vegan apple pie, vegan pie crust
I know I could have sent a muffin with sprinkles and it would have worked out fine. But “fine” is not the way we roll around here. Sometimes the pressure of an orchard field trip with cider and doughnuts as the class treat is what I need to move from “fine” to “Mom, you’re the best!” I’ve made ‘doughnuts’ before, frying up some Meijer brand buttermilk biscuits (no butter or milk in those…really scary, eh?) and dusting them in powdered sugar. Those are tolerable when fresh, but inedible the next day, and I’ve always felt a bit sheepish about frying up a can of dough.
I think I read through 13 doughnut recipes, tried one that failed terribly (hint: never, ever, deep-fry in lard…no matter what Fanny Farmer or King Arthur say), and then I came upon this winner. These are an egg-free and dairy-free adaptation of a Paula Deen recipe. They’re soft, cakey, slightly sweet…perfect for a fall day with a glass of cider. Enjoy!
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg replacers ( I use Ener-G)
1 cup Tofutti Sour Supreme (Dairy-Free Sour Cream)
1 cup mashed sweet potato ( I bet canned pumpkin would work, but our store had a pumpkin shortage!)
1.) Sift the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
2.) Blend the egg replacers, tofutti and sweet potato until smooth. I used an immersion blender, but a food processor or blender would be fine too.
3.) Add the sweet potato mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and blend carefully with a spoon. Don’t go crazy mixing, or they’ll be tough. The dough is really sticky.
4.) Refrigerate for 30 minutes while you set up the oil and make the icing.
5.) While the oil is heating up to 360 degrees F, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thickness, adding flour to your surface and rolling pin to keep things from sticking. Cut into donut shapes. I have a cool set of plastic nesting rounds and the biggest and smallest sizes work perfectly.
6.) Fry in vegetable oil for 2 minutes on the first side, and 1-2 minutes on the second side. Soybean oil is great, canola smells fishy, and lard smells like bovine carcass. Don’t use lard, ever, ever.
7.) Let the donuts cool on paper towel before icing and sprinkling.
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3-4T apple cider
Sounds like a standard September at our house. Honestly, when we have projects…we go big. The girls had 5 and 7 year birthdays this past week, which also coincided with torrential downpours and breaking ground on our addition. We have a serious clay situation in our front yard and the backyard…words fail me. When an engineer designs an addition, prepare for overbuilding. This addition is made of concrete and enough rebar to withstand ‘The Big One’, which might make more sense if we weren’t living in the Midwest.
Kit and Molly find their home.Chocolate Sheet Cake2 cups soy milk1 T. cider vinegar1 1/2 cups sugar2/3 cups oil ( I used canola)1 T. vanilla (optional)2 cups flour2/3 cups cocoa powder ( I used Nestle)1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda1 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt1.) Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your cake pan. I used the birthday as an excuse to buy a new metal cake pan, but a Pyrex casserole pan should work fine. Fold a sheet of parchment so it lays crosswise into a 9 x 13 pan and hangs up over the edges (this way you can ‘lift’ the cake out of the pan by the paper to the cooling rack) . Spray well with cooking spray.2.) Whisk soy and vinegar together in a medium bowl and let thicken. Then add the sugar, oil and vanilla. Mix well.3.) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, soda, baking powder and salt. My cocoa and baking soda are always lumpy, so I sift mine into the bowl through a mesh strainer to get out the lumps.4.) Carefully dump and mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Just blend until most of the lumps are out. Don’t beat the heck out of it.5.) Pour batter into your prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center is set and you can poke a knife into the center and it comes out clean. Let the cake rest for a few minutes before lifting out and cooling on a rack. Cool completely before frosting.Chocolate FrostingYou’ll have extra, so don’t hesitate to take a few spoonfuls while baking.1 stick margarine, softened ( I use Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine)1/2 cup shortening1/8 teaspoon of salt, or a couple pinches.1 cup cocoa powder (I use Nestle)5 cups powdered sugar1/4 cup soymilk ( more if needed)1.) Cream the margarine and shortening until fluffy.2.) Add the salt and cocoa powder.3.) Add the powdered sugar slowly. You can add a little of the soymilk as you are trying to mix in all the powdered sugar if things get too thick.4.) Once all the powdered sugar is mixed in, you can start adding soymilk until you get the frosting thickness you want. Sometimes I like it dense, sometimes I like it fluffy and mousse-like.Lemon Sheet CakeThis is a great cake to try some coconut oil. The coconut flavor is very subtle and tastes rather buttery. I bought a big jar on Amazon for half the price of our local health food store, and only $1 shipping. Canola works fine, but you’ll need to crank up the lemon or vanilla flavors, otherwise the cake tastes like bland cornbread. Lemon oil is amazing stuff, I found mine at Williams-Sonoma but King Arthur has it by mail order. It lasts forever in the fridge.2 cups soy milk1 T. cider vinegar2/3 cup oil (I used melted coconut oil)1 1/2 cups sugar1 T. vanilla1/4 teaspoon lemon oil (or 1 teaspoon fine lemon zest, don’t use lemon extract or the cake will taste like floor polish)2 1/2 cups flour1/4 cup cornstarch1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt1.) Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your cake pan. I used the birthday as an excuse to buy a new metal cake pan, but a Pyrex casserole pan should work fine. Fold a sheet of parchment so it lays crosswise into a 9 x 13 pan and hangs up over the edges (this way you can ‘lift’ the cake out of the pan by the paper to the cooling rack) . Spray well with cooking spray.2.) Whisk soy and vinegar together in a medium bowl and let thicken. Then add the sugar, oil and flavorings. Mix well.3.) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, soda, baking powder and salt. My cornstarch and baking soda are always lumpy, so I sift mine into the bowl through a mesh strainer to get out the lumps.4.) Carefully dump and mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Just blend until most of the lumps are out. Don’t beat the heck out of it.5.) Pour batter into your prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the center is set and you can poke a knife into the center and it comes out clean. Let the cake rest for a few minutes before lifting out and cooling on a rack. Cool completely before frosting.Lightly Lemony Frosting1 stick margarine, softened ( I use Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine)1/2 cup shortening1/8 teaspoon of salt, or a couple pinches.4 cups powdered sugar1/4 cup soymilk ( more if needed)1 teaspoon vanilla extract1/8 teaspoon lemon oil or 1/4 teaspoon fine lemon zest (not lemon extract)1.) Cream the margarine and shortening until fluffy.2.) Add the salt and cocoa powder.3.) Add the powdered sugar slowly. You can add a little of the soymilk as you are trying to mix in all the powdered sugar if things get too thick.4.) Once all the powdered sugar is mixed in, you can start adding soymilk until you get the frosting thickness you want. Sometimes I like it dense, sometimes I like it fluffy and mousse-like.
Continue reading about Fairy Cakes, American Girl Place and Rebar!
The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
Before I left for Italy, I knew that Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon would [...]
This summer, for the first time in 13 years, I decided not to grow a backyard garden. I even grew a clandestine veggie garden outside my apartment while in Med school, so this was a big change! Instead, we bought shares in a local CSA and we’ve been up to our ears in produce. I’ve never had so much salad in all my life! The challenge of ‘eating down’ the veggies before the next week’s share is delivered has been fun. I’ve also enjoyed the variety of vegetables.With my small home garden, I never had the space for a sprawling zucchini plant, so we’ve never enjoying baking it up in bread. This recipe is adapted from my mother-in-law. This is the tried and true recipe that ‘The Sisters’ use…meaning that this recipe has passed the test in the kitchens of 3 Midwest grandmothers. While not exactly low-fat or low in sugar, it is classic.
Sisters’ Zucchini BreadMakes 2 loaves2 heaping cups grated zucchini, skin and all2 cups sugar1 cup oil2 egg replacers ( I use Ener-G)1 teaspoon vanilla3 cups flour (I have experimented with 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat and it works)1 T. cinnamon1 t. salt1 t. baking powder1 t. baking sodaCrumb Topping (optional)1/4 cup brown sugar1/4 cup flour1 T. dairy-free margarine, melted ( I use Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine)1/2 t. cinnamon1.) Preheat oven to 325.2.) Mix the first set of wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.3.) Mix the second set of dry ingredients together in a larger bowl.4.) Dump the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until everything is just blended.5.) Divide the batter evenly between two greased bread pans.6.) Mix the crumb topping ingredients together in a small bowl, and sprinkle over the batter. You’ll have extra, so save it in the freezer for topping muffins someday.7.) Bake for 1 hour. They’re done when the center is set. You can try inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out dry, or just touch the tops. When they spring back, the bread is done.8.) Let them rest for a few minutes, then carefully remove from the pans to a cooling rack.The first loaf gets devoured immediatly, the second loaf gets cut into slices. I put a small piece of waxed paper or parchment between each slice and freeze…perfect for lunches or mid-day snacks!Egg Free Zucchini Bread Dairy Free Zucchini Bread Vegan Zucchini Bread
