Cookies and Candids

Martha Stewart’s Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Published January 15, 2012 Chocolate , Cookies Leave a Comment

As a vegan, I loved taking “fail-proof” recipes and adapting them to be vegan and proving that they were still sinfully delicious and could have a good texture when vegan. Right now though, I am loving baking with butter and eggs for one main reason: I get to try to all of these same recipes (and others that I have been oggling for years) exactly as they were meant to be made! I really do think that my vegan versions were wonderful and tasty, but it’s interesting to again taste flavors that I haven’t had in a long time and find out what the recipes were supposed to taste like. Of course I had to start out with a basic Martha Stewart recipe to see what the standard out there has been for a buttery, soft, and chewy chocolate chip cookie. And, dang! These cookies hit the spot. They were easy and quick to whip up and everyone who has tried them has asked for another. And another. And another…

Martha suggests using room temperature butter, but I have heard that if you melt the butter (and then cool it to room temperature), you will get a chewier cookie. I don’t know if that’s true because I didn’t do a controlled experiment in this case but I did try melting the butter, and I liked the results. Otherwise this is Martha’s recipe exactly, and makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
½ cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. coarse salt
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a saucepan and let cool while you whisk together the flour and baking soda in a bowl. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix until well blended, about 1 minute. Mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

Chocolate-Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes with Candy Cane Icing

Published December 24, 2011 Chocolate , Cupcakes , Gluten-Free , Mint Leave a Comment

Ever since I began baking cupcakes, I’ve been drooling over this blog. But I was vegan for so long that I never got to try any of the recipes as they were intended. I was searching for the perfect mint chocolate cupcake recipe for Christmas Eve dinner, and realized I could look at Cupcake Bakeshop. I found her dark chocolate cupcakes with mint chocolate ganache and mint icing, decided right away that they would be the perfect cupcake for tonight. I was right. With a few substitutions and additions, here is my version:

I’m not going to post the recipe (you’ll have to look here for the gorgeous process pictures and full recipe) but I’ll give you the deets about my own changes:

Cupcakes: recipe the same, except I substituted Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour Mix instead of wheat flour.

Ganache: recipe the same, except I didn’t include the mint leaves at all.

Icing: recipe the same, except I used Earth Balance margarine and added 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (aka: Brownie Bites)

Published December 23, 2011 Chocolate , Cookies , Gluten-Free Leave a Comment

We found this recipe about a week ago here, and have made 3 batches since. They are too good to stop sharing with friends, or to stop eating them ourselves. They’ve been taken to numerous events, and everyone gobbles them up immediately, asking for more. One friend said he came to our housewarming party just because he heard we would have these cookies here (I think/hope he came to warm our house, too). These cookies are gluten-free, but not vegan. They have whipped egg whites which makes a crunchy outer layer around a gooey middle (like a dense flourless cake filling). Make these cookies with caution: they are fudgy, crispy, and unstoppably delicious.

Ginger Whiskey Cupcakes with Marzipan Turkey Toppers

Published November 25, 2011 Cocktail-Themed Cupcakes , Cupcakes , Sauces/Jams/Jellies/Fillings 7 Comments

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

This year, I am thankful for so many things. Some of those things include that I got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year! Both times were with wonderful friends and family (well, all of them are like family now). For my second Thanksgiving, there are lots of traditions. One includes cooking with and drinking lots of Maker’s Mark whiskey, and so when I was brainstorming cupcake flavors of course I had to include Maker’s. And when I was thinking of cocktails that include whiskey, we realized that a bomb combination would be to make Ginger Whiskeys! Yum.

And it was Thanksgiving. I don’t eat turkey obviously but I can eat marzipan turkeys! So we had a craft-night and made this army of cuties:

Fluffy Ginger Cake Ingredients:

This recipe makes eighteen cupcakes, or one 9-inch cake

1 Tblsp. apple cider vinegar
1 ½ cups plain unsweetened almond milk
2 1/8 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 1/8 cups sugar
½ cup canola oil
1 ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tblsp. freshly grated/zested ginger

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a cupcake tin with papers. Set aside.

Stir the almond milk and apple cider vinegar together well and set aside (the mixture will curdle). Grate or zest your ginger while you wait for the curdling.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another mixing bowl whisk together the almond milk mixture, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the ginger at the very end, and mix to incorporate.

Fill your cake pan with the batter. Bake for 23-26 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then when luke-warm, remove cakes from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let cool completely before frosting.

Maker’s Mark Caramel Glaze Ingredients:

1/3 cup Maker’s Mark® Bourbon
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup half & half
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, melt the brown sugar and butter over a medium low heat. Stir vigorously to create a smooth texture. Pour the half & half into the brown sugar blend, using a whisk to incorporate. Whisk in the powdered sugar. Continue stirring until sugar has completely dissolved. Add the Maker’s Mark whiskey and vanilla extract. Remove from heat and let cool. Make small holes in the tops of the cooled cupcakes with a fork and pour the glaze over the cakes – let the glaze seep in, and re-pour if you want extra. Refrigerate to set.

Ginger Zing Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tblsp. freshly grated ginger
1 1/2 Tblsp. freshly zested lemon rind

Beat the butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer. When you have a smooth, fluffy consistency, add the vanilla extract and confectioner’s sugar half a cup at a time. Mix until fully combined. Add more sugar if you want a thicker frosting, but be aware that it can get quite sweet quickly! Make it a little thicker than you want it, and then add the ginger and lemon zest – it will thin out the frosting just a little bit. Spread frosting over the glazed cupcakes. Eat and enjoy!

New Category/Confession

Published November 25, 2011 Uncategorized 2 Comments

Hi Loyal Readers and Bakers!

I have a confession to make…Because of various health concerns and life changes, after four years I am not vegan anymore! I still continue to bake mostly vegan desserts but I have been experimenting with dairy products and I’d like to share some of those recipes with you. I’ll take pictures and share the recipes for all the vegan and non-vegan delicious treats that I concoct, still on this blog. I’ve created a new category “vegan” which you can check if you want to exclusively look for vegan recipes.

I hope you enjoy my future posts, both vegan and not!

If you want to convert non-vegan recipes to make them vegan, here’s a helpful cheat-sheet:

cream cheese can always be replaced with Tofutti Cream Cheese (plain/original flavor)

butter can be replaced with Earth Balance margarine

eggs can be replaced with: 1/3 cup applesauce, EnerG Egg Replacer, half of a mashed banana, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch blended with 2 tablespoons of warm water, 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tablespoons of warm water, or a variety of other binding agents depending on what consistency you want your baked good to have (or what properties you need your egg replacer to have (binding, rising, etc.)).

Lemon, Chocolate, Champagne, Oh My!

Published October 6, 2011 Cakes , Chocolate , Cupcakes , Gluten-Free , Lemon , Vegan , Wedding Cake Testing 2 Comments

Bria and Dave’s wedding was fantastic and fun – the perfect mix of serious, thoughtful, goofy and joyous. I was honored to bake them their wedding cake and cupcakes! In three flavors, no less! I’m sorry I don’t have the recipes right now as links but you can look them up in my blog archives.

There were three flavors of cupcakes:

1. Chocolate Raspberry (chocolate-raspberry cake with a homemade raspberry filling and chocolate cream cheese frosting)

2. Lemon Almond (gluten-free almond cake with a homemade vegan lemon curd filling and a lemon cream cheese frosting)

3. Champagne (vanilla champagne cake with a white choclate filling and fluffy champagne frosting)

We made at least 200 cupcakes (some didn’t quite make it to the wedding…oops). And they were seriously enjoyed! Just take a look at the happy couple:

Celebrate!

Published September 15, 2011 Cakes , Vegan , Wedding Cake Testing 9 Comments

The birds are back! And, so am I!

I can’t believe my last post was in February! I know there are some dedicated readers and bakers out there who have checked in with my blog a zillion times a day and have missed my posts terribly (cough, cough, Gina, cough). I’ll try to bake more this school year, and even better, I’ll try to post about them. In the meantime, I’ll let you know that I went to 7 weddings this summer, and I’ve still got one more to attend in October. I’ve baked two wedding cakes (well, one was a set of cupcakes). I simply HAVE to post about these desserts, especially since I have amazing professionally taken photographs!

This cake was for my friends Rachel and Zach, who had a lovely August wedding. I used the same recipe for this cake as I did for my wedding cake last summer, except I left out the fresh ginger. It was a great fluffy yellow cake, with homemade raspberry jam and toasted slivered almonds in between the layers, and slathered with vegan cream cheese frosting. I piped a dark chocolate ganache swirl around the outside and voila! The cake was ready for the love bird toppers, and for the love bird bride and groom to cut into it! Just look at these cuties:

I’ve gone to so many weddings recently; I’ve eaten a lot of cake and cried a lot of tears (of joy). It was really nice to be a part of some of the weddings and get to bake the desserts. Tune in soon for my wedding cupcakes!

Rachel and Zach, it was a pleasure to bake your wedding cake, and celebrate you both together with so many other people who love you!

Here are some in-process pictures:

I broke your heart…

Published February 16, 2011 Almond , Cakes , Vegan 1 Comment

I know it’s hard right now, but it’s best for the both of us. Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day.

The title and first line of this post come from an email I received from a friend, who sent me this picture he took of my heart-shaped cake. For a friendly Valentine’s Day potluck, I baked this almond cake with raspberry filling, with a buttercream icing. In the shape of a heart, of course, with no less than pink piping on top. It was whole until we decided to cut into it, and the very creative cutting job was done by the friend…

The cake was enjoyed by all and devoured immediately. I guess that’s what tends to happen when pieces are cut as large as eighths of the cake being slid onto each person’s plate!

I’ve Got My Eye On You…

Published February 5, 2011 Cakes , Chocolate , Cookies , Vegan 4 Comments

What do you get when you add your chocolate-loving housemate’s birthday, a request for Raspberry Blackout Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, and an only-sometimes-functioning-oven? Add into the mix an emergency run to the nearest TJ’s for dark chocolate chips, an extra pair of hands for rolling, and a lot of freezer space?

Cake Balls!

Now, I will tell you honestly that Cake Balls are delicious and worth the time spent making them no matter whether you’re whipping them up from scratch for the sole purpose of eating a perfectly crunchy outer shell with moist soft cake inside, or if you’re problem-solving a baked cake that wouldn’t detach from the pan like I was. Cake Balls are bite-sized, tasty, cute no matter how they are decorated, and pretty hip right now. Why not?

However fun these birthday desserts were, I am so glad our new oven is being delivered today! No more baking “disasters”!

Easiest Banana Bread

Published January 17, 2011 Breakfast Pastry , Muffins , Quick Breads , Vegan 6 Comments

I love banana bread. Any kind – you can make it “healthier” or not, I always enjoy a hearty slice of sweet banana bread. Chocolate chips, nuts, applesauce, carob, lots of spices, berries mixed in, you name it, I’ll eat it! This week, my brother got a hold of a ton of bananas (literally) and he made the most delicious banana bread ever. He gave me some bananas, I asked for the recipe, and I was shocked to find out that it was incredibly simple. Too simple, it seemed. But delicious. So, I made it exactly as he instructed, except I made two batches – one in a loaf pan and one batch into muffins. They were scrumptious both ways. Consider this recipe tested and perfected and so simple and quick to whip up, you will want to make it all the time. Except somehow you’ll have to have so many bananas you turn yellow. I think I have eaten enough, except now I want more, but magically we have eaten all the bananas he conjured up! Jesse, go find more!

Banana Bread Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup room-temperature margarine (I used Soy-Free Earth Balance)
2 cups white flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
sprinkle of dried coconut or sliced almonds, for topping

Preheat your oven to 350º F.

Mash bananas in a bowl using a potato masher or fork. You want to create as few lumps as possible. Beat in the sugar and margarine, till you have a smooth consistency. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients.

Pour into a greased loaf pan, or lined muffin tins. Sprinkle dried coconut, sliced almonds, or a pinch of sugar over batter to give a crunchy topping.

Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes.
Bake loaf for 60-70 minutes.
*Stick a toothpick into the center and it should come out nearly clean (a few crumbs are okay because it is best a bit moist).