Veganize it - Bob's Red Mill Redo

Those of you who know me in real life may know that I've been participating in a program offered by my local yoga studio, Breathe Yoga called 'Reclaim Your Diet'. In brief it is an introduction/refresher to the idea that we've lost our connection with the food we eat, ala Michael Pollan, etc.; based on the movie and book Hungry For Change.

I've always eaten pretty healthy, although there are things that we can all do to eat *healthier*. I have especially always enjoyed cooking, although between theatre productions and the holidays I got very far removed from that love and process. Finding that drive, motivation and inspiration has been great.

So, fast forward to almost being finished with the program and really wanting to make these Blueberry Coconut Muffins. Reading the recipe, I was aghast, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. heavy cream, 1 stick butter?! Seriously, even if those were all organic, that is pretty heavy! So, I consciously made out to make them vegan and see what all these nutrition classes have taught me. I also wanted to switch out the sugar, but there wasn't many dry ingredients left after I made the other changes, so, maybe next time.

Amanda's Veganized Blueberry Coconut Muffins

*Based on Bob's Red Mill Blueberry Coconut Muffins found here: Blueberry Coconut Muffins

1 c. unbleached flour
½ c. whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 c. sugar
½ c. organic, unsweetened, unsulfated flaked coconut
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ c. coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 banana
½ c. organic light coconut milk
1 c. blueberries, fresh or frozen


Preheat oven to 350o and line muffin pans with liners. Beat sugar and coconut oil on low speed until combined. Add banana and beat that at low speed until really integrated and you see few chunks in the batter. Add coconut milk and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flours, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda. Add dry ingredients to wet, mixing at a low speed. At this point batter will be well-combined but stretchy. This is okay. Fold in blueberries and coconut flakes. Drop by heaping spoonful into lined muffin tin. Bake at middle rack of oven for 20 minutes. Makes approximately 14-18 muffins.

Cooking Challenges -- The Braid!

This is the second of Willow Bird Baking's Challenges.

The Task:

This week's challenge was to make our own Braid based on Julie's Raspberry Almond Braid.

The Changes:

My changes were small this time around. Instead of Raspberry, I used a jar of Peach preserves I had in the pantry. Instead of almonds, I used walnuts. Also, for the icing, I followed it as written, but also sprinkled in a little ginger and cardamon. It gave the icing a little kick to combat the sweetness.

The Results:

One of the easiest recipes ever! Instead of doing it in a food processor (mine's not big enough! *hint Santa*), I made the dough in a bowl with my pastry blender. Because I'm old-fashioned. Also, despite of my unevenish cutting of the strips on the side, it still looked really good. The only thing I might do differently is to put more filling in, I erred on the side of caution and the dough could have handled more I think. Since this was so easy (maybe just over 30 min start to finish) - I definitely see myself doing this again!

The Pictures:

Horizontally:



Vertically:

Tastbuds Say:

Yum! This is great breakfast food. I don't think I overworked the dough at all, and it still didn't come out airy and flaky, more like a pie crust consistency, which really works for this recipe. The addition of almond extract and the cream cheese also makes it a very full-tasting dough. (Did that make sense?)

Cooking Challenges - Cinnamon Rolls

One of the things I've always loved the most about the internet and the blogosphere has been the communities (I'm still over on LiveJournal mainly for the communities. I like being able to talk (and especially) craft with like-minded people from all over the world.

Given that I have an addictive personality type (is *that* why the Mumford and Sons CD hasn't left my side since its release date?) - it really shouldn't be any surprise that I love reading blogs. Back to community.

It was thanks to the aforementioned LiveJournal that I "met" Julie from Willow Bird Baking. I've been following her kitchen adventures, her lovely food photography, and her tales of being a teacher (she teaches middle-school so I think she's a saint) for a while. I followed her on Facebook and she started issuing food challenges to some of her followers. So, the first baking challenge was "cinnamon rolls". After a Google hangout she gave us one of her own recipes and challenged us to make it our own.

The Task:

Her recipe was these delicious Coconut Almond Buns/Rolls.

I admit it, I was pretty nervous. I had never made a cinnamon roll. I knew that the dough was really finicky and baking has never been my forte (so *I* say - I know plenty of others who would argue that point!). I took a deep breath and threw caution to the wind, I mean, seriously, what was going to happen if I failed? I'd learn something at the least.

The Changes:

So, my changes to Julie's initial recipe were simple. I first changed the 5 cups of all-purpose flour to 2 cups of wheat and 3 cups of regular all-purpose flour. I had decided early on that I was going to do a more savory take on them. I knew I had a pound of breakfast sausage that needed to be used, so I decided to make sausage, egg and cheese rolls. (My challenge to myself for all of these challenges is to buy minimal ingredients, and really try to use what is on hand first and foremost!)

The Results:

The result of my "building kitchen confidence"? The dough was really easy to make ahead of time since I had everything on hand. To make the filling, I just used scrambled egg, cooked and crumbled sausage and some Mexican shredded cheese I had in the fridge.

Although I really wanted to document all the steps, I really resisted. I wanted to really take this experience as a challenge, and push myself. I knew that if I focused on taking pictures every step of the way, that would be my focus (trying to get the *right* shot) instead of the cooking itself.

The one thing I would do differently is to make sure that my surface was completely floured again before I started laying my layers. When rolling, the dough was stuck to the counter in a few places, which made it really hard to be consistent. Plus, the lumpy filling made it difficult to roll evenly. One of the things I did that worked was constantly flouring my knife, it made cutting the rolls apart really easy.

The Pictures:

So, here are my "rolls" after cutting and placing in the dish. They're not pretty.



After rising. On the warm stove, these took about 90 minutes to double in size.



After baking.

Tastbuds Say:

Nom! These were delicious. I omitted the extra butter in the filling, and these could have used a little more something. I think that if I were to do these again - I mean when I make these again, I would drizzle them with a cheese sauce instead of a glaze. I loved the wheat blend in the flour. They came out like an breakfast sandwich in roll/bun form.

I encourage you to join us in the fun. You can see everyone else's roll/bun creations over at Willow Bird Baking!