Blueberry Muffins

Know what makes them awesome? My homemade blueberry liquor. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, it makes them tasty. 

The recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. But... veganized and tweaked as usual. 

I used frozen blueberries and thawed them and drained them. I saved the liquid to add to the batter, but the process helps the blueberries hold up a bit better. They do not really need the extra blueberry juice, and I would leave it out next time. 

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup soy milk with 2 tablespoons flax seed (egg substitute) well whisked together
3/4 cup soy milk or other milk sub.
1/3 canola oil
(I also added 2 tablespoon of blueberry liquor. I will post the recipe in a later post). 
1 teaspoon or so finely grated lemon peel. 
1 cup well drained blueberries (thawed or fresh)

Oven at 400 degrees

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Combine wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients until just moist. Add blueberries. Fill greased or lined muffin pans 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 25 minutes.

If you wanted... just before baking you could add a bit of jelly or jam to the top of the batter.

Coffee Cake Muffins

I haven't been baking much since we decided to move. And here we are... in the new house for two months and I suddenly want to make all the things. 

So I pulled out the big old BHaG cookbook. We all know the one. In it is a bunch of great muffin recipes but not so much with the vegan. That is quite alright. I can fix that.

Coffee Cake Muffins made vegan:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup soy milk and 2 tablespoons ground flax seed (this will be the egg sub.)
1/2 cup soy milk

************

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts ( I used almonds as that is about all anyone in my house will eat)
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted earth balance or other vegan margarine

Sift the 1 1/2 cup flour, sugar and baking powder into mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. At the flax mix and the milk and mix until just moist.

Combine the brown sugar, nuts, 1 tablespoon flour, cinnamon and melted EB.

Place half the batter into muffin tins (greased or lined with muffin cups), sprinkle nut mixture over, then top with the remaining batter, filling half full. Then bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

They did take a bit longer for me, I think my oven is running cool. But they seem to be a big hit. I would even top them with a light vanilla icing.

More food.

I haven't been in the studio much. Although I am working on a painting. That aside, I am having  people over for the Season premiere of Doctor Who. We will be having vegan fish fingers and custard, as well as Jammy Dodger. My woefully American, never actually had any, and am relying on information from the internet, version of Jammy Dodgers.

These lovelies are rich shortbread (with flax seed egg substitute) and plum jam. Made them last night and am hoping they make it until the people show up for the party.

Gingerbread

I love gingerbread, ginger snaps, ginger tea, ginger tofu... I think you get the idea. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar has an amazing recipe for gingerbread biscotti. It has wonderful bits of ginger in the cookie that add a great texture and zing.

And the light in the house was wonderfully cooperative today, so I was finally able to get great photos of some of my favorite ornaments. That is something I have been trying to do for several years. Some of these ornametnst are from my childhood, and I would bery much like to scrap them.

I hope you all had joyous weekend.

The First Fall Treats

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Last night was the first really cool night. And I was laying snuggled in my blankets this morning thinking how glad I was that fall was here. I adore fall. The light is breathtaking, I love cooler days and chilly nights. And I love, love, love the food.

I came home and rummaged a bit, but I found that I was out of quite a bit. Including cupcake liners (how? I have no idea). So I took a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and turned it into a cake.


And then I had leftover Cinnamon Glaze and couldn't bare to let it go to waste. Littlebit had these lovely Cinnamon Glazed Graham Crackers for snack. She inhaled them.

I am already looking forward to much more fall food.
K

A very special treat

Not only do I have a wonderful recipe to share, but I get bragging rights, since it is one that I made up. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of blueberries and asked if I would create something that combined blueberries, chocolate and lavender.

Blueberry Cups:
1 cup blueberries (mine were fresh, but frozen would work)
1/2 cup Lavender Syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1 to 2 drop lavender essential oil (to taste and smell)

2 tablespoons cornstarch or arrow root

8 squares semi sweet baking chocolate
2 teaspoons shortening

Combine first four ingredients in a heavy bottomed sauce pan, and bring to a slow boil. Lower temp and reduce. Using 2+ tablespoons of liquid from blueberry mixture, mix cornstarch to create the thickening agent, and add to saucepan.
Reduce (preferably to half but this is up to you). Set aside to cool.

In a microwave safe bowl, place chocolate and shortening, and melt in the microwave (I used 30 second increments.).

In a mini muffin tin or candy mold, cover the bottom with melted chocolate, place some blueberry mixture in the center, then cover with chocolate. I placed mine in the freezer.

They won't last long. And keep in mind, that this recipe is not a picky one. There is a lot of wiggle room for your personal preferences.

I was doing so well,

And then I just wore out. The end of the school year does that to me. We try to squeeze too much into too small a time frame.

I haven't been doing a lot other than reading. Lots of new books since my birthday. I have made a few cards, but have not done much more than that. Sometimes the down time is critical for recharging the batteries.

The in-laws are visiting this week. Naturally, this means lots of good, vegan food. Everyday, really means lots of good vegan food. Cooking is my husbands hobby (go HERE for some awesome recipes). When company comes, though we up the ante. In our fridge right now are chick pea burgers, Moroccan soup, and seitain. This week we are feeding omnivore folk stromboli.

I have no idea what to bake for them. The girls are voting for lavender cupcakes. But I was hoping for inspiration for something new. So any ideas are welcome.

The picture in this post is from my friend who owns boundinbeauty.com. Need something custom, ask her. Her work is amazing!

That is all for now.
K

Lavender Sugar Cookies, The Vegan way

Ever since getting a bottle of lavender coffee syrup for my birthday, I have been trying to find creative ways to use it in my baking. Aside from the lavender cupcakes, I have made lavender lemondade.

This yummy little cookie is the first incarnation of a lavender sugar cookie. The basic recipe is from the standard Better Homes and Garden cookbook. But I veganized it by using EnerG egg replacer, and vanilla soy instead of milk and eggs. I then added some of my lavender essential oil, and some of the syrup. I am pretty pleased, but think that next time I will try flax seed instead, for the egg.

Enjoy
K

This is so good,

that it has to be bad for you. But it isn't. I baked this devine banana bread using the Lower Fat Banana Bread recipe from the Veganomican. Check out some other yummies from them here. I love this stuff. The kids ate most of the loaf in under three hours. I think that if Brother knew it was vegan he would have a heart attack.

Peace

K