Class II Day 2: Danishes and Diner Cinnamon Rolls

We finished up the danish dough from last week... danish galore!

My personal favorite:
Pecan Alligator ('cause it looks like an alligator tail, get it?)

Pecan Filling (can be prepared and stored up to 1 week in fridge) - soooo good!
This can also be almond instead of pecan. (Or any nut in fact)
Yields 1 Cup
1C Pecans
1/2C Powdered Sugar
1oz Unsalted Butter, room temp
1/2t Vanilla Extract
1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Pulse nuts and sugar in food processor. Once finely ground, add in butter, extract and egg white. Mix together.
Use at room temp.

Other danish shapes: bearclaw (with almond filling), pinwheel with a cream cheese filling, and triangle with an apricot filling.
All this shaping and rolling was reminiscent of the croissant and puff pastry class.

After crappy rolling and shaping.

Bear Claws with Almond Filling

Pinwheels with Cream Cheese Filling

Apricot "Triangles"

All packed up!

Diner Cinnamon Rolls
YUM! Similar but so different from the Pain au Raisin and Brioche Cinnamon Rolls from before...

MASSIVE.

Pre-icing

Let the sugar rush commence!

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

We all know about Babycakes in NY, now also in LA, yes? And needless to say, with all the vegan researching and experimenting, I was sure to come around to it... and Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow's blog) featured a Q&A with founder Erin McKenna! Along with some recipes!

I tweaked it to be vegan, but NOT gluten-free. (One thing at a time people!) Also, halved the recipe.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2C Coconut Oil

105g Sugar

44g Applesauce

1/2t Salt

1T Vanilla Extract

3/4C AP Flour (except now that I look at my notes, it might actually be 1-1/4C AP Flour, oops. Go fig.)

11g Flaxseed Meal

1/4C Cocoa Powder

1/2t Baking Soda

1/2C Chocolate Chips

(yields about 6 medium sized, and 1 large cookie)

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix together all wet ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients, then add to wet. Beat well.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop onto parchmented baking sheets.

Smoosh down to help spread*. Bake for 9 min, rotate pan and bake for another 5 min. (I added on another 2 min.)

Remove from oven and let stand for 10 min.

Best served warm (hell YEAH they are).

*The cookies didn't spread much other than to the shape I smooshed it down to. Could be the extra flour perhaps?

Another double chocolate chip cookie recipe I messed around with for vegan eats is:

2oz Vegan Butter
3oz Crisco
3/4C Brown Sugar
2 Egg replacer "eggs"
1t Vanilla Extract
1-3/4C AP Flour
1/2t Espresso Powder
1/3C Cocoa Powder
1/2t Baking Soda
1/8t Salt
1/2C Semisweet Chocolate Chips

(yields approx 6 medium and 4 large cookies)

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat butter and crisco with brown sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Then add in flour, espresso powder, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix together well, then fold in chocolate chips.
Drop onto prepared baking sheets. Smoosh down to spread. Don't smoosh down too smoothly though, or the top of the cookie with be super flat and textureless.

Bake for 10-14 min. Let cool slightly on cookie sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

These cookies lack the "depth" of the double chocolate chips non-vegans usually get... so I'm still working on this to try and figure it out. Hmmmmmmm.

Class II Day 1: Baguettes and Sourdough

Yay! Class! The short break between sessions just flew by!

And first day back was just like we never left. We dove into preparing danish dough to bake off the following class. (Needless to say, with all the rolling and folding, there was little time to take pictures.)

So, we completed baguettes in class, and took home our prepared sourdough dough to bake the next day in our own kitchens.

Sourdough made from rye starter.

oops. forgot to slash the top.

Did I forget to mention?

Baking classes have started up again! Pro Baking II... so here comes 6 more weeks of new baking adventures!

The New School of Cooking - Check it out!

Homemade Granola

I'm not usually a partaker of granola... I like plain granola on my yogurt, but that's about it.
But I decided to make some granola after some inspiration online and while looking at the "bulk" section in my local Sprouts market.

It was easy peasy! Just mix everything together and bake.
And I like how its easily customizable to what your tastes are.

Homemade Cranberry Nut Granola, adapted from Food Network - Giada De Laurentis
For the almonds, I used a mix of slivered and sliced. And pretty much guesstimated on the pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. I mean, really, throw in however much you feel like! (Within reason, of course.)

This seems like an "autumn" granola, what with the pumpkin seeds and cranberries. Reminiscent of Thanksgiving no?

Vegan transition

Not that I've ever been opposed to vegan foods, but I just never had much "exposure" to it. And ignorance is bliss, perhaps?

So needless to say, with the new job coming up working for a vegan cafe/bakery... I've spent lots of time practicing the transition of "regular" baker to vegan baker. After spending an entire evening making these items, I have come to the epiphany that while simply subbing out "regular" items for vegan items (egg replacer, vegan butter, soy cream cheese, etc) is easy enough... the results aren't going to yield the same results. Maybe close, but not perfection. Especially for someone like me who has been (and always will be) fully nommaging on everything - vegan or not.

Plum Kuchen. Made this before... this time came out super dense. Eek.

Caramelized Pear Upside Down Cake. Made this before too. I forgot that I didn't really like it. This time was no different - in fact, it was probably worse.

Vegan Othello Cookies, adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Baking book
(I halved the original recipe to make these "tester" cookies.)

4oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped - for melting

1Tbsp Earth Balance vegan butter - for melting

1.5Tbsp AP Flour

1/8t Baking Powder

1 Egg Replacer egg

1/3C Sugar

1/2t Vanilla Extract

5oz. semisweet chocolate chips - for folding in

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt bittersweet chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Let cool slightly.
Combine flour and baking powder.
Combine egg, sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy. Fold in melted chocolate mixture, then the flour mixture, then the chocolate chips. Don't overmix.

Scoop mounds of batter onto prepared baking sheets (parchment or foil), approx 1Tbsp placed 1.5 inches apart.

Bake for 6 minutes. Then turn sheet 180 degrees, continue to bake until tops appear dry - approx 5 min. The cookies will come out very soft. Let cool completely on baking sheets before removing.

Yields about 6 - 10 cookies, depending on size.

These came out kind of weird. "Greasy", due to the fake butter I suppose. Put these in the fridge, and they came out white, and very hard. Oops. Not a major fail - but still a no bueno kind of cookie test.

Computer failure...

My computer died last week. And I just now got it back. Not to say I missed it much... I DEFINITELY had lots of household maintenance to catch up on! But now, I have to catch up on all my blogging and blog reading... all things interwebby fabulous! So, while I get back into the groove of having a computer back in my life, and while I still have to finish up the rest of my cleaning "extravaganza" - please be patient and I will be back! :)