Daring Bakers: Phyllo Dough and Baklava

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

For this challenge I went a bit non-traditional as I'm not a big fan of walnuts.  The basic recipe is found here, from Alton Brown (one of my favorites!!).   I changed it quite a bit and used almonds, cherries and cashews for the filling.  For the syrup I used honey, water, and sugar and flavored it with lemon, cayenne, cinnamon and allspice.  I absolutely loved the flavor of the filling, slightly nutty, lots of cherry and a pinch of spice.


I enjoy these daring bakers challenges because they challenge me to be creative and to try recipes I would never try otherwise.   For instance, baklava is too rich to be a favorite of mine, but I did enjoy spending hours making the dough and coming up with a filling flavor.  If you have any desire to try making Baklava I'd encourage you to take a weekend and do it.  I can help give pointers, if you'd like. :-)

Unbaked

Fresh outta the oven!

Jam Filled Cupcakes

 Katie, over at Chocolate Covered Katie (my go-to blog for dessert inspiration) asked for a round-up of newly tried vegan desserts. I just had to participate...any excuse to bake!!  I looked through my two new purchases, Veganomicon and Vegan with a Vengeance for inspiration.  These cookbooks are great, by the way.  They are filled with simple, healthy and CHEAP vegan recipes.  Best of all, they have all been delicious so far! But I digress...

I saw this AWESOME looking recipe for "Jelly donut cupcakes" in Veganomicon.  I renamed the recipe "Jam Filled Cupcakes" because when I made them the jam didn't sink into the center like it did for the authors, however, they were still super delicious. 

 

Best of all? One bowl!!! 

  

You were supposed to be able to put the jam on top and the cake would rise around it... it happened about half way with mine, but if I remade them I would make a little well for the jam in the center of the cakes. 

  

A little bit of jam spillage..

 

All done and delicious!

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Jam Filled Cupcakes

by Veganomicon May-20-2011

Ingredients

• 1C Soy Milk
• 1tsp White Wine Vinegar
• 1Tbs Cornstarch
• 1 1/2C Flour (all purpose)
• 3/4tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2tsp Nutmeg, ground
• 1/2tsp Salt
• 1/3C Vegetable Oil
• 3/4C Granulated Sugar
• 2tsp Vanilla
• 1/3C Jam
• Confectioners' Sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 3502. Mix soy milk, vinegar and corn starch in a small bowl. Set aside. 3. In a large bowl mix four, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Stir to combine. 4. Fill 12 cupcake liners with the batter. 5. Add a small teaspoon of jam on top of each cupcake. 6. Bake 20 minutes, cool and dust with confectioners' sugar. Enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 35 mins Yield: 12 cupcakes

Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

This morning I woke up and couldn't help lamenting a very sad looking banana on my counter.  It looked all brown and lonely, sad that all its friends had already been eaten. Fortunately for Mr. Banana (ermm he looked masculine, what can I say...), I saw a really intriguing recipe on one of my new favorite blogs for banana chocolate chip cookies and decided that I had to make it. The blog is Cookie and Kate and I've found lots of recipes I can't wait to try there, so check it out. :-) (Cute puppy pics too). 

In my excitement I didn't realize that I was missing a bunch of ingredients (eggs, real butter, brown sugar), but I took it as an opportunity to try to vegan-ize the recipe and it turned out REALLY great.  If you don't have flaxseeds on hand just look at the original recipe.

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Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

by May-4-2011

A veganized recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Adapted from Cookieandkate.com

Ingredients

• 1C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 2Tbsp Vegan Butter (or Butter)
• 1C Raw Sugar
• 1Tsp Molasses
• 1 Banana, mashed
• 1Tbs Ground Flaxseeds
• 3Tbs Warm Water
• 1Tsp Vanilla
• 2C Oats
• 1C Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. Preheat Oven to 3502. Mix warm water and flaxseeds in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, oats, cinnamon and cayenne in a medium bowl. 4. In a stand mixer (or by hand) cream together butter, sugar and molasses. 5. Add vanilla, mashed banana and flaxseed mixture and beat until combined
6. Gently add dry mixture and mix just until combined. 7. Stir in Chocolate Chips8. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 10 minutes

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 18 cookies

Bananas

Zucchini Bread, Healthified (kinda)

 

This week I received a bunch of beautiful zucchinis in my CSA box.  Zucchinis remind me of home--they were always overrunning the veggie gardens.  I enjoyed trying to think of ways to use all of them.  I was especially proud to manage to fit one into a dish that a certified zucchini hater (Mr. C) would eat, my gallo pinto!  

After a series of restless nights with some awful dreams (including one where Max (see below, right) was terribly beat up), I really wanted to make some comforting food. 

Well, long story short, I snuck some more zucchinis into Mr. C's diet and made a healthy-ish dessert bread that is really great AND comforting ..and vegan......and easy. :-) 

I might have put some dark chocolate chips in Mr. C's to make it more appealing to the veggie hater.

Hope everyone's dreams are better than mine have been! 

Vegan Zucchini Bread

adapted from hell yeah it's vegan

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Zucchini Bread

by Karla May-1-2011

My recipe for vegan zucchini bread.

Ingredients

• 6Tbs Ground Flaxseeds
• 1/2C +1Tbs Warm Water
• 1/2C Oil
• 1/2C Applesauce, unsweetened
• 2C Raw Sugar
• 1Tsp Vanilla
• 3 (medium) Zucchinis, grated
• 3C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• 1Tsp Salt
• 1Tbs Baking Soda
• 1Tsp Baking Powder
• 1Tbs Cinnamon
• 1Tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2Tsp Allspice
• 1/2-1C Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1.) Prep: Whisk together flaxseed and water. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 2 loaf pans. 2.) Mix together all ingredients up to and including the zucchini, until combined. 3.) Mix together the remaining ingredients (except chocolate chips), add in wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips gently and split batter into 2 loaf pans. 4.) Bake at 350F for about 1hr or until a fork comes out clean. Cool and enjoy! (I didnt cool, it was doughy and delicious).

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 20 mins Yield: 2 Loaves

Zucchini

Amazing Chocolate Cake--Gluten Free

Often when younger and still occasionally to this day, people would suggest careers that I should consider "when I grow up".  In order of most suggested to least suggested these careers have included:
Medical Doctor
Teacher
Veterinarian
Scientist

*Baker**

Psychologist
Counselor
Professional Dominatrix(!?!)
English Professor (!?!?!?!!)
(I really have no clue why those last two were suggested).

Anyways, the point being that when people have suggested I become a professional baker it has always been in response to this recipe.  I guess that means maybe I shouldn't give away the recipe!?  Oh well. :-)

I originally came up with this recipe so that I could make something for my mother (who is gluten intolerant), however, it was so well received I have made it on numerous occasions for many different types of crowds.

This particular time I made it for my Labmate Jodie's birthday.  Jodie likes spicy food and had just gotten back from a trip Ireland, so I changed the recipe a bit to reflect that. Sadly, I don't have pictures of this particular recipe..it was eaten too fast! (I found one picture on a labmates phone from before it was taken out of the pan!)

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
adapted from epicurious

Ingredients:
cake
1C Water
3/4C Sugar
9tbs Unsalted Butter
12oz Semisweet Chocolate (or Chips), not the cheapest variety
6oz Bittersweet Chocolate (or Chips)
6 Eggs
1tsp Vanilla
2tbs Irish Whiskey
1/4tsp Cayenne Pepper

ganache
1C Heavy Cream
8oz Semisweet (or Bittersweet) Chocolate
1tbs Irish Whiskey
1/2tsp Cayenne (or less for spice averse)

Method:
1. Preheat Oven to 350F and butter a 9-10" springform pan.
2. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Once thoroughly dissolved remove from heat and let sit while preparing the rest of the cake. 
3.  Melt butter and 12oz semisweet + 6 oz bittersweet chocolate in a large saucepan over medium heat.
4.  Using a whisk mix chocolate until smooth, the add sugar syrup, again whisking till smooth.  Add eggs one at a time, whisking in between. Finally, add vanilla, 2tbs Irish Whiskey and 1/4 tsp cayenne. 
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes.  Cool fully before topping with ganache.
6. For ganache, bring heavy cream to a boil and add remaining chocolate to melt. Once smooth, add 1tbs Irish Whiskey and 1/4 tsp cayenne.  Remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes, then pour over chilled cake.  Chill assembled cake until set.  (It is better the next day!)

Enjoy!

PS.  for those looking for a healthier cake I recently made this vegan apple pancake. It was awesome! Light, fluffy and rich tasting and SUPER good for you. I even preferred it over the chocolate cake. :-)

PPS.  I want to be a college professor when I grow up. ;-)