Kitchen Adventures

I'm finding that most things I eat normally have a vegan alternative (hooray treading a path tread by many conscientious internet users before me =D.) I've been tweaking some of my recipes and also trying out new ones, and here's where I'm at.

Muffins were pretty easy. I substitute canola oil for one egg and the apple sauce I use to flavor the muffins (this page has really been helpful for working around eggs in recipes), and since these are things I eat as fuel throughout the day when I'm at school instead of as a treat, I also use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, which also works out pretty well. Here's my recipe (as adapted from a Moosewood recipe):

Wet Ingredients:

3/4 cup Vegetable oil (1 cup if blueberry muffins)

3/4 cup Brown sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups Flour (unbleached all-purpose or whole wheat)

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

Dash (opt) Cinnamon

Special Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups Apple sauce or mashed banana

1 1/2 cups Nuts (and/or chocolate chips)

OR

1 1/2 cups Blueberries

1. Preheat at 350 F.

2. Mix wet ingredients together.

3. Gradually mix in dry ingredients.

4. Mix in fruit.

5. Mix in nuts.

6. Put cooking spray in muffin tin.

7. Put batter in muffin tin.

8. Put muffin tin in oven for ~19 minutes.

9. Remove and test done-ness with knife.

Another thing I adapted was the "vanishing" oatmeal cookies recipe on the inside of the lids on cans of Quaker oats:

1/2 cup (1 stick) + 6 tbsp. Butter*, softened

3/4 cup Firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup Granulated sugar

1/2 cup Vegetable oil

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour

1 tsp. Baking soda

1 tsp. Ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Salt

3 cups Rolled oats

1 cup Raisins or chocolate chips (or some other kind of dried fruit, possibly chopped up)

1. Heat oven to 350 F (175 C). In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.

2. Add vegetable oil and vanilla; beat well.

3. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.

4. Add oats and raisins, mix well.

5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

6. Bake 8 to 10 actually more like 10-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

*and by butter I actually mean Earth Balance butter or some other kind of vegan substitute.

The scones took a few tries (I don't have a picture of them, unfortunately). I've been using this recipe, but they were turning out a bit denser without the cow milk. When I tried putting in almond paste (a by-product from making home-made almond milk) in place of the optional sultanas in the recipe, however, it worked out quite well. I also substituted canola oil for the egg wash (or you can just leave it off), Earth Balance buttery sticks for the butter, and almond milk for the cow milk.

That brings me to almond milk. You can totally get that at most grocery stores, but I've found I prefer the flavor (nuttier) and texture (smoother) of homemade almond milk, which is pretty simple to make (though a bit messy with my parents' food processor that barely holds the water and almonds this recipe calls for, and just time consuming enough that I don't always have time to make it as often as I'd like). You can flavor it yourself and alter the thickness--I haven't tried flavorings besides chocolate, mint, and vanilla yet with this, but if macarons can be made with almond flour and come in as many delicious flavors as they do, I figure more flavors than one might think could work with almond milk.

One thing that's really becoming apparent to me is how we treat dairy flavor as a neutral/default taste for products that call for milk, but that's not because it actually is, it's just what we're used to. That said, some options don't go so well with certain flavorings (*coughgreenteaflavoredcoconuticecreamcough*). But I figure that's like how people don't generally put tabasco sauce or pomegranate juice in milk (... right? o__o). Things like almond milk aren't a nutty substitute that doesn't quite taste like cow milk--they're just different options.

Not that I'll be able to persuade my family of that come Thanksgiving. If I want to eat, I'll actually have to do a lot of my own cooking this year (to share, of course, but I'm guessing it won't be too popular between the cow-milk mashed potatoes and turkey and cheesy things.) We'll see how that goes o__o.