Category: food

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

See, some people had a huge meal Thanksgiving Day. Other people, like me, ate normal amounts on T-day and use the extra time off to cook some of those time consuming items that don’t fit well into our daily lives when what we really should be doing is cleaning the house. Anyway, today’s decadence was the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk issue #2.

I think the last cinnamon roll I had was a couple of years ago when I was in Washington D.C. and made multiple trips to Sticky Fingers Bakery.  These were worth the long wait. And the prep time. I even held off on the morning coffee just so I could have the two together. The only problem I had is one that I always  have…the rising. I’m not sure if I’m looking for something more dramatic than is going to happen or what, but whenever recipes say something is going to double in bulk, I just don’t see it. Judging from pics from other bloggers who have made these, I think I am short a little bit of rising, but they didn’t seem to turn out dense, so I think they’re fine. The pumpkin flavor was really subtle and seemed to add color more than flavor. Hmm…now that I’ve put down 3, I should work them off by cleaning the house.

Before glaze

pumpkin cinnamon rolls

After glaze

pumpkin cinnnamon rolls glazed

Seitan Log

I’ve been seeing posts from people who have made this Seitan O’ Greatness for months and months and finally yesterday I made my own. I’ve made seitan plenty of times, but never baked it and never one with this much flavor in the dough. The texture comes out much firmer than the boiled seitan. This one will be perfect to use as sliced lunch “meat.” It’s much tastier than store bought fake meat. I had a few slices for dinner last night and the only downside I see is that it does get kind of dry when you slice and eat it that way. I think it’ll be really tasty chopped up small in a spaghetti sauce. I have this big ol’ log. Plenty to experiment with.

seitan o' greatness

seitan o' greatness

Mmmmmmm…..doughnuts

Today I’d like to give thanks for the fact that there is such a thing as a mini doughnut pan. And that someone has worked out a vegan doughnut recipe. And that I wasn’t too hungover this morning to put the two items together.

Here they are all nekkid straight out of the oven. I had pretty good luck getting just the right amount of batter in the pan. Only a couple started to muffin top on me. I doubled the recipe and ended up with 36 doughnuts. I only have the one pan and had to bake in 3 batches. The last batch was definitely more spongy and air-filled than the first. Keep in mind if the holiness bothers you.

nekkid mini doughnuts

For these I used the glaze in the link above.

glazed mini doughnuts

And for these, I used the chocolate ganache recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

chocolate mini doughnuts

Don’t you wish you’d saved room?

Banana Nut Muffins

I ordered both issues of Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk cookzine a couple of weeks ago and finally this weekend got around to making one of the recipes. I had some gushy bananas waiting for me when I returned from Virginia, so the Banana Nut Muffins were a perfect choice. She’s right…these are wonderfully moist and I love the topping. I used walnuts instead of pecans because it’s what I had but you all probably know that walnuts & bananas love each other. Oh, and you can’t taste the flax seeds in these at all. So you can pretend they’re all healthy and shit. You know, looking back at the recipe, they actually are a bit healthier than most muffin recipes. Bonus!

banana nut muffins

You know how you have a couple of muffin’s worth of batter left but don’t want to bake another whole pan for just a couple of muffins? I have these mini ceramic cups I use for mise en place, sauces, etc. I just plop the excess in those and bake along side the rest. The ceramic is a little slower to warm in the oven than the metal pan, so their doneness will be slightly different from the big batch. But I’ve also found if you take them out at about the same time, since the ceramic holds heat, they will continue to cook a little and “catch up” to the rest of the muffins.

single banana nut muffin

See that black spot in the second photo? I’ve started getting these on some, but not all, of my photos with this camera. I’ve tried cleaning the lens, but that hasn’t helped. My digital camera is 3+ years old. Maybe it’s time to break down and get a new one.

It’s not dessert, but it might as well be

Okay, so the second recipe I tried from Veganomicon wasn’t a dessert, but it was indeed sweet like candy. The Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes end up glazed in a candy like coating from the mirin, maple syrup and juice from the pears. If you’re looking for a Thanksgiving size, definitely try this.

Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes

Tonight I made an old stand-by, Winter Squash Risotto from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure. If you haven’t tried pressure cooked risotto, you need to. Stirring is for suckers plus this only cooks for 5 minutes. Squash, sweet potatoes…can you tell I’m eating in the season?

Winter Squash Risotto