Monthly Archives: May 2017

Donut Mini Muffins

Donut Mini Muffins

Donut Mini Muffins

In the past, I have tried (unsuccessfully) to make baked donuts. I even bought a donut pan but donated it after the utter failure of my baked creations. But I am still drawn to the idea of making donuts. It’s strange, really, because I am not a big fan of donuts. However, this week I delved into that arena again, this time changing a batch of mini donuts into mini muffins.

The recipe I uncovered was already vegan but I went one step beyond – I used aquafaba as the egg replacer. It worked beautifully, making light and fluffy muffins. The change I made for altitude was to use less baking powder. Besides that, I had fun using different donut themes for my muffins. I filled some with jam and smeared chocolate on top. Others I dipped into chocolate and then added sprinkles. I could have added powdered sugar to a few but the idea of only chocolate flavoring won out, as usual.

Donut Mini Muffins based on Vegan Mini Baked Donuts
Dry Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Pinch ground cinnamon
Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup aquafaba
4 TBS vegan buttery spread (not buttery sticks)
Toppings
2 TBS vegan sprinkles
3 ounces vegan chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F. Put paper cups in 24 spaces of a mini muffin pan. In a bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk to mix thoroughly. Combine wet ingredients in a pan over medium low heat and mix until buttery spread is melted. This should not get too hot; just slightly warm. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined. Scoop into muffin cups. Bake for 12 minutes until almost browned on top and a tester comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack before decorating. To decorate, put sprinkles on a plate then melt chocolate chips over a double boiler. Dip minis one-by-one into chocolate then into sprinkles. Makes 24.

Until next time, happy baking!

Spring Sugar Cookies

Spring Sugar Cookies

Spring Sugar Cookies

Spring has finally won out in the weather where I live. Warmer temps have caused flowers to burst out, so I thought it would be nice to do an homage to the Earth’s beauty. Thinking it would be fun to decorate flower cookies, I got a cookie cutter in the shape of a tulip and went on the hunt for a sugar cookie recipe.

Truth be told, I haven’t done roll-out cookies in forever. I am more of a drop cookie gal, but this was about cookie art. So, I found a recipe that was already vegan to make things easier. The only alterations I had to make were to add water for dryness at high altitude, and to switch some of the tapioca flour to all-purpose flour because the extra water makes very fine flours turn to wallpaper paste. I chose a large Wilton cutter to have a greater backdrop for decorating, but it also made the work go faster. Use any cookie cutters you like; the bake time is a range from small to large sized cookies.

Spring Sugar Cookies adapted from Veg News
1.5 cups vegan margarine
1 cup vegan sugar
6.5 TBS water
1 TBS vanilla
4.75 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt
Frosting of choice
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together margarine and sugar until light and creamy. Add in water and vanilla and beat again. Add flours and salt and mix well to form a smooth dough. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until firm.
Preheat oven to 350F. Divide dough in half and work with one half at a time; keep remaining dough covered. On a floured work surface, roll dough out to desired thickness (1/8” for crispy cookies, 1/4” for soft), cut into shapes, and transfer cookies with a spatula to ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-24 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Cool slightly before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Decorate with frosting once fully cooled. Makes 3-6 dozen cookies.

Until next time, happy baking!

Flourless Fudge Cookie Failure

chocolate cookie failure

chocolate cookie failure

When I write blog posts, they usually include a few words about how the baked good was altered and include a recipe. Well, not this week. I have spent 8 hopeless days trying to produce an egg white based flourless cookie by using Aquafaba (the bean liquid from chickpeas). The substance makes a wonderful meringue cookie and is supposed to act in other eggy ways. I’ve used it in my super flegg egg substitute, but never as a stand-in for egg whites. It’s apparently going to require quite a few more trials.

The recipe for a flourless fudge cookie sounded like a challenge, but not as great a one as it turned out to be. The recipe called for whisked egg whites. I replaced them with whisked aquafaba and got an ooey gooey un-cookie like substance. Next I thought to whip up the chickpea water in the stand mixer to get more volume, but was still unsuccessful. Then I tried switching brands of canned chickpeas and discovered that the included brine varied immensely and a thicker liquid got me closer to a cookie but not exactly. The baked cookies were a bit gooey and rubbery at the same time, although my hubby thought they were good dipped in espresso.

So, today’s post will not include a recipe. This egg white substitution is still a failure and requires more testing. And more research. I plan to get it right one day, just not today.