Page 79: Agave-Sweetened Brownie Gems

Today was another rainy day in paradise and I found myself with some extra time at home and an urge to bake.  My first inclination was to make the BabyCakes chocolate chip cookies, but as I continue my quest to bake every recipe in the BabyCakes book I thought I should try something new.  So I decided to try the second brownie recipe: Agave-Sweetened Brownie Gems.

Gems.  Sounds super cute and yummy right?  Wrong.  Bottom line: I think this is my least favorite BabyCakes recipe yet.  Pretty much everything I've made so far is not only better, but waaaaay better.  Let's disect...

From all accounts, these are apparently purposefully less sweet than the Brownie Bites I've successfully made before.  But the chocolate sauce is supposed to make up for this lack of sweetness.  It does not.  Maybe I did something wrong with the sauce, because as you'll see in the comparison below, mine looks very different from that shown in the picture.  Mine was not as dark and rich looking (or tasting), despite adding extra agave in attempt to get the "deep, rich chocolate" version of the sauce as described in the book.

The chocolate frosting "sauce" was pretty good - although I think the vanilla version is still better.  But even it could not bring these bites back to the level of yumminess I've come to expect from BabyCakes.  I'm taking them to work tomorrow where I plan to anonymously place them in the break room and remotely monitor how fast they disappear (this is what I do with baked goods not bad enough to throw out but not good enough to claim).

Oh well.  The upside: I'm one recipe closer to moving on to book two (and DONUTS!).  And... I have a bowl of leftover chocolate frosting in my refrigerator!  Surely I can think of a good way to put that to use.

Easter Brunch

Oh how I love brunch! It is my favorite meal - and what's not to love? It generally takes place on a weekend, holiday, or some other type of day off.  It's essentially breakfast fare but occurs later so as not to interfere with sleeping in on said day off.  And the menu is a perfect combination of savory and sweet that doesn't make it's way into our everyday breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.

On Sunday we hosted Easter Brunch for a dozen of our closest island-dwelling friends. Since adopting a plant based diet, going out to brunch has lost some of it's appeal for me because in most cases it means making exceptions to my normally egg and dairy free diet. Thus, I was beyond excited to host brunch where I could make the delicious favorites I enjoyed in my pre-veg days, but do so using plant-healthy ingredients! I also seized upon the opportunity to try out not one, but two new BabyCakes recipes. Read on for details on my menu.

BabyCakes Blueberry Crumb Cake (Page 113)

Although slightly overdone (I really need to approach baking times with more skepticism), this was still pretty good. It contains three ingredients - blueberries, cinnamon, and lemon extract - that I never would have thought to combine in one recipe, but it was a genius combination that really worked.  The crumb topping is derived from the BabyCakes Vanilla Cupcakes, so I started the process by making a small batch of those.  I also had vanilla frosting, which had really turned out as a sauce, left over from the Gingerbread and it worked out perfectly for the icing.

Whole Foods Portobello and Asparagus Strata

While I enjoyed the vegan version below, I'm told this was delicious! Hubby helped me out with this one - apparently he is more experienced than I at adequately whisking eggs.

Vegan Portobello and Asparagus Strata

After finding the strata recipe at Whole Foods, I was left with the question of what savory dish to serve that I would eat, as well as something that would accommodate one of my guests who cannot eat dairy or gluten.  The solution: a genius named Sarah Farsh who converted the Whole Foods recipe above to be entirely plant based, and was kind enough to leave a link to her creation in the Whole Foods comments section.  I simply subbed the bread for a gluten free almond flour bread (with egg replacer), which was so easy to make and worked out great in the recipe.

Oven Roasted Herb Potatoes

One of my favorite side dishes - for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  This is a large recipe because I was feeding a dozen, but you can adapt accordingly.

5 pounds fingerling potatoes, cut in half lengthwise

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon fresh or dried thyme

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl until potatoes are well coated. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Spread potatoes on baking sheet in single layer and roast at 350° for 60 to 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender and begin to brown.

BabyCakes Spelt Biscuits (Page 37) with Vegan Clotted Cream and Jam

I was so excited to make these biscuits and have literally been looking forward to this part of the brunch for weeks.  I love biscuits, especially with clotted cream and jam - a taste I fell in love with while visiting London a few years ago.  After giving up dairy, I thought my days of enjoying clotted cream were over. But then I bought a recipe book called Vegan Yum Yum and discovered it was incredibly easy to make a vegan clotted cream that was just as delicious! And the author has posted it online. Enjoy!

Unfortunately we missed a picture of the final product, so I only have the pre-baked version from my iPhone.  I initially failed to add enough water to the dough so the first few were very tough to get rolled out (notice the very "cracked" looking egg above).  But I kept going back and adding water to the dough so by the end they were looking more like proper biscuits.

I have room to improve on this recipe, specifically add a lot more water next time.  I also have leftover clotted cream and jam in my fridge as we speak so I just might have to try a remake sooner than later.

There you have it!  My friends were kind enough to add fresh fruit and a few other pastries to the table - it was an absolutely delicious spread and was in every way as magical as the brunch menus I so loved in my pre-veg days.

Happy Easter!

Page 62: Gingerbread

That's right friends, three ginger BabyCakes recipes in a row. Hey, I bought ginger. Why not?

As I said before, I was actually kind of excited to make the gingerbread because it involved a layer of BabyCakes frosting. But... it's BabyCakes frosting... and therefore it's temperamental. From what I recall, the last frosting attempt was in January with the Sweet Paradise cake when it turned out beautifully thick and set up perfectly. It did not do so this weekend for the gingerbread.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The gingerbread making itself was pretty uneventful. It's another teacakes recipe that has "extra batter" which I chose to use on cupcakes. Not very exciting - I definitely preferred the final product in teacake form and think I actually (gasp!) trashed six of the eight cupcakes by Sunday night. Mostly due to the frosting drama I'll discuss further below.

The final loaf, which I do not have a picture of because the camera battery died and we were already digging in, was very moist and definitely tasted of ginger and spice (and everything nice). The recipe also has one fourth cup of molasses. This seemed like a lot to me since I usually measure that stuff out by the teaspoon, but it added to the spice quality of the final product. And it gave me an iron boost for the weekend. Yay.

In short: it was good. Similar to a spice cake but not as sweet as the ginger snaps... but not so good that I would be inclined to eat it plain. Thus enters the frosting. And the drama. I'll spare you the details (they've been written here before) but I ended up with vanilla sauce. Still so delicious - as always - but not beautifully spreadable. So to enjoy a slice we spooned the frosting "sauce" on top of the slices like so:



As I said, it was still delicious and really brought the gingerbread to life, but it was not the thick layer of frosting pictured piled atop the gingerbread in the book (and that I was really looking forward to). Sigh.

Enough with the ginger... partly because I've now made all three of the ginger centric recipes in the book. Next up: biscuits for my veggie-ful Easter brunch (unless I find something wonderful to make before then!).

Page 67: Gingersnaps

That's right - ginger again.  Maybe I don't hate it after all.  At least not in baked goods... I remain suspicious of the little pink shavings that incessantly litter my sushi platters.

I can't recall ever before eating a gingersnap, let alone making them.  As a child I generally shied away from the boring brown spice cookies in favor of those laced with chocolate chips or a certain candy coated chocolate.  These days, thankfully, I'm smart enough to know that if it's in the BabyCakes book, it's probably worth trying.  And these were no exception.

As it turns out, gingersnaps are really, really yummy.  As usual it's likely my version is chubbier and more cakey than the BabyCakes version, but I loved them anyway.  The chubbiness might be due in part to the fact that I got distracted when I was adding the flour and lost track of the number of scoops I added.  So, I may have accidentally added 1/4 cup too much.  I didn't stress about this possibility because Erin McKenna said in the description if you wanted a cakier cookie, add an extra 1/4 cup of flour.  My thought was that if I did overscoop it would work out either way, but now I don't know if this is the same cookie I'll get next time I make them by the recipe.  Oops - guess I really didn't think that one through.

As usual, I had to adjust the suggested baking time.  I've pretty much mastered the baking time for the chocolate chip cookies with my oven and climate, so I used the same standard for these - 10 minutes, rotating 180 degrees after six minutes.   This seemed to work out perfectly.

In addition to ginger, these snaps are loaded with molasses and cinnamon too - and the combination of flavors was delish.  In a warm spice, holiday, homey kind of way.  They are like the comfort food of cookies and they were perfect with a cold glass of almond milk!  Judging by how quickly they disappeared at work today, my coworkers were big fans as well.

Ginger does it again.  I'm now actually excited to make the gingerbread.  Not only because I'm sure it's amazing, but also because it's recommended served frosted with a generous slab of BabyCakes frosting.  I can hardly wait.

Page 28: Ginger Peach Corn Muffins

In reviewing my list of "yet unbaked" recipes recently, I realized I still have a lot of muffins to bake. I made the Blueberry Muffins early on in the adventure, but the rest of the chapter was still relatively unvisited.  This might be because the ones left to bake included Pumpkin-Spice Muffins, Zucchini Muffins, and these Ginger Peach Corn Muffins... all of which seemed best suited for fall baking.  Thus, I was very unmotivated to make them in March.

It didn't help that I don't care for ginger either - at least not in most forms. But I knew I had to make these eventually and invited over a few friends to help me bake who are bigger fans of the spice - just in case I didn't want to keep any of them when all was said and done.  Plus, baking with friends is more fun than baking alone (as long as you make plenty to share)!

I also had a hard time finding good peaches, particularly since it's March and I'm on an island where peaches have to be shipped a minimum of 3,000 miles before they reach me.  I was so proud of myself when I stumbled upon a handful of soft and yummy smelling peaches at my grocers. However, when we cut into them it was obvious they had been through some trauma - instead of soft peachiness inside it looked as though they had been partially frozen at some point.  Fortunately, these are tossed in agave and lemon juice and caramelized in the oven before topping the muffins, so the caramelizing served to both sweeten them up and disguise their scars.

In short, this corn, ginger, and peach flavor combination is amazing. And I'm speaking as someone who doesn't - or at least didn't - like ginger.  They were also incredibly moist, even when I enjoyed one for breakfast the next day. 

And so pretty, right?  I love the aesthetic quality the caramelized peaches add to the top.

After being pleasantly surprised by the flavor of these darlings, I'm suddenly much less hesitant to try two other recipes in the book: Gingerbread and Gingersnaps...  more opportunities to let ginger impress me!

Page 49: Johnnycakes

If you're like me and have never before heard of something called a Johnnycake, do yourself a favor and make them for breakfast this weekend.  Especially if you live in a place where it still feels like winter.  You'll thank me, I promise.

Full disclosure: I don't think my Johnnycakes turned out anything like those coming out of the ovens at the BabyCakes bakery.  From the photo in the book, they are supposed to look more like a cookie or small pancake - flat and golden browned to perfection before being smothered in delicious agave nectar.  Despite my repeated attempts to thin the batter (I feared drowning out the flavor I was adding so much hot water), I couldn't get them anything close to flat-as-a-pancake.  They do contain coconut oil (an ingredient with which I have a love-hate relationship at this point), so it is possible I did an inadequate job of melting the oil before adding it to my batter.

Nonetheless, these were a perfect breakfast treat on a rainy Saturday morning.  Rather than resembling a pancake, mine turned out somewhat scone like (you know how I love scones) with a distinct cornbread-esque quality.  It reminded me of the cold winter days my mom would make chili and cornbread, and I would proceed to drown piece after piece of cornbread in maple syrup.  The cornmeal in the cake and the agave poured oh so generously on top is a similar flavor, but is lighter and somehow comes across perfectly suited for breakfast.  Like I said, do yourself a favor and try them yourself.

As I mentioned, don't forget to add generous amounts of agave nectar.  Yes, it's breakfast, but I'm sure you deserve it!

We will definitely be making these again - maybe next time I'll do a better job with the batter and we will get a flatter version.  If not, I'll still be happy.  Just pass me the agave.

Also - HOORAY! I just passed the half-way mark in my little adventure: 26 down, 25 to go.

Page 45: Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas

As you may remember, my dear friend Jess introduced me to the BabyCakes cookbook (inaugural post found here) and, therefore, is responsible for my BabyCakes enlightenment.  She's done it again: for my birthday she gave me the second book written by Erin McKenna: BabyCakes Covers the Classics.

It was like Christmas morning for me.  The book contains gems like Thin Mints (I literally gasped), S'mores with homemade graham crackers, Whoopie Pies, and an entire chapter of gluten-free vegan donuts. Not to mention a recipe in honor of my very favorite holiday: "Valentine's Day Overboard Cookie Craziness". I love this woman.

Being the committed and orderly person that I am, I have a new found motivation to complete the remaining 27 recipes from the first book so I can move on to this sequel of BabyCakes bliss. So... it's quite likely you will see more frequent posts from me henceforth.

Now, on to today's adventure: Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas.

I have been scared of this recipe for awhile, because it's one of those lovely items that involves pre-baking -  specifically baking chocolate cupcakes for a crumb base. However, I happened to have a few cupcakes in my freezer from past adventures so I got to skip a step. Bonus!

The recipe is actually a scone that you cut in half and sandwich with 1) vanilla frosting and 2) caramelized bananas.  The first step is the baking the bananas, and they filled my house with a fragrance that was nothing short of divine.

As the bananas caramelized, I whipped up the scones. You know the drill... spelt flour, coconut oil, and other vegan magic. The chocolate crumb base and chocolate chips are folded in and become marbled through the slightly milder chocolate scone batter.

As the scones baked I confronted a new challenge: trying very hard not to eat all the then-cooling caramelized bananas.

Once the scones had baked and cooled I cut them, slathered them with vanilla frosting, and added a layer of caramelized bananas as directed.  The end result:

In a word: DELISH.  The scones are a tiny bit salty and just mellow enough to serve as a perfect backdrop for the sweet frosting and velvety rich bananas, without making the combination overly sweet.

I know, it looks like bacon. But I promise it's just caramelized bananas! You can also ignore the half eaten scone on the lower right - I couldn't help myself.

Another BabyCakes winner for sure. After setting aside a couple for us, I'm off to divvy out these treats among friends so hubby and I do not end up eating all twelve of them over the weekend. After all, I have to save room for the next adventure. Just 26 to go!