Vegan Pumpkin Apple Crumb Muffins

We still have copious amounts of apples. So I made these muffins to bring to work. Used up maybe 4 apples. Will have to make more. 

The recipe is from the ppk, with my addition of apples and a crumb topping. 

They are moist. People ate 2 or 3 each. You could easily make several batches and have no leftovers.

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Pumpkin Apple Crumb Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tblsp. baking powder

a pinch of salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cloves

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned is fine, but don't use pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive....didn't affect the flavor)

2 tblsp. molasses

4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 tblsp.vegan butter (Earth Balance)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, soy milk, oil, and molasses. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. 

Put a tablespoon of batter into each muffin tin. Add a few pieces of apple on top of each. Cover with another tablespoon of batter. 

Using your hands, cream together the butter, sugar and flour. Form it into coarse crumbs and sprinkle on top of each muffin.

Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Pear Bourbon Rosemary Sorbet

We had a friend coming to dinner who, for medical reasons, can't have any fat at all for a few weeks. The entree portion of the meal took me a little while to figure out (and I'll tell you about it one of these days), but dessert was easy. For some reason I have been thinking about a pear bourbon cocktail, but we don't generally sit around sipping cocktails at home, so I thought I would turn the idea into a sorbet.
It tastes like biting into a very ripe, frozen pear. Very pear-y. With a little spike! It's definitely going to be a recurring fall dessert for us.


Pear Bourbon Rosemary Sorbet


10 ripe yellow bartlett pears
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup maple syrup
2 sprigs rosemary
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup bourbon (this is an estimate. you have to taste it as you go and decide how much you like in there)


Peel, core and cut the pears into pieces. Heat in a medium saucepan, with the rosemary, until they become soft. Remove the rosemary and discard. Stir in the maple syrup. Let it cool.
Puree everything in the food processor. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or overnight.
Freeze in your ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's instructions. 
The alcohol prevents ice crystals from forming, so you get a smooth, almost creamy sorbet.

Autumn Trifle!

My friend Mardi and I often have a Friday brunch date at Cafe Cluny in the West Village. Their food is outstanding, and they're always more than happy to accomodate us vegetarians. But what really makes it the place that we always return to, is their caramelized banana trifle. If you're in New York, you should drop whatever you're doing right now and run over there and get some!! If you're not, put it on your bucket list!

Or you could get inspired and make trifle at home (it will not taste like Cluny's but it will make you feel accomplished, and it might be just as good.....in its own way). I put mine in individual ramekins, but you could just as well put it in a large bowl for people to serve themselves.

This is very much a special occasion dessert because it's very involved. It also works better for a larger party (rather than a romantic dinner for two), because you have to bake the cake and make pastry cream, and you'll have lots of both.

The recipe is my variation of one I found on epicurious.com. 

The cake, syrup, pastry cream and caramel sauce can be made a day ahead.

The caramel decoration is soooooo easy and it makes it look so fancy!

Autumn Trifle : A Recipe in 7 Parts

Spice Cake

1 cup very strong brewed chai

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. orange extract

3/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1 tblsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. allspice

3 cups all-purpose flour

Line a half baking sheet with parchment.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the flour with the spices and the baking soda.

Cream the butter with both sugars. Add eggs, vanilla and orange extract. In 3 additions, alternately mix in the dry ingredients and the tea, until just combined.

Bake for approx. 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Set aside and let cool.

Simple Syrup

1 cup water

2 cups sugar

A splash of liquor of your choice, optional

Cook water and sugar together until all the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool. Add the liquor.

Cinnamon Pastry Cream

6 egg yolks

2 cups milk (whole or soy)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup cake flour

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tblsp. butter

Whisk together the yolks and 1/2 cup of milk. Whisk in the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and flour.

Bring the remaining milk to a boil. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture. Return everything to the same saucepan. Whisk constantly, while cooking on medium heat. The custard will thicken (this may take a few minutes so be patient and keep whisking). Transfer to a bowl and stir in the butter until it melts. Lay plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard and refrigerate until cold (at least 2 hours).

Pumpkin Caramel Sauce

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar and cook, stirring constantly) until it has a very dark amber color (you don't want to burn it, but you also don't want to take it off the heat too soon, because it won't have enough flavor). Reduce the heat to low and stir in the cream. It will bubble fiercely. Keep stirring until all caramel bits dissolve. Stir in the pumpkin. Cool or refrigerate until ready to use.

Sauteed Apples and Pears

3 large apples, peeled and chopped small

3 large pears, peeled and chopped small

2 tblsp. butter

2 tbslp. lemon juice

Toss the apples and pears with the lemon. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the fruit and cook until it softens and starts to caramelize. Set aside.

2 Cups Heavy cream, whipped and chilled

Caramel Decorations

4 oz. water

8 oz. sugar

pinch of salt

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silpat.

In the smallest saucepan you have, cook the 3 ingredients until dark brown. Do not walk away while you do this, because once it starts to brown it will darken quickly. Also remember that your caramel will keep cooking after you take it off the heat, so remove it when it's still a little lighter than you want it. 

Dip a teaspoon into the caramel and make little circular decorations on your parchment. They will set almost immediately. Store them in a dry place or use immediately.

Please be careful! Caramel is so hot, and can cause burns you will never forget!!

To Assemble:

Spread a layer of pastry cream in the bottom of your ramekins or glasses, or whatever you are using to hold your trifle.

Using a cookie cutter that is slightly smaller than the ramekin, cut out rounds of spice cake. Brush with the simple syrup.

Add another layer of pastry cream.

Then a layer of apples, generously drizzled with pumpkin caramel sauce.

Another layer of pastry cream.

Fit a large piping bag with a star tip. Fill with whipped cream and pipe a rosette onto each trifle. Refrigerate if not serving right away. Just before serving, add your caramel decoration.

Beautiful Carrots!!

Hi all! It's been a really busy couple of weeks and I'm still catching up, so, for today, I just thought I'd share these totally psychedelic purple carrots with you!! Groovy, right?

German Apple Oat Cake

My parents live on the outskirts of Hamburg, Germany, and there are many apple orchards in their vicinity. One of the apple farmers from the area wrote a cookbook entirely devoted to apple recipes, which is where this cake comes from. It's one of our favorites because it really features the apples, and the oats and almonds give it a hearty balance. It's quick to make for a party, but it's also worth just making for yourself with a cup of tea. I have not converted the recipe from its metric state. I hope this doesn't cause anyone confusion!

German Apple Oat Cake

Batter:

150g butter

125g sugar

1 tblsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs
150g rolled oats (not quick cooking)
50g all-purpose flour
1 tsp. lemon peel
a pinch of salt


Filling:
5 large apples
juice of 1/2 lemon
75g sliced almonds
2 tblsp. brown sugar
40g butter


Grease a 9" springform pan.
In a bowl, mix the oats, flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt. Set aside.
Peel and chop the apples into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle with the lemon juice to prevent browning.
Pre-heat oven to 370 degrees.
Whisk the butter until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, then the eggs, one at a time.
Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until just combined.
Pour 3/4 of the batter into the prepared pan and level it out with a spatula. Spread the apples out evenly on the batter. Sprinkle almonds evenly across the top. Cut little flakes of butter and spread them evenly over the apples as well.
Using a teaspoon, place little mounds of remaining batter all over the cake. 
Bake about 45 minutes, or until the top is a gorgeous golden-brown.

Shades of Green Salad

This is the season when all good New Yorkers pick apples!

Like little red beacons, they beckon for us to leave our stone towers, the traffic noise, and the congestion behind and spend a day scrambling around an upstate farm, fantasizing about the pleasures of rural living. We buy apple cider, have lunch at a quaint little cafe named something like "Suzy's Kitchen," and maybe taste some too-sweet local wine. Then we pull out our iphones and obsess about the quickest route back to the city, where we admire our apples, google some recipes and go out to dinner somewhere fancy and "urban."

Then, over the next week or so, we bake some pie or cake, bring the neighbors some fresh picked apples and wonder about what else to do with our bottomless bag of shiny little fruits.

Which is my way of saying that there will be a few apple recipes coming your way in the next few days!

Today I made salad, where the apples were supporting characters, rather than the stars of the recipe. But they were essential nonetheless, adding sweetness and crunch. I always forget how much I love watercress, but the big bunches at the co-op this week reminded me. Use any lettuce, or combination of lettuces you like though.

Shades of Green Salad

romaine lettuce, washed, dried and chopped

watercress, trimmed and washed

avocado (i use 1/2 per person if it's a meal salad, less if it's an appetizer)

apple

sliced almonds, toasted

Sherry Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

2 tblsp. dry sherry

3 tblsp. maple syrup

1/2 clove garlic, chopped

salt

pepper

Whisk together the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Pour into a sealed container and leave in the fridge overnight. Remove the garlic the next day.

Toss the lettuces with the apples with as much dressing as desired. Garnish with avocado and almonds and serve immediately.

Plum Cake Take 2!

It's plum cake season again (yay!). Actually, I made prune cake, but that doesn't sound nearly as tempting. This was a really easy cake to whip up before going to a dinner party at a friend's house. The whole wheat flour adds a nuttiness that I like for the fall, and the oil makes it nice and moist. My prunes were way too sour to eat raw, but the baking brought out all the juices, and with a little extra brown sugar sprinkled on top, they were sweet as can be. You could serve it with a side of whipped cream or cinnamon ice cream, but it doesn't need it.

The recipe was inspired by Guilty Kitchen, but I altered it quite a bit (more plums!)...

Plum Cake

At least 30 fresh prunes, cut in half and pitted

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil, or other vegetable oil

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup buttermilk (I used soymilk, mixed with 1 tblsp of white vinegar)

vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

a pinch of nutmeg

2 cups slivered almonds, lightly toasted

apricot preserves

Grease the cake pan of your choice (I used a 9" springform pan, but had enough batter left over to fill a little 5" pan as well).

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, salt and spices. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar with the butter and oil. When light and fluffy, gradually whisk in the eggs.

Alternately mix in flours and buttermilk, in four additions. Stop mixing when just combined.

Pour the batter into the cake pan. Arrange the prunes as close together as you can (the more the juicier). Sprinkle with 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar, and maybe a handful of slivered almonds.

Bake for one hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan. 

Once unmoulded, brush the sides of the cake with apricot preserves and press the almonds into it to cover the sides.

Cherry Scones!

 

There is nothing better than sleeping over at someone's house and waking up to them baking something for breakfast.  I know, because I have several friends who are very good at whipping up waffles and muffins and biscuits when I come to visit. So when V's mother came to stay with us for the weekend, I decided to pass along the fresh baked morning goodness karma, and made some cherry scones.

They are Nigella Lawson's recipe, with cherries thrown in. Raisins would be good too. Or chocolate chips. Or nuts. Or all of the above! 

I love that this recipe doesn't have a lot of sugar in it, and none sprinkled on top, so you can be more generous with the jam of your liking, without it being overpowering.

Oh, and that's grandma's old cake plate right there. She turned 95 yesterday and she's almost blind, so she doesn't do a lot of baking anymore (actually, I'm not sure if she ever did). She gave it to me last Christmas and we've been using it a lot. Thanks grandma!

Cherry Scones

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

2tsp. baking soda

4 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 tsp. vegetable shortening

1 1/3 cup milk

1 egg, beaten for egg-wash

1 1/2 cups dried cherries

 

Bring some water to a boil and soak the dried cherries.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cut the butter and shortening into pieces and work them into the flour mixture with your fingers. Drain the cherries, and add them. along with the milk. Mix very, very briefly.

Knead on a floured surface until it all holds together well.

Roll the dough into even sized balls (they will expand in the oven). Or you can roll out the dough and use a large, fluted cookie cutter to cut more regular shapes. 

Place on a sheet pan with parchment. Brush the tops with the egg-wash. 

Bake for about 10 minutes, until they are golden.

If possible, eat them right away. They will still be good if toasted the next day though!

Chickpea Masala

I had one of those days where I just couldn't figure out what I wanted for dinner. Not in the mood for more soy products or seitan. Had pasta the night before. Didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen. So I clicked my way over to the Post Punk Kitchen to browse, and there was the solution to my conundrum: chickpeas! And I had every single ingredient for chickpea masala in the house, which is unheard of!
V. was at his sword fighting class building up an appetite, and a friend said she might stop by, so a big pot of stew seemed like the thing, with a generous side of basmati rice with toasted pistachios and raisins.
Well, V. got home and said he had a huge craving for soy chicken nuggets from the place down the block, so he ordered those, and my friend never showed up. Had I known, I probably never would have cooked, but I'm so very glad that I did, because I had a healthy dinner, and now I have a hearty breakfast for the rest of the week. Today I steamed some kale on the side. Tomorrow I'm planning to put a farm-fresh poached egg on top!



Chickpea Masala

Spice mix: 
1 tblsp. ground cumin
1 tblsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground tumeric
1/4 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. cayenne


3 tblsp. coconut oil or vegetable oil
1 large, chopped onion
1-2 jalapenos, seeds removed and finely chopped (i used 2 and it was super spicy)
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tblsp. grated fresh ginger*
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3 lbs tomatoes, diced
salt
pepper
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or if soaking your own, start with 2 cups)
1 tsp agave
1 tsp. tamarind paste


In a small bowl, mix all the spices.
In a large, deep skillet, heat the coconut oil with the onions. Cook until they start to brown. 
Add jalapenos, garlic and ginger. Mix in the cilantro and wait for it to wilt. Fold in the spice blend.
Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and agave, as well as salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for at 20-30 minutes, or until the whole thing thickens a bit.
Stir in the tamarind paste.


* I discovered that if with my grater I don't have to even peel the ginger...the peel stays on top and the grated ginger on the bottom. I tried this with my mother's grater when I was at home and it didn't work at all. Evidently not all graters are created equal, but it's worth trying yours if you want to save a step!

Shiitake I can't believe it's not Bacon!

Sometimes a vegetarian gets a craving for bacon. So she goes to the store (or the alternative New York diner that caters to vegetarians .... Curly's on 14th St., or Dizzy's in Park Slope come to mind) and gets some tempeh bacon, or some other kind of soy product that's supposed to simulate pork. And no matter how long you fry it, it ends up just being this limp strip of salty soy, that may taste ok, but doesn't satisfy any kind fo craving.
A few weeks ago, my friend took me to Sun in Bloom, which is a fantastic vegan cafe here in Park Slope, where I wish I could eat three meals a day! It's that good! And I ordered an avocado sandwich, and it came with shiitake bacon. Now, I've worked in a vegan restaurant for 5 years and I do a lot of recipe searching, but this delicious morsel completely slipped by me.
Well, I googled the recipe. It was developed by chef Elliot Prag at the Natural Gourmet cooking school, and it turns out to be the easiest thing to make. So I ran to the co-op, bought a huge bag of shiitake mushrooms and made bacon!! I swear it comes closer to the real thing than you can possibly imagine! It's crispy, it's fatty, it's salty! The perfect food!
A huge bag ends up making not very much. V. and I planned on saving some for sandwiches and salad, but then we picked a little off the sheet pan to taste. And then it was all gone. Oops!


Shiitake Bacon


shiitake mushroom caps (you can't buy too many)
olive oil
sea salt


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice, or chop the mushroom caps into pieces (not too tiny, because they shrink a lot). In a bowl, toss with olive oil (the mushrooms soak up the oil, so give it a good drizzle, without drenching them). Spread out evenly on a sheet pan. Sprinkle generously with sea salt.
Bake for about 1 hour, tossing with a spatula, every 15 minutes or so.
When the mushrooms are crispy, remove from the oven and cool. 
They will keep in an airtight container for a few days, if you have that kind of self-control.