Vegan Rum-Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

In my efforts to incorporate more booze into my life, I made cornbread muffins with a hint of bourbon.  This time I went for dark rum in a chocolate cupcake.  They are delicious.


Cupcake Ingredients
1 cup demerara sugar*
1/3 cup coconut oil (or veg oil)**
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup rice milk***

1/2 cup dark rum
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup golden raisins, raisins, or chocolate chips (or a combination)


Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a muffin pan paper baking cups.

Beat together the coconut oil and sugar. Mix in the rice milk, cider vinegar, dark rum, and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour.  When all of the dry ingredients have been combined, slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients.

When the wet and dry ingredients have been incorporated together, mix in your raisins/chocolate chips.

Portion out the batter into the pre-lined muffin pan.

Bake for 18-22 minutes.

I topped mine with buttercream to which I added the zest of four small limes and the juice of one lime.

*I think that demerara sugar adds a richness to the recipe.  If you don't have demerara sugar, use 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar.

**I use coconut oil because I like the texture and body that it adds to the recipe, but canola or vegetable oil would also work. 

*** You can use any milk substitute for this.  I use rice milk because it's what I use on my cereal.

.

Honey-Bourbon Cornbread Muffins (Eggless)

Once upon a time, a woman decided to make cornbread muffins but didn't have any eggs.  Undeterred, she replaced the eggs with a little water and carried on with her baking.  Like magic, muffins turned out lovely.  The next time she made the muffins, she replaced the eggs with bourbon and they turned out so good that she decided to share the recipe.  She tried to scream it from the mountain tops, but the words got jumbled and everyone ended up with "money" instead of "honey" in their cornbread and it didn't taste very good.  Then she learned about the internet and decided to put the recipe there.  And the people rejoiced because they now could make Honey-Bourbon Cornbread Muffins of their very own.  -The End.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup cornmeal (regular, fine, or coarse grind)
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup honey
4 tablespoons bourbon

1 cup rice milk (or milk or another suitable milk substitute)
1/2 (or 1/4 cup) stick of softened butter

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Combine cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder.  Add honey, bourbon, rice milk, and butter.  Mix until smooth (about 1 minute - do not overmix).

Portion out into a standard muffin pan which has been lined with paper cups.  These muffins do not rise a lot, so you can fill the cups more than other muffin recipes.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Makes approximately 12 muffins.




.

Pie Crust Dessert Snails (Vegetarian)

Pie Crust Snails are a quick and dirty way to re-purpose leftover pie crust.  This is a simple recipe that contains tons of butter, so I'm sure Paula Deen would approve.

I, however, love snails so much that I decided to just make a full batch with some homemade pie crust.  You can use your own pie crust recipe or use pre-made pie crust. 

Pie Crust Dough (with butter, lots and lots of butter)

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (or ½ cup) unsalted butter, frozen and cut into 1/2” cubes

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Approx. ¼ cup ice cold water

Using a food processor or a pastry blender, mix together your flour, sugar, salt, and butter until just barely combined.  Stop when all of the butter pieces are the size of tiny peas. It will look uneven and chunky.  That is a good thing because the chunks of cold butter in the dough will make the pastry flaky.  

If you were using food processor, transfer the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl or onto your countertop.  Drizzle 1/8 cup of the ice-cold water over the butter and flour mixture. Using a spatula or your hands, gather the dough together.  If necessary, add a little more water a tablespoon at a time until the dough pulls together.  Try not to overwork the dough.  If you have prepared the dough correctly, you still see unmelted butter pieces throughout the dough. 

Wrap the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap or in a Ziploc bag.  Form the dough into a disk about ¾-1” thick disk.   Let the dough chill in the fridge for at least one hour.  It will hold in the refrigerator for a week.

Filling

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup softened butter

When you are ready to make the rolls and the dough has chilled in the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Filling

Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Mix until well incorporated. Set aside until ready to use.

Cut the dough into four equal pieces, and place one quarter of the dough on a floured countertop and the rest of the dough in the refrigerator (you want to keep it cold so that the butter doesn't melt too much while you work with the dough).

Roll out one quarter of the dough on the floured counter top into a rectangular shape (approximately 5”x7”).  Liberally smear the dough with the softened butter and sprinkle heavily with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Roll up the sheet of dough with the cinnamon-sugar mixture inside.  Cut into four pieces and place the “rolls” on a lined baking sheet.  Put the baking sheet into the refrigerator to chill while you repeat the process with the other three quarters of the dough.

When all of the rolls have been prepared, place the baking sheet into the refrigerator for 5 minutes so that the butter in the rolls can chill before baking (cold butter = flaky crust). 

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes.

The dough smeared with butter

Sprinkle, sprinkle!

A roll of delicious.

A different angle.

Oooh, five pieces.

Ready to bake.