Strawberry Rum Jam

There's nothing quite like jam made from freshly picked strawberries.  My friend Jenica and I picked the strawberries in the morning and twelve hours later I had two batches of jam made and processed.  Yum!

Ingredients

• 6 cups crushed strawberries (about 1.5 quarts whole)
• 3 tablespoons of "Low or No-Sugar" Pectin (I used Ball’s)
• 2/3 cup rum (I used aged, non-spiced - but feel free to experiment)
• 1 cup raw (or turbinado) sugar

In a medium stock pot, combine the crushed strawberries and pectin. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly.

Add the sugar and rum. Return to a full rolling boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat.

The recipe makes enough to fill six half-pint jars.

I used these instructions preserve and seal the jars.

This recipe is based on this recipe which uses bourbon instead of rum: http://virginiabloggers.com/2012/08/09/guest-blogger-eating-appalachia/

Vegan Double-Chocolate Bourbon Cookies

This is a small batch of cookies that I made to give the leasing office and maintenance of my building because they are awesome.  I ran out of sugar after I made the tequila lime cake, so I created this recipe with the last of my brown sugar.  They're bourbony!

Ingredients

• ¼ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup bourbon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream together the coconut oil & brown sugar.  Add the almond milk and vanilla.
3. Slowly sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
4. When the dry ingredients have been incorporated, knead in the chocolate chips.  (The dough is going to be a little crumbly).
5. Roll into walnut-sized balls & place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten them a bit with your palm. 
6. Bake for 7-10 minutes.

Makes 15-18 cookies

Vegan Tequila-Lime Cake with Mango Jam Filling

Ingredients

Cake:

3/4 cup coconut oil, warmed until liquid

1 ½ cup demerara sugar (or raw sugar)

Zest of two limes (save the juice)

1 ½ tablespoon cider vinegar

2 cups rice milk (warmed to room temperature)

¼ cup tequila (plus ~2/3 cup tequila to sprinkle on the cake later)

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Mango jam:

Two mangoes, peeled, and finely chopped

1 cup demerara sugar (or raw sugar)

2 tablespoons lime juice (juice from 1/2 lime)

2 tablespoons Grand Marnier

¼ cup tequila

½ cup water

Glaze:

1 cups demerara sugar (or raw sugar)

1/8 cup water

Juice of 1/2 lime

Zest of 1/2 lime

1/8 cup tequila

1 tablespoons Grand Marnier

(To make your shopping list a little easier: In total, you will need about 1 1/2 cups of tequila, 4 large limes, and 3 1/2 cups of sugar).

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the cake:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

In a stand mixer (or with handheld mixer), cream together oil, sugar, and lime zest.  Add the cider vinegar, rice milk, 1/4 cup tequila, and vanilla.  Slowly add the salt, baking powder, and flour.  Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.  Do not overmix.

Divide the batter between the three cake pans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Check for doneness at 30 minutes.

Allow to cool and remove from pans.

Make the mango jam:

While the cake layers are cooling, make the mango jam.  Put the finely chopped mango, sugar, lime juice, Grand Marnier, tequila, and water in a medium sized sauce pan and boil stirring occasionally.  Boil hard until the mixture reaches approximately 245 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30-40 minutes).  It will get quite thick and turn a dark amber color.

Assemble the cake:

Slice the top off of two of the cakes to create a flat surface to work with.

Sprinkle one of the layers that has had its top removed with 2 tablespoons of tequila and 1 tablespoon of lime juice.  (I put it in a spray bottle and just drenched it).  Spread half of the mango jam on the layer. 

Gently place the second decapitated layer on top of the jam covered first layer.  Spray (or sprinkle) the second layer with 2 tablespoons of tequila and 1 tablespoon of lime juice.  Spread remaining mango jam on the layer.

Stack the final layer on the cake.  Spray (or sprinkle) the final layer with 2 tablespoons of tequila and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. 

After the cake has been mostly assembled, prepare the glaze:

Place the sugar, water, and lime juice in a medium sauce pan. Heat on medium-high heat and gently stir to dissolve the sugar. Allow to boil until large bubbles form on the surface (230 degrees). Remove from heat and stir in lime zest. Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes.  Add the tequila and Grand Marnier (it will bubble up a lot when you add the liquor). 

Pour the glaze over the cake.

Loosely based on a recipe by Rocco DiSpirito

http://www.roccodispirito.com/recipes/tequilalimecake

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

While on the phone with my sister the other day, she told me about this wonderful concoction that she made for breakfast.  Into her regular oatmeal, she mixed some banana and chocolate chips.  I suddenly got very quiet on my end of the phone.  After a few seconds, I proclaimed, "I can make that into a cookie!"  

The recipe has very little sugar or fat.  It is mostly held together with the bananas which keep the cookies quite moist.

Ingredients

3 mashed bananas (approximately 1 ¼ cup)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup shortening (Crisco)

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cup rolled oats (old fashioned or quick oats)

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

 

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the mashed bananas, vanilla, and water.  Incorporate the shortening to the banana mixture.
3. Slowly incorporate the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until blended. 
4. Stir in the oats, followed by chocolate chips.
5. Rest the mixture for about 10 minutes to allow the rolled oats to soften.  If you are using quick oats, you can skip this step.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

 Makes approximately 18 medium-sized cookies.

Six Seed No-Knead Bread Recipe

A couple of weeks ago, I made bread for a dinner party that I was throwing.  I wasn't particularly happy with the bread.  It was tasty, but it was also pretty dense.  I ended up going back to the drawing board and tried something completely new: no-knead bread.   I was skeptical at first, but the results were spectacular.  The bread was fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.  Sadly, the recipe was designed for a round loaf, which isn't particularly useful for making sandwiches, so I went back and adapted the recipe to make two small loaves.  While I was adapting the recipe, I also mixed in six types of seeds and some whole wheat flour. 

There are two downsides to no-knead bread.  The first downside is time.  The time investment isn't actually that bad.  It takes about 20 minutes of active work to make the bread.  The problem is that you need to start the recipe about 14-20 hours before you plan to eat the bread.  This requires a little planning.  The second downside is that you need a large dutch oven that is oven safe up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  I used a beautiful 6 qt. Lodge Color Dutch Oven that I got on Amazon.com.  Amazon says that it is oven safe up to 450 degrees, but the information in the box said that it's safe up to 500 degrees.  If you wish to make loaves you'll also need two 4"x8" bread pans.

Also, the original recipe came from Martha Stewart: http://www.marthastewart.com/332658/no-knead-bread (Yeah, I know, but she knows her stuff.)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• ~2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• ~2 tablespoons flax seeds
• ~2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• ~2 tablespoons whole millet
• ~2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• ~1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• (You can use pretty much any combination of seeds or nuts, this is just what I wanted to put in it.  I wouldn't put more than 12 tablespoons of seeds or nuts, but it won't hurt to put in less.  The first time I made the recipe, I didn't put in any seeds at all!).

Preparation

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until combined.  You can mix it with a spoon, but I prefer to get in there with my hands.  The dough will be very sticky and a bit shaggy.  That's ok.  

If you removed the dough from the bowl to mix it with your hands, put it back in the bowl.  Martha says that you should use a second oiled bowl, but I honestly couldn't be bothered.  I just used the same bowl, flour chunks and all.

Cover the dough in the bowl with plastic wrap.  The plastic wrap should be touching the dough; this will keep the surface of the dough from drying.  I also like to put a second sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the bowl.  My first batch of dough got a little dry around the edges because the first piece of plastic wrap shifted as the dough rose.  I avoided this problem by double wrapping.

Let dough rest at least 12 hours, but preferably up to 18, in a room about 70 degrees in temperature. The dough's surface will be dotted dotted with holes when dough is ready.

Lightly flour work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice.  As you continue to fold the dough, sprinkle in the seeds handful by handful until they are fully incorporated.  If you are making two small loaves, divide the dough in half and place it in the bread pans.  Using a super-sharp, knife cut a 1/4" deep groove lengthwise down the top of the bread.  This will keep it from cracking while baking.  Cover the pans with a towel for the second rise.

(If you prefer a large round loaf instead of two small loaves, sprinkle a non-terry cloth towel with all-purpose flour, semolina flour, corn meal, or wheat bran.  Shape the dough into a round shape and place the dough in the center of the towel seam side down.  Cover the dough with a second towel.)

Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with a finger, about 2 hours.

After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot, such as a Dutch oven, in oven as it heats (you don't have to put the lid on the pan while it is heating). When dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven.  Place one small bread pan in the Dutch oven and cover with the lid.  After 22 minutes, remove the lid of the Dutch oven to allow the bread to brown.  Bake for an additional 10 minutes.  After the first loaf is out of the oven, bake the second loaf following the same procedure.  Remove the bread from the bread pans as soon as it is out of the oven to keep the bottom from getting soggy.

(If you are making a single round loaf, remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel.  Turn dough over into the extremely hot pot, seam side up. Listen to the sizzle!  Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover, and continue baking until browned, 10-20 minutes.)

Prepare yourself for the bestest bread ever!!

Vegan Spiced Chocolate Brownies

3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons milled flax seed
1 ¼ cups sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup espresso or strong coffee
 ½ cup vegan chocolate chips

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup wheat flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line an 8”x8” cake pan with greased parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the milled flax seed and water and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

To the flax seed mixture, add the sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla.  I used a spoon to combine all of my ingredients.  The batter gets a little thick so it was easier to use a spoon than a mixer.

Combine the hot espresso and the chocolate chips in order to melt the chocolate chips.  Add the espresso/chocolate chip mixture to the wet ingredients.  Melting the chocolate chips in this way makes the brownies extra fudgy.  

Sift together the cocoa powder, spices, baking soda, salt, and flour.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  The mixture will be quite thick.

Spoon out the batter into the lined baking cake pan.

Bake for 25-28 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  (Since it is vegan, you can underbake them just slightly to make the brownies a little more moist)