Red Velvet Whoopie Pies


Makes about 20 pies

Ingredients
1/4 pound butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
red food dye
2 1/3 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F, and cover two baking sheets in parchment paper. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa together.

With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until they are combined and fluffy. Next scrape the bowl and add vanilla. While mixing add the egg and red food dye (add until the batter is bright red – amounts will vary depending on the strength of your red food dye). Scrape the bowl to make sure the dye is thoroughly incorporated. Next add 1/2 of the flour mixture and stir on low speed. Stream in half of the buttermilk. Repeat again so that all of the buttermilk and flour mixture is combined.

Drop the batter by 1-2 tablespoons onto baking sheets (I use a small ice cream scoop), allowing 1 inch between drops (the cookies spread). Bake for 10 minutes, rotating half way through. To check if the cakes are fully cooked, lightly touch the tops and if they spring back they’re done. Cool completely before frosting.

Place about a tablespoon of the filling in between the whoopie pieces to form the sandwiches.

Cream Cheese Creme Filling

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions
Begin by beating the heavy whipping cream in a chilled bowl at high speed for 3-5 minutes, or until stiff peaks have formed. In a separate bowl beat together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. After the cream cheese mixture isthoroughly combined carefully fold in the whipped cream.

One project in particular is a promotion that happens once a month – Free Sample Friday. The premise is simple: visit the Sukhi’s Facebook Fan Page (It’s about three posts down from the top), vote on one of two products, register your address, and receive a free sample! Couldn’t be easier. This week’s two choices are the Gobi Aloo Spice Mix and the Kashmir Curry Paste. Both worthy opponents for sure! (And they’re vegan/veggie friendly)  The voting ends Friday, April 9th at 2pm PST.

If you miss out on this week’s Free Sample Friday don’t worry – there will be more free sample giveaways in the near future!

All-in-all these were easy to make, and what isn’t fun about assembling a bunch of little cookie sandwiches? For your first round be sure to watch the timing – so that you can adjust for your oven’s temperature.

Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies

Makes about 20-25 pies

Cookie Ingredients
1 cup margarine
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups quick oats

Creme Filling Ingredients
2 teaspoons very hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl cream the margarine, sugars, molasses, and vanilla. After it’s combined, add the egg and scrape in-between. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, baking soda, oats and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the margarine mixture. Drop dough by TBS on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will look moist/maybe a little undercooked in the middle, but take them out when the edges are brown (They’ll firm up a bit after cooling).

Creme Directions
In small bowl, dissolve the salt in the hot water. In a mixer, combine the marshmallow fluff and shortening until well combined. Next add the powdered sugar, and vanilla until light a fluffy. Finally add in the water/salt mixture (after it has cooled) and combine thoroughly.

Assemble the cookies by spreading creme filling on the flat side of one cookie, and pressing a second, similar sized, cookie on top.

Photo by Neil Conway

Things I’ll try next time…

1. I used basic semi-sweet Safeway brand chocolate chips because that’s what I had on hand – Next time I’ll try something a bit richer. Maybe a combination of 40% -60% cocoa.
2. I think this would be good with an addition of some kind of nut – probably pecans or walnuts.
3. You could easily substitute baking m&ms or butterscotch chips for something more festive.

Chocolate chip cookies – Brownie style.

Makes a 9×13 pan

Ingredients
2 1/8 cups (10 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup (7 ounces) light brown sugar
1/2 (3 1/2 ounces) cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F, and adjust the oven rack to lower-middle position. Line a 9X13-inch baking pan with foil, letting the excess hang over the edges of the pan by about 1 inch (so you can grab the edges and pull the brownies from the pan after they have baked.) Spray the foil-lined pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside. Whisk the melted butter and sugars in a large bowl until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix well.
Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips and turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula.

Bake until the top of the bars is light golden brown, slightly firm to the touch, and edges start pulling away from sides of pan, 24-28 minutes. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature.

Last October my friend Jennie and I stayed up entirely too late watching Anchorman and decorating, what felt like, hundreds of vegan Halloween sugar cookies. Not wanting to overdo a secondary holiday such as Halloween we planned to bake again for Christmas, only this time splitting up the dough making and baking/decorating between two nights. Schedules got in the way, but we managed to get the dough prepared. The baking/decorating was another story.

I’m happy to say that we finally got together to finish them off last week – this time while watching another classic: Wayne’s World. This post is evidence that you can in fact freeze vegan sugar cookie dough for months. With no looming holidays in the future we focused on making the cookies an expression of our yearning for spring: bright colors, warm tones, and pretty sparkles. The results were beautiful and I can truthfully say delicious. For the dough/icing recipe visit my old post here.

The amazing Vera Devera was responsible for the decor; be sure to check out her blog for great DIY ideas. The dinner featured seasonal produce from local organic farms, and the proceeds went to Agrariana, an organization founded on the idea…“To Rescue for Human Society the Native Values of Rural Life.” Some of their past programming has included working tours of local farms, a Food and Farming Film Series, Women in Sustainable Agriculture panels, and skills workshops for making sauerkraut, mead, and leather.  In addition to amazing food, there was an incredible duo, Vagabondage, who featured accordian and guitar music.

I took tons of photos, all of which can be seen here.  If you have the chance make sure to check out a Canvas event in the future!

I don’t want to brag or anything, but my first foray into potstickter making was very successful. Including Neil claiming they may have been the best potstickers he has ever had (and he’s a tough judge). The recipe below is what I came up with from reading other blogs and personal flavor preferences, but feel free to substitute any ingredients. I’m telling you though, this combo was perfect.

Things I learned while making postickers….
1. This recipe makes a bunch (an entire package of store bought, pre-made round wonton wrappers) – at the time I was mildly annoyed, after mincing what felt like a mountain of vegetables, however we ended up freezing over half of the recipe and now have an easy dinner/appetizer waiting for a lazy night.

2. The first few I assembled looked a bit odd and felt even more awkward to make. Don’t worry, after two or three you’ll get a pattern/technique down. I followed pictures from this blog.

3. This is a really fun recipe to make with someone, plus it helps cut down on the extensive mincing and potsticker assembly.

4. Definitely make the dipping sauce (recipe below) – it’s a really nice compliment, and you can mince the sauce ingredients when you’re preparing the potsticker ingredients.

Pork Potstickers

Makes about 60 potstickers

Ingredients
1 package of round wonton wrappers (usually in the produce section of the grocery store)
1 lb ground pork
1/2 cup red cabbage, minced
3 stalks green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced
1/2 cup bamboo shoots, minced
1/4 cup ginger root, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 handful cilantro, minced
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp corn starch
1 egg

Dipping Sauce Ingredients
2 parts soy sauce
1 part red wine vinegar
splash of sesame oil
dollop of chili garlic sauce (depends on how much heat you want)
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 minced green onion
small handful minced cilantro

Directions
Combine the pork, red cabbage, green onions, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, ginger root, garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch in a large bowl.

Whisk the egg in a small bowl to make an egg wash. Take a wonton wrapper and lightly cover the edges with the wash (this allows the edges to pinch together more securely). Place a small amount of pork mixture in the center, about one teaspoon. You’ll know if you put too much in the middle because it will be hard to close the wrapper. Pick up the wrapper and pinch the top of the two sides together to form a pleat. Continue to pinch the wrapper together until the potsticker is completely sealed. Definitely check out this site for a photo tutorial.

Next place dumplings in a frying pan (that has a lid) with 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Fill the pan as full as you’d like as long as the potstickers aren’t touching each other (they’ll fuse together). Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until bottoms are golden. Add 1/2 cup water and cover immediately. Cook until the water has boiled away and then uncover and reduce heat to medium or medium low. Let the dumplings cook for another 2 minutes then remove from heat. I sprinkled a little leftover chopped cilantro over the tops before serving.

To freeze for later use…assemble the dumplings on a plate so they are not touching. Freeze until dumplings are no longer soft, and then place in ziploc bag and return to the freezer. Prepare per the above instructions, but allow extra time to ensure the filling is thoroughly cooked.

Sauce Directions
Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until well combined.

The end result of baking today was nice and crunchy, sugar coated ginger cookies.  I made them pretty small and ended up with about four dozen (you can see in the picture – it’s a teacup plate- for a ratio idea)  Originally this recipe was non-vegan, but I was out of eggs (and feeling rather lazy) so voila:

Vegan Gingersnaps

Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
A pinch of ground cloves
1/4 cup apple sauce (I use cinnamon applesauce)
1/4 cup molasses (the darker the better, in my opinion)
Additional sugar for rolling the cookies – I prefer sanding sugar (the crystals are a bit bigger and have a better crunch)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Using a mixer beat the oil, sugar, and applesauce on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and light. Scrape down the bowl and add the molasses until well combined. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. On low speed, beat in the dry ingredients until the dough comes together.

I let the dough sit in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up while I placed some sugar on a small place.  Next, form the dough into desired ball size, and roll each in the granulated sugar to evenly coat them. Place the cookies on baking sheets, (evenly spaced and about an inch apart) and lightly press with your palm to flatten the tops slightly.

Bake until they are puffed, cracked, and lightly golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Cool completely and enjoy!

I haven’t been blogging much lately – mostly due to a random trip back to Iowa. I found a roundtrip ticket for 140 bucks (CHEAP!), and jumped at the chance to go home. Of course the same weekend that snow pummeled the East Coast, and in Iowa snow fell from Saturday night through Tuesday morning, which made for interesting travel conditions. Fortunately I made it back to sunny Oakland and delicious clementines. To get back in the swing of baking/cooking/blogging I decided to revisit an old favorite: gooey, fudgy, chocolatey brownies. This is a pretty simple/standard recipe that takes hardly any time at all. If you need a chocolate fix give it a shot!

Choco Brownies

Ingredients
2/3 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
4 oz butter
1 tsp coffee
 (or espresso) grounds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs, well beaten

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Using an electric mixer (or a strong hand) beat sugars and vanilla until well combined. Add eggs one at a time. Scrape after all the eggs have been added.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, salt, coffee grounds until well combined.

Meanwhile melt the butter (I did about 1 minute and an additional 30 seconds in the microwave) and chocolate until smooth. Add the melted chocolate/butter mixture to the sugar/egg mixture and mix on high speed until just combined. Next add the flour mixture on a slow setting until just combined. Pour the batter into an 8×8 pan (either lined with parchment or greased), and bake for 35 minutes. Rotate half way through, and cool completely before serving.

The night was filled with the aroma of ginger, a taste bud changing experience, and bizarre discussion including what it’s like working at a porn store in Florida (where edible panties are known as eeeedible draaawers)  After personally tasting several dishes I’m excited to see the finished product this Sunday!