Oh what the heck. Here's the holiday giveaway (early)!

I am so terrible at waiting for Christmas to give loved ones gifts.  It takes all the willpower I can muster just to wait all those days of Advent to give gifts to loved ones, so I'm going to indulge my tendency towards impatience and give you a chance to win some holiday goodies handmade by yours truly.  Here's what's up for grabs:

• homemade habañero jelly


• a hand-embroidered tea towel


• homemade [vegan] fleur de sel caramels (soy- and gluten-free)

How to enter:  Simply comment on this post telling me your favorite homemade holiday gift. I'll draw a name on the morning of Saturday, December 4th (once I have my coffee in hand).

In the spirit of the holidays, this is open to everyone worldwide!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm so thankful for my family and friends, a roof over my head, warm clothing, and a full pantry. (And lots of other, rather petty things.)   My sister's in town, so posting will be light until after the holiday weekend (and thus the end of Vegan MoFo).  Please check back December 1st for a super special holiday giveaway!  In the meantime, have a fabulous weekend with your loved ones and plenty of delicious food. Happy Thanksgiving!

Oat-flour banana bread

Since we got a huge box of rolled oats at Costco last week I've been playing around with different uses for them.  We've done the obvious--crock pot oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, etc.--but I got to thinking that maybe a good wheat-free banana bread might be in order.  I'm still working on the particulars (it needs a little tweaking), but here's a sneak peak at my banana bread recipe:



 

The texture turned out really well for a wheat-free loaf. It was tender, but not too crumbly. I am going to try it again with some more spices--and maybe nuts--later this week, so look for the recipe in an upcoming post!

Homemade habañero jelly

Last year I started gifting homemade goodies to friends and family for Christmas.  I'm doing things a little fancier this year than in 2009, though, and am working on candies and homemade preserves.  Sure, homemade preserves are delicious even if basic--but isn't it fun to make something a little unexpected?



Friends of mine keep raving about Pioneer Woman, so when I saw her face off with Bobby Flay this past week on Throwdown I finally went to her website and sifted through some recipes.  This jelly recipe is not hers, but I did find it at Tasty Kitchen--her cooking community site.   (If you feel inspired to make hot pepper jelly, here's the recipe.)  I used habañeros and red bell pepper in my version, and man is it tasty. I love the combination of hot and sweet, so this is really like heaven.

*PS:  Stick around after MoFo for a chance to win a jar, plus some other homemade goodies to be named later!

No-knead weekends: Cinnamon- and cranberry-filled ring

I love cinnamon rolls, but sometimes they're just a little too sweet for me. (I know, sacrilege.) Last weekend I came up with this variation on a filled bread for my raisin-hating husband. I used the master dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and rolled a hunk out into a large rectangle. I assembled it in a similar fashion to cinnamon rolls (3 Tbsp softened non-hydrogenated margarine smoothed onto the dough, 1/4 cup turbinado sugar + 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries), but instead of cutting it I bent it around into a ring shape, pinching the ends together and made radial slices into the dough.  After dusting with a bit of flour I baked it for about 30 minutes until deep golden on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet at 450 F as per the steam baking method in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Testing photo: croissants

I'm sorely behind in taking and posting testing photos.  Here are some [vegan] croissants I tested last night for Tami over at Vegan Appetite.  I broke one in half so you could see how lovely and flaky they are. Enjoy!

 



 

Remember to enter my giveaway for a copy of American Vegan Kitchen! I'll be drawing a name tomorrow at about noon EST.

Crock pot oatmeal with fruit

Breakfast-skippers, I know you're out there. Now, as long as you have a crock pot you have no excuse to skip that all-important meal! My wonderful husband decided to do a take on Alton Brown's recipe the other day, and now that we've tweaked our version a bit here it is for your warm and comforting breakfasty consumption.



The Mister's Crock-Pot Oatmeal with Fruit (inspired by Alton Brown's recipe)

1 cup old-fashioned oats

3 cups water

1 cup almond milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped unsweetened dried fruit (apples, apricots, peaches, etc.)

Put everything in your crock-pot; stir to combine. Set on "keep warm" (or your absolute lowest setting*) right before you go to bed.  In the morning, serve up your oatmeal with ground flaxseed, toasted nuts, or shredded coconut.

Serves 4.

*Putting the temp on warm only will ensure hot oatmeal but not absolute mush.

---

Shared at Cybele Pascal's Allergy Friendly Friday 7/15/11.

Swedish chocolate balls (chokladbollar)

This is the recipe from Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar.  I didn't have any pearl sugar OR coconut--sorry Mom!--so I used chopped almonds as a coating instead. These are super easy to make and are great to mix up with the kids.

Linzertorte thumbprint cookies!

Last night Rug Rat and I made the linzertorte thumbprint cookies from VCTOYCJ, but with almonds and almond butter instead of hazelnuts.  Here are the leftovers (to share):

No-knead weekends: fougasse stuffed with roasted red pepper

This fougasse stuffed with roasted peppers is another recipe from Hertzberg and François, but from their first book (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). It's a beautiful and delicious bread that would work well as an appetizer for a dinner party. Just dough, olive oil, roasted pepper, thyme, and salt.

The olive oil dough I used is my own recipe, though--the inspiration taken from the 'five minutes a day' books. I love the idea of whole wheat dough for pizza and flatbreads, but invariably I fall back on a dough made with white flour because it both stretches easier and has a better texture for many dishes.  I remedied the problem a bit by using white flour... and a healthy dose of wheat germ. You get a little added fiber, but the dough is that beautiful texture of the traditional stuff made with refined flour.

Apologies for the bad photo--I took it at night while there was still some left!



Basic olive oil dough (makes enough for about four large-ish pizzas)

2 3/4 cups water

1/4 cup olive oil

1 Tbsp active dry yeast

1 Tbsp agave

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1/2 cup wheat germ

6 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Mix everything in a large bowl. Cover (not air-tight) and let sit for two to three hours, until dough rises and the top flattens (falls). Place, covered, in the refrigerator until ready to use.

No-knead weekends: pumpkin beignets

I became obsessed with no-knead bread after trying out one of the recipes on the King Arthur Flour website. Then I checked out Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day from our local library, and I was smitten. I love freshly-baked bread and pastries, but the thought of spending 10 minutes kneading (and the other several hours waiting) is daunting when you have small children at home. Heck, it's daunting when you don't have small children at home.  I ended up buying the first book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François and immediately went to buy the second--Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Both are fantastic, but I have been using the latter much more frequently.  There are tons of whole grain recipes, most of which are vegan. Those that aren't [vegan] are easily veganizable.

I recently purchased a small deep-fryer at the William Sonoma outlet here and have had a hankering for beignets ever since. There's a recipe for pumpkin pie brioche in Healthy Bread that sounded fabulous, so I mixed up a batch of dough last night before I went to bed. I subbed flax eggs for the real eggs and agave for the honey.  There's an option in the recipe for using oil instead of butter, too, so no big deal with modifying the dough.  Then I just covered the bowl and let it sit on the counter overnight.

This morning I turned on the fryer filled with peanut oil to 365 degrees F, rolled the dough into small-ish balls, and fried until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes, I think). I drained the beignets on a paper towel-lined plate, then rolled them in cinnamon sugar.  Easy! And really good. (I probably should've made this Vegan MoFo the month of pumpkin recipes, but I'd probably have been sick of pumpkin by the end of November. Ha. Like that would happen. Ever.)



Note: I only made 1/3 batch of dough, and so used it all here. The no-knead recipes are simple to halve or double to heart's content.

Simple sesame soba noodles

Alliteration! Whee!  Okay, now that I've got that out  of my system... Last week our local international food grocery had a special on a three pound package of soba noodles. Clearly I had to buy them and all their buckwheaty goodness.  What better way to start Vegan MoFo than to make a mess of noodles and stir-fried veggies?  Enjoy!



Simple sesame soba noodles

2 bundles (about 6 oz) soba noodles

2 tsp sesame oil

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 small head green cabbage, shredded

2 carrots, sliced thinly on the bias

2 Tbsp low-sodium tamari

1 Tbsp mirin

1/2 cup vegetable broth

Cook the soba noodles according to package directions. Drain; rinse under cold water. Set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add the sesame seeds; cook for about a minute. Add the ginger, cabbage, and carrots. Cook, stirring frequently, for five minutes.  Add the tamari, mirin, and broth. Cook for another minute; then turn off the heat and stir in the  noodles.  Serve immediately.

Serves 2 as a main, or 4 as a side.