Pumpkin Donuts 2.0

I made pumpkin donuts a while ago, just veganizing the Blue Eyed Baker recipe that is so popular (at least on pinterest) when the cooler months rear their beautiful, non-sweltering heads.        

Today I decided to veganize the one I found on King Arthur Flour. I changed it up a bit because with 3 eggs to omit and no milk in the original, you can't just leave them out without missing the liquids.

Also, I feel like maple and pumpkin are natural buddies, so instead of the 'classic' cinnamon sugar coating, I opted for maple glaze. With sprinkles. Because sprinkles are yummy and pretty. Not that you need a reason to add sprinkles to anything, of course.

As is, these are pretty non-complex in the flavour department, although they are definitely yummy. I think next time the addition of some molasses might add some depth.

My favourite food blogger camera angle. AVALANCHE!!!

Pumpkin Donuts 2.0
Adapted from the King Arthur Flour recipe

1/4 'milk'
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp water
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c pumpkin
1/2 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 c flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray your donut tins. I made 48 minis and 6 full sizers. The recipe says it makes 18 full size donuts. Use your discretion.

Mix the milk and vinegar; separately, mix the flax and water, and let both mixtures chill while you get the rest of the ingredients, except for the flour, into a bowl. Then add the flax & milk and mix everything together well. Add the flour and stir it in gently, you don't want to overwork it here.

Divide up into your tins and pop mini donuts into the oven for 10 - 12 minutes and full size ones for 12-14 minutes.

Pull out and cool in tins on racks for a few minutes before removing them from the tins to cool the rest of the way.

Leetle ones

Scientific Maple Glaze Recipe

1 c icing sugar, plus about a quarter cup
2 ish tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp maple extract

Stir everything together until smooth, then dunk the donuts in. If you want, you can follow that by immediately dunking them in a bowl of sprinkles, but I hand-sprinkled these ones for fun / less mess / less waste / a more rustic look.

Rustic looking, right?

Rice Krispies Squares

I found a container of Suzanne's Ricemellow Creme in my pantry the other day.

I don't usually condone artificial vanilla, but it has a home in rice krispies squares.

I don't know what I bought it for, or how long it had been there, only that one thing came to mind: rice krispies squares.

Looks pretty okay... but read on...

I followed the recipe from Olives For Dinner because it sounded like a direct veganization. It is, and the taste is great, but the consistency? Not so much. They just fall apart.

What is the meaning of this?

You can hardly cut them and you definitely can't hold on to them. So I'm disappointed / annoyed and now have to go find some Sweet & Sara marshmallows in hopes that they give better hold. We don't have dandies, or I would try those too and have a great Rice Krispies Square Tasting of '13.

New Food

I had it in my head that I wanted to focus once a week on something that I've never made before. Then since I crapped out on the whole first week of Mofo I pretty much gave up on trying to do themes. BUT that didn't stop me from wanting to try cooking with something I've never cooked before: eggplant.

The reason I wanted to give it a try is because it's in season here in Ontario right now. Our growing season isn't especially long but we do grow lots of good things. My local farmer's stand has been my go-to for veggies this whole summer, as since from the first bite of wax bean I took all the veggies have been exceptionally delicious. And lo and behold, there were eggplant this week. I decided to take the dive.

It was very fortuitous timing that not only did the eggplant appear, but a friend lent me a cookbook that I spied at her house last weekend and one of the recipes that caught my eye was for a coconut curry with potatoes, chickpeas and, you guessed it, eggplant. Kismet!

It's an eggplant! I could Google to see why it's called that, but honestly, who has the time these days?

So, that's what they look like inside. Okay, just kidding, that wasn't a big mystery or anything. It's still kind of pretty though, right?

The recipe was from Mouthwatering Vegan, which I'd never heard of before. Leafing through there are definitely a lot of super promising things, but there is also a really heavy reliance on 'cheeze' - be it Daiya or home-made - and I am not keen on that. The curry section is all kinds of awesome though and Eggplant, Chickpea, Potato & Coconut Curry is the first of many that sound amazing. (note: the recipes also tend to be very oil heavy, but I think you can probably cut down on that as preferred. I did with no ill effects). And I'm lucky that not only are eggplants in season at our market, but luckily enough, so are potatoes, garlic, and onions.

This was in a field a few days ago!!!

The method of cooking the onion / garlic / ginger was different than any I've ever done, which to this point, has been straight chopping / mincing and then sauteeing. So not a lot of other methods to compare to. But anyway. Instructions were to chop them roughly and then toss them into the food processor until they were completely broken down. And you know what, I kind of loved that.

Only 4 or 5 cloves to the whole head! So different than the Chinese garlic.

I liked that it blended right into the sauce this way. I liked how consistent it made the flavour of the curry, too. Am I too lazy to do it every time? More than likely. But when I have extra time? Heck yeah!

The spice mix was perfect, if a little less spicy than what I'm used to in a curry. I also forgot to add the sugar called for so I added some agave at the end and then let it sit for a few minutes. I cut down the oil and skipped the cilantro.

The end result was delicious. And now I can't say I've never cooked eggplant, so double win.

However, I still can't figure out how people make curry photograph 'pretty' and not like... this.

Vegan Mofo Intro

So it's a month of the year this year. I would say "that" and "again" but that wouldn't make sense since Mofo seems to be a transient hobo, no home to call its own, any month / overpass will do. I know I'm a few days late with the first post of the year, but this long weekend was super insane pants - birthday party, horse show prep, horse show... no time for anything else.

I always have great aspirations. I'm going to use this Mofo to cook some new ingredient I haven't tried! I'm going to veganize some old favourites! I'm going to bake something new every week! I'm going to use this never-before-used cookbook FINALLY! And then I fail at all of them. So I have no such aspirations this year. Imma cook and bake. And then, Imma take pictures. And then, Imma blog.

Good luck to me and everyone else delving into Mofo this year!