Please note that my updates of this profile will continue to be sparse. I am working on a new project, Tasty Fever, which you can view by following this url:
http://tastyfever.wordpress.com/
http://tastyfever.wordpress.com/
HEY, READ THIS! Community
Cookies! Community
Featured recipe Community
Vegan Fruit & Spice Cookies
makes 24 cookies, more or less
Modified from Jumbo Raisin Spice Cookies recipe from AllRecipes.com.
Ingredients
3 cups oat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup unsalted vegan butter (or use regular unsalted butter if recipe doesn't need to be vegan)
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 package of dried cranberries & apples (I used Good Sense's brand)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter until soft. Mix in the vanilla and sugar. Add the applesauce and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually stir into the butter mixture. Stir in raisins, dried apples and cranberries. Take tablespoon-sized pieces of dough and drop them onto the cookie sheets, pushing the dough to make a round or semi-round shape.
3. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on wire racks.
makes 24 cookies, more or less
Modified from Jumbo Raisin Spice Cookies recipe from AllRecipes.com.
Ingredients
3 cups oat flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup unsalted vegan butter (or use regular unsalted butter if recipe doesn't need to be vegan)
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 package of dried cranberries & apples (I used Good Sense's brand)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter until soft. Mix in the vanilla and sugar. Add the applesauce and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually stir into the butter mixture. Stir in raisins, dried apples and cranberries. Take tablespoon-sized pieces of dough and drop them onto the cookie sheets, pushing the dough to make a round or semi-round shape.
3. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on wire racks.
If you don't know Japanese Community
atashi = me
shashin = photographs
kakimono = writing
tabemono = baking log and recipes
tomodachi = friends and comments
shashin = photographs
kakimono = writing
tabemono = baking log and recipes
tomodachi = friends and comments
So what's this? Community
This is a page dedicated to one of my most favourite outlets of creativity: baking. I love to bake, and I'd like to use this page to share some tried-and-true recipes, as well as variations of some of my favourite recipes. I have a good friend who is vegan, so I'm constantly on the lookout for recipes I can veganise for everyone to enjoy.
-doreen
-doreen
Open Source Food Widget Community
Baked Goods Gallery Photography
Random factoids Community
Favourite cookbooks
The Weekend Baker, Hidden Kitchens, The Cookie and Biscuit Bible, I Like You!, Sweets, Barefoot Contessa at Home, Peter Rabbit's Natural Foods Cookbook, The Redwall Cookbook, Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings
Last cookbook used
The Weekend Baker
Newest cookbook
Vegetarian Food for Friends
Favourite new food website
Open Source Food. All I want to do is bake and take pictures of what I made. In fact, I want to have a little photo studio for all the things I make and bake. With good lighting. The photos on the site are wonderful, and the recipes magnificent. I'm very excited about this new web development.
Five bare-bones baking tools
Pastry blender, parchment paper, silicone spatula, good-sized mixing bowls and a fork
Five more bare-bones baking tools
Jelly-roll pan, measuring spoons/cups, a peeler, two round cake pans and a knife
Currently I'm out of
light brown sugar.
Cookbook wish list
The Joy of Liberace and Dolly's Dixie Fixin's. No, I'm not kidding.
Blog for the bakey-bakey Community
it's what i get for following directions
5/27/2007 at 11:08 AM
So, Hao's birthday cake didn't quite wind up like I had planned. I was trying to make a version of the "Brooklyn Blackout Cake 2003" that was in a book I borrowed from the library, and in the recipe, it says to "grease and flour 2 cake pans," which I did. Recently, I made this wonderful Spiced Orange Cake (recipe for it is in the gallery) that said to use wax paper (I used parchment) instead of flour, which worked out really well. Basically, instead of buttering and flouring a pan, you butter then pan, then put the paper on the bottom of the pan (I cut out a circle to fit into the pan), and then grease the paper. That method worked really well, and I had contemplated doing the same thing for the birthday cake, but... no, I didn't.
And, naturally, even though I buttered and floured the hell out of those pans, one of the cakes managed to get stuck, which ruined the whole three-layer thing I was going for. I was supposed to slice the two cakes in half after cooling, and then take a half of a half (or an eighth of the cake overall), and crumble it up to put on the icing. But one of the cakes was destroyed, and the other cake honestly didn't look thick enough to cut in half. I didn't want to chance it, considering that I had at least one (very low) cake still to work with.
So, what I did was I put icing on the remaining cake (super-dark chocolate icing, homemade), then I took the crumbs from the other cake and mixed it with some shredded coconut, and completely covered the frosting with crumbs. I put the whole thing in an old Tupperware cake container, and then stuck it in the freezer for a little over an hour. I pulled it out and let it sit at room temperature for twenty minutes, then we stuck the candles in for the little ceremony (I had to push a little harder with the candles because the cake was cold). I served the cake with my failed attempt at making a ganache, which resulted in a milk chocolate coconut sauce, spooned on the side, adding a nice flavour to the dark, dark cake and the dark, dark chocolate frosting.
For a cake that didn't turn out how I wanted it to, it tasted pretty good. Very rich--one had to take breaks between bites to savour its richness. Hao managed to eat his whole piece, but I couldn't. Still, it was very good, and I was proud that the end result I cobbled together was acceptable.
I won't be doing much baking for two weeks now, unless I manage to sneak in some more today before I go to my parents' place. I'll be going to the Philippines for two weeks, where I likely won't be able to bake anything. But if I do, I'll be sure to mention it here.
Ciao for now.
-doreen
And, naturally, even though I buttered and floured the hell out of those pans, one of the cakes managed to get stuck, which ruined the whole three-layer thing I was going for. I was supposed to slice the two cakes in half after cooling, and then take a half of a half (or an eighth of the cake overall), and crumble it up to put on the icing. But one of the cakes was destroyed, and the other cake honestly didn't look thick enough to cut in half. I didn't want to chance it, considering that I had at least one (very low) cake still to work with.
So, what I did was I put icing on the remaining cake (super-dark chocolate icing, homemade), then I took the crumbs from the other cake and mixed it with some shredded coconut, and completely covered the frosting with crumbs. I put the whole thing in an old Tupperware cake container, and then stuck it in the freezer for a little over an hour. I pulled it out and let it sit at room temperature for twenty minutes, then we stuck the candles in for the little ceremony (I had to push a little harder with the candles because the cake was cold). I served the cake with my failed attempt at making a ganache, which resulted in a milk chocolate coconut sauce, spooned on the side, adding a nice flavour to the dark, dark cake and the dark, dark chocolate frosting.
For a cake that didn't turn out how I wanted it to, it tasted pretty good. Very rich--one had to take breaks between bites to savour its richness. Hao managed to eat his whole piece, but I couldn't. Still, it was very good, and I was proud that the end result I cobbled together was acceptable.
I won't be doing much baking for two weeks now, unless I manage to sneak in some more today before I go to my parents' place. I'll be going to the Philippines for two weeks, where I likely won't be able to bake anything. But if I do, I'll be sure to mention it here.
Ciao for now.
-doreen
open source food
5/20/2007 at 1:01 PM
From Yongfook of the infamous Yongfook.com comes a new online web food resource and community, Open Source Food (http://www.opensourcefood.com/). I was looking at Yongfook's blog when I stumbled upon an older entry I'd missed on this new, or rather new in March, website. The article is here: http://yongfook.com/2007/03/12/open-source-food/. Here's a segment of the article:
What is Open Source Food?
Open Source Food is a place to show off, a place to learn and a place to get motivated about food and cooking. It is a platform for sharing recipes, improving upon them, and looking at lots and lots of sexy food pics (and sexy pics of the people who cooked the food…).
On OSF you can upload recipes with pics, rate other people’s recipes according to originality, presentation and overall yumminess, use drag & drop to create original menus from any combination of recipes on OSF, get a blog widget for your blog that shows your last 10 recipes in a beautiful slideshow, and other tantalising features. It’s a social celebration of food for the new web.
Check out the article to see the screen shots, and if you're interested in joining, do it! I haven't added any recipes yet, but I will later today, likely copies of what I've already got here in HV, which is at five recipes so far: vegan banana ginger parkin, apple fruit crumble, ultimate ginger cookie, vegan fruit & spice cookie and the cinnamon-spiced vegan banana-blueberry cake.
More baking to come, as well as more photos, whenever I can hijack my boyfriend's camera. Oh boy!
-doreen
What is Open Source Food?
Open Source Food is a place to show off, a place to learn and a place to get motivated about food and cooking. It is a platform for sharing recipes, improving upon them, and looking at lots and lots of sexy food pics (and sexy pics of the people who cooked the food…).
On OSF you can upload recipes with pics, rate other people’s recipes according to originality, presentation and overall yumminess, use drag & drop to create original menus from any combination of recipes on OSF, get a blog widget for your blog that shows your last 10 recipes in a beautiful slideshow, and other tantalising features. It’s a social celebration of food for the new web.
Check out the article to see the screen shots, and if you're interested in joining, do it! I haven't added any recipes yet, but I will later today, likely copies of what I've already got here in HV, which is at five recipes so far: vegan banana ginger parkin, apple fruit crumble, ultimate ginger cookie, vegan fruit & spice cookie and the cinnamon-spiced vegan banana-blueberry cake.
More baking to come, as well as more photos, whenever I can hijack my boyfriend's camera. Oh boy!
-doreen
bling cake pies and a go at veganising a recipe
5/8/2007 at 8:12 PM
There's a new book out called The Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America's Kitschiest Kitchen, which I found out about through NPR's website (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9969113) NPR's website. Liberace was, apparently, fond of cooking, and his collection of recipes have been gathered together and shared through this book. One recipe for "Angel Bling Cake Pie" is on NPR's site, and by golly, I want to make it.
I'm trying to make a vegan version of this recipe for Jumbo Raisin Spice Cookies (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jumbo-Raisin-Spice-Cookies/Detail.aspx). from All Recipes (http://allrecipes.com/Default.aspx), and I think I may have used too much apple sauce to replace the two eggs in the recipe, making the batter more runny than the original. The result is a thin and crispy cookie that will burn with the blink of an eye. I've added more flour to the mixture, which I think will be presentable enough, but I think next time I'll only put in a third of a cup of apple sauce as opposed to a half-cup, maybe even less, and add some rolled oats. I've also modified the recipe, adding a mix of dried apples and cranberries and taking out the salted peanuts (!!). The results of my vegan interpretation leave a wee bit to be desired, but they're edible, and tasty. Crushing the cookies and making the crumbles into a cereal wouldn't be bad, either.
I've taken a photo of my vegan spice raisin dried fruit hodge-podge and, finally, put a photo up in this little space. Woo.
-doreen
I'm trying to make a vegan version of this recipe for Jumbo Raisin Spice Cookies (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Jumbo-Raisin-Spice-Cookies/Detail.aspx). from All Recipes (http://allrecipes.com/Default.aspx), and I think I may have used too much apple sauce to replace the two eggs in the recipe, making the batter more runny than the original. The result is a thin and crispy cookie that will burn with the blink of an eye. I've added more flour to the mixture, which I think will be presentable enough, but I think next time I'll only put in a third of a cup of apple sauce as opposed to a half-cup, maybe even less, and add some rolled oats. I've also modified the recipe, adding a mix of dried apples and cranberries and taking out the salted peanuts (!!). The results of my vegan interpretation leave a wee bit to be desired, but they're edible, and tasty. Crushing the cookies and making the crumbles into a cereal wouldn't be bad, either.
I've taken a photo of my vegan spice raisin dried fruit hodge-podge and, finally, put a photo up in this little space. Woo.
-doreen
interesting NPR article on chocolate
5/1/2007 at 3:14 PM
There's an interesting article on NPR about the status of chocolate in the United States. The FDA is considering allowing manufacturers to replace the cocoa butter in chocolate with vegetable fats and oils. The discussion appeared on Talk of the Nation (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9800829), and it's interesting that a couple people phoned in and objected to the proposal citing their current health fears about hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils.
Right now, this type of "mocklate" is on the market as "chocolate-flavoured" or "real chocolate taste" foodstuffs, but if the FDA's proposal goes through, it will be harder to distinguish real chocolate from the ones that have the cheaper ingredients, and it may encourage bigger companies who have no chocolate morals to degrade their product with the cheap materials, making pure chocolate harder to find and, potentially, more expensive.
Here's another article (http://foodie.tribe.net/thread/8822e402-08c1-451e-be69-c573de98c2ad) written by Cybele May, whom I think appears on the NPR show, urging people to keep it real.
-doreen
Right now, this type of "mocklate" is on the market as "chocolate-flavoured" or "real chocolate taste" foodstuffs, but if the FDA's proposal goes through, it will be harder to distinguish real chocolate from the ones that have the cheaper ingredients, and it may encourage bigger companies who have no chocolate morals to degrade their product with the cheap materials, making pure chocolate harder to find and, potentially, more expensive.
Here's another article (http://foodie.tribe.net/thread/8822e402-08c1-451e-be69-c573de98c2ad) written by Cybele May, whom I think appears on the NPR show, urging people to keep it real.
-doreen
the mixing bowl hasn't been stirred in a while
4/30/2007 at 3:31 PM
I've been working on a paper for my senior seminar class at school, and I just finished it a couple hours ago. Since I've been working on it, I haven't baked in about a week, which is quite a long time for me.
However, I hope to get into some mess and mischief in the kitchen this week. Although I still need to study for my final exam on the 7th, I think I might have some time to whip up something sweet in the kitchen. After the exam, I'll be free to wreck havoc and document my adventures accordingly, hopefully accompanied by photographs. This section of the Humble Voice area needs a good splash of cupcake or cookies.
-doreen
However, I hope to get into some mess and mischief in the kitchen this week. Although I still need to study for my final exam on the 7th, I think I might have some time to whip up something sweet in the kitchen. After the exam, I'll be free to wreck havoc and document my adventures accordingly, hopefully accompanied by photographs. This section of the Humble Voice area needs a good splash of cupcake or cookies.
-doreen
ultimate ginger cookies and parkin
4/24/2007 at 10:29 AM
Yesterday I baked these cookies from a recipe gotten out of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home, which I *think* is her most recent cookbook. They're called "Ultimate Ginger Cookies," and I deviated from the recipe only a minor bit by adding vanilla extract and using a heavy hand with the spices: clove, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
I brought the cookies to my friend Frankie's birthday get-together at Redlight Redlight, and those who had sampled the cookies were kind with their compliments and "Ohmigod!" facial expressions.
Saturday, I made my first ever parkin, which is a cake-like food that apparently can keep for a magically long time--the book said two months, provided it's in an airtight container. The banana-ginger version I made lasted for maybe two days. I tweaked the recipe a bit by making it vegan, using vegan butter (I like the Earth Balance brand, as it has no hydrogenated oils) and an extra banana in lieu of the egg the recipe called for. It turned out great, and it was taken to Mike's place for Jessica's going-away party.
The recipes will be added to my upcoming recipe gallery eventually. This evening, I think I might make an old favourite: apple crumble. I derive my recipe for crumble from "Hare's Haversack Crumble" from The Redwall Cookbook, which is a very cute book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to bake with kids. The recipes are lacto-ovo vegetarian, but many of them, like the crumble, can be altered to be vegan.
And that's my baking news for today.
-doreen
I brought the cookies to my friend Frankie's birthday get-together at Redlight Redlight, and those who had sampled the cookies were kind with their compliments and "Ohmigod!" facial expressions.
Saturday, I made my first ever parkin, which is a cake-like food that apparently can keep for a magically long time--the book said two months, provided it's in an airtight container. The banana-ginger version I made lasted for maybe two days. I tweaked the recipe a bit by making it vegan, using vegan butter (I like the Earth Balance brand, as it has no hydrogenated oils) and an extra banana in lieu of the egg the recipe called for. It turned out great, and it was taken to Mike's place for Jessica's going-away party.
The recipes will be added to my upcoming recipe gallery eventually. This evening, I think I might make an old favourite: apple crumble. I derive my recipe for crumble from "Hare's Haversack Crumble" from The Redwall Cookbook, which is a very cute book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to bake with kids. The recipes are lacto-ovo vegetarian, but many of them, like the crumble, can be altered to be vegan.
And that's my baking news for today.
-doreen
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