tender, instant-gratification cinnamon rolls (cinnamon buns?)

I really love cinnamon. And cinnamon rolls! (Or buns? What's the difference?) I have a recipe I really like, but it takes a little over 5 hours, because of all of the rising and baking time. Even with all that rising time, it can still come out not quite tender enough, or a little too yeasty for me. I made some for a brunch once, and it was exhausting.

Which brings me to these tender, sweet, no-rise cinnamon rolls. I've made this recipe so frequently, I can have fresh, warm, gooey cinnamon rolls not 30 minutes from cracking open my bag of flour.

I've modified this recipe heavily based on a recipe at fine cooking, which I read about on the kitchn. That recipe boasts that it's even quicker if you use a food processor. Well, I tried this with my new food processor, and it did not save me any time at all. In fact, I think I lost about 1/4 of my dough to all of the different parts of my food processor! As much as it can be a pain beating vegan cream cheese straight out of the fridge with sugar and melted earth balance, in my opinion it's a faster, lower-clean-up option.

Also check out the forming cinnamon rolls guide on allrecipes.

THE BEST AND FASTEST AND TENDEREST VEGAN CINNAMON ROLLS EVER

For the dough:
1/2 cup vegan cream cheese
1/2 cup soy yogurt 
1/2 cup soy milk 
1/4 cup granulated sugar 
6 tbsp earth balance, melted 
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 1/2-1 cups more for rolling 
1 tbsp baking powder 
1/2 tsp table salt 
1/4 tsp baking soda 

For the filling:
3 tbsp earth balance, melted 
2/3 cup packed brown sugar 
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch each of cardamom and/or nutmeg

For the glaze:
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar 
2 to 3 tbsp cold soy milk 
1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

Heat the oven to 400 F. Grease the inside of a pie pan, or a springform pan if you have one.

To make the dough: Combine the cream cheese, soy yogurt, soy milk, sugar, melted earth balance, and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and mix until the dough clumps together. The dough will be soft and moist. If it's too sticky, add flour a 1/4 cup or so at a time. The dough should easily leave the mixing bowl in one piece.

Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it with floured hands 4 or 5 times, adding flour as needed, until smooth. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12"x15" rectangle.

To make the filling: spread the melted earth balance on the dough, leaving a 1/2 inch border at one long edge free of earth balance. In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered area of the dough and pat gently into the surface. Starting at the long edge opposite the unbuttered edge, roll the dough. Pinch the seam to seal, and leave the ends open.

With a sharp knife, cut the roll into 12 equal pieces. Set the pieces, cut side up, in the prepared pan; they should mostly fill the pan and touch slightly, but don't worry if there are gaps.

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, 20 to 28 minutes. Let the pan cool for 5 minutes. Remove if using a springform pan and transfer to a serving dish, when I use a pie pan I usually don't bother.

To make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk the confectioners' sugar, soy milk, and vanilla to make a smooth glaze. It should have a thick but pourable consistency, so add up to 1 tbsp more milk if necessary. Drizzle the glaze over the rolls. Let stand a few minutes and serve.

baked vegan french toast

I had some silken tofu leftover from my zucchini skillet pie, which isn't something I usually have around, so I tried some french toast batter with my cardamom bread. I've tried a number of versions (with and without silken tofu) and it never worked, exactly (disclaimer: I have a lot of trouble with this, apparently, and also never tried a batter with lots of flour in it). The batter would flow around everywhere and not ever quite solidify and toast up properly. In defense of my frying-things skills, when I still ate eggs and dairy, I didn't have trouble making regular, egg-laden french toast, and I'm pretty sure the last time I tried to do that I was 14 years old. 

As I was searching for recipes to try, I came across a couple baked french toast recipes. Mostly they weren't vegan though, and those that were didn't use the kinds of ingredients I had on hand or wanted to use. One recipe I saw in the comments of someone else's recipe was pretty much only almond butter and nondairy milk, which sounded awesome, especially with my almond-sliver-topped bread. This is the result of combining that with all the other things I thought would make tasty french toast. I tried just baking it once, and it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped, so I broiled my toast the next time, to much more satisfactory results. 

BAKED VEGAN FRENCH TOAST 

Batter Ingredients: 

1 cup silken tofu 

1 cup soy milk 

1/4 cup maple syrup, honey, or agave nectar

1 tbsp almond butter 

1 tbsp cornstarch

cinnamon 

(makes batter for about 8 thick slices of bread)

Topping ingredients (optional): 

slivered almonds

blueberries 

maple syrup

Blend the ingredients together. Pour into a shallow dish and add all the bread slices that will fit (but still getting soaked with batter). Let the bread soak in the batter for several minutes on each side. Repeat with as many slices of bread as you're making. 

Place on a baking sheet and broil (on medium or normal, if you can set your broiler to anything) for about 3 minutes on the first side and about 2 minutes on the other, until golden and crispy. 

Serve with a smidge of maple syrup (there's sweetener in the batter, after all!), toasted slivered almonds, and blueberries.

homemade vegan samoas (the coconut & chocolate girl scout cookie)

Who doesn't want girl scout cookies YEAR-ROUND? Especially if you're a vegan and can't buy the actual cookies (okay, okay, so according to vegblog, there are actually a couple ones that are vegan, but not the good ones!). This is another recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. (Soon I'll post my recipe for vegan thin mints, which I can actually take credit for!) I changed it slightly, thinking that if I substituted baking chocolate and sugar for the chocolate chip cookies, the chocolate would end up being more solid at room temperature. Well, I was wrong, and figuring out the substitution wasn't worth it!

HOMEMADE (VEGAN) SAMOAS

This recipe calls for coconut oil, and I recommend you use it. I've heard all sorts of things about coconut oil, mostly opposing ideas about whether it's good for you or not. I don't know about that, but I do know that coconut oil tastes awesome and is solid at room temperature, which helps baked goods (and unbaked goods, like the raw strawberry cheesecake I made for my birthday) stay solid themselves. It's also good for frying things at really high temperatures. (Note: if your coconut oil is stored in a Dallas house in the summertime, don't count on that "solid at room temperature" thing too much!)

Cookies:
2 cups grated unsweetened coconut 
1/3 cup unrefined coconut oil 
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 
1/3 nondairy milk 
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds 
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
1 cup all-purpose flour 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt

For decorating:
1 cup chocolate chips 
2 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil 

preheat oven to 350F. grease two baking sheets, or alternatively line them with parchment paper.

pour the grated coconut into a large heavy skillet and toast over medium-low heat. stir occasionally and toast coconut to a light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. watch carefully to avoid burning. promptly remove the coconut from the heat and stir it occasionally as it cools. if the coconut continues to turn overly brown promptly pour from skillet into a large dish and spread around to help hasten cooling and stop cooking.

in a large mixing bowl, combine the coconut oil, brown sugar, non-dairy milk, flax seeds, and vanilla until well blended and smooth. sift in the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt and mix to form a thick batter. fold in the toasted coconut.

scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets. flatten each cookie with the back of a measuring cup and use your fingertip to work a small hole into each center. bake for 8 minutes, until the edges are golden.

let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. transfer the cooled cookies onto waxed paper, then place them onto a cutting board or other firm surface that can be easily slid onto a refrigerator shelf.

while cookies are cooling, melt chocolate chips in a microwave or double boiler, then stir the coconut oil into the melted chocolate. allow the chocolate to cool for 5 minutes to thicken slightly. dip cookie bottoms into the chocolate and return them to the waxed paper. now drizzle the remaining chocolate over the cookies, either by dipping a fork into the melted chocolate or by pouring the chocolate into a pastry bag fitted with a very small round tip. chill the cookies for at least 30 minutes to completely firm up the chocolate. store the cookies in a loosely covered container in a very cool place.

vegan blueberry spice crumb bars

(VEGAN) BLUEBERRY SPICE CRUMB BARS

This recipe is every-so-slightly modified from Vegan Cookings Invade Your Cookie Jar; their recipe calls for spelt flour, only vegetable shortening, and not quite as much of the spices. I'm sure their version is great, this is just what I had on hand, and I like lots of spices, and I'm in no way claiming their recipe as my own. I baked these bars Tuesday afternoon and now I get to enjoy them for breakfast with my morning tea.

For the crust and topping:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
1/2 cup vegan margarine at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons nondairy milk

For the blueberry filling:
16 oz frozen blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

preheat oven to 350F. lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

in a medium-size mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, spices, and salt. add the shortening by the spoonful, cutting it into the flour with a pastry cutter or two knives held together. once the dough becomes crumbly, add the nondairy milk by the tablespoon. use your fingers to stir the milk in after each addition until pea-size crumbs form.

in a separate bowl, stir together the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, water, and vanilla.

scoop 3 cups of the dough into the prepared baking pan. firmly press it in to form the base of the bars. spread the blueberry mixture over the base and then sprinkle the rest of the crumbly dough over the blueberries.

bake for about 45 minutes. when ready, the blueberries should be nice and bubbly. cool completely before cutting into bars and eating.