homemade pizza, with bechamel sauce, fresh basil, mushrooms, and grape tomatoes

This pizza is half the white pizza from 500 Vegan Recipes, half the slow-rise pizza dough on vegan yumyum and 101 cookbooks (originally from the completely amazing The Bread-Baker's Apprentice), plus a few extra percentages of my favorite pizza ingredients.

Since that dough is already beautifully detailed and illustrated in two prominent places on the internet, I won't bother repeating it here. That recipe makes 6 small pizzas. I found that making half the batch gave me the amount of dough I wanted to make a pizza for 3 people. You may find otherwise, and besides, if you make the whole batch, you can always freeze what you don't use and then you'll have delicious pizza dough on hand whenever you want.

As for the toppings, these are my favorites. I meant to add pine nuts, but I didn't remember until after I took the pizza out of the oven (we topped our slices with raw pine nuts, and it was just fine). The 500 Vegan Recipes version calls for fresh basil, sliced white onion, and smoked tofu slices as the topping. I'm sure this dough and sauce would be delicious with any veggie toppings you desire!

BECHAMEL SAUCE
1/2 cup earth balance
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
1 cup plain soy milk
1 tsp garlic powder 
1 tsp dried basil

PIZZA
1/2 recipe slow-rise pizza dough 
1 recipe bechamel sauce (ingredients above)
20-30 fresh basil leaves, or even more if you have them! 
1/2 pound thinly sliced mushrooms
1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup pine nuts (not pictured) 


Preheat the oven to 450 F.

To make the bechamel sauce: in a pot, melt the earth balance. Whisk in the flour until smooth, then add the soy milk and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens (about a minute or two). Remove from heat and add the herbs, and salt to taste.

Roll out the dough according to instructions on either of the slow-rise pizza dough recipes linked above.

Layer the basil leaves on top of the dough. Pour the bechamel sauce over the basil, spreading evenly. Add any other veggies or toppings you're using, in this case mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and pine nuts.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the crust is golden.

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.

vegan cardamom cashew shortbread cookies

Y'know what's really hard to photograph in an appetizing way? Things that are beige! Even delicious beige things, like these cardamom cookies! Eek. I made these over a week ago now and I'm just getting around to getting these pictures together. 

Anyway, these, like I said, are delicious. They're hardy and creamy and you should go bake some and dunk them in soy milk and eat them. I've been munching on these all week for breakfast and dessert and snacks. Also, they can be cut into exciting shapes! If you have cookie cutters on hand, don't wait until winter, break them out for these shortbread cookies. 

VEGAN CARDAMOM CASHEW SHORTBREAD COOKIES 

Ingredients: 

1 cup earth balance, softened 

1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

1 cup ground cashews 

2 cups flour, plus extra for rolling

2 tsp cardamom powder 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 F. 

Cream together earth balance and sugar. Add nuts, mix well. 

Sift in remaining ingredients. When mixing with a spoon stops working, mix with your fingers. It will be crumbly. Don't refrigerate before rolling, unless you have time to return to room temperature first. Keep working at the dough until it becomes cohesive and smooth. 

Roll. Add extra flour a tablespoon at a time, as needed, to prevent sticking. Try to be patient, and keep rolling. (Then roll some more.) Roll until the dough is smooth and consistently about 1/4 inch thick. 

Cut into shapes! I chose diamonds. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake 8-10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen delicious diamonds. 

simple & easy vegan banana bread

I've been making some variation on the Tassajara Bread Book's banana bread since I was a young child. It's fun and easy. (The only reason I don't say "quick" is that it has to bake for about 45 minutes.) I tried mixing this up in my food processor, and I had my dough ready before my oven was done preheating! It's the perfect way to use bananas that are turning inedibly ripe. Mine were practically liquified when I dumped them in my work bowl. Also, this is the easiest not-usually-vegan recipe ever to vegan-ize. Bananas are an egg substitute, so you just leave out the egg.

Okay, one more thing. I've got to toot my own horn for a second. This banana bread is so awesome, people who don't like bananas like it. Not all people who dislike bananas (I'm looking at you, Deborah). But others (hi Bridget!) have at least been kind enough to tell me that they enjoy my banana bread.

SIMPLE & EASY VEGAN BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:

1  cup white flour 

1 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup canola oil, or other flavorless oil 

1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar (if your bananas are as ripe as mine, that is, about to start rotting in a few minutes, go toward the 1/4 cup!) 

about 2 cups ripe banana pulp (I used 3 bananas) 

1/4 tsp salt 

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mash the bananas a little, then add everything else and mix it together until combined pretty evenly. Place in a greased loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until fork or toothpick in center comes out dry.

zucchini skillet pie with pine nuts & capers, topped with cherry tomato salad

I invented a recipe! As much as anyone invents a recipe, I think (feel free to correct me on this). I was originally trying to follow a recipe and it didn't work out. In Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Suppers, there's this gorgeous photograph of these zucchini skillet cakes. It calls for 2 beaten eggs, but says, in the recipe itself in several places, that you can substitute pureed tofu. I was skeptical, but I tried it. I used silken tofu, so my mixture had a texture probably similar to using eggs. Maybe it was also that I used wheat germ instead of bread crumbs. I can see how the starchiness of the breadcrumbs could help. But I really love wheat germ. 

So, after a couple attempts to fry my mixture into crisp, golden cakes, I gave up, dumped my mixture in a cast iron skillet, and stuck it in the oven. Once baked and broiled, it got gorgeously golden and even stayed together (mostly) in neat little wedges on serving. 

There's no crust of course, but it's still a pie. It's round and full of wheat germ and baked in the oven. 

First, the cherry tomato salad. 

CHERRY TOMATO SALAD

Ingredients: 

about 2 cups cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (I just used a whole package) 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

2 tablespoons vinegar (try not to drop the bottle on your computer) 

2 tsp dried basil 

2 tsp dried oregano 

pinch of salt and pepper

Mix everything together. Refrigerate at least 2 hours to marinate, but the longer the better. 

ZUCCHINI SKILLET PIE WITH PINE NUTS & CAPERS

Ingredients: 

about 2 pounds or 6 medium zucchini, grated 

sea salt and freshly ground pepper 

1 cup silken tofu 

1 tablespoon olive oil 

3 tablespoons snipped chives

2 garlic cloves, minced 

1/2 cup chopped parsley 

2 teaspoons dried marjoram 

grated zest of 1 lemon 

1 cup wheat germ (or bread crumbs) 

1/2 cup pine nuts 

1/4 cup capers, rinsed

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

Toss the grated zucchini with a teaspoon of salt and set it aside in a colander while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Then rinse the zucchini and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. 

Toss the zucchini with the tofu, olive oil, chives, garlic, parsley, marjoram, and lemon zest. Stir in the wheat germ along with the pine nuts, capers, and salt and pepper to taste. 

Press the mixture into a large cast-iron skillet. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes, until it's firmed up and the edges are beginning to turn golden. Then broil for about 3 minutes, or until the surface is a lovely gold color. 

vegan braided cardamom bread with slivered almonds

Another recipe modified from the Savory Way, in this case quite heavily, in order to make it vegan and adapt to my tastes and what I have on hand. I love having this bread on hand as a quick (once it's baked) snack or breakfast, loaded with earth balance or even a dab of honey. 

VEGAN BRAIDED CARDAMOM BREAD 

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups soy milk

½ cup earth balance

1 ½ tsp ground cardamom

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

grated zest of 1 lemon, or a couple tablespoons of lemon juice

a ¼ oz package active dry yeast

6 tbsp cornstarch or ground flax seed mixed separately with 6 tbsp cold water for dough

6 cups or more all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cornstarch / flax seed mixed with 2 tbsp cold soy milk or water or melted earth balance for glaze

½ cup slivered almonds, approximately

sugar for topping

Heat the soy milk with the earth balance, cardamom, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Stir occasionally until the earth balance is melted and the sugar is dissolved. When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, gently stir in the yeast and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes or until the yeast is nice and foamy.

Add the first cornstarch/flax seed mixture to the milk and yeast mixture. Next begin adding the flour, whisking it in to make a smooth batter until it becomes too thick; then change to a wooden spoon and continue adding flour until it is again too thick, at which point you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading. Work in more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Knead for at least 7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and shiny; then set it aside in a bowl that has been slightly filmed with earth balance or a flavorless oil. Rub a little of the earth balance or oil on the top; then cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto the counter.

Braid into one big loaf. Glaze with the second cornstarch or flax seed mixture, press in the pine nuts or almond slivers, and sprinkle the surface with the sugar. Loosely cover the bread and set aside again to rise until about doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 350F. Just before putting it in the oven, check to see if the dough has expanded so that some areas are now unglazed and unsugared. Brush more glaze on these areas and cover them with a sprinkling of sugar and more almonds / pine nuts. Bake the bread until is a deep golden brown on top, about 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool before eating. 


PS: this bread was also on the lovely baking is hot! 

gushy goopy garlic bread: a garlicky, vegenaise-laden vegan comfort food

This is based on my father's garlic bread, though of course mine is vegan! It's gushier and goopier than you may expect, but all this pulls together to be oh-so comforting and worth it. Like any garlic bread, this is a great side dish or snack. With the garlic-breath hazard and bits of green to get stuck in teeth though, probably not something not something to serve at dinner parties. I've sometimes used 2 whole heads of garlic for a single sliced baguette; if you are not as fond of garlic, this is probably too much. Baking does mellow the flavor, but if you're worried, try it with only a couple cloves.

GUSHY GOOPY GARLIC BREAD

ingredients:

half a baguette or so, sliced thinly 

about half a head of garlic, diced or pressed as small as possible

4 - 7 tablespoons vegenaise 

1 -2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

a few leaves of fresh basil, chopped, to garnish

preheat the oven to 375F.

mix the diced garlic, vegenaise, and olive oil in a small bowl. if it looks like not enough to cover all the bread you want, thin with more olive oil and/or add more vegenaise. play around to get a texture that looks good to you. using a fork to spread over the baguette, distribute the gushy mix across your slices.

place on a baking sheet and bake until everything is golden and the bread is crispy, 15 - 20 minutes. garnish with fresh basil.

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.