Vegan Pumpkin Bread

This is by far my favorite time of the year… food wise at least (my freezing cold fingers and toes may say otherwise). The holiday season has so many different foods associated with it and I honestly can’t complain. Fall has apples, pumpkin, and warm cider, while winter has, gingerbread, peppermint, and hot cocoa to name a few of my favorites!

In the fall you can get pumpkin-spiced anything anywhere. Ive seen pumpkin donuts, pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin pancakes (one of my faves), pumpkin oreos, pumpkin gum, and of course, every white-girls favorite, pumpkin spiced lattes (soy or skim milk of course, you never order a whole milk pumpkin spiced latte, just never).

Thanksgiving alone has its own set of must-have dishes, though when you’re family is made of vegans, vegetarians, and other diet restrictions, thanksgiving must-haves gain a new spin. Somethings that I know will always be on our thanksgiving table are: pretzel rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, more pretzel rolls, and a large array of festive desserts to satisfy any sweet-tooth, even mine. The recipes may vary depending on any new dietary needs, but its nice to see a few staples year after year, including pumpkin bread.

I’ve actually had a lot of trouble in the past making a good pumpkin bread from scratch. It always turns out undercooked, dense, and sticky. I was hesitant to attempt a vegan pumpkin bread because a lot of times substituting real eggs for flax eggs makes a recipe even denser so I was pleasantly surprised to find this delicious, eggless pumpkin bread recipe!

This recipe for vegan pumpkin bread is light, moist, and delicious. Its actually a lot better then any non-vegan or vegan pumpkin bread recipe I have ever attempted.

RECIPE (adapted from here):

Ingredients: 

2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbs cinnamon
15 oz fresh pumpkin puree (1 can)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey (To make it vegan substitute maple syrup)
1/3 cup water
Directions:
Pre heat oven to 350.

Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (or one super long loaf pan).

In a large bowl mix flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. In a separate bowl mix pumpkin, oil, honey, and water together. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for 1- 1 hour 15 minutes.Or until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean.

Let the bread cool before removing from pan and enjoying. Or dont and just dig in like I usually do.

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

This post comes to you as a way for me to use up the last half bag of holiday cranberries we had lying in our freezer. Sorry as this is my third cranberry recipe basically in a row but the fact is that I had a lot of frozen cranberries and you can’t go wrong with any of the recipes, they’re all a little different but all so delicious. I recently made apple-cranberry cake which was probably one of my favorites, so I was a little reluctant to try a new cranberry recipe for fear that it would be a disappointment. Thankfully this recipe was no disappointment! The cake itself is so light and fluffy from the whipped egg whites with just enough sweetness, while the tart cranberries are a perfect contrast for the buttery brown sugar topping.

Please enjoy this recipe, or any of my other cranberry recipes I have recently posted, you honestly can’t go wrong with any of them! So start baking!

CRANBERRY UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE:

recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries

Cake:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 large egg whites

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare topping, lightly coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Heat brown sugar and 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook 2 minutes or until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Pour sugar mixture into prepared cake pan, tilting pan to coat bottom evenly. Arrange cranberries evenly over sugar mixture.
3. Whisk the egg whites with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form using clean, dry beaters. once down transfer egg whites gently into a small side bowl. Clean mixer bowl and fit mixer with clean bowl and beater
4. To prepare cake: combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir with a whisk. Place granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Spoon the batter over the cranberries, spreading evenly. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes on a wire rack. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula. Place a serving plate upside down on top of cake, and invert the cake pan onto the plate. Let stand 5 minutes, and remove the pan. Serve warm and enjoy!

Caprese Spaghetti Squash

While in Spain my family began to rave about their favorite new recipe involving spaghetti squash. I was very excited and slightly intrigued by the idea of a squash that when baked resembles pasta. I’ve seen recipes in the past for baked spaghetti squash and passed the rotund yellow squash numerous times in the vegetable aisle. Im always up to try new recipes and new foods and I have yet to find a squash that I don’t like, so for me this wasn’t a stretch. But for all who may be skeptical or scared of something new don’t be! Spaghetti squash is so versatile, and easy to make, not to mention super healthy and the perfect light summer meal!

How to Bake Spaghetti Squash:

Method: Pierce the squash several times with a sharp knife.
Bake: About an hour at 375 F, rotating about half way through.

stab the squash when an hour is up to check if its done. The knife should come out easily when done.

– cut squash in half(we cut it the short way but either way works), remove seeds and set aside (if you want to bake them like pumpkin seeds, if not throw them away), scrap the inside of the squash with a fork to make long spaghetti-like strands.

Mixins: Like I said, spaghetti squash is so versatile and you can treat it like any pasta so feel free to mix it up and get creative. The following are the ingredients that we used.

– Mozzarella

– Tomato

– Spinach

– Basil

– Salt and Pepper

– Olive oil

Once the squash has been completely scrapped there are two ways that you can finish the meal:

a) Mix the squash with the ingredients listed above, stuff them back in the squash and drizzle with a little olive oil put in the oven to bake in the residual heat until cheese starts to melt and spinach starts to shrink. To make the cheese extra bubbly put the oven on broil and broil squash until just slightly brown, keep a close eye on the squash so it does not burn. serve and enjoy

b) heat olive oil in a sauté pan. once warmed add squash, spinach, tomatoes, salt and pepper and sauté till squash is soft and spinach cooked down. shut heat off add mozzarella and cover till cheese melted. serve and enjoy

Giant Peanut Butter Cookie

Why does it seem that Giant Cookies only come around for birthdays? For me, theres nothing quite like a giant cookie with a moist crumbly center, one that you  can cut into pie slices and still feel good telling yourself you didn’t eat a full cookie. Well, thats my logic at least, and the reason I decided to make two giant free form peanut butter cookies. Not cake sized or anything but two cookies about the size of my hand (although if you were looking to make a giant peanut butter cookie cake this recipe doubled would probably make a yummy cookie cake).

As many people know peanut butter is my favorite food and there are not many times I have excess peanut butter just lying around. But since I did, I figured I would use up some overly salted natural peanut butter that I’ve been avoiding, and satisfy my long over due peanut butter craving as a result of four months in Spain where sugary “captain mani” seems to be a monopoly.

This peanut butter recipe is so moist and flavor full and the perfect peanut butter cookie base for any of your baking needs.

Recipe from here

makes one large cookie (I doubled it to make 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
• 2 Tablespoons beaten egg (crack an egg, beat it, and use 2 Tbsp. 1 whole egg if double recipe)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons peanut butter (i used natural peanut butter)
• 6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats (or quick oats)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Toppings of choice (optional): chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, m and ms, Reese’s pieces.. Etc.

(I used peanut butter M and Ms in one and left one plain.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray or line with a silicone baking mat. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugars until creamed. Add egg and vanilla mixing until well combined. Stir in peanut butter then add flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Fold in toppings, if using, until combined. With a large spoon, scoop into a ball onto prepared baking sheet. The dough will be sticky. Make sure the cookie dough ball is tall and round.*(I did not press the cookie dough down and it did not seem to flatten so about 5 minutes in I pressed the cookie multiple times to flatten it with a fork like your would with a normal peanut butter cookie).

Bake for about 20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. The center may appear undone, but it will set as the cookie cools. Let cool ON the baking sheet for 10-20 minutes.

Apple-Cranberry-Almond Cake

So I’ve made this cake twice in the past week because it is just so good! It doesn’t last more then a day in our house of three and about 3/4 of it is gone within the first ten minutes. It’s so moist and delicious and a perfect combination of sweet and tart. It’s technically called a cake but I think it is the perfect little tea cake for breakfast or snack. The original recipe calls for apples and raspberries but raspberries are quite expensive and we always seem to have cranberries floating around in our freezer. This recipe is perfect for using up some old apples and whatever other fruit you have laying around.

Seriously though, next time you don’t know what to have for breakfast try this cake! Its so quick to make a so delicious

Recipe adapted from here

Apple-Cranberry Cake

Ingredients

Cake:
Granulated sugar, for pan
1½ cups all-purpose flour (or combination of wheat and white)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup packed light-brown sugar
½ almond milk
2 large eggs ( I used two flax eggs)
About 2 apples. I used Granny Smith
1/2 cup cranberries

Crumble topping:
2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup oats
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter,cut into pieces
1/3 cup slivered almonds
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tbsp applesauce ( optional- helped crumble come together better)

Instructions

Cake:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spray with cooking spray or butter a 9-inch springform pan, and dust with granulated sugar.
In one Large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
In a medium bowl whisk together melted butter, ¾ cup brown sugar, milk, and eggs in another bowl.
Whisk butter mixture into flour mixture.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Arrange apple wedges over batter, and sprinkle with cranberries
Gently press fruit into batter.

Crumble topping:
In a small bowl combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, almonds, and butter. Mix till it comes together. Add applesauce( if using) and mix and sprinkle over fruit.
Bake until top is dark gold, apples are tender, and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes
Let cool before removing from pan.

Black Bean Brownies

Don’t be afraid! I know me and my mom were when my sister told us she wanted to make black bean brownies. To a sugar addict like me, the thought of black beans in what should be rich, fudge-y and oozing with chocolate is quite frightening. Brownies aren’t supposed to be healthy, they need to be loaded with butter and sugar and chocolate morsels that melt in your mouth.

My sister decided she was going to prove us wrong, and that she did. She whipped up a quick batch of these babies and you would have no idea that they don’t have any butter but black beans instead. They were smooth and chocolatey and really moist. My mom, a brownie connoisseur, was looking for  a fudgier brownie but was still quite pleased with the results. Me on the other hand, I couldn’t stop myself from eating them. I ate them right when they came out of the oven and they were so warm and gooey, then I ate them when they cooled with a smear of peanut butter and actually preferred how they set up better when they cooled.

All Im trying to say here is that they are one of those recipes that no one would ever know they were full of black beans and definitely worth a try. I know I felt slightly less guilty licking the pan.

RECIPE

look at those gooey brownies! nom nom

and the chef herself. not only is she stealing the baking but she stole my camera and took some selfies

Cranberry Cake

What’s better then baking on a cold winter day? Not a whole lot.
Today was the perfect snowy and cold day hanging out with my family watching more netflix then I would like to admit. So to end this perfectly lazy, chilly day and use some frozen cranberries we stocked up on from thanksgiving, I made a super yummy cranberry cake!

look at those cranberries and walnuts! YUM!

I don’t know about you but I’m somewhat tired of the dry cranberry orange bread that fills most holiday tables. So instead of baking the usual cranberry orange loaf this cranberry cake is so moist, delicious, and anything but boring.

Recipe adapted from here

Cranberry Cake Recipe

3 eggs or two eggs and one flax egg(1 tbsp flax meal mixed with 3 tbsp water. Let sit at least 2 minutes)
1 3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened and cut into chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour ( I used 1 cup whole wheat flour)
2 1/2 cups cranberries (1 bag)

Optional walnut topping:
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp applesauce
1 cup pecans, toasted
1/2 cup oats

Heat the butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and stir. Add the toasted pecans and applesauce and cook for several minutes, stirring, until the butter and sugar mixture is shiny and smooth and the nuts smell toasted. Spread over the cake batter and bake as above.

makes one 9×13-inch or one 10-inch springform cake

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan or a 10″ springform pan.

Beat eggs and sugar together for at least 5 minutes — probably as long as 7 or 8 minutes — the egg and sugar mixture should double in volume and turn pale yellow, leaving ribbons on top of the batter when you lift the beaters.

Add the butter and flavorings and beat for 2 more minutes. Stir in flour and fold in cranberries. Pour into greased pan.

Bake 45-50 minutes for a 9×13, or a little over an hour for the springform. You made need to tent the cake with foil in the last 15 minutes or so to keep the top from browning.

Cool completely before serving.

Moist Banana Tea Cake

 

Nothing’s better then a Homemade Banana bread to use up those brown spotted bananas that no one wants anything to do with. Well what if I told you I have a perfect recipe to do just that. What If I told you this recipe is not only homemade and delicious, but moist, filling, and healthy! This recipe is honestly so good! By adding oat and whole wheat flour and cutting the sugar in half, this recipe has a great texture and perfect sweetness! next time you have any unsightly bananas crowding your counter top don’t chuck them! make this yummy little tea cake!

Moist Banana Bread: adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour(make your own by putting old fashion oats in food processor and process till semi-fine)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 flax eggs ( 1 egg= tbsp flax to 3 tbsp water)
• 1 1/2 – 2 medium mashed ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add honey, banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 0r 9 inch  square pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Caroline and Ryan’s Baby Shower

    My cousin Ryan and his girlfriend Caroline, who is basically family, recently announced that they are pregnant with a little bambino! This past Sunday I got the privilege of baking for their baby shower, which was the perfect excuse to bake yummy and cute little desserts, so that is exactly what I did! 

Bear Macarons:

     For the macaroni recipe i used this one and followed bakerella’s tutorial for piping. I also made dulce de leche by following this recipe for the slow cooker !

Blue Ombre Cake:

     I made a basic white cake and followed this tutorial. 

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing: 

     I used “Bake at 350” recipe for both the sugar cookies and royal icing. 

 

 

 

Nutella Cookies

It has been a lot harder then I expected to continue my blog while at college.  The fact that my dorm doesn’t have a kitchen, let alone microwave has made it quite difficult to cook. Luckily since I am close to home I am able to come back on a few weekends here and there this past weekend I was able to whip up a yummy batch of cookies.

This is Giada de Laurentis’ nutella chocolate chip cookie recipe that I got from here. lets just say these cookies do not disappoint.  They are a perfect mix of soft and chewy and slightly crunchy on the edges. They have a nice smooth nutella flavor in the cookie base and the chocolate chips just add another little dimension. They are so good I had to bring some back for my friends.

Ingredients
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c nutella
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven @ 350 degrees
get a small bowl and combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a standing mixer, add the sugars, the nutella, and butter. Stir until the ingredients are fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until incorporated. Gradually add in the dry ingredients at low speed just so the flour doesn’t spray all over. Once the dry ingredients are incorporated in the batter add in the chocolate chips and stir. Add the dough to the cookie sheets and bake from 6-10 minutes. be sure to keep a close eye on them and take them out slightly before they look done. you do not want these to over bake.