Ok.
I have a confession to make.
While I haven’t been working, per se, I have been studying…
My vegan cookbooks, that is!!
I’ve been on a mission to make yummy vegan cupcakes and other desserts. You’ve seen a couple of the cupcakes.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time shopping for ingredients. One of my local Walmarts had this amazing assortment of extracts…three entire shelves!!
I went a little crazy, I’m afraid, and stocked up…
On Friday, I needed to find a dessert to take to my small group meeting that evening.
I decided to make Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes. They are similar to Red Velvet Cake. The frosting is a custard type…very different from the buttercream I’d been making.
Ok…so the frosting…well…it had some issues. The taste, though, was DIVINE. I haven’t had custard in YEARS. I could have eaten this stuff with a spoon.
I took most of the cupcakes with me and returned with one left. It didn’t last long.
Because I am the ultimate good student, I knew I needed to figure out why I had the issue with the consistency of my frosting. What better way than to try again?
The frosting came out almost identical…dang…despite making sure the custard I’d made beforehand had completely cooled. I don’t think I properly creamed my sugar, margarine, and shortening. I’ll be working on this skill. Darn. I hate that. 😀
One change I made when making the cupcake batter was that I added the proper amount of food coloring after purchasing a large bottle (don’t you dare tell me how unhealthy it is…I know but I don’t do unhealthy hardly ever any more so whatever). I also added a little bit more almond extract.
Oh word. The extra wet ingredients may have made a difference.
The second batch of cupcakes were soooo moist and delicious!
Look!
On Saturday, I received a new vegan baking book in the mail…
You may be astute enough to recognize that it’s written by the same gals who authored the cupcake book I’ve been using. It got great reviews on Amazon, so of course I had to order it.
Thumbing through the book was a pure delight. There’s so much helpful information in the beginning sections. They provide how-to’s for making recipes gluten-free and even more organic.
One of the tips I picked up was to check my oven temperature, which can cause a lot of problems when baking.
I already owned an oven thermometer, so I pulled it out as I prepared to make my first batch of cookies from this book.
I’ve always thought that my oven heated quickly. It beeps when the temperature reaches what I’ve programmed.
I was very surprised when I discovered that my oven had only reached 250 degrees!!! THAT is why recipes tell you to turn on the oven first! I’ve always figured that I was wasting electricity by leaving it on too long! Lesson learned!
So…back to the baking.
When I showed the Mr. my new book, he told me that he wanted Chocolate Chip Cookies…his favorite. Coincidentally, that was the first recipe in the book!
I started the recipe and realized, just as I was adding my flour, that I had not added my soy milk to the sugar mixture, which I was supposed to prepare first.
I dumped everything and started over.
Yes, I wanted to get this right.
After adding the soy milk and following the recipe even more closely, things resembled how they were described in the book.
Imagine that!
Here’s what the cookies looked like when I pulled them out of the oven…
I had to put them back in for an extra two minutes. They were a lot more wet than they were supposed to be. However, that two minutes did their thing. When it was time to eat…well…take a look for yourself at how “normal” my vegan cookies were…
I am so thrilled that I can finally indulge the sweet tooth that had been dormant for so long.
There are many recipes in this book that will be fighting for priority status.
You know I’ll keep you posted!
Filed under: Vegan | Tagged: baking, vegan | 3 Comments »
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