Valentine French Toast and some Random Notes

I woke up this morning to some delicious aromas permeating the house: strong hot coffee, warm cinnamon, frying batter and the faint scent of pear. Knowing how much I love food, and how much of a treat it is for someone else to do the cooking, Jason prepared a surprise Valentine's Day breakfast!

Breakfast is the most difficult meal for a vegan. American traditions like eggs, bacon and even buttermilk pancakes are hard to replicate in vegan cuisine (I am not a huge fan of tempeh bacon in the morning or tofu scramble, they are much more of a dinner affair for me!). Jason decided to make French Toast with thick Italian bread, cinnamon bananas coupled with the delicious pear bellini! This was the perfect Valentine's gift - that's right, no flowers, no chocolate, no jewelry - all I want is a great cooked meal!

This recipe is adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance and uses chickpea flour, soy cream, rice milk to make the great crusty coating. If you haven't already gotten this cookbook it is about time to order it!

French Toast (based on "Fronch" Toast in VVengance)

Sliced loaf of Italian bread, toasted slightly in the oven
1/2 C soy creamer
1/2 C rice milk
2 T cornstarch
1/4 C chickpea flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
canola oil for cooking

• Mix dry ingredients together in small bowl
• Mix wet ingredients into a large bowl
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined
• Dip bread (both sides) into the batter and fry in oil until browned on each side.
  

Cinnamon Bananas

1 banana sliced
1 tsp coconut oil
cinnamon

• Melt coconut oil in skillet
• Add banana slices and cook until just warmed
• Sprinkle with cinnamon

Pear Bellini
* this is not a classic Bellini recipe, rather it is a light drink inspired by the Bellini

Italian prosecco
Pear Juice (or Peach)

• 2 oz juice to 3 oz prosecco
• add a raspberry for garnish
  

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I am also posting some photos of recipes that I decided to try from The Voluptuous Vegan and the essential The Joy of Vegan Baking.

The VV was recommended to me a while back and I have only recently been trying out some of the recipes. Unlike most of my cookbooks, this book is arranged by full meals. Each recipe bunch works together as a decadent (voluptuous) display of culinary skill. There are even plating suggestions! While I have only gotten through a few of these, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves to cook or is looking for really impressive way to entertain. Many of the recipes have a spicy flare and most of them require a lot of time and deft kitchen appliance juggling, but the finished result is well worth it! Even with a messy and impatient cook like myself, these recipes miraculously end up perfect. The other day I made VV's chili and corn-bisciut casserole to great success!

I also recently made this no bake chocolate peanut butter pie from Joy. I am not a fan of PB and chocolate, but I was itching to cook something and went with what I had in the kitchen. This lovely pie tastes like creamy fudge paired with a crispy graham cracker crust! mmmmmm!

Up next: Vegan TVP Noodle casserole. This is my recipe so I'll post it in its entirety.

Happy Valentines!!!

Chocolate Yum: The Addiction Continues

Ok, so I am going to dazzle you with something sweet AND dare I say it VEGAN! So I would advise you to omit the vegan part when you are about to serve, as it inevitably solicits unfair bias before any food touches any taste bud thereby adulterating the first luscious taste of this chocolate masterpiece!

Like any human being my love affair with chocolate began early. Who can forget the chocolate bunny overdose of 1985 followed by the bellyache birthday of peanut butter melt-a-ways? Yes, I am smitten with the rich velvet of cacao nectar. If there was one thing that would have broken my vegan commitment, it would have been forever leaving chocolate (and I mean good chocolate) out of my life. So renouncing the smooth taste of milk chocolate was tough at first, but when I sliced into this soft creamy cake for the first time I knew that I would have no regrets leaving the dairy behind. My addiction runs strong, and I have, on one occasion eaten this entire cake in a day. (Well, ok, let's be exact, I ate most of the cake within a 48 hr period, and my husband had a slice or so - but the important thing is that it is good enough to move me to overdosing!)

This is called Chocolate Yum and it is a hodgepodge of all the recipes that I have used and failed to follow correctly to make the perfect, fluffy, chocolate-doughnut-icing smothered layer cake!

***Initial thanks goes out to the following cookbooks: Vegan with a Vengeance (Freaking lifesaver that one!), Veganomicon, La Dolce Vegan and The Joy of Vegan Baking. You culinary queens have made my kitchen a peaceful, bearable, rather pleasant place to be.

CHOCOLATE YUM
Ingredients:
3 C flour
1 C sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp vanilla abstract
2/3 C canola oil
2 T distilled vinegar
2 C cold h2o

Frosting:

1 C h2o
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 C sugar
1/4 C cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 C h2o
1/4 cup vegan butter (or margarine)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla abstract

1. This recipe is for the best frosting that I have ever had! Thanks to La Dolce Vegan! Whisk together h2o, cocoa, sugar, cornstarch in a saucepan and bring to boil to thicken.
   
2. Once thick take off of heat and add butter and vanilla.
3. Cool and put the entire pan in the refrigerator while you make the cake.
   

Next for the cakes!

1. This is an adaptation of the cake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Preheat oven 350 degrees and grease two 9" round cake pans.
2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa together.
3. Add the wet ingredients: vanilla, oil, and h2o and stir until combined.
4. Pour into cake pans and bake about 20 min.
5. Let completely cool! (I have ruined many cakes with my impatience!)
6. Cut the bottom of one cake to fit squarely on top of the other.

Ok, you are ready to ice the cake! The icing should be a bit runny, that is why I love it so much, but it also means that it is a pain to work with. Place your bottom cake on a wire cooling rack and then pour or spoon your icing on top. Next place your second cake on top of the iced bottom and pour the rest of the icing over the entire cake letting the excess drip to through the wires. Once the icing sets transfer cake to a plate and enjoy!

This cake is a little messy, but is is so good!!!