Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes with Rosewater Glaze

Ideally, these would have involved pink food coloring, and perhaps a sprinkling of chopped pistachio on top. Why? Because, especially when it comes to sweets, people can sometimes only taste what they see. If it's not pink, they might not taste the rosewater. So if you don't have pink food coloring on hand, either, just make sure to mention the flavor combo to your friends often as they scarf these delicious cupcakes.



Another winner from Isa and Terry's classic Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, these are vegan and sensational, based on a classic Indian pairing.

Ingredients

1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
2/3 cup soy milk
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons rosewater
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, soy milk, oil, sugar, and rosewater. Sift in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until large clumps dissapear, then fold in pistachios. Fill liners three-quarters of the way.
Bake 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

For the glaze, cream 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar with 1 tbs earth balance, then mix in a little rosewater and soymilk (tiny bits at a time so you don't thin it out too much). And a little pink doesn't hurt, either.

These are adorable, and not even snobby omnivores will know they are vegan.

Big Fattie Banana Walnut Muffins

I made these the other day when I was sick and ansy. You may say, who the fuck wants to eat muffins made by a sick person? I don't know, man. That's not my department.



The recipe is from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's Veganomicon. I used all whole wheat pastry flour - a magical flour that allows you to make what my coworker Miriam disdainfully calls "health muffins" while still keeping them fluffy - and I replaced the wheat germ with milled flax cause it was all I had. And apparently you can do that cause they came out just fine. And obviously, I also put in a whole bunch of walnuts cause walnuts are so excellent.

The most significant feature of these muffins is that they are enormous, easily twice the size of mortal muffins. And that is probably also the best way to decrease their health quotient. Just eat muffins til you pass out. A muffin bender. Who's with me?

Lavender-Rosewater Cookies

Tonight, I undertook two excursions into previously-uncharted vegan-culinary territory: I made my own seitan (from the amazing VeganYumYum's recipe) and baked up a batch of lavender-rosewater sugar cookies. The seitan was great! It's slated to be the base of tomorrow night's dinner. The cookies were also a big hit, and I'll share that recipe here.

Vegan Lavender-Rosewater Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 + 1/3 cup white sugar
1 /2 cup (1 stick) margarine
1/4 cup soft silken-style tofu
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. rosewater
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender
sugar for rolling cookies in (1/2 cup or so)

Directions:

Cream together sugar and margarine in large bowl. In a food processor, blend together tofu, rosewater and vanilla till smooth. Add to sugar-margarine mixture and mix well.

In a (well-cleaned!) coffee grinder, grind lavender into a powder. In a separate bowl, mix together ground lavender with other dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well. Refrigerate dough for half an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll into walnut-sized balls. Roll the balls in the extra sugar till well-coated. Arrange on a cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly on cookie tray, then transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy!


Pictures are coming, I promise! My camera is in Chicago, but I'll get it back this weekend. In the meantime, I'll try to get some of my cookie-testers to comment about how good these lavender-rosewater ones taste and how pretty they look!

Vegan Portuguese Kale and Soyrizo Soup!

This veganized recipe from Epicurious may change your life, along with your friends' feelings about vegan cooking.


Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
3/4 cup sliced carrots
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1-inch pieces
4 cups veggie stock (I use Better Than Boullion No-Chicken Stock)
1 package Soyrizo
8 cups chopped kale, packed
1 pound small Yukon Gold potatoes (or Red Bliss, in a pinch), chopped into 1-inch cubes


Directions:
In a large stockpot, cook the garlic, the onions, and the carrot in the oil over moderately low heat, stirring, until the vegetables are softened. Add the russet potatoes, the broth, and 4 cups water. Bring the liquid to a boil, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Puree the stockpot contents with an immersion blender (or transfer to a regular blender if you don't have an immersion blender).

While the potatoes are cooking, cook the soyrizo in a skillet over moderate heat until browned, stirring occasionally. Add browned soyrizo and cubed Yukon Gold potatoes to stockpot, cook till potatoes become slightly tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in chopped kale and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook until kale has become wilted--then serve!

Earl Grey Sugar Cookies!

This post represents the figurative ribbon-cutting for our new recipe blog. To get things rolling, I'm going to post my newest invention: vegan Earl Grey sugar cookies. These totally delicious but, alas, slightly weird-looking. Since they are, after all, Earl Grey cookies, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised that they turned out so...well...gray. After some initial trepidation vis-a-vis their stone-like appearance, however, my roommate couldn't stop scarfing these up. We agreed that they look like rocks because they rock.

Vegan Earl Grey Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance or Willow Run)
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup soft silken-style tofu
zest of one lemon
zest of one small, smooth-skinned orange (I used a Temple orange)
a splash of soy milk (vanilla or plain)
4 tablespoons loose-leaf Earl Grey tea
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Extra sugar to roll the cookies in (1/2 cup or so)


Directions:
Put the lemon and orange zests in a food processor with a splash of soymilk. Process till the zest has been reduced to tiny bits. Add the tofu and vanilla extract and process till relatively smooth (you'll still see little pieces of zest).

In a large bowl, cream together room-temperature margarine and sugar. Add the tofu mixture and mix till incorporated.

Place 4 tablespoons of Earl Grey tea into a (well-cleaned!) coffee grinder and process till very finely ground. In a separate bowl, combine ground tea, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least half an hour. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and roll into balls, using about one teaspoon of dough per ball. Roll the balls in sugar till coated and press them lightly onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between them. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly on cookie sheet. Remove carefully from cookie sheet with a spatula and transfer to wire rack.

These cookies will keep cooking as they cool, so don't worry if you eat one right off the baking sheet and it seems a little undercooked in the center. Once cool, these will be delicious, floral, perfumey, and elegantly gray and rock-like. All in all, a very sophisticated, grown-up cookie.


If you try these, let me know what you think. To come: finished-product pictures, my recipes for lemon-thyme and orange-cardamom cookies, plus more baking experiments involving lavender, rosewater, matcha powder...and maybe some weird extracts from this rad site! I definitely want the bergamot, but the question remains: will I be seduced by the jasmine, rose and lavender? Tune in next time for the resolution of this cliffhanger...