vegan baking

Chicken Little Bread Rolls

Recipes, , One comment

I just veganized an old Betty Crocker recipe to make these little bird breads. This is a great first yeast bread recipe for kids or for those of us who have been afraid of yeast for too long. It is easy and fun to come up with our own little creations!

– Linda Nelson

Chicken Little Rolls
(or bread or rolls shaped into your favorite animal)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 (2 1/4 teaspoons) package quick acting active dry yeast
1/3 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon vegan butter
1 egg equivalent of egg replacer
raisins or seeds for eyes and beaks

Directions:

1. Preheat the over to 400 degrees F. Mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the yeast, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Place the soy milk and vegan butter in a saucepan with 1/2 cup of water. Heat on medium until the butter is melted. It should feel very warm to a finger tip. Stir this liquid into the dry ingredients along with the egg replacer. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is easy to handle.

3. Transfer the dough to a floured surface, and knead until it is smooth and elastic. This takes about five minutes. Cover with a kitchen towel, and let it rest for ten minutes.

4. Lightly oil a cookie sheet, or use a silpat. Shape into one large animal or decide to make smaller rolls as I did. Cover with a damp cloth and let the dough rise for 20 minutes. I usually make turtles, but I thought I’d pay my respects to the TCA chickens this time.

5. Stick nuts, seeds, or raisins into your animals for eyes or noses. Bake until golden brown. This will be about 20 to 25 minutes for one big bread, and 10 to 15 for smaller rolls.

(Ha ha, Alan just told me my chicks look more like baby seals, and I think he is right. I was in a hurry, and who doesn’t love baby seals!)

Advertisement

Lemony Pound Cake

Recipes, , One comment

For all those friends who have been asking for a vegan pound cake recipe, here you go! No, it doesn’t call for a pound of vegan butter, but it is delicious and easy, and who doesn’t like that!

– Linda Nelson

Lemony Pound Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
the zest of two lemons
the juice of two lemons
3/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegan butter, softened
4 ounces vegan cream cheese, room temp.
1 cup sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly oil and flour a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.

Zest the lemons, and then juice them. Add the lemon zest, juice, soy milk and vanilla together in a small bowl. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes to curdle.

In a larger bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In your largest bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese. You can do this by hand or with a hand mixer. Add the sugar, and mix to incorporate. Add the milk/lemon mixture to the butter/sugar mixture until well combined.

Add half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Repeat with the other half. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack in the pan before serving.

I like to serve this with homemade lemon lavender curd, but fresh blueberries or strawberries would be nice, too.

Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Pie

Recipes, , , One comment
chocomac pie

Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Pie
Adapted from Pies and Tarts with Heart by Dynise Balcavage.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
2 cups roasted macadamia nuts ( I have also made this with pecans when I didn’t have macadamia nuts)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt unless your nuts are already salted
3 tablespoons vegan butter; you can also use coconut oil.
Up to 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk

For the filling:
2/3 cup dried, unsweetened coconut flakes or shreds
1 cup non dairy cream cheese (I always use palm oil free)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons flour, gluten-free is perfectly fine
2 teaspoons coconut extract or vanilla, if you can’t find the coconut
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup coconut milk from the can (light works well)
1 cup nondairy chocolate chips (I use Equal Exchange)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325.

To make the crust: Use your food process to process the nuts, sugar, and salt until almost flour like in consistency.
Pulse in the vegan butter or coconut oil. You don’t have to wash the processor out at this point. The dough ought to hold together so if it doesn’t add small amounts of milk, until it does. Press into a pie pan. It helps to have slightly floured hands to do this.

To make the filling: Process all of the filling ingredients until creamy.

Pour the chocolate chips into the crust and even them out. Pour the creamy filling over them, and smooth with a spatula. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the top is just starting to turn golden and the creamy filling is wobbly but holds together. It will firm up as it cools.

Let cool completely at room temperature before refrigerating overnight.

Enjoy!

– Linda Nelson

Crispy Rice Treats

Recipes, , Leave a comment
Crispy Rice Treats

I am sure most of us fondly remember Rice Krispies Treats from pre-vegan days. When I was a teenager, my cousin and I would regularly make  a big pan of the gooey goodies and scarf down the whole thing, long before it had cooled.

Now my diet and my tastes are totally different, but it is still a lot of fun to make and share veganized crispy rice treats with others. They are quick and easy to prepare … which is handy when you do not want to wait 12-15 minutes for cookies to finish baking or to bother icing cupcakes.

– Justin Van Kleeck

Crispy Rice Treats

Ingredients:
1 10 oz. bag (approx. 3 cups) vegan marshmallows
½ cup vegan butter or coconut oil (use refined coconut oil if you do not want a coconut flavor)
4 cups crispy brown rice cereal (we use Erewhon brand)

Directions:
Lightly oil an 8×8 pan. Combine marshmallows and margarine in a saucepan. Cook over medium
heat until marshmallows are completely melted. (If using coconut oil, use a lower heat setting to avoid burning the oil.)

Add rice cereal and stir until combined.

Transfer mixture to the pan and press down to make an even surface. Place on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before cutting and serving.

Community Supported … Baking?

News, View all 2 comments

Carob BrownieYou have probably heard about Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, which gives you the opportunity to pay upfront for a season’s worth of local foods, delivered weekly in the form of a box filled with whatever has been harvested that week on the farm…

Well, Triangle Chance for All is taking inspiration from the CSA model and offering you the chance to support our organization–and the farmed animals we rescue–by taking part in a regular subscription for delicious vegan baked goods!

We are developing a Community Supported Baking (CSB) program that will provide us with regular monthly funding while also supporting our community’s love of vegan treats. And all for a good cause!

The gist of the idea is that you would donate a set amount ahead of time and then pick up a box of various vegan treats worth that amount (or usually a little more!). But we need your input to help us get the baking started and get those boxes out! Please fill out the poll below to tell us what you think about the CSB for TCA:

1. How frequently would you like to donate to Triangle Chance for All and receive vegan baked goods? (You can check more than one.)

2. How much would you be willing to spend per delivery? (You can check more than one.)

3. Our plan was to have cupcakes available as a special order item but not part of the CSB. Would you still like to participate?

4. Which items would you like to have in your CSB box?

5. Which method of pickup could you do?

Thanks for your input!

Pretty in Pink Cookies

Recipes, , Leave a comment

Why not make Mom some Pretty in Pink Cookies for her special day? You can tell her they are extra special because no other mother had to suffer for her treat.

PRETTY IN PINK COOKIES

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegan butter, softened (check out the easy recipe on our website)
1/4 cup canola or sunflower oil
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cream the vegan butter and oil together in a large bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar until smooth. Add the juices, the almond extract, and the zest.

Sift the dry ingredients in with the butter mixture, and stir until all is combined.

Use a spring loaded cookie scoop for uniformity or drop by the tablespoon onto a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Bake about 12 minutes or until the cookies are firm and the bottoms are a golden brown.

Pipe cherry buttercream on top and top with an undyed maraschino cherry.

To make the buttercream:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegan butter
1/4 cup vegan shortening or refined coconut oil
2 cups powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice

Cream the butter and the shortening together using a stand mixer or a hand mixer.

Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing it in well.

When it is almost all incorporated, add the cherry juice and beat until fluffy, about seven minutes.

Pipe the buttercream onto the cookies, and top with a cherry.

Classic Banana Bread

Recipes, , Leave a comment
bananabread

Banana bread brings back memories of childhood for Rosemary and me. We both remember having slices with butter as kids. Nowadays, banana bread is pretty easy to make vegan, and we found a delicious recipe for marbled banana bread in Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s newest cookbook, Isa Does It.

The entire book looks amazing, but we were in the mood for something sans chocolate (believe it or not, neither of us are big chocolate fans), so I fiddled with Isa’s recipe a little and came up with what serves as a pretty darn good version of your classic banana bread. (I could have also called it “Rosemary’s Favorite Banana Bread EVER,” but “classic” does the job.)

– Justin

Classic Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup well-mashed bananas (2-3 bananas)
1/2 cup vegan sugar (add 1/4 cup if you prefer sweeter items)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup soy or almond milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas with sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and gently mix until well combined. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Pour the batter into a lightly oiled 4″ x 8″ loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean. (It might appear a little sticky, but as long as it is not coated in batter the bread is done.) Let cool on a cooling rack … if you can.

Be sure to try some homemade vegan butter with your bread!

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Scones

Recipes, , Leave a comment

Scones

When we launched our erstwhile vegan baking business in Virginia, we were surprised at how quickly our scones sold out and gained popularity. It was fun to play with flavor combos and ideas–like a gluten-free pumpkin scone, or one featuring local lavender–but also quite a challenge to meet the demand (have you ever tried making six dozen scones in a go???).

One of our last flavors, made for the second of our Vegan Night Out events, was a big hit: Raspberry Chocolate Chip. It was an even bigger success at two of the potlucks put on by the Triangle Vegan Pledge.

We encourage you to use organic, fair-trade chocolate and sugar. For the sugar, organic is especially important to ensure that it is vegan (since conventional sugar is typically processed with bone char). Also watch out for palm oil in your vegan chocolate chips; we like to use Equal Exchange’s bittersweet chocolate chips.

– Rosemary & Justin

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Scones
– Makes 8 scones.
Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegan sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 cup frozen raspberries
¾ cup vegan chocolate chips
½ cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly grease a scone pan, or a baking sheet for drop scones. Measure out the milk in a large measuring cup and add the vinegar to it. Set aside to curdle.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, raspberries, and chocolate chips; if the raspberries are large, it helps to crush them up some with your mixing spoon. Add the coconut oil in small clumps, then use your fingers or a pastry cutter to cut it into the flour until the dough texture becomes pebble-like.

Create a well in the center and add the milk mixture, oil, and vanilla. Mix with a wooden spoon until about half of the flour is incorporated. Mix again until all the ingredients are just moistened, taking care not to overmix. A couple of dry-looking spots are fine.

Grease a ¼-cup measuring cup and use the cup to scoop the scones into the scone pan or onto the baking sheet. Dust the tops of the scones with more sugar, then bake for 18-22 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and firm. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool.