Sunday Pancakes

When I was little, having pancakes on a Sunday morning was always the most exciting thing in the world. It didn’t happen very often, so you knew it was an extra special day when you woke up to the smell of butter sizzling on the griddle.

Confession time: Now that I’m in college and I have more control over my own meals, I have pancakes at least every other weekend. Somehow though, the novelty still hasn’t worn off. They’re still a super exciting prospect to wake up to. My friends and I usually go to this great brunch place in town, The Black River Cafe, that has incredible vegan pancakes, but this past weekend I decided I didn’t feel like spending the extra money, so we made our own!

I have had the most difficult time coming up with a good vegan pancake recipe- I’m on a quest for the perfect one. The recipes I’ve made in the past were either too cakey, chewy or just plain ugly looking. This easy little recipe, however, is getting much closer to the perfect pancake. I will continue to tweak it in the future and let you all know how they turn out, but for now try this one! It’s great!

Sunday Pancakes (adapted from Kirsten’s Kitchen)

Serves 2

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

1 cup soy milk

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp white distilled vinegar

Mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl, then ladle batter into circles onto a heated and greased pan. Cook over medium-low heat for about 1-2 minutes each side.

I love how versatile pancakes are. Feel free to slather them in syrup, like I did, or else applesauce, peanut butter, and jelly are all great toppings. You could also mix anything into this batter; chocolate chips, bananas, berries, whatever your taste-buds desire!

Pear Muffins

Finally, a recipe! After weeks of non-stop commotion, I finally had a chance to take a breather and bake.

Muffins are one of my absolute favorite things to make. They are so simple and so delicious and you can put almost anything in them and still have them taste great. Also I’m all out of oatmeal and cereal and it’s been to rainy and gross to walk to IGA, so these little gems just solved my breakfast problems. Seriously. When I don’t have breakfast, it’s a big problem.

Pear Muffins

(make 18 muffins, or 12 muffins and 1 small loaf of bread)

3 cups flour

¾ cup brown sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ cups soy milk

½ cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

2 pears, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400° and line a muffin tin with paper cups.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the wet. Stir until just combined.

3. Fold in the chopped pear and pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

This song has been my jam this week.

An Abundance of Plums

God, it feels good to be back at school. Classes don’t start for another week, but it’s nice to be on campus early when everything is quiet and the weather is still all summery and beautiful. However, the quiet part will definitely change when the freshman start arriving tomorrow.

I’ve checked out the kitchen in my new dorm and it’s so much nicer than my old one. I can’t wait to start cooking in it! But for now, here’s something I made a couple weeks ago…

I kind of went on a plum kick for a bit. You already know about this little treat, but what you don’t know about are the amazing plum and blueberry rolls I made for my aunt’s birthday. Okay I suppose I have also been on a breakfast rolls kick… but they’re just the perfect thing to wake up to in the morning.

These rolls might be one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. They were also the most labor-intensive, but it was totally worth it. You make a vegan dulche-de-leche spread first so that you can use it in the dough, which is a genius idea. It adds a subtle carmel flavor to the buns, but then you can pile on even more of the spread later to make them extra yummy.

I also got this recipe from seitan is my motor, who apparently shares my love of plum-filled desserts. My aunt absolutely loved these- I think they trumped the non-vegan cupcake she had afterwards! The filling is such a perfect combination of flavors, especially with the rosemary (I know it sounds strange, but trust me) and lemon zest. In fact, just imagine that plum and blueberry sauce poured over some soy ice cream… mmm. I might have to make another batch all by itself.

These are definitely something to wake up for!

Plum Cake

This is going to have to be a shorter post for now, because I am thick in the middle of packing to go back to school! Leaving for my second year is definitely not as daunting as it was the first time… however the pile of clothes on my bedroom floor is just as terrifying. Time to pull out some bags for the salvation army…

I actually made this cake while I was in Grand Marais last weekend along with these buns. I love baking up there! We have this adorable, cozy little kitchen and since the air off of Lake Superior is usually pretty cool, it’s never too hot to bake.

I had never tried making a yeasted cake before, but this one turned out amazing. The bottom layer had a slightly sweet, bread-like flavor, and the tartness of the plums contrasted perfectly with the crumbly buttery topping. Yum. You can make this cake with overripe plums if you want them sweeter, or just a little under-ripe if you like them more tart. I ended up with a mixture of both. You can get the recipe for this amazing cake here, at one of my favorite vegan blogs. I’ve tried a couple of her other recipes (photos to come!) and each one is so unique and delicious.

And just for fun… this cracks me up. Probably because it’s my life… Prius and all.

Chocolate Raspberry Buns with Chocolate Ganache

Yesterday I got back from a second (and final) vacation to the cabin this summer. This time the whole family came along and it ended up being the perfect weekend of walks along the beaches, a 5 mile hike through gorgeous northern woods, knife throwing (did I mention I have a 15 year old brother?), sailing adventures, and, of course, good food.

In our cabin’s backyard, we had an abundance of raspberries and lots of cocoa powder in the cupboard…. what was I to do? Well I decided to experiment a little and came up with my first almost original recipe! I’d say they turned out beautifully… although the recipe could maybe use a little tweaking.

Dough:

• 1 cup plain soymilk heated over the stove until warm- not hot!
• 2 1/4 tsp (or 1 0.25 oz packet) active dry yeast, at room temperature
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour (plus up to 1/4 cup for kneading and rolling)
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp granulated sugar (or 1/4 cup for a sweeter dough)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

•  1 cup smashed raspberries
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 T melted earth balance
• 1 tsp cornstarch (I didn’t actually add this, but the filling came out pretty watery and spilled out the sides when I rolled the dough up, so next time this is what I would try!)

Ganache (adapted from  Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World):

• 1/3 cup soy milk
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup

1. Coat an 8×8 inch square baking pan, or 9-inch round cake pan, with canola oil baking spray. Set aside.
2. Scatter yeast over warmed milk and allow to activate for about 10 minutes, or until foamy.
3. Meanwhile, stir together both kinds of flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
4. When yeast and milk mixture is bubbly, stir in the applesauce and oil. Add wet ingredients into the dry and mix. Transfer dough onto a clean lightly floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes. You may have to add extra flour to make it less sticky. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
5. Lightly flour work surface again and roll dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness, about a 12-inch x 9-inch rectangle.
6. Mix together the smashed raspberries, sugar, earth balance and cornstarch. Spread the filling onto your chocolate dough, leaving a 1-inch space around the edges.
7. Roll up the dough starting from the 9-inch edge- beware of oozing raspberries!!
8. Pinch the edges of your dough and cut the log into 8 even pieces, then place them in your prepared pan. Cover buns with a cloth and let rise for 1 hour.
9. Preheat your oven to 35o° F and once the buns are done rising, bake them for 30 minutes.
10. While they bake, prepare the ganache by heating up the soy milk until boiling. Add the chocolate chips and maple syrup and stir over heat for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and continue to stir until it is smooth and chocolatey.
11. Let the buns cool for about 10 minutes, then drizzle them with the chocolate ganache and serve warm.

They got the family stamp of approval.