Vegan Eggnog with Almond Milk

I've heard a lot about Eggnog but never tried it myself. The thought of drinking raw egg didn't really appeal to me. Last year I made this Mango Eggnog and it was quite a hit even with the kids.

This year I was tempted to try a vegan eggnog recipe when I saw this on Food52. It  is made with soaked cashews and full fat coconut milk to make it thick and the spices give the required oomph and deliciousness. I looked for more vegan eggnog recipes and found another recipe from Tasty Yummies, this one is made with cashew milk, soaked raw cashews and coconut milk.

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Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

It's that time of the year where everything is flavored with pumpkin pie spice -- pumpkin pie latte, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin scones, breads, cakes and on and on and on. But the price of pumpkin pie spice in the grocery store is way too high and since it has limited use in my kitchen, I never bought it.

But couple of days ago as I was planning to make the Pumpkin ice cream, I needed couple of teaspoons of the pumpkin pie spice and I looked online for the recipe. Luckily I had all the ingredients on hand and voila I had my own pumpkin pie spice mix that I can now use in different fall based recipes.

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Bagel Chips with Cinnamon Sugar

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 25

Bake of the Day: Bagel Chips

After a easy, breezy palmier recipe, here's another baked dish that is very very quick and easy to make. These Bagel chips are made using store bought bagels and they are crispy, crunchy and delicious.
I first saw these crunchy bagels on Siri's blog and mentally noted it down to try. My husband buys bagels from Costco & BJ's occasionally and if you know anything about these warehouse stores, you know that they come in wholesale quantities. So we get about 9~12 bagels in one shot. I don't usually eat bagels and it's just my husband and my son who have to finish the whole bag. After about 2~3 days, they get tired of them and we have these sad looking bagels in the bread box.

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Homemade Palmiers

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 24

Bake of the Day: Palmiers

We are slowing inching towards to the end of this marathon. Can't believe that we have been baking non-stop for the whole month of April -- it almost makes me sad that we won't be having this much fun baking, posting and enjoying each other's posts.
Today's bake, Palmiers, are so easy to make if you have store bought puff pastry sheets. I have seen quite a few recipes online to make quick puff pastry at home -- like this one by Gayathri. But I can't dare to make it at home, it seems to be a lot of work AND lot of butter. I guess I'm OK with the store bought puff pastry sheets that have same quantity of butter and even more other unnecessary ingredients.

Palmier (palm tree in French) or elephant ear is a heart shaped French pastry made in heart shape or palm shape. They are like the 'little hearts' we get in India. Costco sells a big box of them and I'm always tempted to pick them up, but knowing that they are very simple to make, I always end up not buying.

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Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 10

Bake of the Day: Breads -- Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Today I have a cinnamon raisin bread made with sourdough starter. I was planning to bake a sourdough bread and fed the starter the day before I wanted to make it. Then in the morning, I checked my blog to see that I already posted that recipe. So had to change the plan and a new search in King Arthur flour site landed me on this cinnamon raisin bread with sourdough starter.

It's been a long time I baked a cinnamon raisin bread and so started working on it right away. The difference between the one I usually bake and this is: here the cinnamon sugar and raisins are layered in after the first rise whereas in the other recipe, they are simply kneaded in.

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Mango Nog (Alcohol free - Kid Friendly recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Holiday Specials

Dish: Mango Nog

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Kid Friendly Holiday specials'. This is for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by lovely Sandhya. For the first day, I have an alcohol free, kid friendly version of a holiday special drink, Eggnog.

Eggnog is a sweetened dairy based drink usually consumed during Thanksgiving and Christmas in Canada & US. It is traditionally made with milk and/ or cream, sugar and whipped eggs to give it a frothy texture. Brandy, rum or bourbon are often added. It is served with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg. It is also known as egg milk punch.

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Hazelnut Cupcakes with Hazelnut-Chocolate Frosting (Eggless Recipe)

I think the biggest advantage of buying cookbooks instead of fiction books is once I read a novel and know the story I'm done with it and it just sits there collecting dust. Whereas a good cookbook can be used again and again. This is purely my opinion, I'm sure you might be reading the same novel again and again, I'm not judging you :-)

So point of the matter is if you are in the market to buy a book for a food blogger, it is a great idea to buy a good cookbook. With so many books available, it is also a good idea to keep the interests of the said blogger in mind. For example, Amazon shipped us a 'Paleo Diet' cookbook by mistake and asked us to keep it if we wanted it. I would have jumped up in joy if it was vegetarian/ vegan/ baking related. Paleo diet is completely foreign to me, so we sent it back. Knowing the interests is key.

My sister definitely knew my interest in baking and she recently bought me 'Betty Crocker's - The Big book of Cupcakes' cookbook. I like to bake cupcakes more than regular size cakes. They are easy to decorate and so much more easier to eat. Portion control is also easy :-)

This past weekend was my sister's birthday and she wanted a nutty cupcake like this Pistachio-Rosewater cupcake. I found these hazelnut cupcakes in the book she gifted me. The recipe is basically spiced up vanilla cupcake with chopped hazelnuts and topped with hazelnut-chocolate frosting. Original recipe had egg in it, so I used my basic vegan vanilla cupcake recipe and added the spices to jazz them up. Here's how I made these cupcakes.

Ingredients: (Makes 12 cupcakes)

All purpose Flour - 1¼cups
Cornstarch - 2tbsp
Baking Powder - ¾tsp
Baking Soda - ½tsp
Salt - ½tsp
Soy Milk - 1cup
Apple cider Vinegar - 1tsp
Canola Oil - 1/3 cup
Sugar - ¾cup
Vanilla extract - 1tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1tsp
Ground Nutmeg - ½tsp
Hazelnuts - ¾cup, toasted and skin removed

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
• Whisk soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
• Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until no big lumps remain.
• Stir in the chopped hazelnuts.
• Fill cupcake liners 2/3rds of the way full and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a cooling rack and let them cool completely before frosting.

Hazelnut-Chocolate Frosting: This is a super simple frosting with semi-sweet chocolate chips and Nutella (or other chocolate-hazelnut spread).
Ingredients:
Semisweet Chocolate Chips - ¾cup
Butter - ¼cup
Nutella or other hazelnut spread with cocoa - 2tbsp
Whipping Cream (heavy cream) - 3½tbsp

Method:

• In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and heat over low heat, about 10~15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.
• Cool until the frosting thickens. To speed up the cooling process, refrigerate the mixture for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. 
• Once the cupcakes are cooled completely, frost the cupcakes. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.

Sending these over to Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge'.

Update December 2013: Sending these cupcakes over to Valli's Cake Mela.

Cinnamon Sticks

This is a recipe that my sister, who lives in India, wanted me to make since her hubby really likes Cinnamon sticks. I looked for recipes online and found this recipe on King Arthur’s website. Recipe seemed simple to make with very few ingredients that are easily available in India. But she wanted the recipe to be eggless, so I substituted the egg with egg-replacer.

I sent my sister detailed pictures on how to make the cinnamon sticks along with KAF recipe. She tried them and reported back saying that the taste was great. Personally I thought the cinnamon sticks were a little too buttery, but my husband and my BIL seemed to like them. I halved the recipe from the original.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 1cup

Sugar – 1½ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Butter – ½ cup or 1 stick (4 oz.), softened to room temperature

Milk – 1tbsp

Egg-replacer powder – 1½ tbsp (original recipe used 1 egg, since I halved the recipe, I used half of the required egg-replacer)

Cinnamon – 2tbsp

Granulated Sugar – ¼ cup

Milk or cream – to brush the pastry

Method:

• Whisk flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Work in the butter into the flour mixture until it forms crumbles and holds shape when squeezed.
• Whisk egg-replacer powder and milk in a small bowl and add to the flour mixture and mix just until everything is cohesive.
• Roll the dough and pat into a 3”x5” rectangle; wrap in plastic and refrigerate it for an hour or for up to 2 days.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out into a 10” x 15” rectangle about 1/8” thick.
• Brush half of the lengthwise surface (i.e. the 5” x 15” strip) with milk/ cream and sprinkle cinnamon sugar** evenly all over. Fold the unfilled side of the pastry over the filled side and press the edges lightly.
• Brush the resulting 5”x15” pastry with milk/ cream and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar. Using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut the pastry crosswise into ½” strips that are 5” long.
• Hold the strip on each end and twist them to give them the characteristic “cinnamon stick” shape.
• Place them on a prepared baking sheet and bake the cinnamon sticks for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and after couple of minutes, place them on a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with your evening cup of tea or coffee.

**Note: To make cinnamon sugar sugar, simply mix the 2tbsp cinnamon with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.

Cinnamon Sticks making pictorial:

Sending these Cinnamon sticks over to Harini for her "Only Baked" event. Only baked is the brain child of Pari @ Foodelicious.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I bought me a lifetime supply of yeast from BJs almost 6 months ago. Price of these got my attention and ultimately place in my pantry and freezer; 2 lbs of yeast for half the price of 1 lb (or even less in some cases) at any other specialty online store or grocery store. So I went right with my common sense and bought these thinking that I can start baking and use them up in no time. Well that didn’t happen, so I froze one of the bags that I opened and kept the unopened one safely in the pantry.

The impending yeast expiration date motivated me to borrow Peter Reinhart’s: Bead Baking Apprentice from the library. It is more of a text book than a cookbook and read all the introductory chapters before I started baking. The author describes in detail the science of bread baking and how each step in the process affects the final result. It is a great reference book for anyone who’s new to baking breads like me.

My first bread from the book is this Cinnamon Raisin bread and I’m happy to report that it came out very well for my first attempt. One thing to remember if you have frozen yeast is to make sure that it brought to room temperature before using it. I left the amount needed in the recipe out on the counter for couple of hours.

Recipe from Bread Baker’s Apprentice
Mixing time: 15minutes
Proofing time: 3½ - 4 hours
Baking time: 45 – 50 minutes
Ingredients:
Bread Flour – 3½ cups (16 oz.)
Yeast – 2tsp
Sugar – 4tsp
Salt – 1¼tsp
Cinnamon – 1¼tsp
Egg – 1, lightly whisked
Buttermilk or Milk – 1 cup at room temperature
Shortening – 2tbsp, melted or at room temperature
Water – ¾ cup, at room temperature
Raisins – 1½ cups, rinsed and drained
Walnuts – 1cup (I didn’t add any nuts)

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, yeast, sugar, salt and cinnamon until well blended. Add buttermilk/milk, egg, shortening and water.
  
• Mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball, add more water if needed (I didn’t have to add any extra water).
  
• Turn the dough ball on lightly floured counter and knead for about 10 minutes. Author suggests having a timer set, so you don’t compromise on kneading which is THE major step in bread baking.
  
• In the last 2 minutes of kneading, add the raisins and nuts (if using) and make sure they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
  
• At the end of kneading the dough should pass the windowpane test and should register a temperature of between 77°F - 81°F.
  
• Lightly grease a large bowl and slide the kneaded ball and roll around to coat it with oil. Tightly place a plastic wrap on the bowl and proof/ ferment for 2 hours until the dough puffs up and doubles in size.
  
• After about 2 hours, divide the dough into 2 halves and form them into loaves (see here for detailed pictures on how to form a loaf. Place each loaf in a lightly oiled 8.5" x 4.5" pan, mist the tops with cooking spray, and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

• Proof at room temperature for another 60 to 90 minutes, or until the dough crests above the lips of the pans and is nearly doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 350F with the rack on the middle shelf. Place the loaf pans on a baking sheet, making sure that they are not touching each other.

• Bake the loaves for 20 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes. The finished breads should register 190F in the center and be golden brown on top and lightly golden on the sides and bottom. They should make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.
• Immediately remove the breads from their pans and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, before slicing or serving.