Bake once a week to lead a happier life!

This blog is here to motivate me to keep baking and to share my journey with the internet.
All recipes are suitable for beginner bakers and vegan because happy human lives should not exploit non-human lives. <3

Friday, July 13, 2012

Easy Bread Recipe

This bread came out slightly sweet, puffy, and with a thin crust. It would be perfect to slice up for avocado sandwiches or to just warm up with a little vegan margarine. This was my first time baking bread and I had no complaints with the end product; I think just about anyone could make it. It takes a lot of sitting around time to make this bread, so make sure you have other things to do before you start!

The original bread recipe from Danialle can be found here. I have slightly modified and veganized it. The picture above is how my bread turned out! <3

Ingredients

1 package dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp vegan sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 1/2 tbsp vegan margarine
1/2 tbsp salt
3 1/4 cups flour
small amount of oil

Recipe

1. Dissolve sugar and yeast in water in a large bowl.
2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Do the flour half a cup at a time.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface for eight minutes or until elastic.
4. Oil a large bowl lightly and place your dough in it. Turn the dough to cover it with oil. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave it alone for an hour in a warm place.
5. Knead the dough to deflate it and roll it into a long sub like shape. Fold it over itself to make a crossed bun if you want to back it on a flat surface or put it in a bread pan if you have one.
6. Cover with a damp cloth again and leave alone for 40 minutes.
7. Preheat over to 425 degrees.
8. Lower it to 375 and bake for 30 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Vegan Chocolate Mousse Pie Recipe

My brother wanted something really chocolatey so I decided to combine one of my favourite cookie recipes with a mousse.

If you keep the pie refrigerated it turns out perfect. If I made it again I might try to make the mousse a little firmer, but when cool it's not a liquid at all and turned out really well. It's surprisingly not that sweet and all the tofu makes it a little healthy.

The original recipe for the crust was made by Leiah can be found here in cookie form and the mousse recipe is from Christina and can be found here. I have slightly modified both recipes. The picture above is how my pie turned out!

Pie Crust Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegan sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp plain or vanilla soy or almond milk
1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

Mousse Ingredients

1/2 pack of silken tofu
1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips
1 tsp espresso powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a pie pan.
2. Mix all of the pie crust ingredients together in one big bowl. It should be slightly crumbly and slightly wet.
3. Press the pie crust into the pie pan, pressing it along the bottom and up the pan.
4. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes and work on the mousse.
5. When you do take the pie out, immediately use a spatula to press down the risen cookie crust to make it flat and set it aside to cool.
6. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or on a double broiler. If you put them in the microwave take it out after every 15 seconds to stir.
7. Put tofu in blender or food processor to make smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend again.
8. If you mousse is as runny as water, you can add more melted chocolate chips or 1/4 of a cup of vegan icing sugar. If it's a little less runny than maple syrup, you're fine. It will set.
9. Pour mousse into pie pan and put it into the fridge for 10 minutes. Take it out and ready to eat. Keep it in the fridge when not being eaten.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Apple Walnut Oat Vegan Pie/Crumble Recipe

I bought one of those big bags of apples and forgot about them for a week or two, so I decided to bake a pie to use them up. I also added some random ingredients from my cupboard that I thought would go well with the apples.

I would definitely make this recipe again. It was very easy to do and the pie turned out very nice; it was slightly sweet and very hearty. I had originally intended to make a pie, but it came out more like a crumble. If I wanted more of a pie-like baked good I'd probably use a different crust recipe that included vegan shortening in it.

The original pie crust recipe from Christy can be found here and the apple pie recipe from Jolinda can be found here. I have modified the apple pie recipe. The pictures above are how my pie turned out! <3

Pie Crust Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/3 cup vegan margarine
3 tbsp water

Apple Pie Filling Ingredients

4-5 large apples
1/3 cup vegan margarine
1/3 cup vegan brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1 cup rolled oats

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil one baking pan.
2. Make the crust by mixing the flour and margarine in a medium sized bowl with a fork. Add in the water. It should be able to be spread, but still crumbly.
3. Spread 3/4 of the crust onto the bottom of the pan and keep the rest in the bowl that you put to the side.
4. Skin and cut up your apples so that they are in small chunks 1-3 inches big.
5. Put half of 1/3 of a cup of margarine into a bowl with the apples and mix with a fork until the apples are coated. Pour the apples into the pie pan over the crust.
6. Mix the rest of the margarine, cinnamon, brown sugar, walnuts, and oats into the medium sized bowl with 1/4 of the pie crust recipe. It should be slightly crumbly but a little lumpy.
7. Pour the pie crust mixture over the top of the apples, crumbling it as you go. It should generally cover most of it in a thin layer.
8. Bake the pie for 45-50 minutes, or until the apples are very soft.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Vegan Chocolate Coffee Flavoured/Espresso Cake Recipe

Coffee really cheers me up, so for an extra special boost this week I decided to make a whole cake flavoured like coffee.

The actual cake itself was pretty good and I'd make it again with a few adjustments. You can find the recipe I used below. I'd recommend not using the cinnamon (the whole cake tastes like cinnamon chocolate, not coffee chocolate in my opinion!), using vanilla or plain almond milk instead of chocolate, and using less almond milk and more coffee. The icing tasted absolutely perfect; it was a fantastic mix of sweet and espresso. Next time I would add just a little more coffee to make it spread easier, but that depends on which brand of margarine you use.

The original cake recipe from Heather can be found here. The frosting recipe can be found in the book "The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes" by Kris Holechek. I have slightly modified both recipes. :) The picture above is how my cake turned out! <3

Cake Ingredients

3 cups flour
8 tbsp of cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups vegan sugar
12 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup strong cold coffee
1 cup chocolate almond milk

Frosting Ingredients

3 tbsp vegan margarine
1 tbsp vegan shortening
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups vegan powdered sugar
3 tablespoons strong coffee
handful of vegan chocolate chips (optional!)

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil two round baking pans.
2. Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Pour all wet ingredients into dry, starting with vinegar, vanilla, and oil. Do not stir yet! Pour coffee and almond milk over everything, then blend together until smooth. It is okay if it begins to froth.
4. Pour into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes.
5. Let cool for 10 minutes before icing!
6. To make icing, blend margarine and shortening together in a bowl.
7. Blend in vanilla then powdered sugar in small amounts.
8. Blend in coffee. You can add more or less coffee to get the desired thickness. 9. Ice the cake! Put icing in the middle of the two layers and on top.
10. Use chocolate chips to decorate or grate them to sprinkle over top.