Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are so many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and I've found there are two kinds: dense and not so dense. I think most vegan chocolate chip cookies I came across a dense cookie. I love this kind of cookie, like my chocolate, chocolate cookie recipe that is almost like a brownie. But sometimes I prefer a lighter cookie.

While going through Nana's recipes I came across the, "Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe. There was a newspaper clipping about the history of the cookie at the Toll House Inn on the east coast in the 1930's. The baker was making chocolate cookies and mistakenly used the wrong chocolate which did not melt into the cookie as it should have - it just stayed their in chunks in the vanilla batter - thus one of the most famous cookies was born.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 1/4 Cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter (margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (I used powdered Energy egg replacer)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I left these out)

Combine flour, soda, and salt.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the egg substitute and beat once more. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.


This is a fail-prove recipe.

Peanut Butter Swirls:
Since I cannot follow a recipe to save my life I did alter this recipe beyond veganizing it - I added peanut butter. I spread peanut butter across a piece of parchment paper and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it was hard. I took it out and quickly broken it up into little pieces. Since peanut butter defreezes quickly you need to work quickly to stir the little chunks into the batter before scooping the batter on the cookie sheet.
Cook as normal and enjoy the little bites of peanut butter goodness.

Death by Chocolate

My Nana died this morning, unexpectantly. While I rarely share much of my personal life on this blog, this is important. Some of my first memories of food were when I was with Nana.
Nana loved food and loved to bake. Her love of food was forefront in her warm hugs. She had this soft, cuddly body - when you hugged her it was like hugging a big, pink marshmellow. You just sank into her and knew you were safe in her arms.
One of my first memories with food was with Nana. We use to eat kiwi together. She's bounce me on her knee and we'd talk and eat that funny green fruit with black dots.
She always had perfect bananas. We'd call them, "Nana's Bananas." No banana eaten at her house was ever too green or too brown. They were always perfect.
We'd bake. Cookies. Cakes. Brownies. Pies. Anything sweet. I've always had a sweet tooth and being the great grandmother she was, she'd always encourage it.
Nana would send me articles from her local central Texas newspaper on vegetarinism, or recipes that were vegan, or easily could be. She'd send me recipes for yeast free breads, cook from vegan cook books. She was so excited when she found her mom's "wacky cake" recipe to send to me. I think her's was called, "no egg or milk cake."

She understood my vegetarianism. When I went vegan she sat me down to talk about it. I was afraid it was going to be a scolding, but it wasn't. She said when she was in nursing school she learn how milk isn't that great for the body and how one doesn't really need meat. She didn't understand not eating eggs. I explained how veganism is about animals and equality and she just hugged me and said she was so proud of me for being compassionate.

But the point of this post is about Nana's love for chocolate. I didn't really come to love chocolate until I became vegan. I'd find vegan chocolates for her we could share. This September I was planning on visiting her for her birthday and making some handmade chocolates, but it was too late to even tell her about my plans. I never should have waited to tell her or ask all the questions I still have about her life. It happened without warning.
In my grieving today I decided to make a triple chocolate truffle in honor of my Nana who loved me no matter what and who I loved so dearly. Though she didn't die by chocolate, the name is catchy.

This is for you Nana. I love you and you will be missed.ingredients: cashews, chocolate syrup, maple syrup, chocolate chips, vanilla, a chocolate bar I found in the refrigerator, and probably a few tears.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

My good friend Jess gave me a great book for my birthday: Martha Stewart's Cookies. This book is great because it has almost 200 cookie recipes! My favorite thing about this book is the table of contents, instead of listing all the cookies it shows a full color picture of every cookie with the name and page number under the image. This is the perfect way to search for a cookie!

I've had this goal of making one cookie a week, but since we haven't had earth balance in the house and I've been beyond busy, I haven't made much.

I did make these wonderful crackle cookies.
These are basic chocolate cookies, rolled in powered sugar, then baked as normal.
I enjoyed these cookies and I would make them again when I am trying to impress because they are just so pretty. Everyone in the office enjoyed these and I was told to tell anyone who wanted to make these not to wear black while trying to sneak eating these. The powered sugar will leave little specs on your shirt.
I should note that this recipe was not vegan, I veganized it with a powered egg replacer.
*Because I fear Martha Stewart I will not post the recipe. Sorry. Borrow the book from your local library, or just take your favorite chocolate cookie recipe and roll it in powder sugar before baking.

Cakes

Strawberries. I love them. I saw them at the market last weekend and bought them - but they are such a tease. Early berries are never that great, let alone those sour California berries! I can't wait until Oregon's sweet berry season starts.

With that said, I was inspired by the berries and make this cake:

Vanilla cake with strawberry jam filling and strawberry frosting.
I made the strawberry frosting by mixing strawberry jam and powdered sugar with some earth balance.

I had so much fun decorating this cake I decided to make another, one of my favorite combinations - chocolate and mint!
The filling was simple - cashew cream and chocolate chips. I soaked the cashews over night, blended them with some soy milk, then blended in some melted chocolate chips. So simple and tastey!

This mint chocolate cake is by far the best cake I've made i at least a year. The pudding in the middle really made this cake rich. I can't wait to make this for my birthday.

Mr. Bolsh told me he'd eat this whole cake in a week so I didn't need to take it to work like I did with the strawberry one. Well, wednesday came and he hadn't even eaten half the cake. He complained that living with me is like living in Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory! He lives a tough life, it's true. So I took this cake to work and had rave reviews from my co-workers. I even recieved an email about it,
"Just wanted to share a testimonial of your cake. I have had a headache almost all day it seems, and I swear since I ate you cake, it’s gone. Apparently it’s not only delicious, it has healing properties!

Thanks for sharing it with us!"

Aother co-worker, after hearing of its medicinal properties said I should open shop next to St. Cupcake and start "Revival Cakes!"

Crepe Cake

Today is my 9 year vegan anniversary! So today I post a cake! However, I will not be eating cake today. I am once again trying to go without processed sugars for about a month and a half.

This cake was inspired by a photo/recipe in Martha Stewart a few years ago for a chocolate crepe cake.
I just my regular crepe recipe with a bit of cocoa added. I used a cashew cream between layers until I ran out so I used a blueberry filling.

Simple Breakfast Crepes:
1 3/4 Cups Flour
1 1/4 Cups Liquid (apple juice, water, soy milk...)
4 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 1/2 Cups Soy(/Rice/Oat/Nut) Milk
4 Tablespoons Oil
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt

Mix all together until the bumps and lumps are gone.
Ladle a small amount into a warm frying pan, or use an electric crepe maker. Pick up the pan and rotate until the batter doesn't spread anymore and let cook on one side until the other side is done.

To make the cake, keep layering crepe with the filling of your choice until it's as tall as you want, or you run out of crepes.


This was a very intensive process! And unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my cashew cream thick/strong enough to support so many crepes. None of that matters when you taste it though - it was great, but something I'd rather have someone else make for me.

Apple Spice Cake

Last month was pretty intense work-wise, that's why I am just now getting around to posting some recipes. Many people at work really helped me push a project to meet my deadline. Since I don't know any other way to say thanks, I made them a cake.

This is my kind of apple spice cake:

I will get around to posting the recipe later but it's pretty basic - white cake with cinnamon and apple juice. Thickened cider filling with cooked cinnamon apples with a simple glaze. I really should have made it three or four layers tall - my co-workers are cooler than a 2 layer cake.

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup soy milk

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice, or add a dash of clove and nutmeg for extra spice)

1 cup sugar
1 cup sparkling apple cider (Maybe apple juice/cider)
½ cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract (optional)

2 Apples Watered down citrus juice
1 cup apple cider
2-3 Tablespoons cornstarch

- Preheat the oven to 350º.

- Place the apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a liquid measuring cup and fill the cup with soymilk to equal ½ cup. Stir well and set aside.

- In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. - In another mixing bowl whisk together the soymilk mixture, apple cider, sugar, oil and extracts.

- Peel and cut the apples into quarters. Thinly slice to about 1/8"-1/4" thick. Place in a bowl with enough citrus juice to cover the apples. This is to prevent them from browning. I used orange juice. - Add the wet to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

- At the bottom of your greased 9" cake pan, place a few apples in a cute pattern. Carefully pour the batter over the apples, making sure they don't move too much.

- Bake for 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and place on a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely before handling

- Filling: boil the remaining apples in 1 cup cider for about 5-10 minutes, until they are cooked, but still firm. Lower the heat.

- In a small bowl scoop out about 1/4 cup of the cider and let cool slightly. Add the cornstarch and whisk vigorously until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. Add more liquid if needed.

- Add the cornstarch mixture back to the pot with the apples and cider and stir constantly until the mixture thickens to the consistency of a thick pudding. Remove from heat and let cool until it's touchable, but still spreadable and use as a filling.

- Stack the cakes and drizzle with a powdered sugar and cinnamon glaze.

Sm'love Pie

This Sm'love pie is awesome. I make it when I'd like to impress non-vegans. This pie was made for a work Holiday Party last month. The awesome thing about my work is there are two other vegans and many vegetarians do I don't need to hide the face that there's tofu in this pie.
This is from Isa an Terry's new cookbook. If you don't already have it, check it.

Sm'love Pie:

Clean Cookies

November was my team at work's month to clean the office - The Clean Team, if you will. At the end of the month (yes a month ago! I've been busy with work...) we threw a clean party and gave out prizes for cleanest desk, most welcoming, and most inviting.
What other way to make awards than to make cookies?!
These are the cookies I made:


These were great large hand sized cookies, but I cannot yet share the recipe.

Pumpkin Pie

I made pumpkin pie last weekend using a Joy of Cooking recipe and using MimicCream to sub for the condensed milk and it worked! I also added 1 Tablespoon of corn starch because I didn't trust it.
Friends told me it was the best pumpkin pie they'd had, even though they weren't fans before. Without the eggs you can really enjoy the pumpkin.
Too bad the pie was eaten before good photos could be obtained. This will have to do:

Cherry Oranges

I got this from Yogurt Land a couple of years ago. It's fun party food. If you're not a delicate person, this might be hard for you. You can freeze a few for a different texture.
People get confused thinking they are orange wedges but upon closed inspection they aren't.

Orange Agar Oranges:
3 Oranges, plus juice
1 1/2 teaspoon agar powder
1/3 sugar
1 extra cup of liquid (try cashew milk for an orange creme sickle, or more orange juice.)

Cut the oranges in half and juice them.
Pull the extra stuff out. This is the hard part. Be gentle with the skins and set aside.
Put the juice in a pot, along with the extra 1 cup of liquid.
Bring the liquid to a boil, along with 1/3 cup suagr and 1 1/2 tsp. agar-agar powder.
Put the hollowed out skin in muffin tins.
Pour the juice into the orange rinds and let cool in the tins to keep them up right.
Once they have firmed up, cut them in half and serve.

Fudge

I've been told the type of fudge I make isn't really fudge, it's something else. Real fudge is heated to a specific tempture. I'm not very good at candy making, the soft ball and hard ball stages are things I always second guess myself on. So the following semi-recipe is what I use when I want to make something super sugary.

Fudge:
1 bag chocolate chips
1 cup earth balance
4 cups powdered sugar
vanilla or other extracts.

Melt the earth balance and chocolate chips - remove from heat, add the powdered sugar.
If it's too thick add a splash of soy milk or other liquid. If it's too wet, add more powdered sugar.

This is an easy recipe to throw in dried fruits or nuts, which I did for my other batch.
Another great thing to do is to use coconut oil in place of the earth balance and use some coconut flavoring. Then sprinkle with coconut.

The batch shown below is normal fudge, with a bit more vanilla and a separate layer of vanilla with vanilla paste to get the black flecks.
My camera is on the way out so taking photos has been frustrating. Luckily, if there can be when you're a blogger and your camera goes, the damage was done during my bike accident so the insurance will help me with a new one.
Speaking of biking, of lack there of - I am saving money on food by not biking. I don't need to eat as much since I am no longer biking 1o plus miles a day. The down side is that I have to pay for and take the bus along with no longer getting my exercise. My arm better heal quickly. Thanks for all the well wishes!

Soups

Since my bike accident, I've barely been cooking. I've been able to eat out more. My injuries were worse than I first thought - a sprain and possible hairline fracture in my arm bone - no wonder it hurts all the time! I am so glad that Bone Up now makes a vegan formula, too bad they haven't changed their name.

To comfort myself from the pain, the lack of riding my bike, the pain of paying for the bus and
the recent Portland Fall weather - I've been making soups. Soups are dishes that rarely require recipes. They are usually just lots of ingredients thrown together to make a delicious food I can spoon out of a bowl with one hand.

Black eyed Peas and Greens:
This was nice and smoky soup with the inclusion of liquid smoke. The caramelized onions helped make a great broth along with some blended roasted eggplant. I added a few ripped up pieces of field roast slices. Very filling.

Vegetable Soup:
Lots of zucchini, onions, garlic, carrots, cubes of eggplant and chickpeas.

Hearty Breakfast Mush:
Blended steel cut oats, cream of wheat, cashew milk and flax seed. All topped with a spoonful of peanut butter, brown sugar and dried blueberries.


Fall Cake:
My friend Joe just got back from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and he needs fattening up so I made a cake. One layer is chocolate chai and the other is a vanilla nut spice layer. In between in a sweet cashew fluff layer and topped with two layers of chocolate ganache.

Almond Cookies

These cookies mark my first atempt at making gluten-free cookies and the result was wonderful!

Almond Cookies:
1 1/4 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 flax eggies
two pinches of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt

Grind the almonds into a meal, but not too much or else you'll make almond butter
Mix the almond grounds, sugar, cinnamon and salt.
Melt the coconut oil, add the flax eggs, and vanilla.
Mix together. Roll into balls, flatten, mark with an almond and bake for 13 minutes at 350F.

Alterations: Add chocolate chips (I did to half these but wasn't sure about the gluten content since I bought it in bulk, so I kept them instead of giving them away as a gift) Add chopped cherries or your favorite fruit.


It was my mother-in-law's birthday a few weeks ago so I made her some chocolate cupcakes. I like the way they came out with such little effort.

Apple Pie

This was another test recipe for Julie Hasson's new pie book.
I might have cooked the topping a bit too long, but the almond crumb topping tasted wonderful with the apples.

Simple Meals and Pie

I got a new tool - a julianner. It makes cutting quicker!

I was a bit too excited to use my new julieanner and didn't think about the whole of my meal because I was too hungry and excited. I started cutting the carrots, but I was already boiling rice noodles and sauteeing garlic. Then went the sun dried tomatoes. It really wasn't a good meal, but it looked good and the salt really helped. This was one of those times when you understand the importance of a flavored salt when it makes a meal.
Skinny Oven Fries:
These tasted much like hash browns. The potatoes were sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt before baking.


Melon Baller!
Another fun kitchen tool, but doing an entire watermelon - it's a lot of work. I always wanted to serve punch out of a watermelon so I balled most the melon. I forgot to take a picture of my watermelon punch bowl though!
I threw in some leechies for color.


Coconut Cream Pie with Lime Sauce:
I am still working on my pie recipe. This recipe is a mixture of this recipe and a vanilla tofu pudding recipe. Unfortunately, the pie didn't set. But it tasted damn good!

Cupcakes

Nothing new, but I had a fun time making them.

Chai Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:
Chai Cupcakes with Chocolate from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:
Chocolate Mint Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:These are my absolute favorite!

Peach Pie

Just to tempt you:
Peach Pie!

I was honored to test for Julie Hasson's upcoming pie book. I hope I can test more.
This pie was quick and easy, even for someone who dislikes making pie crust.
I cut out bats for the weep holes.


The pie held up very nicely, even after being cut. The sugar topping was beautiful and didn't burn like I thought it would.

Dessert Pizza

We had a pizza party a few night ago and I never thought it was odd for it to be an adult pizza party, but apparently some people think it's odd for adults to throw one. Who cares - it's pizza!

Dessert Pizza:
Pizza dough (below)
Cashew Sauce (below)
1-2 apples
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon clove
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Slice the apples, thin, about 1/4" and toss with lemon juice and melted coconut oil. Set aside.
Mix the sugar and spices and sprinkle over the apples, mix.
Spread cashew sauce on pizza and arrange apples as desired.
Bake at 500F until nicely browned on top.


Pizza Dough:
3/4 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast

2 cups (or more) flour
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

Pour 3/4 cup warm water into small bowl; stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add yeast mixture and 3 tablespoons oil; process until dough forms a sticky ball.
Transfer to lightly floured surface. Knead dough until smooth, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if the dough is sticky.
In a large bowl drop about 1 Tablespoon olive oil in the bottom and use the dough ball to to spread the olive oil around the bowl and the dough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Punch down dough. Store in airtight container in refrigerator until use.
Roll out dough to your liking or flatten a ball of dough and start at center of dough, working outward toward edges until you have the desired shape. Pinch the edges to form a crust.

Cashew Sauce:
1 cup raw, soaked cashews
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
3-4 Tablespoons soy milk (or as needed to make the sauce creamy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a blender or food processor blend the soft cashews and 3 Tablespoons soy milk until smooth. Add the sugar and extract and more soy milk if needed to make it creamy. It should be the consistency of hummus.
Feel free to add more sugar or spice as desired.

Pesto Based Pizza in the background with Follow Your Heart cheese and Dessert Pizza in the foreground:

Cut pieces of pizza:

Christmas in July

My friend Shelley throws the best parties, so much so that she throws two Christmas parties a year. I wanted to come up with a a new way to enjoy something common. With that in mind I came up with a dessert dip - cheese and crackers.

Cheesecake Dip with Ginger Snap Cookies:
1 8 oz. container Tofutti Cream Cheese
1 12 oz. container vacuum packed firm tofu
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons corn starch
2 Tablespoons soy milk
2 Tablespoons raspberry jelly.

Blend cream cheese, tofu, lemon juice, corn starch and soy milk in a food processor until smooth.
Place in square baking pan and bake at 375F for 25 minutes.
Let cool completely.
In a glass dish spread sides with a bit of raspberry jelly. Layer cooled cheesecake dip with some raspberry jelly in a decorative fashion.
Put in the fridge for 2 hours before serving with ginger snap cookies.


The dip was a hit!

Little Pies

A few weeks ago Jess and I prepared for her 4th of July party together. I enjoy cooking with Jess because we work similar to each other in the kitchen - cooking, cleaning, tasting, adding, experimenting.
You can see more of what she made over here.

Raspberry Coconut Pie:
This was based off my coconut pie recipe. Jess wanted them pink, so we added the juice of some raspberries but it turned lavender. They still tasted great!


Yogurt Fruit Pie:
Luckily, Jess made the crust for all of these because I really dislike making pie crusts.
These were filled with apricot yogurt, various thickeners and sweeteners before throwing in some fresh fruit.