Baking with Brother - Episode 1 - Bagels

Sorry for not commenting on all of your blogs! School has been pretty busy. I'll find time to catch up this week though, hopefully!

It all started last week when my brother randomly flipped through a Jewish cookbook and said, "Let's make bagels!" Seeing as how I had nothing better to do, I agreed, and bagels it was!

The venerable bags of flour:

My brother is VERY meticulous when it comes to measurements-- something I'm not! He was incredibly precise in all of the weights and such haha :D

INTENSE.

Need to knead!

"Behold, I present to thee bagel dough. Or a dinosaur egg."

"...or perhaps..."

".... Mr. Doughface!"

Bagels!

After water bath, after dipping in toppings; before baking.....

Tada! Done!

Lovely, lovely, lovely(I know, they aren't perfectly shaped. But hey, there's always next time!) :D These were great with tofutti and pumpkin butter (spread on the non-everything bagels) and chipotle hummus on the everything bagels.

Be looking forward to future installments of [veg] baking with [omni] brother!

Bakery Bread Brings Bunches of Bliss!

Sorry for the super long hiatus! Life has been pretty crazy around here! Buuuut looky what I made! Lots of Chinese bakery-style breads!!! These were all made for a bake sale at my church. They were the fastest selling items!

If you remember from a while back, I started a tutorial on how to make this bread which is none other than my favorite-- red bean!! :D (I will finish that tutorial... eventually..)

For the very first time, I made taro bread! The kind of taro used for sweets turns this lovely shade of purple when cooked and sweetened. The taste is mildly sweet with floral undertones. This is a traditional kind enjoyed greatly by many of my Asian friends and their parents :) Yum!

This is another one of my favorites! The filling for this one was a coconut cream made with toasted coconut, sugar, and EB. Each loaf was garnished with an almond sliver. Mmm.. These had a great toasty, nutty sweet flavor.

Blurry shot of the bread at the bake sale. Anyone up for some carbs?

I'm a carbie girl, in a carbie world: scallion pancakes, Pattycake Bakery, and homemade danishes!

In preparation for my trip to Hawaii, let me show you all the foods I have been eating to help me look my best(drumroll please!):

Inspired by the King Arthur Flour blog, I followed their basic guidelines and made some of the yummiest scallion pancakes!

Guess who went to Pattycake Vegan Bakery!!! ME!!! I bought a snickerdoodle(ginormous), an everything oatmeal (also ginormous), and a mint chocolate whoopie pie! They were super good, especially the whoopie pie which was extremely moist.

I recently made my first laminated doughs, which magically (ha! yeah right) turned into awesomely delicious pastries for my ever expanding waist line and thighs and abdominals and.. well you get the point. They were fattening, and therefore; delicious.

This was the first version that I made; blueberry lemon. Like the pinwheel shape?

These are the almond pastries. The filling was an almond cream made with chopped almonds. Yum!

Acchhh! This is so not helping me get ready for my vacation (I mean,think of all the things that I haven't posted i.e. those secret chocolate chip cookies at midnight *ahem*), but whatever. See you all in two weeks!

Method to the Madness: How to make Taiwanese Bread, part one

*I must say something about the filling of this bread. Though it may sound slightly repulsive, it really is quite sumptuous. If you can find a high quality brand at your local asian grocery, it will be well worth it. The taste? Sweet, smooth, and delectable; and if you're making it yourself (using brown sugar), there are caramel-y undertones. yum! Anyways, onto the directions.

While I haven't quite perfected the dough recipe to my liking, I thought that I would post pictures of several of the steps. Sorry about some missing pictures; my friend was helping me with the shots and several were too blurry to be used. Now, without further ado (please excuse the name; it really is much better than it sounds).....

Taiwanese Red Bean Bread
What you need:
vegan sweet yeast dough
preferred filling of choice (sweetened adzuki bean paste)
sesame seeds

Roll out a slightly-smaller-than-a-tennis-ball size of dough into a circle. Dollop on about 1-2 tablespoons of your preferred filling. (Traditionally, this is filled with sweet red bean[adzuki] paste which can be found at an asian grocery. If you either don't like it or can't find it, you could also try some not-ella or something like that.)

Enclose the filling in the dough and then form it into a ball.

Roll each dough "ball" into an oval shape.

Run a pizza cutter or sharp knife through the dough, making 3 slashes. Don't cut through the ends; the dough should still be connected.

Twist with your fingers and sort of tuck it in a coil shape. Sprinkle with sesame and let rise. After letting it rise for an hour, bake in a 375 oven for about 15-20 minutes.

..... and voila! Here is your finished product!

My Resolutions....

Okay. I have some new half-year resolutions. (i know, the second half of this year has already started, but oh well. better late than never!)

1. i resolve to take better pictures!
2. i resolve not to blog so infrequently!
3. yea, that's about it.....

so here we go! onto the food......







.......not bad ehh?

1. almond raspberry tarts
2. raspberry pecan rugelach
3. taiwanese bread (hong do mien bao)
4. chocolate cheEZcakes hehe

so what do YOU think?

Happy (belated) Birthday to me! and French Baguettes!

Monday was my birthday, so i made Fauxstess Cupcakes from VWaV! i liked them, but i think the cupcake recipe in VCTOTW is better.

This picture was taken after i made vanilla versions of the fauxstess cupcakes. Yes, there is chocolate in the middle!






Here are the apple empanadas that i made for my spanish class' cinco de mayo fiesta. yum!




This was my second batch of baguettes after i was unsatisfied with my first batch, pictured below.







After reading the blog on baguette making at the king arthur baker's banter blog, i felt very much inspired and headed promptly to the kitchen where i made these baguettes. i think i did something wrong though, because the slashes did not open as much as i thought they would. i think that i didn't slash them deep enough but maybe not. anyone know?

Veganized fruit tarts, Vegan baby shower, Vegan Cupcakes take over my Classmates!!

Here is my fruit tart before veganism:

Here they are after! they are every bit as delicious, if not better.

Vegan rubber ducky cake for the baby shower! I used the basic vanilla cupcake recipe from VCTOTW.

My Vegan potato bread!!

These are vegan bao tze that i made. basically a steamed bun with a filling of shiitake mushrooms, rice vermicelli, green onions, bamboo, and sesame oil.

This was a really yummy salad made by the hostess. Salad greens with assorted fruits (strawberries, mandarin oranges, blackberries, etc) dressed in a light, tangy balsamic vinaigrette.

These were vegan sugar cookies, made in the form of treble clefs and eighth notes because the mommy-to-be is very musically talented (she plays harp for the local orchestra)

This is a confection made from sweet rice flour combined with sweet potato and powdered sugar, rolled into little balls, and fried. they kinda remind me of mochi.

This is the inside of a mantou that i made with the leftover bao dough. i used white whole wheat to make these.

These are mini cupcakes that i made with the leftover cake batter. my friends were like "Oh, they are sooooo gooood!! u have to make these again!! they are my favorite!!! etc." haha. then i let one of my vegetarian friends try one. she instinctively asked me "and these are vegan? wow." haha...

So i'm glad that i have one non-ignorant friend. yesterday in history class, my other friends were like "don't you need milk to survive?" or like "you're vegan?? what do you eat?" "Oh yeah, i've heard of veganism; it's really dangerous" "yea, i went vegan for a day. (what did u have?) i just had fruit and vegetables. i think i would die if i went vegan!" ARGHHHH!!!! o well. i guess i must still love them. they are my friends after all.

Oh yeah, at the baby shower, no one had negative comments about the food. in fact, i got marriage proposals! haha. only one was actually from a guy; the rest were from their parents or what have you. one lady, who has a son that is 3 years younger than me was like, "oh if only my son were older i would tell him to go after you" (creepy much?) and then this other lady, who has a son roughly 10 years older than me was like, "oh if only you were a bit older, i would tell my son to go after you. but it doesn't matter because in 10 years, age won't make a difference" (hmmmmm.. i don't even know this guy!!! T_T ) and then another lady was like "if only i had a son...... (you finish the sentence)" so yea . and then later, after i told him, my longtime friend was like "will u marry me?" so yea. all in all an interesting experience to say the least :)

VEGANIZED POTATO BREAD!!!

here we go!
before















.....AFTER!!!















appearance: i think it looks pretty similar, don't you? i know, i know. my vegan ones are whole wheat. i just can't bring myself to eat white bread when i know it could be whole wheat!

texture: both similar (from what i remember), whole wheat has the "grainy" feel (not a bad thing though! i like it)

flavor: whole wheat has "wheaty" taste but its not lacking anything.

overall: PASS!! so excited that i can make my bread and eat it too!



P.S. i'm catering for a baby shower Sunday; stay tuned! this isn't the first baby shower that i've catered for but most definitely the first vegan one!

Veganize me!

Contestant #1: fruit tart
traditional pie pastry filled with custard and topped with fruits








Contestant #2: Potato Bread
adding mashed potatoes to bread will make it softer



Contestant #3: 3D Snowman Cake!
used a cake pan from Williams Sonoma for this one







Contestant #4: Black Forest Cake with raspberries instead of cherries
chocolate cake sandwiched with cream and covered in chocolate shavings


i started baking in about 4th grade (not vegan though :( ) , so i decided that i am going to go on a quest to veganize all of my past specialties (keep in mind that i am in school and only have weekends off) so i shall veganize these asap!