Vegan Brownies

Remember when there used to be a sense of regularity in my posting? I think summer laziness and regular life-ness seems to have kicked in.

We've hit some semblence of summer here in southeastern MA. Which means temps in the high 70s/low 80s with a bajillion percent humidity. And that for nearly every day there's a chance of "isolated thunderstorms". Jim Cantore, you're my favorite Weather Channel meterologist, but, really, I could use some change.

Speaking of change, what started out towards the end of last month as a general aversion to meat has evolved into a more vegetarian diet. Which both family and most of my friends think I'm crazy for. LOL What a big difference between CA and MA, right?

I found this recipe over at Vegetarian Times' website. I've made various vegan cupcakes before, but had yet to work with tofu. The recipe came together very quickly, which is good as I started making it 30 minutes before leaving to go see HP6 (again lol).

The end result? A very moist, very chocolate brownie with a spongey texture. My "public's" reactions have been varied. I'm the only one that thinks they're really chocolatey. My mom and Dave thinks they're more cake-like than brownie like. My dad will eat pretty much any brownie, so yay for him getting some soy protein. :) Of the three coworkers who tried them... one says too much like dark chocolate (she doesn't like dark chocolate), next said they were good, and the third loved it, giving it an A+. I think he just likes the fact that they're lower in calories, but hey, I gave him half the batch after he declared them delicious. :)

It was really hard to get a decent picture of these. It was cloudy on Sunday when I took the pictures, so natural light was not my friend then. Scarily enough, this picture is the best of the ones that were taken. lol



Ingredients:
2¼ cups natural cane sugar
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup soft tofu
3/4 cup chocolate soymilk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

Combine applesauce, tofu, soymilk, and vanilla in food processor, and process until well blended. Add tofu mixture to dry ingredients, and mix well. Scrape batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes, or until batter is set and top is dry. Cool in pan; cut into bars and serve.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I think this is my fourth attempt at a peanut butter cupcake. They've come out either too heavy, too oily, or just plain not good enough. I'm still obsessing over Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and am currently hinting at my mom to buy it for me. ;)

So, these aren't fully vegan, since I didn't have any soy milk left. And the frosting isn't from the book at all, since I was lacking in ingredients. So I took one off of my recipe webpage. Oh, yeah, have I mentioned that? Gypsy Kitchen is my recipe website; not updated nearly enough, but it's there nonetheless. :)

But, yeah. I finally have a pb cupcake recipe that works! Woohoo! Fourth try's the charm, right? ;)



Ingredients:
3/4 cup soy milk
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
½ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. ground flaxseed
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Mix soy milk with vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside to curdle. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the peanut butter, oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, and flaxseed until well combined. Add the soy milk mixture and mix until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full.

Bake at 350F for 23-26 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling racks.

Cocoa Frosting:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Large pinch salt
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup milk
½ tsp. vanilla

Sift together dry ingredients. Cream butter, milk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients, mixing until desired spreading consistency is reached.

Sexy Low-Fat Vanilla Cupcakes

I think every blog and its mother has posted a cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. With that, I simply had to get my hands on the book and give it a try. The library finally got in stock yesterday.

I tried this one first because I didn't really have to get any ingredients that I didn't already have. That, and hey, when a cupcake intro says "there's no way in freakin' hell you're putting down those cupcakes", how can a girl possibly resist?

And the taste? Oh my goodness. This is my official vanilla cupcake recipe. Hands down. I used the icing/decorating suggestion that they made, for the most part. I did half raspberries, half plums, but the plum pics didn't work out. They had to be quickly refrigerated so that they wouldn't fall off. Probably should've patted them dry a bit after chopping, hmm? Oh well. I had one and 'twas yummy. :)



Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
½ cup vanilla soy yogurt
2/3 cup vanilla or plain soy milk
¼ cup applesauce
3 Tbsp. canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1½ tsp. vanilla
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3/4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt

Skinny Confectioners' Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 to 4 tsp. of soy milk or 1 Tbsp. flavored syrup (like the Torani brand)
½ cup seedless, smooth spreadable fruit or other preserves
1 cup fresh fruit or berries, washed, patted dry and thinly sliced, if necessary

Directions:
Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, soy milk, applesauce, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Sift in flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix well. Fill cupcake liners three-quarters full.

Bake at 350F for 22-24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Icing:
Whisk together confectioners' sugar with soy milk or syrup, until desired consistancy is reached. If too thick, add more milk, one teaspoon at a time; if too watery, add in more sugar by the tablespoon.

Assembly:
Spread top of cupcake with a few thin layers of spreadable fruit. Spoon a small circle of icing on top of jam, then decorate with fresh fruit. If desired, drizzle tops of fruit with icing as well.