BitterSweet

As sorely tempted as I was to bake my heart out in the form of holiday cookies, time simply slipped away while I wasn’t looking, leaving me to watch on in green-eyed envy as everyone else I knew pulled tray after tray of golden dough from their ovens. Besides the time commitment involved, I couldn’t for the life of me narrow down the winding list of possible treats to include in a platter. Sugar cookies, thumb prints, biscotti, shortbread, gingersnaps - Seriously people, how do you make a decision here? Still, there were sweet gifts to be made for friends and family, and so a day before the appointed exchange, it seemed inevitable that an untraditional approach would be in the cards. I could only hope that the recipients would still appreciate my offering of…

Cinnamon buns. Just think about that for a moment: Soft and warm from the oven, cinnamon and sugar rolled into every fold of tender dough, drizzled with an ample amount of maple icing. What’s not to love? A delicious indulgence appropriate for the season, I could think of nothing more comforting than a pan of these delectable buns, fully baked and ready to be devoured after just a hot minute of micro-love.

I must admit though, a certain blog post that happened to pass through my radar was quite an inspiration for this gift, so I can hardly take credit for it. Easily veganized, slapped together with such ease that the most difficult step is waiting for the dough to rise, it was one lucky find. In no time at all, I had seven decorative pans filled with plump rolls… And I have to say, there weren’t too many protests to be heard when those cinnamon buns were distributed into the hands of loved ones. Truly, the gift that keeps on giving is one that is both a treat for the baker and the partaker!

So in case you’d like to start a new tradition for next year, here’s the recipe with all of my changes and substitutions included. I must warn you however- This makes a lot of cinnamon buns, so unless you have a good amount of people on your “nice” list or a house full of hungry guests, you might just end up eating an unreasonable number of those addictive rolls yourself.

Cinnamon Buns
[Inspired by The Pioneer Woman Cooks]

1 Quart Soymilk
1 Cup Canola Oil
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Packets Active Dry Yeast
9 Cups All Purpose Flour, Divided
1 Heaping Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Scant Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Salt
1 Cup Margarine, Divided
2 Cups Granulated Sugar, Divided
Loads of Cinnamon

Maple Icing

1 2-Pound Bag Confectioner’s Sugar
2 Teaspoons Maple Extract
3/4 Cup Soymilk
1/4 Cup Margarine, Melted

First off, combine the soymilk, oil, and 1 cup of sugar together in a large pot and place it over medium heat on the stove. Bring it just to a boil while stirring, and then immediately take it off the heat. Let it sit for about 45-60 minutes to cool to below 115 degrees, as anything hotter will kill the yeast.

Once luke warm, add in the yeast and let it get acquainted with the mixture for about 5 minutes. Then, dump in 8 cups of the flou, stir well so that it’s fully incorporated, and cover the whole pot. Let it sit for another hour to rise.

After that hour has passed, (really, there’s a lot of waiting but not much work, you’ll see!) stir in the last cup of flour, along with baking soda and powder, and salt. Now you’re finally ready to get rolling!

On a well floured surface, take out half of the dough and use a rolling pin to coerce it into a very long, rectangular shape. Don’t worry about the exact measurements, but make sure it’s about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick and longer than it is wide. Now, melt down 1/2 cup of the margrine and pore it liberally all over the dough. Spread it on evenly using a spatula, and then top it with 1 cup of the sugar. Next, just go crazy with the cinnamon shaker; I didn’t measure, but just coat the whole slab evenly and generously, and there should be no problems (I went through about 1/2 of my cinnamon shaker, by the way.) Finally, roll the whole thing up into one sugary, spicy snake and cut it into buns about 1 inch wide. Place the buns into lightly greased (I used 8-inch round, but anything goes) pans- It should make about 7 pans in all.

Repeat with the remaining half of dough.

The buns will need to sit for another 30 minutes, but in the meantime, you can start preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Once plump and risen, you can slide those rolls into the oven for a brief 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown and smelling incredible.

While they’re baking away, you can go ahead and make the glaze. Simply combine all the ingredients for it and stir well. Once those buns come out of the oven either drench or drizzle them while still hot, depending on how much holiday cheer you’d like to bestow. Enjoy, but make sure that you share the holiday spirit around!

Cold as the frozen, snow-covered ground itself, there was but one friend who I simply couldn’t reach out to all year long. Unfriendly at best, this “friend” never seemed motivated to keep in touch, or give me the time of day to hang out for one lousy minute- Eventually, not even birthdays would warrant a good reason to actually get together. I simply couldn’t understand, it was as if he was a robot, made of metal and without any feelings to speak of. Frustrated and disappointed in our capsizing relationship, I regretfully decided it was about time to walk away… When all of a sudden, he surprised me.

Reappearing into my life out of thin air, it was obvious from the first word that he wasn’t the same heartless jerk I had become accustomed to. With a big hug and many smiles, he wore his heart right out on his sleeve and tried to mend things between us.

I can only guess that the holiday season finally got to him. It does get to all of us eventually… That infectious spirit that makes you want to spread good-will all through the streets, bake for hours or days or weeks for every person you’ve ever met, or decorate the house so thoroughly that it looks like a store’s window display? You know what I’m talking about. Luckily, this friend of mine didn’t go over the top like otherwise normal folk occasionally do, but it was all he needed to reach out and prove that he really did care.

…And that was the best gift I could hope for.

To all who celebrate, Merry Christmas.

What better time than the holidays to go all out and make an elaborate, decadent dessert that will impress all the relatives? Not missing a beat, the Daring Bakers rolled in early and announced the theme that made my eyes open wide in glee: The traditional yet exquisite work of art known as a Bûche de Noël, or Yule Log. For years this precise confection would appear on my holiday “to-do” list, but as time is notorious for flying out the window every Hannukah and Christmas, it remained uncharted territory for me, and I was thrilled to have this extra push to tackle it this time, once and for all.

The only problem was the cake recipe itself, as it was composed almost entirely of eggs, a handful of flour, and a pinch of sugar, and did not lend itself easily to veganizing. How much torment could have been saved if a different recipe was allowed! Jealously eying those beautifully simple recipes for vegan roll cakes that were tried and true, it took a great deal of self-control to turn them away, and face the challenge just like any other Daring Baker. In any other situation, I would have absolutely gone a different route for the cake, but wanting to adhere to the strict rules that came along with the prestigious group, I decided that the best way to convert the recipe without completely changing it was to just replace the eggs with tofu. Hoping to cover up the beany flavor, cocoa was the only route to go given my limited choices, and so a chocolate cake it was. Of course, all of this begat a cake with absolutely no leavening, since the original did not include any friendly baking powder or soda, so out of the oven came a very flat, rectangular pancake.

At the very least, thankfully, my pancake was very flexible and quite agreeable to rolling around my chosen filling of a peanut creme. This was made from equal parts peanut butter and margarine, vanilla, some soymilk, and a good bit of powdered sugar all whipped full of air until light and fluffy, and what a heavenly creme it was. The downside of mixing up such a delicate filling, unknown to me at the time, was that the last thing it wanted was to stick around inside a rolled up sheet of cake! Watching in horror as it squished further and further out the open ends while my hands were still full of the half-rolled “genoise,” I hurriedly rounded out the roll as best I could and instantly set to work on damage control, cleaning up the lovely creme pooling on the counter. Eventually the flow stopped as the pressure evened out, but then I just had to go back in and stir the pot again, spreading on a thick layer of frosting that effectively rung out the insides of the cake like a wet towel…

It was painful to watch. Gently smoothing the frosting in to place, just so all the bald spots were covered, my yule log was in such poor shape; it looked like it had been rotting in a rain forest for eight weeks. Lumpy and bumpy, not even the most careful touch would console this sad piece of tinder, so eventually I gave up the effort and went back to cleaning the poor thing up, again. By the time this second wave of filling had been washed away, my frosting had started to set, and didn’t want to cooperate with my poking and prodding for all the world. Of course, I had to use my secret meringue method to make this “buttercream,” as the original calls for a large number of egg whites, and so the consistency wasn’t exactly to my liking. No use crying over spilled soymilk though, so my bark ended up with just a slightly different texture than I had envisioned.

So disheartened by the results of what had started as one brilliant dream dessert, I couldn’t care less about “going all out” anymore, and so I made simple marzipan mushrooms instead of meringue. Parsley played the role of greenery, as sculpting more marzipan really didn’t sound like much fun after 3 straight hours of pastry work, and my mint has sadly perished in the snow. Adding on a few colored dragees to act as berries for the final touch, my rotted stump- I mean, yule log- was finally complete.

While it wasn’t exactly ideal, I didn’t completely loathe my resulting Bûche… The experience I gained was absolutely invaluable. I just know that if I were to embark on a similar project again, I would definitely create an entirely different recipe!

I’ve been waking up on so many dreary winter days to find that the sun has been blotted out by clouds, and icicles outnumber people outside. On these days, it takes a lot to force a snug sleeper out of bed. Even though breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, most easy options simply can’t compete with a set of soft, warm blankets. Unquestionably, it’s all about staying warm around this time of year. When the mercury drops below the 20’s, the usual offerings of cold cereal or chilled yogurt are simply out of the question. The easy answer is often instant oatmeal, easily prepared even before the coffee has kicked in and cleared up a hazy mind; it’s hot, filling, and comforting. Without those soft, sweet oats, I don’t know what I’d do- And for those who can’t digest most commercial oats, that dilemma is all too real. Luckily, a diagnosis of Celiac’s disease is far from a culinary death sentence, and there are plenty of other tasty grains that could make one mean morning meal. Take for instance, instant quinoa cereal, like that made by AltiPlano Gold.

Offering up five different varieties that sound just like any of the other tasty options one might find on grocery store shelves, I was lucky enough to get my paws on three of those flavors. Each comes in boxes of 12 individual packets, ready go at a moment’s notice and cooked up in a mere 60 seconds- Even my speedy instant oatmeal can’t match that!

Starting out with the flavor most familiar to me, my go-to combination, I dumped the powdery contents of one Spiced Apple Raisin packet into my bowl and heated the water separately, as instructed. After some micro-love, in went the boiling water, and the 60 second countdown began. At first, a watery, soupy mix stared back at me from the depths of my bowl, but almost like magic, it soon thickened into a sturdy porridge. While admittedly not the most photogenic meal, the smell of spice was in the air and I couldn’t wait to dig in.

Mostly smooth but with the occasional sensation of grittiness across the tongue, the texture of the cereal on its own leaves a bit to be desired. I couldn’t help but feel like I was eating baby food after a few spoonfuls, as it was pretty much the definition of “mush.” Thankfully, the addition of some nice chewy raisins and chunks of apple save this concoction by offering up some much needed contrasting texture. Lightly sweetened to a pleasing degree (nothing to start you bouncing off the walls first thing in the morning), I would have been extremely happy with the flavor… If not for the startling lack of spice. Sure, I do like good amount of cinnamon in my food (read: TONS) so this might be the perfect amount for someone who’s a bit more spice-shy. A few quick shakes of my handy cinnamon jar and this was a perfectly palatable breakfast.

When I saw that a envelope of Almond Chai was included in my sample pack, I could hardly contain my excitement. I love, love chai in just about anything- cakes, cookies, or plain old tea- chai is a flavor that makes my taste buds sing. Never before had I even thought of using this delightful combination of spices in a hot cereal, so I was quite curious to see how it was interpreted by AntiPlano Gold.

Mulling over my first bite, the flavors of chai didn’t exactly punch me in the face and make themselves known, but they still were definitely present in a mellow, agreeable tone. The big surprise here were the almonds- While I had originally written them off as the token add-in, they really brought a lot of wonderful crunch and nutty flavor to the party. Ultimately, when I went back and sampled all three flavors one last time, this one came out on the top of my list.

Finally, I was left with one dubious-sounding offering- Oaxacan Chocolate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having chocolate for breakfast, but trying to incorporate it into a “real” meal and calling it healthy backfires all too often. Still, I wanted to give this a fair shot and an unbiased review, so I put those initial thoughts behind and spooned up a big serving of this controversial quinoa.

As with the previous varieties, the flavoring was fairly mild; Definitely a “cocoa” taste as opposed to a rounded, rich “chocolate” taste. Thankfully, I’m usually not in the mood for something crazy decadent that early in the morning, so this suited me just fine, although it might disappoint some sugar-fiends or younger kids. Unarguably heartier than a slice of chocolate cake, the flavor really grew on me as I ate it, and I had to admit, it was quite delicious! This is certainly a healthier way of thinking about “hot chocolate!”

For anyone who’s looking for just another oatmeal alternative, this might not be for you. However, if you want a hot breakfast option that’s in a whole different category, definitely give this flavored quinoa a try. When it’s all said and done, these wee little packets made for a seriously hearty meal and kept me full all morning. Much healthier than most commercial instant oatmeal as well, substituting some quinoa could help you sneak a bit more protein into your routine. For those with severe gluten intolerance or just the health nuts among us, AltiPlano can keep you satisfied throughout those cold winter days.

[Written for Go Dairy Free]

“A CHRISTMAS tree, in our house?! Never!”, my mother would reprimand me when I suggested a new holiday decoration in the form of pine needles and twigs. Coming from a long line of observant Jews and nothing else, it should have come as no surprise that my parents wouldn’t budge on the subject, but the holiday symbols have come to mean something completely different from their religious origins. Anything that has that certain holiday cheer to it, that indescribable seasonal joy, be it a menorah, stocking, or snowman simply turns my heart into marshmallow fluff. All that matters is the celebration, not the ritual. And so I persisted like the annoying gnat I imitate so well now, and for the first time last year, I was finally given permission to bring that other holiday’s symbol into our home. Of course, there were conditions- It was to be small, very small, so small it might get lost in the jungle of dishes that is our kitchen. December 31, it was to be gone, no questions asked. And of course, it was my own rule that prevented me from ripping a healthy little sapling out of the ground, and so artificial tinsel on a wire frame it was!

Affectionately named “Filbert,” the mere sight of the one foot-tall, glittery shrub brings a smile to my face.

Since this is the second year that Filbert has come out of hibernation, you would think that I’ve already fashioned eight dozen miniature ornaments to outfit him in, but alas, the holidays always pass so quickly- The poor bush still has little more than the blue orbs he was purchased with. Although this year is no exception in terms of its hectic pace, I’ve at least taken the time to give him a more personal affect, and one that says a lot about where my mind has been lately: A tiny felt cupcake.

At this rate, I might be able to fill all of Filbert’s stubby branches by the year 2025, but hey, it’s a start.

And in the spirit of the holidays, I thought I might just share this simple design with you, and perhaps you might find the inspiration to start replacing your own store-bought ornaments with handmade gems, too. Since Filbert is so tiny, I might suggest enlarging this pattern 2 or 3 times for a regular-sized tree, lest it get lost in all of the greenery. It’s another dead-easy project that could be enjoyed by crafters of any skill level, so get out the kids and let them make their own cupcake ornaments, too!

First of all, click here, [enlarge if desired], print and cut.

To assemble, all you need to do is cut 2 frosting shapes out of your desired frosting-colored felt, and 2 cake shapes out of your desired cake colored felt. Sew one frosting to one cake along the dotted line, and repeat for the other pair. Attach bugle beads to the frosting to imitate sprinkles. Hold the two sides together with the right sides facing out, and starting from the left bottom corner, whip stitch the pieces together. Pause when you get down to the bottom right side (leaving the bottom open) to attach a length of embroidery floss for the hanger/loop, lightly stuff, and then sew closed. Have a happy tree!

I’m still in shock. Even though I don’t always write about food, even though I up and disappeared on you guys for a whole week, even though I was up against some seriously incredible food writers out there in the blogosphere, I still won for the Well Fed Network’s 2007 food blog awards for Best Writing. Talk about unbelievable, part of me still wonders if it might all be a joke, and any minute now I’ll get a joking email saying “Ahaha, you fell for our trick!” Well, until I see such an awful message waiting in my inbox, I’ll just have to take your word for it and let you all know how incredibly honored I am, and grateful for all of your support.

Now, I’ll do my best to prove that I deserve this title by returning to a normal pattern of blogging again, since I’m finally back at home and mostly done with school work. If you sent me an email eons ago and are still waiting for a response- Sorry!- I will be sorting through my mess of emails and returning your letters very soon, I promise!

This was the best holiday gift I could ever ask for, and hopefully I’ll find some way to return the favor to every last reader out there who made this possible!

Hannah our loyal Bittersweet Blogger is a bit bogged down with her very first round of college finals this week, and has felt dreadful about not having wonderful sweets and crafts to share with her readers. Luckily, there is something that I wanted to share with everyone this week to fill in the posting void, and Hannah has graciously allowed me to take the spotlight for a quick post.

For two weeks in December, Chez Pim is uniting food bloggers for the Menu for Hope, a fund raiser for the UN World Food Programme. Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes. In 2006, Menu for Hope raised US $60,925.12 to help feed the hungry, and I am sure that they would like to do even better this year.

Hannah, the crafter behind Bittersweet, is a “starving” college student (literally, vegan dorm food is hard to come by), so she is unable to give a large monetary donation. However, what she can offer is her wonderful work. Hannah has generously donated an autographed copy of her new cookbook, My Sweet Vegan, as a raffle prize for the Menu for Hope. Did I mention how positively gorgeous My Sweet Vegan is? Hannah is far too modest and shy to say it, so I felt the need to tell everyone.

Getting back on topic, you can help the Menu for Hope fund raiser by donating just ten dollars U.S. For every US$10 donation, you will receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Beyond Hannah’s great cookbook, there are scores of wonderful prizes to assign to your raffle tickets.

Thank you for allowing me a moment to share this wonderful event. Good luck with your finals Hannah!

- Alisa

The Well Fed Network is holding their 2007 food blog awards right now, and it seems that someone must have confused the entries or something, because it was just brought to my attention that my humble little blog has been nominated for Best Writing. And really, the best part of this is that I’m so surprised, I don’t even know what to say except… Wow! If you could toss a vote my way, I would really appreciate it, too!

Flipping through the pages of innumerable baking catalogs that all feature the same immaculately clean kitchens, state-of-the-art appliances, and flawlessly decorated cookies, even a five-year old could tell you that these images are all fake. Staged, meticulously constructed down to the very last crumb; Those cookies that look so incredible on the page could even plastic, for all we know! So why is it that despite the knowledge of this visible lie, I always work myself up into a frenzy, trying to recreate those impossibly perfect sweets? Because when a theme so powerfully tied to the season and holiday nostalgia keeps popping up, taunting me with my lack of decorating skills, well… If for no other reason, it’s because I want to prove to myself that I can too decorate like the best of them.

Of course, my results fall far below that standard, but I think I’m finally making some progress in this field. To be perfectly honest, I’ve never actually tried icing cookies quite like this before, choosing instead to just slap different colors of goopy sugar all over dry cookies instead. That being said, I would love to give other wannabe cookie artists 10 small tips that would have been helpful to know before I got started myself! It was a long process of trial and error, but I think that there are some important lessons to be learned here, starting with…

1. Go big or go home. If you’re going to go all out and make intricately decorated cookies, don’t plan on making a million little morsels to stack up on a plate as gifts. Instead, make just one or two bigger cookies for each person you want to treat. It will make the cookies all the more special, not to mention create a whole lot less work for you.

2. Quality tools matter. Yes, you already know this, but it bears repeating. If you don’t already have some basic metal tips and disposable pastry bags, BUY THEM. Consider it a holiday gift to yourself! I start out using a wimpy little plastic sandwich baggie, hoping to save my quickly dwindling supply of pastry bags, but I was paid back for my cheating ways quickly- The bag burst before I finished decorating even a single cookie, and a good portion of the table, floor, and myself were covered in sticky sugar icing.

3. K.I.S.S: Keep it simple, stupid. The point of going all out for intricately iced cookies is to impress your friends and loved ones with incredible patterns, but if the whole design starts to go awry, simplify. Fill in open shapes that are bleeding too much, do fewer lines if they don’t end up fitting, but whatever you do, don’t panic. Additionally, I would suggest starting out with easier patterns to begin with until you get the hang of it. Worst comes to worst, you’ll get a couple of ugly but tasty cookies to snack on while you work.

4. Know before you go. You’re raring to go, excited to get started, but put on the the brakes for just a minute and think about what you’re doing. Have a picture in your mind of what you want the finished cookie to look like so you don’t end up becoming a deer in the headlights with icing dripping all over the place. Envision the final outcome as a guide to your design, but don’t be afraid to change it up as you go along, too.

5. Let it flow. If you’re squeezing the bejebus out of our pastry bag to get a thin stream of icing, STOP, before you put someone’s eye out with a blob of projectile frosting! You should only need to apply gentle pressure to the bag while twisting the extra plastic above the icing mass so that it doesn’t spurt out the top. After decorating for a while, the icing will begin to harden and gunk up the tip, so make sure you keep a sewing needle or paper clip nearby to poke it clean.

6. Ice away. No, I don’t mean “just go ice the darn things already,” I mean, ice away from your body. I don’t know about you, but when there’s a giant pastry bag headed straight for me, I can’t see a darn thing around it; For all I know, I could be icing the table! Stop and turn the cookie if you have to, but always make sure move the bag outwards in order to clearly see your full shape and the path you want the icing to follow.

7. Keep it up. Moving in between lines and switching over to different areas of the cookie, make sure to turn the bag of icing so that the tip is pointed upwards. Otherwise, the icing will continue to dribble all over your finished work, and everything else in a 5-foot radius. Trust me on this one.

8. Start at the beginning. Personally, I always like to start by tracing the outline of my cookie, just so I can get a better idea of the shape in the first place. Sometimes the baking process will cause the cookies to spread and distort a bit, so it helps to see exactly what shape you’re working with here.

9. Take your time. I didn’t have any cookie cutters here at school with me, so I ended up doing an extra step- Sculpting each and every cookie by hand (They always say that no two snowflakes are alike…) which means it took me even longer to finish. All said and done, from cutting to baking to decorating, it took me three hours to complete one dozen cookies. I know, it’s a little bit crazy… But with the help of cookie cutters, I bet you can shave a good hour, hour and a half off of that. Just don’t plan anything time-sensitive afterwards, okay?

10. Have fun with it. Don’t stress out, this is is supposed to be an enjoyable, relaxing project after all! But you knew that I was going to say that, right?

While I certainly didn’t attain the level of perfection displayed by “professionals,” I’m still quite proud of my end results. Don’t forget, you can also go crazy with color if you so choose- My limited supply of kitchen staples left me without dyes, so I just went with a simple, elegant while. It’s all up to you… So now go forth and ice those cookies! Just don’t blame me for the mess that may follow.