Chocolate Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies - April 2010

What better way to de-stress and chill out on tax day than with chocolate-y, minty goodness in the form of cookies?

Lila, who is an old pro at making cookies and intuitively understands the basic "made from scratch" cookie recipe (as opposed to my more commercialized "slice and bake" experience), set to measuring and mixing the dry ingredients in a bowl while I measured out (Earth-Balance non-dairy) butter to melt, set the oven to preheat, and fished out the cookie sheets and parchment paper.

Next, Lila took over measuring the butter and sugar together while I made an "egg" using Ener-G Egg Replacer. Since I was only making one, I used a bowl and fork. It ended up a bit frothy, but a good consistency. I added those and the vanilla and mint extract to the dough. I was surprised to find that the Peppermint extract was clear. Luckily I measured it over an empty bowl, because I set the measuring spoon overflowing, and having that happen over the dough may have resulted in mint-overload.

Lila stirred all the ingredients together, adding the chocolate chips in last. Since we had bad experience in the past with cookies that had too much spread we gave these cookies extra space.

The recipe called for 10-12 minutes in the oven. We checked the cookies at 8 minutes, again at 10 minutes and then took them out of the oven at 11 minutes. It was a little tricky to tell when the cookies were done due to the cocoa powder in the mix. The cookies were dark, and because of that we had no real visual cue of the edges browning. Lila was looking for the cookies to spread as a cue, but they didn't do that either.

We starting taking them off the cookie sheet and onto the wire racks, and discovered that warm, the cookies were very soft. Once we got to the second cookie sheet, I realized I could simply lift the parchment paper, with the cookies still resting on it, and place the whole thing on the wire racks. This ended up working quite well for us.

Thinking ahead to the bakery, we realized we would either need to prepare bundles of cookies, or make larger cookies. We were unsure if making larger cookies would require different baking time, we took the remaining dough, and made 4 large cookies.

We baked these for 10 minutes, then added a minute. When we took them out of the oven, they were still a bit poofy, but they spread nicely as we let them sit. We did leave these on the warm cookie sheet longer than the smaller cookies, and we are keeping in mind that may have affected how the cookies came out (which was utterly delicious and soft, by the way).

The large cookies were a lot softer than the smaller cookies, but first day trial, the larger cookies were still warm. A taste test the following day proved that still held true.

Lila observed the cookies had a good dough to chip ratio, which I agree (important because the dough also had the cocoa power in it), though we may try to cut down the sugar to a scant 1/2 cup granulated sugar, as the cookies became too sweet if you tried to eat more than a single small cookie.

All in all, this was a baking success, and all our friends loved the cookies. I look forward to baking them again.


New tools / ingredients: Peppermint Extract
Recipe used: The Joy of Vegan Baking
Co-baker: Lila
Date: April 15, 2010

Classes

We fell away from our weekly baking as we got busy with various other projects, school, etc, but with the new year, I felt a renewed passion for this project. In addition to resuming baking, the purchase of The Joy of Vegan Baking, and checking out various other vegan cookbooks from the local public library, I decided it was time to look into the business aspect of opening a cafe.

I know there are people who follow their passion and figure out the business side of things once they're both feet in the water, but personally I am more of a planner, a learner, and besides, I still need more time to work out the baking side, as well.

Some research turned up three different paths available to me via local learning channels. The University where I work offers a slew of MBA programs, ranging from the traditional classroom, 2-year program, to online programs and even a "weekend MBA." Currently the university also has among it's benefits to full-time employees, an Employee Education Program (EEP), which will pay for up to 6 credits a semester, and many of these programs fall under the program qualifications, which would leave me to pay some fees and books.

Our city's Chamber of Commerce offers online self-paced classes through SmallBizU(which look like large slide-show presentations) for about $25 a class, less if you are a member.

The last option was at the local community college, which offers a few different business certificate programs (instead of degree programs), including one in "Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management." In the end this seemed like the best option for me as the this program is also covered by the EEP, most of the classes are offered online, but with a teacher leading the courses, and other students to interact with, and all in all it was less confusing and overwhelming a choice over trying to figure out which MBA program was the best fit.

I applied and was accepted to the program and start the first of six classes May 10th. The certificate includes: Introduction to Business, Principles of Finance, Small Business Management, Principles of Accounting 1, Principles of Marketing and Human Resource Management.

I finish the courses April 2011 (I'm stretching it out over three semesters, instead of the traditional two (hey, I still have a full-time day-job to keep up with, and baking in the evenings). Hopefully, when I'm done, I'll have a better understanding of the scope of this project, and be able to make a better decision about moving forward with it.

And while I'd love for my girlfriends to join me in the endeavor, I realize that it might not be the right move for all of us. Right no, though, I am interested in pursuing it a little more seriously, and see what we (or I) can make of it.

April 8, 2010 - Solo Mission: Rice Pudding

Last week I tried out the Rice Pudding recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. In addition to the recipe, the book provides a sidebar with variations and suggestions. One of the variations was to use jasmine rice, which is the only "normal" rice I had in my pantry (the others being boil-in-a-bag rice, sushi rice, and Spanish rice).

I was a little unsure about the flavors (spices, etc.) that would go with jasmine, so I searched online for Jasmine Rice Pudding recipes. Some were savory, and the two I could find seemed similar to the recipe/variation from the book also mentioned vanilla and cinnamon, so I kept to the recipe with the jasmine rice being the only substitution.

The hardest part of the recipe was determining when to take the rice off the stove, the cue being when the rice is tender. I had no baseline concept for what "tender" was, and the 25 minutes the recipe suggested ended up being too long.

Part of the problem was the initial ratio of milk (I used soy) to rice, 2 ½ cups to 1/3 cup, surprised and overwhelmed me. The grains of rice got lost in all that liquid.

I stirred the rice, milk and salt for 20 minutes and decided the rice was finally tender, at which point I added the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. The recipe said to return the pan to the stove and mix until thickened. I looked at the much-condensed blob in my pot and decided I had probably made it past "tender" and to "thickened" before pulling it off the heat to add the rest of the ingredients. Afraid it would be too dry, I added a splash more soy milk (about two tablespoons, maybe?) And finished the recipe.

I did not sprinkle extra cinnamon on the pudding, guessed about how much raisins to add, since I had already put my measuring cups away, and transferred the rice pudding into one large bowl instead of six serving dishes (I'd have had to use the cups my tea set if I wanted to do this)

It went in the fridge to cool.

My sister proclaimed the dessert tasted like an oatmeal cookie, and I couldn't argue with that. I think I lost the additional flavor the jasmine rice would have added by sticking to the vanilla and amount of cinnamon listed in the recipe.

I'm eager to mix it up and try some of the variations – different milk, spice and flavoring options – to see what kind of tasty treats I can come up with, though the constant stirring I did while the rice was simmering did leave my arm tired, so I'll probably space the out these trials to give my arm break.

March 28th - Pie Crust & March 30 - Apple Pie

March 28th: Pie Crust – Solo Mission

In anticipation of making an apple pie on Tuesday with Lila, I set out to pre-make the pie crust, based the recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking.

Not only are there 2 pages of directions for good pie crust making, but I was pleased to find the chapter intro was a list of tips for making crusts.

I measured out all the ingredients into separate bowls and set them all in the freezer half an hour before I began (well, 45 minutes because I had to eat dinner, but that only meant the water had a little more ice)

The recipe called for mixing the non-dairy butter and vegetable shortening into the flour/dry ingredients in the food processor. I quickly determined that (Through persistent trial of following the letter of the instruction) that my Oster must be a smaller capacity than the food processor the author was working with, and I had to split the dry goods, cold butter, and shortening into roughly half to combine in two batches.

Next time I'll either measure out by a half at the get go, or find another way to mix these ingredients.

Once the ingredients were all mixed, I took my two batches of crests and made discs and wrapped them in plastic wrap to sit in my fridge (in a Ziploc bag) until Tuesday, when were make him the pie. The pieces weren’t the most cohesive, but I figured that would lend to the flay crust I was after.


March 30th: Apple Pie

Lila came over and I pulled out the two pie crusts from the plastic bag in the fridge. Putting down overlapping pieces of wax paper on the counter, with flower sprinkled on them and the rolling pin. I rolled out the larger of the two refrigerated balls of dough – Lila keeping the flour on the pin. I had a bowl of ice water at the ready to repair any tears, and had to take my best guess as to how much a 13" diameter was. Because of the crumbly nature of the crust, it was a little tricky to transfer to the dis. We eventually turned the pie pan upside down over the crust, and flipped both over, the extra flour from wax paper fell onto the counter.

We pressed the crust into place, then Lila rolled out the top crust, which held together less well than the larger one. We folded it in the wax paper and set it back in the fridge.

Using an apple corer, a vegetable peeler and a knife we prepared 5 apples: 2 tart granny smith and 2 juicier red delicious, for the pie.

The slicing and peeling took a lot longer than we thought. Lila juiced half a lemon to get the 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice the recipe called for. We used granulated brown sugar, and 2 /12 TBSP flour (the recipe called for between 2 and 3 TBSP) We ended up adding all the lemon juice Lila had made (almost double what the recipe called for – she is quite skilled with the juicer.)

The apple mix had to sit for a little – I may have to rearrange the order of the steps – prepare the filling, then roll out the pre-made crusts while it sits (stews).

Transferring the upper crust onto the pie was tricky, we tried flipping it from the wax paper, but a chunk fell off and we got it off center. We managed to move it into place and pinched the overflow of the bottom crust to fill the gaps.

We will definitely need practice making pie crusts and transferring them, but I think we managed okay for our first pie (perhaps , if we use overlapping wax paper, we can hold it above the pie, and pull the paper out from either side, once we have the crust down…)

We baked the pie in the middle rack, with a rack below it with an empty cookie sheet (to catch any filling spills – luckily there were none.) We baked it for 30 minutes, checked for doneness, then , because the apples inside weren’t soft enough yet, but the edges of the pie were already browning, Lila put pieces of foil over the edges, and we baked it for another 10 minutes.


Tasting the pie had to wait until the next day: it was 10 pm as we wrapped up, and the recipe called for 3 hours to cool.

We would do better, we think, if we pr-mix the cinnamon and sugar that get sprinkled on top of the pie, we'd have fewer spots of concentration of just one or the other. I found the pie to be a little bitter (though I was alone in this opinion). I think this was due to the extra lemon juice we added.


Given the trouble with the large crusts, we may also consider small, individual pies or tarts, or apple turnovers where we don have the transfer to the pie dish issue. All in all, I think we found a keeper, now we just need to find a nice vegan ice cream and serve it up a la mode.



New tools / ingredients: 9" round glass pie pan
Recipe used: The Joy of Vegan Baking
Co-baker: Lila
Date: March 28th and 30th

Solo Mission -Birthday Cake: Chocolate with Raspberry Chocolate Ganache revisited: 4/3/10

For Alison's birthday she requested I make the Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Chocolate Ganache that we made last year. As we go, I've been making copies of the recipe we're using for my notebook, and jotting down notes on the page as we go, ideas for improvements, details of what oven and pans we used, etc. I pulled out the recipe / notes we had made, and discovered that for the ganache, I only had a list of the ingredients, sans instructions. I found copy of the Chocolate Ganache recipe and printed it up on its own page, ready to add to my ever-growing notebook.

Once again I doubled the recipes, as I wanted to create a two-layer cake, and not a single cake. I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl, and the wet ingredients (sans vinegar) in another. Keeping in mind the trouble we had our first attempt with the multicolored spots, I made sure to thoroughly mix the ingredients when I added the liquids, and even more when I added the vinegar. The batter did turn out 2-tone and bubbly as the vinegar reacted with the baking soda. I mixed thoroughly, almost longer than I was comfortable with.

I split the batter between two cake pans, my "classic" 9" round x 1 1/2" and my brand new round (no handle) no-stick 9" round x 2". I put both in the middle rack. the 1 1/2" pan was done with 23 minutes, but an additional 8 minutes were needed for the larger pan.

I made the ganache as the cakes were in the oven, heating about 1/3-1/2 cup of raspberry preserves on the stove a little, and mixing it in the ganache. Once I had mixed everything, I took the pan off the heat, covered, and let it set at room temperature while the cakes finished and cooled. The gancache ended up being a little chunky, and I'll need to heat the preserves a little more, to make it mix better.

When the cakes were done, I placed them on a wire rack to cool and walked away for several hours. They turned out well, and both came easily out of the pans, once they were cool. The ganache also went on easily, driving home the lesson of patience, letting the cakes cool completely.


Since Alison wanted a first book/movie Harry Potter cake, a la Hagrid (aka, lopsided), I tried putting the two tops of the cake together (thinking the round sides together would create the desired effect) but the the difference was too big. I flipped the top cake over (made in the 2" pan) and set to slicing a wedge off the bottom. Flipping the cake did result in less ganache between the layers, though.

Once the piece was settled, I realized the top cake was had a slightly larger diameter than the bottom cake (a good indication I need two identical pans) and worked to trim the edge off the top cake. This left the side a bit crumbly, and harder to ice, but with my new offset spatula, the room-temperature ganache, a lot of persistence, and a little creativity (using the ganache in layers to fill in the lopsided bits) I think the finish product turned out okay. Happily, Alison agreed.

New tools/ Ingredients: 9" round x 2"; off-set spatula
Recipe from: Mountain-High Chocolate Cake: Student's Vegetarian Cookbook, Revised
    Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
Co-bakers: None
Date: April 3, 2010