Coooookies!

This past weekend, I was planning on going on a trip to a farm. However, we've been having nasty weather here lately, and the trip got cancelled. Seriously, these tornadoes and thunderstorms put a damper on my weekend plans. Boo.

Since I have nothing better to do (homework, what's that?), I decided to make cookies with a friend. Such a good use of our time, no? Since I don't bake much at school (having a kitchen would help), I don't have as many baking supplies at my disposal as I would have at home. However, we pooled our resources and adapted a cookie recipe from the Internets.

We decided to make these Sweet Potato Cookies. They are vegan, low-sugar, and pretty darn healthy. They are originally called Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies, but I think they are good for whenever the hell I want a cookie. I pretty much had these for dinner and late night snack. I think the original idea was that they are healthy enough for breakfast, but if they are healthy enough for breakfast, then why not dinner as well?

I have to admit, these cookies aren't like conventional cookies made with a ton of butter and sugar. They are chewy from the oats, a bit bready, and only slightly sweet. The sweet potato flavor was very faint, and almonds added some crunch. We like super-healthy tasting things, so they suited us just fine. However, if you like sweeter baked goods, feel free to add a bit more sweetener to your liking. Taste the dough to see if it's sweet enough, which is totally safe since the batter is vegan. We made sure the "taste test" the dough. Yes, we tested it very thoroughly ;)

Sweet Potato Cookies
adapted from Live Laugh Eat*

1 cup sweet potato, pureed or mashed
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
1/4 cup almond milk, or other non-dairy milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar, or sweetener of choice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup oat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda OR 2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups oats
1 cup nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sweet potato, flax, milk, oil, sweetener, and vanilla. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon cookie dough by the tablespoon on a lined and greased baking sheet about an inch apart. Wet your hands with water and use your palm to lightly flatten the dough. The cookies won't spread out during baking.
Bake for about 13-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Notes:

• The original recipe called for less sweet potato, but the flavor wasn't very pronounced, so I would add more next time
• If you use a dry sweetener, add a bit more milk if the dough seems too dry
• Feel free to add your favorite nuts, seeds and/or dried fruits

*which is adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

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Summer Plans

It's official! I finally bought my airplane ticket to Frankfurt, Germany. I will be spending eight weeks in Goettingen for language immersion at the Goethe Institut. SO EXCITED!

So I will try to stop neglecting this blog and post more often. It seems like once school starts, I don't have time to write. Psh, it's not like I'm that busy. I admit it, I'm just lazy. I WANT to get over my laziness and have a less dead blog.

Well, this summer is going to be exciting, so I'll have a lot more to write about. So look forward to it! Like anyone visits this blog anymore... do I hear crickets?

To be continued.... eventually.

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Super Secret Rainbow Unicorn CUPCAKES! Summer: Part 3

My friends and I were bored one day. So we decided to go to Georgetown and get cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcake. Unfortunately, we just had to go on a weekday, so when we got to the metro station, the parking lot was completely full. We were forced to park at a meter, which meant we had limited time to ride down to DC, get our cupcake, and get back before the meter expired. 

The metro stations in the vicinity of Georgetown Cupcakes are relatively far, so be prepared to walk. We got off at Foggy Bottom-GWU, and had to walk quite a few blocks. Alternatively, if you get off at Rosslyn, VA, you have to walk across the bridge to get to DC. Both stops are about the same distance away from GTC.

Cupcakes posed for photo shooting. A lot of the people in line were taking pictures.


When we finally got there, the line was out the door. It wasn't terribly long, and the wait was only about 10 minutes. Our wait was nothing compared to during peak hours.
While we were waiting in line, an employee was handing out copies of the menu. However, we weren't there for anything that was available on the menu. We heard through the grapevine that there was a Super Secret cupcake only available through Super Secret means. When I got to the cashier, I indicated that I wanted the Super Secret cupcake. It turned out to be a Molten Lava cupcake, which was chocolate cake with melted chocolate in the center, with vanilla butter cream and chocolate drizzle on top.Yum. 

Lemon Berry and Super Secret

Note the price of the Super Secret

In my opinion,  cupcakes are overhyped. Are GTCs really good? Yes. Are they wait-over-30 minutes-in-line-and-pay-over-$2 good? No, not really. Especially when I can make my own cupcakes (see below). Still, it was fun going to Georgetown, even though we were a bit rushed to get back to the parking meter on time (we were a bit late, but didn't get a ticket). And the price of the Super Secret cupcake made it a pretty sweet deal.

  

Speaking of cupcakes, I made rainbow cupcakes to share with my friends when we went to Otakon. They were rather labour-intensive, as each colour had to be mixed and layered. I then swirled it around, and the effect was pretty darn awesome. And then I had to make them as gay as possible, so I topped them with sculpted fondant unicorns and rainbows. Hand-sculpting with fondant is pretty tough, so I only made two unicorns and about six rainbow ones. The rest just had rainbow sprinkles. I'm pretty satisfied with how they turned out.   

Fondant isn't very tasty, so only part of the head was bitten off this unicorn. You can also see my rainbow and sprinkle-covered cupcakes in the box.

The recipes for the rainbow cupcakes, frosting, and homemade fondant are coming up in a later post, so stay tuned. 

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Blackberries Picking: Summer, Part 2

This is completely out of chronological order, but whatever. 

Summer is my second favourite time to go to the farm. Autumn is my favourite because of apple picking, picking bright orange pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, and sneaking through corn maizes (I know, I know..). Nothing is better than munching on countless crispy, juicy apples when the weather is just starting to turn a bit chilly, yet the sun is still warm and bright in a clear, blue sky. As you can see, I miss going to the farm to pick huge bushels of apples. 

Although I don't go to the farm as frequently in the summer, there are plenty of offerings during the hot summer months. The market has bounties of fresh vegetables, including eggplant, squash, sweet corn, and piles upon piles of tomatoes. There are also pick-your-own fruits, including peaches, nectarines, blackberries, and tomatoes. 

I went to the farm with some friends during mid-July, near the peak of the blackberry season. Clusters of both the bright red, unripe berries and dark purple, ripe ones hung from the branches. The sweetest berries are the ones that are so soft and mushy, you have to pluck the fruit very gently, otherwise they will explode in a mess of dark, purple juice. Give it the most delicate squeeze, and you can feel the juices almost burst out of the fruit. Although these are not ideal for picking and bringing home, they are perfect for popping directly into your mouth. I did plenty of that. I think more berries made it into my stomach than into my bucket. No wonder blackberry picking is so hard.

These berries are just waiting to be omnommed :P

Lazy dogs ;)

These berries' lives were saved from being directly eaten, but not for long


So why is summer my second favourite season? I absolutely hate the heat. I would go to the farm a lot more often if I didn't have to suffer under the scorching sun. In reality, it wasn't that hot, but I am a wimp and I love A/C and cool weather. After we managed to fill our containers, we made it back to the market post-haste. We were planning on making blackberry and peach pie and blackberry scones later that day. However, I was too lazy to pick my own peaches, so we just got them at the market. Shh, no one has to know.

Food porn is in the previous post, btw.

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Summer Memories: Part 1

I've had some pictures left on the back burner that I never got to post. Among the many things I made over the summer, I made green tea ice cream.
I fell in love with green tea ice cream the first time I tried it. That was quite a few years ago, and I think I had it either in a Japanese restaurant or we bought a pint of Haagen Daz. Either way, green tea ice cream was a rare treat since it was hard to find in the grocery stores and we didn't frequent Japanese restaurants. Also, when I did find it in the freezer of an Asian store, the quality of the ice cream was sub par. It would either be icy or just off-tasting. Some had crap ingredients like Blue No. 1. Good green tea ice cream has the distinct taste of grassy matcha tea and the green color is purely from the tea. The flavour is pretty delicate, so it shouldn't be masked with any off flavours. The texture should have a rich mouth feel. This isn't a light, low fat ice cream.

Wish I could eat this right off the computer screen

The green tea ice cream I made was a custard based ice cream, meaning that there are eggs in it that thickens the base. That is how you make ice cream with a rich, creamy mouth feel. Yum. 

I also used a good quality matcha powder. Don't skimp on the powder, because it makes or breaks the ice cream.

Awesome ice cream making ingredients

What is unusual about this ice cream is that I used whole eggs, instead of just the yolks. Some custard ice creams have a scary amount of yolks, and I didn't want to have a ton of egg whites left over, so I just used the whole eggs.

Green Tea Ice Cream

1 cup milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 whole eggs

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tbsp matcha powder

In a blender, blend the milk, eggs, sugar, and matcha powder together. Alternatively, whisk the ingredients very well in a large bowl. 

Pour the mixture into a large saucepan and add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. Gently heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring very frequently. Keep an eye on the mixture, so that the bottom doesn't burn or boil over. Do NOT let it boil, you just want to cook it so that it thickens slightly. It will be done when the base is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon in an opaque layer. Chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

Had a little ice cream base left over

When the ice cream mixture is thoroughly chilled, churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacture's directions. I churned mine in my Cuisinart for about 25-30 minutes. When it is done, place the ice cream in the freezer to harden.

Go, ice cream maker, go!

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