Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Treats -- UPDATE!

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Peach Puree Bundt Cake with Genius Glaze!

Sometimes genius strikes at inopportune moments. Like during the countdown to Frankenstorm Sandy’s annihilation of the East Coast. When most people are stocking up on water, batteries, and junk food, and hunkering down, I’m trying to figure out with to do with 2½ cups of homemade peach puree. I ultimately decided, after trying to be all fancy (Peach & Rosemary? Peach & Lavender? Hurricane what?), to err on the side of simplicity and make a plain old peach bundt cake. The genius came the next morning when I decided to try and use the last ¼ cup of puree.

I started this blog to document my kitchen experiments. I’ve realized that I need to think things out a bit if I’m going to write a post, which is fine, but overcoming mediocre recipes or missing ingredients to create an ultimately amazing final dish is something I love to do and pride myself on. This glaze is one of those “shit yeah!” recipes success stories that I got really excited to share with the internetz, and it goes a little something like this.

When I mixed powdered sugar with the puree, the taste was too sweet – it didn’t really have any tang to it. So I mixed in some lemon juice, but that just made it too lemony. Sigh. A couple dashes of cinnamon and cardamom didn’t give it the tang I was looking for, either. I was about to give up on the glaze (the cake is really moist and delicious, and doesn’t really need a glaze…) when I had a flash of inspiration! Ginger! The flash of inspiration should really be attributed to my sister who had requested I bake something with Rosemary, Lemon, and Ginger (to be experimented!) but as soon as it popped into my head I knew ginger would be the perfect addition. About a teaspoon and a half of minced ginger added the perfect amount of tang to counteract the teeth-melting sweetness, while bringing out the peachiness of the puree.

Peach Puree Bundt Cake with Peachy Ginger Glaze

For the cake

1¼ c. sugar

½ c. Earth Balance

3 tsp. egg-replacer + 4 TBSP water, mixed until frothy

2¼ c. pureed peaches

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream together the sugar and shortening until light and airy. Add the egg-replacer mixture, and combine thoroughly. Add peach puree, almond extract, and all dry ingredients, mixing to combine (but don’t over mix the batter).

Pour batter into a well-greased bundt pan, and bake for 55 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool before flipping cake onto a serving plate. Allow the cake to cool completely before you top it with the glaze.

For the glaze

¹/₃ c. peach puree

¾ - 1 c. powdered sugar (add more or less to adjust the consistency)

½ tsp. lemon juice

dash cinnamon

dash cardamom

1 tsp. minced ginger

Combine all ingredients except for powdered sugar. Whisk the sugar by the TBSP full, until desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over the entire bundt cake, or as you cut each slice.

Stay inside and stay dry everyone! See you on the other side of the storm!

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

One of my favorite things about fall, and October specifically, is caramel apples. This is in addition to soup, stews, colorful trees, seasonal squashes, spiced baked goods, and apple cider. But caramel apples! I'm pretty sure I would try to eat a dozen caramel apples if you put them in front of me, or succumb to the sugar coma while trying. Last year I went to the Apple Festival at the pick-your-own farm near the city, and was horrified to learn that they were SOLD OUT OF CARAMEL APPLES. Now, I'm a grown-up human being, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't sulk for a few minutes when I found out.

Couple that craving with the fact that I've been wanting to make sticky buns for a long time, and you've got yourself a delicious idea. So when I saw a picture of a Caramel Apple Cinnamon Bun from the Farmers Market, it was like hearing a choir of angels singing, "Hey, you should make that. But Sticky Buns instead of a glazed Cinnamon Bun. Also, aaahhhhhh!"

So, I did. I pieced together a few caramel sauce recipes from the internet, used the dough from the Vegan Brunch cookbook, and the remaining apples from my Labor Day pick-your-own fruit adventure and voila: a delicious fall Sunday morning treat, totally worth the Saturday night prep.

You should be advised of a couple things from the outset:

1. This takes about 2 hours worth of prep the night before (or the morning of, if you're an early bird). The majority of that time is spent waiting for your dough to rise, but there's a good bit of assembly at the end, so make sure you start it early enough.

2. It makes 12 huge rolls, so if you think this might be a nice treat for you and a friend, you'd be right, and then some. Feel free to halve the recipe, or freeze individual unbaked rolls right after you cut them to bake later. Just be sure they thaw before you bake them.

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

For the dough:

3½-4 c. flour

1 tsp cinnamon

½ c. warm water

2¼ tsp yeast

¾ c. warmed almond milk

¹/₃ c. vegetable oil

¾ tsp salt

For the Caramel Sauce:

½ c. light corn syrup

½ c. brown sugar, lightly packed

8 TBSP Earth Balance

For the Filling:

5-6 small apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

4-5 TBSP brown sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

dash cinnamon

8-9 tsp Earth Balance

Cinnamon Dough

In a large mixing bowl, mix yeast, 1 tsp sugar, and the warm water. Let sit, and the yeast will bubble and foam. Once you see that, add the remaining sugar, milk, oil, salt, cinnamon, and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook on a mixer, add flour by the half cup, until you have added 3½ cups total. Continue to need in mixer or by hand, for 5-7 minutes, until you have a smooth ball of dough. Place in a greased bowl and leave in a warm place so that dough can rise, about an hour. 

While the dough is rising, make the Caramel Sauce and Apple Filling.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and let sit for 10 minutes.

Caramel Sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the Earth Balance has melted and then whisk to combine. Once the sauce starts bubbling, remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

Apple Filling

Combine apples, lemon juice, and brown sugar in a medium sized bowl, making sure the apples are all coated more or less evenly, and then set aside.

Sticky Bun Assembly

Pour the Caramel Sauce into a large baking dish [mine is 10x15, but 9x13 will work as well], making sure the entire bottom is covered. Set nearby.

On a lightly floured surface, gently roll the dough into an approximate 12x18 inch rectangle. Spoon tsp sized dollops of Earth Balance evenly across the dough. Give your Apple Filling a good stir in the bowl, so make sure that all the apple pieces get to sit in the juices, before using a slotted spoon to spread the apple evenly across the dough. [In the photos you can see that I did not use a slotted spoon, so my dough was kind of juicy. This is fine, but it makes the rolling process a little messy, so my advice is to limit the amount of juice that gets inside your dough.]

Slowly roll the dough long-ways, making sure the apples get rolled too, not just pushed along to the other edge. Roll as tight as you can, but if it's not impenetrable, it's not a big deal. Tuck the ends under, and use a little bit of water to seal the seam along the top.

Cut the dough roll into 12 even slices. [Deb from Smitten Kitchen has excellent advice for how to slice through the dough without smashing down the roll: using a serrated knife, hold the handle gently, in your finger tips, and use a back and forth motion using only the weight of the handle as the downward force.] Place the slices face-down in the Caramel Sauce, evenly spaced. You should be able to get 2 rows of six, but if you have to sneak one in a corner or in the center, that's fine too. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel, and let sit in a warm place for 30-45 minutes. They will just barely double in size.

**If you are prepping these for the next morning, this is the point at which you can finally go to bed! Make sure your raw rolls are wrapped with plastic, and stick them in the fridge over night. Just let them sit out for about 20-30 minutes before you bake them the next morning.**

To Bake

You worked so hard to prep these, so here's the easy part: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the rolls for 20-22 minutes, or until light brown on top. If you have a big enough serving dish, or even a cookie sheet with sides, you should flip the sticky buns out of the casserole dish, being sure to scrape all the remaining sauce over the plated buns. Slice and enjoy!

Chunky Peach Berry Muffins

This post should have been full of gorgeous pictures of jewel colored berries, juicy golden peaches, and puffy muffin goodness. Alas, there are actually only 2. A few things conspired against me.


1. It's time to confess that I hate my kitchen, which sucks because I really love to cook! But I rent, and I'm moving, so this all will change soon. But for the time being I'm working with fluorescent lighting, which is terrible, and there's only one window that faces a 6 foot high concrete wall (ah, the joys of city living), and I really hate it. But since I know I'm moving I decided that I didn't have to try and fake it this time, or settle for crappy pictures, because in a little over a week's time I'll have a completely gorgeous light-filled kitchen to take pictures in!

2. I wanted to use up the fresh fruit I had picked over Labor Day weekend, but had a million other things to do on Saturday morning, so, I didn't have time to stop during each step of the process and snap a photo. Also, see point #1.

3. At the very least, I had planned on taking pictures of the final muffins. But I couldn't. Because they were all gone before Saturday afternoon!!

Which leads me to these muffins. Man, are they good!! I riffed on a recipe from Vegan Brunch, wherein it says that frozen berries are okay, but if you can still get your hands on fresh blackberries and raspberries I'm telling you it's the only way to make these muffins. I threw in some peaches because I had them and because they are delicious baked in stuff -- in this particular recipe they add a nice balance to the tartness of the blackberries.

Delicious hot, they are even better if they're let to sit for a while. I had one for breakfast this morning (okay, so I lied about them being all gone, there were 3 left at the end of the day) and it was amazing. The flavors of the berries mellow and become more distinct at the same time, so in one bite you can tell whether you're eating a raspberry or a blackberry. I'm going to stop talking about them now, and just give you the recipe so that you can see for yourself!

Chunky Peach Berry Muffins
Adapted from Vegan Brunch

Ingredients

½ c. blackberries, halved

½ c. raspberries, halved

½ c. peaches, chopped

2 c. flour

1 TBSP baking powder

½ - ¾ c. sugar (I did something in between, so the addition of peaches wouldn't be too sweet)

¼ tsp salt

½ c. almond milk

½ c. soy yogurt

½ c. vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in medium sized bowl. Make a well and add the almond milk, yogurt, oil, vanilla extract, mixing until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Gently fold in the fruit, but don't be too shy -- a streaky batter is pretty and flavorful! 

Bake for 26-28 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. If you can, save a couple muffins for the morning after and I promise you won't be disappointed! But I completely understand if you can't wait.

 

Blackberry Peach Plum Cobblerrumble

Sometimes it's really hard to eat all of the things. The fruit things especially. I bought a giant container of plums last weekend, only to be kind of sort of really disappointed at how bland/tart they turned out to be. I slogged my way through them as best I could this past week, but I know myself well enough to know that pitted against the market's latest bounty of fresh fruit, these lack-luster plums would probably whither in the fridge if they didn't get used up soon. As in, immediately.

I couldn't resist throwing in some of the aforementioned bounty, creating a fabulous  late-summer fruit cobblerumble. 

Cobblerrumble? Yes, about that...




There is, as I learned, a difference between a cobbler and a crumble. Unfortunately my impatience got the better of me, and my crumble topping got hand-mashed into a dough. After freezing it, the dough crumbled into chunks. The recipe outlines how the crumble topping is supposed to come out, but know that if you, too, get impatient the topping will be still be delicious. And on top of it all, I got to invent a pretty catchy portmanteau (if I do say so myself). So. Are you ready to cobblerrumble?!

Blackberry Peach Plum Cobblerrumble

Ingredients

For the topping:

½ c. almond meal

¼ c. all-purpose flour

½ c. light brown sugar

¾ c. rolled oats

½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ c. cold butter (1 stick)

Pinch of salt

For Filling:

2 large peaches
½ pint blackberries, cut in half

6-7 small purple or red plums
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1½  TBSP all-purpose flour

2 TBSP of brown sugar (add an additional TBSP if you prefer a sweeter filling)

juice of half a small lemon, or lime

1 tsp. of cinnamon

a of dash allspice or nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To prepare the filling, first pit your stone fruits and cut them into bite-sized slices. In a large bowl combine the peaches, plums, halved blackberries, vanilla extract, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice or nutmeg, and citrus juice. Carefully toss the fruits so that they are evenly coated. Set aside.

For the topping, combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. With a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the 1/2 cup of butter by the tablespoon until your topping looks like pea sized crumbles. I got impatient and dumped the whole half cup of butter in at once, which created a bit globby butter mess. I ended up going in with my fingers, warmed the butter, and got one lump of dough rather than crumbles. Like I said above, if this happens don't panic! Stick the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes, and it'll crumble into clumps again.

Pour the fruit filling into an 8x8 baking dish. Sprinkle your crumble (or clumps) evenly over top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until filling is gorgeous and bubbly. 

I couldn't wait for this to cool before digging in. The filling turned out thick and juicy, the perfect balance of sweet and tart. An excellent reason to buy fresh plums from your local market! My singular regret about this creation that I lacked the forethought to buy a pint of vanilla ice cream to go with it. 

Ginger Peach Hand Pies

You know how sometimes you wish for something, and then that wish comes true, but not exactly the way you had envisioned? Maybe you're like me, and you wished you could have a nice summer break, a staycation, during which you could visit friends, do some more city exploring, perhaps a few days at the beach. But what you got instead is mandated stay at home time while you wait for your international background check to clear before you can start your new gig in Baltimore. Which will hopefully clear soon because that ding-dong money tree I've been trying for still hasn't sprouted.

The one good thing about this time is I can finally play with recipes that I've been putting off because it's either too time consuming, too complicated, or makes too much of a mess to clean up on a weeknight. I can finally make hand pies!

Again unable to resist the ever-ripening mountains of peaches at the market, I decided to try a tangy element with these pies. Minced ginger has a nice tang that lends itself to either sweet or savory dishes, and compliments the juicy sweetness of these yellow peaches.

 

I tried a different crust from Vegan Pie in the Sky this time around, the Puffy Pie Dough, which came together pretty easily, and is probably less stressful to work with than a pure (vegan)butter dough. (But I still put my roller in the freezer -- work cold, work fast!) But it also doesn't make enough dough for the amount of filling I got, which ended up being close to 3 or 4 cups. Whatever kind of dough you use, make sure you roll it a smidge thicker than you would for a regular pie -- these peaches are juicy and you don't want all that peachy goodness to go anywhere but in your mouth!

Ginger Peach Hand Pies

Puffy Pie Dough from Vegan Pie in the Sky

Dough

2 ¼ c. all-purpose flour

3 TBSP sugar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ c. cold Earth Balance margarine

½ c. cold plain soy yogurt (I used Greek Style So Delicious brand)

¼ c. cold almond milk

Filling

5-6 medium sized peaches
2 TBSP corn starch
1½  TBSP lemon juice
3 TBSP sugar

1-1½ tsp freshly grated ginger

dash allspice
Pinch salt
2 TBSP flour

¼ c. almond milk
turbanado sugar for sprinkling

For the dough:

In large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter if you have one, or your fingers. I got mine for a few bucks at a flea market. Because you need to mix in the yogurt with a spatula, I nixed the food processor so that I would have one less thing to clean.

Add half the yogurt, mix with a large sturdy spatula, and then add the rest of the yogurt. Add the almond milk and mix as best you can. The dough will still be clumpy and crumbly, but it comes together nicely when you turn it onto your rolling surface and knead it a bit. It will form a stiff dough.

For the filling:

Score, blanch, and peel the peaches. Dice into smallish pieces and combine with corn starch, lemon juice, sugar, ginger, allspice, salt, and flour in a medium sized bowl. 

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Pie assembly:

Put parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet, and get yourself a small glass of cold water. Roll out your chilled dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Using an over-turned bowl or glass, cut out as many round pieces of dough as you can (my bowl is  5½ inches in diameter). Chill any remaining scrapes as you work.

Scoop a scant ¼ c. of filling into the center of each circle. Dip your fingers in the water and gently brush your fingers around the edge of half the circle. Carefully pull the opposite side over the filling, sealing the edges. Use a fork to crimp the edges, cut three steam slits in the top of the pie, and then place the pie on your baking sheet. Repeat until you’re out of dough or filling, but make sure to chill any remaining dough when you’re not using it!

Brush each pie with almond milk and sprinkle with turbanado sugar. Bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes, or until the dough is golden. Let cool at room temperature and then store in airtight container in the fridge.

 I am now of the opinion that hand pies are the perfect summer dessert. No plates, no forks, no mess to clean up! Which means you can spend extra time enjoying summertime things, like peach pie.

Maple Bourbon Peach Pie

After having been away from the amazing farmer's market in Baltimore earlier in June, I've gone a bit overboard the last two weeks. It's not a bad thing, mind you. Having to decide what to do with 3 lbs of squash, 6 ears of fresh, sweet corn (actually, I think I'll just eat that raw), and another $1 pound of kale (best.deal.ever.) is certainly burden I'm happy to bear!

While the vegetables may take some consideration, when I got to the tables piled high with ripe peaches, I knew there was only one option. PIE. 

I made a delicious deep dish caramel apple pie last fall and wanted to apply the same caramelly goodness to these peaches. After scouring the internet (read: one google search) I found a plethora of honey caramel peach pie recipes. I was all set to play with one of these and suggest in the recipe that strict vegans should replace the honey with maple syrup when I thought, now hang on a second. Why don't I just do that to begin with?

 

I love honey, I put it in and on everything. When a recipe calls for liquid sweetener, honey and maple syrup are interchangeable, but because good maple syrup can be pricey, I buy it sparingly, though I usually have enough around that I can sub it when I'm out of honey. But why throw that in as an aside? This time, rather than a second choice substitution, I decided to make the maple syrup shine! It changes the flavor profile a little bit, and is enhanced by the bourbon (because alcohol + baking = awesome!) and some additional spices to become an ingredient worth paying a little more for! And worth lauding as an essential ingredient in this pie.

 This also gave me a chance to work on my pastry crust. I used the buttery double crust recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky, I'm happy to report that this one turned out really well!  A few tips, though, before you get started, which can be applied to any flakey crust recipe. 

• Keep things cold! I put my pastry rolling mat and my rolling pin in the freezer for 30 minutes before I needed to roll dough. I actually used ice water, which I stored in the freezer, (along with the pieces of vegan butter and shortening), until I needed it. 
• If you have a food processor, use it. Seriously. Pulsing the fats and the flour took zero effort and the pie crust dough came together in 3 minutes. Which leads me to...
• Prep ahead of time, and be ready to work quickly. If the dough is overworked, or the fats get too warm and melty, you won't get a nice flakey crust. Have your kneading surface and your plastic wrap ready to go before you start the whole shebang, and you won't be scrambling around your kitchen leaving flour hand prints everywhere!

 

Maple Bourbon Peach Pie

Ingredients

3 pounds ripe peaches

2 TBSP cornstarch

1½ TBSP all-purpose flour

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

¹/₈ tsp allspice

a dash or two of cardamom

½ c. plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided

¼ c. maple syrup

2 TBSP bourbon

2 TBSP water

3 TBSP Earth Balance Margarine

Cut an X in bottom of each peach, then blanch peaches in batches in boiling water 15 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to stop cooking. Peel peaches and cut into ½ inch-thick slices. 

Toss peaches well with cornstarch, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, and salt in a large bowl. 

Put a foil-lined large baking sheet in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 425°F. The foil lined baking sheet is really important, because this pie gets oozy. If you don't put something underneath the pie plate to catch the drippings I promise you, your oven will be a mess!

Bring ½ cup sugar, maple syrup, bourbon, and water to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Wash down any sugar crystals from side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Boil without stirring, swirling pan occasionally so caramel colors evenly, until dark amber, 3-5 minutes. 

Remove from heat and add butter, swirling pan until butter is melted. Pour over fruit and toss. My caramel didn’t harden at this point, but if yours does don’t worry. It’ll melt again in the oven. 

Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece chilled) into a 13-inch round on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a ½ inch overhang. Chill shell while rolling out remaining dough. 

Roll out remaining piece of dough into an 11-inch round on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. 

Transfer filling to pie shell, mounding it. Cover pie with pastry round. Trim with kitchen shears, leaving a ½ inch overhang. Press edges together, then crimp decoratively. Brush top all over with some of milk, then sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar. Cut 3 steam vents in top crust with a paring knife. 

Bake pie on hot baking sheet 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Continue to bake until crust is golden-brown and filling is bubbling, about 45-50 minutes more. Cool pie to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours.
 

I had a slice for breakfast with my coffee. Obviously you can top it with a scoop of ice cream, but I prefer it plain so all you can taste are the peaches! Enjoy!