Simple vegan cupcakes-you can lick the bowl!

When I first wanted to bake for someone who was on the low iodine diet, I searched the net for vegan recipes knowing I could use non iodized salt in anything out there.

Immature female Eastern Bluebird at my "vegan restaurant"

I came across this Allrecipes Vegan Cupcake.  I adapted the recipe to suit my tastes, what lived in my pantry, and my temporary diet restriction.   Packaged nut "milks" include sea salt.  So I made my own cashew nut "milk" adapted from here.
One of the good things about vegan batter is you can lick the bowl and utensils with no worries.  If your cupcakes are under done, they are still okay to eat! This recipe makes a moist, delicious cupcake. The flavor reminds me of a breakfast food for some reason.  You can frost them or eat them plain.  I usually drizzle them with a delicious lemon glaze recipe I found on Cookie Madness.  Anna used it on her pumpkin molasses loaves.   This time because I'm on a low iodine diet and I can't have dairy (and I was lazy!), they remained naked.  

 The "flashy" picture

Here is my adapted recipe:
1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (I used lemon juice)
1 1/2 cups cashew milk or other nut milk
2 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1 cup AP and one cup whole wheat pastry)
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon orange extract (I've only used one half so far, but I think they could use more)

Preheat oven to 350°.  This recipe makes approximately 18 cupcakes so you will need two greased 12 cup muffin pans or you can use 18 liners.

Female Ruby Throat Hummingbird at my "vegan restaurant"

Put the one tablespoon of lemon juice into a 2 cup measuring cup. Fill with nut milk to make one and a half cups. Let stand until curdled or about 10 minutes. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  In a separate bowl whisk together the nut milk lemon mixture, oil, and extract.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups filling at least two thirds of the cup.

Bake in the preheated oven until the top springs back when lightly pressed-15 to 20 minutes. (I baked mine for 17 minutes in an oven set at 345° because my oven runs a little hot)  Cool in the pan on wire rack.
Frost with your favorite frosting or icing-I like the lemon icing because it complements the orange extract in the cupcakes.

Croutons, or what you make when life gives you bad bread brain.

I am temporarily on a low iodine diet. That means I can't have any dairy products, soy products, fish or sea salt products, or anything packaged with red dye or added salt.  I should be losing lots of weight since that list includes just about everything! The problem is  peanut butter, olive oil, unsalted nuts, Jennies Coconut Macaroons, and other vegan goodies!   I haven't attempted making bread in about eight or nine years, but if I want to eat bread, I need to make bread. I went out to the trusty Internet to look for no-knead (I have bad arms) vegan bread recipes.   I was hit in the face with hundreds of no knead recipes!  I settled on an excellent recipe from Baking Bites.  It was a flavorful, easy recipe that I didn't follow correctly :(
I thought whole wheat pastry flour could easily be substituted for whole wheat flour.  (You bread makers are probably laughing and shaking your fingers at me right now!)  I made a tasty bread, but it crumbled a bit when cut... not enough gluten in pastry flour to hold the bread together.
Lesson learned. But I made lemonade out of my lemon! I made the best croutons I've ever had (other than those fabulous homemade croutons at Ruby Tuesday's)!
Did you know they taste fantastic floating in tomato or chicken soup??...just throw them in right before you eat it.

Vegan whole wheat croutons

Here is the recipe as loosely as possible adapted from the Food Network:
Preheat oven to 400°
Line a cookie sheet with foil

You will need:
1 loaf whole wheat bread cubed (I like using fresher bread...then you get crispy on the outside and still a little chewy on the inside)
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil (I used 1/2 cup extra-virgin because I was out of  regular olive oil)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Pour the bread cubes into a large bowl. Set-aside. Blend the next four ingredients until incorporated, approximately 10 or 15 seconds. (Or if you want an aerobic workout you can shake it up in a watertight container for a few minutes.)  You might want to taste the oil to make sure it has enough seasonings before you drizzle.
Drizzle the mixture over the bread cubes and then gently stir to make sure they are coated.  Pour them onto a foil lined pan, spread them out, and bake for approximately 15-18 minutes or until they begin to brown.
Most importantly: Resist the urge to eat them all right out of the oven!

Chocolate sauce and one more State Fair pic

I made a chocolate sauce last week that I thought came out pretty tasty!  The basic recipe came from Allrecipes-you might want to try this recipe first to decide whether or not you think it is too bitter.  I had to add to it because the final product was too bitter for me.   I LOVED the sauce with my modifications. (One including cheap milk chocolate flavored melting wafers. Somehow my mom found these wafers for $.99 at the grocery store or at Walgreens. I reluctantly took them from her-she was so excited at the bargain. I looked at them and said to myself: cheap chocolate flavored cr-p.  However, when I tasted them, I fell in love.... and I am not a milk chocolate fan!)
When barely warmed, this sauce is delicious on ice cream and did not seize up.   Here is what the sauce looks like (YUM).

My brother posing with the MN legendary State Fair Food:

Here is the modified recipe for 1/2 the amount of chocolate sauce (it goes a long way):

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa (I used Hershey's unsweetened)
• 1.5 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/3 cup reduced fat milk
• 1.5 tablespoons strong brewed coffee (I use decaffeinated)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons salted butter

**1/8 cup milk chocolate fondue candy wafers ( these cut down on the bitterness)

Directions:

In a small saucepan combine brown sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch. Whisk together until well combined.   Stir milk and coffee together and then stir into dry ingredients until well combined.  Cook on medium heat stirring constantly until mixture boils and then continue to stir for 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.   Add butter, vanilla, and milk chocolate candy wafers.  Stir until smooth.  Refrigerate leftovers if you have any!  This was so easy even I could do it!    

**  You can purchase the cheap, chocolate flavored, NOT crappy melting wafers online here: Make n Mold melting wafers.

State Fair Ribbon Winner's Pictures

I just couldn't help myself so I went back to the Minnesota State fair today in order to take pictures of the winners in the baking categories I entered. I wanted to see what blue ribbon winners (or even fifth-place winners) looked like.   Were they perfectly round, perfectly square, tall, short, fat, skinny, big, little, etc.  This first picture is the chocolate brownies with frosting, nuts and or chips category.  A funny thing happened to my brownies. You will see my lonely brownie with a capital M on it. All other ribbon winners had three of their brownies displayed.  Last Friday when I went to take pictures of my fourth place winner there were three brownies lined up behind my pink ribbon that didn't belong to me.  Since mine were decorated, it was easy to tell.  I was disappointed. I thought maybe I didn't really win the ribbon and someone else's brownies did, but they gave me credit. After checking with the state fair competition office they confirmed my brownies really won.  I told them only one of my brownies was being displayed in the area where the non-winners went. Apparently the other three were thrown out. So that is the story of how I ended up with one lonely brownie to represent me!

Lonely pink ribbon winner :(

Plain brownies-I took no ribbons.

Ghirardelli competition-I entered, but no ribbon.
This fantastic-looking dessert came with four champagne glasses filled with an orange sauce to go over the slices the judges tasted. I saw this dessert sitting on the entry table when I was standing in line to enter my brownie tart. I knew right then that everyone's chances were slim!  I was hoping it would taste terrible (it is a competition you know!)

What more can I say?

I won fourth place for strawberry bread-it looks so tiny and alone!  I forgot to take a picture of the first and second place winner.  I think maybe I need a larger pan?

So tiny

Banana bread...ribbons still elude me.

No ribbons for me

Bars with fruit, nuts, or chips.  I entered apricot almond shortbread bars. I didn't win any ribbons.  I thought these would be my sleeper-it turns out they must've been sleeping when the ribbons were handed out!   (Sleeper: : someone or something unpromising or unnoticed that suddenly attains prominence or value)

No ribbon for me

And last but not least, chocolate chip cookies. The winners looked good, but not that good!   I suppose those people didn't change their recipe at the last minute and then bake the cookies too long.

I am craving one of these now

I was going to enter cookies into the ethnic category, but I ran out of energy.
I took a picture of the winners anyways just in case next year I want to enter.

State Fair Results

The anticipation is over! I won two fourth-place ribbons this year.  Thousands of people enter these  baked goods competitions and few get ribbons so I am pleased. I was a little surprised the apricot almond shortbread bars didn't get anything because I had people calling me on the phone telling me how wonderful they were.  Judging at the state fair starts out a bit shallow-they pick the top 25 attractive entries in each category.  Even though you can't judge a book by its cover, with hundreds of entries in one category they can't taste them all.   I am hoping my apricot almond shortbread bars wound up in the top 25 so at least I will get a score card mailed to me from the judges showing me where I can improve next time.  One thing I have vowed to do this year: Practice baking during the winter so my recipes are nailed down before it hits 90°!!!
Here are the pictures of my fourth-place winners:

Strawberry Pecan bread

Banana Pecan brownies-need to brush up on my decorating!

State Fair Anticipation

I stood in a block-long line Sunday morning waiting to enter my tasty treats (tasty to me anyways!) into the Minnesota State Fair baking competition.  Part of the fun for me is talking to other competitors to find out what they are entering and look at their fantastic entries. Oh how I wish I could sample a little bit of every ribbon-winner's goodies! That would be about as close to heaven as anything for me!  I won't know the ribbon-fate of my entries until Thursday when they are posted online.  I don't want to wait for the results before I "post" this post because my blog is getting dusty!  I entered Strawberry Pecan Bread, Banana Bread, Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Apricot Almond Shortbread Bars.   I didn't take pictures of everything because I was just too tired after baking. My kitchen looked like a flour, nut, and chocolate studded bomb had been set off in it.   I have rejects in the freezer whose photo opportunity time may come later after the flour dust has settled!  New food at the state fair this year I want to try: Sweetcorn ice cream with caramel bacon topping, deep-fried apple pie with vanilla ice cream, pretzel dogs, Yankee apple pie with chocolate on grilled brioche, and crab fritters.     
Okay, back to some "normal" food.   Here are pictures of some of the items  I entered.

Apricot-almond shortbread bars (Epicurious by way of Sue at Basically Baked)

Cut and ready to go to "the show"

Trunk full of goodies

Banana pecan brownie decorated rejects

Non-human food post today

Monarch drinking swamp milkweed nectar in my back yard

I am currently experimenting with chocolate chip cookies for my state fair entries so I am not going to bore anyone with my not perfect experiments. Since I don't have any good food items to post, I thought I would post some pictures of my other hobbies which are butterfly and Hummingbird gardening and saving and raising monarch butterflies.  I find the eggs on the leaves of my swamp milkweeds and take a few-especially from the leaves     attached to broken stems or plants that have fallen over. The survival rate of eggs is low-the survival rate of the caterpillars is lower because they are eaten by birds and they are hosts to other bug's eggs-I found out that yucky fact this year firsthand and all I can say is ish!!  I hope you enjoy the nature pics below.

Tiger swallowtail drinking Joe Pye weed nectar.

Chocolate scented cosmos-who knew there was a chocolate flower?

 Tree frog teasing my cat from the other side of the window.

My cat Margo taking the bait 

Monarch caterpillar eating Swamp milkweed

Bumblebee in mid flight above swamp milkweed flower

No, you don't need new glasses-my autofocus was out of focus!

Enjoy the day!