"Barbarian Coffee Cake"

 

This recipe is based on my grandmother's Barvarian Coffee Cake recipe which had a LOT more sugar, fat and refined flour.  I've veganized it and made it a vehicle for lots of fruit!

I doubled this recipe so that I could do apricot & plum - and put them in the same pan.  I also added some pitted cherries because - why not? You can use any fruit -- you can put applesauce in the batter and put a (strained) can of pineapple or canned cherries on top. 

Bowl 1 - Sift together

• 1 c whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 c almond flour 
• 1/2 c white flour (optional if you are using whole wheat pastry flour0
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

Bowl 2 - wet

• 1/2 c sugar (I used turbinado but sucanat would be good, too - I like the molasses flavor)
• 
  ~1 c fruit purée
• 1/2 c melted coconut oil or neutral oil / vegan butter
• 1 Tb almond extract
• 1 tsp vanillazest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• water or plant based milk as needed

Thoroughly blend each bowl then add wet to dry.

Plum was processed through the Vittorio food mill which results in a much messier process in the kitchen but plum skins don’t shred very well in the blender in my experience.

I processed the apricots in the blender to make the purée.

The batter should be really thick but not so stiff that you can’t mix it so add liquid to loosen it up.

As you can see I did apricot and plum. 

I used 2 part tart pans, so I don’t want the batter to be so thin that it’s going to leak out the bottom.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 min - wooden toothpick inserted near the center should come out clean. Glaze with melted jelly - In this case I used leftover apricot syrup from the process of making glacee apricots.

Be careful to not overfill your cake pan -- once the baking powder/soda start working, you may have a bit of spillover.  Put a cookie sheet below your cake if you are concerned about overflow. 

 

Pears, Persimmons & Sourdough

Well, it's been a while! What can I say except that things got away from me. I visited family in November, my mother visited for 3 weeks in December, plus I had to deal with the 8 weeks long chest cold from hell. 

My chief culinary accomplishments of late fall and early winter include:

PEARS: My friend George forwarded me a note from a community list along with a photo of a gorgeously laden and tempting looking pear tree.  I harvested about 30+ lbs of small pears which seemed quite hard, along with my friend Veronika.  The location was near Oakland's Chinatown, so while we were back there, some neighbors came by and also harvested some pears.  V and I thought they were kind of firm but one lady bit into it and said they were good.

The pears were small, a bit mealy and very hard.  They had a yellow-green skin under a brown layer that scraped off with light application of fingernail or nylon scrubby pad.  I washed all the pears and laid them out to ripen on trays.  And waited.  And waited.  After 2 weeks, some of them just went mushy, so I did some research.

What I discovered is that there are some old varieties of pears that are only for cooking - I think these pears were Kiefer pears.  So, I poached some pears and they came out so amazingly delicious!  I canned the rest of the pears in several batches - some with light syrup and some with light syrup and spices (clove, cinnamon, star anise). I'll be set for a while for canned pears, I promise some lovely pear photos.

PEAR VINEGAR: As Marilee from Urban Legend Cellars said, "folks don't know how EASY it is to make vinegar!"  I put a big pile of pear peelings and cores into a gallon glass jar with distilled water - and I keep adding water and aerating it.  It's now growing a mother on top - just like kombucha or Bragg's apple cider vinegar!  Soon I will get up the nerve to taste my pear vinegar.  Expanded post with pictures coming soon.

GROUND CHERRY JELLY: the ground cherries kept going long after everything else quit.  The one Giant Ground Cherry plant I got from Annie's is still going out there - and I hope to promote those for the next season over the smaller kind.  I made up 12 half pints of jelly but it didn't set as firmly as I want, so the jars are still on the kitchen windowsill waiting to be remade (or poured over pound cake and ice cream, tough call).


PERSIMMONS: In early November, I made my annual harvest of persimmons from Larissa & Geoff's 3 story high Hachiya persimmon tree. After I picked about 200 persimmons in early November, left them to ripen while I was gone for a week - and ripen they did!  Then I and dried them all - with some pulp in the freezer as usual.  I made two giant trays of persimmon bread pudding for Holly & Marina's wedding reception - it was very well received and there were no leftovers!

SOURDOUGH: I took a Sour Flour class just a few days into the onset of the Horrible Chest Cold from Hell - and had mixed results with the starter (it eventually died).  I plan to get some starter from a neighbor named Ana.

GARDEN - Veggies vs Flowers: no, I did not manage to get my winter greens garden in properly this year again.  However, I did manage to keep alive my digitalis purpura and put it in the ground, along with some jasmine and a 2-stick rose plant - so there will be lovely scented flowering things along the fence in my garden.  The brugmansia that I got as a leafless wine barrel size root ball from Freecycle is flourishing in the side yard and sending up leaves and new growth, fingers x'd that I will have some lovely scented angel trumpets in the spring.

The broccoli di cicco has gone feral and seems to be flowering continuously - an attack of little grey aphid-y things on the broccoli, mustard and broccoli rab volunteers makes them inedible but I am leaving the large stand of broccoli di cicco because it seems to be making the honeybees very happy.  Once my other flowering plants start producing flowers, I will tear it out to make space for tomatoes.

What I love about my neighborhood is that you get random curb scores - I got a paper grocery sack half full of rhizomes labeled "FREE!" Purple and light blue irises!" which are going into the ground along the house by my steps this week.


Wow! And here I thought I hadn't done much - it turns out I've just been a lazy blogger! I promise to make it up to you, the one reader who still checks in on my blog occasionally (hi Aunt Sue!) and some backdated posts that I obviously owe are coming this week!

Cardoon Pot Pies

First date with cardoon from Mariquita box - made into pot pies, along with english peas, new potatoes, cardoon, red onion, spring garlic, carrots, sweet potato and seitan.  I also made a cardoon and new potato bisque.  Both dishes came out fabulous - reminding me how much I enjoy both pot pies and new potatoes. Cardoon has a delicious artichoke-like flavor but without all the leaves!  I'll definitely try cardoon again, esp for soups and pot pies.

A Tale of Two Lemon Cakes

As a special treat for a wine tasting trip with Matt, Aaron, Selina, Z-man, Richie - I made up two cakes - done with lemon instead of orange as specified:

Olive Oil Rosemary Semolina cake


Fran Costigan's Orange Almond Olive Oil Cake

The first cake required that the batter proof - it wanted yeast and I found myself up late late at night before I was supposed to be getting in the limo with my friends!  It had a drier, bouncier crumb - downright springy.

The second cake just came out perfectly the first time - it was very moist and dense.  Subsequent attempts to make it find it to be  - terribly fickle - and it just collapeses into a globby heap (not sure if it is because I tried using key lime juice instead of orange or lemon and if there is a difference).

And, of course - I made chocolate peanut butter cups, for which Matthew nearly murdered Aaron (who also enjoyed them).

Two Vegan Bake Sales!

VEGAN BAKE SALE #1
Coming up this Saturday, Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary is having a vegan bake sale. Find them on Saturday from 11 to 2, on the Front Sidewalk of PETA Office, 554 Grand Avenue, Oakland.

VEGAN BAKE SALE #2
The next EBVB is coming Saturday, February 26th! It will be held, as usual, in front of Issues Shop in Oakland, and run from 11am to 3pm.

If you're interested in doing any of these, please email ebveganbakesale@gmail.com.

Plum Coffee Cake

Tomorrow is the East Bay Vegan Bake Sale - I wanted to make something that could be made for a reasonably affordable amount (making the final product cheaper!) and which could be made in quantity and that would use some of my fresh/local yummy ingredients.  Originally, I thought of making my favorites - lemon bars, chocolate peanut butter cups and such but since I haven't had a good coffee cake lately ... well...

A coffee cake with plum topping seemed like the ideal choice - and being too lazy to convert my grandmother's Bavarian Coffee Cake recipe (I swear! I will do it one day soon!) - I took inspiration from VeganYumYum's Apple Pie Coffee Cake recipe.  Here's my spin, resulting in ...


Crumble Top Cherry Plum Coffee Cake:


FRUIT TOPPING:
1 qt bag of plum puree (that good stuff leftover in the jelly bag from making jelly last summer with the cherry plums)
1 c succanat

Set puree & succanat on the stove on low to simmer - reduce til thick, at least reduce by 50%.

CRUMBLE TOPPING
1 c oats
1 c flour
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c melted coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend all ingredients til you can cake them together with your hands and crumble into bits - yum.

CAKE

2 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 c unbleached flour
1 c unrefined granulated sugar
1 c succanat
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt

3 tsp Mexican cinnamon (ceylon cinnamon)
2 tsp ground cardomom
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
2/3 c canola or grapeseed oil (or a blend)
2/3 c plum puree
1 1/3 cup almond milk + 2 tb apple cider vinegar
3 tb En-R-G Egg replacer
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients - should be very thick, almost like a dough - it will rise and goodness will happen.  Lightly oil your pan(s) - I decided to use a springform pan and two tart pans.  Press down the dough with a nice flat silicone spatula, push the sides up a tiny bit like a border.  Ladle in your cooked down plum goodness.  Sprinkle on the crumble topping.  Put into the oven at 350 - you want the cake to cook all the way through, and rise, so don't take it out too soon or you'll have soggy centers.

Tomorrow I'll take the coffee cakes and a dozen or so dark chocolate chipotle caramels, over to the East Bay Vegan Bake Sale.  11a-4p, 20 Glen Ave, Oakland (just off Piedmont)  in front of a shop called "Issues."

December Projects

MUSHROOMS! More rain this week - but also a bit of chill.  Heading out shortly to collect more chanterelles - put up a mere 2# in the freezer (done by dry sautee of thinly sliced mushrooms, reserving the juice they release to freeze, too). 


LEMONS are still in my kitchen, slowly getting juiced, frozen and even turned into lemonade & lemon drops.  I'm going to make up a couple batches of lemon chutney, but probably will create variations on my last two versions for sweet & savory lemon chutney -- of course I still have Hachiyas, but also still have some sweet red peppers and plenty of homemade cayenne pepper flakes.  I also plan to make up a batch of marmalade and some candied lemon peel.

DESSERT!  On Monday, I made a pair of apple pies - apple rum raisin with allspice (and somehow I'm out of allspice?) and apple strawberry with ginger.  I also still have key lime juice and plan to experiment with variations on a key lime pie recipe that I found in a thread on the Post Punk Kitchen forum that doesn't use tofu or packaged pudding, and am going to sub almond milk and coconut milk to make a key lime pie to bring along to my birthday tomorrow.

BIRTHDAY party is tomorrow at Encuentro, kicking off a weekend of good food and soaking in hot water.  At last weekend's 40th annual Fungus Fair, Scott & I splurged on a white truffle and a couple  winter black truffles at from the lovely wife of Todd, the King of Mushrooms.  I'm bringing the marble rolling pin, semolina flour and a hand crank pasta machine to make some pasta to go with those mushrooms on this weekend's get away, along with leftover birthday pie, chanterelles, homemade marinara sauce and a candy thermometer so I can make vegan caramels (why not?).

Persimmon Cookies - Update!

As it turns out, the basic recipe is probably the best one.  The additional persimmon did not make the cookies taste more persimmon-y - though the texture was pretty good out of the oven.  The real test has been the way the cookies stand up to the passage of time.  The original recipe came out a lot more cakey and has kept from hardening very well in the past week.  The modified recipe - well - warming them in the toaster oven makes them less hockey-puck like, but they are still dryer inside.  So, how does this work -  you put in more moist ingredients and the cookie dries out faster?  More research needed - sticking with the original basic persimmon/pumpkin cookie recipe as posted.

Persimmon Cookies

After reviewing 2 dozen recipes for persimmon cookies online, it seemed that they were all so very similar, despite claims of individual authorship or creation.  One website has three different persimmon cookie recipes - which all have the same ratio of the same ingredients!   For further analysis, I pulled about 18 of them into an excel spreadsheet and organized the ingredients so that I could see the patterns.  You can download my spreadsheet as a 2 page PDF (printable as horizontal-legal).

With few exceptions, the basic persimmon (or even pumpkin) cookie looks like this:

Basic Persimmon Cookie

• 2 c flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
  
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 c fat (shortening/butter)
• 1 c fruit, pureed
• 1 egg (or replacer of your choice)
• 1 c raisins
• 1 c nuts (optional)
  
• salt (from a pinch to 1 tsp)
• cinnamon (1/2 to 1 tsp)
• ground cloves (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)
  
• other spices - ground nutmeg, vanilla, cardamom

Instructions: cream sugar & fat.  Sift dry ingredients together in separate bowl.  Add persimmon & egg to creamed sugar/fat & reblend.  Add dry ingredients.  Add raisins.  Spoon onto cookie sheet, bake 12-15 minutes.

RESULT: I made a 4x batch of this recipe and my conclusions and taster responses are as follows:

• Scott: tastes like Thanksgiving/Xmas, can't tell if it's persimmon or pumpkin
• Scott's vegan co-worker: approved.
• Front neighbors: offered that if they were millionaires, they'd give me the start-up cash to go into business creating my own line of foods.
• Me:  too sweet and not persimmon-y enough.

After thinking about it - and running some ideas past my friend Lacey (author of "I Can't Believe It's Vegan" and partner in new vegetarian wine bar in Oakland called Encuentro) in a chat session last night - I decided on these modifications to the recipe, including omitting nutmeg.

Vegan Persimmon Cookies, Take 2

• 2 c AP flour
• 1/2 c Sucanat
• 1/4 c shortening
• 1.5 c persimmon pulp
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 T flax meal + 3 T water
• 1 c raisins
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cloves

Cream sugar & fat. Puree persimmon in blender, add baking soda/powder/salt/spices & blend again. Add persimmon to sugar/fat & cream again. Whip flaxseeds & water in blender or food processor til frothy. Add to wet mixture & combine thoroughly. Add flour & mix till combined, scraping the sides and bottom. Add raisins. Spoon onto silicone baking sheet liner with teaspoon, rounding batter with fingers or spatula. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Optional: top cookie with 1/4 tsp size of persimmon paste.

RESULT:  if you overbake, the cookies are a bit dry.  The persimmon flavor comes through a bit better; the cookies are more cake-y than crisp/chewy.  I am going to do another batch with 1/3 c shortening instead of 1/4 c to see if that improves texture a bit. I am also going to do a version with granulated maple sugar instead of Succanat.  I'll just update this blog entry instead of starting over.

Apple pie...

I have a love hate relationship with pie crust. When I try to follow directions, I end up with something I don't like as well as when I follow my instinct. I got everything - marble board, marble rolling pin, shortening, flour, water super cold, cold, cold. The first pie crust was such a bitch to roll out.

The second was better - the last two I let set out of the fridge longer and they were much easier. I think the first one didn't work so great because there were too big patches of shortening resulting in a few gaps in the crust. I didn't want to do double crust or lattice, I just rolled out the leftover pie crust dough and cut out heart shapes, putting 5 hearts on top of each pie.

After mixing the apples with the flour, sugar, spices and lemon, I let them set and then put them in the crust with a slotted spoon, leaving the juice in the pot. None of the pies overboiled and messed up my oven.

I cut up the rest of the pink apples for a batch of apple sauce which is a gorgeous light shade of pink.

YIELD:
4 - 9" apple pies
7 - 16 oz jars of unsweetened pink applesauce