Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup

It was a bummer when I found out that Starbucks puts dairy in their pumpkin spice flavoring. Lame, Starbucks, lame! I always look forward to the holiday coffees, especially the gingerbread latte. A couple of years ago, a friend got me hooked on the peppermint mocha. (No dairy in the mocha chocolate!) It's funny. I don't even drink coffee on a regular basis. I'm more of a tea girl, really. Even so, I usually treat myself to a holiday coffee once a week when they're out. Usually on a Friday, just to make that day a little better.

Well, last year I found out that I have a bit of a sensitivity to soy. I can have it every now and then, but then I have to steer clear of it for a few weeks before I can have it again. I've noticed that some things affect me more than others. Soy milk is pretty much a no-go now. For some reason that gets me every time, no matter how long it's been. Not many coffee shops offer any other alternatives to dairy and soy so I spent last holiday season longing for my seasonal lattes.

Last week as I was walking home from work, I decided to poke around Williams-Sonoma since it's on the way. It's always fun to look at the gadgets and baking pans and dream of owning a full set of Le Creuset pans. As I was poking around one of the sales people told me that there were a couple of tables of clearance items at the back that I might want to take a look at. It's mostly Thanksgiving stuff that they're getting rid of since we had that holiday a month ago and it's encroaching on the winter holidays now. I spied a bottle of pumpkin spice latte syrup on the table. I was immediately suspicious, assuming it would have ingredients in it that I don't want. But no!

The main ingredient is pumpkin puree with nothing else but real ingredients. No strange flavorings or anything like that. Oh, man. I really need to go back and pick up a couple more bottles, especially since it's on clearance. It tastes so good, too! I had some espresso powder in the cabinet that I use for baking sometimes so I made a little of that, heated some rice milk and added a couple tablespoons of pumpkin spice latte syrup. Yum! It tastes so amazing, really warm and comforting. Like drinking a pumpkin pie or something.

On another awesome note, I found out this morning that Blenz has almond milk now! (For those of you not in Canada, Blenz is like the Canadian Starbucks.)  Now to find a way to make a peppermint mocha at home...

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Buttery Sage Sauce

I used to have a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine.  I can't remember why I let it run out; I had been receiving that magazine every month for at least ten years.  I've been vegetarian or vegan for all of them, too.  I know there are some veg*ns that don't like reading some of the mainstream food magazines.  I totally get that.  For me, it's more of a source of inspiration.  As I'm reading the magazine, I'm not thinking that the thing on the page and in the recipe is beef, but seitan or tempeh.  I'm not reading about milk and cheese, my gears are turning with ways to make similar sauces and desserts and things using tahini and raw cashews.  The funny thing is that I actually stopped subscribing to Vegetarian Times because they were starting to really annoy me with how much cheese and eggs they were using in what seemed like every single recipe.  It just got old after a while.  Hey, guess what VT?  Eating fresh, whole fruits and vegetables is good for you and much less artery clogging than that crap.  Sheesh.

Anyway, I was at the checkout in the grocery store, waiting patiently in line.  I always read the magazine headlines for amusement while I'm waiting.  I don't usually know who the trash magazines are talking about, but it amuses me just the same.  There are really about 4 headlines, insert names here.  As I was scanning, I noticed the October issue of Bon Appetit had an amazing looking apple pie on the cover.  Yum!  The fall and winter issues were always my favorite anyway so I decided what the heck and on impulse, I bought it.  What a great decision.  I have made a bunch of recipes inspired by this issue.  A few of the recipes inside are already vegan, too.  Way to go, Bon Appetit!


One of the recipes that I've made my own that I've liked the most is the Butternut Squash Gnocchi.  I've only ever had gnocchi a few times and I've never tried to make it.  I try to eat with the seasons as much as possible so this sounded perfect.  Let me tell you, this is one delicious dish.  It was a bit time-consuming, but most of it was spent waiting for something to cool, not actually doing much of anything.  It's actually quite easy, too.


I'm going to give the recipe for the sauce I made here, too, but I have to say that I wasn't overly thrilled with how that turned out.  It was WAY too buttery for my liking.  I stayed pretty true to the Bon Appetit recipe for this part, but next time I'm going to make a creamy sauce using raw nuts or something instead of this.  I still have a bunch of gnocchi in the freezer so I'll be sure to post whenever I improve on the sauce.


That brings me to another point.  This is going to make a truckload of gnocchi.  I put half of it in the freezer so I'll have it for later.  You'll probably want to just half the sauce if you're doing that.  It makes a ton and unlike how I feel about most sauces, you'll want to go light on it.


Butternut Squash Gnocchi


According to Bon Appetit, this makes 6 servings.  They also give a good tip: "For perfect gnocchi, don't work the dough too much and add as little flour as possible.  It's okay if the dough is a little sticky."


1 1-pound butternut squash
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 12-14 ounce russet potato, peeled, quartered

¾ cup nutritional yeast, divided

150g silken or soft tofu (about half of a Mori-Nu pack or one of these)

1½ teaspoons nutmeg (freshly grated if you've got it)

1 teaspoon salt

1¾ cups (or more) all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400F.  Cut the squash lengthwise in half; discard seeds. Place squash halves, cut side up, on baking sheet and brush with oil. Roast until squash is very tender when pierced with a fork and browned in spots, about an hour and a half.  Cool the squash a bit so you don't burn yourself.  Peel the squash as best you can.  Break it into chunks (either with your hands or a knife) and put it in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.  Transfer it all to a medium sized pot.  Turn the heat to medium and stir constantly until the juices evaporate and the puree thickens, about 5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.  Take 1 packed cup of the puree for the gnocchi.  You can use the rest for something else.  Soup maybe?

Meanwhile, cook the potato in salted water until it's very tender, about 20 minutes.  Drain.  While the potato is warm, mash it using a fork or a potato ricer.  Don't use a processor or mixer for this step or the potato will get all gluey and you don't want that.  Take 2 cups of mashed potato for the gnocchi and use the rest for something else.

Process the tofu with a tablespoon of water in either a blender or food processor until it's smooth.  Mix the squash, potato, ½ cup of the nutritional yeast, tofu, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl.  Gradually add 1¾ cups flour, kneading the mixture gently in the bowl until it holds together and is almost smooth.  If it's too sticky, add more flour by the tablespoonfuls.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface; knead gently but briefly until just smooth.  Divide it into 8 equal pieces.

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.  Sprinkle the parchment lightly with flour.  Working with 1 dough piece at a time, roll the dough out onto a floured surface to about a ½-inch rope. Cut the rope crosswise into ¾-inch pieces (I found that to be about the width of the back of a fork).  Working with 1 piece at a time, roll gnocchi along the back of a fork dipped in flour, making ridges on 1 side with the tines.  Transfer gnocchi to the baking sheets.  Repeat with the remaining dough.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp towel and chill at least 1 hour.  You can do this up to 6 hours ahead if you need to.

Working in 2 batches, cook the gnocchi in a large pot of boiling, salted water until it's very tender, about 15 to 17 minutes.  Gnocchi will float to the surface before being fully cooked so don't be fooled!  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gnocchi to the sam parchment lined baking sheets.  Cover loosely and chill for up to 8 hours or go ahead and put it in bowls or on plates if your sauce is ready.

Buttery Sage Sauce

½ cup (1 stick) Earth Balance

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh sage

A couple of handfuls of shitake mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup pine nuts

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the Earth Balance over medium heat.  Drop in the mushrooms and saute them for about 5-8 minutes.  Add the sage and pine nuts, cook for another minute or so.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and ladle over the gnocchi.  Alternately, you can drop the gnocchi in the pan and warm it up in the sauce and spoon it out all together if you want.  

Sprinkle with the remaining nutritional yeast and enjoy!

Apple Pie Muffins

Let's keep the apple pie thing going a bit, shall we?  Apples are the perfect fruit for fall, anyway.  I always find myself baking tons of things with apples at this time of the year.  Ooh, and how I love some hot apple cider.  (with or without a dash of spiced rum.)

If you're feeling like you want something awesome and appley (is that even a word?) then you should really make these Apple Pie Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. They're awesome. But that's not really a surprise. I've yet to have anything from Isa that I didn't like. I think the things I've made most in VwaV are the muffins and soups, actually. But I digress.

These muffins are wonderfully moist and full of nice apple bits. If you sprinkle the batter with a bit of sugar after it's in the muffin cups, you'll get a bit of yummy crunch on the outside, too. I did that to some of them, but I didn't take photos of those for some reason.

Now go. Start making the perfect muffin for fall!  Your tummy will thank you.

Lunch at Sha-Lin Noodle House

I changed jobs not too long ago and that has greatly affected my lunchtime choices. I'm not really that far away, but it's enough that lunch is a bit more boring now. There is one really awesome veg*n place just a couple of blocks from work, but I'm trying not to go there too often so that I don't get sick of it. Also, lunch in this area is about twice the price. Yikes. If I have errands to run at lunch, I'll usually try to fit in the time to at least pick up some food from some of my old favorites. Yesterday when I found myself at City Hall getting a parking permit for my neighborhood, I was quite excited to find myself in and out quickly. That meant I could actually sit and enjoy lunch. Yay!

The Sha-Lin Noodle House has quickly become one of my favorite places to have lunch, especially on a cold and/or grey day. Not only can I get a full meal for less than $7 including tax, but it's absolutely delicious and so fresh. I pretty much have the same thing every single time I go there. Dragging noodles in soup with vegetables (and sometimes with tofu, too) in vegetable broth.  I especially love the little pot of hot chiles in oil on the table.  I always use at least two spoonfuls, which, really, I should have done after I took these photos, but oh well. 

One note - you do have to specify that you want the vegetable broth or else you'll end up with something else you probably don't want. The menu has a little picture of a bok choy next to everything that can be made vegetarian to help you. :) Actually, the menu is quite extensive. I should almost be ashamed of myself for not ordering anything different. Next time, I'll have to try to branch out a bit.

Here's what's especially special about this place: They make the noodles right there. There's actually a glass wall separating one part of the kitchen from the dining room so that you can watch them do it. The vegetables that are in the food are very, very fresh. They usually still have a bit of crunch to them. The bok choy is always that gorgeous bright green color it gets from a fresh steam. It's so appetizing even to look at. The bowl is huge. Whenever I eat here, I'm always full until dinner time with none of the 4:00 hunger that I can be prone to.

Fast, delicious, fresh and cheap. What more could you want in a lunch?

Comments and Elephants

Okay so this post really has nothing to do with elephants.  But isn't there some saying about elephants never forgetting?  I am clearly not an elephant.

I just realized that I haven't been getting any notifications about approving comments on posts for quite some time.  Dang it.  No more brownie fail, but now I've got comment fail.  I'm fixing it now, so if you commented at some point in the last 6 months (yikes) I'm sorry!  I didn't realize I wasn't getting notified about them.

I missed a vegan mofo post yesterday!  Comment fail and posting fail.  Really, though I was just too darned busy yesterday to post at all.  I'm going to try and make a few extra posts this weekend and keep them pending so I can just publish a post if I'm having one of those crazy days.  I'm determined to be an every day mofo!  hehe

Now here is a photo of some fall leaves since I think all posts should have photos.  I actually took this photo on my walk to work one morning.  The colors in Vancouver have been just amazing this year.  If you're interested in the rest of the photos I took that morning, you can find them in my Flickr set here.

The End of Brownie Fail

There are two things that I've never been able to make successfully; brownies and pancakes.  The pancakes usually taste okay, but they look like a crazy person made them, so I don't really sweat that one.  No matter how recipe I use, no matter how hard I try, I end up with brownie fail.  Yes, before you ask, I've tried everything.  I've used glass pans, metal pans, turned the oven up, turned the oven down, used less liquid, used more liquid, baked them for shorter or longer.  You might wonder why I keep trying when I know how these things are going to turn out.  I don't know, I just always hope that one day things will be different. 

Veganomicon saved brownies.  Seriously.  I've made these awesome brownies a bunch of times and they always come out fantastic. At first I was skeptical of blueberries in a brownie.  I have no idea why, but I made these with the blueberries the first time.  The cool thing about that is that you can't immediately recognize what fruit is in the brownie.  You just notice how unbelievably moist it is.  The cool thing about using jam as part of the sweetener is that the brownie doesn't taste like plain sugar.  Some people might like that, but I'm one of those people that tend to scrape frosting off of cupcakes leaving only a tiny bit.  I actually had a coworker once that would take my discarded frosting and eat it by itself.  That's kind of hilarious.

Go make these awesome fruity brownies.  I've tried using blueberries, raspberries and cherries so far.  All of them have turned out wonderful.  I even did a blueberry/raspberry mixture once when I had some leftover berries of each in the fridge.  Yum!  I think I might try using blackberries or even loganberries when they're in season next.  Yum!

One thing to keep in mind when making brownies - I have learned that using a metal pan versus a glass pan typically works out better.  If you're having epic brownie fail like I was, you might try making these in one of those pans.  You won't be sorry, I promise. 

Award Winning Hazelnut Apple Cider Pie

My winning pie.  We had to use aluminum pie plates for the contest, but usually I prefer to use a ceramic or glass pie plate.  I think the metal makes the crust taste a little strange.

And so the Vegan MoFo begins.  I'm determined to get back into updating this blog regularly, so this is just what I needed.  Well, I probably need a literal kick in the pants, but Vegan MoFo will have to do.  And now I'm going to have to watch my back as my friends come up behind and randomly kick me for the next few days reminding me that I asked for it...  I digress.  Back to vegan yumminess.

The Vancouver Farmers Market is awesome.  I mean, really, how could it not be, really?  Besides having quite a few markets around town in spring, summer and fall, there is also a winter market.  The winter market runs every single weekend this year, too!  Yay! (It's going to be Saturdays at Nat Bailey Stadium for any Vancouverites out there wondering how to get in on this.)  Not only can you get awesome produce, but the markets routinely have events.  There was an heirloom tomato festival and an apple festival at the markets this year for example.  The apple festival also had an apple pie contest which I decided to enter.  My pie was one of 8 pies in the contest and also the only vegan pie.  My vegan pie won the contest.  :)  

The lineup of pies in the contest.

The Hazelnut Apple Cider Pie that I entered is 100% my own recipe, crust and all.  I'm quite proud of it, actually.  I based it loosely on a Cherry Almond Pie that I made a couple of summers ago. I made an effort to use as many local ingredients as I could.  The apples and hazelnuts came from the farmers market and the cider is also a local brand.  If you don't have any hard cider or if you want a slightly different flavor, you can substitute the same amount of white wine and it'll turn out just fine.  The flavor will be a bit different though.  I did a taste test of fillings with some of my coworkers, one with cider and one with wine.  You'll want to add a bit more sugar if you're using wine unless you're using a sweet wine like a Riesling.  Alternatively, if you're serving this to kids, you can use just plain old apple cider, but make sure it's one that's made with only apple juice.  You don't want juice with added sugar or weird ingredients.

It's also important to us a really firm, crisp apple.  If you're not using the pink lady apples like I did, then I would suggest using granny smith.  If your apples are too soft, you'll end up with mush for the filling.

I won a Farmers Market canvas bag, 5 pounds of local apples and $50 in Farmers Market cash.  :)

Hazelnut Apple Cider Pie

Crust:
2 ¼ cups flour
¼ cup ground hazelnuts
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold, non-hydrogenated shortening (like Earth Balance)
1 Tablespoon non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
cold water to make ½ cup liquid

Filling:
¾ cup sugar
1 cup hard, dry cider (like Strongbow)
4 Tablespoon non-hydrogenated margarine
½ teaspoon vanilla extract or half of a vanilla bean
6 large pink lady apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:
2 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
¼ cup finely chopped hazelnuts

9” pie plate


To make the crust, sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the shortening into smallish pieces and cut into the flour mixture until it resembles course crumbs about the size of peas. Stir together the wet ingredients and add a few tablespoons at a time, mixing with a fork until all of the liquid has been incorporated. Give the dough a quick knead or three, you just want to make sure all the flour has been mixed in, you don't want to actually knead it much.

Divide the dough in half and flatten into discs. Cover them with plastic wrap or a damp paper towel and place them in the fridge for 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Once the dough is cold, take one of the discs and roll it out until it's large enough to fit into the bottom of your pie dish. Make sure there is a little bit of dough overlapping the edges of the dish so you can make a nice edge after you put the top bits on.  Put a piece of foil over the bottom crust and fill with pie weights (dried beans work for this, too).  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven, cool for a few minutes and carefully remove the foil and weights from the crust.

Meanwhile, start making the filling. In a large pot over medium heat, add the cider, brown sugar and apples.  Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove the lid and simmer for 10 more minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Again, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.  Gently fold in the cinnamon and vanilla.  Spoon the apple mixture into the pie plate.  Cut the non-hydrogenated margarine into small, pea-sized pieces and spread them out on top of the apples.  

Roll out the second half of the dough for the top crust.  If you’re not making a lattice crust, cut some small holes in the top crust so steam can escape.  

Now for the crust topping. Mix the non-dairy milk, sugar and hazelnuts in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for about 2 minutes and then immediately brush it onto the top crust of the pie. If you have one of those silicone brush thingies, this is an excellent use for it. The regular pastry brushes don't work as well since the sugar gets very thick. You can also use the back of a spoon to spread it around. Just make sure you work fast because the sugar is going to harden quickly as it cools and then you won't be able to spread it any longer.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let the pie cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!