Teeny Tiny Itsy Bitsy

August comes to a close and another Daring Bakers Challenge also comes to an end. This month brought me yet another delicious dessert I had never made before, chocolate eclairs. Now that I think on it I don't think I ever ate one pregan so this was extra special.

I started out in search of a vegan pate a choux recipe. I luckily found my match at Baking Love. The dough came together rather quickly and without much fuss. I ended up using this dough to make the most teeny tiny food yet. To make these really small just use a pastry bag with a large tip to pipe the dough onto the baking sheet into mini puffs or lil' eclairs. These will expand a little but not tons so you can gauge the size of your puff well by the raw dough.

Pate a Choux

1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or baking powder
2 Tb shortening or oil
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 Tb Ener-G egg replacer whipped until stiff with 1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare Ener-G egg replacer & water.

Stir together flour, vegan sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. In a saucepan, bring the non-dairy milk and oil to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the flour mixture all at once, return to heat, and reduce the heat to low. Stir constantly until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides and the spoon and is smooth. Working quickly, remove from heat and add the egg replacer in thirds, beating well after each addition until the dough is glossy, smooth, and pulls away from the sides.

Using a pastry bag, dispense the choux paste onto baking tray. Alternatively, you may use two spoons to form eclair shapes or simply drop spoonfuls to form puffs.

Bake for 10 minutes at 400F, then lower the heat to 350F for another 10 minutes. Turn oven off and allow to cool, with door slightly ajar, for another 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on racks before serving or filling.

Custard

1/3 c sugar
2 Tb flour
1/4 c cornstarch
1/4 c water
1 1/3 c nondairy milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, flour, starch and water in a blender and blend until smooth, transfer to a bowl or measuring cup. Alternatively combine in a bowl and beat until smooth.

In a medium saucepan bring milk to a simmer over medium high heat. Pour about 1/2 c of the hot milk into the sugar mixture and whisk to combine. Add this mixture into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk. Heat this mixture over medium low heat whisking constantly until it begins to bubble. Remove from heat.

Transfer to a bowl and cover to cool to room temperature. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Chocolate Glaze

100g (3.5 oz) bar semisweet chocolate
1 tsp vegetable shortening (optional)

Melt chocolate and shortening in double boiler stirring until smooth.

Assembly

Split your pastries on the horizontal. Place bottoms aside and the tops on a rack over parchment.
Glaze should be barely warm, pour or spoon over tops to cover each evenly.
Pipe or spoon custard into the bottoms, don't be afraid to mound it up.
Place tops over the custard and enjoy!

Heirlooms

Now this is a thing of beauty!

After my last post on the Vegan Hundred and reading a few comments on other lists the question came up "what are heirloom tomatoes?" These are heirloom tomatoes. I usually say the uglier the better but it's totally not true. The ones on top look like they have been painted with water colors. These came from the Burlington Farmer's Market. I can't resist, the tomato season won't be around forever.

Beyond the beauty and interesting visuals the taste is amazing. Here is where I say if it's huge and ugly don't be afriad of it. The big ugly ones are soooo good! The little ones you end up eating before you could begin to think of a dish or salad to use them in.

I've grown some of the sun gold, black (the purple-ish ones), and white (the light yellow ones on the right side) cherry toms in my little garden.
These big guys go a purple burgandy but stay half green. They are a good thick tomato. Great for slicing.

The Vegan's Hundred

The Omnivore's Hundred inspired Bittersweet to create a vegan version.

The Vegan's Hundred is spreading in the vegan blogosphere as we all consider, "would I eat that?" or even "what is that?"

So as instructed:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!

1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie
3. Tofu Scramble
4. Haggis
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut
50. Seaweed
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough

Firstly let me get the scotch bonnet thing out of the way. I've felt the heat of a raw raw scotch bonnett. I would have to be paid a significant amount of money to do that. Or maybe take the most miniscule amount per day until it was gone. Might take a year to finish.

I'm over halfway done the list already just by accident. 42 left if my count is correct. A couple things were lucky circumstance. Working for a coffee shop gave me Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee (wasn't cheap though) and a Christmas party I went to once with an ex featured some expensive wines. I couldn't tell you what they were but he wasn't worried about the price tag.

Mara, we need to take a little weekend trip to New York so I can get this Candle 79 thing out of the way. It will be a chore but sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

Thanks to the Samosaman not only have I had a good, authentic samosa but he resently added fried plantains to his farmers market stand. I'll get some tomorrow.

Ice Cream!

So I managed to get my hands on a new kitchen gadget. I've never had an ice cream maker and never used one before but after reading a few reviews I knew it would be a pretty safe purchase. I went for the Cuisinart with their reputation and most people seemed to like it over all. I've used it a couple times now and I have to say. This is a good machine. It does exactly what it should. It's not overly loud and as long as you follow the directions you have ice cream in 30 mins to 1 hr.

I haven't come up with a library of recipes yet but believe you me they will be coming. I love this thing! Vegan ice cream pretty much whenever I want it. No added crap. Flavors that may be hard to find, or impossible in vegan versions. Oh yes, there will be much ice cream. I suspect I will go back up to the pant size I just went down from. Who the hell thinks vegans are skinny?

My first creation you ask? This recipe was inspired by my husbands pregan love for Haagen Dazs Rum Raisin ice cream and my stumbling across the blog A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise made this my first "complex" recipe. I say complex lightly because it wasn't difficult. Yes, it can be improved but this came out damn good. I'd buy it.

Rum Raisin Ice Cream

3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup dark rum
1 14oz can coconut milk
1 1/5 cup soy milk (or other nondairy milk)
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tb arrowroot (or cornstarch)
1 tsp vanilla

Soak the raisins in the rum for at least 1 hour but up to overnight. The longer you soak the better.
Mix 1/4 cup of the soymilk with the arrowroot, set aside.
Heat the coconut milk, remaining soy milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Once the mixture is near a boil mix in the arrowroot mixture. The mixture should begin to thicken. Once this happens remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool.
Once the mixture has reached room temperature, drain the raisins reserving 1/4 cup of the rum.
Mix the rum into the milk mixture.
Freeze the cream in your ice cream maker according to the instructions. Add the raisins in 5 mins before the end of the freezing cycle.

I had to freeze mine in the freezer for an additional 10 mins to get a scoopable ice cream rather than a soft serve consistency.