Whole Grain Spelt Lamington's

Baking, admittedly, is one of my weaker cooking skills and something I have been trying to remedy. Now, I am not the biggest fan of baked goods, I enjoy them yes, but there is always too much, and I am truly satisfied with a simple piece of fresh fruit. However, I enjoy the act of baking, and since Brett and my co-workers happily eat the goods I make, I continue on trying.

This weekend I made Lamington's. I had never had a Lamington until making them over the weekend. These little cakes covered in chocolate and rolled in coconut originate in either Australia or New Zealand; apparently there is some contention between the two nations as to where the Lamington is "indigenous" to. After making them, I can understand why they would want to fight over the bragging rights to these delicious cakes. I decided to make them as I thought trying my hand at coating a cake with frosting would be a good way to improve my skill, I had some organic shredded coconut still hanging around from the rice crispy treats I made over last winter, and Brett is a chocolate fanatic - up to this point I have been mostly working with spiced breads and pumpkin - so chocolate seemed the way to go.

I modified this recipe from Joy of Baking to make it whole grain, dairy free, and more to our tastes, so I might have taken away from the authenticity of the Lamington's, but we thought they were super good. The original recipe yielded 16 Lamington's, but after cutting my cake into 16 pieces, I realized that Lamington's were a lot bigger than I thought they would be. I was imagining little bite-sized treats, but after cutting them into 16 squares, I realized I was going to have something more on par with the size of a Little Debbie Snack Cake. So I decided to cut the pieces smaller, which I also believe made the chocolate dipping and coconut rolling easier than it would have been with the larger cakes. Not to mention they are more of a finger food this way.

These would be great to take to a holiday potluck or family gathering, or even on a Sunday when you have folks over for football. Who doesn't like bite-sized treats?

Note: The assembly process is a lot easier if you have two people working on it. I enlisted the help of Brett for this part, and I must say, he did a far better job of dunking the cake pieces in to the chocolate than I did. I would have made quite the mess had I done this all on my own. Also, using my method of making bite-sized Lamington's you will yield far more than 16. I cannot even count how many Lamington's this made - tons - so make sure you have plenty of willing mouths to feed these too - these being cake covered in chocolate, I doubt that will be too difficult.

















The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Whole Grain Spelt Lamington's

Cake:

2 cups whole grain spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/4 cup safflower oil
2 eggs (or egg replacer) *
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain rice milk

Chocolate Frosting:

4 cups confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3 tbsp Earth Balance
1/2 cup plain Hempmilk ++ (not local, but from a local store)

Coating:

2 cups organic shredded coconut

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray an 8x8 pan with oil spray.

Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Using an electric mixer, slowly add in the wet ingredients.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick or knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

Allow to cool completely.

Transfer to a cutting board. Cut into large squares.

Cut each square in half, then in half again length-wise, then in half on more time.

Put in the fridge to cool for a few hours, this will make coating them easier.

For the frosting:

Prepare a pan of boiling water.

Get a smaller, stove safe bowl and mix together sugar and cocoa powder.

Add the Earth Balance and milk. Stir well.

Place in the pan of boiling water, carefully stirring until well blended.

For the coating:

Spread the coconut out on a plate.

To assemble:

(Brett and I did this together, it might be a slightly difficult one person project, but I think it can be done.)

We started an "assembly line" to do this part. We had our cold cake bits, chocolate, and coconut spread out, with a wire cooling rack at the end of our counter.

Using a toothpick, grab a piece of cake and carefully dunk it into the chocolate.

Trasfer to plate of coconut and roll on all four sides. Move to the wire rack to cool completely.

Once completely cooled, place in airtight containers between layers of parchment paper.

Did I mention these are whole grain? While this isn't health food by any stretch of the imagination, you can at least rest knowing that you are getting some good fiber into your system while enjoying a tasty snack cake!

'Til next time!

"Everything" Granola Bars (Vegetarian)

My first attempt at making granola bars was a few weeks ago. It went so-so - hence why I never blogged about it. The granola turned out and tasted fantastic, but it didn't really work as "bars". I pressed them, let them set, and then removed them from the pan to cut them, at which point, it all fell apart. I was a little disappointed, but it was tasty homemade granola, so I enjoyed it as is, and decided I would try again...sometime...

Time got away from me a little bit, I had other endeavors I wanted to try and honestly, I kind of forgot about them, and got into the habit of buying Herbal Oats granola bars from the farmer's market or The Root Cellar to have for work. Then last week, I picked up a granola bar from the local Uprise Bakery (where we usually get our beloved ciabatta from), and it was the best granola bar I had ever had - seriously - so good. So I saved the label with the ingredients listed on it so I could try again, this time using Uprise's combination of seeds, nuts, and other goodies.

I am happy to say that they not only set and held together, they taste almost just like the granola bars from Uprise. These are a lot cheaper than the $2.50 a pop Uprise granola bars, and I was able to use some local ingredients to make them. And we all know that local ingredients make everything better, right? :-)

I have been enjoying these for my breakfasts at work and Brett has been enjoying them at home - though it seems he is also eating them as snacks too. And Brett isn't a huge nut/seed fan, so his eating them for snacks says a lot about how good they are. I think I might start making my own granola bars for work breakfasts - at least until some California clementines become available. Between the months of November and February, Brett and I almost turn into clementines. I kid you not when I say I was bringing 6-10 to work with me a day and eating them all last year at this time. Now I know clementines are small, but that is a lot of fruit! No wonder I didn't get sick very often last winter!

There I go, off on a tangent again. You would figure I talk people's ears off - Brett yes - but pretty much everyone else gets a fairly mute Jennifer. I guess when I am typing my long-winded nature really shows through. If I wasn't so shy and didn't have such "out there" opinions, I would likely talk it up more, but alas, that is not the case, so you all get to deal with my long-winded typing.

















The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

"Everything" Granola Bars

1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup chopped pecans *
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 ground flax seeds
1/2 cup regular rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup honey *
1 cup smooth natural peanut butter +
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400.

Layer all the nuts and oats except the sesame seeds on a baking sheet.

Toast for 5 minutes. Shake pan and add sesame seeds.

Toast another 3-5 minutes, keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Meanwhile, combine honey, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt over low heat in a small sauce pan.

In a large bowl, combine the dry and wet mixtures.

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper.

Spread mixture in pan and press down firmly to get the granola to stick together.

Cool completely and cut into squares (ours made about 12).

Store in an air tight container for 3-5 days.

These rocked and have made excellent breakfasts. Yum!

'Til next time.

Pasta, Sprouts, and Pretentious Rice Crispies

For dinner tonight was simple baked tofu and spinach pasta. I adapted this from a Vegetarian Times recipe for Garlicky Tofu. The original recipe called for much too much garlic for my taste (and I like garlic!), prebaked tofu (I can bake the tofu myself, thank you, it takes 20 minutes), and not enough spinach. This recipe was very simple and very filling. I used a different pasta this time, an organic whole grain pasta with flax, and neither of us were particularly sent by it. But the rest was good, so I’ll do this again, but with a different pasta.

I used the Veganomicon recipe for Italian Marinated Tofu and baked it, the above stated not-anything-to-write-home-about pasta, an entire bag of fresh baby spinach steamed, and store bought mushroom onion marinara. It only took about a half hour to cook, and it was healthy and so-so (we mostly ate around the noodles and there was plenty of spinach to allow for it).

I also tried Lizzy’s Roasted Mustard Brussels Sprouts again and they turned out much better. I made a lot more mustard sauce, and it had too much zip, so I added a little agave and that smoothed it out. I basted the sprouts again about half way through cooking time, and I think that helped with the flavor as well. Yum!

I felt like baking tonight, but not really baking. Anyone else ever feel that way? What to do, eh? I decided to make vegan rice crispy treats, as, well, this is ‘baking’ without baking. I made what I like to call a ‘Pretentious Rice Crispy Treat’ as I added chopped hazelnuts, diced dried apricots, and shredded coconut to them. Brett and I discovered this lovely flavor combination from a box of organic granola bars we bought a bit back. Both of us had been wondering where else we could use this flavor combination. We came up with two ideas, a rice crispy treat or oatmeal (super creative I know).

I found a product called ‘Ricemellow Cream’ at the store and it’s vegan with no hydrogenated oils or sugars added. So I decided to try it out, and it’s pretty good and makes a mean crispy treat.

J’s Pretentious ‘Not Your Momma’s’ Rice Crispy Treat
1 10 oz box organic puffed brown rice cereal
1-2 tubs Suzanne’s Ricemellow Cream (or other marshmallow substitute)
1-2 tbsp Earth Balance (I like the organic whipped variety)
handful of chopped hazelnuts
lots of organic dried apricots, diced
1 cup (or more) shredded coconut (I used organic reduced fat)

Pour cereal in a large bowl.

Heat Earth Balance and ricemellow cream in a sauce pan until they begin to melt. Add the hazelnuts, apricots, and coconut and stir well.

Once melted, pour over puffed brown rice and stir.

Spread mixture into a 9x13 pan and let sit until cooled. Cut into squares.

Yum!

These were really easy and quick, between dinner and these treats I was in the kitchen for less than an hour. Nice.

So, before I close, I had to let people know that Brett finally started a blog! I am so happy he did. I can tell you, it definitely has nothing to do with food (though I’m sure he [or I as I may post on his blog from time to time] may broach the topic of veg*nism at least once). His points of view are – well, different, but not far out there or unreasonable (as are, I believe, my own). I have always thought Brett has a great way of articulating his opinions on things, so I am happy others get to enjoy (or fume at) his musings as well. If anyone dares, they can pop over and check it out. That is my plug, but seriously, I’m stoked, I love a good debate as much as the next person and hope to see some lively discussion going on around some important and touchy issues. Sometimes you have to get uncomfortable and really rethink some fundamental things to really get somewhere. These are just, of course, my humble opinions, but I thought I’d share.

Well, anyways.

‘Til next time!