Isolation Baking

During my two months of isolation, I did some baking. Not uncommon under the circumstances, as long as there was flour to be found! I didn't make bread, I stuck to baked goods. But I also didn't do that much baking, I ended up relying on store-bought biscuits and treats a lot because motivation was hard to come by. But still, this is a little post for the things that I did actually bake during that time.

ANZAC Biscuits from World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan: ANZAC day fell during my time at home, and one must have ANZAC Biscuits on ANZAC day. I decided to try this recipe, which was good. Instead of 24 little biscuits, I made 12 big ones and baked for a little longer. They came out chewy and tasty. The recipe says you can use agave nectar or golden syrup, but any Australian knows that golden syrup is the ONLY choice!
Rating: :)



Easy Applesauce Snack Cake from The Abundance Diet by Somer McCowan: In the early times, we were able to get grocery deliveries but they only offered a limited amount of products and they would automatically sub if they were out. So one day instead of getting my nice regular flour, I got some Coles brand gluten free flour. Sigh. I made this applesauce cake that was meant to be made gluten free, using my gluten free flour instead of making Somer's gluten free flour blend in the book. The Coles GF flour is not great, it is pretty much just rice flour, and definitely gives things a certain texture. This recipe also had a lot of baking powder, and I could taste it coming out of the oven. Let it sit overnight, it is much better the next day. I used sweetened apple sauce and a mix of date and maple syrups, and I left out the stevia because that stuff is gross. I also used mixed spice instead of cinnamon because I had run out - horror of horrors! This is good sliced thick and spread with peanut butter, and maybe a scoop of ice cream if you want to make it dessert-like.
Rating: :) (but leave it until the day after baking to eat)



Walnut Brownies from I Can Cook Vegan by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: Truthfully, I am not that big a fan of walnuts. But I am a fan of being able to buy crumbed walnuts that are ready to add into things without chopping. I vastly prefer pecans, but they need chopping and sometimes that is just energy one does not have. I made a half recipe of this brownie recipe in a 4 x 8 inch pan, and cut it into five brownie slices. Isa loves her damn coconut oil, but I used Nuttelex instead. This has melted chocolate as part of the batter, so you know it is going to be fudgy and delicious, even with walnuts!
Rating: :)



Bananana Cinnamon Swirl Muffins from I Can Cook Vegan by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: This recipe makes 6 jumbo sized muffins, so pull out your big capacity muffin pan. I only had enough spare banana to make a half batch, so three muffins. Again, I had to replace the coconut oil - this time with canola oil. The muffins are made by layering batter with the cinnamon swirl (again, I used canola oil for the cinnamon mix, not coconut), and then swirling. It was meant to have a total of four batter layers, but I found I only made three layers. Regardless, these are wonderful and the cinnamon swirl was a delight.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Tahini Quick Bread from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: Tahini provides the fat and oil content for this not-too- sweet bread. I used regular flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour and skipped the optional coconut milk powder. This rose very high in the 4 x 8 pan I used, I might look at using a 9 x 5 instead. It said to bake for 65 minutes, but mine was done after 55, which is unusual for my oven to be done ahead of time. I like the flavour of this, though I did find it a bit dry.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



More sleeping Dim Sim, such a sleeping beauty.