Dried Fruit Foccacia

At Central Market, they have this wonderfully delicious white chocolate apricot bread. It's fluffy, ever so slightly sweet & simply divine to the taste buds - sweet breads have always been appealing to me. Other than sampling a slice here & there at the store, the challenge was not eating it, but recreating this bread at home. I spent most of Friday looking for a recipe, but it's difficult to search for a recipe which will replicate the texture & taste from the store...especially since I can't sample the online recipes, plus I lack bread making experience. The bread is soft, light, moist & yeast is listed on the ingredients. I did find a bread recipe that contained dried fruit - I figured that was as close as I was going to get. Dried fruit focaccia on Martha Stewart & Baking Bites. I baked mine in a 9-inch cake pan & the bread came out moist, but I'm not sure if that's what it's supposed to taste like. Mine didn't look like the pictures on the other websites. I used extra-virgin coconut oil, added lemon zest & nutmeg.

**Concord Grape Focaccia

Zucchini Muffins

Susan's vegan zucchini muffins. I reduced the amount of granulated sugar & slightly increased the amount of agave nectar - the muffins did not come out sweet enough. :( I used brown sugar for the crumb topping. The muffins were moist, tender & embodied a distinct zucchini flavor.

St. Valentine's Day

Valentine's is overrated...it's mostly about flowers, chocolate & everything sweet. What a great day for florists, candy corporations like Hershey's & whoever markets Valentine goodies. Although all the sweets can make you sick to your stomach, I still like to participate. :)
It's not economical to be giving out flowers to everyone, but chocolate, cookies & candy can be quite affordable. So on Valentine Eve, begun my quest to making shortbread sandwiches & easy peanut butter cups. The peanut cups were so easy to put together, unfortunately I can't say the same about the shortbread sandwiches. They were so labor intensive, I had to forgo trying the chocolate sandwiches. The variety would have been nice, but the work, probably not so nice. Because the shortbread dough was so buttery & delicate, I had to stick it in the fridge in between rolling & cutting to allow the dough to firm up enough to handle.

Chili Cook-Off

We're having a chili cook-off at work tomorrow, so may initial plan was to pull together a delicious award-winning vegetarian chili...after one chili cooking trial, I decided on contributing cornbread instead. Chili is way too much work, plus I'd have to borrow my mother's large pot & large crock-pot. Since it's necessary to provide enough for a crowd of 30, mini muffins seemed quite appropriate & convenient - Mini Cornbread Pudding & Mini Cornbread Muffins. I wanted to try both recipes since one uses mostly sour cream & the other incorporates, butter, buttermilk & sour cream. The pudding was definitely moist & rich, while the muffins tasted more like regular cornbread with a stronger corn-y taste. Both were delicious & definitely winners! Of course I couldn't serve cornbread with just corn, so I spiced it up by adding garlic powder, finely chopped onion & jalapeno (seeded of course). Although I didn't win first place for the best chili, I definitely deserved honorable mention. :)

Lunar New Year

To celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year - Almond Cookies. This cookie is light, flaky & very similar in flavor to the store-bought Almond Cookies you can find at the Asian supermarkets, although not as hard or crunchy. Definitely reminiscent of the cookies I used to eat as a little girl. High quality ingredients resulted in cookies that tasted so fresh & yummy.

I also made Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, my friend said these were her favorite & I hope she still thinks that after eating my cookie. The cookie is dense & moist - a good mix between a brownie & chocolate cake. I added a little espresso powder & the chocolate flavor was enhanced, intense & rich. After flattening the cookie, next time, I'll give the cookie a second dip into the powdered sugar.

Yay...celebrating a successful bake date to kick start the Lunar New Year! :)

Taro Muffin

Used Vegan with a Vengence's best ever pumpkin muffin recipe & made Taro Muffins. Substituted pumpkin puree with taro puree - which isn't necessarily the best substitution as taro has a very thick & cornstarchy texture, so I had to add a little extra liquid. The addition of a small amount of coconut extract overpowered the taro flavor. The taro was only in the background & not prominent as preferred.

Muffin Cookie

For some strange odd reason, I thought these were going to taste like granola - crunchy, hardy & chewy - & nutritious too, no refined sugar (there isn't a good description of the texture of the cookies, just a picture)! Man, I had some high expectations. Somehow mine came out softer & more muffin-like - instead of just raisins, I also used prunes & dates & I didn't have any apple juice, so I used rice milk, I also didn't have regular whole rolled oats, so had to used quick-cook rolled oats. These would be perfect if I were in the mood for some soft muffin-tops, but I never am! I THINK I was hoping for something similar to these Ginger Pecan Oatmeal Crisps minus the egg, nuts & refined sugar! My boyfriend said he'll eat these as "cereal" with rice/oat milk.

~*~
Oatmeal Muffin Cookies
1 cup raisins (prunes, raisins & dates)
1 cup apple juice (rice milk)
1/4 cup coconut oil (4 tblspns)

1 cup oat flour
1 cup whole grain oatmeal
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

1 cup dried fruit, etc (cranberries, raisins, carob chips)

• Blend raisins, etc + apple juice & oil in a food processor for about 1 minute.
• In a large bowl, combine oat flour, oatmeal, soda, cinnamon & salt. Whisk to combine.
• Fold in apple juice puree & dried fruit, etc.
• If dough is too wet, add some more flour or oats. Refrigerate dough for about 15 - 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven 375F. Line cookie sheets & set aside.
• Spoon onto cookie sheet & press down to flatten cookies. Bake 15- 18 minutes, till golden brown.
  

Sticky Buns/Cinnamon Buns

After watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay twice - Episode Sticky Buns, I had to have some! I didn't try Joanne Chang's or Bobby Flay's recipe, although I would like to give it a try in the near future. Somehow I was led to Anita's Sticky Buns - her beautiful pictures enticed me!
In my humble opinion, the sticky buns were good (if caramel not overcooked), but the cinnamon buns were a little bland & lacking in complexity (even though I increased the zest, extract, etc). Complexity meaning flavor, richness & wow factor. To me, the amount of spices, zest and/or extracts & butter need to be bumped up a level. If I'm going to spend many many hours putting together a yeast dough, it better be darn good & worth it, in this particular case - meaning more butter & spices! For next time, following Joanne's recipe, I'll probably try a brioche dough & following Flay, I'll probably slather on some butter, a lot of spices & up the zest. I'm sure the addition of nuts would be wonderful, but I'm trying to avoid roasted nuts - maybe raw nuts sprinkled on the gooey goo after the buns come out of the oven. Although the end result may not have been the best ever, nonetheless, there's always something special about homemade goodies that make them taste very heart warming & comforting.