Tea Time Cupcakes

One of my favorite things is sipping tea while snacking on some juicy strawberries. Earl grey tea seems to be making it's way into a lot of popular dessert recipes and I wanted to get in on the action. I decided I would make strawberry cupcakes and top them with a creamy earl grey frosting. Surprisingly, it was really hard to find a recipe for strawberry cupcakes. I found a lot of recipes using box cake mix and jello mix, which is kind of gross and not what I was looking for. The other recipes where just vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting. After searching around some more, I decided to use a vanilla cupcake recipe and alter it.

Alright, so how did they turn out? Just okay. The cupcakes don't taste like earl grey tea at all. They are very faintly strawberry, not what I had planned. I didn't write this into the recipe because it didn't end up making a difference; I thought if I "juiced" some of the strawberries through a fine mesh sieve, it would make the batter pink and taste more like strawberry. I think I would have had to add a lot of juice to make this actually work and I don't know how that would affect the liquid ratios in the recipe. The cupcakes do taste really good, but just not as flavorful as I wanted them to be. The texture turned out well, the tops are kind of crunchy and the insides are fluffy and moist.

Okay, on to my next "fail": The frosting. I don't really like butter cream. Why did I decide to make it today? I think I was feeling kind of lazy and butter cream seemed to be the answer. My mixer isn't working properly, so the classic 7 Minute frosting was out because I knew my arm would fall off if I tried to whip it to perfection by hand. Anyway, I made the frosting with butter, a little whole milk, powdered sugar, a very small pinch of salt, vanilla, and some pink gel food coloring. It looked awesome, super smooth and creamy. It was kind of too sweet for my taste though. So then I added some earl grey tea and some finely chopped strawberries. I folded them in and something terrible happened. I don't know exactly what though. The frosting kind of...broke. I don't know if it started separating because I over whipped it, or if I should have whipped it more after adding the strawberries, or even if the liquid from the strawberries didn't incorporate. After mixing and tasting and adding and tasting, I feel totally sick. I over did it. And now I have 22 cupcakes and a ton of gross looking butter cream. Ugh.

a nice close up of my gross looking frosting

Tea Time Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup finely diced strawberries
1/2 tablespoon finely ground earl grey tea (I used one teabag)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and tea together in a medium bowl.

3. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar, creaming until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Fold in strawberries.

5. In a small bowl, combine the milk and vanilla.

6. To the butter mixture, add about one quarter of the flour mixture and mix well. Add about one quarter of the milk mixture and mix well. Continue alternating the flour mixture and milk mixture, beating after each addition until smooth.

7. Pour the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.

8. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn the cupcakes out of the tins and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Vegan Banana Quinoa Muffins

Yesterday I made muffins. This recipe for quinoa muffins looked interesting but a little boring. I added the use of whole wheat flour and made them vegan with a few changes. The muffins came out really moist and dense. The quinoa made them kind of nutty, which is awesome with the banana.

This photo is from the original recipe, with rasins and all purpose flour.
This gives you a good idea of the texture.
image from MSLO

This recipe made a lot of muffins, so after scooping the batter into muffin liners, I froze some of the un-cooked muffins. Every time I make something and tell Kyle it is in the freezer, we both have to laugh a little bit, because I am serious, it is an obsession. It is so easy to bake off a few goodies at a time, they just need a few minutes longer in the oven. Wrap the frozen muffins tightly and bake within a month or two so they don't get freezer burnt.

Also, I made the quinoa the night before, so it was cool when I mixed the ingredients together. This seemed easier and made more sense to me. I made a little extra and made awesome veggie burgers. Instead of making a yogurt sauce, I crumbed some feta into the mixture.

Something about baking vegan has been really fun, like a science experiment. So far, all of my recipe "improvements" have turned out great. It's also nice to know that I can share all of these treats with all my friends no matter what their eating habits.

Sorry, no photos...I was too concentrated on the muffins.

Vegan Banana Quinoa Muffins
makes 18 muffins

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes
2. Meanwhile, line muffins tins with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, pecans, pumpkin pie spice, and 2 cups cooked quinoa; reserve any leftover quinoa for another use.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, soy milk, mashed banana, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 5 days.

Vegan Cranberry-Cornmeal Quick Bread

This weekend I am going to New York and finally get to visit to Babycakes! Kyle and I will be visiting some great people and my personal goal is to eat and drink my way through Brooklyn. I don't think it should be hard; we have some great places lined up to try.

My friend Brenna will be checking on our crazy cats over the weekend and I wanted to bake something to share with her. I started with this recipe from Epicurious but knew I wanted to make it so Betsy, who has dairy allergies, could eat it as well. Then I realized that I should really just go all the way and make it vegan. This was my first attempt to take a conventional recipe and replace multiple dairy ingredients to make it vegan. So here is the new and improved recipe!

Vegan Cranberry-Cornmeal Quick Bread
makes 2 loaves

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups cornmeal
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 cups soymilk "buttermilk", add 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes to make soy-buttermilk
1 cup Earth Balance, melted
1 cup pure maple syrup
1 very ripe banana, mashed
2 tablespoons flax seeds plus 6 tablespoons water, whisk in bowl with fork
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
raw sugar for sprinkling tops of loaves

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Spray 2 9x5x3-inch metal loaf pans with nonstick spray. Whisk both flours, cornmeal, wheat germ, sugar, salt, and baking powder in large bowl. Whisk soy-buttermilk, melted "butter", maple syrup, mashed banana, flax seed paste, and extract in medium bowl. Combine liquids with flour mixture; stir just until blended. Stir in chopped pecans and cranberries. Spoon batter into pans. Sprinkle tops of loaves with raw sugar.

Bake bread until top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean, tenting bread loosely with foil if browning too quickly, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 20 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack; cool.

For more information on vegan baking replacements look at the Post Punk Kitchen

Rosemary Crackers

For the second week of my Bakeshop Wednesday project I really wanted to make a whole wheat sourdough. However, I forgot to look at the recipe before I went to Whole Foods yesterday. I need to get some rye flour and maybe attempt the bread next week. I looked at recipes all day trying to find one that I had all the ingredients for because I didn't want to go back to the store. While having tea at my friend Betsy's house I was looking though a cook book she had all about pizza and bread. I found a super simple cracker recipe. I kind of scribbled the recipe down and don't remember the name of the cook book, but since I changed a few things anyway I think it's okay.

Delicious Simple Crackers

10.5 ounces of all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons sunflower oil
6 tablespoons olive oil
8 tablespoons luke warm water
rosemary
sea salt
Italian seasoning mix (mine has oregano, red pepper flakes, basil, garlic powder, etc.)

Mix flour, oils, water, and a good pinch of all the seasonings in a large bowl. Mix up with your hands until incorporated. Transfer dough to work surface and knead until smooth. The dough should be oily enough that it doesn't stick, but add flour to your work surface if you need it. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Roll out dough as thin as possible (I probably could have rolled mine even thinner). Sprinkle with more seasonings and cut into "cracker sized" pieces. I lightly sprayed a baking sheet with olive oil spray then laid all the crackers on the sheet. Bake for 5-6 minutes; mine didn't brown very much. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Somehow I had a great deal of self-control and didn't eat all of the crackers (with hummus) before Kyle got home. I could have finished all of them and pretended the whole thing never happened. However, these things are so good I wanted to share them. They are softer than crackers you would buy at the store...I might try using the pizza stone next time and that might make the texture different. Also, I might have to try a mix of whole wheat flour and some sesame seeds. It will be pretty amazing if these crackers make it another 15 minutes in our apartment.

Sourdough: trial one

Every Wednesday I am going to bake something I have never made before. This week I started with a very basic sourdough. I got a sourdough starter from a friend and have been feeding it for several days. Everything seemed to be going well but my loaf turned out really flat. It has a good texture but just didn't hold it's shape very well. Also, I didn't slash the dough deep enough so it cracked, which I think contributed to it's flatness. Anyway, it's my first loaf of sourdough and I am proud of it even if it's kind of ugly.

Next week I might try a seeded whole wheat sourdough. I need to do some research on how the dough will hold it's shape better and I might get better results.

Kyle brought me these flowers this weekend. I think this little shelf was made just for them--the cats can't reach it!

Brenna came over this morning for banana-pecan pancakes; I added flax seed and wheat germ which turned out really well and made me feel a little better about cake for breakfast. I bought this delicious butter pecan syrup it was awesome with the pancakes.