Peanut Butter Chocolate Hi-Hat Cupcakes May 18, 2013

Love chocolate and peanut butter together? So do I. Yum. However, I’m not a huge cupcake fan. I’ll eat them, sure, but if I’m making something for myself, I would more likely make a tart, ice cream, candy, or cookies. I made these for a lab meeting at work, though, and my colleagues love cupcakes – especially any featuring chocolate.

Sink your teeth into these chocolatey cupcakes topped with whipped peanut butter icing and chocolate shell.

So yummy… when you bite into them, you get a creamy, nutty surprise:

These would be perfect for a fancy occasion like a birthday party or for a potluck.

 

Agent Minty’s Peanut Butter Hi-Hat Cupcakes

Makes 18 medium cupcakes

Quick rich chocolate cupcakes (modified from Joy of Cooking)

• 2 1/4 cups of white flour
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 9 Tbsp cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups cold water
• 1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
• 6 Tbsp canola oil
• 1.5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Combine water, coffee granules, oil, vinegar, and vanilla
3. Pour liquid ingredients into dry and mix until smooth.
4. Pour into cupcake liners.
5. Bake at 350F for 17-19 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool for at least 45 minutes.

Peanut butter whipped frosting

To get the creamiest consistency, I recommend using the cheap no-stir homogenized peanut butter. I use the natural stuff on my toast, but it’s famous gritty texture will interfere with your frosting here.

• 3 1/2 Tbsp margarine (any kind is fine)
• 2.5 Tbsp of smooth peanut butter
• 3/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 1/3 c icing sugar
• 5 Tbsp almond milk

1. Cream together the first four ingredients.
2. Add in icing sugar 1 cup at a time, alternating with milk.
3. Whip until a mousse-like texture has been achieved
4. Transfer to a piping bag with a large tip  and place a large dollop on top of each cupcake.
   • Alternatively, use a spoon or a freezer bag with the corner cut off.
5. Freeze topped cupcakes for at least one hour.

Chocolate shell

Try to make this in a 2-cup container – wide enough to fit your fingertips, and deep enough to fit the frosted top of the cupcake. You will end up making more chocolate sauce than you will need. Try Adding extra coconut oil to the leftovers to make your own Magic Shell topping for ice cream.

• 2 cups of vegan chocolate chips, divided
• 2.5 Tbsp coconut oil, divided

1. Melt half of each ingredient together in a heat-proof container in your microwave (3 30-second bursts should do it).
2. Take a frozen, topped cupcake and dip into the chocolate sauce.
3. Drip off the extra.
4. While the chocolate is still wet, place on any decorations you want. I used salted roasted peanuts.
5. Return cupcakes to the freezer, or keep out for immediate consumption.
6. Allow cupcakes to thaw for 2 hours before serving. They will stay good for about 10 hours at room temperature, but the chocolate shell will get a little soft.

By the way, sorry for the lack of budget or healthy eating posts lately. With my busy schedule, most of my meals have been repeats of the staples – vegan homemade wieners, bean salad, spaghetti, or tinned soup. Cheap, yes, but not so interesting. We have a two-week break in the renos while we wait for a new counter, so hopefully in the meantime I’ll get inspired to document some weeknight cooking!

Tiger Tail ice cream – Vegan Potluck 2013 contribution May 10, 2013

Hello Vegan Potluck visitors! It’s finally starting to warm up in Edmonton – last week we still had intermittent snow, but this week I could see a transformation across campus. People were wearing shorts and skirts, t-shirts and polos instead of jeans and sweaters. We have recently had several days with temperatures in the high twenties, and nothing’s better to complement a hot day than a scoop of cool ice cream.

Tiger Tail is a nostalgic flavour for me. I remember trying it for the first time when I was about six, when my family had walked to the corner store for ice cream cones. I liked the combination of tangy orange and interspersed with liquorice (yes, I was the kid that always liked black jelly beans).

Mrs Minty hadn’t had Tiger Tail ice cream in over a decade until we came up with this recipe together several months ago. This recipe uses my top-secret ingredient for intensely fruit-flavoured ice creams, icing, and cakes. Ready? It is…..

OH YEAH!!!!

Yep. Kool-Aid. If you’re the kind of person who abhors artificial colours and flavours, this ice cream probably isn’t for you. I originally tried to make an ice cream base using orange juice instead, and it just doesn’t take like the commercial stuff. Go ahead, double down and use the kool-aid powder, as well as the black food colouring in the liquorice ribbon. It tastes like childhood!

Tiger Tail Ice Cream - Original recipe by Agent Minty

It requires about half an hour of work the night before you intend to freeze the ice cream, and I would advise making the two components sequentially, or having a partner help you – both the caramel and “milk” bases need to be stirred at about the same time.

Milk base

• 3 cups of almond milk, divided
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 c corn starch
• 1 398-mL can old premium coconut milk, shaken, minus 1/2 cup (so ~1 cup +1 Tbsp)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup Cointreau or other orange liqueur
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/4 tsp-2 tsp orange Kool-Aid powder

1. Combine the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of almond milk in a large saucepan. Heat on medium until sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup of almond milk and the corn starch in a small bowl, whisking until all the lumps are dispersed.
3. Once the sugar/milk mixture has come to a boil, turn the heat  down to keep it at a simmer.
4. Add the cornstarch/milk mixture, whisking vigorously.
5. Cook, still stirring, until it reaches the consistency of a light pudding/custard.
6. Add the remaining almond and coconut milks, whisking continuously.
7. Once the mixture has started to lightly simmer again, remove it from the heat.
8. Add in the vanilla, Cointreau, and lemon juice.
9. Add the Kool-Aid powder. I found that  1 1/4 tsp gave me a good flavour and colour, but if you need something that’s violently coloured, add more. Taste the mixture as you go, to make sure it is satisfactory.
10. Strain the hot mixture through a mesh sieve (to remove any corn starch lumps).
11. Refrigerate overnight or until cold to the touch.
12. Freeze the base according to your ice-cream maker’s directions. If this is your first time making ice cream, don’t get distressed if the mixture is about the consistency of soft serve ice cream. That’s normal, and it will harden up in the freezer.
    

    This is ready to freeze.

13. Layer with the liquorice ribbon as described below.

Liquorice ribbon

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut cream (reserved from the can used for the milk base)
• 1 Tbsp anise extract
• Black paste-style food colouring
• 1 Tbsp molasses

1. Combine the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
2. Cook at medium-high without stirring. The sugar will dissolve in the water. and begin to boil.
   

   The syrup is boiling. Do not stir!

3. The clear sugar syrup will begin to heat up (warning: this is very hot can will burn if you touch it!). Allow it to cook undisturbed until it starts to become a light amber colour.
4. Swirl the pot gently, without stirring, until it becomes a dark caramel colour (think the colour of a Werther’s, or dark brown sugar).
5. Combine the anise extract and milk.
6. Add the anise milk to the syrup. This will splatter a bit!
7. Stir virgorously until smooth.
8. Scrape out a small lump of black food colouring (I used about 1/3 of 1/8 tsp). Stir into the hot caramel. This may take a while to disperse.
9. Stir in the molasses.
10. Store in a fridge overnight.
11. Before combining with the milk base, leave out for a few hours or microwave on low power until the caramel is room temperature.

Layering the ice cream

1. Use a plastic container to store your ice cream. You will need once with a volume of at least 1.5 litres.
2. Scoop out approximately 1/5 of your just-frozen ice cream into the container. Smooth it out on an angle.
3. Drizzle 1/4 of your liquorice caramel on top.
4. Add another layer of ice cream and more caramel, repeating until both are gone. This doesn’t have to be perfect.
5. Cover your ice cream with plastic wrap and gently press down to unite all the layers.
6. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before scooping, preferably overnight.

Thanks for stopping by as part of the Virtual Vegan Potluck! Enjoy every taste of the upcoming summer!

To visit the blog that precedes mine in the Potluck, click here!
I’m the last post! To visit first blog in the potluck, please, click here!
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Renovations! May 8, 2013

So, in case you were wondering why I STILL hadn’t posted any new recipes or food pics, this has been the state of my kitchen over the last 6 days :

Taking the old cupboards down. 35 years old, and the previous owner painted over all the screws and bolts.

 

First world problems – the kitchen is under renovation so I have to heap my food all over the house.

 

And the appliances in the living room.

 

We’ve ripped out the old cabinets, and put in new ones, and are waiting to get the new countertop put in and then we can tile the wall and repaint. In the meantime, we are doing a lot of barbecuing and making minimal-prep meals. Hopefully we can at least place the old countertops back on for me to make my contribution to the Virtual Vegan Potluck!

Weeks of leftovers and wierd recipes April 28, 2013

I haven’t been posting lately because it’s been one of those periods where most of my cooking has been same-old recipes, leftovers, unphotogenic, or just plain disastrous.

For example, last weekend I tried making the family recipes for lemon loaf. I’ve made it several times before, and it’s a pretty forgiving recipe – basically a butter cake with lemon zest, and a lemony sugar glaze on top. I called my mom for the recipe, and then made it. What a disaster. And then the next day, I measured everything more carefully and got a disaster again. We’re talking about a cake that crusted up on top and oozed out the sides of the top crust, and then sunk back down to make a hollow, gooey cavern inside its crusty shell. I visited my parents a few dyas later and checked the recipe book. Some lapse in communication has resulted in me writing down 2 cups of sugar, instead of the 1 the recipe calls for! I learned the hard way that doubling the sugar in a recipe is a huge no-no.

After making it correctly, and having it rise to a beautiful golden loaf, I flipped it onto a cooling rack and got rack marks all over the top, so no pictures were taken. We all make mistakes, and we all move on, but sometimes it’s wise not to take photos for evidence!

I’m making some bread today, and hopefully it will be blog-worthy. I hope you all have has a better success ratio in your cooking lately!

Tofu Salad April 11, 2013

As promised, here’s something you can do with your pressed tofu: put it in a sandwich!

Growing up, my favourite sandwich was egg salad, but I always felt uncomfortable eating eggs themselves (full ovo-lacto disclosure: I do eat egg-containing baked goods, etc., when I’m away from home). And I’m not a fan of the effort involved in cooking and peeling eggs, either.

Blogs everywhere (especially Meet the Shannons) have sung the praises of smoked salt for that slightly-sulfurous aroma that makes faux egg salad seem more legit. It’s true. Seasoned with a generous dollop of Dijon mustard and served with shredded lettuce, this stuff is 100% comfort food.

Recipe – Tofu Salad

Serves two on a diet or makes one very large sandwich. Also good scooped on top of a garden salad. Keeps up to 4 days in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• Half of one 350-gram block of traditional tofu or medium tofu, sliced and pressed for at least 30 minutes.
• 1.5 tsp Vegenaise or mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/16 to 1/8 tsp (I use a generous grind from my salt grinder) of smoked sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Crumble the pressed tofu into a small bowl.

2. Add the other ingredients.

3. Mash together with a fork until this reaches your desired texture.

4. For best flavor, let tofu salad sit for at least half an hour.

How to Press Tofu April 8, 2013

As I focus more on eating light, and on the cheap, I find that I’m eating more and more tofu. 700g of Traditional-style tofu is about $1.50, which works out to 25 cents per serving. In my next few posts, I will try to focus on ways to eat tofu. The shish kebabs in last week’s post were pressed Firm tofu, but I find that Traditional, or Medium tofu is the one I prefer for most applications. It can be blended into dips, mashed into tofu salad, scrambled, baked, and fried.

My tofu of choice

The key to tasty tofu is pressing it for at least 30 minutes (an hour or more is best) beforehand. The expels extra water, giving it a chewier texture, less like the rubbery, squishy cubes that most people associate with tofu. Pressing also allows the tofu to better absorb seasonings and marinades.

If you don’t have an hour to spend pressing, even 10 minutes while you’re cutting up the other ingredients for your meal will improve the flavour and texture of your tofu.

To press:

1. Cut tofu into slices of your desired thickness. If I am going to stir-fry it as cubes, I slice it as thick as the cubes will be, but leave it as a rectangle for structural integrity while pressing. For tofu that will be crumbled, I slice it less than 1 cm thick, as this allows me to get the water out faster.

2. Lay slices on a clean, dry towel or cloth. Paper towel gets wet too fast. if you have enough cloth, two layers is even better.

Weighted and pressing.

3. Fold the cloth over top so that the tofu is completely enveloped.

4. If you’re concerned about mess, set wrapped slices on a tray or plate.

5. Place a cutting board or plate on top of the tofu, and place a can or other weight on top.

6. Let sit at least 30 minutes for thin slices or at least 60 minutes for thick slices.

Pressed tofu ready for making a sandwich!

Visiting the in-laws and accommodating diverse dietary needs April 4, 2013

We drove last week to visit sunny Cranbrook, BC and stay with my in-laws for the Easter long weekend. Unlike our hometown, which was covered in a foot of slushy snow when we left, the ground there was already thawed and I could see bight green lilac buds out of the kitchen window.

My mother-in-law is trying to avoid many foods to control some health issues. Any shared food should be vegan (Mrs. Minty’s needs), gluten-free, and without nightshades (tomato, pepper, eggplant), chocolate, or citrus (for MIL). Some things will have to be separated, as my in-laws need meat at least once a day while we still need protein, so for one dinner we had Shish Kebabs, allowing each person to pick only the foods that keep them happy and healthy.

Veggie shish kebabs

I pressed some firm tofu and marinated it in a dijon mustard, herb, and wine vinegar mix. Everyone could choose from mushrooms, sweet potato cubes, pineapple, onion, or zucchini.

For dessert, we some homemade sweets.

My MIL has the sweet philosophy of “my kitchen is your kitchen,” so while she was at work and her husband and Mrs. Minty were running errands I made fudge. This is sometimes called Maple Fudge, but has no maple. It is made from (coconut) cream and brown sugar, plus a few other things. The hard part is waiting an hour and a half for the cooked sugar to cool before beating it. In the meantime, your whole house will smell heavenly!!

The fudge isn’t healthy, but I think it’s fine to eat anything in moderation. It isn’t exactly inexpensive, either… a batch will cost about $5 for supplies, including the walnuts. However, it’s WAY cheaper than stuff you buy at a candy store, and darn impressive!

Brown Sugar Fudge (“Caramel Cream Fudge” from the original Joy of Cooking):

Note: you WILL need a candy (not meat) thermometer, which is big and glass and can be found in most grocery stores. You SHOULD use a stand mixer for step #8, unless you want Popeye arms.

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 corn syrup (the easiest way to measure is to put your pot on a scale and measure 80g of corn syrup into it)
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 2 Tbsp margarine
• 1 tsp vanilla paste (vanilla extract is OK, too)
• 1/4-1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine both sugars, syrup, salt, and milk in a large heavy saucepan.

2. Heat on med-hi, stirring, until it comes to a boil.

3. Cover and cook 2-3 minutes.

4. Remove lid, clip on a candy thermometer and turn heat to medium (or med-lo if you have cheap, thin pots).

5. Cook WITHOUT stirring until the thermometer reads AT LEAST 234 Farenhiet . Try to catch it at no more than 240F, as if it gets hotter the resulting fuge will be more brittle and grainy.

This cooking step can seem to take forever. Just wait. Don’t stir it or you might start sugar crystallization, resulting in poor quality fuge. This is the point where you will be happy you used a big pot so that the boiling sugar doesn’t splatter all over you and the stove.

6. Meanwhile, put the margarine in the bottom of the bowl for your stand mixer.

7. Once the fugdey syrup is the right temperature, pour it into your mixing bowl on top of the butter. STILL DON’T STIR!!! Allow it to cool until it is no more than lukewarm (at least 1 hour, maybe 2).

8. Add the vanilla and stir. I use the paddle attachment of the Kitchen-Aid and lock in the bowl, and mix on high speed. If you try to use one of those hand-held mixers, you will probably burn out its motor. I have successfully stirred fudge by hand with a wooden spoon. It was not fun.

9. Keep on stirring until you suspect that your fudge is a failure. Keep on stirring. Suddenly it will no longer be shiny, but instead be a nice opaque tan colour.

No longer shiny.

10. Joy of Cooking recommends stirring in 1 cup of walnuts at this point. One of my relatives dislikes walnuts, so I did not. Put your fuge into a pan that has been liberally greased and lined with parchment paper. It’s OK if the fudge doesn’t meet the edges of the pan.

11. I added walnuts on top of half of the fudge and pressed them in.

Waiting for it to firm up!

12. Allow to set for an hour and cut into small squares. People say it can last a week tightly sealed, but no fudge has ever lasted that long in our home.