Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts Take Two

Since I have a donut pan, I've really wanted to make some good donuts. My first attempt was a creation of my own (by the way, when I mentioned in that post that I was listing the original recipe - I meant MY original recipe, not the "tried and true" one I had based mine on). It wasn't a total bust but definitely needed tweaking.

I wanted to make donuts today but I really wanted to use a recipe that I knew would be good - no need of tweaking. So I searched the internet.

Here's the thing about the internet, apparently I'm not a good searcher. For one thing I don't have a lot of patience because my computer is a thousand years old and slow as molasses. I like quick/good results. If I don't get that, I tend to give up easily on searches.

That said, I did go to a number of sites looking for a good vegan donut recipe - despite my slow response time on my computer. But I wasn't happy with any of the results I found, and I'll tell you why.

All the recipes required a frosting for the donuts and I don't want a frosted donut! And even if I was willing to go the extra way to make the frosted donuts, the frosting recipes are all too similar to the frosting recipe for the cinnamon buns I made a week or two ago - which was a disaster. They call for huge amounts of powdered sugar and very small amounts of liquid to mix with it. What I ended up with was a large amount of wasted (because you can't re-use it) powdered sugar and about three drops of frosting (which, for the record, was actually good). So I'm not looking to repeat that on a donut recipe.

So I decided to give the chocolate peanut butter donut recipe I was working on another shot. Here's what I used and did:

Ingredients:
3/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1tablespoon flaxseed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raw sugar (meant to half this but remembered too late)
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 - 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (didn't actually measure this)
1/4 - 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (again, didn't actually measure this out)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


• Mix flour, baking powder, flaxseed, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl.


• Combine milk, peanut butter and chocolate chips in a sauce pan and heat until chocolate chips melt and peanut butter "melt".


• Mix the chocolate/peanut butter mixture with the dry ingredients


• Pour into donut pan and bake for 12-15 minutes (I started with 12 minutes and put it on for 2 more - probably could've gone for 15 minutes and removed)

I'd halved most of the ingredients from last time because I'd had the "muffin top" donuts. This time they came out looking like donuts. They were more moist this time around but I still feel like the recipe needs more tweaking.

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for a good vegan donut recipe that doesn't require a frosting. If anyone out there knows of one, please share! (Note: I can pretty much veganize a recipe so if I have to look outside vegan recipes to find one, that would work too!)

Good Stuff

It used to bother me when I didn't have all the ingredients for a recipe because I thought its success was based on making it exactly as the recipe called for. Now that doesn't bother me as much because I figure if the dish turns out bad, I can always make it again, following the recipe. If it's still bad, well, I don't make it again. :)

Anyway, the other day I decided to make Roasted Cauliflower and Rice Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. There were four ingredients that I didn't have.

1. white wine vinegar (I substituted brown rice vinegar)

2. ripe tomato (I substituted cherry tomatoes)

3. & 4. red bell pepper and celery (I substituted with steamed asparagus)

It still was delicious! I took a picture of it but blogger isn't cooperating with me posting it.

Oh, but a funny thing about it. The ingredients call for navy or other white beans. And then they aren't mentioned again . . . so they didn't get included in the dish. They weren't missed. Maybe I'll include them next time. :)

Last night I used the left over rice to make Rice Waffles with Vegetable Melange from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. I've had this several times and really like it. My nephew was over and he was having it for the first time. He scraped the vegetables off of the waffle (after piling them on himself) and ate them first. Then he went in search of my maple syrup. He said he liked it all but prefers the waffles with syrup. (Again, I have a picture I can't post. *sigh*)

Today for lunch I wanted something fast and easy so I went for the Chickpea-Tomato Wraps from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. This was one of those situations where I ultimately found out that just because it doesn't look good doesn't mean it doesn't taste good. It called for sun-dried tomatoes. I've never eaten those before but I did happen to have some on hand. I didn't take a picture because I fully expected to not like it because the tomatoes, when cut up, made me think of meat that has been chewed and spit out. But the wraps were surprisingly good despite that. This was another recipe where you had to mash the beans and that was the hardest part of the preparation.

So there you go, three dishes and three winners! :)

Vegan Quesadillas

One of my new year's goals was to blog more. So far I'm not doing so good on that one. So, in an effort to jumpstart that goal, I've decided to do some blogging on foods I've discovered since becoming a vegan. I haven't totally worked out how I'll do it - whether or not I'll only discuss new recipes or if I'll discuss some I've already tried and liked. Most likely it'll be a little bit of both, seeing as how I've made roughly 100 new recipes in the last year and it'd be a shame not to discuss some of them. :)

Anyway, to today's new discovery . . . Refried Beans and Salsa Quesadillas.

Quesadillas was one of the few Mexican food dishes that I liked but I haven't had any since I became a vegan. Then a few weeks ago I bought a new cookbook (1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson) and it had several recipes for vegan quesadillas. The Refried Beans and Salsa Quesadillas looked to be the least complicated with the least amount of ingredients and the least amount of cooking steps so it's the one I picked.

I should mention that I somehow missed the "Refried" portion of the recipe name, not that it really matters since "refried" beans aren't a listed ingredient.

Anyway, I did a mental check of the list of ingredients and the only item I wasn't sure of was the salsa. There's a recipe for homemade salsa but I didn't have all the ingredients and it would be more work so I was going with store-bought salsa. I looked everywhere and didn't find it. So it was on my list when I went to the grocery store today. Since the list was in my head, it was the one thing I forgot to pick up at the store so I decided to make up my own recipe for salsa and I was digging through my pantry when I found a bottle of salsa in the back. I figured I was good. Right?

I have so many variations of beans in my pantry it's not funny. But do I have the pinto beans that the recipe calls for? Uh, no! So I substituted red kidney beans (because I had multiple cans of it) for the pinto beans.

Bottom line, I loved this dish. It was fast. It was easy (the hardest thing was mashing the beans!). It was delicious. Pinto beans might give it a different taste or texture (maybe?) but I can't imagine liking it any better than I did.

I give it two spoons up!

Recipes

A few weeks ago I met my nephew and his girlfriend for lunch. His girlfriend was his high school sweetheart. They went together through most of high school and broke up. I met her once back then but I had heard great things about her and liked her upon meeting her. I don't know the story of how they got back together but I think it's great that they're back together.

Anyway, we met at a restaurant that has a vegan friendly dish and, because I've quit eating meat and dairy since I last dined with my nephew, we talked about food and cooking (his girlfriend is studying to be a chef . . . how cool is that???). I told them how much I was cooking now and my nephew said, "This from a woman who used to think cooking meant opening a Lean Cuisine tv dinner and popping it in the microwave was cooking!" His girlfriend gave me a look that said, "Are you going to let him get by with talking about you like that?" To which I hung my head with a look that said, "I have to because it's true." (It's amazing what you can convey without actual words, isn't it?)

But, since I've been eating vegan style, I have cooked more different dishes this year than all the dishes I cooked last year, combined. Seriously, I'm cooking all the time now. And as such, I've found some interesting dishes and some interesting mistakes in recipes. I'm going to post two actual recipes and see how many people can spot the mistakes.

So here goes:

Winter Adzuki Fried Rice

3 cups cooked brown rice and adzuki beans
1 sheet nori, toasted and torn into small pieces
2 tablespoon tan sesame seeds, roasted
1/4 cup onions, diced
1/4 cup squash or pumpkin, diced
1/2 cup scallion or leeks, finely chopped
2 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 to 3 tablespoon water
tamari soy sauce

Directions:

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet. Add the onions and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes. Place the squash or pumpkin and rice on top of the onions. Add several drops of water and several drops of soy sauce. Cover and reduce the flame to low. Steam the rice and vegetables until hot. Remove the cover, and place the scallions or leeks on top of the rice. Add several more drops of soy sauce. Cover and cook 1 to 2 minutes until the scallions or leeks are tender and bright green. Remove the cover, mix in the sesame seeds, and place in a serving dish.

Serves: 4

This next recipe comes from Veganomicon, The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero (I love this book, by the way! Great recipes - great comfort food recipes. I use it ALL the time!).

Lower-Fat Banana Bread

2 large or 3 small very ripe bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or grated fresh)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas really, really well. Add the sugar, applesauce, oil and molasses, and whisk briskly to incorporate.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips, if using.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and back for 45 to 50 minutes. The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the center should come out clean. (If you're using the chips then of course some chocolate will come out on the knife.)

Remove from the oven and invert onto a cooling rack; flip the bread right side up and let cool.

(Note: It is also noted that this recipe can also be used to make muffins. prepare the same way as above but cook in muffin tin for 18 minutes. This is how I make this recipe. Made it last night, as a matter of fact.)

So, what are the mistakes? Have you ever tried a recipe that had glaring errors? Please share! :)