Parve Pumpkin Pie! (and bonus coconut whipped cream!)

So Em Bakes. Em bakes cookies, cakes, pies, bread, muffins, scones, biscuits, and you get the idea. I consider myself to be a pretty good improvisor when it comes to using alternative ingredients and such. But, I'll admit, I sometimes have trouble with making things vegan. It's a growing edge.

I don't usually go home for Thanksgiving these days. It's too expensive and too logistically complicated to fly cross-country for a few days. But I'm really fortunate to have friends and classmates hosting here in Philly, so I always end up with somewhere to go. This year, I offered to bring pies to my host. What I wasn't considering, when I made the offer, was Thanksgiving would be a meat meal (as opposed to a dairy meal), and while I could use eggs, I could not use milk or butter or any other dairy products. Oops.

I decided to make two pies-- one apple and one pumpkin (it is Thanksgiving, after all). For the apple, I more or less just subbed earth balance for butter in my normal recipe.  I think it'll be yummy. I think apple pie made with butter is probably yummier.  ;)  For the pumpkin pie, I suppose I could have just tried subbing earth balance for butter and soy milk for cow's, but instead I thought it'd be fun to have a baking adventure, so I bought coconut oil.


Coconut oil is a thing. It's a thing I've never bought, because I've never quite known what to do with it. To be totally honest, I'm still not positive I know what to do with it, but I figured I'd grab a jar and play. I also decided to use almond milk, figuring that almond and coconut and pumpkin were likely to be a good combo.

For the crust, I found this recipe on Whole Foods and more-or-less followed it. For the filling, I looked at probably a dozen different vegan and non-vegan pumpkin pie recipes and improvised.


Ingredients- crust

• 3 oz solid (not liquid!) coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sugar
• 8 TBS ice water

Procedure- crust

• Stir the flour, salt, cinnamon, and sugar together
• Use two knives to cut the coconut oil into the flour and salt mix. This is tricky. The coconut oil did not want to be cut into the dry mix. Butter is usually cooperative, but the oil wasn't. I got it eventually, but it was still lumpier than a usual crust.
• Stir the ice water into the mix a couple tablespoons at a time until the dough just barely comes together. (My grandma always said to add it until you thought you needed a little more and then stop.)
• 
• Pour the dough out of the counter, gather it up, and press into a flattish disc. Wrap in plastic and stick in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight. 

Ingredients- filling

• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 TBS flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Procedure- filling/baking

• Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.
• Whisk all of the filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Taste for spice and sweetness and add more if you like. 
• Remove the crust from the fridge, roll out, and place into a pie tin. If the crust doesn't fully cooperate, just do your best! Use scraps to fill in any bits of the edge that aren't covered. Make a nice border if you like (and have enough extra crust).
• Pour the filling into the crust.
• Bake for 10 minutes, then turn down to 350°F and bake for about 50 minutes, or until the center of the pie is firm when lightly giggled. If you're lucky, your pie won't crack. Or maybe you'll be like me and it will. Either way, it should be yummy.

Ingredients- whipped cream

• 1 can coconut cream
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 1-3 TBS sugar (used as a stabilizer and to sweeten to taste) 
• 1 TBS ginger syrup (optional)

Procedure- whipped cream

• chill the coconut milk overnight in the fridge
• 
• pour the solid part of the can into a large chilled bowl, reserving any liquid for something else yummy
• 
• use a hand mixer or a bunch of elbow grease to whip til fluffy. Add maple syrup and ginger syrup and whip some more. 
• 
• put whipped cream on pumpkin pie.  Induce food coma. 

Happy Thanksgiving! (Stuffing recipe to follow!) 

Leek and Kale Coconut Curry with Rice Noodles

I spent last weekend at a conference for rabbinical students from all over the country. It was a fantastic experience and I learned so much from the students and "full-grown" rabbis there. I also increased my understanding of strict kosher eating practices, like not being allowed to bring my water bottle into the cafeteria (the staff took it away but I got it back!) and using tea essence rather than tea bags on shabbat. I don't really keep kosher at home. I'm a vegetarian, so I don't mix meat and milk because I'm not ever consuming meat, but I buy products that aren't marked kosher, and since my roommates aren't vegetarian, my pots and pans and dishes aren't kosher. I feel like my practices make sense for me, and when I have my own kitchen I might just keep it vegetarian. In any case, some of the practices at the conference were new to me, and it was awesome to learn from my more traditionally-observant colleagues.

When I got back yesterday afternoon, all I really wanted to do was curl up and chill, but instead I ran out to the co-op for groceries and then hopped in the car to get to choir practice on time. (I'm a good little chorister.) So I didn't really have a lot of time to cook yesterday, but when I got home from work today I decided it was time to use yesterday's hastily-purchased groceries to make something awesome. And then I did. These proportions worked out well for me, but the veggie amounts are really up to you. Also, feel free to sub other greens for the kale if you like. This recipe is quite forgiving and can hang out without constant attention for most of the cooking process.

Ingredients

• 4 garlic cloves, sliced or diced large
• about 2 inches ginger, peeled and sliced
• 1 large leek, greens and whites washed well and sliced thinly
• a handful of mushrooms, washed and sliced
• half a package of tofu (you could use more-- that's what I had), pressed and cubed
• about half a head of kale, stemmed (if you like) washed and torn into bite-sized chunks
• 2 TBS canola oil or other cooking oil
• 1 14 oz can light coconut milk
• 1 TBS red curry paste (I use thai kitchen)
• about half a package rice noodles
• 1 tsp soy sauce, plus more to taste
• sesame chili oil to taste

Procedure

• Cook the rice noodles according to package directions. If they're done before your veggies are, rinse in cool water and set aside. 
• Heat the canola oil in a large pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, for a couple of minutes. 
• Add the leeks and let cook slowly for about 5 minutes, until they start to soften up.
• Add the tofu and mushrooms. Continue to cook over medium-low for perhaps another 5 minutes, stirring about from time to time. Add more oil if the veggies start to stick or get super dry. 
• 
• When the veggies are softish and starting to look cohesive, add in the kale. It may well take over your pan. Be patient. Stir it gently. Eventually the kale will start to break down and fit properly in the pan. 



Before



• After the kale has been cooking for about 5 minutes, stir in the coconut milk and curry paste. Cook for about 5 minutes more or until veggies are as tender as you like. 
• Stir in rice noodles, soy sauce, and chili oil (if using).
• Eat up.  
• 

Ginger Syrup aka Magical Elixir

It's that time again. The "soup sounds awesome for every meal because it's so warm and soothing and outside is chilly" time. The "flannels on the bed" time. The "bye bye tank tops, I'll see you in April" time. And yes, the "I want gingery things all the time in every way possible" time. Not that's ever not the time I'm in.

seltzer+ginger syrup= yum yum yum

Anyway, this syrup is simple (yes, that was a pun. You can laugh or groan as you like) and it's marvelous. Mix it with seltzer and a squeeze of lime for a lovely homemade ginger ale. Stir a spoonful into tea for some extra spice. Combine with bourbon, lemon, and boiling water for a delectable hot toddy. You get the idea. And the best part? All you have to do is chop some ginger and keep an eye on the stove for a little while.

Ingredients

• 4 oz fresh ginger (peel it if you want. You don't have to)
• 2 cups water
• cup sugar (I used sugar in the raw, but feel free to use white sugar if that's your thing)

Procedure

• Chop the ginger nice and small and combine it in a small pot with the water and sugar.
• Bring to a boil and then bring down to a simmer. Let cook for 45 minutes-1 hour
• Carefully strain into a jar or other container that won't, y'know, explode. Let cool and store in your fridge for yumminess!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Daring Bakers Make Macarons! (And I try and fail.)

There's a wonderful blogroll called "The Daring Bakers," which hosts an equally wonderful baking challenge. Each month, a particular baking project (sweet or savory, well-known or obscure) is posted, and each of the daring bakers gets a month to complete it. I've done a couple of challenges in the past, but it's been a while now. With my blog recently revived, I thought it was time to step back into things.

But the thing with these challenges is that they're, well, challenging. My macarons don't look like macarons. They don't really taste like macarons (mostly because of texture). I labored for hours and ended up with pretty yummy, pretty chocolatey sandwich cookies. It was fun, and the instructions were good, but I think this is just the sort of thing that requires practice. Will I practice? I don't know. In any case, I'm glad to have given it a shot, and I figure, since I tried, I may as well post.

Blog-checking lines: For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers’ deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares: macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze.

Ingredients (in grams. This recipe calls for weighed instead of volume-based ingredients)

For the Cookies (I used the recipe from the challenge)

• 140 g ground almonds
• 120 g powdered sugar
• 20 g cocoa powder
• 100 g egg whites (about 3 eggs), divided
• 100 g sugar
• 40 g water

You will also need: parchment paper or silicon mats for baking, a kitchen scale, a piping method (I used a pastry bag and a tip, but I hear that ziplocks with a corner snipped off work well too), a candy thermometer, and a mixer or hand beaters for the egg whites.

For the Filling (I improvised a ganache) 

• 1 bittersweet chocolate bar (I used a 72% dark from trader joe's)
• 1/4 cup half and half, plus 2 TBS milk if the ganache is too thick
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

Procedure

For the Cookies (the daring bakers recipe is in straight text-- my comments are in italics)

• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mats
• Mix the ground almonds and powdered sugar and cocoa powder together in a bowl, then grind in a food processor until you have an extra fine texture. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your food processor. I had to do 2 batches in my little guy. I also started with whole almonds, so I ground those pretty fine before mixing them with the sugar and cocoa and grinding them together.

• Sift into a large bowl (I use a mesh strainer and push the mixture through with a spatula), putting any bigger pieces of almond back into the food processor to re-grind. This took quite awhile, maybe because my strainer is pretty little. 

• Add 50g egg whites and mix thoroughly into the almond mixture. This can be pretty tricky to get exactly right. Do your best!

• In another bowl, beat the other 50g egg whites to stiff peaks. 

• Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar and water into a small heavy-based saucepan and heat on medium-low to 118°C / 244°F, without stirring. OK FOLKS! Here's where I screwed up! I'm almost sure of it. And, y'know, there's something to be said for failure. It's disappointing, but it doesn't have to lead to a complete disappointment. I still got reasonably tasty meringue-like cookies with a marvelous ganache filling. And yeah, I'm sad they weren't real macarons, but that's just what happens sometimes. So, I think what happened is that my thermometer wasn't quite accurate, and I pulled the sugar syrup just a little too soon or a little too late, so that when it hit the egg whites it turned them back into mush. To be honest, in that moment I thought of starting over with that part of the process and keeping my almond mix intact, but I felt bad about wasting that many egg whites (I've been trying to be more conscious of the environmental impact of dairy consumption lately), so I decided to go forward and see what would happen. Choices, folks. That's life. Moving on!
• While whisking constantly on low speed (to avoid splashing hot syrup), slowly add the cooked sugar mixture to the beaten egg whites, pouring it down the inside edge of the bowl. You’ll get a bit of it hardening on the side of the bowl, but that’s okay – just leave it there. 
• Whisk at high speed until the mixture is cool, about 3 minutes. The mixture should increase in volume and become firm and shiny, and it should be thick and marshmallowy when you lift the whisk. 
• Scrape the meringue onto the almond mixture and incorporate with a rubber or silicone spatula. You do actually want to get a lot of the air out of the mixture – you do this by folding and squashing the mixture against the side of the bowl, rotating the bowl a quarter turn with each fold. Be sure to firmly scrape the bottom of the bowl with the spatula, so you don’t leave a layer of almond paste there. 

• Mix until you have a homogenous batter that runs from the spatula in a thick ribbon.  
• Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 7 – 9mm / #10 - #12 plain round tip  (this is SO HARD to do! Batter everywhere! Everywhere, I tell you!). Pipe 60 equally sized rounds, about 1 1/2” in diameter, in staggered rows onto the prepared sheets. Hold the piping bag upright with the tip just above the sheet and pipe without pulling upwards or swirling in circles, so the batter comes out in a round blob around the tip, and give a little sideways flick at the end to break the stream. (As you can see, mine were not perfect)
• Tap the baking sheet firmly on the bench several times to release air bubbles and obtain a smooth surface. If you have any tips sticking up, press them gently down with a damp fingertip. 
• Pre-heat the oven to 300°F and leave the tray to rest at room temperature for at least 20 minutes until a slight skin forms. If you touch it, it should be only just tacky. Because mine were messed up, they didn't get tacky and stayed pretty liquidy. 
• Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven for 18 minutes (20 minutes if using cocoa in the shells), one sheet at a time, turning the sheet half-way. 
• Remove from oven and remove the parchment from the tray with the shells still on it and place on a cooling racks for at least 30 minutes, until completely cool, then remove macaron shells carefully from the parchment. 

• If not filling straight away, store in an airtight container at room temperature, separating layers with parchment. Otherwise, fill and store in an airtight container in the fridge to mature for at least 24 hours before eating. 

For the Ganache

• Pour the half and half into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for about 1 minute until the mixture is quite hot but not boiling and a little skin forms on top. (There are people who would say that this is a terrible way to heat milk, but it's always worked for me when it comes to ganache)
• 
• Break the chocolate bar into smallish chunks and add to the hot milk. Let sit undisturbed for a couple minutes, then stir to incorporate all the melty chocolate. If the mix is too thick, add in just a little bit more milk (or you could use cream). Stir in the almond extract.

• Spoon a nice layer of ganache on 30 of the cookies and use the other 30 to make adorable little macaron sandwiches. 

Are these macarons? No! Did I labor for hours and end up with flat cookies? Yes! Are they chewy? Yes! Are they yummy? Yes! Do I regret doing this? No! Am I glad to be back involved with Daring Bakers again? You betcha! Thanks, Rachel and Korena, and Bring on November!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

I'm not sure if any of y'all have noticed, but there's this rather notable obsession with pumpkin in the American sphere these days. And by notable I mean in-your-face-all-the-time-everywhere-you-go-everything-is-pumpkin-and-pumpkin-spice-and-it's-insane-from-September-to-Halloween. I like pumpkin. I like pumpkin spice. I am not nearly as head over heels for the stuff as many other folks.

I do adore pumpkin bread. Apparently I always have. The recipe that I use is one that my mom requested from my marvelous preschool teacher, Harriet, who was my saving grace at the JCC. I was a rather difficult kiddo there. Mostly because I couldn't stay still.  I had my own way of doing things. Like playing with crayons by standing on a table and throwing them around the room instead of, y'know, drawing. One of my earliest memories is having to spend the school-wide shabbat celebration in the hallway instead of in the social hall with all of the other preschoolers, because I got just a little too enthusiastic about the prayers and songs. Harriet could have made me sit quietly and not participate at all in order to reinforce that I needed to follow the rules if I wanted to have fun. Instead, she came out to the hall with me and said "We'll do our own shabbat." We sang the songs. We celebrated. 20ish years later, I decided to become a rabbi. Thanks, Harriet. And thanks for the best pumpkin bread in the world.

Ingredients (modified slightly from the original)- makes 2 loaves

• 4 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 can pumpkin (or about 2 cups fresh cooked)
• 2 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon (or more if you love cinnamon)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 6 oz mini chocolate chips

Procedure

This is a quick bread, which means that wets and dries are mixed separately and then combined. You'll need 2 loaf pans for this, and I imagine these could also be made as muffins. You might have to adjust the baking time. 

• Grease your loaf pans well and pre-heat oven to 325°F
• Beat the eggs and sugar together and stir in the oil, water, and pumpkin
• In another bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices



ok, ok, so I cheated and put it all in the bowl with the wet stuff. 



• Stir the flour mix into the egg mix, taste (yes, I know there's raw egg-- get over it), and add more spices if you'd like. I almost always end up adding more cinnamon.



before



after

• Stir in the chocolate
• Divide the batter between the two loaf pans, dot the tops with chocolate chips if you'd like, and bake for about an hour and fifteen minutes. A knife should come out clean. Depending on your oven, it may take significantly more or less time. I'd check after an hour. Mine usually seems to take more time than expected.
• Remove from the pans after about 5 minutes, but don't try to slice more than the piece you're gonna gobble warm from the oven. It'll be much easier to slice once it's fully cooled. 
• Try not to eat it all in a day. It's tough.