(Vegan and Gluten-Free) Maple Shortbread Bars

Being unemployed, I have lots of time on my hands to experiment with recipes.  I’ve also been desperately wanting to bake something these last few days, probably due to the cool, overcast February-esque mornings.  So, I rifled through various cookbooks and decided on something from the Flying Apron with the rationale that I should probably learn how to bake what they bake before I move far, far away and can’t get my fix.

Vegan without fake butter and gluten-free without being heavy, these Maple Shortbread Bars are delicious, buttery, flakey, moist, and tender.  It may be difficult to stop eating them.  They are also very simple.  The recipe that follows is how I made them, instead of with the standard mixer in the book.  Someday I will own a KitchenAid standard mixer and will make these recipes as directed.  Someday.

Maple Shortbread Bars

• 2 3/4 cups brown rice flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup coconut oil or palm oil (I used coconut oil)
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the rice flour and salt in a medium-size bowl.  In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.  (The coconut oil might be solid, so I put the bowl on the stove for a few minutes as the oven pre-heated to melt the coconut oil.  Worked perfectly.)

Add the flour mixture to the liquids, a little at a time, stirring until well mixed.

Spread the batter evenly into a parchment-lined 9 x 12 baking pan.  Bake until edges harden slightly, about 15 minutes.  While the dough is still hot, score it into 12 pieces with a knife.  After it has cooled, slice the rest of the way through and remove from pan.

Yum!

(Adapted from the “Maple ‘Butter’ Bars” recipe in Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book by Jennifer Katzinger)

Read Full Post »

Secular Easter Feast with Beet Bundt Cake

My agnostic parents invited us to their Easter feast this past weekend so, clearly, we had to bring something vegan along.  I had been thinking about this beet bundt cake ever since we bought the The Vegan Table at Powell’s several weeks ago.

The menu:

• baked plantains with brown sugar and rum
• steamed red potatoes with garlic, butter and herbs
• steamed asparagus
• wilted kale salad
• spanikopita
• lamb
• strawberry-rhubarb cobbler
• chocolate beet bundt cake

Yes, the menu was quite un-vegan.  And delicious!  The preparation was chaotic, Jamie and myself, my mom and dad scrambling around their kitchen, chopping, slicing, grating, mixing.  Problem-solving with limited oven space and different cooking temperatures.  It was how Jamie and I cook in our little kitchen but on a larger, Easter-feast scale. My brother, Wes, stayed safely and sanely out of the kitchen.  The dog, Yoshi, did not.

Dinner courses finished, desserts in the oven, we sat down to eat.  The lamb was so moist and flavorful (as I tried not to think about the little creature from which it had come, humanely and organically).  The creamy potatoes with their tender skins.  The first asparagus of the year, brilliantly green and tasting of spring.

The experimental plantains, probably underripe and thus incredibly chewy, but tasty nonetheless.

The flaky phyllo dough of the spanikopita, curling up around the edges, so lovingly and laboriously layered around the savory spinach and feta filling.

Pleasantly bursting, we moved on to dessert.  The tart rhubarb, fresh from mom’s garden, was perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the strawberries and the cobbler topping.  On to the chocolate beet cake.  It looked wonderful in the bundt pan, smelled wonderful in the oven.

Then, disaster!  As Jamie went to turn it upside-down onto the cooling rack, nothing.  The cake was stuck in the pan.  And what can you do when a cake is stuck in a bundt pan?  We got the cake out–crumbly–and I was sad.  But the cake ended up being really good (slightly overbaked due to a mix-up with the timer and I shall not name names).  Enjoy!

Beet Bundt Cake

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

2 cups pureed cooked (boiled or steamed) red beets (about 3 medium-size beets)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 F and lightly but comprehensively oil (including all sides of the inner pinnacle and crevices) a bundt pan.

In a mixing bowl, cream together oil and brown sugar.  Add beets, melted chocolate chips, and vanilla; mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to wet beet mixture, and stir until just combined.

Pour into prepared bundt pan, and bake for 45 minutes (keep track of the timer so wayward family members don’t mess up the baking time) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack (even if some/most of the cake sticks, it will still taste good).  Cool completely.  Before serving, dust with confectioner’s sugar if desired.  Yum!

This recipe is from “The Vegan Table” by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Read Full Post »