Cupcake Pies - Best of Both Pastry Worlds

Good morning!

Yes, it's 9am and I'm baking cupcake pies. Don't judge me.

I am in love with that adorable Vegan Yum Yum blog, so I decided to make one of her sweet treats on my day off.

Delicious and tasty cupcake pies!!!

Those tiny pies are insanely yummy-looking. I don't like the idea of ground cherries (simply because they remind me of gooseberries which I don't like at all) so I decided to make black and blue cupcake pies!

Blackberries and blueberries were on sale this week! YEAH!

Dough Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 Cup Cubed, Chilled Earth Balance Margarine
2 Tbs – 1/4 Cup Ice Water

Berry Ingredients:

A bunch of your favorite berries (about 3/4 cup)

To make the dough, according to Lauren, follow this recipe:

1. Add flour, salt, sugar, and butter into a food processor.
2. Pulse until the mixture looks like wet sand, with pea-sized lumps here and there.
3. Slowly drizzle in water while running the machine until the dough forms a ball. If in doubt, add less water as opposed to more.
4. Turn out the dough onto the counter and press to form a disc. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.

I didn't have a food processor, or a pastry blender - I did things the 'rustic' (read: cheap bitch) way: two knives and a lot of slicing and turning the bowl around. Works just as well, but it takes a lot longer.

Now to the fun part!

1. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake papers. Spray lightly with oil. Place a scant tablespoon of dough into the bottom of each cup. Using a small glass dipped in water (one that has the same diameter of the bottom of the cupcake cup), press the dough to form a bottom crust.

2. Take small pieces of dough and build up the sides of the cup with dough, making sure the walls aren’t too thick.

3. Place the shells in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up.

4. Preheat the oven to 400º F. Remove the shells from the fridge and fill to the top, slightly overflowing, with ground cherries (or whatever fruit you’re using).
(Since I used blackberries and blueberries, I chopped my giant blackberries in half so they would be the same size as the blueberries!)

After this, you'll want to mix 1/4 cup of sugar with 1/2 tsp of flour. 

5. Add 1/2 to 1 tsp of the sugar/flour mixture to each cup, depending on how sweet you want your pies.

6. Cover the back of a cookie sheet with a sheet of plastic wrap. Add the rest of the pie dough, and cover with a second sheet. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4-1/8″ thick. Using a glass that has a slightly larger diameter than the openings of the cupcake cups, stamp out six pie crust tops. Place this in the freezer for a few minutes, or into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

*Note: I did not do this. I definitely just hand-flattened some piles of dough and just slapped them on top of the berries to form the top crust. I'm going to call all my lazy / cheap moves 'rustic' from now on. So this was the 'rustic' way of doing the top crust. ;)

7. Once chilled, you should be able to easily peel out the tops and place them over your pies. Pinch the edges down, slash a X in the top with a sharp knife, and sprinkle with sugar. You can do other types of tops, such as lattice work, if desired.

8. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for several minutes before gently removing them from the cupcake tin to cook completely.

RATINGS:

Deliciousness: 4/5
Perfect, buttery crust! The berries were bursting with juice and the pies were just sweet enough but not too sweet. I just kind of wish I had added some spice, like ginger or lemon zest or something. Other than that, delightful!

Prettiness: 5/5
Little baby pies!!!! SO CUTE!

Ease of Preparation: 3/5
Lots of chopping, refrigerating, waiting for things to settle down, etc. Not too difficult to get right if you just put a little work into it, though. :)

Sweet Jesus! Miso Dressing!

I like salad dressings. They're like, the coolest things ever created.

I also like making my own salad dressings because I can tweak the flavors how I like, and I can see exactly what goes into it, and I can put it in a cool glass bottle and be proud of my home-made dressing that's sitting in the fridge.

In Vegan Yum Yum, I found a delicious-sounding way to use some of the miso that's been hanging out in my fridge for the past few weeks.

Sweet Miso Salad Dressing Pg 271

Ingredients:

1 heaping tablespoon sweet white miso
1 heaping tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 pinches salt
fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
2 - 4 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil (your choice)
1 tbsp hot water

Put the miso, mustard, sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper into a bowl. Use the whisk to mix the ingredients thoroughly. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking constantly, creating an emulsion. the dressing should turn shiny and thick. Taste and reseason if necessary. Whisking hot water to thin, if needed. Let the dressing stand for a few minutes and whisk again before serving.

GUESS WHAT, BITCHES!?

IT'S DELICIOUS. THAT'S WHAT.

RATINGS:

Deliciousness: 4/5 
This is a really simple, kinda sweet salad dressing. It's not obscenely exciting, but it does really complement the bitter taste of arugula quite well. It's also really reminiscent of a lot of salad dressings I used to eat in Japan...covering deliciously fresh cabbage...*drools*

Ease of Preparation: 5/5
Absurdly easy. Whisking things together can't really get complicated.

Prettiness: 3/5
Nothing super fancy, but it is a nice creamy looking salad dressing (as opposed to just balsamic vinegar) and the color is kind of neutral so aesthetically speaking, it would go well with a variety of different salads.

Pancakes Fail

I promised myself when I started this blog that if I failed to make a perfect meal, even if I failed MISERABLY, I would still post about it. Partially because I am, after all, rating recipes...and also because I know that every single person fails at cooking sometimes and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

Disclaimer: I'm almost POSITIVE this failure was due to my own ineptitude, not the recipe. But I'll try it again soon and letcha know. ;)

So this recipe is from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook. You can also find it on her blog's website, here: http://veganyumyum.com/2008/02/easy-weekend-pancakes/

Easy Weekend Pancakes


Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup Soymilk
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Oil
1 Cup Spelt (or all-purpose*) Flour
1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Extract (any flavor, I used orange, but vanilla is a no-brainer)
1-2 Tbs water, to thin batter if needed

Now here's what you do. You preheat the oven to 200 degrees and find an oven-proof plate. This will be so you can create your stack o' pancakes and keep them warm while you cook the rest of them. Nobody wants a cold little pancake on the bottom of a stack of pipin' hot pancakes. That's just awk.

Now, Lauren's pancakes were purposefully made in a blender so that you can store them overnight and have the batter all rarin to go first thing in the morning. It was already morning for me and I thought I could just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and have at it. Maybe this recipe gets it's magic from chilling overnight...

Things I did differently (that I won't do next time because I want to see if what I did was foolish / ruined this recipe):

1. I used coconut milk instead of soy milk. This usually isn't a problem for me, but who knows?
2. I used all-purpose flour and NO spelt flour.
3. I did not thin out the batter with water because the recipe mentioned to do that so as to thin out the batter that had thickened overnight, and I wasn't keeping the batter overnight.

So anywho, I mixed all the ingredients besides the water in a big bowl.

Then, I made some pancakes! :)

On medium heat, pour your batter into an ungreased nonstick skillet. You know what to do from here. :)

Unfortunately for me, I don't know what went wrong...maybe I should have thinned out the batter a little more. But my pancakes were thick, dense, oddly bubbly, and fall-apart-y. They also stuck to the pan.

Here's what I got:

Not so pretty. What a pathetic excuse for a pancake.

RATINGS:

Deliciousness: 2/5 
An awkward taste. Chewy, dense (not fluffy), and a little too sweet? Or something? Awkward. Possibly salvageable, but I will have to make a hella-thin pancake next time.

Ease of Preparation: 5/5 
If it were a delicious meal, this would be my go-to breakfast treat because it's so quick....

Prettiness: 1/5 
You saw that blob, right? That is one pancake that will never be able to get a pancake date.

Chickpeas + Tomatoes = Splendid

I recently bought a giant soup pot. Did I  mention that? I probably did.

So I've been OBSESSED with making soups. Especially because I've also done a lot of reading on nutrition lately and there's just something about eating mashed-up food that's good for your body. Apparently because we rarely chew as much as we should be chewing, our body supposedly misses out on some important digestion shit and therefore we don't get as many nutrients...whether or not that's true, I've been doing a lot more chewing lately because I am easily influenced by 'nutritional experts.' :)

Vegan Yum Yum was one of my favorite blogs for a long time (http://veganyumyum.com/). And then Miss Lauren came out with a book! My soul was joyous.

Flipping through her soup section, I found a delightfully ORANGE soup. Orange is my favorite color, and while I rarely find orange sauces appetizing (shitty sweet and sour sauce, awkward tomato-y sauces that should be a luscious red) a healthy burst of orange in a soup sounded great.

The soup didn't require a soup pot, which was only mildly disappointing. I like playing with my new toys!

Spicy Tomato Chickpea Soup Pg 180

2 - 3 tbsp vegetable oil, your choice
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 cup hot water
black pepper, to taste

Firstly, you will heat up your oil in a pan with high sides (I used a wok!) and saute your onions for about 2 - 3 minutes.

Secondly, you will add the garlic, cumin, and chili flakes. Saute for about another minute, stirring frequently.

Thirdly, add the mustard seeds, turmeric, and drained chickpeas. I didn't have turmeric or mustard seeds. So I improvised and added a little curry powder and some cardamom.

Fourthly (4th-ly), you're gonna add your giant can of diced tomatoes to the mix and simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes.

When everything in your wok or giant pan or what-have-you is nice and mushy, you will add all this shit to a blender, plus the hot water and nutritional yeast.

So this was actually a really funny experience for me...Let me introduce you to Mr. Crappy Blender from Hell.

This little fucker never blends ANYTHING. I swear to GOD, it hates the idea of me eating a smoothie after I workout. I'm usually sweaty and gross, then come home to expect to have a coconut water / banana / blueberry smoothie...and I put it all in the blender and Mr. Crappy Blender From Hell just SCREAMS AND SCREAMS and doesn't blend SHIT.

So I, sweaty and gross and pissed off and tired, end up eating a chunky version of a 'smoothie.'  Not smooth at all. Annoying.

I wasn't expecting Mr. CBFH to blend my soup. So I was looking at him and getting preemtpively mad. So here I go, putting my soup stuff in the blender.

So then I press the button to blend this at the highest level and listen to him scream.

And guess what happened?!

I popped off the top of the blender and I took at peek. And it looked like THIS:

MR. CBFH BLENDED SOMETHING SUFFICIENTLY?! AFTER LIKE, 20 SECONDS?! WHAT THE FLYING HELL?!

Pleased and hungry (because it's lunchtime and I have been playing with chickpeas for the past half hour), I put the soup into a bowl and garnished it with a little black pepper and cilantro.

YUM! THANKS, MR. CRAPPY BLENDER FROM HELL! I LOVE YOU!

RATINGS:

Deliciousness: 4/5
A warm, soothing soup with the beany texture and taste of chickpeas, plus the sweetness of tomatoes. The spices I used probably changed the entire taste of this soup, but I really liked what I chose. Cardamom is one of my favorite spices right now. :) This was a great, light lunch, and would probably go well with some fresh sweet potato fries. I think next time I'll saute a chopped jalapeno with the onions to give it more of a kick.

Ease of Preparation: 3/5
It's hard to find a healthy vegan recipe that doesn't require a lot of chopping / mincing / etc. All in all, the soup was fairly straightforward to make but did take a few different steps and different tools. Plenty of dishes for a simple soup.

Prettiness: 5/5
BRIGHT ORANGE! The cilantro garnish really gave it a beautiful contrast (orange and green are my favorite colors so I might be biased....hahahah.)