friday appetizers (4/52)

We were invited over to a friend's for drinks on Friday night, so we decided to take our food on the road again for this weekend's New Year's resolution to "host" a meal every week with friends.



I have been on a huge bread baking kick lately, trying to perfect the art of making a beautiful artisan loaf. In the past two weeks, I've made no fewer than 14 loaves of breads, rolls and the like. Some straight up, rustic baguettes, others filled with anything from beets to sun dried tomatoes to goat cheese to combinations thereof.



This loaf is a peasant loaf with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes folded in before baking, the tomatoes giving the loaf a beautiful golden red color. We hungrily dunked thick slices of the bread into olive oil infused with sun dried tomatoes, black pepper and salt, and dipped a few pieces into humous.



And for dessert - a meyer lemon blueberry galette. The sweet blueberries and tart meyer lemon marmalade (homemade!) were a lovely pairing that really brought some lightness and thoughts of summer to a dreary January night.



The pastry crust was a beautiful golden brown, with a beautiful flake, but substantial enough to hold in all of the delicious juices of the berries.



The only thing that could have made the galette better was a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, fresh whipped cream, or slightly sweetened coconut milk whipped cream.

Meyer Lemon Blueberry Galette

I love make rustic galettes, so easy, yet impressive, and 1/2 the work of making a pie!

Ingredients::

1 homemade pie dough

3 cups frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons organic corn starch

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

3 tablespoons meyer lemon marmalade

1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

1 tablespoon coconut oil/butter

2 tablespoons meyer lemon marmalade for topping

Whipped cream (coconut or dairy) - optional

Ice cream - optional

To prepare::
In a small bowl, heat the marmalade (stovetop or microwave) until liquid. Mix blueberries, corn starch sugar, marmalade and vanilla into a bowl until blueberries are evenly coated.
Roll pie dough into a 10-12 inch round and spoon filling onto dough, leaving 1.5 inches of dough free of filling. Fold over and crimp the edges of the dough around the filling, leaving a large opening on top. Dot the top of the filling with the coconut oil or butter. Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 425* for 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden and the filling is bubbly. If necessary, put tin foil over the curst the last 5-8 minutes of baking if browning too quickly.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons marmalade until liquid. Brush the top of the filling with marmalade when done baking. Top with whipped cream or ice cream.

vegan banana split cupcakes

One of my favorite little guys turned one the other week.

And to mark his 365 days of life in Iowa, I made him some banana split cupcakes.

His choice, of course.






I followed the recipe to a "t" from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, with a few modifications {of course}.

I subbed out the all purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour, because I like sort of healthy cupcakes.
I used almond milk instead of rice.
And I made up my own pineapple preserves by boiling 1/2 chopped pineapple with 1/4 cup orange juice until the pineapple was soft, and then pureed it with 1/2 T chia seeds. Much better than store bought stuff {plus, my HyVee didn't carry pineapple preserves}.





I ended up making two batches of the cupcakes because the first batch sank so badly.

The second batch wasn't too much better.

But nothing that a little extra icing couldn't take care of.

Plus, that just meant that I was able to make special cupcake deliveries to a few friends.





They didn't complain.





And I am pretty sure the birthday boy approved of them too.




That Kierstan is my favorite person ever.


Hurry up, I want some cupcakes.  Get your grubby hands away from my cake!


OKay, now you can have a taste.

Happy Birthday Ray!

blueberry swirl cheesecake {vegan}

You guys are in for a treat.

A real {good} treat.

Rarely do I ever make a recipe twice.

But when I come up with something good the first time, I am bound and determined to make it even better the second (and third and fourth and fifth) time.

Take for instance my lemon raspberry cheesecake.

I nailed it the first time - creating a super lemony, smooth, rich, cashew-based cheesecake.

And then I tweaked it and made it better (with the changes still needing to be blogged at some point).

So when my very beautiful friend, Debbie, mentioned that she would like a cheesecake for her birthday, I flipped back through my notebook of handwritten recipes, stopped on the recipe for cheesecake, and didn't refer to it again.

And I am glad I didn't, because this is the result.



Dare I say, an even better cashew-based, vegan, cheesecake?

While it looked pretty, and the presentation was fit enough for a birthday celebration of epic proportions, the true test was yet to come.

How would the changes I made to the original recipe that I never followed reflect in the taste and the texture?

Apparently changes are good.

I served Debbie her birthday cheesecake, that she so graciously let me blow the candles out as everyone sang me happy birthday (we celebrated our 29th years 3 days apart), as well as Nic, Ben, Sam, and myself, and each piece was inhaled or savored - depending on your cheesecake eating style (I savor, Nic inhales).

And because we are all polite people, we waited a good 10 minutes before we all hovered over the remaining half, HALF, of the cheesecake that was left and chipped away at it, one bite at a time, directly from the pie plate.

Yep. That was a mighty fine cheesecake.

Blueberry Swirl "Cheesecake"
An ultra creamy, smooth, cashew based cheesecake with a blueberry swirl that will fool even the most diehard cheesecake fan in your life. Make sure you invite enough people to share this with, otherwise you might just eat the entire thing yourself, one bite at a time, without realizing it.



For the crust::

• 8 ounces of graham crackers or vanilla crackers (I used honey graham crackers the first time and loved it, and these vanilla cookies the second time and loved it)
• 2-3 tablespoons coconut oil

For the filling::

• 2 cups soaked cashews, rinsed thoroughly (soak overnight, measure after soaking)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/8 cup agave or maple syrup (I used syrup the first time and blue agave the second time - both were delicious)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut cream (from the top of a chilled can of full fat coconut milk) 
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon agar powder
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (from the aforementioned can of coconut milk - stir remaining coconut cream and water together before measuring)

For the blueberry swirl::

• 1.5 cups blueberries 
• 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds

Prepare the blueberries::

• In a small saucepan over low heat, cook the blueberries until they begin to burst, mashing them with a fork as you stir.
• Remove from heat, stir in chia seeds, and set aside to cool and thicken.
• Once cooled, place in blender and blend until smooth.

Prepare the crust::

• Pre-heat the oven to 350*
• Put the cookies/crackers in a food processor and add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Process into fine crumbs.
• Take a spoonful of the crumbs and press together between your fingers, if they do not stick together at all, add another tablespoon of oil. (Don't add too much here, 3 tablespoons should be plenty to hold the crust together).
• Press the crumbs into a lightly greased pie plate.
• Bake until the crust just begins to brown, 8-10 minutes.
• Remove, set aside and let cool.

Prepare the filling::

• Add the cashews, lemon, agave or maple syrup, vanilla, coconut cream, coconut oil and salt to a blender. 
• Blend until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender as you go. Depending on your blender, this could be quick or take 5 minutes. You want to make sure to get it as smooth as possible for the best texture.
• In a small saucepan, heat the 1/2 cup coconut milk until bubbly. 
• Whisk in the agar powder, stirring constantly.
• Cook for another minute.
• With the blender running, add the thickened coconut milk and blend until well combined and smooth.

Prepare the cheesecake::

• Add the filling to the crust, smoothing out the top. 
• Dot the blueberry topping across the top of the cheesecake, creating "puddles" (or circles??) of about 1 tablespoon (you may not use all of the blueberries).
• Using a butter knife, create the marbling affect by swirling the knife throughout the cheesecake. 
• Place cheesecake in fridge to cool.

Enjoy the cheesecake::

• With good friends and plenty of forks.

So it might seem like a lot of steps, but this actually comes together quite quickly. It is the waiting for it to cool that is killer.



I like the addition of the agar powder. I think that it really helps to create the seriously luxurious texture that makes this version one of my favorites to date.



The blueberry swirl on top just kills me - I love the elegance that it creates. And you could easily do this with other fruit using the same method. Raspberries, cherries, and blackberries all sound divine.

My next version though...that one is going to have a chocolate cookie base (think Oreos) and a peanut butter swirl. Or maybe a Nutella swirl...

The possibilities are seriously endless.



And are bound to be good to the last bite.