JennaDish

Vegan Banana Everything Cookies

 

I'm not vegan, but I'm intrigued by the idea of making cookies out of ingredients that don't rely on animals. Allen likes to mispronounce vegan just to get on my nerves.  His version sounds like they are cookies from Las Vegas.

These are from a neat little cookbook called Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. Some of the vegan ingredients are foreign to me, so I started with a recipe that called for common cookie ingredients.

 

And just to prove I had a limited social schedule on January 15, 2012, the day I made these, I made 8 variations of Banana Everything Cookies. 

All had chopped pecans.  So my variable ingredients were cinnamon chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips,  bittersweet chocolate chunks ...

 ... or rolling them in crushed pretzels, or ground nuts/sugar.

Here's the basic recipe, then I'll reveal my findings.  The bottom line is, out of my 8 versions, 2 really shined.  This test kitchen method really helps you to learn, with one dough mix and one sitting, what works and what doesn't as far as combinations, so that you can learn those basic rules in other recipes.

P.S. I did not use vegan chocolate chips because I just hadn't found them yet, and I don't think they make vegan cinnamon chips at all.  There is one maker of vegan white chocolate chips but you will likely have to order them online. 

Banana Everything Cookies
Compliments of JennaDish

from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

MAKES ABOUT 2 DOZEN

1 very ripe medium banana (I used 1 small frozen ripe banana + 1/4 ripe fresh)
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar (I used raw sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla (whoops forgot this, and lived to tell about it)
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used Vietnamese cinnamon)
2 cups quick-cooking (not instant) oats or old-fashioned rolled oats (I used the latter)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or cinnamon chips if you're not really vegan, or white chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350^o.  Lightly grease two baking sheets.

In a mixing bowl, mash the banana well.  You can use a fork for this, or your hands (I used a potato masher).  Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix with a strong fork.  Add the flour baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until the dry ingredients are just moistened.  Add the oatmeal, walnuts, and chocolate chips and mix well.  It's actually good to use your hands for misxing when using oatmeal, that way you make sure that the oats get nice and moist.  If the dough is very slippery, you might want to add a few tablespoons extra flour - it depends on how big your banana was.

Clean your hands and roll the dough into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball.  Flatten it a bit in your hands and place each ball about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned.  Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

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*Variation 1: with cinnamon chips only
Very good, consider using less chips to allow banana flavor to come through. Careful to tuck in chips so they don't get burnt.

Variation 2: no chips, just pecans
More banana taste, but plainer and dryer.

Variation 3: no chips, but rolled in mixture of wheat germ, ground nuts, brown sugar
Much better than #2 but would be better with raisins for sweetness and texture.

*Variation 4: no chips, rolled in crushed pretzels
Very good, pretzels are better to roll in.  The salt helps, no raisins needed because you can taste the banana more.

Variation 5: with chocolate chips only
Very good but chocolate overpowers.  Hardly any banana taste.

Variation 6:  with cinnamon chips and bittersweet chocolate chunks
YUK.

Variation 7:  with only bitterweet chocolate chunks
Better than above but too bitter and no banana taste.

Variation 8: with chocolate chips, rolled in crushed pretzels
No, can't taste banana much, the salt is nice though.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Compliments of JennaDish

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

2 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
1/4 teaspoon dried basil

In food processor, combine garlic, garbanzo beans, tahini, and lemon juice. Process until the mixture is smooth. Add roasted peppers and basil, process until peppers are finely chopped.  Season w salt and pepper.  Transfer hummus to small bowl, cover and chill.

 

Amish Friendship Bread

 

 

Came home from work and fixed dinner.  Looked at my sad-looking plastic bag of Amish Friendship Bread Starter that has been laying around a few days.  Read the bag and discovered that today is Wednesday.  Day 10.  Oh crap. 

 
This is the big day.  I'm supposed to add to the starter, and make 2 loaves of bread.  I have all the ingredients.  I even have the instant vanilla pudding.  I guess that means I should go ahead and do it.

Helpful Hint:  Since you have to keep the starter outside of the fridge, I kept it in an urn-type holder to keep it protected from getting thrown around on the counter.

 

 After mixing the batter and pouring in the pans, there are instructions that you can sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on the top, or not.  So I decided to sprinkle it lightly on one and not on the other.  I can't stand overly sweet quick breads.

 You can taste the cinnamon-sugar with both versions because of the sugar-dusted pan...

but the big difference is what it does to the looks of the bread.  Crackled and rustic vs. smooth and pound-cake-like.  Again, both are awesome. 

These are the 4 additional (1 cup) starters it makes in addition to the bread.

 

Amish Friendship Bread

MAKES TWO 9” LOAVES and 4 cups of starter for friends

To be left on counter, not meant to be refrigerated.  Burp bag as needed.

Day 1 - receive the starter and do nothing
Day 2 - Mush the bag.
Day 3 - Mush the bag.
Day 4 - Mush the bag.
Day 5 - Mush the bag.
Day 6 - Add to the bag 1 cup each flour (I recommend unbleached, all-purpose flour), sugar (plain white) and milk (I used skim milk, but usually doesn’t matter). Mush the bag.
Day 7 - Mush the bag.
Day 8 - Mush the bag.
Day 9 - Mush the bag.
Day 10 - Follow these instructions:

1. Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups milk. Stir.
3. Measure one cup batter into four 1-gallon Ziploc bags and give to friends along with a copy of the recipe. (Keep one for yourself if you want to make bread again in 10 days.)
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. (baked mine at 300 degrees on convection  setting)

5. Add to the remaining batter:

3 eggs (bringing eggs to room temperature is a generally accepted practice in baking)
1 cup oil (I used canola oil)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon (I used Vietnamese cinnamon)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
1 large (5.1 ounce) box instant vanilla pudding (I used French vanilla flavor)
1/2 tsp. salt (I used fine grain sea salt)

6. Grease 2 large loaf pans (my instructions say glass, but I used metal and turned out great)
7. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with 1/2 of this mixture.
8. Pour the batter evenly into the 2 pans.  Optional: sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over the tops of the breads. (I lightly sprinkled one loaf, none on the other.  The big difference is that the sugared version cracks and looks beautifully rustic.  The unsugared loaf remains smooth and looks like a pound cake. Both taste great.)
9. Bake 1 hour (until golden brown and firm on top.  I added an extra 5 minutes.) Cool the bread  a few minutes.  Run a knife along the edge of bread and gently turn out of pan onto a cooling rack. 

If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create the starter, so if you give them all away, you will have to wait until someone gives you one back. ENJOY!!

Here is a recipe for the starter that I HAVE NOT tried.  Got it from

Amish Friendship Bread Starter
This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe that you’ll need to make the Amish Friendship Bread.

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.
2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.
3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. 

Follow the 10-day instructions above for Amish Friendship Bread. The day you make the starter is Day 1.