Spiced Banana Bread

I have literally been making banana bread about once a week for probably at least the last five or six weeks. It is pretty basic, but it is just so darn tasty I figured it should have a spot here on Herbivore Dinosaur. The thing I like most about this is that it is banana bread with pumpkin spice type spices! That way I get to have my pumpkin spice fix for the day and use up bananas that are going a bit over ripe all at once...woohoo!

There are two key parts that make this banana bread top notch as well. One is that you have the butter melted. I forgot this once and it did not turn out the same...still good, but not what I was going for. The second part is to be careful and not to over mix your batter. More on this further down. Ok, now go make banana bread!


what you will need:
3 large very ripe bananas
1 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. Earth Balance, or any butter substitutem, melted and cooled
2 egg Ener-G equivalents
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Peel your bananas and place them in small-ish chunks into your mixer bowl, along with the sugar. Let this mix until the bananas are mushed up, smashed and fairly smooth. While this happens, melt your Earth Balance butter. Once it is melted, set aside to slightly cool until you need it.

Sift your flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Set this bowl of all of the dry ingredients aside for the moment, and mix up your 2 egg equivalents of Ener-G. Once this is ready, add this into your banana sugar mixture. Add your melted butter to the bowl of your wet ingredients, and mix until everything is incorporated.

Now, take your bowl of dry ingredients and now mix this into your wet ingredients. The trick here is to not over mix the batter. You only want to stir the batter until everything is pretty much mixed together. Your goal here is by avoiding over mixing the batter, your air bubbles in the bread will be different sizes, which means a tastier banana bread. To contrast this idea, if you mix too much, you keep breaking down the air bubbles into smaller and more consistent sizes...which means your banana bread once baked will actually be more cake like in nature. Neat, huh?

Pour your batter into a 9x5" or slightly smaller bread pan. If it is not non-stick, you might want to grease it first so it just plops out nice and easily once done baking. Place the pan into a preheated over set to 350 degrees. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes, check and see if a toothpick or knife or fork comes out clean right in the middle. If not, place back in the oven for a few minutes and repeat. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 15 - 20 minutes, and then proceed to take it out of the pan to be placed on a cooling rack.

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Mini Peach Galettes

It seems like every time I have been to the grocery store the last few weeks, there is a beautiful, huge pile of sweet peaches and nectarines. I kept buying some, munching on them as a snack...and then finally I thought, "I should probably bake something with these wonderful peaches!" And it was that simple. I literally woke up one day last week with only one thought in my mind, I must bake today. I was up and at the store by 8:30 am, home by 9:15 and in the kitchen.

I knew I wanted to make some sort of tart-like thing, but then my obsession with mini/personal sized foods kicked in. Mini Galettes. Perfect! I love galettes because all of its imperfections are what make it look so pretty and perfect. It adds to the galettes character, rustic-ness and charm. Plus, personal sized...they are just so darn cute looking!

peach galette:
4 large peaches, peeled and cut each half into ninths
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 cup light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ground walnuts

the dough:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
16 tbsp Earth Balance or your fav. vegan butter substitute
6 tbsp very cold water

Start with making the dough first, since it works best if it has time to chill in the fridge for 1 - 2 hours. Using a food processor, begin the dough by pulsing together the flour, salt, and sugar a few times just to mix everything together. Then add the cold butter and pulse until it is a bit coarse and crumbly. Add your cold water to the dough, and begin to pulse until the dough comes together.

If it is still crumbly, add one tbsp of cold water, and pulse again. The dough should not be too moist where it feels sticky, but it should hold it's shape when squeezed together. Take a piece of saran wrap or parchment paper, and flatten out the dough into a large disc, and refrigerate for 1 - 2 hours.

Next up are taking care of the peaches. You want to peel them, and to make that easier just drop them one at a time into boiling water for 1 - 2 minutes, then place them into an ice water bath. This should let you remove the skins a whole lot easier. Cut each peach in half, then cut each half into nine parts.

Mix together your corn starch, lemon juice, brown sugar and salt. Pour over the sliced peaches, stir to coat evenly and let marinade for 15 - 20 minutes.


After the chilling time is up for your dough, take a piece and roll out a circular shape to reach 6 - 7" wide and 1/4" thick. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. After I rolled out my first dough, I placed it onto my Silpat and baking sheet, and then put it into the fridge. Every rolled out dough I placed onto the baking sheet in the fridge as well. This will keep your dough firm and make it easier to work with when forming galettes. Repeat for the remaining dough. I was able to make 5 galettes out of my dough, the last one being slightly larger in size than the rest.

Onto the assembly. Take one circle dough, drop 1 well rounded tsp of ground walnuts in the center. Leaving at least a 1" border from the edge, spread out the ground walnuts evenly. Grab your peaches, arrange several peach slices on top of your ground walnuts until it is completely covered. Fold the edge border of your dough, pleating the edge every inch or so all the way around the dough. Spoon over a few tbsps of the peach juice/marinade on top of the peaches. Place in fridge, and repeat for your next galette.

Place into a preheated oven to 400 degrees. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the peaches & juice is starting to bubble.

Let cool, if you can resist the delicious aromas! Eat and enjoy!

Side note: because I am a food nerd, I did a bit of reading up on galettes and the layer of ground nuts is a traditional technique that aids in forming a crip/not soggy bottom. The ground nuts serve as an additional layer to soak up juices and prevent it from reaching the actual bottom layer of crust, resulting in a yummy, firm crust! Neat, right? And no more soggy crust!

Part Two: Caramelized Onion Swirl Bread

Ok...now onto the really good stuff...bread! And not just your ordinary bread, this is special because inside the crispy crust is a swirl of caramelized onions and rosemary...mmm. Perfect food for the season.

Here is what you'll need:

3 cups flour
2 tbsp vegan sugar
1.25 cups water
2 tsp salt
1 package of yeast
2 c. of finely sliced sweet onions (mine worked out to be exactly 2 medium onions)
3-4 tbsp. of olive oil
sprig of fresh rosemary


I started with a simple and very basic bread dough. Heat your water to around 100 degrees and add your packet of yeast. Stir and then let it rest for about 5-10 minutes, or until it gets pretty foamy. Add your salt, and about half of your flour and mix together for about two minutes. Then add the rest of the flour and mix/knead until all of the flour is nicely incorporated in the dough.

At this point, I usually set my oven on the lowest possible temp for a few minutes and then turn it off so I will have a nice and warm place to let the dough rise. Cover the bowl with the dough, and set it in your nicely warmed oven for about 45-60 minutes. At this point, your dough should look a lot bigger.

While your dough is rising, take your sweet onions and cut them into halves. Finely slice each half of the onion. Add the olive oil to a non-stick pan and heat your onions up to medium high for about five minutes. You just want your onions to soften up and start to turn translucent at this point. Turn your heat down to medium and let them slowly cook. Give them a stir every few minutes, you will start to see them turn a very rich golden brown color as they develop a yummy sweetness to them.


After the onions were done, I lined a 12x18 inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Make sure to liberally flour the surface of the parchment paper, as you will be rolling out your dough onto it. Take out your dough and lay it in the center of the sheet, sprinkle more flour onto the top of the dough and onto your rolling pin, and basically roll the dough out to fit the shape of the baking sheet. So in the end, you will have a nice, rectangular piece of dough. Add your onions in an even layer onto the dough, leaving one end where there is about a two inch section without the onions. This will serve as the part that closes the swirled bread, so there won't be onions gooping out of your bread. Sprinkle some fresh rosemary over your onions, or whatever other herbs make you really happy.


To roll the dough and onion up, I just grabbed the end of the parchment paper opposite of the onion-less two inch section. It took a bit of finessing the dough to begin the rolling process, but once it was started, you simply want to keep pulling up the parchment paper resulting in your dough rolling itself up jelly-roll style. Take that onion-less two inch section make press it against the outside of your dough. Then to that to each end as well, almost pinching each end shut.


I then transferred this rolled up dough to a new, clean sheet of parchment paper and formed the dough to my liking, heated the oven to 375 degrees and let it bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown color.


Let the bread cool, slice open and enjoy the amazement of what you have just made. Caramelized Onion Swirl bread just feels that good to make! It is especially yummy with the previous posting of Mushroom Soup! Eat lots and be merry!

Part One: Mushroom Soup

More comfort food is all what seems to be on my mind lately, and the other day while experimenting with some new ideas in the kitchen, I got not just one...but two successful results! Which works out great, because I feel like it has been a while since the last post. So, this time around, I have two things to share with you! Mushroom Soup and Caramelized Onion Swirl Bread! A perfect pair...the rosemary in each really ties the flavors together. And who doesn't like a slice or two of delicious, hearty bread as a side to their soup? For the sake of not having one never ending post, I am splitting this up into two parts. Part One will focus on the Mushroom Soup and Part Two, a separate post, will be all about the bread.

Ok, onto the soup. It is a really yummy, savory mushroom soup but a whole heck of a lot lighter than those gross, condensed, cream of whatever soups. The focus is more on the mushrooms in a savory broth with a hint of soy milk to give it some weight. But not fatty, condensed cream of soups kind of weight.

What you will need:

1 lb. crimini mushrooms
1 lb white mushrooms
1 oz dried mixed mushrooms (mine were porcini, shiitake, and oyster)
7 c. veggie broth
1 c. soy milk
4-5 garlic cloves
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. fresh, chopped rosemary
1/2 tsp. fresh, grated nutmeg
salt/pepper to taste

Begin by cleaning all of your fresh mushrooms, removing all of the stems. Slice or dice these guys up and set aside. Peel and chop your garlic. Add the olive oil to a large stock pot, 3 tbsp. or enough to coat the bottom of your pot. Add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until they just start to turn golden brown. Add your fresh mushrooms and let cook, while stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes just to soften them up. Add the flour and mix it into the oil, forming a sort of haphazard roux. Add your seven cups of veggie broth to the pot and let it come up to medium heat.

Take your dried mushrooms, and rinse them in a bowl of lukewarm water. The package said to them put them into very hot water for 10 minutes, and that the water would have a lot of flavor you could use in a soup or whatnot. So after rinsing, I decided to simply add them to my soup and do both things in one step.


Add your chopped rosemary, nutmeg, soy milk, and season with salt and pepper to your taste and simmer for 30-40 minutes. At this point, all of the flavors have had enough time to make really good friends, resulting in a super yummy and savory soup.

Serve with fresh Caramelized Onion Swirl Bread (recipe in following post), and share with friends since this makes enough for at least four servings. Yay comfort foods!

Portable Pumpkin Pies

My need for pumpkin is still going strong right now, and I recently got these really amazingly cute Pumpkin Pie Pocket molds as a gift, which just fed my need for making more pumpkin baked goods around here. And I have to say, I kind of really love this pocket mold...it took a couple of tries to perfect the technique, but the end result is worth it! You have a portable, self contained pumpkin pie!

Here is what you'll need-

the dough:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
16 tbsp Earth Balance or your fav. vegan butter substitute
6 tbsp very cold water

the filling:
1 can pumpkin puree
1/2 c. soy milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
3 - 4 tbsp. corn starch

Using a food processor, begin the dough by pulsing together the flour, salt, and sugar a few times just to mix everything together. Then add the butter and pulse until it is a bit coarse and crumbly. Add your cold water to the dough, and begin to pulse until the dough comes together. If it is still crumbly, add one to two more tbsp of cold water, and pulse again. The dough should not be too moist where it feels sticky, but it should hold it's shape when squeezed together. Take a piece of saran wrap or parchment paper, and flatten out the dough into a large disc, and refrigerate for 2 hours. Using the cold water, and then refrigerating the dough will make the dough bake into a layered, flakey pie crust. This process keeps the "butter" from melting into the dough, instead, it stays in little even layered chunks forming a flakey dough when baked. Even when rolling out the dough, you might notice it is almost layered and not rolling out in one smooth piece.

While your dough is in the refrigerator, you can whisk together all of your ingredients for your pie filling, and place in the refrigerator until the dough is ready. And if you don't feel like having a pumpkin pie for your pockets, experiment and add anything your heart desires for your filling. I think it would be super with little diced up apples and cinnamon as well....might need to try that out...very, very soon.


Ok, back to the pies....fast forward 2 hours, take out the dough and let rest for about 5 minutes. I found taking about a handful of dough and rolling it out was easier than rolling out the whole thing at once. Roll out your dough until it is about 1/8" thick, and for these molds, you use the bottom part of each side to cut out the top and bottom layer. Then you place the bottom layer onto the matching bottom part of your mold, and press down to fit it to the edges. Add about 1 1/2 tbsp of your filling, set your top layer over your filling, and then press down on the mold. In my case for the mold I was using, it crimps down the edges nicely so everything is sealed and ready to go, just repeat this process until you run out of dough (this should make enough for 8 portable pies).

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees while you finish up your little pies, and then bake for about 15 - 20 minutes, or until the pies are a golden brown color. Let cool, and then enjoy!

Side Note: If you don't have any molds to use, you could easily use anything circular to cut out simple shapes, fill one layer, and then place another later on top, and simply use a fork to crimp the edges of your pies.

Apple Cider Donuts

Somehow, I feel like I am never quite ready for things lately. Especially holidays. Before I new it, Halloween was here and gone, and I felt completely unprepared and like I had not done my usual routine of visiting pumpkin patches, going to the corn maize, pumpkin carving....I don't know what is going on, but I just feel like I am a few steps behind the rest of the world.

And then it hit me, one very important piece of my fall ritual had not been completed....apple cider donuts! I knew I had to do a bit of research and make them right away. And by right away, I meant the weekend.

So here is what you will need for the dough:
3 1/2 c. flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
4 tbsp Earth Balance or vegan butter substitute
1 cup vegan sugar
2 egg equivalents of Ener-G
1/2 c. soy milk
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 c. apple cider

for frying:
36 oz. of vegan shortening
candy thermometer

Since 1 c. apple cider is too much liquid for a standard recipe, what we are going to do is reduce this cup down to about 1/4 cup apple cider. This way, the flavor is extra concentrated into the smaller, correct amount of liquid. Use a small pot, and on medium heat, let this simmer down to a 1/4 c, this might take somehere around 20 - 30 minutes, so make sure to start this step first. Then, when you have about 10 minutes left, take your 1/2 cup soy milk and add your 1 tbsp vinegar and let sit for the remaining 10 minutes that the apple cider is reducing. The vinegar and soy milk combo creates a liquid similar to buttermilk. I discovered this trick during my research where something said you can use regular milk and vinegar to create "buttermilk" in a pinch. So I thought...hey, why not try it out with soy milk? You will notice that almost right away the soy milk will thicken up quite a lot. While all of this is going on, you can also grab an additional bowl and mix your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

When you have the apple cider reduced, and you soy "buttermilk" ready, begin to make the batter by mixing your sugar and butter until it is smooth, light and almost a tiny bit fluffy. Add about half of the Ener-G mixture and mix well until incorporated, then add remaining Ener-G mix. At some point you might have to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add your 1/4 c. apple cider, then slowly add your soy "buttermilk," then turn down the setting on your mixerslowly and carefully add your bowl of dry ingredients to the batter and mix until everything is a nice and smooth dough.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle flour onto it, toss your dough onto the flour coated parchment paper and knead a few times. Add a bit of flour if your dough is still really sticky. Using you hands, press out the dough until it is about a 1/2 inch thick and set in the freezer for about 20 - 30 minutes.

Now for the fun part! Take your flattened out dough out of the freezer and using a circular cookie cutter about 3 inches wide, cut out donuts and place onto another baking sheet lined with parchment paper and lightly sprinkled with flour. After you have cut out as many donuts as you can get out of your dough, knead it together and flatten back out to a 1/2 inch thick sheet and repeat. Once you have gone through all of your dough and cut out all of your donuts, use a circular cookie cutter that is 1 inch wide, and use it to cut out the center of each of your donuts.


Throw these guys back into the freezer for about 20 minutes. While they are in the freezer, prepare your workspace for frying your donuts. I used about 1 1/2 tubs of vegan shortening, each tub containing 24 oz. I also used a medium sized sauce pan and fried 2 donuts at once. I did it this way, because to get a large pot or pan with enough oil for frying, you would need a huge amount of oil or shortening, and I did not want to go that way, and I found my mini-frying station set up I had worked just fine. Onto the kind of gross part, put your 36 oz of shortening into the pan, and heat until it is liquid and reaches 350 degrees, try to keep your frying liquid at this temp.

Take your donuts out of the freezer and using a slotted metal spoon or sorts, or something that will not melt in hot oil, VERY gently place 2 donuts into the frying liquid. They will sink to the bottom and then slowly float up to the top. After about a minute and a half, flip each donut and let it fry for the same amount of time on the other side.


When done, take your slotted spoon, and place on some paper towels to drain. Repeat with each donut and all of those cute donut holes! I found I could fry about 5-6 donut holes at once without the temp dropping and keeping everything consistant.


I also make a little bit of cinnamon glaze for about half of my donuts by mixing together 1 c. powdered sugar with a few tbsps of soy milk to get it to the thickness of frosting you like, and adding 1 tsp of cinnamon. I poured this onto a plate, and then dipped each donut into the frosting and let them harden up.


I have to say, these are probably one of the most delicious things I have ever had the pleasure of creating in my kitchen. They are so so so good, and really hit the spot for that fall time, apple cider craving. I made about 20 donuts and 20 donut holes.

The only thing keeping me from making this every weekend is that 36 oz of shortening I needed to fry these up in! Also, speaking from experience, be VERY CAREFUL when frying these, taking care to gently place them into the oil. A little donut hole accidently slid off too quickly, and I immediately got a burn on my hand with a blister that formed right away from oil spattering from the falling donut hole. SO BE CAREFUL! But if you take this journey, you will be rewarded with delicious, fluffy, beautiful Apple Cider Donuts!

Vegan Mofo - Pantry Raid

Today I decided to make something really delicious, something that would use up odds and ends in my pantry, and something that falls into the "comfort foods" category. And what happened was a Chili Soup....something that almost wants to be chili, but is a bit more soupy.

What you'll need:

24 oz. canned diced tomates

24 oz. veggie broth

1 small can of tomato paste

1 green pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

4 cups of your favorite beans

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

salt/pepper to taste

hot sauce!

Also, out of extra comfort foodiness, I made this all in my crock pot. And this is the easier thing ever to make. Just add all of your ingredients into the crock pot, set it to high, and about 4-5 hours later...voila! A meal, ready for you and your loved ones! And it tastes extra good, since it has been simmering all day long, basically.

This is also a great basic recipe, since you can add whatever veggies you have on hand, whatever beans you have sitting around (I used garbanzo and black beans in mine...just what I had hanging around my kitchen). Each time, it can be totally customizable to use up your leftover veggies, as long as you have some canned tomatoes around. Which I always seem to have on hand too.

And I like the fact it has almost a double comfort food aspect to me...chili...and soup. Become one. Amazing!

Carrot Ginger Soup

I did not have the faintest idea what to make for dinner yesterday, I checked the fridge and my cupboards, and then checked them again. And....again. Nothing. Then I realized I had a few key ingredients to make a really simple and delish soup...carrots and ginger. I have never made this kind of soup before, but I thought..."Hey, how hard can it be? You can figure it out!" So I did my best, and came up with a really tasty little soup.

This is a really nice, light soup but it is filling at the same time. I think normally this is made into a sort of cream soup, which is easy to veganize and do, but I wanted to avoid the heavy feeling of the creamy soups, and just have a really nice, clean and savory soup.

Here is what you'll need:
1.5 pounds of carrots
1 medium - large onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-4 tbsp of minced ginger (adjust to taste)
5 c. veggie broth (or use water with corresponding amounts of veggie bullion)
1 tsp of fresh grated nutmeg
2 tbsp Earth Balance or your fav. vegan butter sub.
salt
pepper

Start by slicing each onion, then chopping each sliced section into about thirds. The pieces will be kind of big, but you will be putting the soup into a food processor anyways. Add your Earth Balance or vegan butter to a large soup pot over medium high heat, and add your onions. While these cook, give your garlic a rough chop and toss them into the pot as well. Finely mince your ginger and add. Cook for 3 minutes longer, or until onions start to turn a golden color.

Add your veggie broth. While this comes back up to temp, start with your carrots. I used a mandolin slicer for mine, and sliced them at a 1/4 inch. Alternately, you can just roughly cut your carrots into slices. Just keep in mind, the larger pieces of carrots you cut, the longer you will have to let it simmer to soften them up. Add the sliced carrots as you go, and keep the soup at a simmer.

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Check the tenderness of the carrots. If they easily come apart with a spoon or fork, you are good to go. If not, cook for 5 more minutes, check and repeat if neccessary.

You will notice at this state it just looks more like a vegtable soup than carrot ginger soup. Here is where the magic happens. Turn off your burner, so your soup can start to cool down a bit. With a slotted spoon or ladel, spoon out the slices of carrots, and if you get onions and garlic too, that is even better. Fill your food processor no more than 2/3 full, and pulse until it is a mushy mess and add it back into the soup. Spoon out the rest of the carrot/onion/garlic and food process again, add back into soup. I left some slices of carrots and onions in mine, I probably processed about 3/4 of all the carrots and onions in my soup.

Now, it should look more like a real carrot ginger soup. Since the consistancy is right where you want it, take the time to season your soup now. Add a bit of salt and pepper to your taste. Grate fresh nutmeg, and add to your soup. If you love nutmeg like I do, feel free do add maybe 2 tsp and adjust to your taste. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes, serve and enjoy!