Daring Bakers April: Lavender Infused Cheesecake With Blueberries

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

As soon as I saw this challenge, I felt the fond memories of this post washing over me.  I felt like the old lady in Cats singing about her bygone youth.  Nothing like cheesecake to make a gal howl in the moonlight.

I decided to use a different recipe this time, and unfortunately it wasn’t as good as the other one!  It still tasted good, but definitely a “vegan” dessert.  I served it to some omni friends at a dinner party and was pretty bummed about the taste.  I’m trying to sway people here!  And it certainly didn’t help that one of my friends believes some rather silly myths about soy being “indigestible” by the human body.  I meant to ask him how the  continent of Asia managed to thrive with all that poison coursing through their bodies for the past … six millenia.  But anyway.  Cheesecake fail revoked my argument permission.

Ingredients

Tofutti (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
1 C firm silken tofu
1 cup / 8 oz soy milk
2 T lavender flowers
4 T corn starch
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)

Crust

2 C graham cracker crumbs
1 stick Earth Balance, melted
2 T vegan  sugar
1 t vanilla extract

Blueberry Topping

3/4 bag frozen blueberries
1/4 C freshly squeezed orange juice
1/3 C sugar
2 T corn starch
1 t cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Heat soymilk until hot but not boiling.  Place lavender flowers in the soymilk and steep for 15 minutes.  Strain the flowers out of the soymilk and set milk aside.

4. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add tofu and blend until smooth. Add soy milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and blend away to your heart’s desire until creamy.

Ew?

5. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface.

6. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top.

7. While the cheesecake is in the oven, prepare your blueberry topping.  Place all your ingredients in a small saucepan and heat on a low/medium flame until berries look ready … oops.  I didn’t time myself – just estimate!  C’mon!  We’re Daring Bakers afterall.

8. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Omg, so easy right?  Yeah not that easy, but it sure does look nice.  The lavender was OK – I could have done without it.  I really wanted to use it because there is a ton growing in my garden!  I also got my lemons and oranges just outside my front door!  It was nice to use (uber)local ingredients, but I’ll probably stick to my old tried and true recipe next time.  The cake tasted a little too tofu-y.  It reminded me of something you could get at Souen – just with a lot more sugar.  Well, ya live and ya learn and there will always be another day for cheesecake.

Vegan Coachella: Day 1

Oh, hey Paul McCartney.  From where I was standing, I could not see anything but the backs of those in front of me.  However, holding my camera above my head and zooming in allowed me to have a private face-to-face performance every time.  Thanks to Carl Zeiss for that sweet zoom lens.  Note to self: Bring stilts next year.

SO.  Day 1 of Coachella was pretty tremendous on the music and vegan food front.   Leonard Cohen, Beirut, Morrissey, and Paul McCartney killed it.  This incident was marvelous.  But let’s backtrack.  Before getting to the actual music venue, the boyfriend and I stopped at Native Foods in Palm Springs.  I had never been there, but heard so many marvelous things that it became a necessary destination.

I ordered the Royal Thai Tofu Salad, which was beautifully presented and refreshing, but not really something I would order again.  There was simply too much cabbage and not enough tofu.  I left still feeling a little hungry, but I suppose that’s what one should expect when one dines on salad alone.  On the other hand, my boyfriend ordered the Baja Surf Tacos which were INCREDIBLE!

Mock fried fish(seitan? tempeh? don’t rememer?), cabbage, tomatoes, some kind of tartar sauce, and guacamole on top of soft tacos.  So filling and wonderful!  I want to try to replicate this one soon.  We went back to the restaurant on Monday and ordered these again!

We met the owner/chef Tanya, who was really friendly!  She got really excited that I was blogging her restaurant when she caught me taking pictures.  We tried to convince her to open a Native Foods closer to where we live – specifically Silverlake because the neighborhood is fostering a lot of great vegan places that are thriving (most of which don’t even come close to rivalling NF!). Please please please do it!

I had really good Iced Chai for dessert before we hopped on our bikes to head into the festival.  We had dinner at an Asian place in one of the food areas inside Coachella, but I failed to document it due to my ravenous beastly hunger.

To be continued…

Spring Awakening

That’s right kids, it’s time to start eating flowers again.  This salad was simple and awesome – spinach, 3 kinds of beans, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and nasturtiums picked from the garden!  It’s so refreshing to sit outside at dinner with the sun still up.  My garden is getting bigger and bigger – I feel like I’m watching some preschoolers start to read.  I’m a little overzealous about it – when my soybeans started sprouting I jumped up and down and ran a few victory laps.  The zucchini plants are getting huge and my tomatoes, basil, and onions are starting to peek their little heads out of the ground.  Soon I’ll put up some pictures of my little plant babies, but for now this electric neon salad will have to do.  Here’s a list of edible flowers – get to it!

Pure Joy

Everyone who knows me probably wants to smack the words “Pure Luck” outta my mouth at this point.  It’s my favorite restaurant in town and I probably * name drop the place twice a day.  It’s time I show the place some e-love.

Let me introduce you to my favorite thing on the menu – the Jackfruit Carnitas Burrito.  See that stuff that looks like murder pulled pork?  That is the stuff of dreams – the jackfruit.  Sweet and reminiscent of a milder apple, the jackfruit translates into an incredible savory meat substitute in this burrito.  It’s shredded and coated with barbecue sauce and really it’s just something you have to try for yourself.  I mean, who doesn’t want to taste the world’s largest tree fruit!?  Get to it!!  And what is that stuff lurking to the right of Sr. Burrito?  Why it’s my favorite food of all time!  What do you know!

Ah sweet potato fries.  I gotta say, I make baked sweet potato fries better than most places … but Pure Luck does a girl right.  Usually.  If you know about the whole debacle, I’ll spare you.  If you don’t … click on that link.  Long story short, they have good days and bad days.  This picture was taken on a GOOD day.  They serve these guys with a side of sauce made of what I am guessing is Veganaise and BBQ sauce and it’s heaven in a little paper cup.  Do yourself a favor and order these.

I’m also a big fan of the Vegan Caesar here when I want something lighter.  It’s crunchy and garlicky the tofu is (usually – not the day of this photo) done just right. I love this place.  I’m not a beer drinker, but I know from other people that the beer is cheap, organic, and GOOD.  I also don’t have a photo of the plantains but DAMN.  They’re insane.  They can top them with vegan whipped cream and put em in a taco or just serve them straight up and they’re delicious.

Coming soon is my review of Scoops – the LA classic.  Ride your bike down there and fuel your ride home properly!

*This marks the first time I reveal my identity on my blog.  Get siked about it!

How Dare You Post So Late, Baker!

Oops.  March kind of slipped through my fingers … I blame the ides.  Speaking of ides, I made a Caesar Salad with Tempeh Croutons (to go with the rest of my post…)

I’ll put up that recipe later … Now!  On to the more important matter at hand – March’s Daring Bakers Challenge!

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (veganized)

(From The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (published by William Morrow and Company Inc., 1992))

Recipe

(Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes to assemble and 40 minutes cooking time

10 quarts (9 litres) salted water
1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe follows)#1
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows)#2
1 recipe Country Style Ragu (recipe follows)#3
1 cup (4 ounces/125g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method
Working Ahead:
The ragu and the béchamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The ragu can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking. The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit) about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of béchamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot.

Assembling the Ingredients:
Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Oil or butter a 3 quart (approx 3 litre) shallow baking dish.

Cooking the Pasta:
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Assembling the Lasagne:
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Baking and Serving the Lasagne:
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

My Alterations

I used a pasta recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan for my handmade noodles, a  Mushroom Lentil Ragu recipe from Eat The Right Stuff, and a Beschamel recipe from Vegan Dad.  I adapted everything to my own needs and it worked out really well!  I made everything all in one day, starting with the sauces in the morning.  I took a break to go throw a frisbee in the park (it’s gorgeous outside!) and came back to work on the noodles.  For the parmesan, I ended up using shredded FYH Mozzarella – this was the first time it didn’t melt perfectly for me.

Right now, I’m in a kitchen that is equipped with little more than a stove and one pot, but I made this thing work!  I ended up kneading my dough by hand and rolling it out on the dining room table, using a giant bottle of soy sauce as a rolling pin.  I used to make pasta when I was a kid with my parents, but we used a machine and there were usually eggs involved.  They’re really not necessary!  I even used semolina in place of the chickpea/soy flour and everything held up really well.  The mess wasn’t too heinous and I would probably make this recipe again if I wanted to impress someone with my Italian prowess.  I do have dual Italian citizenship, so it’s about time I prove my worth with some homemade pasta!

Best served to friends and family outdoors with romantic lighting.  Don’t invite anyone you don’t want falling in love with you.