Muffins

I used an adaptation of this recipe as my "go to" muffin recipe for the past year or so. I never bothered to add the crumb topping, partly from laziness and partly because I like for my muffins to remain relatively healthy.

I decided, however, that adding a sugar + butter crunchy topping wouldn't be so bad if I cut some of the fat and sugar recipe from the muffin itself. The result was fantastic! While the muffin wasn't overly sugary, the sweet and crunchy topping made up for it. "My" recipe is only a slight adaptation of the one above, but I'll post it here as well. It's also doubled, which makes about 18 muffins for me.

Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 tsp "Ener-G" egg replacer + 2 tbsp water (this is the binder, but you could replace it will 2 tbsp apple sauce, or a mashed banana)
• 3 cups flour
• Slightly less than 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp ground flax seed
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup oil 
• about 2/3 cup soy or rice milk (see below)
• 1 cup of berries

(crunchy topping)

• 0.25 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp vegan margarine
• 2 tbsp flour

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease/line the muffin pan.
2. In a measuring cup, wisk together the Ener-G powder and the water. 
3. Add the oil to the measuring cup, then add in enough milk to equal 2 cups. 
4. Mix together the contents of the measuring cup with the sugar, flour, flax seed, baking powder, and salt. 
5. Fold the berries into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the muffin pan.
7. Mix the crunchy topping ingredients in a small bowl until there are no large lumps. 
8. Sprinkle the crunchy topping on top of the muffins. 
9. Bake 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Garlic Zoom Review

I was graciously given a gift card to Bed Bath & Beyond for Christmas, which I immediately spent. In fact, I already knew what I wanted! After breaking my second garlic press in less than 12 months (granted, one was inexpensive - but the other was really well made), I knew I had to find another way to chop the ridiculous amount of garlic I use.

Enter, the "Garlic Zoom"!

This nifty device rolls along the counter and minces garlic. I wasn't convinced it would work, but after breaking so many garlic presses in my life, I had to give it a try. Just load the garlic in top...

Roll it across the counter top a few times, and that's it. I like that you have control over how finely minced the garlic is (unlike a traditional garlic press). It's fast and kind of fun :)

Above is the "top" door open, but it's also hinged in the middle so that the blade can easily pop out to make scraping out all of the garlic-y goodness possible. There is no more waste or mess than with a traditional garlic press (in fact, I think this is easier to clean!)

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Fast
• Easy to clean
• Variable mince size

Cons:

• Possible blade dulling after use?
• Only minces 2-3 cloves at a time

Overall I'm very happy with this little gadget. True, it really only has one purpose in the kitchen. But when you eat as much garlic as we do, that's something I can live with!

Stained Glass Cookies

These cookies were so delicious, I made them twice this Christmas. The first time I added more flour than in my recipe below, which made the outer sugar cookie more dense. I definitely recommend resisting the temptation to add more flour to the soft dough to make it more sturdy for cutting cookies -- while this made it easier for Zoee to help cut out the first batch, the more buttery, tender cookie is definitely worth the extra patience with the soft dough. The tofu acts as a binder, but is light enough to keep the cookies crisp.

After having no trick-or-treaters, I saved all of the red and green jolly ranchers from our candy horde specifically for this recipe. However, I've been told that other hard candies -- life savers, for example -- work just as well. Usually I mix candies together (which looks like stained glass), but since I only had red and green, I decided to stick with just one color.

Stained Glass Cookies

Ingredients:

• 0.5 cup vegan butter (Earth Balance margarine, for example)
• 0.5 cup sugar
• 2 heaping tbsp soft/silken tofu
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1.25 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 0.25 tsp salt
• equivalent of 10 "jolly rancher" hard candies

1. Unwrap the candies and place them in a ziplock bag. Wrap the bag in a kitchen towel and use a hammer or meat tenderizer to crush the candy into small pieces. 
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, tofu, and vanilla together for at least 3 minutes. 
4. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into the butter/sugar mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. 
5. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface, to the desired thickness of your cookie (I prefer a crunchier 0.25 inch).
6. Using different sized cookie cutters, carefully cut out cookies and move to a baking sheet. 
7. Fill the inner part of the cookie with a generous portion of the crushed candies. (When the candy melts and spreads, it can become thin)
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool and the candy harden before you remove from the baking sheet.