adventures of a vegan pastry chef

Lavender lemon scones The recipe still needs a bit of work. ...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:13:39 -0500

Lavender lemon scones

The recipe still needs a bit of work. They need more lavender. With spring on its way I keep wanting to make things with flowers.

Black velvet cupcakes with broken chocolate hearts - the...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:53:00 -0500

Black velvet cupcakes with broken chocolate hearts - the anti-valentine’s day treat!It’s a bit late but I haven’t had much time to upload photos lately.

Neat Market!!!

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:04:06 -0500

This month’s Neat Market is coming up in a few days and I’m ridiculously excited about it. There will be even more vendors this time in a bigger venue. And I’ll have enough money to splurge on all kinds of awesome food and crafts.

If you happen to be in the Denver area this Sunday check it out! It’ll be at The Other Side Arts 1664 Platte from 11 am to 3 pm.

For more info check out the Plants and Animals site.

I’ll be making food for the P&A minimart again. More handpies because everyone loved them last time. They’ll have a sweet potato, collards and andouille bean sausage filling this time. I’ll also have tamarind sea salt caramels and four kinds of rolled truffles.

I spent my day off yesterday cooking a big meal for a group of...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:04:37 -0500

I spent my day off yesterday cooking a big meal for a group of wonderful friends. Since I’ve been missing home so much I decided to make a bunch of my favorite fiesta foods. It was amazing getting to share this kind of food with friends.

The menu included red rice, pancit, tempeh kelaguen, lumpia, finadene, tofu adobo, pickled daikon, latiya and bibingka.

We all ended the night with full tummies and there was plenty of food for everyone to take home.

I'm happy!

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:46:00 -0500

This is a big deal for me. Feeling truly, wonderfully happy doesn’t happen very often. So much of my life is tinged with disappointment, depression, anger…feeling so wonderful right now is a bit bewildering.

So much of this is due to the success of the Neat Market. It was the most amazing day. There were so many people there! Everyone was so positive! The energy was amazing. I had so much positive feedback from people.

This is what I want to do. I want to make pastries and confections and all sorts of other goodies and make people happy.

Neat Market!!!

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:01:00 -0500

Tomorrow is the first Neat Market - an all vegan pop up market here in Denver. I’m so excited to be involved with this. I’ll be making some candies and chocolates and some awesome broco-cheddar handpies.

If you want to read more about it go to plantsanimals.org.

I’m just happy that once a month I’ll have some place to go where there will be no question about what products are made of. And the market will be full of local vendors!

I'm not that fond of winter

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:42:40 -0500

I know Denver has relatively mild winters. I shouldn’t complain. And I really don’t complain as much as when I first moved here. But it’s still depressing. The cold. The short days. Snow.

I’m an island girl. Doesn’t matter where in the world I end up that will never change. I miss the ocean and sun. Year round the amount of daylight doesn’t vary by much. So no weird seasonal depression. If I could afford to go back for a couple weeks I would. But a round trip ticket is about what I make in a month.

I have been baking a lot though. It helps keep my apartment warm. I just need to get my butt to the library and in front of a computer so I can post about them. Did I also mention that winter makes me lazy? I do no relish the idea of trudging through the snow to use a computer for an hour or so.

I’ll eventually post some new recipes and photos…

Rustic Sourdough Bread I made about 200 of these rolls for the...

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 10:00:05 -0500

Rustic Sourdough Bread

I made about 200 of these rolls for the Chomp! Thanksliving feast.

They’re not difficult to make but they do take time. And you’ll need a sourdough starter. If you don’t know anyone who has some starter to share you’ll need to get one going yourself. I ended up piecing together a starter recipe from several ones I found online. It was about a week and a half before the starter was ready.

So, here’s the bread recipe and hopefully I’ll have a simple starter recipe ready in a couple days.

Rustic Sourdough Bread
makes 2 large loaves or about 24 rolls

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 tablespoon agave
2 1/2 teaspoons salt

optional:
1 teaspoon parsley
2 teaspoons rosemary
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage

1. Combine the starter, water and 3 cups of the all purpose flour. Mix well.
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
3. Add the remaining ingredients. Scrap the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth but still slightly sticky.
4. Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly floured bowl. Cover with a towel and let the dough rise until doubled. This could take a couple of hours or more.
5.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
6. Divide the dough into 2 (for loaves) or 24 (for rolls) pieces and shape into ovals. Place these on parchment lined baking sheets. Let rest for a couple of hours or until they’re nearly doubled.
7. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. Slash the tops of the dough; two on each of the larger loaves or one on each roll.
9. Open the oven and mist with water. Quickly place the baking sheets in the oven and turn the heat down to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottoms are deep golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove them from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Pistachio Caradamom Cookies

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:05:05 -0500

Pistachio Caradamom Cookies

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:20:05 -0500

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Tropical Florentines They’re like a cross between a cookie...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:46:06 -0500

Tropical Florentines

They’re like a cross between a cookie and toffee. These were made with coconut, macadamia nuts and dried pineapple and bittersweet chocolate

Caramel Apples! They were so yummy! I gave most of them to...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:04:00 -0500

Caramel Apples!

They were so yummy! I gave most of them to friends and a couple were included in a box of goodies I donated for a raffle.

I’m happy I got this photo of them before I wrapped them because the caramel slid off the apples overnight. I knew I should have cooked the sugar a bit more. One of those rare times impatience won.

Pumpkin Praline Cupcakes I made these for Halloween. I was...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:00:06 -0400

Pumpkin Praline Cupcakes

I made these for Halloween. I was planning on making plain pumpkin cupcakes with caramel frosting. Then I messed up a batch of pecan pralines. I didn’t want to throw them out so I crumbled them up threw some in the batter and then topped the caramel frosting with them. It turned out a bit sweeter than I like my cupcakes but still delicious.

Basil puff pastry shells This photo was from October’s...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:00:05 -0400

Basil puff pastry shells

This photo was from October’s Chomp dinner. The theme was French. I made nine pounds of puff pastry that turned into around 150 star shaped pastry shells. We used those to serve a wonderful warm ratatouille salad.

Tonight is Chomp Thanksliving! I’m excited about all the wonderful creations from the other chefs! I’ll have photos up from that as soon as I can.

More apples! I had a bunch of honeycrisps and some bosc pears...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:42:43 -0400

More apples!

I had a bunch of honeycrisps and some bosc pears that I forgot about. By the time I remembered I had them they were a bit mushy. So what to do with them? Pear-apple butter!

It’s been a while since I last posted and I’m hoping...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:57:55 -0400

It’s been a while since I last posted and I’m hoping I won’t go this long between posts again.

Honeycrisp apples are in season and I’ve been making all kinds of goodies with them.

These are apple spice muffins. Really simple and delicious.

I haven’t been well for a while and everytime I think I’m starting to feel better I get...

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:40:12 -0400

I haven’t been well for a while and everytime I think I’m starting to feel better I get sick again. So I’m behind on all the fun projects I had planned and it will be a few weeks before I have anything new up.

I was supposed to post a palmier recipe that a few people requested and I’m sorry that it’s going to take a while longer to get that done.

Hopefully I’ll get some answers over the next few weeks.

Japanese inspired desserts including chocolate-wasabi daifuku...

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:32:06 -0400

Japanese inspired desserts including chocolate-wasabi daifuku mochi and ginger matcha cookies

Tropical brownies (they have banana, dried pineapple, macadamia...

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:31:05 -0400

Tropical brownies (they have banana, dried pineapple, macadamia nuts and coconut milk and oil in them) topped with coconut cream sauce and crushed banana chips

Palmiers! They’re one of my favorite cookies and worth the...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:32:06 -0400

Palmiers!

They’re one of my favorite cookies and worth the time it takes to make the puff pastry.