Delicata Squash Cheesecake

It has been a busy couple of weeks! I have made quite a few dishes, many of which will be lost due to a lack of archiving. Thankfully I am sure every thing has left me with some imprint, and I am now at least slightly wiser... My cakes will be fluffier, cookies crispier (on the outside, with chewy tender insides), and ice creams creamier.

Chai frozen yogurt, whisky apple pie, carrot sorbet, broiled radicchio slaws, five spice spreads, dark-chocolate stout ice cream, celeriac-green apple soup are some of the casualties of this fall that may never get posted. My Community-Supported Agriculture share has tossed me some curveballs, and I have handled them with grace, rendering me a bit too busy to give my blog some well-earned love. Appropriately enough, it is with some sadness that I am not off picking up my CSA share right now, which ended last week. The winter share, with rutabagas, radishes, and leafy greens will be returning on Friday, then every other week through December.

There are always a few items I have a hard time repurposing, depending on what is going on in my life at that point. This fall it was the adorable little carnivale and delicata squashes showing up in my share. They are lovely, sweet little squashes with edible skins that deserve a good place on a plate... Not the sort of thing to be brought out for pot-lucks, which has been my usual modus-operandi when it comes to food preparation. Eventually, I ended up with several and remembered that there was a Kabocha Squash recipe I had been considering making. And below we have it!

-This is definitely a recipe in progress, changes I'm planning for next time will be marked with an asterix and my intent for the future round-

Delicata Squash Cheesecake

Walnut-Lime Crust:

• 1/4 c (2.2 ounces) Palm Oil shortening
• 1/2 c (2 ounces) walnuts, toasted
• 1/2 c (2 1/2 ounces) packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c (6.2 ounces) graham cracker crumbs
• 2 t grated lime zest (about 2 medium-small limes)
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t ground ginger
• 1/2 t salt

Kabocha Squash Filling

• 3 lbs of sweet fall sqaush (I used Delicata & Carnivale, Kabocha and Butternut will also work)
• 8 oz firm silken tofu
• 1 c (7 ounces) white sugar
• 1 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t umeboshi paste*
• Juice of 1 medium lime*
• 1 T soy yogurt*
• 1/2 c arrowroot starch*
• 1 1/2 T brandy*

1. Steam the squash, until the a knife easily pierces the flesh and the stem falls off. To do this I prepared a large pot with an inch or two of water on the bottom, and placed a steamer basket within. I put the sqauash atop the basket, and brought the water to a boil over high heat. I reduced the heat to medium, covered the pot and let the squash cook for about an hour. When it is done, remove it from the heat and let it cool. Meanwhile, I....

2. Preheated the oven to 300 to prepare the crust: Grease a 9 inch springform pan. In a food processor chop the walnuts with half of the brown sugar in a food processor, until they are coarsely ground but not turning into a flour. Transfer walnut/sugar mix to a mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients, except for the shortening. After the dry ingredients are mixed, add the shortening and stir with a rubber spatula until everything is evenly mixed. If the mix is too dry to stick together when pressed against the edge of the bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of water as needed. When done, press into the bottom of the pan and up the sides if you have extra.

3. Put the crust in the oven and bake until it is golden brown, about 12 minutes. Remove and let cool completely. Leave the oven on.

4. When the squash is cool enough to handle, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and scoop the flesh away from the skin. It is ok if a little skin gets in in the case of delicata and carnivales. Get 2 1/2 cups of flesh (save the rest for something else), and place the flesh into a blender bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients for the filling, and blend until well mixed and smooth (hi-power blenders are great for this!).

5. Pour the custard mixture into the springform pan and place in oven. Bake until the middle is set, with the center still slightly jiggly, about 1 hour. Cool completely, unmould, and serve!

*Next time I would use less arrowroot starch (probably 1/4 c + a T or two), less lime juice just for tartness. The yogurt and umeboshi paste are optional, I just happened to have them, though you may want to add more salt if you ditch the ume paste. and I forgot the brandy but would try to remember it next time.

The cheesecake is somewhere between a pumpkin-style pie, and a cheesecake. It is virtually fat free, tangy, and certainly interestingly flavored, if not flat-out good. It is good enough for me to seriously desire to make again.

MALTED CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE (with pastry creme filled banana cakes)

Baby, this cake is simply a vessel for the lovely unblemished chocolately surface above... Full recipes for everything else will be forthcoming, but right now I am heading off to the woods for the 4th of July.

This is a conversion of one of many recipes that really doesn't lend itself AT ALL to being vegan (y'know.. Take eggs, cream, butter.. cook, and done! Now, how to make without the eggs, cream, and butter..), so it isn't necessarily that easy to follow.

Furthermore, I am always trying to fight back the beast that is the house's constantly growing pantry, this means if I am running out of something needed for a recipe I will scour for substitutes or often invent my own (no soy milk? water often works for smaller amounts. Larger amount? Blend some nut butter and water for the quantity needed. Ran out of walnuts? Toast some pecans). In this case, I was supposed to use all light corn syrup, but the bottle was on its last bits, so I substituted dark corn syrup for the rest.

Then there is finally the content itself.. It is fantastic and addictive, but I feel like I could tone down the malt flavor, in doing so I will probably streamline the recipe next round. For now you are getting the raw notes of my process.

2/3 c Almond cream (1/6 c TJs raw almond butter, 1/2 c water, blended until consistent)
1/6 light corn syrup
1/6 dark corn syrup
1 T INKA
2 T dark muscavado sugar
2 T light brown sugar
3 T Medium flavor malt powder (available at Brewer's emporiums, teh internets, etc.)
1/2 t salt (used pink himalayan)
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into pieces (Valhrona, used I. arrr!)
2 T butter sub (in my case I used a home made one consisting of 5 t canola oil, 1 t water, and a dash of lecithin)
1 t vanilla extract

Blend all of the ingredients together, up unto the chocolate. Pour into a saucepan with 4 oz of the chocolate over a medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir until smooth. When the chocolate has melted, reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and stirring very slowly, cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter sub, vanilla, and the rest of the chocolate.

Enjoy, no really, it is good. Even the unedited version I wish I

Cherry Choco DETH!!1!

So first I'm gonna say I wanna go to Burning Man this year (Death Guild ho!). Second, I am going to keep this simple, for it is a simple recipe.

It is really a rich, creamy torte-like mousse that is, aside from having to soak the nuts, extremely quick and easy to make. It is one of the many items that people would not believe was vegan. Even closing my eyes and thinking about it right now I can imagine falling into its softly yielding texture.

Anyway, on to the recipe!

Cherry Chocolate Torte

Crust:

• 1 Chocolate crust of choice*, pressed into a 9" springform pan

Filling:

• 2 C raw cashews, soaked overnight, drained
• 1 C dark chocolate, chopped (I used some Valhrona Orange Noir and Callabaut bittersweet)
• 1-2 C cherries, pitted (frozen work)
• 1/2 C water
• Pinches of salt, drops of vanilla, flecks of cinnamon, espresso shots.. whatever floats your boat.

*I used a simple raw crust made up of 3 parts walnuts to 1 part cacao nibs, and a pinch of salt with enough coconut butter to hold it all together. Press into pan, refridgerate.

So, this is simple. Real simple. A powerful blender helps, and may be necessary. Soak the cashews overnight. Drain. Blend down as far as you can. Add 1/4 c water and make even smoother. Add whatever flavorings you would like. Meanwhile melt the chocolate in a double boiler. When melted, add to cashew mix and blend until very smooth, adding water as needed.

Once smooth, stir in the cherries by hand. Save a few to adorn the torte. Pour the chocolate mix into the pan and smooth out. You can drag decorative lines into the chocolate substance as well, put in the fridge to set. Should be done fairly quickly.

You may want to layer the bottom of the springform pan with saran wrap, for ease of removal. I served this at a dinner party cut into single serving two bite pieces. It was loved by all. Babies may have been made. I may need sleep.

Wedding Cake (part 1) !!!

So, I was given the ultimate vegan blogger honor the other day. My friend Jenny asked me to do her wedding cake!
WIth some talk I also convinced her to let me do most of the food for most of her wedding, as well.
So first, congradulation are in order to Ms. Jennifer Harder Mr. John Alexander, the future Harder-Alexanders.
The wedding is not until May 2010, but time does move by oh so very quickly and of course I need to practice, so periodically that is what I will be doing... Practicing! As if there is any reason _not_ to make cakes that you disseminate among your friends on a semi-regular basis!

So... Round one. I believe I did find one good lavender lemon cake for one layer. I will also likely do a chocolate layer, as well as a diabetes-friendly Groom's carrot cake.

An added bonus of this cake was that it was served to a friend of mine who has a nightshade allergy. The powdered vegan egg replacers tend to contain potato starch in them, while this recipe used no such agents.

So, onto the recipe...

Lavender-infused Lemon Layer Cake

2 1/2 C Pastry or Cake flour
1 1/2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 C plus 2 T butter sub
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 C + 1 T water
grated zest of 1 large organic lemon
3/4 C soy or rice milk
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon extract
2 t dried lavender blossoms

Bring the water to a boil, cut the heat, add the lavender. Let cool. Strain and set aside. Discard the lavender blooms (or make more tea with em!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare two 9 inch round cake pans by covering them with a thin layer of shorteing then dusting them with flour, tapping off any extra flour.

Mix the dry ingredients together and stir well.

Mix together the wet ingredients and the lemon zest. I cut the butter-sub in with a blender, but to each their own. Pour the wet ingredients into a mixing bowl. From there I sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir just until consistent, about one minute.

Pour evenly into the pans, and set in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes or until done (a toothpick or fork inserted in comes out without batter sticking to it).

Remove from oven, let cool for a couple of minutes, run a knife around the edges, and invert onto a cooling rack.

Next up.. The curd.

1/2 C lemon juice
1/4 C water
3/4 C sugar
2 T cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
grated zest of 1 organic lemon
3 T. full fat soymilk, nut milk, or organic nondairy creamer
1 T Butter Sub (I used coconut butter here)

In a blender, mix together the juice, water, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Pour into a heavy saucepan with the zest. Whisk over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it comes to a full boil. Boil 1 minute, not stirring. It should be thickened and turning clear. Remove from heat. Add milk choice or alternate and butter choice. Blend well with the whisk. Cool the curd, then refrigerate in a covered container. It thickens as it cools.

When everything is cooled, well... Do assemble as you would any layer cake, with the curd in the middle. I suddenly lost my attention to detail so will hopefully post proper assembly instructions later.

Old Fashioned Pear Cake

Ah, pears... It is safe to say most (or all) fruits and vegetables are best when they are fresh, picked-ripe, local and organic... All that jazz. But there are some pieces of produce where anything but the former leaves you feeling like you might as well be eating cardboard. The texture, aroma, and juicyness of a pear is so very characteristic of the fruit and certainly unlike anything else. Oranges have grapefruits, apples have... other apples? Anyway, this recipe is from the fall, when I found my self with a fair portion of pears from the CSA. Not enough to eat all at once, so I had to find another vessel for them... I tried a pear crumble (meh, yet the recipe will probably show up here in the future) and this simple pear cake. It stole the show. The sugar and butter (substitute) candied the cake, leaving it crisp and carmelized... I amalgamted several recipes, all non-vegan, and made this cake... more than once. I imagine you could substitute apples, plums, or peaches, but the earthy texture of the cooked pears infusing the cake was pretty divine...

So onto the recipe...

Old Fashioned Pear Cake

1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup canola oil
All-purpose flour for dusting
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 medium banana, well mashed or pureed*
1 egg replacer (I used Bob's red mill)
4 bosc pears, firm but ripe (any pear works. I had boscs)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Spray a 9-inch round springform pan with oil (or brush it your self), and dust the pan with a thin, even layer of flour, tapping out the excess. Set aside.

Whisk together the whole-wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat together the fats and the sugar on high speed until pale, light, and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg replacer and banana. Beat again until well combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients just until combined.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and neatly arrange the pear quarters on top, skin side up. Bake for about 1 hour, or until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing it from the pan.

*I often do this with the egg replacer in my blender

Spring Awakenings, with Pinkly Peppered Lemon Yogurt Cake

So my blog has been long neglected. Just as the earth has been buried under snow and ice. Unlike winter, though, things in my kitchen have been far from dead. Indeed, this time has been a lovely proliferation of new and exciting recipes. All too many will be lost to the halls of my memories, dust growing ever thicker... Some strong recipes have survived, and will be popping up here in the coming weeks, like the crocuses and daffodils in my yard. Appropriately enough, to welcome this blogging springtime, is a lemon cake! I made this to attend a Time Trade Circle meeting in Cambridge, and it went down very well. When I grabbed the plate to take off people started saying "You are the one who made that? What is it?" and a multiplicity of voices started saying how the TTC should start a cookbook of shared recipes. So as usual I am trying to buy as little as possible and liquidate as much as I can...

One of the things I need to use up are my experimental batches of home made soy yogurt. My house recently acquired one, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at soy yogurt (I have also tried my hand at sesame yogurt.. interesting, and not bad.. could be delightful for baking with). So while I seem to have making soy yogurt down, the milk our machine makes is more of a soy porridge and needs to be strained. This works ok for baking yogurt but not the silky creamy sort of thing. So I have a fair quantity of this grainy yogurt and baking seems like a lovely way to use it up. I first made some of the chai cupcakes from VCTOTW. Dissapointed with them, but much like curries... the flavor did improve the next day. So here I had a potluck, and some soy yogurt to use up. So I hunted down yogurt baking recipes, and Alpine Berry had a tasty looking French-Style Yogurt Cake.

I glanced over the recipe, easy to veganize. and I certainly had every thing on hand. I made a couple of changes though, more lemon peel, and rather than poppy seeds I crumbled some pink peppercorns in a pestle and added them... I feel the flavors were very complimentary, and I would definitely make again. So, onto the recipe. Oh, an unhelpful note.. I have a suspicion I may have ground up half of a vanilla bean.. but cannot remember. Still, a dash of vanilla rarely hurts anything.


Lemon Yogurt Cake with Pink Peppercorns

Cake
3/4 cup plain soy yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 lemon's worth of finely grated lemon zest
3 egg replacements (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 T crushed pink pepper corns
1/3 cup canola oil

Glaze
The juice of a squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Line with a parchment circle and butter the paper.

In a large bowl, mix the yogurt, sugar, and lemon zest with a wooden spoon. Mix in egg replacer.

Add the flour, baking powder, and poppy seeds. Mix until flour is just incorporated.

Add the oil and mix well. The batter will look curdled at first but it will come together.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until your cake tester is clean and the cake springs back when lightly touched.

Allow cake to cool in pan on a rack for about 15 minutes.

Gently remove cake from the pan and set on a rack to cool completely.

Combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.

I then cut off "corners" of the cake, to shape it like a sun. I thought it was a nice after-touch, and the people at the pot luck seemed especially impressed with it.

Coming up, sorbets!