Caramel Peach Sticky Buns

Sometimes I like to tell you about my life. 

But other times, the food is just so much better than anything I could possibly ramble about. So let's just get right to it, shall we? No foreplay. All buns. 

Caramel Peach Sticky Buns

makes 8 buns

filling:

2 cups chopped fresh peaches

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup rum

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp cornstarch

dough (adapted from here):

1 cup non-dairy milk, warmed

1 0. 25 oz. package active dry yeast

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 cup applesauce

First, grab some beautiful, ripe peaches and chop 'em up. I thought about skinning them too, but that's just so much work and the skin really just ends up cooking into the sauce.

Once your peaches are nice and diced, grab a saucepan and toss in the peaches, cinnamon and brown sugar. Salute Captain Jack and add that splash of rum. Heat over medium low heat, stirring constantly until the peaches are nice and mushy. Combine the water and cornstarch in a separate bowl and add into the peach sauce. Stir until thick and remove from heat.

Now onto the hard part: yeasted dough. If I can do it you can.

Sprinkle the yeast over the warmed soy milk and let sit for about 10 minutes or until frothy. Meanwhile, stir together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Once the yeast mixture is ready, add the applesauce and whisk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold together.

Turn your dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 2-3 minutes or until smooth (add some flour if it's too sticky). Let it rest for 5 minutes, then roll it out into a 9x12" rectangle.

Spread the peach filling all over the dough, leaving a 1" border. Begin to roll the whole thing up, jelly-roll style, taking care that the filling doesn't squeeze out the edges.

Slice the log into 8 equal pieces and place in a 9" round pan. Cover with a dish towel and the buns let rise in a warm place for about an hour. 

Turn on some music and dance around while you clean up a bit :)

Preheat your oven to 350º. After the buns have worked their magic and doubled in size, stick them in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until they turn a lovely shade of golden brown. Let them cool for about 15 minutes. But wait, you can't eat them yet.

While the buns bake or cool, whip up a batch of caramel sauce. I used this recipe, but used almond milk instead of coconut milk. Just make sure you are paying attention the whole time, otherwise it will boil too much and turn back into granulated sugar!

See these buns? I know they look good...

But let's kick it up a notch.

Ooooh baby, pour that caramel sauce.

Now we're talkin'.

Pull apart and enjoy the best summer breakfast ever. 

Happy Friday!

Home-y Oatmeal Raisin Sandwich Cookies

I'm sure you were all worried, so for the record, I survived midterms! It was a little iffy for a while if I would make it out alive, but I did. And thank goodness it's all over. 

Now I can finally enjoy this wonderful, heavenly week known as Spring Break in which I plan to sleep, take long, luxurious walks, read books for fun, and catch up on the huge list of delicious things that have been on my "to-bake" list forever. 

Whenever I come home after being away for what feels like a long time, I tend to get swept up in the nostalgia of smells. Every scent in every corner of my house reminds me of a different childhood memory- cuddling with my cats while watching cartoons, playing with dolls in the musty old attic, the inviting freshly-laundered smell of my bed...
I figured in celebration of nostalgia, I would start by baking something warm, comforting and classically home-y. Hello, oatmeal raisin cream pies. 

Oatmeal Raisin Sandwich Cookies 

Makes one dozen sandwiches

Cookies (adapted from here):

1 tbsp flax meal
1/4 cup earth balance or other vegan margarine
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp all-spice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World):

2 tbsp earth balance
2 tbsp vegan cream cheese
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat your oven to 350º and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Mix the flax meal with 3 tbsp warm water and let sit in the fridge for at least 3 minutes. 
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine, canola oil and sugars until fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and "flax egg." 
3. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking powder and salt. Add the dry into the wet and stir until smooth. 
4. Fold in the oats and drained raisins. Use a spoon to drop dollops of the batter onto the cookies sheets, leaving room for spreading. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the edges start to brown.

5. While the cookies are baking, make the frosting by creaming together the earth balance and cream cheese. Mix in the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments using an electric hand-mixer, or use those wrist muscles, like me. Finally, stir in the vanilla and cinnamon. Keep refrigerated until use.

6. Let the cookies cool completely before frosting. Once they are ready, spread about 1 tbsp of frosting on a cookie and sandwich another one on top. Devour, lick your fingers, and go in for seconds ;)

Wanderlust & Brownies

Remember how I said I had really exciting news? Well it’s finally official:

I am taking a leave of absence from school to travel around Europe all by myself for a whole year.

I am actually bursting with excitement. It’s hard to focus on anything else except planning and fantasizing!

So far, I have an internship in London this summer working for a small theater company doing arts administration-type stuff. From there, I will travel to Paris in mid-September where I’m hoping to find some kind of au pair position, then on to Spain, Italy and Greece. I’ll be getting a student Eurail pass, so who knows where else I could end up on the way to these main destinations!

I’m still deep in the process of organizing all of this and getting tickets and such, but it’s coming along really well! I’ve been considering the possibility of taking a year to travel for a while and next year just felt like the right time. I’m one of those people who gets antsy when I stay in one place doing the same thing for too long. I need a big change in my life, so I am taking a leap of faith and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I’m terrified, obviously, but also ecstatic.

Making plans and doing research has been so much fun, but also so time consuming. However, I am a firm believer that no matter how crazy things get, you should always leave a chunk of time in your schedule for chocolate. In this case, chocolate, cinnamon and pear brownies. Trust me, these are 100% worth the procrastination.

Pear Cinnamon Brownies 

makes about 9 brownies

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup applesauce

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon
optional: 1 cup chocolate chips

1 pear, cored and sliced vertically

1. Preheat your oven to 350º and grease an 8x8 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, applesauce, water, oil and vanilla. Stir in the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon and chocolate chips (if you're using them. Unfortunately I couldn't due to the fact that my friends ate my whole bag during a study session the other night. Thanks, guys). 
3. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Place the pear slices on top in a pleasing arrangement and bake for about 45 minutes-1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before serving. Unless, like me, you enjoy eating them hot, gooey and messy :)

I brought these as a treat for the performers in the dance I'm choreographing- the pan was clean within minutes :)

I'll keep you updated on the progress of my travel plans! Let me know if any of you experienced travelers have any handy tips, tricks or resources I should know about!

Monkey Bread

Okay I'll admit, I still get ridiculously excited on Christmas morning and tend to wake up at 6:30 or 7am to go open my stocking with my brother. Maybe slightly embarrassing, but hey, I'm not sure if the Christmas morning magic ever fades. My dad lights a fire in the fireplace, we turn the tree lights on, and take our sweet time enjoying each and every present we unwrap. 

Our beautiful Christmas tree!

Christmas loot

Continuing with the theme of tradition in the last post, our holiday breakfast tradition is to make monkey bread- a delicious twist on traditional cinnamon rolls. Of course we're all in a sugar coma by lunch time, but it's totally worth it. Again, we had never tried making this vegan before, but my mom and I made a few adjustments and everyone agreed it was actually the best we had ever made!

Monkey Bread with Caramel Glaze (adapted from the Martha Stewart Holiday Magazine 2002)

Bread:
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus a pinch for the yeast
1 package yeast
2 tbsp earth balance
3/4 cup soy milk, warmed
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup applesauce or 1 egg replacer
3 1/4 cups flour

Coating:
1/2 cup earth balance, melted
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Caramel Glaze
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp earth balance
6 tbsp soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

1. Put the warm water and a pinch of sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Stir and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
2. Place the earth balance, warmed soy milk, salt and applesauce in a large bowl. Grease a medium bowl.
3. Once the yeast is foamy, add it to the bowl and mix well. Slowly add the flour and knead for 5 minutes. Put the dough in the greased bowl, cover with plastic and let it rise for 20 minutes.
4. To make the coating, pour the melted butter in a bowl and combine the cinnamon and sugar in another. Grease a bundt pan.

5. Divide the dough into 4 sections and roll each section into a long rope, about 1/2" thick or less. Cut the ropes into tiny pieces and roll them into balls. Dip each piece first in the butter, then coat it in cinnamon sugar and place in the bundt pan. Repeat until all the dough is used up.

6. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for about an hour. 
7. Preheat the oven to 350º and bake bread for 30 to 35 minutes. Let it cool for 15 minutes in the pan before turning it onto a plate.
8. Make the caramel glaze by combining the brown sugar, 2 tbsp of earth balance and 2 tbsp of soy milk in a sauce pan. Cook over low heat until dissolved, then cover and cook for 3 more minutes. Take the cover off and let it simmer without stirring. 
9. Turn of the heat then stir in the remaining ingredients. Drizzle it over the monkey bread right before serving. 

It's a little labor intensive, but can be really fun if you get family and friends involved in rolling up the dough balls. I guarantee this bread will give you a great reason to wake up in the morning, even if it's not Christmas!

This post was featured on Sweets for a Saturday!

One More Final to Go...

...and then it's home for the holidays! I can't wait. It will be great to see family and old friends again and actually have a real kitchen to bake in!

In the meantime I'll cram for my history final while I cram my face with cinnamon sugar rolls.

My boss at the pizza restaurant I waitress at is a perfectionist about the consistency of his pizza dough and usually ends up throwing a bunch away at the end of the night. I hate to see decent food wasted, so yesterday I offered to take some home and see what I could do with it!

You absolutely cannot go wrong with dipping something in butter, sugar and cinnamon. I melted some earth balance, rolled the dough balls in cinnamon sugar and baked them at 350º for about 20 minutes or until the tops turned golden brown. Then I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to whip out the last of my leftover cream cheese frosting. Thanks to these babies, my friends and I had a very productive and very delicious study session.

Sorry for the mediocre lighting in these, we made and ate them all between 10pm and 1am.

This is me once I'm all done, wearing my super awesome "vegan" shirt:

Wish me luck!

Cinnamon Bun Cupcakes

Since I'm still in the thick of studying for finals, it's sometimes even hard to find time to eat! This cupcake is the perfect solution: breakfast and dessert all in one. I just need a big cup of coffee and I'm set. Who needs healthy meals like lunch and dinner... right?

Don't worry, I'm actually eating real food too. I just wish I could eat one of these for every meal- they're that good. I brought a plate of these cupcakes over to a dancers potluck and they were a hit. I was sneaky and didn't tell anyone they are vegan, but no one even guessed!

Cinnamon Bun Cupcakes

makes 1 dozen

Cinnamon cupcakes (adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World):

1 cup almond milk (or any other kind of non-dairy milk)

1 tsp vinegar

1 1/4 cups flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2  tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350º and line a cupcake pan.

2. Combine the almond milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside to curdle for at least 5 minutes.

3. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. 

4. Add the oil, sugar and vanilla to the almond milk mixture and stir well.

5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined. Then fill up the cupcake tins about 2/3 of the way full.

6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Make the frosting while they bake. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup earth balance
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream together the cream cheese and earth balance in a medium bowl. Stir in the vanilla.
2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, whisking as you go until it is smooth and fluffy. You could either use an electric mixer or good old-fashioned elbow grease, like my friend and I did!

Mmm just look at that melt-in-your-mouth frosting.

These were definitely worth the extra-long study break!

If you're in the midst of finals like I am, here are a couple of my favorite relaxing study songs: 

Jose Gonzales

Iron and Wine

Regina Spektor

Does anyone else have good suggestions for study music?