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!

Christmas Eve with Mr. Cookie Baker

Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday- full of great company, perfect presents and of course, delicious food. My family is not religious, so our Christmas is always more about being together, being thankful for each other and everything we have, and generosity. This movie just about sums it up.

We also tend to stick to old childhood traditions, like watching Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas eve and eating crab for Christmas eve dinner. The Muppets continue to live on, but the crab tradition had to be thrown out the window this year since we now have two vegans in the house. Instead, I decided to make a seitan roulade with mushroom and walnut stuffing. I was a little skeptical at first about making my own seitan, but it ended up delicious! You can get the recipe here, but I used dried cherries instead of cranberries and took out the onion and garlic because my dad's stomach is super sensitive. Everyone loved it, even my carnivore brother. 

Our other tradition is to make Christmas cookies and decorate them together. I'm pretty sure we've used the same recipe every single year. We found it in the back of a children's book- Mr. Cookie Baker- that my brother and I used to read over and over when we were little. Actually this book is the reason I wanted to grow up to be a baker (and look at me now!)

Of course we had to veganize the recipe this year, but they still ended up buttery, delicious, and so much fun to make!

Mr. Cookie Baker's (Vegan) Cookies

makes about 3 trays full of cookies 

5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup earth balance
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs worth of egg replacer or 1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp maple extract 
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp non-dairy milk

1. Mix together 2 cups of the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the earth balance and sugar. Then beat in the egg-replacer, vanilla, maple and non-dairy milk.
3. Stir the dry into the wet and gradually add enough remaining flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out. 
4. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour. 
5. Preheat the oven to 375º and roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8" thickness.

6. Cut out into pretty shapes, then re-roll and repeat until all the dough is used up!

7. Bake the cookies on an un-greased cookie sheet for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Frosting:

2 tbsp earth balance

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup soy milk

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and mix on high until smooth and creamy.

2. Divide into separate bowls and mix a couple drops of food coloring into each bowl.

Once the cookies are completely cool, decorate them with frosting and sprinkles and place them on parchment paper to let the frosting set.

These are great to share with your family and friends! Mr. Cookie Baker has never let me down. I hope everyone had a great holiday! Does anyone else have any fun family traditions?

Here Comes the Sun

Just like true hippie parents, my mom and dad raised my brother and I to celebrate the solstice every year. We do Christmas as well, of course, but we would always have some sort of party or special event to mark the shortest day of the year. For the past 6 years or so, we've started a tradition of making gingerbread sun cookies with our own special flair.

Each person in my family is an artist in some way- my dad paints and composes music, my mom is a children's book illustrator, my brother draws and performs in a youth circus, and I dance and take photos. The combination of all of these creative talents makes for some very fun and unique cookies. 

Gingerbread Solstice Cookies

makes 4 large suns

1/3 cup earth balance
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup molasses
3/4 cup water
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves

1. Cream together the margarine, brown sugar, molasses and 1/2 cup of water in a large bowl.
2. sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices in another bowl and then add the dry ingredients to the wet. Add more water if dough is too crumbly.
3. Turn the dough out of the bowl and form into 4 equal balls. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350º and grease two baking sheets. Roll out the dough and cut or mold each piece of your sun. 
5. Bake suns for about 10-12 minutes or until puffy and slightly browned. 

You don't have to just make suns with the dough- you can also roll it out and make cut out cookies! But just look at how gorgeous these turned out.

Clockwise from top left: My sun, my dad's, my mom's and my brother's fish/sun.

This is such a great family tradition. We put on some carols, shape our suns, then watch a Christmas movie or just sit around the tree and chat while the heavenly smell of gingerbread baking wafts through the house. It keeps us cozy on the shortest, darkest day of the year. 

Only one more day until Christmas! Can you believe it? Today is going to be full of so much last-minute baking and cooking. I will be posting my family's all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipe soon, so stay tuned!