Mushroom Feta Scones

I decided to try and make something savory for a change....I had some cheese and some mushrooms, so I thought to make scones. I don't really know if these are considered scones necessarily, but in any case I will describe my actions forthwith.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour
Three eggs
Butter (Smart Balance Buttery Spread)
Milk (Soymilk)
Baking soda
Salt
Black pepper
Rosemary and Garlic (mixture/grinder)
Baby Portabella mushrooms (sliced)

Goat's Milk "Salad Cheese" (basically feta)

Here's what I did:

I added one cup of flour.

Added about 1/3 tsp salt. Mine was sea salt from a grinder.

Added 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Added in total about 1/8 cup of the rosemary garlic mixture. I did not grind it, and it simply consisted of dried rosemary and dried flakes of garlic.

Added 6 twists from the pepper grinder.

Added egg YOLKS. No whites. I made scones once where you only used the yolks so that's why I'm doing it here. But mostly I am pretty sure that egg whites dry things out.

(Three egg yolks.)

Added a half a stick of the buttery spread, chopped up.

I combined everything. It started to become kind of like crumbly play-doh.

I thought, well that's too dry. I added 1/4 cup of the soymilk.

Well okay that made it too wet. I added an additional 1/4 cup of flour.

I combined everything with my hands and it became a kind of dough. I took a cube of the cheese, about 1 1/2 inches, and put it in. This shows the size of the cube.

But I cut up the cheese and then mixed it all in.

Here are my mushrooms. I ended up taking about one decent sized mushroom's worth of slices, chopped them up into even smaller pieces, and combined them with the mixture. These are baby portabellas.

I greased a pan and rolled the dough into little balls. I put little x's on them, hot cross bun style, and sprinkled a little more cheese on the tops of them.

I put them in the oven at 325 degrees. After about 25 minutes...

The Verdict:

Hmm. I guess these are scones. They do taste good to me but I feel like they are lacking something. I think what I need to do with something like this is go big or go home. Next time add more butter even though it's not good for you. Add more cheese. Add more mushrooms. I am hesitant but this is just what needs to happen for next time. Needs less milk/more butter. A little less salt.

Other ideas include:
- What about cheddar?
- What about buttermilk?
- Is it possible to make buttery tasting, savory scones without becoming Paula Deen?

Next time I'll either go all out and make the most ridiculous buttery cheesy scones ever and not worry about health, or I'll attempt to experiment with slightly healthier ingredients, but with a more precise goal. So I'll post this recipe and ingredient amount I've used but I'd like to eventually change it.

Don't get me wrong, though. These were delicious.

What my recipe was this time:

1 1/4c Wheat flour
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8c Dried rosemary and garlic (mixed in even amounts)
Pepper to taste (6 twists from pepper grinder)
3 Egg yolks
1/2 stick of butter (or buttery spread)
1/4c soymilk
1 1/2 inch cube's worth of feta cheese, chopped or crumbled
One medium-large baby portabella mushroom, chopped
 
Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes.

Vegan Chocolate Banana Spice...BROWNIES?

As I was wondering what to bake today I thought...what about banana bread? I got home and thought oh well what about chocolate banana bread? And what if I added spices? Well we'll see what happens here.

I first thought of calling this "Chocolate Banana Spice Cake" but as you will see it turned out differently than I first thought!

The ingredients I chose:

 

Wheat flour

Sugar

Vegetable Oil

Vanilla extract

Cocoa powder

Baking powder

Baking soda

Banana

Cinnamon

Ginger

Clove

Nutmeg

 Oh hey, looks like this is going to be vegan, surprise.

Here's what I did:

Preheated oven to 325 degrees.

Sliced up one banana.

Added 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Mashed that up with a fork, then added some vanilla.

Ended up adding about 2/3 cup of sugar, mixed that.

Added 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. Actually maybe a little bit more.

Then I added the spices. It's really up to you what kind and what amount of spices you add. I added cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. A few dashes of each, though I added at least 3 times as much cinnamon as any of the other ones.

Added about 2/3 cup of wheat flour.

Mixed everything and ALMOST FORGOT THE BAKING POWDER AND BAKING SODA.

 I added about 1/4 tsp baking powder, and about 1/8 tsp baking soda.

I put it all in an oiled baking pan and put it in the oven. It seemed done after about 20 minutes.

When I took it out, I added some powdered sugar on top.

The Verdict:

Well, it looks like I've made brownies. Yup. That's really what this is. Chocolatey, moist, gooey brownies, with a bit of a banana flavor. I can taste the spices a little bit, not too much, but I like that I added them. I like the ginger and may want to add more next time.

Oh man you guys this is really good.

For next time, I would try to eliminate the oil. Maybe use applesauce or something. Would it be as good? I hope so!

For the title of this blog entry I've gone with "Vegan Chocolate Banana Spice Brownies" but they are mainly "Vegan Brownies" with side notes of the other descriptors. I think if I wanted to go for something that is truly "chocolate banana spice" and not just brownies, I'd add slices of bananas, some dashes of cinnamon, and maybe some whipped cream, as a top layer! OH MY GOD...

Or what if I used canned pumpkin instead of banana...

Anyway, the final amounts:

One banana
1/4c vegetable oil
Some vanilla
2/3c sugar
1/4c-ish cocoa powder
A few dashes of ginger, clove, and nutmeg
10 or so dashes of cinnamon
2/3c wheat flour
1/4tsp baking powder
1/8tsp baking soda

Bake these at 325 for about 20 minutes. Makes one small pan of brownies. You may want to double the recipe.

Apple-Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

Apple-Blueberry Yogurt Muffins

I thought of making something with yogurt because I picked up a few groceries today including some individual yogurts. I do love my yogurt. Seeing as adding yogurt to something usually makes it quite moist, and seeing as this particular type of yogurt had a side of blueberry type stuff with it, I thought muffins would be a good choice!

Here's what I THOUGHT my ingredients should be.

Wheat flour

Oat bran

Sugar

One apple

One Müller brand "Corner" yogurt, blueberry type

Vanilla extract

Cinnamon

Smart Balance Buttery Spread

Baking powder

Baking soda

Here's what I did:

 I preheated the oven to 325 degrees!

I put the yogurt with the side of blueberries in a bowl. It was lowfat plain yogurt and sort of a blueberry compote/syrupy mixture. In total this was 5.3 oz. So probably about 3.5oz yogurt, and 1.5oz blueberries.

Added some vanilla, mixed.

Then I took the one apple, chopped it up, and chopped the chopped pieces in a chopper.

Mixed the apple chops in the yogurt mixture. It should be noted that apple sauce tends to be a good substitute for butter or oil. I figured that with all the yogurt in this already, and with the chopped up apple, there was no need for me to add the 1/2 stick of butter I had planned. (I also left out the cinnamon)

Added 1/4 cup of sugar. There's already sugar in the blueberries and probably the yogurt, also the apple adds some sweetness, so no need to go overboard here.


 

Added 1/4 cup of wheat flour.

Added 1/4 cup of oat bran.

Added 1/2 tsp baking powder.


 

Added slightly less than 1/2 tsp baking soda.


 

I thought this recipe could be perfect if only I had another banana to add. But alas, I did not. So I added an egg. I feared for these muffins' stability.

Seemed a little bit too liquidy, so I added a little more wheat flour. Less than 1/4 cup.

Now the mixture seemed to hold a welcoming texture. I poured it into a slightly oiled muffin pan. I was able to spread it out to fill 8 cups.

 

These ended up baking for about 15 minutes.

I took them out...and...

The Verdict:

These are very moist! They're sweet, a bit fruity...and because there's no butter or oil of any kind, these do not weigh you down or sit in your stomach like rocks. Overall...not bad!

For next time, I would love to try using a banana instead of an egg. I'd also like to try it with plain greek yogurt, and maybe some fresh blueberries. Or another type of berry, or with the "honey apricot" flavor of this type of yogurt.

Overview:

3.5 oz yogurt
1.5 oz fruit mixture/something like it
Some vanilla
One apple (chopped up)
1/4 cup sugar
About 2/3 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
One egg
 

Bake at 325 for about 15 minutes. This recipe made 8 smallish muffins.

Hello! And cookies!

I would not call myself a baker, but here I am baking things without following predetermined recipes. For the past couple of months I've been experimenting with baking my own cookies, cakes, quick breads, pancakes, etc. In this blog I'll be posting about my baking experiments, trials and errors, and recipes that I come up with on the spot. Eventually I'll move on to harder stuff that I've never made on my own before... Pies? Eclairs? Flan?

My questions have usually been things like

"What is a cupcake?"

"How can I still make this even though I only own a jar of mayonnaise and some powdered sugar?"

"How can I make this thing at least mostly vegan?"

I aim to find out, or fail while trying to find out!

So to start off this blog, here is what I made today.

White Chocolate Green Tea Cookies

Okay so here's what I decided my ingredients should be:

Sugar
Flour (I happen to have whole wheat)
Baking soda
Baking powder
Smart Balance Buttery Sticks (can be butter, margarine, etc)
Nestle Toll House "Premiere White" Morsels
One banana (instead of an egg! Why not?)
Matcha green tea powder (Maeda-En brand)
Vanilla (mine happens to be imitation)

*Note: these could easily be made vegan by using vegan margarine and vegan chips (or no chips)*

The bag of white chocolate chips is open because I immediately started eating them after I bought them from the grocery store today.

Here's what I did:

I preheated the oven to 325-350-ish

I cut up the one banana.

I added half a stick of the Smart Balance (cut up).

 

I mashed them together, then added some vanilla.

 

Then I added 1/3 cup of sugar and mixed those.

*I decided to add an impromptu 1/3-ish cup of lightly smushed brown sugar as well.*

 

 

Mixed those, then added approximately 1 1/2 tsp of the matcha powder.

Mmm, doesn't that look appetizing.

I added about 1/2 tsp baking soda...

and a little less baking powder for some reason. These measurements are a little arbitrary...

 I added in total about 3/4 cup of the wheat flour, mixing it in little by little. I'd say go until you think it has enough of a cookie-dough-esque consistency.

 I added a little under 2/3 cup of the white chocolate morsels,

mixed that...

and then put little clumps on a lightly oiled baking sheet.

I set the oven for 10 minutes and put them in.

After 10 minutes, I realized I must have set the temperature too high! I turned the oven down to slightly under 325 and put them back in for a few more minutes.

And the verdict:

 

 These taste pretty good. But, I may have added too much sugar. But for the most part, these are moist and slightly chewy but not too dense cookies with a vanilla-green tea flavor. I think the banana made them more moist than they would have been if I used an egg.

They are not the prettiest cookies, but that's probably because of the brownish wheat flour mixed with the green matcha powder.

The good thing about hideous cookies is that you can spice up the decor to make them even more hideous looking (or beautiful??). On top of this breenish lump, why not add some blue gel, or pink sprinkles? Real pritty!

For next time...maybe I'd make these with powdered sugar? Could give them a different texture. Also maybe I would use white flour...but these still taste good with the wheat flour. Also I'd set these to 325 degrees for the whole time!

Makes a baker's dozen (or more) cookies.
Bake these at 325 for about 12 minutes.

 

If anyone wants to try making these let me know what you think! Again this is the first time I've tested this recipe seeing as I invented it just now.