Sunday, December 03, 2006

Baking Extravaganza #1

Yay! Blogger pictures are back. :)

Hi world, I am Lucy and the new one at the home of the bakehouse people. Dori is busy baking and I decided to tell you all she is up to so I can earn more goodies .... I love to eat the goodies, she makes sure I get no chocolate though.

For this order, the first items baked were Dreena's carrot pineapple "tops", only ours were made in muffin cups. They are tastey, not to sweet. For a festive occasion we may try to drizzle them with a yummy frosting. The other muffins pictured are VWAV apple pie- crumble top muffins. I discovered that there may be a mistake with the quantity of oil listed in the crumble top recipe... it says 3 Tbsp, when I used this amount the crumble top mix was soupy. I reduced it to 3 tsp and it made great crumble top.

Next I made Bryanna's Tender Banana bread with carob chips, 8 small loaves, a few mini muffins and a large loaf bread. Sitting beside these are VWAV best ever pumpkin muffins. I sprinkled them with leftover crumble top and they look pretty as a picture, I like the heavy spice flavoring.

Then with oranges I tried Bryanna's vegan Coconut Orange Muffins. These might be in the Fiber for Life cookbook. Beside these are a orange poppy seed muffins that has been stuck in my recipe box some time ago. They are fat free, to make up for a lack of visual appeal I decided to drizzle these with an almond flavored powdered sugar frosting.

Muffins made:
Vegan with a Vengeance - Best Ever Pumpkin Muffins, Apple Pie - Crumble Cake

Bryanna Clark Grogan: Fiber for Life Cookbook -
Orange Coconut Muffins, Fat Free Orange Poppy Seed Muffins - free recipes archives, Tender fat free banana bread - Almost No Fat Cookbook

Dreena: Vive Le Vegan - Carrot Raisin Muffin Tops

I was very impressed with the pumpkin muffins and the orange coconut muffins.





Hey now looks what's coming out of the oven...
cookies!




I made the following so far:
Dreena Everyday Vegan: Carob Coconut Pecan Cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Dreen Vive Le Vegan: Peanut Better Cookies, Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies, Maple Nut Cookies

Vegan with a Vengeance: Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

This picture is of the carob coconut pecan cookies in small medium and large size. That also means 1 tablespoonful, 2 tablespoonful, and three tablespoonful dough sizes. At first I didn't care for the crispy little cookies I was getting, but then I realized that I have a recipe yield difference. I made the cookie recipe five times bigger so it took me a bit to figure out how big the ideal recipe cookie was supposed to be. I discovered with most of the vive le vegan cookie a large spoonful measures to approximately the size of a 3 Tablespoon scoop, however the oatmeal raisin really does require a Tablespoon full. I have 7 gigantic ones that are tastey, and chewy, but they took longer to bake ... my family loves these mistakes. My five times larger recipe of these cookies yielded 105 cookies, Dreena's recipe yield would have calcuated to 110... I was pretty close (unless someone here snuck five cookies worth of dough... a likely happening).

Because I made so many little crispy carob coconut pecan cookies that I won't use in my order I make cookie gift sticks, 8 cookies in a 4 x 14 bags with a label. Tying the end with a festive ribbon will make a nice quick gift for the neighbors and a few friends, sometimes I will add a copy of the recipe (giving full credit to the source) - depends who I am giving it to and whether they would like that information.

Of the cookies, the maple nut ones are beautiful, but not as sweet as my customers would probably prefer and the same with the peanut better ones. I will frost the maple with a maple spiked powder sugar drizzle, the peanut better ones I will probably place them in the order as is, but will make a note on my recipe to make them a little sweeter next time ... I'd use a dash of stevia to accomplish that though.

My favorite Dreena cookie would be the Double Chocolate Almond Explosion cookie (oh yum yum!) ranked slightly higher than the pumpkin cookies in VWAV which I used craisins in inctead of raisins. I am not done baking yet, but can already feel the holiday spread.... soon I'll be blogging about my exercise routine instead of cooking (eek!).

16 comments:

Nikk said...

Oh Dori, I'm planning on doing tons of baking for gifts very soon! I need to start mailing them out! :)

I'm drooling over your list of yummies!

bazu said...

I'm drooling right along with Nikki, and I haven't even seen photos yet! very impressive batch baking. I will be making a few batches of cookies and things soon, and taking them with me on holiday travels.

theONLYtania said...

Oh man.. I know it's a lot of work and you're busy, but I would love to bake as my JOB. Hehe. Lucky.

funwithyourfood said...

aw what a cute lil pup!
wow that's an amazing amount of baking you're up to. Your house must be so warm and smell edible.
mmm
I'll be baking cupcakes soon for x-mas and richards bday.

teddy

Anonymous said...

Wow Dori! You weren't kidding when you said you were about to begin a baking extraveganza. Those gift bags are really cute. But not half as cute as Lucy!!! Wow! What an adorable new member of your family. I hope she brings you much love and happiness.

Anonymous said...

another drooling here!
thanks for let me know the mistake in the VWAV apple pie- crumble top muffins.

Hi Lucy! welcome to the blooger world!

laura k said...

Ooh, the holidays at your house must be an incredible time! I love to do a lot of baking too, and I'll probably give gifts of muffins, cookies, bread, etc. this year.

I'm with you on those Double Chocolate Almond Explosion cookies--they're really amazing!

sugarcreekfarm said...

Lucy looks like a very cute little helper! I haven't started my baking yet, but you're sure getting me inspired.

Eat Peace Please said...

I am so happy you have Lucy! What a cuteness!

All this baked stuff is killing me. And that inside-the-oven photo just about put me over the top... Amazing looking and sounding goods Dori!

Anonymous said...

Hi Lucy!!!! You're gonna love your new home. Look how they welcome you with all these cookies.

Anonymous said...

Love your oven! How long did it take you to make all your goodies and do you bake right before you have to supply the order? I love to bake for the holidays but find if I bake too soon then my cookies/goodies seem stale before I can give them out. I've also been the recipient of stale cookies so I know others have the same problem. How do you keep yours fresh?

Dori said...

MV -

To answer your question about stale baked goods. I wrap in heavy bags and freeze cookies and muffins the same day I bake. I have two large chest freezers and a stand up freezer at the bakehouse. I allow them to thaw on a cooling rack separately (no touching) so condensation doesn't do weird things 8 hours before I take them places.

I make yeasted goods fresh, the night before.

erica said...

Wow, Dori!

I'm about to make my christmas gifts this year this weekend: gingerbread robots (don't tell anyone, it's a secret!).

I'm starting to feel the holiday spread, too, ugh. I ate an entire batch of failed gingerbread. Still tasted darn good, just nothing actually visually resembling a robot - or gingerbread, for that matter.

I think there are a few errors in VwaV, the tempeh bacon recipe calls for 3T of oil, this makes the bacon super sticky and greasy, I think it's supposed to be 3t.

urban vegan said...

Wow--you can open up your own bakery with all that vegan yumminess.

I'm starting my Xmas baking soon.

Cherie Anderson said...

Good idea with the cookies! Who wouldn't love to receive that as a gift?!

karen said...

Lucy is beautiful!!! and your cookies look amazing too!