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!).