Coconut Sconecakes with Strawberrys

dry

1.5 c flour (unbleached)

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c fine grated coconut (unsweetened)

3 tsp baking powder

1 big pinch of salt

wet

3/4 c soymilk

1/4 c oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

topping

12 strawberries, sliced (can use frozen, as I did)

Preheat oven to 350 f.

Combine all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Combine all wet ingredients in another bowl. Once oven is at temperature, add the wet to the dry, stirring lightly until everything is mixed up. Be careful not to overmix and make sure you get the dry on the bottom of the bowl.

Spray a 10 inch metal (oven safe) skillet with oil and add dough, lightly pushing to evenly fill the pan (you can use an 8x8 pan, but I use a skillet because I used to bake everything for my better half back in his "batchlor pad" in this pan because he had nothing else!). Bake for 25 minutes or until brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Once cooled, slice and serve with berries on top.

I call these "sconecakes" because it is like shortcake but sweeter. And because I can.

Sugar Cookies

These sugar cookies are not very sweet. The sweetness comes from the icing. They are a modified version of my favorite childhood omni recipe. I submitted the recipe here because I know that if I submit it on VW it'll take forever to be posted.

Cookie

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

1 2/3 + 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup nut milk

In a bowl, sift together 1 2/3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, cream together shortening and vanilla before gradually adding the sugar. Stir in flour mixture and then alternatively stir in 1/3 cup flour and 1/3 cup milk.

Roll to about a 1/4-inch thickness, cut with a cookie cutter, and bake for 7 to 10 minutes.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.


Icing

When the frozen raspberries thaw they are mushy enough to easily incorporate into the frosting. Allow them to thaw completely before using.

1 cup confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons thawed frozen red raspberries

Mix all ingredients together. The consistency may be fine-tuned by adding more sugar or raspberries.

Portabel-love-ya Stuffed Mushrooms

The ingredients for this recipe are red and white, but the onions turned purple when roasted and the nutritional yeast turned the white rice and red bell pepper brilliance a creamy, yummy shade of yellow. To pick up on more red, you could stuff small red bell peppers and increase the amount of rice stuffing.


Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

4 stuffing Portabella mushrooms
24 cherry tomatoes
12 red pearl onions
12 while pearl onions
1/2 small red bell pepper, minced
1 teaspoon oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup rice, prepared (I used jasmine)

Roasted Vegetables
Pop the stems out of the Portabella mushrooms and reserve the stems. Chop off the ends of the onions and remove the tough outer layers.

Line a cake pan with parchment paper. Place the mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions on the paper and roast in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and use a spatula to lift the items off of the paper.

Stuffing
Rice may be reserved from a meal a day or two earlier. If you don’t have prepared rice on hand, start making it when there’s about 25 minutes left for the vegetables to roast.

When there’s about 20 minutes left for the vegetables to roast, mince reserved mushroom stems and bell pepper. Add oil to a small saucepan and sauté mushroom stems and bell pepper over medium-low heat until soft. Transfer to a small bowl. In the same saucepan over medium heat combine flour, nutritional yeast, garlic, and salt. Add water and stir until smooth. If it remains clumpy, use an immersion blender or transfer mixture to a food processor or blender to smooth and return to saucepan. Add the rice, mushroom stems and bell pepper and heat until uniformly warm.

When the mushrooms have roasted, transfer them to serving bowls. Spoon the rice mixture into the cup of each mushroom and arrange the tomatoes and onions on the plate.

Makes 2 servings.

choco berry pie

filling
2 containers of silken tofu
1 c chocolate chips
a dozen or so strawberries
3-4 T soymilk (depending on how dry/firm your tofu is)
1T vanilla

blend all.

crust
3/4 c margarine
1c powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
about 7 dates (or an extra banana)
2c flour
1/2 cocoa
1 banana

blend margarine, add sugar until crumbly, add vanilla, flour and cocoa. reserve one cup for middle of pie. add dates and banana to the rest of the mixture in the processor, process until forms a doughy ball.

assembly
put ball of crusty dough in pie pan, spread out, pour in half of filling mixture, sprinkle on reserved chocolate/crust stuff, lay down slices of strawberries, pour rest of filling on top, arrange strawberries or sprinkle a little bit of more chocolate/crust stuff on top.

note: i wanted to use cherries, but our store didnt have any more. i think this would be good with cherries, but i have not tried it.

Cherrychocochocochip Cookie

2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 C earth balance margarine
1 C organic white sugar
1 C turbinado sugar
2 Fleggs ( 2 Tbl flaxseeds coffee grinded, then mixed with 6 Tbl water)
1 Tbl vanilla
1 bag chocochips ( i use whole foods vegan chips cause theyre tiny= more chips)
1 C dried cherries ( I use trader joes tart montmorency cherries)

MIx dry ingredients in a small bowl. (U really should sift in cocoa)
Cream butta and sugars in a large bowl.
MIx fleggs in a small bowl than add to butta. add vanilla.
Add dry floury things to buttery things.
MIx it up good.
Then add in chips and cherries, saving some of each to garnish each cookie if u want.

Scoop out 1/3 C chunks for serious cookies. (it will make 14 this size) Flatten slightly with palm.
Bake at 375 for 15 mins. Then cool on the trays for at least 10-15 min before moving to wire rack.

These are great. They are chewy, brownie like cookies. The hard chocochips and crunchy turbinado contrast nicely with the chewy cherries.
And the sweetness of the cookie contrasts great with the tart cherries. Enjoy! (PS theyll be real gooey if u dont let them cool first so chill out)