Vegan MoFo 2014 - Natural Selection Foods

Sorry about the photo-less post - I can't be arsed turning on my laptop, so I'm doing this from my iPad. I'm being lazy in another way in that I'm just gonna talk about a shop because I just made standard tofu scramble for dinner, which is nothing new.

Yesterday we went to lunch with Mike's mum at the city centre-ish location of Bonsai. When we left, I noticed a new shop around the corner, so we checked it out. It's called Natural Selection Foods, which frankly makes me a little uncomfortable. They mostly have stuff like packaged nuts and dried fruits, teas, flours, and snack bars, which I guess is where the natural part comes in. I think it's the muscle gain products that put that bit of discomfort in.

They had some high-protein cookies that happened to be vegan, so we got some of those. The brand is Lenny and Larry's, which I would've linked to but I keep getting an error on their site. They also did a lot of the other body builder-type snacks (like Fit brownies or something like that). Anyway, we got a chocolate chip, a double chocolate chip, and a pumpkin spice cookie, and we ate the first two when we got hot chocolate at Starbucks (ha!). I thought they were good for GF cookies, and then I realised that they weren't GF. Oops. They weren't bad, but they were a little dry. I think that's because they're kinda fitness snacks, so instead of fat they have a protein flour blend. They were £2.50 each, but I'm not sure if that was reasonable or a rip off. They were pretty big, but still.

We worried going in that this shop would give Real Foods a run for their money, but I think RF is safe. Like I said, they mostly just have snacks, whereas RF has pretty vastly different stuff. NSF doesn't have chocolate, toiletries, fresh fruit and veg, frozen or fridge foods, etc. I think the two shops would compliment each other, but I don't think one will drive the other out of business.

Sundae Sunday - Vegan Dublin Mudslide

My favourite pregan ice cream was Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide - Irish cream ice cream, chocolate chocolate chip cookie* pieces, and coffee fudge ripple.  I'm pretty sure it was the last non-vegan thing I ate intentionally while I lived in the US**.

One of the things I put on my 40 before 40 list was to veganise the Dublin Mudslide.  It doesn't seem like something that would be terribly difficult when you think of it as just veganising some ice cream.  But when you consider the various components, having to veganise those, and the amount of time it would take to make them regardless of their animal content, it's a goddamn project.  For the vegan version, not only do you have to figure out a way to make the ice cream, cookies, and fudge swirl vegan, you have to make your own Bailey's Irish cream!

I got a bug up my butt today and decided to just do it.

I started by making some Irish cream liqueur - I used the recipe in Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.  I then made the cookies - I used the soft baked chocolate chip cookie recipe in The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur but switched out 1/4 c of the flour for 1/4 c cocoa powder.  I used my modified V'con ice cream base for the ice cream, adding 1/4 c of the homemade Bailey's to a vanilla recipe.  I used this recipe for the fudge ripple with some instant espresso added for the coffee element - my original attempt ended in chocolate syrup, so it was the wrong consistency.***

The final product was good, but it wasn't Dublin Mudslide.  *sadface*  I'll probably make this again, but I'd make the following changes:

1. Use the homemade Bailey's instead of rather than in addition to the soy milk (so the full soy cream and 1/2 c Bailey's), and add a bit of coffee flavour to the ice cream itself.
2. Leave the chocolate chips out of the cookies (I honestly don't remember chocolate chips in the cookies in the original).
3. More coffee flavour and more sweetness in the fudge ripple.

I think these changes would make it much more like the original.  I made about a liter of Bailey's, and I still have some cookie dough (it would be pretty easy to pull out most of the chocolate chips), so I could probably make this again soon.  For science.

*The description I read said chocolate chocolate chip, but as I mentioned in my post, I don't remember the chocolate chips.
**I had a hard time adjusting to life in the UK as a vegan, so I went back to ovo-veg for a couple of weeks until I found my footing.
***My 2nd attempt almost failed too.  The original recipe calls for maple syrup, which I probably wouldn't have used even if I had it.  I tried to use light corn syrup, but to my great surprise, it wasn't sweet enough, so I added in some golden syrup.  Next time, I'd go with all golden syrup, or maybe agave.

Perfect chocolate chip cookies

I thought I would take a break from blogging for one day, but then I decided not to.  It's World Vegan Day!  And because of that, I had to make something.  I decided to dig out my old favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe and see how it compared to the ones I'd made the past few days.

Many years ago, I was not really a cookie fan.  I don't know why - maybe because people thought putting things like oats and raisins and nuts in cookies was acceptable practice.  I pretty much only ever ate chocolate chip cookies, and my favourites were Keebler Soft Batch cookies.

Then this dude started coming out with books for making home versions - nearly exact replicas - of packaged and restaurant foods.  One of them had Keebler Soft Batch cookies in it.  Score!  I bought the book and made the cookies, and they ended up being my sister's favourite as well as mine.  I think about her every time I make these, if only because of the time she insisted I make them at her tiny little apartment when, not being a cook/baker herself (she preferred things from cans and boxes in those days) and not having much equipment, we had to try to cream the first ingredients by hand with a spoon (or maybe it was one of those hand-cranked egg beaters).  I think we gave up after about 15 minutes (but we still made the cookies).

One of the first recipes I veganized was that cookie recipe.  Instead of posting the recipe here and running afoul of copyright law or something, I'll just direct you to the link above and make the following suggestions:

• Only make half a batch unless you're taking them to a potluck or something (otherwise you'll be in the kitchen for hours)
• Replace the butter with vegan margarine
• Replace the egg with either a flax egg or commercial egg replacer
• If you live near sea level/in a moist climate, increase the flour a bit (you should be able to shape them by hand)

I love how these cookies are still soft a day or two later (if they last more than 2 days).  I don't know if it's the molasses or the method, but whatever it is, they're amazing both right out of the oven and the next day.  They're the only chocolate chip cookie I've ever had that stayed soft, which is how I like them.  Oh, and if you mess up and take them out too early (like I did tonight), you can still eat them and they'll still be delicious!  I actually kinda love gooey, undercooked cookies.  I think I ate about 5 tonight, and now I feel a bit sick.

I tested a recipe for Terry last night, but since this post is already kinda lengthy, I'll post that tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo - Another copycat and a wrap-up

It's the last day of MoFo 2011!  I'm sad it's ending, though a part of me is glad to be getting a break!  I actually managed to blog every single day of October!  I did that the first year I participated, but that's because I wasn't working, so I'm really impressed with myself that I was able to do it this year.

There were, let's face it, quite a few things that I wanted to do that I didn't get around to.  I didn't make stovies, skirlie, or tablet.  I didn't make poutine.  I didn't make nearly enough recipes from the Cookbook Challenge books, and I could've done better at testing.  But I made a lot of stuff, so that's something.

Anyway, my last MoFo post is another copycat from the I-40 Kitchen -  Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies!

FYI - I used 3 25g packets of Tesco's ready-salted crisps to make up the cup called for in the recipe.  Once again, I did the roll-and-squish method.  The dough for these was a little thinner than the other ones I made, so they spread a bit more, but they still needed a bit of smooshing.

These were soft and delicious right out of the oven.  The chips just gave it a little bit of extra texture and a pleasant saltiness (though they were thirsty-making!).  They were pretty crispy after sitting overnight.  One of my co-workers said they were exactly the kind of chocolate chip cookies she likes, and they didn't last long with the rest of the office.  I liked them, but they still weren't my favourite cookies.  My quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie continues.

So, even though it's the end of MoFo, I'll still be blogging.  I'll continue testing for Terry's next book, and I have a few more projects that I'll probably cover.  So this blog won't go silent until next October!

I hope everyone else enjoyed this MoFo as much as I did.  It went by so fast!  I can't wait for next year, though hopefully I'll have more time to prepare!