Orange You Glad They're Double Chocolate Cookies?

So I never quite know the etiquette of reposting recipes here, but to be kind to those who take the time to make us recipe-books (and to steer clear from being sued), I typically don't repost book-recipes here (unless I'm able to find them on-line somewhere). That being said, today's cookie-recipe was inspired by the Chocolate Thumbprint Cookie recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance but is far enough removed from its original form that I feel alright publishing it here. (If anyone objects--bring it! We will have a full-on cookie war.)

That being said, MOTHER OF GOD did these cookies come out tasty. Squishy and decadently chocolatey with a powerful hint of orange akin to those Flintstones push-up popsicles from my youth.

And as raw-dough consumption goes, this shit is MANNA.

INGREDIENTS

Dry:
1 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt

Wet:
2/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. soy milk
1/3 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract
2 t. orange zest

1/4-1/3 c. vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips

DO:

Preheat oven at 350. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix until fully combined. And the chocolate chips.

On a cookie sheet covered in wax/parchment paper, scoop out heaping tablespoon-sized amounts of dough. This dough is very very sticky, so you will probably have to wet your hands before handling it until they start to gum up and then rewet again, etc. Take the tablespoon-sized dough-goop and smoosh it between your hands until slightly flattened. Place on sheet.

After you've filled the cookie sheet (they expand, so not too close to one another), toss into the oven for 11 minutes.

Once you've taken them out, top with orange-peel for decoration if you so choose. Let sit in the pan for a few minutes and then, leaving cookies on the wax paper, remove to a rack. Let cool all the way before handling them, as they will be super-soft.

Said one satisfied consumer: "not that i want to compliment you. but your smooshy cookie was actually good."

The End.

VERDICT: A

Gone Bananas Pancakes

Sunday morning, it was all about the pancakes again. Given that I'd nabbed like 1500 bananas at work on Thursday (apparently anything involving vast amounts of fat goes like hotcakes at work, but healthy food sits around for days), I decided to try out the Gone Bananas Pancakes recipe from Vegan Family Favorites. Basically, it is a fairly standard pancakes recipe, except that you slice up bananas into 1/2 inch slices and, after you throw the batter for a pancake on top of the griddle, you cover the exposed pancake batter with a ton of these banana slices.

For banana-lovers, this recipe is for you. However, I do give words of warning: no matter how hard you try and how well-cooked your pancakes are with this recipe, they will inevitably *seem* doughy--the bananas add moisture to the surrounding pancakes (and are a bit mushy themselves), so the pancakes themselves will unavoidably end up seeming a bit mushy. Also, the heaviness of the banana-coated side makes the pancakes kind of difficult to flip without bananas ending up falling out of the pancake and onto your goddamn kitchen floor.

Overall though, I kinda liked this recipe. The actual pancake recipe itself was nice and hearty tasting (yet again). And I threw some chocolate chips into the last batch, and the chocolate banana combination was most certainly yum. I'd just recommend cutting your banana slices as thin as possible--aim for 1/4 inch or something like that.

Verdict: B+

Recipe: HERE (you can also substitute out 2 T. of the white flour and substitute in 2 T. of flax meal instead, like I did, if you so choose)

Pizza Stuffs

This Friday, since I was flying solo (long story involving arrests, bombed Mother's Day plans, dogs in tu-tus--ok, not the last one, but the rest), I decided to whip up some pizza.

I used a corn meal crust recipe from Vegetarian Kitchen--their standard crust recipe is typically my crust of choice but I wanted to try something different this time. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the dough didn't rise like it should've, making it way too cardboardy and flat upon baking. It also was one of the most flavorless crusts I've had (barring the time that I forgot to put salt in the crust, which was a virtual disaster of blandness).

Nonetheless, I forged on. I made some homemade pizza sauce and organized my toppings. Making a pizza is fairly easy, so to challenge myself, I decide to make a half-and-halfer. On one half, I went with spinach, roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, and the melty white cheese recipe (you can find it HERE) from The Nutritional Yeast Cookbook. On the other side, I tossed on crumbled tofu, roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, and toasted pine nuts (later topping it off with a bit of creamy, dreamy avocado).

I was not at all bowled over by the spinach side. It was bland and boring and could've used much improvement. Despite the dull crust, the roasted red pepper side was *much* better than the other. I definitely would try this topping out again, perhaps tossing in a bit of jalapeno peppers or something for a little kick.

All in all...

VERDICT: C

(And apparently I've forgotten to bring the pictures. Will post tomorrow.)

(PSS. If anyone has any pizza-sauce recipes they recommend, please post them in my comments section if you don't mind sharing--I could definitely use a more consistently dependable recipe...)