Tuesday, January 29, 2008

My LLP and Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Scones

My LLP Peppermint cooked for me last week, because she is awesome like that (and secretly and seductively trying to get into my pants--DON'T DENY IT, PEPPERMINT! I CAN READ YOU LIKE A BOOK!! PARTICULARLY A BOOK TITLED PEPPERMINT IS TRYING TO GET INTO LINDY LOO'S PANTS (WHICH ACTUALLY HAS A KIND OF TWIST ENDING THAT YOU WON'T EVER SEE COMING SO I PROMISE NOT TO GIVE IT AWAY FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVEN'T READ IT)!!!), and this is what she made:




Sadly, I can't remember what they were called, other than "Delish." But they were little potato-pancake-like patties that tasted strangely like potatoes DESPITE THE FACT THAT THERE WERE NO POTATOES IN THEM!! *Cue Twilight Zone music* Apparently rice is a potato-wannabe sometimes. Nonetheless, I dug them and thought they were tasty little buggers. Alas, Peppermint didn't manage to get into my pants THIS time around, but if she continues to cook for me like this (tastily and nekkid), she may very well get lucky in the near future.

On other cooking fronts, I made pumpkin vegan scones last weekend. And before I even accidentally offend the Two Vegan Sisters (which I totally don't mean to do, because they rock, and because I modified a bunch of stuff from their recipe, so any errors in baking-judgment were my own), I've got to explain my love-hate relationship with the scone. The elusive, mysterious scone. I find them very confusing. They typically seem to be rather dry. And they're not sweet enough for my sweet tooth. (This was the case for these pumpkin scones as well--thank god I added the chocolate chips.) The end result usually leaves me going, Um, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT YOU, LITTLE SCONEY SCONES, BECAUSE YOU ARE SO VERY STRANGE IN COMPARISON TO THE REST OF YOUR BAKERY-FAMILY. But I *LOVE* how a nice cup o' coffee somehow transforms them into something glorious. End result with THESE scones was that I ate three of them throughout the day, despite being unsure whether I liked them or not. Were it not for the chocolate chips, they would've been horrendously bland. *BUT* the original recipe does call for a glaze on them, so I suspect this probably would've given them a bit more zip. And perhaps if I'd used butter instead of oil, they would've been a bit less dry. Or soy creamer instead of soy milk. Or added the glaze on. Or plain old didn't suck. One never knows.

Anyways, there are also many good reasons to check and make sure that you have all the ingredients before you start measuring stuff out; the biggest of reasons is, well, if you don't do that, you may suddenly realize you don't HAVE several of the ingredients. In my case, I realized I was out of vegan margarine. I also realized I was out of powdered sugar for any sort of glaze (vegan powdered sugar seems to be even more elusive in my area than vegan chocolate chips). I also don't ever have soy creamer handy (I'm a black-coffee gal--I like my coffee like I like my men: all up in my lap and burning my loins while I drive to work in the mornings), so I subbed in soy milk: again, perhaps this holds some of the blame for the dryness.

Anyways, aim for the original recipe and see how they turn out for you. Perhaps you won't suck quite so much as me.



PUMPKIN-CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES

INGREDIENTS:
  • 4 c. whole wheat flour (or 2 of all-purpose, 2 of wheat)

  • 1/2 c. sugar

  • 2 T. baking powder

  • 1 t. ground cinnamon

  • 1 t. ground nutmeg

  • 1/2 t. ground ginger

  • 1/2 t. salt

  • 1/2 c. Earth Balance margarine (I used 1/2 c. vegetable oil)

  • 1 c. pumpkin purée

  • 1/4 to 1/2 c. soy creamer (use less if using fresh pumpkin purée, add more if using canned pumpkin)

  • 1 c. vegan chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, spices and salt. If using Earth Balance, use a pastry blender to add in Earth Balance until thoroughly mixed. If using vegetable oil, whisk together with pumpkin and soy creamer/milk in another large bowl.

Add combined dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture. Mix, then divvy out into 12 lumpy masses and arrange on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake until golden for 15 minutes. Transfer baked scones to a wire rack to cool, with parchment or wax paper underneath to catch drips.

(Original recipe from Two Vegan Sisters)

No comments:

Post a Comment