pumpkin waffles & cider-maple syrup (aquafaba recipe)

I know, it's not fall just yet, but I have to tell you that cooler weather is truly my favorite part of the year. Besides that, I have to post recipes like these in plenty of time for you to see them, be stung by the autumn bug, remember you saw this post and be so relieved that you have a Pumpkin Waffle recipe all ready for the fixin'.

Crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, with plenty of pumpkin pie flavor to get you in the cooler weather mood, these waffles are topped with a two ingredient Cider-Maple Syrup; all the makings of the perfect fall swoon.

To make things even lighter, crisper and tender, this recipe uses aquafaba.

Aquafaba Tid Bits:

If you are using homemade aquafaba make sure it is nice and thick and viscous. If you are using canned aquafaba, reduce it by 1/3 before using to get the right consistency. Strain the aquafaba before using; warm aquafaba strains better because it is thinner. Aquafaba thickens as it cools.

The Pecan Pralines on these waffles are from my cookbook, Aquafaba: Sweet and Savory Vegan Recipes Made Egg-free with the Magic of Bean Water [Amazon, B&N].

For your convenience, I decided to make a video about this recipe instead of shooting still images. Check it out and subscribe to my channel so I can change the name of it from that random chain of letters and symbols YouTube assigns, to something a little more catchy, say, Zsu's Vegan Pantry.

Pumpkin Waffles with Cider-Maple Syrup
Makes 8 to 10 (4x4-inch) waffles

Syrup:
1/2 cup apple cider
1/2 cup maple syrup

Waffles:
1 cup oat flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot starch
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 cup solid, canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup nondairy milk
1/4 cup aquafaba**
1/4 cup neutral-flavored oil
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice***
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1. Syrup: Add the cider to a small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Cook the cider until it reduces to about 3 tablespoons, about 20 minutes. Add the maple syrup, stir and set aside. 
2. Combine the oat flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch and baking powder in a small bowl. Whisk and set aside. In a separate medium bowl, combine the pumpkin, milk, aquafaba, oil, sugar, spice and salt. Whisk well to combine. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Set aside until the waffle iron preheats, about 5 minutes. 
3. Preheat the waffles iron according to manufacturer's directions. Add the recommended amount of batter to the iron and cook as directed. When the waffles is ready transfer it to a cooling rack. The waffle will become crisp after about 40 seconds.
4. Serve the waffles with vegan butter and the cider syrup. 

** Although aquafaba is best if homemade using the recipe provided in the book, you can use aquafaba from canned chickpeas. Use the organic, low-sodium, canned chickpeas and strain off the liquid into a measuring cup using a fine mesh strainer. Note the amount of liquid you acquired, then add it to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the liquid reduces by 1/3. Cool the aquafaba completely before using.

*** If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg. 


© 2016 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

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veganmofo - blue + blueberry parfait

Day 10 #vgnmf15 is probably the most difficult in the sense that the prompt is "something blue." If we consider this at face value in the sense of food - it is an impossible task as there are no blue foods occurring in nature.  Even "blueberries" named as "blue" are, in fact, purple. Blue potatoes: purple, too. Unless you use food coloring, I'm afraid we are left with just these close-enough-to-blue ingredients or photoshop.

I went with Blueberry Parfait, using a quick compote and homemade soy yogurt. This is not an overtly sweet concoction, so depending in how sweet your granola is, you might wish to add some extra sweetness to the actual parfait.

I mainly went with this to, again, encourage you to make homemade soy yogurt. And if you have an Instant Pot (one with the yogurt function), there is just simply no excuse not to make soy yogurt (unless you don't eat soy, that is.)

If you don't have the Instant Pot, I have a tutorial for you right HERE. It really is easy and I make a batch at least twice a month. The starter (your saved yogurt from the previous batch) is freezable so there should never be a reason that you don't have a starter.

If you need a very first starter, you can get it HERE at Amazon. Once you make it, you can (and should) store 1/4 cup of the fresh yogurt for your subsequent batch.

Let me know if anyone needs a run down of how to make yogurt in an Instant Pot. It's much easier than making it without one, but a little run-down might help.

If you haven't entered the contest to win Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N) yet, head over to Tuesday's post HERE. Good luck!

Blueberry Parfait
Serves 4 

Compote:
2 cups frozen blueberries, slightly thawed
Zest of 1 orange (optional)
1 tablespoon sugar or maple syrup
1/4 cup water

4 (1/2 to 2/3 cups) yogurt
1 cup granola
Fresh blueberries

1. Combine the frozen blueberries, zest, sugar and water in a medium pot. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook until the sauce is lightly thickened. It will thicken more as it cools. Cool thoroughly before using.
2. Layer the compote in the bottom of 4 glasses. Add 1 portion of yogurt to each glass and top with 1/4 cup of granola and some fresh berries. Serve immediately.


 © 2015 Copyright Zsu Dever. All rights reserved.

veganmofo - breakfast

First day of #veganmofo - Vegan Month of Food! I know that many people across the vegan blogosphere await the return of veganmofo with bated breath. In fact, many folks prepare their themes and even begin writing posts well before the arrival of the month.

This year the mofoers threw a wrench into well-laid plans and changed the rules, shaking things up quite a bit! The narration has changed a bit and now each day comes with its own unique suggestion of what to post.

The first day's suggestion is breakfast. As soon as I saw that, I knew that my first post would be about the breakfast options in my new cookbook, Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N).

This is amazingly exciting for me because breakfast/brunch is always the more challenging meal of the day because aside from standard go-to ideas - cereal, pancakes, waffles, bagels, oatmeal, granola, scrambles -  there is not much of a shake-up.

For Vegan Bowls I pulled all the punches and went around the world to bring you unique breakfast bowls - bowls that maybe you haven't come across or ones that we might not think are traditional breakfast fare, yet they nourish people around the globe.

Take, for instance, Ful Medames Breakfast Bowl. This fava bean bowl is a daily breakfast bowl in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a staple breakfast bowl served with pita bread and a quick radish salad. This stuff is addictive!

From Asia comes THIS typical breakfast/brunch meal: Congee.

Congee is a rice porridge that can be as plain as just the rice cooked in water, to something dazzling and complex with the rice cooked in broth and topped with a variety of extras, such as fried tofu, marinated tempeh, scallions, fried garlic slices, scallions and ginger.

Find out how to make this breakfast in under 30 minutes - a dish that normally needs to cook for about an hour.

Back from my homeland, I bring you this Hungarian Breakfast Bowl, complete with a Hungarian scramble, sausage-style mushrooms and roasted tomatoes. Served with some crisp rye toast, you will be in-the-know with these delicious Hungarian breakfast flavors.

Quinoa has been a staple in South America for eons - they knew long before we did the benefits and nutritious qualities of this tiny pseudocereal.

This mildly sweet take on the normally savory quinoa will have you making it again and again for breakfast. I pair quinoa with oranges, nuts, cardamom and pears. These ingredients all harmonize, and when you make it, you'll see why.

From Mexico, I re-create Huevos Rancheros, an egg-based dish with corn tortillas and ranchero sauce. This one is out of this world and I am very proud to say that I have finally (after years!) got it to taste just right.

In all, there are 12 delectable Breakfast Bowls in Vegan Bowls. Want to see the other recipes in this chapter?

I can honestly say that I love them ALL! I can also testify to the fact that breakfast at our house is no longer a dilemna.

Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N) will be released September 15 - in the middle of MoFo! A little more than two weeks off! Eeek! Exciting!!

corned hash

Among the many cultures that have developed their own version of "hash," which means "to chop," we have Northern England to thank for this particular rendition, Corned Hash. Many moons ago, a great way to use up the previous night's dinner of boiled meat, potatoes and vegetables, was to cook it up for breakfast as hash. Not many modern households can boast having leftover boiled meat and potatoes on hand, and even less of those are enlightened households that have access to the boiled meat aspect. 

Hash has come to represent a cohesive mixture of chopped potatoes, vegetables and meat, held together by some liquid and cooked until the potatoes develop some crispness and are golden. 

I have replaced the meat with tofu and seitan, but either works just as well. I boiled the potatoes for just a few minutes before beginning the long process of browning the vegetables and protein.  I kept this very simple, adding only potatoes, onions, garlic, seitan, tofu and spices. While you could add more colorful vegetables, I wanted to make this one as authentic as possible. 

When I say long process of browning, I mean it. It took about 30 minutes to acquire the crispiness on the potatoes that I was looking for, turning the hash every three or four minutes to prevent scorching. I added some Daiya at the end, but I found that it would have been just as good without.

Happy New Year! 

  

MoFo chopped! challenge

Roasted Butternut Squash in Popcorn Crepes with Rosemary Apricot Sauce

My dear husband has swept up the confetti and I have composed myself, but are YOU ready? It is Weekly Vegan Menu's first Chopped!/Vegan MoFo Challenge!

Yours truly follows the MoFo blog religiously and was amazed at the incredible option dangled before me. The golden carrot of opportunity. 

The Chopped!/Vegan Challenge. 

Yes, like most devoted fans of Chopped!, not only have I thought 'eww..gross' at many rounds of the basket, but have boasted that I-can-do-better. Ms. Isa heard these boasts of ours and has given us the chance to put the basket where our stoves are.

I am sure there are some readers unfamiliar with this process. Here is a succinct rundown of the Food TV show:

4 chefs

4 ingredients

20-45 minutes

1 dish using all of the ingredients in the basket

3 rounds of baskets

3 judges to decide the winner

In our only round of the MoFo challenge, BRUNCH, we were given in our virtual baskets:

butternut squash

popcorn

Rosemary

apricot preserve 

There are over 800 bloggers in MoFo VI.

 This is MY story:

As soon as I read the ingredients, I knew, for better or worse, what I would make. But more importantly, I knew I would actually be making it, not just have daydreams about entering. 

I realized, as anyone reading the ingredients list, that popcorn was the challenge. As much as a raked my brain for different variations of the popcorn itself, alas, popcorn can only appear in a few forms: popcorn kernels (con: can cause emergency tooth surgery), popcorn popped (con: too average), popcorn ground (flour) (con: too messy), popcorn liquefied? Maybe not the last one. I was sure I was the only clever cleaver to go with popcorn flour!

 [Yeah,... probably not :] 

I decided to use my un-original idea of popcorn flour to make Crepes.

Crepes made with popcorn. Popcorn Crepes.

 I popped my fresh kernels, as any self-respecting Chopped Contestant would, ground it into flour, 

(Now I know where the packing material's name comes from - believe me, it isn't the popcorn; it is the airiness it achieves when you open the blender top. I thought glitter was bad! I'm sure I will be cleaning up popcorn debris until next year.) 

and used it as part of the crepe batter. Surprise! It worked! Not only did the popcorn add popcorn flavor (thanks in part to the 'double' cooking of the popcorn), but it did not mess up the crepe itself. 

Popcorn. Check.

Butternut squash is scary enough to send any and all of my kids scrambling for cover; they are not fans of winter squash. I haven't been, either, truth be told. That is, until I learned to roast. See this post for roasting techniques. 

Roasting is a medium-heat cooking where the natural sweetness and flavor of the cooked ingredient is drawn out. That is exactly what I did with the butternut squash. I added Rosemary to the squash to echo the Rosemary in the sauce. It also adds a lovely earth-quality to the sweetness of the squash and the richness of the black beans. Although black beans are not in the basket, the challenge is a BRUNCH one, and a great protein source (in addition to the other wonderful plant proteins) is beans. Black beans also pair extremely well with winter squash because they complement each other.

Butternut Squash. Check.

Apricot preserve had  a few different options in my thread of cooking. It could glaze the squash or become a sauce. I decided on making it into a sauce because adding the sweetness of the preserve to the sweetness of the squash was just begging for a double whammy, and not in a good way. 

However, if I made the preserve into a sauce and cooked it with some apple cider vinegar long enough that the acidic quality of the vinegar was gone, but the delightful tartness remained, then the sweetness of the preserve would be balanced. I used the Rosemary, for the second time, in the sauce. The earthy quality of the herb fared well with the preserve. Doubling up the Rosemary in the sauce and the squash preparation connects the elements of the dish. I was careful to not overwhelm the palate with Rosemary, but to not let it get lost among the other flavors.

Rosemary. Check.

Apricot Preserve. Check.

To sum it up, I kept it simple, not overdoing the dish with too many other ingredients. 

The crepes have a definite popcorn flavor, but not overwhelmingly so. They pair well with the sweetness of the squash with its hint of spiciness and Rosemary. The sauce adds another dimension of sweetness and tartness, again with Rosemary hinting at the edge of the bite. The dish is contrasting enough while complementing all the basket ingredients. It is a complete dish with no one note taking center stage. It is also seasoned well, for those judges wondering. Salt and fresh ground pepper were appropriately used.

 A simple symphony for the palate.

Who is the winner? And who will be chopped?

Tune into MoFo  on October 16!

My recipe is below the pictures.

Roasted Butternut Squash in Popcorn Crepes with Rosemary Apricot Sauce Recipe

IHOP make over

Moseying over to casual dining experiences, breakfast style this time, we are heading toward the uniquely named, but acronym-ly referred to IHOP - International House of Pancakes. When you crave pancakes, I suppose this is a great place to head to!  Oh! Except, it is off-limits to vegans, unless they are in the mood for a piece of dry toast.

 Maybe, grits.

Making this one over is such a pleasure because it still baffles me that eggs and dairy are used in making pancakes; I love to show that pancakes and eggs are not a match made in heaven. Not to mention that all of my kids are pancake fiends. 

I decided to remake their self-appointed healthy pancake, Harvest Grain 'N Nut and their special seasonal Pumpkin Pancake. The Harvest Grain has great flavor, although it is not solely made of whole grains, and the pumpkin one was a surprise hit for the family; just enough pumpkin flavor without crossing over into pumpkin pie land.

While maple syrup is a nice addition to pour on the pancakes, IHOP is very worried that syrup alone won't be enough to sweeten your breakfast. To ensure you receive your proper intake of sugar, they add ample amounts to the batter. What I'm saying is, go easy on the syrup. I added flax meal to the pancakes, not because I thought the pancakes needed anything to "bind" them (flour does that), but because it adds nutrition.

Both are easy enough to make, just keep the temperature of the pan on medium to medium-low to allow the inside of the pancake to cook through.

Cost Breakdown

Harvest Grain:

flour, oats, milk, baking powder: $1.25

nuts, flax, vinegar, oil: $1.50

milk, sugar, syrup: $1.50

Total to make 12 pancakes:

$4.25

Their cost per order: $6.00 

(Originally it is $8.30 per order with topping.)

Make Over Cost per Serving: $1.10

Pumpkin:  

flour, milk, baking powder: $1.25

pumpkin, vinegar: $.50

flax, sugar, spices, syrup: $1.50

Total to make 10 pancakes:

 $3.25

Their cost per order: $6.00 

Make Over Cost per Serving: $.82

Harvest Grain and Nut

Pumpkin

Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

GRAIN AND NUT PANCAKES PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

potato vegan-omelet

Vegan Omelets are a hit at our house. It is a simple dish to prepare and the variety is outlandish - Southern Omelets, Asian Omelets, Mushroom and Pepper Omelets, Cheesy Omelets, the list goes on. There are a few tricks to it, but once you've made them a few times, they are a breeze and are loved served one way or another, depending on the diner. 

I've made these into Fried Vegan Omelet Sandwiches and now here they are wrapped around roasted potatoes as Potato Vegan-Omelet. The potatoes need about 30-40 minutes to get nice and crispy in the oven, but after that blend your tofu into an omelet and set the table. Easy brunch.

Cost Breakdown

tofu: $2

almond milk, nutritional yeast: $1

cheese: $3

potatoes, onion, garlic, spices: $3

Total to make 4 omelets:

$9.00

Potato Vegan-Omelet Recipe

caramelized onion quiche

Brunch

Brunch can be a tough meal to plan because half the family wants something sweet and the other half, savory. Unless you wind up making both, the tendency is to disappoint someone. Unless you make Caramelized Onion Quiche. The sweetness from the long caramelization of the onions can satisfy some sweet tooth.

This recipe is out of Vegan Brunch by Isa Moskowitz.

The long (longer than the author sites) cooking time for the onions is the most time consuming affair for this recipe, but one that shouldn't be shirked. It is what gives this dish the body.

We really liked this meal, but as with all vegan quiches, something was missing. The egg-y flavor. Without it, the dish falls a little out of tune and, let's face it, you are eating a tofu pie.

That used to be the case, but once you actually realize that the original dish is egg based, it becomes crystal clear that some black salt at the table can add the missing piece in a snap. Cooking with black salt tends to diminish the flavor considerably, but adding it at the table as you would regular table salt will fulfill the flavor profile. ANY Indian market carries black salt since it is used throughout the cuisine. And it is around $1 a bag.

Also, don't be afraid to add some vegan milk to the blender to help the tofu turn over easier - it'll evaporate in the oven and help to make your batter as smooth as possible.

Cost Breakdown:

tofu: $2

onions: $4

cashews: $1

dough: $1

Total to make 6 servings:

$8.00

chinatown scramble and coffee cake

Brunch

For today's brunch I continued to cook from American Vegan Kitchen for the Post Punk Kitchen Cookbook challenge and made Chinatown Scramble and Hubby's Home Fries. Mikel and Kate chose the scramble and I chose the home fries - you can't go wrong with anything endorsed by Jim.

The scramble calls for mushrooms, peppers, scallions, five-spice, bean sprouts and snap peas. I had a few adjustments to make, and as it was it was kick-butt-good; I'm sure if I had had the snap peas, bean sprouts and shiitaki, it would have been even better. David totally loved this and kept going back to the pan for more.

As predicted, Jim's Home Fries were fantastic. It is as simple as you can get with potatoes, but that is part of what makes them perfect. Even Cat, my picky potato person, loved it.

For a little bit of sweet I made Around-the-Clock Coffee Cake. I love coffee cake and this one lived up to my expectations. I added a half package of chocolate chips I had lying around.

A big typo here, though!

The pan the cookbook calls for is a 9 inch square pan. This is way too small and the batter needed to be baked in 2 such pans or equivalent. I wound up with half the cake on the bottom of my oven, so make sure to use a big enough pan. In any case, the outcome was worth a little mess - although the kids were disappointed to have lost half their sweet.

My pan was not deep enough, which is where my error, not AMK's error, was. I did wind up with half of the cake on the bottom of my oven, but that was because of my own fault, not American Vegan Kitchen's. My deepest regret to calling fire in the middle of a packed theatre and sounding a false alarm. Lesson learned the most difficult way: with cake on my face, as well as the oven.
My apologies, Tami!

Cost Breakdown

tofu: $2

spices, herbs: $1

onion, garlic, pepper: $2

mushroom, lime: $1

peas, ginger: $1

potato: $3

Total to make 5 serving of both:

$10.00

vegan mcMuffin (January 29)

Brunch

It is the battle of the Benedicts vs. McMuffins at our house every time someone requests an egg-y dish, namely David wanting Benedict. The kids are getting a little tired of it and would rather have a McMuffin type of sandwich instead of the upscale version that is the Benedict. For me it is easier to make the sandwich than make Hollandaise sauce as well, but invariable I make both. What a push-over I am.

This time, I made a sausage-tofu-McMuffin. I like using the Gimme Lean version of sausage because it is good, it is lean (the name says so) and it fits on a sandwich perfectly. I just slice it, compress it a bit so it fits on the English Muffin even better and pan sear it until golden brown.

I make the tofu just as I do for the Benedict, then add some Daiya (or not), veganaise (or not) and a slice of tomato (or not). The kids get their sandwich and David gets his Benedict.

Cost Breakdown:

tofu: $2

English Muffin: $2

Gimme Lean: $3

veganaise, Daiya, tomato: $1.50

spices, nutritional yeast: $.50

Total to make 6 sandwiches:

 $9.00

VEGAN MCMUFFIN PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

lemon cashew-stuffed crepes

Brunch

Today's brunch item, Lemon Cashew-Stuffed Crepes with Berry Sauce, is out of Vegan Brunch by  Isa Moskowitz. Pretty much, anyway. I had made Isa's crepe recipe before and because mine is simpler and taste-wise, similar - nothing special in either of them - I used mine (updated).

Isa's filling is a lovely concoction of lemon and cashew and is even raw (if you replace the cashews with almonds - cashews are processed using heat). Creamy, easy and wonderful. The cashew filling is topped with a Berry Sauce. Again, she uses a few too many ingredients for me, so I used my own berry sauce which is nothing more than berries and a little sugar.

Brunch was an absolute hit and was ready in no time. In fact, I kept flitting back and forth from the computer to the crepe-pan (my cast iron Goliath) because each crepe takes a minute to cook on each side. One can get a good handle on the amount of time it takes to cook crepes, just don't get overzealous if you are new at it!

Cost Breakdown

crepes: $1

cashews: $4.50

maple, nondairy milk, lemon: $1.50

berries: $4

Total to make 4 servings:

$11.00

Berry Sauce Recipe

breakfast bake

For a beautiful and hearty brunch meal, this Breakfast Bake was wonderful. In fact, it was so good, I made a double batch and one is in the freezer for another day.

This contains tofu, sausage from the Field Roast Grain Meat Co., carrots, peppers, Daiya vegan cheese and hashbrowns.

I browned the hashbrowns and set them aside in a bowl. Then I sauteed the sausage, carrots, peppers and onions and put those in the bowl with the hashbrowns. Lastly, I sauteed the tofu, seasoned it with nutritional yeast, black salt and turmeric. I steamed the tofu for 10 minutes until there was no more liquid in the pan and then added that to the bowl as well. I mixed it all up, with a cup of Daiya, and popped it into a pie pan. I baked it for 20 minutes and served it with toast.

The most tedious part is getting the hashbrowns to brown in a small saute pan.

Use a big one.

Cost Breakdown

hashbrowns: $2

sausage: $2

tofu: $2

onion, carrot, pepper, green onion: $2

Daiya: $1.50

toast: $2

Total to make 5 servings:

$11.50

banana chocolate chip muffin

Brunch

Making one kind of muffin would not be enough for lunch, so I made not only this delectable Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin, but also Vegan Appetite.com 's Tami's Apple Oat Muffins. They looked so good during MoFo that I couldn't pass them up. These happen to be the only oatmeal muffins my kids went for. Not to say they don't like oatmeal, but combining them with something that shouldn't be healthy throws them off a bit, I guess.

The Banana Muffins are Kate's favorite ones and they, too, disappeared with just a few crumbs left. Easy to make, with just a few bananas, flour and sugar and you are good to go. The sugar in this recipe is very adaptable, so you can make it using 1c or just 1/4 c to make 12 muffins.



Cost Breakdown

flour: $2
sugar: $.50
maple syrup: $1
banana: $2
chocolate chips: $1.50
baking powder and soda: $.25
Total to make 24 muffins:
$7.25

Banana Chocolate Chip

Apple Oat Muffin

fried vegan omelet with roasted radish

Fried Vegan Omelet is one of Cat's favorite dishes. Since I've already blogged about this, here, I wanted to make it a little differently. Earlier in the week I asked readers what they would do with a radish and the overwhelming responses were: Roast Them!

So, roast them I did. The Fried Omelet is made with tofu, nutritional yeast, turmeric, and black salt, among other ingredients like flour and plant milk. The omelet is then spread thin on a griddle and "fried" until crisp. This is totally delicious and you should go and make it right now.

Cat likes these with just ketchup, Mikel prefers them on toast with veganaise and vegan cheese (I used Teese today), and Kate likes them with slices of tomatoes and slivers of onions. 

I, on the other hand, made them really snazzy by topping them with roasted radish and tomato slices. Both of those brilliant folks (Tami and Erin) who recommended that radishes be roasted, have it right. Excellent preparation.

Cost Breakdown

bread: $1.50

tomato, radish: $1.25

tofu: $2

spices, flour, nutritional yeast, plant milk: $1.25

Total to make 5 sandwiches:

 $6.00

benedict

It is David's birthday week and he had run of the menu for this weekend and next week.

Almost always requested is Benedict, but since I've made it twice for this blog already, I wanted to make it differently. Instead of regular "Canadian Bacon" and Hollandaise Sauce, I decided to make it with Vegan Chorizo and Chipotle Hollandaise.

Although one would expect it to be ubber spicy, it had just enough spice to make it delicious and different.

Another difference with this Benedict post is that I made a How-To Breakdown for Benedict. If you choose to make it as a regular Benedict, I included appropriate instructions.

Cost Breakdown:

tofu: $2

nutrtional yeast, spices: $1

English Muffin: $3

Chorizo: $3

veganaise, lemon, Dijon, turmeric: $2

Total to make 12 Benedicts:

$11.00

flannel cakes

Brunch

Flannel Cakes. Hmm. Are they a pancake or a crepe or what? Has more than nine-tenth of the population never heard of these? I haven't. Until I came across a recipe for it and then I went in search. It was difficult for me to find information about this elusive cake; most people just liken them to pancakes, but in fact, as far as I know those facts, Flannel Cakes are lighter, fluffier and thinner than than traditional pancakes. They are supposed to be less dense than their counter-part and therefore less filling.

Now to find a recipe...most call for at least 4 eggs. Now normally I wouldn't even bat an eyelash - just skip 'em! No need for eggs in pancakes. But this made me think. If the cake is to be lighter, sort of halfway between a pancake and a crepe, than I couldn't just ignore the them. I had to replace them with something more than flour.

There is a recipe for Flannel Cakes in Flavors of the Southwest by Robert Oser, but it seemed too dense. BUT, he did use whole wheat bread soaked in milk as an ingredient. It was obvious to me that this would work, at least partly, so I used it for part of the recipe. The rest is flax seed meal and whole wheat flour.

The kids really loved it! It is important to cook these on low heat so they develop a nice crunch and cook all the way through without burning on the outside.

I served them with apples and maple syrup, to stay in the Auterr season.

Cost Breakdown:

whole wheat flour: $1

bread: $.50

almond milk: $1

flax: $.50

maple syrup: $.75

apples: $1

Total to feed 3 hungry kids:

$4.75

FLANNEL CAKE PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE