Vegan Baking

Did someone say French pastry? Details are a little sparse on this recent text, The Vegan Boulangerie: The best of traditional French baking . . . egg and dairy-free by Marianne and Jean-Michel (they go by their first names). What we do know is that the authors are a vegan French couple currently living in Scotland. They must have longed for dairy-free variants of the flavors of home because the book is chock full of stuff like croissants and macarons. The book is divided into six sections: bread, biscuits, basic doughs and pastry, after school snacks, savory recipes and desserts. This may be a great way to acquaint yourself with the world of French pastry without trying to remember what a real croissant tasted like the last time you had one in 1992.

Several months ago I was eating a peanut butter cookie at Boneshakers, a quaint little bike-themed vegan cafe in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This was no ordinary cookie. It's rare when I have a vegan cookie that knocks my socks off but this one sure did. The crispiness of the outside, the chewiness of the inside, the peanut butter flavor, the sweetness level- it was all there and perfectly done. I had to talk to the baker who explained to me how she concocted the recipe. "Why isn't there a vegan bakery in Brooklyn?" I remember desperately wondering.

New York City is supposedly the center of the vegan food world. Every third person seems to be vegan so where are the eats? Finally that call has been answered. Champs Family Bakery, brought to you by the same folks that run Boneshakers, had their soft opening last week. I swung by to check out their vast array of options that are soon to expand even further. Read on to see what I found.

I just got back from Random.org where I ran the numbers, making Amber the winner of the Vegan Cookbook Giveaway! It looks like Amber is just getting into the vegan lifestyle so her preferred book of Vegan With A Vengeance should fit her well. Congratulations Amber! Big thanks to Snubbr who sponsored the giveaway.

We'll be doing giveaways more regularly now so stay tuned for more in the near future.

Few things are better than a vegan cookbook giveaway. The good folks at Snubbr are sponsoring this giveaway of a vegan cookbook of your choice. Simply leave a comment telling us what your favorite vegan cookbook is (such as The Joy of Vegan Baking, or My Sweet Vegan), and why you want to win it. On June 6th we'll select a comment at random and send him/her the cookbook they chose. Please note that leaving one comment enters you in the giveaway and any subsequent comments don't count.

If you're not sure what vegan cookbook to get, you should check out what Snubbr has to say about vegan cookbooks. Snubbr is a recommendation site where you ask your question such as "What vegan cookbook should I buy?", and they'll search the entire web-osphere for an expert to answer it. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone lists!

Recently while strolling down Lexingon near 78th on Manhattan's Upper East Side I discovered a sign that read Vegan Divas. I just had to investigate. Upon closer inspection I found that the sign was located inside a market called Butterfield Market (1114 Lexington). Inside, I found a vegan baking section full of sweets made by a vegan baking company called Vegan Divas.

This spread is changing the way we look at buttery spreads because it's simply a blend of vegetable gums and tropical oils that are solid at room temperature. The beauty is in it's simplicity.

It's that time of year again where the flowers are in full bloom, the days are getting longer and vegan sweets can be found throughout the world at vegan bake sales with proceeds benefitting a whole grip of animal aid organizations. Last year's Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale generated about $25,000 in it's first year! Since vegans tend to know how to get organized and have fun doing it I'll bet that this year that amount doubles. It's going on at a table near you from April 24th to May 2nd. So what are you waiting for? 

What if you were stuck on a dessert island (get it!?) and the only devices to make your sugar, sand and coconut-laden treats during Valentines day were:

1)
Williams Sonoma Heart Pie Molds These molds cut you pie crust into the obvious shape where you then fill it with pie filling, then fold the other half of the mold over to crimp the whole shebang together befoe baking to a crisp.

By now you know the devastating earthquake in Haiti has plunged the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere into even deeper turmoil than before. They are truly in need of our help. It's up to each and every one of us to step up and use our creative energy to assist the people as well as the animals of Haiti.

Recently it's been shown that vegan bake sales can be a powerful tool to raise funds to assist in the well being of animals. This is always a win win situation because we get our cupcakes and the animals get our help. Well, get your whisks ready and get ready to join your local vegan bake sale for Haiti. The PPK has compiled a nice list of bake sales that's being kept up to date as new ones are being added.

For those in NYC, Supervegan is hosting a vegan bake sale for Haiti during their Vegan Drinks on Thursday January 28th from 7 to 9pm at Angels and Kings. I'll be there selling some eats.

If there's not any vegan bake sales in your area, start one up! There's also several other ways to help.

It's rumored that 25 million Americans suffer from food allergies. That's far more than the number of vegans in this country. Allergies are likely growing faster than cruelty-free cuisine. Heck, peanut allergies have supposedly doubled in the last five years alone. This is why you should put on your apron, grab Cybele Pascal's book, The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook and explore what she has in store for your tastebuds.

Pascal, who also wrote the critically acclaimed Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook, makes it easy for people with food allergies to have no fear whipping up things like chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread, brownies and pizza. The book also has helpful information on allergy-free baking ingredients and methods to make things as drama free as possible.

The People at Fox Run Craftsmen are making gingerbread house fabrication easier, especially after you've had a few Silk Nog's laced with bourbon. There's no excuse for making a shoddy ginger bread house with their Gingerbread House Cookie Cutter Bake Set. The 10 piece set makes a 8 ½ inch tall house that you can then adorn with your custom icing exterior. Just remember to roll out the gingerbread dough in the cookie sheets before cutting. This way you won't have to worry about transferring them and possibly distorting them. And don't forget that this house is foreclosure proof and edible which is a major bonus.

Not into all the drama surrounding gingerbread house construction? You can also make a Cookie Wreath.

Congratulations to Linda, winner of our Kitchen Scale Giveaway! We randomly used Random.org to randomly choose a random winner. Linda was interested in weighing sugar and now her sugar weighing dreams will finally come true. Batteries included.

When I was little I was obsessed with trains. Right around Thanksgiving I would beg my Dad to bring the humongous board up from the basement with the train set bolted to it. It took up the entire floor and for the next couple months my room was turned into a tiny little town.

I long for those trainset days again but in the meantime I'll be making mine out of the flour and sugar variety with NordicWare's train cake pan. The 5 cup capacity pan makes 9 cars including an engine, tank car, flat car with wood and caboose. Now all I need are some gingerbread houses and some licorice for tracks and my little town will be all set.

Isa and Terry are at it again folks. First vegan cupcakes were taking over the world, now vegan cookies are invading your cookie jar. Is no area safe from the onslaught of baked items? Isa Chandra-Moskowitz, from Vegan With a Vengeance and Vegan Brunch fame and Terry Hope Romero, (whose upcoming solo book Viva Vegan looks interesting), have finally released their highly anticipated new book detailing the ins and outs of vegan cookies.

This book sports more than 100 irresistible recipes for cookies, bars, biscotti, brownies... Or simply tempt yourself with: Magical Coconut Cookie Bars, Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Brownies, Peanut Butter Crisscrosses, NYC Black & Whites, Key Lime Shortbread Rounds, Call Me Blondies, Macadamia Lace Cookies.

They also go through cookie baking techniques so that baking disasters don't invade your kitchen. Here's to seeing way more vegan cookies in the world thanks to Isa and Terry.