Truffle Challenge

In November, I randomly took a truffle-making class with my mom at Now We're Cookin', a cooking school in Evanston. I brought some of my creations over to Kargie's house to let him try my wares, and we decided then and there to try making a vegan version for our holiday dinner! We weren't sure how it would turn out since the three main ingredients of truffles--chocolate, butter, and cream-- were traditionally non-vegan. My mom, knowing my propensity for making vegan food despite not being vegan, even asked the teacher at the cooking class how to veganize their recipe; the answer we received was that they didn't know! Undaunted, Kargie & I set off on our quest to make some pretty awesome vegan truffles.

Our first task was to figure out whether to go with the recipe we used at the cooking class, or find another recipe that was already vegan. We decided that the truffles I'd made with my mom were too good not to try to make vegan; but barring complete failure of the vegan version of that recipe, we also decided to try out a version found in the book Vegan Table.

Once that was decided, our second dilemma was determining what flavors to try out. The cooking school gave us 5 choices during our class: vanilla, cinnamon, peppermint, sea salt, and citrus. We liked the idea of vanilla and peppermint. I had the brilliant idea of trying to make truffle-flavored truffles (using truffle salt instead of sea salt). We also decided on a red raspberry and a balsamic truffle.

With two recipes and five flavors to test, we just made one portion of each recipe, then split them to add the different flavorings. The Now We're Cooking recipe yielded fewer truffles, so we split it in two, dividing it between the peppermint and the truffle salt. We divided the Vegan Table recipe into thirds to flavor it with balsamic vinegar, Chambord (black raspberry liqueur), and vanilla.

Finally, after the truffles were made we coated them in various items, such as cocoa, powdered sugar, and sugar sprinkles. We found that the cocoa and powdered sugar coated the truffles fairly easily, but the sugar sprinkles didn't stick until we melted the truffles slightly in our hands.

All in all, the challenge turned out to be a success. All five flavors we tried turned out well, though a few people commented the the flavors of the balsamic and the black truffle salt could stand to be stronger. For the party, we decided to repeat those five flavors, as well as a plain sea salt one. We also wanted to experiment with coating the truffles with nuts rather than sugar crystals, as well as to try making while chocolate truffles.

In terms of the recipes, the Now We're Cooking truffle recipe veganized pretty easily with a few simple substitutions, but I'll save the details of that for a later blog post. It was fortunate that this recipe was so simple, since the Vegan Table recipe proved much harder to work with, and tasted more like chunks of frosting rather than truffles. They were such a great idea that we made extras to give out as gifts to friends.

Recipes for both types of truffles can be found below:
Decadent Chocolate Truffles from Vegan Table
Chocolate Truffles, from Now We're Cookin'

Cupcake Challenge, Recap!

So, for the final recap of the great Cupcake Challenge for 2010, I'll list a summary of the challenges we did and the outcomes! We tested a total of 12 cupcakes recipes with their respective frostings, as well as a few other alternate frosting/cupcake options. We chose 6 to be featured at our holiday dinner, but the overall quality of the recipes was so high that I'm sure we'll repeat some of the other recipes on other occasions. All the recipes we tried were courtesy of a pretty amazing little book called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Round 1
In the first round, the overall favorite was the Maple Walnut Cupcakes and was given an instant pass onto the holiday menu. The Cookies & Cream lacked a wow factor, and the Mexican Hot Chocolate fell apart, but both were good enough to be placed on the "maybe" list if we could modify the recipes to try to correct each of their shortcomings. The Dulce Sin Leche cupcake was also a good recipe, but fell short in terms of living up to expectations. It was not chosen for the holiday menu.

Round 2
Three out of the four tested recipes were spectacular and automatically made it to the holiday menu: Apple Cider, Gingerbread, and Pistachio Rosewater. Only the Chai Latte did not make the cut. However, it was still a good cupcake, and although similar in appearance to the Mexican Hot Chocolate, it held its shape well.

Round 2.5
The Pumpkin Chocolate Chip was a surprise menu item choice. It had not even been selected to be tested or considered for the holiday party; it just seemed serendipitous that I needed to get rid of an open can of pumpkin and used this recipe to do so. The results exceeded my expectations, and this cupcake became one of my favorites despite its simplicity.

Round 3
For final challenge, we repeated the Mexican Hot Chocolate, hoping our previous problem had been due to undercooking. This was not the case, as the same crumbling, lack of structure occurred. The cashew cardamom was unremarkable and pineapple rightside up recipe was light and refreshing; however, neither recipe was in serious contention since they didn't fit with the holiday theme. The Toasted Coconut was good enough to receive a pass, and became the Jewish-inspired dessert of the evening, being dubbed as Chocolate Macaroon cupcakes on the recipe.

Holiday Dinner Cupcake Menu
Apple Cider with Caramel Glaze and Apple Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Macaroon with Toasted Coconut Frosting
Gingerbread with Lemony Buttercream Frosting
Maple with Creamy Maple Frosting and Sugared Walnuts
Pistachio Rosewater with Rosewater Buttercream Frosting
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipes That Were Not Chosen
*I may post some of these recipes, especially if we decide to do them for another occasion*
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Cookies & Cream
Dulce Sin Leche
Chai Latte
Pineapple Right Side Up
Cashew Cardamom (popular with Toasted Coconut Buttercream)

Toasted Coconut Cupcakes

AKA Chocolate Macaroon Cupcakes
The original recipe called for Coffee Buttercream Frosting (recipe found in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World). However, we were unable to find coffee extract, so we just added coconut extract to the regular Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting instead. The result was more of a chocolate macaroon-type cupcake. We decorated them with blue & white star sprinkles to give a more festive, Chanukah- inspired decoration!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup coconut oil
1 cup coconut milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp coconut extract
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Toasted Coconut (recipe below)
Coconut Buttercream Frosting (Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting with coconut extract)
blue & white star sprinkles (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 for mini-cupcakes). Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
3. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over very low heat. Once melted, turn the heat off but leave it in the pan on the stove so that it stays warm and does not solidify.
4. In a separate medium bowl, mix together coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, and coconut extract. Stir in the melted coconut oil. Add the flour mixture in batches, beating well after each addition. Mix until smooth, then fold in the shredded coconut.
5. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 24 to 26 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

To assemble:
1. Spread a generous amount of Coconut Buttercream Frosting on cooled cupcakes. Roll the frosted cupcake along its rim in the Toasted Coconut to create a ring around the circumference.
2. Add a few star sprinkles to the center to decorate.


Toasted Coconut
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat a small frying pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Pour the coconut into the pan; stir constantly with a spatula. The coconut will being to turn honey brown. Keep stirring and tossing for about 1 ½ minutes to get all the coconut evenly toasted. Turn off the heat and keep stirring and tossing for 30 seconds more. Once uniformly toasted, transfer to a plate and spread out to cool.

Cupcakes, Part 3

The third and final round of our Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World recipe-testing challenge ended up being more for fun than anything else. With five of our maximum of six cupcakes chosen, we ended up choosing some to do that seemed interesting, more than anything else. For consideration for the holiday dinner, we repeated the Mexican Hot Chocolate recipe (pictured upper left), and tested out the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes (lower right). For fun, we also tested out the Cashew Cardamom (upper right) and the Pineapple Right-Side-Up (lower left).

The repeat of the Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes turned out the same as the first. While it tasted good, the texture was crumbly and the cupcake fell apart when unwrapped. We originally thought that they may have been undercooked, so this time we made sure to keep them in the oven longer. Even so, they still lacked structure. We also tried adding a chocolate ganache to the top as a "fancier" frosting, but found that it overpowered the cupcake. So sadly, as much as we tried to make it work, we decided against including the Mexican Hot Chocolates in the holiday menu.

The Toasted Coconuts were also very good, and thankfully these at least held their structure. While not as overwhelmingly delicious as some of the ones from previous weeks, it was still a good, strong cupcake. We did have to modify the recipe a little (which I will discuss when I post the recipe), but overall it came out well. We decided to give it a little Jewish spin by marketing them as Chocolate Macaroon cupcakes at the holiday dinner, and dressing them up with white and blue star sprinkles.

I was personally a huge fan of the pineapple rightside up cupcakes! They were nice, light, and fruity without being too sweet. We pretty much followed the recipe exactly, and it came out great without any tweaks. The real key, though, is to make sure to underfill the cupcake cups slightly so that there's room for the topping. The up-side to that is the better makes a heck of a lot of cupcakes. I'm almost tempted to throw a 70's-themed party so that we can serve them to people without being too weird or out of place ;-)

My least favorite of the bunch was the cashew cardamom. They were definitely unique, but didn't really stand out as much as I thought they should. Due to an accident in frosting, some of our friends (aka cupcake testers) enjoyed some mis-frosted cashew cardamom cupcakes topped with the Toasted Coconut Frosting. I personally thought it was an odd combination, but two of our friends thought it was amazing. To each his own, I guess!


Anyways, this round concludes our cupcake testing challenge! We have six great cupcake flavors picked out to be served at our holiday dinner, and in addition, we have a few more that we enjoyed but were not chosen for this particular event. Having tested 12 different recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and being impressed by the majority, I'd say that it's definitely a great book to have in your kitchen arsenal! There were many more recipes in that book that I'd eventually like to try out that either seemed too labor-intensive to miniaturize, or weren't particularly holiday-appropriate. I think this is one of the few recipe books I have in which I actually want to try out the majority of recipes!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

AKA Cupcake Challenge, Part 2.5!
These were a surprise hit! I randomly made a batch of these around Thanksgiving since I had a half a can of pumpkin I needed to use up, and all the other ingredients were just standard kitchen staples. They were so delicious, we decided to add them to our holiday dessert menu!

The original recipe called for cinnamon icing. While it was very good that way, we thought the cupcake needed a little dressing up if it was going to be featured at the party. So we decided on the Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting, and tried it multiple ways: plain, with 1 tsp ground cinnamon, or plain topped with the cinnamon icing that came with the original recipe .

All versions worked pretty well, but for the party, we ended up going with the cinnamon-infused cream cheese frosting since it carried the flavor but didn’t add the extra step of making 2 toppings.


Ingredients
1 cup canned pumpkin
⅓ cup oil
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup chocolate chips

Cinnamon Icing (recipe below)
or Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting + 1 tsp cinnamon
or plain Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting topped w/Cinnamon Icing

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 for mini-cupcakes). Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir together with a fork; don’t use a handheld mixer, as it will make the batter gummy. Once well combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
3. Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let fully cool before icing.

To Assembe:
- If only using icing, take a small plastic sandwich bag and cut out a tiny hold in one edge or fit a pastry bag with a small-holed decorating tip. Fill the bag with icing and pipe it out Jackson Pollack-style onto the cupcakes. You may also opt to pipe it in zig-zags, lines, or swirls. Let the icing set at room temperature or refrigerated.
- If using Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, simply frost once cupcakes have cooled.
- If using Cream Cheese Frosting + Icing, first frost cupcakes, then drizzle with icing as indicated above.

Cinnamon Icing
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp margarine, melted
1 tbsp soy milk
½ tsp vanilla extract

Place sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the margarine, soy milk, and vanilla, and stir with a fork until smooth. Keep at room temperature until ready to use. The mixture should look opaque and honey brown. If it’s glistening a lot or looks too liquid, add a little extra confectioners’ sugar.

Gingerbread w/Lemon Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes were topped with Lemon Buttercream Frosting (recipe below). To make it extra lemony, we added extra lemon extract and a few drops of yellow food coloring to the frosting. Very delicious!! Alternatively, a Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting (found in the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) could also be used; however, we didn't test out that option.

Ingredients
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
3 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
½ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup light molasses
½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup soy milk
2 tbsp soy yogurt
1 ½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 for mini-cupcakes). Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt into a bowl and mix.
3. Whisk the oil, molasses, maple syrup, soy milk, yogurt, and lemon zest in a separate large bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix just until smooth. Fold in the chopped crystallized ginger.
4. Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake for 19 to 22 minutes, until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting
¼ cup shortening
¼ cup margarine, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, cream the shortening and margarine until well combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar in roughly ½-cup additions. After each addition of sugar, add a splash of lemon juic and beat well with a handheld mixer. Add vanilla and beat for another 3 to 5 minutes until smooth, creamy, and fluffy. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes

These cupcakes were meant to be topped with a simple rosewater icing, but our cupcake testing showed that our family and friends preferred them topped with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting made with a teaspoon of rosewater and tinted pink! We also didn’t use the optional pink sugar crystals. Instead, we piped them into flowers using a fancy-pants piping tip, then sprinkled crushed pistachios over the top of them. Very pretty and refreshing!!

Ingredients
½ cup vanilla soy yogurt
⅔ cup soy milk or rice milk
⅓ cup canola oil
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 to 2 tbsp rosewater
1 cup plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
Generous pinch cardamom
⅓ cup finely chopped pistachios, lightly toasted if desired
Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting (plus a few drops of red food coloring, and 1 tsp rosewater)
Chopped pistachios, for garnish (about ½ cup)
Pink decorating sugar crystals (about 1 tbsp), optional.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 for mini-cupcakes). Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, soy milk, oil, sugar, and rosewater. Sift in flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom, and salt. Mix until relatively smooth. Fold in pistachios. Fill liners three-quarters of the way. Bake 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Note: Be sure to use high-quality rosewater made with real roses (check the ingredients to make sure there’s no “perfume” or synthetic ingredients and that it’s meant for kitchen use).