I was taken by a last minute thought for a totally awesome Valentine’s Day treat. PEANUT BUTTER cups. These are some bodacious cups, weighing in at over 2 ounces each!
Peanut butter heaven
Order by Wednesday February 10th and we will have it to you in time for Valentine’s Day!S
Six of these divine morsels are $20 with $5.00 for shipping.
Ingredients: vegan bittersweet chocolate, organic peanut butter, organic sugar, organic agave nectar, organic coconut flour, organic coconut oil
This is an adaptation of a recipe sent to me by a friend who thought these cookies would be a great way to feature the Gone Pie vegan crystallized ginger. With a few tweaks, and my usual over abundance of ingredients, I think I have a real winner here.
GINGER COOKIES
Flours: I am using a lot of different flours here. I think doing this really does make a more interesting final product. But if you don’t keep all these flours around, substitute more buckwheat or sorghum for the quinoa and amaranth. I think the blend of flours and the coconut flour are musts to include.*
1/4 c gluten-free flour mix #2
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
2T coconut flour
3T quinoa flour
3T amaranth flour
*A simplified version I might try would be 1/2 gluten-free flour mix #2, 1/2 cup plus 2T sorghum flour, 2T coconut flour
Other dry ingredients:
Wet ingredients:
2 ounces of chopped crystallized ginger
Sift and combine all dry ingredients EXCEPT tapioca flour and sugar.
Combine all wet ingredients EXCEPT coconut oil. The ginger syrup is an amazing residual of making the crystallized ginger. It is so deliciously spiced and sweet at the same time. If you don’t have any, agave would be a fine substitution. I think you might want to add a little more ginger in this case.
Put coconut oil, sugar and tapioca flour in mixer and whip until very well combined.
It is a little tricky to get the coconut oil well combined with the sugar. The tapioca helps a lot. You need to scrape the bowl a lot and be careful the coconut oil is fully incorporated into the mix before moving on with the preparation.
Alternately add remaining wet and dry ingredients, making sure to scrape bowl often. When the mixutre is uniformly mixed , quickly mix in the crystallized ginger.
I made 24 of the most lovely and rich little cookies. I rolled them in cinnamon sugar and baked them for 11 minutes at 350 degrees.
They were amazing! One friend said they melted in her mouth!
Thanks to Kylie for this awesome recipe!
I was so excited to deliver these muffins that I forgot to take a picture of them. Lovely apple isn't it?
This is probably the simplest recipe I have ever made. These were a special order for a client that can only eat fruit sweetened baked goods. She hadn’t had a muffin in 3 years and was excited to finally be able to indulge. The ingredients were based upon the restrictions in her diet that were prescribed by her Tibetan doctor. She is living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. She requested no added sweetener and extra spices. I had some apple/peach/plum sauce I had made and I used that. A simple organic store bought apple sauce would be fine too.
Before you do anything else, pour hot ginger tea (water is fine if you prefer) over the dates to soften them. Let this sit at least 10 minutes.
Then, sift and combine all the dry ingredients except the oats.
Next pour the slightly cooled dates, soaking liquid and coconut oil into a food processor and process until smooth. Add the remaining liquid ingredients and applesauce and process briefly - just enough to combine them fully.
Pour the liquid ingredients over the oats and let this mixture sit about 10 minutes. This is a great way to get moisture into the oats, making the final muffin lighter and incorporating the oats more fully into the recipe.
Finally, combine this with the dry ingredients and mix very briefly.
Scoop into muffin cups and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. I got 16 lovely little muffins.
For a slightly sweeter muffin, you can replace some of the liquid with your favorite vegan sweetener. I think I would like these a bit better with about 1/2 cup of maple syrup replacing 1/2 cup of the coconut milk.
The client was quite pleased and wrote a lovely thank you note. Here is my favorite part of the note:
“PERFECT!!!! The muffins were perfect. I can’t get too piggy and eat them all up right away, but after these are done I would like to order more. They are just perfect. Not sweet/sugary but tasty which is just what I ordered. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed having a muffin after nearly 3 years. I didn’t even wait to have my cup of tea with it, I was so eager to have a muffin I could safely eat with the dietary restriction due to the arthritis.”
I am now a very happy baker with a very happy client!
Video of Patti Smith at Barnes and Noble in Union Square on January 20, 2010
Tis true that Gone Pie is the name of a Patti Smith song and that I am a rather devoted fan. Every now and then it all comes together.
At the Patti show on New Years this year, I met a woman named Jody who asked if I could make her some muffins. She mentioned a series of dietary restriction she had been given by her Tibetan doctor to help her control her Rheumatoid Arthritis. This is exactly what I love to do, work with people to create something that suits there diet.
The night ended and I kind of forgot about the entire thing until receiving an email from Jody. With a little back and forth we decided on a batch of apple muffins. The main limitation for her was that she could not eat any sugar. A fruit sweetened muffin is not hard to make, so she and I decided to meet up at the next Patti event and do a muffin exchange.
With a little confusion about actually finding each other, the exchange occurred. She was quite excited and I hoped to hear from her again. She went back in to have her book signed and I went off to meet up with my nephew.
As I drove home I got a phone message from the muffin lady:
“Its Jody. Your muffins are saving people that are on the line. Patti Smith is signing stuff. And she has one of your muffins in her hand. Bye.”
OK. That made me laugh really really hard. Happy end to a great night. All that was left was to tweet my little story. So I tweeted away and by the time I finished I had the sweetest email from Jody. Here is an excerpt from it:
“PERFECT!!!! THE MUFFINS ARE PERFECT. I CAN’T GET TOO PIGGY AND EAT THEM ALL UP RIGHT AWAY, BUT AFTER THESE ARE DONE, I WOULD LIKE TO ORDER MORE. THEY ARE JUST PERFECT. NOT SWEET/SUGARY BUT TASTY WHICH IS JUST WHAT I ORDERED. I GAVE AWAY A TOTAL OF 6. I AM SURE PATTI SMITH GOT TO EAT AND LIKED YOUR MUFFIN …. I TOLD HER THE MUFFINS WERE FROM YOU AT GONEPIE. I TOLD HER THEY WERE VEGAN BUT FORGOT TO TELL HER AND ONE OF THE OTHER PEOPLE I SHARED WITH THAT THEY WERE SPECIALLY MADE WITH LOW SUGAR. ANYWAY, THEY ARE YUMMY. I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW I ENJOYED HAVING A MUFFIN AFTER NEARLY 3 YEARS. I DIDN’T EVEN WAIT TO HAVE MY CUP OF TEA WITH IT. I WAS SO EAGER TO HAVE A MUFFIN I COULD SAFELY EAT WITH THE DIETARY RESTRICTION DUE TO THE ARTHRITIS. ”
With wonderful people like this as my clients, is it any wonder I love what I do!
Thanks so much Jody. I look forward to working with you again soon.
a bit of chocolate persuasion for these aspiring vegans!
In conjunction with our favorite vegan advocacy group, Friends of Animals, Gone Pie is proud to participate in the Friends of Animals Vegan Pledge for 2010. At the first gathering of the Philadelphia pledge, participants will be treated to our pecan pie, fig bars and coconut brownies. With plenty of rich dark chocolate frosting to slather on - something we like to call a bit of chocolate persuasion!
The vegan pledge is an idea that originated with Vegan Campaigns, a small but well-connected and dedicated group of vegan advocates in London, England. This has become an annual program to mentor and support participants in their exploration of a vegan lifestyle.
“Friends of Animals will provide vegan counseling in the form of vegan mentors, cooking classes, free vegan lunch, nutritional and health guidance, and even shopping classes. The free program will also include optional health screening tests (like cholesterol) and a vegan care package for each participant. Meetings will be held on five Saturdays starting January 16, 2010 in a meeting room at the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia (21st and Walnut, using the 21st street side entrance). Meetings will start at 11:30 A.M and will generally end around 2:00. We are understanding of people’s schedules, and if you let us know that you will need to arrive late or leave early, we will accommodate your schedule and will do our best to make sure that you still get the most out of our program.”
-From the website VeganMeans
For more information on the Vegan Pledge, you can visit the Vegan Society.
Please consider taking the pledge. Dedicate just one month of your life to exploring the vegan lifestyle. Perhaps you will find yourself adopting the lifestyle. You will certainly come away with a real understanding of the way humans exploit our non-human friends. Veganism is a lifestyle totally free from animal products — for the benefit of people, animals and the environment. Embracing it is something you can do to help make this world a better place!
“And you will hear the call
All action great and small
Received joyfully”
Patti Smith, “One Voice”
As 2009 came to a close, I had reason to reflect upon the year and what Gone Pie is and is becoming. It has been a brilliant year for Gone Pie and it has become more and more important to me to define what we do and why we do it. Pretty much every one reading this can bake or has a favorite bakery that they can get their vegan goodies from. So why is it that Gone Pie is different?
Gone Pie is very much a manifestation of who I am and how I endeavor to live. I have never been one to indulge in very decadent food or sweets. Growing up, I was the one that passed on the ice cream, caramel apples, candy bars. You name it. All the normal kid stuff. It was too rich for me. I loved my Mom’s chocolate coconut cake and chocolate chip cookies. And I loved baking. Kind of limiting to just make two things!
Enter The Tassajara bread book! This was a life changing book for me! Those darn hippies were making some mighty fine real food. I loved everything in that book I made. And I am pretty sure I made every recipe and variation there was!
I guess it is just part of my nature to embrace a value in food that is beyond the mere sensory experience. And that is exactly what it is that makes Gone Pie what it is today.
Gone Pie evolved out of a former business that was not vegan. To the limits of my knowledge at the time, I endeavored to embrace my real food beliefs. I was lucky to be drawn to the East Village of New York City, a natural home for the food I was making. We gave a lot of food away, walked all over the neighborhood with our recycling and generally felt ourselves to be conscious and enlightened beings as we fed the locals real food.
Enter the vegan squatters! We were known throughout the neighborhood to give away a lot of food we hadn’t sold. “Do you have anything vegan to give away.” Hmmm… What’s that? I learned from them the basics of this beautiful approach to life and food and today’s Gone Pie was on its way to being.
I had found a structure and cohesion that were lacking in my previous real food philosophy. Once I learned about veganism, so many elements of my beliefs were so much clearer to me. Underlying all my concerns for food and the planet was a respect for life on earth. Nothing can more perfectly manifest this than veganism — a lifestyle totally free from animal products for the benefit of people, animals and the environment.
Environmentalism and nutrition are important to consider. Once I discovered veganism, I realized they were just aspects of the bigger picture. Veganism brought all my hippie dippy dreams together into a cohesive lifestyle.
My conservationist nature and concern for value in food are elements of what veganism means to me now. I understand they are not strictly part of the definition. But shouldn’t they be? How can food derived from highly processed ingredients such as white flour be truly vegan? How can highly packaged products be truly vegan? How can palm oil be considered vegan? Shouldn’t veganism embrace a lifestyle that minimally impacts our planet?
As a baker, I understand the joys of a decadent indulgent dessert. We need to be rewarded in this life. But as we seek to please our senses, we must consider how this is part of the big picture. Everything we do effects the environment. Just by living, we tax our planet. Shouldn’t we be careful to try and minimize this effect?
So that is what Gone Pie is – a diabolical plan to create truly delicious and, hopefully, responsible, vegan treats. We use, what one friend has called, “delicious science” to create exceptional baked goods that embrace this philosophy . Food is for tasting, and Gone Pie would not exist if our food was not good.
That is where the science comes in. Our recipes are involved and slightly annoying! We use combinations of ingredients when one might work. One might work, but a combination will always make for a more balanced flavor, and, hopefully, a more nutritionally balanced result.
I write these words hoping they resonate with those reading them. I hope I can share some of what has motivated me in my work. I plan on trying to reach more people this year by posting more recipes that can be made at home. I think nothing teaches a food philosophy like tasting it!
Have I won you over? Will you be replacing the margarine, the refined white flour and sugar in your recipes? I hope so! And so does the planet. We are all in this together, every time any one of us takes a well thought out conscious action to help our environment it is important. It is, in fact, received joyfully.
Wild free-roaming horses and burros
Compassion according to Webster’s dictionary is defined as sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. This is the definition I intend here. Compassion is a very important issue for me. It is an element in myself I don’t like to keep down. Impulses that seem to embrace compassion can often be at odds with my goals as a vegan. Here I try to find a way to embrace compassion as I stay true to my beliefs that non-humans are not ours to own or exploit in any way.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how we vegans approach non-vegans and each other. I keep revisiting the rhetoric I read daily about which path is right and what we as vegans must do to move our cause forward. I know for sure that our movement is not about promoting a philosophy or an individual who supports a particular philosophy. It is about ending human exploitation of non-human beings. That is a daily action we all take as we share our vegan thoughts, tend our gardens and share our vegan food. It doesn’t always feel like enough and can seem downright frustrating at times. Are we really getting anything done? Are we really making any difference? Sometimes I feel so fired up by my beliefs and sometimes I feel so drained by them.
The one thing I know is that we vegans are a crew of uncommonly compassionate beings. And while compassion is an important element of our nature, it is not the foundation of our beliefs and can easily be ignored as we work towards our vegan goals. We feel for the non-human animals who are exploited by our fellow humans. This way of thinking leads to endless campaigns being undertaken by caring individuals that address single issues of suffering. I find that many of these campaigns exploit often misguided compassion. Yes, I do believe compassion can be misguided. Here it is crucial to distinguish between campaigns that modify suffering and those that end actual use. The latter campaigns address issues that can actually move our cause forward. I characterize compassion as misguided when our love blinds us to actual results. Any number of alleged improvements in animal husbandry can be seen as caring. But upon more careful consideration, no improvement in the treatment of a non-human that enables subjugation to continue is truly compassionate. In actuality, it is a clear case of misguided compassion that likely prolongs suffering and exploitation. I will not even address whether or not these modifications actually improve living conditions for exploited beings. That to me is an irrelevant point, as nothing that allows continued slaughter is something I can see as an improvement.
But what of other causes that seek to end one form of oppression, possibly in one geographic area? Examples that come to mind are the work being done to ban fur, companion animal breeding, and horse drawn carriages. Is it very likely we will work very hard for these causes for small results in the grand scheme of world veganism? Yes. But who are we to call these gains small? Can you imagine a day when tourists arriving in NYC can no longer ride in a horse drawn carriage? How powerful of a message would that be? Who can say if we can achieve this goal? But it is a worthy one. It won’t end all horse breeding or exploitation, but will be a powerful message in support of our non-human friends. Think of all those romanticized scenes in movies that would be historical documentation of past abuse rather than advertisement for the continuation of it.
And what about putting some energy into opposing the budding industry of breeding boutique breeds for enslavement as companion animals? This is clearly a small issue, a sub-issue of the cruelty of breeding companion animals in general. I see it as a very important manifestation of the way humans feel entitled to enslave and exploit non-humans for their entertainment. Efforts here are clear efforts to resist human enslavement of non-humans with no unintended negatives resulting.
I get immediately energized when I think like this. How can we as good caring persons not see this kind of compassion as a good thing? Yes, these are single issues that will not achieve our entire goal. But these are single issues that only help my non-human friends. They don’t promote further servitude. No feel good myth is created. When I work to promote them I do feel good, but it’s not just feeling good that matters. The same can be said of dubious animal husbandry changes that promote prolonged suffering and exploitation. It is feeling good in a way that is not aligned with further exploitation. It is more than feeling good. It is making change and encouraging a shift in the vision of non-humans as here for human exploitation. This is what I call honoring your compassion while furthering the respect due to non-humans (veganism). This kind of change, even when modest, and the subsequent invigoration is very good for the movement.
What is better for the movement than a vegan fired up and fueled by their beliefs? Who will more effectively spread the word, one energized and happy in their beliefs or one weighed down by the language and the rhetoric of a philosophy that so many find inaccessible? I know, for me, the choice is clearly the former.
Gluten-free pie crust at its best -- sporting a pecan pie!
This year we went with a new pie crust for our gluten-free holiday pies. It is adapted from the wheat-free crust we have been making for years. I think it actually held together better and was an all around better crust than its inspiration.
It is not a crust without issues. Using both tree nuts and gluten-free oats, it is not for everyone!
Here is the recipe. It makes enough crust for one 10 inch tart crust or three 7 inch crusts.
Thoroughly process the following in cuisinart until a moist fine flour consistency.
Combine the following in a measuring cup and pour through cuisinart feed tube while machine is on.
You will need to scrape down the bowl at least once.
Let the dough rest a minute or two. It will firm up as you watch. When it is a nice easy texture to handle, with floured hands,
portion the dough into your pans and pat it out. If it rests too long it will be harder to work with. You should be able to easily
spread it in your pan. I have never found this crust to require prebaking. So fill as you like and enjoy!
Sorghum growing
For the most part, in gluten-free baking I have settled on a blend of flours that works in most recipes. It contains enough *carrier* flours and *functional* flours to yield good results. I generally use this blend for about 1/2 to 3/4 of the flour in a recipe and combine a few favorite flours for the balance of the flour. I find myself using a lot of buckwheat, additional sorghum, coconut, quinoa, amaranth and oats in various combinations, as suits the recipe. The decision of what to use is based on the desired texture and flavor of the final product. Most of these flours do not have flavors you want peaking through in your baked good. Coconut flour in moderation, buckwheat flour and sorghum flour are the obvious exceptions. Both coconut and buckwheat add a great flavor element to a recipe. Sorghum is fairly neutral in flavor, while giving a great lightness of texture. Introducing these flours into a recipe also enhances the nutritional value of gluten-free baked goods, which with lots of starches can be quite low.
In some cases, I find the flour mix without the sorghum is preferred. The choice is really just a way to vary textures in the final products. Often in recipes with this blend, I add sorghum in on its own in larger quantity than in the sorghum mix. Sometimes I use the concentrated starch properties of this blend in combination with other “carrier” flours to carry out a recipe.
So here for your consideration are the two gluten-free blends I have been using. I keep some of each made up at all times. I use far more of the second blend which is really just a sorghum enriched variation of the first.
GLUTEN-FREE BLEND #1
GLUTEN-FREE BLEND #2
And don’t forget the xanthan gum!
Hot and sour soup by InAGaddaDaVegan (Catherine Burt)
Last week was a rough one for health around here. I could not shake a head cold that eventually turned into a sinus thing. I was feeling quite poorly when I saw a post by a friend for a hot and sour soup recipe. I knew I needed to eat this at once. This was what was going to cure me. I could just feel it burning through my brain and healing me. So I looked at her recipe and a few others and took to the kitchen and made the following recipe for hot and sour soup. It is super spicy and has really done the trick. I would definitely have preferred to add some greens and wood ear mushrooms. But I wasn’t going shopping and worked with what I had on hand. I recommend it for whatever ails you. Or even if nothing ails you. It was good!
The final product
I boiled all this together for about 20 minutes. Then I seasoned it with the following.
At this point I added the scallions and would have liked to have added some greens and mung bean sprouts.
I instead topped the soup last minute with more scallions and snow pea shoots. If I had had some greens, I would have cooked them with the scallions for maybe five minutes.
Bowl all ready for soup
Before serving I put a teaspoon of sesame oil, a teaspoon or so of chickpea miso and another 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper in the bowl. I added a bit of the liquid to dissolve the miso and then ladled in the soup. Then I ate it!
