It feels like only yesterday I was dreading spending 4 months worth of nights in a kitchen and now I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs. School does that to you. You get so used to running all the time trying to get everything done and then all at once everything stops and you have absolutely nothing to do and feel like a lost little puppy dog that’s suddenly not in Kansas anymore. Well, that puppy dog would probably be glad to not be in Kansas anymore so maybe that’s a bad comparison (no offense Kansas).

Anyway, all this is to say that two days ago was my last day of baking and pastry classes. Next Thursday I start my externship at Wildwood in NW Portland. I’m really excited about that as they have a great reputation, make everything in house from scratch and they also make their own bread (so I get to dabble in both worlds). After that it’s an easy 4 weeks of a food ethics class and a communications class and I’ll officially be graduated! It’s not the 4 year traditional degree some people hoped I would obtain, but I think I found my niche in life so 4 year degree be damned! =)

Our final project in the baking and pastry program was a dessert buffet. We had to make a showpiece out of either chocolate, pastillage or sugar, and then make at least 3 each of 9 different items from 3 different categories; pastry, petit four and candy. It sounded daunting at first but after completing the menu project just before, this one seemed like a breath of fresh air.

Everything that we were taught at school is traditional – meaning that it’s all about eggs and butter and moo milk and gelatin. But, since the buffet project was conceivably a small project, I decided to spend a few $$ of my own and brought in my own vegan ingredients. The pictures didn’t turn out as well as I hoped they would, but at least everything in them is vegan for a change.

The tree thing in the back is all chocolate. And all the goodies you see are: pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes, walnut chocolate chip brownies, pecan pie tartlets, pumpkin caramel petit fours, maple cheesecake bites, gingerbread cookies with maple icing, hazelnut pralines, almond cherry mendiants and espresso ganache filled truffles. Tutto vegano!!! And, thankfully, they all turned out the first time so I didn’t have to remake anything. I bought just enough Earth Balance to be able to make everything once; since that stuff’s like $6 a pound I seriously didn’t want to have to go buy some more. Now of course I’m at home, thinking of making some cupcakes, and I’m all out of Earth Balance… damn! =)

The buffet project was finished 2 days before classes ended. We spent the last day of class making goodies for the student luncheon. The luncheon is held to celebrate the completion of the culinary and pastry programs at school. During this luncheon they give us some last stitch advice on the industry and the careers we are about to embark upon, but they also give out a handful of awards. I don’t usually win things. In fact, I never win anything. Well, once I won a Madonna CD from a local radio station when I was a teeny bopper but my mother took it away from me. So, they called out a couple of awards, none of which went to me. That’s fine though, I’m not really one to get worked up about those things. But then they said there was one more award, the President’s Award. It goes to the person with a good academic record, culinary skill, leadership, etc, etc. I was kind of dazing off as that happens with me when somebody’s just talking – I don’t mean to wander but my mind just does that. And then I look up and the Chef who’s talking is looking at me. I got the award! I almost wasn’t sure it was me because I’m still not used to hearing “Amber Gray” instead of “Amber Herrington.”

So, if anyone tells you that being geeky and studious is silly, it got me $500 knocked off my tuition at school and some recognition across the board. Feels pretty good. =)

Well, I think it’s time for me to don my running gear and hit the road (I have all those pastries to work off you know). I should be back on here in a more typical frequency now that I have time to breathe, and bake, again. See you soon!

Modeling Chocolate

Well, my kitchen is still lying dormant, patiently awaiting my return. The downside is, obviously, that I don’t have anything (of my own) to blog about. The upside is that we’ve been doing some fun stuff at school and I have some mostly pretty pictures for you to look at. And no, none of it’s vegan (you’d think Portland would be the one place where they’d have some vegan curriculum in a cooking school… but they don’t), but I’m getting some good ideas on how to veganize a lot of this stuff.

Next week we’re doing our menu project which consists of each of us designing, making and plating four desserts, one of which will be served in the dining room at the school. It’s kind of nerve racking as there’s so much to do, but it’s also a lot of fun because it’s all you and your own creativity. I should have pictures for you of my creations in a week or so.

After the menu project I’ll have about two weeks of school left, and then maybe I’ll find some time to start piddling in my own kitchen again. Until then…

Charlotte Royal

Chocolate Honey Mousse Torte

Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Whipped Dark Ganache and a White Chocolate Band

Opera Torte

Dobos Torte

Celebration Cake... it's hard piping roses in a hot room with hot buttercream

Barley and Hops Wedding Cake

Peanut Brittle

White Nougat with pistachios, candied orange peel and cranberries

Strawberry Jellies

Flan

Bread Pudding

Raspberry Mousse with Lychee Glacage

Chocolate honey mousse in a chocolate cup with a chocolate straw and a tulle cookie

Panna Cotta

Chocolate Marquise

Pistachio ice cream, chocolate cup, figs

Passionfruit sorbet, tuile cookie cone, peaches

Poached pear, flambe'd fruit, ice cream

I have, however, found time to make lunch and dinner, of course. I know I usually (lately) only post dessert stuff, but something’s better than nothing right?

My husband and I are members of a local CSA (community supported agriculture) so I never know what veggies I’ll have to cook with until we go pick up our share every Sunday. Eating seasonally can be challenging, but once you figure out some basics and get creative with what’s available in your fridge it can be a lot of fun. And sometimes very pretty!

Some last-minute randomness a few weeks ago turned into this gorgeous combination of kale-cilantro pesto, roasted red beets, patty pan squash and turnips. Just look at how beautiful it is! I absolutely love the colors mother nature gives us.

Any random combination of veggies could go together to make this dish, so I won’t get all specific about the veggies. Just select what you want and cut them in half, lightly oil the cut sides, place them cut-side down in a baking dish and roast them at 375 until you can pierce them easily with a fork. Keep in mind that different veggies cook at different rates so not everything will be done at the same time.

Once they’ve cooled enough to touch, peel them if necessary, slice into 1/4 inch wedges or so. Place them in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and some minced cilantro. Try adding a little bit of olive oil and a splash of sweet white wine.

For the pasta I used gluten-free macaroni, but any type of pasta will do. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the noodles until al dente; drain and keep warm.

Kale-Cilantro Pesto

• 4 C kale
• 1/2 – 3/4 C cilantro
• 1/4 C roasted, unsalted cashews
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T lemon juice
• 3 T water (or more olive oil)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 – 3/4 t black pepper

Typically pesto is made from uncooked ingredients, but I decided to blanch the kale for a minute before making the sauce. Blanching tends to help tone down some of the bitterness in leafy greens. If you decide to blanch, bring a pot of water to boil, toss in the kale and let it cook for about a minute. Plunge the kale into an ice bath once that minute it over to stop the cooking and then drain it.

Toss the cashews into a coffee grinder, preferably one not used to grind coffee or you’re gonna get some off flavors. Grind up the cashews.

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until everything is evenly combined. Toss the pasta with the pesto and then add the veggies and tuck in!

Well, there you have it. I have about five more weeks of school left, so hopefully this blogging dry spell will end soon. Until then, happy eating!

]]> http://parsnipsandsprockets.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/kale-cilantro-pesto/feed/ 0 amherrington DSC02202 DSC02206 http://parsnipsandsprockets.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/some-days-you-should-just-stay-out-of-the-kitchen/ http://parsnipsandsprockets.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/some-days-you-should-just-stay-out-of-the-kitchen/#comments Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:15:19 +0000 Amber http://parsnipsandsprockets.wordpress.com/?p=1519 ]]> You know what I love about baking? It allows me to put together all these random things I enjoy, and happen to be somewhat good at (I think). I could never figure out what I wanted to do all throughout my growing up, and even after I “grew up.” I was always good with numbers and logic, but never wanted to be a mathematician or accountant or analyst. I like figuring things out but never had the passion to be a scientist or do research or investigate homicides. I like creating things but being an architect just didn’t hit the spot for me (and if you’ve seen my burn and cut marks you’d know that I should never ever have a hammer and nail in my possession). I started writing poetry in the 8th grade, and thought I really enjoyed it and hence wanted to be a writer and started going to PSU for an English major, but it’s funny that I found myself more often in the kitchen then with my nose in a book. But baking still affords me the creative outlet that writing did, just in a visual way.

So there you have it. I get to geek out with numbers while my scientific side figures out why a recipe does or doesn’t work, all the while I’m creating this (hopefully) beautiful piece of edible art (doubly rewarding) that I get to be creative not only with its production but also in photographing it, and then when all is said and done, I get to write about it! What could be better? I love it when things just all seem to come together.

But, what I don’t love about baking is that sometimes things just don’t work out. I’ve made three different desserts in the last week or so and none of them have really turned out as planned. First I made a coffee cake with blackberries, bananas and concentrated pineapple juice. It was actually pretty tasty but the streusel recipe I used didn’t have anywhere near the amount of butter it should have had so the top of the cake wasn’t exactly superb.

Then I made key lime pie. Well, I made lime pie – where the hell they keep those key limes I’ll never know but I couldn’t find any. And when I was googling vegan key lime pie recipes I didn’t really like anything I saw. So I went to my Professional Baking textbook and looked up the classic version: two cans condensed milk, two eggs, lime juice. The idea is that the acid in the limes coagulates the proteins in the eggs, firming up your pie without baking it. I don’t know if lime juice coagulates tofu proteins but I gave it a shot, with the help of some agar agar… and I made my own vegan condensed milk. Crazy? Maybe, but the pie actually worked. The coconut whip cream that I was going to put on top did not however, so I don’t have a very pretty picture. I have an idea on how to stabilize the coconut whip though, so maybe next time.

And then a couple days ago I made a chocolate merlot cake. I’ve made chocolate merlot cupcakes before but, though they taste good, you can’t really taste the wine. So I poured some wine in a pan and reduced it by half – this evaporates the water and concentrates the flavors. The cake tasted ok but still not merloty enough for me. And my icing was just all wrong (texture was jacked – think I’m going to stop using vegan shortening). I attempted to do rosettes over the whole thing but screwed it up so…

So, all this is why there haven’t been any totally awesome (or kind of interesting) baking posts in the last week. Maybe the fourth time is the charm? Hopefully my oven will give me a little more love next time I visit him.

Have a great weekend!

16 year old Carissa Bodner was with a large group of bicyclists late in the night on June 16th when a drunk driver evidently plowed right into them, sending Carissa and I believe several others flying. Carissa survived the crash but her and her family are now facing monstrous hospital bills and the road to recovery is still very long ahead of them. Below are links to a more in-depth blog posting, news reports and other information regarding this incident.

• Suzan Petersen
• Carissa Bodner Foundation
• CBS News
• Huffington Post

The family is asking for help raising the $3,000 they need to pay “co-pays” in order for the insurance to pick up the remaining tab. From what I’ve read so far, the police report/ investigation is taking some time to conclude so many things are still unclear and unsettled – such as if the women driving the car had insurance or not.

I do not know Carissa, her family or the woman who emailed me and asked that I re-post. I decided to re-post because it seemed the least that I could do to help. I am not asking that you donate to the cause – if you decide to do so that is entirely up to you. I am simply asking you to take a minute and look at what has transpired. Drinking and driving is a major problem in this country. People don’t ever intend to go out and get hammered and then jump in their car and crash into people on the way home, but it continues to happen all the time.

Personally, I am also a biker. Portland is a very bicycle-friendly town but it’s still scary out there riding beside cars when you’ve got nothing around your body to protect you. I don’t often bike at night because I am afraid of exactly what happened to Carissa happening to me; this whole thing hits very close to home for me. It wasn’t me this time but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be tomorrow. So everyone, be careful out there. Go out, have fun, drink away, but don’t drive home. Take a bus, a cab, the light rail – anything but your own car. You never know what’s going to happen.

The past two weeks of culinary school have been nothing but bread. Whole wheat bread. Potato rosemary bread. Pitas. Pane pugliese. Ciabatta. Focaccia. Pain au Levain. Sourdough. Rye bread. Pane di como. Pizza. Etc. Etc. Etc. We’ve got more bread than we know what to do with. It freezes well, thank god, but we have a tiny freezer. It’s jam packed right now.

But wait, there’s more! We’ve got baguettes, bread sticks, olive rolls, whole wheat rolls, butterbraids, pretzels, bagels and other items that I just can’t remember at the moment.

The good news is that I’ve learned a whole hell of a lot about making bread. I’ve been making my own pizza dough, pitas, tortillas and sandwich bread for quite sometime, but I’ve never had anybody show me the right way to do it, and the internet is crammed full of people telling you the wrong way to do things (not that they do this on purpose, they just don’t know any better). For example, you don’t actually “punch” your dough down. You fold it; three times actually. And recipes that tell you to “rest for 20 minutes” really aren’t guiding you in the right direction because for them it might take 20 minutes, but your kitchen might be cooler so it could take 30 minutes. And technically resting is what happens after you punch down, portion and round your dough (and you only want to rest for 10 minutes). The resting that takes place once you’ve formed your bread is called proofing.

So it’s been a wonderful learning experience. It’s also been an eye opener for me, in regards to seeing just how much you can accomplish in a small amount of time. The other night I mixed, fermented, folded, portioned, rounded, rested, formed, proofed and baked two breads, formed, proofed and baked another loaf, made three different pre-ferments (yeast starters) for bread to be made the following day, scaled out ingredients and had my dishes and work bench clean all within three hours. I was really quite tired afterward. =) But it’s great to be pressed to the limit sometimes so you can see what you are capable of. But now I’d like a vacation. I very long one. Full of mai tais and sun tan lotion.

I’m not going to write out recipes for all these breads but if you’d like one of them or need info on how the process works please feel free to email me. AND… I just might get the chance to bake something at home next week, so there’s possibly another blog post in the immediate future. =)

Until then, have a great weekend! And enjoy the sun, if your city is so kind to give you any (Portland’s being a little stingy with it… still).

It’s fun though. I really like the atmosphere of the bakery and it’s nice to finally do something I actually want to do for a change. And I honestly like the 4 – 11am work schedule (if only a 4 – 10pm school schedule didn’t follow).

So, as you can tell by all this bemoaning, I recently got a job at a bakery here in Portland. I wasn’t necessarily planning on working during my time at culinary school, but it was a great opportunity and I couldn’t pass on it. There is a downside though, and that is the fact that I barely have enough time to say hello to my husband everyday, so finding time to bake something and blog about it is a wee bit impossible at the moment. I’m sure once I get into the groove of things I’ll find more time to piddle around in my own kitchen, but I’m afraid that my blog will stay a bit devoid of anything in the way of new posts for a short while.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my sweet tooth from yesterday. Ice cream’s pretty quick to make, and I had some left over vegan cream cheese in the fridge so I thought I’d throw it all together.

Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream (vegan)

• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
• 1/2 T cornstarch *
• 1 T sugar
• Splash of lemon juice

Roughly chop up about of the blueberries. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together to avoid any lumps. Combine everything, except the lemon juice, in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until the blueberries breakdown slightly and the mixture thickens. Add a few splashes of lemon juice and remove from the heat. The berries need to be completely cooled (refrigerated) prior to making the ice cream, so do this part in advance.

I added a couple tablespoons of water and a few tablespoons of the ice cream mixture to the berries to thin it out a little bit, but feel free to leave it thick if you’d like.

• 6oz extra firm silken tofu
• 4oz vegan cream cheese
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 1/4 C soy milk
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/4 C agave
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1 shot (3 T) vanilla vodka

Combine everything in a blender and puree until smooth. Transfer mixture to your ice cream maker and follow its directions. Once frozen, transfer the ice cream to a dish that will allow you to swirl in the blueberries. I used a bread pan and lined it with plastic wrap because I was afraid of liquid sitting in it for too long (I managed to rust out my old bread pan). Plop in the blueberries and use a spoon, knife, bamboo skewer, what have you to swirl the blueberry mixture around. Return it to the freezer for several hours so that it can freeze all the way.

In all honesty I think the full 8oz tub of cream cheese would be best to really bring out the cheesecake flavor. I would also add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the ice cream mixture. Regardless, this ice cream is rich and creamy, and has just the right amount of berries in it (not too sweet or overly fruity). If you have the time, or just happen to have a box of graham crackers lying around your house, I’d crush some up and toss them in to make it extra yummy and provide some crunchy texture.

* 7/22/11 So after making a blueberry pie in school the other day I became privy to the fact that blueberries have a whole lot of pectin in them and therefore tend to thick once heat is applied all by their lonesome. I’m guessing that you don’t need the cornstarch for this ice cream, especially since cornstarch breaks down when frozen (though it’s not enough of an amount to make a difference in this recipe – my ice cream still looks and tastes fine). Try omitting the starch and see what happens, I think it’ll be fine.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in the art of making cake balls. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever managed to do it correctly. Bakerella makes it look so damn easy, but every time I make them I end up cussing at my cake balls as they slide off the sticks and go kerplunk into a chocolately abyss and make a mess all over everything. The likely culprit I think is that I ALWAYS use too much frosting. I try every time to be sparing but I continually over do it. I still managed to take a couple of decent photos however so here you go.

Just a quick word on the dipping chocolate. The chocolate shell I use is what people normally dip Hi Hat cupcakes in. It appears that most people use these Candy Melts from Wilton when making cake balls (that’s how they get all those vibrant colors). I refuse to use those however because they contain partially hydrogenated oil – meaning they have that nasty trans fat in them (among all the other bad for you ingredients). If that doesn’t bother you go ahead and try them, it might make the dipping easier (I don’t know). The baking chocolate bark stuff might work well too, I’ve not tried it yet so I can’t attest to its functionality – nor do I know if it’s vegan.

Cookie Dough Stuffed Cake Balls (vegan)

• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough
• Chocolate cake
• Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
• Chocolate chips
• Canola oil
• Peanuts, crushed
• Popsicle or lollipop sticks (optional)

Cookie Dough

Alright, so the quantity of everything depends on how many cake balls you want to end up with. When I made the cookie dough I also used it for cookies and ice cream, so I’m guessing I only used 1/4 or less of the total dough for the cake balls. Whatever amount you decide to have, roll nickle-sized balls of dough with your hands (about 2 chocolate chips per ball is a good size reference) and place them in the freezer for about an hour or so. If you decide to use popsicle or lollipop sticks, I’d stick them into the cookie dough before freezing (I think this will actually keep the stinkin things on the sticks during dipping). You obviously don’t have to put the cake balls on sticks, but I don’t know how people manage to dip them in chocolate otherwise.

Chocolate Cake

I made a 1/2 batch of the chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. You can find the recipe by clicking on the link above. Though I made 6 cupcakes, I piped a bunch of buttercream on one of them and gave it to my husband, so I only used 5 cupcakes worth of cake for my cake balls. Obviously I don’t expect you to make 5/12ths of a batch of cupcakes, so you just might end up having more balls than me.

Bake the cake or cupcakes and let them cool completely. Once cool, mash them up in a mixing bowl and add the frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 1/2 C vegan stick butter
• 2+ C powdered sugar
• 2 T soy or almond milk
• 3/4 t vanilla extract

Cream the butter in a mixing bowl. Add the milk and extract. Add some of the sugar of whip. Keep adding sugar and whipping until you reach a good, thick consistency. A hand blender or stand mixer will save you time here, unless you want a good arm workout of course.

This is way more frosting than you’ll need for the cake balls by the way, unless you’re making a large batch of them. You honestly need less than half of what this makes so just use your best judgement (whatever that means).

Plop a dollop of frosting into the bowl with the smashed up cake and mix it in. Start small or you’ll end up with slippery balls like me. It needs to be gooey enough to stick together, but not so greasy that it clings to your hands when rolling.

Once you’ve got it where you want it grab the dough balls out of the freezer and roll the cake around them. If you didn’t already put sticks them this part is pretty easy. If you did put sticks in them you’ll have to get a little creative to get the cake sufficiently around the cookie dough. The 5 cupcakes I made were the perfect amount to cover 12 balls of cookie dough (just fyi). Stick them back in the freezer once they’re all rolled for at least 30 minutes (longer would be better).

Chocolate Shell

• 5 – 6oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 & 1/2 T canola oil

If you’re making more than 12 cake balls, you’ll need more chocolate. Error on the side of too much chocolate as it will stay good quite awhile in the fridge.

In a double boiler (or the microwave if necessary), melt the chocolate. Mix in the oil and transfer to a deep but narrow container (I used a plastic take-out container common at Thai restaurants). Let it cool a minute or two before dipping the cake balls.

Dipping and Rolling

Crush up about 1/4 cup of peanuts and spread them out on a plate.

Gather the tub of chocolate, a spoon and the cake balls. If they’re on sticks, dip them carefully into the chocolate while simultaneously holding your breath and hoping they don’t slide off. Use the spoon to help spread the chocolate all around the cake ball. Allow the excess chocolate to drip off. Roll the cake ball in the crushed up peanuts, or use your hand to sprinkle them on top, let it dry a few seconds and then place it on a plate or tray of some sort. Stick them back in the freezer for a few minutes once you’re finished dipping and rolling so that they harden all the way.

Retrieve from freezer. Bite. Enjoy.

Can you call this multi-tasking? Making 4 desserts out of 1? Or maybe it’s just plain craziness. Or creative boredom put to work. Whatever it is it tastes good, and now I have a whole bunch of sweets begging to be eaten.

I wasn’t out of school more than 2 days before I started thinking of something I could bake. We’ve been on a cupcake spree the last few weeks in my house so I thought it was time for some cookies. Peanut butter chocolate chippers happen to be one of my husband’s favorites. But I thought as long as I’m making cookie dough I might as well make cookie dough ice cream. During my run on Tuesday I thought I could also make cookie dough stuffed cake balls (of course!). Then when I was making the ice cream it occurred to me that ice cream sandwiches would be a great idea (it is summer after all). I thought about putting icing in the ice cream sandwiches as well, and then maybe dipping the whole thing in chocolate, but something told me to stop while I was ahead. =)

I’m actually going to save the cake ball part for another post, otherwise this sucker will be forever long and nobody will read it all. But ice cream and cookies are simple enough.

The cookie dough needs to be frozen before you can make the ice cream, but the ice cream for the sandwiches needs to be really frozen before they can be made so perhaps it’s best to start with the ice cream.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream (vegan)

• 6oz extra firm silk tofu (Mori-Nu)
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 3/4 C organic sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1 shot (3 T) light rum
• Cookie dough (below)

Toss everything except the cookie dough in your blender and puree until super smooth. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze accordingly.

Once frozen, put about 2/3rds of the ice cream in one container and the other 1/3rd in another. Place both containers in the freezer. We’ll add the cookie dough later.

Typically I use a mixture of soy and coconut milk when making ice cream, but I wanted to see how coconut would do on its own. And it did way better than the combination has ever done. Even though I used light coconut this ice cream is very creamy, especially compared to my typical soy milk based ice creams. Plus it simplifies everything as I always end up freezing a portion of the coconut milk, which I forget is in the freezer the next time I need it and open up another can, which also ends up in the freezer (you see where I’m going with this).

Enough babble, onto the cookies!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan)

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

• 1/2 C vegan butter (stick or tub will work)
• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 C organic sugar
• 1 T ground flax seed
• 3 T hot water

Whisk the flax seed and hot water in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars together in a large bowl, then mix in the flax mixture.

• 1 & 1/4 C AP flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill White Flour)
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• ~ 1 C chocolate chips

Blend the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together then add them to the wet ingredients and mix briefly. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Go ahead and make the cookie dough balls or the ice cream. You want about 3/4 C worth of balls, or enough to about cover the surface area in one of those square plastic containers that sandwiches fit in. You want to keep the dough balls small so my way of doing this was to only use enough dough to enclose 1 chocolate chip per ball. Roll them up in your hands and stick them in the freezer.

Now, line two 1/2 sheet pans with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Scoop the dough into 1 or so inch mounds and plop them on the pans about an inch apart. These cookies don’t spread much during baking so if you want a flatter, crisper cookie smash it down a bit before baking. And you can always make them much larger than an inch of course.

Bake for about 11 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let them rest about 5 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

The cookie dough should freeze up enough within an hour, so once that time has passed take them and the larger portion of ice cream out of the freezer. Chop about half of the dough balls up to make them smaller and allow more opportunity for cookie dough in every bite! Mix them into the ice cream, distributing as thoroughly as possible and put it back in the freezer.

There. You’re done.

Oh but wait, there’s more! Those ice cream sandwiches won’t make themselves!

Ice Cream Sandwiches (vegan)

• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
• Vanilla ice cream
• Chocolate for dipping (optional)
• Plastic wrap

Grab as many cookies as you’d like for sandwiches. Retrieve the plain vanilla ice cream from the freezer. Tear off roughly 12 square inch sheets of plastic wrap – one for each sandwich – and lay them on a table or work surface. You can get about 5 – 6 sandwiches out of the ice cream, but that depends on how much ice cream you put in each sandwich…

Take a scoop of ice cream and plop it on top of a cookie. Place another cookie on top and press it down so that the ice cream reaches the edges of the cookies; use the back of a spoon to help guide and smooth it. Now, place the sandwich on the plastic wrap so that the ice cream is touching the plastic. Roll the plastic wrap up with the sandwich and then twist the ends of the plastic. This is kind of what you’re going for, just not so long, and obviously not butter. Place them in the freezer to set.

Once they are set, you can roll them in crushed up chocolate, peanuts, coconut, what have you. I decided to dip mine in chocolate, which turned out to be problematic as the chocolate did not want to stick to the ice cream. It turned out alright in the end though, just a tad bumpy. If you decide to dip them in chocolate you’ll need about half of what Bakerella has in this recipe.

Well, I guess that does it. The cake balls will be appearing at some point in the near future (promise). And on a side note, you can make all this gluten-free simply by using a gluten-free flour mixture. Bob’s Red Mill sells one but the following will also do the job.

Gluten-free flour mixture (equal to 1 cup of normal flour)

• 1/3 C quinoa or millet flour
• 1/4 C almond meal
• 1/3 C brown or white rice flour
• 3 T potato or tapioca starch
• 1 T ground flaxseed

Do keep in mind that GF flours tend to have a grainy texture before being baked, so this could affect your cookie dough ice cream slightly.

Well I didn’t intend for this post to be 4th of July centric but my backdrop in the photos is somewhat patriotic. That was an accident honestly, even though Independence Day is around the corner. It’s actually one of my grandmother’s old shirts. Yes, I use clothing for backdrops. And sometimes even covers from my couch pillows. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

But never mind that, what kind of shenanigans are you baking up this 4th of July weekend?

What we did do is take it easy, have a few pints, taste a couple wines and relax at our home for the weekend called Hood River BnB. We thought about saving a few pennies and staying at your average motel, but a bed and breakfast sounded so much better; and we think it was worth the extra $$. Jane and Jim who own and run the four room B&B are very friendly, hospitable and overall delightful.

We stayed in the Sky room which was rather large, had light blue walls, lots of windows for all that sunshine to come through and a beautiful bathroom complete with jacuzzi tub. And here’s the view from the back patio at the Hood River BnB – I think I could handle waking up to this for a few more days.

On Sunday we took a little walkabout around town. We “hiked” along Indian Creek Trail, had a pint at Big Horse Ales and even stopped to smell the flowers.

And then we found our way into a small, local book store. My husband loves books so we always wind up in a book shoppe when we go places. I’m not sure where he darts off to every time but my radar unfailingly leads me straight to the cooking section. I’m not sure why either as I have about six cookbooks but that I’ve yet to make one recipe out of… Oh well. This time I found an extraordinary book called A World of Cake.

If you haven’t already figured it out, I’m quite fond of cake. Growing up I couldn’t wait for birthdays to come around just so I could have a piece of cake. The corner piece of course. With all the frosting I could manage to get on  my plate. Yes, it’s a miracle I don’t weigh 500 lbs. Though I’m all growed up, I still love cake. I’d go as far as to say that’s my favorite dessert. So when I saw this book I was totally intrigued.

Actually, I thumbed through the entire thing, put it back on the shelf because I told myself I’d wait until I got home and find it cheaper online. Within about 2 hours I managed to talk myself into buying it so back into the store we went. Honestly, I could have found it way cheaper online, but I think it’s worth the $$ I paid. Plus it has a vacation memory attached to it now (which makes everything better).

There are so many interesting, creative and positively yummy recipes in this book! It even has a brief history of cake and holidays around the world and their regional cake counterparts. I can’t wait to make the Marta Rocha Torte from Brazil, the Ube Cake from the Philippines and the Arrollado con Dulce de Leche from Argentina (amongst the many others). None of these recipes are vegan though, so now my only hurdle is to figure out how to sub out 10 egg yolks and heavy whipping cream. =)

If you have any interest in other cultures and their cuisine, I would say that this book is an absolute must! And if you just like cake, you should probably go pick it up as well; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Hopefully I’ll have photos and a blog post soon of one of these sumptuous cakes!