I made these on a whim the other day because I had some strawberries in the fridge that were threatening to go bad at any moment, and I know that strawberries are all too serious when they start with that kind of talk. I just so happened to have some empanada discs in the freezer and some cream cheese laying around. Not exactly the traditional guava and cheese empanada, but close enough and just as delicious!If you've never made empanadas before, I'll teach you the process. It's not too hard, and although it's a little time consuming, the end product is worth it!
First you roll out your dough and cut out 4 to 5 inch circles out of it.
Then you place your filling onto the lower hemisphere of the circle.
Then dip your finger in a cup of water and get the edges of the dough wet on the bottom hemisphere. Not soaking wet, but just enough to feel damp. This will help the dough glue itself together. Then fold the top hemisphere over the bottom half, like above.
Using a fork, press the edges down so you form a seal.
And there you have it! Doughy pockets filled with fruit, all waiting in a row to be baked or fried.
I fried mine because I like to live on the edge. Baking them is a healthier alternative. Recipe below!
Ingredients:
For the dough:
1 1/2 cup flour
pinch of salt
3/4 stick veggie shortening, cold, cut into tiny pieces
ice water
For the filling:
1 pint strawberries, cut into small pieces
4 oz. vegan cream cheese
Directions:
In a food processor, add flour and salt. Pulse a few times to mix well. Add the shortening and pulse until the clumps of shortening are pea-sized (about 3 to 4 pulses should do it). Add water by the Tablespoon-full until dough JUST comes together.
Form dough into a ball, flatten with heel of hand, then wrap in wax paper and chill for about 30 minutes.
While it's chilling, prepare the filling. Mix vegan cream cheese with strawberries in a bowl using a wooden spoon. Refrigerate until needed.
Then roll the dough out in a 1/4 inch thick layer, and cut out 4 to 5-inch diameter circles from the dough. Then fill and seal the dough discs.
If frying, heat oil over medium heat, then gently lower the empanada in with a metal spatula. Be careful not to splash the oil onto you! Turn over once to let the other side cook. Remove when it turns golden brown. Let rest on a towel to absorb the extra oil.
If baking, spray baking sheet with spray oil, and coat tops of empanadas with some melted vegan butter, and bake at 350 until golden brown.
Enjoy immediately!
I'll admit that I had time to come up with a recipe and make something delectable for you to read about today, but I chose not to. Two reasons: As I'm typing this, I'm finishing up the last of the blackberry frozen yogurt (bypassing some leftover banana ice cream in the freezer), and gave away about half of my Mayan chocolate almonds. What I'm trying to say is that I have too many desserts just laying around for me to make yet another one.The second reason is that I wanted to show off what I've done today, and what will be sold at the farmers' market tomorrow afternoon.
This is a vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting. I used real strawberries (of course!) to make a syrup, then added that to my frosting to give it a cute pink color and a very faint strawberry taste.
This is my chocolate duo!
This one has the strawberry frosting on top.
For these, I had some fresh raspberries left over from a special order, so I dropped one into the center of each batter-filled cupcake liner and baked it in, then sifted powdered sugar on top. I almost tried to mess one up so I could eat one!
This is a strawberry orange cream tart. Very impromptu kitchen experiment, so I'm not sure how it will go over, but this crust is to die for!
And this is my best seller, the chocolate coconut tart. Only five ingredients in the whole thing, yet so, so, so good!
And these are my special order donuts! I have one or two loyal customers who special order these every week :) They're a pain in the butt to make, but are totally worth the effort.
All products are 100% vegan and natural! Wish me luck for tomorrow, and hope to see some of you out there!
It's the beginning of February, and this can only mean one thing: strawberry season in Florida is so close I can barely contain myself! I bought a pint of strawberries for this recipe, and I'm lucky they lasted as long as they did in my fridge. I sat in bed last night watching Freaks and Geeks in my underwear and had some spare heavy cream sitting in the fridge, so decided to make whipped cream to go with some strawberries. I used up every last ounce of my will power to limit the amount of strawberries I could eat (which came out to a minescule three...yeah, my will power is pretty awesome). I went through all this so I could make these cupcakes for you guys :)
They are heavenly. It's as if the fruit goddess and the god of baked goods had a lovechild. My sacrifice last night could not have paid off any more than it did when I bit into these cupcakes. If there's only one recipe on this blog you decide to make, I would recommend it be this one. I would also recommend eating one while they're still somewhat warm!
I didn't want to load these down with frosting for fear it would take away from the natural goodness of the strawberries, so there's just a simple glaze on these. If you are frosting's all time, biggest, number one fan, you can put frosting on them, but I recommend letting the strawberries be the star of this one. Recipe below!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
splash of lemon juice
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 pint strawberries, diced fairly small
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp almond milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix the dry ingredients together.
In a medium bowl, cream and butter and sugar together. Add the apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Add the almond milk and mix until a uniform batter forms.
Stir in the strawberries. Then pour into a greased muffin tin so all 12 compartments are equally filled. Bake for abou 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle of each cupcake comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for abou 15 minutes. Then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling.
To make the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and almond milk. Stir until a paste is formed. If it's too stiff (i.e. not all the sugar can be dissolved) then add more almond milk by the 1/2 tsp. Remember, a little bit of liquid goes a VERY long way with powdered sugar. If it's too runny (i.e. it looks like soup), then add more powdered sugar by the Tbsp until a glue-like consistency is reached.
Drizzle the glaze over each cupcake and let it run down the sides. It will harden after a while. Consume immediately because you just can't wait any longer!
Up until now, there haven't been any ridiculously extravagant or super rich desserts on here, so you might not have known that I am a lover of over-the-top rich desserts. Well, the secret is out, and this is the cake that outed me.
My best friend is leaving for Texas tomorrow for an undetermined amount of time, so for this reason I decided I was going to make a cake. I may or may not have instigated a going away party for the sole purpose of making said cake, but that is another matter entirely.
It was a wondrous night full of fantastic flavors, including but not limited to hot cider, a block of cheese the size of my head, snickerdoodle cookies, homemade Greek yogurt dip, and of course, this cake.
For how crazy it looks, it didn't take much time to prepare. And if you like desserts that look pristine, I wouldn't recommend this one. Because it is so rich, i skipped icing it for fear of overdoing it, and just poured melted chocolate all over the top and let it run down the sides. This proved to be a success, albeit a messy one.
Recipe below!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegan butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup almond milk
About 16 ounces coconut cream (not milk)
1/4 cup sugar
1 pint strawberries, quartered length-wise
3 1/2 ounces dark chocolate
2 Tbsp vegan butter
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla, apple cider vinegar, and almond milk. Mix until combined.
Add the flour mixture and stir (or use an electric mixer) to combine until the batter is smooth.
Pour equally into three very greased 9-inch cake tins. Smooth batter out so it is evenly distributed over each pan. Bake for about 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center of each cake tin cleanly.
Let cool on a cooling rack in the cake tins for about 20 minutes. Then flip cake tin upside down and let cake fall out onto a smooth surface. You may need to bang the bottom of the pan (which is now the top since it's upside down) to get the cake to come out without crumbling.
Let cool completely.
Meanwhile, in a medium sized mixing bowl, pour coconut cream and sugar together. Beat with an electric mixer on a medium speed until soft peaks begin to form, about five minutes. Store in refrigerator, covered, until you're ready to assemble the cake.
Then, in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, combine chocolate, cut into small pieces, and the butter. Melt together over low heat, stirring constantly to keep the chocolate from melting. If you have never melted chocolate on the stove top before, you may want to use a double boiler, since burning chocolate is so easy to do, and is also irreversible. (You can tell chocolate is burnt if it starts to look grainy instead of smooth.) Let this mixture cool to room temperature.
To assemble the cake, lay the first layer of cake on the platter you will be serving the cake from. Make sure it has a flat bottom big enough to lay the cake on entirely, and some room around the sides for rogue chocolate and coconut cream to slide onto. Then spread on about half of the coconut cream. Bring it right up to the edges of the cake. Then take half the strawberries and arrange so they cover the cream one layer thick. Try to keep them fairly level since your next cake layer will be balanced on them. Place the second cake layer on top of the strawberries and repeat.
Once the strawberries are on the second layer of coconut cream, place the last layer of the cake on the very top, then top with any remaining coconut cream. Then spoon the chocolate sauce onto the top and let it slide over the sides. If there's excess chocolate on your platter, spoon it up and pour it back on top.
Ta-da! Your cake is ready and probably looks delicious. Enjoy it with friends!
