Vegan Apricot Muffins with Walnuts & Cashews

Someone shared a nice vegan muffin recipe on Facebook the other day I thought I'd try with the nice apricots I have canned.  I changed so much in the original recipe, it's now an entirely new recipe.  I didn't have self rising flour, but that's easily remedied with a little extra baking powder.  Amazingly, I am out of almonds, that rarely happens, so I used some raw cashews and walnuts, roasted slightly in a dry sautée pan on the stovetop.  I used safflower oil, hemp milk and apricot preserves I made with last year's fresh apricots.

That's how I make most things. I grab a recipe using the ingredients I have on-hand, fruit in season, etc., and use it as a guide.  These muffins came out so light and fluffy a friend of mine at work said they were 'Betty Crocker' fluffy.

The orginal recipe I used was Almond & Peach Muffins from a blog called "Parsley Soup"

My version of this recipe: 

Apricot Muffins with Walnuts & Cashews

2 cups Whole wheat pastry flour
1 TB plus 1 tsp Baking powder
3/4 cup Turbinado sugar
1/2 cup Ground cashews
4 oz Sunflower oil
1 cup non dairy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pint apricot preserves (I used agave and agar to make my preserves last year)
Pan roasted chopped cashews and walnuts to decorate
Apricot preserves to glaze

1.  Sift flour, baking powder into large mixing bowl.

2.  Stir in the turbinado sugar and ground cashews.

3.  Whisk the vegetable oil, non dairy milk, and vanilla in a smaller bowl and pour into the flour mixture.

4. Quickly stir in the peach preserves reserving some for the glaze.  The total stirring should take less than 30 seonces and it's fine it it's really lumpy.  Muffin dough doesn't like to be mixed too much.

5.  Pour the mixture into muffin cups and sprinkle the roasted nuts on top.

6.  Bake at 400º for about 20 minutes or until risen and cooked through.  Give it the toothpick test.  If it comes out clean, they are done.

7.  Heat the apricot preserves slightly and spread on top of the hot muffins with a pastry brush.  I put a little of the apricot bits on top too.

Enjoy with a glass of non-dairy mile.  YUM!

These received great reviews with everyone who tried them.

Isabelle & Molly

The girls are finally out in the garden. Isabelle has a new dress this year she has a friend named Molly.

Isabelle

Molly

Thanks so much to my husband who thinks they are very bazaar and silly, but helps me put them out anyway. They may not scare the birds, but they do cause smiles.  In a few weeks, Isabelle will be shaded by tall sunflowers.  Molly is keeping an eye on the corn stalks.

Eggplant Bacon

Eggplant bacon? Or is it eggplant jerky?  You can call it either.  When it's made with the common large eggplant the strips do resemble bacon as in my previous post . I think it satisfies that sweet salty taste we like in bacon without all the nasty health risks that come with eating real bacon.

Recently I got some locally grown eggplants which are a little more the size of softballs than eggplants we see most often.
 

I think this batch should be called Canadian bacon.

Someone asked me for the recipe the other day and I found it difficult to get to the site of my favorite eggplant bacon recipe.  It's been down a couple times so I thought I'd better get the recipe posted before I lose it.  I've got it pretty much memorized, but I do have a few recipes in my head, too easy to forget something.

I found this recipe on a site called: Raw & Simple, It's from the Every Day Raw cookbook by Matthew Kenney.  It's very simple and the "bacon" is a big hit with just about everyone who tries it.


 Eggplant Bacon
      Every Day Raw, page 58
  
Ingredients:
 
    1 large eggplant, thinly sliced
    1 tablespoon sea salt
    1/2 dried chipotle chile, soaked at least 2 hours
    1/2 cup soaking water from the chipotle peppers
    2 tablespoons maple syrup
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    2 tablespoons nama shoyu
    2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
    1 teaspoon chili powder
    1/2 teaspoon paprika
    1/2 teaspoon cumin
    pinch black pepper
    pinch cayenne

 Directions:

To make the thin sheets of eggplant I used a mandolin or peeler. The mandolin is great at getting them sliced at an equal size, but sliced in 1/4" thick slices will work just fine too.  I tried it with a peeler, but they were just too thin for me.

Once you have sliced your eggplant, sprinkle it with the sea salt and allow to sit for 1-2 hours.  Layer your eggplant sheets between paper or cloth tea towels and press out excess moisture.

In the mean time, blend the other ingredients in the liquid container of your Vita-Mix.

Submerge the squeezed eggplant in the marinade. I put them in a baggie and purged as much air as possible (as I would with any marinade). Marinate 30-45 minutes.

Carefully lay out the eggplant sheets onto your dehydrator trays and dehydrate until crispy (24 – 48 hours).

~~Enjoy!~~

Garden Update July

Can you find the bee?

Things have been going along a little slow due to our lack of sunshine in the NW.  We have had some sunshine breaks, but not lasting longer than a couple of days.  The spinach and lettuce plants went to seed very quickly.  But now, we're going out just to weed, thin, and water.  The garden is moving along nicely.  I'm harvesting something every time we go out there now.  Last night I harvested about 30 heads of garlic.  There are three or four varieties of garlic in the garden.  Some of which are elephant garlic.  I am anxious to pull up some of those this weekend.

How do you know when it's time to harvest garlic?  The bottom leaves will begin to turn brown.  Gently dig one up and slice it in half.  If the cloves have filled out, it's ready.  Don't leave it in too long or the cloves will begin to burst out of the skins making them unstorable and open to disease.  They can still be used, but not stored. I planted them in October.  I planted about 60 or more garlic cloves.  I'm looking forward to making some garlic braids. I am so impressed at how one small clove of garlic becomes such a lovely large head over the winter. But then again, the whole garden thing and the production of live food in the dirt from the little bitty seeds fascinates me. 

Last week we also took home about a dozen artichokes, an armload of onions, three nice zucchini, a couple large bowls of peas, stevia, lettuce, a kohlrabi, and of course more herbs to dry:  oregano, thyme, two kinds of mint, basil, and rosemary.  The potatoes are nice and healthy.  Curious, I have three different kinds of potatoes but the bushy leaves all look the same.  It will be interesting to see if the flowers are different colors.

The plan, this weekend, is to get our beautiful scarecrow, Isabelle up in the garden.  This year she gets a friend too, Holly, as she has been named by my granddaughter.

Today we do have a beautiful summer morning.  I'm headed out for a brisk walk, then back home to can and freeze some local organic cherries and apricots.  I have 15 pounds of cherries and about 20 pounds of nice apricots. I already have some eggplant bacon in the dehydrator and a couple trays of the nice Washington apricots.  I'll dry a few pounds of the cherries too.  Sun or no sun, I love this time of year!