Baked Goods

Easy, Rustic Sourdough Discard Biscuits

October 30, 2020 by Mel Leave a Comment

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sourdough baker of any regularity must be in want of recipes to use sourdough discard.” I’m pretty sure Jane Austen said this, right? Or, something like that. Either way, when you bake a lot of sourdough it means that you have a lot of extra starter. I have been experimenting for a while now with different recipes (like these cookies and these incredible tortillas) to use it up. Since I am a complete and utter fool for anything breakfast related, I had to come up with a biscuit recipe, and I finally have! These fluffy sourdough discard biscuits are a great way to use up leftover starter in a way that everybody loves. Name me a person that doesn’t love biscuits. Bet you can’t!

Overhead shot of sourdough discard biscuits. Six of them are resting on a cooling rack, while one is resting on a striped napkin. The biscuit on the napkin has a bite taken out of it.

The Best Vegan Carrot Cake

October 23, 2020 by Mel 1 Comment

Though I did not start eating carrot cake until adulthood (blame the picky-eater-phase that lasted for nearly twenty years), I have been hearing about carrot cake for as long as I can remember. It is my mother’s favorite cake, and it was the wedding cake that…wasn’t. For years and years I was told stories of how my mother desperately wanted carrot cake, her absolute favorite, at her and my father’s wedding but that it was not an option amongst the catering hall packages. Her dream died a second time when my now-husband and I chose vanilla funfetti cake over carrot. Sorry Mom! But here I make it up to her with my own take on a vegan carrot cake with tangy buttercream.

Frontal shot of a slice of delectable vegan carrot cake topped with vegan cream cheese icing.

Peanut Butter Sourdough Cookies: Quick, Simple, & A Surprisingly Good Combo!

September 18, 2020 by Mel 3 Comments

When one dives into the world of sourdough baking and bakes with any regularity, we will inevitably wind up with jars and jars of sourdough discard. I see a lot of recipes all across the internet for what to do with the leftover starter that does not make it into beautiful, aerated loaves. More often than not, the discarded results lean savory (I’m guilty of this myself!) So for this week, I wanted to try something different. Something sweet. And when you are like me and order peanut butter by the five-pound bucket, you make oatmeal peanut butter sourdough cookies.

Overhead shot of peanut butter sourdough discard cookies.

Simple, Homemade Whole Wheat Crackers

July 31, 2020 by Mel Leave a Comment

Every so often, I’ll go through a phase where I want to subsist on nothing but my favorite vegan cheese and crackers. This week has brought on one of those phases. I love a plain sea salt cracker that can stand on its own in terms of flavor, but also does not compete with whatever I am dipping into. That’s where these homemade whole wheat crackers come in. One day a few weeks ago when I was really crawling up my house’s walls, I was desperate for cheese and crackers but not quite desperate enough to brave the grocery store. Using what I already had in my cabinets, these crackers were the solution.

A bowl full of freshly baked, whole wheat crackers on a blue background

Vegan French Toast Casserole (with challah bread!)

July 24, 2020 by Mel Leave a Comment

I’m leaning into my millennial tendencies today when I proclaim to the Internet that I love brunch. Perhaps it is partly a millennial thing, partly a “I -was-raised-in-NJ-diner-capital-of-the-universe” thing, but I truly love nothing more than a cup of black (gross) coffee coupled with a stack of fluffy pancakes or French toast. But here’s the thing I have long struggled with in plant-based cooking: vegan French toast is difficult! Every time I attempt to make it, it sticks to the pan and creates a bready, goopy mess. Earlier this spring, I published a recipe for vegan challah bread (which I also subsequently turned into challah cinnamon rolls) and no matter how many attempts I made, I could not turn it into successful French toast. But digging back into my Christmas morning memory banks, a recipe came to me: Vegan French Toast Casserole.

overhead shot of vegan challah French toast casserole

Bakery Style Banana Coconut Muffins

June 26, 2020 by Mel 1 Comment

Here we are, day 10,486 of quarantine. I think. Who knows anymore? Even with the numbers in my home state on the decline, keeping safe at home is still the order of the day for most of us. Without an office from which to work or a schedule to keep, I’m losing it. Things I love now feel like drudgery, and this includes baking. The last thing I want to do is wake up wake up and worry about breakfast. So what have I come up with instead? These banana coconut muffins.

Overhead shot of banana coconut muffins, arranged on a metal baking sheet over marble

Challah Bread Cinnamon Rolls

May 1, 2020 by Mel Leave a Comment

I had planned to wait and share a different recipe right after sharing my challah bread recipe with all of you, but I am WAY too excited to postpone these challah cinnamon rolls! They take the exact same base dough as the bread and are rolled into the perfect, pillowy soft cinnamon rolls that melt in your mouth. Honestly, this cinnamon experiment was a total whim, but my love of sweets (and carbs) won out and here we are.

Vegan Challah Bread

April 24, 2020 by Mel 1 Comment

It all started with a craving for some really comforting brunch food. Pancakes. Or French toast. Something I could luxuriate in over a cup (or four) of black coffee. Then a friend mentioned offhand that challah bread makes superior French toast. That was all it took. Though I had neither made challah before nor even had the inclination to make it, I set out to make the vegan challah bread that would allow me to craft the perfect French toast.

Armed with this Classic Challah recipe from King Arthur as my inspiration and guide, I set out on my quest. Would vegan challah bread live up to it’s eggy counterpart?

Baked Goods

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