Letting it all hang out

Calling all Seattleites! NARN is hosting a brownie baking contest this weekend. $10 to be a judge (aka stuff your face w/ brownies).

When: Sunday, Feb 8th @ 4:00pm
Where: Wayward Cafe (901 NE 55th St, U-District)

I've got something else in the works, but thought I'd tempt you with some cheeZecake brownies. For the cheezecake part, I used the recipe from Philadelphia cream cheese, but subbed in toffutti for the cheeZe and Ener'g egg replacer for the egg. I also added in some vanilla. They tasted ok. I'd make them again.

Since I suck at making brownies, I used a mix, "Ooey Gooey Chocolatey Chewy Brownies" by the Craving's Place. It has huge pieces of chocolate that stay melty. You can see one on top of the brownie below.

PS. if you can't make it, the night before they are having an auction. I'll be baking something for that too.

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Cooking classes have started up again at PCC. The first class that I took was a bread baking class taught by George de Pasquale from the Essential Baking Company. Not only did he know his stuff backwards, forwards, upside down and sideways, but he was really funny.

He smacked down lots of myths and BS about baking bread w/ a starter. He showed us how to bake artesian crusty bread, baker's math and how to wield a spray bottle. Very cool. If you live in the Seattle area, TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!

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Ever seen a greyhound hoozit? I have. You don't really have a choice when it's displayed for all to see for long periods of time (just in case you didn't notice right away).

VeganMoFo day #15 - Bread Mojo Rising

I finally got my yeast mojo back. Woohoo!!!

Dave from Dave's Killer Bread did a spot on everydaydish. I used his recipe for whole wheat bread. Came out great. I eat Dave's bread from the grocery store all the time, though the stuff Dave sells is much more complex. Thanks to A Bears Fare and veg*ns are friends not food for pointing it out.


I should have added a bit more water because my KitchenAid mixer was having some issues. I made a normal looking loaf and I tried a ring in a bundt pan. It stuck, as you can see by the huge dig marks in the sides of the ring in the pictures below. Definitely need to oil the pan next time.

Keys to getting over my many failures w/ yeast. Hopefully they will work again in the future.

*used more yeast than called for
*roasted yams and did other oven intensive things
*kept oven at 200 and left bread on oven door during second rising. I figure this is cheaper than heating the whole house.

Class #2 - Bread making

I took my second class from PCC. It was a hands on whole wheat bread making class that was more about technique than recipes. My two objectives were to learn how to make whole wheat bread (white is easy) and to fix my broken yeast bread making mojo. I think the class helped me on both accounts. My mojo issues could be because I wasn't kneading the bread long enough. Probably because I'm lazy.

During the class we made an oatmeal whole wheat bread that was adaped from a Laurel's Kitchen Bread cookbook. We did it all: mixed up dough, kneaded, rising, baking. In between risings and baking, the instructor showed us how to do shaping and slashing with a spicy currant bread dough. She also talked about lots of other stuff. Like why you don't cut a bread right out of the oven - unless you're going to eat the whole thing right away ;-).

Here is my tiny loaf. I only put oats on 1/2 of the outside. This bread is really whole wheaty, but it's good. Right now my favorite bread is Dave's Killer Bread. Sprouted bread is about a million notches above where I'm currently at skill wise on the bread making ladder.

After class I went grocery shopping (PCC is a co-op). The bread was really warm in my knapsack and it made me smell like a bakery. Yum!