Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies and Better Food Photography

So many different food experiments happened this past weekend that I absolutely have to lump them all into one, extremely overwhelming post!

First, I’ll talk about my (slightly) improved food photography. I had an assignment last week for my photojournalism course to take photos using an external flash. Now I don’t know about you, but this seemed really intimidating to me at first. I don’t own an external flash, so instead of purchasing one, I borrowed a camera from my work which came with an external flash. To anyone who knows anything about DSLRs, the camera I borrowed might be a little impressive: it was the Canon 5D Mark II. Whoo! Everything was way over my head. There was definitely a learning curve coming from my Sony Alpha A55. So, long story short, I was super intimidated for about a week.

Thankfully…miraculously…somehow… I got over my initial fright and just started snapping photos of food last night. To my absolute delight, they came out looking quite nice! However in the future I’ll try not to shoot everything on a bright blue backdrop (which actually doubles as my bedroom curtains).

So the first thing I baked this weekend was a semi-failure. I baked a pan of slutty oreo brownies, from a recipe I found on What’s Gaby Cooking. These looked absolutely sinful, however, I made the amateur mistake of using salted vegan butter when the recipe actually called for unsalted butter. This was definitely a no-no. The salted butter made the brownies super oily and gross looking. I tried baking them for about 20 extra minutes, but all that did was overcook them and leave them with the curious description of solid yet oily. Gross.

I was quite disappointed in myself. (Also, I took this photo on my cell phone, not the 5D Mark II.)

However, one success did come out of that recipe! In the recipe it requires that you make too much cookie dough, and recommends saving the extra dough to make chocolate chip cookies later. Thankfully, the cookie dough came out marvelously, and I was still able to salvage the day of baking. I made oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies, which were awesome. Sweet, but not too sweet.

They look funny, but they are awesome! And oreos are totally vegan! Doesn’t that blow your mind?

Finally, on Sunday evening I made myself something healthy to eat. It was an offshoot of the brussels sprout potato hash I made a few months back. I basically used the exact same recipe, but substituted broccoli for brussels sprouts. It was still delicious.

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Tried and Tested: Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

Sorry for the uber late Thanksgiving post. But, hopefully some of these recipes and ideas can at least benefit someone for next year’s Thanksgiving:

I’m honestly not sure if I took any photos over Thanksgiving, which is a shame, because I have a ton of great recipes to recommend. Either way, I feel it’s necessary to share all of the great (and easily convertible) vegan recipes we made over Thanksgiving dinner.

1. Vegan Pumpkin Pie

I searched for days to find a delicious and simple recipe for vegan pumpkin pie. Last year at Thanksgiving my vegan (and gluten free) pumpkin pie recipe was a failure, however, this year things turned out much better. I found this recipe on a blog called So Good and Tasty. I didn’t use the recipe for the crust (although it looked delicious), because it seemed too time consuming, however the important part- the pumpkin center- was all that really mattered to me.

I love this recipe because it uses coconut milk, which just seems like a stroke of genius. I made the pie on Wednesday evening after returning home from school. Once I arrived home my Mother gave me a list of demands to accomplish, (all baking oriented of course) and I got to work. The first thing on my list was this pie. It was also the last thing I put in the oven, so it ended up a little overcooked. (However it was still fantastic!)

2. Cornbread

I can’t remember the last time I ate my Mom’s cornbread. Its the most delicious treat, and made even better by the fact that I can pour syrup all over it without an ounce of guilt. I used a recipe from an old cookbook that my Mom always uses, and made it vegan. Thankfully, it was quite simple to convert.

3. Cranberry and Orange Muffins

I’m not really sure how this is a traditional Thanksgiving food, but it was on the list of things my Mom wanted me to make once I returned home. I pulled the recipe out of my Mother’s Betty Crocker cookbook, and made it vegan. Also quite a simple conversion. Unfortunately, I can’t say how good these were because I still have yet to try one! However, they did disappear quite quickly…

4. Veggie Loaf

This recipe was all my Mother’s doing. She’d emailed me about this delicious vegetable loaf she’d eaten a few months ago and said that she would make it for me for Thanksgiving dinner. Good to her word, the loaf was actually quite good, however I’m not sure it really suited my tastebuds well. It tasted a little too much like stuffing, which I’ve never been a fan of. However, I have to recommend this recipe to anyone who might just love it!

5. Pumpkin Spice Cookies

When I came home I found a bag of these sitting on the counter with my name on it. Literally, a dream come true. A bag full of delicious, homemade cookies, just for me! Apparently these cookies freeze well, because my Mom said she baked them over a month ago and simply stuck them in the freezer for the next time I came home. I would never have guessed, because they tasted delicious and freshly baked.

6. Zucchini Banana Bread Pancakes

Again, I have no idea how this relates to Thanksgiving, but my Mother made them for breakfast on the big day, and they were just as delicious as usual.

7. Pumpkin Bread

Again, my Mom is taking on vegan baking on her own time. She made loaves of pumpkin bread to give everyone on Christmas (freezing them again), and I got to taste one of the fresh baked loaves. Delicious, and highly recommended.

8. Mashed Potatoes

These are super easy to veganize. Just peel and boil the potatoes, mash them, add a bit of vegan butter and soymilk, and keep mixing until desired consistency is reached. Vegan mashed potatoes don’t typically come out as creamy as “regular” mashed potatoes, however I’ve never heard any complaints about them, and I think they taste just as delicious!

Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash

I found myself searching through recipe websites for the majority of my day at work (again!) today. My co-worker Kathleen and I both share a great love of delicious food, and thus find it difficult to get much work done once we get looking at sites like foodgawker.com and gojee.com.

Today, after some extensive searching, I found a recipe for a brussels sprout-potato hash. It was something I’d never tried before, and I just happened to have most of the ingredients in my fridge.

This recipe was posted on Serious Eats, a website I just discovered yesterday. My roommate kept telling me how delicious it smelled as I was cooking and to my pleasant surprise, it tasted delicious as well!

The Recipe:
2 tsp olive oil
16 oz. brussels sprouts
3 medium russet potatoes, chopped into small pieces
1/4 large white onion (or to taste), diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
oregano, sprinkle to taste
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp salt
garlic powder, to taste

Saute potatoes and brussels sprouts in 1 tsp olive oil, in large skillet. Cover and let cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until potatoes are tender and browned. Add onion, garlic, spices and remaining olive oil.

Failure Cookies and Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Both of the recipes I’m about to post were both delicious and disappointing at the same time. (Although mostly delicious.)

I made a batch of vegan mint chocolate chip cookies last week for an event with my student organization. I love to make mint chocolate chip cookies, and these were very, very delicious, but they were also (quite unfortunately) very thin, sticky, and difficult to eat (because they were so soft!).

These cookies may remind you of a previous recipe I posted for Vegan and Gluten-Free Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies, I think that in comparison, these were about equally successful. These cookies held together better than the gluten-free batch, and they had a better level of mint flavoring, but they were also far too sticky and thin. Either way, I still thoroughly enjoyed eating my “failure cookies,” and loved the perfect excuse not to share with friends or co-workers.

The Recipe: Taken from NaturallyVegetarianRecipes.com
2 cups unbleached four (I used white whole wheat, which may have contributed to my problem)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp mint extract
1/4 cup water (I found that 1/4 wasn’t enough, but probably ended up adding too much extra)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, water and mint. Mix well. Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes.

On to the Gnocchi:

Despite the semi-failure of my cookie recipe, this sweet potato gnocchi was pretty great. I used my usual gnocchi recipe for cooking it up. Adding some olive oil and spinach. It was quite tasty, but unfortunately I didn’t taste much of a difference between sweet potato gnocchi and regular gnocchi. I’m guessing that if I made it from scratch it would be a more significant difference in flavor. Hopefully someday when I have more time on my hands I can find out for myself.

One fantastic thing about this recipe, however, was the olive oil I used. I’ve mentioned that since returning from Morocco I’ve found myself with a strong love for good olive oil. This brand that I found at World Market is damn good olive oil, and thus, made the gnocchi that much better.

Maakouda aka Deep Fried Mashed Potatoes

Last week I was introduced to a traditional Moroccan treat called Maakouda. Maakouda can be made in different ways, but basically its just deep fried mashed potato.

The maakouda I tried was similar to this recipe, the main difference being that it was deep fried. (And thus, quite delicious!) The maakouda was served with a soup called harira, which I didn’t try because it had large chunks of beef in the bottom of the bowl. However, this soup could easily be made vegan by simply removing the meat.

I ate about three or four maakouda before having to stop. They were delicious, and (thankfully) vegetarian. Even if you’re not a fan of fried foods I’d recommend trying maakouda at least once. The price was extremely affordable, and well worth it.

Dinner Failure.

This meal did not turn out as I had anticipated. I over broiled my tofu and added too much cornstarch to my potatoes, but, sometimes things don’t turn out exactly as you expect.

I’ve always had trouble baking tofu. Baked tofu always looks so delicious on other people’s blogs, but I just can’t seem to make it work for me. Someone, please tell me what I’m doing wrong!

I tried once earlier with BBQ Tofu Strips, and they came out OK, but they still weren’t the delicious, appetizing tofu strips that I spend nights lying awake dreaming about. This batch of Peanut Sauce Baked Tofu looks (and probably tastes) amazing, unfortunately my version did not.

I won’t even bother posting the recipe.

Luckily, the fries I made came out a little better. I just might add one less tablespoon of cornstarch next time. They weren’t the most delicious fries I’ve ever had, but they definitely hit the spot.

The Recipe:
8-10 garlic cloves, pressed
2 tbsp olive oil
potatoes, varied amount (sorry! I didn’t count!)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp nutritional yeast

Mix crushed garlic cloves and olive oil with chopped potatoes in a large bowl. Mix together in a separate bowl, cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and nutritional yeast. Add this mixture to the potatoes and mix well. Bake at 440 degrees F for 25 minutes. (Note: In the original recipe I used 3 tbsp cornstarch, here I only used 2 tbsp, which is my recommendation.)

On the bright side, Carl and I have shared some wonderful bonding time since I’ve been home.

I know it’s cheesy to say this, but Carl and I sure do have a special bond. He showed up on our doorstep 5 years ago (maybe?). I fed him and played with him and eventually, he came to live with us.

When Carl first showed up on our back porch he was extremely skinny. It was clear that no one had been taking care of him for some time. He was hesitant to trust us at first, but over time he came to understand that I only wanted to be friends.

Since my Mom remarried, Carl has been able to roam around outside again (as opposed to our small apartment) and I can tell he’s happy.