Daisies, Spring and...cookie butter?

Hi all!
Tonight, my baking club is making crêpes with some other resident students. It is going to be a big party and after we make the crêpes, we are going to watch a French-themed movie. I am very excited! For tips on how to throw a crêpe party, check out this link!

I went to Trader Joe's yesterday to get ingredients and found this amazing and mysterious item: cookie butter. It is exactly what it sounds like; it is a spreadable cookie! wait a second....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't opened it yet because I am saving it for tonight, but I can't wait to see how it tastes. I hope it is one of those things that tastes as good as it sounds. The label describes it as "A deliciously unusual spread remniscent of gingerbread and made with crushed [speculoos] biscuits" and promises, "All you have to do is taste it to understand", so I have high hopes.

I also went on a fun walk/improv jam session with a woman from my improv class through the beautiful Mills campus. I had never realized that the trail existed and was full of wonder at the stands of towering eucalyptus and clouds of wildflowers along it. I had forgotten how many native plants I knew since I have been in a city setting for a while. I immediately started sampling native wild mustard seedpods, "sourgrass", honeysuckle and fennel. It was very therapeutic. At one point we sat down and started chaining daisies. I found one special daisy that was more petalled and therefore fluffier than the rest, that I think is so beautiful. The chain became part of my hairstyle for the day!

Tomorrow, my baking club is taking our first fieldtrip to San Francisco, to the bakery Miette, the ferry building and to a tour at TCHO chocolate factory! I'll be posting about it tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Cooking at Home

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Thank-you!

Chocolat Movie Night! Part 3

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Chocolat Movie Night! Part 2

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Chocolat Movie Night! Part 1

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Chocolat Movie Night!

Hi everyone!
This week, my baking club is going to have a movie night and we're watching "Chocolat"! Before the film starts, we'll be making a number of delicious chocolate recipes from the movie, so check in later this week if you're a fan of the film or of chocolate!
<3 Lauren

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from Tiramipursuit!
Yesterday the Baking Club hosted a bake sale by the Mills tea shop. I made vegan brownies and cookies, gluten free cupcakes and purple velvet cupcakes to sell. We definitely made a profit, which is exciting!
I had some great help from two of our club members, Ryan and Emily, not to mention the support of my friends who are awesome and tasted the desserts for me without complaint ( ;

The bake sale, with Ryan and Emily.

I made these with a gluten-free mix, then whipped up an icing using butter and powdered sugar.

A happy accident...I guess "mauve" is more purple than pink. They turned out cute though!

Vegan cookies with dream chips!

The vegan brownies!

 Shannon and I fed some brownie to a squirrel and he loved it!

The recipe is squirrel-approved.

Sinful Vegan Brownies
I slightly adapted this recipe from a recipe by SANDYWIFEY31S at Allrecipes.com. The brownies taste rich and chocolatey but are also cakey.

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A handful of vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Prep a 9x13" pan by spraying it with canola or vegetable oil and pressing a sheet of parchment into it. This will make it easier to remove the brownies afterwards.Spray the parchment lightly too.
 Sift together all dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, oil and water and mix well. Spread evenly into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the vegan chips. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the center is cooked through.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting into even squares. I recently learned that brownies are actually a form of caramel, which is why they can fall apart when cut too early and refuse to be cut once they have cooled. You learn something new every day!
Enjoy with your sweetheart, with friends or keep a secret stash just for yourself!
Happy Valentine's Day

Strawberry Buttermilk Cupcakes for Valentine's Day

I have finally braved the kitchen here at Mills, even though the oven is about 60 years old and is on a completely different floor from the prep space...I did it because Valentine's day is coming up and I had to share some recipes with you all and get back in the kitchen! I had a bunch of buttermilk and cream cheese frosting left over from baking club, so I got to work making these tasty cupcakes.

The weather today was perfect for taking pictures: overcast and bright. I was so delighted to discover that the creepy little kitchen has these awesome old windows and I have finally, for the first time ever, been able to bake in a room with amazing lighting. So, I had fun taking pictures of the baking process as well.
I hope you enjoy the recipe, I adapted it from the buttermilk cake recipe in "Super Natural Every Day" which you can find on my books page. I didn't have some of the same ingredients, so I tweaked it a bit. I will admit that 16 strawberries were smuggled out of the Mills cafeteria in my bag this morning, but at least I shared the final product with the other people in my dorm, so hopefully I won't have any bad karma!

Ready for the oven!

The old oven.

Little cupcakes going in.

I took the cupcakes all around campus. I am in love with the blossoming trees right now.

Vanilla speckles.

One cupcake looking for love.

The other cupcake is sad and lonely until...

...they find each-other! And they live happily ever after.

Needless to say, they were gone when I came back!

Strawberry Buttermilk Cupcakes (with vanillabean cream cheese frosting)
2 1/2 cups unbleached pastry flour
1 tbs baking soda
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
grated zest of two organic oranges
approximately 16 strawberries, chopped
some large-grain or turbinado sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin by spraying the tops and filling 18 cups with cupcake papers.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl whisk together the eggs and buttermilk. Add the butter and zest and whisk. Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into the cupcake cups until each is 2/3 full. Sprinkle the cupcakes lightly with chopped strawberries, then with the large-grain sugar.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Be sure to rotate halfway through to ensure even baking. Let cool and serve with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. Decorate with remaining strawberry slices.

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
It was an accident that we used vanilla beans in baking club last night because I forgot to buy vanilla at the store. The speckles are so pretty though, I didn't regret it.
1/2 vanilla bean
4 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Whip the cream cheese and sugar together with a hand-held mixer. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the frosting. You can save the pod for flavoring another dish. Whip until light and fluffy. Pipe onto your cooled buttermilk cupcakes.

Baking Club

So, I'm away at college (only a bit, but I'm not living at home, so it counts!) and it's been only a few days so I haven't figured out how to get to a grocery store without a car yet, so there have been no posts or new recipes! I am sorry ): And thank-you for your patience.
I am excited to announce that I am (trying) to put together a baking club here at Mills! I have talked to some other students who seem really excited, so hopefully I will be posting more about that, our fieldtrips and what we make quite soon!

Spending the day with my bros

I spent some time with Amani and Jordan before I left for school. They are not watching tv or playing video games at the moment, so I was drawing a blank about what to do once we exhausted the board game option. Then of course, a cookie popped into my brain and we set about to make our own recipe! Then we had a delicious snack of soba noodles drizzled with sesame oil, soy sauce and freshly grated meyer lemon zest.
THE CHOCOLATE COOKIE EXPERIMENT

The cookie scientists, enjoying their final product

These chocolatey cookies are crisp on the outside, but soft and chewy inside. Delicious!

Soba

Amani didn't want to be left out of the picture but also has a hard time standing still!

Cutie slurping noodles. Jordy is in a daze back there.

Drizzle cooked buckwheat soba with sesame oil, soy sauce and toss with lemon zest.

Chocolate Almond Softies
Here's our experimental recipe! If you'd like to test it too and post your results here, I'm sure the little scientists would love to hear how it goes (:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened but not melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tbs cocoa powder
1/3 cup almond flour
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tbs baking soda
1 tbs mini chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350F and prep two half sheet pans with spray and parchment. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together. Add the egg and combine. Add the dry ingredients, then stir until it is a thick paste (you may want to sift the ingredients for a smoother cookie, we didn't mind the lumps). Fold in your chocolate chips. You can either chill the cookies for 15 minutes or go ahead and spoon tablespoons of the batter evenly spaced on your pan. We didn't notice much difference with the chilling, but I know this is a standard part of most recipes that use sticky dough. They do spread a bit, so be sure to give them some room to grow.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until crispy on the edges. Rotate pans once halfway through the baketime for even baking.
Enjoy!