Brownies from a mix and accidental brittle

This week I decided to try my hand at making candy! I wanted to make saltwater taffy, to be exact. I have never made taffy or any sort of candy before, so I was not sure how the experiment would go. Also, I was unable to find a vegan-specific recipe, so I adapted my concoction from: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/recipe-taffy.html . I bought some vegetable glycerin (and now need to find a use for the rest of the bottle!), orange flavouring (because the rest of my family objected to almond extract), and substituted coconut oil for the butter. I did not use food colouring, because I could not find any that a) had no questionable ingredients (possibly animal-derived) and b) did not cost an arm and a leg. I mixed all the ingredients, and began boiling them... and boiling them... and boiling them. I had to heat the mixture to 270F, and at one point made the mistake of sampling some with a spoon while it was still hot (ouch!). All told, boiling the mixture to the right temperature took about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I checked on it at about 35 minutes, and it was almost 300F. I poured the mixture onto a greased baking sheet, but unfortunately it cooled to a solid too hard to pull for taffy, as the picture below shows. Luckily, once I smoothed it back out and let it cool some more, I could smash it to make pieces of orange brittle. My willing human test subject and I thought it was delicious, even though it couldn't be classified as taffy.

I also made gluten-free brownies as a snack for one of my classes, but since I didn't have gluten-free flour, I bought a mix. The mix called for eggs and butter, which I substituted with Ener-G egg replacer and coconut oil. They were well-received by the class, but I won't count them for the purposes of this project because it wasn't really homemade. I think I may be becoming a baking snob!

As this project winds down, I will take a second stab at some of my less successful creations, to see if what I have learned can help me improve them.

Vlog!

The recipe I used was from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/20144/banana-banana-bread/. I substituted vegan butter and Ener-G egg replacer.

A Successful Week

This week I decided to make an old standby (chocolate chip cookies) and something I'd never made before (souffle). My thinking was, if one was less than successful, I could hedge my bets on the other. Luckily, both recipes I tried went swimmingly. I decided to adapt the cookies from a Betty Crocker recipe, thinking that making substitutions would be less risky with something simple. I used Peta's baking "cheat sheet" to choose the substitutions. I substituted an equal amount of coconut oil for butter, and used Ener-G egg replacer to, well, replace the egg. Overall, the cookies were good (with one taste taster eating enough to give herself a stomach ache), but there were two issues. First, my young Helper accidentally added a fair bit of extra vanilla, so the cookies turned out more vanilla-y than chocolate-y. Second, the cookies were crumbly. Next time, I will add an extra 1/4 cup or so of oil to ensure they stay moist. I was more worried about the souffle, because I have never made, eaten, or frankly ever even souffle anywhere other than on cartoons, where they caused great distress by deflating. Luckily I had no such issues.

Because I had never made souffle before, I thought it best to stick to an established recipe. I made one small adjustment: I used wheat flour instead of gluten-free. The souffle rose about double its original volume, which I was pleased to see. And apparently, souffle tastes a lot like mousse, which I love. My taste tester said it was good, and I thought it was decent, although a little bitter. Putting some fresh fruit like strawberries on top would make it perfect. Next week will be the week of the "cheese"cake, which based on some preliminary research looks fairly time-consuming. I will take advantage of the long weekend to make it, and try my hand at making a vlog to document the attempt. http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookies/77c14e03-d8b0-4844-846d-f19304f61c57 http://www.peta.org/living/food/baking-cheat-sheet/ http://www.sarahbakesgfree.com/2014/09/chocolate-souffles-individual-cakes.html

February 1st update

This week I was stricken by flu. It wasn't fatal, but I avoided baking until I was less contagious. Therefore I skipped the basic cake I was going to make, and skipped right to the lava cake. Learning from past mistakes, I stuck like glue to a single recipe. I also chose a recipe that was vegan from the start, so I wouldn't have to worry about substitutions. I used the following recipe: . I did make on slight change: I substituted soy milk for almond milk because I didn't have any on hand. Almond milk has a more pleasant flavour, in my opinion, but soy milk is a) more nutritious and b) indistinguishable once mixed with sugar and chocolate. Compared to the meringues, the cakes were much less labour-intensive. Preparing the batter took about 20 minutes, and I baked the cakes for 18 minutes. The end result was this:

The presentation is not particularly elegant, but the cakes themselves turned out nearly perfectly. They rose into the proper shape, were fluffy, and did not stick to the pan or burn. In terms of flavour and texture, I had advance warning they would be tasty- leftover egg-free batter makes cleanup delicious. Once cooked, I was disappointed to find that the cake had cooked through; it was not "molten" inside like it should have been. However, this was not the case. When eaten, the outside was solid and the inside was very soft and "gooey". My willing human test subject agreed, saying it was delicious and that the inside was perfect. She then defeated the purpose by pairing it with a dairy ice cream, but the cake stands as a success. I was discouraged after last week's underwhelming meringues, but this success has bolstered my confidence. It is an issue, of course, that one setback can impact my mindset so intensely. In future, I should reassure myself with the adage of "learning from my mistakes". It seems to have worked in this case. In the coming week, I will tackle two desserts: a simple cookie to maintain confidence and share with family (they were upset I had only made two cakes), and a souffle. I fully expect the souffle to fail, so I will try 2 or 3 different recipes to see which gives me the best result.