King Cake
WOO! Mardi Gras - best holiday of the year. This recipe is adaptable from two different recipes I found online. Can be made vegan or nonvegan.
WOO! Mardi Gras - best holiday of the year. This recipe is adaptable from two different recipes I found online. Can be made vegan or nonvegan.
Whatcha need:
3 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 package of active dry yeast
1 C almond milk (sub real milk, if you’re into that)
1 t salt
2 eggs (sub 2 flax seed “eggs” 2T flax & 5T water)
4 T unsalted butter (sub vegan butter)
1/4 C sugar
filling:
2/3 C light brown sugar
1/2 of a package of cream cheese or vegan cream cheese (4oz)
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
4 T unsalted butter sub vegan butter or coconut oil (softened)
1 C chopped pecans
icing:
1 C powdered sugar
1 T almond milk (or real milk, whatev)
1 splash of vanilla
purple, green, gold sprinkles
Whatcha do:
In a small saucepan, combine the milk and sugar. Heat over medium until the mixture just begins to bubble around the edges. You want it to be about the temperature of bath water around 100-110 degrees. Any hotter and it will ruin your yeast. Take off of heat, stir in the yeast, and set aside for 5 minutes to let the yeast activate and bubble a little.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add in 3 cups of the flour and the salt. With the mixer on low, pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Add in the vegan egg replacers and continue to mix on low until a shaggy dough begins to form.
Slowly mix in the remaining 1 cup of flour and then slowly add in the butter, about 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix until just combined.
Put on the dough hook and leave the stand mixer running to knead for about 8 minutes on low speed. You can also do this with your hands if desired. Every couple of minutes, stop the mixer, taking the dough off of the hook, reposition it, and restart the kneading on low speed. Once done kneading, the dough should be elastic and neither sticky nor wet at all. If it’s a bit sticky, add just a touch more flour in. I never need to do this step but just in case.
Form the dough into a ball and place it into a large, well greased bowl. Turn the dough a few times so it’s very lightly coated in oil all around. Cover bowl and let sit in a warm spot for 1 1/2 hours. It should roughly double in size. The results are a thick and rather dense dough.
When the dough is nearly done rising, making the filling by simply mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, cream cheese, pecans, and vegan butter. Set aside until ready to use.
Once the dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle that is roughly 20 inches x 10 inches. Spread the cinnamon filling along half of the dough and then fold the dough over the filling (see photos above).
Cut dough into three long strips (again, see photo above) and braid the dough from one end to the other. Stretch the braid out a bit so that it is once again roughly 20 inches long. Wrap the braid into a circle and form the 2 ends together by pinching them to seal the circle.
Transfer the cake to a well greased baking sheet (round is ideal), cover, and let rise for 45 minutes.
When the cake is nearly ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the outside is a nice golden brown color. Let the cake cool completely (even overnight if desired) before icing it. Once cooled, you can hide the plastic baby inside the cake by gently tucking it in from the bottom.
To make the icing, simply whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until well combined. Pour the icing evenly over the cake using a spoon to spread it out.
Finally, if desired, sprinkle the cake with the traditional green, yellow, and purple sprinkles immediately after icing it.
Summer Salsa
the tastiest summery salsa! I highly recommend hitting up your local farmers market for as many ingredients as you can find - makes all the difference :)
assembly:
begin by dicing up your tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapeños roughly the same size. the onion should be diced a bit smaller.
mince the garlic
drain and rinse the black beans
toss everything in a bowl
finely chop up the cilantro, try out best to remove the stems (if you are one of those people that hate cilantro them omit!)
squeeze in the lime
season with regular salt and garlic salt
I tend to under season at first because as it chills in the fridge it’ll get all tasty, but if you take it out of the fridge later and its bland then by all means please add some salt!!
ENJOY! love this with hint of lime chips!!
whatcha need:
2 large or 3 medium tomatoes
1 large or 2 medium or a handful of baby bell peppers
1/2 large or 1 little purple onion
1 glove of garlic
1, 2, or 10(?) jalapeños
1 can of black beans
1 bundle of cilantro
1 healthy squirt of lime juice
salt to taste
garlic salt to taste
** best served with hint of lime chips
the most beautiful group of vegetables we got from the Mississippi Farmers Market!
Cream Cheese Wontons
you’ll never believe how easy it is to actually make wontons…..
Ingredients:
cast iron skillet
canola oil
cream cheese (sub vegan cream cheese)
wonton wrappers (find these by the vegan/vegetarian section at Kroger)
1 egg (sub water if vegan)
Whatcha do:
Begin by pouring about 1/4 in of oil into your cast iron skillet, its going to take a second to heat up so go ahead and get that going on medium-high heat.
On a clean work space (probably use a cutting board) lay out a couple of your wonton wrappers. Plop a little glob of cream cheese in the center of each (about 1/2 tablespoon). With your clean fingers or with a cooking brush, line two of the edges with egg or water. Fold in half (so that its a triangle) then meet the two corners together with a little more egg or water.
Tip** use the bottom of a wooden spoon to see if your oil is hot enough. If you stick in the oil and bubbles appear around it, you’re ready to go.
Gently (pls don’t burn yourself) place a couple wontons into the oil, fry until each sides is a pretty golden brown. About 30 seconds each side.
When you remove them from heat, place them on a paper towel lined plate to absorb any excess oil.
Repeat until either you’re full or you run out of an ingredient.
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