new cookbook!

As you know, I'm a sucker for a good vegan cookbook. And as you also know, I bake way too much. So of course I was excited to check out Kris' new cookbook, The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide. My copy arrived last week, and I have made three of the recipes so far. I had a difficult time choosing what to make at first, because most of the recipes seemed so basic. Little did I know that "basic" would be the most appealing aspect of the cookbook. First I made the Garlic Rolls. Just a simple, yeast roll recipe, but Damn! Ken and I were practically moaning as we were eating these with our pasta. Kris suggests placing a single garlic clove in the middle of each roll before baking, but I only had a jar of minced on hand. So I just squished a spoonful of minced garlic into the tops of the rolls before baking. After the rolls were baked, I lightly poured some melted Earth Balance on top of them, and sprinkled Parma over the margarine. Just the garlic and yeast smell while they baked was enough to drive us mad! I will definitely be making these again and again.
Check 'em out:



Another winner from the cookbook was the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe. I have about a hundred PB cookie recipes, but I was in the mood and decided to try this one. And I'm glad I did! This is another case of a simple, basic recipe with a "wow!" result. The cookies were super soft and chewy, and just perfect. I drizzled the tops of each one with a chocolate ganache (recipe for that in the same book), to make them look like mini Liz Lovely's. Now, I did use a weird peanut butter in this recipe. I tried it with White Chocolate Peanut Butter. Holy shit, talk about decadent! They were pure heaven! The recipe made a huge amount of cookie dough. I made 16 cookies (cookie scoop sized), and I had more than half of the dough left over. I put the remaining dough in the freezer, so I can make the rest tomorrow, but the dough ball still feels hard, even though it's been thawing in the fridge for 24 hours now. So I guess this dough doesn't freeze well? I'm not sure why.
...but it doesn't matter. Because the cookies were spectacular:



I did try a third recipe from the book that didn't turn out that great, but I think it's my fault, and not the recipe's. I tried to make these Chocolate Peanut Butter Shells, but I had a really hard time forming them into balls, keeping the pb from squishing out, and basically having them keep their shape. Even though I made them ball shaped, they fell like cookies once they baked and made a big mess. Ken loved them anyway, and ate the whole batch. I didn't take a picture of them because I don't like to keep photographic record of my baking mishaps.

All in all, I really like my new cookbook so far. And I wish I had the $$ for that "Vegan Master Baker" apron. It reminds me of driving down Buford Hwy. and seeing all of those Korean Bakeries named the same: Master Bakery. It's impossible not to snicker at a name like that! Well it's impossible if you're me or a 5th grader, anyway.