Caramel-Walnut Upside Down Banana Cake

If you’re a banana fan (and maybe even if you’re not) this cake is for you. I think I may have just found my new go-to dessert (my old go-to dessert was a coconut cake).

Think Pineapple Upside Down cake but updated and with an amazing caramel walnut topping and a banana cake base. The caramel topping is addictive but gooey. When I was cleaning the pan later that evening I discovered that the majority of the caramel seeped through the pan and onto the foil that I’d lined the outside with (which is why my picture doesn’t look like the one on Epicurious). Some people may have thrown it out but not I. I stood over my sink prying the leftover caramel off the foil and into my mouth. So good. It was the right balance of brown sugar and butter. Throw some walnuts in there and you have perfection.

The banana cake itself was also really good. The recipe calls for 1 tbsp of rum and that really makes a difference. I tend to like my desserts with a somewhat boozy taste to them and the rum packed the perfect punch. I also liked that the cake was lighter than a traditional banana bread. This is likely due to the use of cake flour instead of AP.

My one issue is that the cake is a bit too sweet. For the cake part I used just a bit more than 3/4 cups of sugar instead of the full cup that the recipe called ofr. I could have even toned it down a bit more and not have suffered greatly. But I served the cake with ice cream and that helped cut the sweetness. My other note of caution is in choosing a cake pan. I used a (not so high quality) springform pan. I lined the outside of the pan with 2 layers of foil. While the caramel didn’t ooze out and make a mess in the oven it did ooze out all over the the foil so that I didn’t get an even layer of caramel across the top of my cake. Next time I would use a regular layer cake pan so that everything stays in the pan… you don’t want to lose the precious caramel!

This is a must try.

CARAMEL-WALNUT UPSIDEDOWN BANANA CAKE
Topping:
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 tablespoons dark corn syrup
3/4 cup walnut halves or pieces

Cake:
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 to 3 large)
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
For topping:
Spray 8-inch round cake pan with 2-inch-high sides with nonstick spray. Bring butter, sugar, and corn syrup to boil in medium saucepan, stirring constantly until butter melts. Boil syrup 1 minute. Stir in nuts. Spread topping in prepared pan. Let topping cool completely.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift first 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then mashed bananas, sour cream, rum, and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions just until combined. Spoon batter into pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Cut around cake. Place platter over pan. Holding pan and platter together, turn over. Let stand 5 minutes, then gently lift off pan. Cool at least 15 minutes for topping to set. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Bon Appétit
March 2008

An Easter Feaster

Well somehow I managed to survive 40 days and 40 nights of being a vegan. Well, actually it was more than 40 days and 40 nights. For some reason during Lent you don’t count the Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday. But that’s getting too technical.

Being a vegan really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I had one cheat day (I had to go to a huge food and beverage trade show during my second week of a new job. I couldn’t not sample the wares… but I didn’t have any meat, only dairy). The whole vegan thing was actually pretty fun, it was like a mini competition. This experience also opened my eyes to how easy it is to prepare vegan meals at home. The emphasis being on “at home”. I barely went out to eat during the time because restaurants are so tricky, it’s hard to know what has animal products. I went to buy a burrito one day and asked if the rice or tortillas had any butter, lard etc in them. The girl behind the counter went from saying that she wasn’t sure to she didn’t think so until she finally asked someone else. I feel for people with food allergies.

While the vegan thing was all fine and dandy I was pretty much counting down to easter and my ham. Growing up I always wanted an Easter ham but my mom would never buy one since I’m the only pork eater in the household. Last year when I was living by myself I gave myself the gift of an Easter ham (8lbs worth) and somehow managed to find creative ways to use my ham up (quiche, souffles, pea soup etc). Last year was such a success that bought myself an Easter ham this year.

I found this great recipe on Epicurious for Balsamic and Dijon Glazed Ham with Roasted Onions. It was kind of amazing. It was the perfect balance between savoury and sweet. This balance is key especially if you plan on using the leftover ham for other things such as split pea soup. You definitely don’t want a ham with a glaze that is too sweet. While the ham was great the roasted onions were to die for! I’ve never really made oven roasted onions but these may be a new side dish for me. The recipe calls for pearl onions but I had a hard time finding them so I used regular onions and cut them so that they’d remain intact. The onions are roasted in the same glaze as the ham and are cooked until they are soft and the glaze gets syrupy. So good. And the extra glaze makes a nice sauce to dip your ham in if you’re into sauces.

For my main side dish I made Caramelized Vidalia Onion and Potato Gratin with Fresh Sage courtesy of Bobby Flay via the Food Network.  It was delicious but didn’t look so great.  I think it had something to do with my oven being too full and having the temperature a bit off.  It didn’t batter though, I ate it up!

I also made a dessert… but that recipe is to come.

Oh, and for the record NO I did not feel sick after eating my Easter feast.  I was prepared to have a stomach ache or something since my body would need to readjust to eating meat and dairy, but nothing like that at all.

Griddled Sesame and Garlic Tofu with Wilted Bok Choy

Sometimes Whole Foods hits the nail on the head.  I ended up with another half brick of tofu that I was trying to get rid of and started flipping through the Whole Foods Cookbook when I came across this recipe.

It was clearly up my alley.  Tofu? good.  Miso? good.  Bok Choy? good.  Sesame?  good!   So it was a go.  And yes, that’s pretty much how I evaluate recipes.

The marinade was delicious.  I may have slurped a couple of spoons of it from the bowl.  It was that good.  And despite my current vegan leanings all I could think about was marinating some fish in the marinade.  Or even chicken… and I don’t even really like chicken that much.  That may have been the meat eater in me talking.

As with every tofu dish I have ever made I didn’t quite get the texture right on this one.  Whenever I sear my tofu it doesn’t come out seared.  Part of it is laziness I’m sure — I rarely if ever pat my tofu sufficiently dry.  And then I’m never quite sure what frying pan to use… I think I used a nonstick pan this time around with not so great results.  But I have vague memories of using a regular frying pan but then having the tofu stick.

It’s a tough life I tell you!

So despite my lousy tofu searing technique I’m a BIG fan of this dish.  This one is in my tofu recipe rotation, which is probably a good thing because I have another package sitting in my fridge!

• 1 pound firm-style tofu

Sesame-Miso Marinade

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, or a mixture of black and regular sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 3/4 cup water or apple or pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup white miso
• vegetable oil for spraying pan

Wilted Bok Choy

• 1 teaspoon peanut or canola oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 medium head bok choy, washed and sliced diagonally, or 4 heads baby bok choy, quartered lengthwise
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
• 6–8 scallions, sliced diagonally
• sesame seeds for sprinkling

Cut the tofu lengthwise into four (1/2-inch-thick) rectangular “steaks,” about 4 ounces each.

To prepare the Sesame-Miso Marinade: Combine the garlic, ginger, sesame oil, tamari, rice vinegar, brown sugar, sesame seeds, red chili flakes, water, and miso in a food processor bowl fitted with a metal blade. Process until smooth. Place the marinade in a shallow dish, and add the tofu, turning to coat well. Marinate the tofu for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to the lowest setting, about 185°F., to keep the tofu warm while you wilt the bok choy. Spray a large nonstick sauté pan with vegetable oil. Heat over high heat. Remove the tofu from the marinade, allowing the excess liquid to drain. Reserve the marinade. Place the tofu in the hot sauté pan and sear for 2 minutes on each side, or until well browned, turning once. Place the tofu in the warm oven, and prepare the bok choy.

To prepare the Wilted Bok Choy: Heat the peanut and sesame oils over moderate heat in a nonstick sauté pan. Add the bok choy, garlic, and ginger and sauté, stirring frequently for 4 minutes, until almost tender. Add the tamari and scallions, and remove from heat.

To assemble, place a bed of bok choy on each plate. Arrange a tofu steak over the bok choy, and drizzle with some of the reserved marinade. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

From The Whole Foods Market Cookbook

Chipotle Black Bean Soup

Something in the combination of dreary winter days and being a vegan (albeit temporarily) has me craving soup. The good thing about soup is that usually it doesn’t take a lot of work to make a recipe vegan. Swap out chicken broth for veggie broth, don’t use meats and avoid cream soups. Easy stuff.

One of my favourite soups is Black Bean Soup. It’s not secret that I love beans. I could (and kind of have been) eat them every day. Rice and Beans is always a favourite of mine and Black Bean Soup is like Rice and Beans but dare I say… better?

This is the type of soup that is better the day after. When I first tried it I was disappointed because the “broth” didn’t have a lot of body to it. It was mainly just water with a hint of flavour. However, when I brought it for lunch the next day the consistency was thicker.

The soup had great flavour the following day. I loved the spiciness of the chipotle and the extra kick from the cilantro. The cocoa powder seemed like a bit of a pointless addition. It may have added some body to the sauce but it didn’t impart a particular flavour to the soup overall, which I’m fine with, not sure how much of a cocoa flavour I would want in my soup. I also skimped on the orange juice because I ran out. Again, it didn’t really have a big impact on the final product.

I’m definitely adding this one to my soup rotation and I’m so happy that I have two frozen portions of this in my freezer for future lunches.

On a side note… for a more complete meal added about a 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of brown rice to your bowl of soup. SO yummy that way. It gives the soup just that extra bit of heft to make it extra filling.

• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 2 cups chopped red onion
• 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano, or 3 tablespoons fresh
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 3 chopped canned chipotle chilies
• 1/8 cup adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers
• 12 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups (dry) black beans, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 6 scallions, thinly sliced
• sea salt, to taste

Soak the black beans overnight or 6–8 hours prior to cooking.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the red onion, peppers and garlic; sauté until the onion is translucent. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the oregano, cumin, chipotle chilies, and adobo sauce; sauté for 1 minute. Add the cold water, bay leaf, and beans. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook uncovered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beans are tender.

Stir in the cocoa powder, orange juice, cilantro, scallions, and salt; continue to simmer for 5 minutes.
From The Whole Foods Market Cookbook

Channa Masala

So after my not so pleasant Vegetable Curry effort I figured I should go ahead and restore my faith in Madhur Jaffrey. I made this recipe once before with disastrous results, completely my fault. As you can see the recipe calls for a green chile, well when I first made it I didn’t have any green chiles but I did have scotch bonnet peppers. So I went ahead and used a WHOLE scotch bonnet. BIGGEST mistake ever. The dish was so spicy I could NOT eat it. I think I ate about a pound of rice to compensate for the hotness.

This time around I was much smarter. And was much happier with the results.

I followed the recipe for the most part except that I used more tomato and skipped the amchoor powder. And I used dried chickpeas. It was fabulous! It reminded me of those cheapy Indian restaurants on 6th Street that I used to go to in New York. It had the right blend of spiciness. The only thing I would change is the sauciness level. I need more sauce! I love when I have leftover sauce that I can sop up with rice or some naan.

I found the recipe here on RecipeZaar . The author mentions that he/she adapted from a Madhur Jaffrey recipe. Not sure how many liberties they took but I love this recipe.

1	tablespoon vegetable oil
2	medium onions (peeled and minced)
1	clove garlic (peeled and minced)
1	tablespoon ground coriander
2	teaspoons ground cumin
1/2	teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1	teaspoon ground turmeric
6	tablespoons chopped tomatoes
1	cup water
4	cups cooked chickpeas or 2 (15 ounce) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2	teaspoons ground roasted cumin seeds
1	tablespoon amchoor powder
2	teaspoons paprika
1	teaspoon garam masala
1/2	teaspoon salt
1/2	lemon (juiced)
1	fresh, hot green chili pepper (, , minced)
2	teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1. Heat oil in a large skillet.
2. Add onions and garlic and sauté over a medium heat until browned (3-5 minutes).
3. Turn heat to medium-low.
4. Add the coriander, cumin (not the roasted cumin), cayenne and turmeric.
5. Stir for a few seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes.
7. Cook the tomatoes until browned lightly.
8. Add chickpeas and a cup of water and stir.
9. Add the roasted cumin, amchoor, paprika, garam masala, salt and lemon juice.
10. Cook covered for 10 minutes.
11. Remove the cover add the minced chili and ginger.
12. Stir and cook uncovered for 30 seconds.

From RecipeZaar

Mixed Vegetable Curry

Some dishes are winners, and well… some dishes not so much.

I had hopes for this one. I LOVE Madhur Jaffrey. I want her to come over to my place so that we can cook together and drink Indian beers and watch an Eastenders marathon (seriously that would be the best.day.ever). I’ve made a bunch of her recipes and have always been so happy. This one ended the streak.

It had the making for a great meal… lots of yummy veggies, a homemade sauce (with cashews! and grated coconut!) but it didn’t work out. The dish lacked flavour. There was no kick or anything interesting happening. It ended up looking a bit like upchuck. And the next day when I attempted to take it for lunch it smelled less than wonderful.  The worst part is that I’m not even sure how to make it better!

For a curry the recipe came together fairly easily.  I didn’t make garam masala from scratch, but I did do the bit with the cashew paste (a lot of good that did me). The most time consuming part was chopping the vegetables. Sadly I ended up tossing almost half of what I made away.  I’d love to hear what other people think of this recipe.  I guess you win some and you lose some.

(I got the recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s “From curries to kebabs” the version below is from a UK website hence the wacky measurements)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp raw cashew nuts, chopped
• 3 Tomatoes, chopped
• 60g fresh coconut, grated
• 1 tsp Salt
• 3-4 bird’s eye or other green chillies, chopped
• 1/2 tsp home-made garam masala (see below)
• 4 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1 tbsp corn, peanut or olive oil
• 1/2 tsp whole brown mustard seeds
• 1 tsp chana dal or yellow split peas
• 10 fresh curry leaves (optional)
• 125g Carrots, cut into 2cm dice
• 115g fresh podded peas or defrosted frozen peas
• 115g cauliflower florets, roughly 2cm across
• 115g French beans, cut into 2cm lengths
• 250ml water
• 1 tbsp natural yogurt
• rice or rice noodles, to serve

For the garam masala:

• 1 tbsp cardamom seeds
• 1 tsp Black peppercorns
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp black cumin seeds
• 1/3 of a Nutmeg
• medium stick of cinnamon, about 5-7.5cm, broken up

Method

1. First make the garam masala. Place the cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, cumin seeds, nutmeg and cinnamon in a clean coffee grinder or spice grinder. Grind as finely as possible. Store in a tightly lidded jar, away from heat and sunlight. Use as required.

2. Cover the cashews in hot water and soak for 1 hour. Drain.

3. Put the tomatoes, coconut, salt, chillies, garam masala and cashews into a blender. Blend until you have a smooth paste. Add the chopped coriander and blend for a second only. You should still see flecks of green.

4. Pour the oil into a medium, lidded pan and set over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, put in the mustard seeds and chana dal. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop and the dal reddens, a matter of seconds, put in the curry leaves, carrots, peas, cauliflower and beans. Stir once and add the water.

5. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 3 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender, yet retain a crispness.

6. Stir in the paste from the blender and return to a simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring now and then. Fold in the yogurt and turn off the heat.

7. Serve with rice or rice noodles.

Recipe via UKTV

Babycake’s Cinnamon-Banana Bread

Something about this whole vegan experiment has me craving baked goods! Not sure what it is… maybe it’s the whole concept of “forbidden fruit” or what have you, but I’ve been all about the cookies, cakes etc.

It’s not so much that I want to EAT these things it’s more that I’ve been excited about experimenting with vegan baking. When I think of vegan sweet treats I automatically think of Babycakes bakery in NYC. Babycakes is an allergen free bakery… if you have a food allergy chances are they can probably whip something up for you. Their cupcakes have been voted #1 in NYC and Martha Stewart apparently is pretty into them. Babycakes has their fair share of detractors but I don’t care… I enjoy me some Babycakes.

When I decided to be a vegan for 40 days one of the first things that I did was try to find the recipe for Babycakes’ cupcakes. Sadly, no luck. BUT I did find a recipe for their cinnamon-banana bread.

I was overall happy with this recipe considering the lack of eggs and milk. The one thing made me sad was that the bread was pretty flat. I don’t really understand the science behind baking but I’m sure some research would be able to solve that one.

I made a ton of modifications to this recipe starting with the flour. I don’t have problems with gluten so I used whole wheat pastry flour and some regular all-purpose flour. Because I was using flour with gluten I opted to NOT use xanthan gum. Mainly because I didn’t want to buy $9 bag and I couldn’t find it in bulk, but also because I wasn’t sure that I needed it. I also didn’t use agave nectar, I substituted equal parts regular sugar but in retrospect I should have used less sugar because the bananas were super sweet and I didn’t factor in that sugar is sweeter than agave.

My smartest move in all of this was ADDING CHOCOLATE CHIPS. Everything tastes better with chocolate. BUT the chips sank to the bottom of the loaf (again, the chemistry I don’t understand) but it was still yummy. The banana slices on the top were strictly a decorative touch.

This loaf lasted MAYBE two days.

CINNAMON-BANANA BREAD

Ingredients

• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free, all-purpose baking flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup agave nectar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly oil an 81/2-by-41/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom and sides of the loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the baking flour with the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, xanthan gum and salt. In another bowl, whisk the bananas with the oil, agave nectar, soy milk and vanilla. Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the banana bread cool on a rack for 20 minutes before turning it out. Let cool completely before slicing.

(Recipe via Food & Wine)

Angelica Kitchen’s Shepherd’s Pie

It’s funny the things Ive ended up making as a vegan. I never set out to make a Shepherd’s Pie. I wasn’t sitting around one day craving Shepherd’s Pie and then set out on a quest to fill that void as a vegan. Not at all. Looking for new meal ideas I broke out my Angelica Kitchen cookbook and stumbled across the recipe.

I immediately could tell it would be a hit. I loved that the filling is made with lentils and NOT fake meat. I have issues with fake meat but that’s for another post. I also liked the touch of topping the pie with rosemary garlic potatoes. But the REAL winner in all of this is baking everything in a whole wheat easy to make crust! Can’t you just taste the earthy goodness?

I’ll admit that foresight isn’t my strongest suit.  I always jump head first into a recipe and then get disappointed when 2 hours later my  meal still isn’t done.  When I started making this dish it didn’t really click that this was kind of labour intensive.  There’s the filling to make which involves a lot of chopping of vegetables.  Then you have to make the potatoes and then there’s the crust to make!  There’s a lot happening.   In retrospect the recipe does say 2hr cooking time but I  didn’t pay attention to that

I made a few small modifications to the recipe.  I didn’t use dried shitake mushrooms, instead I used a combination of fresh mushrooms.    I also used dried herbs instead of fresh and soy sauce instead of shoyu or tamari.  No big deal.

This turned out FABULOUSLY.  It’s perfect for this time of year when you want to just hole up inside with something warm and comforting.  The meal is pretty heavy.  Not that it sits in your stomach like a rock but you definitely feel some heft in your belly afterward.  I’m adding this to my post vegan food rotation for sure.

The recipe can be found HERE via the magic of Google Books.  You can also browse through other recipes from this cookbook.

More Bread Baking…

And the quest for the perfect “no-knead” loaf continues. If you’ve stumbled upon this site before then you may have noticed that I’m obsessed with making the no-knead bread recipe that was featured in the NY Times about a year and a half ago. If you click on the “Other Yummy Things” category or do a search for Bittman or Lahey you will be able to take a look at some of my other attempts.

For the original article from the Times Click Here .

This post is a two-fer.

I was craving bread as usual and decided to go back to my regular loaf (2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour).  It turned out just fine as usual.  But I knew that it could be better.  I wanted a full loaf with a good rise to it.  No more flat-ish loaves.  I wanted something that I could make a decent sized sandwich on.  So I obsessively scoured the multitude of posts about this bread on the internet.  And I found my answer…

GLUTEN FLOUR!

Gluten flour comes from high-protein whole durum wheat that is washed to remove starch.  Then is is dried and ground.  You use it with whole wheat flour or with low gluten flours.

Of course I went out and bought some…

The results were great!  The dough rose a bunch AND the bread turned out fairly full.  For this loaf I used 2 cups Whole Wheat flour, 1 cup White flour, 3 tbsp gluten flour and 2 cups of water.  The more whole wheat flour you use the more water you should add.  The dough was fairly easy to work with and not too wet.

The only problem that I had was that the bread stuck to the bottom of the pot.  That had NEVER happened before.  I waited for everything to cool down and used various knives, forks and spoons to pry the bread loose without damaging it.

Next time… 100% whole wheat!

Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes

Because of the success of my vegan Banana Nut Pancakes I thought I’d go ahead and see what else the world of vegan pancakes had to offer. Since my pumpkin that I froze back in October was still going strong I thought that pumpkin pancakes were in order.

Let me just say these may rival the banana nut pancakes for the title of best.pancakes.ever. Not kidding. Now I’m not even sure why pancakes need eggs and milk when vegan pancakes turn out even better!

I found this recipe through google. I searched “vegan pumpkin pancakes” and it was the first hit. I looked at a few other hits and liked this one the best, so I went with it. What drew me to the recipe was the use of cornmeal. I LOVE pancakes that involve cornmeal. It gives them this great crunch and nuttiness that makes the pancakes totally yummy. I also liked that the recipe didn’t call for any weirdo substitutes… like egg substitutes. I tend to pass on those.

As usual I made the recipe almost to a T except for a few things. I didn’t use the orange zest. It wasn’t a political move or anything… I just forgot to get an orange and didn’t feel like running out to the corner store to get one. Also it says candied ginger (optional) — I opted out. Again, I totally forgot to pick some up. I don’t buy pumpkin pie spice because it seems silly… but I usually have the ingredients on hand. So I just put a few dashes of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves into the mix. Lastly for the flour I used whole wheat.

OK – so I didn’t make it to a “T” per se… but you get the picture.

Results were AMAZING. I could eat these every day of my life. Not kidding. And that means a lot because I get bored very quickly!

Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes

1/2 cup canned puréed pumpkin 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal 1/2 cup unbleached flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1 teaspoon grated orange peel 2 teaspoons finely chopped candied ginger (optional) 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3/4 cup plain or vanilla soymilk

Combine the pumpkin with the dry ingredients.

Mix water, oil, and soymilk and add to pumpkin mixture. Beat just until smooth.

Heat griddle or frying pan and oil lightly. Use about 1/4-cup of batter for each pancake; cook until bubbles appear, then turn. Remove when pancakes are golden and slightly firm to the touch.

Recipe from The Vegetarian No-Cholesterol Family-Style Cookbook by Kate Schumann and Virginia Messina, M.P.H., R.D.