March 29, 2024 – Spring Celebration

Friday, March 29, 2024
VBC Meeting #133: Spring Celebration
Hosts of the Month: Slynnamoneva
Location: Denton, TX

With a nod to the recent change of season, as well as the first Vegan Bake Club meetup, Slynn, Ramon, and Neva hosted a Spring Celebration themed event.

This is what we made:

Kori: Wonton Pizza Cups

Kori had wonton wrappers meant for our last Vegan Bake Club meeting, but since she couldn’t attend that one due to illness, she put them to use for this event. She sprayed two muffin trays with oil and layered two wonton wrappers per cup that she baked at 365°F for five minutes. Into each cup she spooned marinara sauce and sprinkled on Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then she put Moocho Vegan Cheese on most and Violife shreds on wontons that would be cheese-only. Then she added pepperoni to most of them. She baked them for 15 more minutes.

Lauren: Farro, Orange, Chickpea, and Swiss Chard Salad; Lemon Coconut Bars

Lauren made a salad with farro, home grown Swiss Chard, sliced shallots, sliced oranges, cranberries, and fresh mint. She dressed it with a mixture of red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, orange juice, olive oil, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper, letting the chard and shallot break down a bit in the dressing before adding the other components.

For a Spring-y dessert she also made Lemon Coconut Bars based on a recipe from the cookbook Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas with a crust made in the food processor from 1 1/2 cups gluten-free quick oats, 1/2 cup sugar, a cup of unsweetened coconut flakes, and a stick of vegan butter that she baked in a 13×9″ pan for 15 minutes at 350°F. On the stove she combined 1/2 a cup sugar, a cup of coconut cream, 1/2 a cup of soymilk, and 1/2 a cup of fresh lemon juice. When it reached a simmer she mixed in another 1/2 a cup of soymilk with 1/3 cup of corn starch dissolved in it to thicken the filling. She poured the liquid mixture over the crust and sprinkled coconut shreds on top and let the lemon bars set in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Billy: Everything Bread; Macadamia Cream Cheese

Billy veganized a recipe for Everything Bread. He mixed and kneaded by hand three cups of whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups bread flour, soymilk, a flax egg, yeast, 1/4 cup margarine, and salt. After letting the dough rise until doubled in size, he made three strands of dough that he braided into a loaf, brushed with Just Egg, and sprinkled with Everything Seasoning.

For the macadamia cream cheese Billy boiled cashews and macadamia nuts, then food processed them with coconut oil, olive oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and salt.

Ramon: Mexican Pizza

Ramon cooked Beyond Crumbles (made with pea protein) with taco seasoning and green onion. He air fried tortillas and layered them in the pattern: tortilla, refritos, crumbles, tortilla, enchilada sauce, vegan cheese, green onions, and diced tomatoes. He then air fried the assembled Mexican Pizzas again.

Neva and Ramon: Bolo de Cenoura (Carrot Cake)

Neva and Ramon worked together to veganize and make a New York Times recipe for Bolo de Cenoura. The batter contained flour, baking powder, salt, oil, sugar, flax eggs, food processed carrots (saves time over grating by hand!), and Kite Hill Yogurt. The baked cake got a pour over of chocolate frosting brigadeiro-style made with sweetened condensed coconut milk, cocoa powder, and salt. Then Neva added rainbow sprinkles.

Mehgann: Jackfruit Sliders

Mehgann made Love and Lemons’ Barbecue Jackfruit Sandwiches. In the food processor she blended canned chipotles, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, mustard, smoked paprika, cumin, garlic, salt, and pepper. In a skillet she sauteed two sliced onions in olive oil then added three cans of jack fruit, barbecue sauce, and water, letting it cook for twenty minutes. Then she added more barbecue sauce and served the jackfruit with a side of pickles, more barbecue sauce, jalapeños, and dinner rolls for people to build sliders to their preference.

Drew: Easy Vegan Coleslaw

Mehgann shredded purple cabbage and carrot for Drew’s coleslaw that he made based on the Minimalist Baker recipe for Easy Vegan Coleslaw. In a blender, Drew mixed soaked cashews, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar, celery seed, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. He mixed the dressing with the shredded vegetables and added cilantro at the end.

Dave: Cookie Crave Cookies

Dave brought vegan cookies from Denton’s Cookie Crave. He thought they were dry and crumbly, but though he is not vegan, hopefully he will one day learn vegan cookies are not all this way <3.

Slynn: Glazed Tofu Ham

Slynn made the Sweet & Smoky Glazed Tofu Ham recipe from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz changing it only in using regular salt in place of smoked salt because she didn’t have the latter. She made a marinade with olive oil, soy sauce, pure maple syrup, liquid smoke, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika that she used to marinate the tofu for six and a half hours. Before baking the tofu, she scored the top to make a diamond pattern and placed it on a bed of orange slices. After baking for one hour, the oranges were badly burned, but the tofu looked just like the picture in the cookbook.

She glazed the tofu with a combination of orange juice, apricot jam, whiskey, brown sugar, ground ginger, salt, and ground black pepper.