Tuesday 9 November 2010

Vegan MoFo Day 9 - Cookbook Challenge Week Part II


This week's challenge continued today & I picked another three recipes to try.

First out the pile was Eat, Drink & Be Vegan.


I got this cookbook for Christmas last year & hadn't used it at all so I was very excited to see it come up. I was even more excited this morning when the generator picked page 35, Raspberry Chocolate Chip Scones - what a perfect breakfast!

Sadly even after hitting up three different shops frozen raspberries were nowhere to be found & I didn't fancy the expense, possible recipe ruining or air miles of the fresh raspberries so I had a bit of a think and eventually remembered that I had a bag of mixed berries at the back of the freezer. I had a good rummage & managed to find blackberries in there which is pretty close & under the circumstances I decided they'd be a good substitute.


They definitely worked but I think the ridiculous size of the blackberries made them fall apart a little during baking. These scones are made with spelt & oat flour so you can feel a little healthy whist eating them & most of the sugar comes from the chocolate chips - yum.

Second pick of the day was 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes and, I assumed, more baking! I've used this cookbook before but only to make the Best Banana Bread over & over again - it's awesome! Page 38 came out of the generator & I was excited to flip to that page & find Mocha Stripes, a coffee infused cookie decorated with, you guessed it, chocolate stripes. I'm a big fan of coffee & chocolate so these seemed right up my street.

The baking part was easy but I hit my first real cookbook challenge disaster when my piping bag split making one cookie incredibly chocolatey.

After a minor freakout I did my best to decorate the cookies using a spoon!

They certainly didn't all turn out looking this good but I figured they're cookies so they'll taste awesome however oddly they're decorated!

I'm not going to lie I had my finger's crossed for some 'real' food with pick number three & was happy to see Vegan Comfort Food pop up. The random number generator selected Page 172, Quick Veggie Casserole. This recipe certainly looked very quick & easy - it's basically cous cous, frozen veggies & vegan cheese.

Sorry for the terrible picture - it's impossible to photograph stuff nicely at night in our house!

I made a couple of changes, I had to blend & cook the onions so that my husband would it eat (there was no way I was cooking two dinners & it seemed mean to make him get take out!) & I used raw not frozen carrots so I cooked them for about 5 minutes too. Even with my changes this meal was ridiculously easy to throw together & made for a pretty satisfying dinner.

I'm still loving the cookbook challenge - I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

24 comments:

  1. I want that chocolaty cookie!!!!

    I love reading your mofo posts!

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  2. You have made me want cookies! Yummy!

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  3. Good work! The biscuits looked pretty even without the piping bag.

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  4. hee hee, cookbook challenge "disaster" you say? oh how awful, a chocolate covered cookie!!! I'll take it. :D

    I definitely want to try something out of the vegan comfort food book... sounds so yummy.

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  5. I love this cookbook challenge! What a great idea. Those scones look insane and the cookie to die for.

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  6. Everything looks great, JoJo, what a delicious day!

    I haven't used 100 Best Baking Recipes enough, I have to try the banana bread and the mocha strips now too! That choc-covered cookie looks SO good and I think you did a great job of decorating.

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  7. I really like that scone recipe from ED&BV. I also really like your disaster. Super covered cookie.

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  8. The mocha stripes look awesome-- I can't believe you got out the piping bag for that. I guess I'm lazy!

    I love your openness in picking random recipes from random cookbooks. That's some serious bravery. Can't wait to see what's next.

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  9. Those scones look fan-diddly-tastic... and if they crumble, that just gives you an excuse to crumble them over vegan ice cream (at least, that's how my mind works...)

    And as someone from Australia where fresh raspberries cost $7 a punnet even in season, I definitely support the blackberry sub :)

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  10. An incredibly chocolatey cookie sure isn't a disaster in my book! Yum!

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  11. The cookies look great! Your cookbook challenge week continues to be awesome. I'll be reading tomorrow!

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  12. You are brilliant and really good at decorating with spoons! Impressive!

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  13. Those scones look good, even with the large berries in them. I also like the quick dinner you drew, too!

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  14. I love your cookbook challenge posts! You're picking recipes that I wouldn't generally pick for myself either (Except those ginger cookies from yesterday) so it's great seeing your opinion of them!

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  15. Those are three books that I don't have but would love to! I love the Book Depository so much - that's where I get most of my English-language cookbooks!

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  16. the cookies look delicious! Especially to me, as I am trying to cut off sugar from my diet for some weeks right now..
    I love your blog, and I think I am going to ad you to my linklist! :-)

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  17. I love your cookbook challenge idea! It's so creative... I'm completely considering stealing it (with credit to you of course!).

    Anyway, next time you have a cooking "disaster" that leads to very chocolaty cookies, just let me know ;)

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  18. You had me at chocolate and blackberries!! I love this challenge, so fun!

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  19. You're so awesome for making so many recipes a day. I want one of those scones! and the chocolate-covered cookie. yum.

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  20. Ha! I have no luck with piping bags! I actually lost one to hot oil when I did a batch of churros last year. Sad day. :)

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  21. At least your piping bag just split - I've had one burst before and it was not pretty! I thought I'd cleaned up well afterwards, but I was still finding little splats of icing everywhere yonks later! Doh!

    But you recovered well! Spoons are safer ;P

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  22. I'm so loving your random selections. Even the chocolate disaster looks delicious.

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