Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake or Muffins

A recently brought home a copy of Vegan Yum Yum, so I cracked it open one day and made the Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake. OMG, to die for good! As always, I tinkered with the ingredients to cut out some fat, change up the flours and use a different egg substitute. I decided to try making muffins as it's quite dangerous to have a GIANT pan of coffeecake just sitting around staring at me, taunting me to eat it. So for the sake of my hips and thighs, I decided to make muffins as I can easily freeze those single servings of deliciousness.

Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake or Muffins
Makes 16 servings of cake

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling:

3 heaping cups of strawberries (about 1 lb)
6 stalks of rhubarb, chopped into 2 inch pieces, about 3 cups
1 cup sugar
Zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/4 cup water

Cake Batter:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups soy milk plus 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Earth's Balance margarine
1 mashed ripe banana
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 TBSP chia seeds mixed with 3 TBSP water

Crumb Topping:

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup Earth's Balance margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1) Begin by making filling. Hull & chop strawberries into bite sized pieces. Chop rhubarb into 1/4-1/2 inch slices.

2) Add strawberries & rhubarb to a large pot. Add sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Turn heat to low & stir well.

3) Mix cornstarch, lemon juice and water together in a small bowl and add to strawberry-rhubarb mix, which should be liquidy by now, and turn heat to medium.

4) Stir constantly; don't try to multitask just yet. Mixture should be light pink & milky at first but will gradually become thick, dark red & transparent. After it changes, cook for another minute then taste. If it's grainy, stir well & let it cook for few more minutes to fully dissolve cornstarch. If it's smooth, remove from heat & allow to cool. Once cool, you can puree it a bit in a blender or food processor if you choose.

Now for the batter:

1) Preheat oven to 350*F and lightly oil a 9x13 inch baking dish.

2) Stir flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda together in a large bowl.

3) Combine soy milk & apple cider vinegar in small bowl. Set aside to let it curdle for a few minutes.

4) Cream margarine, sugar & banana together until well combine. Add curdled soy milk, vanilla, chia seeds & water to creamed mixture. Beat until well combined.

5) Add wet mix to dry mix and combine until fully mixed, be careful not to over stir!

6) Scrape cake batter into greased pan, setting aside 1 cup of batter. Pour strawberry rhubarb mixture over top with spatula. Use large spoon to dollop reserved batter over top of filling.

7)Make crumb topping by mixing flour, sugar, margarine & cinnamon together, using your hands, fork or pastry cutter to combine until it is a crumbly texture. Sprinkle over top of cake batter & bake for 45-50 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

For muffins:

I discovered that about half of the strawberry rhubarb filling is PLENTY to make 24 muffins. I ended up putting the leftover filling from the first batch into the fridge & just used it for another batch. Same with the crumb topping too. I filled muffin tins about 1/3 full with batter, added TBSP of filling, a tsp of batter on top & liberally sprinkled the crumb topping over each muffin. Bake at 350*F for about 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. These freeze beautifully, so don't be afraid to make a whole bunch and toss in a ziplock bag and freeze so you're not tempted to devour them all at once! ;)

Whole wheat bread in the bread machine

I've been making our bread for close to 3 years now, thanks to the bread machine my grandmother gave me for Christmas some 10+yrs ago. It sat on the shelf collecting dust for many years as the first few loaves I made were inedible. One day, I dug it out of storage & decided to give it a try again. I have a few favorites but this is our everyday bread recipe. I veganized it a while ago as I needed to accomodate A's vegan lifestyle.

2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon instant dry yeast
4 TBSP brown sugar or agave nectar
2 TSBP oil (I use Safflower or Coconut)
1.5 cups hot tap water

Combine the flours, salt & yeast in a medium bowl. Mix well to incorporate the yeast in the flours. Combine the sugar, oil & tap water in the bread machine pan. Slowly add the dry ingredients into bread pan. I like to use the bread machine on the dough setting, which is 1.5hrs on my machine, and then bake it in the oven on 350*F for 30 minutes in a ceramic bread pan.

Low-fat Vegan Carrot Zucchini Muffins

As a mama who's trying to prepare healthy, tasty treats for her family, I often find myself incorporating veggies as much as I can without the kids noticing. Zucchini is one of the veggies I'm constantly trying to sneak into their food as both monkadoos refuse to eat it when I cook it for dinner. I stumbled across a recipe on Sparkrecipes.com that looked good, so I decided to tinker with it & adapted it to our needs.

1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners or spray muffin tins with non-stick spray. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Make well in center of bowl and stir in applesauce & vanilla (mixture will be thick). Fold in carrots and zucchini. Spoon into muffin pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.