Friday, June 08, 2007

Baking the Squirrel Way



I was so excited when Kris, over at Squirrel's Vegan Kitchen, came out with her new vegan baking guide last month. Like many of you, I have drooled at the tasty creations on her blog, and was excited to get a chance to bake some of those treats for myself.

Well I ordered the book, "Damn Tasty! Vegan Baking Guide" and it arrived at my doorstep the day before Daiku and I were leaving Syracuse. What luck! I immediately got a chance to use the book to use up ingredients sitting around the house, and with delicious results.



First up were these zucchini muffins. The recipe, for garden muffins also called for carrots, but I had no carrots, and a humongous zucchini to use up from the farmer's market, so I decided to just go for that. These are really healthy muffins, using whole wheat pastry flour and maple syrup. We ate a couple, and froze the rest, so we'll have ready-made snacks waiting for us when we get back.



Secondly, I was glad to find a banana bread recipe, which I doubled, baking two loaves with my 4 about-ready-to-kick-it bananas. This recipe is deceptively simple- I didn't even have any nuts in the house, so it's just straight-up banana bread. But it is SO wonderful- perfectly sweet, moist, and fluffy, with an extra-moist crust. I gave some of the first loaf away, and still had the second loaf as road food for our trip. I can say honestly that this is the best, and simplest banana bread I've made. When I try baking it again, I might try experimenting with a bit of whole wheat flour, but then again, why mess with perfection?

Have you ordered this book yet? Go, go!
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8 comments:

Vegan_Noodle said...

Mmmmm, makes me excited to try my first recipe from damn tasty vegan (which I plan on making this weekend). I am thinking about the lemon almond torte...

Laura said...

I'm loving Damn Tasty, too. So far I've made the lime coconut bars, chocolate peanut butter shells, and the peanut butter cookies. Can you tell we like having dessert around?

Nikk said...

i just got mine in the mail last week and can't wait to get cooking!

Anonymous said...

my wallet is putting up a fight to the idea of ordering yet another book, but I'm trying to talk it into it by showing it the wonderful pics you took of the beautiful goodies you baked!

Amey said...

Oh yeah!
I love this post. I haven't ordered it yet, but I definitely have plans to... I love her blog, and I love baking... so what's stopping me!?

Anonymous said...

I'm anxious to try her Boston Creme Cake. The picture on her blog looks sinfully decadent. I'm always looking for a good banana bread recipe that is nice and moist yet fluffy at the same time and hers sounds like it fits that need perfectly. Yum!

Kati said...

Vegan baking - quite possibly my favorite thing! I will have to check out this book. Both of your creations look delicious! Banana bread sounds like great food for the road.

Anonymous said...

The banana bread looks great! Hopefully you'll be able to make a whole wheat version and post up the recipe... I can't wait to try it. I haven't done any baking since going vegan, and I've always loved banana bread.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog - I love yours too and often check here for updates!