cardamom coffee cake

Posted on by Postmodern Rachel

I’d been meaning to make this for a while. We have a neighbor who’s been unwell and once upon a time he told me how much he loved cardamom. I love cardamom, too, so when I finally got around to making this, I made a double batch. I took the leftovers to the office, and it was a hit! So, for my colleagues and everyone else, here is the recipe. Enjoy!

vegan cardamom coffee cake

Cardamom Coffee Cake

adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking

ingredients- cake

  • 1 cup nondairy milk
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
  • 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

ingredients- crumble

  • 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar or granulated sugar
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts and/or hazelnuts
  • 1/3 cup nondairy butter, melted or canola oil

method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9-inch square baking dish/cake pan.
  2. For cake, combine the milk, oil, and vinegar in a bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, ginger, and salt. Add the milk mixture and stir until just combined. Pour into the baking dish.
  3. To make the crumble, in a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cardamom, ginger, salt, and nuts. Add the butter or oil, and use your hands to thoroughly combine it with the dry ingredients. Spoon it on top of the batter in the cake pan, covering the entire area.
  4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool slightly, serve warm or at room temperature.

Some notes:

  • For a stronger cardamom flavor, I grind up cardamom seeds in a coffee grinder right before adding to the recipe. I was tempted to add a drop of cardamom essential oil, but wasn’t sure if it would be too much. Let me know if you try!
  • The original recipe is for a cinnamon coffee cake, so just replace the cardamom with cinnamon if that’s your preference.
  • The Joy of Vegan Baking was just put out in a new edition for its 10th anniversary! Everything in it is delicious.

muffins n burgers

Posted on by Postmodern Rachel

There was a short-lived restaurant in Manhattan called Burgers & Cupcakes. It sounded genius to me, but guess it didn’t work out. Maybe they should’ve gone for muffins.

Last weekend, I had a rare burst of cooking energy. The burgers are an old favorite— I make a big double batch and freeze the patties so we have quick homemade veggie burgers at the ready. One big beet was plenty for a double batch. I pretty much follow the recipe except I had cashew butter instead of almond butter. For the beet-haters, I don’t find them too beet-y, so you may be ok. I took Isa’s advice and cooked them before cooling/freezing and that’s been much better. Another tip for busy folks— I cook the rice and lentils ahead of time, and then putting it all together is a snap on another day. This time day one was cooking rice and lentils, day 2 was shredding beets and assembling mixture, and day 3 (which was actually day 5 or something) was frying ’em up, cooling, freezing. Drawn out, but that’s the only way I get anything done anymore. Here’s the recipe for Isa Chandra’s beet burgers, and here’s a video of her making some, too! The recipe is also found in Isa Does It, which I highly recommend.

The muffins were new for us, but Jonah especially was an instant addict and I’ve already made a second batch. I followed the recipe almost exactly, but I reduced the oil and sugar from the original and it worked out great. I like to use the mini-muffin tins since it feels like you get so much more and it’s easy to grab one as a little snack.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

adapted from the classic The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 4 medium sized ripe bananas
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup non-dairy semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease muffin tins.
  2. In medium size bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a large bowl, mash up the bananas. Beat in the sugar and oil. Stir in the water and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Mix in the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, and nuts if using.
  4. Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full (or evenly between them) with the batter. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Yields 12 muffins, or 24 mini-muffins, or one 9″ cake or bread.