Rice Dream Girl

I feel that I've neglected to bake cupcakes for a while recently. Once, they were almost the only thing I'd bake, but recently I've switched to Team Cookie (or even, cinnamon bun). I think it's no coincidence that my obsessions have been timed with the release of some of Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's amazing cookbooks (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) - if you don't own either of these, you're seriously missing out and should put them on your Christmas list.

Today, however, I decided to return to my former baking favourites, and being December 1st, I also decided that a festive theme was in order. A "Christmassy" drink that is common over here in the USA is eggnog: a concoction of raw egg, milk and alcohol, which always sounded like a recipe for an upset tummy to me. I have to admit that I've never actually tried the real thing, and now that I'm vegan and don't drink alcohol, I guess I never will. The closest I can get is Silk Nog (deeeeeelicious!), and reading about recipes and trying to imagine what they'd be like (I'm a baking nerd, I know). I applied these flavours to cupcakes, and I'm very pleased with the results.

I think I've had almost all of the presents I'm getting this year, but I still have many to make. I have my sewing machine over here with me now, a head full of baking ideas, and a serious stash of yarn, so the run up to Christmas will no doubt be a busy one!

I wanted to make a Christmas-y version of one of my favourite things to bake: cinnamon buns. Spices, cranberries, and satsumas are some of the tastes that I immediately associate with Christmas, and as they compliment each other so well, I decided to combine them all. They turned out soft, doughy and full of flavour; perfect for a Christmas morning breakfast!

I keep seeing chocolate twists in coffee shops and wishing they were vegan, so I cheated and bought some pre-made puff pastry and had a crack at what I thought they'd taste like. They were ok, but I have plenty of ideas as to how I can improve them. Eventually, I want to make my own puff pastry, as I know that (back in the States, at least) finding pre-made puff pastry that's both vegan and free of trans fats is nigh on impossible; in fact, it doesn't seem to exist. I feel like before I spend hours making puff pastry and then potentially ruin it by experimenting, I should play around with pre-made stuff, so that's my excuse for being lazy. My ultimate goal to recreate chocolate croissants. This reminds me that I heard that Aldi sell frozen, accidentally vegan croissants. The closest Aldi is fairly far out, in an out of town retail park, but as soon as I'm feeling up to the ride, I plan to make my way over there to hunt them down. I love pastries; living in France as a food-obsessed vegan was fairly torturous, walking past the gorgeous boulangeries every day! In a world where I wasn't vegan (or one where everyone else was... an option I much prefer!), I would head to France for a year or two to train as a chef de patisserie, but until then, I will continue nerding out and reading lots.

Only one week left in the UK, then I'm heading back to the States!

I'm back home in the UK now. Although in fact, I keep referring to Braddock as "home" too, so that's kind of confusing. Either way, I had a mini break in NYC from Monday until my flight from JFK on Wednesday, which began with a sleepless night spent on a Chinatown bus from Pittsburgh. It was totally worth it, though, because I managed to cram in a hell of a lot of tasty vegan food in my short visit. This time, I decided to limit myself to Manhattan only (no Penny Licks or Vinnie's pizza, wahhh!), as I'd already spent a month in Brooklyn and I wanted to try some new places.

Atlas Café.



On the recommendation of Jen, Deirdre's flatmate, my first stop was Atlas café. This is somewhere I ended up going back to again the next day, and I should have gone another time to get myself a freshly delivered Vegan treats Boston creme pie donut, but I was all sugared out. The first time, I ordered banana and blueberry pancakes and a macchiato. The coffee was nothing special, but the pancakes were seriously incredible. I ordered in a tired haze and then had reservations about my order, because pancakes are so easy to make at home that I'm rarely impressed by any others. The pancakes here, however, were something else. They were so incredibly thick and fluffy, without any sort of baking powder-y after taste. I was in awe of them. Marvel at these:



Seriously good. The next day, I headed back with Deirdre in time for the delivery of Vegan Treats. Atlas café has an impressive case full of my favourite vegan baked goods, so on top of my breakfast of a blueberry bagel (no photo, but I've had better - this was strangely toasted on a panini machine and wasn't the amazing NYC bagel I'd been hoping for) Deirdre and I split a Red Velvet cupcake.


I've mentioned before that I'm yet to find a Red Velvet cupcake that I'm impressed with. Traditionally, the red colour comes from the reaction of cocoa with acidic buttermilk, but nowadays it's common for the redness to be added artificially. Going by the almost neon colour of this particular cupcake, my guess is that Vegan Treats has taken the artificial approach! Despite tasting more like a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting, this was still delicious. Vegan Treats is wonderful! Throughout our meal, we were harassed by a bee, who seems to have been drawn to us by our bright cupcake (you can see its tongue!):





'snice
Moving on from Atlas, another coffee shop I went to is 'snice.



I ordered a soy latte, which sadly tasted burnt, but the chocolate cherry cookie made up for this. It was sweet, soft and chewy with a juicy cherry baked into the middle, which was kind of unexpected as I had thought it'd have dried cherries baked in, similar to a chocolate chip cookie. I think I may have to recreate this when I get back to Braddock, it was great!


Coffee, bagels and snacks.
A visit to NYC isn't complete without a real bagel, so on the recommendation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz, via The Urban Housewife's guide to New York, I headed to Carmine Street on my final morning.



I got my favourite blueberry bagel with strawberry tofu cream cheese(!). Their selection of vegan friendly cream cheeses is impressive! My combination was really sweet and a little overpowering though, so I think next time I'd make either the bagel or the cream cheese plain. I'm still glad I tried this though, and it's just a matter of getting the combination right rather than there being anything wrong with the place itself. The people who worked there were really friendly as well. I also brought a couple of bagels back for my Mum and Nan to try. The feedback so far is that my Mum will never be able to enjoy our pathetic English versions again, so I think it's safe to say she enjoyed it!

On my way to another coffee shop, I accidentally stumbled across another of The Urban Housewife's recommendations: the The Urban Housewife's guide to Dosa man. I wasn't hungry, but felt it'd be wrong to pass on trying something new and so highly recommended, so I got a roti with spicy tamarind sauce, and was so glad I did. If I happen to go through NYC again, I will track him down and get a meal's worth of snacks from him, it was so good! After that, I finally found the well-made coffee I'd been craving: a beautiful soy latte from Joe the art of coffee .



I miss working in a café, where I could learn more about coffee. I figure that as I'll obviously never be a wine or cheese connoisseur, my "grown up" area of expertise should be in coffee instead.


Lula's Sweet Apothecary.

Finally, the highlight(s) of my trip came from the incredible, 100% vegan, Lula's Sweet Apothecary. This is the place I actually dreamed about a while back (oh boy...), and I seriously can't sing its praises enough. The ice cream is largely nut-based, meaning I can almost convince myself that it's healthy (I should stick with "healthier"), and it's made by the owners, who clearly love what they do and take a real pride in it. I ended up making an extra trip right before my flight (Lula's opens at 3pm, and by my calculations, I had to be on the subway by 3:30pm so as not to be late!) and had a nice chat with Blythe, who is absolutely lovely! On my first trip, I asked for "the biggest, most ridiculous thing available", and she suggested a brownie sundae. Jesus fucking Christ, it was incredible. I like this photo, because Blythe looks proud of her creation:



So, that's one fudgey, gooey brownie warmed up, served with 2 flavours of ice cream (I went for the insanely tasty peanut butter fudge, and cookies and creme) hot chocolate fudge sauce, Dandies vegan marshmallows(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), coconut whipped cream, and a cherry on top. I couldn't stop taking about how delicious it was and making awkward "sensual" noises whilst I was eating.



And when I was done, I bought some thing for Donna (it's not ice cream, I'm sorry!), and Blythe slipped me three Sweet n Sara marshmallow ghosts. Again, I was very excited about this, as I love marshmallows. I shared my haul with Jen and Deirdre. Deirdre modeled hers like a pro, and I can't compete with a face as pretty as hers, so I decided to compete with the ghost instead:



On my second trip, I decided to go for MORE MARSHMALLOWY GOODNESS. Ice cream, peanut butter and marshmallows combined is probably the best tasting thing possible, especially for an otherwise marshmallow-deprived vegan. Following bjorkedoff's lead, I asked Blythe to chop up a peanut butter Sweet n Sarah smore to smush in with my ice cream. Naturally, I got the PB fudge ice cream again, because it's perfectly rich, sweet and salty all in one go, and topped the lot with more hot fudge sauce. Did I mention it was amazing?



As a going away present, Bythe also gave me a Sweet n Sara Rocky Road bar, made of chocolate, almonds and marshmallows. I appear to be slowly working my way through Sweet n Sara's catalogue of marshmallow treats, and I love it.

In summary, New York is my favourite city to eat in, and Lula's clearly takes top spot as the best place for a vegan to enjoy some serious indulgence. I also brought back an entire suitcase of food for family and friends, but the contents are largely secret. 13 days until I'm back in the States!