baking

Baked Gnocchi with Arrabbiata and Vegan Mozzarella

March 27, 2018 By thecuriouschickpea 4 Comments

I love having gnocchi in the fridge, because it means quick and easy meals are a hop and a skip away. Like sure, usually gnocchi in the fridge means that I’ve put in a little (and I do mean that literally) effort to make it, because 1) homemade gnocchi is easy and tastes better, and 2) I’m very mistrusting* of the monoglycerides and diglycerides found in most store bought versions. Anyway back to the important things, gnocchi in the fridge means I get to make baked gnocchi, which is one of the most delicious dishes. Pillowy gnocchi is tossed in a spicy marinara (arrabbiata) and smothered with a creamy scrumptious vegan mozzarella sauce and baked until the sauce is hot and bubbly and the cheese is browned to perfection. And if you have the gnocchi already, the whole dish is ready in under 45 minutes, including making the mozz sauce and arrabbiata from scratch and 15 minutes of oven-time.

*And that’s just because those ingredients are often animal-derived, their chemistry in cooking and baking is actually pretty cool.…

Vegan Wishing Cookies

December 7, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I talked about baking Christmas cookies with my family and shared a family favorite for candy cane cookies, and the trip down nostalgia lane doesn’t end yet! Today I’m so thrilled to share my personal favorite holiday cookie: wishing cookies. Wishing cookies are another tradition we have my Mom’s Minnesotan childhood to thank for. These cookies, which I believe are also called Swedish ginger cookies, or pepparkakor, are a crisp, well-spiced, lightly molasses flavored cookies. And the tradition goes, take a cookie, make a wish, place it in the palm of your hand, then press in the center of the cookie. If it breaks into 3 pieces, eat the cookie without speaking and your wish is said to come true! The fact (yes, fact*), that you get to eat cookies and have wishes GUARANTEED (yes, guaranteed*) to come true makes these the best cookies to ever exist in the entire history of cookie existence.

not fact, not guaranteed

…

Vegan Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies

December 5, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 6 Comments

It’s December and we’ve reached full out cookie-I mean holiday-season. Omar and I got a Christmas tree (our first ever together! Yay for having a house!), and decorated it over the weekend. We put on the Swedish Christmas carols I grew up listening to (though I’m not at all Swedish, my mom grew up in Minnesota, and as a result, a lot of our holiday traditions have Scandinavian influences) and drank spiked mulled cider while placing our woodland themed ornaments around the tree. All these cozy, homey, holiday vibes put me in the mood of baking up some holiday cookies….

Vegan Curried Eggplant Pizza

November 7, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

I’ve been on a bit of an eggplant kick lately. It’s just such a great vegetable (ok, actually it’s a fruit, like all good things in life), that’s perfect in so many applications. It can be used in stir fries, in salads, in tacos. It makes dips, sandwich fillings, casseroles, and even [plant-based] bacon. You find it in a lot of cuisines: Turkish, Japanese, Indian, Thai, French, Chinese, American, Italian, and more! In this recipe I suppose I’m combining a few cuisines by putting Indian curried eggplant on top of Italian pizza alongside Thai birds eye chiles (which are happily substituted for Mexican serrano peppers or jalapeños). There’s a culinary adventure in each bite, and damn it’s good. …

Easy Overnight Pizza Dough

October 31, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea Leave a Comment

There are hundreds (thousands?) of ways to make pizza dough, but this recipe is a favorite of mine. It has just 4 ingredients, and maybe 5 minutes of hands on time. It needs only 1 minute of kneading and can accommodate a relatively flexible schedule. The only real downside to making this recipe (and your own pizza dough in general) is that it’s not great for instant gratification. If you want to make last minute pizza, you can get dough from grocery stores or some pizza shops. But if you want the reward of making your own pizza dough, and you want it to taste as good as the crust from a nice pizza place, you should really try this recipe! It’s a perfect all purpose type pizza dough. It can be stretched thin and bakes up with a pillowy edge (technical term cornicione)….

Homemade New York Style Bagels

August 10, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 17 Comments

What makes bread a bagel? Is it the shape? The texture? Where they come from? Yes, yes, and no. Let’s start with the last question: I emphatically believe that you can make or get a damn good bagel anywhere in the world… provided you can source the correct ingredients that is. Now a disclaimer – I’m not from NYC, nor have I spent a crazy amount of time there (but I have eaten NY style bagels). But, I’m excellent at research, both book research and hands on experimenting. And a lack of good locally available bagels has led me to do a lot of bagel baking over the years. And these bagels have been tested on people from NY. Plus, the recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart, and would he steer us wrong? No. As for the first two questions: the shape and texture of a bagel are related, you wouldn’t be able to get that quintessential bagel texture without the hole in the center. The hole allows for the entire bagel to have a chewy crust, without would lead to a soft and tender center….

Vegan Jalapeño Cheese Biscuits

July 27, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 3 Comments

It’s a good thing that biscuits are supposed to be consumed on the day that you bake them, and ideally while they’re still warm out of the oven. It gives you an excuse to shovel the entire batch into your mouth within hours. I think the photographing these biscuits while they were still hot has been the hardest thing I’ve had to wait for to date. And I make and photograph a lot of pizzas. Like seriously, a lot. It was all I could do to keep myself from stealing bites between shots. And if I’m being 100% honest with you, my dog Selkie felt the same way, helping herself to the remaining few biscuits from our most recent batch when Omar and I stepped out of the house for a couple hours. Oops, guess we should have put them out of her reach….

Vegan Homemade Pretzel Buns

July 18, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 2 Comments

There’s nothing quite like freshly baked bread. And when it comes from your own hands and your own oven it’s even better and more satisfying. I love bread and encourage everyone else who feels the same way to try their hand at it too! I’ve always enjoyed the process of making bread. It’s methodical and relaxing, and I always feel proud of the end result. Plus when your friends come over for veggie burger parties they’ll ask, “did you really make this all from scratch?” I know this because that’s what my friends do.

So anyway freshly baked homemade bread is great, yeah, we know (unless of course you don’t eat gluten, and then, I’m sorry, this post isn’t for you). Pretzel buns are certainly no exception! Chewy and doughy-soft, with that delicious pretzel flavor, they are the perfect accompaniment to your veggie burgers. Pretzels are traditionally made with a lye bath, and it’s this ultra caustic environment that allows the dough to brown to that rich color, and also gives it the characteristic pretzel flavor. Browning in cooking occurs via the Maillard Reaction, but how acidic or basic your food is affects how browned it gets (and by basic I don’t mean this kind of basic, haha). The higher the pH (more basic), the better/darker your food will brown….

Pesto Smashed Potato Pizzas

June 1, 2017 By thecuriouschickpea 6 Comments

Are you looking for a fun party appetizer? Something you can bring to a picnic? A recipe for your gluten free or vegan friends? Something to munch on for a tasty and simple meal? I’ve got you covered with these super cute pesto smashed potato pizzas! You can enjoy them hot or at room temperature, which makes them a no stress option.

Baby potatoes are boiled then smashed, skins splitting to expose the soft custardy interior. A simple zippy marinara is spooned overtop and then some homemade vegan cheese. The potatoes are then baked in a hot oven until the edges get a little crispy, while the inside remains creamy and soft. Melty cheese atop a crispy baked potato is drool worthy on it’s own, and you might be tempted to gobble them up immediately.. but, I promise you, the last step is so worth it. Dollop, smear, pour–whatever–some basil pesto on top and you’ve reached potato pizza heaven (a different kind than before)….

baking

*not fact, *not guaranteed

not fact, not guaranteed