Vegan Mofo #11: Irish Brown Soda Bread Scones....

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time today and so my post is going to be rather short. I suppose it’s fitting because the recipe is rather short too. It’s a real easy one, and may seem like a bit of a ‘cheat’ considering it didn’t take all that much effort to veganize but if I’m going to post everyday, while working full-time, and preparing for my upcoming trip, I gotta cut corners somewhere you know? So anyway, Irish Soda Bread is one of my favorite things to make and eat around St. Patrick’s Day. It’s typically a pretty easy thing to make, though depending on the recipe it can take a bit of time. Taking delicious soda bread and turning it into scones cuts your baking time below half, and you get perfect individual sized pieces of bread that you can just scoop up. Enjoy these deliciously light scones for breakfast smothered in non-dairy butter, jam or marmalade, or enjoy them as a nice counterpart to a savory suppertime soup. However you choose to enjoy them, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy they are to whip up, and even happier that they contain almost no fat! How cool is that? Though, due to the low fat content they must be eaten quickly and are best consumed fresh out of the oven. Though they will keep for a day, two at most.

Irish Brown Soda Bread Scones 

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Cups Wheat Flour
1tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Sea Salt
1 ½ Cups Non-Dairy Milk (I used Soy)
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

- Preheat the Oven to 425'F

- In a measuring cup combine your non-dairy milk and the apple cider vinegar. Let sit for 5 or so minutes until the milk curdles.

- In a large bowl mix together the 2 flours, the baking soda, and the salt. Make a well in the center and add the milk, vinegar mixture.

- With a wooden spoon combine the milk mixture with the flour mixture until a dough forms.

- Now, you can go the traditional route and flour a work surface, roll the dough out and use a biscuit cutter to cut the scones, or do what I do. Grab a spoon, scoop up blobs of dough and plop them down onto an oiled baking sheet. I don’t have time for all that rolling and cutting nonsense and truth be told I don’t own a biscuit cutter anyway. I like my biscuits and scones to look ‘rustic.’

- When all your scones are cut - or plopped - on to the baking sheet, and the oven has finished preheating, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until risen and golden brown.

- If desired brush the tops with a little melted non-dairy butter before baking.

*** Note - If you want a slightly richer scone, use a combination of non-dairy milk and non-dairy sour cream. Mix 1 Cup non-dairy milk, with ½ Cup non-dairy sour cream, and 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar, and proceed as directed above.***

Our Christmas Eve Dinner 2014...

My Overflowing Plate!

I sincerely hope that everyone had a Wonderful Christmas this year. I’ll be honest, I personally didn’t have much holiday spirit this year. I enjoyed the lights, and the atmosphere as I always do, but the truth is I’ve been busy, and stressed-out, and tired and I just found the whole idea of the holidays to be overwhelming. I did enjoy myself on the actual days in question, but the lead-up to Christmas Eve and Christmas day were exhausting. Of course that didn’t stop me from - against my better judgement - going all out food-wise yet again this year.

It started Christmas Eve. Normally I do desserts and appetizers and we lug it all over to my husband’s aunts house where we always enjoy the Eve. This year however I didn’t feel like making a bunch of food to transport, I find it daunting, and since I was tired and worked Christmas Eve morning and wasn’t in the spirit anyway I didn’t feel much up to going out to a party. Instead I decided to stay home, curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a good book and admire our Christmas tree. It was peaceful, and relaxing and exactly what I needed, but before my husband left for the party we enjoyed our Christmas Dinner.

I decided to make dinner on the Eve rather then the day simply because it was easier for me. We had a small dinner that came together relatively quickly, and for Christmas Day I decided to do appetizers and finger foods and dessert thinking that would be much simpler. It turned out not to be simpler at all, but I’ll save that for the Christmas post. As for our dinner it was lovely, and beautiful, and insanely delicious!

We started off with a simple yet elegant appetizer. The Fresh Ricotta with Lemon, Basil and Honey Bruschetta from Martha Stewart’s book “Meatless.” the book is not vegan, but this was a simple enough recipe to veganize, and it sounded so good that I couldn’t help but want to give it a try. I veganized it by making the Macadamia Ricotta from Miyoko Schinner’s book “Artisan Vegan Cheese” and swapping out regular honey for the super delicious Bee-Free Honey. Yes, vegan honey exists now!  This may seem like a strange combination to some people, but trust me when I say this was amazing! Even my husband loved it and he’s not a cheese guy. The Macadamia Ricotta was also very good, although had a nuttier flavor then the similar Almond Ricotta from the same book. I thought he wouldn’t like it for this reason, but really, a little cheese spread across the bread with a nice fresh basil leaf and a drizzle of honey, and no one flavor overpowers the other. They all work in perfect delicious harmony!

Fresh Ricotta with Lemon, Basil and Honey Bruschetta 

Most of the other recipes I made came from a Vegetarian Times magazine I picked up on a whim while I was out one day. Everything in the mag looked so fantastic that I decided to try a few things for the holiday rather then use one of my hundred cook books.

Again I kept things pretty simple by making this super-easy Spicy Spinach with Sunflower Seeds. This is a sauteed spinach dish with Jerk seasoning, and roasted sunflower seeds. It contains 5 ingredients but packs a whopping amount of flavor. Plus it looked super pretty!

Spicy Spinach with Sunflower Seeds

I also decided to make the Truffled Mashed Potatoes which sounded really appealing to me as I enjoy the flavor of truffles but never thought of combining it with mashed taters. Again this dish was super easy, only 4 ingredients but loads of flavor, my only criticism is that since the recipe doesn’t call for non-dairy milk or butter the potatoes are kind of dry and don’t mash completely smooth. It’s an easy fix though, I just adding in a dollop or two of Earth Balance, a sprinkle of salt and these were beyond perfect.

Truffled Mashed Potatoes

As another side dish I made Bianca Phillips Mama’s Vegan Cornbread Dressin' from her book “Cookin’ Crunk” I’ve been wanting to make this for years, every time I see Bianca post about it on her blog I think “I have to try this.” and I finally did! This is a really simple casserole, though it does take a bit of advanced planning as you need to make her cream of celery soup first. It’s totally wroth the effort though, and the bonus is that the celery soup makes about 7 cups and the recipe only calls for 2 so you get an extra meal, and the soup is really great stand-alone. My husband particularly raved about it. So aside from the crumbled cornbread and celery soup this recipe also contains onions, whole wheat bread, sage, salt and pepper, which might not seem that exciting but trust me, it is so flavorful you’ll be amazed! My husband and I simply couldn’t get enough of it, and decided that it was our second favorite dish of the evening!

Mama’s Vegan Cornbread Dressin

To round out our vegetable side dishes I also made the Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Grapes with Walnuts from Stewart’s book “Meatless” this recipe was naturally vegan which was nice. I’ve roasted grapes before to put into a farro salad, but I’ve never thought to roast them with sprouts. This was a super simple recipe that used sprouts, grapes, walnuts, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and thyme and yet it was so tasty! The grapes added the perfect pop of sweetness to contrast the earthy sprouts. My husband loved it too, he’s gone from Sprout hater to lover in almost no-time at all.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Grapes

For our main course I made the Seitan Timbales with Chestnut Champignon Stuffing from the Vegetarian Times Magazine. It looked and sounded so elegant that I couldn’t resist. Yet despite the elegance it was super simple to prepare, only since it was just my husband and I eating I didn’t see any reason to make individual timbales. To save on time and space I put the whole thing into one big casserole and cooked it that way. I think it turned out perfect! The seitan is a simple preparation, and once it’s mixed together you place it on the bottom of your greased dish and then pour water or broth over top. I used Vegan Chicken broth and then you bake for 30 minutes. While you bake it you make the stuffing on the stove top. Bread, shallots, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic, chestnuts, wine, parsley, and herbs de province. When the seitan has finished baking you top it with the stuffing and bake another 40 minutes until the stuffing is browned. Man was this good. Seriously, I wish I had a better picture to share but you’ll just have to trust me on this one. The texture of the seitan was incredibly. It was moist, and flakey, and reminded me very, very much of chicken. I don’t know how that happened, guess there was some strange kitchen magic going on that night, but it was damn good I tell ya.

Seitan Timbales with Chestnut Champignon Stuffing

For dessert on Christmas Eve we enjoyed a vast array of holiday cookies. I went a little baking crazy this year. I enjoyed making Christmas cookies so much last year, and they were so well-received that I kind of lost it this year. I couldn’t decide what to make, and then I wanted to make everything all at once and now I’m left with dozens of cookies even though so many got eaten, and so many were given away.

Cookies!!!!

Now, I didn’t take pictures of each cookie individually as I did last year, nor was I very proactive in taking pictures of the cookies on the actual day in question. I took this picture rather after the fact with only a fraction of what I had left over, but it’s a clear enough picture so you get the idea.  Starting in the top left, with that single, lone oval shaped cookie we have the Chocolate Chip Chai Spiced Shortbread from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar” I’ve been wanting to make these a long, long time and I’m so glad I finally got around to it because they’re AMAZING! Seriously, probably my favorite cookie of the whole bunch. Next are Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies that I got off of one of the many I blogs I follow - only I”m blanking on the name at the moment! Sorry! - These were excellent, and tasted just like any regular sugar cookie. Next to those are Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies. They were suppose to be biscotti also from “Vegan Cookies” by Isa and Terry, but the recipe was fussy, and I was running short on time and so I turned them into cookies and no one was the wiser. They were delicious and turned out great. Next to those are Gluten-Free shortbread which I believe came from the same blog as the sugar cookies. I’ll have to double check and edit this later. I accidentally forgot to put the cornstarch in them, and so I don’t know how that might have altered them but they tasted delicious, if a bit more ‘spongy’ then a regular shortbread. Next to those are the Double Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies from Chloe Coscarelli’s book “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” these were absolutely excellent! Maybe my second favorite cookie of the bunch. In the top right corner next to the Macadamia cookies are the Greek Kourabiedes from Kelly Peloza’s book “The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur” these were quite tasty, I liked that they were light and airy, and I loved the hint of orange flower water. Now in the bottom left corner we have Gluten-Free Gingerbread Men from Carla Reed’s excellent blog “Fork and Beans” these were so good, and tasted just like any other gingerbread men. Beside them are the Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s book “The Joy of Vegan Baking” these were so good, probably tied for my second favorite of the bunch. You can’t go wrong with chocolate and mint right? The little rounded ‘snow-covered’ mounds below those are the Nutty Wedding Cookies from “Vegan Cookies” by Isa and Terry. I’ve been wanting to make these a long time too and they were quite good as well as simple to throw together. Lastly in the bottom right hand corner we have the Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies from “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” which I made using the Gluten-Free variation. These were super soft, and delicious, but I expect nothing less from Chloe. I also made the Almond Butter Chocolate Chip cookies from Angela Liddon’s “The Oh She Glows Cook Book” but none of them survived for the photo, every single one was eaten up! They really are that good, trust me!

So, just incase you were wondering - I made several gluten-free cookies because this year I gave some of my baking away to friends as a gift. My friend D is gluten-free - as is the rest of his family - and so I wanted to make several nice Christmas theme cookies that he could enjoy. Then there is my friend NB - not to be confused with my other friend N - who is not gluten-free himself, but his wife is, and since I wanted her to enjoy the cookies as well I tried to make a variety of gluten and non-gluten containing cookies for everyone. Since neither my husband, or I, or anyone else in our family is gluten-free when I had them displayed at home I just threw them all together since contamination is not an issue and it was just easier for me to keep my cookies altogether then go to the trouble of separating them for no reason.

So that was our Christmas Eve Dinner. Tomorrow I’ll give you the rundown of what we ate on Christmas Day so stay tuned!

Restaurant Review: Sophie Sucree in Montreal....

I’m a bit behind in my Restaurant reviews and so I thought I’d post one today. Last year when my husband and I were in Montreal we ate like kings. Seriously, you might not think it but Montreal is a vegan mecca! So many wonderful vegan restaurants, and so many great options all around, but one of our most favorite places was a little vegan bakery called Sophie Sucree we loved it so much in fact that we ate there twice.

Before we even left for the trip I already had Sophie Sucree on my radar, but on the first day that we ended up eating there it was kind of by accident. You see, we’d been planning to hit up another vegan restaurant on Rue St Denis - but when we got there the place was closed, not to reopen until 5pm! It was about 3pm, and we were starving considering we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast and we were pretty tired since we’d walked all the way up from the St Lawrence River. But what can you do? We decided to come back later for dinner and head somewhere else for lunch, only the second place we went to ended up closing at 3pm! And then the third place we went to apparently didn’t exist or else the address on HappyCow was completely wrong. As it happens Sophie Sucree was just a block or two away from the ghost restaurant and as it had started to rain, and we were very hungry, very tired, and very frustrated - not to mention damp - it became our salvation.

The little bakery/café is small but warm and inviting. The owner is super friendly and very sweet - we had a long chat with her, mostly about how she’d started her business after being inspired by the vegan cuisine on a trip she took to Vancouver. Talking to her was so nice, and I felt really inspired by her story. Since nobody else was there when we were there we had our choice of tables. We took a seat near the window and ordered two iced coffees with almond milk and man were they good! Being able to order coffee with almond milk or any non-dairy milk is always such an amazing luxury for us when on vacation.

After browsing the display case I have to say we went a bit crazy. Everything just looked so good, and the presentations were so cute. I had read online that their cinnamon buns were ‘to die for’ so of course we ordered one each. Then we split a Carrot Cake with Cashew Cream, and the most heavenly fruit tart I’ve ever had! Sophie Sucree also sometimes has a few meal options, and that day they were offering a vegetable pesto Panini sandwich which we also decided to split - hey, we were ravenous!

Everything was amazing, and the service was fast and super friendly, and the price was very reasonable. It was so nice to lounge in a French Canadian Café and watch the rain drizzle down. After we had finished eating we thanked the staff told them how much we loved everything and appreciated it, and promised to come back once more before we left the city.

So, on our last day in Montreal, actually our very last moments - we’d already checked out of our hostel and were headed to New York - we swung by Sophie Sucree and ordered some pastry to enjoy before we hit the road. Once again we got iced coffees with almond milk - although I neglected to photograph them. Then we tore into some delicious doughnuts - I wish I could remember what kind they were but it was too long ago and I can’t exactly tell from the picture. In any case they were amazing, they were super light, fluffy, moist and delicious, probably some of the best vegan doughnuts I’ve ever had - not dense and chewy like some vegan doughnuts. Because we couldn’t help ourselves we also ordered a chocolate brownie which was rich, moist and delicious. So damn tasty! And then we ordered two cupcakes, I can’t remember exactly what flavor they were not, but I believe they were both chocolate with different kinds of frosting. One with a blood orange frosting and one with a rose frosting maybe? I wish I could remember, but what I do remember is they were damn good. Again they were light and fluffy, and the frosting was creamy, airy, and sweet without being too sweet. In fact, none of the baked goods at Sophie Sucree were overwhelmingly sweet, which was perfect.

I’m so sad I don’t live in Montreal, because if I did I’d be in here all the time eating stuff. I’ve eaten a lot of vegan baked goods in my time and I honestly think Sophie Sucree makes the best, the only viable rival they have is Edible Flours in Vancouver but I think Sucree might have even them beat. Absolutely perfect desserts that simply cannot be missed if you’re planning a trip to Montreal. Another cool thing about them is that they cater to various food allergies and so they offer Gluten-free baked goods as well, so make sure you hit them up if you’re ever in Montreal, I promise you will not be sorry!

PS: They also make cakes to order, such as birthday cakes, wedding cakes and so on, which is something really cool to keep in mind because finding a vegan wedding cake or a vegan birthday cake in any city is usually a hard ask.

Sophie Sucree
167 Ave des Pins (St Laurent)
Montreal, Quebec
Phone # 514-823-5865
Hours - Monday - Closed
Tue-Wed and Sun 11am-6pm,
Thur-Fri 11am-9pm
Sat 11am-8pm

St. Patrick's Day, A Celebration of Irish Food!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone’s day is filled with good luck, and good cheer, great food and great beer. Today is the first year in three years that I haven’t actually had to work on St. Patrick’s day, that feels pretty special to me, and yet - funnily enough, this year is also the one year I don’t feel like doing anything! Ha. Every year there’s something I want to do and can’t, this year I can do whatever I want but there’s nothing to do - oh well, I could use a little relaxation anyway.

But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t up to the challenge of cooking an Irish theme meal, I do it every year regardless of how busy I am or how I’m feeling, in fact some of you may remember that last year I spent the entire week prior to St. Patrick’s Day Veganizing Irish Classics. Man that was fun, if only I’d had the time to do it again this year. Instead I opted for a simpler affair.

For Breakfast I made two different versions of Irish Soda Bread - because what’s St Paddy’s without Soda Bread? The reason I made two is simply because I couldn’t decide which recipe I wanted to make more, and since my husband loves Soda Bread I knew it would all get eaten regardless.

The first recipe I tried was Alicia C. Simpson’s Irish Soda Bread Recipe from her book “Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.” I’ll admit I was kind of skeptical about this recipe, yet still intrigued enough to make it. Sour Cream in a Soda Bread? That sounded like blasphomy to me, but since I had a carton of vegan sour cream sitting in my fridge, begging to get used I thought “why not?” The end result really blew me out of the water, I mean Wow! Normally I make Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s Soda Bread which I love dearly - it’s my favorite soda bread - but this one, man, I hate to say it but I think Alicia might have Colleen beat with this recipe. I just love the subtle hint of sour that the sour cream lends to the bread, mixed with the sweetness of sugar, and savory salt and soda, plus the dried fruit - it just works. I used the suggested mix of raisins and cranberries, which I think was a great idea.

However, the recipe states to cook this all as one loaf, and man does it make a heck of a lot of dough! I think next time I make this I’ll divide the dough in half and make two smaller more manageable loaves, but damn was this a fantastic breakfast. Moist, and delicious, especially spread with a little Earth Balance.

The Next Irish Soda Bread I made was from Mark Reinfeld’s book “The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of Europe.” This loaf is more traditional in the respect that it’s low on Sugar and High on baking Soda. It also only uses raisins - no other dried fruit, and vegan buttermilk made with soy milk mixed with lemon juice. Reinfeld also leaves out the caraway - which he claims is an American invention - and uses whole grain spelt flour. This is a dense and hearty loaf, that’s more savory then sweet. Definitely delicious but in my opinion it doesn’t hold a candle to either Colleen, or Alicia’s versions. Of course if you prefer savory over sweet then this is exactly the loaf for you.

To wash down my Soda Bread this morning I made a batch of Alicia C. Simpson’s Irish Cream Liqueur which is a mixture of Coconut Milk, Irish Whiskey, vanilla extract and agave. After making the cream I used it to make her Irish Cream Latte which is a simple - yet tasty - mix of espresso, almond milk, and her homemade Irish Cream Liqueur. Quite satisfying, even though I’ve never been particularly fond of coffee liqueurs before.

For Dinner I decided to go with something simple, and so I went back to Mark Reinfeld and his “Taste of Europe.” From it I decided to make the Irish Stew, and the Parsnip Colcannon. I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of the colcannon recipe. As much as I love a good vegan colcannon these days, and as much as I like a good parsnip the thought of including parsnips in colcannon seemed crazy to me. Of course, I have a lot of trust in cook book authors - especially those I rank among my favorites - and so I was willing to go against my instincts and make the dish as directed.

Lucky that I did, because holy guacamole guys! This colcannon is amazing, in fact it may just be the bed damn colcannon I’ve ever eaten. I love that the parsnips lend a subtle sweetness and snappy bite to the otherwise bland potato. They cream just as well as a potato does, and I love how simple the whole recipe is. Steam potatoes, parsnips and garlic. Mash with almond or soy milk, add finely chopped kale and parsley, salt, pepper, red pepper bam done! For something so simple there is so much flavor here!

Now, I was also a tad skeptical about the Irish Stew, mainly because it looked too simple. I thought briefly about going with a more complicated dish but then decided simplicity is what I wanted. Though I enjoy cooking, and don’t mind being in the kitchen for over an hour, today I wanted something I could just kind of throw in a pot and forget about. This recipe is actually very similar to the Seitan and Guinness Stew I made for Paddy’s Day last year, except mine has more ingredients. Of course I was tempted to ‘add’ to this stew but followed the directions as noted, taking the suggestion at the bottom of the page to add in a cup of diced carrots or ‘other’ vegetables as desired. I added a cups worth of carrots and parsnips - because I had extra, and then added some peas because who doesn’t love peas in a stew? But the peas were my only creative tweak. In the end I was mighty amazed by how good this stew turned out. For such a simple recipe it again packs a powerful punch of flavor. I used homemade seitan for it - which I think makes a huge difference, and home-grown Rosemary too.

On a still somewhat cold, not-quite-spring day, this was the perfect warming, comforting meal. Irish food has a reputation for being bland, but I think this is a grievous misconception. If you know what you’re doing Irish food is some of the most soul-satisfying and comforting fare around. It’s stick to your ribs good, and it always cheers me up. Especially on long cold nights.

However you choose to spend St. Paddy’s Day I hope you have a good time! Now go eat some potatoes and cabbage and blast some Pogues and Flogging Molly! Oh, and if you’re interested in more Irish recipes or perhaps a little Irish History then check out some of my posts from previous years!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Memories of Ireland Potato and Leek Soup 

Irish Style Seitan In Mustard Cream Sauce with Wild Rice and Crispy Cabbage

Irish Tea Time Seed Cake

Irish Seitan and Guinness Stew with Champ

Cream of Parsnip Soup

Irish Dingle Pies

Boxty Potato Pancakes

Guinness Fondue

For The Love of Doughnuts...

Baked Doughnuts with Old Fashion Glaze

Okay, so doughnut pans are the coolest thing ever guys! Seriously! You know, I never really gave all that much thought to doughnuts before, I mean, sure I liked them well enough, and I ate them. - If you grew up in Canada within a stone’s throw of a Tim Hortons, then doughnuts were definitely a part of your cultural experience. - but I was never Homer Simpson crazy for them. They were never my sweet treat of choice.

When I went vegan I stopped eating doughnuts - obviously, since they aren’t vegan, and vegan doughnuts are somewhat hard to come by at least in the Midwest. Although I hear through the vegan grapevine that the West Coast has a couple of awesome vegan doughnut shops. Lucky! Anyway, I gave up these little treats and really never felt all that bad about it. I wouldn’t say I ever missed them. However over the past year the vegan blogging world has been posting more and more of these amazing vegan doughnuts, some store-bought and some home-made, and more and more vegan cook books are coming equipped with a doughnut recipe or two in the dessert chapter.

Every time I would see one of these pictures or recipes I’d feel a fleeting sense of nostalgia, and then a sudden desire to make some doughnuts. For quite some time now I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a couple of doughnut pans, but it wasn’t until last weekend that my wonderful, thoughtful husband brought home three doughnut pans for me. I’d been talking about doughnuts endlessly for a week, and since there are no vegan doughnuts for sale around here, he did the next best thing and bought me the pans to make my own.

I started with a batch of Baked Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate glaze from Chloe Coscarelli’s book “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” - Although I neglected to take a picture of the finished product, sorry. - and my world was changed forever! Baked vegan doughnuts! What a novelty, and so delicious! The recipe made about 18, and even though I gave 8 away, the rest didn’t last long. They were just too good to be true.

Baked Maple Sriracha Doughnuts 

So now I’m in something of a doughnut baking frenzy, it's so much easier then I initially thought it would be and now I wish I hadn't waited so long to get some doughnut pans! I seriously want to make every doughnut recipe I can get my hands on now, and so today I decided to try another batch of doughnuts from Chloe, these ones were the Baked Doughnuts from “Chloe’s Kitchen” and are topped with Old Fashioned Glaze. Personally I thought there was a little too much nutmeg in the doughnut itself, and I thought the glaze tasted too much like powdered sugar, but my husband liked them, and that’s all that really matters.

Then I decided to do something crazy. I decided to bake a batch of maple Sriracha doughnuts. I know exactly what you’re thinking, you’re thinking ew! But I’m telling you, as skeptical as I was at the start I am a total convert to using Sriracha in sweet confections. These were probably some of the best doughnuts I’ve ever had. The balance between spicy and sweet was perfect. The doughnut batter itself is rather plane, all the goodness comes in the glaze. Powdered sugar, maple syrup, almond milk, and Sriracha - doughnut heaven! This recipe comes from a little book called “The Veggie Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook” by Randy Clemens, a totally cute book that I can’t wait to get more use out of.

So the moral of the story is, get your hands on some doughnut pans, because they’re loads of fun, and you're gonna love it!