TOTORO BUTTER COOKIES WITH MATCHA LEAVES

SO, this is me lesson prepping for tomorrow's Creative Writing 11 Book Chat tomorrow.  I had my students select a Canadian Novel for an independent project which culminates in a Tea 'n Cookies Book Chat with their peers.

Silly me...I asked what they'd like me to bake and they said "Totoro Cookies!"  

I don't know why I was hoping they'd all say "CAKE!" --but they didn't.  

Ah well.  They're not for me to eat anyway!

I used matcha powder to create tiny leaf cookies to rest on Totoro's head.  With the leftover matcha dough I made some larger leaf cookies 'cause I didn't want to make any more of those time-consuming tiny leaves anymore 🤣

I added black sesame paste to a blob of cookie dough in order to make the tiny black sesame sprites. They were so cute but something about grey cookies is so unappealing to many people.  I guess they don't look appetizing being the colour of soot!

Raw cookie dough is so tasty-looking to me.  I prefer how it looks to the baked product because you can see the crisp lines and Totoro's cute expression very clearly.

In case you want to make these with a totoro cutter, be aware that they cost $$$.  All you have to do is google it and you'll find plenty of styles of Totoro cutters to buy.  Before I bought a cutter, I used a cardboard template that I cut out.  I traced the cookies with a knife and they were tedious but they turned out well.  Alternatively, if you're crafty you can cut up an Arizona Tea can and create your own personalized cookie cutter.  I have a pusheen one that I made like that because I'm too cheapie to pay money for more cutters.  

Totoro Vanilla Butter Cookies 

• 2 Cups unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Large egg 
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 5 Cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp teaspoon coarse salt
• OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon matcha powder (for the matcha leaves)
• OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon black sesame paste (or ground black sesame seeds) (for the soot sprites)

1. Preheat oven to 350degrees F.
2. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.
3. Halve dough; shape each half into a disk. Place one disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate. You can use the other half for the optional coloured decorations or soot sprite cookies.  Continue making cookies with the remaining refrigerated dough.
4. Roll out dough and cut with a template or cutter.  Transfer cookies to parchment-lined cookie sheet.
5. OPTIONAL LEAVES & SOOT SPRITES:  take a handful of dough and add 1 teaspoon of matcha powder to it, kneading until thoroughly combined. Roll out and cut into tiny leaves to decorate Totoro's head.  Take a handful of dough and knead in 1 teaspoon black sesame paste and knead thoroughly until combined.  Roll out and cut into soot sprites.
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned (Totoro's ears will get brown first, so watch them)  The soot sprites will take only 10-12 minutes and the tiny leaves take 7 min.
7. Let cool on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

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MINI MOCHI CUPCAKES: MATCHA & CHOCOLATE

Basho's gone, but you can make these Mini Mochi Cupcakes yourself!

Do you miss this tiny Japanese cafe on E. Hastings street?  Well, cry no more because you can easily make these mini gluten-free Japanese sweets.  Just pull out your knitting needles, knit a cozy for your potted succulent plant and whip up some matcha tea to go along with your sweets.

This mochi recipe is highly adaptable; you can add your own unique flavours.  Stay tuned for more flavour possibilities!

MINI MOCHI CUPCAKES: MATCHA & CHOCOLATE

• 1 lb glutinous rice flour [I used Mochiko]
• 1 T matcha powder
• 2 T cocoa powder
• 1/3 Cup vegetable oil
• 2 Cups milk
• 2 Cups sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350Degrees F.  
2. Spray 2 mini-muffin pans with non-stick spray.
3. Combine flour, oil, milk, sugar and 3 eggs in a mixer and beat until well combined. 
4. DIVIDE the dough in half into separate bowls.
5. Add matcha powder to one bowl and mix well.  Add cocoa powder to the other bowl and mix well.  Pour into prepared muffin tins.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes (mini-muffin pans) or 30-35 minutes (regular-muffin pans). I ended up with 3 trays of mini-muffins! The recipe makes a lot of mini-muffins.  You can easily halve the recipe though.  Check often while baking because muffin pans vary and thus so do the bake-times. Mochi muffins are done when they are just slightly golden brown around the edges. Test by inserting a toothpick. 
7. Remove muffins from pan after allowing to cool slightly.  Set on a cooling rack to cool.  Invite your friends over who miss Basho for tea and mochi!

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Happy Lunar New Year!

Celebrate with cake!

Happy Chinese New Year! 

Gung Hay Fat Choy!   Sun Neen Fai Lok!

It's the year of the rooster...and today married Chinese people everywhere are handing out red envelopes to kids.  So the kids are raking in the money$$$

My kid's birthday party is today and she wanted a DQ ice cream cake, which means pretty much nothing for me to blog about.  So I made my go-to cake for all-around snackin' while the kids indulged in their oreo blizzard ice cream cake.  

This Coconut Chiffon Cake is made from coconut oil instead of veg oil or butter, which gives it a nice light coconut scent and flavour.  Because I'm gluten intolerant (hello Hashimoto's disease...you suck) I used my current fave gf flour mix that I picked up from Costco in the States.  Costco Canada doesn't carry it here in Vancouver which is a shame. 

I wish you Health, Wealth & Happiness this Lunar year and may your celebrations be filled with a good amount of cake too!

Gluten Free Coconut Chiffon Cake with berries

COCONUT CHIFFON CAKE

(adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Master Recipe for Chiffon Cake)

• 1 ½ cups organic evaporated cane sugar
• 1 1/3 cups gluten free flour (measure unsifted) [I used Namaste flour I picked up at the Costco in Bellingham] 
• 2 tsp gf baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 7 large eggs, 2 left whole, 5 separated (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons psyllium husk powder
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup water

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F. Whisk sugar, GF flour, psyllium husk powder, baking powder and salt together in large bowl (at least 4-quart size). Whisk in two whole eggs, five egg yolks (reserve whites), water, coconut oil and extract until batter is smooth.  I used a stick blender to blend the batter smooth.

2. Pour reserved egg whites into large bowl; beat at low speed with electric mixer until foamy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar, gradually increase speed to medium-high, then beat whites until very thick and stiff, just short of dry, 9 to 10 minutes with handheld mixer or 5 to 7 minutes in standing mixer. With large whisk, fold whites into batter, smearing any blobs of white that resist blending. 
3. Pour batter into ungreased large tube pan (9 inch diameter, 16-cup capacity). 
4. Bake cake on lower middle rack in oven until wire cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 60-70 minutes [mine took 70 min]. Immediately turn cake upside down to cool. If pan does not have prongs around rim for elevating cake, invert pan over bottle or funnel, inserted through tube. Let cake hang until completely cook, about 2 hours. 
5. To unmold, turn pan upright. Run frosting spatula or thin knife around pan’s circumference between cake and pan wall, always pressing against the pan. Use cake tester to loosen cake from tube. For one-piece pan, bang it on counter several times, then invert over serving plate. For two-piece pan, grasp tube and lift cake out of pan. If glazing the cake, use a fork or a paring knife to gently scrap all the crust off the cake. Loosen cake from pan bottom with spatula or knife, then invert cake onto plate. (Can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature 2 days or refrigerated 4 days.)

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Drip Cake: Chocolate Quinoa Layer Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream (gluten free)

Made my own Birthday Cake. Yes I did😆

6 inch GF Chocolate Quinoa Cake layers and Vanilla Bean Buttercream

This is my favourite part of making a cake

Decorated with my fave goodies: matcha macaron, Lindt chocolate balls, dragées, a mini KitKat and mini Coffee Crisp and crushed macaron shells

The chocolate ganache was perfect. I threw dragées on the side of the cake too and they stuck🙌

It's late November and the only thing blooming in my garden are these little purple Daikon flowers.  I just let the daikon go to seed and never did harvest the daikon (so bitter!)  The flowers sure are pretty...and edible

Scroll down past the recipes to watch a video of me assembling the layers

BEST EVER QUINOA CHOCOLATE LAYER DRIP CAKE WITH VANILLA BUTTERCREAM (GF)

adapted from Quinoa 365:  The Everyday Superfood

makes 3 6-inch layers

• 2 1/4 cups cooked quinoa (see note below for instructions to cook quinoa. No substitutions)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla bean paste
• 3/4 cups coconut oil, melted and cooled (you can use unsalted butter)
• 1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened organic cacao powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

*3 6-inch cake tins (you can make do with 2 pans and after baking the first batch, make the last layer after cleaning the pan)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray the tins with coconut oil spray or non-stick spray.  Line with a round piece of parchment paper
2. In a Vitamix, heavy-duty Blender of Food Processor, combine:  milk, eggs, vanilla paste.  Blend until combined.  Add 2 1/4 cups of cooked quinoa and the melted coconut oil and continue to blend until smooth.
3. Dump in the sugar, cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the Vitamix.  Blend well to combine.  [NB: if you are using a regular blender, you will encounter problems with the thick batter and may not be able to totally break down the cooked quinoa grains. In this case, you should use a food processor]
4. Divide the batter evenly between the 3 prepared cake pans. Gently tap the pans on the counter to get rid of air bubbles and smooth the tops evenly
5. Bake in the centre of the oven for approximately 25-30 minutes.
6. Test the cakes for doneness with a toothpick or cake tester.
7. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Remove from the pan and allow the cake layers to cool completely on a rack. 
8. Frost with Buttercream (see recipe below).  Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes. Make the ganache (see recipe below) and allow to cool as the cake is in the fridge.  Drip chocolate ganache over the cold buttercream. Decorate with your fave chocolates and bling✨ it up with dragees if desired.
9. Cake layers can be stored sealed in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month. 

COOKING QUINOA Note:  Bring 2/3 cup raw, rinsed white or golden quinoa to boil in a heavy saucepan with 1 1/3 cups water.  Cover, reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave covered saucepan on burner for another 10 minutes.  Fluff with fork and allow the Quinoa to cool.

Rice Cooker Method:  Cook rinsed quinoa as you would rice, following manufacturer's instructions and the indicator lines for appropriate water levels.    I made 1 cup quinoa and found it had enough leftovers to make another dish.

VANILLA BEAN BUTTERCREAM 

(makes just enough for a nearly naked cake; or just enough to frost this little 6 inch cake)

3 cups confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter [I used Kerrygold]

1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste

1 tablespoon milk

1. In an electric mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy and smooth
2. Add the confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup at a time
3. Add vanilla bean paste and gradually add milk until the buttercream is at a consistency that is not too stiff. Continue beating [speed 8 on the KitchenAid] for 7-8 minutes until almost white in colour. The buttercream will be fluffy
4. Use immediately to frost the 3 cake layers.  

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1 cup whipping/heavy cream

1 bag Wilton Chocolate Candy Melts (chocolate chips or dark chocolate will work as well)

OR

8 ounces chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

NB: before you start! if you have a kitchen scale the ratio for the ganache in weight is 1:1.  But if you don't or if you're too lazy to whip out the scale like me, you can eyeball it and adjust by adding more chocolate or cream until you get a thick pouring consistency.  

1. Put whipping cream in a microwave-safe container and heat in 30 second increments until it is hot to the touch.  Check on it at intervals so it doesn't boil over.
2. Add 1 cup of the Candy Melts or chopped chocolate and stir gently until the ganache is thick but pourable.  Mine was too runny initially so I had to add another handful of candy melts. As well, allowing it to cool will also thicken the ganache before pouring.  Test the ganache before drizzling on the cake by attempting to drip from the top edge of a glass or mug.  If it runs too quickly then add more chocolate or candy melts.  

♬Bossa Nova Royalty Free Background Music

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Gluten Free Oatmeal-Banana Bread

My 9 yr old's Gluten Free Oatmeal-Banana Bread...all made in the Vitamix!

I'm the only person in the household that avoids gluten because of my autoimmune disease...Hashimoto's.  One of the things I miss a lot is a really good Banana Bread...full of gluten. There's something about the texture of gluten-full banana bread that I miss!  But lucky for you I hit upon a lovely oat flour banana bread that is not only super easy to make (in one container!) but has an amazing texture and flavour.

She made mini doughnuts too! They were absolutely delicious with my espresso...and my 15 hours of marking

My homemade gf flour blend is great for cakes and I usually add psyllium husk powder to help with the texture (this works really well, by the way).  But sometimes I don't want to buy all those flours and have all those bags half-full of varieties of flours.  It's a pain because you have too much of one and not enough of the other!  

My 9 yr old loves anything mini and cute.  Here is her little Mouse Chef for perspective...next to  my one shot of espresso.  The kid's mini banana bread doughnuts were so moist and gave me energy to power through 15 hours of marking. geesh

Mostly all of the gf baked goods I buy in stores and gf bakeries are too dense or heavy and I don't know about you but sometimes gf flour is pasty or painfully grainy.  I have yet to find a really good gf bread that's chewy, crusty and slices well (still working on that!)  I've had great success with my own gf flour blend when I bake cakes but a recent spate of moths found in my cabinets had me throwing out everything.  I think the rice that I had stored in the cupboard had brought in some moth eggs. They even got into sealed plastic containers! ew.  Anyway, I store my oats in a sealed plastic container in a different area of the house and I thought they would make a perfect substitution for my usual gf flour blend.  There's something satisfying about grinding your own oat flour and only having to wash one container.  And only ONE flour! yay! And case in point...avoid those moths from the multitude of half-used flours you need to make your own flour blend!  

Bake your loaves until they have lovely cracks...don't be afraid to bake longer by up to 10 minutes because sometimes your bananas might be big so your batter might need the extra baking time

As a treat for the kid because after all, she did all the mixing and baking (and all I did was grind the oat flour)...I took a few of the mini banana bread doughnuts she made...and the next day coated them with a white glaze and cake sprinkles! Can you spot Mickey Mouse on Hello Kitty? 

yes, I only had red Mickey Mouse cake sprinkles so put 2 heads together for Hello Kitty's red bow

So not only is grinding your own oat flour in a Vitamix easy, but it is also a resounding success flavour-wise.  To boot, it's way cheaper than gf flour or bagged oat flour.  The oats add an amazing nutty flavour and you'll find yourself wanting to experiment with oat flour in other baked goods too (like me!) Let me know in the comments if you'd like more Vitamix recipes (which I can do because I use it a lot...but I have no idea if people actually want that?)

GLUTEN FREE OATMEAL-BANANA BREAD MADE IN A VITAMIX

• 2 Cups oat flour**[see note for how to use the Vitamix to grind oats into oat flour] (If you are Celiac, you should buy certified gluten free oats. Some Celiacs may be sensitive to gf oats too so play safe and maybe replace with a gf flour blend if you wish. I used Trader Joe's Rolled Oats) 
• 1/2 cup gluten free flour blend [any gf blend will do but I used "Namaste GF Organic Perfect Flour Blend" that I bought at Costco.  If you don't have any gf flour, you can just use another 1/2 cup of oat flour. Everything will turn out just fine!  If you're not avoiding gluten, just use 2 1/2 cups total of all-purpose flour]
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks salted butter, softened [yes, you read right...SALTED. You can use unsalted but it will taste different]
• 1 1/2 Cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 Large eggs
• 3 Cups ripe bananas mashed (about 7 medium)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• optional: 1/2 cup chocolate chips, nuts or whatever chunky dried fruit cranks your wheel

**GRINDING YOUR OWN OAT FLOUR IN THE VITAMIX

You will need the "Dry Grains Container" for your Vitamix for this and approximately 3 cups of rolled oats or steel cut oats.

Place the oats into the Vitamix Dry Grains Container.  Set the Vitamix to variable speed.  Start out low and slow and pulse until the oats are ground into a powder.  You may need to stop the machine and stir down any chunks that cling to the side.  Continue to do this until the oats have been finely ground.  You will have more than enough for the recipe above so you can store the rest of the oat flour in an air tight container.  1 cup of rolled oats will yield approximately 1 cup of oat flour.

1. Preheat oven to 325degrees F.  Prepare 2 loaf pans by spraying with nonstick spray (I used coconut oil spray) and line with parchment paper. [My 9 yr old used 1 mini doughnut pan and 2 small loaf tins. You can also use paper-lined muffin tins but adjust baking times according to the size of your tins]

2. In the regular ("Classic") Vitamix container, place your salted butter and brown sugar.  Pulse on variable speed until the mixture appears creamy and cohesive.  Add 2 eggs and vanilla...continue to pulse to mix well.  

3.  Turn off the machine and periodically scrape down the sides of the Vitamix container with a rubber spatula to ensure that all the contents are evenly mixed. 

4.  With the Vitamix running on medium variable speed, add the whole bananas one at a time through the lid's chute.  Continue to blend until the mixture is smooth...this should take a couple of minutes

5.  Add all the dry ingredients to the Vitamix: the oat flour, gf flour, salt and baking soda.  Blend on Variable speed until the mixture is combined well; turning off to scrape down the sides if needed.

6.  If you want to go crazy, toss in chocolate chips at this point and just stir to combine with your rubber spatula before pouring into your prepared loaf tins.

7.  Pour prepared batter into the lined loaf tins. For regular-sized loaves, bake for 60-70 minutes until toothpick inserted reveals crumbs.  [My girl's mini doughnuts took 12 minutes.  Regular muffins might take anywhere from 12-15 minutes.  The small loves took 45 minutes. Don't worry...just check that there is no jiggle in the middle and use that toothpick-test to ensure it is baked through well. If your bananas are large sometimes you will have to bake up to 10 minutes longer]

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Miso-Maple Glazed Japanese Eggplant

Here is yet another fabulously easy go-to no-recipe recipe! 

Miso-Glazed Japanese Eggplant

3 Japanese eggplant, washed and stem end trimmed off

1 tablespoon Shiro Miso (White Miso Paste)

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (more or less to taste)

1 tablespoon hot water

1 tablespoon avocado oil

Extra avocado oil for brushing

Slivered Scallions for sprinkling (I had to use organic baby spinach lol! It's the only green stuff I had in my fridge)

1. Slice the Japanese eggplant on the bias (diagonally) into 1/2 inch slices.  

2. Arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet or shallow pan in a single layer.  Brush the tops of the eggplant slices with avocado oil.  

3. Preheat a broiler or crank up the bbq.  If using a bbq, you may want to place the eggplant in a foil-boat or metal veggie basket so that they don't fall through the grate.

4. Mix together the Miso paste, maple syrup and hot water to make a paste.  Add more hot water if the paste is too thick to brush.  Stir in the avocado oil.  Brush the miso mixture onto the tops of the eggplant slices.

5.  Place under the broiler and broil until golden brown and glazed.  The eggplant should be soft all the way through.  Mine took approximately 12 minutes because I had the rack placed in the middle of the oven.  I moved it up to the top third of the oven mid-point because I wanted it to brown more quickly and I was hangry!  Cooking time all depends on how far away your eggplant are from the top element...watch the eggplant carefully so they don't burn.  If you're using a bbq, your eggplant will not char if they are in a foil boat.  However, you can get char on them if you use a metal veggie basket.  

6. Sprinkle with slivered scallions to serve.

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Roasted Cauliflower Steaks

Um. Do we even need a recipe?

This may be more about technique.  Just remember to roast cauliflower steaks to a golden brown. I sometimes bring out the roasted cauliflower too early; when the cauliflower is a little brown on the edges but the majority is still not brown.  I regret when I do that.  It's just not as tasty. Put that pan back in and roast it longer!  The more brown (not black), the better!  

There are variables like your oven temperature, the thickness of your steaks and whatnot but here goes anyway. This is what I did.  You may add chunks of onion, cloves of garlic, chili flakes, shaved parmesan, parsley and capers to the pan near the last 10 min of baking if you want to gild the lily.  Golden brown though.  You are not going to have yumminess unless you go golden brown ALL OVER :)'

Roasted Cauliflower Steaks

1 whole cauliflower, washed and leaves trimmed off

2 tablespoons avocado oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 whole lemon

1.  Preheat oven to 375F (convection) or 400F (regular oven).  

2.   Using a large knife, slice the whole cauliflower into steaks about 3/4 inch thick.  Carefully slide the steaks onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.  Use a spatula to transport the steaks to the pan if you have difficulty keeping the steaks together

3.  Brush avocado oil over all the steaks.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. Flip the steaks carefully with the spatula and/or tongs.  Brush the other side with avocado oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

5.  Roast the cauliflower steaks--in a convection oven ideally-- at 375F for 20 minutes. If you don't have a convection feature on your oven, bake at 400F

6.  After the 20 minutes, remove pan from the oven (rest on heatproof surface) and carefully flip the cauliflower steaks with tongs and/or a spatula.  Return to the oven to roast for another 20 minutes. Check to ensure that the cauliflower steaks are evenly golden brown all over.

7.  Serve with wedges of fresh lemon which should be squeezed all over the steaks before eating. 

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