Scraps and Snippets ~ Butterfinger Fudge

 I hesitate to even attempt vegan candy since Cara of Forks and Beans is the queen. But. A few months ago I had a friend tell me about homemade butterfingers that is seriously 1 bag of candy corn and 1 18 ounce container of peanut butter melted in the microwave for 1 minute. She said she found the recipe on Pinterest and that it was so easy and so delish. I, of course, want this in the worst way. However, classic candy corn in not vegan. And vegan candy corn is not cheap and I'm not sure it would work out the same way. 

So. Cara made some delicious looking crunchy honeycomb somesuch candy. And even though I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand and wasn't confident enough to trial and error a whole batch, I did experiment. So thanks for the recipe Cara...and I hope you don't mind that I made it my own and came up with something very close to vegan butterfinger insides. Flaky and chewy, peanut buttery and sweet. And anything covered in chocolate, well, nuff said, right? 

2 1/2 TBSP Earth Balance

2 1/2 TBSP brown rice syrup

1/3 Cup sugar (vegan)

1 1/2 TBSP water

1 tsp baking soda 

1/3 Cup peanut butter

Grease a bread pan.

Put Earth Balance, brown rice syrup, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat and when the sugar dissolves increase heat and bring to hopping boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add baking soda and stir. Let sit for 3 or so minutes. Then add the peanut butter and stir. And pour the mixture into the bread pan. 

NOTE: The goal is to get this to a crack stage. Two friends have tried the same recipe and gotten different results, one got toffee, the other got gooey caramel…still amazing tasting, but different. Go with a medium heat to boiling and get it to a rolling boil adjusting the flame as needed. Use a candy thermometer or water test if unsure. The baking soda puffs this up making air pockets, the peanut butter combines and softens the end result so you get layers like in a real deal butterfinger. 

Chocolate Topping
1/3 Cup vegan chocolate chips

1 TBSP peanut butter

Melt peanut butter in the same saucepan. Add chocolate chips and stir. When they are all melted, pour over butterfinger layer. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Cut and put back into the fridge until they set up. They are kind of fragile, so store in the fridge.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Worth Waiting For Burrito Bake

Burrito Bake

7 x 11 or 8 x 11 pan. 

1 can young jackfruit drained

1/2 Cup quinoa

1/2 TBSP chili pepper

1/2 TBSP garlic powder

1/2 TBSP cumin

1 Cup vegetable broth

Simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the jack fruit is mostly shreddable. 

Preheat oven to 350.

4 ounces of salsa

6 to 8 ounces of vegetable broth (I went with 8 and the texture is pretty amazing but very moist, not runny though)

1/2 Cup shredded Daiya or cashew cream based cheese sauce

1 Cup shredded zucchini

2 large tortillas

Pour 1/3 of the salsa on the bottom of the pan. Layer one ripped-to-fit tortilla over that. Place 1/2 the shredded zucchini on the tortilla, 1/2 the jackfruit mixture over that, another 1/3 of the salsa topped by the other ripped to fit tortilla. Layer the rest of the zucchini, jackfruit, cheese or cheese sauce, and top with remainder of salsa. Then pour water/broth evenly over the whole thing and shimmy it a bit. 

Bake for 40 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes. Serve with chopped tomatoes, more salsa, avocado slices, guacamole, more cheese sauce, veg sour cream, chopped lettuce, chiles, chopped black olives. Add beans to the layers if you'd like or more chopped veggies. 

I'd have done more with it, but I'm still holding out on the grocery store trip. But simplicity rocks in this case. I'd have added vegan sour cream to the jackfruit and mixed in the salsa, more cheese, etc. But this really tastes great as is. It's a keeper.  

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Vegan Mofo No Recipe Here, Folks, Just Keep On Moving On...

Oops. This Vegan Mofo post should include a recipe. But, here's the deal. I'm painting my upstairs. And I am sorely in need of a trip to the grocery store. And I cooked over the weekend. A lot. But most of what I cooked was testing recipes from a new-to-be-published cookbook, so I can't post any of those. I could, I suppose, but the authors just might have an issue with that. Plus we have leftovers, so we aren't feeling any pressure to throw together anything creative just to get by. I guess this is proof that you can live quite well on vegan food, even if the vegan food in the house is limited. Let's call it a test to prove, that indeed, there is enough nutrition in veggies, legumes, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds to survive quite nicely.  So now I owe you three recipes. Oh my. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Cheezeburger Pizza

Cooked and with black sesame seeds.

Pizza Crust:  Use your favorite. If you don't have a recipe or favorite crust here's an idea. 

3 teaspoons yeast
1 Cup warm water 
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 TBSP olive oil
2+ Cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour) 

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water in medium mixing bowl. Add sugar (to feed the yeast). Stir and let this sit for 5 minutes, it should foam). Add the oil, salt and the rest of the water. Add 2 cups of flour and stir into a soft dough. Dump onto a floured surface and cover with flour. Knead dough adding flour as needed (a TBSP at a time) until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.

Place dough into a greased bowl and cover with a towel and let rise for about 30 minutes. 

In the meantime prep the toppings: Preheat oven to 450 or as directed by your pizza crust recipe/instructions. 

Use your favorite meat substitute for hamburger (approx 1 cup or two burgers broken into pieces). If you need recipes here are a few of our favorites. 

Ready for the oven. 

1/3 Cup organic ketchup
1 and 1/2 TBSP mustard
3 TBSP dill pickle relish or  equivalent dill pickles chopped
1/2 Cup small dice onion
2 TBSP sesame seeds (I used black, maybe not quite as appetizing when you look at it). 
Additionally, 1/2 to 1 Cup, shredded "cheddar cheese", Daiya, etc. or use 1/4 Cup cashew cheese sauce like I did (I don't have my own recipe, I was actually testing one for an upcoming cookbook so I can't give the details.)

Mix the mustard and ketchup together and use as your pizza sauce. Spread your meat substitute, pickles and onion over the sauce. Pour or sprinkle your cheese over that and top with sesame seeds. 

Bake for approx 20 minutes. 

Feel free to add diced tomatoes, lettuce, more ketchup and mustard as toppings before serving. 

Makes one decent sized pizza, serves 3-4 people. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Mexican Potato Skins

Yesterday I shared Deviled Potatoes. Those were so much fun I went ahead and veganized one of our other favorite appetizer/fun meals.

Preheat to 350

Wash and remove eyes from 4 medium potatoes. I used red and I left the skin on, but you could peel them.

Pierce the potatoes and place in a covered baker. (It's important to cover them, the potatoes need to stay moist.) Bake for 30 minutes, test for tenderness. When tender remove from oven and let cool.

When the potatoes are cool, cut the potatoes in half longwise and scoop out most of the potato flesh from the middle of each of the potatoes and add the scoop to the mixture in the food processor. 

Additionally you need:

1 avocado (peeled and seeded, obviously. :  )

1 small onion chunked

3 TBSP salsa

2 cloves garlic

Add these to the potato in the food processor and process until smooth. 

Place the potato shells back in the oven, under the broiler and allow them to crisp and brown.

Scoop the filling into the potato wells/holes, heaping it up a bit. Then, load em up. Vegan cheese, avocado slices, tomatoes, salsa, green onions. cilantro, coconut or tempeh bacon bits.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Deviled Potatoes

Makes 8 deviled potatoes

Preheat to 350

Wash and remove eyes from 4 smallish potatoes. I used red and I left the skin on, but you could peel them.

Pierce the potatoes and place in a covered baker. (It's important to cover them, the potatoes need to stay moist.) Bake for 30 minutes, test for tenderness. When tender remove from oven and let cool.

Into your food processor place the following.

1/2 of a small onion 

several good shakes each of salt and pepper

3 TBSPS of vegan mayonnaise 

1 TBSP mustard to the onions. Give it a few whirs.

When the potatoes are cool, cut the potatoes in half longwise and scoop out a large section from the middle of each of the potatoes and add the scoop to the mixture in the food processor.

The potato shell should look a lot like a deviled egg without the filling. Kind of...a cross between a twice-baked potato and a deviled egg and potato salad. Whir the mayo/onion/potato mixture until creamy. Taste it. Make sure you are happy with the blend. Now, if you are a fan of German potato salad, or have a favorite egg salad, deviled egg or potato salad recipe feel free to use it here. No sense in reinventing the wheel. Also, if you prefer an idea of chunky go for it.

Scoop the filling into the potato wells/holes, heaping it up a bit. Then, come up with some garnishing ideas. I used paprika sprinkled over the top. Coconut bacon would be delicious.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Walking Taco

Back in the day when the kids belonged to 4H we used to go to the local county fair. It was so much fun. And one of the big treats was discovering a thing called walking tacos. They were little sideways slit bags of Fritos with chili and cheese and other assorted goodies on top. I don't know if it was the fun factor or novelty, but every year we looked forward to those walking tacos. 

Now we can have them whenever we want. Veganized and as delicious as we remember. 

6 small bags of Fritos.  Cut the the bag horizontally. 

3 crumbled veggie burgers or veggie meat crumbles. ( I used these)

2 small tomatoes diced

1 small onion small dice

1 tsp fresh chopped cilantro
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cumin

Toss the meat, onion, tomato in a hot pan and stir until onion begins to brown. Add the spices and water. Simmer until the water is absorbed. 

Scoop the mixture onto the Fritos in the bag. Top with some of the following: vegan sour cream, vegan cheese, chopped tomatoes, slices of avocado or guacamole, chopped black olives, black or pinto beans, lettuce, salsa... eat with a fork and enjoy.