Mochadoodles: Variation on a Theme

Last fall I posted a recipe for Mexican Snickerdoodle via The Post Punk Kitchen as inspired by The Ann Arbor People's Food Co-Op. This evening while I was napping, I dreamt that I made Mexidoodles with instant coffee (in the same vein as my Roti Boy recipe, so when I woke up, I decided to make them. I made some blondie ones and some choco ones, just because I wanted to see how the instant coffee behaved in the cookie (without being masked by the cocoa), but they both turned out well, so I'd advise you do the same. Makes about 18-20 cookies.

1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. refined sugar
3 T. milk
2 t. (or 2 servings) of instant coffee crystals (I used crappy Kroger Brand)
1 t. almond milk
1 2/3 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder.
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon

a couple more teaspoons of sugar and some cinnamon for the sugary topping.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the oil, syrup, vanilla, sugar together. Dissolve the crystals in the almond milk, and add that. Stir briskly until blended. Slowly sift in the flour. Add in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon and just one heaping tsp of the cocoa powder. Set the rest of the cocoa powder aside. Stir until blending. Roll walnut-sized balls of dough, press into a mixture of cinnamon and sugar (ratio of your choice) and bake for about 7-10 minutes. The tops will get crackly. Be careful, as this recipe will turn crispy fast if you overcook them (I prefer chewy). After the first batch (9 cookies on my cookie sheet), add in the rest of the cocoa powder and finish the rest of the dough balls.

Yum.

VEGAN ROTIBOY!!!!!!

Rotiboy is a delicious Malaysian mall-bakery coffee bun, that I believe were taken from a traditional Mexican treat. They are extremely unvegan, but extremely irresistible when you are at Simpang Lima Mall in Semarang Indonesia, half starved but determined to use the internet. The nice thing about Rotiboy, is you don't need to speak any language, just hold up fingers for however many buns you want, because the bun (with no variation) is the only thing Rotiboy sells. This morning I woke up thinking about Rotiboy. I am going to Haiti tomorrow to do some relief work, and so I made these for dessert after my going-away dinner. They are a work in progress, but it tastes like Rotiboy. The recipe is a 3-parter-- dough, filling, topping.

Dough:
4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. Earth Balance, softened
about 1 c. Plain Almond Milk
2 t. active yeast
1 t. salt
Ener-G egg replacer for 1 egg (1 heaping tsp + the recommended amount of water)

Proof yeast in a mug with some sugar and a little bit of the milk warmed, set aside to do it's thing. Sift 4c. flour into a bowl, add sugar and salt. Stir in the liquid ingredients. Knead in the butter. Dough should be smooth and stretchy, not sticky. Add more milk or flour accordingly. Knead for approximately 10 minutes. Separate dough into round balls a little bigger than a golf ball (I was able to make 17)... let them rest for about 10 minutes while you make the filling.


Filling:
1/3 c. loosely packed light brown sugar,
7 T. Earth Balance stick, softened (use all but 1 T... it makes sense when the recipe is complete)
1/2 t. vanilla

Mix the three ingredients with a hand mixer. The butter has to be quite soft, but NOT MELTY. I turn on the oven for 30 seconds and then turn it off and put the butter inside to facilitate butter softening in our frigid home.  Set aside.

So by now, your dough has rested. Smoosh each ball down (about the size of a coaster?) and spoon a dollop (shooter marble sized?) of the butter filling into the middle. If you have leftover, add a little more to each one. Use it all up. You won't be sorry.

Next, close them up. I folded mine in the middle (like a taco) and then folded each side in and sealed the edges, then I manipulated the shape so they were rounded squares. Place them on a cookie sheet with tin foil underneath and let rest for 45 minutes somewhere toasty (again, I used the oven trick).

While they are resting, make the topping.

Topping:
 The topping is THE most important, the original recipe called for 3 eggs, and this is certainly where there is the most room for improvement. Sam claims my only problem was that I didn't use enough topping per bun, I thought it was a little... dry. And less melty in your mouth...

2 T. instant coffee dissolved in 1 T. warm water
1.5 c. powdered sugar
3/4 c. flour, sifted
1/2 t. cinnamon
7 T. Earth Balance stick, softened
Almond Milk as needed (since I didn't put in eggs. Maybe a higher fat milk (coconut milk?) would help with the dryness)

Mix together the dry ingredients, stir in the wet ingredients, use a mixer to whip them up. The consistency should be like really thick frosting. Load this business into a pastry bag or a ziploc with the tip cut off and squeeze it onto the top of the buns right before you cook them. I thought the icing would spread out a little as it got warmer and cover the entire surface of the bun, but it didn't.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until the top is brown.

squash tostadas

In America we tend to avoid food that's really spicy when it's stupid hot out, but in Indonesia, they made spicy food particularly when it was super hot and humid out, so I'm doing that today.



-one yellow squash
-one large onion (sweet), chopped
-one zucchini
-two jalepenoes
-one green pepper
-the juice of one lime
-2-3 cloves of garlic
-olive oil
-small corn tortillas (2-3 for a normal person, 4 for a hungry person)
-dash of salt
-fajita seasoning or hot sauce or a packet of taco seasoning (I use "the spice hunter" salt free fajita seasoning blend in the bottle)
-(optional) one avocado, mashed

1. In a large skillet (or ikea wok that you stole from ed grant) sautee the onions in oil until translucent. Reduce heat and add chopped garlic, and then jalepenoes. I used about half the seeds and mine turned out super spicy, so adjust accordingly based on how much heat you like.
2. I chopped my yellow squash in finger sizes, and my zucchini in thin medallions. Do that, and add them. Turn up the heat a little.
3. Add the chopped green pepper. I chopped mine pretty small this time.
4. Add salt and seasoning and let simmer for a bit.
5. In a separate skillet, heat some oil and fry up the corn tortillas, about 4 minutes on each side.
6. As the tortillas are finishing, squeeze the juice of one lime onto the veg mixture, and let it simmer for a minute more.
7. Smear the avocado on the tortillas that are now tostadas, and scoops the veggies over top.

SO KILLER GOOD!

Enchiladas

I swear I posted this before, but I can't find it, so I'm posting it again. This is one of my favorite things because it's easy, well balanced, full of fiber, not full of fat, and you can eat this for dinner and lunch for like a week. They reheat well, but if you're a gynecologist like me, people might get weirded out if your cuticles are stained with orange enchilada sauce, so be careful with that.

-1 pkg large flour tortillas
-1 can of black beans (I use spicy), rinsed
-1/2 can corn, rinsed
-frozen chopped spinach
-frozen tri-color peppers, I suppose you can use fresh.
-really any vegetables you have laying around, I often use up the almost-empty bags of everything I have in the freezer
-2 cans enchilada sauce
-oil to coat baking dish
-one box spanish rice, prepared according to the directions on the box
-optional: a fake meat: tofu, crumbles, tempeh, whatever.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. I like to wrap the tortillas in a wet towel and put them in the oven while it's heating up in order to soften up the tortillas. Prepare the rice. Thaw all the vegetables, they don't have to be thoroughly warmed, just not in icy chunks. I use a handful of frozen spinach, and a generous amount of the frozen peppers. Mix them in a bowl with the beans and corn and half of one can of the enchilada sauce. Add some salt, pepper, cayenne, fajita seasoning, whatever you have. Fill the tortillas with 2 spoonfuls of rice, and several spoonfuls of the filling. Roll up the tortilla and place it on the oiled baking dish, seam side down (so they stay closed). Repeat with all the tortillas. Cover with foil and cook for 20 minutes, removing the foil for the last five minutes.