Starbucks' Chocolate Cinnamon Loaf - veganized, reduced in fat & sugar

I'm weak. I've come to accept that despite my efforts to be "good" when it comes to sweets, I MUST have a little something here and there. I'm working towards doing a 10k open water competitive swim this summer, so I NEED to be good, but I also need to balance it with the inevitable cravings to have a little somethin' somethin'. 

This afternoon, I decided to give my hand at making a loaf similar to Starbucks' "Chocolate Cinnamon Bread." Yep, before the holidays I was especially weak and had this on my morning commute to work a few times. yum yum yum. Much to my surprise, Starbucks had actually posted their own recipe online! Seriously surprised they would give away the recipe for something they make money off of, but hey, awesome. 

Not so awesome is the nutritional profile. Just look at the original recipe...1 1/2 cups butter and 3 cups of sugar to 2 cups of flour, yikes. Sure, that makes 2 loaves, but still, from the perspective of ratio that still crazy. I decided to both veganize the recipe and reduce the fat and sugar. I made 1 large loaf, and 6 muffin-sized. The muffin sized-ones pop out of the tin easily, the loaf wasn't an issue but the top has a nice crusty crumble to it, making it a little harder to turn out without ruining the look of it. Just let it cool a bit, maybe cut it in half and be gently when turning it out.

The loaf doesn't have the same look, it doesn't rise as high as the original version but the taste is dead on, even with half the sugar and 2/3 the margarine. I'm really pleased they posted the recipe, and seeing as how I've already had 2 of the muffin-sized ones, it's safe to say this recipe will be a keeper. I'll freeze some of it. Maybe. Depends. Weak, weak, weak...

Loaf

1 cup margarine (2 sticks), room temperature, cut into pieces

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar of choice

6 eggs' worth of egg replacer (prepared with water)

2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups dutch pressed cocoa

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups plain (or vanilla) soymilk

1 tsp vanilla

Cocoa spice topping

2 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cocoa

pinch of ground ginger

pinch ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Prepare 2 loaf baking pans - I spray my pans with cooking oil, then shake a spoonful of floor along the bottom and edges, I find it helps make sure nothing sticks.

In a mixing bowl, use the electric mixer to blend the margarine and sugar. Add in the egg replacement, scrape down sides and mix until smooth.

Mix remaining dry ingredients together. Measure out the soymilk. Keeping the mixer on, add the dry ingredients and milk to the butter mixture bit by bit, alternating between wet and dry.

Turn batter out into prepared pans, and sprinkle evenly with cocoa spice topping. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes, be sure to check if done with a toothpick - sometimes vegan goods are a bit more dense, and need a bit longer.

Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then gently turn out onto a cooling rack.

Once cool, move to a cutting board to slice. 

Makes 2 loaves, one can be frozen whole or in slices if needed, for up to a month. 

Lemon Dream Cupcakes

Friday is treat night = I heart cuppie cakes. This is my adaptation of the basic vanilla cupcake from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World', great book! I cut back on the sugar and margarine to make them, ahem, healthier. Also, I used whole grain spelt flour, makes for a dense cupcake but there were nooooo complaints here...

Makes 12 small or 8 medium cupcakes.

Be warned, these cupcakes are not terribly sweet so double the sugar and stick to white flour if you're looking for something a little more traditional. Keep in mind that icing will add to the sensation of sweetness. I cut back on the sugar intentionaly, you know, so I could have my cake and eat it too...

3/4 cup milk of choice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar of choice (try succanat)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup margarine, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups flour of choice (used spelt today)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 large lemon, peel grated and then juiced
few drops lemon essence, if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin pan or line with muffin cups. Mix milk and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl, and allow to sit for a few minutes to curdle. Curdle, you ask? Yep, this is the equivalent of buttermilk...works especially well with soymilk, as it thickens quite a bit. Add sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, 1/2 the lemon peel and lemon essence if using. Stir in the melted margarine, but ensure it has cooled beforehand or it 'cook' your milk. In a measuring cup, mix your flour, cornstarch, baking soda and powder, and salt. Whisk your flour into your wet ingredients, ensuring all lumps are gone. Pour batter into muffin pan, and tap bottom of pan on counter to ensure bubbles rise to the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick to the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Let sit for a few minutes, and then remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Once completely cooled, ice those puppies! I like to buy prepared icing - there are several vegan varieties already on the shelf in your local grocery store, and it really simplifies things when you're in a hurry. For this recipe, I mix 1/2 cup vanilla icing, the remaining lemon peel, a few drop of yellow food coloring and lemon essence.

Yummers!

Per cupcake un-iced, if making 8: 139 cals, 5g fat, 22g carbs, 187mg sodium, 2g fiber, 3g protein.  (PRO9%,CHO59%,FAT32%)

Per cupcake un-iced, if making 12: 92 cals, 3g fat, 15g carbs, 125mg sodium, 2g fiber, 2g protein.  (PRO9%,CHO59%,FAT32%)

Hungarian Zebratorta - chocolate banana zebra cake

I stumbled across Zebratorta while researching Hungarian foods, and was intrigued by the unique design of white and chocolate "zebra stripes" pattern in the cake batter. In my version of this recipe, I veganized it by using bananas in place of eggs. Not traditional, I know, but it really did the trick! Zebratorta is relatively simple to make, and delectable.
...mmmm...cake

Makes 12 servings. Unless of course you love cake, and then you'll probably eat 2-3 servings at once, like I did. For breakfast.

There are several versions of this recipe, some baked directly in the pan and some baked into a sweet crust, kind of like an open-faced pie. I'm trying to limit extra fat and calories - yes, I realize this is a post for cake, but a girl can't survive on veggies alone - so I opted for a simple recipe baked directly in the cake tin. Here's where things got tricky...cutting back on fat in Hungarian cooking and baking is questionable. Well, my grandmother would certainly question it. Fat, after all, is flavor. And, the original recipe called for 5 eggs, seperated so the whites could be beaten to fluffy peaks. Replicating the texture while also cutting back on oil was a challenge, but I think the results were quite successful!

2 large bananas
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 cups milk of choice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 2/3 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa

Heat oven to 360 degrees, and grease and flour a round baking tin, removable bottom if possible (but not necessary). Mash bananas in a mixing bowl, add sugar, milk, vanilla and oil. Blend with handmixer or whisk vigorously for 2-3 minutes to emulsify the oil. In a seperate bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Add liquid to dry ingredients, and blend well enough to ensure lumps are removed. Pour 1/2 of the batter back into the other bowl. Add cocoa to one of the bowls, and again blend well enough to ensure batter is smooth.

Now you're ready to start creating your zebra pattern in the baking tin! It's very simple. Using large spoons, seperate ones for each batter, start with the cocoa batter and scoop about 1/3 cup. Drop in the middle of the tin. It will start to spread out a little - don't worry, this is a good thing. Next, take a scoop of the white batter and drop it in the center of the cocoa batter that's already sitting in the tin. Keep alternating between cocao and white batters, allowing the

batter to keep spreading and spreading outwards in the pan. If the batter is a little on the thick side, after you have all of your zebra layers in the tin you can gently shake it to help the batter cover the entire bottom of the pan.

Don't worry if the pattern isn't elegant, the end result will be unique-looking and yummy! Bake for 30-40 minutes, the top will brown quickly but be sure to test with a toothpick to ensure the center is cooked. Store in a covered container.

Per slice: 260 cals, 7g fat, 45g carbs, 12mg sodium, 2g fiber, 5g protein.  (PRO7%,CHO68%,FAT25%)

Dark Chocolate Almond Brownies

Makes 16 servings.

ooooooooooh these are good! Nothing beats a moist brownie, even better, cover it in chocolate sauce and sprinkle it with icing sugar. Or just eat it straight out of the pan, whatever floats your boat...

2 cups flour of choice, try mixing spelt and regular flours

100g ground almonds

   (1 small package) 

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 1/4 cups milk of choice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

100g dark chocolate (5 squares)

Heat oven to 380 degrees. Spray and flour your baking tin. Mix flour, almonds, cocoa and baking powder in a large bowl. Add applesauce, milk, oil and vanilla, and stir well to blend. Pour in melted chocolate, and blend batter well to ensure all lumps are gone. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out done. The brownies will look very dense, but so long as the toothpick comes out clean you're good to go!

Note: if keeping this recipe vegan, be sure to check your dark chocolate for dairy - I used a PC-brand pure dark chocolate bar here. Also, consider warming the soymilk and disolving 1 Tbsp of quality instant coffee (is there such thing?!? fellow coffee snobs, you know what I'm sayin) in it to make mocha almond brownies. You could also bake this in a cake tin, it has the texture of flourless cake to some extent even though there is flour in it.

Per serving: 234 cals, 10g fat, 34g carbs, 16mg sodium, 2g fiber, 4g protein.  (PRO7%,CHO56%,FAT37%)

Apfel Kuchen, German Apple Cake

Makes 10 slices.

I've been wanting to work on a vegan version of Kuchen, a simple German white vanilla cake baked with fruit - most typically apples. Thinking back to high school German class, one of my textbooks had the perfect Kuchen recipe...moist, sweet and somewhat dense. I'd also seen versions where the baked kuchen was glazed with apricot jam, but I only had crabapple on hand and it turned out quite well. Here is my vegan adaptation of Kuchen, try it with apples, but fresh blueberries, apricots, or plums would be just as yummy!

2 cups flour of choice

1/2 cup sugar of choice
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

1/3 cup margarine, melted

2 cups milk of choice
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp lemon juice or zest
2 apples, sliced
1 Tbsp apricot jam

Use pan oil spray to prepare an 8" baking tin. Blend dry ingredients. Mix together milk, vanilla, lemon juice and melted margarine. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Peel and core apple, cut into slices and push down into top of cake. Bake in 350 degree oven for 15-20 mins, until done and lightly browned. Brush top with jam to glaze if desired, and serve with creme anglaise, soy ice cream or anything that adds a little sweetness to the cake. This part is up to you of course, the cake is traditionally served as is!

Note: if using frozen blueberries, toss with a little flour before pushing down into dough.

Per serving: 211 cals, 6g fat, 36g carbs, 78mg sodium, 2 fiber, 4g protein.  (PRO8%,CHO68%,FAT24%)