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Darcie Bakes //

August 1, 2015

{Vegan} Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

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My roommate had just gotten home and walked into the kitchen as I was pulling these muffins out of the oven. We like to play a guessing game as to what the other person is baking when we get home, based on whatever we smell when we walk in.

“They’re pumpkin muffins,” I said.
“I… think you’re in the wrong season!” she replied.
“Yeah. I know it’s July… I don’t care. I love pumpkin!” I responded back to her.

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I decided to leave the roomie a “wrong season muffin” on the counter so she would have a pre/post run snack at 5:00AM the following morning. (The woman is training for a marathon… the least I can do is spare her a muffin!) When I got to work that day, she IMed me via our work messenger and said, “I love wrong season muffins!”

My response to that was: “I’m glad to hear it! What makes this even better is that they’re vegan!”

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{I may or may not have used too many chocolate chips…}

I know what you’re thinking: Cool story, bruh! So what’s the moral of that story? The moral of the story is: wrong season muffins are awesome. It’s July, and the heat and humidity are pretty gross here in Missouri. But I don’t care. I have had a fierce pumpkin craving for awhile now. These vegan muffins had been enticing me for quite sometime. So I finally gave in, and man I’m glad I did. You’d never know these muffins are vegan. They’re the perfect muffin-y texture and the pumpkin flavor shines through just right. I imagine the cinnamon comes through nicely too, but I added too many chocolate chips, so the chocolate sorta overshadowed the cinnamon. [Although a coworker said that you can never have too many chocolate chips, and I’m inclined to agree.]

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I love recipes like these because they can be enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans [aka me, a butter lover] alike. In summary: Wrong Season muffins are pretty legit. 🙂

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{Vegan} Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Yield: About 10-12 regular-sized muffins.

Ingredients:
– 1 flax egg [One flax egg = 1 TBSP. flax seed meal + 3 TBSP. of water. Stir and let sit for about five minutes before using. It’ll get gelatinous like egg whites; that’s the binding ingredient!] 
– 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
– 1 cup almond milk + 1 TBSP. lemon juice [or white distilled vinegar, or just sub buttermilk if you’re not vegan]
– 1/2 cup brown sugar
– 2 TBSP. vegetable or canola oil [I think I used light olive oil in this case… Doesn’t really matter too much. Coconut oil would work as well.]
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 tsp. baking powder
– 1/2 tsp. baking soda
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 1 tsp. cinnamon
– 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
– 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
– 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips [I used mini semisweet chocolate chips. You can use nondairy chocolate chips for vegans.]

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with 10-12 paper liners, and set aside.
2. If you haven’t already, prepare the flax egg by mixing the flax seed meal with three tablespoons of water in a large bowl. Allow it to rest for five minutes to become gelatinous.
3. Add the pumpkin puree, almond milk [with the lemon juice or vinegar, it’ll get curdled; it’s a great vegan buttermilk substitute!], brown sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the flax egg when it’s ready. Stir the ingredients together until just combined.
4. Next, add the salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.
5. Carefully place both flours into a sifter, and sift them over the wet ingredients. Stir until just combined.
6. Add the chocolate chips, and stir again until it’s just incorporated. Be careful to not over-stir. {Note: If the batter is overly thick, feel free to add a splash of almond milk or orange juice. I had no issues with the thickness of the batter, though.}
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin until each liner is filled nearly all the way [about 7/8ths full]. Sprinkle several more chocolate chips on top for presentation, or if you really love extra chocolate [or both, if you’re me!].
8. Bake for about 22-28 minutes or until fluffy, slightly golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. {Note: I only had to bake for 22 minutes. Any longer than that would’ve been too much in my oven. Just keep an eye on them, but don’t open the oven door too much.}
9. Let the muffins rest in the pan for abut five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

 + Recipe via Minimalist Baker.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: chocolate chips, muffins, pumpkin, vegan

May 17, 2015

Peanut Butter Banana Bread. {With Chocolate Chips!}

Do you ever have those times in which you just know something you’re making [or baking, as the case may be] is gonna be good? That was the case with this nanner bread.

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Now, this nanner bread isn’t something I’d eat slice after slice of in a row. It’s pretty rich, hence the bananas/chocolate/peanut butter. However, it is really, really good banana bread!

I took some to a little STL foodie get-together at Urban Chestnut Brewery in The Grove, because I needed to pawn it off on people [read: so I wouldn’t eat it all, because I would, despite its richness]. I packaged it up in some simple Saran wrap, but then added some pretty Washi tape and emoji stickers! Yes, emoji stickers are a thing. I found some on Amazon. I know they’re probably a bit ridiculous, but I love them. They’re so fun!

{Photo courtesy of We Eat Stuff STL.}
{Photo courtesy of We Eat Stuff STL. Because they have a WAY cooler camera than me… And they are much better at food photog than I am.}

If you’ve got some overly ripe bananas sitting on your counter, and some creamy Jif [Jif peanut butter is the only peanut butter that matters] sitting in your pantry, well then you should probably make this quick bread. If you know what’s good for ya, of course. Package it up all cute-like, and hand it out to people you barely know! They’ll probably think you’re super sweet [or super creepy; your mileage may vary]! And they’ll snack on it while they wait for their food for 45 minutes. 😀 😉

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Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips.

Ingredients:
– 2 cups all-purpose flour
– ¾ tsp. baking soda
– ½ tsp. salt
– 3 medium bananas, mashed
– ½ cup creamy peanut butter
– ½ cup granulated sugar
– ½ cup light brown sugar
– â…“ cup buttermilk [I used a buttermilk substitute.]
– ¼ cup vegetable oil
– 2 eggs
– 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard sized loaf pan, or cut parchment paper to fit it so that the paper hangs over the sides. Set prepared pan aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In a separate large bowl, beat together the banana, peanut butter, sugars, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Fold together until no raw flour clumps remain. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then smooth the top of the batter. Bake until the loaf is golden brown, and a toothpick or knife inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. This should take about an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. Note: If your bread is browning too quickly, place a tended piece of foil over it. [I had to do this at about forty minutes, so just keep an eye on it. But don’t open your oven too much.]

6. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The banana bread will keep for several days, wrapped tightly and kept at room temperature.

– Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker.

2 Comments Filed Under: bananas, bread, chocolate chips, nanners, peanut butter, quick bread

April 22, 2015

Chocolate Chip Browned Butter Blondies {With Sea Salt}.

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Man oh man. While brownies will probably always be my favorite dessert, I have to say that blondies – especially those with brown butter – are a close second.

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Browned butter is a pretty popular phenomenon on food blogs, as you might’ve noticed. I don’t think I had a clue as to what browned butter was until several years ago, when I first started getting into reading food blogs. Even then, I avoided it for quite some time, because it just sounds intimidating, you know? And even still, I think that a lot of people don’t really know what it is. I remember raving about it to someone at work, and they were just like, “Brown butter? Is that like, rotten butter something?” HA! So then of course I had to go into a long, rambling explanation about what browned butter actually is, and why it’s so awesome. That person probably stopped listening after the first sentence of the explanation. But that’s okay. Even if you’re not a baking nerd like I am, you can still appreciate the beauty that is brown [browned? I don’t know] butter.

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{I want this as my new desktop background. Dat texture doe.}

So what is browned butter, you ask? Great question. Plenty of other food blogs have probably explained it much better than me. But for the record, no, it is not “rotten butter.” [Eww.] Brown butter is simply butter that has been browned. Why would you want to brown your butter, you ask? Well, we all know that butter is amazing on its own [REAL BUTTER Y’ALL! – that was in my Paula Deen voice]. But when you brown it and add it to foodstuffs, it tends to take the taste of everything to another level. In savory foods – such as browned butter sweet potato gnocchi with crispy sage [I had a dish like this in Seattle; it was amazeballs] – it gives the taste of the dish a nutty flavor. In sweet treats, it adds a lovely caramel-esque flavor to everything. That’s why browned butter is perfect for blondies: blondies are basically chocolate chip cookies in bar form – with a brownie-like texture. Adding browned butter means that the blondies have even more of a caramel-y flavor to them than before. What’s not to like?!

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{I had way too much fun arranging the slices of blondies to read “Hi” … Who says a mid-twenties lady can’t play with her food? :P}

Now, I have made a few blondie recipes in the past. But what I really appreciate about this particular recipe is its simplicity. There are only seven ingredients, and it involves two sticks of butter, y’all. The end result is caramel-y, rich blondies, studded with chocolate chips. And if you choose to sprinkle them with flaky sea salt – well, that just makes them even more awesome. It cuts some of the sweetness, and it just adds that tasty, salty-sweet flavor combination that a lot of people really love. So if you’re craving something rich and sweet, do yourself a favor and make these blondies.

Also, you should know that browning butter isn’t that difficult. It just requires understanding the technique, and paying really close attention to what you’re doing so that you don’t burn it. The work is definitely worth the end result; it adds such a nice element of taste to everything you put it in!

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Chocolate Chip Browned Butter Blondies [With Sea Salt].

Yield: One 8×8″ (or 9×9″) square pan of blondies. 

Ingredients:
– 2 
sticks [one cup] of unsalted butter
– 2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 heaping tsp. salt
– 2 large eggs
– 4 tsp. good-quality vanilla extract
– 1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar [Light brown sugar works just fine, too.]
– 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips [I used semisweet.]
– Flaky sea salt, for topping [optional, except not really]

Instructions:
1. Begin by browning the butter: In a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Swirl it around a few times. You may need to turn the heat up to medium-high. It will begin to foam and spatter after several minutes of being melted. Keep an eye on it; after about 3-4 minutes, it will begin to smell nutty. You will notice that it will start sizzling and browned bits will begin to form. The butter is done browning when the sizzling starts to quiet down, and the browned bits have dropped to the bottom of the pan. {This is where the solids and liquids of the fat will separate from one another. The “browned” color is actually about the color of rust; you don’t want it much darker than that.} Again, keep a close watch on the butter, as it’s really easy to burn. If you notice black bits forming within the butter, it has begun to burn, and you’ll need to start over. Allow the butter to cool in a large bowl [for about 30 minutes… or if you want that marbled effect, cool the butter for about five minutes, then proceed with the recipe].

2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare your baking pan by lining it with parchment paper or aluminum foil, and set aside.

3. Whisk together the flour and salt in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla, and set aside.

4. Add the brown sugar to the cooled butter, and mix together with a wooden spoon for about a minute.

5. Next, add the egg/vanilla mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Stir until combined and shiny, which should take about 20 seconds.

6. Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Mix until there are a few pockets of flour left; and add the chocolate chips. Mix until the chocolate is evenly distributed, and the flour pockets are gone; be careful to not over-mix, though.

7. Spoon the dough into the prepared pan; spread it evenly into the pan as best as you can [the dough will keep its shape]. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is crispy and just starting to get crackly. The edges should be firm and slightly browned; the center should not feel super soft. Top the blondies with sea salt, if you wish.

8. Allow to cool completely, then remove from the pan. Slice and serve. The blondies should keep at room temperature for a few days, or you can freeze them for longer term.

– Recipe from Food 52.

PS: Sorry that this post was a little heavy on the words. Whoops. I just got overly excited about browned butter. Heh.

1 Comment Filed Under: blondies, browned butter, chocolate chips

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I'm Darcie. In a nutshell: I'm a baker and mental health advocate in the tech industry.
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