Big Cookie Cheesecake

This has not been the place to find healthy, lighter fare lately. Sorry about that. I'll get back to some lighter stuff, I swear. In the meantime, tell yourself you'll eat healthy tomorrow and make this instead.

I usually try a recipe a couple of times before I put it up here, but the reaction to this was so big that I just decided to go with it. That's why some of the pictures aren't so great. Normally, I wouldn't have foil hanging out in the background, like in the one above. Plus, our new kitchen isn't as big well-lit and colorful as our old one, so pictures have been a bit of a challenge.

I struggled with what to call this thing. Cheesecake-stuffed cookie? No, it's not really just one cookie. Monster Cookie Cheesecake? No, too close to Cookie Monster Cheesecake, which brings other images (and possible copyright infringement) to mind. The big, round layers of dough remind me of the pizza-sized big cookies my mom used to make for our birthdays as a kid. That was a weird fad in the late 80s/early 90s. I enjoyed them, but always felt a little cheated out of cake. I guarantee you won't feel cheated when you try this.

Lots of vegan cheesecake recipes use silken tofu, which is a good way to get that cheesecake texture. I decided to go for a more traditional approach, one based on the way a lot of dairy cheesecakes are made. This one is a very simple and straightforward vanilla cheesecake. You can personalize this a million different ways. Mix in chocolate or peanut butter or change up chocolate chip cookies for some other favorite kind for the crust. The possibilities are endless.

I used Tofutti vegan cream cheese for this because it's very close to dairy cream cheese in taste and texture. Trader Joe's makes an excellent vegan cream cheese as well. Just be careful: Tofutti makes a herb and chives variety of their cream cheese that has very similar packaging. Always double-check before buying it. That stuff is delicious, but would be just awful in this recipe.

Ingredients
For the cheesecake:
3 8 oz. containers of vegan cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar

4 1/2 tsp egg replacer, mixed with 6 tbsp warm water
3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla



For the cookie crust:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar
1 1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
2 tbsp corn starch
4 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose lour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Make the cookies: Combine the sugars, oil, milk and cornstarch in the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand mixer) and beat until they're well combined. Do this for at least two minutes, so the sugar and oil completely combine and the mixture looks like caramel. Mix in the vanilla. Add in the flour, a half-cup at a time, along with the baking soda and salt, while the machine is running. Mix it until it's well incorporated, then add the rest of the flour until you're finished. At this point, you'll need to fold in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Take the bottom off the springform pan and cover it with either plastic wrap or parchment paper. Put half of the cookie dough on and spread it out into a flat disk the size of the pan.

 Lay another sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper on top and repeat with the rest of the cookie dough. Lifting with the excess layer of plastic wrap or parchment, put both disks of dough into the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

 Make the cheesecake: Empty all three containers of cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix at high speed for about a minute to get it whipped and creamy. Add in the sugar, egg-replacer mixture and vanilla and beat on medium speed until the whole thing is smooth, whipped and creamy. It'll go from this:

To this:

It's ready pretty fast, so if you're cookie dough is still firming up in the fridge, you can put the filling in there as well.

Now it's time to put it all together. Lay everything out in front of you first. If you haven't already, reassemble your springform pan. Lift the top cookie layer up by the parchment and flip it over into the pan. Try to get as close to centered as you can. It won't really fit, because the dough was shaped to the outer edge of the pan, which is now covered by the sides. Push the dough out to the edges and work it up the sides of the pan a bit.

Now pour the cheesecake on top of the cookie dough.

Finally, gently flip the other cookie dough disk on top of the cheesecake mixture. This one you really do have to try to center. Push the dough out to the edges of the pan so that none of the cheesecake is showing through. It'll basically be floating on cheesecake.

Cover it with foil and bake for about 40 minutes. Then take the foil off and bake for another 10-12 minutes. Watch it closely at this point. The middle of the top layer of cookie dough may not look completely done while the rest is browning nicely. Even if it doesn't look done in the middle, pull it out if the edges are starting to burn. The middle will be done enough to be fine.

Let it cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, then cover it with the foil and move it to the fridge for at least 8 hours. I know, I know: it's asking a lot to let something like that just sit in your fridge uneaten. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

Maple Bacon Donuts

I'll start out by admitting that I've never had the famous maple bacon donuts from Voodoo Donuts that everyone has raved about for years. When I was a meat eater, it was low on my list of flavor priorities for donuts. I'm more of a cinnamon sugar or mint chocolate kind of guy. Strangely, it wasn't until after I went vegan that I started to wonder what they tasted like. Maybe it's the part of me that loves a challenge. Either way, these things are delicious.

These donuts may look complicated, but they're not. Don't be intimidated. The dough making and frying are the hardest part. They're admittedly time-consuming, but well worth the time and effort. If you want to impress an omnivore who thinks you eat nothing but kale, this is the way to do it.

The bacon recipe is from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's wonderful book, The 30-Day Vegan Challenge. This stuff is easy to make and comes very close to the real thing, in both flavor and texture. It makes next-level BLTs as well. You can find the coconut flakes in the bulk section of most grocery stores. You're looking for the unsweetened, bigger kind. Some stores have the shredded coconut, which doesn't work well for this (trust me, I've tried).

Ingredients
For the donuts:
1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)
4 tbsp Ener-G egg replacer
1 tsp salt
1/4 canola oil
2 quarts vegetable oil (or other neutral oil), for frying

For the maple icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
5-6 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp maple extract

For the bacon: 
2 tbsp liquid smoke
2 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water
3 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make the bacon: Do this first, because you may need the oven space for raising the donuts. In a large bowl, mix together the water, liquid smoke, tamari and maple syrup. Put the coconut flakes into the bowl and stir them around until they're well coated and all the liquid has been absorbed.

Pour them out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake them for 25 minutes. Stir them around after 10 minutes and then again every 5 minutes while they're baking. By the end, they'll be crispy and browned up and the whole house will smell like bacon. Once they're done, set them aside to cool.

Make the dough: Pour the water into a bowl, then add the yeast and half the sugar. Stir it around a bit and then let it sit for 15 minutes. The yeast should bloom out like this:

Mix the flour, egg replacer salt and remaining sugar together in a large bowl. Add the oil and mix it in. Pour the yeast mixture in and stir it around with a sturdy wooden spoon. You could also attack it with floured hands, but be warned: it'll still be a mess at this point. Once it's kind of holding together, you can dump it out on a floured surface and knead it there as well. Work it around until it's smooth and holds together. Shape it into a ball, put it back into the bowl, cover the bowl with a towel and set it aside to raise for 1 hour. If your kitchen is cold, preheat your oven to 200, turn it off for a bit, and put the bowl in the oven.

 
After an hour, the dough should be raised, puffy and somewhat sticky. Punch it down, scrape it out onto a floured surface and knead it a bit. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out flat to 1/2 inch thickness. Use a donut cutter or wide-mouth glass to cut the shapes out. Place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and set aside to raise again for 45 minutes. The oven is another convenient, out-of-the-way spot for them this time as well.

While that's going on, you make your icing and get your frying station all set up and ready to go.

Make the maple icing: In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, maple syrup and maple extract with a whisk.

If you have a deep fryer, add the oil and set the temperature for 375 degrees. If you're frying on the stovetop, use a deep, heavy-bottomed pot. Add the oil and turn the heat up to medium high. Don't go higher than that initially, because you want the heat to be around 375. You can always turn it up, but it takes time to bring the oil back down once it's gone beyond that.

Once you're ready to start, carefully drop 2-3 donuts into the oil. Let them cook 3-4 minutes, checking the undersides to see if they're browning. Once they're done, flip them over and cook the other side.

After they've cooked completely, remove the donuts from the oil and set them on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. When they're cool enough to handle, dip them into the icing and twist them around while you're pulling them out. They should be totally covered on top. Set them on a rack or a plate and sprinkle them with bacon bits. Repeat until you have this:

Cheeseburger Pie

Did your parents ever make the cheeseburger pie recipe on the back of the Bisquick box? Mine did, and I always loved it when I was a kid. It's like sloppy joes, but with biscuits instead of buns. What's not to love? At some point when I was older, they stopped making it and I eventually forgot about it. It wasn't until someone mentioned it at work that I remembered it. After chatting about it with my mom one day, I decided that it's time for this fondly-remembered dish to make a cruelty-free comeback.

Standing in for ground beef is textured vegetable protein, or TVP. It's inexpensive and very easy to to cook. If you can make couscous, you can make TVP. The soy sausage or vegan ground beef that you see in grocery stores are usually made from TVP. Making your own is cheaper and allows you to flavor it however you want. Look for it in the bulk section of the grocery store. If it isn't there, it might be nearby, grouped with all the special flours that Bob's Red Mill makes. It runs $1.50-$2.00 a pound, usually. Don't be put off by it's pre-cooked appearance. It doesn't really look like it could ever be made to resemble ground beef, no matter what you do to it, but once we're done, it'll be able to fool any omnivore you put it in front of. Before you cook it, though, it really just looks like Grape Nuts:

One trick I used to make it resemble ground beef a little more is browning liquid. This stuff is vegan, and is used to darken up gravies and sauces. I use it to give my beef seitan and TVP dishes more of that "beefy" color. I use Kitchen Bouquet, but Gravy Master is really good, too. You can find it in the sauce aisle at most grocery stores.

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 tbsp Earth Balance, cubed and kept cold
1 tbsp chives
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried thyme or parsley


For the filling:
2 cups TVP
2 2/3 cups water
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
2 tsp browning liquid (optional - see note above)
2 tsp oregano
1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1 package vegan cheese (melty ones work best. I used Daiya Pepper Jack flavor for this one)
1 tomato, sliced

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Make the crust: In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and soy milk. Whisk it until it thickens up a bit (it won't take long). Set it aside for a few minutes while you prepare the flour.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, garlic powder and salt in a large bowl. Add the Earth Balance and, using a pastry cutter or two knives. cut it down to the size of small peas. You can use a food processor for this as well.

Now add the chives, thyme or parsley (or both) and milk mixture and work it all in together with a wooden spoon. Once the dough is close to where you need it to be, dump it out on a floured counter or board and work it into a smooth ball.

You can use a square 8x8 baking dish for this, or a round cake pan, whichever you prefer. Spray the pan with cooking spray, put the dough into the pan and start working it out and up the edges of the pan with your fingers. You want a semi-thick crust on this. Don't go as thin as you would a pizza. There should be plenty of dough for you to work with. Go almost all the way up the sides of the pan. Some areas will be thicker than others, but don't let that worry you. This is a rustic kind of dish, so it doesn't need to look perfect.

Once it's done, put the pan in the fridge until you're ready to add the filling.

Make the filling: In a skillet, combine the water, garlic and onion powders, tamari and browning liquid (if using). Turn the heat on to medium-high until it starts to boil in the pan. Pour in the TVP and stir it around so that none of it is dry or above the surface of the liquid.

Cover the skillet and watch it closely. Once it starts to boil again, turn the heat down to a simmer. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and turn it off. Let it sit, covered, for another 5 minutes or so. The liquid will be mostly gone and the TVP will have a ground beef texture to it.

Put the skillet back on the stove over medium heat. Add the oregano and tomato paste and stir it around to combine it. Keep stirring while it heats up. The tomato paste will soften up and combine as it heats. You're looking for the consistency of sloppy joes.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust and cover the surface with cheese and sliced tomatoes.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the crust is nicely browned. Let it cool for a few minutes, slice and serve.

Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with Corn Cakes

This recipe came out of some experimentation from the last time I made a sweet potato soup. I'm a wuss when it comes to heat, but if it's smoky heat, I find it a lot more tolerable. I went a little too hot last time around and found myself thinking about it after the fact, wondering what I could have done to counter it a little. I think the answer is to add some sweetness.

I've already raved about Bee Free Honee here. If you haven't tried it, you really should. It's at a few local stores and available online as well. If you can't get your hands on some, feel free to use agave or maple syrup to add that sweetness.

Ingredients
For the soup:
2 tbsp Earth Balance
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 cups veggie broth
1/2 cup Bee Free Honee, agave nectar or maple syrup
1 tbsp chipotle chili powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

For the corn cakes:
1 1/2 cups masa harina
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 to 1 cup of warm water
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or defrosted, if frozen (optional)
veggie oil (for frying)

Make the soup: In a large pot over medium heat, melt the Earth Balance and cook the onions for 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Turn the heat up to high, add the sweet potatoes and stock and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for about 30 minutes. You can use this time to make the corn cakes.

When the potatoes are soft, pour the potatoes and stock into a blender (you may have to work in batches) and blend until smooth.

Return the soup back to the pot and add the chipotle powder, honee and salt/pepper and mix them in. Keep it covered to hold in the heat until you're ready to serve. Ladle it into bowls and top with a little vegan creme fraiche or sour cream.

Make the corn cakes: In a medium bowl, mix together the masa harina, flour, baking powder, salt, nutritional yeast and corn (if using). Add the water, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring until you get a nice dough.

Cut the ball of dough into wedges and shape them into patties. I did five of these, but next time I'll do six. These were a little thicker than I intended.

In a skillet, heat a thin layer of oil over medium-high heat and start frying the corn cakes.  Flip them after about 3 minutes, when they're nicely browned.

Set them on a plate lined with a paper towel once they're done cooking. Serve with a pat of Earth Balance along with a bowl of the soup. Here it is all together, with a little homemade creme fraiche on the soup. Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

I go back and forth about which fruit pie is the best. For me, it comes down to apple, peach and strawberry rhubarb. If I could make a pie with all of them I would. it'd be a huge pie, but it would be a great one. 

This apple pie is pretty decadent. I love what pears bring to apple dishes, so they're here in equal measure. You only need two of each, so it's not like you'll be peeling and chopping all day.

 Salted caramel puts this over the top, for sure. Apples and caramel go together like...shoot. All I can think of is apples and caramel. You get the point. The important thing is to be careful when making caramel. I outline that down below, but I can't stress it enough. Don't touch it!

This recipe calls for vegan cream. Does such a thing exist? Yes, in a few variations. Sometimes I make my own with soy milk and coconut oil in the blender. For a recipe like this where you only need a little, I use vegan creamers that you can get a most grocery stores. They have soy, almond and coconut. I used soy for this:

 

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup almond meal

1/4 cup evaporated cane sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

6 tbsp Earth Balance, cut into cubes and kept cold

2-3 tbsp ice water

For the salted caramel:

1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar

2 tbsp Earth Balance

1 tsp kosher salt

3 tbsp vegan cream

For the filling:

2 apples (sweeter is better here. I used Golden Delicious), peeled, cored and sliced

2 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced

1 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cinammon

pinch of salt

1 tbsp Earth Balance, cut into small cubes

Make the crust: Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Add the cold, cubed Earth Balance. If you don't have a food processor, use a large mixing bowl and a pastry cutter instead.

 Pulse or cut the cubed Earth Balance until it's the size of small peas. Run the food processor and stream the cold water through the chute. You'll probably need about 2.5-3 tablespoons of water in the end, but start with 2 and see where it gets you. There will be a little loose flour in the bottom that you can work into the dough after it comes out. You're looking for it to come together like this:

 Dump it out onto a floured countertop and work it over a bit until you have this:

Cut the dough in half. Wrap one half in plastic wrap and put it into the fridge. Roll the other half out flat and wide enough that you can put your tart or pie pan on top of it and still have plenty of overlap on all sides.

Roll the dough up onto your rolling pin, set it down over the tart or pie pan and unroll it. If you're using a regular pie pan, cut off all but about 1/2 inch of the excess dough and then roll and crimp it on all sides. With a tart pan, it's even easier. Just roll it over the top and push the down down into the corners of the pan. Then roll the pin over the top, cutting off the excess: 

Put the pan with the dough into the fridge until you're ready to assemble your pie.

Make the salted caramel sauce: Put the sugar, Earth Balance and salt in a small saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water. Heat them over medium-high heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Caramel takes time and needs to be watched closely, so clear your schedule for this. You can do other stuff (I peeled the apples and pears), but don't wander too far away. It'll start bubbling, which is when you want to turn the heat down to medium-low.

This is important: DO NOT STIR this caramel. Instead, gently tilt your pan this way and that and let it all swirl around. You don't have to do this constantly, but do it every couple of minutes. It should be bubbling slightly. Also, be REALLY careful not to get it on your skin. Boiling sugar can cause serious burns, so be very deliberate in your movements with it at this stage.

It'll take about 20 minutes to get it where you want it. You'll know it's ready when it's got a golden caramel color. The bubbles may make it hard to see initially, but just swirl it around until you can see the color.

Remove the pot from the burner, stand back a bit and pour in the vegan cream. The caramel will sputter and may spit a bit, so be careful.

At this point, you're going to think you ruined it. The cream will be much colder than the sugar and will cause some of the sugar to crystallize and separate. Don't worry! Put it back on the burner over low heat and things will smooth out again. Now you can stir it, so get in there with a spoon and get everything all combined and smoothed out. You'll end up with a smooth, creamy and buttery caramel sauce. Resist the temptation to stick your finger in and taste it, though. It's still super hot.

Assemble the pie: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and put a foil-lined sheet pan in there. In a large bowl, combine the apples, pears, flour, salt, cardamom and cinnamon. Pull your tart shell out of the fridge and fill it with the apples and pears. Pour the caramel sauce all over it.

Now take out that other half of the dough. Roll it out flat, like you did with the first half, and cut the dough into thin strips. Lay the strips across the top of the apple/pear mixture.

If you want to do the fancy over/under lattice on this pie, you can see how to do that here. This time I just laid the second layer of strips down at a 45-degree angle. It looks just as fancy, but it's a lot less work. Dot the holes in the lattice with the cubed butter.

You can finish the pie any number of ways. I brushed a little more of that vegan cream onto the lattice and sprinkled a little more sugar onto it. I think you're supposed to use fancy sugar, but it turned out fine this way.

Carefully place the pie onto the heated sheet pan and cook for 40-45 minutes. Once it's done, let it cool for 30-45 minutes before digging in.

Grilled Romaine Caesar Salad

How are your New Year's resolutions coming along? I resolved to do two things: read more and eat more salad. I've just never been a salad person, for some reason. Caesar Salad is about the only kind I really enjoyed growing up. It's the simplicity of it, I guess. Not a lot of bells and whistles. Caesar dressing is somehow more decadent than the others, so it had that going for it. The abundance of croutons didn't hurt, either.

This is a little more in line with the traditional Caesar than my other salad, which has a lot more going on. It's also much simpler to make. You can prepare the dressing and the croutons well in advance for a really quick dinner, but even if you do it all on the same night, it doesn't take long at all. The result is pretty and delicious. You can serve it as a meal unto itself (as it's pictured above) or do one half as a first course.


Ingredients
For the salad:
2 hearts of romaine lettuce
1 package vegan chicken 
1/2 cup chopped green olives
1 round loaf sourdough bread
2 tbsp Earth Balance, melted
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 green onions, chopped
Olive oil for brushing

For the salad dressing:
1 1/2 cup vegan mayo (Vegenaise or Just Mayo are great for this)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup chopped green olives
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white miso
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp tamari
salt and pepper to taste, but only after blending

Make the dressing: Put all the ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Add pepper to taste and salt if it needs it (the olives will have added a salty flavor already). Pour it into a bowl or container and refrigerate until needed.

Make the croutons: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pull the bread apart into small chunks. If you're more organized than me, you can chop the into perfect little cubes. I'm more into rustic croutons, though. Put them into a large bowl and pour the melted Earth Balance and garlic powder over them. Toss well to combine.

Pour the bread out onto a sheet pan lined with foil. Spread them out into a single layer and bake them in the oven, stirring occasionally, until they're nicely browned (about 15 minutes).

Make the salad: Heat up a grill or grill pan over medium heat. Starting from the stem, slice each romaine heart down the middle lengthwise. Brush the cut side with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Grill them cut-side down until they're nicely charred, about 5-7 minutes. Work in batches, if you need to.

 

If you're using the vegan chicken, chop it into strips and throw it into the hot grill pan or saute it in a skillet until browned.

To assemble, put the romaine halves on a plate grilled-side up and top with the chicken, croutons, olives and dressing. Crack a little more pepper on top and serve.