Daring Bakers Challenge: French Yule Log

I believe I have met my match. Never before have I heard myself utter the words after savoring a bite of dessert, "That's too much chocolate..." but this month's holiday Daring Bakers challenge has proven that such a thing exists. Since I served the yule log for our holiday dinner, I added some festive vintage decorations. The mushrooms and silver trees were my favorite.
This French Yule log has, count 'em, six different elements with a grand total of nine layers. Starting from the bottom up:
1. hazelnut genoise
2. dark chocolate ganache
3. chocolate hazelnut mousse
4. hazelnut praline insert
5. more mousse
6. vegan pastry cream (a stand in for creme brulee)
7. more mousse
8. more genoise
9. chocolate icing
Even the tiniest of pieces felt like a brick of chocolate had just settled in my stomach.
If I ever do dare to make another yule log, I think I will break it up with a bit less chocolate. Maybe a vanilla mousse? I can hardly believe I am typing this out, I feel like I'm cheating on chocolate!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

Gifts in Kind

I have been lucky enough to receive several gifts in kind the last few weeks...

Amey from Vegan Eats & Treats was kind enough to send me some of her homemade quince jelly. She also included some chocolates which disappeared not long after I opened the package. I have been using this jelly on my morning English muffin and it is delightful!
Two weekends ago while we were in Austin for the chili cook-off, we made a quick pitstop at Sugar Mama's Bakeshop to try out their new vegan cupcakes! After sending an email to the owner thanking her for adding cruelty-free cupcakes to the menu, she offered me a free cupcake! We got there just in time to swipe the last vegan cupcake of the day... peppermint patty. So perfect and so pretty.
And Stacey thought of me when she saw this cupcake notepad while she was out shopping!

With all this kindness that has been gifted to me, I have been wanting to "pay it forward" and send kindness to others. As luck would have it, I opened up Sarah's blog from Sew Crafty Houston (an awesome little craft studio and sewing lounge!) to find a pay it forward challenge. Here it is...

The rules are simple: I will send the first three five people to leave a comment on this post a handmade gift within the next 365 days (that’s my kind of time frame!)

I am willing to post anywhere in the world, so don’t let that stop you from commenting.

The catch is that you have to have a blog and be willing to do the same thing....

And since I can't send everyone who comments a handmade gift (if I only had the time!), my gift to the rest of you are two recipes!

Baked Acorn Squash with Hazelnut Pearl Couscous

Ingredients:
1 acorn squash
2 T olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups Israeli/pearl couscous
2 shallots, finely diced
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 T hazelnut oil
fresh black pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the acorn squash in half and remove the seeds (clean off the guck and toast them with salt and pepper, they're delicious!). Lightly oil the inside of the squash (approximately 1 T). Place the squash cut side up in a baking dish and fill with 1/2 inch of water. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until squash is tender.
3. While the squash is baking, in a large saucepan saute the shallots in olive oil until slightly caramelized, approximately 10 minutes. Add the couscous and cinnamon and stir to lightly toast the couscous for 5 minutes.
4. Add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until all of the liquid is absorbed.
5. Add toasted hazelnuts, dried cranberries, and parsley. Drizzle with hazelnut oil to finish.
6. Once squash is done baking, fill it with the couscous mixture.

And here's a link to the recipe for Society of PEACE's award winning chili!

Haselnuss and Chipotle

Over the weekend I made two batches of haselnuss (hazelnut) themed cupcakes. Haselnuss was one of my favorite words from German class back in the day. Sorry I didn't figure out how to insert one of those s set things for those of you that speak the language. The purpose of these cupcakes was twofold: snacks for an Art Car decorating party and dessert for a townhome potluck.
Here is a basic chocolate cupcake, with hazelnut liquor added to the batter. The frosting also is spiked with hazelnut liquor. On top, you see my first experiment with chocolate transfers (inspired by Emilie's post). These things are so cool, you can't really see the green floral scroll pattern on this photo, for a better one, see flickr. I have a few kinks to work out with the process (i.e. not all the pattern transferred, streaks in the chocolate, etc.), but for my first try I was pretty happy. The bending of this piece of chocolate is courtesy of the Texas heat.
Continuing the hazelnut theme are these haselnuss cupcakes filled with chocolate mocha hazelnuss mousse from VCTOTW. The mousse is perfect on its own, and luckily the recipe makes a little extra. I know I should have gotten a shot of the inside, but everytime I bite into one it somehow disappears in my mouth.
And just because you can't live on cupcakes (darn!), I'll show you some real food as well! Last week I tried out the chickpea romesco from V-con and absolutely loved it. This was quick and easy and is one of those dishes I should remember to make for company. I had just finished watching Iron Chef, so that's why I plated my chickpeas in a row (to compliment the asparagus). Oh, and I finally invested in some real sea salt, you can see those fatty grains on the asparagus. Very worth it!
In addition to bringing cupcakes to the potluck, I also made empanadas. The dough was from V-con (acorn squash and black bean empanadas), but the filling was my own. A mixture of Field Roast chipotle sausage, black beans, canned chipotles, jalapeno, onion, and some spices. These were HOT! Unfortunately, these suckers wouldn't stay sealed, and opened up a bit in the oven. I still have some learning to do as far as pastry goes. Oh, and I'm proud to say this was my first time using dried black beans!
Finally, a super duper late vegan mofo post. Back in November, I promised that I would use these dried faux meat patties that I got ages ago. Well, finally I got around to it. Actually, John got around to it because I had decided that they scared me. He marinated them in a pseudo teriyaki with chipotle peppers. Bless his heart for trying, but I thought the texture was too meaty and it weirded me out (though he enjoyed them). On the side is a chipotle quinoa with black beans and a grilled veggie salad.
Next post I'll have an announcement! And maybe some food.

Blog Report Card

I always loved seeing E for excellent on my report card when I was in elementary school... and now as an adult, it still feels great!! Holler over at Tinned Tomatoes (who is very deserving of this award for her mouthwatering creations) has bestowed upon me an Excellent Blog Award. I am so honored, my first blog award :-) I was so touched that she thought of me with the many amazing blogs that are out there! And of course, this makes me only want to try harder to improve my blog for all my readers (I'm really hoping I'll get a new header soon). I think this also means that I get to pass this award on to five more bloggers of my choice, which will be tough to do, since I love so many. I need just a bit more time to think about it, so expect that next week!

I have been immersed in ED&BV lately, and dinner on Tuesday was no exception. I made the blackened tofu with a side of roasted green beans and smashed sweet potatoes (added coconut milk anda agave nectar). Dreena meant it when she said blackened! John was very impressed and said it reminded him of the spices on blackened red fish. But no fish had to suffocate for this meal :-)
Also on Tuesday night I made a batch of homemade truffles for some special friends. Ever since Emilie's inspiring truffle post, I have wanted to try my hand at these. I used a combination of coconut milk and hazelnut liquor for my liquids. Half I rolled in cocoa powder and the other half in chopped hazelnuts. So simple to make! The centers of the truffles are so creamy... I hope they travel well because I had to send them in the mail!
I'm out for the next few days. Off to sunny Colorado for some skiing with friends. I can't wait to see my first snow this year! I love returning to Colorado, reminds me of my college days in Fort Collins and Boulder. I am also really excited to try Watercourse Foods, Denver's premiere vegetarian restaurant. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Sheep's Wool in Your O.J.

One tidbit I forgot to mention about Christmas Day that was a bit shocking and quite odd... my mom offered me some orange juice when I woke up. I am not typically one to drink juice, but it sounded like a good way to sweeten the morning a bit while opening presents. I picked up the jug of juice, H.E.B. brand, fortified with calcium. Sounded fine, right. Well, I read further and saw that it was fortified with Vitamin D3. I remembered vaguely from reading Becoming Vegan back when I first went vegan that there were two sources of Vitamin D, one plant-derived and one animal-derived. I couldn't quite remember which was which so I did a quick google search and sure enough, Vitamin D3 is sourced from sheep's wool (bleh!). My mom was shocked, how can juice not be vegan? Crazier things have happened I suppose. So no O.J. for me....

Sorry for the random story. I go back to work tomorrow, which I am pretty sad about. So this morning after a run (trying to start my New Year's resolutions a bit early :-), I made myself my favorite Sunday breakfast; french toast. I have stuck to one recipe since going vegan, but figured in the spirit of the new year I should branch out a bit. Take a guess where I got this one from....

That's right! My copy of My Sweet Vegan, which I really can't put down, I'm having so much fun just drooling over the photos. This one uses nutritional yeast, and I thought it turned out delicious. I wish I'd had some thicker bread, but thankfully since I was instructed to toast the bread before dipping it in the batter, it didn't come out soggy. To make up for the lack of O.J. from Christmas, I had clementine wedges on the side.

Dinners the past few nights have focused on new recipes as well. On Friday night, my parents and sister came over and I decided to test out two new V-con recipes on them: the pumpkin baked ziti with caramelized onions and sage crumb topping that so many people have raved about and the roasted fennel and hazelnut salad with shallot dressing. Along with the leftovers, last night we also tried the mustard crusted seitan from Yellow Rose Recipes.

All three of these dishes got a thumbs up from everyone. One thing I would change about the ziti... next time I would use about half the breadcrumbs called for. Not sure if it was because I was lazy and used store-bought breadcrumbs, but there were just so many of them and they seemed to overwhelm the flavor of the pumpkin/cashew ricotta filling. The salad was a huge hit, my parents loved the fennel and hopefully now they will introduce a new veggie to their repertoire! The toasted hazelnuts and the dried cranberries along with the shallot dressing were a perfect compliment. And the seitan was a yummy new discovery as well (I also used her recipe for seitan, which was a bit moister than other recipes I've made). If you love mustard, you need to try this easy way to fix seitan cutlets.

So now I guess I need to go think about some resolutions for the New Year. Plus I need to make a grocery list so I can make a few goodies to bring along to the two New Year's parties we'll be attending....