Monday, May 13, 2013

Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies with Lemon Buttercream


These are absolutely delicious. This makes a small recipe (about 18 small cookies), which is perfect for me. You can leave out the tea, and you'll have a great base for any type of shortbread cookie. Next time, I think I might try lavender shortbread...yum!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (preferably at room temperature)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour (I used a mixture of whole wheat pastry and all-purpose)
1 tablespoon of Earl Grey tea, finely ground
a couple pinches of salt (to taste

For the frosting: I made a buttercream out of butter and powdered sugar. Buttercream is so standard to me that I don't even use a recipe anymore. But start with 1/4 c butter, add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 T lemon juice, and then add powdered sugar until the frosting is sweet enough and the proper texture.

Instructions:

Cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and blend again. Mix the flour, tea, and salt together in a bowl, then blend into the butter mixture at low speed. Be careful not to over-mix, or you'll end up with tough and dense shortbread.

Chill dough in fridge for at least a half-hour. Slice log into disks of 1/4-inch thickness and bake at 375 for 8-12 minutes, until edges are just beginning to brown. (I always bake my cookies on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper, so you may need to grease the cookie sheet if you don't use parchment.) Baking time will depend on how large you decided to cut your cookies, so keep a close eye on them to make sure they don't overbake. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for up to 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Once the cookies are completely cool, mix the frosting and spread over each cookie. You can also frost them with lemon buttercream instead, which I think I'll try next time!

Homemade Deodorant

Is conventional deodorant toxic? Does it promote breast cancer? Depends on which "expert" you ask. I'm guessing that the connection to breast cancer is a bit less clear-cut than people make it out to be, but I found gelatin listed as one of the ingredients in my latest conventional deodorant purchase. That simply goes against my values as a vegetarian. In addition, there are tons of ingredients on that label that I can't pronounce, and even more whose internal effects I'd rather not look up on the Environmental Working Group's cosmetics ingredients database. I tried Tom's of Maine deodorant once upon a time, but it seemed to make me sweat more, rather than less, and didn't do much to cover up the smell. So, I've decided to make my own.

Here's my adaptation to this recipe I found online:

Deodorant Paste (paraben-free, aluminum-free)

1/4 c cornstarch
1/4 c baking soda
3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
1 tsp olive oil (up to 1 tablespoon, depending on how pasty or smooth you want your final product to be)
Essential oils of your choice to scent it (I did 3 drops peppermint, 3 drops spearmint, and 3 drops rosemary)

Mix all ingredients together with a spoon, adding the essential oils after everything else is well incorporated. If necessary, mix together with your hands to get it as smooth as possible. Add more olive oil if it ends up too pasty for you. Remember, the olive oil will just help soothe and smooth your much neglected underarm skin!

Here are some photos of the finished product. I chose to store my in an 8-oz glass jar that used to hold Ginger People brand minced ginger (which I am addicted to, by the way...):



Now, the question is: does it work? So far, so good (I used it today). It's definitely not something I want to use when wearing a little black dress to a cocktail party, but it seems to keep me dry in a t-shirt during the day-to-day shuffle. And not covering my armpits with toxins every day? I think that's definitely worth a little white mark every now and then.


Basic Seitan Recipe



Dry Ingredients:

3 c vital wheat gluten
¼ nutritional yeast
herbs/spices of choice (I use garlic and onion powder, oregano and basil, and crushed red pepper)
Optional for extra texture: ¼- ½ c finely minced vegetables
chickpea flour to stiffen batter as needed

Wet Ingredients:

2 c vegetable broth (add some salt or 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce if you use low sodium broth)
2 T unsweetened ketchup or tomato paste
2 T apple cider vinegar or other acid

½ c canned white beans
 

Instructions:

Mash the beans in a bowl until they form a paste. Set aside. Mix together all dry ingredients (except the chickpea flour) in a large bowl (leave out the beans). Whisk the ketchup, broth, and vinegar together until well blended. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and slowly pour the liquid into the well. Add the beans. Blend everything together with a fork until the mixture becomes difficult to stir, then knead it all for as long as you can stand to do so. The more you knead, the less doughy and more meat-like your seitan will be. You can adjust the liquid and gluten ratios as needed, based on how the dough feels, and based on your own preference for seitan texture.

Once kneaded, form the dough into logs or loaves of the desired size, and wrap tightly with foil (2 layers is sometimes best—the seitan will expand when heated and needs to be tightly confined to maintain its shape). Bake at 350 for 40 minutes to one hour, until the loaves are firm to touch but still spring back slightly when you press on them. Let cool on a cooling rack, then remove from foil and serve.

Here's a picture of the finished product. Not the most glamorous thing, I know, but it's good protein, a good source of B12 from the nutritional yeast, and it's much cheaper than seitan from Whole Foods!


 Note: I shaped this one into a log, but I also shape it into a loaf for easy lunchmeat slices. The little red specks are red kidney beans (which I used because I ran out of white beans).