Faves: Vegan Desserts

Some years ago, vegan baked goods started making inroads into the Austin scene. Wheatsville had carried them packaged for a long time, as had other health food stores, but suddenly Wheats had its own bakery case. Then there was Dhaba Joy, and vegan cupcakes (admittedly outsourced) at the cupcake sellers like Hey Cupcake.

I like vegan baked goods because they're usually not quite as sweet as regular ones, and their flavors can be more subtle because they're made with more spices, different flours, or other unusual ingredients. It's a less-guilty guilty pleasure.

Wheatsville's vegan Mexican Chocolate Cake

The wider acceptance of vegan sweets may never catch on, but Wheatsville is still going strong. They have about seven or eight cakes, cookies, and muffins that they rotate. This cake was crumbly, kind of like a coffee cake but less rich. It had a complex spicy flavor that I couldn't quite sort out, and made a nice mid-morning snack.

Remembering the Cold Drinks of Summer

I had a goal of collecting pictures from lots and lots of frozen/cold beverage purveyors over the course of the summer, but didn't get as many as I had hoped. Nevertheless, now that fall is around the corner, here are a few mementos of the most palatable form of nutrition when it's 105 every day...

Homemade Lassi

Just some ice cubes, sour yogurt, and honey (and I like to add rose water too). Delicious and frothy, and another use for the hand blender.

Shaved Ice from Hola Aloha

This little pop-up shaved ice stand features all-natural flavorings on their shaved ices. We got Mango with coconut milk and Ginger-Lime with coconut milk. Pretty good. Definitely less sweet than your average shaved ice.

Outside Hola Aloha

Horchata from El Chilito

Horchata, how I love thee. So creamy, yet not made of milk. Cinnamony and sweet, I can drink gallons of this stuff (though I try to restrain myself). El Chilito's version is pretty good.

Frozen Sangria at House Wine

Frozen sangria sounds great, but it didn't have as much flavor as I wanted it to. In general, it seems like it's rare to get a good syrup-to-shaved ice ratio for the more boutiquey shaved ices that are getting popular. But it did make a pretty picture.

Potato Zucchini Pancakes

Potato pancakes, or latkes as we sometimes called them when I was growing up, were one of the first things I learned to cook when I left home. The recipe I have, typed and sent by my mom to me at college, is spattered with oil. I always loved latkes, both because they're kind of like a glorified French fry, and because they have the same name as a great Andy Kaufman character.

I haven't made latkes so much in recent years, mostly due to the amount of oil involved in frying them. And the fact that frying is tedious and messy, especially in a small kitchen. But recently I decided to try pan frying--and it worked pretty well. These are very simple--grated potatoes and zucchini, egg, and seasonings. Even better with a little cheese melted over the top...

Coconut Milk Bread Pudding

An excess of coconut milk and a desire for cinnamon rolls collided recently in the form of this bread pudding, made from a modified "New Orleans Style Bread Pudding" JOY recipe (1 cup of sugar instead of 2, coconut milk instead of regular milk, and no bourbon sauce!)

The coconut milk I'm referring to is not the kind that comes in a can--this is a new product from So Delicious that has appeared at the grocery store recently, and that is being marketed as yet another milk substitute (along with soy, almond, hemp, etc.).

My question: can it be used in baking, and if so, will it leave evidence of its pleasingly faint coconutty flavor?

The bread pudding turned out fine, but lacked the coconut flavor. However, warming it with a little coconut milk poured over the top did the trick.