Let’s just start this with a picture:

Every year when fall blows in and we buy that first jug of cider, a desire for apple cider doughnuts begins worming its insidious way through our brains. This is fueled largely by nostalgia for visits to the apple orchard as kids. Knowing this does not help quell the desire. What does help is making freaking apple cider doughnuts!

And since we rarely bake sweets, I thought it was only right to finish off Vegan MoFo by making something I wouldn’t normally make, challenging myself a little.

As you’ve quite possibly learned by now, we’re not into frying so Amy hunted down this baked apple cider doughnut recipe. I took great pains to veganize it by, well, leaving out the egg. That simple. They were still light and fluffy, so I’m not really sure what the egg was supposed to do in the first place. Maybe in the olden days people had more eggs than they knew what to do with? Like me and zucchini.

It’s been a long time since I had a proper apple cider doughnut, and these weren’t fried, so I can’t compare very well. Amy thought they were delicious, but not a perfect replica of the platonic form of ‘apple cider doughnut’.

I should mention in advance, that you’ll need a doughnut pan for thus. You can get them pretty cheap in the intarwebs–be sure to get a nonstick one.

In any case, here they be:

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/3 cup apple cider
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all of the dry ingredients, except the brown sugar, in a large mixing bowl. Combine all of the wet ingredients plus the brown sugar in another, mixing thoroughly. Pour the wet mix into the dry and mix until just moistened.  Lightly oil or spray the doughnut pan and pour enough batter in each pocket to fill about half way. I filled them my first time using the pan and the doughnuts were all huge and lopsided. Caution, dear readers, caution. Bake for 15 minutes, or until they spring to the touch. Let them cool for a few minutes, then remove them from the pan using a knife to pop them out. In a small bowl, mix about 2 tsp cinnamon to 1/4 cup sugar (until it tastes sweet and not too sharp). Spray/brush the doughnuts with oil lightly and dunk the doughnut in the dry mix, coating thoroughly. BooYa!

Eat with hot cider. Or else:

Happy Halloween!

Happy Final MoFo!

Hummus was probably the first “exotic” thing I ever ate as a vegan, and has remained one of my favorite snacks for nearly a decade. Over the years, I’ve had a wide variety of hummus recipes–starting with the one in How It All Vegan (the first cookbook I ever owned, I think), which has onions and soy sauce and all manner of craziness. In these, my golden years, I’ve settled on a more traditional hummus, a simpler hummus, a more humble hummus.

Hummus

• 4 cups or 2 cans of chick peas
• 1.5 tsp cumin
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup of lemon juice (to taste)
• 1/8 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 cup of tahini
• salt to taste
• 1/2 medium-sized white onion, sauteed (optional; sauteed with the garlic, if you’re going this route)
• 2 – 4 cloves of garlic (optional)

Yep, that’s it. Blend all of the above ingredients in a food processor until they’re as smooth as Barry White’s deep soulful voice.

Should this produce a less-than-excellent hummus, you might consider the following:

• if you’re using canned chick peas, cook them for 20 minutes
• attempt to remove all of the thin shells by gently massaging the chick peas in water and spooning out the shells when they float to the top
• experiment with different brands of chick pea and tahini–you’ll be amazed at how different they can be
• use dry chick peas and cook them yourself (ideally, with a pressure cooker)
• add the tahini, olive oil, and/or lemon piecemeal– you can always add more

You can make this seem really fancy by serving it with a few things you probably have on hand anyway–a drizzle of olive oil (I like to make a little pool), a sprinkle of paprika, and/or some minced garlic (ideally in the olive oil pool).

You can also make this like 100X healthier by baking some pita to eat with it instead of chips.