Foodie Friday: Tori's Bakeshop and Elpoo's Ginger Cookies.

So it’s been 8 weeks that I’ve been following a vegan diet and I can tell you that it’s going great. I don’t miss any of the “old” foods, and I’ve discovered a huge array of new recipes and foods that have made my diet more varied, so deprivation is certainly not an issue. 

Finding eateries that serve vegan dishes is a little more of a challenge. So imagine my delight when Tori’s Bakeshop opened in my neighbourhood.

Tori’s is vegan, organic, locally sourced and charming to the nth degree. There are also many gluten free options.

Sarah and I went there and aligned our Chaka Khans and gossiped about our friends.

I had a chocolate chip spelt cookie, and Sarah had an amazing blueberry scone thing. We both had lattes made with organic almond milk. So yummy.

I really hope that they branch out into sandwiches and small plates. There was a steady stream of customers, so hopefully this little gem will flourish. I swear to you, this place is so sweet you just want to hug people when you're there.

This could be a problem if you are smelly, or the only other customer is covered in spikes and broken glass.

Could happen.

Tres charmant

When I got home I was so inspired by baked vegan goodness that I thought I should do a little baked goods magic of my own.

I’d been craving gingersnaps, so sourced a recipe online HERE, from the fine fox at Ohladycakes.com, but made some small changes that I will outline below.

Note, these gingersnaps are more ginger cookies - they are chewy as opposed to “snappy”. You might need to add a couple tablespoons of flour, if you're craving a harder cookie. They are perfect with a cup of tea, or shoved into your cake hole 3 at a time at rapidly repeated intervals before you can shake yourself and say, “Hey idiot, just because they are vegan, doesn’t make them low calorie”. 

Just so as you know.

Vegantastic Ginger Cookies

1/2 C vegan butter (Earth Balance)

3/4 C maple sugar (makes for a deeper flavour, but expensive, so you can sub out other vegany sugar)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 C fancy molasses

3 Tbsp vegan sour cram (Tofutti)

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 and 1/2 C all purpose flour, unbleached.

Oven: 350

In a small bowl mix together spices, baking soda and flour. Set aside.

In a large bowl of a mixer, blend together butter, sugar, molasses, sour cream and extract. Beat for 1-2 minutes until very well combined and creamy. 

Add dry ingredients and mix until just well combined. Drop by Tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet.


Sprinkle with additional maple sugar, if desired.


Bake for 15 minutes (check at about 12 minutes, as oven temperatures vary). They should be slightly browned on the bottom. Cool for a bit on the cookie sheets and then move them to a cooling rack to cool thoroughly. The original recipe says these will keep for 3 days. I popped mine into a freezer bag and take them out as I need them.

Apparently I need them all the time and a lot at once.

Makes 25 cookies.

About 90 calories a cookie. I know - you wouldn’t think something so cute and innocent would pack such a caloric punch. Try not to think about it while you’re binging on them. Just think of it as your duty.

Foodie Friday - Peanut Butter Surprises

You’re not going to forgive me for this one. Unless you are desperately trying to gain weight, you’ll probably want to give this post a miss.

These cookies will freakin’ kill you.

I only make these when I know they will be leaving the house in someone else’s hands. They are pure evil. 

These cookies, if I make them at just the right time (i.e. there are no sports on TV), are a sure fire way for me to get lucky. These cookies are Brian’s kryptonite. The only protection Brian has against these cookies are the distraction of sports on TV.

These are chocolate cookies with peanut butter inside. The peanut butter is the surprise part, but you probably already figured that out. I suppose you could adapt these and put a surprise in the surprise, like a Hershey’s Kiss, or a bit of gum. Or a sardine. Listen, I’m not the boss of you. You have to make your own choices here.

Right after I made these cookies, I was talking to some Hydro workers outside the house and told them I'd just made cookies. I gave them some and then went on my way, because I'm just that awesome. When I came back the big burly hydro worker asked for the recipe. He said they were the best chocolate and peanut butter cookies he had ever, EVER had. I swear there were tears in his eyes.

Peanut Butter Surprises

Prep: 40 min Bake: approx 10 min per batch

1 and 1/2 C flour

1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2C butter, softened

1/2 C white sugar

1/2 C packed brown sugar

1/4 C peanut butter

1 egg

1 T milk

1 t vanilla

3/4 C sifted powdered sugar

1/2 C peanut butter

granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl beat together the butter, 1/2 C white sugar, brown sugar and the 1/4 C peanut butter until well combined. 

Put stuff in bowl

Mix stuff in bowl. Action shot!

Add egg, milk and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture.

Resist temptation to sit in darkened basement and eat chocolate cookie dough paste.

Form the chocolate dough into balls about 1 and 1/4 inches in diameter

3. For filling, combine powdered sugar and the 1/2 C peanut butter. Shape this mixture into 3/4 inch balls.

kinda looks like bone-fed dog's poops. But I assure you, it' is sugar and peanut butter

4. Flatten a chocolate dough ball. 

Top with a peanut butter ball. 

Cat is bored by shenanigans.

For each cookie, shape the chocolate dough over the peanut butter filling, completely covering the filling. 

Roll dough into balls

 Roll the balls in granulated sugar.

Aren't you glad of these highly instructive photos?  I don't think you're an idiot. I know that you know how to roll cookie dough in sugar. I just have to fill up the space here. You understand, of course.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until just set and surface slightly cracks. 

Let stand for 1 minute and transfer to wire racks to cool.

Buy elastic waist pants. You'll need them after these.

Foodie Friday - Cookbook War

I get a lot of my recipes from the internet these days. But before there was internet, before fire, even, there were cookbooks. And I used to collect them like crazy because I love cooking. I recently gave most of them away, including every Martha Stewart cook book I owned, and I had a lot of them. 

I loved Martha Stewart. I know that there are a lot of newer Marthas and many of them have not done time, but there is something I like about the first, the original Domestic Queen. It could be how she makes everything look easy. Or how the way she talks is like an evil cat trying to cast a spell on you. 

Or how she buys houses just to decorate them. It’s like she’s the Margaret Thatcher of home-keeping. Harsh and rich and oh, so, 1980‘s. Jealousy is the sincerest form of flattery, Mats.

But Martha’s cookbooks suck.

I have bought and been given about 20 Martha cookbooks over the years and I’ve only ever made one recipe more than once. Most recipes have resulted in expensive, inedible crimes of cheese and whipping cream that look nothing like the photo and everything like stuff that washes up on the beach. Really.

I made one of her Mac and Cheese recipe once. $40 worth of cheese into the bin. It was a complete failure and this is what it looked like:

Ryan has had better results with Martha Stewart, but he can make a gourmet meal out of nothing at all. Like love. Like Jesus and the loaves and fishes. 

But he usually uses beans and something with the word “artisanal” in it.

I have had much better luck with the Better Homes and Gardens series of cookbooks. 

I’ve bought several editions, and 99% of the recipes are absolute winners (I made something with eggplant once that was a fail, but probably had more to do with the fact that it included eggplant than the recipe being flawed). They’ve been doing cookbooks since 1930, so they probably know what they are doing. Here are a couple of my favourites. Links are to the recipe so I don’t bog up the page with them. Photos are also from the BH&G site.

Vegetarian Chili - I add less liquid, otherwise it's a bit runny, but otherwise, delish

Ranger cookies

Ranger Cookies

Old Fashioned beef stew. You're a gonna love eet.

Old Fashioned Beef Stew

Another great source of recipes for me is the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) Food and Drink magazine that they have in-store. 

It’s gives great ideas for menus and wine pairings and uses ingredients that are readily available, at least in urban centres. A couple of keeper recipes are below. Photos are from the LCBO website.

Sticky oven ribs. Current favourite.

Sticky Oven Ribs

Make Ahead Butter Chicken. Mmmmm

Make Ahead Butter Chicken

So, Martha. It's over between us. I tried hard to be who you wanted me to be, but you're just not good enough. You're too complicated and expensive and high maintenance. I'll always love you a little, you crazy mixed up ex-con. But I'll never use your recipes agaaaaaain.