Tips and tricks: Part 1

As a child baker, I remember that every measurement was done in volume. If you needed flour you measured by the cup. If you needed water it was also by the cup or half-cup. Salt, give me a teaspoon. And so that list goes. Today I wonder why the baking turned out well, or was I not trained enough to notice the differences from one baking time to the next for the same product? I suppose it was the latter. With the weight in mind, I thought I would share my first part in a series of baking tips, from measures, to ingredients, and techniques.

Measuring

There are many important things about baking that I have learned over the years, and the foundation of those all comes from measuring everything by weight. On a Monday, a cup of flour may not weigh the same as it will on Tuesday. Maybe it was packed in more on one day, maybe there is a lot of humidity in the air that could potentially cause it to pack tighter. Maybe some flours weigh more than others? I find with baking it is essential to make sure the ingredients are the same every time. This helps me with repeating successes, and finding failures. What is a teaspoon to one person is not a teaspoon to another! I think you get my point. 

What is the point to this? Simple. Always, always, always measure every ingredient.

And these are not the only things we should think about when baking. For instance, how do some ingredients work?

Baking soda and baking powder

Do you know that baking soda requires an acid to activate? If you are baking cookies with baking soda and you are not introducing an acid, it is not likely you will get a rise out of your work. You can use any acid you want, but it is required. I generally use lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Baking powder, on the other hand, baking powder, which includes baking soda, does not need an acid to activate, but instead, it needs liquid to activate and will rise during the bake when heat is introduced.  Once in a while, you may have a recipe that asks for both of these ingredients. One reason would be the recipe has an acid component that the baking powder alone will not be enough to rise.

Egg Replacers

Other ingredients that are of interest to me are those as replacers for eggs. I have seen so many different solutions. Soak flax seeds with a combination of 7 grams of flaxseed to 44 grams of water. Mix and let sit for at least five minutes and you have one medium egg replacer. Another trick is to use aquafaba which is the juice of chickpeas or white beans. It can be whipped and folded into a bakery item to gave that effect of fluffed egg whites. Of course, there are countless options on the market too, so you have plenty to choose from. For me it depends on the purpose of the egg. In many instances, it simply is not needed. I do not use eggs in my donuts, brioche, or croissants even though you will find them in many recipes. I imagine it is a combination of trial and error along with what works best for the baker. If you are reading my blog entries and you come across a recipe that you recollect uses eggs and you see no replacer, do not hesitate to ask me why. Or, why I chose the one I did.

Batter

I imagine anything I say here is common knowledge and you already know, but just in the slight chance you forgot, or because you love reading what I write, here are a couple for you. When mixing a cake batter, do not ever over mix it. I like to stop the moment I no longer see flour sitting in the bowl lonely, wondering why no one has asked it to play with the other ingredients. An important reason for this is flour has gluten (of course this does not apply to gluten free flour) and if you keep working it, you will in essence start forming the gluten strands that will turn your fluffy, light cake into a bread with cake ingredients. Yes, this holds true for lower gluten flours like all purpose flour. I also like to tap the tray my cake batter is in on the table to release any air pockets that may have built up. By not doing this you run the risk of air pockets in your cake. Will it taste the same? Of course. Will it look the same? Nope!  You can also sift your flour before folding in the ingredients, this will help minimize air pockets as well.

I love pancakes. I love the pancake batter too. No, I do not eat it raw, but when I see it in a bowl, mixed and ready to go, I always get excited. Let us not forget my bowl of strawberries and blueberries on the side which I also enjoy with my pancakes. One trick I have been doing for years is use carbonated water instead of still water. This will make the pancakes fluffier and seemingly lighter. Like a cake batter, do not over work the batter, just get it to where you see no flour. I realize, by the way, pancakes are not so much a baking item, but because we use the baking ingredients, I put them in my baking family.

Kneading Dough

If there is one topic that I repeat more than any other, it would be that of how to knead dough. I try not to focus on the technique so much because it can vary from person to person while producing the same beautiful results. What I care most about is that you work the dough without tearing it so that the gluten strands form. And most importantly, you are not adding flour early on because the sticky dough annoys you. Only when you are in need of a door stop should you be adding lots of flour to your door. Ok, there is that other option of when the little piggy who builds the brick house runs out of bricks, you can always serve up some low hydration bread to act as brick replacers. Not the same as egg replacers, but will do the job.

It is important the dough has time to rest. This helps with flavor, along with developing the gluten. It also gives the dough a chance to relax between steps. This is extremely important when making croissants. Not so much the dough, but when the lamination starts. When laminating croissant dough, or any pastry dough for that matter, you are changing direction with each fold. If you force the dough to stretch when it is not relaxed it will either tear or shrink. In some cases, it will do both.

Extras in your baking goods

I think it is really important to have fun, and to experiment when baking, which includes different ingredients. I think you should start with a recipe and do it once and then see how it turns out. If you feel it was successful to the recipe then you have done well enough. Now you should think about, what you would like differently. For instance, I have a friend who is a master pastry chef and owns a baking school in Barcelona, he uses fresh squeezed orange juice to mix in with powdered sugar as the topping to his cinnamon rolls. Those ingredients work together so well for so many reasons.

Sometimes when I make breads, I like to use soaked sundried tomatoes and sliced olives from Seville. I will also include lavender or rosemary too.  I just thought one day, why not make a rolled-up roll and put those ingredients inside like I would when making cinnamon rolls, and like any bread, let them rise and bake. If you douse the top with some olive oil just before they go in the oven, you will be left with a soft, flavorful roll that you may never forget. A combination of the textures, and flavors are really special.

Sometimes when I make a two-layer chocolate cake I will use avocado in the creamy chocolate filling that is the layer between the bottom and top. You do not taste avocado, but it adds an amazing creaminess and softness that is hard to forget. One day soon I will post that recipe and I will include that creamy filling. I do warn you; it is so good that if you taste it with a spoon, you are likely to take one too many spoonful’s before it goes between the cake. Not a crime of course, but the chocolate all over your face will be a giveaway for your housemates.

I also enjoy adding a whipped cream inside of my donut holes. It is not normal, I know, but in the bakery, they would sell and I certainly loved them. Different than the Boston Cream that goes in a Boston Cream donut, but a fun taste just the same. I have been told that it seems strange, but as soon as they pop the donut hole in their mouth, I always see that smile and know I made a good choice. I do the same with jelly in the holes too. Not a typical berliner of course, but the taste and result are just the same.

Always remember

When baking you have to follow rules a bit more than when cooking. You should always be precise with your measurements and you should always have fun while experimenting.  Baking is not hard. I know it is cliché to say, but if I can bake, I know anyone can bake. In the end, no matter what happens when baking, even if you are making bricks for your little piggy friend, you are learning. That learning will make you want to come back, time and time again. Just wait until we talk about baguettes in detail and why we score the bread the way we do. Do you know, if you do not overlap the scores in a baguette, you get those bulges that appear? Do not worry, we will cover it in detail.

On a deserted island with only one food to eat...

If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would that food be? The rules of this question are simple: You can pick your favorite food, it can be cooked, and it can be raw, but it cannot include condiments or sides. For instance, I love pasta with a red sauce and a nice crusty bread on the side. The pasta and sauce are fine, but no bread.  What would be your go to food?

I am always wondering what my favorite food is, and there are many times when I eat something and, in that moment, that food becomes my favorite. Early on in the pandemic, I had a span of five weeks where I was eating oreo cookies every day. Not just a few, but an entire sleeve and some days two. With that said, let’s be clear, if I am stuck on an island and can only eat one food, they would not be it. I actually got addicted to the sugar which was why I continued to eat them. It’s been two months since I have eaten an oreo.

For me, it is very hard to decide what would be that one food, only because I love so many foods from so many cultures.

Italian food. Well, it’s in my blood given half of my family tree is from Calabria, and I love everything Italian.  I love pasta so much I could literally get naked and roll around on the floor with it all day long.  I love all different sizes and shapes. I really enjoy when pasta is cooked that perfect 8 minutes and served with a nice sauce. Then, leave some in the refrigerator for the next day. Be clear, you can eat it cold, or fry it in a pan, which is also amazing. Lasagna is also a favorite of mine since I am a little boy. I know this one is not novel or inventive, but certainly I could eat pizza all day every day from here to eternity and back. I do not need anything special either, just make the pizza with a nice simple sauce and cheese and then safely get out of the way or you could lose a limb.

Chinese food. I do not think there is any other food that is so universally fantastic. My favorite could be General Tso’s tofu and yes, I could eat it for breakfast every day. I also love a good lo mein but please do not let there be too much extra liquid, I think that ruins the experience. Of course, fried rice with amazing veggies and freshly chopped spring onions. Also, please, if there is anything that is necessary, make sure there is plenty of duck sauce.

French pastries. Are they a food? For me they are. In the bakery I used to take the scrap dough from croissants and make chocolate filled rolls from them. Can you imagine those amazing flavors melting in your mouth? Of course, I would want croissants with an amazingly creamy cream cheese. Am I allowed to say creamy cream? I wonder if that is redundant.

There are many other foods too of course but I do not think they come in contact with those that are repeatable day in and day out for the rest of my life. I imagine even with croissants I could get tired from them over time. Interestingly enough, you will notice I have not listed veggies, or fruits. There is one in that category but I will save that for later.

I am not sure what the purpose of that exercise is or what good it does, but because I love food so much, I have no problem playing the game, my one food on an island alone for the rest of time.

•         •     •

Now that you have picked the food that you would want to eat every day of your life, morning noon and night, do you have a recipe that goes with it, or do you like when others prepare food for you? I have been cooking all of my life and I love it. I also have been baking all of my life too and have these same feelings. I think if I were to have one of the foods on the mention list every day, I would want someone else to prepare them for me. Of course, I am on the island alone so they would magically appear every day. I would though, give them my recipe and make sure it is done just the way I like. With pizza, I really love a thick outer crust with a thin crispy bottom. When the crust on the outside bubbles up, for me it is the best. I also love it cold so I have no problem with delivery being one time a day and I just continue to enjoy throughout the day cold.

Now that I give this some more though, and something that was never factored into my game before, I will have certain stipulations for the island as well. Mountains and beautiful sandy beaches are a must. If I am eating pizza all day long I will for sure need to go into the mountains on hikes to keep from becoming as round as those pizzas. Because I love swimming and the sea, I want to do some free diving too. My days need to be adventurous. This is the beauty of Mallorca. We have amazing mountains and there are two hundred sixty-two beaches. With that many, I think I could spend the year circling the island and spend nearly every day on a different beach. The longer beaches I spend two days and the shorter ones are passthroughs.  

I cannot say for sure why this is, but I am very hungry as I write this blog entry. I imagine writing a blog about food is going to put me in this cycle quite a lot but that is a journey I am happy to take.

And now, my ultimate choice. This food I have loved since I was very tiny. I have eaten it in competitions as a kid. I love all varieties of it and most of all, I love how no matter how full I can be from eating a large quantity, two hours later I am relaxed as it is ninety-two percent water. If you have not guessed by now, my go to food, the one I could eat all day, every day, for the rest of my life, without anything special added, changed, or done to it, would be watermelon. I love them all. With seeds, without seeds. Round or oblong.

Something that just occurred to me is if I am on a deserted island with watermelon, there is a good possibility that I could naturally extract some salt from the sea and sprinkle it on top of the melon. WHAT? Are you really telling me you have never had watermelon without salt before? Lucky for you this entry is just about over. Go and get some melon, make a few slices and very lightly sprinkle some salt. You can, and you will, thank me later.

I do not feel like baking today

Do you ever have a day when you do not feel like baking anything, cooking anything, or doing anything? Somehow you just want the food to magically appear on the table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with occasional snacks in the middle somewhere. Today I want to talk a little bit about how I handle those days, especially those days when I am alone in my home and no one else is cooking for me.

Bread is my best friend. It loves me so much that it sticks to my body long after I am finished eating it. This is why I try my best to not eat too much of it on any given day. It is so difficult to do, especially when it comes out of the oven and you get that smell. My mouth started watering as I wrote those words.  Not only does just about everyone on the planet eat bread in one form or another, but it is made from the simplest of ingredients and when done correctly, it produces one of the most memorable experiences with eating one could imagine.

What I like to do is bake a loaf, or two, of bread and then store at least half of it for later on in the week or weeks that follow. I find that the easiest way to do this is by slicing the bread for storage and then putting it in the freezer. I think bread in the freezer can last a couple of months in a normal household. It never happens like that for me of course. In fact, I do not think any bread has ever lasted more than two weeks, and that was only when I was doing some testing and making a lot more bread. See, I told you, I love bread.

The only downside to putting bread in the freezer is you lose some of that freshness when it thaws out. I have two solutions for that. The first one I think is obvious, put the bread in the toaster. When you toast it, I am certain you will not know the difference. I never used to eat a lot of toasted bread to be honest, in fact, I would not even buy a toaster for a long time and forced myself to toast bread in a frying pan. But I since relented and now have a nice small toaster that does two pieces at a time. It is perfect for making an avocado and tomato toastada. The second way to refresh your bread if you want that taste like it was when it came out of the oven is to put it back in the oven. Wrap it up in foil so it doesn’t burn or dry out, but first, spritz it with a tiny bit of water. A couple of minutes on a high heat in the oven and that bread will be as soft as when removed from the oven the first time. I suppose there is a third way, which is to use a microwave. I do not like microwaves even though they work so well with melting chocolate and other things, but they are also good at maintaining the moisture in bread while warming it up and thawing it out.

The most important thing to remember is to slice the bread before putting it in the freezer. It takes forever to thaw out when whole, and never a good experience. But with slices, you can go from frozen to toaster immediately.

If you are baking breads, you can also store the dough in the freezer. Before we go any further, I want to make a small disclaimer which is that I never let my unbaked dough sit in the freezer for more than seven to eight days. Depending on who you ask, they will say the yeast lasts for two weeks and others will say four weeks and once in a while you will see someone say longer. I think it depends on multiple factors which include which stage of the bread dough are you freezing it (before the first rise, molded after the second rise, etc.) and what kind of yeast you are using and how new the yeast is, fresh or dry.  I have run experiments with bread dough for up to two weeks and got lift, but this was only when baking at home and trying different things. In my bakery the dough was always made within 24 hours and never frozen, except for that one time when my refrigerator decided to go to zero Celsius and everything turned into blocks.  Maybe that is not true, I do not remember the ketchup being frozen, then again, I didn’t check it to double check.

Given this information, one idea I have is that you could make enough dough for three breads. Bake one of them, and freeze the other two dough balls. The idea there would be that you take one out in a week and bake it for that week, and then repeat again a week later.  I would suggest if you can, do the first ferment of the dough, then shape it into the final form before freezing it. That will make life a lot easier and faster when you get to that day you want to bake the bread.

Other things I like to include in the freezer are cookies. It seems to me that a beautifully baked cookie can go in the freezer and stay for some time as long as it is properly sealed to not get freezer burnt. In the bakery when we had an overload of cookies that did not sell, we would freeze them and then eat them ourselves, or, crumble them for toppings in other desserts, like chocolate chip pieces on a cake or something similar. When operating a bakery, you learn to not waste anything whatsoever.

I just realized that this conversation has evolved from a lazy baker’s day to tips on storage. I think they are intertwined because those lazy days I still want the goodies.  So, let’s continue…

I love cake. Do you love cake? Have you ever baked a cake and realized you need to do something with it before you eat every last bite? I have, many times!! Cake is a good to freeze and very easy. Just cut off what you want to freeze, or eat, and put the rest in the freezer. I like to take plastic wrap and put it up against all of the cake, the outside and the inside to minimize any freezer burn. Cake can also be stored for a long time providing how well you preserve it going in to the freezer. I have heard stories of people saving their wedding cake for decades. That reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine goes into Peterman’s office while he is out and opens a box and takes a bite of a large piece of cake that was sitting in a pastry box, and loves the taste. He asks her if she can keep a secrete and when she says no, he proceeds to tell her that inside his “small college boy mini fridge, is my latest acquisition. A slice of cake from the wedding of King Edward the Eight to Wallis Simpson circa 1937. The price, twenty-nine thousand dollars.” Of course, it is a story of the ages and the cake certainly would not last that long, though it makes for some fun ideas.  Besides, who can keep a cake at bay for such a long time anyway? Not me.

Pastries freeze a lot like cake once they are baked. I have followed the same rule for raw pastry dough that has yeast in it, like croissants. I never want to run the risk of not getting a good rise from the dough through the bake cycle. With croissants especially since that perfect honeycomb structure on the inside is the final stage of many which all have to go perfectly, every time.

I have made pastry shells before and frozen them for longer periods of time. They are not difficult to make but in quantities they can become tedious. Preparing them and then putting into a container for storage always allowed me to pull out a few when I needed them and use without worry. They can be stored for months in theory, though I never had them last that long.

•         •     •

There you have it, some short notes about how I prepare for the lazy baking days when I have little to no desire to bake anything. I want to point out, it is not from a lack of love for baking, but more from wanting a rest from baking. When our bakery was running on full steam, I was baking seven days a week, and starting at 4:30 in the morning most days. Have some fun with baking and try to always make enough for multiple days if possible. I know it is hard when you make a two-layer chocolate cake with an avocado mousse in the middle, trust me, but you can do it. By the way, here is a photo of just that cake.

 

Yes to pizza, and I will tell you why!

I love pizza. I believe it is a staple for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It can be served as a snack, cold or hot. If it is one day old, sometimes it is even better straight from the refrigerator. Therefore, I imagine that the community of pizza lovers is enormous. That could be my naivety about worldly things, or, I could be right.

Pizza is generally believed and agreed to have originated in Naples. Not Florida, but Italy. Maybe there are older versions that go back in time, but I am talking about modern day pizza. I admit, I am a bit of a snob about my pizza too. I want it baked a certain way, and with a particular crust. Ok, that isn’t true, I will eat pizza out of a cardboard box. If you ask my kids to tell you the pizza story, they will regale you with a true tale that goes something like this. In the early 1990’s their mother and I got some frozen pizzas from the market. They were thick which made me excited. I didn’t care at all that they were frozen, just that the cost was super low and they said “pizza” on the outside of the plastic wrap that surrounded them, trying its best to keep them from frostbite.  I baked my pizza in my parent’s oven and started eating it. I finished about half of the pizza when I started to feel sick. I then took a much closer look and realized, the pizzas were not thick, it was actually two pizzas separated by a piece of cardboard. Yes, that is correct, I was eating cardboard, literally. It is a lot funnier now than it was then.

Today, where I live there is a small pizza place that makes Napoli style pizza. They even imported the bricks from Naples to build their wood oven for baking the pizza. That is hard core if you ask me. Without a question it is the best pizza on the island. What makes this pizza so great is that nicely fermented crust that bubbles up around the outside, the simple construction in the middle topped as I wish, usually with mushrooms, onions, a vegan cheese, and basil, and that smokey rich taste that comes from the wood burning pizza oven.

When I make pizza, I am fortunate enough to have access to doppio zero (00) flour which is traditionally used for classic Napoli pizza and pizza in general. I will start out with 500g of this flour. To that I will add 10 grams of salt, 3.5 grams of instant dry yeast or 7 grams of fresh yeast, one teaspoon of sugar to feed the yeast, and 355g of water. I know it seems like a high hydration but it works out nicely. If you are using a different flour, it could be possible you need to add a bit more flour. Doppio zero is excellent about taking advantage of all water it can get. If it makes you nervous to use so much water then cut it back to 325g, no one will call the pizza police. 

500g 00 or bread flour
355g water
10g salt
7g fresh yeast or 3.5g active dry yeast
tsp sugar

Mixing the pizza dough, I do a little bit differently than I do other bread-based doughs. The pizza dough demands a different level of respect to produce the best results. Mix everything in the bowl with a dough scraper until everything is fully incorporated. No bits and bobs laying around for sure. Then, let the dough rest for about ten minutes. This is going to give the gluten time to become acquainted with you working it to make that beautiful perfect dough ball for pizza. After the time passes, dust your work surface plentifully and turn your dough out and start working it, that is to say, kneading the dough. Do not introduce more flour if necessary, please, but work the dough like you would any other bread dough and continue until you start to see a nice ball will form and it is not sticky to the touch.

Now that you have your dough, lets put it into the refrigerator overnight. It needs time to relax and develop flavor. If you are impatient you can make pizza the same day, but it is best you let it work its magic in the cold box.

The next day you will take out your dough and spread it on to a floured work surface. Here you need to but up your dough into equal portions. My advice would be to cut it up into 6 equal pieces. If you are feeling like you can work a pizza dough enough to get that crust thin, this amount will work very well for you. If you are a bit nervous, then cut it into four equal pieces of 175 grams each. Any pizza you will not be using that day you can wrap up nicely in zip lock bags and store in the refrigerator if you will eat in the next couple of days or put in the freezer for longer storage.

I do not have any recommendations for a pizza sauce. I suggest you find one you like, or make your own. I make my own sometimes and other times when I am lazy, I will use a store-bought pasta sauce. Yes, I admit it, I am not a purest.  Pick what toppings you want for your pizza along with a cheese you want to use if at all. Sometimes I make pizza without cheese, especially when I am putting pasta on it, as you can see in the post photo. A simple suggestion is to get a few bowls and put each of the toppings in the respective bowls for ease of working them on to your pizza dough. At this time, you should already turn your oven on. Set it for inferno. You want that beautiful oven to be as hot as humanly possible. Also, if you have a pizza stone, now is a perfect time to make sure that is also in the oven, we want that as hot as possible too.

A very important note about toppings. If you have a friend who tells you that pineapple does not belong on pizza, I suggest you network yourself to find a new group of friends. I will put literally anything on a pizza providing it is plant based. Pineapple is one of my all-time favorite toppings. I know that once that pineapple is baked it sweetens up a lot, but who am I to turn my nose up and say no pineapple? Its silliness!! Pineapple Pizza for president? I like the sound of that.

We are ready for shaping the pizza. The moment you are waiting for, the pièce de résistance. Start by flatting out your pizza a little bit with your hand to make a round disc. Then generously flour both sides. Lay the pizza down on your work surface and start stretching it out until you get it about twenty-five centimeters. This will give you enough space to mimic the movies and work the dough with your fists and daringly toss it in the air and spin. What is important as you are stretching the dough is it does not get so thin that it rips a whole. As you work your dough it will widen more and more.

Do you have a peel? If no, maybe you can find a piece of cardboard that is the size of your pizza dough or a tiny bit more. We are going to use these to slide our pizza into the oven. Generously dust your peel or cardboard with semolina, this will all the dough to slide around with ease. In fact, once you have done this and transfer your dough to the peel, practice to see if you can make it move some. If no, just lift an edge and toss a little bit more in there.  Also, if you are baking this on a thin metal pan, do not worry about the peel or cardboard and just lightly dust the pan and put your dough on that surface.

Building your pizza is the creative part. Take a small amount of sauce and spread it around your dough. Please be sure to leave about one inch on the outside of the dough untouched by the sauce. This will allow that to puff up nicely in the oven. After you have your toppings on the pizza, make sure your oven is as hot as possible and slide your pizza in the oven on to your pizza stone, or put the pan in the oven. When I bake my pizza in a conventional oven with top and bottom heat, I like my pizza to sit up higher in the oven so that top heat really toasts the pizza. Once your pie is in the oven, let it bake for a few minutes and without opening the oven look at it to see how it is coming along. It should not take more than eight minutes or so for that crust to bubble up and start to darken. When the dough is the color you want it to be, pull it out and you are done. You are an official pizza baker.

The key takeaways from my feelings about pizza are as follows:

1. Eat pizza often, and any time of the day
2. Enjoy the process of building your pizza dough
3. Always have pineapple as an option
4. Bake at the highest temperature possible
5. Do not share too much of your pizza, or, do just the opposite of me and share with everyone.

PS - in case you are wondering, the pizza in the photo includes, day old pasta twirled up, green and black olives, shiitake mushrooms, basil, and a vegan parmasean I made which is comprise of cashews, garlic salt, onion powder, and nutritional yeast.

The Key is in the Lime, Pie

I love to experiment with flavors, solidifiers, and crumbs, in an effort to come up with a commonly known result in my own, unique way. I do not like it to be difficult and I like that it can be replicated.  Most importantly, I have learned after a massive mistake I made in 2015 with not writing down the ingredient measurements for literally the most amazing key lime pie I ever made. It was stiff and yet creamy. The texture melted softly in your mouth like an ice cream will, and yet, the flavors had you begging for more.  I was doing some testing that day and it worked, but what I wasn’t doing is writing it down. The only thing I have left is this photo, my only living memory of that amazing day in Basel, Switzerland.

What I love about pies like this is that creativity is essential if we want to replicate pies that are not vegan friendly, with vegan ingredients and still have them taste exactly the same (or better) without any animal products.

With that said, Sandy and I are fortunate enough to have two amazing friends who happen to be from the United States like me, and live only one hundred meters away. Since he, David, loves Key Lime Pie, I decided to make one for him two days ago as a treat, but it failed miserably. Today, I have made another for him and here is how I did it.

This pie is not difficult, you just need certain ingredients that may not be laying around your house, patience, and of course, to follow the recipe to the best of your ability.

The Crust

This is a simple crust, and I made it with healthier ingredients than normal to cut out some of the fat you might find in a typical crust.

15 medium sized vegan cookies, unsweetened if possible
1 cup dates
¼-½ cups of water

Method
In a food processor, crumble the cookies down, then add the dates and some of the water and incorporate the three. When you sense you can press the crust together and it will stick, you are done. If no, add a little bit more water until you are able to accomplish this. The result should look something like this:

Once you are done, you can place it in the refrigerator if you like, though it is not necessary. If you make this with butter, which is the more traditional way, you will want to refrigerate it to ensure the crust hardens and stays in place.

The Pie Filling

Zest of 6 limes
Juice of those same 6 limes
1 ½  cups water
1 tablespoon of agar agar
¼ cup agave
10 ounces of sugar free soya yogurt
10 ounces of coconut cream
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup spinach leaves

The Method
First we are going to make the filling for the pie.
In a blender add the cashews and ½ cup of water. Blend until they are smooth. If you do not have a high-powered blender you should soak the nuts over night or in boiling water for 15-20 minutes to soften them up. We want this to be creamy.

Once you have the cashews creamy, now you can add 2/3s of the zest, agave, yogurt, coconut cream, lime juice, and spinach leaves. Blend this until they fully come together to look like a green cream. If you do not want your pie to have a green hue to it, you are welcome to exclude the spinach. You will not taste it in the pie, but it does an excellent job of giving your pie a nice light green hue.

Now we want to mix together the agar. This will be used to solidify the key lime pie so that it sits firmly on your plate. Do not worry, agar agar, a carrageenan and is completely harmless and comes from seaweed. If you do, you will find there are two types, one, which you find in additives like agar-agar or kappa, and the degraded carrageenan which is not safe to eat. The latter is also linked with colon cancer. I only mention this because there is so much talk that is spread around about these two different ingredients that both come from seaweed.

In a pot, add one cup of water and the agar-agar over a medium heat. Agar-agar needs to reach the boiling point to be effective, that is to say, where it will start to gel. With a whisk, keep stirring this mixture to ensure there are no clumps and it is smooth. Continue until it starts to boil. When it is boiling (not a full boil, just enough that bubbles are popping up) you remove it from the heat. Note, it will also be thickening at this time too.

Add the agar-agar gel to the mousse and mix together with a hand mixer of your choice. You want to make sure that they are one-hundred percent incorporated. When you are complete, it will be a creamy, somewhat thick, bowl of beautifulness, and it will look something like this:

We are in the home stretch

Gently pour your key lime mixture into the bowl where you already made your crust. Once you have it full, tap it down a few times on the counter to pull out any air bubbles. They do not hurt the pie, but when you cut into it later, you will not want to see them, you will want those nice solid slices of creamy loveliness awaiting your fork, or spoon, or fingers, or all three.

Sprinkle some of the remaining zest on the top for aesthetics and then place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to give the pie time to set. It should look something like this when done:

 

•         •     •

I want to tell you about why these recipes are all plant based, that is, they are all vegan friendly. I want to share with you my ideas on why I feel it is important, how I got there, and where I continue to go.

There are four main areas that I focus on when thinking about veganism and why it is a part of my life.

One, for the animals.

I am not an active activist. I have been to a couple of protests, but I realize they get me into a place of anger and resentment towards human beings for not understanding the suffering of animals, and honestly, I do not handle it well. Others, friends of mine, are amazing activists, some of which are excellent at taking away the fight and raising the cognitive level of discourse about animal suffering. I am envious of those friends.

If you include all animals in the numbers of which are killed every day, you will not believe how large that number is. Let me break it down for you, in a very simple way. This blog takes me roughly three hours to write (seems like a lot of time for a few words doesn’t it?). In the three hours of me writing this blog, 375,000,000 animals were killed for food. This includes our friends of the sea. I know that number seems hard to believe, but it is very true. If you go to animalclock.org, you can follow the count along.

In western cultures, we segregate animals into classes. Much like driving a vehicle in India, where there is a hierarchy to the road, we apply the same to animals. For instance, we do not eat dogs as they are our best friends, but bacon from pigs is no problem. I should point out, that only dogs are only a bit smarter than pigs and separated by cats in the middle. Pigs feel pain of family loss, suffer emotions, can cry, and yet, in many “hog farms” they are kept in cages so tight that they cannot stand, turn their bodies, itch their backs, or move at all. I have a friend from a long time ago, he has had a pig for over twenty years as a pet, which lives in his home. Is cleaner, cleaner than his dog, and better potty trained. Ok, his tableside manners leave a bit to be desired with those cute grunting noises he makes while chewing, but that bothers me even when humans do it, so it doesn’t count.

I can tell you hundreds of stories of animals suffering, but I just want you to know what keeps me awake at night, when I think about the food choices I make.

Two, for my health

Do you know those tasty street corner hotdogs and bacon are classified as class-1 carcinogens? In case you are wondering, that is the same as smoking.  I suppose if you are a smoker you do not much care about that statistic, but your body does. There are more and more links to cancer through the food we eat, and more. Do you know where cholesterol comes from? There are two sources, what comes from your liver, which is a good cholesterol that your body needs, and the other is food. But, what food would that be? Only foods that contain animal meat, dairy, or eggs. You love that dairy yogurt or cheese; they both can raise your cholesterol. Seafood, steak, other meats, sardines, etc. are all sources of cholesterol.

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, wrote a book called Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease. In this book he outlines his work over decades where he has in one hundred percent of his cases, reversed heart disease through a plant-based diet. Not, ninety-nine, but one-hundred percent. Only in the cases where the subjects did not stick to his diet recommendations were there outliers.

T. Colin Campbell wrote a book called The China Study. This study is based on work he did for many years which showed those who ingested animal-based foods were linked to coronary disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, bowel cancer, and diabetes. Those who ate a whole food plant-based diet, escaped these diseases, and reversed such illnesses from growing.

As a child, every single day on television I was told to drink milk, it was good for my body and made my bones strong.  Today, we see more research pointing to the detriment of ingesting animal milk, including osteoporosis.

I choose to minimize my risk of dying by the food I eat. I plan on living to be 110, it seems like a good number and who knows, maybe when I am 100, I will change my mind and want to live to be 120.

Three, for World Hunger

I am not sure if you are aware of how much food is grown to feed animals, but the numbers are insanely high.  Here is a direct quote from earthsave.org.

                “It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy                equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef.”

Can you imagine how many families could eat dinner on twelve pounds of grain alone? It goes a lot further than the one pound of beef that is created for sure. Additionally, we lose two thousand five hundred gallons of water for that one pound of beef.  I do not have it in me to say I want a burger knowing how many more people could eat if they had the grain alone as their own food.  

And finally four, for the PLANET

Here is a quote from timeforchange.org with the science behind cows and methane.
                “A cow does on overage release between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year. Methane is a          greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2). But the negative effect on the climate of Methane is            23 times higher than the effect of CO2. Therefore, the release of about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2’300 kg CO2 per year.

                Let’s compare this value of 2’300 kg CO2: The same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is    generated by burning 1’000 liters of petrol. With a car using 8 liters of petrol per 100 km, you could drive 12’500 km per year (7’800 miles per year).”

Our planet is warming up at an alarming rate and we cannot stop it without making changes to what we put on our plate. It is interesting to me. In California, as an example, water consumption for the home (showers, food, lawns, etc.) only make up about ten percent of water consumption, while livestock farming is over forty percent. Yet, when there is a drought, the residents are told to take short showers and stop washing their cars. Why not ask the livestock farmers to stop impregnating more cows, chickens, turkeys and more, to stop the increase of water usage?

Livestock farming now utilizes thirty percent of the planets land surface. In our homes we may not see that because we live in areas where we see one cow farm every fifty miles and think it is not possible. But in places like the amazon where forests are being burned down to create live stock fields, and grain fields to feed those livestock, it is a much different story to tell.

In closing, I really do not want to make this a conversation about what is right or wrong. For the record, I do not spend a lot of time with many vegans in my community because they want to close the doors to those who do not see the world the same way they do. I prefer to use my energy in a more positive manner, by educating, mostly through food. If you eat something I make, I promise you will finish with a smile. I also promise you I will be thankful because they are one or two less bites into an animal product. I would be a hypocrite if I said someone who ate animals was a bad person because it was what I did too, for a large part of my life. We all grow, and we all change in our own ways, my hope is that one bite at a time, I can make a positive difference in these four areas that encompass my plant based lifestyle.