adventures in baking--gingerbread and pie

this morning, the day after the fancy meal, my friend k came over to fulfill a baking date we have been trying to have for literally 6 months! we decided to bake two things--i bottomlined the gingerbread, and she bottomlined the pie (with the apples and cranberries left over from last night!).
the gingerbread took maybe ten minutes from conceptualization to oven, and the pie only longer than that because of the crust having to cool.
i threw the following into my kitchenaid:

• earth balance


• vanilla paste


• soymilk


• egg replacer


• sugar


• fresh crushed ginger


• molasses

and i mixed them all up. then, on top of them, i put the next ingredients:

• flour


• baking powder


• baking soda


• salt

then i did this ridiculous thing that i like to think is akin to mixing in separate bowls, which i clearly am not going to do. i put the mixer head down so it just touches the flour mixture, and mixed it that way for like 10 seconds. then, i mixed as usual. it was way too thick, so i added more soymilk. then we sprayed the mini-loaf pans, and put it in the oven (at 375-ish).
i rinsed out the bowl and whipped up some icing--powdered sugar, lemon juice, a little bit of lemon zest.
when we iced it, we put a tiny bit of chopped crystallized ginger on top. the result was the most amazing gingerbread ever. for serious, this shit MELTS IN YR MOUTH. it is so, so good.
and, pretty!:

i can't speak to how the pie was made, really, but is it not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

such a nice morning/early afternoon!

a longer project

so today at work, i decided, like i sometimes do, to pretend that i have the kind of job where you actually get a lunch break. i tend to spend that time looking at random blogs. today, i was searching through food blogs, and i found this recipe. i totally wanted to leave work early and go home and make it, but i had a lot more of my day ahead of me.
so! i got home, finally, and cooked this up--well, sort of. if you know me at all you know that i am fully unable to follow recipes. but i took it as my inspiration to make apple-ginger muffins with caramel sauce.
first, i chopped up the apples really small. i came up with a new tactic for doing this: cut three slices off each side of the apple while the apple is still whole. it basically looks like this:

then turn and do the same for the other three sides. then just chop the shit out of the whole pile. everything is not perfectly even, but its really good and a lot quicker! i don't know why i never thought of this before. i always did this long, detailed way, which so does not work with my general technique.
so then i put the chopped apples in a bowl with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, crushed ginger, and almond extract. i put it in the oven at 200 for like 15 minutes while i made the caramel sauce.
ok, y'all, i got shocked like 5000 times that i was actually making caramel. i have made half-assed caramel a lot, which consists of a mixture of earth balance, soymilk, vanilla, salt, and brown sugar (so it looks caramel-y without waiting for the actual caramelization). anyway, i melted earth balance, then added a pile of sugar, and stirred until it turned brown! it was shockingly quick, like maybe 3 minutes? then i took it off the heat and added half-and-half (for some reason, its hard to find organic heavy cream at stop and shop), and stirred until it was smooth, then added some more half and half and salt and stirred again. this was almost like following a recipe! except for the amounts, and the ingredients.
i put the caramel aside, and took the apples out of the oven. i mixed in some egg replacer (made with soymilk! always make egg replacer with some sort of milk, because that gives it the right consistency) and oil in with them, and then put some flour and baking powder and baking soda and salt on top of that (i put them on top and then stir a little, and pretend like i have sifted them together separately). i mixed everything together, put it into muffin tins, and put them in the oven.
some time (12 minutes? 20 minutes? enough time to clean up, put more flour and sugar into their canisters, and make 2 sandwiches), they started to be done! i took the smallest muffins out first, then the bigger muffins, then the muffin bread (cos i, as always, misgauged how much it would make). and! look how beautiful!

if you come by my desk at work tomorrow, i will totals give you one.
if i make them again, i would add 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/3 brown sugar, and maybe bake some of the apples for a better texture variety. also, i might put a little more almond extract in, OR put a tiny bit of almond flour in, just to complicate the taste a little.
SO GOOD!!!