It’s that time of year again! Time to wear down your stove and your keyboard. Time to mow people down with your shopping cart. Time to answer the age old question: do lemon and chocolate taste good together? It’s time for VeganMoFo, the Vegan Month Of Food.

The idea is to write as much as you can for the month of October about vegan food. The blog entries can be about anything food related - your love of tongs, your top secret tofu pressing techniques, the first time your mom cooked vegan for you, vegan options in Timbuktu - you get the idea. There is no strict guideline for how much you have to write, but we shoot for about 20 times a month, or every weekday.

This year the master list of participants is being hosted by Kittee, Cake Maker To The Stars. So get on over there for more details and to sign up!  You don’t have to be vegan to join, just so long as you are writing about vegan food for the month. Happy MoFoing!

OK so I am getting back into the video world with a very appropriate, prim and proper little video about cookies! Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, to be exact. And I blather on about the Aztecs and autumn a bit in the video so I won’t overdo it here. But let me just say that they are one of my absolute favorites in the book, you probably already have all the ingredients, and I hope you make them!

A beautiful crackle topped chocolate cookie with a spicy cayenne kick and a sugary cinnamon coating. Sold?

For the topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil,  sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

The cookie book is off to the printers and we are thoroughly excited about sharing a few more recipes with you. For those who were at the Toronto Veggie Food Fair, did you catch Terry and her cooking/baking demos? Here she is kissing our book cover at the Book Expo this past summer.

It will be out in stores in early November, but you can preorder the book on Amazon or where ever you like! Now on to today’s recipe.

 Pignoli Almond Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

You may simply knows these are “pignoli,” the rice almond buttery cookie with the dense, chewy center and a smattering of pine nuts. I’ve been missing Brooklyn a lot lately, especially around autumn, and these cookies are an Italian (and Jewish) bakery staple. The bakeries in Brooklyn are a little bit different from the kind of hoity toity 4-dollar-cookie bakery we find across the country these days. For one thing, you could buy cookies by the pound. And for another, the cases were overflowing. It wasn’t about buying one cookie to nibble on while you pretended to work on your lap top. It was buying a box, tied up with red string, to bring and share where ever you were going. It wasn’t a birthday party (or a funeral) if it didn’t end with a big cardboard box of colorful, chewy, chunky, crispy, crumbly cookies.

Pingolis were a staple in that box. If you know what I’m talking about you’re probably already in the kitchen unwrapping your almond paste. If you don’t, well, try these heavenly bites and join us.

Note: These cookies are super-soft right out of the oven, so be sure to allow them a full five minutes to firm up on the cookie sheet before transferring to racks to complete cooling.

7 ounces almond paste, sliced into 1 inch cubes (not marzipan)

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine, softened

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2  cup pine nuts

2 to 3 tablespoons almond milk for dipping

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a medium sized baking sheet with parchment paper.

Pulse almond paste, salt, baking powder and 1/3 cup sugar in a food processor until mixture is crumbly, about 1 minute.

In a large bowl cream together margarine and remaining 1/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add almond paste mixture and almond extract and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Sift in flour and beat until a slightly crumbly yet soft dough forms. Dough should form a soft mass when pressed together.

Pour pine nuts into a shallow bowl and pour 2 Tablespoons of almond milk into a small saucer. For each cookie, roll 1 tablespoon of dough in palms to form into a ball, dip one end in almond milk and press moistened end into pine nuts. If necessary press pine nuts into surface of ball. Place dough balls, pine nut side up, on baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 14 minutes until cookies have puffed and spread a little, and nuts are are just slightly toasted. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes to firm up before carefully transferring to cooling rack. Store in a tightly covered container.

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT, THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Apron Activists are back! This time we’re tying on our apron strings to raise money for the Chimp Sanctuary Northwest. CSNW is currently home to seven chimpanzees released from biomedical research. This group, the Cle Elum Seven, arrived at the sanctuary on June 13, 2008. Please visit their excellent website to learn more about these seven brave individuals.

Once again, we will transform Sweetpea Baking Company into a candlelit bistro and you will be waited on hand and foot by Herbivore, Food Fight and Scapegoat staffers. The menu will feature all the lush, local seasonal flavors that Portland has to offer. Ambrosial root veggies, toasty hazelnut, creamy butternut, earthy mushrooms, and who can resist cinnamony apple pie in October? Come savor the warm flavors of fall and know that each delicious forkful is helping make the world a better place.

All profits will go directly to the sanctuary. Tickets will be $25 per person, but we encourage diners to pay as much as possible. For those who pay $50 per person, there will be a generous assortment of home baked cookies and stickers and buttons from Herbivore Clothing Co. Plus, we’re working on gift bags for those who give $100 or more.

THE MENU

Bread Basket
Mushroom walnut pate, carrot ginger spread, baguette, matzoh, flatbreads

Salad
Root Vegetable & Caramelized Figs
Mixed greens, endive, creamy garlic dressing, cilantro pesto drizzle

Entree
Butternut Rissoto
Cashew creme, roasted brussel sprouts, toasted hazelnuts

Dessert
Apple Pie with Peanut Butter Caramel
Homemade vanilla bean ice cream with a creamy coconut cashew almond base

When:

Friday, October 16th. Please arrive at 7:00 PM for a reception with the Chimp Sanctuary staffers. Dinner will be served at 7:30 PM.

Where:
Sweetpea Baking Company

1205 SE Stark off SE 12th Ave
Google Map

Ticket Prices
Since seating limited, you must buy tickets in advance to attend the night’s festivities. Tickets are a sliding scale, from 25 to 100 dollars. Diners who pay 50 dollars or more will also be receiving a goodie bag and 100 dollars or more will get you an even better goodie bag.

To Purchase Tickets
To purchase tickets, paypal 25 to 100 dollars to postpunkkitchen@gmail.com. Please put “October Dinner” in the subject. You’ll just need to give your name at the door when you arrive (no need to print out a ticket.) You can also drop by Herbivore to pay for tickets.

Seating
If you are buying tickets for more than yourself, please put their names in the paypal comments and a table will be arranged for you. If you would like to sit with people in addition to the ones you are purchasing tickets for, please put their names in the comments as well, and let me know that you want to sit with them. If you are flying solo, you may end up sitting with strangers at the community table. But we promise that they will be fascinating strangers.

Allergies And Substitutions
Please email us with any dietary needs you have and we will do our best to accommodate you. Gluten free, soy-free and nut-free options are available.

Alcohol
Please bring your own beer and wine. Also bring any other beverage you like.
Any other questions? Just email us! postpunkkitchen@gmail.com. Thanks for your support!