10 June 2017

Maggie's Vegan Peachy Cream Bars

Last week, my neighbor brought over 10 beautiful, juicy, perfectly-ripe peaches. She got them from The Peach Truck, which makes runs of Georgia peaches during peach season. I looked at them and daydreamed about them, but finally figured I really needed to DO something with them.

The first thing I did was dehydrate six of them. I blanched them (like you do with tomatoes), so that I could remove the skins easily, and then sliced them for the dehydrator. Approximately 6 hours later, we had these chewy, candy-sweet peaches. What is in that tiny bowl is all that remains. Next time, I'll do double the amount.

After that, I needed to figure out what to do with the remaining blanched/peeled peaches. I knew we were having some friends for a late dinner to break their Ramadan fast, so I starting thinking about some kind of dessert. After double-checking that they like peaches and were willing to try a brand new recipe (both of which got enthusiastic positive responses), I starting digging around. One of our friends is completely gluten-free, so that was a constraint. I also didn't want to simply make a peach cobbler or pie. I stumbled upon a recipe that seemed like a good place to start. What emerged was a delicious dessert, perfect for a summer sweet tooth.



04 June 2017

Maggie's Vegan Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

My wife love banana bread. LOVES it. Me? I prefer my sweet bread with zucchini. If I have to do banana, I'll do the best banana muffins ever. But Shana had been asking for banana bread - specifically, banana bread that tasted like bananas and included chocolate chips - for a long time.

A few months ago, I gave in to her request and started looking up recipes. I didn't find any that I liked. Undeterred, I made something up. Here's the crazy part: I wrote down what I did. When Shana tried it, she was thrilled. It was just what she wanted.

But the rule for the blog is that I have to make my own recipes at least twice before they appear here. Given my lack of enthusiasm for banana bread, it was a while before I felt like making it again. This weekend, my mother-in-law and step-dude (her husband) came to town and Shana mentioned banana bread when we were discussing breakfast. Three pairs of eyes lit up. In my quick mental check, I realized that my frozen-banana-zone of the freezer (what, you don't have one of those?!) was getting full, so I acquiesced.

It was just a good the second time as it was the first, though I'll still take zucchini bread any day.

It was still a bit warm when I cut it, so look at all that melty chocolate.