Vegan French Yule Log

Hi All, It's Jane writing today's post....  As you might imagine, the first of the month is eagerly anticipated by the over 1,000 Daring Bakers.  It is the day that month's challenge is revealed.  So on December 1st I hurried to my computer and went immediately to the Daring Bakers message board to see what was in store for us this month.  My heart sank.  A Yule Log.  Now some of you might remember, last December was my first official DB challenge, and it was a Yule Log which turned out to be my first official challenge and my first DB failure.  So you can imagine I was not eagerly anticipating recreating that nightmare again.  But, this challenge was for a FRENCH Yule Log.  And, as I learned, that's a horse of a different color.  (Speaking of different colors, please excuse the photograph.  One of our young relatives, who shall remain nameless, decided to play with a paint program.  This is the only photo to survive, and it's been "cleaned up" a bit!)

Our hosts this month were Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry, and Marion of Il en faut peu pour etre heureux, and the opened with the reassuring comments of "don't panic," and "the recipe is 18 pages long."  Just what you want to hear when trying a new recipe for a cake you've had trouble with in the past!  So looking for reassurance, I went to visit the site where the original recipe lives... The recipe comes from Flore of Florilège Gourmand , but it's all in french and je ne parle pas de français!  (Perhaps, I should have paid attention in high school!)

But reading over the recipe, I thought to myself, I can do this.  And lo and behold, a yule log was born. While I can't say I'd make this recipe again, it wasn't bad.  But it was an awful lot of work for something that wasn't spectacular.  There were six elements:

1. Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake) - I simply subbed the egg with Ener-G. It tasted good, but was slightly rubbery and didn't come off the silpat in one piece!
2. Dark Chocolate Mousse - I used my standard vegan mousse recipe.
3. Dark Chocolate Ganache Insert - Easy enough... just use vegan ingredients.
4. Praline Feuillete (Crisp) Insert - I used the coconut version and subbed dark chocolate for white.
5. Vanilla Crème Brulée Insert - I used the pastry cream recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking.
6. Dark Chocolate Icing - I omitted the water and added a bit more chocolate so that it firmed up.

And of course, the assembly required refrigeration and some attention to detail.  Again, it was an edible dessert, and was even appreciated, but my Vegan Christmas Cookies were far superior!

Don't forget to check out the DB Blogroll to see what everyone else created this month!

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No need to read further...  This code allows me to be recognized by the Daring Baker tool that verifies whether or not we've participated in the challenge.

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

Vegan Christmas Dinner

We celebrate Christmas here.  This year we had a few people over who were not interested in trying a vegan meal.  So, in the spirit of the holidays, we suggested they bring the "meat" dish of their choice, and promised they'd love our sides.  (The bit of non-vegan fare on the table is not shown in photo.)

Our dinner was almost identical to our Thanksgiving.  I begged Jane and she acquiesced, but I don't think I'll be getting a repeat any time soon.  We're still eating leftovers and she's starting to tire of the same meal, after all we just had a week of it for Thanksgiving.  Regardless of her waning enthusiasm, it's a spectacular meal.   The mashed cauliflower was a huge hit, as was our stuffing.  The red cabbage has been a standing family dish forever, and people always comment on our brussels sprouts.

Vegan Christmas Cookies

But the big winner was the cookie tray.  Jane did a ton of baking this year.  My expanding waistline can attest to two facts: 1) It is possible to gain weight on a vegan diet; and 2) vegan desserts can be DELICIOUS.

Starting at the 9 o'clock position and moving clockwise we have:

• Vegan Brownies from The Joy of Vegan Baking, the best brownies ever!
• Nikki's Healthy Cookies from the 101 Cookbooks blog (I didn't care for these.  Jane added sugar, and they still weren't sweet enough for my taste).  Jane won't be making these again, but we did hear rave review from one of our guests.
• Zimtsterne (or Cinnamon Stars) from Mihl's blog Seitan Is My Motor.  Jane's favorite non-vegan cookie... this recipe is almost as good!  A definite addition to her repertoire.
• Spritz cookies (Jane veganized her standard recipe).
• Lemon Gems from Gails blog, Cooking at the Pacific Outpost.  We've had several requests for this recipe and these were my favorite cookies by far.  Gail also has a recipe for Spritz cookies that Jane said she might try next year.
• Peppermint truffles.  Jane's concoction.  I have no idea what's in them, but damn they're good!
• Ganache truffles.  Jane used a failed Daring Bakers' ganache for the December Challenge (that's tomorrow's post) and rolled them in some kind of crumbled macadamia nut brittle.  Can we say calories?

Whatever you celebrate at your house, we hope you are having a happy holiday season!  Now off to bed with dreams of sugarplums (or vegan cookies) dancing in my head.

Chocolate Soymilk Review

Jane and I thought it was time to do another side-by-side taste test of vegan chocolate milks.  Last year we settled on Silk's Light Chocolate Soymilk as our favorite, but things can change.  We found a soymilk in Target, Archer Farms Organic, and we also found some 8th Continent Light Soymilk which a number of you say you prefer.  So, we figured it was time to revisit the issue.  Without further ado, here are our findings:

Archer Farms Organic Chocolate Soymilk

Calories 130.  3 g fat.  5 g protein.

This was the only full fat chocolate soymilk we sampled.  Interestingly, it looked the "lightest" of the three.  It was paler in color and appeared more "watery."   It had a nice nose.  As for taste.  I enjoyed it very much.  Jane liked it too, but thought it had an aftertaste.  It placed second in our taste test today.

Silk Light Chocolate Soymilk

Calories 120.  1.5 g fat.  5 g protein.

Our personal favorite.  It still holds up as the winner.  The scent was more chocolate-y and the beverage itself has more body.  A very satisfying drink.

8th Contintent Light Chocolate Soymilk:

Calories 90.  1.5 g fat.  7 g protein.

Downright awful.  I thought it smelled like paint.  Jane, who typically has a better sense of smell than I do, thought it smelled like chocolate.  But we both agreed it was terrible.  It had a chalky aftertaste and the texture was also not as good as the others.  It was so bad we double-checked the expiration date to make sure it was still okay.  It was.

In the past we've also tried the Whole Foods store brand and didn't care for that either.  Hands down Silk Light Chocolate Soymilk is the way to go.

The nutrition blog over at Women's Health references a study published by the Journal of Consumer Research back in August.  We wrote about it back then...  Perception Is Reality, but it certainly bears repeating (especially for those of you considering going vegan for the new year).  The study basically states that people believe meat tastes better than vegetarian fare, but that is more a case of expectations rather than actual taste.

I'd love to run this taste test, but I'd never be able to actually replicate it myself as no one would expect me to serve meat!

"Heavy meat eaters claim that they eat meat because it tastes better than other foods, such as meat substitutes. Our results challenge that claim. Participants who ate the vegetarian alternative did not rate the taste and aroma less favorably than those who ate the beef product. Instead, what influenced taste evaluation was what they thought they had eaten and whether that food symbolized values that they personally supported ... strategies that might persuade heavy meat eaters to change their diet include changing the cultural associations of fruits and vegetables to encompass values that meat eaters endorse (e.g., power and strength), or challenging heavy meat eaters' assumptions about what tastes good by using in-store (blind) taste tests or showing them results of studies such as this one."

From:  Michael W. Allen, Richa Gupta, and Arnaud Monnier. "The Interactive Effect of Cultural Symbols and Human Values on Taste Evaluation" Journal of Consumer Research: August 2008.

Thanks to Gary of Animal Writings for pointing us to the WH blog posting.