New Years Cooking Disaster ~ New Years Pie 2012

Happy New Year to you all...I hope your celebrations went as planned. We saw 2012 in by watching Cowboys and Aliens and then Jools Holland's Hootananny. I experiemented with Strawberry Mojitos which were nice but way too sweet and then gave me a headache to see the New Year in...how is that fair? lol. So I actually saw the year in with a good old fashioned Gin and Tonic whilst listening to Caro Emerald do her thing at the Hootananny. lol.

The New Year Pie for 2012

Today we were celebrating and my sister and her family were joining us for dinner at 1. We started well with freshly cooked baguettes with roasted garlic bulbs and the little ones had a cheesey option. For our main meal I cooked a New Year pie taken from a recipe I had used before but served at a Friends' Christmas gathering fashioned into a Christmas Tree shaped pie. The recipe is from Rose Elliot's Vegetarian Christmas. I had veganised it using vegan soya cheese the first time I made it. It went down a storm..was eaten quickly and was a fun element for the main course. Today we made it as a regular shaped pie with Happy New Year 2012 emblazoned across it...it cooked well..It got a little too toasty at one corner but it was otherwise fine. Then I served it up to My Love, my sister, myself and the little ones....(My brother in law who is far from vegan tucked into a Chicken En Croute..) and we all served ourselves our veggies from the serving dishes...raised a glass to the New Year and tucked in. The veggies tasted great...the pie? Was awful! So awful that I dragged out the filling and just ate the pastry...my sister ditched hers completely and scooped it into the empty parsnip dish (she looked so relieved to hear me say that I thought it was awful! Then got ditching..lol) and shared her partner's En Croute. The little ones were of the same opinion and ate just their veggies. The only person who managed to eat their share was My Love who didn't mind the mushroomy filling but just thought it was "...a little sweet!" I thought 'disgusting' was more appropriate! Cooking disaster No 1 of 2012. Dessert saved the day and everyone enjoyed them and took seconds and thirds home with them.

Ah well...I have the first disaster out of the way and it can only get better from here, eh? lol. We have no idea why it wasn't right. It was made the same way as last time. Strange eh? I'm not even sharing the recipe but thought it might make you smile...cooking disasters happen to everyone.

I had a lovely afternoon with my sister and her family and it was nice to see our brother-in-law too. I wouldn't change a thing...well..OK..I would change the pie filling...lol I'll be back tomorrow with a Top Ten Recipes of 2011 as viewed by the blog followers. Then I'll be back with the Mystery Ingredient Challenge Item recipe on Tuesday. The mystery ingredient this week is Hazelnuts...thanks to Callum for the suggestion.

Hope you are enjoying your New Years Day...
~Red~

Raspberry and Rhubarb Crumbs...ooops...sorry Muffins!

Kitchen Play List:     Metallica ~ Wherever I May Roam
                                         Melissa Etheridge ~ Piece of My Heart
                                         Mr.Buble ~ I'm Your Man
                                         Xtina ~ Candyman
                                         The Union ~ Rock n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
                                         Jimmy Durante ~ As Time Goes By

Raspberry & Rhubarb Muffins ~ this photo hides all its failings..this was the best shot! lol

Today has been a bad day in the Rocket and Roses Kitchen...why? Because one of the things guaranteed to make me a little crazy is when 'good on paper' recipes, turn out to be really bad recipes. It doesn't happen that often but when it does...the Sock Stealer vacates the kitchen very quickly! lol 

Now this recipe for Rhubarb and Raspberry Muffins looked great on paper. I waited a while before making them as the list of ingredients is quite pricey here in the UK. So I slowly gathered 'stuff' until I was set to go. My sister contributed the rhubarb from her garden and My Love provided the raspberries from ours! The price of coconut oil and milk has soared...I don't know why...and if I had made these with bought rhubarb and raspberries I would have seriously been ticked off. I found the recipe on http://fragrantvanillacake.blogspot.com

I have a discipline that when making someone else's recipe for the first time I make it exactly as they advise. If it's not to my taste I then take it back to it basic level and then tinker with it until I'm happy, the next time I make it. If it's still a bust then I discard the recipe as I have shelves filled with recipes and recipe books I do like. I simply haven't got the space to be keeping recipes I don't like or can't improve. So upon my first reading of this recipe three things niggled at me...firstly...the expensive ingredients...(so I took my time gathering them until I had everything!)..secondly...the uncooked rhubarb simply diced...(I struggled with this...but stuck firmly to the recipe)..and finally the opening of the oven 2/3 way in the cooking time....( I just felt it was crazy...but once again...I stuck with it..). 

This was one of those occasions that I knew I needed to tinker...had to tinker...was beginning to develop a nervous tick because I wasn't tinkering with this recipe! lol. And sadly I was right. The assembly was easy...I had enough batter to make 20 muffins...I chopped the rhubarb into small dice...I made everything the way it suggested, right down to the last letter. 

Hot out of the oven...from this angle they don't look bad either...

The result...*sighs* was tremendously smelling muffins....for a short time quite lovely looking muffins...until I brought them out to cover over with tin foil to protect the Streusel topping...and I did this in seconds, believe me...I have the burn marks to prove it! lol. Then it was down hill from here. When they had had the full baking time plus two minutes I removed them from the oven. And when I took off the tinfoil covers..the sight before me was exactly as I suspected it would be. The aroma was still great but the muffins had craters in the middle. Oh did I swear...Sock Stealer ran from the kitchen...My Love stayed upstairs packing for the festival...the neighbour's cat took shelter and the wildlife in nearby Country Park flew off for an early winter holiday...lol. I was so disappointed as I laid them out on a cooling rack. 

Just look at those craters!!!! It's a muffin disaster,,,

My Love eventually braved coming near the kitchen and offered to try one. I was told that they tasted fabulous but they were more like a rhubarb crumble than a muffin. That the fruit had all sunk down to the centre of the muffin so the cake part was delicious and coconuty and spongey and that the centre was like the base of a crumble. So although they didn't look good...they tasted good and when my sister turned up and she tried one she agreed with everything My Love had said. My sister took a filled box of them home to eat with custard tonight for their pudding and that left three for me to pull apart and work out the areas to tinker. 

OH DEAR! and many other words were used but I won't add them here!!! lol

Had I been asked if I would be making them again...just after they had come out of the oven..then it would have been a very firm NO! But with breathing space and seeing the reactions from My Love and my sister when they were 'testing' them...I most probably will give them another go. I have notes scribbled all over the recipe as to what I would change. 


If you have a go at this recipe and have better results I would love to hear from you. I believe that this recipe could be great...and I wish you good luck! 


Vegan Raspberry and Rhubarb Streusel Muffins  Made 20 muffins
(Recipe from fragrantvanillacake.blogspot.com)

Topping:
6 tbsp wholewheat plain flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp vegan marg
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup rolled oats

Muffins:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup coconut or almond oil
1 cup coconut or almond milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups raspberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position rack in the centre of the oven. Place muffin liners in the tins. Whisk flour, baking soda, and sea salt in a large bowl. (I put the cinnamon in here as there was no mention of it in the recipe instructions) 

In a separate bowl combine the topping ingredients and rub together until you have a large crumb consistency and set to one side. (There was no instructions for this so I've added mine ~R~) 

Whisk oil, sugar, milk and vanilla extract in another bowl until well blended. Whisk in lemon juice vinegar (Nope I have no idea what vinegar either! lol ~R~) and stir quickly. Stir in rhubarb and raspberries, spoon batter into the muffin liners..filling 2/3 full. Sprinkle with streusel, bake until tester inserted into centre comes out clean, at about 30-35 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, cover over the muffins with tinfoil to protect the topping.  

Good luck and enjoy! 
~R~  





                              

Stuffed Onion Squash Disaster

Kitchen Play List:   Thunder ~ What a Beautiful Day
                                        Prince ~ Get Off
                                        Kings of Leon ~ Closer
                                        Freemasons ~ Uninvited
                                        Kelis ~ Milkshake
                                        Nicola Benedetti ~ Mozart Rondo in C, K373

Lovely photo...shame about the recipe...Urgh!

Now doesn't this photo look good? I even impressed myself with this one. I was quite the happy cook. lol. And we had been looking forward to eating these delicious onion squashes since we picked them up from Waitrose a couple of weeks ago. But I wanted to find just the right recipe to use them. And I finally thought I had. I did a search on Vegweb.com and found a recipe posted for Roasted and Stuffed Delicata Squash with Aducki Beans and Kale. Reading the recipe I thought it all sounded great and with the slight adaption of black beans for aducki and the onion squash for the delicata I was all set.

And if I'm honest I had great fun making it. I even had enough flesh in the lids to steam up some Goo for little L. I was a very happy camper. Until we sat down to eat them. The 1/4 tsp of orange zest completely over powered the other ingredients. You couldn't taste the chilli, fennel seeds, mustard seeds and after a few mouthfuls you were left feeling almost sick because it was that sweet. Now the squash itself...testing a bit of the flesh...wasn't that sweet so it was all about the orange. We both left a lot and we both agreed that it was a very good thing our pal B wasn't here for dinner as she dislikes 'sweet savoury' dishes. We just couldn't eat it. And I have to say I won't be making this again. Whoever created this recipe must have one heck of a sweet tooth.

Then to finish it all off..My Love had brought some raspberries in from the garden for our dessert. They had been washed and rinsed and picked over and I sat down to eat them. I had one...delicious. I was busy typing the beginning of this blog so I wasn't looking at them...had another...had a break in typing and looked into my bowl to pick up another...YIKES! bloody green spider crawling through them...for a bug-phobic that is not good. I may never eat berries again....D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R!!!!

Think I'm going to go sit in a bubble now after a searing hot shower!! lol
*shudder*