Desserts · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with desserts

Ani Phyo’s Healthfully Decadent Raw Coconut Kream Recipe

Dessert has always been my favorite part of any meal (though I do love apps!) and while I’ve managed to tame my sweet tooth in the last few years, I’ve by no means eliminated it. (By tame I mean I can get my sweet-happys from maple syrup, honey, and desserts made with fruit and less sugar.) Frankly, I’d rather carry around an extra five pounds than skip desserts, in all their toothsome glory. But I try to concoct or uncover desserts that are healthy as well as tasty. Just because it’s dessert doesn’t mean that it has to be a nutrition wasteland!

So stumbling upon Ani Phyo’s wonderful raw dessert cookbook (with 85 recipes!) was a coup. As you may already know, raw foods retain all sorts of wonderful enzymes, vitamins and minerals, plus are less ‘predigested’ (I know it’s a bit gross, but that’s basically what cooking is; partial digestion of food before you eat it). That means your body has to work a bit harder to digest, which makes you feel full longer and is actually really good for your gut. All of which means you get more nutrition and eat less when you go raw. While I’m not a raw foodist by any means, I’m going on my 19th year of vegetarianism and love the way whole foods that are minimally processed taste and make me feel. And the more I’ve read about the benefits of raw, the more I try to incorporate it into my diet.
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art, book, car, chocolate, Coconut Oil, cookbook, cooking, dessert, desserts, eating, epa, farm, filter, Food, fruit, health, healthy, Milk, natural, New York, ny, oil, raw, raw food, recipe, recipes, soda, sugar, Tea, vegan, vegetarian, vitamins, waste, water, Winter

Organic and Chic: Delicious, Nutritious (and Pretty Pretty) Baking!

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by Starre Vartan · 07/01/09

I’m LOVING Sarah Magid’s new book, Organic and Chic: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets That Taste as Good as They Look!

It is not only laid out gorgeously (inspiring me to want to bake away a weekend!) with lovely photos of most of the recipes, but it every recipe encourages use of organics, healthy alternatives (like whole grains, healthy sweeteners and natural flavors) and farmer’s market and seasonal ingredients. And the style is pure lovely; cakes don’t look ‘all natural” at all, but totally fab while referencing flowers, leaves and vines and other nature-inspired designs – and yes, there are descriptions of exactly how to reproduce Sarah’s too-pretty cakes yourself.

As any hipster eater knows, old-fashioned treats, like mac ‘n cheese and hot dogs have made a gourmet comeback in recent years, and this goes for desserts too. Sarah awesomely recreates healthier (and tastier!) versions of Ding-dongs and other bad-for-you treats that are sure to work at many a party- for kids or adult kids. I’m def going to try making some of these at my next Summer party to seriously impress my guests.

I had a few questions for Sarah about her connection to organics, her life and book, and her love of baking!

Eco Chick: What led to your interest in organic food? Do you think it tastes better?

Sarah Magid: I grew up in Southern California where we ate mostly organic food as a default living near health food stores and having lots of fruits growing in our backyard. As I grew up, I always maintained a passion for eating, and when I became pregnant with my first son, I really focused on eating organic. Now with two small children, I am conscious about what we eat and where its from since their small bodies are growing so quickly.

I do think eating organic tastes better. Anyone can tell a difference between a farmers market strawberry that is sweet and perfumed, versus one that is slightly green in a plastic box at the grocery store!

EC: What’s your local farmer’s market? Care to give them a shout-out?

SM: McCarren park! The park between Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, every Saturday morning. This year there are some fabulous new booths such as a mushroom stand and a bean stand. Fresh black beans are a revelation when you cook them! Ronnybrook Farms makes creamy yogurt drinks that my kids love, and the woman who runs it remembers my kids when they were babies.

EC: Does your whole family have a sweet tooth?

SM: My husband, son, and I love a good sweet. My daughter prefers cheese and smoked salmon to cake!

EC: Did you gain weight testing all these recipes? Seriously! If not, how?

SM: Well, lets just say that I eat mostly well balanced meals, what happens in the other hours is between me, my refrigerator, and the empty cupcake wrapper.

EC: Do your kids know they are superlucky to have a Mom who cooks such amazing desserts?

SM: My son’s desire for a Hostess Twinkie inspired me to bake organic versions of junk food. So now they think we can make anything, and I love that. I think they will realize in a few years that not every mom sculpts an organic Yoda cake for their birthday.

EC: What are your two fave recipes from the book?

SM: Goldies and Crumbly Shortbread Cookies. They alleviate my sweet tooth.

EC: What’s the easiest recipe? The most complicated (but clearly worth it)?

SM: The ‘Easiest Chocolate Cake’ is truly the most simple recipe since there are no eggs, milk, butter in the batter. Most people have the ingredients on hand, and I find that it is fast, easy, vegan-friendly, and super delicious. As for complicated, I don’t think any one recipe is hard, but some do require more preparation and prep time.

Sarah Magid, author and sweet-tooth extraordinaire!

baking, desserts, Food, Organic

The Sweetest (Vegan) Tooth

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by Starre Vartan · 04/17/08

A couple months back I had the chance to interview Hannah Kaminsky, the 18-year-old behind the new vegan dessert book, My Sweet Vegan.

Hannah is awesome. She has a super-cool blog called Bittersweet, where she details her crafty and foodie experiments, and she takes all the pictures on her blog, which are gorgeous (she took the photos in her book as well). Besides her yummy recipes (Luckily I got to try some, all delicious!) Hannah’s a combination of sweet and punky is so unique and fun (check out the video at the bottom. An anti-authoritarian at heart (no surprise that she’s a blogger then), she told me, “I hate other people telling me what to do and I can’t follow recipe directions, so I have to make my own.” Love it!

Some of Hannah’s Spring craft creations- BUNNIES!!!

From the Fairfield Weekly article I wrote about her:

Hannah was inspired by her vegetarian friends, who filled her in on animal-rights issues. First she went veggie, soon after began eating vegan, and hasn’t looked back since. And while she favors animal-free recipes and blogs, she reads about all kinds of cooking. “I subscribe to over 300 blogs, from Post-punk Kitchen to Have Cake Will Travel to the Fat Free Vegan,” she says. “I have a huge notebook and I’m always coming up with ideas. Sometimes I have dreams about recipes!”
These days, it’s not hard being a vegan baker, and Hannah uses all sorts of veg-based substitutions found in area supermarkets. “Eggs are the trickiest.” Apple cider vinegar gives moisture and lift to cakes and cupcakes. You can use bananas or apple sauce to add moisture. I like agave or maple syrup rather than honey.”
Some recipes required some real experimenting in the kitchen. “I sometimes have to try things four, five, or six times before I get it right,” she says. Visiting her family’s home in Fairfield (CT) recently, I enjoyed a top-secret treat: a vegan lemon meringue pie. She wouldn’t tell me how she created the light, usually egg-white based meringue topper, but the recipe will appear in her next book. In the vegan cooking world, it’s sure to create a stir, as this has been a sought-after, but heretofore hard-to-find recipe. As she writes in her book’s introduction: “It was unacceptable in my eyes to serve a good vegan pastry; it needed to be delicious by anybody’s standards.”