Carrot cake

I think the best carrot cakes are made with a nice blend of spices not just cinnamon.  Cinnamon is surely a king spice but I believe a good carrot cake is a lot like a tea bread or spice cake (the base of most Christmas or European styled fruit cakes).  I'm not a big raisin fan and thankfully neither is Jason's grandmother who requested the cake for her 90th birthday - sans raisins.

Preheat oven to 350

Cake recipe:

• 4 eggs
• 1 - 1 1/4 cups olive oil (do 1 and if you need more then do it up!)
• 1 and 1/2 cups vegan sugar or unrefined
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 Cups unbleached white flour
• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg 
• tiny pinch of ground clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 TBSP ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots (I use a lot of carrot in my carrot cake this will average about 2-4 carrots depending on size)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (as raw and unpasteurized as you can find)

Combine eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar beat lightly.  Combine all dry ingredients and finger toss.  Combine wet to dry and fold together until well blended but no need to whip too hard (cakes can fall when you whip in a lot of air).  If you spoon your batter into muffin cups then you can bake for 20-22 minutes.  If you want a big cake then it will take 40 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.  I use a springform pan buttered and lightly floured with whole wheat. Bang out any excess wheat and it should slide right out.  Wait until thoroughly cooled before icing or it will melt right into the cake.  This cake is a really good one to wait until the next day to eat because it will be a little more moist and the spices will be a little stronger. But who can wait?

The cream cheese icing is a recipe of yogurt cheese:

• 1 container of whole milk yogurt (hung in a clean kitchen towel to drain for 4-8 hours)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 Cup or less room temp softened salted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup vegan sugar or unrefined
• 1 and 1/2 tsp of arrowroot powder (this just thickens your icing the more you use the thicker it will be)

Once yogurt cheese has become dry and lovely from hanging.  Put into bowl along with vanilla and butter (if the butter is softened you can blend this immediately if not wait for butter to soften). On a low heat or in a double boiler (I use a saucepan and just remove from the heat as needed anytime there is fear of sticking) put sugar then crack egg over it and stir briskly to keep egg from sticking or cooking through.  You want the egg to foam and stay liquid.  Let sugar egg mixture cool.  Add to the butter, cheese, vanilla  and mix together using as much arrowroot powder as you'd like to get the consistency you like.  I like my icing to be soft peaks. Like whipped cream.  Once you refrigerate the icing it will act much like purchased icing.  You can even pipe it from a bag.  I prefer to just slap it on with a paddle.

Delicious.

Yogurt Cheese

What is yogurt cheese?  It is very straight forward! It is cheese made from yogurt.

What do you do with it?  You can use it as a spread, dip, or blended with fruit for a chilled no bake pie or cheesecake.  Think of cream cheese but without all the BS they add to cream cheese.

How much yogurt does it take to make yogurt cheese?  The yield of the yogurt to cheese ratio is about HALF perhaps a little less than.  So whatever amount of yogurt you start out with yor yield of cheese will be about half that. Since making the cheese removes the water from yogurt and yogurt is a large part water.

You start with a whole milk yogurt.  The variety I use is Pavel's which is a Russian whole milk yogurt.  It is around 3.50 - 4.50 for a 2 lb container.  Greek yogurts are thicker already and have less water in them but tend to be far more expensive.  There may be even cheaper whole milk yogurts available.  This cheese ends up being around 3-5 dollars per pound versus purchasing it at anywhere from 8-23 dollars a pound.  Cream cheese being cheaper but it is loaded with crap OTHER than milk. And you are the artisan cheese maker!

You empty your yogurt into a clean towel.  I like ones that are smooth with small weave and not terry cloth which is made of little loops and those loops can get messy so a bread/dough towel is best.  Cheese cloth varies so wildly in the available spacing of the weave that recommending it could result in unknown and variable results.  If you think the weave is tight enough to hold the loose yogurt but expel only water then perfect!

I use a bowl under the towel as I pour in the yogurt to hold the water and allow it to drain into the bowl while I adjust it for tethering.

Then gather up the towels corners and any openings and tie it shut with a rubberband or twine to hang like a hobo's bindle from a string on a hook or nail above the sink.

It needs to drain for at the very least 4 hours.  It is best with light squeezing early on to rid some of the most eager water.  Then it can cut the time down.  But best of all is tying it up before you go to work and taking it down when you get home.  There isn't much "danger zone" issues with leaving yogurt hanging unless your house has a big mildew, or mold problem then perhaps.*

You can check on the cheese progression,  it will be thick and a spreadable consistency when done.
If the center is still very liquidy you can stir it a little and then hang it again for a bit more. Or stir what little wetness there is back into it when you go to store your cheese in the fridge.

What can I do with the cheese once it is done?  Raw fruit pies! Like the Cherimoya pie with strawberries.  Or a Cheesecake with blueberry sauce. A cheese dip with spinach and greens or roasted red pepper or sun dried tomatoes.  A toast spread with olive oil, herbs and pepper flakes. 

*Did you watch the danger zone videos in health class?  I'm referring to food contamination fear.  The biggest food contaminates are from LARGE industrial farms and not in your home.  In your home it is raw meat that contaminates most surfaces.  Leaving food out is a unique to the house kind of rule.  So if you're against it, this style may not be for you.