Little Raviolis

My husband and I made made these cute little raviolis stuffed with a tofu ricotta (and served with a spicy tomato sauce and Field Roast's Smoked Apple Sage Sausages), in celebration of my brother Kurt's 54th Bday, and his daughter coming out to visit, all the way from San Francisco ! The cookie cutter is about 1 1/2" across. Sorry that there's no picture of the final product...we all fell into it so fast that I forgot the photo-op !

The recipe for the dough is slightly altered from Bryanna's suggested pasta dough recipe
...I did as follows:

1 Cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/2 teaspoon slat
2/3 cup water
Mix the dry ingredients together till well combined. Add the water and knead well with your hands or stand mixer, or a food processor, until firm and springy. Cover and let rest at least one hour, or up to several days ( refrigerate after several hours ). We passed our dough through a hand-crank pasta machine several times, and ended up on number 5 on the dial. Too thin and it'll split, too thick and it won't cook properly, but it could easily rolled out by hand. So satisfying to make our own pasta...and vegan to boot !
I'll post the recipe for the ricotta in the next day or so.

CCAN's Polar Bear Plunge Recipes

The following are the recipes for the muffins and cookies that came to Chesapeake Climate Action Network's Polar Bear Plunge in Annapolis on Jan 10th, 2009.
New Leaf's own Jamie plunged ! Many thanks to all the others who cared enough to plunge, pledge, or otherwise help support the efforts of CCAN, and a special thanks to Lori Hill ( lorihillevents.com ) for including us !

Applesauce-Oatbran Muffins ( with a hint of orange )
( adapted from Veganomicon , by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Romero )
3/4 cup soy or other plant milk
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
3 tablespoons canola ( or other )oil
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup oat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries ( optional )
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tin. In a large bowl whisk plant milk and vinegar together and set aside for a few minutes to sour the milk. Add the next 5 ingredients and whisk together well. In another, smaller bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together. Then fold the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring only to moisten, do not overmix. Fold in the dried fruit, if used. Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full and bake 25-30 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Makes 12-16.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
( from Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Romero )
1 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
1 and 1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Cream marg and sugar till fluffy. Add molasses and vanilla and beat a little more. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; and then add to the creamed mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Add a tablespoon or two of water if dough is too crumbly. Chill dough for a few hours. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet about 2" apart and bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Mkaes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

No Bake Chocolate-Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Cookies
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 stick ( 1/2 cup ) margarine
1/2 cup soy or other plant milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal ( 1/2 old fashioned, 1/2 quick works well )
Stir first 4 ingredients together in a heavy bottomed medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil this together for a full two minutes, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter, vanilla,mixing and melting the peanut butter in till it's nice and smooth. Add all the oats and mix well till. Let cool enough to scoop spoonfuls out onto oiled cookie sheets or waxed paper. Do not let mixture cool too long in the pan or you will end up with one giant cookie. Let cool and then store in the fridge. Makes about 24.

Corn Muffins or Bread
1 cup all-purpose flour or wholewheat pastry flour
1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 tablespoon sugar ( optional)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer
4 tablespoon warm water
1 cup soy or other plant milk, room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
Preheat oven to 425. Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat together the Ener-G powder and water till thick and frothy in another medium bowl, and then whisk in the milk and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry till just combined and spoon into greased muffin tins or a 9x9 square pan. Bake muffins for 12-15 minutes, and 20-25 for the square.