Last night, I made Maple Bacon Chocolate chip cookies for a friend’s birthday. You should have seen me trying to make bacon. I think I over cooked it but I was so scared to under cook it and then have him die of some sort of pig carried disease that I made sure it was extra crispy. Unfortunately, the cookies were a hot mess and spread out like pancakes on the pan. When I pulled out one of the cookie sheets, all of the cookies had spread out and mushed together to form one ginormous cookie. I had to cut it with a knife. My baking cheat sheet I found on pinterest says it’s because I had too little flour. I actually added 1/2 c extra flour per tips from online. Worse, I don’t even know if they are good because they have bacon AND butter AND eggs in it. I’m leaving it up to my friends at work to tell me if they are good enough to gift. I’m thinking he’ll end up getting a gift certificate instead…

On the plus side, I had this lovely recipe for dinner and it helped ease the pain of my baking flop. Actually, the two large glasses of Chocolate Peppermint Soy milk with chocolate mint baileys were probably more helpful in easing the pain but I’m still totally obsessed with this recipe. It’s insanely good.

Minestrone Pot Pie with Vegan Biscuits

soup
adapted from How Sweet Eats
makes one 9×13 dish, serves 4-6

drizzle of olive oil

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1 cleaned and trimmed leek, thinly sliced

1/2 cup coarsely chopped baby bella mushrooms

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups cubed butternut squash

3 cups raw spinach leaves

3 cups torn kale leaves

1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (15 oz) peeled whole tomatoes

1 Bay leaf

1 TBSP Thyme

1TBSP parsley

3 cups vegetable broth

Coat the bottom of a large soup pan with olive oil and heat. Add onions and leeks to the pan with a sprinkle of salt, cooking for 5 minutes. Add in mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes more. Stir in garlic, thyme and parsley and cook for 30 seconds. Add spinach, kale, squash, tomatoes, beans, bay leaf and broth. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook f0r 20 minutes, covered. While soup is cooking, make biscuits below and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

After 20 minutes, transfer to the baking dish. Top with biscuits, then brush each biscuit with melted earth balance. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the biscuits are done. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Biscuit
from Holy Cow! vegan

Mix and set aside to curdle:

1 cup very cold soymilk or almond milk

1 tsp vinegar

Mix together:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Add to this:

5 tbsp transfat-free vegetable shortening (like Crisco) or very cold vegan “butter” like Earth Balance, chopped into small cubes.

With a fork or a pastry-cutter, mix the fat into the flour until you have a coarse mixture with no large pieces of fat. If using “butter,” work quickly because you don’t want the fat to melt.

Now add the curdled soymilk-vinegar mixture and mix quickly until the dough comes together.

Make a ball of the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes.

Use a round cookie cutter (I used a round drinking glass) and continue with the steps above.

Melinda and I actually used our team work powers to make this meal. She’s crashing at my place for a while. So I bought all the ingredients, Melinda made the soup and biscuit dough, I came home from work and put the soup in the pan and cut out the biscuits and baked it. In fairness, she had the tough part so she gets 2/3 credit for this recipe. It turned out amazing so she totally deserves it.

She’s also responsible for getting me addicted to chocolate mint baileys, which she keeps adding to the hot chocolate she offers me when I get home from work. I’m not complaining though!  In fact, when I bring boys around I hope she hints to them that like the people on Mad Men, I like to come home with a tumbler of booze waiting for me…except instead of scotch, I expect hot chocolate with mint baileys.

But I digress, this soups amazing so go make it.