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Ashley Available as Private Vegan Chef

Photo by Liyuphotography

Ashley Goldstein is a vegan chef and baker, currently located in the Tri-State area, who strives to create delicious and satisfying meals the whole family can enjoy. She has an extensive repertoire, spanning from casual weeknight meals to more extravagant fare, perfect for larger dinner parties and family celebrations. Ashley bases her cuisine around seasonal and local ingredients, and creates lively menus tailored to each of her client’s specific dietary needs. She is the founder of Tipsy Shades of Earl Grey, a boutique, vegan cupcake company, specializing in tea and spirits infused cupcakes that have been enjoyed both at home and abroad. She is a licensed driver and can be reached at [email protected].

July 10, 2014 By Ashley

Recipes

Sweet Potato Soufganiyot with Apple Cranberry Filling

While I really wanted this post to be a Thanksgivukkuh recap of the party last Thursday, I felt like given my time constraints this week—between recovering from Thanksgiving, plus ulpan, and my internship (where we’re getting ready to put up a musical in less than a month)—I wouldn’t be able to do it justice and still get this recipe up before the end of Hanukkah. And, since the end of Hanukkah is imminent, there’s no better time to post a recipe than now (or last week).

Cathleen choosing a soufganiyah at our Thanksgivukkuh party

Not that I ever disliked doughnuts, because let’s be honest, there were very few desserts I disliked growing up (except cheesecake. I was always picky about the whole cheese thing), but I feel like I really got into doughnuts when I had amazing, unique doughnuts readily available to me. Aka, when I started working in the city and could get doughnut plant doughnuts on the reg, or when the Cinnamon Snail started parking in my neighborhood on a weekly basis. Surprisingly, vegan doughnuts entered the New York City food scene late in the game. I’d already had the best ice cream ever (from the shop formerly known as Lula’s) and some pretty good vegan cheese, as well as a myriad of other vegan desserts. And yet, the doughnut was fairly elusive. Despite attending the Dun-Well Doughnuts launch party, they weren’t easy to come by, even after they opened their shop (because their shop is pretty much in Bushwick). But once the Cinnamon Snail was in my ‘hood, I found that there was many a Thursday morning, I only got dressed and left the house as early as I did because an artisanal vegan doughnut sounded like a good idea for breakfast. And boy oh boy how I missed doughnuts. Even at work it was a special treat when Kristin made doughnuts.

Peppermint patty and smore’s doughnuts from the Cinnamon Snail. NYC, June 2012

Here in Israel, especially at this time of year, soufganiyot proliferate, but there is nary a vegan one to be found. While doughnut making isn’t exactly my favorite thing to do, as a once a year Hanukkah treat, it’s really not so bad. I was in finals during Hanukkah last year, so I didn’t get a chance to experiment, and oddly enough, though I know I made some the year before, I can’t at all remember what kind they were, or even which recipe I used. Regardless, (as I say every year) this year’s batch was the best to date. Of course, as I’ve written about for the last month or so, I had to up the ante and not only make doughnuts, but make something special to celebrate the convergence of two major holidays. And thus, the sweet potato soufganiyot (aka doughnut) was born. I actually wanted to have two Thanksgiving inspired fillings: cranberry sauce and macadamia nut creme (paying homage to my family’s tradition of macadamia nut pie). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find fresh or frozen cranberries here, so I settled for making one big batch of cranberry apple sauce for both soufganiyot and latkes, made with a mix of fresh apples, dried cranberries, and a hint of cinnamon. The macadamia nut pudding, I did manage to execute to an extent. It turned out to be an utterly delicious creme with a little brown sugar and some crunchy macadamia nuts; however, for fear of ending up with macadamia nut concrete, I under thickened, and my pudding was a little too runny for filling (especially with my make-shift equipment). In the end, I did what any good housewife would do, and turned it into soufganiyot trifle. It was a hit, and in good form, I finished it for breakfast this morning.

Young doughnuts, getting ready for their hot oil bath

Now onto the recipe! I combined two recipes I found, one for vegan doughnuts, and one for non-vegan sweet potato doughnuts, originally found here and here. The result was a divinely soft and fluffy doughnut, with the faintest hint of nutmeg, and a little bit of natural sweetness from the sweet potato. It was the perfect compliment to both the creamy pudding and the sweet and tangy apple sauce.

Sweet Potato Soufganiyot:

1 package yeast
1 c lukewarm non dairy milk
1/2 c non dairy milk plus 1 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp margarine
1/2 c +2 tbsp brown sugar
sweet potato puree (from about 1 medium sweet potato)
4 c flour+ extra for flouring the board
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp nutmeg
a least 1 quart of oil for frying

Combine half the warm non dairy milk with the yeast in a small bowl or measuring cup and let sit. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the starch with the 1/2 c milk and cook until thick like pudding, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add the margarine and stir to melt. Then incorporate the sugar, and the remaining almond milk. Combine with the yeast mixture, stirring gently.

Add half the flour, salt, and nutmeg and mix in with a wooden spoon (or dough hook if you have one of those fancy contraptions). Add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time, until the dough is no longer wet and sticky. You may have to add a little extra because of the sweet potato. Knead the dough until it’s just smooth. You don’t want to over knead, or else you will have bready doughnuts.

Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise about an hour, until doubled in size. I actually made the dough the night before and let it rise fully, then punched it down and let it rise halfway again and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, let the dough come to room temperature. Don’t punch it down, but flour your work space and lightly pat the dough with flour. Roll out until it is 1/2 in to 3/4 in thick. Using a cookie cutter or glass that measures about 3 in in diameter, cut out the doughnuts, then set aside to rise. When you finish cutting out the doughnuts, begin heating the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat until the oil reaches 365 degrees. You can test this by pinching off a little piece of dough and dropping it in the oil (if you don’t have a candy thermometer). If the oil bubbles around the dough, and the dough floats to the top, the oil is ready.

Fry the doughnuts 3-4 at a time (you don’t want to crowd the pan) several minutes on each side, til both are a beautiful golden brown. Drain on a tray lined with paper towels or brown paper bag and let cool.

Hot tub shot with latkes frying in the background

Cranberry Apple Sauce

2 (or more) tart apples (depending on how much you wanna make), peeled and chopped
juice of half a lemon
1/2 dried cranberries
1 c hot water
1 tsp cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until everything is evenly mixed. Bring to a bowl, then lower to a simmer. Cook until the apples are completely soft, and pretty much turn to mush just by stirring. The cranberries will have plumped up, and then hopefully broken down a little more. Using a spoon, mash the apple mixture around the pot. Remove from heat when thick and saucy. This apple sauce is on the tart side, but feel free to add some sweetener if you’d like. Let cool.

Pile of freshly fried soufganiyot

To assemble:

small paring knife
piping bag
powdered sugar

Take doughnuts and use the knife to cut a small opening in the side, making sure you push the knife all the way through, but not breaking out of the other side. Fill the piping bag with the apple sauce, and squeeze into the hole you made in the doughnut, until the doughnut feels significantly heavier. Repeat with the rest of the doughnuts. To serve: dust with powdered sugar.

December 5, 2013 By Ashley

Recipes

Beer, Baileys, and Cupcakes

I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a food blog in the last few years, and I figured the time was ripe to give in to peer pressure.

This is the “Irish Car Bomb” cupcake, named after the drink (I apologize if you find that drink offensive, but I didn’t make it up). I invented this recipe when I decided to enter the vegan bake-off last February. I think I applied too late (too late for another cupcake anyway), so I didn’t get to compete with it, but I did make it for fun several weeks later as a treat for my coworkers. I then improved on the recipe for my friends 21st birthday a few weeks after that.

This cake is all vegan, all the time. In fact, I considered calling this blog “The Olive Branch” because I feel like a plant based symbol of peace of was an appropriate description my cuisine. Alas, tea, booze and cupcakes have managed to take over, and this is the one that started it all.

This cupcake is a chocolate stout cake, with a Jameson chocolate truffle baked into the center, topped with a homemade “Bailey’s” (or I guess I could just say dairy free Irish creme) buttercream, and drizzled with a Jameson spiked dulce de leche. I know there’s no tea in these, but in order to get to tea time, I had to go through booze time.

I did adapt the cupcakes into a whole cake recently (yesterday) which made me realize that I’m not particularly fond of making whole cakes. From here on out, I will only be taking orders for cupcakes. And now, for the recipe. There are a lot of components, but most of them can be made well in advance.

A note on my cooking: when I cook, I generally tend not to have any kind of recipe, and to just dump things into a pot or pan and see what happens, but I can at least try to guesstimate proportions when I post stuff now. I do use actual recipes when I bake, so those are easier to provide, though they also still generally involve a fair bit of tweaking.

Dulce de (coco) leche (adapted from Alton Brown):

1 can full fat coconut milk
1 can light coconut milk
1 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean, split with seeds scraped
1/2 tsp of baking soda
Irish whiskey (I used Jameson)

Combine the coconut milks, sugar and vanilla bean and seeds into a size pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved, then stir in the baking soda (the mixture bubbled up quite violently when I did this, so I would definitely lower the heat first). Bring back to a gentle simmer, and cook for an hour, stirring occasionally. After an hour, remove the vanilla bean, and then continue to cook until it is a dark caramel color, about 2 hours. Turn off the heat and incorporate the whiskey. The thicker the mixture, the stronger you can make it (since you can use the whiskey to thin it out). Strain through a fine mesh sieve and allow to cool. Serve on cupcakes or ice cream (or on a spoon…or finger as was the case last night). Store in the fridge (I keep mine in a squeeze bottle).

Irish Cream

1 can of full fat coconut milk
1 can of light coconut milk
1/2 cup of sugar (brown sugar works too!)
3/4 cup espresso or strong coffee (I used a heaping tablespoon of instant coffee dissolved into 3/4 cup hot water
1 heaping tablespoon cocoa powder
Whiskey to taste (about 1 cup, but really, make it as strong as you want it)

Combine the sugar and coconut milks in a pot and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until just slightly reduced, and stir in the coffee mixture. Remove from heat and add the whiskey. Enjoy over ice, stirred into coffee, hot chocolate, soy milk! Store in the fridge.

Jameson chocolate truffles (adapted from Chloe’s Kitchen)

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk, with the cream stirred in
1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate, either chips or chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 shots worth of whiskey

Warm coconut milk in a sauce pan over medium heat, until barely boiling. Add chocolate and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla, salt and whiskey. Pour in a pie plate or loaf pan and chill until firm. Form into walnut sized balls, using a tablespoon and freeze until ready to use. If you want a stronger truffle, I would reduce the amount of coconut milk before adding more Jameson because we want the ganache to set up firm.

Cupcakes (adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)

1/4 cup non-dairy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup plus 2 tbsps all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I prefer Cocoa Rouge by Guittard. It has a really deep chocolatey flavor that is exceedingly smooth, rather than bitter)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup stout (I used Brooklyn Brewery chocolate stout. Most Guinness is not vegan in the US)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and fill a cupcake tin with liners.

Combine the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and let stand (to curdle just a little) while you work on the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Combine the milk mixture with the stout, sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir together until foamy and well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two batches, mixing until well combined, about 2 minutes. Distribute the batter evenly among the cupcake tin, so each is about 3/4 of the way full. Place a frozen truffle on top of each cupcake, and bake about 18-22 minutes. The cake should spring back lightly at your touch. It will not be possible to use the toothpick test for doneness because of the truffle, which should have become encased in batter while baking. Let cool before frosting.

“Bailey’s” buttercream

1/2 cup Earth Balance (I prefer sticks for frosting)
1/2 cup shortening
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp espresso powder
1 tbsp whiskey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegan Irish Cream

Beat together shortening and margarine until fluffy. Add sugar and cocoa pwder and beat a few minutes longer, until well combined. Then add the espresso powder, whiskey, vanilla and “Baileys” Beat together about 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy.

To assemble: either pipe or spread frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Drizzle with dulce de leche. Eat and repeat.

Here’s a picture of the full sized cake version. Making this was definitely a case of Murphy’s Law, as one thing after another tried to trip me up. Tweaks I made to convert this include adding more liquid as well as some Earth Balance into the ganache, so as to make it spreadable. Turned out, even though I loved the consistency, I think I over filled the layers, and ended up with ganache oozing out into the icing, so that’s where the chocolate shavings came in. The writing was dulce de leche mixed with confectioner’s sugar in order to stiffen it up a little bit. The birthday boy and friend thought it looked great (though I would have liked to make a cleaner presentation of it), and gave me ultimate praise for taste.

Whew! Well that was quite the recipe typing marathon. I promise I don’t always make stuff that is this complicated, but I can promise it will always be delicious!

September 18, 2013 By Ashley