Today is the 4-year anniversary of my grandpa passing away... He was a truly great man and I will never forget his love for God, life, family, and just everyone. He was such a core part of our family and he is still sorely missed. I wish I were in LA so that I could go to his cemetery and place flowers by his tombstone. My grandma continued to live in LA for a few years after my harabujee passed, but she recently moved back to Korea for good. So in remembrance of him, this weekend we're having a big family get-together in Busan, which is where most of my relatives are. I haven't seen my cousins, aunts & uncles, and my halmunee since the summer, so it will be nice to hang out with them again. Oh, and I'm planning on baking another lemon pound cake to share with them!
Speaking of baking... . it's pretty much all I've been doing in my spare time lately. If I'm not working on my job or meeting up with friends, I'm either looking through recipes for my next baking experiment, or I'm measuring and sifting ingredients, or I'm impatiently watching something rise through the oven window. My newest baking obsession (besides the pound cake) is definitely cookies. Ever since I got Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, it's like I've been on a mission to try as many of the recipes as I can. So far, I've made the NYC Black & White Cookies, Mocha Mamas, Banana Everything Cookies, and the Carrot Raisin Spice Cookies. I don't have photos for all of them, but here are the ones that I did get shots of:
Mocha Mamas. I replaced about 2 tablespoons of the oil with some applesauce I had sitting around, so they didn't spread out or get as crackly on top like the ones in the book. Also, the cocoa powder I have is really dark and strong and so the cocoa flavor slightly overpowered the coffee flavor, but you could still taste a hint of coffee. Really quite good!
These weren't as sweet as I thought they would be, probably because I didn't top them with sugar icing. I actually liked the milder sweetness of them.
And since I like to bake my way into the hearts of friends, I packaged some of these buggers up to give to Sylvia, and we enjoyed them along with some 'Standing Coffee' at Noksapyeong. :) Sylvia enthusiastically gave her omni approval.
And here are the 'Carrot Raisin Spice Cookies.' These were pretty much carrot cake in cookie-form. Sweet, flavorful, chewy, and totally craveable. Again, I didn't bother dolling them up with any lemon glaze- I was too impatient to dig in that I didn't want to have to wait for the cookies to fully cool or for the glaze to harden. Just as the recipe warns, they got more chewy and moist the next day, and they even started to stick to each other, but they were still yummy! Infact, I think the 'carrot cake' flavors were more pronounced the next day.
This one isn't from VCIYCJ, but yesterday I made Green Tea Cookies again, using this recipe. I actually reduced the amount of green tea powder this time, so they hardly look green at all. :( But you still definitely get the green tea flavor. These crispy cookies are currently at Cafe Harunohee, so stop by the cafe if you're in the area sometime this weekend!
Oh, and here's another cookie! I didn't make this one myself, but I bought it at Coex the other day. I wanted a sweet snack, so I stopped by the 'Sticky Fingers' booth in the Hyundai Dept Store. I haven't bought anything from there in... . over a year! I bought an almond cookie (2,000 won), and got a small slice of the pumpkin-raisin bread for 'service.'
Unfortunately, though the cookie looked appealing and had a great soft, chewy texture, it was rather oily... . I could almost squeeze the oil out of it. The pumpkin bread on the other hand was awesome. Next time, I shall stick to their breads, rather than the cookies.
Well, tomorrow I head down to Busan bright and early! I'm looking forward to some quality family time, and loads of yummy eats.