Apple Danishes,Cookie Testing,Incredible Muffins,Bryan Adams,Chocolate Cake,Figs,and Of Course,Peanut Butter.Oh,and a Few Pretty Coffees

Organic Apple Danishes.





braeburn,jonagold,aurora golden gala,mutsu,pinsi.

so i was at drive organics and kinna curious about the apples since there was like 3 i had never even heard of,and the produce lady started telling me about them and then was like "you can try them".i say "sure".then i wait for her to cut one/some up...but she says i can just pick em up and bite into them...so i do.and then there's 5 apples with a bite or two missing,and i've tried em,made up my mind,and there is 5 apples still with one bite missing.nobody else is gonna sample them.so i go find the lady,thank her,and say "umm,but what are you guys gonna do with those apples missing a bite or two?" kind of perplexed.she said i can bring em to the back or just take em.seriously.so i got 5 almost-whole organic BC apples for free!
she said they hardly ever do samples,so it's no biggie.not that they don't want to do samples,it's just a lot of effort she said,so she had no problem letting me try the apples.
and this is how the apple danishes began.






Strawberry Cream Cheese Danish.
I made these the same night,but with frozen strawberries from a u-pick from Mimi from last summer.I have a great story about that too,but that is neither here nor there.



and I know i'm getting ahead of myself,because i'm gonna get to an entire segment of this blog post all about (tester) cookies,but...


Soft Whole Wheat Fig Bars.

These get a special mention because over the past few months,my love for dried figs are re-birthed and has since become stronger than it ever was before.I eat them at least once a day.I love them.And these bars,were freaking phenomenal.
I love fig newtons,and i love the "fig-not-ins" from 'vegan with a vengeance',but these are like all that figgy goodness bundled up in the biggest,warmest,softest comforter you have,offering you a fig bar that feels like you're being given more.something extra.



oh,and they're healthy.and perfect for being dipped in milk.or...



and since I started on the peanut butter...


Maranatha Calcium Fortified Peanut Butter!
now,as you may recall,Maranatha is my favourite brand of peanut butter.Yeah,it's more expensive here,but there's just that little thing to it-it's like really good coffee-you can just taste that little difference.
ANYWAYS,I bought this at New Season's when I was in Portland,finished the jar,and bought another one when I was in Orange County at Mothers.I was super excited that it has so much calcium in it,and peanut butter already being my favourite food,this was perfect.I highly recommend it if you want or need to add more calcium to yr diet,like I do.
Geeze,you'd think Maranatha was giving me free stuff for this...(nudge nudge,wink wink...)

I enjoyed it with some of this crazy white chocolate swirl hazelnut spread Melissa gave me,and on an orange once,too:







and a current obsession...

peanut butter and pears.
oh my god.
i also love how this looks like a christmas tree.especially in that lighting.
it's best to use salted peanut butter and ripe and juicy pears.
oh my god.so in love.
i've enjoyed this combo for a while,mainly back in january with comice,my faves,but a nice,ripe bosc....dear god.

other things i love spread with peanut butter...


Banana-Chocolate-Coconut-Almond-Oatmeal Muffins.
I've made these twice in the past 5 or 6 days.

with chips and mini chips,and a singular chunk pressed into the top:



with chunks:




chocolatiest Chocolate Cake.


I got an email for a birthday cake order on Tuesday and this was it.It was 2 layers of chocolate cake,chocolate buttercream in the middle,a layer of chocolate ganache,i let that set and then did another layer of chocolate ganache so it's be super thick and fudgey,and decorated the top with left over buttercream and ganache mixed togeth and piped,which was covered with chocolate sprinkles,mini chocolate chips,and exrta dark chocolate chunks.


this isn't a tester cookie.but it represents
a)canada
b)cookies
perfectly,which i'm about to mention.you can get this type of cookie anywhere in vancouver,usually vegan,but US vegans are flipping out over how amazing the new Trader Joe's ones are because they(well..i dunno about Vermontians)don't have an over abundance of souvenir-y,pride-y,maple-y things everywhere.
these specific ones are the shopper's drug mart organics ones.

oh,and since being back in Vancouver i've been testing a lot for Isa and Terry's upcoming cookie book.
I know,after staying with Isa and having stupid cookies be the reason for my existence I thought i'd never make one again.wrong.


Peanut Butter Pillows.


Caramel Pecan Bars.


Lazy Samoans.
Like the girl scout cookies.handsdown EVERYONE'S favourite.well,not be,but still.i'm biased.


Big Fat Rice Krispy Square.Just like the "real thing".


Fruity Oaty Bars.


mini chips.


Cheesecake Chip Topped Brownies.
Yeah,they're as good as they look.Even better,probably.Super rich.And I even got mini chips to make these.
Part of the batch of these I made went to the Bryan Adams thing.Yes...Bryan Adams.


Cinnamon Rolls.

well,Bryan Adams is canadian,AND vegan,AND was in vancouver for the juno awards,so i was supposed to help this guy Alan out anyways who i sometimes work for who makes vegan cheesecakes,who had been in touch with Bryan Adams' 'people' and they asked for samples of his product for Bryan Adams to try.so last thursday night i got a message asking if i could bake a bunch of stuff for Bryan Adams to recieve with the vegan cheesecake today and bring it with me when i go to work.so i baked cinnamon rolls,2 types of blondies,brownies,and magic bars(cookie tester) and then got to go to Bryan Adams' studio to drop the stuff off.but..he wasn't in Vancouver until the next day,so i didn't get to meet him.but i got paid!though the guy who does the cheesecakes didn't because he was the one giving Bryan Adams samples hoping that he'll become a customer when in vancouver...but i think it's pretty awesome that Bryan Adams is gonna eat a cheesecake brownie and cinnamon roll that i baked!


White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondie.


Chocolate Chip Blondies.


Peanut Butter Blondies.
y'know,those tester ones that are my favourite thing ever?


Magic Bars.
also posted about these before.
though this particular batch was made with carob.

...and I think that's it for the bakings as of late!
So,like last time,i'll end with some pretty coffees.


FREE 5 oz latte at Caffe Artigiano.
i was bitching soo much about how i wanted a pretty cappuccino(they only scoop-no free pour-wtf?!)and then a pretty soy latte if i had to settle,and the cashier was like "well,we'll see what we can do,but i don't want you to be disappointed,so it's on me."
and it was stunning.


Soy Macchiato at JJ Bean,on Main Street.
I probably only got off because it was 10:43pm when i got this and they close at 11:00pm,but there's literally 1 oz of milk in a macchiato,and still charging $0.50 because it's soy isn't even ridiculous,it's just stupid.


Cutest Soy Macchiato.
i say cutest because it was pretty,but the guy(i think his name was david?)put it in a to-go cup,which was way too big for it,so it looked like a cute little number of a drink.
from JJ Bean on main street.again.