Sara + Saffitz

Dessert Person Made Vegan, like Julie and Julia but Claire would be nicer about the whole thing

[sarandsaffitz]

Hi! Here's my face! I'm Sara of sarandsaffitz!

Blood Orange and Olive Oil Upside-Down Cake, p. 67, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 01.20.2024

Did you know yesterday was the last day Pluto was in Capricorn? Which is like a 250ish year phase? We are in a long shift - uh oh I'm starting to believe in astrology to just have something to believe in!

This is epic, I've been gone so long and I am just excited I finally got to the cover cake. I've been making all of these vegan and it's not always easy. This one is dairy free (it uses eggs), easy enough to swap out those eggs for flax eggs!

Make it vegan!

Swap three eggs for three flax eggs (3 tbsp flax seed + 7.5 tbsp water)

Tips:

-This partly took so long for me to jump back into my project (several months) because blood oranges weren't in season yet. I highly recommend waiting for them if you can!

-We had a tough time cutting really thin cuts off the blood orange, make sure you have a sharp knife and lots of oranges to practice on

-Some of the liquid seeped out of the springform pan when we made this, we put a container to catch any other liquid that would seep out and it still came out great. The only thing I wish I had done was save some of the sugar/orange juice liquid to add to the top at the end

I have to thank Caroline for being my sous chef! I really enjoyed the cake with some Forager vanilla bean yogurt - Matt gave it a 6/10 when you eat it with yogurt. But that was the earliest we could eat it, Claire does say it gets better with age, so we ate some the today and agreed it was already tastier.

Thank you also to Claire for making such a cool book, I've pushed myself in new ways during this project and I'm just really glad to have done it thus far.

Next up: Brioche Pigs in a Blanket!

[sarandsaffitz]

Finally made the cover cake! Will post tomorrow :)

[sarandsaffitz]

Caramelized Honey Pumpkin Pie, p. 93, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 06.19.2023

I'm back! Sort of odd to be picking up baking again in the summer, but whatevs! It's been cold this June and after magnet fishing in the rain I had the inspiration to jump back into my journey of veganizing the whole Dessert Person cookbook. This one came out great!

Make it vegan!

Earth Balance for butter, maple syrup for honey, coconut milk in a can for heavy cream, Just Egg for the eggs, and So Delicious brand of whipped cream.

Tips:

Don't bother browning the Earth Balance, it doesn't really work the way it does for dairy. Just melt the butter and move on to the next step.

Claire recommends allowing the pie to cool all the way in the oven and then slicing into it to eat. We allowed the pie to cool to room temp, but I definitely preferred it after it had been in the fridge.

I will definitely be making this for Thanksgiving!

[sarandsaffitz]

FAIL

Yes. I said it. You cannot make Claire's Flourless Chocolate Wave Cake into a vegan version. It's not me, it's just the nature of things. I used aquafaba to replace the meringue, however both times I attempted this the cake rose and then sadly collapsed, leaving me with a chocolate syrupy goo.

I've taken quite a break from making Dessert Person vegan after confronting this chocolate cake. It's time to come back! Next up: Caramelized Honey Pumpkin Pie!

[sarandsaffitz]

Strawberry-Almond Bostock, p. 232, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 10.2.2022

Featuring: Vegan Brioche Recipe, Make It Dairy Free by Larisha Bernard

I owe a HUGE thank you to the folks at ‘Make it Dairy Free’ for their vegan brioche recipe. Watching their video and reading their recipe on their blog really gave me the confidence to FINALLY make brioche so I could make this next Dessert Person recipe. So THANK YOU! Here is the link to the RECIPE and below is the very funny and helpful video that led to my successful brioche.

First, I need to say the brioche recipe was surprisingly easy and straight forward. I am so proud of myself for even attempting it, I have been putting it off for a while now because I was so intimidated. Every other time I’ve tried to make bread it was raw in the middle so this was super exciting for me. Make it Dairy Free made this approachable and fun and made me excited to just try my best. Thanks again, Make it Dairy Free!

Okay, on to the bostock! This was like french toast but even tastier with the addition of the strawberries and frangipane. I would definitely make this again for a special occasion!

Make it vegan!

Instead of honey in the Honey Almond Syrup (p. 320), I used maple syrup. Instead of butter and egg in the Frangipane (p. 329) I used my favorite brand of vegan butter, Earth Balance, and a flax egg. You might try using Just Egg in the Frangipane, as it did not crisp up like the book indicates it should, but it was still delicious!

Tips:

I would recommend making the vegan brioche a couple days in advance, I made it the night before and it really wasn’t stale yet, so you could wait longer than I did to really try for the ‘french toast’ aspect of this. Stale bread soaks up the syrup and juices from the strawberries more than fresh bread. Still really tasty either way though!

Make the frangipane, simple syrup and cut up the strawberries the night before. That way in the morning you can just throw everything together and pop it in the oven.

Matt loves this recipe so I anticipate we will be having it again in the future. I was really glad I could make us something special for our 9th anniversary! We didn’t do anything else this weekend, except our favorite thing to do - which is nothing! XOXO to my Bobbo <3

Next up: Flourless Chocolate Wave Cake. We’re making a meringue, so I will finally be trying out aquafaba!

[sarandsaffitz]

It's been a while but I'm back BAY-BEE! Tomorrow morning I am making my love, Matt, this Strawberry-Almond Bostock, to celebrate our 9 year anniversary. xoxo

[sarandsaffitz]

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, p. 181, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 8.21.2022

Let me ask you a question: When you eat something chocolate-y, what is your go-to drink? If you said milk (vegan please), you would be correct. If you said water, you are Claire Saffitz. Claire… drinks water… when the dessert is too chocolate-y. So, I baked this very chocolate-y cake and I drank milk with it and I will say, you need to drink milk when you eat this cake. 

Make it vegan!

The regulars - eggs are flax eggs now. Buttermilk is vegan milk + apple cider vinegar. Butter is your favorite vegan butter substitution (mine is Earth Balance).

The reason this is the first moderate recipe is really because of the frosting. But, surprise, that frosting might be impossible to perfectly make vegan. There are 6 eggs in Silkiest Chocolate Buttercream, p. 359. So, I went for the Classic Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Variation, p. 324. Sub butter for Earth Balance and cream cheese for vegan cream cheese (I used Simple Truth). I love that frosting and I don’t regret a thing. If anyone tries a vegan version of french buttercream, let me know how that goes!

Tips:

I don’t have 8 inch cake pans, I have 9 inch, so I used what I have. I baked my cake for less time and I truthfully don’t think I overbaked these, but the cake was a bit dry. So, maybe bake them for slightly less time than I did. For 9 inch cake pans I baked these for 20 minutes, then swapped and rotated spots and went for another 5 (25 total). 

This cake was VERY crumbly, be careful when flipping out of the pans (the one pan I have that is a springform pan worked very well, so if you have three of those, I would actually recommend doing that. Not going to lie, I had a mental CAKE-down when I flipped a layer and half of it went on the floor… Matt had to calmly remind me that it’s just a cake and not my livelihood (thank goodness, I would not do well if I relied on this for money).

The picture shown here is only two layers, instead of the three and I didn’t cut it because I baked it for one of my very best friend’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Nat! *take note, anyone who has the desire, scroll back and you’ll see I decorated this just like the birthday cake recipe!*

This cake reminds me of box cake. Nothing too wild or flavorful, but I like to think it’s special because I baked it for a friend. Wish me luck on my next bake, I have to make brioche… This bake gets a 33/55.

[sarandsaffitz]

Chocolate Chip Cookies, p. 133, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Chocolate chip cookies are arguably the BEST dessert in the world, don’t fight me. I loved these cookies. However. If you’re going to veganize a cookie recipe choose the Betty Crocker recipe instead, those are literal perfection. My friends liked these, as did I, they’re just really big, flat and crispy on the edges, which isn’t necessarily my preference when it comes to cookies.

Make it vegan!

Vegan butter substitute like Earth Balance or margarine instead of butter, vegan milk substitute (my preference is coconut milk) instead of heavy cream, 2 flax eggs instead of eggs. Be sure your chocolate is vegan friendly! Most semi-sweet chocolate chips are vegan by accident, but be sure to check the label.

Tips:

I used a whole 10 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of trying to find some sort of vegan milk chocolate.

I had to take my cookies out of the oven sooner than the book says because mine spread out significantly more than hers did, so it took less time to bake (you might be able to tell that mine are very close to being burned rather than crispy). 

This was my LAST EASY RECIPE! Next grouping is "Moderate" and I’m so excited! I need to really pay attention to special equipment and notes for the rest of the recipes in the book, so I may be posting with less frequency than before (also it’s summer and I’m not about to heat up my whole apartment to bake something in a heatwave). My first bake in Difficulty section Number 3, "Moderate", is Chocolate Buttermilk Cake!

[sarandsaffitz]

This is the last "Easy" bake, can you believe we've made it this far????????????? I'm so stoked to make these vegan!

[sarandsaffitz]

Classic English Muffins, p. 227, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 7.9.2022

Hi there! I took a little break from making all the Dessert Person recipes into vegan ones because we had a little heatwave (not conducive to using an oven) and I got a new job! I decided to postpone doing this recipe because it requires good timing, and I just didn’t feel like allowing it to stress me out. So, I waited for the perfect opportunity and now I have finally made Classic English Muffins (although, they’re maybe less ‘classic’ because they’re vegan!). 

Make it vegan!

Claire calls for ‘scalded milk’ in this recipe, which essentially is milk that is heated until steaming and forming a skin on top. Apparently when you bring milk up to this temperature it changes the molecular structure (? I’m not a scientist, don’t quote me on this) and this has an effect on the way the dough rises. IDK all I know is that coconut milk and dairy milk are very different, but I went along with this step even though I used coconut milk and everything worked out just fine.

Substitute: milk for coconut milk, butter for Earth Balance or your favorite vegan butter brand, honey for maple syrup. Also, I forgot I needed cornmeal for this recipe and realized I didn’t have any until the last minute. Polenta makes a great substitute in a pinch.

Tips:

Be sure you time this properly. The dough needs to rise for an hour to an hour and a half, and then be refrigerated for 8-12 hours. I started this at 7pm on a Friday night and got up at 9:30 am after the dough had rested in the fridge for 12 hours (just to give you a sense of the timing on this).

Also: Claire says you need a stand mixer to make this and I think she is right on this one. I have a two beater stand mixer (which my BFF Caroline found for free on the side of the road!) and while this worked OK, it’s not ideal because the dough hooks do not sweep the entire perimeter of the bowl, therefore some dough is untouched unless you move it to be in contact with the beaters. Essentially, it’s a hand mixer I don’t have to hold. I was able to get this dough to a similar consistency as Claire’s in the video, but it did take about twice as long to get it there.

My dough may have been slightly more wet than Claire’s. I imagine if I were to get a stand mixer and try this again that might change that, but I can’t be entirely sure. When I tried to pick up each cut out of the dough it didn’t really want to hold its shape as much as Claire’s did. I also ended up stacking cut outs on top of each other to get a similar thickness to Claire’s. Perhaps I pressed mine out too thin!

Overall, I think this recipe does qualify as ‘easy’, especially if you have a stand mixer. I would definitely try it again, but it’s not something I see myself doing on a regular basis. I was most excited by the nooks and crannies in mine, I was most worried that wouldn’t come out and it did! 45/60.

[sarandsaffitz]

Making a vegan version of this after the heatwave. Can't wait to have a vegan breakfast sandwich!

[sarandsaffitz]

Aunt Rose’s Mondel Bread, p.147, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 6.18.22

I’m almost done with the ‘Easy’ section of Dessert Person! 2 more recipes to go!!!

Make it vegan!

All you really need to do is swap the three eggs for three flax eggs and you’re good to go!

Technically, this isn’t really Aunt Rose’s Mondel Bread because it is a veganized version. That being said, and no disrespect to Claire’s family, but this is not my favorite recipe. It’s alright, and I’ve been slowly eating the slices of mondel bread with my coffee (and I do like it better when dunking it in) but it doesn’t do much for me. My friend Caroline made an interesting comment, “maybe it’s an East Coast thing” and Matt put this as a 2 out of 5. Something about this recipe is very sweet though (and I’m not talking about the cinnamon sugar). I appreciate that Claire shared a piece of her family history with us and it reminds me of the pieces of my family history that are lost to time.

If we have to give points and we’re thinking about flavor or desserts in general, then, I’m sorry Aunt Rose, this is not a winner for everyone. However, on a scale of nostalgic to not-stalgic (lol) this recipe gets whimsy points. And I think we all want a touch of whimsy in our lives.

[sarandsaffitz]

Aunt Rose's Mondel Bread. Or is it Aunt Tilly's? Making somebody's mondel bread a vegan recipe soon!

[sarandsaffitz]

my neighbor gave me sourdough starter what do i do?

[sarandsaffitz]

Cranberry-Pomegranate Mousse Pie, p. 79, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

The photograph of this pie is seriously gorgeous I think it should have been the cover. I think Claire even says at some point in her Youtube series that it’s her favorite photo in the book. Anyway, obviously I was really excited to make this one, however it had a TON of substitutions to make vegan and needs a ~little~ more tweaking to be where it needs to be. I might make this again as a Thanksgiving pie, like Claire suggests, but until then I’ll be moving on in my project.

Make it vegan!

Starting with the crust - Lotus brand Biscoff cookies are ACCIDENTALLY VEGAN! These are the cookies you’ve been eating on flights lately, I’m so happy to know I can eat them in good conscience. Sub - butter for Earth Balance, egg for a flax egg.

Now for the mousse - Sub heavy cream for coconut cream. Take 4 cans of coconut milk, put them in the fridge, and then ONLY use the solids, (save the liquids for a different recipe like curry, coconut rice etc.) definitely grab 4 cans, I tried doing this with only 2, hence why I don't have as much whipped cream on the top, sub gelatin powder for agar agar (I’m using flakes).

Tips:

One aspect to doing this project is finding cool ingredients that I normally wouldn’t have thought of using. I had to hunt down pomegranate molasses (surprisingly not that hard to find) and Lotus brand Biscoff cookies (VERY hard to find). I ended up finding both at Zupan’s (a fAnCy grocery store) here in Portland. Good luck to the other Dessert People out there!

I will say this about the crust - my crust slumped a bit in the oven, this may have been because it was too wet. Maybe skip the egg all together, or try less water than normal (I used 1 tbsp flax egg with 2 tbsp water, so maybe try only 1 tbsp water?). Graham cracker crusts I’ve made in the past have never used a flax egg, so it might be ok to just leave it out. I also left the crust in the oven longer than Claire recommends, because it looked SO wet still, but mine did burn slightly. Take caution!

There were SO many steps in this that made me nervous it wouldn’t come out very well, the largest that loomed in front of me was using agar agar. I’ve used it successfully in the past, but I have also made jello shots with it and it was a disaster (you literally had to CHEW your jello shot… not ideal). So, I knew I needed to be careful with how much agar agar I used. I only used ¾ tsp, brought it to a quick boil until it had all dissolved and then immediately poured it into the cranberry-pomegranate mixture and mixed. I would say you could go up to 1 tsp, and that might be the sweet spot. The mousse still set up in the fridge, but it was a bit less firm than I wanted (as you can see when we cut it out, it didn’t really hold its shape as a slice).

Last tip, Claire says you can’t use frozen cranberries to do the cute sugared cranberries on top but I decided I could and it looks cute so, you do you.

This pie was so daunting for so many reasons and I am thankful to be moving on. My BFF Caroline gave this a great rating so I’m stealing it: 11/15

[sarandsaffitz]

Brown Butter and Sage Sablés, p. 131, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Made on 5.29.22

Wikipedia says: Sablé means ‘sandy’ in French, replacing the word ‘breadcrumbs’ in English. I’m sure these would be more sablé if vegan butter solidified after being browned, alas it does not do that. These were still a very nice cookie and felt very grown up in their flavor (whose tastebuds are these??? I remember when grape flavor hubba bubba gum that came in that long ass never ending stick was the height of flavor profiles).

Make it vegan!

Swap two egg yolks for one flax egg. And instead of two sticks of butter browned, use one stick of Earth balance to brown with the sage, and leave the other stick at room temp. That way at least some of your butter is in a solid state when you get to mixing. 

I finally got Sugar in the Raw which I found out is close enough to demerara sugar, which Claire uses on literally every cookie she makes (notice the sparkly sugar on the edges of the cookies in the photos above).

Thanks to my bff, Caroline for making these with me. I really wasn’t looking forward to making this recipe because I thought it would be boring. These cookies are the equivalent of that person we all underestimate who goes on to do great things. Good for you Sablé, good for you. 10/13

[luminiferousloser]

I trust a Claire Saffitz recipe but she wants me to cool these brownies for two whole hours before eating and I'm not sure I can do that

[luminiferousloser]

Final verdict: the flavor profile is very similar to the flourless chocolate cake I made a while ago and while they taste good they don't really read as brownies.

They are very chocolatey and fudgey but they could use some like coffee or chili powder

[sarandsaffitz]

OMG we both made these at the same time what are the odds. I 100% agree, this is a fudge recipe. And I love the idea of putting chili powder in there WOW that would taste amazing