Shamed by Donte the concierge...

So I live in a building with a 24-hour concierge—yes, yes I know I’m SO fancy! There are three people who consistently staff the desk, they are all very nice (except for maybe that one who wouldn’t let a certain guest up last weekend!), but one in particular is very friendly…Donte. In the past, I have shared some of my baking endeavors with him, mostly because I had made too much and I didn’t want to eat them myself and he happened to be at the desk at the time. So the other day, I’m coming in from a long day at work and Donte calls out to me saying “Haven’t baked anything lately, huh?” Now to give him the credit he deserves, I am pretty sure he wasn’t saying this as a challenge, but I took it as one (I’m not THAT competitive, I swear). This resulted in two different baking efforts this weekend.

My first project was vegan peanut butter, banana, and chocolate muffin cakes (they are thicker than cupcakes but not quite as dense as muffins). I was inspired by a visit from one of my favorite people in the world and my best friend since I was 7—Shannon! She loves these three flavors and as far back as I can remember she and I have been putting peanut butter on reduced fat chips ahoy (evidence of this can probably be found in our “notebooks” of depression from middle and high school, which we had the pleasure of reading again this weekend), so I figured I would make these for her! But of course in true Lauryn fashion, I misread it and added the entire banana instead of saving three tablespoons for the filling. So, I used my creativity to make a new filling using peanut butter, a little coconut milk, and chocolate. I love this type of cupcake because you aren’t expecting the melty chocolate center when you bite into it! I used peanut butter frosting and melted chocolate to frost the muffin cakes, decorating them with the first letter of the names of those who would be eating them! Notice the absence of an S for Shannon, since I tried to do hers first and messed it up, turning it into a swirl instead. They seemed to be a huge hit and all 12 were gone by the end of the night…sorry Donte!

My second baking adventure this weekend was an oatmeal peanut butter cookie recipe. I wanted to use up the quick oats I had leftover from Christmas cookie baking and use the silken tofu I bought last week. Yes tofu in cookies—everyone STOP cringing—they are delicious! I added in semi-sweet chocolate chips because I can’t bake without chocolate, it’s like Pat Sajak hosting Wheel of Fortune without six margaritas (you all know you read People too). The recipe calls for molasses and next time I might substitute honey (there is a debate on whether or not honey is vegan, and I’m still not sure what side I’m on) for all or part of it, because I feel like the molasses definitely comes through in the cookies and overshadows the peanut butter a little. This recipe makes approximately 50 million cookies, so you may want to be smart and halve it. I will be giving them away to the highest bidder, since even after distributing them to friends, family, and of course Donte* I think I will still have some leftover!

*Check back next week for Donte’s feedback!