McKenna - BabyCakes covers the classics: gluten-free vegan recipes from donuts to snickerdoodles

Copyright 2011 by Erin McKenna
Photographs copyright 2011 by Tara Donne

Thin Mints is a trademark and Chips Ahoy! Nilla Wafers, Mounds, Its-It, and Sno Balls are all registered trademarks of their respective owners in the United States and/or other countries (note the products impressive legal markings!). In this book, the gluten-free detours taken from these time-tested creations are merely respectful adaptations developed by Erin McKenna for BabyCakes NYC and an eager community that for too long has gone without the delights offered by these stately superbrands.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKenna, Erin,
BabyCakes covers the classics : gluten-free vegan recipes from donuts to snickerdoodles / Erin McKenna.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Gluten-free dietRecipes. 2. Vegan cooking.
I. BabyCakes (Bakery) II. Title.
RM237.86.M378 2010
641.5638dc22 2010025330

eISBN: 978-0-307-95262-2

Jacket design by Laura Palese
Jacket photographs by Tara Donne

v3.1_r1

FOR MY SISTERS:

KATHY, SUZI, MARY, JOANNE, BRIDGET, SARAH & ELIZABETH.

You have each stood tall and beautiful by my side, with extraordinary care and without prejudice, and I am grateful for your support and patience and concern every day. You are the reason for all of this.

I AM ALWAYS ANTSY. I LIKE TO KEEP BUSY, TINKER WITH NEW IDEAS, AND LOSE MYSELF IN THE CREATIVE JOYS OF KITCHEN WORK AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. I admit, however, that I was almost completely laid out after the publication of my first book, BabyCakes. After work, Id collapse onto the couch halfway through the process of taking off my shoes and socks, exhausted and beaten. It is a sad irony that what may well be my proudest moment left me, a committed mover, completely paralyzed. I wasnt myself.

But soon a familiar feeling began to take over. Buried beneath the covers in bed each morning, I started imagining new textures and flavor pairings. Within weeks I found myself roaming the aisles of my local grocery and specialty stores, scanning ingredient lists and scooping up new products aggressively. At night, while I slept, my brain was overrun with a nightmare-level excitement. Color combinations I saw on billboards and on clothing racks and in the sky above developed into fresh palettes and texture creations. I bought things my gluten allergies dont permit me to eat just to break them apart, examine the insides, and in general make a massive mess everywhere I went.

In a matter of weeks I was completely overcome with restlessness. I had a similar feeling when it first occurred to me how to make the BabyCakes NYC chocolate-chip cookie work in 2005. And again when I finally stumbled onto what would become the inner workings of my cornbread recipe in 2006. It was suddenly perfectly clear: An entirely new recipe was near.

This time it was for something bold but simple, noble yet undeniably normal: a plain donut topped with chocolate.

So I baked a vegan, gluten-free donut and put a bunch of melted chocolate right on top. The first one was terrible. The second one, slightly less terrible. On the third try it all came together. Its no overstatement to say now that BabyCakes NYC changed forever that day. I wont proclaim here that the cupcake, my firstborn pride and joy, was overthrown. Ill just say this: The story of the book youre holding now is as simple as the creation of that first donut and, besides a quick suggestion for its repurposing, you will not find a single cupcake recipe or cupcake reference in these pages beyond this point. Friends, make of that what you will.

Soon after the birth of the donut, ideas for other iconic creations came flooding in. Suddenly I had a recipe for the absolute hero of my childhood, the pancake. And then: the waffle. Re-creating these timeless recipes in a vegan, gluten-free, health-minded manner steamrolled into six months worth of absolute chaos inside the BabyCakes NYC test kitchen. My baking staff grew concerned, and probably annoyedI think they were too weirded out by my obsessive focus to admit to either.

I soldiered on oblivious. But you see, this collection of recipes was a battle less of making ingredients work together than it was of building on what I already knew about my core ingredients. And this is perhaps the single most important philosophical lesson I hope you gained from the first book, or will take away from this one: Once youve taken control of your vegan and gluten-free pantry, there are absolutely no limitations to what you can bake.

In many ways, the recipes included here call on the lessons of that first book. I promise to avoid weighing this manual down with unnecessary repetition. In the event you dont own that effort in creativity and affection, fear notIm going to try my very best to simplify as many things as possible and get right to the point. Remember also that you can always scooch your eyeballs over to the Internet: Much of what I included in the first book can be found in a variety of online destinations. Together we will all make it through relatively unscathed, that I promise you.

I hope that by now youve met some of my absolutely magical helper-ladies at either the New York or Los Angeles bakery and witnessed them in the hectic throes of the BabyCakes assembly line. If so, chances are youve seen firsthand that while I can fairly be labeled a fussy, recipe-minded baker, nobody could ever accuse me of being overly garish in the kitchen. I dont get caught up tricking things out with towering sugar art or hyper-detailed flourishes. Visually, I aim for something simpleplain, even. To me the complexities are best left in the batter.

Indeed, this book is in homage to the unflashy yet universally longed-for snacks and desserts that vegans, celiacs, and the health-concerned are usually forced to put out of their minds. For many of us, we are entering the land of those sentimental classics we usually stare at adoringly in the bakers window but never walk away with. Ive included everything from pancakes and Wonder Buns to Thin Mints and Smores, from Rice Krispie Blocks and Hamentaschen to five variations of donuts. In the heat of the moment, I even pulled together a few of my favorite savory recipes, including an onion-cheddar crepe, a vegetable tart, and an outrageously handy granola concoction. There is, after all, always room for something new, and Im always hungry.