The Gourmellows

This weekend I did my very first batch of Vegan milk chocolate. Used half dose of the formula, since I figure the melangeur will probably needs to be conditioned.
The end result is not too bad but it definatelly needs some improvments. The flavor profile is little bit off, now I know that it needs couple of days to mature and to settle, but the sweetness in general is a bit off. I am assuming is the dairy free milk powder I used, is a soy free type and has a slightly lingering sweetness, that I dont like. The texture is good, but I would rather have something little bit creamier.
I have order a soy based vegan milk powder mix, I want to experiment and see if I can get the creaminess I want. I will be trying rice milk powder as well, but one thing at a time.
Mother's day approaching and I have still few orders to complete, I will be spending some time at the kitchen this week, and I will be visiting the Colorado Chocolate Festival on Saturday. After that I will be experimenting a lot more with chocolate making, even though my vegan live is going very well and I might be really busy really soon :-) Be careful what you wish for right!

Not that I am going gluten free, even though I have been thinking about trying, it is just to hard for me to do right now, in fact carbs are my addiction, not a good thing I know, but I have been battling with some bad issues in this past year and I think I might becoming to see the light, so I am having hard time to giving up comfort food items. I have picked up an all purpose GF flour from my local bulk store, it is actually manifactured here in Longmont, called Bella Gluten Free All Purpose baking Mix. I love it for more than one reason; is local, it is GF and it is very easy to use.
I have tried my vegan cookies recipe and although quite pale (I didnt have any brown sugar so I used unrefined cane sugar, but I think using either brown sugar or succanat would help with the pale color), they are very tasty and soft.
Going gluten free might not be so hard to do after all, and that is why I am trying my hands at GF Baking, since that is my weakness.

Cannellini bean soup;

2 cans of cannellini beans drained, one piece of celery chopped, half small onion chopped, one small carrot chopped, 2-3 tbsp of tomato sauce or paste, pinch of dry sage, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 2-3 of cups of vegetable broth ( u can use powdered veg borht and add water) also u can find the already chopped veggies (carrot, celery and onion, in the frezeer section of the supermarket, called soffritto or mirapoix or something like that :-P).

Put the chopped veggies in a pan with evoo and 1 tbsp of water, cook for 10 minutes on low until the veggies are translucent, add tomato, sage and veg. Broth & beans, cook for 20 m. Salt to taste or use bragg aminos, using a hand immersion blender mash some of the beans in the soup to ur liking, the more u mash the thicker the soup will be, add more veg broth to make more fluid if u like. Serve hot with a drop of evoo, enjoy, it is super yummy.