Friday favorites 6/3

Welcome to June! Cherries, an article on ingredient snobbery, and almost-vegan Snickers bites

Fresh cherries, fresh nails, old bracelet

This week we’re breaking tradition and starting Friday Favorites with a little story.

On Wednesday morning when I was brushing my teeth I had an epiphany. I had been thinking for a while about sharing a recipe I made a couple of months ago for vegan Snickers bites, but since I added butter instead of coconut oil¹, they weren’t quite vegan anymore. I’d been mulling over how to explain the switch and the now non-vegan dessert, and as I was going about my morning routine, I was trying to think of a catchy name.²

So there I was, toothbrush in mouth, when it hit me. I bolted into the living room, making my grand entrance by sliding on the wooden floor in my socks à la Tom Cruise in Risky Business (David’s mom has told me millions of times to stop doing this because I’m going to sprain my ankle, and she’s probably right. She even bought me slippers for Christmas a couple of years ago but that unfortunately hasn’t stopped me).

I squealed, “David, I think I invented a new concept—I just googled it and no one has come up with it before! I’m going to call the Snickers bites BE-gan since it’s like vegan, but with butter. Get it?! I’m going to start a trend and maybe a new food movement!”

Clearly, I had had too much coffee.

Guys, I was extremely proud. I kept congratulating myself throughout the work day, daydreaming every time I had a break about this incredibly clever term I had just invented.

Then I sat down to write. Which other than my five seconds of research on Google was the first time I had typed out my freshly coined word. And that’s when I realized that the reason no one had pioneered a movement of “beganism” is because the word “began” already exists, it doesn’t rhyme with vegan, and it’s the past tense form of the verb begin. Oops. So much for my ticket to fame.

With that said, the v(b)egan³ Snickers bites are really good! You can find the recipe below, after the rest of my favorites from this week.

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• One of my good friends from the US recently sent me a picture of a delicious fig and prosciutto crostini she was eating and it reinforced my longing for fig season to arrive. In the meantime, I’ve been indulging in albaricoques⁴ and cerezas⁵, which are just coming into season here. Like strawberries, we go through a kilo of cherries every couple of days (no exaggeration—I am a fruit monster). If you, too, love cherries and for some reason find yourself in a surplus, may I suggest a cherry cobbler or crumble? The Cherry Skillet Cobbler from Simply Vibrant is my favorite (pictured below from when I made it last), but the Summer Fruit Crisp from Bon Appétit also looks amazing.

Cherry Skillet Cobbler, eaten for breakfast with coffee as it should be

• Like Rachel at ingredient, I also have thoughts on affordability and ingredient snobbery. Her article is a great summation of how in an effort to be more sustainable, we actually end up shaming a lot of people who don’t have access to local, organic ingredients. That doesn’t mean we should stop buying environmentally-friendly options if we have the means, but maybe we should take a beat before judging someone buying imported bananas from Walmart.

• As promised, here is the recipe I used for the Snickers bites. I made quite a few modifications but since I didn’t note all of my specific measurements, etc, I don’t feel comfortable writing out my personal adaptation. Instead, I’ll leave you with the list of changes I made to the original recipe:

  • Used a mini muffin tin instead of a baking dish (it was nonstick so I also didn’t use oil and had no problems with the bites sticking to the tin)

  • Substituted an equal amount of melted butter in place of the coconut oil

  • Skipped the peanut halves (only because I didn’t have them—next time I’ll likely add them in)

  • Topped them with a sprinkle of Maldon salt flakes

  You’ll definitely want to keep these in the freezer, and don’t take them out until right before eating because they’ll quickly turn into a gooey (delicious) mess. Also, the final product is quite sweet, so if you like your desserts menos dulce⁶ then I suggest cutting down on the maple syrup.

I thought of making this a footnote, but I’m leaving it in the main text because I think it’s important: There is nothing wrong with eating a regular Snickers bar. Yes, this recipe is healthier in the sense that you’re making them from scratch and they’re less processed, but they are no “better” than the actual candy bar. I made them because Snickers bars have milk so I can’t eat them. If you don’t have any food allergies, I repeat, it is okay to eat a Snickers bar (not that you need anyone’s permission anyway).

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That’s all for this week! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend, and please let me know if you try any of the recipes! Also, I’m going to start pinning the most recent Sunday Sobremesa on the newsletter landing page, so feel free to hop over and join the conversation.

Feliz finde!⁷

Ki

1. I can’t stand the smell of coconut oil after an unfortunate event in which we didn’t know a jar had gone rancid and added it to a butternut squash soup we were making. If it’s in something and I don’t know it, I’m fine, but I cannot cook with it under any circumstances.

2. On why I was making vegan Snickers bites: For those of you who don’t know, a few years ago I found out that I have a milk protein allergy, which means I can’t eat dairy except for butter, since it only has traces of protein because it’s basically all fat. The allergy honestly doesn’t impact my eating very much except for desserts, which can be trickier to find without dairy.

3. Maybe I should call them Bee-gan? But then that sounds like they’re vegan except for honey. Hmm, I need more time to think about this (actually, I should just let it go).

4. Albaricoques: apricots

5. Cerezas: cherries

6. Menos dulce: less sweet

7. Feliz finde!: Happy weekend!