Loooong day. My group tested our entire Friday night dinner menu, and I was on my feet from 7 to 5. We got a ton accomplished though, so my sore legs and scratchy throat are worth it.

Though last week we practiced our entree, today was our first go at the appetizer and dessert courses. I worked mainly on the dessert, but also prepped the tempeh for the entree- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but it really is the best tempeh I’ve ever had! Last week’s finished product was kinda crumbly and mushy, so this time I modified the recipe to use slightly less liquid and boiled the tempeh for much less time before grating it.

Once the tempeh triangles were shaped and refrigerated for a-la-minute frying, I got to work on our gluten-free miniature pie crusts. In addition to being entirely vegan, our menu is also gluten-free with one small, easily removable addition. GF baking can pose a lot of challenges, but the taste of this recipe was absolutely on point. (I know I said I wasn’t going to post pictures before the big night, but since we still have to modify the presentation and ingredients in all the courses a bit, this isn’t really what it will look like. Plus, I’m too excited about it not to!)

We filled the crusts with apples sauteed in coconut oil, maple syrup and cinnamon, then served them with cherry compote, honey-bourbon cashew cream and a salted caramel drizzle. Unfortunately, one of the classes I missed last week was gluten-free baking, and apparently the rest of the group picked up some important pointers I neglected to ask about. A few changes need to be made, but the general concept was really tasty.

Here’s what our entree of tempeh, sweet potatoes, gumbo veggies and collard greens with gumbo sauce looked like (we’re making a few changes in next week’s recipe test):

And our appetizer, a frisee, radicchio and spinach salad with toasted pecans, roasted red and yellow beets and cumin-cinnamon vinaigrette, served with a mini quinoa cornbread muffin with optional honey butter:

In addition, we also made an incredible non-alcoholic mint julep, which was sadly vetoed by the testers for being too sweet:

And jalepeno jam for the cornbread. This stuff was easily the highlight of the meal- super spicy and slightly sweet. I could eat it by the jarful.

There’s an expression that baking is a science and cooking is an art, and that’s something I’m really coming to know first hand in this program. I’ve always loved to bake, because the perfection and precision of it kind of brings out the OCD in me and helps me to relax (weird, I know), but cooking is an entirely different beast that tends to stress me out in certain situations. I’m getting better at following my intuition when it comes to savory recipes, but I think I’ll always prefer the sweet ones :)

Cooking or baking?