So many restaurants in Portland and so little time for a vegan foodie. Sweets always top the list.

If you are driving down 3^rd Avenue and see a line wrapped around a building then most likely you are driving past Voodoo Doughnuts. It seems Nashville likes to form a line for pancakes and Portland for doughnuts.

Although Voodoo Doughnuts is not completely vegan they do have a good selection of vegan doughnuts. Choices range from the glazed fried, devil’s food sprinkled to raspberry jelly filled and maple cream filled. Prices range from $1.25 to $1.95 each.  We made four different visits to Voodoo Doughnuts and tried different choices each time. Our selections were cotton candy sprinkled, maple frosted maple filled, chocolate frosted cream filled, devil’s food sprinkled and the signature Voodoo Doll, a voodoo doll shaped doughnut that is chocolate frosted and raspberry jelly filled complete with a pretzel pin for  sticking. All of the doughnuts were good though nothing absolutely spectacular.  It’s clearly a novelty sell apparent by the not-so-subtle double entendres that litter the signage in the shop. Buy a dozen, or in this case 13 and they will come in a nice pink box emblazoned with what must be Voodoo Doughnut’s signature: “Good things come in pink boxes.” Of course, if you feel the need to go for the not subtle at all route choose the Cock and Balls doughnut, a chocolate covered doughnut shaped like, well… You can even buy a pair of frilly panties printed with “The Magic Is In The Hole” or, as before, “Good Things Come In Pink Boxes”.

Voodoo Doughnuts Menu (click to enlarge)

Voodoo Doughnuts Vegan Menu (click to enlarge)

I won’t say I didn’t enjoy Voodoo Doughnuts. It’s nice to grab a jelly filled in the morning and walk half a block to Stumptown to enjoy it with a fresh cup of great coffee but after a couple doughnuts, vegan or not, you quickly realize that you’re just eating a doughnut. However, if you love a vegan doughnut, don’t have the chance to bake or fry up your own, and crave some vegan sweetness then Voodoo Doughnuts is your place.

Vegan Doughnuts!

More vegan doughnuts.

Even more vegan doughnuts!

Still more vegan doughnuts.

Voodoo Doughnuts Vegan Maple Filled

Voodoo Doughnuts Vegan Cotton Candy Doughnut

Voodoo Doughnuts Vegan Devil's Food With Sprinkles

Today on my day off from being surrounded by carnivores at my job, I thought “HMmm, I think I will try something different today.”  My first venture in deep frying resulted in some very yummy shallots for a very yummy green bean casserole.  But, also a very, very smokey house and a not happy Mr. Nashveggie.  Today I decided to try homemade vegan doughnuts. After consulting my King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion and a few websites, I finally decided to try a combination of the recipes from those websites and King Arthur.

Unfortunately, today was not the day for rising in my house.  The first rise was fine, but the second, after little Nashveggie and I cut them out, was slow.  I finally got impatient and began heating a whole quart of oil in my lovely Le Creuset 3 1/2 dutch oven. This step took about 30 minutes to reach the suggested 370 degrees.  Once I got started, it was a ton of fun, even if I did have to keep a four year old out of my way.  I had baking soda and the lid to the pot handy just in case anything went awry in this foray.  The result… well, I don’t know how long it has been since you have a had a warm Krispy Kreme doughnut straight off the assembly line, but this…this was heaven.  It took me back to the day when Mr. Nashveggie and I would go to the Krispy Kreme across from Baptist Hospital to wait for the hot doughnut sign and eat a whole dozen, he with milk and I with OJ.  No OJ today, just a little taste of a fond memory and sweet goodness.

Pre-Fried Vegan Doughnuts

Hot Vegan Doughnuts Now!

My wife has been using her days off to bake up lots of goodies. Her latest creations are Smores and Butterfly Cupcakes. Recipes are from “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World“. I have married a master baker. These things are delicious!

The next day after making these she taught a small class on cupcake decorating, unfortunately all of those cupcakes were made using butter and eggs since someone else bought the supplies.  They were easter cupcakes and looked really cool with green coconut for grass and jellybean “eggs” and a little chick on top.

Christmas is over. I didn’t cook as much as I had planned on, we were going to do cookies, ice cream, and a few other things. At the last minute I decided to make Figgy Pudding. That was all I had time for with a busy day of people coming and going. After hearing “Bring us some figgy pudding.” a few times in the past weeks I decided I wanted to know exactly what it was and if it was really good enough to demand “Bring it right here”.

It is.

As with other British puddings it is actually a cake with a sauce to accompany. Very figgy, very spicy with cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon and I made a brandy sauce (with 1/2 cup of brandy not cooked after adding) that made it very tasty. I didn’t take any pictures for those who have a thing for food images, sorry. I’ll post the recipe in the recipe section of the messageboard. I used a standard dairy filled recipe and adapted it, nowhere could I find a veganized one already. So, there will be one now.