Daring Bakers Gone Wild-I Mean Vegan!

Amy, Ariel and Cami-The Victims/Co-Workers
In our BEAUTIFUL break room at work!

Lavish Crackers and the dip

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge comes to us from Natalie from Gluten A Go Go and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl and they decided to go vegan (the recipe for the crackers is on their pages). When I think of vegan, I think tofu and "weird" things like that. But as I was talking to my friend Ariel, who used to be vegan, she explained to me what it really was and I actually ate a lot of things that were vegan (like salsa). As I read over the recipe I got really confused about the gluten, non -gluten thing and got really scared about screwing this up. So I kept putting off making the crackers. On Wednesday night I finally decided to make them and it was way easy! My brain was just over thinking things-like usual. The trick to making these crackers truly is rolling them very, very thin. If not, you get a product more like pita chips. For the dip, I chose a tapenade. I have to admit that I have never had tapenade and was scared, but it was really good! Thanks to Natalie and Shel for allowing me to experience new foods and branch out from my little box!

Sun-Dried Tomato and Olive Tapenade (From About.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 4 ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained (reserve the oil)
• 1 cup fresh black olives
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup capers
• 1 1/2 tsp Parmesan cheese or vegan Parmesan substitute (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place all ingredients in a food processor. Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Process until desired consistency is reached. Olive tapenade should be course with some chunks, not smooth and creamy.