Vegan Red Velvet Cupcake

So many people love red velvet cake and cupcakes. I haven’t ever really been one of them, probably because I was never given too many opportunities to try them. When I finally had a red velvet cupcake several years ago in New York, I was underwhelmed. The flavor wasn’t very memorable – mainly it was just pretty. But then I made them myself a few weeks ago, and I got why they were special: chocolate.

Don’t mistake me – red velvet cupcakes don’t have a very strong chocolate flavor, but you do have a hint of it, which is sometimes all you need. This particular recipe is a winner because the flavor, color and texture is all exactly what you’d want in a red velvet cupcake. It’s sweet, mild on the chocolate, the color is a lovely shade of dark red, and moist, plus the cupcake holds together pretty well. The frosting is not very thick, but it complements the cupcake with a creamy, sugary finish. I shared these cupcakes with some friends, none vegan, and they all agreed that they were delicious!

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes
This recipe is taken from Food.com
Yields approximately 12 cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegan granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vegan red food coloring* or two small bottles of red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon chocolate extract, optional (this can be hard to find, so omit it if you cannot locate it in your local store)

For the Frosting:

• 1/4 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups vegan powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line muffin pans with liners.

Whisk together the vegan milk and vinegar and set aside to curdle. Note that I have only used soy milk in this recipe, so I do not know if other vegan milks will thicken in this step.

Curdling soy milk with apple cider vinegar

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Add the oil, food coloring, chocolate extract (if using), vanilla extract and almond extract to the curdled soy milk. Whisk well to combine.

You'll use about two small bottles of red food coloring

Make well in center of dry ingredients and gently fold wet ingredients into dry, mixing until large lumps disappear. Do not over mix, or your cupcakes will turn out gummy – small lumps are okay.

Finishing up the batter

Fill cupcake liners about three-quarters full as these cupcakes will rise fairly high. And make sure you use the right size of cupcake liners – mine were too small for my pan, but I used them anyway!

Filling the liners with the batter

Place in hot oven and bake 18-20 minutes until done, or until toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in the pan for five mintues, and then transfer to a cooling rack or surface to cool completely.

Cooling on the rack

Using a hand mixer (or by hand), cream together the vegan butter and vegan cream cheese until just combined.

Mixing it all by hand

Whip in the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup batches. Scrape down the sides and mix until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla.

Now it just needs to chill to firm up a bit

Keep tightly covered and refrigerated until ready to use.

When ready, spread some frosting on each of the cupcakes.

Spreading frosting on red velvet cupcakes

Then serve and enjoy!

Worth it.

What is your favorite cupcake?

Homemade vegan ice cream sandwiches

Officially summer = officially time to make ice cream, even here in the Pacific Northwest. Last week, I finally got my ice cream maker out of its box, cleaned it up and stuck it in the freezer. It was time.

But then I realized I could take my ice cream one step further – ice cream sandwiches. I had never made my own ice cream sandwiches, but it’s really not that hard. It just takes a bit of time and effort, and once you’re done you’re rewarded with some pretty good tasting stuff.

How easy is it? Well, if you’re not up for baking cookies or making your own ice cream, just grab a box of your favorite vegan cookies (any should do) and your favorite vegan ice cream (vanilla is probably best) and start making sandwiches. But if you want to go the homemade route, then read on.

You can make ice cream sandwiches with any cookie. At first I thought I’d go with chocolate chip, and a part of me wanted to go with oatmeal raisin, but then I remembered a recipe for chocolate cookies I had come across a few years ago on FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I only modified the recipe a tad, and they are absolutely perfect for this summer vegan recipe.

Vegan Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

• 1 cup unbleached white flour (or to make it gluten-free, use gluten-free baking flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons vegan butter
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup soy yogurt or vegan milk (if you use vegan milk, you may need to increase the flour by a tablespoon or two)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Sugar or Celtic sea salt, both optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Mix the flour, soda, and salt together and set aside.

Mixing flour, baking soda and salt

In another bowl, mix the cocoa with the granulated and brown sugars and set aside.

Mixing cocoa powder with granulated and brown sugars

Melt the vegan butter in a medium-sized saucepan. When it is completely melted, take it off the heat and add the sugar and cocoa mixture, then stir to combine.

Melting the butter, then adding cocoa mixture to it

Then add the soy yogurt or vegan milk, vanilla extract and balsamic vinegar and stir until mixed.

Mixing together cocoa mixture with vegan milk, balsamic vinegar and vanilla extract

Finally, add the flour mixture and stir just until it’s combined, but don’t over-mix.

The cookie batter finally comes together!

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Chocolate cookies ready to go into the oven

If you want your cookies to be uniformly round, instead grab a spoonful and roll it in your hands for a few seconds then place the cookie ball on the sheet. It will be more perfectly round that way.

Sprinkle lightly with your choice of vanilla sugar or Celtic sea salt (I opted for the latter on about half of the cookies), and place them in the oven.

Adding a sprinkling of Celtic sea salt to my chocolate cookies

After about five minutes, switch the pans around so that the one on top is on the bottom and the front sides are in the back. Check again in another five minutes. Be careful – depending on the type of pan you use, they can go from underdone to burned in seconds. They shouldn’t need more than 11 minutes and will look soft on top, but they’ll harden as they cool. Note that I baked these for a maximum of 10 minutes because I wanted to keep them a little on the chewy side.

Remove from the oven and transfer onto cooling racks.

A mix of small and large cookies, some with salt on top and some without

Next thing I did was make a basic recipe of coconut ice cream. I also doubled this recipe, but it’s really probably not necessary. I still have some ice cream in the freezer that I didn’t use.

The ice cream was still too soft once it was done, so I stuck it in the freezer overnight. I used a metal bowl and just covered it with plastic wrap.

Perfectly frozen coconut ice cream

I then used a melon baller scoop and scooped out a generous amount of ice cream and placed it on the bottom side of a cookie. Take another similarly shaped and sized cookie and place it bottom down on top of the ice cream and press down.

Finally - introducing the ice cream and the cookies so they can party together!

You can either do one of two things:

1. Eat it right away, but it will definitely be more messy because it will melt fast.
2. Stick in your freezer for a few hours, then individually wrap each in plastic wrap and store in your freezer for up to five days.

Yum - vegan ice cream sandwich

These are fantastic, but I would definitely allow a couple of days to prepare if you are making these totally from scratch for a party, picnic or event. I thought I’d be able to make them in one day, but the ice cream really needs to be pretty well frozen to make it easy to put these babies together.

One variation I wish I had tried: blending a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter with the ice cream mixture. That would have been pretty awesome. A good excuse to make them again!

Do you ever make ice cream sandwiches? What is your favorite combo?

Vegan Irish Soda Bread

There are two things I associate with St. Patrick’s Day: wearing green and being pinched if you forget to wear green (meanwhile claiming that you are wearing green underwear, so please stop pinching me!). But now that I feel like I am a verifiable amateur home cook, I am now adding a third item to the list – learning how to cook some new Irish recipes every year in March.

I don’t recall ever having Irish soda bread, but I was definitely ready to try it. There are so many variations of this bread, many of which call for eggs, that I wanted to find something that could be veganized without the use of an egg substitute. I was really pleased for two reasons when I came across Nana Dot’s Irish Soda Bread Recipe – first, it had no eggs (yay!) and second, it is a family recipe that comes from Ireland. I love it when I find something that has history and authenticity.

I was also really curious by the list of ingredients. A lot of the recipes I had run across did include things like raisins, but this was the first I had seen using caraway seeds. The recipe had so many rave reviews, though, that I trusted I’d probably like it with the added unusual flavor. The end result was most certainly interesting – very scone-like, not too sweet, and a lot of balanced flavors milling about together. Truthfully it reminded me very much of other European breads I had years ago when studying in Spain, which was a nice thing because it just added to the authenticity of this bread.

Vegan Irish Soda Bread
Adapted from Nana Dot’s Irish Soda Bread Recipe on Allrecipes.com

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup currants (You can substitute raisins if needed.)
• 2 teaspoons caraway seed, optional
• 3/4 cup vegan milk
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and grease two baking sheets (or you may use silicone baking sheets in place of greasing).

Stir or whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl until evenly blended.

Whisking together the dry ingredients

Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

Cutting in the vegan butter

Stir in the raisins, currants (if using), and caraway seeds (also if using).

Stirring in the raisins and caraway seeds

Make a well in the center of your mixture and pour in the milk and vinegar. Stir with a spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Combining the wet ingredients with the dry

Turn the dough out onto a well floured work surface, and knead gently 8 to 10 times.

Kneading helps to combine the remaining dry and wet ingredients

Divide the dough into two balls, and place onto the prepared baking sheets.

Ready to go into the oven!

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven’s heat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake until the top of the bread is golden brown, about 15 minutes more. You will bake your soda bread for a total of about 30 minutes, however you may need an extra 5-10 minutes (I should have baked mine for another five minutes at least as it was still a little doughy in the center). Allow the bread to cool before cutting or storing.

Cooling on racks

Cut into wedges, then serve! They are perfect as they are, or you can add vegan butter.

Lots of goodness going on here!

Have you ever made Irish soda bread? What is your favorite variation?

And P.S. Don’t forget to wear green this Thursday!

Carrot cake muffin with vanilla soy yogurt

A couple of weeks ago when we went strawberry picking at Boxx Berry Farm, we also had the fortunate opportunity to pick some vegetables from a small farm called Half Acre Farm located on the same property. They had a variety of vegetables ready, but we decided to pick only a couple of items – some Walla Walla onions and two of bunches of carrots. As we dug the vegetables up, we had a really nice visit with the couple who are running this one-acre farm (yep – it’s one acre). They both work full time, but are passionate about gardening, so decided to start up a little vegetable farm. Seems ambitious, but I admit that we were standing there feeling a bit jealous. In our minds, being able to garden and have a positive impact on the community is a worthy combo.

When we got home, Matt opted to juice the carrots which resulted in a rich and sweet liquid. The other thing that resulted was about a cup of carrot pulp that I couldn’t face throwing away. After doing a little bit of research I realized that juicing takes away a lot of the flavor of the carrots, so if you try to make dishes where grated carrots are a large part of the ingredient list, you’ll find that you won’t taste them quite as much. I finally decided to try making some muffins. In the end the carrot flavor was definitely mild, but if you are not a big fan of carrot cake, this may be a viable alternative for you.

Carrot Cake Muffins
Makes about 12 regular sized muffins

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water (or egg replacer for one egg)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup vegan milk
• 1 cup grated carrots or carrot pulp
• Vegan vanilla yogurt, optional

Turn on your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners or grease them with vegan butter (or spray with a cooking spray).

In a large bowl, sift your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together. Mix in the brown sugar.

Mixing together the dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, mix together the flax seed mixture or egg replacer, oil, vanilla extract and vegan milk.

Mixing the wet ingredients together

Take the shredded carrot or carrot pulp and mix it in with the wet ingredients.

Mixing in the carrot pulp

Add the carrot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until it is just combined.

Carrot cake muffin mixture

Add the mixture to your cupcake/muffin tin, and then bake in the oven for 25 or 30 minutes.

Carrot cake muffins about to go into the oven

Allow the muffins to cool before serving. You can serve with vegan butter or with a dollop of vegan vanilla yogurt.

Fresh out of the oven carrot cake muffins

The carrot flavor of the muffins was definitely mild, but I felt that what really made these was the addition of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. They added a nice balance of spice with the other ingredients. The muffins were also dense, yet moist.

Also, while I don’t really like nuts or raisins in my muffins, I am sure the addition of a handful of walnuts, pecans, raisins or cranberries would be a nice complement to these.

Carrot cake muffin

Do you ever bake or cook with carrots? If so, what is your favorite recipe?

YUM.

It hasn’t been until the last few years that I have gotten into scones (I think that I used to confuse them with biscotti and assumed that they would be dry and hard), and even then I haven’t made them with much frequency. I was pleasantly surprised when I bit into my first scone – rich, moist and just a little bit sweet. Much like a sweet version of a savory biscuit. I decided it was high time to make scones again the other day, and I’m glad I did – although I wish I hadn’t eaten them all already. I could so go for another right now!

Orange Scones
This recipe makes approximately 8 large scones, and is based upon the cranberry orange scones recipe at epicurious.com.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 3/4 cup vegan butter, cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice (the juice of a medium sized orange is about 1/4 cup)
• 3/4 cup vegan milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl.

Sifting the dry ingredients together

Grate your orange peel. I used a medium-sized orange and it yielded me approximately 1 tablespoon of orange zest. Also this grater is awesome.

Getting my grated orange peel

Mix the orange peel with your sifted ingredients.

Mixing orange zest with the sifted dry ingredients

Add your vegan butter and mix together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal. You can probably also use a pastry cutter if you do not want to mix with your hands.

Mixing the vegan butter with your dry ingredients

If you haven’t already, squeeze your fresh orange juice.

Fresh orange juice

Mix the orange juice and vegan milk together, then gradually pour it into your mixture, tossing with a fork until moist clumps form.

Mixing together the wet and dry ingredients

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead it briefly to mix the dough well (about four turns). Form the dough into a circle, about 1/2 inch thick.

Nearly there...

Take a knife and cut into 8 wedges. Alternatively, you can use a biscuit cutter to cut several round pieces. Place the scones about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet.

Cutting the orange scones

Bake in your preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the tops of the scones are golden brown.

Vegan scones fresh out of the oven

After taking the scones out of the oven, let them sit on their baking sheet for about 10 minutes. You can then serve them warm or at room temperature. I recommend using vegan clotted cream as a topping or they are delicious on their own.

Also, while I am not a huge fan of cranberries, I do think that these would taste really nice with some cranberries and/or some slivered almonds mixed in. Or instead of orange zest and juice, consider lemon zest and juice. Be creative – you’re sure to come up with some really fantastic variations.

Vegan orange scones

Do you ever make scones? What is your favorite kind?

Pfeffernuesse Cookies

As I am getting older, I am understanding more the whole issue about Christmas – and holidays in general – being about materialism and less about sharing cultural and familial traditions. If you’re anything like me, you find yourself doing some last minute shopping online, hunting around for coupons and wondering what on earth this or that someone would want to receive – and winding up rather irritated by the whole thing. I admit that I did it this year, but I am already thinking that next year will be different. With a little planning and personal ingenuity, I’ll make Christmas more satisfying for everyone.

I confess that I nearly did that this year, but when confronted with five dozen of your favorite cookies, it’s actually rather hard to share. Yes. I have eaten nearly five dozen cookies by myself (and now I seriously need to exercise).

Vegan Pfeffernuesse Cookies
I veganized this Pfeffernusse Cookies recipe from AllRecipes.com
Makes about 5 dozen cookies

• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup vegan butter or margarine
• Egg replacer for 2 eggs (If using flax, you can mix 2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of hot water)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons anise extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground black or white pepper (I used white)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening, and margarine in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until ingredients are well incorporated. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the anise extract, as well as the prepared egg replacer (confession – I forgot to do the egg replacer at this point, but adding it later is okay).

Mixing together molasses, agave nectar and vegan butter

This recipe is all about the spices, so get together all your powdered spices and measure them out separately if you have a tendency to forget what you just added last (raises hand).

Spices for pfeffernuesse cookies

Combine the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper, and salt in a large bowl.

Mixing together dry ingredients

Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combines. You may have to mix together with your hands to make sure it is very well mixed. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Incorporating the wet ingredients

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll the dough into acorn-sized balls. Arrange on baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart. Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes.

Pfeffernuesse cookies

Move to a rack to cool. Dust cooled cookies with confectioners’ sugar.

Dusting cookies with confectioner's sugar

I don’t know what possessed me to make so many cookies, especially when this was experimental for me (this is the first time I’ve made vegan pfeffernuesse cookies – and they were based upon a recipe with honey and eggs), but I really truly lucked out big time. These are AMAZING! If you have never had pfeffernuesse cookies, they are spicy, which can add a little heat, and sweet to take the edge off, but surprisingly, not too sweet (if you counted, you’ll know there are five sugars in this recipe). When you bite into them, they are a little harder on the outside and completely chewy on the inside.

Five dozen pfeffernuesse cookies

I let my husband try part of one and he thought they were awful, so these are obviously not for everyone. (That’s actually one reason I didn’t ship these off – I had visions of cookies going into trashcans. I just had to be the cookie advocate and put them on my thighs instead.)

But if you love pfeffernuesse like I do, and know people in your life who would be up for a tin of these little goodies, they are the perfect solution for your gift-giving dilemma during the holidays. Just remember to wrap them well, and ship them within a day or two of baking them so they are less likely to arrive stale.

Vegan Pfeffernuesse Cookies

Happy Holidays!

Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

I guess you could say that I’m on a cookie binge lately. I really love cookies, but I don’t make them very much because I don’t really like to share, which always means more for me! – but also means, more for my thighs! If only “vegan” preceding “cookie” meant calorie-free, bland, and boring in our household; I’m afraid it’s quite the opposite.

I have been meaning to try to find a vegan oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, but haven’t really spent the time and effort until just the other day. Luckily for me I found a winner on the first try which doesn’t always happen. This is an amazing recipe: plump and sugary raisins, a little crispy where the brown sugar didn’t get fully mixed into the rest of the batter and still chewy on the second day. It’s a rich and hearty cookie, too, so you only really need one or two before you’re satiated.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Via VeganFamilyFavorites.com

Note: I halved this recipe and it still yielded me 14 cookies. For bigger cookies or for two dozen normal sized cookies you can make the full recipe.

• 1 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Egg replacer for 2 eggs (If using flax, you can mix 2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of hot water)
• 1-1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats
• 1-1/2 cups raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Mixing the first part of the batter

Add egg replacer eggs and beat until well blended.

Adding egg replacer

In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to margarine mixture (or vice versa, which is what I did!) until well blended.

Continuing to work on the batter for oatmeal raisin cookies

Stir in oats, raisins, and nuts (if using).

Finally - the stars: oats and the raisins!

On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a nonstick cookie sheet) drop the dough by 1/4 cupfuls (or large spoonfuls) and pat down slightly. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges begin to brown.

Ready to go into the oven

Let stand for 3 minutes before removing from baking sheet.

Yum - vegan oatmeal raisin cookies

A lot of cookies allow for a ton of creativity, but these cookies are kind of fun with how much you can do. Maybe next time I’ll add in some peanut butter and/or peanuts, and substitute chocolate chips for the raisins. How do you make your cookies?

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to tell you that I am a little surprised with myself that I have not shared a chocolate chip cookie recipe with you yet. It’s not like I never make them – I probably make these every few months. Plus it’s not like I don’t like them either, because if you put one of these things in front of me it would be hard for me to resist them. When it comes to cookies, these are my weakness.

So hard to resist!

So here I am finally with a pretty fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe. I don’t remember the blog where I first came across this recipe, but I do know that it can be found in Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton, and I have to say that this is the best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve come across. As far as flavor is concerned, they have a perfect balance between chocolate and cookie, a nice hint of saltiness, and a buttery sweetness to top it off. Also, although they do firm up, they are still a little bit chewy the next day, and even nicer if you warm them up for a few seconds in your microwave or for about 30 seconds to a minute in your toaster oven.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about a dozen regular-sized cookies. Based upon the chocolate chip recipe found in Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup white or unrefined sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract OR 1 1/2 teaspoon rum or brandy and the seeds of 1/4 of a vanilla bean pod
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined.

We ran out of vanilla extract, but I had some vanilla bean pods on hand, so I took the seeds of about 1/4 of one of the pods and let it sit in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of rum for a few minutes. Here’s a nice video on how to split open a vanilla bean in case you’re interested in trying it out for yourself.

Scraping the seeds out from a vanilla bean

In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. As you can see, it separates quickly, so just before you add it to your dry ingredients give it another quick stir.

Liquid ingredients for chocolate chip cookies

Lately we’ve had a hard time finding vegan chocolate chips, so what I’ve been doing is chopping up Trader Joe’s Pounds Plus 72% dark chocolate which is vegan (here’s a handy .pdf which Trader Joe’s provides showing all their vegan products, and this product is on the list). Here you can see I chopped up six squares.

Chopped dark chocolate used in place of chocolate chips

Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not overmix).

Chocolate chip cookie batter

Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little. Alternatively you can roll a spoonful in your hands and then press down a little on the baking sheet (this is what I’ve done).

Chocolate chip cookies about to go into the oven

Bake for 11 minutes until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out). Let cook on the sheet for no more than one minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack.

Homemade vegan chocolate chip cookies

What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

A few years ago I worked as a receptionist at a fine stringed instruments dealer. It was a very interesting cultural experience, because we sold extremely expensive violins, violas and cellos to people with a good deal of money. It was, and has been so far, my only true exposure to this slice of the music industry. It was also a very interesting and enjoyable foray into fine chocolates, desserts and other culinary delights. This was prior to my swearing off of cheese, milk and other dairy items, so I’ll confess that I had quite a few non-vegan experiences (and one non-vegetarian one, which I didn’t realize until later – um yeah, imitation crab is still real fish, FYI).

Whenever it was someone’s birthday, or a staff person was leaving for greener pastures, or because we all needed a good morale booster someone would pop over to Soutine, a lovely little bakery on the Upper West Side, and grab, more often than not, a flourless chocolate cake. It was spectacular. (If you are not a vegan or a part-time one at least, and if you are ever in NYC, you must have a dessert from Soutine. Otherwise, you definitely must have a dessert from Babycakes, which has many wonderful vegan and gluten-free desserts. It’s located in the Chinatown/Little Italy region of Manhattan.)

So when I saw what this month’s Daring Bakers challenge was, I thought back to the days of endless classical music and to those moments filled with dessert, wine and workplace camaraderie. Then after wondering how on earth I was supposed to veganize something that relies mostly on eggs, I encountered a technically vegan flourless chocolate cake from a fellow Daring Baker and vegan, Hannah of BitterSweet. I had to try her recipe, Daring Bakers challenge or no solely because of the fact that the base of the recipe is black-eyed peas. Using legumes in place of flour seemed most unusual, but intriguing to me, and I ventured ahead.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake
This recipe comes from Hannah of BitterSweet

• 2 cups black-eyed peas, cooked
• 1 12-ounce package extra-firm silken tofu
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder (note that I left this out)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt

If you are cooking the black-eyed peas yourself, you can soak the peas overnight, then give them a good rinse before cooking them for a couple of hours (only cook in plain water – do not add salt!). At that point, check them to make sure that they are fully cooked.

Once they are done, give them a good rinse.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan or a 9-inch springform pan.

Toss both the black-eyed peas and the tofu into your food processor or blender, and let it run until the mixture is completely smooth.

Give it a good long time to work, since it would be rather unpleasant to find any whole beans in your cake.

Add in the sugar and coffee powder, and pulse to combine.

Separately, melt the chocolate and stir well until smooth before adding into the blender or food processor.

Once you’ve added the chocolate to the blender or food processor, let it run for a minute until fully incorporated. Unfortunately I was finding it difficult to get it well blended in a blender, so I had to switch to our food processor.

Scrape down the sides to make sure you aren’t missing anything, and give it another minute to process. Finally, add the cocoa, coffee powder, baking powder, soda, and salt, and pulse to combine.

Pour and then spread the mixture into your prepared pan, leveling off the top with your spatula as best you can.

Bake for 60 – 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let it cool completely in the pan before serving.

I was surprised, but you can’t taste the peas. You’d think you would be able to, but if you think about it, you can’t really taste flour in regular cakes or desserts. You’re tasting a whole host of ingredients that harmonize together to offer up a sweet sensation. I will say, though, that this tasted best on the first day, and after that it did become a little dry. It also needed some sort of vegan vanilla ice cream or coconut sorbet, but I didn’t have any on hand (it’s so expensive these days!). Still, we can’t help but help ourselves when we have chocolate dessert sitting around, waiting to be eaten. This is why this cake is now just a memory. ;)

I’m now very inspired to find other dessert recipes that utilize beans as a base. We’ve noticed lately that flour has gone up in price significantly, yet dry beans still remain pretty cheap. Therefore it seems that it is probably less expensive, and potentially more healthy to use beans in place of flour. (I can’t imagine it being a 1:1 ratio, however.) Anyone know of any good recipes?

Our wedding was unconventional. We didn’t want to have the cookie cutter wedding that so many people seem to have these days. Instead, my husband suggested, why don’t we do a picnic? That seemed like an interesting idea, and one that eventually caught on.

Our wedding was in Central Park near the Bow Bridge. We had everyone sit in a circle on blankets, and after we got settled we had everyone share advice and stories for us. Eventually we expressed how we felt about each other (a.k.a. vows), and then had everyone eat snacks and desserts out of our picnic baskets (really galvanized buckets, but they still looked really nice). Aside from occasional bits of rain, it was nice and it was nice to do something that was more simple and less stressful than a full blown wedding.

As is the case with all weddings there are things that don’t exactly go right. When we look back on our wedding there are a few things that we would change, but one of the major things we would have done differently was our cake. We had purchased a variety of desserts for people to eat because we wanted to make sure everyone had something that they would enjoy. Then we decided to have a small cake custom made for us.

The idea was that this cake would look like a present like so many gorgeous cakes we had seen online. Something got lost in translation with the baker and we got this:

I know – it doesn’t look bad, but I’ll be honest with you – it’s just not what we imagined. And the taste wasn’t as good as what we had hoped for (the cake, among other things, was very last minute).

This last Thursday was our third wedding anniversary, and as with past anniversaries we tried to make up for that weird cake by making at least a better tasting dessert. And let me tell you – this tasted a-maz-ing, but it didn’t look a-maz-ing (maybe next year I’ll try for that).

Chocolate Cake
Known as Excellent Vegan Wacky Cake on VegWeb.com

• 2 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 5 Tbsp. cooking oil or vegan butter
• 1 cup water

Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the dry ingredients into one bowl.

First the cocoa.

Then the flour.

Next the salt.

Very quickly – Real Salt is the salt that I use. My mom introduced it to me. It tastes better than regular salt you get, but it is a little more expensive. Here’s a picture:

Add the baking soda.

Then add the sugar. I used a combination of turbinado and white sugar because I ran out of the first.

I like to mix my dry ingredients with a whisk. I’ve found that the ingredients incorporate better this way than if I were to just use a spoon.

This is how it should look mixed.

Now combine and mix your wet ingredients into a separate, larger bowl.

Vanilla – you’ll learn more about this one in a future post. Also, since this is dry, I should have mixed this with my dry ingredients. I added a little liquid vanilla extract to compensate.

White vinegar. I’m thinking apple cider vinegar might work too.

Add your vegan butter.

Here’s a picture of the tub of Earth Balance. When we were first considering going vegan a few years ago we discovered this vegan butter. It’s a fantastic replacement for real butter or margarine, although a little expensive. Notice it says it’s trans fat free, lactose free, and gluten free.

Then add water.

Mix it all together.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly and mix.

Once it is completely mixed it should look something like this:

The granular bits are the turbinado sugar.

I decided that I’d add some of these Trader Joe’s chocolate chips to the batter. Not a good idea.

It looks like a good idea, but I’m telling you – it’s not.

Pour into a cake pan of your choice. This is not a lot of batter, so I’m not sure that a bundt cake pan is a good idea. it might be better to go with a cupcake pan or a square baking pan/dish.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

When you take it out it may not feel like it is completely done, but don’t worry – it will firm up after a few minutes.

Now this is where I will embarrass myself. Trader Joe’s sells some pretty delicious chocolate, but these chips sank to the bottom of the pan and managed to basically burn to the bottom of the pan. This resulted in a very sad cosmetic tragedy:

This is where we’ll make some chocolate icing and try to cover the cake’s flaws.

Chocolate Frosting
Based on a recipe from VegWeb.com

• 1/2 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance again)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. vegan milk (I used almond milk)
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• dash of salt

Melt butter or bring it to room temperature.

Add vegan powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, chocolate and soymilk.

Stir ingredients together well.

It’s up to you, but you can stick the frosting in the refrigerator first to get it to firm up a little bit, but it will spread faster and easier if you go ahead and just put it on immediately. It probably won’t be pretty, though.

Let me say that although this had cosmetic flaws, this cake was TO DIE FOR. This was amazingly good. Let me tell you, I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting last year or the year before and we kept saying, yeah this is good, but it’s weird. THIS WAS A-MAZ-ING.

But let me warn you, this is calorie dense (I didn’t measure, but come on – look at the ingredients). I had a small slice this morning and I bet you it was at least a couple hundred calories.

Happy Anniversary dear. May we have many more to come.

If not because I love you, then because I love this AWESOME cake and I want it next year. But prettier.