Chocolate Peanut Clusters

This past weekend when I was trying to decide on what dessert to make (I was thinking apple tart), my husband was begging me to make a batch of chocolate clusters he remembered having as a child. They sounded pretty easy to make, and once I realized what they were, I was game. He grabbed the recipe from his mother who has had it for thirty years, and we were all set. I discovered pretty quickly that this is a super easy recipe, and the results are very satisfying – you get your sweet, salty and chocolate all wrapped into one little candy.

One aspect of this recipe is marshmallows. As most of you may know, standard marshmallows are neither vegan nor vegetarian. After having a less than ideal time with a bag of Dandies vegan marshmallows this past summer – the marshmallows were all clumped together – Chicago Soydairy sent me a couple of bags where the marshmallows were intact and looked exactly as a bag of marshmallows should. My only real remaining complaint about these marshmallows is that on their own they are over-the-top sweet. I wasn’t sure how they’d be in these chocolate clusters, so I was hesitant to throw them in, but I’m so glad I did. I soon discovered that Dandies are perfect when balanced with other ingredients. They added a chewiness that I came to love as I was sinking my teeth into these clusters, and the sweetness was no longer overwhelming with the less sweet flavors of chocolate, peanut butter and Rice Krispies. I’m a fan for sure, and I can’t wait to try them in other recipes.

Chocolate Peanut Clusters

• 1 cup vegan marshmallows, cut into smaller pieces
• Corn starch
• 1 cup dry roasted peanuts
• 1 cup Rice Krispies, or another favorite dry cereal
• 1 12-ounce package vegan chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter, smooth

Gather together your ingredients.

Ingredients for chocolate peanut clusters

Because Dandies marshmallows are not small enough, I chose to cut each marshmallow into about four pieces.

Making Dandies marshmallows mini

The only issue with this is that the marshmallows become very sticky and can clump together. To avoid this, I put a little bit of corn starch in my hands (you only need a tiny bit!), and rubbed each marshmallow piece in between my hands until they were no longer sticky. This goes fast and is easy, plus you’ll know exactly when you’ll need more corn starch. A little goes a long way, so there’s no need to go overboard with it. Once you have all your marshmallows, put them into a large bowl.

Making cut marshmallows not sticky

Add the peanuts and Rice Krispies to the marshmallows and stir together until they are well mixed.

Marshmallows, peanuts and Rice Krispies

Get out two saucepans, one larger than the other one. You will add water to the larger saucepan (do not allow any water to get into the smaller saucepan at any point), and heat it over medium to medium-high heat. Put the smaller saucepan into the larger one so that it is resting in the water. Add the chocolate to the smaller saucepan, and stir constantly until the chocolate has fully melted.

The key here is to allow your chocolate to melt slowly so that it does not burn, and this homemade version of a double boiler works perfectly for me every time.

Melting chocolate on the stove

Once the chocolate has melted, add the peanut butter and stir well to combine.

Mixing melted chocolate and peanut butter

Take the chocolate mixture off the heat, and pour into the bowl that contains your marshmallows, peanuts and Rice Krispies. Stir the ingredients together until well mixed.

Mixing the chocolate mixture with the dry ingredients

Place a sheet of wax paper (or greased parchment paper) on a cookie sheet. Place individual spoonfuls of the chocolate peanut clusters mixture onto the wax paper.

Dropping spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture on wax paper

Place into the refrigerator and chill for about an hour or until firm.

Ready to chill

Once they are set, I recommend that you store these in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I found that these clusters would easily start going a little soft if the temperature in the house was too warm.

Chewy, chocolatey clusters of goodness!

I’m already trying to figure out what variations of these clusters I want to make next. I’m thinking rum soaked raisins and almonds covered in chocolate – that just sounds completely divine to me. Maybe shredded coconut, almonds and chocolate. Or instead of Rice Krispies, use coarsely crushed pretzels. So many options!

Do you have any good recipes for chocolate clusters?

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?

Cinnamon & Chocolate Rolls

A few days ago when I was going through all of my old recipe posts and tagging each with the appropriate ingredients, I soon realized that there was a little bit of a trend going on that I had not really noticed before. I have thought for most of my life that I am not a big one for sweets, but after tagging many of my recipes with the ingredient “sugar”, I realized that I do indeed have a sweet tooth. If anyone has this concept in their minds that a vegan diet is healthy, all they need to do is visit my blog and have a look at the “Browse by Ingredients” list. Sugar, vegan butter, salt… Now that we have that out of the way, let’s jump in and take a look at my latest sweet success (which, dear reader, was made as a thank you to my husband for all of his hard work on helping to make this redesign even possible).

A couple of years ago I was really craving cinnamon rolls – the warm, gooey and total comfort-food kind – and so when I came across a vegan recipe that had rave reviews, I thought that I had a winner on my hands. Unfortunately, the cinnamon rolls were a complete disaster and I wound up defeated and deflated. Of course, I gave up, that is, until a few weeks ago when I was craving them again. I did another search for a good recipe online and came across a recipe that claimed to be better than the rolls you can get at Cinnabon. Again, people raved. Again, I decided to follow the masses. Yet this time, I was so utterly blown away that I purposely held off on taking pictures and writing a blog post because I wanted to be sure to “have to” make them again for you. I finally succumbed and here we are, but believe me I’m trying to come up with another excuse to make them again very soon.

Cinnamon Rolls and Chocolate Rolls

Based upon this Better-than-Cinnabon’s recipe

Rolls

Note: One thing I want to point out is that I have only made this with flax seed as a binder and I have not used Ener-G egg replacer. I have no idea if this recipe turns out exactly the same or comparably if Ener-G were to be used instead. Because the flax has worked so well for me and because I have not been able to taste it (I hate the taste of flax) I just haven’t allowed myself to try the alternate method. If you do try it with Ener-G please report back to let us know how the rolls turned out for you.

• 2½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• ½ cup unbleached sugar
• 1 cup vegan milk, warmed
• 2 eggs worth of egg replacer OR 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds whisked together with 6 tablespoons hot water
• ⅓ cup vegan butter, melted
• 4½ cups unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup vegan butter, softened
• Optional: chocolate chips, raisins, nuts

Frosting

Note: If, like me, you don’t care that much for icing or prefer to let your cinnamon or chocolate rolls shine on their own, then these are perfectly fine without. I will say, however, that this is a good icing recipe and I sometimes will have some. The reason why I probably like it is because it isn’t just about the sugar. The Tofutti cream cheese and the vegan butter give it a smooth and creamy flavor that you wouldn’t get if it were just a plain sugar icing.

• About 3/8 (3 ounces) of a container of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
• ¼ cup vegan butter, softened
• 1½ cup vegan powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon salt

Mix yeast, sugar, and heated vegan milk in a large mixing bowl and let stand until foamy. Add egg replacer, melted vegan butter, flour, and salt.

Letting the yeast activate, then adding the other dry ingredients

Mix well and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough should be firm and smooth, not sticky.

Mixing the dough in the Kitchenaid Mixer

Set the dough aside in a covered bowl and let double in size.

I allowed my dough to sit for about an hour to an hour and a half

After the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured work surface, cover, and let rest for 10 more minutes.

Letting the dough rest

Meanwhile, divide your brown sugar into two small bowls.

Getting ready to mix my cinnamon/chocolate roll fillings

Mix the cinnamon into one bowl of brown sugar, and mix the cocoa powder and vanilla into the other bowl of brown sugar.

Fillings are now ready!

Note: If you just want to do cinnamon rolls, increase your cinnamon to 2 tablespoons and mix it into the full amount of brown sugar, omitting the cocoa powder and vanilla extract. If you just want to do chocolate rolls, increase the cocoa to 2 tablespoons, the vanilla to 2 teaspoons, then mix it into the full amount of brown sugar, and omit the cinnamon.

After the dough has rested, get it into a shape that you can easily divide into two equal halves with a knife or by pulling it apart with your hands.

Dividing the dough in half

Note: If you are doing only one type of roll (i.e. cinnamon rolls) you will not need to divide your dough in half.

Take one half of the dough and roll it out into a rectangle. Here I am using the Vic Firth French Rolling Pin which I am totally and completely in love with.

Rolling out my cinnamon and chocolate roll dough

June 19: Be sure to enter my first ever giveaway for the chance to own your own french rolling pin. The giveaway ended on June 21st. See who won!

Spread dough with vegan butter, then sprinkle each dough evenly with one of the sugar mixtures.

Adding the filling to the cinnamon and chocolate rolls

You can add other items to your filling, like chocolate chips or raisins. I didn’t have any chocolate chips on hand, but I did have Trader Joe’s dark chocolate, which I just chopped up into chip-sized chunks.

I've added raisins to the cinnamon roll filling, and chocolate pieces to the chocolate roll filling

Roll the dough on the longer side.

Rolling the cinnamon and chocolate rolls

Cut the rolls so that you have even slices. I like to cut straight down the middle first (1), then cut straight down the middle of the two sections (2), and finally cut down the middle of the four sections (3). In the end you should have eight evenly sized rolls (or thereabouts) if you follow this method.

Cutting the rolls

Place rolls in a lightly greased baking pan (or two). (A cookie sheet also works fine.) Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Tip: Use a pie pan or a larger pan where your rolls are allowed to expand. I found that the chocolate rolls made in the pie pan were fatter than the cinnamon rolls made in the straight-sided glass dish.

Allowing the cinnamon and chocolate rolls to rise

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Cinnamon (bottom) and chocolate (top) rolls straight out of the oven

While rolls are baking, beat together Tofutti, vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Making the vegan cream cheese frosting

Unless I’m told a better recipe exists or I somehow lose this recipe, I will never try another. The rolls are amazingly fluffy and gooey and are just perfect straight out of the oven. If you were to take these to your non-vegan friends no one would be the wiser. These taste and have the consistency of what you or they would expect in a cinnamon roll, and there’s no reason for them to suspect that they are vegan. They are seriously that good and perfect.

This is a great foundational recipe, too, because once you have dough that works this well, you can get very creative. I recently saw on The Pioneer Woman Cooks a marmalade/butter filling and an orange flavored icing. I think you could do other jams (strawberry jam sounds great!) or you could try fresh fruit. You could probably do vegan caramel or toffee. If you like coffee, you could probably even go there, too. But for me, my absolute favorite is just the basic, gooey cinnamon roll. Perfection.

Vegan cinnamon rolls