Vegan Witches Fingers

As I am getting older, I am realizing more distinctly what I love about each holiday – and most of the time it almost always has something to do with the food, whether I am making it or eating it. What I love most about Halloween is the creativity and creepiness of the recipes – tombstone cookies, frog spawn tea, eyeball appetizers (although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it?). It’s probably the holiday where the cook or baker has the most creative license to make something utterly horrifying and delicious at the same time.

This year I could not figure out what I wanted to make, but I finally settled on a recipe that I felt would be easy for not just me to make, but for you as well. I decided to make witches fingers – firm, yet melt in your mouth cookies. I knew I had a real winner of a recipe on my hands when, as I was finishing up the last cookies and putting them on the cookie sheet, my husband declared (gleefully) that they looked disgusting and realistic. Perfect!

Witches Fingers
This vegan recipe is a modified version of the Spooky Witches Fingers recipe on Allrecipes.com, and yields approximately 30 cookies if you make larger fingers or 60 cookies if you make smaller fingers.

• 1 cup vegan butter, softened
• 1 cup vegan confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water, or use egg replacer for 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole, blanched almonds

Combine the vegan butter, sugar, flax seed mixture or egg replacer, almond extract and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer.

Mixing together wet ingredients and sugar

As it is mixing gradually add the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Mixing cookie dough for witches fingers

Once your dough is well mixed, refrigerate it for 20 to 30 minutes. This will make the dough easier to handle when you are shaping the witches fingers.

Just before you take the dough out of the refrigerator, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease baking sheets, or use silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from your refrigerator, and using a teaspoon or tablespoon scoop a heaping spoonful onto a piece of wax paper.

Tip: If you use a teaspoon you will get about 60 cookies; if you use a tablespoon you will get about 30 cookies.

Spoonful of cookie dough

Use the wax paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie.

Rolling out the cookie dough for witches fingers

Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail.

Pressing the almond, a.k.a. fingernail, into the cookie

Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also cut into the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to help give a more finger-like appearance.

Giving the cookie a finger-like shape and look

Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets, being sure to give each cookie a little space so that they do not bake into each other.

Witches fingers ready to bake

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden in color. If your cookies are larger, it may take more time for them to bake.

Optional: After you have allowed your cookies to cool, remove the almond from the end of each cookie. Squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel (not all decorating gels are vegan, so be sure to check the ingredients) or melted chocolate into the cavity. Replace the almond to cause the gel or chocolate to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.

Spooky...and yummy!

These are so delicious that I am having a hard time not eating them all at once! I can see how they are perfect for parties – they’re great finger-food! Muhahahahaha!! I am so funny, it’s scary! :)

What are you making for Halloween this year?

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!

As you may know, I’ve made vegan cheesecake a few times. Every time I’ve made cheesecake, however, I have never made my own crust. This month’s Daring Baker’s challenge has given me the motivation and opportunity to make my own crust, which I think turned out great.

Without further ado, let’s jump into it.

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

Shortbread Crust

• 1 cup vegan butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, cream vegan butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy.

Stir together flour and baking powder, then add and blend into your vegan butter mixture.

If you are using a springform/cheesecake pan, trace and then cut a circle of parchment paper based upon the base of the pan, then brush canola oil or vegan butter on the pan, press the parchment on top and then brush oil or vegan butter on the parchment. You may also use a regular pie pan and forgo the parchment.

Press the shortbread dough into the bottom of the springform or pie pan. You may have extra dough which you can keep for another recipe. Once it’s in the pan, take a fork and poke a few holes into the dough.

Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.

Once it’s cool enough to handle, grease the sides of the springform pan with butter so that the cheesecake won’t stick.

Filling

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm light silken tofu
• 1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan milk
• 6 squares dark chocolate (I used the Trader Joe’s brand)
• 5 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Drain the tofu and put it and the Tofutti cream cheese into your food processor. Blend until smooth.

Add the sugar and milk, and process again until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except chocolate and peanut butter) and process until completely smooth, about 3 more minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove, or in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish.

You currently have about three cups of cheesecake batter. Pour one cup into a separate bowl, and pour another cup into another separate bowl. Add the melted chocolate to the one cup of cream that remains in your blender or food processor and mix until the chocolate is well incorporated.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the pie crust. Then spread it out so it is an even layer. Place in the fridge as you prepare your peanut butter layer.

Add the peanut butter, one tablespoon at a time, and one cup of plain cheesecake batter back into your blender or food processor (clean) and blend again until completely smooth. You may want to taste test at this point to make sure that the peanut butter flavor is strong enough. If not, add one tablespoon of peanut butter, blend, then taste test again. Continue in this way until you are satisfied with the flavor.

Pour the peanut butter mixture into the pie crust on top of the chocolate mixture layer, and spread it around carefully so as to not mix the two layers together. Chill in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Finally pour the last layer on top, which is the plain batter. Again, spread as carefully as you can to make sure it’s even and doesn’t mix with the next layer.

If you are using a springform pan, wrap the pan in several layers of foil, then place in a pan that is a little larger. Pour boiling water in the outer pan. This is a water bath, which helps the cheesecake to bake more evenly and the foil makes it so the water does not seep into the cheesecake. Finally, place the cheesecake in the middle of the oven for about 55 minutes (do not allow to brown). Filling will be slightly jiggly, not completely set until chilled.

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled (the longer, the better).

So finally, what you should end up with is a three layered cake:

If you want the layers to be more even, I’m thinking that chilling in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes after adding each individual layer would help. I didn’t do this, but chilling the first layer for a few minutes did seem to help a tiny bit.

I think that this cheesecake turned out nicely. It had a delicate flavor and it was a more balanced cheesecake than some of the ones I’ve made in the past. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the results and would probably make this exact version again.

Have you made vegan cheesecake? How do you think it compares to the original dairy version?

Valentine’s Day is probably one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it’s because of all the girlie colors and hearts and flowers, or because of the shallow romance courtesy of department stores, but I just can’t help but like it. Of course, I’m sure that I resented the holiday when I was single or forlorn over someone that wouldn’t “Be Mine”. That’s probably a given. Now Valentine’s Day offers me an excuse to get into the kitchen and try to make something that has equal parts romance and flour and KitchenAid mixer.

This year I was (sort of) inspired to make sugar cookies because of the one thing that I do dislike about Valentine’s Day – conversation hearts. While they are cute, they taste pretty, well, nasty. I apologize if you enjoy the taste of conversation hearts, but I’d be happy without them or with a version that tasted more like chocolate than chalk. Even though my cookies have nothing conversational about them, I somehow thought that something sugary in the shape of a heart would be a nice substitute to those candies.

This isn’t my recipe, but I went with a recipe that appears to work and be popular among us vegans which is always a good sign when I set out to make a recipe I’ve not made before.

Vegan Sugar Cookies
This recipe was taken from www.johnandkristie.com. This makes about 36 cookies.

• 1 cup vegan butter, like Earth Balance or Soy Garden
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup vegan white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 whole egg replacements (Ener-G)
• 1/4 cup Tofutti cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar.

Add or stir in the egg replacements and vanilla. Gradually add the flour, baking powder and tofu cream cheese.

You may have to use your hands at this point to finish the mixing. Form the dough into a long loaf, or divide in half and press into two flat rounds, and wrap in cellophane. Refrigerate for a couple hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease the cookie sheets, use a non-stick foil or parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.

Place about 1 inch apart cookie on sheets.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottoms and edges just start to get light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

Icing
This is also taken from www.johnandkristie.com. Each batch is enough to easily coat 24 cookies.

• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (I used vanilla extract instead)
• 6-8 teaspoons of soy milk or another non-dairy milk
• Assorted food coloring
• 4 teaspoons of light corn syrup (I used agave nectar)

In medium bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and soy milk until smooth.

Beat in corn syrup (or agave) and almond extract (or vanilla extract) until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup/agave.

Add food coloring to desired intensity. To make pink I used probably 2 or 3 drops of red, and to make purple I used about 5 drops of red and one drop of blue.

Dip cookies and allow to dry. You can dry them overnight or for a couple of hours before storing.

This recipe made A LOT of cookies. Maybe I rolled the dough out more thinly than I should have, but I still have quite a few cookies leftover. This last weekend seemed to be Samantha’s Sugar Festival of 2009, so I opted to take in the rest of the presentable cookies to work. My co-workers ate and enjoyed them, and I confess I had four…or five. They were within arms reach, okay?! Anyway, it’s always rewarding to see non-vegan people eat the vegan stuff (of course, I didn’t spread the word they were vegan) and say that it’s good.

What about you? Do you love or hate Valentine’s Day? If it’s the latter, I still recommend making these cookies, but instead of a heart I’d use a random cookie cutter shape like a dinosaur or maybe a train or flag. I bought a whole set of cookie cutters just to get a heart cookie cutter (really, I have wanted a full set, so it wasn’t just so I could have a heart shaped cutter), and believe me when I say that some of this batch turned into cats and hands. I just couldn’t help myself with the randomness.