Vegan chocolate chocolate chip cookies

Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 2 dozen 

original non-vegan recipe available here

• 1/2 c Earth Balance
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 egg replacer (I use Ener-G)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c flour
• 1/3 c cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 c vegan white chocolate chips (semi-sweet will also work!)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cream together Earth Balance and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Prepare egg replacer according to package (For Ener-G it is 1 1/2 tsp powder with 2 tbs warm water) and add to creamed mixture along with vanilla.
4. Sift together the try ingredients. You MUST sift cocoa powder! It's bad news otherwise, so don't be lazy! Add to wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop by heaping teapsoons onto an ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from pan.

 These are really good. Like, really really good. We bought white chocolate chips from Food Fight over the weekend and I have been waiting to make them. It definitely did not disappoint. This recipe is a half batch of the original recipe, but you might want to double it to make the full 4 dozen. They're that yummy.

Cherry vanilla cupcakes

It has been a little bit since I've updated so to make up for it, here's a recipe for cherry vanilla frosting. I made these a few weeks ago with a vegan vanilla cake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but they would taste delicious with my chocolate Wowie cake recipe. I got this recipe from my cousin and used Earth Balance to make it vegan. Earth Balance costs a pretty penny (about$5-$6 a pound), but the Blue Bonnet Light margarine is actually vegan and only costs about $0.75.

Cherry Vanilla Frosting

• 1 stick butter, softened (or 1/2 stick Earth Balance and 1/4 c shortening to make it vegan, it will be too salty if you use all Earth Balance! Trust me on this one!)
• 1 lb powdered sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 tsp almond extract

• maraschino cherry juice

• optional garnishes: toasted almond slivers, sprinkles, cherries (make sure to let them drain on a paper towel to remove the liquid or else you'll get soggy frosting pools on the cupcake)

1.  Cream together softened butter (or Earth Balance shortening mix) and powdered sugar, adding sugar one cup at a time, until smooth.
2. Add vanilla and almond flavorings until incorporated. 
3. Add maraschino cherry juice by tablespoon until mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Frost and enjoy!

 

Vegan French toast

Seriously! French toast without any eggs. And guess what? It tastes good! Soooo good.

Vegan French toast

adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

- 1 cup non-dairy milk 

- 1/4 cup chickpea flour

- 2 tbs corn starch 

- 1/2 tsp vanilla

- 4-5 slices of French bread

1. Combine the milk, chickpea flour, corn starch, and vanilla and wisk until dissolved. Pour into shallow pan with slices of bread to allow it to soak for a few minutes.

2. Heat a large pan on medium and spray with cooking spray. Cook on each side for about minutes, until it looks nicely browned. 

If making a lot of French toast, you can heat the oven to 200 degrees and put the finished slices in there to keep warm. Serve with butter, powdered sugar, maple syrup and/or fresh berries. It's delicious!

 

Vegan molasses cookies

I had originally wanted to make hermits, but didn't have any egg replacers and the only eggless recipe I found was one that had coffee in it, which I hate. I did some googling and found this recipe. It says it's supposed to be a snickerdoodle recipe, but it tastes nothing like snickerdoodles and more like molasses (I used blackstrap, so that probably had something to do with it). They turned out pretty good, I just baked them and have already "quality checked" 3 cookies.

Molasses Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodle 
from vegweb.com

    Topping:
    1/3 cup sugar
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    Cookies:
    1 2/3 cups +1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1 cup sugar or vanilla sugar
    1/2 cup canola oil
    1/4 cup molasses
    3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon nondairy milk
    1/2 vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. On a large plate, preferably with high sides or a rim around the edges, mix the topping together (sugar and cinnamon) and set aside.

2. In a medium to large bowl, combine all the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to get everything incorporated nicely. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil until thoroughly mixed.

3. Stir in molasses, vanilla bean seeds or vanilla extract and nondairy milk. Mix these ingredients together, then slowly sift in the dry ingredients. Use your hands to get a dough to form. Avoid overworking the dough.

4. Take small portions of the dough and roll into walnut sized balls. You can make them bigger, if you so choose, but this size usually yields about 20 cookies. Gently press cookie between your palms and fingers to form little disks/patties.  Carefully pat cookie disks into cinnamon sugar topping mix.

5. Place on prepared cookie sheets, sugar side up and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges turn a faint golden brown. For a softer cookie with a chewy edge, bake for about 10 minutes. Allow a few minutes for cookies to cool before removing from sheet pan, then transfer to wire cooling rack and allow to completely cool.

Wowie cake!

Wowie cake is a family favorite. The recipe dates back to the Depression, and is super easy to make and is vegan friendly! I haven't been grocery shopping in almost two weeks, so my kitchen cabinets and fridge are pretty bare but I've been jonsing for something sweet so I whipped this up with just a few kitchen staples.

Wowie cake

1 1/2 c flour

1 c sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c cocoa 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbs vinegar

1 c cold water

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 c oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients. Make sure you sift the cocoa! Normally I don't bother sifting, but after baking professionally and completely ruining a 10 pound batch of chocolate cookies because I didn't sift the cocoa, I will never make that mistake again! Add the wet ingredients and pour into an 8" square pan. 

Bake for 35 min.

Either insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean, or poke the middle of the cake. If it's spongy and pops back up after you poked it, you're good to go!

p.s. The cake batter tastes pretty good, too, and because it contains no raw eggs, it's totally safe to lick your spoons.

If you try this recipe, please let me know! It can be used when you're low on supplies, but it's good enough that it could easily become your go-to chocolate cake recipe. You can frost it with buttercream, or do a simple chocolate glaze over top. Another family favorite is to make these into cupcakes, and drop a mixture of cream cheese, an egg, sugar, and chocolate chips into the center before baking and frost with a chocolate glaze. mmmm...