Vegan Blondies with Chocolate Chips

Am I still alive? Indeed! Sorry to have gone of the grid for a while. I had taken a little time off to get things in order around here. I was looking through my picture files, and found a bunch of things I have yet to write about. For those of you who are familiar with Post Punk Kitchen and visit the site, you might have noticed their re-design. It looks great, but all the recipes are gone! Fortunately, I had saved some of the ones that I love and use often. This recipe for vegan blondies is so yummy! I make it often when I need something easy to whip up and take with me to a friend's house to share. My nephew loves this recipe, and asks me to bring "blondie cake" often. The consistency is more like a dense, and very moist cake than a typical blondie. The molasses adds a nice touch. So yummy! 

I try to keep most of these ingredients on hand.

Make sure to follow the recipe exactly. I have made the mistake more than once to add the sugar to the flour mixture. If you don't add it to the wet ingredients first, it royally messes up the final product.

You can use a 8 inch square baking pan, but I like round pans on most occasions.

Here's the recipe, in its original form. You have to try these! It keeps for a good 2 or 3 days, so pace yourself friend :)

Blondies with chocolate chips Submitted by Isa

prep time: 15 minutes | cooking time: 30 minutes | makes 12 blondies

These basic Blondies are studded with chocolatey chip goodness. They taste best if you let them cool completely, and even better the next day after they are refrigerated.

Ingredients 6 oz container vanilla soy yogurt (I use So Delicious Plain Coconut Yogurt. The recipe is quite sweet, so omitting a little sugar helps.) 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons canola oil 1 cup 2 Tablespoons sugar 1 Tablespoon vanilla 2 Tablespoons molasses 1 1/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup choc chips  Directions Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8x9 brownie pan with parchment paper and set aside (if no parchment is handy, spray w/ non stick cooking spray or brush lightly with margarine or canola oil)  In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.  In a large bowl combine yogurt, oil, vanilla and molasses. Mix with a wire wisk. Add the sugar and wisk until well combined (about 30 seconds).  In batches, fold the dry ingredients into the wet, slowly, wisking as you go along. Fold in chocolate chips.  Pour batter into the brownie pan, spread with a spoon or spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes until top is firm and brown.  Let cool completely before serving.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was so happy to find A Fresh Dille the other day. I love the blogsphere. There's never an end to inspiration or the likely-hood that you might bump into like-minded people. I love that the blog's focus not only on food, but fashion amongst other topics. What a lovely combo! I had been dreaming of chocolate chip cookies, and it happened to be my lucky day because I found just the perfect recipe as I perused the archives. The original recipe comes from Dreena Burton's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies, and is just what I had been looking for. I love that this recipe only makes 12 cookies. There's less likely-hood to go off the deep end in a family of 4 with only 12 cookies. I have been out of maple syrup for a few weeks, so I had the mind to substitute brown rice syrup instead. They turned out beautifully. I love the tad of molasses. It adds just the right touch. I will try this recipe in its original form once I get the maple syrup, but I was happy the way they turned out with brown rice syrup.

Edit: I re-made these cookies exactly according to the recipe with the maple syrup this time. I have to tell you, these really were perfect. I liked them the last time, but I loved them this time so much more. And they're so easy. No creaming butter. Just mix with a spoon. So much less time consuming than non-veg cookies. You have to try these!

Vegan Chocolate Cake & Chocolate Frosting

One of my many hobb-sessions, as Nate likes to call them, through the years has included cake making.  When this particular hobby/obsession came into my life, you could find me at Michael's or pretty much anywhere that had cake decorator tools. Of course like most of my hobbies, they die a slow death, but at least I can pick them up when I need them. My kids absolutely love when I tell them I'm going to make a cake. They run into the kitchen and grab two chairs and perch on them waiting for instruction on what ingredient gets poured into the bowl next. With only 2 weeks of summer left, it's a great time to bake together.  I'm sad to see my little helpers go back to school.  I have standby cake recipes that are most definitely not vegan. Time to improvise!

I found the cake recipe on Post Punk Kitchen. If you haven't already visited the site, it's a fun place to find recipes. All the recipes I've tried so far have been fantastic. I used the Rich Chocolate Cake recipe. I love that the recipe uses whole wheat pastry flour and maple syrup rather than sugar. Do follow the time suggestion. I left mine in a few minutes longer because it didn't seem done at the alloted time, and while it was still very moist and delicious, I think a few minutes less would have made a more moist cake the next day. I wouldn't know because I didn't have any left because it got gobbled up at a family gathering in 3 seconds flat, so it's just a guess. The frosting is a Chocolate Buttercream.  I mourn the loss of swiss meringue buttercream, as of course there are no eggs left in my life, but I have to say this one was still really delicious.  Really, who doesn't love chocolate frosting? I transformed an old recipe with vegan ingredients.

Vegan Chocolate Buttercream

2 C. Earth Balance Butter, room temperature
12 oz. Vegan Semi Sweet Chocolate, melted and cooled
3 T. Plain Soy Milk
2 t. Vanilla
5 C. Powdered Sugar

Beat the butter in a stand mixer until fluffy for about 2 or 3 minutes. Slowly add melted chocolate with mixer on low. After chocolate and butter are well combined, add vanilla, milk and sugar. Beat at medium low until just combined. This makes enough to frost 2 8-9 inch cakes. I had leftover frosting which I plan to use on a few cupcakes, or to eat out of the fridge as necessary :)

Nate's Two Cents: I'm really out of my element commenting on cakes, but I'll say this much, I really, really enjoyed this one. To me, anything with "chocolate" in the title should taste like it. And this cake is the real deal. There's no way I'd have known it didn't have eggs or refined sugar.  In fact, the maple syrup worked so well it inspired me to start sweetening my coffee with it. So my advice would be to just not even bother telling your guests what the cake doesn't have in it, unless they accuse you of violating your vegan values. What they don't know won't hurt 'em.

Sublime Simplicity - Vegan Pain au Chocolat

If my life depended on it, I'm still not sure I could tell you how many millions of times I have made these. Back in our Young Adult ministry days, we used to pack 20-30 people in our tiny little house, and feed them cargo ship quantities of these.  I believe the record eaten was 10 by one person.  Nate's favorite treat ever is a chocolate croissant, so as a new bride I wanted to find a suitable way to make it for him that didn't involve laboriously making croissant dough from scratch.  As I mentioned in a previous post, puff pastry is the perfect thing for a croissant fix. These little goodies are so affordable to make, and such a fun and easy thing to bring to a picnic or pot luck. The old recipe used eggs, so I was so excited that my vegan version of the recipe worked.  Score! You have to make these, seriously. Everyone, and I mean everyone loves them :)

Vegan Mini Pain au Chocolat

2 Vegan Puff Pastry Sheets, cut each sheet into 12 squares

5 oz. Vegan Bar Chocolate, cut into 24 rectangles

1/4 c. Vanilla Soy Milk

1/4 c. White Sugar

1/4 c. Raw Sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make sure your oven is good and hot before putting the pan in. Brush puff pastry squares lightly with soy milk.  Take one piece of chocolate and roll one each in each puff pastry square. Brush again lightly with soy milk.  Generously sprinkle white and raw sugar over little rolls. Bake for 15-20 minutes until brown and flaky.  Let cool for a few minutes (I know it's hard), or you'll burn your tongue on hot gooey chocolate. Enjoy :)

Nate's Two Cents: I think the one who ate 10 was me, though I'm not sure of it.  I would never survive on the Atkins diet (actually, I'm surprised anyone does): I can turn down a steak if necessary, but put a plate of pain au chocolat (bread with chocolate) in front of me and I lose all self-control.  I blame the early-morning croissant runs my father took me on when I wasn't much bigger than a baguette roll myself.  So everything Tara says is true; these are irresistible.  By the way, if they're done right, the outside crust should sort of collapse at first bite, like a tent folding down, giving way to a soft, warm, and sweet center.  I don't know why I just said that, but it seemed important to say. Oh well...bon appetit, friends. 

A Berry Satisfying Treat

What's more American than a blueberry cobbler in the summer?  With blueberries showing up by the truckloads in my local markets, I decided this beautiful, sunshiny summer day needed to be celebrated with a delicious dessert. This last batch I bought wasn't as sweet as I like, so of course cobbler is the best spa treatment for tart berries. Top it off with a scoop of yummy rice cream, and you're in business!

Fresh Vegan Blueberry Cobbler

4 - 6 C. Fresh Blueberries
1/4 c. Sugar
1 T. Corn Starch
1 C. All Purpose Flour
1/2 C. Raw Sugar
1 t. Baking Powder
1/2 t. Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg
Dash of Salt
1 T. Organic Canola Oil
1 t. Vanilla
1/2 C. Soy Milk + 1-2 T. more if needed.
2 t. Sugar
1/2 t. Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 8 inch baking pan with non-stick spray. Combine blueberries, 2 T. Sugar 1 t. and corn starch in baking pan. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, 1/2 t. cinnamon and salt in a bowl.  In another bowl, combine oil, vanilla and soy milk.  Stir briskly to combine. Make a well in the dry ingredient bowl, and add wet ingredients. Stir gently until just combined. Drop mixture using small cookie dough scoop. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon and 2 t. sugar over the dough. Bake for 30-35 minutes until dough is slightly brown and filling is bubbling happily. Serve warm and share with friends :)

Vegan Cookie Dough Bon Bons

So, yeah. This is not health food. I had to whip up some treats to share, and I only had ingredients to prepare something not so guilt free. So I thought: Who doesn't love cookie dough?  Maybe my family is an anomaly when it comes to this, but there have been a few throw-downs at our house over who gets to lick the cookie dough spoon. What's great about this recipe is that you don't have to worry about salmonella because there are no eggs. Bonus! This is a bit of a variation of Cookie Dough Scoops from Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar. I doubled the recipe to be able to share more, and changed a few things to fit what I had in my pantry.  These taste much better when frozen, so if you're transporting them, make sure to take them out of the freezer just before you leave, or they'll be the consistency of cookie dough which is not necessarily a bad thing IMO. Make sure to make people eat them all, so you take home NONE :)

Vegan Cookie Dough Bon Bons

2 C. Brown Sugar (dark if you have it)

1/2 C. Almond Milk

1 C. Earth Balance Vegan Butter

1 T. Vanilla 

3 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour

1/2 t. Salt

2 C. Vegan Chocolate Chips

For the Drizzle

1 C. Vegan Chocolate Chips

2 T. Soy Creamer

Beat sugar and butter together. Add almond milk, and vanilla, and beat until combined.  Add the salt and flour, and beat until fluffy. Add chocolate chips. Using a large cookie sheet covered with parchment, scoop out tablespoon sized balls of dough onto parchment. Next add chocolate chips and creamer in a pan over very low heat.  Stir until melted.  Pour melted chocolate into a zip lock bag, and cut the tip off.  Drizzle over bon bons.  Place cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen, about an hour or longer. Enjoy :)

No Need to Fudge the Truth

My kiddos caught me looking at the Little House of Veggies blog the other day, and absolutely implored me to make the Chocolate Fudge Muffins.  My picture doesn't do them justice (check out the food porn over at the original recipe post.)  They are indeed fudgy, and quite delectable. The recipe calls for white whole wheat flour, but I only had regular which I think added to their already wholesome(y) goodness. With virtually no fat, I'd like to think these are (sort-of) guilt free. I happen to believe that adding a handful of chocolate chips to a recipe won't kill anyone right?  Cut these open, and they're ooey-gooey deliciousness. If you chopped up a cup or so of strawberries, this might make a dignified breakfast. My kids were more than happy to gobble these up.  Nate ate one, and then immediately added another to his plate and declared, "Guilt-Free just got a little more guilty!"  It probably looks like I'm eating nothing but dessert the past few days.  Hmmm...

Nate's Two Cents:  All true. These were really, really good.  In fact, I am seriously considering having another right now.

Pearly Greats

As part of my new Vegan lifestyle I must have dessert!  I checked out Tal Ronnen's new cookbook, The Conscious Cook and in it found the perfect candidate for my first vegan treat.  I decided to try the Tropical Tapioca Pudding.  Instead of cow's milk and granulated sugar, this yummy recipe calls for coconut milk and agave nectar. You can only have a tiny bit if you don't want to feel guilty, but fleshed out with juicy, ripe mango, it is perfection!  I'm not normally a coconut fan.  While the coconut flavor is there, it is subtle and exotically delicious.  I can't wait to try out Tal Ronnen's recipes that involve Gardein (meatless chicken).  I'll share more about that later.  This cookbook does have some fussy ingredients, but if you enjoy a challenge (as most certainly I always do), it's a terrific place to find inspiration.