Tag Archives: vegan dessert

Rustic Vegan Peach Crisp

I’m not a baker. It involves measuring, math, and patience. I’m not good at any of those things. Crisps are perfect for people who care not to measure. They are obviously a rebel dessert. It’s the end of peach season in Michigan and I could not put the siren sound of the white and flame peaches out of my head a second longer and so I bought maybe a few too many which resulted in sharing. I’m so good at sharing!

I give you a recipe for people who hate measuring (for those of you that can’t help yourself, approximate/actual measurements accompany my very scientific ones): Rustic Vegan Peach Crisp

Ingredients:

  • A dozen or so peaches, prepped in removal of skin and pit and sliced (I got 4-6 slices per half of peach-they were quite large-see very scientific here)
  • 2 handfuls of brown sugar (this is roughly 1/2 C total)
  • Sprinkle of cinnamon
  • Dash of salt
  • 4 handfuls of oats (use the real kind, not the quick ones-this is roughly 1 C total)
  • 1/2 stick Earth Balance, at room temperature (margarine-which is 1/4 C)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

  1. Prep peaches, if you work quickly you don’t have to bother with lemon juice to keep them from browning. Put slices into a pie pan or other small baking pan you have. I made three batches, used 2 pie pans and an 8 x 8 baker.
  2. Sprinkle cinnamon and salt on prepped peaches.
  3. In large bowl combine, oats, Earth Balance (softened) and sugar. Squish around with your hands until chunky and mixed well-this is your “crisp.”
  4. Put crisp onto peaches in pans, you are making a little crust to seal in the peach juices.
  5. Bake x 15-20 minutes, until your peaches are tender and the crisp is well, crisp.

Note: With some crisps there is a bunch of juice associated with the fruit caused by adding lemon juice, or letting it sit for too long before baking. If you hustle you won’t have to add anything to thicken the juice (as there won’t be much to thicken) and you get pure fruit flavor with nothing to get between you and immediate bliss.

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Categorizing this under “breakfast” and “dessert” as I did eat it for breakfast this AM-don’t judge me.

Sometimes you just need chocolate cupcakes…like at 11pm for example

The title is true. Sometimes you just need chocolate cupcakes….like at 11pm for example. I posted this delish cake recipe some time ago and then a few nights ago when a chocolate cupcake craving hit…well, I made cupcakes at 11pm.

The cupcake recipe can be found here: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes [this late night craving wanted coffee/chocolate so I added 1 T espresso powder to the chocolate batter for an espresso chocolate cupcake]

For the “frosting”:

  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1-2 C powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Smash the ripe banana in a large bowl with vanilla. Gently whisk in powdered sugar until you reach your desired frosting consistency. Pop in the fridge. Will keep for up to one week. Bonus, tastes really good on toast.

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Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

My friends Jon and Kolene over at VeganGR are always making vegan chocolate chip cookies and slipping them into non-vegan events with great results. By great, I mean no one can detect the damn difference between the vegan chocolate chip cookies and “normal” chocolate chip cookies.

I’m not wild about any butter/margarine substitute, so I took a crack at an Earth Balance free recipe posted on the Post Punk Kitchen instead. I was not disappointed. The texture was a little crazy, but not in a bad way. The tops of these guys were like crackly almost, flaky certainly, but honestly, a great way to satisfy your sweet tooth in a cruelty free way.

A little bonus: in using canola or veg oil, you don’t have to fight that battle of getting the butter/margarine “room temperature” which ultimately ends up in me making margarine soup in the microwave because I don’t have the patience to zap it slowly and/or I didn’t plan to make cookies at 9am that morning and now it’s officially an emergency at 10pm to get a cookie crammed into my pie hole before I hit the hay. Don’t pretend you have not experienced this same emergency before. It’s a real problem.

Makes two dozen two inch cookies or about 16 three inch cookies

  • 1/2 brown sugar
  • 1/4 white sugar
  • 2/3 cup canola oil (it’s a lot, I know…but no other oil is used)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
  • 1 tablespoon tapioca flour (I used Arrowroot and still had sound results)
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cups chocolate chips (vegan)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.

Mix together sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, for about 2 minutes, until it resembles smooth caramel. There is a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collide, so it’s important that you don’t get lazy about that step. Mix in the vanilla.

Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be a little stuff so use your hands to really work them in.

PPK directions: For 3 inch cookies, roll the dough into about ping pong ball size balls. Flatten them out in your hands to about 2 1/2 inches. They will spread just a bit. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 – until they are just a little browned around the edges. I usually get 16 out of these so I do two rounds of eight cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

For 2 dozen two inch cookies roll dough into walnut sized balls and flatten to about 1 1/2 inches and bake for only six minutes.

I found however, it took a little longer to produce a cookie that was cooked through. Check on them every minute or so to insure you don’t burn ’em until they are to your liking.

Vegan Crunch Bars

Go ahead and double this.  Save yourself the re-make dirty dishes you will have to wash when you eat the first batch and need to whip up a second batch.

  • 1/4 cup rice crispies (brown or white, or gf)
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
  • Sweetener to taste-I used 1 1/2 T Agave (options include: pure maple syrup, NuNaturals alcohol-free vanilla stevia drops, or agave. I haven’t tried granulated sugar or powdered stevia in this recipe.)
  • tiny dash salt (makes the flavor pop)

Combine coconut oil and sweetener. Stir, then add cocoa powder and rice crispies (If needed, add 3 tbsp water or milk of choice, only if using stevia.). Stir until it gets thick. Pour into any flat container (or candy molds, or smush between layers of wax paper or in ziploc bags). Freeze until solid, and store in the freezer.

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recipe courtesy of:  http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/

Happy Birthday to Me! Vegan Cupcake Recipe for YOU!

In honor of my birthday today (36 is the new 26), a vegan cupcake recipe for your nom nom pleasure.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 3 C all purpose flour
  • 2 C white sugar
  • 6T cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 C vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 T white distilled vinegar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 C cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Sift the dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl.  Gently add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until just combined.

Scoop out 1/4 C batter into cupcake wrappers.

Bake 350 x 12-16 minutes depending on your oven.  My batches all averaged about 15 minutes in a conventional gas oven.

Let cool and frost with your fave vegan frosting or Pillsbury chocolate frosting (both dark and milk chocolate varieties are accidentally vegan).

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Thank you to my friends Jon Dunn and Kolene Allen of VeganGR for sharing this recipe with me.

Buckle Up…Another Raspberry Recipe

If you like berries but don’t want to be overwhelmed with a sweet dessert-like cake, this recipe is for you.  Tastes great with coffee, or fatten it up with some ice cream.  Be careful not to overbake or it will be dry, if anything, underbake it slightly so it retains its tender texture.

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Berry Buckle

  • 2 C all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ C shortening
  • 2 C berries (mixed, raspberries, or blueberries)
  • ¾ C sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ½ C milk
Topping:
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • ½ C sugar
  • ¼ C Earth Balance, or butter
  • 1/3 C all purpose flour

Beat shortening and gradually add sugar, egg and milk.  Add dry ingredients.  Stir in berries gently.  Spread into 9 x 13 pan.  Cut butter into flour, sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle over batter.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.