Scraps and Snippets ~ Gingerbread Cookie Cups ~ Vegan

Gingerbread Cookie Cups 

makes approx 7 dozen cookies.

⅔ Cup Earth Balance 

⅔ Cup Coconut Oil (or Earth Balance) 

1 ⅓ Cup packed Brown Sugar 

2  TBSP EnerG with 2 TBSP water

⅔ Cup Molasses 

3 Cups Flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1 1/2 Cups of Arbonne Vanilla Protein Powder (can use additional flour or another protein powder but make sure it's palatable)
2 tsp Baking Soda 

3 tsp Ground Ginger 

1 ½ tsps Ground Cinnamon 

½ tsp Ground Cardamom 

1 tsp Salt 

2 tsp Vanilla

Cream coconut oil/Earth Balance with brown sugar. Add egg replacement and mix well. Add molasses, vanilla, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, salt and vanilla. Beat until all incorporated. Add protein powder and stir, add two cups of flour, mix well. Add the remainder of the flour and mix. Chill dough for two hours or more.

When ready, preheat oven to 350. Grease a mini muffin pan. Roll dough into small balls approx a tablespoon. Press balls into mini muffin tins and press your thumb or finger into the center. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Let cool in pan, loosen, pop cookies out and continue to cool.

When the cookie cups are cooled, pipe cinnamon cream cheese frosting into center of cookies

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 Ounces Vegan Cream Cheese 

1 tsp Cinnamon 3 Cups Powdered Sugar 

Milk (I used almond) as needed for consistency (use a TBSP at a time if needed)

Serials and Scenarios ~ A Book Update...

Gotta use this picture one more time. It amuses me. 

NaNoWriMo update: One more scene to go. We are almost done. One more scene. Woot. Woot. 

There, of course, it a whole, whole lot of editing to do. A whole lot. The way we were ping ponging scenes back and forth, whew, there's definitely some clean up in aisle five in our very near future. 

But it feels so good to have my final scene written and THE final scene written. Just one more transition scene for Michelle. 

Now. The editing. This might/could be very challenging. But the book is done, Dudes. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Apple Anytime Bars

Apple Anytime Bars

Coffee cake, brunch worthy, dessert a la mode. Yummo. 

Chocolate Covered Katie recently shared her recipe for Apple Crumble Bars. I am unable to resist tweaking, and her recipe was small. I wanted something to feed a crowd for our Thanksgiving brunch so I tweaked big time. And this treat won raves. 

Click on the above link to find CCK's version. And one of the other guests made her apple enchiladas which were off the charts, too. Click here for that one. 

Filling: Mix all the following together in a bowl and set aside. 

6 Medium to large chopped apples (Granny Smith are a good choice.)
2 TBSP cornstarch or arrowroot
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 Cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla

Crust and Crumbs: 

6 Cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 Cups brown sugar (loosely packed)
2 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 Cup non-dairy milk of choice
1 3/4 Cup coconut oil (at room temperature)

Mix cinnamon, flour, baking powder and salt together until mixed thoroughly. Mix in coconut oil and and work it through until evenly crumb like. Add milk and stir well. 

Press 2/3 of the crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13 greased pan. Spread the apple mixture over the crust. Cover the apple mixture with the rest of the crumbs. Press down a little. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let sit for a half hour or so. Serve warm or cold. Delicious. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Green Bean Casserole

Goodness. Let me give you one large chunk of advice…if you want to use fresh or frozen fresh green beans in a green bean casserole…steam them first. 

I did not. And they were a bit….crunchy, even after baking for 45 minutes. 

Green Bean Casserole

Approximately 3-4 Cups of fresh or frozen green beans (2-3 cans)

1 Cup of cashews soaked in 2 cups of non-dairy, unflavored, unsweetened milk

2 Large or 4 Medium mushrooms

1/4 of a medium onion

1 Clove of garlic

1/2 tsp salt

Vegan french fried onions. 

Steam the green beans if needed. See above note.

Lightly spray a 9 x 13 pan.

Dump beans in the pan. 

In a food processor add everything (including the milk the cashews soaked in) but the mushrooms and french fried onions. Whir everything until all is smooth. Toss in mushrooms and give it another whir until they are bits.

Pour this mixture over the green beans. Top with the french fried onions. 

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Easy Vegan Breakfast Rolls

These little buggars got eaten up real quick, so this is the only picture. Sad. 

So Easy and so Delish, though. Happy. 

 I made two batches. One a cranberry orange walnut, the other chocolate. You could combine the two for an extra treat. 

I was lucky to get a chocolate one. Seriously, there was only half of one when I got to the plate.  

You need (for 8) 1 package of crescent rolls. (right now Trader Joe's are vegan). 

An oven set at 350.  A cookie sheet.

Roll the triangles out and flatten them into the triangle shape if yours are mangled. 

Then for the chocolate filling. Place 8 to 12 dark (vegan) chocolate chips at the wide base of the roll but not all the way to the outside, leave a little breading. Then roll up starting at the wide end, ending with the tip. Pinch and curl the long ends in so the chocolate stays as contained as possible. 

If you want cranberry orange nut or a chocolate cranberry orange do the following. About a 1/4 cup of orange marmalade and a tablespoon or two of dried cranberries, a tablespoon of finely chopped nuts (and/or chocolate chips or white chocolate chips) This mix is tart. If you want to add a bit of sweetener you could, however with the glaze it was a great sweet/tart treat. Mix together and do the same as you did for the chocolate, dab a long blob at the lower wider end of the roll and roll em up. 

Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. They'll golden up nicely. 

While baking I made a frosting/glaze. 

1 TBSP vegan cream cheese

1/2 Cup powdered sugar

Splash of milk. Mix the cream cheese and sugar together, add milk in tiny increments until you get the consistency you want. 

As the rolls cool, drizzle or spread frosting/glaze over the buns. If you want to take it up a notch you could dust them with dried orange peel, finely chopped nuts, toasted coconut after applying the frosting. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Peanut Crunch Fudge Bars

Xta-Warning…evil peanut recipe.

Crust:

1 Cup coconut oil melted
3 Cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry)
4 TBSP milk of choice
1/3 Cup loose pack brown sugar
1 tsp salt.

Mix it all together and form it into two balls. Grease the sides of an 8 x 11 and press one of the balls into the bottom of the pan. Save the other ball or freeze it for later. Or 1/2 the recipe if you are a fun hater.
Preheat oven to 350.
Filling:


In a bowl combine:

3/4 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup brown rice syrup (corn syrup would likely work just fine, as would honey)
1/4 Cup milk of choice or water
1 TBSP of Ener G (or cornstarch or arrowroot would probably work)
1/2 TBSP vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Stir well.

Add 1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 Cups peanuts

1/2 Cup crushed peanuts
Stir. Pour over crust.

Bake for 35 minutes at 350. Let cool and serve. If you keep it in the fridge you will lose a tooth so let it get back to room temperature before serving to guests.

Scraps and Snippets ~ German Chocolate Yum Bars

I have this need to experiment. So why not just feed that need. Right? I wanted to make pecan pie for Thanksgiving but not just any pecan pie. Oh no. How about a pecan pie with chocolate and coconut and let's see, isn't that what German chocolate is? Caramel, coconut, chocolate and pecans. Yup. 

My pie didn't look real hot. The caramel bubbled over in the oven. UGH. Fortunately I had been lazy and left a cookie sheet on the bottom oven rack and it caught the drips. Yes. There are benefits to taking the lazy route sometimes. Anyhoo. I thought I'd try this again in bar format. It still bubbled and grew but didn't pour out over the 8 x 11 pan. I'd suggest the cookie sheet trick just in case though. 

The crust makes two. So either stay tuned for tomorrow's recipe or freeze half, or double the filling and gorge yourself. So delicious. 

Crust: 

1 Cup coconut oil melted
3 Cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry)
4 TBSP milk of choice
1/3 Cup loose pack brown sugar
1 tsp salt. 

Mix it all together and form it into two balls. Grease the sides of an 8 x 11 and press one of the balls into the bottom of the pan. Save the other ball or freeze it for later. Or 1/2 the recipe if you are a fun hater. 

Filling: 

Toast a 1/2 Cup of coconut. (put on cookie sheet, place in 350 degree oven, heat for 10 minutes, stir, put back in for 5. Is it golden and fragrant? Good, if not, put it back in for a few more minutes til it is. Set aside.

In a bowl combine: 

3/4 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup brown rice syrup (corn syrup would likely work just fine, as would honey)
1/4 Cup milk of choice or water
1 TBSP of Ener G (or cornstarch or arrowroot would probably work)

1/2 TBSP vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Stir well.

Add 1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 Cups pecans or pecan pieces
1/2 Cup shredded coconut
Stir. Pour over crust. 

Sprinkle with the toasted coconut. Bake for 35 minutes at 350. Let cool and serve. (Can be served warm but it firms up better as it cools. If you keep it in the fridge you will lose a tooth so let it get back to room temperature before serving to guests.