Scraps and Snippets ~ Pirate Scotcheroos

Argh. I love me some salty with me sweet. These salty bars will knock the parrot right off your shoulder, matey. 

You know the classic Scotcheroo recipe? There are several out there. Here's a new vegan (check your ingredient labels to be sure) sweet and salty version for you. 

Let's just say these are tasty. 

3 Cups krispie or flaky cereal of choice 

2 1/2 Cups chopped/crushed pretzels

1 Cup sugar

1 Cup light corn syrup (I'm thinking brown rice syrup would work as well)

1 1/2 Cup peanut butter

2 Cups chocolate chips (or if you want to spring for dairy free butterscotch you can go 1/2 and 1/2)

1/4 to 1/3 Cup peanut butter

Grease a 9 x 13.

Place sugar and corn syrup in a large sauce pan. Stir until the sugar begins to melt and mixture begins to boil. Add peanut butter, remove from heat and stir well until mixed. Pour in cereal and crushed pretzels and stir until cereal is coated. Pour and press mixture into pan. 

Using a double boiler (or a smaller pan sitting on top of another with water set over a medium flame) place peanut butter in the upper pan and add chips. Stir frequently until melted. Pour and spread over bars. Let sit at least a half hour then cut into squares. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Chocolate Fudge Cake Two Ways.

 This is the chocolate fudge decadent cake I made for my brother and sister-in-laws' wedding in October. It was dense, fudge, moist and delicious. All that was left on the plate was a few smears. 

A week or so later the little kids and I whipped up a batch as cupcakes. Delicious. Even after the near misses that happen when 7, 5 and 3 year olds are involved in a baking process. And even though the batch made enough cupcakes we had some several days out. 

Chocolate Fudge Cake and Cupcakes 

27-32 cupcakes (60ish mini cupcakes) or 3 round or 8 x 8 layers

2 1/2 Cups sugar

1 Cup and 2 TBSP of Earth Balance or coconut oil or mix

3 teaspoons baking powder

1+ teaspoon salt

1 Cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 Cups strong hot coffee

1 1/2 Cups milk of choice (chocolate soy or almond adds a nice punch)

1/2 Cup chocolate chips

3 TBSP apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons vanilla

In small bowl place milk and vinegar, set aside. In an additional small bowl pour the hot coffee over the chocolate chips and stir on and off until they are melted, add vanilla and set aside. Cream butter substitute and sugar together. Add salt and baking powder and mix well. Add the milk and vinegar mixture and incorporate. Pour in chocolate mixture and mix and finally mix in the flour and stir until the flour is fully mixed in. 

Grease and flour pans or line cupcake pans. 

Preheat oven to 350. Pour the batter into the pans equally or fill the cupcake liners almost 2/3rds full. 

Bake 20-25 minutes testing the cake/cupcakes with a knife that should come out clean for cakes. Cupcakes bake for 15-18 minutes (mini cupcakes 12-14 minutes) 

Remove and let cool

Frosting. 

Ratios because I do something different every stinking time: 

Approximately 1 cup vegan butter, vegan cream cheese or shortening to 3 cups powdered sugar (for fudge frosting use 2/3 or to taste cup of cocoa for powdered sugar). A splash of vanilla (about 1 teaspoon) (if you want wedding frosting taste use a half splash of almond extract, too)  Mix well. Add more powdered sugar or cocoa if wet or if too stiff add a TBSP or so of non-dairy milk (or coffee if you are making fudge and want mocha frosting) until you get the consistency you want. 

When the cake or cupcakes are cooled, frost. For the raspberry wedding cake I had washed and dried 2 cups of raspberries and placed them on the frosted cake. I then melted 1 cup of chocolate chips in a heated 2/3 Cup of non-dairy milk. Then drizzle over the raspberries and cake layers. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Salty Caramel Apple Drizzled Apple Blondies

Apple Blondies With Salty Caramel Apple Drizzle

Blondies are brownies without cocoa so they are chewy, a touch caramelly due to the brown sugar content and delicious.

1 Cup brown sugar

½ Cup coconut oil or Earth Balance

3 TBSP applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 Cups flour

2 apples diced

Toast a cup of chopped pecans or walnuts and toss those in if desired for an extra yum factor.

Mix sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla and applesauce well. Add the baking powder and salt and stir very well. Add the flour and incorporate. Finally add the apples (and nuts if using). Grease a 9 x 13 and press the dough into the pan. Bake at 350 for 33 - 36 minutes. A knife should come out clean.

Salty Caramel Apple Drizzle

1/2 Cup packed brown sugar

1/4 Cup applesauce

1 1/2 TBSP Earth Balance or coconut oil

2 pinches of salt

1/2 TBSP vanilla
1/2 apple diced

Put sugar, applesauce and Earth Balance in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and drop temperature and low boil for 8-10 minutes until it comes together and thickens. Add vanilla and stir until completely incorporated, remove from heat then add salt and stir well. Add the diced apple and stir.

Pour the caramel sauce over the blondes and refrigerate an hour before serving. Or slice the blondies still warm from the oven, top with a blob of vegan ice cream and drizzle the caramel over that.

Scraps and Snippets ~ German Chocolate Bundt Cake

I used a favorite chocolate bundt cake recipe from An Everyday Vegan and modified it. I've linked to her recipe and am sharing mine as I made it. Her's is delicious. So was mine. I will make a change next time though. I placed the "filling" on top of the batter thinking it would sink. Next time I'll simply pour in half the batter, add the filling and cover it with more batter. Simple fix. 

2 1/4 cups Whole Wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp vinegar

3/4 cup non-dairy milk

1/4 cup strong cold coffee
1/2 cup unsweetened natural apple sauce

Filling and Topping

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips divided
1 cup toasted coconut (see below)

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 TBSP sugar

1/2 TBSP cocoa

1 Cup non-dairy milk

Preheat to 350 degrees. 

Place coconut shreds on a pan. Place in oven and bake for 8 minutes. Stir and bake another 2, check for golden color. Remove from oven. Separate 1/4 cup for topping. Dump the remainder in a small bowl for filling. Add 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Set aside. Prepare pecans. In a frying pan over med to high heat toss pecans. Stir as you heat them and when aromatic (about a minute or so, add the sugar and cocoa and stir until sugar melts and nuts are coated, about a minute or two.) Let the nuts cool for 5 mins then separate 3/4 cup into the filling bowl and 1/4 (approx) with the remaining coconut for the topping. Prepare your bundt pan with oil/margarine etc, then flour. If your bundt pan is silicone a thin layer of grease should be plenty. 

Mix the vinegar with the milk in a large bowl. Let sit for a few minutes. Add the cooled coffee, sugar, oil and cocoa powder and stir well. Pour in the baking powder, salt and applesauce and incorporate. Add vanilla and stir. Completely mix in the flour. 

Pour the one half of the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan. Using a spoon scoop the chocolate chip/coconut/pecan mixture into the center trying to stay away from the sides. Cover with the remaining batter.  Bake for 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes. Turn the pan over onto a plate.

Heat the cup of non-dairy milk in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, pour in the remaining chocolate chips (1/2 cup) and stir until melted. Let sit for 10 minutes or so. Pour over the cooled cake and top with the remaining pecan/toasted coconut mixture.  

Scraps and Snippets ~ Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

 A co-worker brought a yogurt strawberry bundt cake into the office a few weeks ago. I tasted it and decided I needed a recipe so I could veganize it and make it my own. I wanted to serve it at my brother's wedding. Why would I use a cake I'd never made for an occasion like that? Good question. Insanity? But the lemon and blueberry marriage just sounded heavenly. And I uber increased the lemon so I knew it'd be off the charts. I don't know the origin of the original recipe but if you google Strawberry Yogurt Cake you'll find lots of options. 

Now onto my Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake of deliciousness. 

1 Cup of room temperature Earth Balance

2 Cups of sugar

3 TBSP egg substitute (just the dry portion, the wet is coming up) ( I used homemade EnerG. and her recipe says rounded 1/2 TBSP to 2 TBSP liquid I go 1 full and 3 respectively for my subs, generally)

8 ounces non-dairy yogurt. The containers I buy are 6 oz. I used a full vanilla and 2 ounces from a blueberry.

1/3 Cup Non dairy milk (pretty much anything but chocolate)

1/3 Cup lemon juice

zest from 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 Cups whole wheat pastry flour (set aside 1/4 cup)

1 and 1/2 to 2 Cups fresh blueberries

Preheat over to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan unless you have silicone then a light greasing is good enough. 

Mix milk and lemon juice together in a separate bowl and let sit for a couple minutes. In a separate bowl combine Earth Balance and sugar, add in lemon zest, salt and baking powder and mix well. Add the yogurt to the lemon juice/milk blend and stir well. Add the egg substitute powder and when incorporated pour the liquid into the sugar/Earth Balance bowl and stir very well. Add the flour (remember to set aside 1/4 cup) and blend. Then toss your blueberries with the reserved flour and pop them into the batter. Stir and pour into the bundt pan. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. A knife should come out clean.  

Glaze. Approx 2 TBSP lemon juice to 1 Cup powdered sugar. But. You have to mess around with that to get it to the consistency you want. The cake is very moist. In hindsight I would have added another 1/2 Cup or so of sugar (or flour) to give it more body. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Pinterest Inspiration ~ Cookie Pizza (Vegan)

Cookie Pizza. This kind of tastes like the best donut/cookie ever.

Pizza dough for one pizza. (I used Trader Joe’s pre made which was perfect for the job.)

Cookie Dough (Recipe I used below) use your favorite. You’ll need approximately a half batch size. Get creative by using peanut butter, sugar, snickerdoodle, brownie, etc. I used chocolate chip.

Caramel Sauce (Recipe Below)

Chocolate Ganache (Below)

Cream Cheese Icing (Recipe Below).

Preheat oven to 400 - 425 (use temperature your pizza dough suggests)

I used parchment paper with a round pizza pan. I’d suggest that parchment paper is a great choice. If not I’d grease the pan. Press the dough into a circle or rectangle and leave it about a ½ inch thick overall. Press flat but don’t stretch, you want a little bready texture.

Press your blobs of cookie dough directly onto the pizza dough leaving a pizza dough around the outside edge. You want the blobs to be normal cookie dough blobs with less space in between and pressed down a little so they meet.

Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes and check. If cookie dough is semi-baked (you want gooey but not soupy) and pizza crust edge browning, it’s safe to remove it. If not give it another 5 minutes of so and check again.

Remove from oven and let cool ten minutes.

Drizzle with caramel sauce, the ganache, and then squirt on the icing.

Cookie Dough (this is a half recipe)

1/4 Cup room temperature coconut oil or softened Earth Balance

1/3 Cup sugar

1/3 Cup brown sugar

1 egg substitute of choice

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/3 Cup flour

1 /3 Cup chocolate chips

Cream coconut oil and sugar. Add baking powder, salt, egg and mix well. Add milk and vanilla and stir completely. Pour in flour and stir well.

Caramel Sauce Recipe

2 cups sugar (brown or white)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup agave nectar or corn syrup

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

1 1/2 T. Earth Balance or coconut oil

pinch of salt

Over medium high heat bring the sugar, corn syrup/honey/agave and water to a boil while stirring very well to dissolve the sugar. Turn heat to low and simmer approximately 11-12 minutes until the color changes. Stir frequently. Remove heat. Add (carefully as the mixture is very hot) the milk, Earth Balance and salt and stir until smooth.

This makes approx 1 and ½ Cups. (You can halve the recipe if you want)

Ganache: Melt 1 cup chocolate chips with ⅓ cup non-dairy milk or full fat coconut milk.

Icing. Mix 2 - 3 ounces of non-dairy cream cheese with 2 cups of powdered sugar (if you want chocolate replace ⅓ cup of powdered sugar with ⅓ cup cocoa powder. Mix until combined. Add a splash of vanilla and stir well. If too thick add a splash of non-dairy milk and mix and repeat to get the consistency you are looking for.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Sweet and Spicy Nicey Mix

Sweet and Spicy Nicey Mix

½ Cup spicy almonds (I used wasabi almonds) (You could also use any wasabi spiced dried pea etc or chili spiced nuts.)

¾ Cup dry roasted peanuts (don’t go low salt)

2 Cups rice chex or plain cereal of choice. (alternatively, you could use crackers, pretzels, chips of choice, popcorn)

½ Cup caramel sauce

Dump peanuts and nuts in a bowl, add caramel sauce and stir well to coat. Toss in cereal or other add-ins and stir very well. Dump contents on a well greased or parchment paper covered cookie sheet or pizza pan. Put in a 200 degree oven for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Leave in the oven and turn off heat and let cool. Break up into smaller bites.

This will seem wet when it’s done cooking. But will harden into a glaze when it’s dry. The spice gets incorporated throughout so it’s not intense. But the sweet, salty, spice is nice.

Caramel Sauce Recipe

2 cups sugar (brown or white)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup agave nectar or corn syrup

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

1 1/2 T. Earth Balance

pinch of salt

Over medium high heat bring the sugar, corn syrup/honey/agave and water to a boil while stirring very well to dissolve the sugar. Turn heat to low and simmer approximately 11-12 minutes until the color changes. Stir frequently. Remove heat. Add (carefully as the mixture is very hot) the milk, Earth Balance and salt and stir until smooth.

The sauce makes approx 1 and ½ Cups. (Store the rest in the refrigerator or halve the recipe.)

Scraps and Snippets ~ So Delicious Coconut Chippers...For Reals

So Delicious Coconut Chippers

3/4 Cup room temperature coconut oil
2/3 Cup sugar
2/3 Cup coconut sugar (or use brown)
2 TBSP egg replacer (I used EnerG)
6 TBSP So Delicious vanilla or original coconut milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/3 Cup flour
2/3 Cup chocolate chips

Cream the sugar, coconut oil, milk and egg replacer. Add baking powder and salt and mix well. Add vanilla and stir. Stir in flour until blended and finally add the chocolate chips. Roll dough into balls. 

Preheat oven to 350. 

I made half the batch in a 20 count silicone pan and baked them for 14 minutes.

The rest I baked on a cookie sheet for 12 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen. 

I'm entering this recipe in the Spring Fling So Delicious Recipe Contest. It's open til May 19th. Got a recipe to enter? Go there. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Fudgy, Chewy Brownies AKA Panic Brownies

I had about 5 minutes to find a brownie recipe on Friday. My day had gone differently than I had planned and I had just enough time to whip up brownies, get em baked and get out the door. I looked through 5 vegan cookbooks trying to find one. They were in there...but each called for time consuming or unavailable or texture tweaking ingredients like coffee, espresso powder, tofu, two different fat sources, bittersweet chocolate, maple syrup etc.  Sometimes brownies are cake-like anyway so I didn't want to gamble on texture. I grabbed a traditional 1,000 recipe cookbook and spied a blondie recipe. Since I wanted the chewy of a blondie, I thought that would be a definite, but I needed chocolate. 

The blondie recipe was kind of the inspiration for these brownies as the time wound down to nothing. I say inspiration because I changed every single ingredient. Seriously. And this is what came out. And they were delicious. This might be THE brownie go to recipe. A huge plus for this on that particular evening was that they were a thinner batch that didn't need to bake for 40 minutes. 

Panic Brownies

1 and 1/2 sticks Earth Balance (3/4 Cup)

1 1/3 Cup sugar

2 TBSP egg replacer (I used EnerG)

6 TBSP water or non-dairy milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 Cup cocoa

1 2/3 Cup flour

1/3 chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13. Mix Earth Balance and sugar until blended. Add cocoa, egg replacer and water/milk, vanilla and mix well, add salt, baking powder and vanilla and stir. Pour in flour and mix. It will be thick and more like cookie dough. Press into pan. Bake for 23-26 minutes. I believe I'll try it in an 8 x 11 and bake it for 10 minutes more and see how it does in a thicker brownie.

Frost with failed Easter candies experiment. (Ha. Ha.) That's what I did. Unfortunately,  I'm not able to recreate that easily. Nor do I want to. 

A simple chocolate ganache or frosting would be great.  

Scraps and Snippets ~ Carrot Cake Truffles

Carrot Cake Truffles

3 small carrots (remove the ends, peel and chop)

1 1/2 Cup nuts (I used pecans)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

12 Medjool dates (pits removed, of course) 

1 tsp vanilla

Dash salt

flaked coconut or powdered/crumbed nuts

Place carrots in food processor, add nuts and dates and process. While running add cinnamon, salt and vanilla.  Process until mixture is uniform and sticky. 

Roll into balls and roll in coconut, nuts or both. 

Chill a couple hours before serving and keep in fridge. Makes about 20. 

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar ~ Cookbook Review

I haven't done a cookbook review in awhile. So. Let's pick one of the dozens I've got on my shelves.

How about Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar? 

I bought this tiny little cute book for a cookie baking blitz last November. It's joined us for two years of Vegan baking. Will it join me for a third? 

Uh Yeah! 

Great pictures and some great recipes. I think I've made ten or so of them. So here is the list of favorites....

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows are worth the price of the book if you are a peanut butter chocolate fan. My pillows looked like little hats when finished so I'd recommend parchment paper or more chilling time. But the taste? Sweet mercy. She calls for black cocoa which is the stuff that makes oreos dark, but I used the regular stuff and they were fab. I'm a cheapskate so I don't buy a lot of non-dairy flavored chips like peanut butter and butterscotch etc and my hubby loves those chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips so I have yet to have made them since going vegan. Now I don't have to, the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows scratch that itch. 

The second recipe that makes the the book a must keep forever...Caramel Pecan Bars.

Warning. If you have a sweet tooth, you will be tempted to eat the whole pan. A-m-a-z-i-n-g. 

We also tried the following which involved mixed opinions but were solid none the less: Mocha Mamas which were nice, tasty little cookies. Starry Fudge Shortbreads were kinda meh in my opinion and a lot of work, but one girl who joined us both years is still waxing eloquently about how much she loved them. 

They have classic Christmas recipes, too. The Roll Out Sugar Cookies and the Gingerbreads were both great, and turned out well. The ladies know their biscotti, we didn't make a recipe from this book but the ones in Veganomicon were outstanding. So the biscotti recipes are on my radar.  

The cookies we haven't tried in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: Roasted Almond Cookies with Fleur De Sel, Rocky Roads, Peanut Apple Pretzel Drops, Citrus Glitters, Macadamia Ginger Crunch Drops...and the list goes on. 

It's a keeper. For sure. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Peppermint Fudge and a Story Update...

I spent the last two days working on edits for Out of the Frying Pan. Can I be honest and tell you that I really like our story? Okay. That sounds so…so…prideful. But, it's the characters I like. Does that sound better? Because the characters are part and parcel, piece and pinches from lots of folks we know and/or would like to know. 

Okay, maybe this will sound better. Peppermint Fudge

I found this recipe in my inbox. Candy Cane Oreo Fudge. Yum. Right? 

Well, of course. The version I made of this hurts so good. So rich, so chocolately, just a perfect hint of peppermint and the mouth feel is crazy velvety. My good friend in grade school introduced me to Bavarian mints when I was a wee lass. I believe those are milk chocolate so they are off my radar, but I remember the feel and taste of those suckers and this is a more grown up version of that. I think I will leave the cookies out next time (after a few days the cookies get really incorporated and soft) and just go for the chocolate mint, or maybe add crushed candy canes with a sprinkle of candy cane on top. 

I live by a Trader Joe's and Trader Joe's has the Peppermint Jo Jos. Just saying. 

Change #1. 

Change # 2. I'm a cheapo. And I didn't want to buy coconut milk creamer. So easy the way she has it, but like I said,  I'm a cheap. So I found a recipe to make your own vegan creamer and since I wasn't putting it in my coffee, I was totally okay with trying it out in a recipe. 

And I wanted to take this a few places so I needed more fudge. So here's what I did, what we got, and here we go. 

18 Peppermint Jo Jo's, Oreos or Candy Cane Oreos (if using cookies)
1 1/8 cup of non-dairy milk
1 1/2 TBSP of agave 
3/4 tsp of cornstarch
3/4 tsp of peppermint extract 
5 and 1/2 Cups vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used the dark, dark ones) 

Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Crumble 16-18 Peppermint Jo Jo's reg Oreos or Candy Cane Oreos on the bottom of the pan. 

Pour milk into a saucepan, add the agave, and cornstarch. Heat until very warm. Add the chocolate chips and stir over very, very low heat until melted. Add the peppermint extract. Pour the chocolate mixture over the cookies. Spin or use a spoon to fill in any holes. Refrigerate two hours, cut the fudge into bite sized pieces and run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the fudge. Return to and store in fridge. 

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)

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 ~ 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. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Butterfinger Fudge

 I hesitate to even attempt vegan candy since Cara of Forks and Beans is the queen. But. A few months ago I had a friend tell me about homemade butterfingers that is seriously 1 bag of candy corn and 1 18 ounce container of peanut butter melted in the microwave for 1 minute. She said she found the recipe on Pinterest and that it was so easy and so delish. I, of course, want this in the worst way. However, classic candy corn in not vegan. And vegan candy corn is not cheap and I'm not sure it would work out the same way. 

So. Cara made some delicious looking crunchy honeycomb somesuch candy. And even though I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand and wasn't confident enough to trial and error a whole batch, I did experiment. So thanks for the recipe Cara...and I hope you don't mind that I made it my own and came up with something very close to vegan butterfinger insides. Flaky and chewy, peanut buttery and sweet. And anything covered in chocolate, well, nuff said, right? 

2 1/2 TBSP Earth Balance

2 1/2 TBSP brown rice syrup

1/3 Cup sugar (vegan)

1 1/2 TBSP water

1 tsp baking soda 

1/3 Cup peanut butter

Grease a bread pan.

Put Earth Balance, brown rice syrup, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat and when the sugar dissolves increase heat and bring to hopping boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add baking soda and stir. Let sit for 3 or so minutes. Then add the peanut butter and stir. And pour the mixture into the bread pan. 

NOTE: The goal is to get this to a crack stage. Two friends have tried the same recipe and gotten different results, one got toffee, the other got gooey caramel…still amazing tasting, but different. Go with a medium heat to boiling and get it to a rolling boil adjusting the flame as needed. Use a candy thermometer or water test if unsure. The baking soda puffs this up making air pockets, the peanut butter combines and softens the end result so you get layers like in a real deal butterfinger. 

Chocolate Topping
1/3 Cup vegan chocolate chips

1 TBSP peanut butter

Melt peanut butter in the same saucepan. Add chocolate chips and stir. When they are all melted, pour over butterfinger layer. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Cut and put back into the fridge until they set up. They are kind of fragile, so store in the fridge.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies

350 oven. Makes approx 4 Dozen cookies

1/2 Cup peanut butter

1/4 Cup Earth Balance

1 Cup brown sugar

2 TBSP ground flax seed

1/3 Cup non-dairy milk of choice

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 Cup Arbonne chocolate protein powder

1 Cup oatmeal (quick or old fashioned, more texture with old fashioned)

1/3 Cup cocoa

1/3 Cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 Cup dark chocolate chips

Mix all together in the order listed and blend/stir well so ingredients are all incorporated. You may have to use your hands, the dough might be crumbly depending on how heavy your peanut butter is, mine was fairly juicy. If you are really concerned add an additional TBSP or two of milk.

Chill dough for 1 hour. 

Scoop dough in walnut sized balls and either place on greased cookie sheet in scoops for rounded bite-sized cookies or flatten and place on cookie sheet for flatter cookies (again, the dough might be crumbly but should press together). Bake for 12 minutes. These are great served at room temperature but are best stored in the refrigerator.