Tag Archives: egg-free

Small Batch Coconut-Chocolate Chunk Cookies {Vegan}

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Veronica

This month my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment was to Delicious Existence. (Gotta love that blog title!) On Twitter, Danielle (that’s my sister’s name, I love her already!) describes herself as a social worker, holistic health coach, lifestyle motivator and kitchen magician. And after perusing her blog, I’d have to agree with the last two–all her wonderful vegan recipes are definitely motivating and magical! Although not a vegan myself, I have mad love for their choice and actually try to eat vegan or vegetarian at least once a week, which isn’t too hard for me since I prefer fat and carbs (the good and bad kind :)) over meat anyway. Over time I’ve been so wonderfully surprised how delicious & satisfying a completely meatless, dairy-free, and egg-free meal can be.

Don’t believe me? Check out Danielle’s Herb Pinwheels, Jalapeno Popper Panini, Triple Chocolate Lust Cookies (I’m so making these!), Zucchini, Onion & One Pepper Stew, and Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Pie with Dark Chocolate Drizzle–just a few of the contenders for the recipes I marked to try. I have gone vegan before and found it challenging to find enough variety, but Danielle is clearly a master. Definitely go to her blog to get some inspiration!

I chose her coconut-chocolate chunk cookies to make for this month’s reveal, which is totally random, I know. If it was December, they’d fit right in since that’ s the month everyone starts baking hoards of them to give away. And these would be a great addition to your cookie tins this year! But it’s the week of Thanksgiving and there’s not a speck of cinnamon or pumpkin or even sweet potato in the recipe I chose. I’m sorry, but you guys know about my obsession with coconut oil. Did you really think I could pass up a recipe for cookies that contained not only my beloved coconut oil, but chocolate as well? I think not.

You guys, these are so good. Crazy good. So good that I’m glad I kept it a small batch recipe so I could only eat a dozen at a time. OK, so I didn’t really eat them all myself…but I did eat quite a few. Both times I made them. Yes, I made them twice this month, and will be making them again in a larger batch in December. They’re so good!

The coconut flavor is perfectly balanced with the semisweet chocolate, IMHO. You just would not believe how wonderful the coconut oil makes these cookies taste. So much better than using an extract! The cookies are sticky-crispy on the outside and the middles are soft & chewy-my favorite texture for a cookie, and I believe the corn syrup helps with it. The original recipe did not call for corn syrup, but I wanted to use ingredients that most people would have in their kitchen so instead of making a flax seed egg (mixing flax meal with water creates a binder similar to egg), I decided to use something else that was sticky to bind the cookie together. (You could also use agave nectar for a more natural cookie.) I used more corn syrup in the first batch and the cookies were a lot more chewy and a lot more crispy at the edges, and I think I’ve improved them by subbing a tablespoon of the corn syrup for milk (I used almond milk but coconut would obviously work great here), making the cookies softer but still crispy-chewy.

Whether you’re vegan or not, if you like coconut, I think you’re going to love these cookies! If you don’t believe me take my friend Kevin’s word for it (it was his birthday and I gave him some, along with an accidentally egg-less version of this banana bread)–he cracks me up!

I call Kevin “Obiewan,” thus his Star Wars reference. :)

Thank you Danielle for sharing your fabulous recipe! It pleases Jedi masters and padawans alike. :)

Coconut-Chocolate Chunk Cookies {Vegan}

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1/4 cup (1 7/8 oz / 52 g) virgin coconut oil, melted & cooled slightly (measured solid)
1/3 cup ( 2 ½ oz / 72 g) packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup or agave nectar
1 tablespoon milk of choice (I used almond)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup (3 oz / 85 g) all-purpose flour
¼ cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat mat.

In a small mixing bowl combine the coconut oil, brown sugar, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla. Stir until blended, then add the baking soda and salt and stir well. Add the flour and mix well, using your hands if necessary, then stir in the coconut & chocolate, again using your hands to combine. Roll the dough into 12 (1-inch) balls, making sure there are three chocolate chunks per cookie. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden at the edges. As soon as you remove them from the oven, use a spatula to push any misshapen cookies into place so that they retain a round shape. Allow to cool on baking sheet for five minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc bag.

Makes 1 dozen cookies.

Recipe source: adapted from Delicious Existence

I learned this trick from fellow SRC members Katrina & Liz–to whip any misshapen cookies back into shape, as soon as they’re out of the oven, scoot them into a round shape with your metal spatula. Easy peasy and looks so much better!

To check out the other Group C SRC recipes, click the linky man below! As always, thank you for being the bestest hostess with the mostest Miss Debbi!

32 Comments

Posted in Cookies, Secret Recipe Club, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged allergy friendly, baking, coconut, coconut oil, cookie swap, Cookies, dairy-free, egg-free, gifts, vegan. Bookmark the permalink.

Carrot Cake Protein Muffins {Vegan}

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Veronica

You may remember these from the roundup of all my fair entries. The challenge was to make a heart-healthy muffin using at least one soy product (the contest was sponsored by the Kansas Soy Commission) and I created these beauties using four: soy flour, soy milk, tofu, and soy “cream cheese.”

These were so delicious, I had high hopes of coming home with the $75 prize for first place. There was just one problem. Two, actually. I didn’t notice, until it was too late, that these were supposed to be “fruit muffins” and one of the judging criteria was “ease of preparation. I gave a sigh of relief over the “fruit muffin” thing because although these are mostly a vegetable muffin, there are raisins in them and so they might pass the “fruit muffin” test. My heart sank at the second oversight, however, because these really aren’t simple to prepare. They’re not horribly difficult, but you don’t look at a list of ingredients this long and with this many steps and call it “easy.”

Well, that’s exactly what the judges wrote on my judging paper. “Very healthy ingredients. Wide variety of ingredients. They taste wonderful & attractive. We are looking for ease of preparation & thought this muffin, though wonderful, has too many ingredients.”

Shoot. The real kick in the butt was my soy yeast bread, though (pictured above). It didn’t rise as well as I would have liked, and thought the judges must have found it too dense because it didn’t place. Well, this is what they wrote on that paper: “Beautiful bread-the cinnamon with the raisins is fantastic. I loved it! HOWEVER: due to the facts listed in the State Fair Rule Book, this entry was to be entered on a “sturdy white plain paper plate” & had to be disqualified. I am sorry. Please pay close attention to the listed rules.” (Wasn’t she sweet about? Aw!)

I entered my bread on a foil-wrapped piece of cardboard because that is what I used for all my other breads for the regular contests. But the special contests apparently have special rules too. DRAT! Oh well, maybe next year I’ll get it right.

One thing I did get right is the moisture (so moist!) and taste (like dessert!) on these muffins. They are just SO good you would never guess they don’t have any eggs or dairy–even the soy “cream cheese” filling tastes nothing like soy. Honestly, they hardly even taste “healthy” because they are so good. I froze the leftovers and have been enjoying them slowly. I have only a precious few left and even after almost two months in the freezer, they are still as wonderful as the day I made them!

Carrot Cake Protein Muffins

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

Filling
8 oz. Toffutti Better Than Cream Cheese
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Muffins
1 cup white whole wheat flour
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup soy flour*
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ginger
1 ½ teaspoons salt
16 oz. silken tofu
½ cup orange juice
½ cup soy milk
¼ cup agave nectar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 ½ cups finely shredded carrots
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup raisins

Topping
¼ cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix the filling ingredients together until smooth; set aside. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside. In a blender, combine tofu, orange juice, soy milk, agave nectar, and canola oil. Blend until smooth, then add the orange zest and pulse once to combine. Pour into the bowl with the flour mixture and stir until moistened. Fold in the carrots, walnuts, and raisins. Divide half the batter between prepared muffin cups, then spoon about 1 ½ teaspoons of the filling mixture over the centers before covering with the remaining batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the center no longer looks wet and feels done when touched in the middle (a toothpick will not come out clean because of the filling so go by the look and feel). Remove to cool completely on a wire rack.

*There’s no need to go out and buy soy flour if you don’t have it, just use a full cup of all-purpose flour and omit the soy flour.

Recipe source: adapted beyond belief from Healthy Happy Life

8 Comments

Posted in Bread, Breakfast, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged allergy friendly, baking, dairy-free, egg-free, healthy, muffins, protein, recipe, vegan. Bookmark the permalink.

Wacky Pumpkin Spice Cake {Vegan}

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Veronica

Yes! Another wacky cake! I’m on a roll. :) (If you’re new to my blog and have no idea what a wacky cake is, I explain that here.) I’ve been hanging onto a Wacky Spice Cake recipe that my friend, Rhonda, shared with me two years ago. I kept forgetting about it until mid-summer, for some odd reason, when spice cake was the last thing I wanted baking in my oven. Thankfully I remembered it on time this year, but I seem to have a problem following recipes exactly and had to add pumpkin. The resulting cake, like any wacky cake, is very moist. And delicious!

For more wacky yumminess, try my Wacky White Cake and the original Wacky Cake! Faith of An Edible Mosaic has a red velvet wacky cake recipe, so I don’t know how many more versions need to be covered. Wacky Caramel Cake, anyone? :)

Wacky Pumpkin Spice Cake

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa*
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1 ½ cups water
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Maple-Cinnamon Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
¼ cup real maple syrup
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10” bundt pan (I used Miracle Pan Release) and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until thoroughly combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Place on a cooling rack and allow the cake to stay in the pan for five minutes, then invert onto cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Once cool, put on a plate, blend the glaze ingredients together and pour over the cake.

*Honestly, I have no clue why the cocoa is an ingredient, unless the person that created the recipe wanted it to be a darker spice cake. I will omit this next time because I don’t think it added any flavor, and I prefer my pumpkin cake to look more orange and less dark. If anyone omits it, please let me know your results!

Recipe source: adapted from Rhonda C.

57 Comments

Posted in Cake & Frosting, Vegetarian & Vegan and tagged allergy friendly, dairy-free, egg-free. Bookmark the permalink.

Wacky White Cake {Vegan}

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Veronica

I recently had a request on facebook for a vegan white cake recipe from a lady whose daughters both have extreme food allergies. Since I don’t have one, I decided to try making one up, and unlike many baking experiments, this one turned out great the first time! I combined my recipe for Wacky Cake with the Dairy-Free White Cupcakes recipe and although the resulting cake is heavier than a regular white cake, it is very moist and has a great flavor. I have no pictures of the whole cake because I hate a whole row of the cake while it was still warm. Oops!

Wacky White Cake

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (use clear to keep the cake white-I didn’t)
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray and set aside. Sift all dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Make three wells and put the oil in one, the vanilla & almond extract in another, and the lemon juice in the last. Pour water over it all and mix until well blended. Pour into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Frost with white celebration frosting, or your favorite recipe. (I made a simple glaze with lemon juice, water, and powdered sugar.) Serve at room temperature.