Coconut Macaroons

Macaroons are one of those cookies that I think of when I think of the holidays. Not something you have every day. Today was a snowday here in lovely New England and so I thought I'd try my hand at some macaroons. The recipes I saw called for dairy and/or eggs so I needed to improvise.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/2 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Cups sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour

Directions:
Combine the egg replacer and water in a metal bowl.
Whisk together.
Then place the bowl over a pot with simmering water.
Whisk in the sugar and vanilla until the mixture is warm to the touch.
Remove from heat and whisk in the salt and flour
Then stir in the coconut and place in the refridgerator for a couple of hours to chlll.
Pre-heat oven to 325 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place dough onto parchment in spoonfuls (you should get about 24).
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Mint and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, Nestle's Mint and Semi-Sweet chips contain no dairy. So... here is the recipe.

1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar or a little more then 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Earth Balance spread... See More
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Ener-G egg replacer
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 package of chips

Heat over to 375
Beat sugars and Earth Balance until creamy at medium speed. While that is happening combine the water and egg replacer and mix well. Add the egg replacer and vanilla to the sugar mix. Once combined stir in the flour, salt and baking soda.

By hand stir in the chips

Drop by rounded spoonful onto baking sheets and cook for 11-14 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Brownies

Sorry no picture on this one. I made a tray of these earlier this week and they were gone so quickly.

The original recipe comes from the Engine Two Diet and was given to them by Lydia Heckendorf.

These are just fantastically awesome!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup light brown sugar pcked
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 cup unsweeteened applesauce
1 Tbsp EnerG egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp vanilla soy milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups dairy free chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375
Combine the sugars and applesauce in a mixer
Beat in the egg replacer mixture, soy milk, vinegar and vanilla
Combine the dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips).
Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet while continuing to mix
Once combined, stir in the chocolate chips
Pour the batter into a 9x13 sprayed with cooking spray
Bake for 16-20 minutes or when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean
Let cool
Cut and serve

Amish White Bread

I've tried making bread many times. I blame my mother for this. Growing up it seemed she was always baking something and the smell of fresh baked bread lingers in my head all these years later.

So I've run through many recipes. One problem I have had repeatedly was a non-rising bread. This recipe though seems to work well.

Ingredients:
1/4 oz Dry Yeast (1 packet)
1/2 Cup Warm Water
1/3 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Salt
2 Cups Water
2 1/2 Tbsp Shortening
6-7 Cups All Purpose Flour (I have not tried it yet with any whole wheat flour)

Instructions:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water
In a Mixing Bowl combine the 2 cups water, sugar, salt and shortening
Stir in the yeast and water
Slowly add the flour to form a moist dough (I used a kitchenaid for this part)
I then kneaded it in the mixer. You could also do this by hand
Put in a greased bowl covered and let rise (I put mine near my Cable Box where it is nice and warm) for two hours.
Punch down, and divide into two equal parts.
Place into two greased loaf pans and let rise until higher than the pans (another 1-2 hours, back to the Cable Box!)
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes
Cool for 10 minutes
Turn pans on side and let rest until bread is loosened.
Remove bread from pans and let cool completely on a rack.

This is a great, easy bread recipe.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies!

A friend of mine likes to bake. He goes in for all the crazy stuff (I hear he's working on maple syrup bacon chocolate chip cookies). For obvious reasons some of his recipes aren't going to work for me. He found a link to a recipe and I thought I'd try it. These cookies are AWESOME!!!!! Sorry there is no picture of these they just went so fast!

Credit for the original recipe goes to hipbonez at RecipeZaar.com. I made one or two slight modifications.

Ingredients:
2/3 Cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
2 Tbsp Smooth Peanut Butter
4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 Cups Light Brown Sugar (I actually used Splenda/Brown Sugar)
2/3 Cup Vanilla Soymilk
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2 Cups Rolled Oats
1 1/3 Cups Chocolate Chips (gotta look at the label)

Directions:
Heat oven to 375
In a large bowl mix together the first five ingredients
In a small bowl mix together the flour(s), salt and baking soda
Stir the dry mix into the liquid mix
Stir in oats and chocolate chips
Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a Silpat or Parchment Paper cooking tray
Bake for 12 minutes or until set
Let cool on tray for 5 minutes

This yielded somewhere in the range of 60 cookies for me.

An excellent chocolate cake

I needed to make a birthday cake and so I did what most people do these days. I Googled "Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe" and there was a bunch. I found one that was described as the best cake ever. Well I had to try that. So, first let me give credit where it is due. I found this cake at Instructables.com (http://www.instructables.com/id/The-BEST-chococlate-cake-ever...that-happens-to-be/) and it was written by someone named Alicia K.

I present what I did here for you. The picture represents the cake after we had already had some.

There are two ingredient lists, one for the cake and one for the chocolate glaze. You're going to need some time for the recipe as the cake needs to cool off before you can put the glaze on top of it.

Cake Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (or a little more)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp distilled vinegar (I used apple cider)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl

Add all of the liquid ingredients and stir until the batter is will combined

Pour the batter into an 8x8 pan (I sprayed mine with cooking spray first)

Cook for 35+ minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean)

Remove from pan and place on a rack to cool.

Chocolate Glaze ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

4 Tbsp margarine

2 Tbsp vanilla soy milk

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (mine were heaping)

Jimmies/Sprinkles whatever else you might want to decorate with

Once the cake has cooled, everything but the jimmies/sprinkles in a small sauce pan

Put over moderate heat and stirring often bring to a boil

Once at a boil reduce to a simmer and continue stirring for 2 minutes

Remove from heat and occasionally stir for the next five minutes.

Pour over the cake letting gravity spread it across the cake

Add any jimmies/sprinkles decorations you want

Let the glaze continue to cool on the cake and develop a nice shine

Enjoy!

Tortierre - a non-meat meat pie

Every year on Christmas Eve I would make the family recipe for Tortierre. Well after going meatless I felt it was necessary for me to make an attempt at the recipe. The results were fantastic!

This recipe will make 2 pies.

Ingredients for the filling:

2 tubes of Gimme Lean Meat Substitute (one beef/one sausage)

1 Large onion finely diced

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 cup raisens

1/2 heaping cup of bread crumbs

3/4 tsp salt

Healthy dash of one of these two pairs: sage and nutmeg or cinnamon and thyme. I always err on the side extra seasonings instead of less

Enough olive oil to lightly coat a frying pan

Brown the "meat" in the frying pan using a spatula to break it into very small pieces. Then stir in the water, onion, salt, bread crumbs, spices and raisens. Cover with a lid and reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Ingredients for pie crust: You need to do this recipe TWICE!

3 cups of white flour

3/4 of a cup of margarine

6 Tbsp cold water

1 tsp salt

Mix flour and salt together in a mixer

With mixer running slowly add pieces of margarine

Once combined and a granular dough has formed add water one Tbsp at a time

Take half the dough out of the mixing bowl and place onto a lightly floured surface

Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll the dough to a pie plate size

Place into the pie plate, fill with half the filling and then lay the other half of the pie crust (after rolling it out) on the top of the pie plate.

Pinch the dough all along the edge cutting off any extra dough hanging off the edge

Cut some small vent holes in the top of the pie (If I make two with one spice and two with another I will often cut the letters of the spices into the tops so I know which is which)

Bake 35-40 minutes (until golden brown) at 400

To reheat later cook for 30 minutes at 350 if from the fridge, 450 for 45 minutes to an hour if frozen.

We served one on Christmas Eve and thought it was great. I then brought two to the much larger Christmas Day celebration and they were VERY well received. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cake!

After a somewhat long delay in posting I'm back. Sorry no picture on this one, but it was gone so fast there wasn't really time.

A friend's birthday was approaching and she said that her aunt always made her a Red Velvet Cake for her birthday, but her aunt lives 800 miles away currently so I thought it was time to step up and show that vegans can can rock out a cake as well as anyone else.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspon baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup soymilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer
2 tablespoons Red Food Coloring (1 oz - which is 4 small bottles!)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
White vanilla frosting
Pecans (chopped and one whole)

When you first pour the soymilk into bowl, add the apple cider vinegar. This thickens the soymilk giving it more of a buttermilk consistency.

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2 inch round cake pans).

In a large mixing bowl sift together all of the dry ingredients.

In another bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients.

In a mixer combine the dry and wet ingredients until just combined into a smooth batter.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the 3 pans and place into the oven for 15 minutes. Turn the pans and bake for another 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the edge of the pans and a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven, flip into a plate and then back over onto cooling racks. Once cool, frost each layer, stacking them and then the sides and top. Place the whole pecan half in the center of the top and then sprinkle crushed pecans across the top.

ENJOY!

Rice and Lentil "meatballs"

I got this recipe from a friend via her sister-in-law and decided to give it a try. The original recipe called for brown rice but I was out (I know, they're going to take away my healthy eating card!). I used Jasmine Rice and they still turned out great. I also made a couple of other changes to better reflect the way we eat here and the flavors we go for. So... thanks Lerche-in-law for the base recipe.

1/2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Salt
3 full grinds Black Pepper
1/2 cup Lentils (uncooked)
1/2 cup Rice (uncooked)
2 1/2 cups Water
1 Boullion cube (Veggie of course)
3/4 tsp Baking Powder

Put the Lentils, Rice, Water and Boullion in a pot and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cover. Let cook for 30 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Uncover to start cooling.

Preheat oven to 375

Mix the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Once the lentil/rice mixture is no longer going to burn your fingers off, add it into the flour mixture. Mix well and then scoop out into small ball shapes on a grease/sprayed baking sheet.

Either coat the meatballs with olive oil or cooking spray and then bake for 30-40 minutes turning every 10.

I gave mine an additional 5 minutes in the broiler but shouldn't have. They didn't need it at all. Additionally, next time I'm going to leave out the cumin but add more oregano and some basil and go for more of an Italian flavor. These would be great with pasta and some red sauce.

Absence from posting

For my loyal readers (all couple of you), I'd like to apologize for my absence. I was in Orlando for a week for work and then away again the next week for a couple of days.

Coming shortly is a recipe I modified last night from an old vegetarian cook book and then I'm also trying a recipe sent to me from a friend. If it comes out tasty, I'll post that as well.