Vegan Desserts
I made this cake for a good friend who recently moved into my neighborhood. It was a hearty, yet still delicate cake, which started as a very thick and creamy applesauce batter:
I made a spiral of apples to decorate the top of the cake:
And I sprinkled a cinnamon ginger brown sugar topping over the apples, and it browned during baking quite nicely:
Dark chocolate cupcakes with Double Chocolate Stout in the batter, with a Double Chocolate Stout chocolate cream filling piped in the middle, and cream cheese frosting on top. I really liked how the colors topped each other off, looking just like the foam on a pint of beer. Perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day!
The Double Chocolate Stout chocolate cream filling:
Three-cornered “Haman’s hats” with apricot and raspberry preserves, and poppy seed filling inside. We did an experiment: Some corners were pinched, and others were folded. In the end, both seemed to hold together well.
Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached white flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup Earth Balance, room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup cool water
2 tsp. vanilla extract
For Filling:
Apricot Jam, Raspberry Jam
Prepared Poppyseed Filling (make sure it’s vegan)
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, with a mixer set on medium speed, beat the Earth Balance with the sugar. When thoroughly creamed, add the vanilla and keep beating. Add your dry mix, alternating with the water. Add a small amount of extra water if necessary to smooth.
Pat dough into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill dough overnight in the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 2 pans. Roll out dough into 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out 3 inch circles with cookie cutters or the rim of a glass. Place spoonfuls of desired fillings into center of each circle and fold sides up into a triangular shape. There are 2 methods to getting the corners to stick; You can either pinch the corners together tightly, or you can fold them over each other, using a dab of water to cement the edges of dough together. I tried both, and it seemed like they both worked equally well.
Place cookies on prepared pan and bake for about 10 minutes, until slightly browned.
I admit, I was skeptical of the possibility of vegan challah. I didn’t believe that you could make egg-bread without eggs, and still have the same perfect tearing texture and crispy golden crust. But it is possible! This recipe used bananas to replace the eggs, and while the baked bread had a subtle banana flavor it was not overpowering like I imagined it might be. The banana flavor made it seem like it would be great bread to make french toast with, since it was already a bit sweet. I have plans to make another version, with flax seeds instead of the banana, and hopefully that will have a great consistency too. In any case, this bread was delicious, especially right out of the oven!
A perfect classic chewy cookie; this time I added a tiny bit of cocoa to the cinnamon-sugar mixture that I rolled the dough in, just enough to bring out a nice subtle flavor and beautiful color after baking.
I recently had a request for the recipe for these cupcakes, and since I hadn’t posted it before, I’m just adding it into this post. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 Garam Masala spice
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
Whisk together the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, soda, and Garam Masala. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients, and beat until no large lumps remain. Add coconut and mix in. Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Frost with your favorite vegan buttercream or cream cheese frosting. They would also be delicious with the Coconut Pecan Fudge Frosting that I used to top my German Chocolate Cupcakes.
Recent Comments