Vegan Sweet Treats

You may have noticed that there has been a lack of food related entries as of late here. A few reasons for that. First, I have been testing recipes for some upcoming projects for the lovely Isa Chandra Moskowitz (!!!). This is quite exciting as Isa has always been such a favorite of mine. She's written quite a few cookbooks that are essential to any collection such as Veganomicon, Vegan with a Vengeance, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Pie in the Sky, and my favorite, Appetite for Reduction. Right now, I am testing recipes for her contributions to the upcoming Forks Over Knives cookbook (her contribution will be low-fat and low-sugar dessert recipes) as well as meals for her latest cookbook that will focus on easy weeknight meals.

I've also been cooking my way through Blissful Bites, the new cookbook by Christy Morgan. Her publisher contacted me to see if I'd be interested in reviewing her book and I jumped at the chance. Christy's food philosophy is very close to my own - lots of whole foods, veggies, fruits and nothing too complicated. The book is amazing and I'll be posting a full review very soon. I'll also be hosting a giveaway for a copy of Blissful Bites, so keep your eyes peeled!

*** Note that Christy's book tour is underway, so if you're interested in checking her out or attending one of her cooking classes, check here for dates and locations! More about this in my upcoming post, just want to give people a head's up. ***

Anyway, it's been nice not having to be too inventive in the kitchen the past few weeks, but the downside is that I don't have any new recipes to post here! So I thought I'd just share some of my favorite vegan treats that I've been enjoying between mouthfuls of Isa's healthy desserts and Christy's healthy meals. Everything in moderation, right?

On my way home from therapy on Saturdays (yes I go to therapy, I'm a real New Yorker now!) I always walk by this statue at the Polish Consulate's building. He looked so chilly on this day, I kind of felt bad for him. I was tempted to bring him a treat to warm him up. Then I realized why I'm in therapy.

Maple Leaf Sandwich Cookies from Trader Joe's. These are one of those "accidentally vegan" products and hot damn are they ever delicious! They are mapletastic and how they make the "cream" layer without using dairy is beyond me, but it tastes really good. They are very bad for you (like 5g-of-fat-in-each-cookie bad), but for an occasional treat they are perfect. I like mine with black tea and soy milk.

BTW, I use a nifty device called the AeroLatte to froth my soy milk when I'm having tea or coffee at home. It's really neat! You just warm up your milk in the microwave, froth it with the AeroLatte, then add in the tea or coffee. It feels more ceremonious and special than just pouring the milk in.  

Cookie Butter. Cookie butter originated in Europe under the name "Speculoos Spread". The name says it all - this is butter made from blended up Speculoos cookies. This stuff was mythologized by vegans because it contains no animal ingredients and vegans in Europe were always bragging about how good it is. When news hit that Trader Joe's was carrying their own version here in the States... well, let's just say if there was a "Vegans Gone Wild!" video series, the camera guys would be provoking us to show our naughty bits in exchange for a jar of this stuff. I have to say, the best way to enjoy this treat is with a spoon. It tastes just like a buttery cookie full of spices like cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Delightful! It seems now that the original Speculoos Spread has invaded the U.S. and I've been seeing it in my regular grocery store packaged as Biscoff Spread. Do yourself a favor and try it sometime.

ARGO TEA. Has anyone else experienced this magical place? They are only in select cities for now, like Chicago, NY, St. Louis, and Boston, but I anticipate this place is gonna blow up in the near future. It's like Starbucks, but for tea, and way better. There is one near Johnny's school so he took me in one night. I don't know why I was skeptical (probably because it feels insane to spend $4 on a cup of tea), but I was quickly hooked. So far I've tried the Mojitea (an iced mint tea concoction), the Teapuccino (I got it with black tea, soy milk and vanilla flavoring - cracktastic!), and some sort of sparkling iced tea drink. They have sugar-free options for those watching your sugar intake (as I am obviously failing to do), and they have some yummy looking food including several vegan options.  If you're ever near an Argo Tea you should totally check it out. Oh, and they have coffee, too, but coffee is so passé.

Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate Marzipan Bars. I remember one year for Christmas, my Dad went all out and decided to make a cake that was covered in marzipan. He sculpted it to look like a giant present with a red bow and it took him hours! It was the coolest, yummiest thing ever and I've had a soft-spot for marzipan ever since. So when you fill delicious European dark chocolate with sweet almond paste, you really can't lose. This is one of my very favorite vegan candy bars and the best part is that it's so readily available. If I need a fix, I can always find them at Duane Reade or the grocery store.

Enjoy Life Mini Chips. These little guys are the best chocolate chips I've ever had, vegan or not. Luckily for me, they are dairy-free as well as soy and gluten-free. They are great in cookies and baked goods, but you can also just sneak a few from the bag if you have a sweet tooth. I've also melted some in the microwave with non-dairy milk and blended it with my AeroLatte for a perfect cup of hot chocolate.

So there you have it! I'll be back soon with that book review and giveaway!

Recipe - Vegan Chunky Monkey and Thanksgiving Recap

Hidee-ho! Hope everyone had wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations this year! It was my second year celebrating Thanksgiving as a vegan, but my first one cooking. Last year we went to Connecticut to spend the day with Johnny's brother and his family, so I picked up a few things from Whole Foods. While I am eternally grateful for the convenience and selection that Whole Foods offers, this year I wanted to try my hand at veganizing some of the classics. It is so much cheaper and, generally, tastier to make stuff on your own, don't you agree?

On Tuesday, I began by cooking the cranberry sauce as I knew it would keep well and it was the only component of the meal that was meant to be served cold. I used this recipe from Sunset Magazine as I remembered my sister making a cranberry sauce with Earl Grey tea in years past that I loved. This called for some exotic spices like cardamom pods, star anise, and whole cinnamon sticks so I made my way to Kalustyan's and managed to buy all three for under $10. Man, I love that place! I simmered the spices and tea bags in a water and sugar mixture, then cooked the cranberries in the liquid until they all burst and cooked into a thickened sauce. I was super pleased with the results of that one, it was a positively delicious addition to the meal! I also made up a batch of hummus on Tuesday for an appetizer - we all know how much better hummus tastes after it sits in the fridge for a few days anyway.

Wednesday night I tackled dessert - the Maple Pecan Pie from the new book "Vegan Pie in the Sky" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Those ladies have stolen my heart when it comes to vegan baked goods and vegan food in general. Their recipes are so thoroughly tested and well-written that I never have to worry about yielding a less-than-tasty result. The on-line reviews of this pie recipe were split: some had great success and others had a bit of trouble. I, too, ran into some issues when I let my caramel cook a bit too long. It completely hardened and crumbled, so I blended it up in the food processor and hoped for the best. Luckily, it all worked out and it was a delicious pie! Johnny said it was a bit too sweet for his tastes, but I thought it was just right. (Though expensive to make... we paid $8 for the pecans and it used most of my $7 bottle of maple syrup. Yikes!)

I wanted to have as little cooking to do on Thursday as possible. We spent the morning making our way to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, only to find that we'd missed all but the last two balloons and Santa. EPIC FAIL. Better luck next year. When we got home, I got to work making mashed potatoes (I baked the potatoes, scooped out the innards, and mashed with plenty of soy milk, vegan margarine, and salt and pepper) and sweet potato casserole (I also baked the sweet potatoes, scooped out the innards and mashed with a bit of maple syrup, a couple tablespoons of margarine, some cinnamon and allspice and about a 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts, then I baked it with some vegan Dandies marshmallows on top. YUM!). Johnny made his famous stuffing using margarine, veggie broth, stuffing mix and lots of chopped apples, celery and onions. Then I just had to heat up the rolls and the vegan mushroom gravy. Our guests brought the BEST ROASTED VEGGIES I'VE EVER HAD that included butternut squash, cauliflower, and turnips. Monica says the secret is to roast them at very low heat for a long time, so I'll be utilizing that method in the future.

Everything came out so wonderfully and I had a plate full of vegan goodness upon which to gorge myself. And thanks to leftovers, I continued to gorge myself through the entire weekend! I was so busy trying to keep everything hot that I didn't really snap any good pics though. Bummer. We also saw the new Muppets movie that night and I must say, it was fantastic. A theater full of adults weeping at the sight of a frog puppet? Yes, please. 

In this brief hiatus between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm trying to get back to eating a bit healthier so as not to send my system into complete meltdown. I bought a gigantic bunch of bananas at the grocery store while shopping for Thanksgiving and they started to get a bit brown. I knew they would be perfect in a baked good like banana bread. But instead, I chose to freeze them and make banana soft serve! This stuff seems to be all the craze these days and I know why: it's so easy to make and it tastes divine. You can mix-in anything your little heart desires, but when I think of banana ice cream, I automatically think "Chunky Monkey". By far my favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor, it combines banana ice cream with dark chocolate chunks and walnuts. This version gives you all those flavors, but with about 1/10th the fat and calories. Big time WIN!

Johnny ate a bowl of this ice cream, licked the bowl clean, then returned to the freezer to eat the rest. I was so happy he liked it so much! A much healthier way to satisfy an indulgent sweet-tooth. Have you ever made banana soft serve? What are your favorite mix-ins?

Vegan Chunky Monkey

5 frozen bananas

1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks

1/4 cup raw, unsalted walnut pieces

Break up the bananas a bit and add to a food processor. Begin blending, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go. You will have to blend for awhile, 5 minutes or so, but don't overblend as it will start to melt the ice cream. Once everything is smoothe, transfer to a bowl (a chilled bowl would be great here) and stir in the chocolate and walnuts. You can either place this back into the freezer to harden it up a bit, or serve right away. Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips over the top and garnish with a mint sprig.

The PPK's Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

What better way to follow-up a preachy post about veggies than with a recipe for cookies? Even vegans have unhealthy cravings, what more can I say? It started on Saturday when Johnny and I decided to check out a restaurant in the East Village called Quantum Leap. I was a little bummed when I realized Scott Bakula was not a server, but all was redeemed when I saw that they serve vegan banana pecan pancakes! That with a side order of "soysage" made for one of the more memorable breakfasts in my recent past. Johnny opted for the vegan blueberry waffles with scrambled eggs and soysage links. Yum!

Then Sunday night, I was watching "It's Complicated" (don't judge me, I have a penchant for love stories involving 60-year-olds) and there is a scene where Meryl Streep and Steve Martin are on a date. It's late at night and they've indulged in a bit of... ahem... *smoking* and she takes him to the bakery she owns and tells him she will make him anything he wants. (Basically my dream date.) He wisely chooses a "warm chocolate croissant" and she proceeds to make it from scratch. He nearly dies when he takes his first bite.

That was it, I had to bake something immediately! I settled on these cookies from The Post Punk Kitchen and wowie zowie, I was not disappointed! These suckers fulfilled every chocolate fantasy and I just had to share the recipe. Try not to look at the nutritional info, it'll just harsh your sugar buzz. These actually turn out pretty sweet, so in the future I may only use 1 1/2 cups sugar and unsweetened almond milk... ya know, to make them "healthy"! And Johnny is a fan, though next time I may half the recipe so we don't eat 24 cookies between the two of us. Maybe they'll freeze well?

No these aren't hamburger patties, they're delicious cookies!

Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

(From The Post Punk Kitchen)

Yields 3 dozen (mine only yielded 2 dozen and they weren't that big)

Ingredients
3/4 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon whole flax seeds (I used ground flax seed)
1/2 cup soymilk (I used vanilla almond milk)

2 cups all purpose flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (make sure they are vegan!)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grind the flax seeds on high in a blender until they become a powder. Add soymilk and blend for another 30 seconds or so. Set aside. **Note: Rather than dirty my blender, I just whisked together the ground flax seed with the almond milk for a few minutes and set aside to thicken. This will only work if you are starting with ground flax seed though.**

In a large bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a separate large bowl cream together oil and sugar. Add the flax seed/soy milk mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. When it starts to get too stiff to mix with a spatula, use your hands until a nice stiff dough forms. Add the chocolate chips and mix with your hands again.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and flatten into a disc that’s about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 5 minutes, then set them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutritional info per cookie (based on a 2 dozen yield and the ingredient swaps I used): Calories 215; Total Fat 10.9g; Saturated Fat 2.8g; Trans Fat 0g; Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 103mg; Carbohydrate 31.1g; Dietary Fiber 3.5g; Sugars 20g; Protein 2.3g; Vitamin A 0%; Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 2%; Iron 6%