Happy Monday and…welcome to August!
I feel like a broken record (scratched CD??) because I keep talking about how quickly July flew by, but it really did. And now here we are in August and all of my deadlines feel like they’re waiting for me in a dark alley cracking their knuckles ominously.
Anyway, how are you? Have you eaten anything cool/fun/delicious lately?
It’s been a while since I’ve posted some of my vegan dessert recipes, but that’s mostly because I just tweak vegan dessert recipes I find from other, trusted vegan food bloggers. I like to make little changes but I keep to the recipe pretty strictly.
Cookies or Cake?
I’m not too picky about the types of desserts I’ll eat or make, mostly because I don’t eat all that much of them. I prefer baked goods like cookies, cakes and sometimes cakes and crumbles.
One of my favorite new vegan recipes is a riff on tiramisu using Oreos, Biscoff cookies, or even these delicious DoppelCakes that I fell in love with when I lived in Germany. My husband really loves them, but I don’t eat many cold desserts like tiramisu or cheesecake.
Anyway, yes to cookies and cake and my absolute favorite: Brownies.
I prefer cookies and cupcakes because they’re easier to portion out for calories and fat etc… and with a cake you can easily cut a big ol’ hunk without realizing it’s 150 grams!
The Basics
You need butter, sugar and flour for most baked goods unless you’re a good, healthy vegan who’s trying to do better. But for the purposes of today’s post, we’ll stick to traditional baking basics.
You might need baking powder or baking soda, maybe both. And don’t forget a pinch of salt to bring it all together.
Kitchen tools
I’m not going to list everything you’ll need as an at home vegan dessert maker but a good place to start is large mixing bowls to combine ingredients, often dry in one bowl and wet ingredients in the other.
You’ll need a whisk or a hand mixer, and in some cases both in order to cream or whisk wet ingredients.
For cookies you’ll want silicon baking sheets. They prevent sticking and unlike parchment paper, you can use these again and again. Also, I have one dedicated to sweet treats because sometimes the smells stick to the sheets.
For cupcakes and muffins, I recommend the silicon cupcake molds because they also don’t stick and they’re super easy to clean. Plus when the vegan cupcakes cool, they pop out easily.
For best results, I’d also recommend a kitchen scale because weighing gives you better results than measuring.
Lemon Desserts
I’ve been experimenting with lemon cookies because I always feel as if my vegan lemon desserts come with a hint of lemon rather than a full-on lemon flavor. It always bums me out so I decided to up everything.
Instead of 1 teaspoon of lemon extract? A full tablespoon, about 11 to 13 grams of lemon extract, along with 5 to7 of vanilla extract. It seems like a lot, I know but I promise it’ll give your dessert that lemony kick you’re looking for.
Also? Lemon zest. Don’t be afraid to add it to cookies, frosting or even a lemon glaze. It seems like a lot but once it bakes, it’ll be okay.
Cookies
I really love a good vegan peanut butter cookie, honestly I do. But what I don’t love? The calories in traditional peanut butter cookies. No, I’m not calorie obsessed…okay, maybe a little bit but seriously, between the flour and the peanut butter, holy moly mama!
So I like to whip up these flour-less peanut butter cookies that are gooey, delicious and easy to make. And because I eliminated 900+ calories of flour, I added about 200 calories of dark chocolate chunks to give a real grown up flavor.
Peaches!
I love a peach dessert! Give me a few bites of peach cobber or a peach crumble and I am one happy girl. And I’ve really been enjoying introducing my Romanian family to the awesomeness of peach (and vegan) desserts.
I love the sweet and buttery peach crumble, which I call crimble crumble because I’m still a little obsessed with the British sitcom, Friday Night Dinner. Other times I really want a softer, cake-y peach cobbler. Either way, I love it.
My goal is to use less butter or fat without totally sacrificing structure or taste and I’m so close to perfection I can feel it. And taste it.
Chickpeas (?)
I know, chickpeas and dessert don’t go together…do they?
They do!
Like I said, I’ve been experimenting and combining chickpeas with desserts not only give you extra protein, but also a solid texture , which means these are also flour-less.
And the ingredient list is pretty easy: chickpeas, bananas, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, baking soda, brown sugar and plant milk. They were very moist and almost fudgy, and best of all about 160 calories per 100 grams, but a serving size is about 30 to 50 grams.
Impressed? Yeah, me too!
And we’re caught up, sort of, on some of my recent vegan dessert attempts All were tasty and some were ugly.
What’s your go-to vegan dessert recipe to whip up?
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