Happy November, my fellow vegans! If you’re inside the United States then you know that sweet potato pie season has officially begun! If you are outside of the U.S. then it’s just regular ol’ autumn for you, which means tons of sweet potatoes and pumpkin and even butternut squash recipes.
The good news is that you can use many of these interchangeably. For example if you have pumpkin or squash in your vegetable box right now, you can use it in place of sweet potato in today’s vegan recipe.
The great news? This vegan sweet potato pie recipe tastes just like the ones grandma makes except it doesn’t require you to:
*Spend all day making a complicated and veganized pie crust *Manually mixing up pie ingredients until they reach the perfect consistency
And best of all? It turns out perfectly every single time.
Every. Single. Time.
SO let’s stop talking about this mouthwatering vegan sweet potato pie and start making it, yeah?
Who doesn’t love cake? Truthfully? Me. I mean I like cake but it’s not something that I just have to have or can’t live without. If it’s too sweet then I’ll have a bite of my husband’s piece but that’s where it ends.
I don’t know about you but whenever I have a few overripe bananas, which I do often because my partner buys them and pretends that he will eat them so they get overripe and I have no choice but to use them, the first thing I think of is banana bread. Of course.
Even though I’m a vegan who isn’t a huge fan of bananas, I can admit to a deep love of banana bread, with or without blueberries, walnuts, pecans, cranberries or any other add-in. But thanks to the above mentioned surplus of overripe bananas lately, a woman like me is forced to be creative.
So I dug deep in my well of vegan cookie knowledge and came up with something new, at least to me.
Vegan banana oat cookies.
This is an easy vegan cookie recipe that you can halve or double from the original 24 cookies.
I’m not much for sweets but my partner has quite the sweet tooth which feeds my need to bake when autumn and winter roll around and pumpkin & squash are EVERYWHERE!
I really love to grab a big ol’ pumpkin, roast it up and use pretty much the whole damn thing. I’ll soak & roast the seeds, make a soup, cookies, pies, cakes, breads, sauces & creams and whatever else strikes my fancy. It’s just how I roll.
Last week, he jokingly asked if it was possible to have peanut butter pumpkin cookies and I was like…why not?
And here we are.
If you’re looking for a vegan holiday cookie recipe that’s easy and delicious, this one might be the perfect fit for you. If you’re more of a cupcake lover, check out my Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.
I find it easier to measure in grams when baking because I find that it yields a better final result, but if you’re in the US or you just love imperial measurements, this recipe was adapted from The Natural Nurturer.
Preheat the oven to 175C/350F and put down parchment paper on your baking sheets. The original recipe said this would yield about 18 cookies but somehow I got 37. I might bee because I ran out of whole wheat flour so half of this recipe is soy flour I had on hand, but I can’t say for sure until I try again.
Let me tell you how easy this recipe is: combine everything into one large bowl (except chocolate chips if you decide to add them, which I did not) and mix well until just blended.
Scoop out onto your baking sheets and bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes and gobble, gobble.
Yeah, these vegan cookies are just that simple. If you have time and all the ingredients on hand, kick your fall up a notch with these tasty pumpkin cookies.
The best part about these cookies? They are very calorie friendly as long as you don’t eat a full dozen in one sitting!
The key to any good vegan pumpkin desserts or sauces or…whatever, is the right pumpkin cooked the right way. Cut the pumpkin in half (like the photo below) and rub the flesh with oil. I used coconut oil because I planned sweet applications for the whole thing and roast it flesh side down. It should take about 40-50 minutes if it’s on the large side, but check it every 10 minutes after the 40 minute mark to make sure it doesn’t burn.
Let the pumpkin cool completely before you scoop out the insides. Refrigerate the insides for up to a week or you can freeze what you don’t use right away and it’ll hold for much longer.
I know we all love to make fun of those who go a little crazy when pumpkin spice season rolls around, but the truth is these people are just taking advantage of an abundance of a spice blend that really should be available all year long. I mean, ask yourself, what is so wrong with any of these:
Cinnamon GInger Cloves Allspice Nutmeg
I can’t think of one reason to hate on these spices, especially when you have every type of squash and pumpkin at your disposal! It’s like being mad that your market has broccoli, cauliflower and romesco! Unfathomable, that’s what it is.
All I’m saying is, embrace the season and not just because we are all living in the Upside Down known as 2020, just enjoy because it’s tasty, easy to make and readily available.
All you have to do is take your favorite vegan pumpkin cupcake recipe, or a vegan cake recipe, or any other vegan autumn recipe and add the pumpkin spice blend to the dry ingredients. It really is just that simple.
And if you’re feeling really sauce, like I apparently was, add a pumpkin spice glaze by adding the same blend to powdered sugar along with almond milk, or any other nut milk, plus pinch of bourbon or brandy. For these vegan cupcakes, I used a splash of Apple Pie Moonshine because it has that extra hint of sweetness and booze that turn these vegan cupcakes into something truly amazing.
Want to make’em?
Here we go:
250g All Purpose Flour 225g Brown Sugar 1 tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Salt 3 and 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (homemade or store bought) 335g Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling) 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (I’m in love with this Madagascar vanilla from Dr. Oetker. 60ml Coconut Oil (or other oil, like EVOO) 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar 1 Vegan Egg (I like Archeor Megga Exx, both are German brands if you’re interested)
Mix the dry ingredients together and pour the wet into the dry, stirring until bend but be careful not to overmix or you’ll end up with tough, dense vegan pastries.
Bake at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Now you’re done and ready to gobble up your vegan pumpkin spice cupcakes!
If you plan to add a glaze, let the cupcakes cool for 15 to 20 minutes or you’ll end up with a big, gooey mess.
What do you like drink with your vegan cupcakes…beer? Cocktails? Almond milk?
Some of you have reached out to me and asked why, oh why, do I so rarely post any #vegan desserts on this blog and the answer is two-fold really.
The first answer is simple: calories & sugar. Back in 2017 I made the decision to go vegan for my health, which meant I needed to get rid of old eating habits and replace them with healthier, cruelty free options that would help me lose weight and get back in shape.
Second, shortly after going vegan we moved from Germany to Romania and the stove we had until recently was total crap. Complete and total crap.
So there you have it, my short-ish explanation for why this blog has been seriously lacking in vegan dessert recipes. Today, we’re going to see if we can change that with some quick vegan peanut butter cookies.
Just in case you’re wondering, I have not yet reached my weight goal so these are not celebratory vegan cookies, they’re more like ‘celebrating my new stove’ cookies.
And since I’ve been looking for ways to make calorie friendly dessert recipes, I decided to fiddle with the recipe a little bit, so here we go!
Ingredients:
Peanut butter
Brown sugar (light or dark, unless you have access to truly vegan cane sugar)
Almond milk (or your preferred plant milk)
Flour
Coconut oil
Vanilla extract (I use Dr. Oetker’s Madagascar vanilla and I love it, but use what you have)
Mix remaining ingredients until you have a yummy vegan peanut butter cookie dough
Use a cookie scoop or a spoon to measure 1 tablespoon of dough and then roll & flatten like the photo below, using a regular kitchen fork
Line the cookies on parchment (or silicon if you have it, drop recommendations in the comments below, please!) paper and pop into a preheated oven at 350°F/180°C.
My new stove! Don’t you love the reflection of my slippers?
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, shorter for soft cookies and longer for crispier ones.
See how easy these vegan cookies were to bake? All you need is one bowl, a good mixing arm and some good quality peanut butter and you’re good to go.
I hope everyone is doing well, wherever you are in the world. Stay indoors and stay safe.
Most of all, while you’re stuck inside don’t be afraid to spend some time in the kitchen like I’ve been doing. Okay, sure I tend to spend some of my rare free time in the kitchen and this time it was for a sweet vegan treat.
The truth is that I make desserts more than I post them because my husband has a wicked sweet tooth and it lets me practice playing with the proportions to reduce sugar and fat without changing the consistency. Anyway the problem with my vegan desserts is that they don’t photograph well. They taste good, at least according to him, but they rarely look good on camera.
Today my cherry crumble has broken the mold. Badump-ump?
No?
Okay, on to the vegan cherry crumble recipe, then.
The ingredients are pretty simple:
Frozen Morello cherries
Brown Sugar
Corn starch
Oats
Cinnamon
Puffed Millet
Petit Beurre biscuits (accidentally vegan!)
Lemon (peel & juice)
Coconut oil (or whatever you’ve got on hand)
Toss the cherries with a tablespoon or two of brown sugar, lemon juice & corn starch. Set aside.
Mix the oats, millet, cinnamon and biscuits with a tablespoon of sugar and vegan butter of your choice. I used Becel because that’s what the market has.
Mix it all together with your hands, slowly adding the butter until you get a crumbly mixture.
Place the cherries in the bottom of a pre-oiled baking dish and sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly on top. Bake 35-45 minutes until it is golden brown and crispy on top and bubbly underneath.
Let it cool slightly and then dig in!
What desserts are you making while you’re inside all day?
How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
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