vegan desserts

Vegan Cashew Butter Cookies

Posted on September. 2023September. 2023 by writinstuff

Cue eyeroll, right?

Maybe not, but whenever I say things like ‘cashew butter’ or ‘almond butter’ all of my non-vegan, non-special diet people start rolling their eyes at my “made up” stuff. But seriously, have you tried cashew butter? It’s like all the deliciousness of peanut butter but leveled up because CLEARLY cashew nuts are superior.

Oops, I mean I like them better.

Right?

*Shrugs*

Anyway my husband bought a literal vat of cashew butter and asked just one thing, to make some of my super delicious vegan peanut butter cookies (Chewy Cookies or Quick Cookies), but with cashew butter. I said sure, but I delayed and delayed because my booty is getting smaller and my thighs said “Hell no, girl, don’t do it!”

But I’m pretty fond of him so (eventually) I got around to it.

The good news? You can literally just swap out the peanut butter for the cashew butter. BUT you have to be a little careful because the cashew butter we have is more like tahini, thicker even with the oil and I think it requires a bit more finesse than it’s peanut cousin.

The bad news? They are just as delicious so if you’re like my Hubs and you struggle with controlling yourself around sweets, well you’re in trouble. Or maybe not, just make 6 or 12. Not 27.

Happy Baking!!!

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Desserts, Plant Based, Vegan

Vegan German Chocolate Frosting Recipe

Posted on July. 2023July. 2023 by writinstuff

Back in the day, even well before I went vegan, I used to eat sweet treats on a fairly regular basis. As a teenager I’d say that Snickers made up a good chunk of my weight gain but later it was two things (other than overeating): brownies and German chocolate cake.

My grandmother used to make German chocolate cake from scratch with those dark bricks of German chocolate and as a girl I thought it was exotic and fancy and I was absolutely fascinated by it. Maybe it was my love pecans or maybe it was the massive amounts of sugar in this particular cake but even now, I have nothing but fond memories of it.

Fast forward to being a vegan and trying to recreate one of my favorite dishes and honestly it was pretty much hit or miss. I used cornstarch with my plant milk to create the thickness of the frosting but it just fell flat. Was it the lack of fat in the plant milk? I don’t know. Trying to recreate that thick frosting was just not coming out right and so, I kind of just gave up after a while.

Big bummer, I know.

But then I was introduced to the wonder of dates. They aren’t just good for adding natural sugar to your favorite dessert or energy balls, turns out they are also a good impersonator of caramel and so with the help of other vegan bloggers and my own tweaks, I got it just about right.

I hope.

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Desserts, Plant Based, Vegan

Easy Vegan No-Bake Brownie Bites

Posted on March. 2023March. 2023 by writinstuff

Yesterday was my birthday and I swear I’m not telling you this just so you’ll say ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, but you totally can if you want to.

When it comes to birthdays I am usually the person who will show up at your door with a homemade dessert and an off-key rendition of Happy Birthday and if you’re really lucky, an off-key version of the Stevie Wonder song. Either way, that’s me.

Except for my own birthday. But this year I was feeling good about myself and making excellent progress on reaching my weight loss goals while also not obsessing about not making my weight loss goals, so I decided I wanted my favorite dessert ever. Brownies.

But of course I couldn’t quite bring myself to make like actual brownies because, well because that’s just not who I am anymore. But I found quite a few different variations on vegan brownie recipes, no bake brownie recipes and I did a little online curating and came up with something a little different.

These no bake vegan brownie bites are super easy, only requires a few ingredients and they don’t require you to pre-heat an oven or bust out a toothpick to check for doneness.

Sounds good, right? You’re totally intrigued to keep reading for my easy no-bake vegan brownie bites.

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Desserts, Vegan

Ben & Jerry’s Vegan Ice Cream

Posted on August. 2021August. 2021 by writinstuff

I’ve shared my adventures with you before, about living in Romania. Being vegan in Romania.

For the first year, it was hit or miss, finding fun and delicious vegan items that it seemed like the rest of the world had at their fingertips. To be honest, I was a bit envious of my vegan friends all around the world.

On the upside, I became a better vegan cook in my own right. I learned to appreciate the value, the taste and the health benefits of a whole food, plant based diet. I learned how to make seitan sausages, gyros and ribs. So I’m not too salty about it.

In the past 2 years, Romania is really stepped up its game and I’m proud of the manufacturers and all the other vegans in this small country for making them see we are a forced to be reckoned with.

All that, is my long-winded way of telling you about the most magnificent new vegan find of the week.

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream…nay, Ben & Jerry’s vegan ice cream.

It was tasty, as far as ice cream goes, but my Hubs really appreciated it. I did too, but I’m half way through the container and I have yet to find a salty pretzel!

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Desserts, International vegan cuisine, Potatoes, Vegan

The Easiest Vegan Sweet Potato Pie EVER!

Posted on December. 2020January. 2021 by writinstuff

Although Thanksgiving in the United States has come and gone, the season for sweet potato pie is still upon us and I, for one, think that as long as you can find sweet potatoes then you have time/room for pie!

And when it comes to making vegan desserts, I know that sometimes all the substitutions can make vegan baking a daunting task but this vegan sweet potato recipe is easy and delicious. And the best part? No pie crust!

If you’re in the market for a quick and easy vegan pie, keep reading.

Let’s start with the vegan pie crust because, and I can admit this because we’re all friends here, it is my vegan baking weakness. The first problem is that here in Romania I have a hard time finding actual vegan butter, it’s just margarine which has too much water to make a good vegan pie crust. The second problem is that I have yet to make a vegan pie crust with coconut oil that didn’t just go limp and lifeless.

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Desserts, Fruit, Grains, Plant Based, Vegan

Easy Vegan Cherry Crumble

Posted on March. 2020March. 2020 by writinstuff

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?

Desserts, Vegan

When Berries Are In Season

Posted on July. 2019July. 2019 by writinstuff

One of my favorite things about traveling, even within the country, is discovering all the little nooks and crannies close to home. Whether it’s buying fresh (organic) watermelon from an old lady on the side of the road or stopping at an out of the way farm to pick my own corn on the cob, I love the adventure. And what I love most is taking my treasure and turning it into something delicious.

Something memorable.

Summer is now in full bloom here in Romania. The trees are are bright and full and green, the flowers are perfuming the air and the humidity has been lifting weights…if you know what I mean.

So when the day is hot (and humid) and beautiful and bright, and gorgeous semi-wild blackberries and raspberries find their way into your kitchen, you treat them right.

I’m a midwestern girl at heart and I LOVE a good cobbler, crisp, crumble or whatever you want to call it, so that was the first thing that came to mind. But I wasn’t in the mood for a buttery crumble or a cake-y cobbler, or a hearty oat-based crisp. Instead, I wanted a sweet biscuit topping.

It’s pretty easy to make and more than worth the small amount of effort.

For the topping:

Sugar

All purpose flour

Baking powder

Salt

Vegan butter

Almond milk

VegEgg

Scoop the dough in spoonfuls on top of the fruit mixture and pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Since I kind of came to this recipe backwards, I figured we’d take the journey together! Rinse and dry the berries and then take a long hard look at your spice rack to see what you wanted to do. Even though these were dark berries and I wanted a cobbler, I didn’t want a autumn or holiday flavor so I went with a pinch of nutmeg, lemon zest and juice, coconut sugar and a teeny tiny dash of cinnamon. Easy.

Because I wanted to take it easy on the sugar, I added a bit of ground vanilla on top of the biscuit topping, that’s the dark flecks you see in the photo above.

This dish is easy to make and you can adjust the size for the amount of berries currently in your possession, and if you’ve had a rewarding workout, feel free to add a scoop of almond ice cream right on top.

Tomorrow is July 4th which is Independence Day for my American readers so please, feel free to use this vegan recipe to celebrate and as a not-so-sneaky way to get fruit into everyone’s day!

Desserts, Plant Based, Vegan

Chewy Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted on February. 2019February. 2019 by writinstuff

The first dozen or so times I tried to veganize a dessert recipe the results were disastrous. My cakes were too dense thanks to the applesauce, my cookies were flat and heavy and my pies were not flaky. I came pretty close to resigning myself to a life without my favorite homemade desserts, which surprised me because I’m a very occasional consumer of sweets.

My husband however has a certified sweet tooth and he was nowhere near ready to resign himself to a life without homemade baked goods. So I did my homework and thanks to other amazing vegan bloggers & vloggers, plus all the advancements in vegan food, things began to improve. Non-dairy milk, flax & chia seeds, applesauce and plenty of other dairy substitutes were tried, rated and discarded or kept in my pocket for use at a later date.

Now, thanks to plant butter and amazing egg substitutes, you won’t be able to tell the difference between my baked goodies and those with butter, milk and eggs in’em. And that’s a promise!

Which is my (very) long-winded intro into a day of peanut butter cookies, which happen to be my hubs’ favorite thing. He asked me for more than a week to make them and I finally relented. And thanks to poor planning, I had a leftover bag of vegan chocolate chips to use for a few of the cookies!

I have a super easy vegan peanut butter cookie recipe that you will LOVE! All you need is peanut butter (1 cup), butter (1 cup) and brown sugar (1.5 cups), which you will cream together. Add in 2 vegan eggs and vanilla extract (I used a splash of Disaronno instead, but do you) and then set aside. Add flour (2.5 cups), salt (1/2 tsp), baking soda (1.5 tsp) and powder (1 tsp) in a bowl and then mix into wet ingredients until blended. Chill for ten minutes and bake 10 to 12 minutes. (Makes 4 dozen-ish)

It’s very easy and the results are worth the effort. If you want softer chewy cookies, cook at the low end of the time and if you want them crispier, cook longer. But let’s not forget that your stove will help determine an exact cooking time to pay attention to the progress.

Just in case you need a reason to have vegan cookies for breakfast!

You can use this recipe to make peanut butter sandwich cookies or even XL cookies half-dipped in chocolate. Change the recipe as you see fit.

Here are a few ways I’ve changed up my peanut butter cookie recipe over the years:

1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
Rum or Bitter Almond extract
Orange zest
1 pinch of Cardamom
Add pretzel pieces and vegan candy and smoosh into muffin pan

Comment below and tell me how you like your peanut butter cookies!