Vegan Brownie Bites

I wanted to bake something for a friend's birthday party, but I had no idea what to make and didn't feel like going to the grocery store for ingredients. My mind went to brownies right away, easy and I was pretty sure that I had all the ingredients needed. However, I didn't have eggs so started searching for Vegan brownie recipes. There are quite a lot out there but many had mixed reviews or just sounded pretty complicated. I finally decided on one from the Minimalist Baker with their Simple Vegan Brownies. Their "eggs" were made with flaxseed, which I had no idea could be used as an egg replacement. I only ever used flaxseed in my smoothies, now I want to try it out in other recipes. These brownies were extremely easy to make. I only added in some chocolate chunks and a little icing. While searching for a brownie recipe, I found somewhere on youtube some unique icing for brownies made out of only 2 ingredients. Equal parts Agave nectar and cocoa powder turns into a perfect icing for these brownies. The brownies went down really well. They were yummy, slight crust outside and moist inside. They were good!! I didn't change anything in this recipe, so go check out the Simple Vegan Brownies recipe from Minimalist Baker!!

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Shane's Vegan Pancakes

This past Tuesday was Pancake Day in the UK and I was excited to make a vegan version with Shane. It wasn't until later in the day that I realized I had made plans with friends that night to go for a meal and catch a movie. I asked Shane if we could make them later in the week and the answer I got was "Nope, it's pancake day!". So, I missed out on trying these on actual pancake day but Shane made them again tonight with special toppings, one had peanut butter and bananas, and the other one had lots of berries. These pancakes are fluffy like the American ones and very yummy! I tried them on their own, just to make sure it wasn't the toppings that were making them so good but even with vegan butter these pancakes were tasty.  Try out the recipe below to make 4 large pancakes.

Recipe: courtesy of VeganPancakes Ingredients: 1 cup flour 2 tbsp baking powder 1 1/2 tbsp sugar 1/8 tsp salt 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 cup soy milk 1 tsp ground cinnamon, optional

Steps: Take a medium bowl and combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in the ground cinnamon if desired. Mix together well. Now add soy milk and oil to the above mixture. Mix well until the liquids are fully incorporated and the batter becomes smooth. Heat a large non-stick pan medium heat. Use a ladle and drop about 1/4 cup of batter at a time in the pan to form a pancake. When you see bubbles in the middle of the pancake, turn the pancake over with a spatula. Cook for a further minute or two and it should be done.

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Cookie Dough Bites [vegan]

I love cookie dough and when I came across this one I couldn't wait to make it as my other half has recently become a vegan. You would never know these were vegan though unless I told you. I think people get hung up on the word vegan and think you are on some weird diet. No weird ingredients in this recipe. I already had all the ingredients for these simple to make bite size treats. So even though I am not a vegan, I am going to try out more vegan recipes. These were a good one to start out with and if you don't have vegan margarine use whatever margarine or butter you have and your favorite chocolate. It was very hard not to just eat this dough straight from the bowl. My brain is now thinking about different ways I could use the cookie dough... Cookie Dough Brownies? 


Recipe
Courtesy of Chef Chloe
Ingredients:
½ cup Vegan Margarine
¾ cup Light Brown Sugar, packed

¼ tsp Salt
1 tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Water
1 ¼ cups Plain Flour
½ cup Mini Dark Chocolate Chips
340g (12oz) Dark Chocolate


Steps:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or tin foil.

2. Using a mixer, beat margarine, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and water until combined. Add flour and beat until incorporated. Fold in mini chocolate chips. Cover dough and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Roll chilled dough into 1-inch balls with the palms of your hands. Place on prepared baking sheets. Freeze for 15 minutes.
4. Melt the remaining chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Let cool to room temperature. Remove one tray of cookie dough balls from the freezer. Dip each ball into the melted chocolate and remove using two forks. Place the coated balls back onto the baking sheet and transfer to the refrigerator. Repeat with the second tray of cookie dough balls. 
5. Chill until the chocolate is set, about 20 minutes. Store in refrigerator until serving. 
6. Enjoy!

The chocolate had a bit of frost on it in the pictures as I left them in the freezer overnight... once the chocolate thawed it looked darker like in the last picture. They were very yummy!

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Vegan Chai Latte Cupcakes

I was looking through photos off of my old phone and found this one of Chai Latte Cupcakes! I went through a stage of vegan baking from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World recipe book. It's a great book and has some really great cupcake creations. Try this recipe out and I bet no one would know they are vegan cupcakes. I will have to do some more recipes from this book and take better pictures with my camera.

Recipe
Courtesy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over...
Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
4 black teabags
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch of ground pepper

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Heat soy milk to almost boiling in a small sauce pan. Add the tea bags, cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes.When ready, dunk teabags a few times in soy milk and squeeze gently to extract any soy milk before removing. Discard tea bags. Measure the soy milk and tea mixture and add more soy milk if it is less than 1 cup.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla and tea mixture until all yogurt lumps disappear. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and pepper into wet ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear, some small lumps are okay. Fill tins full and bake for 20 to 22 minutes.
4. Cool completely on a wire rack before decorating with icing sugar and cocoa powder.

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