As someone who grew up with Christmas treats galore, it just wouldn't be Christmas without an insane amount of goodies in the home. The signature chocolate peanut butter fudge was always present, along with varieties of peanut brittle, sugar cookies, peppernuts (a German Mennonite tradition) and divinity. It's interesting to see what happens once you become vegan. The recipes have to be tweaked a little and things like divinity simply don't exist. Although I have been lenient in my veganism, I do try to go as vegan as possible when it comes to baked goods since the way I make them usually ends up in less fat and sugar.
I'm posting a few recipes that I've come to love over the last few years. I hope you have the opportunity to experiment with these and enjoy them as much as I do.
Molasses Ginger Cookies
Ingredients:
all organic ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1¾ cups whole wheat flour
1½ teaspoon ground ginger
1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt (fine grain)
¾ cup melted Earth Balance (or a fat replacer such as applesauce or bananas)
¾ cup Sucanat (adjust to your preference)
substitution for 1 egg, prepared. (I used bobs red mill egg replacer)
¾ cup unsulphured molasses
--optional-- Sucanat for sprinkling
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°Fahrenheit. Lightly spritz canola oil on surface of baking sheet.
In a bowl, whisk flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together; set aside.
In a separate large bowl, beat Earth Balance and Sucanat until fluffiness occurs.
Mix in egg replacer and molasses.
Beat in dry ingredient mixture, half at a time.
Drop dough in balls of your preference onto the baking sheet(s).
Sprinkle with Sucanat if you plan to.
Bake about 10-12 minutes or until the edges are about set but the middle of cookie is still soft.
Let stand about 5 minutes on the baking sheet(s) before moving to wire rack to cool completely.
English Toffee
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups Earth Balance margarine
2-12 ounce bags of vegan chocolate chips
2 teaspoons of veg. shortening
walnuts (optional)
candy thermometer
Directions:
Get a cookie sheet ready with wax paper on it. Medium size pan on medium heat, melt margin and vegan sugar. Stir constantly until you reach 285 degrees on the candy thermometer. (Usually about 15 minutes when hard crack stage sets in. You can also test in a glass of cold water by dropping in a bit and seeing if it hardens and is crunchy, which means it is ready) Pour out mixture onto wax paper cookie sheet. Let it cool.
Set up a double boiler system and melt 1 teaspoon of shortening first and then add a 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips. When melted, pour on one side of the toffee batch, and spread out. Put in fridge and let cool. When chocolate has hardened flip entire toffee batch over on another piece of wax paper and peel off old wax paper. Repeat double boiler procedure and put in fridge. After cooled, you can now break up and eat. Please store in the fridge, and should stay fresh about 2 weeks. My friends call this vegan crack because it is so addicting. So please Beware!
With nut option you can add them to the batch just before the hot toffee is being poured out. You can also blend up the nuts to coat the top and bottom of the chocolate before it cools.
Puppy Chow
Ingredients:
1 box Nature's Path Heritage Bites Cereal (Crispix-style but without the Vitamin D)
1 10 oz bag of vegan chocolate chips (I prefer Tropical Source brand)
1 cup creamy organic peanut butter
organic powdered sugar
Directions:
Put entire box of cereal in plastic mixing bowl. Place chocolate chips and peanut butter in microwave safe glass bowl and place in microwave for about a minute and a half- stopping half way to stir. Pour mixture over cereal and stir. Once the chocolate mixture is coated evenly over cereal, place cereal in a paper grocery bag and pour in powdered sugar. Fold bag top over and take bag outside to shake. Look inside and see if more powdered sugar is needed. If so, place more in the bag and shake again. Place cereal in a Ziploc bag and let cool in the fridge.
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