Vegan Chocolate Chipper Cookies

I LOVE chocolate chip cookies...I always have, but I don't eat pre-made, processed, conventional ones anymore because of some food allergies and personal ingredient choices. 

After experimenting with many cookie recipes over the last 8-9 years, I feel that this is the best at-home, veganized one so far.

I think that these really tatse like warm, yummy chocolate chip cookies and not like a bad, sad reproduction!

Let me know what you think...

Vegan Chocolate Chipper Cookies

½ cup vegan butter substitute, like Earth Balance

¾ cup organic sugar of choice

2-3 teaspoons of vanilla extract

3 (or more) tablespoons of water

2 cups whole grain flour

½ cup finely ground walnuts

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ to ½ cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to ◦350

In a large bowl, blend the butter substitute, sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of water until well mixed.

Stir in the flour, ground walnuts, baking powder and salt. Keep stirring until it forms together like dough. If it is too dry and crumbly add more water one tablespoon at a time, just until a small piece of the dough will hold together when formed into a little ball.

Form small dough balls and press onto an ungreased cookie sheet. When pressed, cookies should be about ¼” thick.

Bake for about 15 minutes and check. They should hold together but be sure the bottoms are not burning. My batch took a bit longer and I checked them about every 2 minutes.

Let them cool on a wire rack and enjoy!

Sunbutter Bombs

These are SO good! Like healthy little brownie nuggets…no baking, super easy and all natural ingredients!

This recipe is all approximate! I do it by “feel” but this should give you somewhere to start. If it seems too dry add more liquidy stuff like dates, vanilla or agave…if it is too sticky add more dry stuff like ground nuts.

Play with it a bit until the little bombs hold together with out being oily, crumbly or loose.

Sunbutter Bombs

2 cups of nuts of your choice. I used pecans.

1 to 2 cups of pitted soft dates

3 to 4 teaspoons of vanilla

½ to 1 cup of sunflower seed butter

1 to 2 tablespoons of agave syrup

2 to 4 tablespoons cocoa (optional)

* grind the nuts finely in a small food processor or a high speed blender

* move the ground nuts to a separate bowl

For the next steps, start with the smaller amount of each additional ingredient that is listed above…

* Put the dates into the food processor or high speed blender and blend until chopped very small and sort of chewey

* Add the ground nuts to the chopped dates (if you want you can reserve a small amount of the ground nuts to dip the bombs in after they are rolled)

* Also add the vanilla and agave

* Add the cocoa if desired

* Blend all until it binds together…add dry or wet ingredients as needed

* Roll into small balls and dip in ground nuts if desired.

* Refrigerate until ready to enjoy!

…mmmm

Sensational Smores - Gluten Free and Vegan

All I can say is yum!

While I can't really call these "healthy"...

they are certainly a much healthier version of traditional smores.

I promise you will never miss what's not in here.

These products can be found in most health/whole foods stores.

I melted the vegan chocolate chips on the crackers and then added a dollop of the Ricemellow.

Topped it with another cracker and instant Sssssmores!

Let me know what you think.

Non-Dairy Premade Chocolate Syrup - AH!LASKA

So creamy and good!

This non-dairy chocolate syrup tastes great over our raw, vegan (non) ice cream as a special treat.

We found it at our local health food store.

Dairy Free

Gluten Free

Kosher

Natural or Organic Ingredients

Vegan

Wheat Free

Click here to visit the website for Ah Laska

Gluten, Dairy and Egg Free Premade Cookies - Lucy's

A yummy find...

My son and I have many food allergies but were thrilled to find cookies that actually taste good and that fit within our dietary guidelines.

This company has other flavors but these are our favorites.

Wonderful dunked in rice milk...

Give them a try!

Food Art - Dessert Flower

A dear friend of mine was lucky enough to have this thoughtful dessert display created especially for her...while she was on holiday in Greece, no less!

Just shows you how simple ingredients can be arranged in a supremely unique way.

Honor yourself with pretty things.

Handmade Raw Vegan Organic Chocolate Bar - Gnosis

Wow!

This special chocolate was brought to our attention by a thoughtful shop owner in New Canaan, Connecticut. What a treat.

The box packaging was so wonderful...like opening a little gift!

There were other flavors but we only tried this one.

The company mission and literature were so positive and full of love...

Click here to visit the Gnosis Chocolate website

Why Call it "Gnosis?"

(no'sis) n. [Greek for knowledge] Knowledge of the Heart, Experiential Knowledge of Truth

Creative Cupcake Frosting - Tip

I learned this tip...no pun intended...a long time ago and it has been very useful.

If you don't have fancy frosting tools and tips or if you simply don't want to get them all out and have to clean them you can try this simple trick.

Take a sandwich size ziptop baggie and snip a tiny triangle off of one of the bottom corners. Be sure the bottom is flat and that it doesn't have a gusset. I have made that mistake before and ended up with two streams of frosting! aghh!

This part takes a little finesse...while loosely holding the cut bag end in one hand, with a spoon, neatly scoop a bunch of frosting into the baggie through the open end. Then seal the top and carefully twist the top section of the baggie to force the frosting down towards the cut tip.

That's it. Instant frosting tool.

Not fancy and a little more homemade looking but still tasty!

I think the frosting is the BEST part of the cupcake anyway.

Righteously Raw Chololate Bars

I choose not to partake in conventional dessert...loaded with fat, dairy, refined sugars, bad oils, etc...but I do enjoy raw, live treats, made with real food.

A raw foods chef and teacher (Kristen Suzanne) turned me on to these beautiful raw chocolate bars and I wanted to pass along the gift.

I tried the Righteously Raw Caramel...which I LOVED

and the Righteously Raw Maca...which I really liked

I found them at Whole Foods and a local natural foods market while visiting my parents in Palm Desert, CA.

I visited their website and was really inspired by their mission and story. Check it out...

Enjoy!

http://www.earthsourceorganics.com/index.php

Sun Butter Cups - Recipe

OMG!

These were so good!

I waited to post this recipe until I had made it a few times...

thinking it was a fluke that they tasted so good.

No way could these be "safe" for us.

They were actually better each time!

This is our altered recipe, due to our food allergies.

Try it...see what you think.

They are super easy and can be ready for a party or special event in a short amount of time.

We have plans to try different fillings...

Raw caramel? Mint? Berries?

Sun Butter Cups

This recipe looks long but it is so easy!

Once you do it once you might not even need to look at this again.

1 to 1 1/2 cups of sunflower seed butter

1/3 cup organic powdered sugar

2 to 2 1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

10-14 paper or tin muffin cups

Melt about 1 1/4 cups of the vegan chocolate chips...90 seconds - 2 minutes on half power in the microwave or use a pot on the stove top. Stir. Be sure not to burn the chocolate.

Using the back of a spoon, press a thin layer of chocolate into the muffin cups... along the bottom and into the groves of the sides, stopping about half way up. If you want taller cups bring the chocolate higher up the sides. We preferred a thinner layer of chocolate to a thick one.

Don't expect them to be "perfect"...have fun, get messy.

They will taste good and some of the rouge chocolate will break away later, when you remove the muffin cups.

I placed my muffin cups on a cookie sheet or platter for easy transport in and out of the freezer or fridge.

Place the chocolate muffin cups into the freezer or fridge to harden.

In a bowl mix the sunflower seed butter and salt.

Fold in the the powdered sugar, breaking up the clumps as you go.

Make sure the chocolate cups have hardened. If they have, move on to the next step...

Warm the sun butter filling in a pot on the stove or in the microwave for about a minute. Let the filling sit for a minute.

Spoon the sun butter filling into the hardened chocolate cups, leaving room for the top layer of chocolate.

Place the filled cups back into the freezer or fridge while you prepare the rest of the melted chocolate.

Repeat what you did in step 1...melting the remaining chocolate.

Spoon the melted chocolate over the filled cups, gently working the melted chocolate into all edges.

Place the completed cups back in the freezer or fridge and wait (if you can) for them to set and harden.

Once set, peel the muffin cups off and enjoy!

After, I stored mine in the refrigerator and they kept for several days.

We couldn't tell for exactly how long because everyone ate them!

Semi Raw Vegan Homemade Brownies

Treats we make to share with friends...

no wheat, no eggs, no dairy, no peanuts.

They always get a big "thumbs up"!

I think this is a great recipe to start out with...

tastes amazing and begins introducing you to the wonderful world of "raw foods".

I can't remember which books

some of this came out of..

so I apologize that I can't give an accurate reference.

Vegan Black and White Brownies:

* 2 cups pecans (or any nuts you like)

* 2 cups dates pitted and soaked in water for 5-10 min.

* 2/3 cup raw cacao powder (available at Whole Foods or health foods stores)

* 2 tsp vanilla extract

* pinch of sea salt

Blend dates in a food processor or high speed blender till a paste.

Separately grind nuts in a blender or chopper. Mix all ingredients in a bowl with your hands and press in a glass pan. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes to set up.

When set, cut into squares, remove from pan and place on a platter, top with the frosting below and drizzle with the chocolate syrup below.

The chocolate syrup turns into a shell when refrigerated! yum

Frosting:

“Pamela’s Products” Vanilla Frosting Mix (available at natural food stores or Whole Foods)

I use Earth Balance in place of the butter to eliminate the dairy.

Just follow the package directions.

Chocolate Sauce:

½ cup Raw Cacao Powder (available at Whole Foods or health foods stores)

¼ cup Coconut Oil

¼ cup Agave syrup

mix by hand in a small bowl till smooth

* great on any dessert!

* Note: I did non create these individual recipes

but I did combine them to make these yummy treats.

Pre-made, Allergen-Free, Vegan Cupcakes - Izzi B

These were a real find!

Totally decadent and pretty to look at.

We found them at a small natural foods store in New Canaan, Connecticut but I think they can be ordered online or by phone.

We shared them with non-allergic friends and they didn't know they were so allergen free!

Izzi B's promotional material states:

No wheat

No soy

No eggs

No gluten

No dairy

No nuts

No casein

No refined sugars

No honey

No seeds

No apples

No trans-fats

No preservatives

Celiac-friendly

Vegan

All Natural...

-whew!

One would assume that that would translate into

No taste...but no!

They were super yummy.

Let me know what you think...

Click here to visit Izzi B's Website