Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows

I'm planning to bake a boat load of cookies for Christmas, but there are a few new recipes I want to try out before I give away cookies to people. This was one such recipe! An Isa creation, I wasn't too worried about the success of these little pieces of heaven, but still... I like testing things out first.

These required a little time, but were relatively easy to put together. And the marriage of chocolate and peanut is always, always, always a good idea! I took these into work, so that, ya know, I wouldn't eat them all myself. My co-workers and I agree: these are fantastic!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows
makes 2 dozen cookies

Chocolate dough:

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3 tablespoons non-dairy milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder

2 tablespoons black unsweetened cocoa or more dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style

2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons soy creamer or non-dairy milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

Make the filling. In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy creamer and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line bakings sheet with parchment paper.

Shape the cookies. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining doughs. If desired gently flatten cookies a little, but this is not necessary.

Place dough balls on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. Store cookies in tightly covered container. If desired warm cookies in a microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before serving.

Pumpkin Sweet Bread

A co-worker of mine, who shares my love of all things pumpkin, brought in a recipe for a sweet bread. The recipe she brought in wasn't vegan, but she said she thought maybe I could veganize it. Once I looked at it, I, too, thought that veganizing it would be easy. And it was! This is the kind of recipe when applesauce serves as the perfect egg substitute. The recipe can be used to make a loaf of bread or muffins; I made these on Thanksgiving, when baking time was a consideration, so I opted for muffins. These are really sweet and moist and fluffy, but the batter could be stretched to make 13 or 14 muffins, because some of the muffins in my dozen had serious muffin top.

You'll need:
1/2 C canola oil
1 1/4 C sugar
1/2 C applesauce
1 C pumpkin
1/2 C water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients. In another bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients.
4. If you want to bake muffins, spoon batter into tins. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
5. If you want to bake a loaf of bread, pour batter into bread pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie is the quintessential Thanksgiving dessert, amirite? I tried my first vegan pumpkin pie last year. I can't remember what recipe I used, but I DO remember that it was a big flop. The pie wouldn't set. When Mama Pea, who has never once led me astray, posted a recipe for pumpkin pie, I thought I'd give it a go. And this pie turned out wonderfully! I punked out and used a Wholly Wholesome crust, but I don't care because it was delicious. My only advice is to watch the condensed milk super closely! The line between condensed milk and gelatinous blob is very fine... and you don't want to cross it.

Ingredients (1 9-in. pie)

For the Crust:

• 1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 c. vegan margarine (i.e. Earth Balance) or coconut oil
• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2-4 T. cold water

For the Filling:

• 1 c. non-dairy or organic milk, divided
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 3 T. cornstarch
• 2 c. canned pumpkin
• 1 T. ground flax
• 1 t. molasses
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. ginger
• 1/2 t. nutmeg
• Garnish: non-dairy or organic whipped topping and pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Instructions

• For crust, in a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
• Cut in margarine or coconut oil until flour mixture is the texture of wet sand. You can also shortcut this process by using a food processor to blend your flour and fat together. Grandma didn’t. I do.
• In a liquid measuring cup, combine maple syrup, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of water. Pour mixture into flour.
• Stir until a dough starts to form. If the dough seems to dry, you can add another tablespoon or two of water.
• Transfer dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and wrap up dough, pressing into a disc.
• Put dough into the fridge to chill for at least an hour.
• Meanwhile, make the filling by bringing 3/4 c. milk and brown sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat.
• Once it has come to a boil, lower heat. Put cornstarch in a small bowl or in your liquid measuring cup. Add remaining milk and stir until completely smooth.
• Add cornstarch mixture to the pot, stirring rapidly.
• Bring the mixture back to a low boil until it is quite thick.
• Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, ground flax, molasses, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, ginger and nutmeg.
• Add sweetened, condensed milk and stir until completely incorporated.
• Set aside.
• When dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Dust a bread board with flour and turn dough out onto board.
• Roll dough out gently with a floured pin until it is about a quarter inch thick and about 12 inches in diameter.
• Transfer your dough to the pie plate by rolling up the edge on your rolling pin and then unrolling your pin on top of your pie plate. Or you can invert your bread board completely on top of your pie plate.
• Then press your dough into your plate and crimp the edge of your pie.
• Using the tines of a fork, poke holes in the bottom of your pie crust.
• Pour your prepared pumpkin filling into your pie shell and spread evenly to distribute.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes, until pie is set. If you have a pie shield, you’ll want to place it over the crust after about 20 minutes. If you don’t have a pie shield, you can make one out of tin foil, but essentially this will keep your crust from getting too dark.
• When the pie is cool, cover and refrigerate, preferably overnight.

Pumpkin Smoothie

The flash on my camera has gone haywire, so please excuse this terrible picture. I've got leftover pumpkin sitting in the fridge, so I decided to make a smoothie this evening. I've seen a bunch of different recipes floating around, so I settled for this combination of recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole bananas (frozen)
• ¼ cup canned pure pumpkin
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ¼ cup non-dairy milk
• a dash of ground ginger
• 1 tsp pure maple syrup
• graham cracker, crumbled

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and whiz until smooth, adding more non-dairy milk as necessary to achieve proper consistency. Add more pumpkin or spice to taste. Garnish with crumbled graham cracker.

Ridiculously easy, right?

Pumpkin Brownies

I bring you yet another pumpkin baked good. At this point, it's a miracle I haven't turned into a pumpkin. I saw these on Oh She Glows and wanted to give them a try. I refused to let these sit around my kitchen, tempting me with their dark deliciousness, so I brought some into work. Omni Mom did not like the texture, but just about everyone else said they loved them! And for what it's worth, I think they're pretty good, too. ;]

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Brownie Layer:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
• 3/4 cup white kamut flour (or white)
• 1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot/tapioca)
• 1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Pumpkin Pie Layer:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot/tapioca)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp almond milk
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
• Shaved chocolate, for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a muffin tin.

2. For brownie layer: In a stand mixer or by hand, mix together the coconut oil, pumpkin, vanilla, and sugar until blended well. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking, soda, sea salt and mix until incorporated. Take about 2 tbsp of the mixture and place in muffin tin. Wet fingers and spread around evenly so it is smooth. I made 8 large cupcakes and 2 small ones.

Brownie batter.

3. For pumpkin layer: In a large bowl mix together the pumpkin, vanilla, and milk. In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well until all clumps are gone. Now add approx 1.5-2 tbsp of the pumpkin pie mixture on top of each brownie in the pan. Garnish with grated chocolate (I used a lemon zester to grate the chocolate).

Layering the pumpkin.

4. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. Remove from oven and cool for 20-30 minutes and then move to the fridge to chill for 1.5 hours.

Ready for the oven!

5. Serves approx 8-10. I made 8 large cupcakes and 2 small ones (for kids). Enjoy with vegan vanilla ice cream.

This is what I did at work the other day. I love working with pre-k, but especially around holidays. For some of my students, the activities we do, like carving pumpkins, are the first time they experience something like this. And for most of them, regardless of their previous experiences, this is when they start forming memories of this sort of thing. It's really fun to be a part of it, and seeing how excited they get over things like this makes holiday activities even more enjoyable for me. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

My two favorite cousins are hosting a Halloween party later this month. A friend of ours asked me to make some food because I "always come up with the most delicious vegan treats." While his comment was flattering, he obvious doesn't know me well: I'd already bookmarked about 10 vegan Halloween recipes, and a whole host of other recipes that I think I could veganize.

I'm kind of paranoid with feeding other people though, because while I'll eat something slightly overcooked or something that looks a hot mess but tastes good, I've got high standards when it comes to feeding other people. So I've started testing out the new recipes in anticipation of Halloween!

I made pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies from Very Vegan Holiday (the most amazing holiday-themed blog!!) over the weekend. Prior to making these, I had a mini-lesson in types of flours, because I didn't realize just how many types of flours there are. The extent of my flour use was basically all-purpose and whole wheat. Pretty limited once I took a good look at the baking aisle in Whole Foods. This is when I accidentally bought baking flour when I wanted all-purpose flour, too. When I got home, I figured baking flour would be fine since I was baking cookies.

Not the case.

 I don't know if it's that's how the recipe is supposed to turn out, or if the flour had something to do with it, but the cookies had a serious cake-like texture. They weren't bad, and in fact were quite flavorful, but the texture was not right. And that's exactly why I test out new recipes before feeding them to people. 

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
- 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 lb semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, cream together the sugars, shortening, applesauce, pumpkin, and vanilla until light and well-combined.
- Mix in the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon until just combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips
- Drop by teaspoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until set.
- Let cookies cool on a rack.

Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkins scones from Oh She Glows! My dough was kind of sticky and wet... may or may not have had something to do with the fact that I didn't have spelt flour and just kind of improvised. It wasn't terrible, but I think the consistency would have been better with the flour called for.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole grain spelt flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 2-3 tbsp. sugar
• 8 tbsp. Earth Balance butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tbsp. almond milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 chia/flax egg (1 tbsp. ground chia/flax + 4 tbsp water)
• Turbinado sugar, to garnish
• Vegan Egg Wash:
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1/2 tbsp. water
• Spiced Glaze:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1.5-2 tbsp. almond milk
• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and a pinch of ginger and nutmeg)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking sheet with parchment of a non-stick mat.
2. In a small bowl mix the chia/flax egg. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger).
4. Take the cold Earth Balance butter cut butter into dry ingredients until crumbly.
5. In a medium sized bowl, mix the pumpkin, chia/flax egg, and almond milk.
6. Add wet to dry and mix until a ball forms. I got down and dirty and mixed with my hands!
7. On a flour surface place the ball of dough and kneed a few times with your hands.
8. Shape the dough into a circle and then cut into 8 triangles.
9. Now mix your vegan egg wash by mixing cornstarch and water and heating in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well.
10. With a pastry brush, brush on the glaze onto each scone.
11. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar generously and bake for 14 minutes.
12. Cool for 10-15 minutes.
13. While cooling, make your spiced glaze by beating 1 cup powdered sugar with milk and spice until smooth.
14. When scones are cool ice the scones and serve with a cup of tea or coffee!

A technicality...

As you are (hopefully!) well aware, Vegan MoFo is vegan food all day, every day for a month. And while today's food is technically vegan... I don't recommend you eat it.

I bring you vegan dog treats. I can't even remember what made me google vegan dog treats, but I did, and came across a few recipes that called for things I had on hand. I picked a peanut butter recipe, because I think the only person who loves pb more than I do is Dakota. I just bought some Halloween cookie cutters yesterday, too, so I thought it'd be cute to make some seasonally appropriate shaped treats.

You'll need:

- 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 C water
- 1/2 C peanut butter

1. Combine water, oil, and peanut butter. Add flour one cup at a time. By the time I got to the last cup, I had to use my hands to mix it. Add a splash of water if necessary. Form a ball.
2. Divide ball into two halves. Roll out ball of dough, cut into squares/use cookie cutters/use glass to cut treats. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Repeat with remaining dough.
4. Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes. Baking time will vary depending on the size of your treats; just keep an eye on them!

Dakota loved them, and while I'm not sure if that's a good indicator as to how other dogs will like them because she eats just about anything, I felt better feeding her these natural and vegan dog treats! I ended up with about three dozen treats, so I bagged up some for a few doggy friends of ours!

Have you ever made your own dog treats or dog food? If so, please share your experiences! I'm interested in transitioning Dakota to a more natural/vegan diet, but I know little about it so far and would love to hear from other parents of puppies!

Pumpkin Pizza

How is it already the middle of October? It feels like only a few days ago I was changing my calendars, and now iCal is staring me in the face, reminding me that it's mid-October. While this is exciting because one of my most favorite days in the whole year gets closer with each passing day, time just seems to be flying by.

The fact that it's mid-October means two things at Charm City Vegan headquarters: 1) we're halfway through Vegan Mofo and 2) I'm knee-deep in pumpkin recipes. The only thing more alarming than how quickly this month is passing is the excessive number of recipes I've bookmarked or pinned in the last month or so. And many of them are pumpkin (have you seen my board Edible Pumpkin? If you have, I'd like to ask you why you haven't yet staged an intervention?).

Tonight I bring you pumpkin pizza. The pumpkin sauce is sweet and tangy, and at first, I wasn't sure if I liked it. By the end of the first slice, I changed my mind to "OMG SO GOOOOD." Verbatim.

You'll need:

- a pizza crust
- 15 oz pumpkin puree
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 C water
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- non-dairy mozzarella

1. In a saucepan, combine pumpkin puree, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, rosemary, water, and tomate paste. When mixture comes to a boil, reduce to medium heat and cook 5-7 minutes until mixture thickens. Allow to cool.
2. Brush pizza crust with olive oil. Spoon sauce onto crust. You probably won't use all of the sauce, and I didn't. You can use the sauce for another pizza or for pasta. Sprinkle pizza with mozzarella.
3. Bake according to crust package.