Macro gingerbread men

These are less spicy and more wholesome than traditional gingerbread biscuits. Decorated just with currants 'cause it's one of the natural alternatives to the conventional piped decorations, made of sugar and colourings.

These gingerbread men are better than just vegan. With agave syrup (you can use maple syrup if you want) and barley malt they're totally guilt-free. I make them for my little boy.

The ingredients list is very simple, and I don't use any leavening agents because I don't think there is a need for them.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup baking oil (sunflower, grapeseed)

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/2 cup barley malt

2 1/3 cup whole spelt flour

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

pinch of sea salt

Method:

1.In a mixing bowl, mix together oil, agave and barley syrup. Sift in the flour and spices, add salt.  Mix with a wooden spoon, then your hands until the dough start to stiffen. Make a ball and wrap it in a cling film and put it in the fridge for half an hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Roll a piece of the dough on a slightly floured surface, until smooth and not too thick. The thickness you'll need depends on the size of your biscuit cutter. Mine are huge (about 12 cm H) so I have to do them about 0,7 cm thick, otherwise it won't be possible to lift them off the surface. Cut the shapes out, lift them carefully with a spatula or wide knife and place them on the parchment paper 2 cm apart. Decorate with the currants or raisins. Bake for 8-10 mins (depending on the size again).

here's my little boy :)

Vegan Coconut macaroons

These are very easy and quick to make.

Coconut macaroons from Eric Lechasseur's "Love, Eric" book of macrobiotic desserts.

Ingredients:

300 g dry coconut flakes
2 Tbsp soy milk
2/3 cup rice syrup

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a tray with the parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients, mix with a spoon (I do it with my hands afterwards).
You can form little balls or triangles with your hands; I prefer using little round spoon (stuffing it with tthe mixture and then carefully sliding it out) to form these pretty semispheres.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. They may be still very soft straight out of the oven, but they will harden in a while.

Vegan Chocolate Brownies

I think, the key to the perfect vegan brownies is silken tofu. There're many recipes for the egg- and dairy free brownies on the Web, but these are the simplest to make of all of them. I took the original recipe from Isa and Terry's book and made some adjustments as I wanted to use agave syrup instead of sugar.

The batter must be thick and very gooey. You'll need a silicon (or plastic) spatula to deal with it.

The brownies on the photo are made with walnuts and raisins - you can add 1/2 cup each of chopped walnuts and raisins to the batter in the very end. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup whole spelt flour
1/2 cup white spelt flour (or wheat)
1 Tbsp arrowroot
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C. Line a small oven tray with parchment paper, covering the sides of the tray too.
Cream the tofu, milk and oil in a blender. Put the mixture in a bowl, mix in the maple syrup and the extracts.
Sift in the flours, arrowroot, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. The batter will be very thick so mix it with a plastic spatula. When smooth, transfer it to the tray and even it out, smoothing the top. It may take only a part of your tray, depending on its size, but that's ok, you shouldn't spread it too thinly.
Bake for 30 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and let it cool down a little before cutting the brownies' squares.