Vegan Sugarfree Macaroons

My curiosity recently has led me to trying to create a recipe of a vegan macaroon - something I was dreaming about for quite a while (but only dreaming - it's impossible to recreate their meringue-ness without eggs), because meringues and macaroons/macarons are my biggest weakness and the absolutely only thing which prevents me from forgetting about non-vegan foods completely. I can (and I did) give up everything without any regret or looking back  - except meringues. ) However, I eat them very rarely, 1-2 times a year, perhaps... although they're on my mind at least 365 times a year.
Anyway, I was wondering whether such different foods as macarons/macaroons and macaroni (a.k.a. pasta) have something in common apart from similar names, and why coconut macaroons being so distinct from the French macaroons, are still called the same. I googled, and I found more than I could imagine. I found this amazing article Macaroons, Macarons, and Macaroni on the blog called The Language of Food, and I plan to read it all through when I have time.
I liked the fact that coconut macaroons are not a recent invention by vegan people, trying to create some substitute to the French macaroons, as I thought - coconut macaroons were invented in the end of the 19th century in America, when coconut was a fad at the time, so people just substituted ground almond with grated coconut in the recipe for macaroons. So, coconut macaroons are their own things, not just a sad alternative to the French macaron, and easily can be vegan and sugar-free. 
There are too many interesting things in the article to talk about, but when I came across the first English language recipe of macaroons, written in 1611, using ground almond, rose water, sugar and muske (? probably musk), I thought: "Wow: no eggs, actually, and still a macaroon!", and went to the kitchen immediately :)
I don't use sugar, but rice syrup is even better, because there's no need then to make a syrup with sugar and rose water. So I put together the ingredients listed below.

Vegan Sugarfree Macaroons 

Makes 18-20 biscuits
Ingredients:
200g of ground almonds
1/3 cup rice syrup
1/2 tsp rose water extract (I use Uncle Roy's)
1 Tbsp rice milk
3 Tbsp powdered soy milk
1 tsp baking powder

Method:
Measure the almond meal, put it in a medium bowl, mix with the baking powder. Add rice syrup, rose water extract (or 1 Tbsp rose water - and then omit the rice milk), rice milk and powdered soy milk, and mix everything with a spoon. You can use your hands later. When your paste looks incorporated, wet your hands, pinch a small piece off it and form a walnut-sized ball, then flatten it and place on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper. They spread just a little bit, so 2 cm between them on a tray should be enough.
Bake at 170C for 10 minutes. I use non-convection oven.

I would use a regular rose water, but I ran out of it, so I used the rose extract. The paste was a bit too wet after I've put the rice milk, so I added powdered soy milk, so next time I'll try without and see what happens.

They're came out so beautiful, a bit puffier than on the picture (sadly, they flatten as they cool down). Maybe a tiny bit darker than "proper" macarons, so next time I'll bake them for couple of minutes less.
They tasted really good. Not as airy and gooey as the Parisian macarons, of course, but very close. At least, for not only eggless  but also sugarless - probably the closest possible, who knows? They also had lovely cracked tops, looking just like Russian almond meringue biscuit called pechenie orekhovoe, and I loved that fact.

They looked lovely as they were, but I decided to make them even more macaroony and paired them together with my kinda perfect vegan coconut icing, colouring it with a pinch of beetroot powder. Voilà :)

Fruit Kanten

Kanten is a vegan jelly, where a seaweed called agar-agar is used instead of gelatin, which is of animal origin.

The kanten is a very simple thing to do and it's a perfect dessert for hot days.

You can use any fruit as a filling and use practically any juice to make kanten jelly.

Ingredients:

1 litre of liquid (water+ apple juice, for example)
3 heaped Tbsp of agar-agar flakes (or approx. 1,5 Tbsp of agar-agar powder)
chopped fruit or berries
pinch of sea salt

Method:

Put your liquid in the saucepan, add the salt and scatter the agar flakes on the surface. Constantly stirring, bring to a boil. You need to stir, because otherwise the flakes can stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

During boiling the flakes should melt reasonably quickly in this quantity. You need to wait for them to melt. If you don't see any small transparent particles on your stirring spoon, the flakes must have melted. Once melted, take the mixture off heat and pour it into glasses or bowls. Put the fruit bits inside each glass and set aside till completely cooled and firm.

Vegan Almond Jewel Biscuits

I use maple syrup in these biscuits, which kinda makes them macrobiotic, doesn't it :)
I learned this recipe from my dear friend Angela. There are not many ingredients which makes these cute things even better.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup of sunflower oil
1/2 cup of maple syrup
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup of whole spelt flour (or any wheat flour)
1 cup of oat flour
1 cup of almond meal (ground almonds)
pinch of sea salt
couple of tablespoons of good quality fruit spread.

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, line a tray with a parchment paper.
In a bowl mix oil, maple syrup and the almond extract with a fork. In a separate bowl, mix the flours and the salt, then add the liquid mixture little by little. Sometimes you'll need to add a bit of flour if it's too wet, but try not to do it too dry before it starts to hold together - it'll be almost impossible to fix. When the dough is stiff enough, mix it with your hands, trying not to press too much. When the dough is ready, nip a little piece off it and form a little ball, then flatten it with your palms in a thick round, place it in onto the tray. Now poke the middle of the round with your index finger. This will be a well for a little dash of a jam. Continue with the rest of the dough until your tray is full or the dough is finished.
Before putting it in the oven, place a little of jam into each well with a tiny spoon.
Bake for 12 minutes.

 These biscuits are easily made gluten-free, if you substitute 1 cup of wheat/spelt flour with a cup of rice flour or any gluten-free mixture.

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.

Gluten-free Pistachio Rosewater cupcakes

This recipe is a gluten free and sugar free version of pistachio rosewater cupcakes from Isa and Terry's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I also skipped flax seed and used arrowroot  instead of tapioca flour - works perfectly.

 Makes about 20 small cupcakes (Dr Oetker papercases)
(didn't try to use regular muffin cases but must be around 10 maybe)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy yogurt
2/3 cup soy milk
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2 Tbsp pure rose water
2 Tbsp arrowroot
1/3 cup maize flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp freshly ground cardamom seed
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup chopped pistachios

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C and line your cupcake tray with paper cases.
First chop pistachio nuts and crush cardamom seeds with a mortar with a pestle.
In a large bowl, mix all the liquid ingredients and add arrowroot. Mix with the electric handmixer for 1 minute. Put a fine sieve ot top of the bowl and sieve in the flours, soda, baking powder, ground cardamom and salt. Mix with the handmixer for 2 minutes. Then fold in the pistachios.
Pour the mixture in the liners, and bake for 26-30 minutes (depending on the oven and the size of the cupcakes). Check with a wooden toothpick, placed in the middle of a cupcake, which should come out dry or with just a couple of tiny crumbs on it.

These cupcakes were topped with the Soyatoo whippable soy cream, coloured with a very small amount of dry beetroot powder and sprinkled with some crushed pistachios. I added a dash of rosewater in the cream while whipping too.

Of course, these cupcakes can be made with normal flour too: just omit arrowroot in the recipe and swap the gluten-free flour mix for 1 1/3 cup of whole wheat or spelt flour.

Gluten-free polenta and poppy seed cupcake

The health education centre where I used to work is often visited by gluten-free people, so I did quite a lot of gluten-free stuff. Although I prefer making normal cakes, there's nothing difficult in gluten-free baking, if you have the right mixture. The ones on sale sometimes are too stiff and sandy, probably due to a high content of rice flour, I don't know. I started using 'Gluten Frida" mixture from Isa and Terry's book, which is 1/3 cup maize flour+1 cup rice flour+1 cup quinoa flour, but then I discovered coconut flour, which I think is better than rice flour, because it is very smooth and kinda starchy, resembling maize flour in texture - and maize flour is the best gluten-free flour in terms of acting like a glutenous flours. You can bake a full cake only with maize flour and it will bond fine, only it will have a pronounced corny taste.
Polenta is a relative of maize flour - it's coarsely ground cornmeal, so you can also use it instead of maize flour. Plus, using polenta can be a justification of using more maize flour in the mixture (because you actually want it to taste corny), which makes using starches in gluten-free mixtures unnecessary. Well, I think so.

For polenta and poppy seed cupcake (or cake) I use this formula:

1 cup soy milk
1/3 sunflower oil
2/3 cup agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract (or more vanilla)
2/3 cup maize flour
1/2 cup polenta
1/2 cup quinoa or rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt
3 Tbsp of poppy seed

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170C or 350F and line the cupcake tray with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl combine milk, oil, syrup and extracts, add the first 1/3 of maize flour and mix with an electric mixer for one minute, it's gonna turn quite smooth.
3. Place a sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the second 1/3 cup of maize flour, add polenta and quinoa flours, baking powder, baking soda +salt. Mix with the electric mixer for 2 min. There's no gluten so there's no danger of overmixing. The mixture must be smooth. Stir in 2 tablespoons of poppy seed, (leave 1 Tbsp for just now)
4. Immediately pour the mixture in the liners, and sprinkle the remaining 1 Tbsp of the poppy seed on top of every cupcake. Bake for 28-30 minutes, checking with the toothpick, which should come out dry or with just a couple of tiny crumbs on it.

These cupcakes can be left without any additional decoration.