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 :)

Vegan Sugar-free Gingerbread House

This Christmas I tried to make my own gingerbread house. Next time I promise I'll make it prettier, but altogether the experiment wasn't fruitless.
To be honest I didn't even bother to google how they are usually made, maybe there is a better way - I just drew a simple design and cut out walls, a base (house "floor" - a key element), and a roof from a thick paper, rolled the dough and cut the dough around the paper templates, chilled the cut-out pieces (to minimise spreading of thre dough) for 15 minutes and baked. The base was baked after the walls, which I tried on, lightly pushing them into the dough, making shallow grooves for them. It helped later to make the walls stay in place.
The roof took a bit more work - my husband made a triangle-shaped thingy from a cardboard, covered it with a piece of kitchen foil, and I placed the cut-out piece of dough on it, chilled in the fridge, and baked the whole construction, and it stayed intact.
Then I piped doors and windows with the vegan chocolate ganache, and glued everything together with the rice syrup. Then I piped little stars around seams with the ganache. As for the white cream, there was a bit of a disaster. It melted. Next time I'll use my vegan kinda perfect coconut icing, which will stay put! Finally, I dusted the roof with the powdered barley malt.

Anyway, I'm not entirely happy with this experiment, because I think the dough needs working on a bit, and the cream was not what I wanted it to be, so I won't give the recipe, because it needs further revising and practice.
Although I hope it will be ready before next Christmas :)

Vegan Chocolate Men

Chocolate biscuits made with gingerbread man cutter and decorated with vegan marzipan, which I made myself from almond flour and rice syrup. This recipe needs further work done on it, because trying to make a rolled dough of the right consistency, I had to juggle with the ingredients a bit, but this seems to work so far:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp sunflower oil
1/2 cup agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 cups white flour
1/3 cup (unsweetened) cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt

Method:

Mix all wet ingredients in one bowl and all dry ingredients in another (I prefer to sift my dry ingredients). Add dry ones to the wet carefully, maybe in two batches, to see that the forming dough is not going to be too dry - it will be almost impossible to adjust. If you think it's too wet for a rolled dough, add some flour. Mix everything very lightly, not pressing the dough very hard. Form few balls if you like.
Then, using a rolling pin and a cookie cutter of your choice, make biscuits and place them on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper. These biscuits shouldn't spread, but I like to refrigerate them for 15 min before baking, and they retain shape perfectly.
Bake at 170C. It's hard to say how long they will need, because it very much depends on the size of your cutters and the thickness of the biscuits you rolled. My chocolate men are rather huge, but rolled as thin as possible, and were ready within 8-9 minutes.

Vegan Oat and Raisin Biscuits with Barley Malt

This recipe had to be created because my toddler son loves biscuits. He would eat one every minute, so I had to figure out the least harmful composition of ingredients, paying a special attention to the sweetening ingredient. Barley malt syrup is one of the main sweeteners used in macrobiotic cooking, and it's good because it comes from grain.
So there's my version of classic oat & raisin biscuits.

Makes about 35 biscuits

Ingredients:
1 cup oat flakes
1 1/2 cup whole grain spelt flour
3/4 cup barley malt syrup
1/3 cup oil
2 Tbsp rice milk (or any dairy-free milk/water)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins soaked and drained
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180C and prepare a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, mix togetrher oil, barley malt syrup and vanilla extract, add oats, flour, salt and baking powder. Look at the consistency and if you think it might do with some more moisture, add rice milk to it. Mix thoroughly until smooth. Incorporate raisins in the dough.
Then, and this is quite important - refrigerate your dough for 15 minutes, if you don't want your biscuits to spread too much. Cooling the baking tray will help too. Alternatively, you can form biscuits on the tray (taking a bit of the dough with a teaspoon and dropping on the baking sheetwith 1-2 inches between them), place the tray in the fridge, and after 15 minutes take it out and put straight into the oven.

If you like your biscuits big and flat, you can use unrefrigerated dough, but keep 3 inches between them. I have a small oven and use small trays, so I have to pack them a bit tighter together, so I prefer using refrigerated dough.

Bake for 12 minutes. They will be a bit soft but they will harden soon. Keep in the airtight container.

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.

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 Chip Biscuits

They're classic biscuits and easy to make. Enough said :) I used Dairy free chocolate chips  and freshly ground spelt flour.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup soy or rice milk
2 Tbsp arrowroot
2 1/4 cups spelt flour or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

 pinch of salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C and prepare a baking tray or sheet lined with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, mix togetrher oil, agave and milk, mix and add arrowroot. Mix thoroughly until smooth.
Add the flour (you can do it in a few batches to make your mixing better), salt and the baking soda, mix well. Finally fold in chocolate chips.
Take a bit of the dough with a middle-sized spoon and drop on the baking sheet, making sure that there's at least 6 cm/2 inches between your biscuits.
Bake for 12 minutes, and leave them on the sheet for a little while before transferring them onto a plate.