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.

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.

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.

Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate cupcake

Another cupcake recipe with the nut butter. It's very simple in decoration as well - just a drop of rice syrup or barley malt in the middle and some crushed roasted hazelnuts on top of it.

 
Makes 9 big hazelnut cupcakes (in regular muffin paper cases) or 16 small ones

Ingredients:
3/4cup soy milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup hazelnut butter, stirred
1/3 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup barley malt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, line a cupcake tray with paper liners.
In a small bowl, mix soy milk with the vinegar with the whisk and leave for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a larger bowl cream the hazelnut butter, oil, barley malt and extracts until smooth. Add the soy mixture and mix. Put a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix together, trying not to overmix.
Pour the mixture in the liners with the small ladle and place in the oven immediately.
Bake for about 28 min, checking with the toothpick put in the middle of one of the cupcakes, which should come out dry.

Vegan Peanut Butter cupcakes

I've just decided to search the web for polenta and poppy seed cake recipe and found lots of them. Lemon's present in most recipes too. How sad - I actually thought I've invented something lol. I just love poppy seed and try to put it anywhere it seems to fit. Well, I suppose, in terms of cooking nowadays there is nothing which hasn't been invented yet. Here is another classic cupcake.

Peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate ganache and roasted peanuts
Makes 9 big cupcakes (in regular muffin paper cases) or 16 small ones

Ingredients:
3/4cup soy milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup barley malt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of sea salt


Method:
Preheat oven to 170C, line a cupcake tray with paper liners.
In a small bowl, mix soy milk with the vinegar with the whisk and leave for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a larger bowl cream the peanut butter, oil, sweeteners and vanilla until smooth. Add the soy mixture and mix. Put a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix together, trying not to overmix.
Pour the mixture in the liners with the small ladle and place in the oven immediately.
Bake for about 28 min, checking with the toothpick put in the middle of one of the cupcakes, which should come out dry.

Decorate your cakes with vegan chocolate ganache from this post, piping it on top and letting it set afterwards. Top with some roasted unsalted peanuts.

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.

Vegan Chocolate Mint cupcakes (dairy, eggs and sugar free)

I I honestly have no idea where to start but I have to do it somehow, so I'll just say that I'm Sasha and I've been making some vegan and macrobiotic desserts for about two years now, and finally I've decided to write about it just for the sake of keeping all the recipes in one place.

I started with the brilliant book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, which was a great start for me, although those guys use sugar in their recipes (and lots of it in their icings), which I don't do - I use natural grain and vegetable sweeteners like maple syrup, barley malt, rice syrup and agave.
So I had to come out with my adjustments to the ingredients, because the sweeteners I use are in liquid form.
Plus, I don't do any of the icings, because they require shedloads of sugar again and  - in a vegan version - quite a lot of margarine, so my cupcakes look a bit simpler than they could do without all this pretty but unhealthy stuff on top.
Everytime it's quite a challenge to decorate them using only sugar-free and natural stuff for them to look as nice as the traditional cupcakes. I use fresh, freeze-dried and stewed fruit, nuts, dark chocolate, vegan marzipan and toppings free from dairy, fat and sugar.

These are chocolate and mint cupcakes topped with dairy-free chocolate ganache (made with soy cream)

Makes about 15 small cupcakes or 8 big ones (in regular muffin liners):
Ingredients:
1 cup soy or oat milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
2/3 cup agave syrup
1/3 cup sunflower or grapeseed oil
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 tsp natural mint extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/3 cup wholemeal flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
generous pinch of  sea salt


1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line cupcake or muffin tray with paper liners
2. Pour soy milk and vinegar in a big bowl and mix with the whisk. Add the oil, agave syrup and the extracts to the milk misture. Try to measure oil first, and then measure agave or any syrup you use in the same cup - it will glide out much easier. Beat the mixture till nice and smooth.
3. Place a fine sieve on top of the bowl and sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix with the wisk till no lumps remain, but try not to overmix.
4. Pour the mixture in the liners with a small ladle or ice scoop, filling 3/4 of the liners. I prefer cupcakes being slightly above the rim, so I never fill only halfway as many recipes suggest, because in this case quite often there will be a stripe of the liner above the cake.

Bake the cakes about 28-30 minutes, but may depend on the oven. Check with the wooden toothpick put in the middle of a few cupcakes - it should come out dry or with just a couple of tiny dry crumbs.

Try not to open the oven before you think they're about to be ready, otherwise perfectly risen cupcakes may sink.

The chocolate ganache is from the aforementioned Isa and Terry's book:
Quick melty ganache
Ingredients:

3 Tbsp of soy cream (milk works too)
1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips (I usually use broken bar of Green&Black dark chocolate)


Method:
Heat soy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat till just about to simmer. Remove from heat, add the chips and stir them in, until completely incorporated. Set aside for 10 minutes.

When cooled and stiffened, you put it in the pastry bag and pipe on the cooled cupcakes, or smear the ganache on top of the cupcakes with the spatula or wide knife, like I did. Decorate the top with small leaves of fresh mint.