Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan + gluten free)

You all probably think I have nothing else to do than bake unhealthy things to eat. Well, you're only partially correct. I've been up to all sorts of things these days, like seeing different parts of the state, and training for a "Tough Mudder." On that note, this recipe should not have been partaken of, since I'm cutting down on my sweets. But let me just say, if I were to cheat, these would be worth cheating for. 

I didn't actually intend to make these. Here were the circumstances: There was a very ripe banana on my counter, and I had gluten free flour that I was dying to use for something. I also just loved the idea of a peanut butter cookie - the kind that melts in your mouth and tastes oh-so-good with a cold glass of [almond] milk. I've always loved a good peanut butter cookie.

When I was in university, I used to make huge batches of these (a non vegan version though) and keep them in the freezer in a large airtight container. I would train my self discipline by not eating all of them in one sitting. Seriously the best poor student dessert - cheap! Haha.

Since making this batch, I catch my husband every once in a while snacking on a cookie or two. I guess that's a good sign, right? Or not...I'll let you and his waistline decide. 

This was the first time I tried these with gluten free flour, and I must say that I am quite pleased with the result! It turned out better than I thought it was going to, and I couldn't even tell the difference.

Vegan & Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

What You Need:

• 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened

• 1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup organic cane sugar

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 ripe banana + 1 tsp baking powder (mashed together)

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose gluten free flour

• 1/2 TBSP non dairy milk

• 1/4-1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

What to Do:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

2) Cream the butters together for 30 seconds. 

3) Add sugars, baking soda, and baking powder.

4) Add banana mixture and vanilla

5) Beat in as much flour as you can, and stir in the rest.

6) Add the nondairy milk until dough is creamy.

7) Fold in the chocolate chips.

8) At this point, you can chill the dough if necessary.

9) Drop dough on parchment covered pan in small balls and bake for 7-9 minutes.

10) Allow to cool slightly on pan (to avoid the complete crumbling of the cookies when you move them), and then finish cooling on wire rack.

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Are you a fan of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies? Any tips for Tough Mudders? I love reading your comments, so let me know below!

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Vegan Potato & Spinach Pierogies

Can I just start off by saying that July is almost over? I will just let that sink in for a bit. I do not know where the time has gone! Perhaps it's a getting older thing, but days and weeks, months and years are just flying by lately!

Alright, back to right now. After working on this recipe a few times, I finally deemed it ready to share with all of you. Ready for a really good pierogi? 

One thing I was concerned about giving up once becoming vegan was pierogies. I love a good buttery pierogie. The kind filled with potato and cheese and topped with sour cream. Oh my. Yum! I have seriously alway loved them, and who wouldn't? Seriously?

My fears quickly vanished once I whipped up these puppies though!

To be honest, once I popped one into my mouth, I didn't even realize the cheese was missing - these were so flavourful, and the texture was really great, even though there was no sour cream or butter in the dough. To make it even better, I didn't even feel guilty as I munched on these! Granted, I don't eat much, but still!

Related: Vegan Sour Cream

Sure, they were quite the process, but they didn't take eternally long to make, and it really was worth it. The best part is that these freeze extremely well, so making a lot at one time is possible and saves you time and energy on a rainy day (not to mention, gives added joy). Of course, if your family eats as many as mine does, you may not have any left to offer to the freezing process. They're super good with vegan sour cream - whether you make it (recipe here), or buy it. And don't forget the caramelized onions. Mushroom lovers can add those, but I personally stay as far away from mushrooms as I can.

Vegan Spinach & Potato Filled Pierogies

For the Filling:

• 3 cups Russet Potatoes, diced

• 2 TBSP Nutritional Yeast Flakes

• 1 TBSP Earth Balance (optional)

• 2 TBSP Non Dairy Milk (I used almond)

• Sprig of Rosemary, finely chopped (optional)

• ¼ cup Fresh Spinach, chopped

• ½ tsp Sea Salt

For the Dough:

• 3 C All-Purpose Flour (plus some for dusting)

• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt

• 1 Cup Water

• 2 TBSP Olive Oil

what to do:

1) Bring pot of water to boil and put potatoes in to cook for about ten minutes

2) While potatoes are cooking, make the dough by mixing the flour and salt together. Then add water and olive oil and fold until combined

3) Knead on a lightly floured surface until the dough becomes slightly sticky (not too sticky) and elastic. Divide the dough in two pieces, wrap in plastic and place in refrigerator. 

4) Once potatoes are tender, drain, and add all ingredients to pot. Mash until smooth. Set aside.

5) On a very lightly floured surface roll out one ball of dough until it is about 1/16” thick. Use a 3 ½" - 4” round cookie cutter and cut out rounds of dough.

6) Place a good amount (a bit less than a TBSP) of filling in the center of cut dough. wet the tip of your finger with water and dab along half of the circle. Fold dough over, gently pressing and sealing the pierogie. 

7) Place on lightly floured cookie sheet. If you wish to freeze them put them between sheets of wax paper to avoid sticking.

8) If cooking right away, place finished pierogie in boiling water. Cook until floating (about 3 minutes) and remove. Do not overcook or else they will fall apart. 

Optional: After boiling, fry pierogies in pan with a little bit of oil or earth balance till brown.  

Serve with vegan sour cream and caramelized onions - whatever your heart desires!

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Are you as much a pierogi fan as I am? How is your favourite way of eating pierogies? Let me know!

Trying these out? I want to know how it turns out! I will always find you when you use #MapleAlps!

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Vegan Sour Cream

I love sour cream. Seriously. When I decided to switch to a plant based diet, sour cream was one of those things that was harder to let go. There's nothing like a good dollop of sour cream with a burrito or pierogi. Thankfully, Tofutti exists, and tastes delicious. Unfortunately, I can't always find it, so I had to improvise.

I experimented with a few different ways of making vegan sour cream (including trying with cashews and apple cider vinegar), but this has been by far my favourite. I might tweak and play a bit more with it, but I was quite pleased with this result! It was creamy and had just the right amount of tang.

It is great on tacos, fajitas, or pierogies, or anything else that requires sour cream, really. I fully intend on finding out what else it can do. Stay tuned to see different ways I've found to use it!

Three Ingredient Vegan Sour Cream
Makes about 1.5 cups

What you need:

Block of Firm Tofu (16oz. /454g), drained
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt

What to do:

1) Blend all ingredients together till smooth using blender or food processor.
2) Chill a few minutes and serve.

Store in refrigerator up to one week.

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Have you ever made your own vegan sour cream? Want to tell me about it? 

If you try this one out, let me know how it goes for you! I'll always find you at #MapleAlps :)

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The Most Delicious Vegan Soft Pretzel

The past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the time I spent abroad. Let's face it, I'm still abroad, and I still experience things I haven't before, but I was specifically thinking about my time in Europe. It was a grand time. Food-wise, a highlight of mine was the amazing soft pretzels I could get pretty much everywhere. They were as big as my head, and delicious. When I got home, I made some for myself, but a few days ago, I really hit the jackpot when I decided to play around with the recipe some more. 

I had some Earth Balance left over from my cupcake making days, so I figured, why not? 

The result was the softest, buttery, delicious pretzel to come out of my oven to date. I decided to share with the rest of you - because I'm really nice like that. 

I always thought making pretzels would be a lot more complicated, but such is not the case! I remember the first time I tried a soft pretzel. I also remember that there were none left the next day. Seriously, every time I've made them in the past, those lucky enough to nab one, scarf it down pretty quickly. Imagine my surprise then when these turned out better that the former attempts. These are not as big as my head, but the flavour sure is!

The secret to that beautiful brown pretzel is baking soda - baked on a baking sheet and then added to the bubbly pot of boiling pretzels. Mhm. Without it, it is just not the same. 

Anyway, enough from me. I bet you are drooling as much as I am ... ;-)

The Most Delicious Vegan Soft Pretzel

What You Need:

• 4 cups All Purpose Flour

• 1 ½  cups Warm Water

• 2 ¼  tsp Active Dry Yeast

• 1 TBSP Organic Cane Sugar

• 2 tsp Sea Salt

• 4 TBSP Earth Balance

• Olive Oil  

• 2/3 cups Baking Soda

• 10 cups water

• Coarse Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

What to Do:

1) Mix warm water, yeast, sugar and salt in large bowl. Let sit 5 minutes till foamy

2) Add melted vegan butter. Stir in flour one cup at a time.
 
3) Knead on counter until elastic dough forms. 

4) Grease bowl and let rise 1 hour.

5) (Baking Totally Optional) Twenty minutes before dough is done rising, spread baking soda on baking pan lined with parchment. Bake in oven at 300 degrees F until ready to boil pretzels.

6) Once dough has risen, divide it into 8 equal parts. To twist pretzel into shape, roll the dough into long ropes. Hold at each end making a U shape, create a twist, and press ends down. 

7) Boil water. Carefully add the baking soda. 

8) Gently put pretzels in boiling water and let them "bathe" for 30 seconds. Put pretzels on parchment lined pan. Sprinkle with coarse pink himalayan sea salt.

9) Bake in oven at 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, until perfectly golden brown!

10) Allow to cool and enjoy either plain, or with some dipping sauce!

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Do you love soft pretzels as much as I do?

Going to be trying these out? I want to know how it turns out! I will always find you when you use #MapleAlps!

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Easy Moist & Delicious Strawberry Cupcakes (vegan)

I love summer. I love the sunshine and the trips to various bodies of water. I love not having to wear 15 different layers just to keep warm. I even love that the sun gently wakes me up with the singing birds way to early in the morning. I love that the farmer's markets are open, and that strawberries are pretty much everywhere. Strawberries are on my top five list for sure, and so when I saw some super sweet reds on sale the other day, I bought a few too many...

I then remembered that we were planning on leaving town for a week, and so the pressure was on to create something so they wouldn't go completely to waste. I love eating them on their own, but they are always fun to add to things too.

Inspired by these funfetti cupcakes from Minimalist Baker, I decided to take on the challenge and add a strawberry flare to a cupcake. 

I have always had a fascination with strawberry cupcakes. When I was young, I remember someone making some from a package, and I was smitten. Since my mom is a fantastic baker, I only got those cupcakes once or twice after that. I think the part that I really loved was the colour, because they never truly tasted like real strawberries. 

I didn't expect that these would turn out like the ones from a box - especially since I skipped on the dyes and strawberry preserves. I just wanted the taste of a strawberry, and the satisfaction that I could do it. Sometimes, I just need to prove myself to myself, you know?

Anyway, I had zero idea what I was doing, and they turned out great. I have had really bad experiences with vegan cupcakes in the past being bland and dry. My favourite part about these is that they are so moist! To me, there is nothing worse than a dry crumbly cupcake. I also will admit to licking the spoon when I was done...

These aren't exactly the healthiest for you, so don't bake them every week, but I figured my strawberries needed to go to a sweet cause, and sharing sugar once in a while is okay, right? Especially on a long weekend.

PS: My favourite part is the icing. Sure, I can only handle a bit of it, but the strawberry flavour really came out, which makes me extremely happy. I was doing a happy dance when I saw the perfect results!

Delicious Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 cup non-dairy milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter (such as Earth Balance), softened

• 3/4 cup cane sugar

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/3 cup strawberry puree (I just put strawberries in the food processor)

• A few strawberries, chopped (optional)

For the Icing:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) Earth Balance, softened

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

• 3 TBSP strawberry puree*

*Note: I boiled down the strawberry puree to get rid of as much water as I could to avoid a runny icing. It worked perfectly. 

what to do:

1) Preheat oven (350 degrees F) and line muffin tin with liners
2) Combine the milk and apple cider vinegar and allow sit
3) Cream the vegan butter with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and sugar and beat until fluffy.
4) Beat in dry ingredients and milk mixture. Mix until there are no lumps. 
5) Add strawberry puree and fold in strawberry pieces. 
6) Fill cupcake liners 3/4 of the way and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7) Allow to cool completely on cooling rack. They must be completely cooled before being iced. 
8) Prepare icing by beating the softened butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly add in the confectioner's sugar. Add puree. 
9) Add icing to icing bag and place in refrigerator for at least ten minutes before icing cupcakes.

Inspired by Minimalist Baker

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My chocolate-loving husband has requested a chocolate cupcake next, so I'd better get on it, eh?

What about you? Do you love fresh strawberries as much as I do? Willing to try out this recipe and let me know what you think? I can always find you when you use #MapleAlps :)

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