Tag Archives: cruelty-free

flourless cashew cookies.

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Flourless Cashew Cookies

I have a confession to make: I love cashews. If you present me with a tin of mixed nuts, I will present you back with a tin in which there are no cashews to be found – and nary a cashew crumb. I have another confession to make: I love cashew cookies. Love. My love for both nut and cookie was the inspiration for this out of this world delicious recipe. The resultant flour-less cookies are simple, sweet and nutty confections that are not only vegan, but naturally gluten-free too – and with no added fat. With only five simple ingredients, you’ll be whipping up these toothsome temptations in no time – and soon see them disappear before your very eyes. Scrumptious, with a delightful crumb: these cookies don’t disappoint. They’re a new favourite of mine.

This recipe also makes a solid base for any nut butter with minor tweaks like adjusting the amount of salt. For Peanut Butter Cookies, I increase the salt to a 1/2 teaspoon. While I list a range of salt below (1/8 up to 1/4) to account for differing tastes, I prefer the Cashew Cookies with the lesser amount of a 1/8 teaspoon. I find that while the flavour of peanut butter lends itself quite nicely to a salty counterpoint, the sweetness and subtle flavour of cashew is easily overwhelmed by too much. Experiment with other nut and seed butters too, like almond, sunflower seed, or macadamia. Enjoy!

Flourless Cashew Cookies

(vegan, gluten-free)

Ingredients:

1 cup cashew butter
1/4 cup blended silken (or soft) tofu
3/4 cup granulated (white) sugar (scoop and level) **do NOT substitute brown sugar or you’ll get flat cookies. White sugar only.
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon sea salt (or up to 1/4 tsp)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Using a food processor or high powered blender, blend tofu until completely smooth.

3. In a large bowl combine cashew butter and tofu until well blended. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add dry mix to wet mixture and stir until combined. **Note: The dough will be very stiff – this is normal. Do NOT add additional liquid – it’ll take some muscle to combine everything, but the stiffness is required. If you add liquid, the cookies will over spread.

4. Drop dough by slightly rounded tablespoons (or similarly sized cookie dough scoop) onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Use a fork to slightly flatten each cookie.

5. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes. The cookies will be mildly golden all over and will feel very soft to the touch when they first come out of the oven (they will harden as they cool). After baking, allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 18-22 cookies.

Flourless Cashew Cookies

I originally shared this recipe with T.O.F.U. Magazine, for whom I am a proud contributor.

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nanaimo bars and graham wafers.

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It’s Daring Baker challenge reveal day and this month it’s all about Nanaimo Bars and Graham Wafers.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

As per usual – I used alternative recipes in order to make my bars and wafers vegan. For the Nanaimo bars I used my go-to recipe, which you can find in my original post here. For the graham wafers, I used this fabulous Vegan Yum Yum recipe. I opted to use wheat because that’s what I had on hand, but I hope to try Lauren’s gluten-free version soon as it looks wonderful. Neither my bars nor my wafers are gluten-free.

One thing I have learned after making this recipe countless times since that original Nanaimo post – use a good sharp knife to cut your squares.

Even so, I still managed to crack the chocolate top.

Check out what all the other Daring Bakers are doing by clicking on the logo below – you will be inspired.

gingerbread house, vegan.

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The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Since the challenge recipes are not vegan I opted to use a vegan gingerbread recipe that I’d had my eye on for a while, posted here on the Veg News site. Now, while this Sticky Fingers recipe is rather delicious, I think it may be better suited to drop cookies than cut-outs or houses. It is very, very sticky. I increased the flour by 1 and 2/3 cups to be able to handle the dough enough for rolling out and cutting out shapes.

It was my husband’s brilliant idea to use the lid of a sugar canister as a template. I let him go to town with his mathematical thing as he twisted the canister lid this way and that over the dough to get the angles just so. If you look closely, you can see the canister imprint on the large pieces that make up the front and back.

We wanted to keep the house tiny since neither of us had ever made a gingerbread house before and we were also fairly unsure as to how our vegan royal icing might fare versus gravity. Speaking of icing, we used this recipe that Vegan Dad was kind enough to share on his blog – and it worked very well. We used toothpicks to help hold the roof to the walls while it dried overnight and I’m happy to say the house did not collapse come morning when we removed them.

The entire house is edible. The house structure is made entirely of gingerbread, six pieces in total, glued together with royal icing and embellished with an inordinate amount of dairy-free chocolate chips, vegan gum drops, black licorice, sour chews, candy canes, candy pearls, hard candy, sprinkles, more royal icing, vegan buttercream, shredded coconut, and sanding sugar. A nut strudel doormat (my husband’s idea) completes our edible abode.

I dare say it’s going to taste rather delicious when we ultimately tear into it. It smells amazing. And who knew Batsy loved coconut?

Happy Holidays to all those celebrating – and best wishes to all for a wonderful New Year.