Vegan Pumpkin Bread

This is by far my favorite time of the year… food wise at least (my freezing cold fingers and toes may say otherwise). The holiday season has so many different foods associated with it and I honestly can’t complain. Fall has apples, pumpkin, and warm cider, while winter has, gingerbread, peppermint, and hot cocoa to name a few of my favorites!

In the fall you can get pumpkin-spiced anything anywhere. Ive seen pumpkin donuts, pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin cream cheese, pumpkin pancakes (one of my faves), pumpkin oreos, pumpkin gum, and of course, every white-girls favorite, pumpkin spiced lattes (soy or skim milk of course, you never order a whole milk pumpkin spiced latte, just never).

Thanksgiving alone has its own set of must-have dishes, though when you’re family is made of vegans, vegetarians, and other diet restrictions, thanksgiving must-haves gain a new spin. Somethings that I know will always be on our thanksgiving table are: pretzel rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, more pretzel rolls, and a large array of festive desserts to satisfy any sweet-tooth, even mine. The recipes may vary depending on any new dietary needs, but its nice to see a few staples year after year, including pumpkin bread.

I’ve actually had a lot of trouble in the past making a good pumpkin bread from scratch. It always turns out undercooked, dense, and sticky. I was hesitant to attempt a vegan pumpkin bread because a lot of times substituting real eggs for flax eggs makes a recipe even denser so I was pleasantly surprised to find this delicious, eggless pumpkin bread recipe!

This recipe for vegan pumpkin bread is light, moist, and delicious. Its actually a lot better then any non-vegan or vegan pumpkin bread recipe I have ever attempted.

RECIPE (adapted from here):

Ingredients: 

2 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbs cinnamon
15 oz fresh pumpkin puree (1 can)
1 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey (To make it vegan substitute maple syrup)
1/3 cup water
Directions:
Pre heat oven to 350.

Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (or one super long loaf pan).

In a large bowl mix flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. In a separate bowl mix pumpkin, oil, honey, and water together. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for 1- 1 hour 15 minutes.Or until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean.

Let the bread cool before removing from pan and enjoying. Or dont and just dig in like I usually do.

Vegan Chocolate Tofu Pie

Before you make some weird reaction to the fact that this Vegan Chocolate Pie has tofu in it, trust me and give this recipe a try.  This pie is so rich and creamy and chocolatey you would be surprised by how simple and quick this recipe really is. I embarrassingly ate half the pie, by myself, in one day. So just to warn you, this pie is highly addictive, but don’t let that stop you from quickly whipping one up.

I roughly followed Alton brown’s Mooless Chocolate Pie recipe but cut the recipe in half, used regular graham crackers, and omitted the coffee liquor.

Side Note:  I wanted to take a picture after every bite.. however you may notice the lack of pictures between the the last and second to last picture. I was too busy stuffing my face with pie to stop and take a picture. Its really not my fault, the pie was just too good.

 

 

Baked Apple

Baked apples are the perfect meal or snack for a cool rainy day. It reminds me of a perfect personal apple pie with granola. Though baked apples seem to be more of a fall treat, they are definitely underestimated, perfect for any season, and sure to warm your tummy.

I didn’t follow a recipe but anything you would put in granola or oatmeal would work.

Kinda recipe

• 2 apples, cored with melon baller or other tool
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• lots of cinnamon
• little nutmeg
• chopped almonds
• lots of raisins
• good sprinkle of unsweetened coconut
• flax seeds
• agave or honey , for top

mix all the ingredients,  except the agave in a small bowl. pack oatmeal mixture in each apple till filled. drizzle with agave or honey over the top. bake for 25ish minutes in 350 degree oven. serve warm

Fudge-y Zucchini Chocolate Cake

If you couldn’t tell by now I have a lot of zucchini. Some of them are slightly too large and tend to be less flavorful then the smaller zucchini. So the extra plump zucchini are perfect for recipes like these.  This Chocolate Zucchini cake is so simple, moist, delicious and vegan!  If you have the same zucchini problem as me definitely try this one!

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe

adapted from here

1 ¼ cup flour

1 cup sugar

⅓ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coffee

1/4 cup water

1 cup grated zucchini

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

⅓ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white or apple cider vinegar

Glaze

about 1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 tablespoons vegan margarine or shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

about 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1)
For the Cake

Preheat oven to 350F (177C). In an 8 x 8 inch square pan, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt with a fork. Add the water, coffee, zucchini, vanilla extract, vegetable oil and vinegar. Mix the ingredients together. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

2)
For the Glaze

melt chips over a double boiler. remove from heat and add margarine or shortening stir in vanilla then whisk in powdered sugar till there are no clumps.

3)

Pour the glaze onto cake and let it cool for one hour.

4) enjoy!

Zucchini Noodles with Baked Tofu

Every summer my neighbors have the best garden and always bring over delicious vegetables. This time they brought over lots of zucchini! When we have zucchini we usually grill it or make pasta primavera or zucchini bread, but this time I wanted to try something different. ZUCCHINI NOODLES! The recipe I used was super simple and super delicious( not to mention gluten free and vegan which is half my family).

The recipe* is a cold pasta with Tamari (g.f. soy sauce) based sauce with just enough crunch from the blanched vegetables. The recipe says ago pan fry the tofu but I baked it instead but spraying it with cooking spray and putting it in a 375 degree oven flipping it when it turns golden brown on the underside.

*the recipe explains how to peel zucchini in noodles. I saved the left over core of the zucchini to make zucchini bread. (recipe to come)

Marbled Banana Bread

Next time you have bananas going bad try this recipe. It doesn’t have a huge banana flavor but is moist and delicious. Not to mention its vegan and somewhat healthy!

Date and Nut Bars

Ive always wanted to buy dates and I recently picked some up.  I decided to make an energy type bar with various nuts. The turned out delicious and energy-filled!

1/2 cup almonds

1/8 cup or more cashews

1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks or chips

1 1/2 cup dates(pitted)

1 tbsp peanut butter

put almonds and cashews in the food processor till finely chopped. add chocolate chips and blend till combined. put this mixture aside. Pulse dates by them selves till it forms a paste. and nut mixture and peanut butter and pulse till combined. pour mixture into small pan covered in parchment. let chill at least two hours before cutting. enjoy! makes 8 small squares.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut-Butter buttercream

Peanut Butter is one of my favorite foods, and chocolate and peanut butter are my favorite combination. These chocolate peanut butter cupcakes are by far the best ones I’ve ever had. The chocolate cupcakes are so moist and chocolatey and the smooth peanut butter buttercream is so rich and perfect. Im bringing these into school tomorrow and am positive they will be a crowd favorite.

chocolate cupcake recipe

Peanut-Butter Buttercream

1 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup vege. shortening

1-2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

cream peanut butter and shortening till mixed. add vanilla. add powdered sugar till thick and fluffy.

 

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillow Cookies

These cookies are so gooey and yummy! Chocolate and peanut butter has to be one of my favorite combinations and these cookies are perfect. The cookie is soft on the outside and the surprise peanut butter center melts in your mouth. My only regret was not putting more peanut butter dough in the center because I though I was going to run out.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

 this recipe

makes 2 dozen cookies

Chocolate dough:

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3 tablespoons non-dairy milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder

2 tablespoons black unsweetened cocoa or more dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style

2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons soy creamer or non-dairy milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

Make the filling. In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy creamer and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line bakings sheet with parchment paper.

Shape the cookies. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining doughs. If desired gently flatten cookies a little, but this is not necessary.

Place dough balls on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. Store cookies in tightly covered container. If desired warm cookies in a microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before serving.

Soft Gingersnap cookies

I have never made gingersnap cookies but absolutely love ginger. There are so many varieties of ginger cookies but the recipe(Ina Garten’s) I chose was a crisp bottom with a melt-in-your-mouth gooey center. I am very pleased with the end result and happy I finally got around to making a batch. If you don’t have crystallized ginger hanging around the house(I didn’t) it is easy to make, heres a simple recipe! These cookies are perfect as a snack or a dessert with a warm cup of tea.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed (or light)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or applesauce)
• 1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 extra-large egg, at room temperature (or applesauce)
• 1 1/4 cups chopped crystallized ginger
• Granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies

Directions

makes 16 large cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and salt and then combine the mixture with your hands. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar, oil, and molasses on medium speed for 5 minutes. Turn the mixer to low speed, add the egg, and beat for 1 minute. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula and beat for 1 more minute. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the crystallized ginger and mix until combined.

Scoop the dough with 2 spoons or a small ice cream scoop. With your hands, roll each cookie into a 1 3/4-inch ball and then flatten them lightly with your fingers. Press both sides of each cookie in granulated sugar and place them on the sheet pans. Bake 13 minutes. The cookies will be crackled on the top and soft inside. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely