Healthy Vegan S’more Cookies (made with…?)

A few weeks ago I was mindlessly scrolling through /r/food when I realized that I genuinely miss posting recipes. I am always playing with ideas for new foods in my mind, but I’ve seldom had the time and motivation to create them.

This is in part because college makes time feel like a luxury, but also because I have had an unlimited supply of dining hall food.

Well, summer has nullified both these things, for better or worse, and I have been itching to cook and bake the weird ideas that I’ve accumulated this past semester, starting with these vegan s’more cookies.

They’re soft, sweet, and delicious despite containing no cane sugar, eggs, or dairy. What do they have instead?

Garbanzo beans.

It sounds weird, I know, but trust me, garbanzo beans are incredible.

Blended garbanzo beans create the perfect cookie base, and the liquid that comes with them can be whipped into a delicious (and vegan) marshmallow fluff. I promise there’s no catch. I’m still a little blown away myself.

Vegan S’more Cookies 

Marshmallow Fluff:

• liquid from 1 13.4 oz can of garbanzo beans (~½ cup liquid)
• ¼ cup coconut sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. To create the marshmallow fluff, beat the liquid from the can of garbanzo beans with an electric mixer or blender until foamy
2. Slowly add the coconut sugar and keep beating for around 10-15 minutes, until the mixture thickens and looks like meringue.
3. Try not to eat the entire bowl as you prepare the cookies 😉

Cookie base:

• 1 ½ cups cooked garbanzo beans
• ¼ cup sugar or coconut sugar (increase to 1/3 cup if you prefer sweeter desserts)
• ¼ cup liquid sweetener such as agave or maple syrup
• ¼ cup + 2 tbs unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbs oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup spelt flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt

1. In a blender or food processor, combine the garbanzo beans, coconut sugar, liquid sweetener, unsweetened almond milk, sour cream and oil.
2. Stir in the spelt flour, baking soda, and salt. Tada, that easy!

Assembling the cookies:

1. Scoop 1/8 cup portions of the batter into a greased whoopie pie or cupcake pan. I used the former because I had one lying around, but I’m sure a cupcake pan would work too!
2. Create an indentation in the middle of the batter and add a dollop of marshmallow cream on top.
3. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
4. Bake the cookies at 350 degree for 12-15 minutes.
5. Try and fail not to burn your tongue as you eat one straight out of the oven, then eat another ten minutes later when it’s semi cool-ish.
6. Eat another one–just to make sure it’s still good (it is). Repeat.

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Chocolate Macarons

I’m not going to sugarcoat this: macarons are finicky little beasts.

Out of the various times (read: 5 or more) I’ve tried to make them, all batches have failed to some degree.

Sorry to say, the batch pictured was somewhat of a failure too. I admit I’m sort of deceiving you with these pictures.

This batch wasn’t a disaster by any means and the macarons tasted delicious, formed adorable ‘feet’ and had a perfectly soft/chewy texture combo, but the other ¾ of the batch had cracks.

I’m pretty sure it’s because I didn’t let the macarons rest long enough before baking them, given the last ones in the oven had the fewest cracks. Lesson learned.

From my many attempts at macaron making, I can give the following tips with confidence:

1. Let the macarons rest!
2. Weigh the ingredients. For a while I didn’t have a scale and thought measuring in cups would work just as well. It doesn’t.
3. Let the macarons cool before filling. The last thing you want is to ruin a perfectly good beautiful batch of macarons with runny filling – I know from personal experience.
4. If the macarons stick, wipe a damp cloth on the bottom side of the parchment. (Works best if they are still warm.)
5. Don’t over or under fold the batter. Over folding can cause excessive spreading, and under folding can lead to bumpy macarons. (I wasn’t lying when I said macarons are finicky.)
6. If you succeed on your first try, gold star for you (and please, send some of your skills to me!). If you don’t, try again.

Chocolate Macarons

• 150 grams powdered sugar
• 110 grams almond meal
• 10 grams dutch processed cocoa powder (~2 tbs)
• 100 grams egg whites
• 50 grams sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift together the powdered sugar, almond meal, and cocoa.
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually adding the sugar. Stir in the vanilla,
3. Fold the dry ingredients into the whipped egg whites until no streaks remain.
4. Pipe or scoop the batter onto 3 parchment paper lined baking trays. Allow to rest for at least an hour and a half.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 16 minutes. If the macarons stick to the parchment, wipe the bottom side of the parchment (below the macarons) with a damp cloth. This should loosen them and make them easier to remove.
6. Fill with ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream

1. In a saucepan, heat the chocolate and heavy whipping cream until a smooth chocolate mixture forms.
2. Cool until spreadable.

On a side note, I’m interested in posting more dinner recipes! For some reason, I’m feeling quite sugared out. Lately I’ve been cooking my own meals (or having my mom order takeout), so there’s a bunch I can potentially share!

Malawi Peanut Balls (Mtedza)

I’ve never really liked peanut butter. Peanut butter is just so rich and sticky, and only really tastes good when paired with lots and lots of jelly and bread. However, these cookies are crumbly and buttery and just taste so good. They remind me of peanut shortbread.

I originally intended for this post to go with “Alphabet Around the World,” but these were too good to wait until the letter “M”. They’re cute bite-sized treats – perfect for a tea party or the like.

Malawai Peanut Balls

• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¾ cup roasted peanuts
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1 cup flour
• Powdered Sugar

1. Chop the roasted peanuts into fine pieces. (I think a food processor might work for this, however be careful not to over-process, or you will end up with peanut butter.)
2. Cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Stir in the vanilla, salt, and crushed peanuts.
4. Stir in the flour.
5. Divide into 2 tablespoon sized portions (easiest with a small ice cream scooper) and roll into balls.
6. Bake at 350, for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. While they are hot, roll in powdered sugar.
8. Place on a rack and allow to cool completely.
9. If desired, roll in powdered sugar again.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve made countless versions of chocolate chip cookies: some calling for bread flour, others for egg yolks, some even for vanilla beans and brown butter and the like, but I’ve found, when it comes down to it, simplicity is best.

These cookies are good. They’re not too thin, not too thick, not too crispy, not too soft. They’re not the most extravagant cookies – they’re far from it – but they’re buttery and chocolatey, and sometimes simplicity is best.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe adapted from here.

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 ¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 bag (2 cups) semi sweet chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients until there are no streaks of flour. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour (or just skip this step – most of the time i do)
6. Divide the dough into 2 tablespoons sized portions, and then bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Bake for shorter or more time depending on personal preferences. 🙂

Snickerdoodle Cookies

This week I was looking up recipes to make as a post-finals celebration and I stumbled upon this recipe for funfetti cookies. Even though chocolate cake is my ultimate favorite (you can beat chocolate, really), I’ve always loved funfetti cakes. Funfetti specked foods are just so pretty, and of course, delicious. But mostly pretty.

Anyways I decided to make the cookies, and figured that I could make an extra large batch and give some to my teachers as a ‘thanks for putting up with me the whole year’ sort of deal. So I did. Wednesday. At midnight. (time management isn’t one of my strongpoints, obviously)

I was making the dough – had nearly finished making it actually – when I realized that I didn’t have any sprinkles. Since funfetti cookies without sprinkles are a no-go, I figured that I could just roll them in cinnamon sugar and call them snickerdoodles. Surprisingly, it worked out really well!

These cookies straight out of the ovens were just pillows of warm, soft, cookie goodness. Once they cooled they assumed a more traditional soft, chewy center, crisp edges cookie texture, but that was perfectly delicious as well. The recipe was really simple, and the results were delicious. Try it~

P.S. I’m thinking about incorporating some gifs into my posts. They’re fun to make and way cooler to look at that traditional pictures.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

adapted from here

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 ¾ cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• ¼ cups cornstarch
• ¾ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Cream the butter and 1 ¼ cups of sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg and two extracts.
3. In another large bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones until no streaks of flour are visible.
5. Using an ice cream scooper (or just by eyeballing it), make ¼ cup sized balls of dough.
6. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining ½ cup of sugar, and the cinnamon.
7. Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture, and place on a greased baking sheet.
8. Bake for about 13 minutes at 375 degrees, or until the edges are light golden brown.
9. Let cool on a baking rack for several minutes (or be like me and just burn your tongue), and then enjoy with plenty of milk!

A is for Apple Pie Cookies [vegan]

I have this idea in my head, an idea which I’ve been considering for the past few weeks.  Since one of my New Year resolutions was to, I quote: “Bake different styles of food!,” I’ve obviously got to follow through on that!

To accomplish this resolution, my idea is: Desserts Around the World-alphabet style

Basically, every two weeks I will post a new recipe that originates from a foreign country.  Simple enough right?  The only other criteria is that there are going to be a total of 26 recipes, and each recipe name will begin with a letter in the alphabet.

To start myself off, here’s a recipe for Apple Pie Cookies, with the country being AMURICAAA.

These are essentially cinnamon oatmeal cookies, with an apple pie filling and a simple icing on top.  The cookies have almost a biscuity texture, which really enhances the idea of an apple pie.  These cookies are made for eating with a glass of milk (I’d even go as far as to say glasses of milk are made for drinking with these cookies), and if you’re aiming for a totally vegan dessert, a glass of soymilk is perfect too.  Eat these cookies to celebrate the United States- a mess of a country, but one built on honest ideals.

Apple Pie Cookies

For the cookies:

• ½ cup butter (I used vegan butter)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 cup flour (reduce to ¾ cup for a less biscuity cookie)
• 1 tbs corn starch
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt

1. Cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Whisk in the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the oatmeal, flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, and stir until a dough forms.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. Take ¼ cup size balls of dough, and form into round disks on a baking sheet. Make an indent in the middle of each disk as a bowl for the apple filling.

For the apple filling:

• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbs butter

1. Melt the butter in the pan, and add the brown sugar.  Heat until bubbling.
2. Add the apples, and cook until they begin to soften. Reduce the heat and keep cooking until the apples caramelize and the filling is deep golden brown. Cook less for a more gooey filling (in my cookies, I cooked the filling until very golden brown, and it was almost like a chewy apple caramel in the final product).  Divide the filling among the cookies.
3. Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until they are a light golden color.  Cool completely before adding the glaze.

For the icing:

• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 1 tiny splash vanilla
• milk (or soy milk)

1. In a plastic bag combine the powder sugar and vanilla.
2. Add a tiny splash of milk, and squish the bag until a homogenous icing forms.  If needed, add another tiny splash of milk.
3. Cut a corner off of the bag and pipe the icing onto the cookies.
4. Allow the icing to harden, then enjoy the cookies with a glass of milk.

Blueberry Cornflake Cookies

*Disclaimer* If you are on a diet, trying to make lifestyle changes, or an enemy of butter and sugar, these cookies are not for you.  Perhaps these vegan cookies, this tofu chocolate pie, or this oatmeal cake will suffice, but I’ll warn you that nothing even moderately wholesome can substitute a warm cornflake and dried blueberry specked cookie.

……..

If you’re still reading this, I hope you’re a fan of sugar and butter and flour.  I figure that a recipe this decadent ought to be posted later in the year, especially because I assume most new years resolutions are still holding strong, but I can’t contain my glee with these blueberry studded treats.

I know-I know, these cookies don’t look special.  They don’t have the distinctive brown spots of chocolate chip cookies, or the crackled surface of molasses ginger cookies, but they have something special: outrageous flavor and texture.

Imagine a cookie with the texture of shortbread, combined with a chewy center that’s reminiscent of peanut butter cookies.  Drooling yet?  Now, imagine that every bite you get crunchy pecan pieces, hints of cornflake flavor paired with a slight crunch, and the chewiness and taste of dried blueberries.  Like I said, outrageous!

Dried Blueberry Studded Cornflake Cookies

originally found here

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 tbs molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 1 cup crushed cornflakes (not powdered, merely crushed)
• ½ cup pecans, chopped
• ½ cup dried blueberries
• 1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 3 ½ cups AP flour
• 1 tbs (yes, tablespoon) baking soda
• ½ tsp salt (I’m thinking that a little fleur de sel sprinkled on top would be killer!)

1. Cream together the butter, sugar, oil, and molasses.  Whisk in the vanilla, and egg.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the crush cornflakes, pecans, dried blueberries, oatmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones, until a dough forms.
4. Chill the dough for an hour or so (I made the dough at night and baked the cookies in the morning).
5. Scoop out 2 tbs sized portions of dough onto a greased cookie pan.
6. Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the edges are golden brown.  Since the recipe makes so many cookies, experiment with baking times to get the exact texture desired. 🙂
7. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (regular or sugar free)

I never use to stay up past midnight on school nights.  I remember one night, sophomore year, where I stayed up until 11:30PM to finish a school paper-but that was an anomaly and every other night I would be asleep by 11:00PM.

This year, continuing that blissful sleep schedule has become impossible.  Even into the wee hours of the morning, I still find myself finishing Physics projects, putting the final touches onto English essays (you do not know how nerve wracking it is to write essays when your ability to write cohesively has decreased by 50% XD), or even just trying to start my math homework.

I’d like to blame my teachers for assigning so much homework-and they do-believe me, but I’m also not exactly the best at managing my time [could you say no to the internet? ;)].  As a result, these last few weeks have been a sleep deprived jumble of events, and there have been no blog posts for way. too. long. D:

BUT-it’s winter break now! 😀 I’m ready to sleep 18 hours every day (KIDDING), bake new recipes, take more pictures of food, hang out with my friends, and have fun.  To celebrate this momentous occasion-here’s a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  They’re easy to make, fun, and really delicious.  I hope you try them out and enjoy them!

Alice’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source of recipe here.

Ingredients

• 2 ¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter*
• ½ cup sugar**
• 1 ½ cup brown sugar, packed**
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 bag)

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together for 3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla.  Continue beating for another minute.
4. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, and then gently fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Drop ¼ cup sized cookie dough balls onto a parchment papered cookie sheet, and bake for about 9-12 minutes.  They are finished when the edges are golden brown, and the middle is barely cooked through.

* I decided to add ½ cup butter and ½ cup oil.  The oil adds a certain chewiness that the butter alone cannot achieve.

**I went for a sugar free cookie and replaced the sugar with 2 cups of coconut palm sugar and about 1 ½ tsp molasses.

“Autumn” Cookies

“These cookies taste like Christmas”- Sonia.

“You know what, if you went to a store and asked for fall cookies-this would be exactly what you would get.”-Phil

“Mmm, they’re good”-Mom

As much as I’m straining to write more here-there’s really no other way to describe these cookies other than little blissful bites of holiday spirit.

Speaking of holiday spirit, I need a vacation, asap.  Junior year is just as difficult as predicted, which why my little blog is so neglected. So sorry! I’ve made many recipes recently, but I just haven’t had the time to blog about them.  😥 Luckily, now that my first English essay of the year is done (essays consume me.  I’m the world’s slowest writer), I ought to have a bit more time for Chomps of Life.  🙂

Anyways, since I have to get back to history, I’m going to leave you with the recipe.  These cookies are a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of fall, and they’re healthy too (well, they have white chocolate chips, but that could always be subbed for say, cocoa nibs or raisins).  The actual cookie base itself is sugar free, gluten free, and vegan. Woah! Admittedly I’m not a health food blogger, and I doubt I could ever be one, but I like to mix it up with some more health conscious recipes here and there. Well, as long as they’re delicious.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

1. In a large bowl, sift together:

• 1 cup of Pamela’s Gluten Free Flour* (or all purpose flour)
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp allspice and nutmeg
• ½ tsp ginger

2. Add to the dry ingredients:

• 2 cups of old fashioned oats

3. Cream together until light and fluffy:

• ¼ cup vegan butter, melted* (real butter fine too!)
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1 ½ tsp dry egg replacer (or 1 egg)
• 1 ½ cups coconut palm sugar
• ¼ cup maple syrup (if aiming for a sugar free recipe, sub with sugar free pancake syrup)

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine with a spatula. The dough will be very dry (but still formable into balls).

4. Mix in:

• 1 cup white chocolate chips***
• 1 cup dried cranberries (raisins if making the recipe sugar free)

5. Measure the cookies into 1 tablespoon sized balls, gently flatten on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for eight minutes. Enjoy with a glass of milk (or soymilk).

*Other gluten free mixes will work as well, just make sure xanthan gum is an ingredient (if it’s not, you’ll need to add ½ tsp xanthan gum).
**If working with a drier dough does not appeal to you, add up to ½ cup more melted butter for a more traditional cookie dough
*** I should add that white chocolate chips are neither sugar free nor vegan, so if making this recipe for someone that is, the white chocolate can be subbed with sugar free white chocolate, sugar free semi sweet chocolate, vegan chocolate chips, cocoa nibs, or just left out, because the cookies are already darn delicious without them.

Rolo Filled Brown Butter Cookies

Delicious.  Decadent.  Caramel-y. Chewy. Moist. Chocolate-y. Crispy edges. Soft centers. Fragrant.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words (and according to one of my old history teachers, ten thousand), but there are quite frankly no proper words to describe this picture.  I could write a novel describing the luxurious texture, and nutty, slightly vanilla-y scent of these cookies, but that wouldn’t even cover the most basic aspects of these cookies.

I’m serious when I say that taking pictures of these warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven-cookies required every ounce of my self control.  For my older brother, the temptation was perhaps even worse. Being the maniacal sister I am, I made him hold the cookies for the pictures and slowly break them apart to reveal the caramel…all with an empty stomach. Muhahaha  Needless to say, Once I finished snapping a couple shots, we quickly (and I mean quickly!) ate a majority of the batch, savoring each and every caramel-laced bite.  Here’s my advice to you: make em, savor em, finish em, make em again, repeat.

Rolo Filled Brown Butter  Cookies

adapted from here

• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups AP flour* (you can replace 1 cup with whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ~30 rolos, unwrapped

1. Heat the butter in a saucepan at medium until the butter has a slightly nutty scent and is amber colored.  Pour the butter in a large bowl.
2. Add the two sugars and stir until combined.  Allow to cool completely (essential step!).
3. Beat in the two eggs, and the vanilla.
4. Sift the dry ingredients together in another bowl.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones, and stir with a spatula until combined.
6. Measure out 1 tbs balls of dough, and wrap the dough around a rolo. (tip: used a bit of flour to stop your hand from sticking to the dough)
7. Bake at 350 degrees F, for about 8 minutes, or slightly golden brown around the edges.
8. Enjoy with a glass of milk, or tea, or coffee, or plain! 🙂

*NOTE: Others who have tried this recipe have had problems with the dough being too wet.   In my experience, the dough is very soft and sticky, but dusted with a little flour, it’s not too hard to shape them into balls.  If the dough is obviously too wet to even hold its shape, you can either a) add more flour (too much could result in tough cookies) b)place the dough in the fridge for an hour before forming the cookies.  I plan on playing around with this recipe a bit more, but until then, the two tips above should ensure nice cookies.

P.S. If you have a dog, make these to share.  Aiya [pictured above] wasn’t so pleased when I refused to give her any of the rolo cookies. Oh silly puppy 😛