Not For Rabbits

Vegan cooking and baking for humans, not bunnies.

[notforrabbits-blog]

Peanut Butter Apricot Oat Bars with Dates & Flax (Vegan, Gluten-Free)

Makes 8 bars

I'm back from my Tumblr hiatus...bearing granola bars!  My friend Brianna doesn't like granola bars, but seeing as she has red hair, we can safely assume that most other humans love a good bar.  The wonderful rectangles of wholesome, filling, nutty, fruity, oaty, sometimes (and hopefully) chocolatey tastiness we simply refer to as "bars" are a staple in my diet.  And although I love me a Clif, Luna, Lara, or whatever pretentious prepackaged bar, I am not so keen on the prices, lengthy ingredient lists, and waste that the plastic packaging creates.  So I endeavored to make my own bars, and oh how easy it was.

This recipe is a great canvas for all of your bar visions.  Go wild.  Go nuts. (And go chocolate, protein powder, seeds, grains, spices while you're at it.)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (pea)nut butter (ideally just peanuts and salt on the ingredient list)

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup brown rice syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups oats

1 cup GF cereal (your choice; something mild-tasting and airy, like rice cereal, works well; I used Barbara's Multigrain Puffins)

2/3 cup mix-ins (any combination of dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, and seeds; I used dried apricot, dates, and flax seeds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line an 8x8" metal pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, use a fork to combine peanut butter, maple syrup, and brown rice syrup.  Stir in vanilla and salt.  Add oats and cereal, stirring to coat (you may need to use your hands).  Now is no time to be dainty; crush the cereal to make for a denser bar.  Incorporate fruit, nuts, and seeds.  Transfer mixture to prepared pan and press very firmly.  The dough should be flat and compact.  Bake for 22-24 minutes, until edges begin to brown.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 30 minutes.  Slice into 8 (or 6, or 4 ginormous) bars.  The bars can be frozen for safe keeping, or will last around a week in the fridge.  

[notforrabbits-blog]

Gingerbread cupcakes with lemony cream cheese frosting, topped with crystallized ginger.  From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Sweet and spicy (like me, I hope).

At this point, I should be listing Isa Chandra Moskowitz as my emergency contact.  Buy her books!

[notforrabbits-blog]

Abandon passiveness

I usually double the spices in a recipe.  

Spice is the spice of life.  Fear no ginger, cayenne, nutmeg, paprika.  (Use caution with cloves.)

[notforrabbits-blog]

check out my lunch: whole wheat bagel + veganaise + mashed chickpeas + clover sprouts + tomato + vegan bacon 

sprouts make everything better

[notforrabbits-blog]

Pineapple Right-Side Up Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Luscious and whimsical. 

[notforrabbits-blog]

Chinese Five Spice Snickerdoodles (Vegan)

Snickerdoodles evoke joyful childhood memories, sure, but face it: they’re childish.  Greasy cookies with a cinnamon sugar dusting?  We can do better.  This Chinese five spice version is an exotic (or snobby) adaptation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Chai Spice Snickerdoodles.  Chinese five spice sneaks its way into both batter and topping, resulting in a sophisticated cookie that simultaneously transports you to the Far East and to the buttery years of youth.  How cultured you’ve become!

  Topping ingredients:

Scant ¼ cup organic granulated sugar

1 teaspoon Chinese five spice  

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

  Cookie ingredients:

½ cup canola oil

¾ cup organic granulated sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

3 tablespoons non-dairy milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 cup AP and 1 cup white whole wheat)

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Chinese five spice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Mix together topping ingredients on a plate.  Using a fork, vigorously mix oil, sugar, maple syrup, and milk in a medium bowl, then add vanilla.  Sift flour, baking soda, salt, five spice, and cinnamon.  Mix until a dough comes together (don’t be afraid to use your hands).  Roll dough into balls (ping-pong sized) and press into topping, forming discs about 2 inches in diameter.  Place on cookie sheets, 2 inches apart, and bake for 10 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool on sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 

[notforrabbits-blog]

when you acknowledge as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving toward perfection becomes clear: to make people happy. that's what cooking is all about.

thomas keller

[notforrabbits-blog]

roasted golden beet + arugula + toasted pecans + warm maple dijon 

[notforrabbits-blog]

Vegan Pumpkin Pie Brownie

There might be no crying in baseball, but who says no pumpkin pie in May?  Courtesy of Post Punk Kitchen.  Recipe here.

[notforrabbits-blog]

Variations on a theme: Vegan Cherry Almond Brownie Bites

Adapted from Vegan Brownie Bites, original recipe courtesy of Erin McKenna.

Ingredients:

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ cup organic sugar

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup applesauce

¼ cup canola oil

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

½ cup vegan chocolate chunks, preferably with almond pieces

fresh bing cherries, pitted and halved

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F and lightly grease a mini muffin pan.  Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together applesauce, oil, and extracts.  Mix wet ingredients into dry until just smooth, then fold in chocolate chunks.  Fill muffin pan with a 1/2 tablespoon of batter per brownie, place a cherry half in each, then top with an additional 1/2 tablespoon batter.  Bake 13-15 minutes (I prefer underbaking for a more fudgy brownie).  Let brownies cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning onto wire rack. 

[notforrabbits-blog]

Spiced Pineapple Carrot Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting - Vegan

Fiery, sweet, and moist. Makes two 9" layers.  Recipe (without modifications noted below) here.

Leftover crushed pineapple from piña colada cupcakes left me no choice but to bake another exotic treat.  By doubling the recipe and supplementing the crushed pineapple with grated carrot, a 2-layer 9" cake was born.  Other modifications to the recipe: add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne for a noticeable kick, as well as 1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (coated in flour) to boost texture and piquancy.  The baking time will vary depending on the moistness of your pineapple and carrot, but 30-35 minutes at 350°F should do it.

[notforrabbits-blog]

Vegan Magical Gabriel García Márquez Cupcakes or Pineapple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut

Makes 12 regular-sized, or 36 miniature cupcakes.  Cupcake recipe adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

These little golden cupcakes illustrate magical realism, the genre that Gabriel García Márquez mastered.  You take a bite of dense pineapple cake, tangy cream cheese frosting, and flecks of delicate toasted coconut and think, Is this the fantastical entering my otherwise mundane world?!  At least, that's what went through my mind.

I made a batch of these cupcakes to share with my class on the oeuvre of García Márquez after his death on April 17th.  (My professor called us assassins.)  Yellow pineapple and yellow cupcake liners were the perfect touches to honor all of the yellow flowers and butterflies within Cien años de soledad.  My omnivore classmates loved them!

If Latin American literature isn't your thing, feel free to rename the recipe piña colada cupcakes (and add a tablespoon of rum to the frosting).       

Cupcake ingredients:

1 cup AP flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 cup crushed pineapple in its juice

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup granulated organic sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut instructions here.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin tin with paper liners.  In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice.  In a separate bowl, whisk pineapple, oil, sugar, and vanilla to combine.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just smooth.  Fill liners about 2/3 full and bake 25-27 minutes for full-sized cupcakes or 12-15 minutes for miniature 'cakes.  Allow cupcakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then cool completely on wire rack.  

To assemble, top with a rustic smear of cream cheese frosting and sprinkle or roll in toasted coconut.  Enjoy while reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. 

[notforrabbits-blog]

Vegan Brownie Bites 

The internet hosts a comprehensive and convenient library of recipes.  But with the abundance of food blogs and cooking websites, a simple search for “vegan brownie recipe” (per se) might lead to an assault of equally untrustworthy/mediocre recipes.  Online recipes overwhelm me!  Whenever possible, I try to use real, tangible cookbooks.  The recipes are often more reliable, and there’s something nostalgic about paper and page numbers these days…sigh.  Tip: peruse your public library’s cooking section to save some dough (baking pun, sorry).  Once you’ve found a volume you love, buy your own copy to cherish and splatter with food and jot down notes inside.

I checked out the 2007 Food & Wine Annual Cookbook and found this recipe for Brownie Bites, contributed by Erin McKenna (founder of Babycakes).  The description reads: “These wheat-free, butterless brownies are decadent and dense.”  Ah yes, 2007, the days of yore, when recipes were not labeled as gluten-free or vegan, rather as "healthy".  (Because I am evil) I altered the recipe to not be gluten-free.  (Because I am lazy) I swapped gluten-free flour for all-purpose 1 for 1, which I know I am not supposed to do, but the brownies were scrumptious anyway, with a bite perfectly between cakey and fudgy. 

And if cookbooks are too primitive for you, the recipe can also be found here.

Ingredients:

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ cup organic sugar

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup applesauce

¼ cup canola oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup vegan chocolate chunks (or chips)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F and lightly grease a mini muffin pan.  Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together applesauce, oil, and vanilla.  Mix wet ingredients into dry until just smooth, then fold in chocolate chunks.  Fill muffin pan with a scant tablespoon of batter per brownie.  Bake 13-15 minutes (I prefer underbaking for a more fudgy brownie).  Let brownies cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning onto wire rack. 

[notforrabbits-blog]

Luscious Linzer Vegan Birthday Cake

My friend Gabe, better known as Gabe the Babe, turned 22 on Wednesday.  His favorite cake is chocolate raspberry (good man), and the rest is history.  To make this decadent and sensual chocolate cake, I simply followed the Post Punk Kitchen's Just Chocolate Cake recipe and added instant espresso to the batter.  Once the single layer had cooled, I sliced it in half (horizontally) and brushed the bottom layer with seedless raspberry jam that I had heated and thinned with water.  A liberal layer of the jam, straight from its jar, cushions the two cake halves.  Linzer comes into play in the ganache, made from an almond-studded dark chocolate bar melted into scalded almond milk and maple syrup until a gorgeous ganache formed.  Add birthday candles and devour.

Photos courtesy of the charismatic and talented Alexis Canney, amateur photographer extradordinaire and girlfriend of Gabe the Babe.

[notforrabbits-blog]

A Vegan Eats in Saratoga Springs

Perhaps you prefer to read about food rather than make a mess in the kitchen?  If so, check out the restaurant reviews I've written for my college's newspaper, The Skidmore News, as its resident vegan.  

Mouzon House review here.  El Mexicano review here.

[notforrabbits-blog]

When I was a kid, I wouldn't touch beans.  Too mushy.  Thankfully, my palate now loves all foods mushy (and vegan).  Avocados!  Hummus!  And chili sin carne!  Here is my Meaty Beany Chili from the Post Punk Kitchen.  I kept the jalapeño seeds intact and added a Hungarian hot pepper, but I say it could still be spicier.  Delicious and satisfying nonetheless.   

[notforrabbits-blog]

Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Ginger, Dates & Apricots

Topped with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting & Cinnamon Almond Brittle 

The product of boredom and too much caffeine is a more complex carrot cake than what I had originally envisioned.  Things got out of hand; dried apricots, soft dates, crystallized ginger, and toasted almonds grace these 'cakes instead of orthodox raisins and walnuts.  And toasted coconut along with cinnamon almond brittle enhances the cream cheese frosting.  Laborious, yes, but well worth the sophisticated surprise.

Cupcake ingredients:  

scant 2/3 cup organic granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 soy yogurt (plain or vanilla)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup flour (all purpose or 1/3 cup all purpose + 1/3 cup white whole wheat)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup crystallized ginger, medjool dates, and dried apricots (in the proportion that you prefer), chopped 

1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped

Frosting ingredients (double if you plan to pipe mountains):

1/8 cup margarine (such as Earth Balance), softened

1/8 cup vegan cream cheese (such as Tofutti), softened

1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish ingredients (optional):

1 tablespoon organic granulated sugar

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

pinch salt

pinch cinnamon

1/4 cup almonds, toasted and chopped

toasted coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F and line cupcake pan with paper liners (regular or mini-sized).  Toast almonds in saucepan over medium heat until fragrant and golden, then remove from pan to cool before chopping.  Chop dried fruit and dust lightly with flour so that pieces will not sink during baking.  In a medium bowl, mix sugar, oil, yogurt, and vanilla.  Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger into wet ingredients, and stir until just smooth.  Fold in carrot, ginger, dates, apricots, and almonds.  Fill paper liners two-thirds full and bake around 26 minutes for regular sized cupcakes, and 12 minutes for minis.  Use a toothpick to check for doneness.  (My regular-sized cupcakes came out a bit darker and flatter than I had expected.  I panicked.  I almost mourned.  But in the end they were perfectly done, the dates delicious and sticky, and I felt foolish for having doubted my precious little cakes.)  Transfer to a wire cooling rack.

To make frosting, cream margarine and cream cheese using a handheld mixer until combined.  Sift in confectioners' sugar in 1/2 cup increments and beat until completely smooth.  Add vanilla and beat one final time.  Refrigerate until ready to frost.

To make almond brittle, add sugar, maple syrup, and salt to a cold skillet, then turn heat to medium.  Using a wooden spoon, stir 7 to 9 minutes, until mixture is thick and caramel-colored (it will bubble—don’t fret).  Remove pan from heat, add almonds and cinnamon, and stir to coat.  Spread almonds on greased parchment.  When nuts have cooled, chop brittle into small pieces.  It’s yummy.  Try to control snacking.

Assemble cupcakes using either a knife or a piping bag for the frosting—I like a knife for these cupcakes to create a more rustic look.  Sprinkle with toasted coconut and garnish with brittle.  See, that wasn't so hard.  Share and enjoy!