Delectable SunButter Cookies

Smiling cookie 🙂

They’re veritable kissing cousins, this sunbutter cookie and their nutty counterpart, the peanut butter cookie. The difference is the awesome nut-free goodness of SunButter. And if you use a gluten-free flour, these are gluten-free to boot! I used a 50/50 blend of buckwheat and all-purpose, so it’s possible to make these GF, just adjust the amount of flour to result in a sturdy enough consistency to resist spread during baking. They are flaky and delicate, moist and crumbly, and are perfect with a yummy cup of tea. These cookies are many things, insipid not being one of them. 😉 And is it just me..or does the cookie look like he’s laughing/smirking?

Ingredients:

8 oz (two sticks) Earth Balance Vegan Butter, room temperature
1/2 C turbinado sugar
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C mixture of almond milk and canola oil (approx a 50/50 ratio)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 C chunky (or creamy) SunButter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2.5-2.75 C buckwheat (for gluten-free) or oat flour (*start with 2 C flour & add accordingly to make the dough the right consistency so as not to flatten out during baking – if you use regular AP flour, the 2 C should be fine..but you may need to add more)

Directions:

1. Cream the Earth Balance, SunButter and sugars until light. Add the almond/canola mix (or flaxseed mix), vanilla, and almond extracts. Blend together.
2. Add the salt, baking soda, and flour. Mix until well combined.
3. Preheat to 350°F. The dough can rest in fridge or on the counter.
4. Using a well-rounded teaspoon of dough for each cookie, drop the dough onto a cookie sheet. I used a small melon-baller to just scoop and drop..scoop and drop..very easy peasy!

5. Bake 8-12 minutes, until the cookies are light golden brown. Cool on racks.

**Additionally, you could smother in some ganache for a more decadent treat..but these babies are delicious all on their own!

 

 

Happy Baking!!

On This Day In History: Golden Delight (tea)

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Chocolate Stout Cuppies with Irish Whiskey Buttercream Frosting

The springtime inspires me to get back into baking.. and of course, who doesn’t love St. Patty’s Day?! Ever since I saw this recipe on my Facebook feed, I knew I had to make them. I actually made the cuppies pretty much verbatim, so I’ll simply include a link with the photos.. I did use olive oil in place of canola (didn’t have any canola on hand), but it worked out nicely! Check it out! Super deliciousness awaits you… 🙂 This recipe made about 5 dozen mini cuppies – and I baked at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Chef Chloe’s recipe – NOM NOM!

I did, however, tweak the frosting recipe a bit..so here’s my frosting recipe:

Ingredients:

1 C Earth Balance Vegan Butter, lightly softened
4.5-5 C sifted powdered sugar (I put in 3 C as the original recipe called for, but then added about 1.5-2 C more..didn’t measure it, but added until it was the right consistency)

4 TBSP Irish Whiskey

2 TBSP Coconut Milk Beverage

1 TBSP vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Dump all ingredients into a mixer. Mix until smooth and delicious – adjusting moisture level as needed.
2. Taste for quality control, and frost cooled cuppies.

Happy Baking!

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Vegan Samoas

You may have seen the unpaid female child labor hawking their animal-torture based cookies out in front of your grocery store.  It’s that time of year.  I can admit to enjoying a thin mint back in the day.  They’re pretty refreshing out of the fridge.  But hands down, the best creation ever conceived was a shortbread cookie topped with caramel, coconut and chocolate:  the Samoa.  My love for Samoas cannot be contained by our meager language.  I could definitely put away a box of them in one day.  In fact, they were the last non-vegan food I ate on purpose.  Five years ago.  I haven’t had a Samoa in five years.  Until now.  I can’t believe it took me this long to do it.  But here they are for you all to enjoy – Vegan Samoas.

Although this recipe seems to have many steps, each of them is pretty simple.  It takes a while from start to finish, but mostly it’s a hurry up and wait game, until the final assembly, which doesn’t take long.

Ingredients:

Cookies:

2 C flour
1/3 C confectioner’s sugar
1/3 C turbinado sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 sticks Earth Balance

Caramel:

3/4 C hemp milk
1.5 tsp cornstarch
3/4 C brown sugar
3 TBSP Earth Balance vegan butter
1.5 TBSP brown rice syrup
pinch of salt
3 tsp confectioner’s sugar

Topping:

2 TBS shredded coconut, toasted
1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Instructions – cookies:

1.  Place all dry ingredients in a food processor, and give a few quick pulses to blend.

2.  Cut “butter” into pieces and add to food processor, along with vanilla.  Blend for 20-30 seconds, or until the mixture resembles course cornmeal.

3.  Turn onto lightly floured surface and kneed a few times to form a dough.  Roll into a ball.

Warning!  This cookie dough tastes fantastic, and harbors no salmonella, but if you eat it all, you will have no Samoas!

4.  Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 1 – 24 hours.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut with cookie cutters.

6.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.  This is a very unusual case where you want the cookies to be slightly crispy.  Let cool while you prepare the caramel.

Warning!!  At this stage, the cookies are in fact already delicious, and it’s wise to find a disfigured one to perform quality control tests on, just to make sure.  But, if you eat all of them, you will end up with no Samoas!

Instructions – caramel: (based on Sara’s dulce de leche)

1. Place hemp milk, cornstarch, sugar, vegan butter, and brown rice syrup in a small stainless steel pan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

2. Cook gently for 15 minutes, stir in the pinch of salt and the confectioner’s sugar. Continue to cook gently until the mixture thickens enough so that a spoonful dropped on piece of parchment holds together, about an additional 5 to 10 minutes. You know you’re there when you can run a spoon through it and it doesn’t run back together immediately.

3.  Remove from heat and begin cookie assembly.

Instructions – assembly:

1.  After the caramel has cooled for five minutes or so, you can start the assembly line.   Drop spoonfuls of caramel on top of each cookie, and spread it to the edges.  As soon as possible, sprinkle the toasted coconut on top.  It’s great to have a helper for this, to see to the coconut, while you work on the caramel.

Warning!  A shortbread cookie with caramel and coconut on top is a wonderful idea all by itself.  However, if you eat them all at this stage, you still will not have had any Samoas!

2.  After all the cookies have the caramel and coconut, it’s time to melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  Drizzle spoonfuls of chocolate over the cookies.

3.  Place cookies in refrigerator for 10 minutes to set everything.

Warning!!  Consumption of more than 2-3 cookies will likely lead to sugar-induced coma.

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Green Chile Rice

A quick and easy recipe.. It’s no secret Jo and I love our spicy goodness, and it’s certainly no secret that we LOVE green chile. Ever since Jo lived in Albuquerque, green chili has become a new sensation, new obsession, new greatness to our spicy repertoire. And when I made this a few weeks back, I was surprised we hadn’t posted something this simple and delicious already! So here it is..without further ado, a spicy, green chili rice that will serve nicely along any Tex-Mex dish we have posted here 🙂

Ingredients:

2 C brown rice
3.25 C water
3/4 C green chile sauce (you can adjust the spicy level by using more green chili and less water; you want a total of 4 C liquid to 2 C rice)
2 TBSP canola or safflower oil
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a skillet, heat 2 TBSP canola oil over medium heat. Add in brown rice and lightly saute, a few minutes.

2. Add water, spices, and green chile sauce. Let simmer 45 minutes (or until rice is al dente).

3. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve up! You can sprinkle with some green onion, or even add some onion in at the beginning..depending on your green chile sauce and what’s in it. Another tasty option would be to squeeze a little fresh lime juice on top! 🙂

Happy Cooking!

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