Gluten-Free Summer Peach and Blueberry Snack Cake

It’s that time of year when peaches are peaking. Where I live, fresh juicy peaches are in abundance and demand to be eaten in everything. They complement muffins and pretty layered cakes, but I like them best when added to an easy snack cake. No muss, no fuss.

The cake recipe that crossed my path was already vegan, and gluten-free as well. The first way I changed it was to add peaches instead of apricots, but you could even use plums or cherries here. The next swap was to use aquafaba instead of packaged egg replacer because aquafaba helps maintain the structure that can be lacking in gluten-free baked goods.

For high altitude baking, I reduced the baking powder and baking soda. I also swapped the water for milk, for more flavor, then curdled it with apple cider vinegar for a greater leavening effect that boosts gluten-free flours at altitude.

Gluten-Free Summer Peach and Blueberry Snack Cake adapted from Gluten-Free Blueberry Apricot Cake

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup non-dairy milk
1.5 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
scant 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegan butter
3/4 cup organic sugar
2 tablespoons aquafaba, cold (the liquid from canned chickpeas)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 small peach, pitted and sliced

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 350F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Stir apple cider vinegar into the non-dairy milk and it set aside to curdle. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the vegan butter on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for 2 more minutes. Whisk the aquafaba and add it to the mixer bowl along with the vanilla. Beat until incorporated.

Reduce the mixer’s speed to low and beat in half of the flour mixture then half of the curdled milk. Scrape down the bowl and repeat the sequence with the remainder of the dry and wet mixtures.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Arrange the sliced peaches and blueberries on top.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 33 to 38 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking time. Place the pan on a wire rack and let the cake cool completely before slicing.

The cooled cake can be covered in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Until next time, happy baking!

Easy Chocolate Pudding Parfait

Jun24

It is fun to reimagine recipes I’ve made in the past. Often this is spurred on by scrounging around in my cupboard and discovering an ingredient that needs to be used up. In this case it was an aseptic box of tofu that was hovering near to its expiration date.

Tofu for dessert often ends up in the blender to become vegan mousse or pudding. You can make a pie or tart shell to hold this blended mixture, but I was feeling lazy. However, by layering it with cookies or cake and other sweet bits you create an easy and elegant parfait.

Over the years of making tofu pudding I have discovered a few tips to ensure smooth success. I added these steps to my recipe so you have the perfect parfait for a warm summer evening.

Chocolate Pudding Parfait based on Chocolate Mousse Pie with Cookie Crust and Raspberry Coulis

chocolate pudding
1 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsweetened nondairy milk, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or substitute coffee extract for a deeper chocolate taste)
12 oz silken tofu, drained (soft or firm, the choice will affect the texture), at room temperature
parfait add-ins
6-12 chocolate cookies, depending on size
3-18 vegan marshmallows, depending on size

For the chocolate pudding: To melt the chocolate chips in the double boiler method, place them in a glass or metal bowl. (Note: The bowl should be large enough so that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water in the pot you set it over.) Set this bowl over a pot filled with 1/2 cup of simmering water. Heat the pot over low-medium heat on the stove, stirring the chips occasionally until they are melted.

Once the chips are melted, take the bowl off of the pot and allow the chocolate to cool slightly. (Note: Do not allow it to cool enough so that it re-solidifies. You want it somewhat cool so it’s closer in temperature to the other ingredients).

Place the nondairy milk, extract, and tofu into a blender. Process until smooth. Scrape down the sides and add the melted and cooled chocolate. Process the mixture until completely smooth.

To assemble the parfaits: Crumble the cookies and cut up the marshmallows if they are large. Add some cookie crumbles to the bottom of a dessert glass. Next, add a few spoonfuls of pudding then a few bits of marshmallow. Continue layering the ingredients until the glass is almost full. End with crumbles and marshmallow bits. Add fresh fruit, chocolate shavings, and nondairy whipped cream if you’re feeling fancy.

Until next time, happy non-baking!

Apple Raisin Mini Muffins

Apr30

I’ve been enjoying the challenge of scaling full-size recipes down by using different pan sizes. It’s helpful if you have a smaller family, or if you’re concerned about not eating too much dessert. (Although that second idea is nonsense because there is no such thing as “too much dessert,” is there?)

My favorite taste tester was looking for a quick afternoon snack, so I thought I’d go for mini muffins. They are great anytime, really; breakfast, mid-day, late night. Just ask my tester because he ended up eating them all day long.

Now it was time to learn how to make smaller treats. Craftsy covers a variety of pastimes on their blog, including baking, and they had a post on how to Make It Mini. Their good advice included ingredient preparation. “Chocolate chips, dried fruit, and nuts are all excellent mix-ins because the(y) can easily be chopped down to a suitable size.” That meant I needed to chop my dried fruit so when I bit into a muffin it wouldn’t just offer a big, fat raisin. It also made me realize that cutting up the fresh apple strands would help distribute the ingredients.

Other recommendations were for greasing the mini muffin pans in lieu of using liners, and adjusting the baking time to avoid overbaking. I followed these suggestions and the result was perfectly moist muffin bites.

The article’s description of yield didn’t match up with what I produced. “Mini muffins are one-third the size of regular muffins, which means that a big muffin recipe that yields 12 large muffins will produce 36 mini muffins.” But, at altitude it’s best not to fill the muffin cups all the way (as mentioned in my post Misguided High Altitude Guidelines). Therefore my tins had batter that didn’t exceed 2/3 full, and I ended up with 47 minis.

Okay, enough prep talk. Let’s bake!

Apple Raisin Mini Muffins adapted from Allergy Free Cookbook by Alice Sherwood

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
pinch fine sea salt
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more if you love cinnamon like I do)
3 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons vegan butter, melted then cooled slightly
3/4 cup + 2 teaspoons non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 small to medium apples, cored, peeled, and grated into short strands
2 tablespoons chopped raisins
2 teaspoons vegan cane sugar for sprinkling on top
vegan shortening, for greasing the muffin pans

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease 47 cavities of your mini muffin pans, and set aside.

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and brown sugar into a medium bowl. Add the melted vegan butter, non-dairy milk, and vanilla and stir until almost incorporated. Add the grated apples and chopped raisins and stir to combine. The dough will be thick.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups until the cups are 2/3 full. You may need to press the fruit bits down into the cups with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 13-15 minutes until the cupcakes are pale golden and firm to the touch. Set the muffin tins on a wire rack until the minis are cool. They should tip out easily when ready.

Mini muffins can be stored in an airtight container on the counter for a few days.

Until next time, happy baking!

Convert to a Different Cake Pan Size and Blueberry Cake recipe

Jan28

Recently I posted on how I made a Moderate Midnight Chocolate Cake in a smaller-sized bundt pan. The conversion for that recipe was easy as all I had to do was cut the ingredients in half from the full-sized bundt pan recipe amounts.

I thought it would be fun to make another small bundt cake, but this time I looked at a recipe that used a loaf or a round cake pan. So, how do you go from one cake pan to a very different one and still make a successful cake? To start you need to know how many cups your pan holds.

The recipe I found originally called for a 9-inch round cake pan or a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Upon searching the internet, I found out that these each hold 8 cups so it made sense that they were interchangeable sizes. I knew from my research on bundt pans that my small pan holds 6 cups. Quick math told me that my pan was 75% smaller (or 6 cups divided by 8 cups). That meant I needed to multiply each measurement in the ingredient list by 75%. So far so good.

Next, I needed to throw in a few small tweaks for altitude, which gave me more flour and plant milk and less baking powder. After that I made an adjustment to the baking time to account for the overall smaller size of the cake. I began with 75% of the time used for the smaller pan in the original recipe, figuring I could add more time if needed. The reduced time was right on the mark, and the cake baked beautifully.

I was inspired to add lemon to complement the blueberry flavor. You could also make this with chocolate chips instead of blueberries to be more decadent. Or you can turn it into 6 cupcakes if that is what you prefer, but be sure to reduce the baking time by at least half because cupcakes are much smaller and bake faster.

Vegan Blueberry Cake with Lemon Glaze adapted from Vegan Blueberry Cake

shortening, to prepare cake pan
2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra to prepare cake pan
3/4 cup organic sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1.25 – 1.5 cups frozen blueberries (depending on their size), still frozen
1 cup non-dairy milk, unsweetened and unflavored
3 ounces canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
lemon glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon non-dairy milk, if needed

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 6-cup bundt pan, making sure to get into every crevice. Set aside.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Remove 1/2 cup of the flour mixture and place it in a medium bowl. Add the blueberries to the medium bowl and lightly toss them to coat in the flour mixture.

Add the non-dairy milk, oil, and vanilla to a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir with a spatula until just combined. Add the flour-coated blueberries and fold gently to incorporate them into the batter. Do not overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Hit the pan lightly oil the counter to level the batter.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes away with a few crumbs. Let cool for 15 minutes in the pan set on a wire rack, then gently loosen the center and cake edges from the pan using a small spatula. Invert the pan onto a wire rack and let the cake cool for 20 minutes.

To unmold, pick up the rack with the pan on top and lightly tap both on the counter to loosen the cake. Remove the pan from atop the cake and place the rack on the counter to allow the cake to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, make the glaze by sifting the powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Stir in the lemon juice. Keep stirring until no dry sugar remains. If some dry sugar remains, then add the 1/2 teaspoon non-dairy milk and stir until incorporated. The glaze should be smooth and glossy but not so thick that it won’t pour.

Once the cake is fully cooled, pour or drizzle the glaze over the cake.

chocolate chip cake with mocha glaze — chocolate chip version

Until next time, happy baking!

Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Sandwiches

Dec22

It’s cookie season! Well, to me cookies are always in season, but cookie baking seems to be at an all time high right now. Especially in my kitchen where I recently baked dozens and dozens of cookies for holiday gifts and cookie exchanges.

When making many cookies I love to try new recipes, but it’s nice to fall back on favored creations from the past that have already had the kinks worked out. And yet, sometimes it’s nice to riff on a favorite. That’s where this cookie sandwich comes in.

My Chocolate Roll-Out Sugar Cookies are vegan and gluten-free, but for this baking frenzy I realized I was out of gluten-free flour. So after swapping in all-purpose flour, and a few other ingredients for ones I was low on, I decided to create a cookie sandwich. With a simple peppermint filling I turned a nice cookie into something magical.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Sandwiches adapted from Chocolate Roll-Out Sugar Cookies

Chocolate cookies
1.75 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup dutch process cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon + a pinch fine sea salt
1 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup unsalted vegan butter, softened
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon unsweetened non-dairy milk
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
Peppermint frosting
2 cups organic powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vegan butter, softened
3 teaspoons warm water
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

To make the cookies, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cane sugar and 1/2 cup vegan butter until creamy. Beat in the non-dairy milk, vanilla, and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract. Add the flour mixture and mix until combined.

Split the dough into two discs and wrap each in plastic wrap. Let the dough discs rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a flat surface, lay out a large piece of plastic wrap. Place a rested disc of dough in the center and top with another piece of plastic wrap. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until the dough is just under 1/4-inch thick. Cut the dough using a festive cookie cutter. Place the cookies on a baking sheet. Repeat with the second disc of dough until all dough, including the scraps, has been cut into cookies.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies firm up on the edges. Remove baking sheets from the oven and place on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the peppermint frosting by placing the 2 teaspoons vegan butter into a bowl. Smash the butter with a spoon to soften. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl, then stir together.

Gradually add the water, one teaspoon at a time, and stir until the frosting is smooth. Stir in the 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract until well combined. The frosting should be spreadable and slightly stiff. If it is too stiff, stir in more water. If it is too runny, stir in more powdered sugar.

To assemble the cookie sandwiches, spoon a dollop of frosting onto the bottom of a cookie. Place another cookie on top, bottom side down, and press lightly until the sandwich holds together. If the frosting starts to dry out during assembly, then stir in a few drops of water. Store the cookies in an airtight container.

Until next time, happy (holiday) baking!

Moderate Midnight Chocolate Cake

Nov27

I do love a good sale, so Black Friday is loads of fun. What does that have to do with baking? For the purchase of baking pans, of course!

Bundt pans are very useful for high-altitude baking, so when they go on sale I scour the internet with glee. There are several 10-cup Bundt pans in my arsenal; it was time to get a more manageable 6-cup model.

With the smaller version in hand, I looked back at favorite Bundt pan recipes. My Midnight Chocolate Cake has always been well-liked, so I chose that for the new pan. Checking the recipes on Nordic Ware led to the tip that you can simply halve a full-sized recipe to use in the more petite pan. Whew! That makes things much easier.

When my hubby saw me making a half-sized version of the cake, he asked why. My response was a query of what would two people do with a large cake. His reply, “Eat it!” With that, I give you my sensibly-sized revision.

Moderate Midnight Chocolate Cake

Shortening, to grease pan
1/2 cup cocoa powder (packed tightly) + extra to dust pan
1 cup + 3 tablespoons boiling water
1.25 teaspoons instant coffee
1.25 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon salt, depending on how salty your butter is
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegan butter (at room temperature)
1.5 cups organic cane sugar
1/2 cup pureed silken tofu
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla pastry cream and crushed peppermint candies, for decoration

Preheat the oven to 350F. Use shortening to grease a 6-cup bundt pan then dust the inside with cocoa powder. Set aside.

Mix boiling water with 1/2 cup cocoa powder and instant coffee and whisk well. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and tofu. Alternate adding cupfuls of dry ingredients then cocoa liquid to the creamed butter mixture. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out with a few specks clinging to it.

Let cool for 15 minutes in the pan set on a wire rack. Gently loosen the center and cake edges from the pan using a small spatula. Invert the pan onto a wire rack and let the cake sit for 20 minutes.

Until next time, happy baking!

Vegan Honey Mini Cakes for a Sweet New Year

Sep29

This week was a celebration of the Jewish New Year. The tradition is to eat honey cakes at this time to ensure sweetness in the upcoming year. Because honey is not a vegan food, vegan bakers can turn to a honey substitute to have a sweet new year.

I have a honey-like syrup in my files from my “A Sweet New Year Apple Muffins,” so I went in search of a honey cake recipe that I could use it in. What I found was perfect because the spices in the cake would go well with the fruit in the vegan honey. Also, the cake was already vegan, but I amped it up by using my own egg substitute described in “Super Flegg – A Perfect Egg Substitute.”

Next I put the high altitude spin on it by adding flour and liquid (in the form of applesauce), then reduced the leaveners. The batter was divvied into mini cake pans to help with rise issues caused by altitude, but that had an added bonus. I now had several mini cakes so each person could have their own tasty treat to enjoy while ringing in the new year.

Vegan Honey Mini Cakes for a Sweet New Year adapted from Vegan Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah

for the vegan honey
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/8 cup pure maple syrup
1/8 cup agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon vegan sugar
1/2 organic orange, thinly sliced
1/2 organic lemon, thinly sliced
for the cakes
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
3 tablespoons aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas)
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1.25 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup raisins, optional

To make the vegan honey, combine the syrups and sugar in a medium saucepan with high sides. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Add the sliced fruit. Lower the heat and cook at a low boil for 15 minutes, stirring a few times. Adjust the heat as needed to maintain a low boil. Once a syrupy consistency is reached, pour the liquid through a mesh strainer into a heat-safe measuring cup, discarding the fruit. If you do not have 1/2 cup of syrup, then add agave syrup to reach that amount. Set aside to cool.

For the cakes, preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour the cups of a mini cakes pan, or a muffin tin.

Prepare the super flegg by putting the ground flaxseeds and the aquafaba in a small bowl and stirring well. Set aside to thicken.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves into a large bowl. Place the applesauce, oil, vanilla, vegan honey, and super flegg into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. Stir in the raisins, if using.

Divide the batter among the cups of the pan you are using. Do not fill the wells completely or your cakes will overflow while baking. Bake for 18 to 23 minutes, depending on the pan used, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out with a few small crumbs. Place the baking pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then tip the cakes onto a wire rack to fully cool.

Until next time, Happy New Year and happy baking!

Chocolate Crispy Rice Treat Cake

Jul23

Argh! It’s still too darned hot to turn on the oven. But I won’t let that stop me from enjoying an indulgent treat. Rice crispy treats are a good one to turn to when the weather is a scorcher.

A quick online search pulled up a crispy rice treat from Soom Foods. The recipe was already vegan and no-bake, so the changes I made were based on what I had in the cupboard. I didn’t have their vanilla bean tahini, but I had the chocolate flavored one, so I used that and added vanilla extract. If you only have regular tahini, then add cocoa powder and liquid sweetener along with the vanilla.

Also, I have learned that most rice treat recipes have more cereal than I can stir in so I change the amount. A tip for you is to add the required amount in slowly and stop when you start crushing the cereal with your stirring. My recipe is 1/2 cup less than listed in the original because that is when I began smashing the cereal.

Another tip I can offer is for how to clean your dirty pot when you are done preparing the dessert. The marshmallow mixture is gooey when warm, but it will harden as it cools and stick with fierce determination. Try adding water to the pot and set it to boil for a few minutes on the stove. Let it cool just enough so that you won’t burn yourself. Proceed with your cleaning; the goo should have released making the job is easier.

As I have several rice cereal treat bar recipes on the blog, I decided to make this one more glamorous and decadent. Instead of a sheet of bars, I removed my treat as one piece and decorated it with frosting. Now you have a crispy rice treat cake that is suitable for any occasion.

Chocolate Crispy Rice Treat Cake adapted from Vegan Vanilla Tahini Crispy Rice Treats

for the cereal treat
3 tablespoons vegan butter, plus a little extra to grease the pan
1½ tablespoons Soom Chocolate Tahini
1 10-ounce bag vegan marshmallows
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch fine sea salt
4 ½ cups crispy brown rice cereal
for the frosting
1/4 cup vegan powdered sugar
1/4 cup Soom Chocolate Tahini
1/4 cup coconut cream (the thick stuff, not the liquid)

Line a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper, then grease the paper with a bit of vegan butter. Set aside.

Melt the 3 tablespoons vegan butter in a large pot over low heat. Once melted, stir in the tahini. Add the marshmallows, stirring constantly until the mixture is well blended. Add the water and stir until everything has melted together.

Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and salt. Add the rice cereal to the pot and stir to coat the cereal with the marshmallow mixture. Press the cereal mixture into the prepared pan, flattening out the top. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip together the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup Soom Chocolate Tahini, and coconut cream. Place the bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes to allow the frosting to firm up. When firm, scoop the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

To assemble, flip the cake pan over onto a plate. Remove the pan then remove the parchment paper from the cereal treat. Pipe the frosting on as desired.

Until next time, happy non-baking!

Vegan Espresso Date Shake

Jul9

With a scorcher of a weekend imminent, it’s time to turn off the oven (no baking??) and bring out the blender. Thoughts of blended beverages has my imagination conjuring up frosty glasses filled with cool drinks. But then, an old memory surfaces.

When I was a child my family visited Hadley Fruit Orchards in California. I remember ogling seemingly endless displays of dried fruit and fresh nuts. And beyond these tempting shelves was a cafe where they scooped up their (in)famous date shake.

Fortunately Hadley’s website has a post for this date-sweetened concoction so I don’t have to leave the recipe up to my sketchy memory (I did say it was when I was young). The recipe is good, but to make it my own I veganize it with non-dairy versions of milk and ice cream, and I add espresso. I’m glad for this addition because now I know that espresso and dates are a delectable combination.

Vegan Espresso Date Shake based on Hadley’s Famous Date Shake

1/4 cup non-dairy milk
1/4 cup fresh espresso, cooled
1/8 cup date paste
1.5 cups non-dairy vanilla ice cream
toppings, optional: non-dairy whipped cream. fresh strawberries, mini chocolate chips

Add all ingredients, except toppings, to the jug of a blender. Blend until creamy. Garnish with toppings. Makes 2 small drinks or 1 generous drink.

Until next time, happy non-baking!

Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches

Jun25

While I was shopping recently I decided that it was so hot that I deserved a treat for running errands in extreme conditions. Sauntering over to the frozen foods section, I spied vegan ice cream sandwiches. They seemed like the perfect snack — until I looked at the price. They were over $5 each. Each!

Armed with the ingredients needed to construct them myself, I returned home to my kitchen. A quick recipe search brought up a biscuit that would be soft enough to mold into a sandwich but sturdy enough to contain ice cream. And a look around my cupboard revealed mini chocolate chips for decoration.

Cookies do not generally require high altitude changes, so that wasn’t an issue. However, the recipe I found was not vegan; it didn’t even list ingredients found in an American market. So, I set out to adapt it to my needs. I lightly ground my oats in a food processor to closer resemble the porridge oats called for in the recipe, then I did the same with my vegan sugar so it would be like caster sugar. Vegan versions were brought in for butter and milk replacements.

The final change was to make the cookies a bit larger so they would make decent-sized sandwiches. This meant they needed to cook longer, but I kept an eye on them to see what the new time would be. The result was a wonderfully chewy cookie that was the ideal backdrop for both my vanilla and chocolate ice creams. I’m ready next time the extreme heat rolls in.

Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches with cookies adapted from Oat Biscuits

for the cookies
75 grams old fashioned rolled oats
50 grams vegan sugar
75 grams vegan butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
75 grams whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
for sandwich assembly
vegan ice cream
garnishes: mini vegan chocolate chips, vegan sprinkles, or chopped nuts

for the cookies:
Heat the oven to 350F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lightly chop the oats in a mini-food processor until the oats are broken down in half. Place the oats in a bowl. Place the sugar in the food processor and grind it until it is less coarse but not until it is powdered. Add the sugar to the bowl of oats and set aside.

Put the butter, maple syrup, and milk in a small pan and heat gently until the butter melts. Take the pan off the heat and stir until the ingredients are combined. Set aside.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Whisk in the baking powder and oat-sugar mixture. Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Place scoops of batter onto the baking sheet and shape it into round cookies. The batter is wet so the cookies need to be coaxed into rounds. The cookies also need to be spaced apart as they will spread a bit more.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the sides are firm and the bottoms are golden brown. Move the parchment paper with the cookies to a wire rack. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 8-10 cookies, depending on how big you want your sandwiches.

for sandwich assembly:
Remove the ice cream from the freezer while the cookies are cooling. When the ice cream is soft enough to scoop but not runny, spread large spoonfuls of it onto a flipped over cookie. Place another cookie on top to complete the sandwich. Take a garnish and push it into the ice cream along the sides of the sandwich. Repeat until all cookies are made into sandwiches. Place the sandwiches on a tray in the freezer for 15-30 minutes to firm up.

Until next time, happy baking!

Vegan Baking Up High

making tasty vegan treats at high altitude

Category Archives: nut free

Gluten-Free Summer Peach and Blueberry Snack Cake

Easy Chocolate Pudding Parfait

Apple Raisin Mini Muffins

Convert to a Different Cake Pan Size and Blueberry Cake recipe

Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Sandwiches

Moderate Midnight Chocolate Cake

Vegan Honey Mini Cakes for a Sweet New Year

Chocolate Crispy Rice Treat Cake

Vegan Espresso Date Shake

Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches