Vegan Recipe Archives

I recently discovered that wheat has joined my list of forbidden foods.  However, for the past couple of years, when I could still tolerate gluten on occasions, I discovered a whole host of amazing, easy, soy-free, vegan baked goods.  So this is a collection of a few of my favourite vegan baking recipes, in hopes you will all enjoy them even though I no longer can!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies:

In this recipe, not only does banana act as an egg substitute, it also imparts a subtle banana flavour that pairs magically with the chocolate chips.  I highly recommend this recipe even for non-vegans, just because of deliciousness.  It also doesn't involve any specialty ingredients, so almost all bakers have the necessary ingredients in their cupboard.   (This is in general a great website for new vegan bakers, since most of the recipes use very common ingredients, and there are also lots of "did you know"s and tips embedded in the recipes.)

Note: Vegan (dairy-free) chocolate chips can be a bit hard to come by.  My favourites are President's Choice gourmet semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Dan-D-Pack also sells a similar product.  I've yet to come across a chocolate chip bag that advertised it was dairy-free or vegan, though, it comes down to reading the ingredients labels.  And as far as I can tell, Save-On-Foods does not sell a single brand of dairy-free chocolate chip.  (All Hershey products contain milk ingredients, for instance).

Black and White Cookies:
True story: last year I was in a barnyard-animal themed musical where I played a cow.  As the self-designated baker of our choir group, I felt I couldn't pass by the opportunity to bake some kind of cow-themed dessert for a cow rehearsal.  It was in trying to find an appropriate cow-like cookie that I stumbled upon Black &White cookies, and then I fell in love.  I wish I had taken a picture of these when I'd made them, but basically they are light and delicious vanilla/lemon cakey sugar cookies which are then iced one half in white icing and one half in "black" icing.  They are amazingly flavourful and addictive, and the icing recipe I used made way too much so I kept making more cookies to use it all up.  HIGHLY recommended.  (Plus they make a very pretty presentation).

I used this recipe for the cookies, except I replaced the Earth Balance with Fleischmann's margarine (see my post on vegan substitutions for more details).  I used this recipe as a guide for the icing; however, instead of almond extract, I echoed the cookies and used vanilla and lemon juice for the white icing.  I also made sure to add lots of vanilla to the chocolate icing as well.  (Vanilla + chocolate = heavenly.)  I'm fairly sure I added a bunch of extra cocoa powder too, to make the icing thicker, richer, and blacker, but add to your own taste.  As I said above, this makes way more icing than cookies, so adjust according, or just find another use for these delicious icings.

SPACOBS & BWORPPS

I have a very good friend who shares my love for experimental baking.  When she found out about my list of food restrictions, she set out to develop new baking recipes I could enjoy.  (And then she sent them to me, long distance!  The cookies, that is, not just the recipes.  That's friendship)  And like any good scientist (in her case, social scientist), she has a healthy appreciation for acronyms.  Both recipes are named for the ingredients they contain.  SPACOBS are some of my favourite cookies ever: they are extremely cake-like, and packed full of delicious fruit-nut-and-seed deliciousness.  I've made them with raisins instead of currants (making them SPAROBS), using margarine instead of the shortening, and omitting the glaze, and they are still wonderful.  BWORPPS are more conventionally cookie-like in texture, and also very delicious.


Happy cookie baking, everyone!