Triple Christmas Cookies

It is only 11 days til Christmas, and I am in full christmas baking mood!
Up until now I've made rather untypical christmas cookies (for me at least), but they were good nonetheless. In just a few days my sister and my brother will be home too and then we will bake those typical, yummy and perfect christmas cookies. (recipes & pictures included).

But for now....

Coconut Macaroons

makes about 20

Ingredients:
4 tsp. egg replacer ( I used Orgran No Egg)
90 gr dessicated coconut (unsweetened)
25 gr ground almonds (I used ground hazelnuts, works just fine)
50 gr almond paste
a pinch salt
1/2 sachet vanilla sugar
80 ml water
60 gr sugar

Preheat oven to 125°C (250F).
Whisk together egg replacer and water. Mix in sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt. Slowly add dessicated coconut and ground almonds, as well as the roughly cut almond paste. Take a teaspoon and form little balls and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes.
I figure, mine would have needed 5 - 10 minutes more, they were rather moist.

Optional: Melt some dark chocolate and dip the macaroons in the molten chocolate. This makes them extra yummy!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

The recipe is from The PostPunk Kitchen, from my brandnew copy of 'Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar'. Like most recipes from the PPK, these cookies are now one of my favourites!! Chewy and crispy at the same time, ultra-chocolatey and the spicy kick of the cayenne pepper = awesomeness!

Marzipan-Scone Sandwich Cookies, filled with Raspberry Jam & dipped in chocolate

Don't be fooled by the picture (it is a bad one), these are so yummy. The base is a scone-like cookie, topped with raspberry jam with a almond-paste-cut-out on top, all dipped in bittersweet chocolate...

Ingredients:

Scone-cookie:
160 gr flour (I used spelt)
75 gr sugar
65 gr margarine
40 ml soy milk

150 gr almond paste
200 gr bittersweet chocolate
raspberry jam

Cream together sugar and margarine, then add flour and soy milk until you have a kneadable dough.
Chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 160°C (320F).
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to desired thickness (3-5mm) and cut out shapes (it is easiest to make circles). Arrange cookies on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.
Let them cool for at least 15 minutes.

Roll out the almond paste and cut out the same shapes as the cookies. Get your raspberry jam and spread a bit on each cookie and cover with an almond-paste-cookie. 


Melt the chocolate in a waterbath. Dip each cookie gently into the molten chocolate and let cool on a cooling rack, until the chocolate hardens. 





Happy christmas time & enjoy!
Florence

Vegan MoFo 11 / Death by chocolate - Layer Cake

 Let's just say, this chocolate layer cake is so worth making! Everyone who tried it, raved about it! But just one word of warning: 1 piece of this will probably satisfy your chocolate cravings for some time :)

Death by chocolate - Layer Cake

make 2 or 4 layers

 adapted from Maple Spice

Chocolate Cake:
190g spelt flour
150g  sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
30g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
80ml canola oil
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
240ml sparkling mineral water
 => make twice for 4 layers!








Preheat oven to 180°C (350F). Line a 22cm springform pan with parchment paper. Now mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl mix together canola oil, apple cider vinegar and sparkling mineral water. Now pour it into the large bowl and mix until well combined, be careful not to overmix. Pour the mixture in your lined pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Then cut in two layers.

Chocolate Mousse Filling:
300g dark chocolate
300ml soy whipping cream, chilled
4 Tbsp. icing sugar
3 Tbsp. coffee liquor





Break your chocolate in small pieces and place in a water bath. Stir regularly until melted. Now remove from  heat and let it cool to room temperature. In a large bowl mix the chilled soy whipping cream and icing sugar and beat for 5 - 10 minutes. Okay, so it is really important to wait long enough, until the whipping cream and melted chocolate are at about the same temperature. And trust me, it is so worth it, as you will end up with this chocolatey goodness! Lastly, carefully stir in the coffee liquor.

Assembling:

 The basic process is the same for every layer: Drizzle with 1 - 2 Tbsp. coffee liquor (don't skip this step) and spread about 1/3 of the chocolate mousse on it. Repeat for the next layers.
The top layer doesn't need any chocolate mousse on top, but save some to straighten out any holes. Mine wasn't perfect, somehow one of my layers is a bit inclined.Place the cake in the fridge for 1-3 hours, so that the filling can set.

Chocolate Ganache:

200 gr dark vegan chocolate

170 ml oat cream

20 gr conut oil

3 tsp. coffee liquor

Chop the chocolate in small pieces and place in a bowl. In a small pan heat up the oat cream and coconut oil until it melts and it all just comes to the boil. Now quickly pour it over the chocolate, let stand for a few seconds and then start stirring until the mixture is smooth. Let cool to room temperature, stirring now and then. 

When you think it's ready take your cake out of the fridge and place on a wire rack, with some parchment paper underneath to catch any dripping chocolate. Now start pouring the ganache all over the top, so that it coats the sides. I only used a palette knife to straighten out the sides, but didn't use it for the top, as I like the glossy look already.
Place your cake again in the fridge, so the ganache will set.

the box for some of my baking & cooking equipment <3

Enjoy!
Florence

Brownies!

I have been on the long journey of finding the perfect vegan brownie recipe for the last 9 months! I've had ones with banana, silken tofu, applesauce, cacao powder or melted chocolate... but not until now a recipe was worth posting or even mentioning! These brownies turned out wonderfully chocolatey and fudgey, yet not too moist! What is your perfect vegan brownie recipe? I really look forward to my further journey to vegan brownie heaven....

Vegan Brownies

 adapted from Alien's Day Out

 

Ingredients:

2 cups spelt flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 Tbs instant coffee powder
1 cup water
1,5 Tbs ground flax seeds
2 cups organic unrefined sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pecan nuts 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C. Prepare your baking pan by lining it out with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and coffee powder together in a large bowl. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, add about 1/4 cup of the water and the ground flax seeds. Whisk until it gets thick and gooey, this may take some time. I started with 1 Tbs of ground flax seeds and added at least 1/2 Tbs in the process.  Add the rest of the water, along with the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and salt. Whisk well.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until everything is almost all incorporated. Then fold in in the nuts. For my taste, the more the better!
5. Pour the batter into your prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle more chopped nuts on top, next time I'll use even more, they turn absolutely delicious while baking.

6. Bake in oven for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let it rest about 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

Notes: I didn't have coffee extract, so I substituted with the instant coffee powder, which gave the brownies a nice and subtle coffee taste and brings out the chocolate flavour even more.