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These were awesome! They consist of a layer of graham cracker crust with a thin layer of peanut butter topped by a marshmallow then covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate. The graham cracker crust fell apart a little too easily but luckily it was still anchored to the smore by the peanut butter layer. The marshmallow part was very well done- if you fed this to a non-vegan they wouldn't consider it being vegan for even a second. Every bite results in getting all of the layers which was great, and who can go wrong with peanut butter, marshmallow, graham cracker and chocolate?
One of the best parts of growing up was waking up to the aroma of Dad's legendary pancakes every Sunday. After gorging on them doused with maple syrup, the fam and I would go hiking on Mt Tam. Like clockwork, I'd eventually proceed to have an enormous mysterious energy crash that would reduce me into a quivering mess that Mom would call 'the shakes'. I later found out this was because the maple syrup I loved so much was causing my blood sugar to peak, then crash due to it's high glycemic index. Now I'm a lot more careful by making sure that I get some veggie sausages and go easy on the maple syrup. Agave syrup has a significantly lower glycemic index than maple syrup. Adding maple extract to it makes it a delicious maple syrup substitution. Check out our article here for more information on sweeteners and glycemic index. The simple recipe for this syrup is after the break.
Vegan fudge is pretty rare which is sad. Lucklly, Allison's Gourmet has noticed this and taken the initiative to change this situation. This fudge is really rich and smooth. There was a small hint of coconut which complemented the chocolate which was nice. It's extremely soft and lacked chewiness which would normally be a negative for me but didn't bother me in this case. I found it to be a little on the sweet side. The walnuts on top were a great contrast to the chocolate. Overall a great fudge! This fudge contains the follwing ingredients in order by weight: organic sugar, organic fair-trade cocoa, organic walnuts, organic coconut milk, organic coconut butter, organic vanilla, sea salt. Available at www.allisonsgourmet.com.
The fabulous Everyday Dish TV has a video up with Wheeler Del Torro, author of The Vegan Scoop. Wheeler and host Julie whip up a batch of his famous Peanut Butter Ice Cream sporting not one, not two, but three additions of cayenne pepper to compliment it's peanut buttery goodness. We need to get on this vegan ice cream business. See the vid on Everyday Dish here then check out the recipe.
This is Part 2 of a 3 part series on how to get your kitchen dailed in for easy vegan baking. In Part 1 we talked about essential cookware that we recommend to make things nice and easy. In this article we'll detail ingredients that will make your vegan baking adventures easier so you're not running to the store trying to find that one ingredient you forgot about at 1am. Part 3 will go over specific tools that aren't necessities but are good to have in your vegan baking armory.
Earlier in time we had a Facebook Group page. We've now transitioned to a Facebook Fan page and we know you're just dying to become fans of Veganbaking.net right? Right?! Our Fan page is much better than our Group page could have ever been so give it a peep.
We've been in a little breakfast rut lately and Elana's Pantry is about to solve that with her Breakfast Bars. They're gluten-free and have almond flour, grapeseed oil, agave nectar and coconut among other goodies. Nourishing breakfast foods that are like desserts are a double whammy of goodness. Mission: Vegan whipped up some Sweet Potato Waffles that we are just dying for. In a vegetable deathmatch, sweet potato would probably kick pumpkin's ass. Can you imagine how good these would be topped with some Earth Balance and agave maple syrup? C'est La Vegan made a gorgeous Peach Tart. The peaches and nectarines aren't in need of much spices to bring out their flavors in this tart, which has a somewhat shortbread-esque crust. Rounding out the savory side, Veritable Vegan details their Rosemary and Garlic Focaccia which looks as simple as it is scrumptious.
Having Mexican grandparents who have never even heard of tofu, the idea of this amazingly simple mexican chocolate tofu pudding is, in my kitchen, kind of a bittersweet culture clash. But it's easily the most delicious and simple culture clash you'll ever taste and NO ONE will know it's vegan unless you tell them. You need only put aside about 10 minutes to prepare this.
Father's Day is coming on Sunday, June 21st so you'd better get on it and show Dad that he's #1 (or you might get grounded). We've compiled a list for all you sons and daughters out there who have been trying to figure out what to get dear ol' Dad while somewhat keeping with the theme of vegan baking. A stretch? Possibly. As you lead a cruelty-free lifestyle, It's important remember to give gifts that don't say "I'm vegan and I got you this vegan gift". Read on for our recommendations.
The great thing about this liqueur is that you can justify drinking it to warm you up during the dead of winter or to refresh you in that dreaded summer heat. This tastes similar to limoncello but it's got the zing of ginger for maximum fun factor. Enjoy it by itself, mixed with soda water or drizzled over vegan ice cream.
Whether you choose to indulge in chocolate chip or something a bit more exotic, there’s nothing better than a freshly baked, warm and delicious cookie. Unless, of course, that cookie is also of the vegan variety. While there are a number of great vegan cookie recipes out there, it’s sometimes important to get back to basics and look at what really makes a cookie come out great, as even the best recipe can be botched by a lack of attention to detail.
Today we found some interesting stuff around the webosphere including Your Vegan Mom's Apricot Upside Down Cake. We could really use some cake right about now. Hannah Kaminsky at Bittersweet Blog had some issues recreating the famous frosting from the BabyCakes Cookbook so she came up with her own variation. We're into the proliferation of good frosting options so bring it on. What's Cooking America has a great article on the History of Cookies dating back to the seventh century AD. The article also has an Animal Crackers poem. Seriously.
When you're baking smaller or larger batches of things, designing a recipe or just dying to find out how many teaspoons are in a cup, fear no more. We just launched our Baking Unit Converter which now resides in the Resources section of our orange top bar.
Use the Baking Unit Converter to convert from things like fluid ounces, to teaspoons, to tablespoons to cups. It even has a temperature converter so you can easily convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius because those pesky Americans are probably just never going to get around to switching over.
Mise en place, pronounced 'MEEZ ahn plahs', translates to "put in place". It means to have all your ingredients, cookware and your kitchen prepped and ready to go before doing your cooking or baking. With mise en place, recipes are reviewed and necessary ingredients and equipment are checked. Mise en place is used extensively in the food industry and is of equal importance to the recipe itself.
Mise in place is simply the act of just reading the directions, fully understanding and preparing yourself for the task you're about to do. If you bought furniture that needed to be assembled, you'd want to practice a variant of mise en place called "reading the directions first" for best results. You should get in the habit of mise en place every time you bake.
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Here's a Tip!
Nothing's worse than hard effort turning into a pile of crumbs. In most cases, wait for your baked eats to cool down a little before removing them from their pans, dishes or molds. This will ensure they stay in one piece. In some rare instances you'll want to remove the baked item while it's still hot because it still cooks slightly as it's exposed to the hot pan, mold or tray.
Making a yeast leavened bread and getting tired of waiting for it to rise multiple times? By now you could have probably planted grain and watched it grow. Don't even think about cutting corners with yeasted bread recipes. As with most things in life, good breads come to those who wait.
Clean up as you go. In most cases your kitchen can be completely clean by the time the goodies come out of the oven.
Want to keep your ginger root as fresh as possible for as long as possible? Cut it into 1 inch squares and place them in a glass jar. Fill the jar up to the top with filtered water and close the lid tightly. Place this jar in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
Don't forget to use specific dry measuring cups for dry ingredients and specific wet measuring cups for your wet ingredients. It can make the difference between your eats becoming 'the' bomb or 'a' bomb.
Always sift your powdered sugar and cocoa powder before using. A sift with a rotary mechanism works well for this. Powdered sugar and cocoa powder are rebels and don't like to mix with others.
Dying of that summer heat but still can't keep yourself from baking up a storm? Keep a cool head and switch on your kitchen fan. It'll help suck out the heat that your oven is radiating into the kitchen and keep things bearable.
Where you place your goodies in the oven can make a big difference due to the varying temperatures in different areas. The center of the middle rack usually has the most even temperatures. Also be sure to leave at least a few inches in between the oven wall and your baked item. This is important so natural hot air 'convection' currents work to bake your item evenly. If you've got a crowded oven with multiple racks being used, it's usually a good idea to rotate the items between the racks halfway through the baking duration.
A double boiler takes advantage of the insulating property of air in between boiling water and the item you're heating. Keep in mind that the upper pot sits just above the almost boiling water and is not immersed in it. This allows for a very gentle and even warming of your ingredient. This is best used for things like chocolate or fondant.
If a recpe specifies an ingredient measured in ounces, be sure to check whether it's intended to be in fluid ounces or weight ounces. In most cases, these are not interchangeable. There's nothing worse than realizing this after the fact and having a doh! moment.
When baking lots of goodies and doing lots of tasting don't forget to make brushing your teeth the last part of the cleanup process. Sugar can wreak havok on your pearly whites after the sugars get eaten by natural bacteria living in your mouth. This bacteria excretes acids that dissolve your teeth. So brush up!
Store your dry ingredients in glass jars. This makes it way easier and faster to dispense ingredients with less mess. It also keeps your ingredients fresher longer. You might also impress a friend or two with your bulk street cred.
Are your bananas getting brown? It's ok, most kitchens have at least a couple browning bananas kicking it somewhere. Don't throw them away! Place them in an air tight plastic bag and store them in the fridge for up to one year. They can later be thawed out in the microwave and be used for banana breads, muffins, cookies and pancakes.
In order to maintain oven temparatures as much as possible during baking, don't open the oven door unless absolutely necessary. Take advantage of the oven light, peer through the oven window and just chillax already!
Your oven might be lying to you when it comes to temperature. I always thought that dude was kind of shady. Keep at least one thermometer in your oven and place it as close as possible to where your baked goods are going to go. Calibrate your extra oven thermometer regularly by placing it in a pot of boiling water. It should read 212F.
When using margarine as a drop-in replacement for butter in recipes, keep in mind that margarine contains more water than butter. This is even more true for tub margarine. In these cases you should consider slightly reducing the water content in your newly-veganized recipe.
Use Binder Clips to securely close opened plastic bags of things like nuts, corn chips and chocolate chips. They're way easier to work with than rubber bands and they last forever.
Always bake on the oven's middle rack unless the recipe you're following specifically tells you otherwise.
Baking is a science. Always follow baking recipes exactly as they are written to ensure the recipe turns out as scrum-tastic-mazing as possible.
Invest in a set of good quality kitchen shears to make your life easier. Kitchen shears are beefy scissors designed to cut through things like aseptic packages, thick plastic food bags, vegan sausage casings and even unbaked pie crust. Another benefit is the peace of mind of not worrying about how much rubber cement is caked on your normal scissors.
Spotlight On...
Barley Malt
Also known as malted barley or malt extract, barley malt is a thick sweet syrup made from sprouting barley and using it's enzymes to convert the starches into sugar. This mixture is then cooked down until it's reduced to a thick syrup. This process is known as 'malting'.
These were awesome! They consist of a layer of graham cracker crust with a thin layer of peanut butter topped by a marshmallow then covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate. The graham cracker crust fell apart a little too easily but luckily it was still anchored to the smore by the peanut butter layer. The marshmallow part was very well done- if you fed this to a non-vegan they wouldn't consider it being vegan for even a second. Every bite results in getting all of the layers which was great, and who can go wrong with peanut butter, marshmallow, graham cracker and chocolate? 
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Vegan fudge is pretty rare which is sad. Lucklly, Allison's Gourmet has noticed this and taken the initiative to change this situation. This fudge is really rich and smooth. There was a small hint of coconut which complemented the chocolate which was nice. It's extremely soft and lacked chewiness which would normally be a negative for me but didn't bother me in this case. I found it to be a little on the sweet side. The walnuts on top were a great contrast to the chocolate. Overall a great fudge! This fudge contains the follwing ingredients in order by weight: organic sugar, organic fair-trade cocoa, organic walnuts, organic coconut milk, organic coconut butter, organic vanilla, sea salt. Available at 
We've been in a little breakfast rut lately and Elana's Pantry is about to solve that with her 
Today we found some interesting stuff around the webosphere including Your Vegan Mom's 
