I've been through it all when it comes to searching for convenient ways to bake cookies with even, consistent results and unburned bottoms. When I first started baking vegan cookies I would get frustrated when they would often affix themselves to the baking sheet with an unknown force that would rival Superglue. Rather than marketing this as CookieGlue and becoming a millionaire I decided to find ways to make cookie baking as easy and reliable as possible. It's all about using the right tools for the job.

This Rich Coconut Frosting recipe is just bursting at the seams with coconut flavor. It's similar in flavor and texture to the frosting at BabyCakes bakery if you've ever been lucky enough to do a 'shot' of theirs. This vegan frosting differs in that it takes advantage of caramelizing sugar to the thread stage of 230F (110C) where it contributes a smooth velvety texture. It also uses soy milk powder (not to be confused with soy flour) to improve creaminess and a dash of vanilla extract to tie it all together. A touch of agave syrup inhibits sugar recrystalization in the frosting. There is a delicate balance due to coconut oil's tendency to melt above 76F (24C) which is one of the caveats of using coconut oil in a frosting.

Be extremely careful if you choose to customize this recipe with your own flavor substitutions; adding too much liquid can make it excessively runny. You even have the option of using refined coconut oil if you want to go in a completely custom non-coconut flavor direction. When using this frosting and other coconut oil based frostings, try to keep your cake in temperatures below coconut oil's melting point or your frosting may slip slide away along with your sanity.

This Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll recipe takes every opportunity to pack itself with pumpkin and then enhance it with a delicate balance of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves. Barley malt syrup can be a little tough to find but it's an essential flavor booster that puts the pump in pumpkin for these vegan cinnamon rolls. Rum Spice Icing is literally icing on the cake.

This Vanilla Icing recipe is a great companion for drizzling on cinnamon rolls, danishes, or pop tarts. The vegan icing features powdered sugar for it's base and just a touch of non-dairy milk and vanilla extract to bring it all together.

This Rum Spice Icing recipe is a great companion for drizzling on spiced versions of cinnamon rolls, danishes, or pop tarts. The vegan icing features powdered sugar for it's base, dark rum, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves to move the spice factor forward. Feel free to cut back on the rum or eliminate it completely if you're concerned about alcohol consumption.

Commercial vegan white chocolate is relatively difficult to find but is an extremely versatile ingredient to have in your kitchen. Luckily, white chocolate's main ingredient, cocoa butter, is easy to find at affordable prices on the internet if you can't find it at your local health food store. A touch of soy milk powder and vanilla extract enhances depth of flavor in this chocolate.

Earlier attempts at making this chocolate have resulted in excessively grainy bars due to the absence of industrial chocolate making equipment. A few extra steps will ensure this bar is as smooth as possible. Grinding your soy milk powder in a rotary coffee grinder will make the powder granules as small as possible and cause them to not be as noticeable on the palate. Tempering the chocolate to ensure proper fat crystal formation is the other crucial step to ensuring a smooth, high quality bar. Once you've mastered these steps you can add flavorings like cardamom, matcha, cinnamon and ginger powder for a truly outstanding vegan white chocolate

Last year I was fortunate enough to go to a vegan cooking competition in New York called Veggie Conquest. While there I met lots of really interesting, motivated vegetarians and vegans and got to sample lots of fine food. One of the more memorable tastings of the evening was from a small ice cream company called Raw Ice Cream Company. The owner of the company was there and kindly offered me a couple of flavors to check out. I have to admit, my first impression before tasing this raw ice cream was that it would somehow be lacking. Upon closer inspection I found that this ice cream was unlike any other ice cream I've tasted thus far. I sat down to do an in-depth tastig of this ice cream. Read on to see what I found.

There's been lots of development in the world of non-dairy milk in the last couple years. We used to just have soy milk then rice milk showed up on the scene followed by almond milk. Lately coconut milk and hemp milk have arrived on market shelves. I've been using soy milk religiously ever since I switched from dairy milk back in ye olden days and loved it so much I never really felt the need to move away from it. Non-dairy milk is such an important staple in vegan baking that recently I felt it would be beneficial to the world of vegan baking to sit down and take a really close look at what I consider to be the five most popular non-dairy milk types. I wanted to see how they measure up against each other from a vegan baking perspective. How do they taste? How creamy are they? Do they curdle when exposed to apple cider vinegar? Will my recommended non-dairy milk for vegan baking, soy milk, retain it's vegan baking crown or will another non-dairy milk prevail? Read on to see what I found.

This No Knead Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread is now my go-to vegan bread recipe because it's simple to make and is a great example of how wet doughs can create wonderfully light and spongy breads. The higher water content allows the gliadin and glutenin in the flour to align into tight gluten bonds over time so you can forget about all the kneading drama. The result is a fluffy, chewy loaf that's perfect for sandwiches. Feel free to use this bread as a starting point and substitute a ½ cup of the flour for things like wheat germ, wheat bran or oat bran. It's important to note that due to the wetness of this dough it's only suitable for baking in a loaf pan.

The art of bread baking relies on mastering several techniques at the same time. These techniques are crucial to baking bread that has both a good texture and flavor. In order to help us understand this we need to realize that one of these techniques; the baking, consists of three things: The caramelizing of the sugars, the roasting of the proteins and the gelatinization of the starches all contained within the flour. Temperature, oven placement and baking time have everything to do with how much these effects occur in our bread and it vastly effects the outcome. Bread baked too much will have a dry, burnt feel as the proteins, starches and sugars burn. Bread baked too little will lack flavor due to the proteins not being roasted enough and the sugars not being caramelized sufficiently. It can also inhibit a yeasty, grainy flavor due to the alcohol from the yeast not being cooked off and the starch crystals not getting gelatinized enough.

I've made this French Toast recipe for years for vegans, omnivores and carnivores; everyone loves it. It is so simple and only takes minutes to prepare, which is why I like it. I would give credit to where the recipe came from but I honestly don't remember. I think a vegan friend told me about it many years ago.

This Hazelnut Coffee Ice Cream recipe takes advantage of hazelnuts, also known as filberts for it's base and to enhance coffee flavors. Early trials of this vegan ice cream used toasted hazelnuts which brought out slightly deeper hazelnut flavors but left miniscule pieces in the ice cream which affected creaminess. If you have a VitaMix, go ahead and toast them. If you have a regular blender leave the hazelnuts untoasted so creaminess isn't affected. The ice cream will be delightful either way, especially when topped with Double Chocolate Sauce.

This Coconut Rum Raisin Ice Cream recipe is a great example of how suitable coconut milk can be as a rich, creamy base in vegan ice creams. The coconut flavor is further enhanced by the addition of toasted shredded coconut then complimented by just the right amount of rum soaked raisins. It's important to note that adding more than 2 Tablespoons of rum is discouraged because it will drastically increase the freezing temperature resulting in ice cream that's too soft.

Hazelnuts, also known as filberts usually work best in a recipe when their skins are removed. This is because the skins are bitter and they can alter the look of the final product based on their dark color. There are two ways to skin hazelnuts: the old way and the new way. The old way involves toasting the hazelnuts, wrapping them in a towel and rubbing the skins off. This method doesn't really remove all of the skins, most of which get embedded into the towel. Nice hazelnut towel you've got there. Now for the new method.

Have you ever not used a recipe because you were unsure of how to work with a particular ingredient called for in that recipe? I know I have. In my case, my Everest was phyllo dough. No matter how good I had become at baking, for many years phyllo dough was the one ingredient I was afraid to tackle. In retrospect, I realize just how silly my fear was. Afterall, it's only dough. Sure, it has the reputation for being tricky to work with, but as I became a more confident baker, I realized that you can overcome this obstacle by following just a few simple rules.