Tag: baking without eggs

Plant Protein Powered Breakfast Cookies!

Plant Protein Powered Breakfast Cookies

These cookies make a great breakfast or snack on the go.  Pair a couple of these with some fresh fruit and you have a delicious and nutritious start to the day!  Need a compact quick energy source while out on a hike or bike ride?  These will definitely do the trick.  Chock full of goodies like wheat germ, flax, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds, these babies pack a protein punch!  Not to mention the vitamin E, zinc, omega 3’s, and iron they bring to the party too!  You won’t miss the oil, eggs, or dairy here.  If you tend to be pressed for time, double the batch and freeze some of the baked cookies for when you need something quick on the go.

INGREDIENTS:

DRY
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2  cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup hemp seeds

5 Medjool (or 10 deglet noor), chopped

1 handful dried cranberries

WET

1 flax egg (1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal mixed with 3 Tablespoons water)

1/2 large ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3-1/2 cup sucanat (or organic brown sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons almond milk

DIRECTIONS: 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.  Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Next, add the wet mixture to the dry one in the large bowl.  Mix well with a wooden spoon to combine.
  3. Drop by spoonfuls onto 1 or 2 parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pans after 10 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Once they cool, if you want to put some  in the freezer for future use, now’s the time.  Otherwise, if you leave them out they’ll be all gobbled up before you know it!  Enjoy!!

 

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Fresh Berry Tart

This berry tart is fantastic!  A tasty, crumbly nut crust, cashew date cream and fresh berries.  That’s it!  Its quick, easy and makes a great dinner party or potluck dessert with plenty of “WOW!” factor.  Want to take it to the next level?  A vegan lemon curd beneath the berries would be out of this world!

Vegan Berry TartNutty Tart Crust

3/4 cup roasted, unsalted nuts (you can use pecans, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, whatever you like)

3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

1/4 cup light, neutral oil (grape seed oil is like canola, without the GMO risk) see note after directions

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Process the dry ingredients (nuts, oats, flour and cinnamon) in a food processor until it becomes a coarse meal.  Transfer to a bowl and mix in the oil and syrup.
  3. Press the crust mixture firmly into a 9″-10″ tart pan or pie plate.
  4. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack

Note: Melted coconut oil could be used in place of the oil mentioned in the tart crust, but I would advise against it, only because it will harden at room temp and become solid as a rock once refrigerated!  This may make eating (let alone slicing) the crust a bit of a challenge.

Date Sweetened Cashew Cream

1/2 cup raw cashews (if you have time, soak them in water for 1-2 hours prior, then rinse well).

2-3 Tablespoons dates (double check for pits!)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place cashews in a blender pitcher.  Add enough fresh water to just cover the nuts.  Add dates and vanilla, blend until it becomes a smooth cream.  Scrape into a small bowl and set aside.  Can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.

Once the tart shell is cooled, we can assemble this baby!  

Spread and even layer of your sweetened cashew cream over the bottom of the completely cooled tart shell.  Rinse and pat dry the berries, then arrange on top of the cashew cream any way you fancy.  I started from the center and made concentric circles with some berries I had left over from the night before.  You could use different fruits like kiwi, or mango for more color and variety.  Have fun and get creative!

When you are ready to serve, get ready to hear the “Oooh”s and “Ahhh”s!  Slice, serve and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blissful Blueberry Muffins

 

We had a reason to celebrate this morning…our son woke up with his first loose tooth!  So, we made muffins.  Though, you really don’t need anything more to celebrate than just waking up in the morning to enjoy these splendiferous little morsels!

This is an adaptation of a vegan blueberry muffin recipe that can be found all over the internet.  I’ve taken that recipe, decreased the fat and sugar, made it whole grain, and created an even healthier and more delicious muffin.  When my son tried the first one he shouted “Mom,  these muffins are AMAZING!!”.  I can’t imagine a better review!  🙂

NOTE: (#1) This time I used 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1 cup spelt flour, but you can really use any of a number of whole grain flours.  Any combination of garbanzo, spelt or whole wheat pastry flours would be good.  If you want to play it safe though, just start with 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour.  (#2) Regarding sweeteners, if you choose a dry sweetener (which I recommend), like evaporated cane juice, date sugar or coconut sugar, add it with the dry ingredients.  If you decide that you’d rather use a wet sweetener, like agave nectar, honey, date paste or pure maple syrup, add it with the wet ingredients.

Yields 12 muffins

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups whole grain flour (whole wheat pastry flour)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sweetener (evaporated cane juice, date sugar or coconut sugar)

3 Tablespoons non-dairy margarine (like Earth Balance), softened or melted

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup almond milk or soymilk

2 cups frozen blueberries – do not thaw.  Toss with 1 Tablespoon flour just before adding to batter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, or drop one paper liner into each cup.

2. Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine with a wire whisk.  Create a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the well in the center of the bowl.  Use a wooden spoon and stir until wet and dry ingredients are all incorporated into a thick batter.  Do not over stir. If it looks too thick (like cookie dough) add a little more non-dairy milk.  If it’s too wet, add a little flour.  You want a nice, thick muffin batter.  DON’T ADD the blueberries yet!

4. Finally, add the flour-dusted frozen blueberries to the batter.  Keep them frozen as long as you can, so that you don’t end up with purple muffins.

5. Fill each muffin tin about 3/4 full of batter.

6. Bake 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.  Also, remember to give the pan a 180 degree turn about halfway through the cooking time.

7.  Cool muffins in the tin for about 5 min. then finish cooling on a wire rack.



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Great egg subsititutes for salmonella-risk-free baking

Has the recent massive egg recall left you a little uneasy about using eggs at home?  Here are a few substitutions that can be used in place of eggs in your baking (or cooking). 

FLAXSEED MEAL – full of omega 3 fatty acids, this is a great way to increase the fiber and nutrients in your baked goods, without the fat, cholesterol and salmonella risk of eggs. 

1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal per 3 Tablespoons water/per egg to be replaced – combine and set aside for a few minutes to allow the flax to absorb some of the water and thicken a bit.

EGG REPLACER (Ener-G egg replacer, or Bob’s Red Mill brand) – Many people LOVE this stuff.  It works great in some recipes (like cookies where you don’t want the little brown specks of flaxseed meal), but I’d recommend it for things requiring no more than 1 or 2 eggs.  It can leave a little bit of a chalky taste.  It also leaves things a bit dense, as opposed to light and fluffy. 

1 Tablespoon egg replacer per 3 Tablespoons water/per egg to be replaced – mix to combine.

SOY YOGURT – Adds a lot of moisture, great for cakes and the like.  Make sure you get a brand that states clearly on the label that it is made from non-GMO soybeans.  If it is organic, it’s required to be non-GMO.  GMO stands for Genetically Modified (aka genetically engineered).  There is a lot of controversy around this subject, which we’ll tackle in a future post, but for now, just try to steer clear from it if you can. 

1/4 cup soy yogurt per egg to be replaced 

SILKEN TOFU – vaccuum-packed, extra-firm Lite silken tofu works great.  Mori-Nu is a good brand. Again, look for organic or brands made with non-GMO soybean.  Make sure to blend it up really well first to make it nice and smooth and creamy.  Be sure to use less if your recipe requires several eggs (ex. if recipe asks for 4 eggs, use 3 “tofu eggs”). 

1/4 blended silken tofu per egg replaced (less if recipe requires several eggs)

BANANA – A cheap and accessible egg alternative, bananas are great egg replacers in items like pancakes, waffles and quick breads.  Be sure to use very ripe bananas (riper =sweeter).  If you have any frozen ripe bananas on hand, they work great in a pinch.  Just thaw out what you need and mash it up.  Because of the sugar content in the bananas, they tend to brown very nicely, so keep that in mind in case your finished product ends up a bit browner than you had anticipated.

1/2 banana, mashed, per egg to be replaced

There you have it 5 different alternatives to eggs to help you create delicious, nutritious and fiber-rich goodies, without the cholesterol, saturated fat or salmonella risk of eggs.  Have fun, get creative and enjoy!!

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