Are you getting ready for Thanksgiving? I’ll be sharing some items with you that we’ll be celebrating with at our feast, but I really wanted to make sure you include these at your table first. They really are THAT good:
Head on over to Vegan Monologue for the delicious recipe here. The only variation I made was to bake mine in a springform pan instead of a cake round.
You have to make these!
all photos in this post courtesy of Annie at An Unrefined Vegan
So I made an incredibly delicious batch of cookies a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t even attempt to photograph them for the blog because quite frankly, I thought that they looked like poo. Sometimes when I have a great recipe like this that doesn’t end up here, I’ll email it to my best friends because I want them to have it to enjoy, even if I can’t make it look pretty.
Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda together. Cut in almond butter and coconut oil (solid) until crumbly. Add soy milk, vanilla, agave, coconut, chocolate chips and chopped pecans. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Form 12 big cookies, place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before eating.
The Virtual Vegan Potluck starts tomorrow night! So get some rest because you’re gonna need some endurance for the awesome feast that awaits you. In the meantime, check out my Vegan MOFO round up! For reals, 23 posts in the month of October, including this one and tomorrow night’s final post!
1. Black Bean Veggie Burger on a Pretzel Bun
2. Whole Grain Pretzel Rolls or Buns
5. Healthied up Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
9. Baked Maple Dijon Baby Lima Beans
10. Sriracha and Olive Salsa Fresca
11. Review: Sage’s Cafe, Salt Lake City
12. Layered Plum Tart with Apricot Crumble
14. Butler Soy Curl Giveaway (Closed)
18. Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup
19. Rustic Multi-Grain Seeded Loaf
21. Vegan Aebleskivers
Get ready to Party! Tomorrow night I’ll be bringing you my final Vegan MOFO post and My Virtual Vegan Potluck appetizer. Thanks for sticking with me! It’s been a roller coaster!
When I was a teenager, I visited Solvang California while on vacation with my family. We ate Aebleskivers at a restaurant there and we haven’t been able to stop eating them since. They have become a Holiday or special occasion breakfast tradition. They take a little practice to learn to make properly and in my previous omnivore life, I was quite the little aebleskiver maker.
Sadly, when I went plant-based, I thought that I would never eat another aebleskiver again. They rely on white flour, egg whites beaten stiff, melted butter and buttermilk for their fluffy tenderness. I thought they couldn’t be veganized. Thankfully, I thought wrong.
That darling restaurant in Solvang gave my mom their aebleskiver recipe. I’m terribly sorry that I don’t know how to give them proper credit, It’s been too many years and a Google search reveals there are many little such restaurants in Solvang. I have a copy of it in my heavily abused used family cookbook, it just needed a little big modification 
Note to self: these are a special treat, and because they use oil and earth balance, remember not to make them every day or Dr. Esselstyn won’t be your friend anymore.
Method: preheat aebleskiver pan over medium heat before mixing all ingredients, if it’s not hot, your aebleskivers will be a disaster. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients with a wire whisk (including the egg replacer, you do not need to mix it with water first). Add the wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Put 1/2 t. vegetable oil in the bottom of each aebleskiver pan cup. Pour 2 T. (I use an 1/8 cup measuring cup) of batter into each cup.
After about 30-60 seconds, Turn the aebleskiver halfway out of the cup using a knitting needle, crochet hook or chopstick. The batter will pour out of the cooked portion and start to form a ball.
Cook 30-60 more seconds and turn another quarter turn. Cook 30-60 more seconds.
The final turn should have the cooked side facing entirely out and the batter forming the last bit of the ball in the bottom of the cup.
Place cooked aebleskivers in a warm oven to keep them crisp while cooking the next batch, you will need to add more oil to each cup in between batches to keep the batter from sticking. Split open and serve hot with a dab of earth balance (if you must) strawberry freezer jam and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Laugh at guests who ask for maple syrup.
I haven’t entered any of the Vegan MOFO cooking challenges yet since I had no idea what I’d make with the ingredients given. This one was a no brainer…
We were given three ingredients to work with, Sunflower Seeds, Grapes and Hot Peppers. I used the hot peppers in the dried variety.
With those three ingredients, I created 3 recipes you’ll need to make this sandwich, a Savory Grape Focaccia, Thick “Ham Slices” and a Sweet and Sour Grape-Pepper Jam
Savory Grape Focaccia
Focaccia Dough: drizzled with olive oil, pressed with grapes and sprinkled with sunflower seeds, red pepper flakes and dried rosemary
Method: Combine flours, half the salt, half the olive oil, the active dry yeast and the warm water in your kneading apparatus (or use a large bowl and your hands) knead dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. Lightly oil a 9×13 pan with extra olive oil then roll press the dough into the pan with your hands to fit the sheet. Drizzle the dough with remaining olive oil and smooth it all over the surface with your hands. Press grape halves all over into the dough, sprinkle with sunflower seeds, red pepper flakes and the remaining salt. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In the meantime, let dough rise again until doubled in size, about 30 more minutes. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until crust is golden and crispy. Remove from pan and let cool on a cooling rack. Cut into sandwich sized pieces, I got 8 nice sized pieces.
Thick “Ham” Slices
Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If your food processor isn’t broken like mine is at the moment, add all ingredients and pulse til combined. Otherwise, dump everything into a bowl and squish it all to bits with you hands. Beans should be mostly mashed. Press mixture into a lightly oiled (I used pan spray) 9×13 baking dish and score into 8 even pieces with a knife. Spray the mixture with a bit of pan spray and bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked through and and lightly browned. Remove “ham” slices from the pan with a spatula and let cool on a cooling rack.
Sweet and Sour Grape-Pepper Jam
Method: Blend all ingredients in the blender until small bits remain intact, pour mixture into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Turn down heat and simmer for 5 minutes then pour into a clean glass jar. Jam will set and thicken while it cools.
Additional Assembly ingredients for the Monte Cristo Sandwich:
Assembly: Preheat your oven on the broil setting, Slice focaccia pieces in half to make sandwiches. On a baking tray place thick “ham” slices and cover with slices of smoked coconut gouda. Spread jam from above on the bottom half of the focaccia pieces, cover with spinach, avocado, tomato slices and smoked coconut gouda slices. Broil all on top oven rack until cheez is melted, about 2-4 minutes. Slather top half of focaccia piece with vegan mayo and some of the jam. Put it all together, see if your mouth will possibly fit over it. If you are feeling absolutely ridiculous, sprinkle the sandwiches with vegan powdered sugar before serving.
I have a dirty little secret.
Even though I make bread nearly every day, I’m not really a bread maker extraordinaire.
I just don’t have the time for endless kneading, rising and baking. On top of that, store-bought vegan bread is hard to come by and pricey when you do find it. So I make vegan bread for pennies on the dollar and use some tricky shortcuts on the way…
Plus I have a little slave who helps me in the kitchen.
My bread slave, the Sunbeam Bread Maker. I bought it used at a thrift shop for $15
Add ingredients in order to your bread maker, bosch or large bowl. I just plop in all the ingredients and press any bread cycle to knead the dough and walk away. If you don’t have a kneading apparatus, don’t walk away, the dough needs you to knead it by hand for 10-15 minutes until smooth and elastic.
okay, I really need to wipe this baby down. It’s looking rough from daily abuse!
After my slave bread maker kneads the dough for about 10 minutes, I simply unplug the machine and let the dough rise in there for 45-60 minutes. If making by hand, put dough in a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel and put in a warm place.
While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
When 45-60 minutes is up, pull the dough out, shape it into a round and roll it in whole wheat flour.
Put the dough on a baking sheet dusted with a bit more flour to prevent sticking. TURN OFF your oven and set the baking sheet on the middle rack. Set your oven timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, pull out dough and quickly slash (1/4 to 1/2 inch deep slashes) with a sharp knife, get creative with your slashy marks, it can make bread look professional, but don’t get too carried away because you might end up with mutant bread.
Put dough back in the oven and set the oven to 350 degrees (no need to preheat). Bake this particular loaf for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden. This is bread is lovely when toasted and served with Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup
When I’m really in a hurry I do sometimes let my bread maker cook the bread for me too, because my machine has an express function, I can have a whole wheat loaf ready from start to finish in less than an hour, but I’ll tell you more about that another day.
If you’re in the market for a bread maker, do try to purchase a used model, it will cost you less and used bread makers are everywhere. Make sure the model you choose still has the dough hook (like an idiot, I didn’t check and mine didn’t have the hook, so I had to order it online) and the recipe manual. You might not need the recipes, but bread makers come in all sizes so you need to know the approximate measurements for loaves that will work in your machine (if you choose to bake in it). An express function is also especially handy for harried cooks.
Warning: This is an incredibly simple recipe, but when making this, work quickly and without interruptions if possible. The cheese sets fast and needs your complete attention!
It shreds and melts!
Nacho Tower with Pepper Jack Cashew Cheez
Method: Lightly oil half (6) of a cupcake tin rounds in a pan with a 12 cupcake capacity (or if you have a 6 cup one, just use that!). Use your blender to combine 1/2 package of the dry pectin (about 4.5 teaspoons) and the agar powder (optional) with the water and lemon juice. Pour water mixture into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat while stirring constantly. Set to low heat and let simmer while you grind cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder and onion powder until very fine in food processor or with your Estrogen (Blendtec) or Testosterone (Vitamix) Blender. Do not over process and make nut butter.
Mix 1/2 C. water (not included in amount above list) with the small calcium packet from the pomona’s pectin package, set aside. Pour the boiled water mixture over the ground cashew mixture into the power blender, ignoring instructions in your blender manual that say not to use boiling water in it. Blend until smooth and creamy. It’s gonna thicken quickly, so immediately add HALF (1/4 C.) of the calcium water and the crushed red pepper flakes and pulse until all combined. Immediately pour the hot cheese into the prepared cupcake tin(s).
Refrigerate uncovered for an hour. Turn mini cashew cheeses out onto a plate (upside down) and let set uncovered in the fridge for another 4-5 hours. 1 serving of cashew cheese is half of one mini round, which is the perfect amount for 1 grilled cheese sandwich or 1 quesadilla. This recipe makes 12 servings of cheese. Don’t forget to store the rest of your pectin and calcium water for the next batch. Calcium water stores well in the fridge and the pectin will store in your pantry indefinitely. Cashew cheese keeps for about a week in the fridge and freezes well.
In our house we like to watch Nacho Libre while we eat Nachos.
To make nachos, preheat oven to 450 degrees, layer tortilla chips (we like red hot blues), vegan refried beans, sliced olives, jalapenos and a couple of rounds of grated pepper jack cashew cheese on a baking sheet. Heat for 5-10 minutes or until all hot, melty and bubbly. Serve with sriracha and olive salsa fresca.
You can find Pomona’s Pectin at Whole Foods or order it here online, international orders are available.
How would you like to sink your teeth into that ooey gooey deliciousness? I’ve made some fantastic Calzones for a special welcome party today. I hope you’ll pull up a chair and join us!
The No Rise Calzone Dough:
Method: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine all ingredients in your kneading apparatus (I use my bread maker) you can also use your hands 🙂 knead dough for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Let rest for 10 minutes. Divide into 6 or 8 pieces (I did 6 pieces and it made for a thick calzone crust, next time I’ll do 8) and roll out into very thin 8 inch rounds. I stick my dough between pieces of waxed or parchment paper to keep the dough rounds from sticking to each other while I work with the other pieces.
The Calzone Sauce:
Mix all together and set aside.
The Fillings:
Fill calzones like pictured above, dividing the fillings equally. Then wet the edges of the dough with a bit of water, fold over and crimp together with the tines of a fork.
Prick the top of the calzone all over with the tines of the fork to let steam escape. Scatter calzones so that they are a few inches apart on two baking trays sprayed lightly with cooking spray. Place trays in preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through the baking time.
These keep and travel well for next day leftovers in school or office lunches
Now that we’re all enjoying these delicious calzones that I’ve made for this Welcome Party, please offer a hearty welcome to the newest blogger on my blogroll, George Monroy. I ‘met’ George after my Forks Over Knives Testimonial went viral (as of today, it’s still on the front page of the Forks Over Knives Website). I’ve since learned that George had a heart attack in May of 2012, just 5 short months ago. His doctor advised him to watch Forks Over Knives and adopt a plant based diet to save his life and prevent future heart attacks.
George in the Hospital following his Heart Attack with his son Caine of Caine’s Arcade Fame
Here’s George today, as you can see he’s lost a fair amount of weight, he’s also inexplicably lost all his hair and turned all “vegan cool dude” Here’s what George said to me when I asked him how his health is doing now: “My Diabetes is almost gone now. My blood pressure is normal again. I’ve lost 10 additional pounds in the last three months without even watching what I eat. So far this plant based diet is a cure for everything!!!”
George posts incredible photos of what he is eating every day on his facebook page Smart Hearts Aftermarket
I recognized an incredible food blogger in the making and asked him to join our ranks and get a blog ASAP! He is going to have the final dessert post in the Virtual Vegan Potluck on Nov. 1st! I can’t wait to see what fantastic dish he comes up with. Please join me and follow George, on his new blog:
If you haven’t all ready met his son Caine, please check him out now. If you have the time, watch both videos, they will inspire the crap out of you. Warning: ladies, have tissues handy.
A plant based diet has given George a new lease on life, to watch Caine grow and succeed. I wish him all the best, I hope you will too.
Update: While this recipe is incredible, I have updated, simplified and made the cheese meltier in a new version, Smoked Cococut Gouda part deux.
I’ve been making vegan cashew cheez for a while now, but ever since Vegan Richa made some incredible looking coconut mozzarella I’ve had a serious cheez itch that wouldn’t go away until it was scratched.
My favorite cheese of all time before going vegan was smoked gouda. I needed a counterpart that would melt, stretch, slice, grate, and pair well with crackers or pizza and anything else I wanted to do with it.
After five six failed attempts I bring you:
One of the failed batches. They tasted good, but weren’t the perfect texture. We used them up in pizzas, mac & cheez, grilled cheez sandwiches, quesadillas, soups and more.
You can find many or all the ingredients necessary to make this cheez at Whole Foods or your local health food store. If all else fails, try Amazon.
Read through this before you get started and have everything set up and ready to go before commencing cheez making. Speed is essential when creating cheez.
Method: Blend coconut milk, water, agar powder, pectin, liquid smoke, salt, vegemite (or substitutes above), and nutritional yeast until fully combined in your blender. Heat this mixture in a small saucepan over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until it all comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium (still boiling) and continue to stir for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat. Have your tapioca starch, potato starch and xanthan gum mixed all together in a small container. This is your powder mixture. Quickly and carefully pour hot cheez mixture into your power blender or food processor. Add your powder mixture from above and promptly process until thick, scraping down sides if necessary. Immediately pour into a lightly oiled container and use a silicone (or other) spatula to scrape it out. I used a small round glass container, but an 8 or 9 inch round pie or cake tin like Kristy at Keepin’ it Kind used in this cheez recipe would also be fantastic and possibly allow for faster setting. Put the uncovered Smoked Coconut Gouda in the fridge. Allow to set up for an hour or two. Turn out onto a plate and leave uncovered for an additional 5 hours or overnight in the fridge. The cheez gets firmer the longer it sets. Once firm, store the cheez in a covered container and use or freeze within the week.
Tomorrow I’ll share my Vedged Out Calzone recipe with you that uses the Smoked Coconut Gouda
This stuff makes me MELT AND SWOON!
The best bit? Once you invest in ingredients for making vegan cheez, it’s incredibly affordable. One pound of this homemade vegan cheez costs less than $5 bucks a pound. Daiya and other commercial vegan cheezes cost about $12 a pound.
After I posted this Vegan BBQ Sandwich:
And this Not Beef Stew:
…the awesome people at Butler Foods mailed a case of their soy curls to me! Since I’m the kind of girl that likes to share, I’m doing a GIVEAWAY. 3 lucky winners will receive one bag of soy curls! Sorry internationals, this contest is for peeps in the USA only, okay, maybe Canada too. Winners to be announced Next Friday on the 26th.
Here are the rules, you can do any or all of the following, each rule will get you 1 entry, except for #6, which will get you 5 entries!:
You MUST Click on this link to enter:
Vedged Out 