Tag Archives: vegan butter

Apr 23 2012
43 Comments
Breakfast, Brunch, Chocolate, Dips and Spreads, Virtual Vegan Potluck, Waffles

Banana-Chai Buttermilk Waffles with Cocoa-Coconut Butter

Waffle, Close UpHave you signed up yet for the Virtual Vegan Potluck??  It’s easy to do – just visit the VVP page to get the details, then send me an email at anunrefinedvegan@gmail.com or leave a comment letting me know you’ll be participating and to what course you’ll be contributing.  I’ve added a Board to my Pinterest page for the event and will pin a photo from each blog that signs up for the event.  You can find me at: http://pinterest.com/unrefinedvegan/.  I’ve also added an Events page on Facebook here and you can also keep track of things at An Unrefined Vegan’s Facebook page.  While I’m at it, you can find me on Twitter at @AnOlive.

So far 25 bloggers from all over the planet have signed on – thank you!  Thanks also to Lidia at VeganBloggersUnite! for posting about VVP today – and – thanks to those who have Tweeted about it, mentioned it on Facebook or have written about it on their blog.  I really appreciate your help in spreading the word.  I’d love to get 100+ (gulp!) to participate, so if you are so inclined, please invite other food bloggers to join in.

Phew, okay.  It’s Monday morning and in my household, waffles help ease the sting of the first day of the week.  I pop frozen homemade waffles in the toaster oven and for the time it takes us to consume them, it’s Sunday morning redux.  Especially if they are chai-infused waffles.  (Yep, chai again.)  If you didn’t know by now, I just adore the complex and rich warm flavors that are “chai.”  This time I’ve created a waffle around the flavors of cinnamon, anise, cardamom, cloves, a tiny smidge of black pepper all complemented with roasty banana flavor.  And then I topped the waffles with homemade cocoa-coconut butter, but the usual waffle-toppings would work just dandy, too.

Banana-Chai Buttermilk Waffles with Cocoa-Coconut Butter
Makes 3+ 8″ waffles

1 cup spelt flour
1/3 cup oat flour (I used regular oats and processed them in a food processor)
1/2 cup almond meal (I used the meal left over from making almond milk, dried and processed in food processor)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. powdered stevia
1/4 tsp. anise seeds (ground in coffee grinder)
1/4 tsp. powdered cardamom
2 pinches ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp. egg replacer + 6 tbsp. water (whisk together until frothy, then let sit for a minute)
1 large, very ripe banana, mashed
1 1/2 cups vegan buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cocoa-Coconut Butter

Combine the flours, almond meal, baking powder, salt, baking soda, stevia and spices in a large bowl.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg replacer, banana, buttermilk and vanilla extract.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are just moistened.  Let the batter sit for about 15 minutes.  (Turn the oven on to 200F so you can warm the plates and keep the cooked waffles crispy – and heat up the waffle iron, too.)

Lightly spray waffle iron with cooking oil and ladle on the batter.  Cook for about 4-5 minutes and gently remove waffle and place on oven rack to keep warm while you prepare the rest of the waffles.

Top with a dab, slab or slice of Cocoa-Coconut Butter and your other favorite waffle toppings!

Coconut-Cocoa Butter

Chai Waffle w/ Butter

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Apr 17 2012
43 Comments
Building Block Recipe, Chocolate, Dips and Spreads, General, Miscellaneous

Cocoa-Coconut Butter

Rounds of Cocoa-Coconut Butter

This post demonstrates the part of my personality which can become obsessive.  When I find something I’m interested in, I beat it to death.  Then inevitably I lose interest and move on to the next thing.  Right now, I’m obsessed with making vegan butters.  Since I really try to limit my intake of “added” fats, this is not a good obsession.  However, so far Kel and I have been able to restrain ourselves to slivers of this amazing stuff, so I don’t feel too badly about straying.  Let’s hope something comes along that takes my mind off of butter.  Something that is a whole lot healthier.  Something like seven days of celery sticks.

The basic recipe for this comes from the site mentioned in an earlier post.  All I did was blend in a little cocoa and a little sweetener.  Chocolate coconut butter is available commercially (I have a jar of it in my pantry called Cocoa Bliss by Artisana), but what fun is that?

Using a silicone ice cube tray or silicone mini muffin pan makes freezing and removing the butter very easy.  I got the ice cube trays from Amazon.com, then remembered that my mom had given me a mini muffin tray many years ago so I dug that out of the cupboard as well and gave it a go.  Obviously this butter can be used directly on toast or pancakes or waffles (upcoming post…) – but I think it could also work deliciously when making chocolate-based cookies, muffins or breads – instead of regular vegan butter.

Before I share the recipe, I want to thank Dudette Here!!! (the Dudette abides…) and Gabby at The Veggie Nook for giving my blog Versatile Blogger Awards.  Just…awesome!  Thank you, thank you!

Cocoa-Coconut Butter

1/4 cup + 2 tsp. soy milk
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1/8-1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. soy lecithin granules
1/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp. agave nectar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. + 1 tsp. refined coconut oil
1 tbsp. canola or vegetable oil

In a small measuring cup, whisk together the soy milk and cocoa powder until thoroughly combined.  Whisk in the salt and apple cider vinegar and let sit for 10 minutes.

Melt the coconut oil in a small measuring cup.  It’s not necessary to completely melt it down – some small solid bits are okay.  In the bowl of a food processor, add the melted coconut oil, canola oil, soy milk mixture, soy lecithin granules, xanthan gum, agave nectar and vanilla extract.

Process for 1 minute, then scrap down the sides and bottom – sometimes the soy lecithin granules get stuck near the blade.  Process for an additional minute, then carefully pour the mixture into the molds.

Chill in the freezer for at least one hour before removing from molds.  Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Butter in Mold

Green Ice Cube Trays

Cubes of Butter

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Apr 14 2012
26 Comments
7 Days of Salad, Herbs, Main Dishes, Quick & Easy, Salads, Vegetables

7 Days of Salad. Day 6: Red Quinoa & Green Apple (and Making Vegan Butter)

Quinoa CollageBig thanks go out to Holly at My Plant-based Family and to Averil at The Cook, The Baker and the Clay Boy Maker for sharing The Versatile Blogger and The Sunshine Awards with me.  Woohoo!  I really appreciate the recognition from these two wonderful women and am enjoying their posts and getting to know them both.  Please take some time to check out their blogs.

A few years ago, I had no idea what quinoa was.  And when I first saw it, I had my suspicions of the tiny little “seeds” with the funny curly-Qs, but now it’s standard fare in our house.  We love the taste, appreciate its versatility and rely on its wonderful health benefits.  But a recent article in the New York Times, Quinoa’s Global Success Creates Quandary At Home, put a different perspective on this chenopod (or goosefoots – love that name).  Because of high demand for quinoa in Europe and America, less Bolivians are able to afford to eat the crop that they grow – and they’re suffering nutritionally (quinoa is considered exceptional in the plant kingdom for its balance of nutrients) as a result.  Makes one pause and think about where one’s food comes from – and it makes me even more appreciative of this special plant.

This recipe comes from a book called Gluten-free, Sugar-free Cooking, by Susan O’Brien.  This is not a vegan cookbook, but there are some really inventive recipes in it and one of these days I’m going to dive into her desserts.  I didn’t change a thing with this salad, except that I used cabbage instead of red pepper, because I didn’t have one.  It’s one of those salads that you could add almost anything to – steamed asparagus, navy beans, celery, tofu, crumbled tempeh bacon, nuts – nearly endless possibilities.  But what really drew me to this salad is that the dressing contains no oil – just the way I like to make it.

(Ahem.  Speaking of fat…Below this recipe is a link to a recipe to make vegan butter…)

Red Quinoa & Green Apple Salad
Serves 4-6

1 cup red or white quinoa, rinsed if necessary (some come pre-rinsed)
2 cups water
1/2 cup green cabbage, chopped
1/3 cup red onion
1/2 cup carrot, chopped or grated
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2-3 tbsp. vegetable broth
salt & pepper, to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large Granny Smith or other tart apple, cored and chopped

Combine the quinoa and the water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and cook, covered, for 10-15 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed.  Set aside to cool.

In a bowl, combine the cabbage, red onion, carrot, parsley, apple cider vinegar, vegetable broth, salt, pepper and garlic.  Add the cooled quinoa and the chopped apple, stirring gently.  Serve as is, or over a bed of fresh greens.

On a side note…Yesterday I made maybe the coolest thing ever – and it was really simple.  I may never go back to Earth Balance or store-bought shortening again.  Thanks to Keepin’ It Kind, I found out how to make my own butter.  Check out her post, then go to the original recipe here.  There is all kinds of interesting science involved, but my eyes started to glaze over (much like they did in high school chemistry class) and I skipped down to the recipes.  It’s really fun, easy and best of all, you know what’s going into it (though, yes, it’s still fat).  And there are all kinds of variations, many of which I’m planning on trying soon.

Vegan Butter

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Feb 14 2012
19 Comments
Cookies and Bars

The Sugar Cookie Challenge

Cookies on PlateI hope that you will indulge me in yet another recipe for something sweet… It is Valentine’s Day, after all.

A few months ago amidst the holiday cooking frenzy, a friend told me her goal for the New Year was to bake her own bread.  It made me so happy to hear – I would love everyone  to bake their own.  So I shared a “no-knead” recipe with her.  She in turn sent me a recipe for her favorite holiday cookie with the challenge to veganize it.  This was not so much a smackdown kind of challenge – but more like, let’s see what you can do with this.  I mean, it’s called a “sugar” cookie.  Which is really a butter cookie.  How does an unrefined, low-sugar, low-fat vegan turn a white-flour-white-sugar-dairy-butter cookie into something she can eat?  First step, get out the mixing bowls.

The end result only kind of resembles the original cookie.  This is because the original, Stain-glassed Sugar Cookies, calls for hard candies.  One, I had no hard candies on hand and two, I haven’t eaten a hard candy since I was a tween.  So I had to come up with something else.  Fruit-sweetened berry jams seemed like a good idea and because chocolate is almost always appropriate, I made a batch of chocolate fudge sauce to sandwich into the middle of two cookies.  So – instead of being a one-layer cookie as in the original, mine are made up of two layers of cookie with filling in between.

Oh – Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lynn’s Challenge Sugar Cookies
Makes…a lot.  It kind of depends on the cookie cutter size/shape.

Tray of Baked Cookies1/2 cup vegan “butter”
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup maple sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. egg replacer + 3 tbsp. water (whisk together until foamy and set aside for a few minutes)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt

Fruit-sweetened jam (as needed; whatever flavor you love best)
and/or
Chocolate Fudge Sauce (recipe at end of post; you will not need the full recipe)

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flours and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the “butter,” applesauce and sugar and mix for about 5 minutes.  Add the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Divide the dough in two equal portions and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Chilled Dough

Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F.

On a floured surface, roll out one portion of dough to about 1/8″ thick.  Using your favorite cutter shapes, cut out as many shapes as you can and place the cookies on parchment-covered baking sheets.  Set aside the dough scraps until you’ve rolled out dough portion number 2.  Put the cookie sheet with the cookies into the freezer while you repeat the roll-cut process with the second batch of dough.  Think of the first batch as the bottom of the cookie and the second batch as the tops.  So you’ll want to match the number, shape and size…Make sense?  The photo below shows the final product:

Plate of Cookies

Remember those scraps?  Gather them all together and roll out the dough again.  Cut out more shapes and then discard the remaining scraps.

The cookies on the baking sheets should stay in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  In the preheated oven, bake the cookies in batches (swapping trays halfway through for even baking) for about 12 minutes.

Chocolate Fudge Sauce
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. water
1/2 cup maple sugar
1 tsp. powdered stevia
pinch salt
3 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Dissolve the cornstarch in the water.  In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa and salt.  While whisking, add the soy milk, vanilla and cornstarch mixture.  Stir over medium heat until thickened.  Allow to cool.  Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator and heated up to serve over vegan ice cream…

(The Chocolate Fudge Sauce recipe comes from The Joy of Vegan Baking, by Colleen-Patrick-Goudreau.  I cut the sugar by half, using maple sugar instead of refined white sugar, and added stevia.)

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Jan 28 2012
5 Comments
Cookies and Bars

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip, Cranberry & Pecan Cookies

Closeup of CookiesIf you don’t bake up a batch of these cookies and sample them for yourself, how are you going to know how unbelievably delicious vegan baking can be??  These are a real stand-out.  Soft and nutty with big bites of chocolate chips, cranberries and toasted pecans.  I added an extra zing of orange flavor (which pairs so beautifully with both chocolate and cranberries) by adding orange zest.  Truly addictive.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip, Cranberry & Pecan Cookies
Makes ~15 large cookies

1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. powdered stevia
Bowl of Cookie Dough1 tbsp. egg replacer + 3 tbsp. water (whisk together until frothy, then let sit for a minute)
2 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup vegan butter
1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped
zest from 1/2 an orange, optional

Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the white whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and stevia.  Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, cream the maple sugar and the vegan butter until smooth.  Stir in the applesauce, orange juice, egg replacer/water mixture and the vanilla extract.  Stir this mixture into the flour mixture until combined – then fold in the chocolate chips, cranberries and pecans.

Drop by the tablespoon, smoothing them a bit if desired, onto the baking sheets.  Bake for 12-14 minutes – rotating pans halfway through – until just starting to brown at the edges.  Take care not to overbake.  They’ll appear slightly underdone, but will firm up as they cool.  Let sit on the baking sheets for a minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.  Serve with homemade chai tea.

Cookies Ingredients(This recipe comes from the side of a 5-lb. bag of King Arthur Flour White Whole Wheat Flour – which, by the way, is a fantastic whole grain product.  What changes did I make, you ask?  Here’s the rundown: I halved the amount of “butter,” using applesauce to make up the remainder; used egg replacer; reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup of maple sugar – instead of 3/4 cup refined white sugar, and used stevia to make sure the sweet factor was just right.  And, I added orange zest.)

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