Welcoming Spring with a Vegan Cookie Extravaganza...

Peppermint Oatmeal Carob Cookies

Spring is here! I suppose technically Spring’s been here since the 20^th which was the equinox, and truthfully the weather has been very spring-like for most of the month, but this week in particular has felt very much like spring in a lot of ways. The weather has been very warm, a little breezy and we’ve had a few of the traditional spring showers. The sun is out and shining almost everyday, and it’s staying out longer. Everything is golden, and fresh and fragrant. The grass and foliage around here and in the parks has gone from brown and dreary to green and vibrant in only a week’s time. Flowers are opening and reaching for the sky, and my favorite sign of spring, the cherry blossom is in full bloom. Life has moved from inside to outside as children flock to the parks to play and more and more people meander out and about with their dogs. The Canadian Geese and the ducks that chose to migrate further south have returned to the lakes, where they’re preparing to mate. Butterflies have emerged, and birds sing gloriously in the trees while squirrels and bunnies romp in the weeds below.

Lavender Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Spring and Autumn are by far my favorite seasons, both for the beauty they impart on the world and for the feeling of peaceful contentment they instill inside me. Each year I like to do something special to ring in and honor the season, and this year I chose to bake a bunch of spring inspired goodies. This wasn’t the original plan, but as it happens my favorite used book store was having a sale last week, and I just so happened to come across four great vegan finds while perusing the shelves, two of them being vegan baking books. With so many new - to me - wonderfully creative, inspirational, and delicious sounding recipes under my arm this seemed the perfect opportunity to give them a whirl.

Monday morning I woke early, grabbed my books and headed straight for the kitchen, where I popped an audio book into the little portable cd player I keep by the window and set to work. I started with Kelly Peloza’s "The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur." a book I’d flipped through once or twice at my friend J’s without much interest. I think it was the photography that initially turned me off. Most of the photos are dark - too dark in my opinion - and I much prefer cook book photos to be shiny and bright. She does however include a photo with each recipe which I appreciate - dark or not - and I figured for $5 what would be the harm in picking it up? I’m really glad I did because there is some super creative, inspiring and amazing stuff hidden within these pages. There are so many cookie recipes I can’t wait to try out, in fact I was having such a hard time narrowing it down that I made three different recipes from this book.

Top Left - Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies. Top Right - Lemon Cornmeal Cookies.
Bottom - Pink Lemonade Cookies

Though it was tough to choose which recipes to start with I decided to keep with the theme of spring and went for three different lemon flavored cookies. You may think I went a little lemon crazy, but I absolutely love lemons! Especially in the spring and what better ingredient to use when the sun is shining and the world finally feels alive after the decay of winter?

Lemon Cornmeal Cookies

I began with the Lemon Cornmeal Cookies. I chose them because they were relatively quick to put together and because the picture - one of the few that actually isn’t too dark - was so bright, and happy. Just looking at all that magnificent yellow put a smile on my face, and lifted my spirits. Plus you have to admit that the addition of cornmeal in a cookie is just a little bit intriguing, no? I did make a few changes, one out of necessity - I didn’t have soy milk so I used flax instead, it worked perfect! - and the rest out of preference. I used a bit less sugar, a touch of lemon juice, and only rolled one side of each cookie in additional sugar. Trust me that was enough! The cookies baked up quick and were absolutely ‘melt in your mouth’ while still warm from the oven. I loved the lemon flavor of course and really enjoyed the subtle crunch of the cornmeal.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Next up were the Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies. This recipe is also accompanied by a relatively bright and happy picture, but it’s not the only thing that put a smile on my face. I mean, is there anyone out there who doesn’t think lemon and poppy seed are a perfect combination? They are truly a match made by the gods, and I am destined to love everything with this unique flavor combination. I adore lemon poppy seed muffins, cupcakes, loaves, rolls etc... but don’t recall ever having had a lemon poppy seed cookie until now. These were absolutely scrumptious! Like the lemon cornmeal cookies these baked up quick and were fast to throw together, which you wouldn’t think from their phenomenal flavor. Again I made a couple of alterations, flax milk instead of Soy, a little less sugar, a touch of lemon juice plus additional zest and I doubled - at least - the amount of poppy seeds.

Pink Lemonade Cookies

Lastly from Peloza I made the Pink Lemonade Cookies, the very sound of which is enough to make anyone smile. However I did not have pink food coloring, nor the ingredients to make my own, and so mine are just regular lemonade cookies I suppose. Still amazing though as the pink is used exclusively for aesthetic value. These cookies, while again simple enough upon first glance were a bit more work. I used flax again, decreased the sugar, added extra zest and a touch of lemon juice. However I found the dough to be kind of sticky, so it was hard to spread into a disk shape on my baking sheet. This may have been my own fault because of my alterations but in any case it was a bit of a process to get the dough to cooperate, and as it happens I was never able to get it to spread into perfect flat disks. Oh well the flavor was impeccable and in the end that’s all that really matters. The thing that makes these cookies so great, and it’s the reason you need them to be flatter rather then round is that you make a lemon butter cream frosting which you spread over half the cookies once they’ve been baked, then place a second cookie on top to make a sandwich cookie. Sort of like a lemon oreo but a thousand times better! The frosting was super simple - again I added extra zest - and squishing the cookies together was a breeze. I highly recommend making these, as well as the other two, especially if you like lemon. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I sure wasn’t, neither were the friends I chose to share these treats with.

For my next two batches I moved onto one of my other new books, Laura Matthias’s Extra Vegan Za. Though there are so many amazing sounding recipes in this book for everything from appetizers to dessert the first recipe I knew I had to try were the Peppermint Oatmeal Carob cookies. First of all who doesn’t love an oatmeal cookie? Secondly this combination just sounded to unique and cool not to try. I’m a huge fan of peppermint as I believe I’ve mentioned, and while I’ve had chocolate peppermint cookies before and peppermint chocolate I’ve never come across the combination of peppermint carob. Nor have I had peppermint in a cookie that wasn’t an all out chocolate cookie. Though I had my heart set on making this one, I was initially a little concerned that I wouldn’t like it. I was worried it might taste overly of peppermint or that the carob would be overwhelming but thankfully neither was the case. Even though I opted to leave out the vanilla extract in favor of extra peppermint extract. This truly was a perfect cookie. Laura says in the book that it’s her favorite and I can clearly see why, in fact it just might be my new favorite as well. Peppermint is a wonderful flavor to use in spring and summer because it’s so fresh and cooling. Mint of all types is extraordinary in salads, grain dishes, desserts, teas you name it and so I thought this cookie was a beautiful choice for a Spring bake-a-thon. What I like best about this cookie though is that you have three strong flavors, none of which overpower the others so you do get a real sense of all of them and they blend together so well. Absolutely amazing, and I never would have thought of it myself!

Lastly, also from Extra Vegan Za, I made the beautiful and delicate Lavender Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Lavender is a perfect choice for spring, it’s fragrant and floral and just the scent alone brings you peace of mind. I love it. Yet even though I almost always have dried culinary lavender on hand I rarely find an occasion to use it. The minute my eyes spied this recipe I knew it was meant to be. I just knew I had to try it out. Like with the peppermint oatmeal carob cookies I was excited yet unsure. I like the taste of lavender but not if it’s overwhelming. Too much lavender can be bitter and unpleasant and so I was hoping that would not be the case with these cookies. In fact Laura states in the book that for the lavender lover or the adventurous, use two tbsp of lavender, for someone less enthused by lavender use 1 tbsp. I started off with the 1 tbsp took a look at the dough and thought ‘what the hell’ and threw in the second tbsp with a little extra for good measure. Always ready for a culinary adventure I figured ‘why not take the plunge?’ I’m so glad I decided to throw caution to the wind because these cookies were magic! With just over 2 tbsp I didn’t find the lavender overwhelming at all, it was perfect, and it blended wonderfully with the chocolate chips. Actually I would go so far as to say that lavender is to chocolate what lemon is to poppy seed. The two go hand in hand, a match made by the infinite wisdom of the universe. Seriously I can’t keep my hands off these little gems and I highly recommend Extra Vegan Za on the basis of these two cookie recipes alone. I can’t wait to see what else Laura has in store!

So that concludes my culinary honoring of Spring. Although I did continue baking Tuesday when I tried my hand at Cinnamon Buns for the first time! An amazing experience that I was going to include in this post, but seeing as how it’s already quite long as it is I’ll save it for tomorrow. Plus I think cinnamon buns are entirely deserving of their very own post anyway.

Also stay tuned for some other exciting stuff I have coming up. I know I’ve been a bit neglectful of the blog this week, and I apologize. I’ve been rather busy and as such I haven’t had the leisure to experiment much with inventing my own recipes. Mostly I’ve been enjoying trying out the cook books I received for Christmas. However since this was originally intended to be a well rounded blog, with more on offer then just recipes I have some very interesting things to share that aren’t necessarily recipe related. Tomorrow we’ll have cinnamon buns, then look out for Friday’s post which will be related to woman’s health.

PS: Apologies also for the poor lighting in some of the photos. Though the sun was bright and shining outside it wasn’t exactly pouring through my kitchen windows at the time I chose to take these photos. And yes, I fully realize the irony of talking about Peloza’s dark photography, when my own in this post isn’t very well lit either. Ha ha... it seems these things happen to all of us from time to time.

*** Note - Also please keep in mind that if you are going to use Lavender in any food recipe, please, please make sure it’s culinary lavender, and not floral or aromatherapy lavender. There is indeed a difference and I assure you, you will not be happy if you get the wrong kind. Usually culinary lavender is easily found in spice shops, herbal shops, health food stores and even some grocery stores. It can also be found for sale as a whole plant that you can then plant in a pot or your garden, which is always fun!***

Vegan Mofo #13 - Isa’s Lentil Eggplant Chili Mole with Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread...

Vegan Mofo #13 - Isa’s Lentil Eggplant Chili Mole with Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread

The Book - "Appetite for Reduction"
The Author - Isa Chandra Moskowitz
The Recipe - Lentil and Eggplant Chili Mole with Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread
Page # 242-243
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 15 minutes prep time, 45-60 min cook time for Chili - Roughly 15 minutes prep time, 30-45 minutes cook time for cornbread.

I love Chili! It’s another one of my favorite meals from growing up. There’s nothing better then having a big pot of fragrant chili on the stove during those long cold winter months. However as much as I love chili, I don’t make it that often anymore. See my husband is not a fan of beans, how anyone can not like beans I don’t know! And I love beans in my chili, the more the merrier, so making two pots of chili isn’t always worth the effort.

When I first saw this recipe in ‘Appetite for Reduction’ I thought, great! A Chili recipe with no beans! It had lentils which I love and my husband tolerates and Eggplant which my husband loves and I tolerate. You see Eggplant is one of those rare vegetables that I only like if cooked certain ways. Too often I find it to be too chewy, too tough, too waxy or too bitter. However when cooked just right eggplant is delicious, so I was very curious to try this recipe. Though despite my curiosity I must admit I was also skeptical. The recipe calls for 2 medium eggplants which is a lot of eggplant, not to mention it also calls for cocoa powder and cinnamon. I’d actually never had a mole sauce before trying out this chili, but I know adding cocoa and cinnamon to chili is a common thing in Mexico. I’d just never had chili with cinnamon or cocoa in it, and honestly cocoa and cinnamon just don’t sound like they belong in chili. Yet despite my reservations I decided to give this recipe a try because what’s the worst that could happen? You don’t like it? Big deal. The best thing that could happen is that it becomes your favorite meal, and that’s almost always a risk I’m willing to take.

I was seriously surprised with this recipe. It was so much better then I even imagined it would be. The flavors worked really well together and both the cinnamon and the cocoa were subtle. The eggplant too was hardly noticeable as it cooks down a lot. Trust me on this, when you cut up two large or medium eggplants it’s going to look like A LOT, but it will cook down almost into liquid, so don’t be tempted to use less! I did make a couple of changes to the recipe. First of all I used slightly less cocoa powder. I’m sure the 2 tbsp would have been fine but I was erring on the side of caution. I also added more cumin, chili powder, garlic and oregano then she suggests. As much as I love Isa’s recipe I find I generally have to add more seasoning because I like my flavors really bold. However I suggest you cook it the directed way and then taste it before adding in more just incase the spicing is good enough for you. You can always add more after all but once it’s in there you can’t take it away.

I must say I really am surprised at just how good this chili was. Who knew? I particularly loved the addition of lentils, lentils are a wonderful food, a favorite of mine so adding them into anything always pleases me. Though oddly I don’t think it ever would have occurred to me to add lentils into chili on my own. This chili is also particularly good wit the suggested fresh corn and scallion cornbread, in fact making that cornbread to serve with this chili is a must! Not only is the flavor phenomenal but it really rounds out the chili. They really compliment each other beautifully.

What I love about this cornbread recipe is it’s creativity. Using fresh corn and scallions in a cornbread recipe is not something I would have thought of. This is a revelation, and now I can’t wait to try and add all kinds of things into my future cornbread recipes. Subsequently this is also the recipe that turned my husband from a cornbread hater to a cornbread lover, so I gotta be happy about that. I followed the recipe as directed except I added a bit more corn kernals and green onions to the batter, just a personal preference.

Then I served the chili topped with a pinch of daiya cheddar cheese, and fresh cilantro. With a triangle of cornbread stuck in the side. It’s the perfect fill your gut, stick to your ribs meal for any cool fall or winter evening.

Vegan Mofo #12 - Colleen’s Quinoa Blue Cornbread...

Vegan Mofo #12 - Colleen’s Quinoa Blue Cornbread

The Book - "Color Me Vegan
The Author - Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
The Recipe - Quinoa Blue Cornbread
Page # 185
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 45 minutes

I do have a couple more salads up my sleeve, but lets take a break from that shall we? And enjoy something special and spectacular. Quinoa Blue Cornbread. Did you get that? BLUE cornbread! I didn’t even care what was in it, the minute I saw blue cornbread I HAD to make it. It was just too weird not to! Kidding aside it really was one of the first recipes to jump out at me when I was flipping through "Color Me Vegan" for the first time. There really aren’t a lot of ‘blue’ foods out there if you think about it, which is a shame because blue is such a pretty color.

As strange as it might seem upon first glance this is a pretty great recipe. Though I may be bias because I absolutely love blueberries, and I’ve always loved cornbread. Who could pass up a fresh piping hot square of cornbread with a nice bowl of chili? My mom always made the best cornbread, and I’d eat a ton of it when she made it. After I got married I don’t think I ever ate cornbread. My husband you see is not a fan, he’s never liked it. Most of the cornbread he grew up eating came from a box and though I tried to convince him that my homemade cornbread would be different it was always a ‘no go’ Then because I was dying to try Isa’s "Fresh Corn and Scallion Cornbread" recipe I made it, told him it was polenta and he loved it. Afterwards I revealed that it was actually a cornbread recipe and ever since then he’s come around. So I was very, very excited to try this. The only problem was I couldn’t find blue cornmeal anywhere. I’d tried Whole Foods, my local grocery, specialty grocery, and ethnic groceries in my area and nowhere did I find blue cornmeal. Sadly I had to put this cornbread experiment on hold, though every time I flipped through "Color Me Vegan" I considered just going ahead and making this bread with regular cornmeal. Glad I waited though.

Over the summer on a trip out of town I happened upon a very small shop selling spices, speciality chocolate, speciality teas, and a few speciality dry goods. Among those dry goods I found Beluga Lentils (Another thing I hadn’t been able to find near me) and lo and behold blue cornmeal! I hadn’t even been looking for it, and then bam! It was right there in my face. I was so excited I almost wanted to come home early and make the cornbread right away. (I didn’t of course)

I have to say I’m really glad I waited for the blue cornmeal, it makes such a dazzling presentation, and just seems to go better with the blueberries. Interestingly a few weeks ago while in a market I don’t usually frequent I found a large bag of blue cornmeal, so I won’t have to go out of town the next time I need some, yay!

Everything about this recipe is interesting, everything is a surprise. I never would have thought ot use quinoa in a cornbread recipe, neither would I ever have thought that blueberries and corn actually pair pretty damn well together, but there you have it. Somehow it works, and it works harmoniously, as if it were meant to be. Every bite into a piece of this bread is like a party for your tastebuds. There are so many things going on and all of them are magic. Even my former cornbread hating husband loved it!

I did however find this cornbread to be very moist and therefore take longer to cook before the center was done. I don’t know if that’s because of the liquid from the frozen blueberries or simply because I added to much almond milk. Either way next time I’ll keep a better eye on it. The moistness did not hinder the taste in anyway though, and as for alterations I only did one thing differently. Colleen says to use either 1 cup of blueberries or 1 cup of corn kernels in the bread. Rather then do that I used a half cup of each, and it was brilliant. I really suggest that.

PS: Again sorry for the lack of pictures and the questionable quality. I was in a hurry to eat!!!

Quick Indian Cornmeal Pudding...

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been really interested in making a Sioux Indian Cornmeal Pudding. Interestingly I’d never even heard of the dish until I stumbled upon a recipe earlier this month, that I found both strange yet fascinating. Such an odd blend of ingredients, and corn as pudding? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, not to mention the breakfast angle. As I don’t generally consider corn to be a go-to breakfast food. Still, something inside me was dying to try this odd concoction. It seems to almost be a rule with me, that the stranger something sounds or looks, the more inclined I feel to eat it.

So since Monday was a ‘free-day’ I decided I would make it for breakfast when I got up. Unfortunately when I got up I wasn’t feeling very hungry. So as is typical for me, I went about my day as I normally would sans breakfast. Then at eleven the pangs of hunger hit me like a brick, completely out of the blue. I stopped what I was doing, pulled out my recipe and took it to the kitchen where I discovered that the pudding would take at least five minutes of assembly time, and then a further 30 minutes baking time. I likely wouldn’t be eating for another 40 minutes. I considered it for a second, but my stomach continued to roar furiously. I considered not making it at all, and felt disappointment.

So I did the next best thing. I collected all the ingredients I needed/wanted and made a quickie version on the stove top. It’s not exactly ‘traditional’ but then I’m not sure what ‘traditional’ really is when it comes to this recipe. In all of the recipes I’ve seen, the pudding is to be baked, but the ingredients do seem to vary, aside from milk, cornmeal, and a sweetener which is often Molasses but sometimes Maple Syrup. These recipes also all claim to be 100 years old or more. Yet I’ve also heard it said that true traditional Indian Corn Pudding - made before the Europeans began colonizing North America - was primarily a corn mush mixed with fresh berries. Just ground corn kernels, water, berries and perhaps maple syrup, because Native Americans/First Nations didn’t have milk or molasses. Who knows? Maybe both stories are right and the tradition changed over time with increased access to things like milk and molasses.

Anyway this is my quickie Indian inspired corn pudding. It turned out fantastic, so delicious, sweet and creamy with a thick consistency like oatmeal. Definitely a welcome change from the usual breakfast dishes. Traditionally this pudding is suppose to have currents, however I’m not the biggest fan of them so I decided to use a few different kinds of dried fruit instead. Honestly I think any dried fruit would taste good in here but berries in particular. Fresh fruit might taste good as well so play around with it. I also added seeds for that little extra something. You can add whatever seeds you have handy, or opt out, it’s up to you, but definitely give this pudding a try either for a hearty breakfast or a healthy dessert.

Quick Indian Cornmeal Pudding

1/3 C Corse Cornmeal or Polenta
1 C Vanilla Almond Milk
1 ½ tbsp Maple Syrup
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Cardamom
Pinch of Sea salt
Dried Goji berries
Dried Cranberries
Dried Cherries
1 tbsp Sesame Seeds
1 tsp Hemp Seeds

- Place small-medium sized pot on the stove over medium heat. Add milk, cinnamon, and cardamom. Stir to combine and bring to simmer.

- Pour in the Cornmeal and stir vigorously, add the maple syrup and stir to combine. Raise heat and bring to a boil. Stirring frequently so cornmeal doesn’t stick.

- Once boiling reduce heat to simmer on low, add a pinch of salt and continue stirring frequently until pudding is thick, soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed. 10-15 minutes.

- Spoon pudding into a serving bowl, top with dried fruits and seeds and enjoy.

*** Note- If the pudding is too thick or too dry for your liking you can add a splash more Vanilla Almond milk into your serving bowl and mix it in as you would add milk to oatmeal. ***

PS: I will definitely be making it the traditional way in the future as I am very curious/excited to see how it turns out. I’m thinking it might be a nice alternative to the usual Thanksgiving day desserts. A nice break from all those heavy, stomach bloating pies, and all those fat and sugar laden treats. We’ll see.