I am totally stoked for the bakesales this Saturday, I think we are going to raise a lot of money for Japan. It seems like news just gets worse and worse so it is nice to be able to do something to help. There are going to be some fantastic vegan baker’s donating goods to, the Red Rabbit Donut Cooperative is going to drop off several dozen vegan donuts to the Bee Caves location and I know there is going to be lots of vegan goodness at the South Congress & North Loop locations as well, every location will have some vegan items.
Sometimes people are a little mystified about what to make so I thought I would share some recipes that I have had success with. I am more of a savory cook but I enjoy baking too…. well more of eating baked goods anyway. Unlike my regular cooking I try to follow a recipe as close as possible so I use some of my favorite blogs and cookbooks. Veganizing a recipe can be really easy, depending on the recipe! If you get more than 3 eggs it can get a little bit tricky but common subs are trading out honey for agave nectar, using Earth Balance non hydrogenated margarine in place of butter, soy milk, mimic creame or coconut creamer in place of their dairy equivalents, and dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate are really easy to do. For eggs I usually use one tablespoon of ground flax seeds mixed with three tablespoons of water for each egg. I like it because flax seeds are really good for you and I always have them around but there are a lot of other ways to go about it.
Kittie from Cakemaker to the stars has veganized a bunch of Martha Stewart recipes with a lot of success. I made her Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanut Butter Insides that were veganized from Martha and OMG they were amazing. For the last bakesale I made her Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Squares but with cocopuffs and I think I will do that again because they were really fun. I have made the buckeyes and the peanut butter filled whoopie pies which would be a GREAT recipe to try because my friends will pay serious money to eat those whoopie pies!
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is a terrific little book with tons of ideas and recipes with lots of baking advice if you are interested in a book you can pick it up at almost any bookseller in town. I have made the Mexican Hot Chocolate, Mucho Margareta, Chai Tea, Chocolate, Apple Spice, Jelly Donut, Green Tea and who knows how many other cupcakes. The Earl Grey variation that we made for the Star Trek feast has been my favorite so far!
Terry and Isa wrote a second dessert book “Vegan Cookies invade your cookie jar” and many of those recipes are online, I love the Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, and the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows, and the recipe for Pignoli Almond Cookies sounds really good too.
Over the holidays I became obsessed with these mint chocolate chip cookies from Readymade magazine. The recipe yielded a ton and at least one person said they were the best cookies that he ever had!
Another fantastic recipe that I just adore is the Triple Chocolate Chip Brownie. This recipe has some pricey ingredients but a spicy, gooey, chocolate brownie is really something to sing about.
Another great source of recipes are the Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, I ended up making her Giant Bakery Style Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. Finally, a great online resource is the Bittersweet Blog. The author Hannah Kaminsky has a book as well called My Sweet Vegan. Her blog has tons of great look recipes likeCinnamon Buns, Zucchini Babka, and even dog biscuits, you don’t want to leave the pups out! Mmm bake sale….