Vegan Ginger-Oatmeal muffins...

...With apples and almonds!

Ah yes, my quest for yummy vegan baked goods continues. I hope some of you are still with me, after my temporary break-up with facebook (it just had to happen.) But the breakup has given me SO much extra time to write and bake and (most importantly) spend time with my friends and family. So I don't miss it at all.

But I digress. Coming home to Pennsylvania always makes me crave what I lovingly call "country" foods. Salty oat cookies and apple pie have been on my radar for quite a while now, so I decided to take a stab at combining the two in a vegan-friendly fashion. My dad has been hasseling me for a while about how much weight I've lost since my transition to veganism (about 10 lbs... and those of you who know me know that I really didn't need to lose 10 lbs). I suspect this weight loss is due to the fact that I don't eat things with as much saturated fat as the average person... but my dad thinks its because i'm not getting enough protein. So I added some protein powder to this recipe so he'd be happy. I might add that you actually can't taste it at all, so hey, why not?

Vegan Ginger Oatmeal Muffins
musical accompaniment: Taylor Swift, "Mine" (she's from my hometown!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPBwXKgDTdE

Ingredients:
2 cups oatmeal (quick oats are fine)
2 cups flour
2 cups orange juice or water
1 cup applesauce (see recipe below or from a jar is fine)
1 teaspoon of salt (more for salting the tops)
1/2 cup of sliced almonds
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 scoop  spirutein vanilla protein powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees
Soak the oats in the orange juice for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, make the applesauce: peel and dice apples (I found that 2 average sized apples makes about 1 cup of applesauce.) eyeball a good amount of agave (or sugar if you don't have agave/don't care about calories). Heat over medium heat until just mushy, sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Transfer mixture to blender and add 1/2 cup of water. Blend until it has a nice apple-saucy consistency. I'll let you decide whether or not you want it to be chunky (I prefer it that way).
After 10 minutes of soak-time, add applesauce to the oats, mix until evenly spread throughout.
Add salt, baking soda and baking powder
Add spices and almonds
Add flour-- stir to mix in, but don't over stir (you want muffins not hockey pucks!)
Scoop mixture into muffin tins (about 3/4 of the way up... they'll rise)
Optional-- sprinkle salt on the tops of the muffins

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean
Most yummy when served warm!

Strawberry-Vanilla Biscuits

I first made these to be scones, but for whatever reason, they came out as biscuits. Not that I'm complaining. they're light and fluffy and have just the right amount of sweet.

Oh, did I mention that they're gluten free, vegan and sugar free too?

(Yeah, I thought you'd like that.)

I based this recipe off of the Raspberry Scone recipe in the BabyCakes cookbook (buy it if you don't have it! it's aaamaazzzinnngg). Since I couldn't find any affordable raspberries,  I made these with strawberries... I bet they'd be good with just about any berry that is in season though! The smell of these baking woke my roommate (Allison) and her boyfriend, who promptly inhaled one.

Vegan/gf/sf Strawberry Vanilla Biscuits
 Musical Accompaniment: Jai Uttal & Ben Leinbach "Loveland"

2 cups Bobs Redmill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 cup chopped strawberries (I forgot to pick mine up at the farmers market, so I just grabbed a bag of frozen strawberries and chopped them up-- be sure to check if there's added sweetener! I hate it when they do that)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup veggie oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon
1/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease cookie sheet (or line with parchment paper) These will be a little runny as they're baking , so make sure the sheet has raised edges so the inside of your oven doesn't become strawberry flavored.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Add in the oil, agave and vanilla.
Stir together until a thick crumbly batter is formed
Pour in warm water and mix until the batter becomes sticky (do not overmix)
Gently fold in strawberries and slowly mix until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Using an ice cream scooper or whatever you've got handy, scoop out small balls of the dough and place on cookie sheet, about 1/2 inch apart.
Cook for 10 minutes on the middle rack, then rotate sheet 180 degrees. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Optional: Remove from oven, and drizzle agave nectar or raw cane sugar if you've got some (or both!). Place back in oven for another 5 minutes.

The cooking times may vary. My biscuits had to be in the oven for about 25 minutes total in order to get that nice golden crust. Keep an eye on them!

Vegan Chedder and Chive Scones

Before I start, I know I misspelled cheddar. I did that on purpose, grammar snobs.


Now that I'm working a somewhat typical 9-5 at the Department of Justice (until next week, that is, when the government shuts down...jerks) I've been craving something small, savory and filling to take with me to work and eat with my coffee. For a while I was baking my own potato chips, but that wasn't doing it. I missed... CHEESE.

This happens sometimes. But it's important to recognize that if you're a vegan and you're missing cheese, what you're probably missing is salt (and that usually means you're dehydrated, btw). But I was really missing cheese, and nothing was helping satisfy the craving. As the days went on, I realized it wasn't just any cheese, it was the cheddar and chive scones from the cafe where I worked during college. Lucky for me, I was in charge of baking for a while, so after flipping through a couple scraps of recipes scrawled on paper, my memory was jolted and I began the task of veganizing the recipe. This will make about 30 small round scones, though it depends on the size of the scooper you use.

Warning: this dough is a mess. seriously. If it gets everywhere, you're doing it right.

Vegan Chedder and Chive Scones
Musical accompaniment: Rusted Root "Faith"

You will need:
A bunch of chives, chopped finely (aim for 1/2 a cup) Dried is ok, but fresh is better.
Your favorite vegan cheddar, grated (I use Daiya because it melts amazingly and is already grated)
A tub of vegan sour cream (I use Toffutti Better than Sour Cream... because it is)... should be about 1 cup
1 cup unflavored soy milk
3 cups of flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix togethr flour, baking powder, salt, sugar. Throw in chives and cheese.
Toss mixture with your hands just so it's all evenly distributed
Mix in sour cream and soy milk. stir lightly with a fork (do not over mix)
create a ball with the dough (as best as possible. it should be ridiculously sticky and getting everywhere at this point).  Place dough ball on lightl floured surface.
Knead dough 8-10 times, just to ensure it's evenly sticky.
flatten dough out to be about an inch thick.
With an ice cream scooper, or whatever you've got handy, scoop out chunks of the dough and place on a non-greased cookie sheet, about 1/2 inches apart. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until the tops become just slightly golden brown.

These are delicious right out of the oven. Since I made 30, I had to eat them all before my roommate woke up put them away in the freezer. They freeze and reheat like magic.