I love dessert. I love eating dessert. I love the idea of making my own dessert creations. Truth be told, however, I rarely actually do that. I would much rather search for a recipe, be inspired by a blog post, or buy a cookbook by someone who is clearly more experienced than I, and avoid being disappointed. You’d think, as someone with a science background, that the science behind baking would intrigue me, but...tis not so.
Luckily, I got two vegan dessert cookbooks for Christmas: My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky and The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I have to say that one of my favorite things about both of these books is all the pictures! They make the recipes so much more mouthwatering and memorable.
I was also elated to be gifted with a Kitchen Aid food processor from my parents. So, the first thing I did was make peanut butter. This is good for a number of reasons. First, I can’t control myself around an entire jar of peanut butter, so now I can make limited quantities. Second...um...I like peanut butter? I’m not sure why I said there were a number of reasons, peanut butter just rocks.
Anyway, after making my peanut butter, I was flipping through My Sweet Vegan and found the peanut butter cookie recipe. The best part, they are made with red lentils...not only did I have them in my pantry, but it would make them gluten free!!
So, you’ll have to get the book yourself if you want to try them, but I will tell you that I woke up bright and early this morning before my yoga class to make them, and they are awesome. I am pretty sensitive to the bean flour taste, but you can’t taste it even a little in these cookies; they are chewy and peanut buttery and even better than I thought they would be! I didn’t have parchment paper, so I just used a bare ungreased baking sheet and removed them soon after taking them out of the oven so they wouldn’t stick. I suggest flattening them a little before baking so they have that flat peanut butter cookie look. I skipped that on the first batch and they weren’t as pretty.
Peanut-Plus Cookies
Nutrition Information: 112.8 Calories; 5.5g Total Fat; 0.9g Saturated Fat; 0.0mg Cholesterol; 11.7g Carbohydrates; 1.1g Fiber; 3.3g Protein
These were perfect with a nice glass of unsweetened soymilk (sweetened with english toffee flavored liquid stevia). I had them for breakfast :) You might want to save them for dessert, but I couldn’t wait until then.
So that’s it for the food. My holiday was fine, kind of boring, although every single gift I received was fabulous, I feel quite spoiled this year. I also got Veganomicon and Great Chefs Cook Vegan, both of which I am excited about. Actually about 95% of my gifts were food related, so I’m sure they will be popping up on here in one way or another!
I'm going to dinner at my friend's house tomorrow and I offered to bring two appetizers, because they are having non-vegan potato leek soup for dinner. I'm thinking stuffed mushrooms, any ideas for a second app?
I hope everyone had (or is having, I don’t think Hanukkah is over yet?) a great holiday! I’ll be able to catch up on everyone’s blogs soon, if I haven’t already...I feel so behind!
Hey Gina,
ReplyDeleteI've never tried the English Toffee flavored Stevia. Great idea to put it in unsweetened soy milk. I bet that would taste so good in my morning cup o' joe!
So glad you are enjoying your food processor - I could not live without mine! Cheers for homemade PB - you know I love my nut butters :)
One of my favorite and easiest appetizers is as follows...fill large romaine lettuce leaves with almond or peanut butter, a tsp or so of honey and roll up like lettuce wraps. Always a big hit. Have fun at your dinner!
I've always wanted to try the flavored Stevia extracts, are they any good?
ReplyDeleteYour gifts sound great, I love V'Con and My Sweet Vegan. They are awesome cookbooks.
Boy, you sure got some wonderful Christmas gifts! Enjoy your baking!
ReplyDeleteoooh yea peanut butter is da best!
ReplyDeletestealing a cookie from you...hehehe
I think it's perfectly reasonable to have cookies for breakfast. Especially at this time of year. And yours were healthy, so, who can complain about that?!
ReplyDeleteTonight was the last night of Hannukah, and yes, I think this was one of the best I've had yet! The good initial review that you've given my book is a very nice gift, too. ;)
ReplyDeleteShelby, I do like the liquid flavored Stevia. I know a lot of people complain about stevia being bitter, and some of the powdered versions can be dicey, but I've been really happy with this flavor. I mainly do use it for milk, although I've used it in some baking too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by everyone :) Sorry I've been kind of flighty the past few days, I've been dragged around for the past few days to all sorts of family things.
Wow! Impressive cookies :)
ReplyDeletemmm those peanut butter cookies look so good! great photo! do you think it's cheaper to make your own peanut butter? if so, i might give it a try.
ReplyDeleteDelicious!!!
ReplyDelete