Baking Vegan

I am not a vegan. I have, however, developed a new love of vegan baking!

In general, I am not the best baker, because I refuse to measure ingredients, and in normal baking, the measurements are actually pretty important in order to get the correct chemical reactions, such as between the eggs, and sugar and baking soda. Vegan Baking still has some of these factors, but not nearly to such a great extent as regular baking.

My roommate has this fabulous Vegan Cookbook: Veganomicon.

(http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X) We have both made quite a few delicious recipes from the book so far, but I must say their cookie recipes are definitely some of my faves.

Making vegan cookies is really simple, really the only difference from regular cookies is substituting real milk for soy or almond milk, using oil instead of butter, and using flax seeds instead of eggs.

I really like that this cookbook suggests using some healthier ingredients such as substituting whole wheat pastry flour in place of plain white flour. You can’t even taste the difference in the cookies and you’re getting in a serving of whole grains!

The best part of vegan baking? Eating the uncooked batter without a fear of salmonella :)

I wouldn’t want to be giving way these great authors recipes, but here’s one cookie recipe I typed up for a friend (who I made these biscotti for, and they received excellent reviews). It’s really like publicity because once you try these babies, you’ll definitely want to go out and buy the cook book!

Chocolate HAzelnut Biscotti Form Veganonicon: The ultimate VEgan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients:

1/3 cup soy or almond milk

2 tb ground flaxseed

¾ cup plus 2 tb sugar

½ cup canola oil

½ ts vanilla extract

½ ts almond extract

1.5 cups all purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tb arrowroot powder or cornstarch

2 tsp baking powder

½ ts salt

1 cup whole raw hazelnuts (I made then with whole one time- but I found that lead to them breaking a lot when I cut then- so if you can find chopped I would recommend that)

Preheat over 350*

Lightly grease cookie sheet

- In large bowl whisk milk and flaxseed about 30 seconds

- Add sugar, oil, extracts until smooth

- Sift flour and cocoa powder, arrowroot/cornstarch, baking powder and salt

- Stir to mix until dough comes together

- Knead in hazelnuts very briefly to form a stiff dough.

- On a baking sheet form a rectangle about 12” long and 3-4” wide

- Bake for 28 minutes

- Top may crack slightly

- Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes

- Turn up oven to 375 *

- Transfer biscotti to cutting board

- With a sharp knife cut ~1/2” slices

- Put back on to baking sheet cut side down

- Bake 12-15 minutes or until desired crispness is achieved.

- Remove from oven, cool, store in air tight container.

Enjoy :)