little woman

I made a vegan lemon cake for Kam’s party tomorrow! It was my first time to use EnerG Egg Replacer powder… it turned out wonderfully. Honestly, it was just a boxed organic cake mix and i replaced the 3 eggs with 1 and 1/2 teaspoons “egg powder” and 2 tablespoons of warm water per egg. I will post pictures later…

Thursday is Andrea’s last day at work… I am going to make the yummy potato salad I made for July 4th and tonight I tried a new vegan recipe for peanut butter cookies. Below is the recipe that I used from 101 Cookbooks…

Kam, at work, is vegan and I prefer to cook vegan if at all possible without using too many “fake” ingredients… so this recipe fit into that category nicely!

(not-so-secretly vegan) Peanut Butter Cookies

Spelt flour bakes into a slightly darker cookie (photo), whole wheat pastry flour is slightly blonder – more traditional in appearance in the end. Finish the cookies with chopped nuts or a sprinkling of flaky salt. I’d also recommend seeking out a peanut butter that is well combined, and not super-oily (extra slick) looking – to avoid problems with the cookie batter.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 cup organic, chunky natural peanut butter
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Place racks in the top third.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. in a separate larger bowl combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, olive oil, and vanilla. Stir until combined. Pour the flour mixture over the peanut butter mixture and stir until barely combined – still a bit dusty looking. Let sit for five minutes, give one more quick stir, just a stroke or two. Now drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Press down on each one gently with the back of a fork.

It’s a loose batter, so if you’re set on doing criss-crosses, go ahead and chill the batter for an hour or so before this step. Bake for 10, maybe 11 minutes – but don’t over bake or they will be dry. Let cool five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Make 2 – 3 dozen cookies.

This recipe was something my Aunt Vickie made for Easter. It was easy to veganize by substituting agave nectar for the honey in the crust. Enjoy!

Glazed Fresh Strawberry Pie

1 cup walnuts
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons brown sugar
teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons agave nectar

2lb strawberries
2/3 cup evaporated sugar cane
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons Earth Balance

In a small food processor, process the graham crackers, walnuts, brown sugar and salt. Melt the butter with the nectar in the microwave. Add the butter/nectar and process until moist. Spread along the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish and bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Quarter the 2lbs of strawberries.

Put 1lb in the processor with the sugar, water and the corn starch. Puree until smooth. Pour the puree into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer until it thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and Earth Balance.

Pour mixture over the remaining lb of quartered strawberries and mix to coat. Pour the strawberry mixture into the cooked crust. Put in the refrigerator to set for about 3 hours.