Cocoa Vegan Brownies—Take One

Here we go! These are simple and college student friendly, and just happen to be vegan! Okay, I did actually make them in order to try my hand at making vegan brownies, but…my taste-testers claimed not to be able to tell any difference. Of course, most of them were from China, and the only girl who was actually vegan had never had a vegan brownie before.
These can also be Gluten-Free. In fact, I made them gluten-free the first time.
Cocoa Vegan Brownies:
2 cups gluten-free flour + 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
1 cup sugar (if you leave out the maple syrup, increase the sugar to 1.5 or 2 cups)
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup soy milk (you can use whatever kind here, but I would recommend not using almond milk as that would make it inedible for people with nut allergies)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (alternatively, if you have no applesauce, use a cup of oil)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup (only if using 1 cup sugar. You can leave this out and increase sugar to 1.5 or 2 cups, as above.)

Mix together the wet ingredients, and, in a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 13x9” pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 175 degrees Celcius, for 20-30 minutes.
Enjoy!
We ate the entire pan of brownies between the lot of us…actually, they were gone within an hour of the pan’s coming out of the oven. Of course, there were…about 14 of us.

…Again?

I’m taking a break from the normal recipe post by instead posting a story from every day life here. It does have to do with food, by the way—don’t freak out too much.  

So Wednesday night I made a batch of bread dough, let it rise overnight in the fridge, and woke up at 7 am to bake it and do homework. Pretty normal, right? I mean, I was in the kitchen putting the bread into the oven and the French guy down the hall was sitting on the couch drinking his typical breakfast cup of hot chocolate and watching the BBC, and all was well with the world. Well, it gets better. Last night I made American mac and cheese and sausages for some friends. With bread on the side. It was indeed very tasty. Well, what we didn’t eat I just left with my friend, leaving me again with no bread for sandwiches (lest you forget—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best ever. They also happen to be my favorite food group. I usually eat at least one every day. I mean really…nutritious and yummy…like the best thing ever, right?) So it was down to either buying a loaf of sliced bread from Tesco’s last night (an option? I don’t think so.) or making bread again. Well, duh…last night the first thing I did upon returning was to make another batch of bread dough. I mean, after making a cup of peppermint tea—that was a given. Again, I woke up at 7 this morning to do homework and cook my batch of bread (pardon me while I rescue said bread from the oven…) Well, there we were again. I was putting bread into the oven and Florien was sitting on the couch watching the BBC and drinking his morning cup of hot chocolate. He just kind of stared at me…”Making bread again? You must be like a French girl! Bread is very much a French thing, is it not?” Yes, well…it’s necessary for life. So there.

Chocolate Gingerbread

Originally from this site.
By the way, this is basically the best thing ever. It’s much more like cake than a sweet bread, but I usually bake it in a loaf pan. The times I’ve made it in the regular sized loaf pan it’s taken about twice as long to bake as the original recipe requires.

Chocolate Gingerbread

135 grams (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 teaspoons ground ginger
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup molasses (you can use honey if you’re desperate…like me…)
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (optional)

2 tablespoons crystalized ginger chips
3/4 cup chocolate, coarsely chopped (I’ve made it either with or without these. Both are good.)

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a baking pan—I usually use a full sized loaf pan, but the original recipe allows for two small paper loaf pans or an 8 inch round cake.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter & brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Mix the buttermilk, molasses and flaxseed meal (if using) together, and add all at once to the butter mixture. Don't worry if it looks a bit curdy. Add the flour mixture and mix just until you get a smooth batter. Fold in the crystalized ginger and chocolate chips being careful not to overmix.

Bake until a cake tester comes clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. (Though if you make it in a regular sized loaf pan, it takes about twice that long to bake, between 45 minutes and an hour. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Chocolate-chip Pumpkin Muffins (yes, the chocolate part comes first as it is most important…:))

Originally from this site

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar or 3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

3/4 cup applesauce

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips*

DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, combine egg, egg substitute, pumpkin, applesauce and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray; fill two-thirds full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

*Or, you can try putting a bit of nutella swirled either on the top of the muffins each individually before you bake them, or fill each cup halfway with batter, put about a teaspoon of nutella on them, then fill the rest of the way with batter.

Honey Banana Bread

Originally from this page

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar free applesauce
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten
3 mashed overripe bananas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Oatmeal Cookies—the Chocolate Chip and Blueberry Way

So…confession time. I haven’t actually tried these yet. But Thomas, the guy from Germany who lives down the hall, and his brother approved of them. So I figured they couldn’t be too bad.
Originally from this site.
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice or cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed (I didn’t have any. So I just put in about a 1/2 cup of white sugar and added about 3 Tablespoons of honey. Really, I should have added molasses instead of honey, but I didn’t have any of that either. What happens when you’re a university student…)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups oats
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used fresh, because they don’t have frozen ones here…? And because they were on sale…)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Slightly spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray, or line with parchment paper or silpat mat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and allspice.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together melted butter, applesauce, sugars, egg and vanilla until well blended. Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture. Mix well. Fold in oats, then chocolate chips and blueberries. Gently, folks!!
4. Drop rounded Tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 20 large cookies.
Then give them to your friends—hopefully friends from China or Germany, because American cookies don’t really exist in those countries…so they have no standard to which to compare you.

By the way...they were good. But I've decided that they're more like breakfast cookies...:) Or the kind that you would have with a big tall cup of hot chocolate or a peppermint latte or something really wonderfully sweet. :)