Tag Archives: Biscuits

Vegan Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in Biscuits, Chocolate, Cookies, Traditional, Vegan

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Hi!

It has been a while  😦 sorry ! The last month and a bit life has been crazy but also exciting. I have left Dublin and I am briefly in County Cork with my big sis before I move to Sweden! I am going back to college to do a Masters in Photography… might mean improved pictures for the blog! How you guys stuck with me in the early posts I do not know! Everything looked so orange!!!!

I did make a final bake in our Dublin flat – “On the Move Coconut Macaroons” it was my second time making them, but they were a tad crumbly.. . so when I make them again and have the recipe perfected for nostalgia’s sake I will post a few pics from Dublin too.

I am still trying to pack and I leave County Cork tomorrow! But there is always time for a homemade classic chocolate chip cookies. I have no precariously balance baked goods on a windowsill… this time I put them in the garden and managed to keep them out of reach of my sister’s cute cat 🙂

Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies in the garden :-)

So Celebrating my move north Vegan Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies!

  • Two dessertspoons of natural smooth cashew nut butter
  • One rounded dessertspoon of organic raw coconut oil
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • A third of a cup of room temperature almond milk – don’t add it all yet
  • A quarter cup of coconut blossom sugar
  • A quarter cup of rapadura/ turbindo/ sucucant sugar *
  • One cup of unbleached white flour or half & half with fine wholemeal **
  • A quarter teaspoon of himalayan pink salt or fine sea salt
  • Half a teaspoon of low aluminium baking powder
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder/ more extract/ half a pod***
  • Approx. 30g or just over 1 ounce of chopped medium dark chopped chocolate. Mine was an organic 70% cocoa.

O I do love my footnotes !

* I could not get rapadura in my local health shop so I used organic raw cane sugar this time.

** I brought a bag of organic unbleached flour with me but could not get a fine wholemeal as normally I would do half and half. If you would like to do Gluten free I recommend half ground almonds and half a white gluten free flour mix.

*** you can NEVER have too much vanilla 🙂 Though they are also lovely with some orange zest!

Method

Preheat your oven to 170C/ 325F could go up a few degrees if not fan assisted. Make sure your oven shelf is in the middle, the top shelf = burnt biscuits. Have your lined baking tray at the ready.

Grab a medium to large bowl. Put in your cashew nut butter, raw coconut oil and vanilla extract and mash together. Mash mash mash until a smooth mix, a la picture.

Cashew nut butter + org coconut oil + vanilla extract = smiley face

I forgot to take my almond milk out of the fridge so I added a drop of hot water to it and added in half. Important not to add cold non-dairy milk as it will make the coconut oil go solid again and you will get knobs of it in your mix :-{ ugh.

In another bowl bung in all your dry stuff. Sieve the baking powder if lumpy. Mix until all one colour. I used my sister’s lovely wooden bowl 🙂

Dry stuff is my sister's lovely wooden bowl

Chop your chocolate, fine-ish and no need to be precise in the size of the bits- the unevenness gives them character and also varies the chocolate experience!

Roughly chopped chocolate

Now, add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients. You can use your spoon at first, but it will remain bitty and flakey unless you get your hands in there. I find it is better if your hands aren’t too warm so run them under the cold tap for a sec before you start. Press and fold the dough together once or twice and then sprinkle in your chocolate. If the dough is a bit dry add a little more of the left over almond milk and mix and press the dough again. You just want there to be no flour-y bits and for the chocolate to be pretty evenly distributed. It makes for quite a wet batter.

By the rounded teaspoon place them on your baking tray. Give them a little squish down so they aren’t too high as with the baking powder they will rise a bit anyway.

IMG_20160814_121118This made fourteen cookies. My sister’s oven is hotter at the back, so I had to turn them after ten minutes. The oven is not a crazy uber volcano hot oven like my one in Dublin was and I opened it a million times so they took FIFTEEN minutes. I am going to say ten to fifteen minutes because of my impatience and the unfamiiar oven-ness. When they are browning at the edges they are done. Leave them sit on the tray for a five mins before attempting to eat, they need time to firm up.

Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies in the garden :-)

Ta-da! Viola! Vegan Cashew Chocolate Chip Cookies in the garden 🙂

Look how safe those biscuits are, all on the ground not three stories up and half off a sloping windowsill. When I find somewhere to live in Sweden (O dear lord God I have nowhere to live!!) I will post as soon as possible, maybe with baked goods on a Swedish windowsill! 🙂

Xs Aissa

Jam Crumble Cookies Vegan & Gluten free

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in Biscuits, Cookies, Gluten Free, Sweets, Vegan

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Biscuits were required eating yesterday evening.. sometimes they are just necessary. I have made various versions of these over the years, sometimes with spelt flour sometimes with the addition of different nut butters. It is a flexible recipe. Since i planned to share the recipe I thought I would do my GF version! More egalitarian 🙂

You will need : A couple of bowls, measures and an 8inch pie or cake tin.

Jam Crumble Cookies

  • Three and a half dessertspoons of org coconut oil
  • Two dessertspoons of a nut or seed butter *
  • One dessertspoon of real maple syrup
  • Scant half a cup of coconut blossom sugar
  • A quarter cup of buckwheat flour
  • Two big dessertspoons of gram flour/ cornstarch
  • Two thirds of a cup of gluten free flour **
  • Almost half a cup of ground almonds
  • Two big dessertspoons of fine maize meal
  • A good pinch or eighth of a tsp of himalayan pink salt / sea salt
  • A dessertspoon of vanilla powder/ paste / extract
  • Three to six dessertspoons of almond milk
  • Roughly half a cup of no added sugar jam- I used apricot

*I used a sunflower cashew one I had made

**I used a brand called Doves which is a mix of rice, buckwheat, tapioca and potato

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C/ 350F. Rub a bit of coconut oil on your pie/tart dish or line a metal cake tin with paper.

Grab a bowl and mash your coconut oil and seed / nut butter together. Add in your maple syrup and mash mash mash some more, make sure to press out any lumps of coconut oil that may be hiding in there.

Coconut oil and Sunflower cashew butter

Coconut oil and Sunflower cashew butter

Add in your coconut sugar. Yes you guessed it! More mashing, biscuit exercise, working on that upper body strength! Again make sure it is blended properly so it has all become one colour.

Plop all your flours, the ground almonds, vanilla powder and salt into another bowl. I don’t bother sieving .. but if you are not using gram (chickpea) flour and choosing cornstarch you should sieve the cornstarch alright.

Put your dry ingredients into the wet. It will take a bit of pressing to get them pressed together. If you find it is looking more floury than bread-crumby (see pic) you may need to add a dessertspoon or two of almond milk. Start by sprinkling one spoon of milk over the ingredients and mix and press again. If still dryish add another spoon. It should just hold together when pinched. If you are happy with its crumbliness take a generous half a cup plus a dessertspoonful out and put it aside.

crumble

crumble

Add another two spoons of almond milk and mix again. It should turn to a doughy texture when you squeeze it with your hand. Grab your prepared pie/ cake tin and press the mixture in – evenly.

The stickier dough

The stickier dough

Next the jam! Usually half a cup will do but always good to have a spare spoon to make sure the base is properly covered.

what unevenly spread jam looks like ;-)

what unevenly spread jam looks like 😉

Next get the crumble you had set aside. Sprinkle the crumble over the top making sure no jam is visible!

pre baking

pre baking

Pop it in the centre of your oven (slightly to left in mine as right side of my oven is hotter!). It took 35min in my fan oven so I ‘reckon it could take 40 in a non fan.

Posing for it's close up

Posing for it’s close up

If you used a square tin you could cut little squares but mine is round so it is tart slice style biscuits for me!

Hope you try it or make your own version of it! Xs Aissa

Footnote:

I was inspired by a multitude of jam crumbly recipes when scouring the internet but special kudos mention to “Have Cake will Travel” recipe as inspiration.

It is also lovely made with raspberry or blueberry jam! It is also very easy to make nut free- use a seed butter, use fine maize meal instead of the ground almonds and use a non diary milk not made from nuts! Problem with coconut? Use vegan butter instead of coconut oil and use rapadura / sucucant sugar instead of coconut sugar!

Cacao Butter Biccies i.e. Cookies! Vegan & Gluten Free

16 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by in Biscuits, Cookies, Gluten Free, Vegan

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These Cacao Butter Biscuits/ Cookies taste like white chocolate. They are rich yummy and easily adaptable. You should be able to get Organic Cacao Butter in any good health shop, I use an Irish brand called Nua Naturals. I use their vanilla powder too. If you are not gluten free – still include the ground almonds just use a flour of choice instead of the gluten free options.

Cacao Butter Biccies/ Cookies

  • Cacao butter- three dessertspoons when chopped
  • One dessertspoon of org coconut oil
  • One dessertspoon of cashew nut butter OR you can just use more cacao butter
  • One dessertspoon of raw dark agave
  • One teaspoon of vanilla powder/ extract or insides of a pod
  • A quarter cup of non-diary milk- not rice it isn’t creamy enough.
  • A third of a cup of rapadura/sucucant sugar plus a big dessertspoonful
  • Half a cup of ground almonds
  • Half a cup of fine maize meal OR buckwheat flour
  • Three quarters of a cup of gluten free flour- I used a brand called Doves*
  • One teaspoon of aluminium free baking powder
  • A pinch/ eighth of a tsp of himalayan salt/ sea salt
  • Optional: Chop and roast a dessertspoonful of cashews

* This flour is a mix of rice,tapioca and maize. You can use more maize and ground almonds – half and half. If you are using buckwheat flour already- do not go over a half a cup in total as it starts to taste a little sour.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F. Prepare a baking tray. You will need a saucepan and a perspex bowl for melting ingredients.

Little iceberg of cacao butter

Little iceberg of cacao butter

Put boiled water in your saucepan and put it over a medium heat on your hob. Stick your perspex bowl on top. Throw your chopped cacao butter in first. Give it the odd stir as it melts down. When almost completely melted add in your coconut oil and cashew nut butter.

While the melting is happening grab another bowl. Add your dry ingredients to this- bar the vanilla powder that will be going into the wet stuff. Mix well.

Add the agave, coconut milk and vanilla to the melted ingredients. Leave it all warm through.

Take your bowl off the heat- watch your fingers! Put on a cloth or chopping board if your counter top is heat sensitive. Quickly add in your dry ingredients, you want to mix it all while it is still warm. If you have roasted some cashews now is the time to gently fold them though.

By the rounded teaspoon put them on your baking tray and gently squash them down. They will not spread much, so they can be quite close to each other like little biscuit buddies.  As I may or may not have nibbled some of the cookie dough this time it yielded the odd number of fifteen. 🙂

They taste of white chocolate and vanilla and melt in your mouth- the perfect accompaniment to a glass of cold non-diary milk or for us adults a big cup of coffee!

Cacao Butter Biscuits on my Yoga mat!

Cacao Butter Biscuits on my Yoga mat!

Xs Aissa

Singed Peanut Butter & Jelly / Jam Cookies! Gluten free (singeing optional)

16 Thursday Oct 2014

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Helloooo! A few nights ago I had a fresh batch of natural peanut butter from THE health food store. (The Hopsack in Rathmines makes it in the shop!!), and a jar of raspberry conserve. I have never been a fan of peanut butter and jam (US folks Jelly!) on bread. But I love a peanut-y biccie, I love thumbprint cookies: Sounds like a recipe!!! Exceptionally easy and fast to bake, here they are : singed

Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint Cookies

  • Two big dessertspoons of natural peanut butter*
  • Half a dessertspoonful of natural cashew nut butter
  • Half a dessertspoonful of organic coconut oil
  • Two dessertspoons of rapadura sugar or xylitol
  • A third of a cup made up of half raw dark agave & half maple syrup
  • A third of a teaspoon of almond extract
  • Half a tsp of vanilla powder /one pod /one tsp of extract
  • Two thirds of a cup of ground almonds
  • One cup of gluten free flour ( I used a rice tapioca buckwheat blend)
  • Three dessertspoons of organic desiccated / shredded coconut
  • A quarter tsp of salt (none if your peanut butter is already salted)
  • Half a teaspoon of aluminium & gluten free baking powder
  • Roughly ten dessertspoons of a sugar free raspberry conserve
  • Just incase have a dash of non dairy milk at hand.

*You may not have access to a fresh ground one that just contains nuts, :-(. Natural nut butters should have no added oil, emulsifiers or preservatives. If there is salt it should be sea salt.

Pre-heat your oven to 170C/ 340F. Prepare a baking tray.

Mix your wet stuff first. Mash the nut butters together properly.

Add in your sugar and mash once more.

In another bowl sieve the rest of dry ingredients together. Add the coconut afterwards.

Add the dry to the wet. You REALLY have mash mash mash! Put down the spoon and get in there with your hands and start pressing the mix into a dough. If it still seems a little crumbly, with great caution add a teaspoon of non dairy milk and mix it through throughly.

Dough!

Dough!

Now, by the rounded teaspoon put your dough onto your tray. You should get about twenty. They do not spread much. Gently press them to a circle. Use your thumb to make a dent in the middle. You want a little bowl shape, be careful not to go too deep.

Grab your conserve- conserve has a higher fruit content than jam/ jelly. I use a sugar free one- it has grape juice in it instead. Each cookie gets a little blob of conserve. Moderation- too much and it will run over the cookie as it bakes!

oven ready !

oven ready !

Pop into the middle of your oven. They takes 11/12 minutes. Mine are a little over done (13mins) as I was watching a documentary about Russian cosmonauts and only when I smelled singed biscuit did I run to take them out!

Peanut butter thumbprint cookies!

Slightly singed peanut butter thumbprint cookies!

Be sure to leave them to cool, the jam is like raspberry flavoured molten lava straight out of the oven!!! Despite their browned edges they were very tasty!! 🙂

Xs Aissa

Cinnamon Banana Cookies- gluten free

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in Biscuits, Cookies, Gluten Free, Vegan

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sunny morning

sunny morning

Cinnamon and banana, what’s not to like? Which is what I was thinking when I made the other night. These are simple little biscuits, with a soft and melty texture and a comforting flavour. They remind me of banana bread or banoffi pie, they could be lovely with a spoon of vegan vanilla ice cream. I like mine with a glass of cold non diary milk.

Cinnamon Banana Softies

  • Two dessertspoons of organic coconut oil
  • One dessertspoon of a runny tahini or if you like a natural peanut butter
  • Half a teaspoon of almond extract
  • Two dessertspoons of dark agave
  • One and a half dessertspoons of coconut sugar
  • One medium sized ripe banana- mashed
  • One cup of fine maize meal
  • One cup of ground almonds
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder/ one pod/ tsp of extract
  • Quarter of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • Pinch ( approx. a sixth tsp ) of Himalayan pink salt or good quality sea salt

These gluten free banana yummies are easy and fast to make.

First preheat your oven to 155C/300F and prepare a baking tray.

Grab a medium sized mixing bowl. Put in your coconut oil and tahini. Mix these together until they turn soft. Stir in your almond extract. Pour in the agave and put in the coconut sugar. The coconut sugar should dissolve a little in the mixing process. If you are using vanilla extract or pods put the vanilla in now.

first bit

first bit

Add in your mashed banana mix again. I don’t like to have it perfectly evenly mashed. There’s something fantastic about coming across lumps of banana in a cookie! 🙂

Get another bowl and for your dry ingredients. Start with the ground almonds first, pressing out any large lumpy bits. Add the fine maize meal,salt,cinnamon and vanilla powder. Make sure they are well combined and add to your bowl of wet ingredients.

Give it all a good stir, folding, pressing and mixing all the yummy stuff until it becomes one soft lump of potential cookies!

Yummy lump of potential cookies- bananas sneaking into the shot

Yummy lump of potential cookies- bananas sneaking into the shot

By the teaspoon put the dough onto your baking tray. Give it a press so it spreads and is a few mm thick (tenth of an inch). This oddly made nineteen biscuits. Maybe if I had tasted the dough a bit less there would have been twenty. After twelve minutes I turned the baking tray around the other way. They were done at fifteen minutes in my fan oven. They may take an extra couple of minutes in a non fan. The cookies should be a golden colour and going brown at the edges. Your kitchen will smell delicious.

The cinnamon is very subtle in this recipe. It just lends a background warmth. if you would prefer it a little more noticeable you could make it a third of a teaspoon.

Let me now what you think. You really can’t go wrong making these. Xs Aissa

cookies in odd place again- might be more adventurous next time1 ;-)

cookies in odd place again- might be more adventurous next time! 😉

Chocolate Chip Shortbread cookies- gluten free

24 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Biscuits, Chocolate, Cookies, Gluten Free, Vegan

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These hit the spot when no other biscuit will do. Rich, melt in your mouth goodness, with the chocolate nessasary for survival. There is only a hint of sugar and no gluten but no sacrificing flavour.

I generally take pictures of my cookies/ biscuits on plates. Because that is what I eat them off. I thought I would go all experimental; start taking pictures of my biscuits in unusual places, seems to be the trend. 😉

 

Choc chip yumminess in morning sunlight. Shadow looks like a cat!?

Choc chip yumminess in morning sunlight. Shadow looks like a cat!?

 

They have a lovely dark colour due to the raw rapadura sugar.

Chocolate Chip No Sacrifice Shortbread Cookies

  • Three dessertspoons of organic coconut oil
  • One overflowing (prob 1.5) dessertspoons of a runny tahini
  • A quarter cup of rapadura sugar
  • A quarter cup of xylitol
  • A teaspoon of vanilla powder. (If using extract put it into coconut oil)
  • A generous cup of ground almonds
  • A scant quarter of a cup of fine maize meal
  • Half a teaspoon of aluminium and gluten free baking powder
  • A pinch of Himalayian pink salt or good fine sea salt
  • About 35g of dark chocolate chopped into very small pieces*
  • Maybe: A dessertspoon of non-diary milk

*I use a vegan brand that sweetens with xylitol. It is soya and gluten free. I get the 100g bar and use about a third.

This so sooooo simple, and fast. Fast is important when you want your cookies.

Pre-heat the oven to 170C/ 325F. Prepare a baking tray. This makes sixteen cookies.

Chop your chocolate. if you are living somewhere crazy warm (most of the world south of Ireland) you can pop the chips in the fridge so they don’t melt.

So grab a bowl and put in your coconut oil and tahini. Mix them together well…mix them well together, well together mix…no wait that’s Yoda.

Add in your rapadura sugar and xylitol. Really stir and mash the sugars into the oil and tahini. It should almost get fluffy.

Get another bowl and put in the other dry ingredients (not the chocolate). I get fussy and sieve the baking powder, incase of yucky lumps.

Give the dry stuff a stir so it is evenly mixed.

Add your dry to your wet stuff. At the start you need to mash it a bit. Once it starts to combine, put the spoon down. Add your chopped chocolate chips. With clean hands get in there. Start pressing the dough together. It should all hold together. If this is not happening it might be a little dry, do not be afraid to add a dessertspoon of non-diary milk.

By a rounded teaspoon place them on your baking tray. I press it on the spoon a little. I also press them on the tray and leave an half inch/ 1cm apart. They don’t spread. If they spread there is too much oil or to little dry ingredients!

Teaspoon! Just incase there is confusion...

Teaspoon! Just incase there is confusion…

They take twelve or thirteen minutes in my fan oven. If you have a regular oven, have a peep at twelve. If they are not going golden brown at the edges give them another couple of mins. They made my whole flat smell delicious, they are like aromatherapy biscuits!

Hope you try them out. Especially the wonderful Kathy who I work with! Xs Aissa

 

Rose Cake Cookies or Turkish Delight Biscuits?!

14 Saturday Jun 2014

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At times I want a biscuit that is crunchy, gives a lovely snap as you take a bite. This time I wanted a cake textured one. Something a bit different too. I went through my batter splattered recipe book and discovered rose biscuits I had made up last year. They had ground almonds and rose, which is such a great combination and a lovely Turkish Delight flavour. I thought with the addition of some apple puree they could gain a soft texture- perfect for what I fancied!

Rose flavoured in blue light of the evening.

Rose flavoured in blue light of the evening- that gave a soft fuzzy effect evidently!

I am not too sure what to call these. Hence the clumsily named post 🙂 Might come back when my head is in a space where I can make a decision and commit on a title.

Rose Cake Cookies vs Turkish Delight Biscuits

  • Two dessertspoons of apple puree at room temperature
  • One generous dessertspoon of organic coconut oil
  • One dessertspoon of blanched almond butter.*
  • Four drops of a food grade rose oil or one dessertspoon of rose water
  • Half a teaspoon of vanilla powder or one teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • Third of a teaspoon of almond extract- just enough to give a hint of flavour
  • Three dessertspoons of dark agave
  • One dessertspoon of coconut blossom sugar ( if unavailable you can use rapadura sugar )
  • Half a cup of ground almonds
  • Half a cup of wholemeal spelt flour
  • One teaspoon of aluminium free baking powder
  • A small pinch of Himalayan pink salt or good sea salt (eighth to quarter of a tsp )

*You could use cashew nut butter if you do not have this. Do not substitute normal roasted almond butter it has a very different flavour. Blanched almond butter is a pale sweet wonder of a nut butter with a light creamy flavour. Closer to cashew nut butter than a whole skin almond butter.

Preheat the oven to 150C/ 300F. Prepare a baking tray. This recipe makes roughly 12- 14 biscuits / cookies.

These are super easy to make. One caution though- make sure the apple puree is room temperature or your coconut oil will go all solid and not mix properly. I was impatient. I had to stick the perspex bowl in the preheating oven for a few mins so everything would melt together!

Get two bowls. In one add your coconut oil and blanched almond butter and mash them together. Add your almond extract and mash again.

If using rose oil add this now. If using rose water add this after the apple puree.

Add your agave and coconut sugar and really go to work on the ingredients. With energy combine the sweeteners with the fats until it is almost fluffy. Add the apple puree and mix again.

Wet ingredients- that I impatiently melted together this time!

Wet ingredients- that I impatiently melted together this time!

In your other bowl get ready to add the dry stuff. Add your ground almonds and press out any lumps. Add the spelt flour and vanilla powder (if using vanilla extract then go back and mix it into the wet ingredients!)

Now get a sieve and sieve in the baking powder and salt. Lumpy baking powder bits are a horrid thing to come across in a biccie. 😦

Dry ingredients- on my windowsill.

Dry ingredients- on my windowsill.

You will notice the dough texture is rather wet. More like a cake batter in fact! This is gooood, all is going according to plan! Maniacal laughter of making nice things to share Narhaahahha ha! Ahem.. yes the recipe.

By the teaspoon plop the dough/ batter on to your baking tray and give them a press down so they are a few mm thick ( approx. .10 of an inch). They will only spread a tiny bit, but just incase do leave a cm (under half an inch) gap between them.

I had a peek at nine minutes and took the opportunity to turn my tray around. They were done at twelve minutes. Leave them completely cool before eating. This is because they will continue to cook on the tray for a few minutes. Also if you eat them straight away the rose flavour is predominant. When they have cooled the rose calms down and the other flavours come out.

Turkish Delight will always remind me of my Nana. When I visited her she often had a round tin in the dresser. As an extra treat my sister and I would be offered some. She was an excellent baker and as you will know from other posts has inspired me. She taught my Mum how to bake and I grew up having the most excellent chocolate cake every birthday. Now I want cake! Vegan chocolate cake recipe coming soon!!

Hope you try them out. Xs Aissa