Vegan Ginger Cookies

What's this? Another vegan recipe? I know. I was testing a couple out at once, so sorry to anyone who sticks their nose up at vegan anything. Deal.

These are ginger heavy like whoa. Like, you better be a ginger fan if you're going to make these. Guess what? I'm not! What in the world! Why are you making ginger cookies, then? I thought. I thought, maybe, you know, maybe. The other day I bought some candied ginger because so many people rave about it, and you know what? I ate a piece and thought to myself, "This tastes like spicy soap. Blugh."

So I have to use it up somehow, right? Right. Otherwise, what a waste! Therefore, some ginger cookies. Brought to work. And "forgetting" to mention that they're vegan. Muahaha! You all just ate vegan cookies with healthy flaxseed, and you didn't know it!

These are almost more like balls than cookies, actually, but maybe I made them a bit smaller than intended. Whatevs. If you like yourself some ginger, you will likely enjoy these, vegan or not.

Vegan Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup minced candied ginger
• 1 cup vegan granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons ground golden flaxseed
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup vegan granulated sugar, for rolling

Cooking Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, and minced candied ginger. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, ground flaxseed, applesauce, oil, and lemon zest and juice.
3. Add the wet ingredients, all at once, to the dry ingredients and carefully mix together with a wooden spoon. Make sure all the flour bits are moistened and incorporated well. Form dough into a disk shape and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour, as long as overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350F, have your rack in the middle. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge and use your hands to roll dough into acorn shell size balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar and place on baking sheet. Using the palm of your hand, slightly flatten the balls. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until just slightly browned, but still a bit soft in the center.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Recipe via Joy the Baker

In photos:

Some of your cast of characters. I did not chop up my ginger as small as is probably recommended, due to laziness and knife stickiness. I used a small cheese grater to get the lemon zest, as I do not own a zester. It worked grand.

Whisk up your flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger and candied ginger. I promise the candied ginger is in there. Somewhere.

In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, flaxseed, applesauce, canola oil, lemon zest and lemon juice. I used the juice of about half the lemon used for zesting. Strange baking fact: sugar is always with the wet ingredients!

Mix your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Make sure you get the drier bits at the bottom.

In attempting to make a flat slab, I made a heart shape. What is my subconscious telling me? Just go with it. Wrap it up in some plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Roll up some balls, roll those balls in some sugar, place them on your parchment-lined sheet, then smush them down a bit because they don't really spread. These are on the small-ish size. You can go a bit bigger if you like.

Out of the oven. As you can see, they are not much bigger than when they went in, and they don't  brown a lot. Just a bit crack-ier. After you've let them cool on the pan, and then on a wire rack, store them in an airtight container. Voila!

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

First and foremost: I am not of the vegan persuasion. As you can tell from any number of my baking posts, I am one with butter and eggs. This bread? Tastes just as good, maybe even better, than the other pumpkin bread I have on here. It's crazy moist. Like, deliciously moist. I know some people irrationally hate that word for whatever reason, but there really isn't a better descriptor. Soft and slightly, uh, wet? That sounds even worse.

I have been gobbling this up like crazy, though. I think it actually gets better after a day or two as well, when the top gets even moister. Sorry, I used the word again. And! If you don't want two loaves at once, guess what? You can freeze one for later. Aw yeah.

You could also mix up one of your loaves and add in some stuff, like chocolate chips or bits of roasted pecans or whatever else your wee heart may desire. Get at it!

Vegan Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups vegan light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons ginger
• 1 15 ounce can organic pumpkin puree
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 cup rice or almond milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place a rack in the center of the oven. Line two loaf pans (mine is 9 x 5) with parchment paper and set aside. Or do one at a time if you only have one pan.
2. Pour the rice milk into a small bowl and add the apple cider vinegar. Stir it together, then let it sit while you prepare the rest.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger.
4. In an even larger bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, brown sugar, oil, orange juice, and rice milk mixture until combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a cup at a time. Stir well after each cup, using a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure you get all of the flour mixture good and mixed.
6. Spoon the batter into your parchment lined loaf pans and smooth down a little with a spatula.
7. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F then lower the heat to 325F and bake for another 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Original recipe via Cake Duchess

In photos:

Mix the rice milk with the apple cider vinegar. Let this sit while you start the rest.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Mix together pumpkin puree, oil, orange juice, brown sugar, and rice milk mixture.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet one cup at a time.

Maybe you're better at putting parchment paper in your bread pan(s), I suck at it. So here is mine that will have funky marks in the final bread product. Oh well, it'll stay taste great!

It'll come out of the oven looking like this.

Mmmm! Let it cool and then slice 'er up! Enjoy! You can definitely freeze your second loaf since it's kind of a lot.

Pumpkin Waffles (of the vegan persuasion)

Here we are again with more pumpkin. I seem to be nigh on obsessed, don't I? I mean, I am, but also? I always seem to have extra from other recipes, thus making me look up more new recipes, so it's just a pumpkin extravaganza up in here!

Confession: I do not remember the last time I used my waffle iron. It's... been a while. It's one of those things that I forget I have nestled in one of my cupboards, you know? A shame, because I quite like waffles. Much more than pancakes. Pancakes can take a hike if I've got the option of waffles. These waffles at Willamette, my alma mater, were almost boat-shaped, so you could pile it up with strawberries and whipped cream. Mmm mmm, those were Sunday mornings.

I digress. These are pumpkin waffles. And they are delish. My photos of them? Not so much, but... oh well. But okay, it turns out, these waffles? They're vegan. What! I didn't set out to make specifically vegan waffles, but I did set out to make some with soy milk rather than regular, and eventually I found the below recipe. I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, lacking the egg ingredient, but I think they turned out decent enough. Perhaps not as fluffy as one has come to expect from waffles, but then, I am not a waffle snob, so I was perfectly content.

Also? You don't even really need to add the butter and syrup. They taste mighty good all on their own!


Pumpkin Waffles

1 cup pumpkin
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 to 1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Combine together the pumpkin, sugar and milk until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with all of the spices, then gradually add into the pumpkin mixture until just combined. Cook on waffle iron.

Here we have the pumpkin, sugar and soy milk all mixed together and friendly.

With the dry ingredients all added.

The first two to come off the waffle iron.

You must be careful, though, lest this happen. My waffles split in two! Partially because I forgot to "condition" my waffle iron, and I think also partly because these waffles don't have egg, so don't stick together as well as they would with egg. But you know what? They taste just as good to me!