Vegan vanilla muffin base recipe / vegan chocolate chips muffins

This base can be used with any mix ins. Apples and cinnamon would be great.

1 + 1/4 Cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup coconut sugar 
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp chia seeds (mixed with 1/4 cup of water, pureed in a blender or food processor)
2/3 cup water
1 1/3 cup So Delicious Dairy Free Vanilla Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Coconut Oil (warmed to liquify)
3 Tbsp Honey
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (I use enjoy life)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients (Flour through salt) set aside
3. Make the chia seed mixture and set aside.
4. Add in remaining ingredients leaving out chocolate chips &; chia seed mixture.
5. Mix in reserved chia seed & water mixture.
6. Allow batter to rest for 15 minutes then mix in chocolate chips.
7. Line cupcake pan with silicon liners, or spray with cooking spray and use paper liners
8. Scoop the batter into each of the liners
9. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. You may want to over cook these as they will be a little wet if you only cook them 22 minutes. These are best after being refrigerated over night. Straight out of the pan they can be a little moist. The next morning they are perfect. 

These  muffins will rise but they fall again once they have cooled.  You can fill them about 3/4 of the way full without having them bake over the top of the tin, and then they will settle at about 3/4 of the way full again. 

Vegan banana muffins

 I shouldn't have made these.  They are really super delicious and I want to eat the whole pan.  Also, since I don't eat egg, especially not raw egg I've never had the pleasure of eating raw cookie dough.  I was able to eat as much of this batter as I wanted while prepping.  I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not.

INGREDIENTS

1.75 Cups whole wheat flour

2 Tsp baking powder

1/2 Tsp baking soda

1/4 Tsp salt

1 Tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp pure maple syrup

1/8 Cup liquid coconut oil

4 Ripe large bananas smooshed up

You can add in nuts or dark chocolate chips.  My family is allergic to nuts so we left them out.  I love chocolate so I added some vegan chocolate chips to my 5 muffins. 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare muffin tins.  I used silicon muffin liners and they worked amazing.  If you don't use liners you will want to grease your muffin pan. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside.  In a large mixing bowl mash your bananas.  Add in coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla.  Whisk until combined.  Add in dry ingredients and whisk until combined.  Toward the end I switched to a rubber spatula for mixing just to get it all off the sides.  This is a very thick batter but it comes out moist and soft.  Fill muffin cups about to the top.  They rise but not too terribly much.  Bake for 20 - 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Mine came right out in the silicon cups and I don't think I will ever make cupcakes or muffins again without them.

You should get about 12 full size muffins if you don't eat all of the batter.

  The chocolate chip ones are prettier then the plain ones.  My kids love them and the husband loved them.  They are very moist and they hold up for a few days if covered.  Perfect snack for my boys lunch today.

 

 

Banana cashew butter ice cream FOR BREAKFAST (raw, vegan, and so so delicious)

I was trolling around on Instagram earlier in the week when I discovered a user named @sadulifestyle she is a vegan and eats clean.  I was enamored by her entire Instagram. Being a vegetarian who doesn't eat, meat, fish, eggs, or milk; and is allergic to tofu and peanuts, has made my life miserable lately.  Then I saw her post for banana peanut butter ice cream for breakfast.  WHAT! Ice cream for breakfast blasphemy.  Surely I didn't read right.  Only I did.  She had made the easiest ice cream ever for breakfast and I'll be dammed if I wasn't trying it THE VERY NEXT DAY.  I set off to Whole Foods, bought my bananas, chopped them up and immediately threw them into the freezer.  I made sure I had cashew butter on hand and then I impatiently waited for morning.  I woke up this morning, rushed down stairs and did the following:

Ingredients

1 Banana chopped & frozen

1 Tbsp nut butter

Added the banana to my Vitamix (you need to use something stronger then your bullet for this).  Blended until creamy.  Add in cashew butter and blend until smooth.  Grab rubber spatula and scoop it out of blender.  Lick spatula.  Despair over how to get all of the remaining ice cream at the bottom of the blender that my spatula couldn't reach.

You guys. This was the creamiest most perfect thing I've ever tasted.  By my calculations the whole thing was 190 calories, had about 9 grams of fat (I used the Jiff Cashew butter, I was out of my good raw organic stuff), zero cholesterol and 13 grams of sugar (almost all from the banana).  Plus it had potassium, vitamins and flavor.  It was oddly filling, and so so refreshing during this summer heat.  After thinking about it, making the "ice cream" is really no different then my morning protein smoothies.  I topped mine with chia seeds and called it a day.  I've noticed she has used berries in hers also and I'm just dying to try a blueberry banana ice cream tomorrow.  

GO MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW!

Raspberry chocolate bars

I adapted this recipe from Deliciously Sprinkled.

This is pretty much the best thing I've ever tasted, and it made my house smell so so good.

INGREDENTS

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (I used nonfat)
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 Tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup quick cook oats
• 2-3 Tbsp chia seeds (if you want it to be kinda healthy

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl mash half of the raspberries with sugar and set aside.  In large bowl combine butter, flour and brown sugar until crumbly.  Set aside 2/3 of mixture.  Add in the oats & chia seeds to remaining mixture and refrigerate until needed.  Line a 9x13 baking sheet with cooking spray and parchment paper.  Press the 2/3 crumble into the pan to form the crust.  Bake for 10-15 minutes depending on your altitude (I had to bake for 15 minutes to get mine golden brown).  While the crust is baking add the condensed milk and dark chocolate chips to a sauce pan over low heat.  Stir until melted.  Pull golden brown crust from the oven and pour melted chocolate over crust.  Using a rubber spatula or offset spatula evenly spread melted chocolate all over crust.  Take remaining crumble and sprinkle it evenly over the top of the chocolate.  Next add the mashed berries evenly on top of crumble.  Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. Finally top with whole raspberries.  Place pan in the oven and bake for another 25-30 minutes until the crumble is golden brown.  Allow to cool for about 3 minutes before cutting into bars.


You can leave the oats and chia seeds out of the recipe as I did above, but I think the oats give it a nice summery light flavor.  I feel like this needs to be served piping hot with vanilla ice cream melted over the top.

PRINTABLE

Oreo fudge

 

 I have never made fudge before.  Last week while scrolling Pinterest I found a picture that looked similar to what I have pictured above.  My husband loves Oreo's.  He loves Oreos almost as much as he loves me.  I knew I had to make this. The only problem is that every single recipe called for marshmallow fluff and that has eggs in it.  I don't eat eggs, and dangit if I was going to be making something like this I wanted to taste it.  So I altered the recipe using marshmallows and corn syrup. I also increased the portion of Oreo's by a lot, because the online recipes just did not have enough cookie goodness.  This stuff is good you guys.  It is sweet.  Very sweet. But so good. So good I had it for breakfast, and maybe even midmorning snack.  I admit nothing.

• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can)  Evaporated Milk
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) White Morsels (I used 4- 4oz bars Ghiradelli white chocolate)
• 1.5 cups mini marshmallows
• 3 Tbsp light corn syrup
• I package crushed Oreo's
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

LINE 9-inch-square baking pan with foil.

COMBINE sugar, butter and evaporated milk in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in chocolate, marshmallows, corn syrup, crushed cookies (reserve about 1/4 cup to sprinkle on top) and vanilla extract. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining crumbled cookies on top. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

I left my cookies sort of big.  The online recipe said to finely crush them. I didn't want that, I wanted to cut it up and have pieces of cookie be visible. I wanted you to get that bite that appeared to have a "whole cookie" effect.  I am glad I made this choice.  Fine cookie crumbs would not have been as crunchy and delightful.  If you don't want to use the marshmallows and corn syrup you can substitue that with 1-7 oz jar of Marshmallow fluff. I prefer the taste of actual marshmallows to the fluff though 

One thing I would change about this, is at the end I would drizzle some melted semi sweet chocolate over the top and lightly swirl it in before putting it in the fridge to cool.  White chocolate is very sugary sweet and I think having the semi sweet chocolate in there to cut the sweetness would help.  I'm going to go home tonight and pour some over the top and see what happens.  Maybe...if I don't eat it all before then. 

 

 

Fun Apple Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
1 box yellow cake mix
1 container vanilla frosting
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup cinnamon applesauce
1 cup apple juice
red food color
12 pretzel sticks, cut in half
gummy worms, cut in half
sour punch straws, cut in inch pieces

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place cupcake liners into each muffin cup.
2. In a large bowl mix together the cake mix, eggs, cinnamon, apple sauce and apple juice. Pour batter into cupcake cups filling about 2/3 of the way.
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool completely.
4. Stir food color into frosting. Spread frosting over cupcakes. Decorate them with a pretzel piece as a stem and two sour straws for leaves. Then poke a gummy work into each cupcake.

Chocolate Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS
4-5 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture.
4. Whip the remaining bananas and sugar together for 3 minutes.
5. Stir in the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients.
7. Fold in the mashed bananas, nuts, and chocolate chips with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
8. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
9. Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Strawberry shortcake bites

After reading the comments from the Lemon Blossom website on Food Network I started getting ideas on what else I could do with this recipe. I remembered this cupcake I had from a local place in Reno, Batch Cupcakery and the wheels in my head couldn't stop turning. I ran to the store today for an iron and came home with the ingredients for cake. I went a little lighter on the icing the strawberries make it seem extra sweet. I also added chocolate chips to half the batch. They are still in the oven I will report later. (Update: such a very very very good idea.) I am thinking of trying a hint of lemon in the icing to tone down the sweetness on the next set that comes out.

Ingredients

• 18 1/2-ounce package strawberry cake mix
• 3 1/2-ounce package instant white chocolate pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 strawberries cut very fine
  
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 6 strawberries
  
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, finely chopped strawberries, water, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. In a blender add strawberries and water. Blend until smooth. Add the strawberry mix, zest, and oil to powdered sugar. Mix with a spoon until smooth. Add more water as needed.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

Lemon Blossoms

I can't even describe the lemony goodness of these little cakes. If you can't tell they are mini. So small that one fits perfectly right in your mouth as a bite. Personally I think these would be PERFECT for a baby shower, along with the strawberry version I am posting next. I had to edit Paula Deans recipe after my first failure after that, well, pure genius. Paula's recipe doesn't call for the water. YOU NEED THE WATER. Trust me. After reading comment after comment on the recipe on Food Networks website YOU NEED THE WATER. Also, 11 minutes works better then 12 if you want them crunchy. 9 minutes is perfect if you want them soft and delectable.

Ingredients

• 18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
• 3 1/2-ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup water
  
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

Lemon Loaf

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon extract
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon lemon extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder & salt in a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl blend together eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Pour in dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Add oil and mix well.
4. Pour ingredients into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. In a small bowl mix powdered sugar, milk and lemon extract. When the lemon loaf is cool, remove it from the pan and frost the top with the lemon icing.

Ice cream sandwiches the cheater cheater pumpkin eater way

I am all for baking my own cookies. In fact I love baking cookies. However, on nights when I know I'm making a meal that will involve every dish in the house, I sometimes cheat and buy pre-made dough. My husband thanks me for not having an extra bowl, beaters or mixers in the sink and flour all over the ENTIRE kitchen.

Last night I baked some cookies with little bunnies on them. I realized that I had Neapolitan ice cream and the colors matched (shut up) so I figured hey why not. You let it soften for about 15 minutes. You don't want it runny you want it just soft enough for the spoon to poke right down into it.

Since these are small cookies you only need about 1.5 tsp of ice cream. Put it right in the center, put the other cookie on top and "smoosh" down. Put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes (or eat right then and there). When it's dinner time take the cookies out and give them a bit of time to soften and then ENJOY!

The best desserts often come from the worst fuck ups (lemon blossoms)

About two years ago I stumbled upon this recipe by Paula Dean. By stumbled upon it I mean I sat memorized in front of the TV as she practically made love to these tiny little cakes dunking them in deceitful glaze once and then once again. I bookmarked it right away and never got around to making them. Friday while chatting with Lisa I stumbled upon the recipe again and that was that, I was making those fuckers. I spent a good part of today finishing up some gifts to mail to my friends when I got the idea to wrap up the little cakes in their "sandwich" wraps as a surprise (note to friends, there will be no cakes, you will see why soon, but dammit there will be something, note 2, Niki its going out in the mail TOMORROW no matter what!)

Anyway, I followed the recipe to a T. Right away something seemed wrong, the dough was thick. And by thick, imagine softened salt water taffy. No part of that sounds like a cupcake batter huh? I figured Paula would never let me down so I plugged on. DISASTER CITY PEOPLE. The outside crisped immediately while the inside cooked up to the consistency of custard. They sunk in the middle like they were supposed to but I knew I was fucked. I pulled the edges off...hmmm, taste okay. Better make the glaze anyway. Okay, Dunked the edges in the glaze. This shit is fucking good man. I walked away from it for a while and then said fuck it. I'm making a lemon blossom strudel type cake. Basically I took all the good pieces and broke them up onto a plate and heated it up for about 30 seconds. Then I drizzled the icing over it and walked away again. Next thing I hear is my husband saying "these would be great if they were in the right shape." That was followed by, "maybe I should take some of that for lunch." So I took a bite and Goddammit it was amazing. Hell I would make it again, I would forgo the cupcake tins and probably go with a silicon pan. (Side note two damn days ago I was staring at the silicon cupcake cups thinking "I'll never use those." WRONG. I'm thinking that it has to be an altitude problem. Because it is the easiest recipe to follow that even my two year old couldn't have fucked it up.

Point is, before you give up on your mistakes try looking at them from a new angle, you might just discover a new family favorite. It may not look the best but if you close your eyes it's like eating a little bit of lemon glazed ecstasy on a fork.

Ingredients

• 18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
• 3 1/2-ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze:

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel

To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.