Blueberry crumb bars

I usually try to vary the types of sweets I feature, but summer berries are beginning to roll in, so surely you’ll excuse me for posting these blueberry bars right after my quick blackberry cobbler. (You should also expect more berry-centric treats in the coming weeks!) This recipe is from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s book The Joy of Vegan Baking, and though it’s billed as a sort of coffee cake, I found mine to be much more bar-like in height and texture. The base resembles a cakey shortbread, while the crumb topping is a loose streusel. I made them on a Friday night, and they were all devoured by Saturday morning.

For the bars:
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
3 Tbsp warm water
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup Earth Balance, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 soy or almond milk
1-2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

For the topping:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup Earth Balance, COLD, cut up

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x9-inch baking pan. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg replacer and the warm water until thick and creamy, about 1 minute, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. In a large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, 1 or 2 minutes.



Add the egg replacer mixture and vanilla to the margarine-sugar mixture, and beat until incorporated.



Add the flour mixture and milk and beat until just combined (batter will be thick). Spread the batter into the bottom of the pan, smoothing the top. Evenly arrange the blueberries on top of the batter.



To make the topping, in a large bowl (it can be the same one you used before, just scrape it out well), combine the flour, sugar, and cinnamon.



Cut in the margarine with a pastry blender or a fork until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the blueberries.



Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.



What’s better than sweet bursts of blueberries peppered across a palette of buttery, crumbly cake? Not much, I say.



Yield: 16 servings. Per serving: 152 calories, 7.1g fat (4g sat), 21.4g carbs, 1g fiber, 1.3g protein.

If you like this, you might also like...
Oat crumble jam bars
Homestyle blueberry cobbler
Vegan lemon bars

Quick blackberry cobbler

First of all, I want to thank all of you who entered my first giveaway! And congratulations, again, to the winners.

Now, back to the cooking...though it almost feels wrong to even call this "cooking." Even after substituting fresh berries for the canned pie filling it calls for, this recipe is just too easy. Yes, even I fall prey to convenience foods on occasion (and although I’ve been meaning to make a homemade Bisquick mix, I haven’t yet). I whipped this up in a matter of moments one weeknight after finding a 99-cent sale on blackberries. (Psst...this is basically just the full-size version of my mini berry cobblers from way back when!)

3 cups blackberries
5 Tbsp raw sugar, divided
1 cup reduced-fat Bisquick
1 Tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/4 cup soy or almond milk



Rinse and drain the blackberries. In an 8- or 9-inch square glass pan, combine the blackberries and 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) of the raw sugar, plus 3 Tbsp warm water.



Place the pan in a cold oven, then heat the oven to 400 degrees. Let heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the last tablespoon of raw sugar with the Bisquick, margarine, and milk in a medium bowl, mixing until a soft dough forms.



Carefully remove the pan from the oven. The berries will be nice ‘n hot ‘n bubbly.



Drop the dough onto the warm berries in several spoonfuls; you can make it as neat or as rustic as you want. Sprinkle with additional raw sugar if desired.



Bake for 14-16 minutes, until the topping is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving. I like it best when it’s still warm, but leftovers are great too. If only I’d had some nondairy vanilla ice cream to serve it with!



Yield: 6 servings. Per serving: 175 calories, 3.5g fat (1g sat), 33.7g carbs, 4g fiber, 2.3g protein.

If you like this, you might also like...
Mini berry cobblers
Homestyle blueberry cobbler
Pineapple upside-down cake

Crunchy salted cashew cookies

I found this recipe via Baking Bites and it immediately ascended to the top of my to-bake list. Cashews occupy the #2 spot on my list of favorite nuts (#3 being pecans, and #1 being, well, inappropriate), and a recent trip to Costco had netted me several pounds of them. These cookies were easy to veganize, and turned out so good on their own that I didn’t even bother sandwiching them with dulce de leche (though you should feel free to do so!). This may look like a lot of steps, but it’s really not; I’m just a nut butter fiend and went overboard taking pictures.

2 1/2 cups roasted, salted cashews
2 Tbsp peanut oil (or canola oil)
8 Tbsp (1 stick) Earth Balance, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
3 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp coarse sea salt (optional)



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Place the cashews in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Remove 1/2 cup chopped cashews and set aside. Add the peanut (or canola) oil to the remaining cashews and process for one minute, until smooth. Mmm, homemade cashew butter!



Add the Earth Balance, sugar, and brown sugar...



...and process until smooth and creamy.



Add the flaxseed, water, and vanilla...



...and pulse until thoroughly combined. Add the flours in two parts, and pulse until just barely combined. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the reserved chopped cashews.



Grease your hands with cooking spray and mix in the cashews by hand. Roll dough into about 36 balls (minus, as usual, the amount you snack on raw), placing 12 at a time on the baking sheet. Use a greased fork to press the cookies flat (like you would with peanut butter cookies; you can do a single fork mark or make a cross-hatch).



Sprinkle with coarse sea salt, if desired, and bake for 7-9 minutes (err on the side of underbaking). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely (but they’re great warm, too!).

I never even got a closeup of one of the finished cookies, but in the picture below, the ones on the top pan just came out of the oven. After the cookies cool, their oily softness turns crispy and crunchy. Very reminiscent of PB cookies in flavor, the use of cashews adds a dimension of especial (monounsaturated) fattiness. I love how salty these are, too; the salt plays perfectly off the nuttiness and brown-sugared-sweetness. This made a pretty big batch, so a few days later, I actually ground up the last several cookies with just a little more oil, pressed the mixture into a greased pie plate, and froze it. Later, I used it as a cashew-licious crust for a vanilla pudding pie. Yum!



Yield: 3 dozen cookies. Per cookie: 126 calories, 7.7g fat (1.5g sat), 12.9g carbs, 1g fiber, 2.1g protein.

If you like this, you might also like...
Nutella-stuffed peanut butter cookies
Raw pecan pie cookies
Choc-oat banana walnut cookies

No-bake almond butter balls

Sometimes you can take a bunch of tasty-on-their-own ingredients, combine them in a way that should be good, and end up with something awful. This is NOT one of those recipes. It is the exact opposite—a bevy of sweet ‘n salty items that, when smooshed together, become more than the sum of their parts.

Before you say anything—I know, I know, honey’s not technically vegan. Use agave nectar if you must, though I think it could affect the texture. If you really don’t care at all whether it’s vegan, feel free to use nonfat dry milk powder in place of the (more expensive and harder to find) soymilk powder. For that matter, use natural peanut butter instead of almond butter, or unsweetened cocoa powder in place of the carob. Agave or honey, soymilk or skim milk, almond or peanut, carob or cocoa, vegan or not, there’s no need to take food too seriously. Just play around and have fun!

1 cup dry soymilk powder
1/2 cup creamy almond butter
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
Dash of vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
2 Tbsp carob powder



Combine the soymilk powder, almond butter, honey, flaxseed, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Grease your hands thoroughly with cooking spray and dig in, squishing everything together until well mixed.



Roll the mixture into about 16 balls (minus however much you munch on right out of the bowl) and place on a small baking sheet. Transfer to the fridge to chill for just a few minutes.



Place the carob powder in a medium bowl. Put the chilled almond butter balls, a few at a time, into the carob powder, and shake the bowl to roll them around until completely coated. Place them back on the baking sheet and chill for an additional few minutes.

These will keep in the refrigerator for at least a week or two, but good luck keeping them around that long. It’s far too easy to pop one, two, five of them at a time, right at the fridge door! At breakfast, for dessert, or in between meals, you’ll find these calling your name at all hours. Surprisingly well-rounded nutritionally, they also make the perfect pre- or post-workout snack. No-bake, no-guilt, and delicious!

Oh, and Hannah, the fact that I could have called these "chocolate-covered nut balls" did not escape me, trust me! ;P



Yield: 16 servings. Per serving: 125 calories, 5.6g fat (trace sat), 16.2g carbs, 2g fiber, 3g protein.

If you like this, you might also like...
Homemade almond milk
No-bake PB-choc-oat cookies
Raw pecan pie cookies

Skinny bitchtastic brownies

There I go again, being crude and vulgar. First nut milk, now this? Well, such language is one reason the book Skinny Bitch is so polarizing. Once you brush aside all the animal rights brouhaha, the message is blunt but true—people need to stop eating like fat pigs! I can understand how more sensitive souls could see it as one big, harsh, body-image-trashing slur, but if you can take it lightheartedly, it’s really a great read, full of important points and good ideas. I tend to be a little deficient in the sensitivity department with things like this, so I found the book fun and entertaining, and I can see it being a swift kick in the ass for those who need that.

I’ve been cooking a lot lately from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, the companion book to Skinny Bitch, and these brownies are a great example of the straightforward, tasty, no-frills recipes contained there. I made them even more virtuous by replacing some of the oil with prune purée, but you can just use 6 Tbsp oil if you’d rather.

5 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups Sucanat, or other natural sweetener
3/4 cup firm silken tofu (about 3/4 of a Mori-Nu pack)
1/4 cup safflower or canola oil
2 Tbsp puréed prune baby food
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp sea salt



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan. In a food processor, combine the melted chocolate, Sucanat, tofu, oil, prune purée, and vanilla.



Process until smooth. You could just stop here and eat this like a pudding, and it would be heavenly. Just look how silky it is!



But you probably want to make the brownies, so go ahead and add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.



Pulse together until just combined.



Transfer to the pan and spread evenly.



Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.



You don’t have to be a skinny bitch to love these brownies (clearly, I am proof of that). What you do have to be is a lover of all things deeply fudgy and darkly chocolatey. I highly recommend having some soy or almond milk nearby to chug between bites—these brownies are the very definition of rich. And they’re made entirely in a food processor—it doesn’t get any easier!



Yield: 16 servings. Per serving: 153 calories, 8.5g fat (3g sat), 20.5g carbs, 2g fiber, 2.3g protein.

If you like this, you might also like...
Deep chocolate brownies
Chocolate brownie muffins
White chip brownies

Whole grain rosemary-olive bread

I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions. When I decide I want to do something, I just do it, whether it’s January or July. That said, I do think it can be healthy to look ahead at the coming year as a whole and think of some things you’d like to accomplish. A goal I loosely decided upon this year is to conquer my "fear" of yeast breads. It’s not that I’m literally scared to make them; in fact, I’m not even really afraid that I’ll mess them up. It’s just the time factor. It feels like they take for.ev.er, and when it comes to baked goods, I’m more of an instant gratification type of girl (many a burned finger or tongue can attest to this). I did make pizza dough at home once, but other than that, I’ve avoided anything yeasted.

The time had come for that to change. As I already mentioned, I love the Urban Vegan’s still-newish cookbook, and I chose one of Dynise’s recipes to get me on the yeast-bread-bandwagon. With the necessary advanced planning, it was just as easy as she promised, and even more delicious than I could have imagined.

3 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, minced
3-4 cups whole grain flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pitted black olives
3 Tbsp dried rosemary, crushed
2 tsp yeast
1-1 1/2 cups warm water

In a small pan, heat 1 Tbsp of the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the garlic and onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Let cool.



Finely chop the olives and set aside with the onion and garlic mixture.



In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 3 cups flour (I used 1 cup spelt flour and 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour) with the salt, olives, sautéed onion and garlic, and rosemary.



Stir in the yeast, then add the water (I used just over a cup to start with; you may need more). Add more flour as needed, in 1/4 cup increments (I only needed just over 1/4 cup, but this can vary greatly). Knead until smooth, using the mixer’s bread hook. Spray the dough lightly with cooking spray and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.



Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.



Punch down the dough, then knead on a Silpat or a floured surface for about 5 minutes. Form into a boule (a round loaf) and place on a greased cookie sheet.



Let rise for half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush the loaf with the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil. I tried slicing an X in the top of my bread, like those fancy artisan loaves in the store, and it sort-of worked.



Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the loaf is browned and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool completely (seriously, don’t skimp) on a wire rack before slicing.



I am not kidding, this stuff is unbelievable! The savory duet of onion and garlic provides a beautiful accompaniment to the depth and heartiness of the yeast and rosemary. There are lots of olives in there, yet the bread has no briny or overly salty taste—just great olive flavor. In fact, I sneakily fed pieces to two avowed olive-haters, and both of them LOVED it (one even called it the best bread he’s ever tasted!). If I, a yeast bread novice, can turn out something as stupendous as this, I can only dream of what mouthwatering breads I’ll bake in the future.



Yield: 1 loaf, 16 large slices. Per slice: 130 calories, 3.7g fat (trace sat), 22.2g carbs, 4g fiber, 3.3g protein.

If you like this, you might also like...
Tuscan white bean dip
Whole wheat beer bread
Indian spice hummus

December-January leftovers

Every year, my friends and I throw a huge New Year’s Eve bash, and I’m in charge of the food. This year, for the sweets, I made chocolate chunk peanut butter blondies and two cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: rum raisin (top) and margarita lime (bottom right). All were well-loved!



This is a random Sunday night dinner I made for me and Matt—a Tex-Mex chili from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian, with from-scratch cornbread.



Chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes from Love and Olive Oil—homemade vegan cookie dough is rolled into balls and suspended in a vanilla cupcake batter, and is whipped right into the vegan buttercream icing. Dangerously decadent!



Here are some sesame balls that Matt and I shared at Po’s...



...and the curry noodles I ate with them.



This is a tweak on the dulce de leche shortbread bars from Baking Bites’ cookbook.



Rachel and I had a weeknight talkfest at JP Wine Bar, where we noshed on hummus and pita alongside flights of red wine.



I made mini loaves of my peanut butter banana bread, but split the batter in two parts. I made four loaves of peanut butter with chocolate chips, four loaves of chocolate with peanut butter chips, and the last loaf, seen here in the middle, with the last bits of both batters swirled together.



This stuff is always a hit!



If you like this, you might also like...
Random 2009 leftover madness
August leftovers
July leftovers