Recipe: Peanut Butter Cookies

Preparation time - two hours
Cooking time - 10 minutes

This recipe makes about 20 tender cookies.

Ingredients for vegan peanut butter cookies

• ¾ of a cup of unrefined brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• ½ a cup of peanut butter
• ¼ a cup of sunflower oil or any other oil without a strong flavour
• ¼ a cup of softened vegan buttery spread - I used 'Pure' sunflower spread
• ⅓ of a cup of apple sauce
• 1¼ cups of flour blend - I used a flour that was made of a blend of four different types of flour
• ¾ of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• ½ a teaspoon of baking powder
• ¼ of a teaspoon of salt

How to make vegan peanut butter cookies 

1. Mix the sugar, peanut butter, apple sauce, oil and maple syrup in a large bowl
2. Stir in all the other ingredients
3. Cover this with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours or until firm
4. Heat the oven to 190 Celsius
5. Shape the dough into one inch balls
6. Place them on greaseproof paper
7. Keep them about 3 inches apart as they expand a fair bit
8. Use a fork dipped in sugar to flatten and create a criss-cross pattern on top of each cookie
9. Bake for about ten minutes OR until they become a light golden brown
10. Let them cool for ten minutes before you move them or they will break
11. After ten minutes, move them onto a wire rack to cool
12. Enjoy! :)

Please note that the original recipe is American. Thus the names of various ingredients are slightly different. I've amended these, where necessary, and listed them by the name that they are known by in England. 

Adapted from the pretty bee 

Recipe: Thumbprint Cookies within 40 minutes

Of the four items I baked, these cookies were the quickest and easiest to make. I didn't get bored of eating them either! They were crunchy, savoury yet sweet and simply morish!

This recipe makes about 24 cookies.

Ingredients for vegan thumbprint cookies

• 1 cup of ground almonds
• 1 cup of brown rice flour
• 1 ½ cups of raw whole almonds - crushed in a food processor
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• ½ cup of coconut oil
• ½ cup of maple syrup
• Jam

How to make vegan thumbprint cookies 

1. Preheat the oven to 176 degrees
2. Combine all the ingredients (except the jam) in a large bowl
3. Create tablespoon-sized balls with the mix
4. Space them evenly on a baking tray, which has been lined with greaseproof paper
5. They don't expand much so you don't need to leave lots of space around them - about 2 centimetres is fine
6. Use your thumb to make an indentation into each cookie
7. Bake until the cookies are evenly browned - this will take about 20 minutes
8. Let the cookies cool
9. Add some jam and enjoy immediately

If you have added the jam and want to eat them later, put them in a container in the fridge. If you are going to add the jam just before eating, keeping them out (room temperature) is fine.

Please note that the original recipe is American. Thus the names of various ingredients are slightly different. I've amended these, where necessary, and listed them by the name that they are known by in England. 

Adapted from passports & pancakes

Recipe: Sugar-Free Hazelnut Spread

This recipe makes approximately 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients for hazelnut spread

• 1 cup organic hazelnuts - roasted
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons of organic cacao powder
• 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• 1 tablespoon of organic coconut oil
• 1 pinch of sea salt

How to make vegan hazelnut spread

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
2. Lay out the hazelnuts onto a baking sheet and pop in the oven for ten minutes
3. Watch them carefully as oven temperatures vary and these can go from perfectly fine to burnt quickly
4. Remove hazelnuts from oven
5. Using your fingers or a paper towel, remove skins from hazelnuts - they will come off easily but it doesn't need to be perfect
6. Place the hazelnuts in a food processor
7. Process at high speed for 2-3 minutes until you have a paste
8. Add coconut oil and process for another minute, until it looks smooth
9. Add all remaining ingredients, process for another 2-3 minutes until you have a creamy texture
10. At this point it will be quite thin and liquidy
11. Place it into a jar (I use mason jars) and refrigerate for one hour
12. Remove from fridge and it will be a spreadable texture

If you store this in the pantry, it will remain fresh for about 2 weeks. I like to make it in small batches so we never get to the point that it’s gone bad because we didn't use it quickly enough.

Use the spread on your favourite baked goods, fresh fruit (like apple slices) or on sprouted grain bread.

Recipe and photo courtesy of Sophia.

Recipe: Cashew Cream

Cashew Cream is often used as a substitute for dairy whipped cream. It can be enjoyed with fruit, on cakes, in crepes, with pancakes and more.

Ingredients for vegan cashew cream

• 1 cup of raw cashews
• 3 cups of water
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

How to make vegan cashew cream

1. Soak the cashews in 3 cups of water for 4 hours
2. Drain the excess water
3. Blend the cashews
4. Add 1/2 cup of water, the maple syrup, vanilla essence and lemon juice
5. Blend again
6. That's it :)