Barbara's Fig Bars are Delicious!

I love me a fig newton any day anyhow (will have to try and make my own soon). These taste exactly like the ones from my childhood, the ones that weren't very healthy but were totally delicious, only these are healthy AND totally delicious! Sweetened naturally with fruit juice and low in fat, I wouldn't recommend pounding them back (like I'm trying not to - losing battle!) but they are a fabulous snack to go along with tea or coffee or just on their own. Glad I picked these babies up. Will be getting them again and again and again. There are different kinds too, I chose blueberry because I love them too. Two of the things I love in one place. I know they also have a whole wheat variety.

Vegan Chocolate Spice Cookies

This recipe is absolutely delicious. Like a soft, vaguely chocolatey, gingerbread, it's perfect for the holidays. The recipe is completely vegan: dairy free, egg free, and nut free. You can play around a bit with the spice mix according to your own taste.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups + 1 tbsp Flour (I used all-purp)

1 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Ground Cloves

1/4 tsp Nutmeg *I don't like Nutmeg, see Adventures in Pumpkin bread, so I just put in a pinch

1 (rounded) tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 cup Vegan Margarine (I used Becel).

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Molasses *I didn't have molasses so I substituted 1/4 cup + 2 tbsps pure Maple Syrup

1 tsp Baking Soda dissolved in 1 1/2 tsp Boiling Water

1/4 cup sugar mixture set aside (1 part brown sugar, one part cane sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon)

Directions:

1. Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cocoa, in a small bowl.
2. Beat together margarine and brown sugar (I used a hand mixer). Add the molasses or maple syrup and mix well. Add half of the flour and the baking soda/water mixture and combine well. Then add the rest of the flour.
3. Chill cookie dough covered for at least an hour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
4. Spoon dough into 1 1/2 in balls (I used a melon baller) and roll in sugar mixture
5. Bake 13-15 minutes (I baked for 13, checked at 10)

To see the original recipe please click here. I made adjustments based on what I had in the house, like subbing the molasses for maple syrup, and I also added more margarine and a little extra maple syrup because after following all the directions I found my cookie dough to be too dry and mealy and in need of more moist/liquid ingredients to help it get to the right texture.

Vegan (ish) Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this super easy recipe on 101cookbooks.com. I had a craving for peanut butter cookies and chocolate too, so I thought Why not combine the two? I had never had a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie before, but now I have and I adore them. It's the Reese's Pieces of the cookie world. The cookies themselves have a great texture and aren't too sweet, and the chocolate is ooey-gooey like it should be. I'll admit that this recipe IS vegan, however mine aren't entirely because I used regular chocolate chips. If you have vegan chocolate chips then this recipe remains dairy and egg free. I chose to make mine tiny for easy consumption, and in a vain attempt at not feeling guilty for wolfing them down. Warning: you WILL want to wolf them down! Be prepared. The dough is very thick and hard to handle so I used a small melon baller to finagle in onto the baking sheet.

(As I'm writing this my husband dashes into the room and snitches a handful off the cooling rack, and he doesn't even really like peanut butter cookies, having asked me earlier to make plain chocolate chip instead. They're just THAT good!)

Ingredients:

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Spelt Flour or Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I used all-purp)

1 tsp Baking Soda

3/4 tsp Fine Grain Sea Salt

1 cup Organic Chunky Natural Peanut Butter (recipe calls for chunky but I used smooth and it was fine)

1 cup Maple Syrup

1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 1/2 tsps Vanilla Extract

3/4 cup Chocolate Chips, or to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl
3. Combine wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl
4. Once wet ingredients are mixed smooth, incorporate dry ingredients. Stir until barely combined, mixture will be a little dusty.
5. Let sit for five minutes and them mix again, only once or twice. Fold in chocolate chips until they are more or less evenly distributed
6. Cover a baking sheet in parchment paper (I sprayed non-stick onto the baking sheet to stick the parchment paper down, and then on the paper too - I'm paranoid about sticking)
7. Apply dough to baking sheet anyway you like. You can make bigger cookies, or smaller ones like mine (I used a melon baller and then pressed down on each gently with the back of a small fork. If you want to do the traditional full criss-cross the recipe warns you to cool your dough first, for about an hour, otherwise it'll be too gluey and won't work)
8. Bake for 10 - 11 minutes
9. Eat one before it's fully cooled, getting chocolate all over your fingers (<-- the most important step!)

To see the original recipe, or to browse others please check out www.101cookbooks.com

A Gift from Toronto Pride 2010: Cookies

I have heard of ShaSha Bread before, although I will be the first to admit I was not rushing out to try their vegan or gluten-free breads. I am polish; I grew up on very delicious Rye breads and home made Challah bread, so maybe I am a bit of a snob in this respect. Well, shame on me. These tiny little cookies that were thrown at my head during the Toronto Pride Parade last weekend have definitely made me pay them significantly more attention. They are local too, their main office is right next door in Etobicoke. It is good to support local!

It is a constant battle to find snack foods that won't make me sick. I was, and still am, a BIG snacker. I have a very fast metabolism so three meals a day has never really worked for me, and the food restricted man or woman cannot live on carrot sticks alone, they need cookies too, damn it! These satisfy such an enormous craving that I can hardly condense all my avid flailing into words.

I have tried three different flavors (Gingersnap - featured above, Lemon Snaps and Cocoa Snaps) and I have liked them all. Their texture reminds me of tea cookies; they definitely live up to the "snap" in their names. They each have their own cute little slogans too. "Cocoa Snaps, A Lover's Treat", "Lemon Snaps, Spelt Hearts Filled with Zest" and "Ginger Snaps, Traveller's Friend". As far as I can tell they are dairy-free and nut-free (stated on the package). The packing on all three flavors also states it may contain "traces" of egg, for all those with relevant allergies. There is surprisingly little sugar (8-9g per 15! delicious heart shaped cookies - granted, they are a little on the small side), 90g of sodium, no cholesterol or trans fat, 2g of protein and 130 calories.

Ingredients (Cocoa Snaps): Wheat flour*, brown sugar, canola oil, chocolate liquor, water, honey**, cocoa powder, soy lecithin, vanilla extract, blackstrap molasses, baking powder, natural caramel flavor, salt.

Ingredients (Lemon Snaps): Organic spelt flour*, organic evaporated cane juice, organic sunflower oil, organic palm fruit oil, water, organic poppy seeds, organic malt syrup, organic honey**, lime powder, organic blackstrap molasses, organic vanilla extract, natural lemon flavor, sunflower lecithin, salt, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate.

Ingredients (Ginger Snaps, my favorite!): Organic spelt flour*, organic evaporated cane juice, water, organic sunflower oil, organic malt syrup, organic palm fruit oil, organic honey**, organic spices, organic blackstrap molasses, organic ground ginger, sunflower lecithin, salt, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate.

*Not gluten-free

**Not vegan (if you are a vegan who doesn't eat honey)

Available at The Carrot Common.