recipe

Blueberry Spelt Muffins

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

It was only a matter of time until this day arrived. With a theme that heavily focuses on berries, there just had to be at least one muffin recipe, right? Blueberry muffins are the classic choice, and, well, I’m a sucker for the classics.

The bakery-style muffins from Vegan Brunch were my go-to muffins of choice for a while, but they don’t offer much in the way of nutrition, and they’re awfully sugary. Not that these muffins are much better! They’re certainly not what I would call particularly healthy or wholesome (though spelt and flax certainly don’t hurt), but hey—they taste damn good. And that’s what I want out of my classics.

 

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Blueberry Spelt Muffins
(makes eight normal-sized muffins)

1 T ground flax + 3 T warm water
¾ C unbleached all-purpose flour
½ C spelt flour
½ T baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Scant ½ C sugar
½ C non-dairy milk
Scant ¼ C vegetable or sunflower seed oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Heaping ¾ C blueberries

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F. Grease or line a muffin tin.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flax and water and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients (flour through sugar) and stir to combine. Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients. Stir gently to combine, but don’t overmix. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour or spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, nearly filling the wells. Bake for 21-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

What’s your favorite blueberry muffin recipe

Baked Blueberry Oatmeal

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Live from Maryland, it’s Saturday morning!

There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration of waking up, making something for breakfast, and crossing your fingers and toes that it turns out well because you still need something to blog about that very day. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything. Ahem.

Happily, this particular breakfast is well-worth a post. I’ve always thought baked oatmeal was, quite literally, oatmeal you make on the stove and then pop in the oven for… some unknown reason. To firm up? To enhance the oat-y flavor? I had no idea. Turns out, you do the actual oatmeal-cooking right in the oven! And it makes a dish more akin to a casserole than a traditional oatmeal! Amazing. Who knew?!

My baked oatmeal is based on this one from Epicurious and this one from the fabulous Ricki Heller. I love Ricki’s idea of whizzing up the ingredients to make a baked oatmeal “pudding,” and I’ll definitely try that method next time. Meanwhile, though, I’ll be enjoying this blueberry-laden breakfast—and I hope you do, too.

 

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Baked Blueberry Oatmeal

Serves four

  • Coconut oil or Earth Balance for buttering the pan
  • 2 C rolled oats (I like Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats)
  • ½ C chopped walnuts, divided into two ¼ C portions
  • Scant ⅓ C brown sugar
  • ¼ C dried wild blueberries (optional)
  • 1 ½ t cinnamon
  • 1 t baking powder
  • Very scant ½ t salt
  • Dash nutmeg
  • 2 C non-dairy milk
  • 2 T ground flax
  • ⅓ C unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 t vanilla extract
  • 1 C fresh or frozen blueberries (use more if omitting wild blueberries)

Preheat the oven to 375˚. Spread the coconut oil or Earth Balance around the inside of an 8”x8” square baking dish, making sure to cover all sides.

In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (rolled oats through nutmeg, including ¼ C of  the walnuts) and stir to combine.

In a small bowl, add the wet ingredients (not including the blueberries) and whisk to combine.

Add the oat mixture to the baking dish, then pour the milk mixture over the top. Use a flat spoon or spatula to push the milk down into the oats so that they’re covered. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts (¼ C) and blueberries (fresh or frozen) over the top, pushing down a little to gently fold them into the oats.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is golden and the milk doesn’t look liquid-y on top of the oats. If you’re feeling decadent, sprinkle additional brown sugar or drizzle additional maple syrup over the top before serving.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through my link, it costs nothing extra for you, but I get a few pennies to help cover hosting costs.

Easy Unbaked Apple Not-Quite-Crisp

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

There are a few foods that I will always and forever associate with my childhood. Somewhere near the tippy-top of that list is apple crisp. My mom took my siblings and I on near-annual outings to the apple orchard every fall, and I always knew that the bounty we brought home would soon find its way into dozens of delicious recipes. My favorite was apple crisp. I liked helping Mom bake it, if only because I could swipe the occasional spoonful of topping. After Mom put it in the oven, the crisp’s warm cinnamon-y smell wafted through the house as I waited anxiously for the oven timer to ding. Then, when it did, we all dug in. With five people in the family, we were lucky to get more than one serving. “Seconds” usually meant a few paltry slices of apple and maybe a crumble or two of topping. And that was with Mom making a double batch!

These days, S and I have lots of crisp to share when I make it. But when the weather’s warm and I don’t feel like turning on the oven, I opt for an unbaked stand-in that captures all the flavors of traditional apple crisp with none of the heat. It’s a little less rich, too, because you don’t bake the apples. And that means it comes together in no time—no more waiting for the oven timer!

 

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Easy Unbaked Apple Not-Quite-Crisp
Makes one large serving or two small

  • 2 T Earth Balance or coconut oil (you can substitute applesauce for one tablespoon if you want to keep the fat content down)
  • 2 T spelt flour or other flour of your choice
  • 3 T rolled or quick oats
  • 1.5 T dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • Dash cloves
  • Dash salt
  • 1 large apple, peeled and cut into thin slices OR diced into cubes

In a small bowl, melt the Earth Balance or coconut oil. Add all other ingredients (except the apples!) and mix with a fork until it forms large crumbles. Move your diced or sliced apples into a second bowl, top with crumbles, and enjoy.

Note: I prefer Earth Balance in this recipe, but it’s not bad with coconut oil! Half and half would probably work well, too.

What’s your favorite quick dessert recipe?

Lemon-Glazed Blackberry Spelt Scones

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

The astute among you might notice that this second MoFo blackberry recipe uses the same accompanying flavor as my previous one: lemon. I couldn’t resist! The two fruits are just so complementary. Blackberries are the stars here, though, studded sparingly throughout a simple spelt scone that begs to be savored with a cup of hot tea.

Working with this tender dough requires care and attention so as to avoid crushing the large yet delicate berries. Don’t be afraid to use your hands when you fold them in, gently tucking them into their doughy cushion. The results are worth the extra work.

 

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Blackberry Spelt Scones
Makes six large or eight medium

  • 1 C spelt flour
  • 1 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
  • ½ C sugar
  • 1 T baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 C coconut milk
  • ¼ C vegetable oil
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ C fresh or frozen blackberries (I used fresh, but I think frozen would work well here!)

Lemon Glaze

  • 1 T Earth Balance or other margarine of choice
  • 1 T + 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 T non-dairy creamer (non-dairy milk works fine too)
  • 2/3 C confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 375˚ and prepare a baking sheet by lightly oiling or lining with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (except the blackberries!) and mix until combined. Make a well in the center of bowl and add the wet ingredients. Mix gently until a soft dough forms. If it’s too tacky, add an additional 1-2 TB all-purpose flour. Add the blackberries, gently folding the dough over them.

Turn dough out onto a well-floured, clean surface. Flour your hands and gently give the dough a few kneads. Pat dough into a circle about an inch high. Using a floured bread knife, cut the circle into sixths or eighths, depending on how large you like your scones. (I did sixths and they were quite large!) Transfer scones to the prepared baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool.

To make the glaze, melt the Earth Balance in a small bowl, then whisk together all the ingredients until a thick yet runny paste forms. Drizzle on cooled scones and let set a bit before eating.

Lemon Pudding with Blackberries

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Pudding is one of those desserts that always fascinated me as a kid. The transformation from a straight-up liquid to a thick goop more akin to a solid seemed magical—at what point did it happen? I knew it had to be a gradual state change, but my young self knew there had to be a turning point that triggered it, probably related to its temperature. And the care that went into preventing the pudding from sticking—the constant whisking and diligent scraping of the saucepan’s bottom—lent an additional air of glamour to the endeavor. Pudding was not something to, ahem, trifle with.

Perhaps I haven’t quite mastered the art of perfect pudding. I wanted to make a luscious lemon pudding to serve as the vehicle for a topping of big, ripe blackberries, but my pudding came out a little… funky. It tasted just fine, but its aesthetic appeal was diminished by ubiquitous tiny white dots suspended throughout its gelatinous form. Although improperly mixed cornstarch seems the likely culprit, I think I’m pointing the finger at my almond milk. I’ve been disappointed with Almond Breeze recently; their milk seems to separate at the drop of a hat, and the little white dots look suspiciously like separated almond milk.

But no matter. The pudding works just fine as a base for a topping of gorgeous blackberries, dots or no dots. Next time, though, perhaps I’ll opt for a pudding base of silken tofu… ;)

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Lemon Pudding
(serves three; adapted from this recipe)

  • 5 T cornstarch
  • 5 T cold water
  • Juice of two lemons (about ½ cup)
  • 2 C almond milk
  • Scant ½ t vanilla extract
  • ⅔ C sugar
  • ¼ t salt
  • Dash turmeric, for color
  • 1 C fresh raspberries, divided

In a small tightly-lidded jar, combine cornstarch and water and shake vigorously to combine. Set aside, preferably in the refrigerator.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the lemon juice, almond milk, vanilla extract, and sugar. Whisk to combine and heat for a couple of minutes. If the mixture separates, that’s okay–just give it a whisk.

Add the salt and turmeric. Stream in the cornstarch mixture slowly while constantly whisking. Continue to whisk until the pudding starts slowly boiling, then turn the heat down to low and continue whisking as the pudding thickens, for about 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove. Pour into serving dishes and let cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge. Cool for three hours or overnight. Top with fresh raspberries and serve.

Note: If using organic lemons, feel free to add a tablespoon of lemon zest. Mine weren’t organic, so I didn’t want to use the rinds.

Blueberry-Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Welcome to VeganMoFo 2013! This year, I’m focusing on seasonal fruits–basically, any fruit that’s in season in Maryland in September. My first recipe is a bit of a cheat, though. I used dried wild blueberries instead of fresh, but you can substitute fresh wild blueberries if you like.

It’s amusing that slapping the word “breakfast” in front of any kind of baked good automatically lends it an air of healthiness. A cake is usually a sugary treat one consumes at a celebration, but call it a “breakfast cake” and you’ve got the green light to go to town on it at 10:00 in the morning.

Same thing goes for these cookies. A big ol’ scoop of rolled oats, a couple tablespoons of flax, and blueberries + banana make these puffy cookies A-okay for a quick on-the-go breakfast option.

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So on this first day of VeganMoFo 2013, why don’t you bake up a big ol’ batch of oatmeal cookies, brew a pot of coffee, and call it breakfast? It’s Sunday. You deserve it.

Blueberry-Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Makes 13

  • 2 T ground flaxseed + 6 TB warm water
  • 1 C unbleached all purpose flour
  • ½ C whole-wheat flour
  • 1 t baking soda
  • Scant ½ t salt
  • ½ t cinnamon
  • Dash nutmeg
  • 1 medium-sized very ripe banana
  • 2 T coconut oil, softened or melted
  • ½ C dark brown sugar
  • ⅔ C nondairy milk of choice
  • 1 ½ C rolled oats (I like Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats)
  • Heaping ⅓ C dried wild blueberries
  • ⅓ C walnut pieces (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease a cookie sheet and set aside. (You could also use parchment paper.)

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the ground flax and warm water and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients except the oats, blueberries, and nuts.

Add the banana to the bowl with the flax mixture and mash it well. The flax and banana mixture should be thick and goopy.  Add the oil, sugar, and milk to the wet mixture and stir well to combine.

Make a well in the bowl with the dry ingredients and add the wet to the dry. Stir to combine, then fold in the oats, blueberries, and walnuts if you’re using them. The dough should be thick and a little sticky. Drop heaping, rounded spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven.

PIN IT

Blueberry oatmeal breakfast cookies // vegan //govegga.com

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through my link, it costs nothing extra for you, but I get a few pennies to help cover hosting costs.

Creamy Caramelized Onion Soup

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

This story is about soup, but it begins with a McDonald’s.

For weeks now, the McDonald’s a mile or so away from my apartment had had the same message on its signboard: Try our grilled onion cheddar sandwich – $1. Though McDonald’s holds very little appeal for me (veggie options in India aside!), I had to admit that the grilled onion-cheddar sandwich was intriguing.  It lingered at the back of my mind for weeks, in fact.

And then I bought five or so pounds of onions. And then Daiya cheese was on sale at the co-op, and I felt compelled to try the garlic-jalapeño Havarti-style wedge that everyone raves about. And then I realized that I had all the components for something very like a grilled onion-cheddar sandwich.

Instead of grilling my onions, though, I caramelized them. Caramelized onions are (ahem, were) one of my few real culinary nemeses. It’s not that they always come out burnt or inconsistently cooked (though that’s certainly the case sometimes!), but I have never managed to make them perfect, with that mellow, deep sweetness that’s the sign of a perfectly caramelized onion.

Until this time. Armed with a battery of tips from this handy article and a brand-new non-stick pan that replaced our flaking old one, I can proudly say, without a hint of braggadocio or untruth, that I caramelized the shit out of those onions. They were soft with a few crispy bits, a marvel of kitchen science and patience. And they were pretty damn amazing with melted Daiya on slices of seedy whole-grain bread.  (By the way, that Havarti-style Daiya is THE BEST vegan cheese I’ve ever tasted. It’s the only kind I’d ever consider eating on its own, on crackers or something. It’s a sometimes-food, but I wholly recommend it if you’re interested in actually-good vegan cheese.)

Back to the onions. Now that I’d conquered caramelization, my mind was flooded with a tidal wave of ideas for how to harness the rich flavor of these sweet, tender onions. I began to suspect that they’d make a wonderful flavor base for a rich, creamy soup, and was I ever right. Please – do yourself a favor one chilly winter night and spend a little time at the stove, tending your slowly softening onions and stirring a pot of tender golden potatoes in a simple broth. Then blend them together – my brand-new immersion blender did the trick with ease – and let this hearty soup fill all the crevices of your hungry belly.

Quick soup snap.

Creamy Caramelized Onion-Potato Soup

4 medium-sized yellow onions, sliced into half-moons
3 medium-sized golden potatoes, diced (3/4 inch)
1 T olive oil
1 stalk celery, diced
1 med carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp savory
A dash or two of poultry spice
4 C vegetable broth
1 C unsweetened MimicCreme (or any other unsweetened nut cream, or even your non-dairy milk of choice)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, start caramelizing your onions. I won’t give you directions – use whatever method works for you! You don’t need them to retain their shape for this soup, so it’s okay if they reduce to a bit of a mushy mess – mine did.

After the onions have been caramelizing for about 20 minutes, add the olive oil to a stock pot and heat it on medium. Saute the celery, carrot, and garlic  for about 4 – 5 minutes or until they start softening. Add the spices and give the veggies a good stir to coat them. Add the veg broth and turn up the heat to medium-high. When it starts to boil, add the potatoes and bring the soup to a full boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and keep it on a low boil for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are softened and cooked through. Add salt and pepper and reduce the soup to a simmer.

By now, your onions should be caramelized. If they’re not, just keep the soup simmering. When they’re ready, turn off the heat under your soup and add the cream or non-dairy milk of choice to the sou,p and then add the onions. Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender, in small batches and removing the cover between pulses to release heat), blend the soup to your desired consistency. I liked mine mostly creamy but with a few small chunks of veggies. You can also add more non-dairy milk or cream to reach your desired consistency. Top with freshly ground cracked pepper and enjoy with a slice of crusty bread.

What’s your favorite way to eat caramelized onions?

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

I’ve decided that mini chocolate chips are pretty much the greatest invention since, um, regular chocolate chips. First of all, they’re a tiny version of something that’s usually large(r), which automatically makes them awesome in my book. My irrational love of tiny things aside, they’re just so darn useful when you want a bit of chocolate, but regular sized chips would add be intrusive or ill-fitting. For example, if I’d put regular ol’ chocolate chips in the raspberry-banana soft serve I made the other day, they would’ve been annoying to eat – y’know how chocolate chips harden in ice cream? Yeah, I hate that; I don’t like crunching while eating ice cream. The mini chips, however, aren’t big enough to necessitate crunching when frozen; you just bite into them, release their chocolaty goodness, and that’s it! Perfect.

Enough about ice cream, though. Mini chocolate chips have another place where they shine – pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes.

Bright blue cloth with a white plate and a stack of seven thin, orange pumpkin pancakes. Scattered around them are a few mini chocolate chips.

Like 99% of the food blogosphere, I’ve been putting pumpkin into everything lately. Cookies, coffee, cinnamon rolls, other things that begin with C… they all get pumpkin-ified. So when I was home sick yesterday and wanted to make myself pancakes for breakfast, it was pretty much a given that they’d include pumpkin. And when I realized that I could add mini chocolate chips, well, that’s when things got really crazy. Pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes? Oh yes. They happened. And the mini chips were perfect – they added just the right amount of melty chocolate without overwhelming the pancakes or making them seem too dessert-y. Not that dessert for breakfast is a bad thing, of course. ;)

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients
(makes 10 – 15 smallish pancakes)

1/2 C whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C non-dairy milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Heaping 1/2 C pureed pumpkin
2 T vegetable oil
Scant 2 T vegan cane sugar
1/4 C mini chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, add the vinegar to the non-dairy milk and whisk until it’s frothy. In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients except the sugar and mix well. Add remaining wet ingredients and sugar to the vinegar-milk mixture and whisk until it’s well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined – do not overmix! (Keep the chocolate chips aside for now.) If you have time, put the mixture in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before cooking.

Spray a nonstick pan with a bit of oil and heat on medium. Add batter to the pan in 1/4 cup measurements, or your measurement of choice, and drop a few chocolate chips on top of each pancake. If the batter is too thick, add a tablespoon or two of water to the bowl of batter and gently mix until it’s more liquidy. Cook pancakes until they start curling around the edges or bubbling in the middle and then flip. Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes and remove from pan. Continue until you’ve used all the batter.

Note: I like my pancakes on the slightly undercooked end of the spectrum. Cook your pancakes until they’ve reached your preferred level of doneness

Similar photo to the previous one, but it's taken from a slightly lower angle.

Mini chocolate chips, y u so cute?!

These pancakes might not have cured what ailed me (I’ve still got a pesky sore throat), but they sure did brighten my day!

What’s your favorite application for mini chocolate chips?

Pantry Decimation Challenge: Shiitake Mushroom Risotto

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Once I found out that I’d have a couple days to move (not just a single night and a couple hours), the Pantry Decimation Challenge I so eagerly started last month became much less of a priority. I wouldn’t be refrigerator-less, so I didn’t think I really needed to clean out my fridge or pantry.

And then I moved, combined my food with S’s food, and realized that, whoa, we’ve got a whole lotta food, and maybe I shouldn’t have abandoned that Pantry Challenge so quickly. At the very least, I should’ve tried to finish off the irritatingly small amounts of various foods that were lurking in my cupboards – the dregs of a bag of soy curls, a barely-filled jar of arborio rice, that sort of thing. But it’s not too late. S and I are trying to use up those random bits of food as we hold off on purchasing pantry staples. So last Saturday night when I was in charge of dinner, I forced myself to use pantry goods only. After poking around in the shelves brimming over with pasta and spices and beans, I concocted what turned out to be a very delicious meal.

Close-up of a bowl of mushroom risotto - creamy rice with visible flecks of mushrooms.

A very brown meal.

S heaped praise on this Shiitake Mushroom Risotto, and I didn’t even bother to deny it – it was that good. I don’t have a very precise recipe, because I mostly just threw things together and hoped for the best. If you’re nervous about making risotto, don’t be! It’s actually super easy as long as you’re willing to stand by the stove for about twenty minutes. You don’t even have to stir constantly; you can simultaneously tend to whatever else you’re cooking. You just have to give the rice a good stir every minute or so and keep an eye on it. Anyway, here’s a rough list of what I used and what I did:

Ingredients:

  • Dried shiitake mushrooms
  • TVP (I had a tiny bit left at the bottom of a bag)
  • Herbs (I used a homemade poultry seasoning mix with a dash of extra thyme)
  • Arborio rice (I probably used a little over 1/3rd of a cup)
  • Mushroom stock (I used maybe 1/3rd of a carton by the end)
  • Diced onion (Maybe ¼ cup?)
  • Earth Balance

Method:

Put the dried mushrooms and TVP in a bowl and cover them with stock. Set them aside to soak and rehydrate as you prepare the risotto.

In a small pot, add the rice and stock. For the stock, you probably want to start with 1.5 the amount of rice – so, if you use ½ cup of rice, add ¾ cup of stock. (I don’t bother to measure the liquids for risotto, though – the goal is to keep adding stock as the rice soaks it up.) Bring the liquid to a boil and then turn it down to medium-low – keep it simmering, but not boiling. Stir it frequently to ensure that no rice sticks to the bottom, and add more stock as necessary.

After you’ve got a good handle on your risotto (about when you’ve first turned it down to medium-low), heat some Earth Balance (or olive oil) in a small saucepan on medium and add the diced onion. Sauté the onions until they’re translucent, giving them the occasional stir in the pan. In the meantime, don’t forget your risotto!

Check your TVP and mushrooms. When they’re hydrated and the onions are translucent and fragrant, add the mushroom and TVP mixture (broth and all) to the saucepan with the onions. Depending on how thick your mushrooms are cut, they might take a little longer to hydrate. I added mine when they were soft to the touch. Add your spices, too.

Keep stirring that risotto and adding broth as you sauté the onions, mushrooms, and TVP. After you’ve been cooking the risotto for about 20 minutes, give it a taste – the rice should be soft and creamy, not terribly chewy. Test your mushrooms as well – you want them to be soft too.

Remove the risotto from the heat when it’s done. Add the onions, mushrooms, and TVP when they’re ready and stir everything to combine. Taste and add salt or freshly ground black pepper if necessary. Enjoy!

What’s your risotto-making technique? What’s your favorite use of dried mushrooms (we’ve got a ton!)?

Pantry Decimation Challenge 2012: Espresso-White Chocolate Chip Cookies

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

I’ve had the dregs of a bag of vegan white chocolate chips languishing in my pantry since Christmas, when I made S a big ol’ batch of chocolate peppermint bark. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of white chocolate. First of all, it’s terribly named – white chocolate contains no cocoa, therefore it is not chocolate. Second, it doesn’t taste like anything except generic sweetness. Do not want.

However, I will admit that white chocolate chips have their place…  and that place is in cookies where they can play second fiddle to their more legitimately named cousin – actual chocolate.

In the foreground, three chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. In the background, a container of instant espresso powder, a glass of soymilk, and a stack of more cookies.

They also offer a nice color contrast!

Okay, okay – I might be showing my bias by saying that they play second fiddle, because the white chocolate chips in these cookies are really a perfect complement to the other flavors going on here – namely, espresso and actual chocolate. The chips are a creamy, sweet – dare I say perfectly fitting? – addition to a complexly flavored cookie. I suppose that in this orchestra of ingredients, they can share the first fiddle seat with the cocoa powder in this recipe. Hmph.

Perhaps you, too, share my general distaste for white chocolate and find yourself with leftover white chocolate chips waiting for their chance to shine. If so, might I suggest making a batch of these cookies? They’re really tasty, despite the white chocolate. Okay, okay – because of the white chocolate. Hmph.

Espresso-White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes nine good-sized cookies

Ingredients

1 C spelt flour (all-purpose would work fine)
1/3 C high-quality cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 C brown sugar
2 T vegan sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
3 T nondairy milk
1 T instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp blackstrap or regular molasses (optional)
1/3 C white chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350˚ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (spelt flour through sea salt) and stir them a couple of times. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, add the sugars, molasses, and oil and mix until the sugars are moistened. Add the remaining ingredients except for the white chocolate chips and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and incorporate. The dough will be a bit sandy and might seem resistant to coming together, but work at it for a bit until you get a large ball. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Form dough into balls of about two tablespoons and flatten them slightly when your hands. Keep them an inch or so apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, until they just yield to the touch. Remove from oven, let them cool for a minute or two, and then transfer to baking rack (or just slide the parchment paper onto the counter if you’re lazy like me!). Enjoy!

A stack of five chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. In the background, a container of instant espresso powder and a glass of soymilk.

Helllooooo, cookies.

And with that photo, I’ll take my leave.

PANTRY DECIMATION TALLY:

  • Spelt flour: The majority of a bag (just a few tablespoons left!)
  • Cocoa: Finished a container (though I still have separate from the co-op…)
  • White chocolate chips: Finished the bag!
  • Frozen broccoli: Finished the bag (not in this recipe!)
  • Long-grain brown rice: Decimated my stash (same comment!)
  • Short-grain brown rice: Decimated my stash (same comment!)

Do you enjoy white chocolate? What’s your favorite cookie combination?