Homemade Vegan Dark Chocolate Truffles

Looking for a treat for your partner (or yourself!) this Valentine's Day? Last year I reviewed some tasty boxed vegan chocolates, and provided a Valentine's Day sugar cookie recipe. But if you'd like to make your own vegan chocolates? Check out this delicious vegan chocolate truffle recipe from Feed Your Awesome Machine.

Be forewarned--this recipe take some time--as you need to let the chocolate set overnight, or for at least 4 hours.

I made these for a party several months ago and they were a big hit!  They are delicious and chocolatey, with the coconut being barely detectable, despite the coconut oil and milk.

What You'll Need
10.5 oz high-quality dark chocolate (70% at least)
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp coconut oil*
About 8 oz. canned coconut milk
Dried coconut flakes and cocoa powder to cover the truffles.

What You'll Need to Do
Chop the chocolate into smallish chunks and place them in a large bowl with the coconut oil and salt. Bring the coconut milk to a boil on the stove and then pour it immediately over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is dissolved, and the ganache is smooth and thick.

Cover the mixture with cling film and let it set overnight (or for at least 4 hours).

After it has set, gather your dried coconut and cocoa powder. Place a handful or so of coconut in a shallow bowl or on a plate, and place a few tablespoons of cocoa powder in a different shallow bowl.

Wash your hands and dry them well. Remove the ganache from the fridge. Use a small measuring spoon to measure out your ganache--somewhere between a heaping teaspoon and shy of a tablespoon. Roll them into a ball in your hands as quickly as possible, so as to prevent heating the chocolate with your hands. Place them directly into either the coconut or cocoa, and roll around to coat. Continue until you've rolled all of the ganache into balls.

Wash and dry your hands before placing each truffle onto a serving plate. I highly recommend using candy wrappers, so as to prevent getting sticky chocolate fingers while eating these (though perhaps that isn't be such a bad thing?). Cover with cling film and place back into the fridge to firm up again. These will keep for up to 4 days--but they'll be gone long before then!

*Feed Your Awesome Machine calls for virgin coconut oil. I used refined coconut oil, and also had excellent results.

Vegetarian Dog Treats

If you're looking to give your dog a vegan or vegetarian treat, store-bought options can be a bit limited at times. You can always resort to making your own treats, of course, (our dog loves sweet potato treats) but that can be very time-consuming.

Enter Whimzees. I discovered these a while back, when looking for an alternative to Greenies, which contain gelatin (an animal by-product). Our dog is old, and can't really get the regular dental cleanings he used to receive (which require him to be sedated), so it's especially important that we have something he can chew on to help clean his teeth (and he sure loves them as well!).



Whimzees come in all sorts of whimsical shapes and sizes. The store I was at had some of their fun animal shapes, but I decided to start with the Stix to see if Max liked them. He most definitely did!

I went on their site, which says their products contain "no artificial ingredients, colors, flavors, preservatives, GMOs, gluten, or meat." Although it listed the ingredients as vegetarian-friendly, I know that companies sometimes ignore the use of animal by-products in these types of descriptions, so I contacted them myself. Here was their response: "Our WHIMZEES are made using limited, vegetable-based ingredients only, so all plant based. We do not use any animal products, animal byproducts or even plant by-products: in our efforts to create the healthiest, high-quality dog chews, we only use top quality, human food grade ingredients. The only thing we cannot confirm, is whether any non-vegetable fertilizers have been used when growing the ingredients for our WHIMZEES."



You can find Whimzees at Petco, Pet Supplies Plus, and Pet Valu, as well as many independent pet retailers (and, of course, on Amazon). They even make "toothbrushes" similar to the greenies--looking forward to getting those for our dog soon. And, if you want a more serious chew toy, they have some very adorable animal-shaped chews, and even make a veggie "ear"!

So check them out--your dog will thank you for it!

Summer!

Happy 4th of July!

Summer's here! And so am I! Sort of.... 

I know things have been very quiet over here on my blog post front--it's been a very busy time for me in my personal life, but I've been brewing on all kinds of great recipes I can't wait to share. I'm leaving the country for several weeks, but look forward to sharing some great recipe ideas upon my return!

In the meantime, why not help yourself to a cool beverage? You can check out some of my old favorites, like the Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana-Tofutti Cutie shake or some chilly basil lemonade.  Last summer I posted a different banana-berry shake, but you can give this one a try as well!

I just threw this together with what I had on hand, but in August I'll share some more creative concoctions with you!

Simple Banana-Berry Smoothie
Makes enough to fill 2 large glasses

What You'll Need
1 cup frozen strawberries
3/4 frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 cup orange juice
up to one cup almond milk
1 tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup, to sweeten to taste (optional)

What You'll Need to Do
Throw them in the blender, in the order listed, adding 3/4 cup almond milk and no sweetener to start. Blend, taste, and add more liquid or sweetener as desired.

See my previous entry for some smoothie Tips and Tricks!

PlantEaters Unite!

If you're on the vegan twitter-sphere you may have already heard about this app. But if you haven't (or if you have and haven't actually downloaded it yet!), you should check it out!*

PlantEaters contacted me a while back to ask if I would be interested in featuring some of my restaurant reviews on their app. I was really excited about this project, because I think it's a brilliant way for vegetarians and vegans (or those interested in eating a veg meal) to find a great meal, wherever they are (and whatever restaurant they might be going to!).

Here's how it works: you download the app (for free!) and you can use it to easily find restaurants in your area (or whatever area you'd like). Any restaurants that have been reviewed by a PlantEaters user will pop up with their brief description (and photo, if they included one) of a meal they've had at that restaurant. It takes the guess-work out of finding veg*n options at non-veg restaurants, and also highlights restaurants you may not have realized are veg*n.

The catch? Not much. I think the real trick will be user involvement. Especially if you live in a non-metropolitan area, getting on there and letting people know what the options are will really make this app worth using while people are on the go!

It is so super-easy to use. You just open the app, and it lists most of the restaurants in your surrounding area, and may already have some specific meals listed. If the restaurant or meal you want to review is not listed, it's simple to add, and literally takes a couple of seconds. Snap a shot on your phone of your meal (if you'd like), write a sentence or two about how it was, and you're done! Now your review can help others who are interested in eating a veg*n meal in your area, or at that specific restaurant.

And, they've just started featuring some restaurant reviews from veg*n bloggers, like me! It's a great way to instantly link to more information about the restaurant in which you're intrested.

So check it out! I'll be working on increasing my restaurant reviews, to include on the app (and on the blog!).

*Please note, the opinions in this article are my own, PlantEaters is not endorsing me in any way.

Sugar Cookies!

I don't remember particularly liking sugar cookies before I was vegan. They were okay. I'd eat them if they were offered, but I never really sought them out. Somehow, though, once I started baking vegan myself, I found myself craving them. I stumbled upon this recipe in one of my first vegan cookbooks, and over the last five years or so, it's become an old favorite.

One of the best things about sugar cookies is how fun (and easy) they are to shape and decorate.
So, whether you're in the mood for a Chanukah cookie...

Or some Star Wars fan fare...


(like a Millenium Falcon)


(or a tie fighter or x-wing)


...you can pretty much shape them into just about anything you want!


For Valentine's Day, they're a pretty easy go-to. I acquired some heart cookie cutters a while (possibly several years) ago with the intention of making some Valentine's Day cookies, but didn't quite get around to breaking them out until this year. Better late than never!


I had a real decorating bonanza!

But enough about me...on to the cookie recipe!

Vegan Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Joy of Vegan Baking
What You'll Need:
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Egg replacer plus warm water (equivalent of 1 egg)*
1 tsp vanilla extract

What You'll Need to Do:
Sift together flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.

Beat the non-dairy butter and the sugar with an electric hand (or stand) mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Combine egg replacer of choice with appropriate amount of water and mix together in a small bowl. Add this "egg" mixture, along with the vanilla extract, to the butter mixture and beat another minute. Add the flour mixture and beat for another three minutes or so, until you have a nice, homogenous mixture.

Divide dough in half, roll each half into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about an hour, until firm.

When the dough is ready, cover two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F. Remove one ball of dough from the refrigerator and roll out onto a floured surface. Roll dough about 1/4-inch thick, and then cut to the desired shape. Place on prepared cookie sheets, and then place the cookie sheet in the fridge for another 15 minutes to chill the dough prior to baking.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on thickness), until they just begin to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.



Once cool, decorate away!

*Tips and Tricks
I am not usually a fan of out-of-the-box egg replacer; I find it can taste a bit chalky and make things a bit dry. In the case of this recipe, however, I have to say it is not a problem! I have used both Bob's Red Mill egg replacer and Ener-G Egg replacer with great success. They require slightly different amounts of powder and water to substitute for an egg, however, so read directions and use accordingly. If you don't mind a slight change in texture, I imagine flaxseeds or chia seeds might work well, too!

Feel free to make these cookies all different sizes, as I've done here! Just be sure to bake similar sizes together, as smaller cookies will bake faster.



These were the thinnest I'd ever made these cookies. They were a bit thinner than 1/4-inch. This makes for crispier cookies. I think I actually prefer them thicker, but this was a good experiment, and they're certainly still tasty! Thickness of your sugar cookie is all about personal preference.

If you want to decorate your cookies using the techniques below, all you need is some vegan chocolate.

Vegan Cookie-Decorating Chocolate
What You'll Need:
1 cup vegan chocolate chips (I used a combination of white chocolate chips, tinted pink, and dark chocolate chips)
one or two small plastic baggies, with a small corner cut out of each (depending on the number of colors you're using, and if you want to decorate with fine lines and squiggles!)
vegan sprinkles, optional*

What You'll Need to Do:
Put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on high for 1 minute. After 1 minute, remove from the microwave and stir thoroughly with a fork, really pressing down on the softened chips as much as you can. Return to the microwave for another 30 seconds and stir thoroughly again. At this point, the chocolate should be completely melted. If not, continue to heat in 15 second intervals until melted, stirring thoroughly after each additional interval. Be very careful not to overheat, as this will cause the chocolate to seize and make it very difficult, if not impossible, to work with!

Once the chocolate is melted, you can dip your cookies in it, or use the back of a spoon or knife to spread it on to the surface. Then, spoon remaining chocolate into the corner of a prepared plastic baggie. With a very small hole in the corner cut out, you can use this to apply the chocolate as a line. Have fun with it and don't sweat it if you're not an artistic genius--outlining the shapes you've made, and sticking with squiggles and zig-zags is a good way to start!

Be sure to let it dry for a while. You can either put the cookies in the fridge, or just let them air out. Just keep in mind that if you're applying everything quite thickly, it could take a while for them to completely set. You'll be able to tell they've set once the surface sheen disappears and they appear matte (in the pictures above and below the white chocolate is starting to dry, but the dark chocolate is still quite wet!).

*If you're looking for some decorations that you're sure are vegan, I like "Sprinkelz" They're vegan, gluten-free, and they get their color from sources like turmeric and red cabbage!



Enjoy!

If this whole project seems a bit much, but you'd still like some vegan Valentine's Day ideas, you can check out my entry on chocolate-covered strawberries, or try a box of vegan chocolates!

Vegan Boxes of Chocolates

I really wanted some vegan chocolates this year. And I'd planned to make some, too. I'd been checking out all of the great-sounding vegan truffle recipes out there, figuring out my own spin...and then, I ran out of time. So I did some more searching online, and quickly found out that one of my favorite online vegan food suppliers (veganstore.com) offers a lot of different vegan chocolate options!

I was like a kid in a candy store! I ended up going with the 25-Piece Belgian Dark Chocolate Gift Assortment (they also offer a 16-piece assortment), and a box of gourmet peanut butter truffles (for my boyfriend). The 25-piece box contains ganaches and fruit and coffee creams, hazelnut praline, marzipan, chocolate cordial cherries, among others. They are delicious!


25-piece belgian dark chocolate gift assortment, from veganstore.com


Can't wait to try them all!

Pushcart Coffee: Vegan Options in Gramercy

Pushcart Coffee opened up in the Gramercy area (on the northeast corner of 21st St and 2nd Ave) not too long ago, and it's a really great neighborhood coffee shop, that places importance on the local  community. It's also a nice little cafe--not overly-crowded, but often quite busy. They occasionally host events like writers' groups and musical performances. While I'd stopped in for tea or coffee occasionally (they offer soy, almond, or coconut milk at all of their locations), I'd never tried any of their food until last week.

As I perused the pastries, a vegan muffin stood out to me. I decided to give it a try, and I was glad that I did! I'm always hesitant about places that only serve a few vegan baked goods; I'm often so disappointed at how dry or dense they can be when not properly executed. Not the case here! This was a very hearty muffin--packed with oats and fresh blueberries, and a good amount of banana, which gives it a moist, thick texture that's hearty but not overly heavy.

They also introduced a vegan noodle and herb soup a few weeks ago!

If you're ever in the neighborhood, I'd definitely stop on by and check it out!

They also have a location in Chelsea, on West 25th St (between 9th and 10th Ave).