Refine your homemade dunk game with this vegan vanilla hazelnut biscotti recipe.

I’m so used to seeing biscotti as a takeaway at coffee shops that I’ve long assumed  they were a gourmet item I’d be unable to match in my own kitchen. Surprisingly, biscotti are quite easy to make and even more exciting when you can control the ingredients you use. This dreamy biscotti recipe is free of butter, eggs, and dairy, making it an animal-friendly complement to your morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Biscotti are Italian biscuits that originate from the city of Prato. They are twice baked, which is part of why they bare such a crunchy and dry texture, necessary traits so that they can dip into your tea or coffee without immediately crumbling and melting away. They hold their own! Traditionally, biscotti are dipped into wine, but these days, they’ve become the perfect friend to hot caffeinated beverages.

This vegan vanilla hazelnut biscotti recipe tastes and feels traditional, only it is infused with hazelnut extract and chia seeds. I have not tried yet to health-ify the recipe even more by replacing the white flour and granulated sugar, but feel free to experiment (at your own risk!).

Vegan Vanilla Hazelnut Biscotti Recipe

Makes 20-25

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons of chia seeds + 2/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon hazelnut extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, stir the chia seeds into the water and let sit for two to three minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, hazelnuts, and salt. Add the chia seed “eggs” to the dry mixture and mix until combined.

Scoop the mixture onto a floured surface, divide it into two parts, and use your floured hands to work with half of the mixture at a time. Roll each dough half into a log. Place both logs onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Press down on them until they reach half-inch thickness. Bake for ten minutes before flipping the pan and baking for ten minutes more.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the logs on a cutting board. Slice along the length of the log, leaving a one-inch distance between each slice. Place the biscotti, cut side up, back onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Let the biscotti cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

Related on EcoSalon
Sweet Potato Bacon Biscuits Recipe
Vegan Whole-Wheat Biscuits Recipe with Jam
Vegan This: Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

The post Dreamy Vegan Vanilla Hazelnut Biscotti With Chia appeared first on EcoSalon.

Going gluten-free doesn’t mean you have to give up holidays treats!

The holidays can be difficult for those with food allergies and sensitivities and those following specific diets because the sweetest time of the year is also synonymous with gluten-filled treats.

And while all those tasty treats are what make the season brighter for many, you don’t have to opt out entirely or stick to the fruit plate. It is possible to celebrate the holidays while avoiding gluten.

Don’t believe us about satisfying gluten-free holiday treats? Read on for some delectable gluten-free desserts, snacks, and cookies that will make even the most diehard gluten eater do a double take.

Gluten-Free Holiday Treats

1. Cookie Cutter Cookies – The holidays wouldn’t seem complete without cut-out cookies. Not only just for the sweet and buttery taste but for the art and practice of decorating these fun holiday treats.
2. Meringue Treats – Individual meringue cookies are not only tasty but beautiful, too. They also look impressive and are sure to make an impression at your holiday parties. Plus, there are only two ingredients–can’t beat that.
3. Gingerbread Cookies – Now you don’t have to make it through the holidays without gingerbread cookies. This satisfying recipe calls for rice flour instead of wheat flour.
4. No-Bake Nutella Cookies – What is better than gluten-free treats? No-bake treats made with Nutella that’s what!
5. Almond Flour Brownies – And for something sure to please the chocolate lovers among you, try these almond flour brownies
6. Pecan Brittle – Nut brittles are perfect if you are avoiding gluten. There’s absolutely no flour involved!
7. Gluten-Free Cheesecake – Try a cheesecake as a real showstopper this holiday season. Sweet, lovely and gluten-free–it doesn’t get much better than that.

Related on EcoSalon

Gluten-Free Vegan Apple Cider Donut Recipe
Sugar and Gluten-Free Mini Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars: Decadence Meets Figure-Friendly
Is Being Gluten-Free Dumb or Not? Foodie Underground

Peanut Butter Cookies Image

The post 7 Crowd-Pleasing Gluten-Free Treats for the Holidays appeared first on EcoSalon.

15 Christmas cookie recipes, and a few classic candies, that are all vegan-friendly.

Just like Halloween candy, there are plenty of Christmas treats that are easy to make vegan versions of at home, which means you don’t have to miss out on gingerbread, and all the other seasonal delights. And even if you’re not vegan, your vegan friends will be happy that you made them a range of tasty holiday sweets.

1. Sugar Cookies

Would it be Christmas without a round of baking out sugar cookies? Hardly. Which is why you should put these on your holiday baking list.

2. Peppermint Patties

Like a candy cane dunked in chocolate. And these ones happen to be no-bake.

3. Rum Balls

Made with walnuts, these are a creative twist on the holiday classic.

4. Thumbprint Cookies

With a center of jam, these cookies always look festive on a holiday platter, this time made with a base of roasted almonds.

5. Muddy Buddies

Also known as puppy chow, this classic Christmas candy is a party staple that’s a sweeter version of chex mix. Make it with dark chocolate, coconut oil and a dash of cardamom for good measure and you have a sweet treat that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser.

6. Pfeffernusse

This German gingerbread – “pfeffernusse” translates to “pepper nuts” – is spicy and full of the rich flavor of molasses.

7. Fruitcake

While many people joke about it, this rum infused one is sure to be dense, moist and hard to pass up.

8. Soft Ginger Cookies

Big, candied ginger filled cookies paired with a hot mug of tea? You’ll never want December to end.

9. Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Crinkle cookies are fun because of how they look. It’s hard not to want to bite in.

10. Raspberry Filled Butter Cookies

Essentially a tasty gluten-free and vegan shortbread filled with raspberry jam. Yes, please.

11. Gingerbread Cookies

This mostly raw version gets all the gingerbread spices into one simple and tasty cookie.

12. Fudge

Vegan fudge? Oh yes, it can be done, and with only five ingredients you will probably be making several batches.

13. Florentines

This delicate and crispy almond cookie (which is vegan and gluten-free) is laced with chocolate and infused with orange zest.

14. Snickerdoodles

Topped with cinnamon, this a good go-to cookie that almost everyone loves, and in a vegan version, even more people will love it!

15. Raw Vegan Egg Nog

You have to have something to go with your cookies after all, right?

Related on EcoSalon:

8 Vegan Substitutions for the Most Common Kitchen Ingredients

20 Unusual Ways to Use Cinnamon

Vegan Peanut Butter Bars

Image: mnolte, Anna Brones, Jennifer Barckley, VeganBaking.net

The post 15 Vegan Christmas Cookie Recipes (and Other Treats) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fresh from the farm and the oven, these cookies make for a perfect picnic tea time.

Mmm. It’s a sound that echoes across rows of raspberries, as red-stained pickers, like me, hover over plants plucking by the pint. A few days later, “mmm” resonates around my kitchen while whisking up a batch of raspberry jam and then, Raspberry Butter Cookies. As the smell of buttery (vegan) baked goodness, mixed with fresh raspberries wafts through my New York City apartment, I feel transported to the farm upstate where we gathered these sweet red jewels. And I imagine myself a homesteader—baking not just for the sheer pleasure of it, but for the sake of letting nothing that I grew go to waste.

I’m normally not one to cook farm fresh berries or take them out of their whole berry goodness, for fear of tainting them in some unknown way. But, when our Foodie Underground columnist presented a recipe for sweet and simple jam, all fearful feelings of berry destruction went out the door. And, when I considered the nutritional benefits of raspberries (which seem to stay largely intact through this jam making process—as indicated by its brightly retained red color), I ran out of excuses. Rich in vitamin C and fiber, raspberries, according to a study, possess almost 50% higher antioxidants than strawberries, three times that of kiwis and ten times the activity found in tomatoes.

So, guilt can go out the back door. After all, it’s summer. Eat it up. Raspberries, butter cookies and all.

The Original – Raspberry-Filled Butter Cookies
from Lost Recipes Found

Ingredients

• 3 cups sifted flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons half-and-half
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2/3 cup raspberry jam

The Vegan & Gluten-Free Version – Raspberry-Filled Butter Cookies
Makes approximately 3 dozen

Ingredients – Raspberry-Filled Butter Cookies

• 3 cups gluten-free flour blend:
• (1 cup sorghum flour)
• (1/2 cup brown rice flour)
• (1/2 cup white rice flour)
• (1/2 cup tapioca flour)
• (1/4 cup almond flour)
• (1/4 cup garbanzo flour)
• (2 teaspoons xanthan gum)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter (I used Earth Balance Coconut Spread and omitted the ½ teaspoon salt, since most vegan butters come with salt included)
• ¾ cup sugar
• Egg substitute for 1 egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons warm water, whisked together)
• 2 tablespoons cashew nut milk (or another rich, dairy free milk of your choice)
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 2/3 cup raspberry jam (see recipe below)

Ingredients – Raspberry Jam

• 2 cups raspberries
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 ½ cups sugar (add to taste)
• 1 vanilla bean pod (or 2 tablespoons vanilla extract)

Directions – Butter Cookies

1. Sift together the gluten free flours with baking powder (and salt, if adding). Set aside
2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the egg substitute, dairy free milk and vanilla.
3. Blend in the dry ingredients.
4. Divide the dough into two balls, and flatten into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for an hour, or until ready to bake, in the refrigerator.
5. Preheat oven to 400°F
6. Spread one large piece of plastic wrap on the counter, and place one of the dough disks in the center.
7. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap, and using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to approximately 1/16 of an inch (not too thick but still manageable.)
8. Remove the top plastic wrap, and using a donut cutter or a linzer cookie cutter, dip the cutter in flour (if the dough sticks to it) and cut out an even number of plain rounds as donut/linzer rounds.
9. Transfer the cookies to cookie sheets.
10. Bake for 5 – 8 minutes (or longer if you prefer crunchier cookies).
11. Remove from the pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.
12. Place a small amount of the raspberry jam (directions for jam, below) in the center of each of the plain rounds (the cookie bottom). Top with the cut-out cookie and carefully press together.
13. Enjoy!

Directions – Raspberry Jam

1. Place the raspberries and water in a saucepan.
2. If adding a vanilla bean, cut the pod in half, scrape out the seed and add both the seeds and pod to the saucepan.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir continuously so it doesn’t burn.
4. Stir in the sugar and let simmer for another 3-5 minutes until the jam thickens.
5. Take out the vanilla pod, and pour the jam into glass jars. Leave to cool.
6. Store in the refrigerator until ready to enjoy!

Author Jennifer Barckley picking summer fresh raspberries in Hudson, New York.  

The post Vegan This: Gluten-Free Raspberry-Filled Butter Cookies appeared first on EcoSalon.

Flourless, sweet and salty goodness.

Short on time and ingredients? These gluten free cookies are as easy as a jar of peanut butter sitting in your pantry and an egg in the refrigerator. They can also be made quick enough that you can have them finished before your morning coffee break (no really, we tried it), and the end result is a perfect combination of sweet and salty.

Ingredients

• 1 cup crunchy, salted peanut butter
• 1/3 cup organic turbinado sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Directions

In a bowl, combine egg, sugar and vanilla extract. Add in peanut butter and chocolate chips and stir together.

Scoop out about a tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Place on greased baking sheet and flatten carefully with a fork.

Bake at 350F for 12-16 minutes.

Let sit for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Every month on Sunday Recipe, we bring you a new theme of recipes, perfect for whipping up on a Sunday. For April it’s all about food that’s easy to travel with, perfect for your spring outings. Enjoy!

Images: Anna Brones

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A healthier version of a classic batch of cookies.

It’s January. You’re cold, you need comfort food, and wouldn’t it be nice if the kitchen smelled good, too?

If you have been finding yourself in the mood to hunker down with a plate of something sweet and fatty, you’re not alone. As Evelyn Tribole, RD says, “It’s a survival mechanism. You don’t want to kill for a piece of broccoli, but you’d kill for a piece of bread.”

But the better part of you really wants to be craving broccoli, because you know better than to succumb to the urge of eating an entire chocolate cake. Tempting, but there are better options. Like gluten free Buckwheat Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies.

No, you cannot eat an entire plate of them – and you will be tempted – but the sugar content is minimal, they have healthy flours and your kitchen will smell good. Winter problems solved. Start baking.

Buckwheat Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 2 cups rolled oats (certified GF if you need them to be)
• 1 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (organic of course!)
• 1/4 cup currants
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar. Add in egg and pumpkin.

Mix together flour, xantham gum, baking soda, baking powder and spices.

Combine with pumpkin batter then stir in oats, currants and chocolate chips.

Roll into small balls and place on greased baking sheets.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

You can always eat broccoli tomorrow.

Image: Anna Brones

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I rarely regret voicing my opinion, but in the time since what I deemed an enlightened cupcake rant went to press, my father has taken it upon himself to send me every possible card, photo, and present that relates to the still-trendy dessert. Case in point: on a recent visit, he showed up at my apartment practically exploding with giddiness, which is something to behold from a bearded man of 6’4″. He handed me a wine bottle wrapped in pastel-colored cupcake wrapping paper. The content, shockingly enough, was a wine bottle from Cupcake Vineyards. My father found this hilarious.

Personal opinion aside, foodies concur, cupcakes are so last year. There are plenty of foodie forward replacement options, from chic and cosmopolitan to straight-out-of-the-family-reunion category. And they’re all giving cupcakes a run for their money.

1. Cookies on a string

In San Francisco, you can buy cookies straight out of a window. Fat Cookies entices its consumers with cookies in a paper bag, delivered by a dangling string. Now that’s the coolest bakery concept I’ve seen in awhile.

2. Pie By Bike

It’s fitting that Piecycle, just like Fat Cookie, doesn’t have an actual website. Just a Facebook page and Twitter stream – the marketing tools of guerilla foodies. It’s simple really: $3 for a slice and $20 for a whole pie, all delivered in the wee hours of the weekend, via two wheels in the University District of Seattle. Piecycle is certainly taking advantage of the late night sweet tooth – much like Voodoo Doughnuts of Portland, Oregon – but it’s also combining the two loves of 20-something urbanites: DIY food and bikes. It’s a match made in flaky, fruity heaven. And if you’re not into the whole bike delivery thing, there’s always the pop-up pie variety.

3. Macarons

They’re French and they’re fabulous (and shown at top). In fact, some might say they’re a little bourgeois, but at a handful of pocket change a pop, macarons aren’t limited to the upper echelons of foodie society. There are cafes devoted to them, whole books written about them and, just like cupcakes, with their flavor variations and transportable size, they’re the dessert that can fit every occasion, from weddings to picnics in the park.

4. Cake Pops

It’s almost a cupcake. But not. And they’re everywhere. Apartment Therapy thinks they’re cool. I’m currently attempting a creative, organic, non high-fructose corn syrup version (check back for that in a couple of weeks). If you’re new to cake pops, they’re just that: cake batter rolled in frosting and turned into what looks like a lollipop. The new cupcake? With cake pop focused businesses popping up all over the place, you better believe it.

5. The -frees

Kick the sugar habit and get on the healthy train. Trust us, everyone is doing it. Seems like every week here at EcoSalon we’ve got another recipe packed with antioxidants and Omega-3s, and if there’s anything that cupcakes can’t do, it’s be good for you. Which is why healthier desserts are on the up and coming list. Think dark chocolate covered kale chips.

There’s a reason gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free and other “free” bakeries and patisseries are taking off. It’s not just for those who have food allergies or adhere to certain culinary lifestyles. Many of these foods are better for you and the planet, and people are eating them willingly. Take Sweetpea in Portland, which always seems to be serving a salivating crowd. A girl still needs a recipe heavy in eggs, cream and butter once in awhile. But when alternatives abound we can go much farther than the standard cupcake, and that will please any foodie.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, taking a conscious look at what’s bubbling in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: bloggyboulga, sandwichgirl, Piecycle, imcountingufoz, sweetpea baking co

The post Foodie Underground: The Replacements appeared first on EcoSalon.

I recently read somewhere that chocolate chip cookies are the top cookies in America. Now, I used to be in the “It’s not a cookie unless it’s a chocolate chip cookie” camp, but I’ve come around.

Oatmeal cookies are so much healthier and they have such a nice combination of chewiness and crunchiness. You can substitute any type of dried fruit you like in the quantities given below. (If you’re using large pieces, chop first and then measure.) And if you just can’t help yourself, you could even throw in some chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Harvest Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup currents
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and salt. Whisk to combine.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined.

With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture until just combined. Fold in the almonds, oats, raisins, currents and cranberries.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and firm on top.

Image: indigotimbre

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