Vegan Circus Animal Cookies

Some time ago I found a recipe for vegan circus animal cookies during an aimless stroll on Pinterest. They've been on my mind ever since, so when I found myself near Food Fight!, I made sure to pick up a bag of white chocolate chips*.

I modified the shortbread recipe a bit by replacing 1/3 cup of the flour with coconut flour, adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and pouring in a splash of almond milk to get the right consistency. Sadly, I do not have any tiny animal cookie cutters, but I do have a tiny star cookie cutter. Day saved.

After reading the warning about food coloring in the recipe, I decided to forgo trying to make any pink cookies. That was a good idea, because while attempting to simulate a double-boiler to melt the chips, I got a little water into the mix and the chocolate instantly went thick and grainy and unsuitable for coating a cookie. On my second attempt, I ditched the double-boiler idea and joyously dunked all the cookies into the melty coating and sprinkled some dreary-colored sprinkles onto them.

After popping the cookies into the fridge for a bit, my guy and I dug in. And while they probably wouldn't fool anyone in a side-by-side taste test with Mother's brand, they win at being awesome and delicious.

*Not a health food. ;)

VeganMoFo #18: Fig Bars

Figs are falling from the fig tree. Time to make everything fig-related! Tonight I baked whole wheat fig bars from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They're a nice, not-too-sweet evening treat.

 Lots of recipes, including this one, call for dried figs, but I've been cheating with fresh ones with no ill effects. I cut off the stems of all the figs, cut them in half, and put them face-down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet (with lip to avoid fig juice spillage). Then I pop them in the oven at 150-200 degrees for a couple hours. They get wrinkly and juicy and discolored. I then chop them up and use them however the recipe says to, omitting some or all of the liquid the recipe calls for as I see fit.

Now I need to find more uses for figs! I think I'll make jam with them next.

VeganMoFo #17: Almond Milk

Continuing on the theme of making things at home that I would normally buy, I whipped up a batch of almond milk today. There's not much to it. Soak a cup of almonds overnight, blend it with three cups of water, strain out the ground almonds. Enjoy almond milk that has just two ingredients.

I like the almond-y aroma. And that the leftover almond meal can be saved to use for something else.

I think I'll use some of the fresh almond milk to make hot cocoa on the woodstove tonight!

VeganMoFo #16: Figgy Apple Hand Pies

And just like that, the weekend's over! It was a busy one. Yesterday was spent in Estacada at Out to Pasture Sanctuary's work day. It was my first, but certainly not last, time there. We arrived a little early so we could get a tour and meet the animals, and then we got to work on pulling nails out of some old lumber so it could be burned without the chance of a horse, llama, or donkey stepping on a nail. The pile of wood we were working on was in the goat pen, so Nellie (one of the goats) kept us company and tried to help. I love that place and all the sweet animals. The caretakers there are who I want to be when I grow up.

Today involved taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get some things done outside. For example, cutting a pile of tree limbs into wood stove size pieces.

Busy weekends need calm finales, so tonight I used figs and apples right from our yard to bake figgy apple hand pies. They're so good! The recipe's from Vegan Pie in the Sky (as usual). They're like warm, appley fig newtons. I was skeptical about being able to eat them with your bare hands, but it works. Look, Ma, no fork!