Lemon Bars

Lemon is my favorite flavoring for sweets, muffins, pies, cakes, or donuts. This is a my dairy free, gluten free, and vegan, verison of deliciousness.

Crust:

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 oatmeal
• 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, plus extra for pan

Filling:

• 1 large lemon
• 4 tablespoons flax seed meal
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup melted butter substitute, I used Earth Balance
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup gluten free oatmeal

Topping:

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a small bowl place flax seed meal and water, mix and let this become gel like in texture
3. In food processor, combine walnuts, coconut, and  oatmeal. Process until crumbly, add oil.
4. Lightly oil bottom and sides of a 8×8 cake pan. Press crust into bottom of pan.
5. Wash and cut lemon into smaller pieces, remove stem and take out seeds. 
6. Process lemon alone in food processor, peel and all, (not the stem or seeds), scrape down sides. Add melted butter process to incorporate. Add flax mixture, oatmeal, vanilla and sugar. Process until combined.
7. Once the mixture is completed pour over crust, smooth filling evenly over crust.
8. Bake 35 - 40 minutes, the entire top should have become a big bubble sheet, it will cool flat, no worries, the edges should be starting to brown.
9. Let cool to room temperature, about an hour. Before serving sift powdered sugar on top, the bars will absorb the sugar. 
10. Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Coconut Milk Caramels

I am in charge of buying candy when holidays come around, this is a nice perk for my husband, Steve, he is able to worry less about buying something that it turns out I cannot have.  This happened a few years ago, he bought what was a loving and thoughtful gift of candy, only to find out it made me ill, not all dark chocolates are dairy free. 

This recipe is what happens when your favorite caramels are $60 per 36 pieces, which isn't a horrible price, we have purchased these at least 4 times, they are really good. I just know that if I take the time, about 4 hours, I can make triple the amount for around $10. These freeze well, feel free to hide them in your freezer. If I can keep my paws off them, I have candy for holidays for the rest of the year.

Ingredients:

• 27.32oz of full fat coconut milk, two 13.66oz cans
• 2 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla 
• 8 - 10 oz dark chocolate, 85% cacao 
• Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Place a large sheet of parchment paper a 9x13 cake pan.
2. In a wide and tall pot attach candy thermometer, hovering off the bottom of the pan, my thermometer has a metal piece the keeps the thermometer off the bottom, super handy. I used a stock pot and it was more than big enough for this, if your pot is too small during cooking, turn off heat, use a larger pot, carefully moving contents to their new home.
3. Add coconut milk, sugar, maple syrup, water, and salt to pan.  Turn heat to medium high. With a long handled wooden spoon, stir mixture gently, combining ingredients.  The coconut milk fat will look like floating icebergs, once they melt it will look like watered down hot chocolate.
4. Stir occasionally to ensure the mixture is not burning to the bottom of the pan, boil until temperature reaches 240°F.  My batch took 25 minutes to get to 220°F, and another 5 minutes to get to 240°F.  During this time it changed from watery to thicker and more of a caramel color, this is when I feared burning candy on the bottom of the pan the most. You may even get small whiffs of burning caramel smell, I did, I was worried I had ruined my batch - not so - everything turned out fine.
5. Wait a few seconds, maybe 20 - 30 after 240°F before removing from heat, just don't let the mixture get too much hotter, try to stay under 245°F. I like a chewy caramel this kept these chewy and not super soft. I gave a good quick stir then turned off heat. 
6. Add vanilla, stirring to combine.  It will sizzle and smell wonderful.
7. Using a silicone spatula, quickly and carefully pour contents of pan into parchment lined cake pan. The caramels set rather quickly, if you take too long to scrape the pan out the caramels may have a discolored look and won't be uniform, I left the bulk of the pan scraping as bonus candies, I'll come back to that.
8. With the caramels in the cake pan cooling, gently level the pan out by slowly helping the caramels settle.  Set to cool somewhere on a kitchen towel - I left to cool on my counter but wanted to protect my counter from the residual heat. 
9. Let cool for at least 3 hours, pick up caramels using the parchment paper.  With a kitchen knife or shears cut caramels to size, I used both methods.  The blades will get coated with sugar and will dull, be ready to clean and dry blades.
10. In a ramekin, small Corning Wear baker or Pyrex glass bowl, add half of the chocolate bars.  Heat in microwave in 30 second intervals until melted, about 3 minutes.
11. Lay wax paper on a baking sheet that will fit in your fridge.
12. Using a fork drop one caramel at a time into the chocolate, flip to coat. While coated caramel is on fork, tap the inside of the chocolate bowl to gently ease off extra chocolate coating.  Then slide chocolate covered caramel on to wax paper to cool. 
13. Before chocolate sets add dusting of sea salt.  I would coat 3 - 5 pieces with chocolate then sea salt that small group.
14. Heat more chocolate as needed.
15. When the baking sheet is full, move to fridge to speed up chocolate setting. Lay out another sheet of waxed paper to continue chocolate coating; I needed two for this recipe.
16. Once chocolate coating is set, about 10 minutes in fridge, gently remove from waxed paper and store in container of choice.
17. I wrapped two groups of candies in freezer paper to keep in freezer for another time.  Chocolates have a 10 - 12 month freezer self life, just let them warm up at room temperature for a few hours before digging in.  
    

    

    It takes a long time to boil down - 30 minutes of gently stirring until I got to 240°F

    

    Salted and chewy caramels

    
    

    

    Happy Valentines Day!

Recipe adapted from: Every day vegan cooking

German Chocolate Baked Oatmeal

This is a baked custard like oatmeal with a surprising twist, German chocolate cake. You may bake in an 8×8 or 6 ramekins using this recipe or double this using a larger cake pan or add more ramekins.  The recipe is egg free and dairy free. Printable recipe here.

Main ingredients:

• 2 cups quick cooking oatmeal*
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/3 cups almond milk, unsweetened vanilla
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 4-5 tablespoons water
• 4 ounces baking chocolate
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 tablespoons canola oil

Topping:

• 1/2 teaspoon molasses
• 2 tablespoons butter substitute
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
• 2 tablespoons almond milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly oil baking dish of choice.
3. In a small bowl combine flax seed and water, stir and set aside. 
4. In a small bowl melt baking chocolate in microwave, 30 seconds at a time. Temper chocolate with 1/3 cup almond milk. Once chocolate is melted slowly add almond milk a tablespoon at a time, whisking after each additional tablespoon.
5. In a large bowl add oatmeal, sugar, salt, 3 cups almond milk, flax seed mixture, oil, and vanilla. Mix together using whisk. Then whisk in melted chocolate.
6. Ladle or pour into baking pan of choice.  If using full ramekins I highly suggest a parchment lined baking sheet to catch any drips or spills.
7. Bake 350°F 40 to 45 minutes.
8. While oatmeal is baking, in a small bowl combine molasses, sugar, corn starch, almond milk, and  butter, whisk to combine. Add pecans and coconut flake.
9. Remove oatmeal from oven, the tops oatmeal should be bubbly and raised uniformly. 
10.  Allow to cool before adding topping, it will melt.  Enjoy!

Easily use eggs in this recipe by substituting flax seed meal and 4-5 tablespoons of water for two eggs.

If you can have dairy feel free to use milk and butter.

*Steel cut oats or old fashioned oats may be used, just use 2 1/4 cups instead of quick cooking oats. 

In lieu of baking chocolate, look at cocoa powder tub for oil and powder conversion chart.

Vegan Baklava Baked Oatmeal

This recipe is vegan (eggs and honey have been substituted for flax seed meal and maple syrup, feel free to change recipe to what your needs are.) This is very much a custard like dessert fit for a breakfast. Oatmeal with flavor, depth and easily made for a crowd.  You may bake in a 8×8 or 6 ramekins using this recipe or double this using a larger cake pan or add more ramekins. Printable recipe here.

Main ingredients:

• 2 cups quick cooking oatmeal*
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons butter substitute, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/3 cups almond milk, unsweetened vanilla
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 4-5 tablespoons water
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Topping:

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter substitute, melted
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly oil baking dish of choice.
3. In a small bowl combine flax seed and water, stir and set aside.
4. In a large bowl add oatmeal, maple syrup, butter substitute, salt, almond milk, flax seed mixture, walnuts, and vanilla. Mix together using whisk.
5. Ladle or pour into baking pan of choice.  If using full ramekins I highly suggest a parchment lined baking sheet to catch any drips or spills.
6. Bake 350°F 40 to 45 minutes.
7. While oatmeal is baking, in a small bowl combine maple syrup, sugar, butter substitute, and cinnamon.
8. Remove oatmeal from oven, the tops oatmeal should be lightly browned and raised uniformly. Spoon maple sugar topping on oatmeal, using a back of a spoon gently and slowly move topping over all of oatmeal. Return to oven and bake for 5-7 minutes, the sugar will be bubbly and fully melted.
9.  Allow to cool slightly before digging in, the sugar topping will be very hot. Enjoy!

To make this non vegan, replace the flax seed and water with 2 eggs and replace maple syrup with honey.

*Steel cut oats or old fashioned oats may be used, just use 2 1/4 cups instead of quick cooking oats. 

The finished oatmeal

Baked and ready for topping

Ready to go back in oven to heat sugar nut topping

Ready to eat

Maple Pecan Baked Oatmeal Brulee

This is very much a creamy custard like dessert fit for a breakfast. Oatmeal with flavor, depth and easily made for a crowd.  You may bake in an 8×8 or 6 ramekins using this recipe or double this using a larger cake pan or add more ramekins. Printable recipe here.

Main ingredients:

• 2 cups quick cooking oatmeal*
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/3 cups almond milk, unsweetened vanilla
• 2 eggs 
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (or up to 1/2 cup)
• 2 teaspoons maple extract, or try vanilla

Topping:

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly oil baking dish of choice.
3. In a large bowl add oatmeal, maple syrup, salt, almond milk, eggs, pecans, and maple extract. Mix together using whisk.
4. Ladle or pour into baking pan of choice.  If using full ramekins I highly suggest a parchment lined baking sheet to catch any drips or spills.
5. Bake 350°F 40 to 45 minutes.
6. While oatmeal is baking, in a small bowl combine maple syrup and sugar.
7. Remove oatmeal from oven, the tops oatmeal should be lightly browned and raised uniformly. Spoon maple sugar topping on oatmeal, using a back of a spoon gently and slowly move topping over all of oatmeal. Return to oven and bake for 9 - 11 minutes, the sugar will be bubbly and fully melted.
8.  Allow to cool slightly before digging in, the sugar topping will be very hot. Enjoy!

*Steel cut oats or old fashioned oats may be used, just use 2 1/4 cups instead of quick cooking oats. 

Fill ramekins leaving space for expansion and topping.



Fresh out of the oven, so glad that I used a baking pan and parchment to bake the ramekins with

The maple topping looks so yummy