Last Day of MoFo

Hi all, and thanks for sticking with me through my attempt at MoFo this year. Given that I chose to sign up last minute leaving little time for planning, I had pretty low expectations for myself to continue posting throughout the month. I decided to set myself a target of 3 posts per week, though even that I was skeptical about being able to make. Well, now we’ve arrived at the end of the month and I’ve basically done it – 3 posts a week (except for this short week, d’oh!)

So I didn’t really plan a post for today that could fit in with the theme, so instead I’m going to link you back to a couple of cookie recipes from last MoFo. Because for the holidays, you can’t go wrong with cookies.

These are my great Nanna’s shortbread biscuits, veganised. You can find the recipe here. Along with gingerbread, shortbread always reminds me of Christmas. I love these dipped in dark chocolate with some sea salt, but I think some rosemary would be lovely too, or you could do what we did as kids and make little hollies out of red and green glace cherries.

Last MoFo I also made these hazelnut choc chip cookies. Hazelnut and chocolate are a match made in heaven, and while they are not particularly festive themed I would never turn my nose up at them at any time of year. I used aquafaba in these, but as I said in the original post, I am not sure how much of a difference it made. Perhaps I should try them without and compare.

Aaaand that’s about all I have – I really need to get some more cookie recipes going! Happy MoFo everyone! I’ve really enjoyed being involved again, and as I do each year I’ve discovered a bunch of new awesome blogs/instagrams. It’s also been great having the motivation to post somewhat consistently again, and while I definitely won’t be doing 3 posts per week from here on out, I hope to continue somewhat regularly. Let’s hope for irregularly regular posts hey? Until next time…peace out MoFo’s!

Hazelnut Choc Chip Cookies

I haven’t done much (read: any) experimenting with aquafaba until now, and I wouldn’t even say that this was very experimental, considering the meringue stuff that has been going on (SRSLY!). I did attempt a sponge cake in which I got to whip the aquafaba up and see it form peaks – a pretty amazing sight indeed. The sponge cake itself wasn’t what I had hoped, it was still dense rather than the light and fluffy I was going for. In these cookies, I had hoped the aquafaba would create this mad chewiness, but it didn’t happen to the extent I had intended. I don’t really think the aquafaba is even that necessary here. Regardless, these cookies are damn delicious.

What (insert well known person) would eat if they were vegan.

So who would I be feeding these delicious cookies to, you ask?

ZOMG! It’s Cookie Monster! Everyone knows Cookie Monster loves a good old choc chip cookie, but the addition of nuts suits his personality down to a T. I only hope he’s brought his cookie eating game cos we are getting pretty damn good and wolfing these babies down.

No seriously, blink and you will miss them.

Hazelnut Choc Chip Cookies
(makes about 28-32 cookies)

2/3 cup vegan butter
½ cup coconut sugar
¼ cup raw sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp chickpea juice
1 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ ts p baking powder
½ tsp bicarb soda
¾ tsp salt
¾ cup choc chips
½ cup hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 180, line a tray with baking paper. .

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars with electric beaters for a good couple of minutes. Add vanilla, chick juice and beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients except for choc chips and hazelnuts. Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine, before adding the rest along with the choc chips and hazelnuts and stirring to form a dough.

Taking heaps teaspoons, roll into balls then flatten into discs on the tray. Bake for 10-12 mins until bottoms slightly golden (on the shorter side for chewier cookies, longer for crispy). Allow to sit on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Nom nom nom nom…

Nanna James’ Shortbread

Today is going to be quick and simple as it is sunny outside and the banana lounge is calling.

Veganise an old family recipe.

I recall as a child Nanna James’ shortbread, or at least versions of it cooked by other family members. I would help at Christmas time cut little tiny pieces of red and green glacé cherries and arrange them into little hollies on top – some of my favourite memories.

After the retro recipe theme of the other week, I stumbled across Nanna’s handwritten recipe in the back of her CWA cookbook.

I did not do anything to change the shortbread itself (other than convert measurements and use vegan butter, oh, and add a dash of vanilla). Of course Nanna’s shortbread did not have chocolate and sea salt on top, but I thought I’d zazz it up a bit for MoFo. The shortbread itself is not super sweet, so the chocolate is a nice addition. If that’s not your thing, just leave it out.

I didn’t use cutters to shape these (obviously) as this is how we did it when I was little, unless we were rolling out Christmas shapes in which case you might see stars, hearts and trees. The little misshapen logs please me.

Nanna’s Shortbread
(makes about 24)

1½ cups vegan butter
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2½ cups flour
1 Tbsp cornflour
150g dark chocolate
Pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 180C and line a tray with baking paper.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with electric beaters. Add vanilla and beat to combine.

Add flour and cornflour, and rub with fingers until a dough is formed. Either roll out your dough and cut shapes if you swing that way, or simply mould little logs and place on the prepared tray. Use a fork to put a few pricks in the top.

Bake for approx 20 mins, or until slightly golden.

If using chocolate, melt chocolate over a double boiler and dip each shortbread in, then sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Raw Lime Coconut Cookies

Last night I had a bit of fun with the dehydrator, and as a result have a few new recipes to share with you – the first one being the title of this post – Raw Lime Coconut Cookies.

So far, apart from drying fruits basically as they are or turning them into fruit leather, most of my dehydrating has resulted in savoury goods – variations of crackers and cauliflower popcorn. As a result, I decided it was about time I came up with something sweet. Enter these babies.

These are SO simple to make, with only a handful of ingredients and minimal prep. The result is a delicious, zesty and healthy cookie. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Raw Lime Coconut Cookies
(makes about 15 cookies)

1 cup cashews (soaked for a couple of hours)
1 cup shredded coconut
2 Tbsp agave nectar (or other sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp lime zest
Pinch of salt
Paste from 1/2 vanilla bean (or vanilla extract)

Place cashews in a food processor, and process until they resemble course crumbs.

Add coconut and pulse until combined.

Add remaining ingredients and process until combined to form a soft ‘dough’. If they are too wet, add some more coconut. If you find the mix is too dry, try adding a little water or more lime juice.

Roll teaspoons of the mix into balls and place on a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet on it. Press each ball down to form a flat disc.

Dehydrate at 46C (115F) for 12-24 hours, depending on the texture you’d like. I did mine for about 15 hours, and they were nice and chewy.

Enjoy!