Vegan & Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now you'll have to forgive me for posting almost the same recipe as my last post but I've developed a gluten-free version of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and these are SO good I had to get this recipe up right away :-) Recently my husband has been suspecting gluten, or at least wheat, is possibly causing him some problems. I've been having fun adapting recipes and making gluten-free meals at dinner but I also knew I had to make those cookies gluten-free for him. I mean they JUST came into our lives!!

I am so happy with how these turned out, I suspect no one would guess these are vegan let alone gluten-free. Now I don't have a lot, or any, experience with gluten-free baking but hey - these worked! I've simply swapped the flour with a mixture of gluten-free oat flour and cornstarch here and that's all they needed. The oats give a great oatmeal cookie kind of flavour which goes wonderfully with the peanut butter and chocolate. As you can see, I've also crammed these cookies with the highest possible amount of chocolate chips that could fit in there! Of course, you can always reduce them but I'm not sure why you would want to do that - ha! ;-)

~ Recipe Notes ~

• It's essential you use certified gluten-free oats or oat flour here, regular oats are not gluten-free. 

• For the oat flour I simply made my own by blending gluten-free oats in my fab Optimum 9400 Blender. It took seconds. You can buy gluten-free oat flour but I would assume my way is a lot cheaper.

• I used regular smooth peanut butter - the type with added sugar and salt here.

• As mentioned above - there are a LOT of chocolate chips in these, if you prefer less simply halve the amount. They'll still taste great :-)

• My vegan butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips were all naturally gluten-free but of course, do check your labels.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Yields 12 cookies

3 Tbsp vegan butter (45g)
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter (80g)
1½ Tbsp light brown sugar
1½ Tbsp white sugar
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup gluten-free oat flour (60g)
2 Tbsp cornstarch (cornflour in UK/IRE)
1/8 tsp salt
¼ tsp gluten-free baking powder
1 Tbsp water
½ cup vegan dark chocolate chips (100g)

Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

In a small bowl whisk together the oat flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder.

In a larger bowl beat the butter and peanut butter together until really smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and well mixed, beat in the vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture with the water and mix until it all comes together. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Take about a heaped tablespoon of the dough and using your hands squeeze and roll into a smooth ball then place it on the baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough is used, you should get  12 cookies. 

Using your hand, gently press down on each ball just to flatten slightly then use a potato masher to gently press down again so you get a design on top and they go a little more flat but don't over press!

Pop them into the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are just turning lightly golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the tray for 10 minutes to firm up. Now transfer them to a wire rack to cool (or eat them while nice and warm!)

♥

Nutritional Information: per cookie (with the full amount of chocolate chips)

Calories: 139

Protein: 2.5g

Fat: 8.3g

Sat Fat: 1.3g

Fibre: 1.2g

Carbs: 8.9g

Sugar: 8.9g

Sodium: 67.7mg

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was one of those recipes that came out of utter desperation - a sudden crazy craving for peanut butter cookies! I've always loved a good peanut butter cookie, it was always one of my go-to cookie recipes when I was a child - yes, baking at a young age I was :-) 

Here I decided to throw in some chocolate chips for obvious yum reasons and I am so happy with the outcome; seriously one of the best PB cookies I've had, vegan or not! Perfect texture and flavour, dead simple and ready in no time....yay! Hope you like them :-)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Yields 12 cookies

¼ cup vegan butter, softened
¼ cup smooth peanut butter
¼ cup caster or granulated sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup + 2 Tbsp plain flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ heaping cup vegan chocolate chips (50g)

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and peanut butter until well mixed. Add the sugars and vanilla and beat until well mixed and slightly fluffy. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon until no more flour shows then stir in the chocolate chips. The mixture should look slightly crumbly by hold together if you give it a squeeze.

Take about tablespoons full of the mixture and squeeze and roll into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, you should get about 12 cookies here. Now take a potato masher and give each one a gentle stamp just to flatten slightly - don't take your frustrations out on them here and pound them into oblivion :-) Just a little stamp down!

Pop them in the oven and bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown, especially around the edges. Remove from the oven, they will be soft so leave them on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool. 

Note: the 2 missing cookies here were NOT from me being an impatient greedy so and so. Sadly 2 slid off the tray and straight on the floor when I was moving the tray - oh the humanity!

Now, I just slide the baking paper with the cookies onto my wire rack. Let cool slightly and either enjoy warm with melty chocolate loveliness or wait until they are fully cool. Lovely with a glass of ice cold almond milk :-)

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 cookie out of 12

Calories: 132
Fat: 6.5g
Sat Fat: 1.2g
Protein: 2.0g
Fibre: 0.8g
Carbs: 14.5g
Sugar: 10.7g
Sodium: 134mg

You Might Also Like:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal
Sandwich Cookies

White and Dark Chocolate
Chunk Cookies

Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Guys, this was absolutely gorgeous!! A "buttery" shortbread cookie crust lined with chocolate, filled with a punchy orange almond filling and drizzled with a beautiful dark chocolate ganache. Phew! This would make an ideal treat for Mother's Day coming up this Sunday here in Ireland and the UK. In fact my own mother-in-law loved this so much she booked one for an upcoming do she is hosting (and no one there will be vegan!) 

I was inspired by several recipes here, initially I have based this on BBC Good Food's Orange Chocolate Tart - I loved the idea of lining the pastry base with a brushing of melted chocolate and letting it set. A great idea to stop your filling making the base soggy AND adding some wonderful flavour to boot!

Their filling was filled with eggs and cream and all that so instead I based the filling on my own recipe, the Summer Berry Almond Cheesecake Tart - which in turn is actually based on the Almond Feta recipe!! See how versatile that thing is?? Thankfully, it turned out perfect, just the right amount of filling for the pan, great texture and spot on orange flavour. It's the easiest filling in the world to make as well, simply throw it all in a blender and blitz, pour it in the prepared case and bake. Simple.

The Good Food recipe base was a type of pastry and I debated for awhile what I was going to do but opted in the end to make a shortbread cookie base. I veganized the Joy of Baking's recipe for this and it turned out wonderfully! Light and a little flaky but holds together perfectly and a great buttery flavour which goes perfect with the filling and chocolate. Much better than using pastry. I also used her tip for freezing the base before baking which cuts out the awkward step of blind baking - brilliant.

Lastly, I wanted to drizzle the top of this tart with dark chocolate, something the recipe I based this on didn't do. I was going to just melt chocolate and drizzle it on but then you do end up with hard chocolate on top which shatters upon slicing which I wanted to avoid. So I went with a ganache style chocolate sauce instead. For this I also used a recipe on BBC Good Food from another Chocolate Orange Tart recipe they have. It's simply 70% dark chocolate, cream (I used soy) and golden syrup. This was amazing!! Great flavour and perfect consistency. It makes extra as well so it's nice to serve the tart with more of the sauce on the side if people would like more. It is rich however and really you don't need much of it.

Altogether this is a wonderful dessert, perfect for guests vegan and non-vegan alike (which I can confirm!). Hope you like it as much as we all did....♥

Dark Chocolate Orange Tart

Yields one 8 - 9 inch (20 - 23 cm) Tart (or about 12 slices depending on how big a slice you like!)

Shortcrust Base:
1 cup (130 grams) flour
1/3 cup (35 grams) icing sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) vegan butter

For the Filling:
2¼ cups / 225g ground almonds (almond meal)
75g vegan butter, melted (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)
1/8 tsp salt
½ tsp orange extract
Zest of 1 navel orange – ½ Tbsp
200ml strained freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup/150g golden caster sugar

100g dark chocolate, chopped (I used 51% cocoa solids here)

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache Drizzle:
85g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100ml soy cream
2 Tbsp golden syrup

First, you will need to freeze the vegan butter into little blobs. This will help make it firmer, more like real butter and help the texture. Measure out the butter then drop teaspoonfuls onto a sheet of baking or parchment paper on top of a chopping board or plate. Place this in the freezer for about an hour. They don't have to be completely frozen, just firmer and nice and chilled.
Tip the butter into a food processor with all the other ingredients and process until it looks crumbly and is just starting to come together.

Lightly spray a non-stick 8 - 9 inch (20 - 23 cm) tart pan with a removable bottom. Tip the crumbly dough into the tart pan and using a piece of cling film around your hand press the dough into the pan and up the sides. This is fiddly and will take awhile, be patient! My pan is the larger 9" and there were times I thought this wasn't going to be enough dough but it is, the amount was perfect in the end. Just keep going and try and make it as even as possible.
Prick the base of the tart with a fork, this will stop it bubbling when you bake it. 

Cover the tart with cling film and freeze for 15 minutes. As Stephanie says in Joy of Baking this will help stop the crust from shrinking when you bake it and cuts out having to blind bake the crust (and it works!)

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F. Place the tart on a baking sheet and place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until it is just lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Once the base is fully cool melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water and brush the chocolate liberally all over the base of the tart. You won't need all the chocolate.

Transfer to the fridge to let the chocolate set. Note: the recipe I have based this on then brushed on a second layer of chocolate but I found this hard to do. When you try and brush the second layer onto the cold first layer it just seized up making it difficult to spread. In the end I decided one layer was enough anyway, just make sure you do brush a good amount on the first time.

When the chocolate is set, preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and make the filling. As mentioned you simply place everything into a blender and process until smooth and creamy. As usual my Froothie Optimum 9400 high performance blender did an incredible job here, super creamy in no time! (Not like my last blender where I had to keep shaking it back and forth like a maniac and stopping every 2 seconds to scrape down - so frustrating!)

Take the chocolate lined tart from the fridge and pour the filling in, make sure you scoop out all you can and then level off the top.

Pop it in the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes. This will vary depending on your oven but it should be firm to the touch and lightly golden brown with no wobble.

Leave this on a wire rack to fully cool then cover and place in the fridge.

To make the chocolate ganache drizzle, place the chopped chocolate, soy cream and golden syrup in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir constantly until the chocolate just melts and it is thick and glossy. Remove the bowl from the pan and let it cool slightly. It's ok if it's still a little warm but you don't want it hot.

I found the mixture a little thick to drizzle with a spoon or fork so I placed some of the ganache into a ziplock bag, snipped off a little corner and piped the drizzle on back and forth. Now remove the side of the tart pan and place the tart on a cake stand....

....then slice and serve!

It's nice to add a little bit of extra ganache onto the plate and you can leave the leftover ganache in a bowl on the table for guests to add more if they wish. The ganache keeps in the fridge but will thicken up. Just microwave it in 10 second spurts until it is the right consistency again.

Note: tart is best stored in the fridge.

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliated links to Froothie UK, I receive a little commission for any blender purchased through my blog which in turn helps fund my website. Thanks!

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1/12th of the tart (excluding any extra ganache you may use!) ;-)

Calories: 368
Protein: 6.9g
Fat: 21g
Sat Fat: 4.2g
Fibre: 2.9g
Carbs: 33g
Sugar: 19g
Sodium: 73mg

You Might Also Like:

Summer Berry Almond
Cheesecake Tart
(4th of July version)

Vegan
Grasshopper Pie

Chocolate Banana Loaf Cake

Once again I found myself with some over ripe bananas that needed using up! I know what you're thinking, why doesn't she just buy less bananas?? Truthfully, I think on some unconscious level I buy extra just so they'll go black and I'll be forced to bake with them ;-)

This time I wanted to try something different than the plethora of baked banana goods I have on the blog and loved the idea of a simple chocolate banana loaf cake. I've based this one my Chocolate Zucchini Bread but have swapped the zucchini with banana and the homemade egg replacer with simple plain soy yogurt.

The end result was a deeply chocolate flavoured banana cake with a beautiful texture whilst still being wonderfully moist. It's really perfectly sweet as it is but if you want to take it to another level some vegan chocolate chips added to the mix would be fantastic!

Chocolate Banana Loaf Cake:

300-400g peeled weight very ripe bananas (about 5 small/med.)

140g / 1 cup plain flour

45g / ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

120ml vegetable oil

200g / ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp golden caster sugar (can use regular granulated)

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g / ½ cup plain soy yogurt

125g / ½ cup vegan chocolate chips - optional

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C and grease a 9x5x3" loaf pan then line the bottom with baking paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sifted cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar.

In another bowl mash the bananas really well. Add the oil, vanilla and soy yogurt and whisk well.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and use a rubber spatula to fold it in until there is no more flour showing. Do not over mix and keep it gentle! If using, fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour and scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and pop it in the oven. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out fairly clean.

Transfer to a wire rack to fully cool in the tin then remove from the tin, slice and serve. 

♥

Nutritional Information: per 100g

Calories: 325

Protein: 3.7g

Fat: 15g

Sat Fat: 1.6g

Carbs: 47.8g

Sugar: 28.3g

Fibre: 3.2g

Sodium: 242mg

You Might Also Like:

Banana White
Chocolate Muffins

Cinnamon Kissed Banana
Dark Chocolate Muffins

Ginger & Spice Cakies

Yes! Cakies - kind of a cookie, kind of a cake...kind of a marriage made in heaven ;-) I was after a very soft cake like cookie with all the flavour of gingerbread and these hit the spot perfectly, especially with a little drizzle of vanilla glaze on them! They are also a great addition to the holiday baking season, now fervently upon us :-) 

I based the recipe on a recipe in my old childhood favourite cookie cook book, Scholastic's "The Cookie Book" - I've referenced it before on the blog, it was purchased about 1983 through my school and I do still use it! If anyone else in Canada remembers this book, do let me know :-)

In the book these were called "Molasses Cookies" and the name must have put me off as I never made them. They were descibed as soft and a quick read of the ingredients indicated this recipe was probably just what I was after, a big soft gingerbread spiced cookie.

Naturally I made a few changes: omitted the egg altogether (and it wasn't missed), omitted the raisins, swapped the molasses for Golden Syrup and added a drizzle of vanilla glaze. Now, I love molasses but I was after a more delicate flavoured cookie here, molasses can sometimes overpower things I find. Plus, I already have a gingerbread recipe I absolutely adore and make every Christmas and didn't want something similar here. 

That being said, I know Golden Syrup is hard to find (if at all) for those in North America so molasses can be used instead. You will end up with a darker cookie with a different taste to these but I have no doubt they will still taste great :-

Ginger & Spice Cakies:

-makes 15 cookies

1/4 cup / 50g vegan butter

1/4 cup / 60g golden caster sugar, granulated is fine too
1/4 cup / 90g Golden Syrup
1/4 cup / 60ml unsweetened soy milk
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup / 200g plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves

Glaze:
1/2 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
2 - 3 tsp unsweetened dairy free milk (I used almond milk here)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.

Measure out the soy milk and add the vinegar. Give it a stir then set aside to curdle. In another bowl mix together the flour, salt and spices - set aside.

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until well mixed. Add the syrup and mix well. Add the baking soda to the milk and vinegar mixture and give it a stir, it should get a little foamy. Add this to the butter mixture and stir. WARNING: it will look like a disgusting curdled mess at this point but that's fine - it is actually what you are after :-)

Tip in the flour mixture and stir just until there is no more flour showing but do not over mix. You should have a soft dough, slightly more akin to thick cake batter than cookie dough.

Drop by heaped tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, about an inch apart. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for about 12 minutes. They should be lightly golden around the edges but still soft to the touch.

Let cool on the tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Glaze: mix together 2 tsp of the milk and the vanilla with the powdered sugar, stir until all the sugar is dissolved. If it is too thick add a bit more milk - I needed just another 1/8 tsp. You want the glaze thick but "drizzable"- let it fall down from the spoon and if it's falls in ribbons that's about right.

Keep the cookies on the wire rack but place a sheet of baking paper underneath and drizzle the glaze all over the cookies in a back and forth motion. Leave for about an hour for the glaze to set then they are ready!

❤

Nutritional Information: based on 1 cookie out of 15

Calories: 121

Fat: 2.4g

Sat Fat: 0.5g

Protein: 1.5g

Carbs: 23.1g

Sugar: 8.0g

Fibre: 0.4g

Sodium: 72.9mg

You Might Also Like:

Perfect Gingerbread
(recipe link in post)

Cinnamon Roll
Cookies

❤

Blackberry & Apple Almond Loaf Cake

Like my previous post this is another variation on a recipe already on the blog. I have been making loads of different versions of the Cranberry Almond Tea Cake for quite awhile now but haven't gotten around to blogging them.

First, a couple summers ago (!) I made a Blackberry and Lemon version which was so good, and great for using up all those buckets of blackberries we always seem to get in August :-) Then I found myself with some pears that needed using up and made a Pear and Almond Loaf Cake, also wonderful and now, a blackberry and apple almond loaf cake.

What I'm trying to say is: this recipe is VERY versatile ;-) You can basically put in any fruit or berries you like, I never add nuts but they would go nicely as well. A cinnamon, apple and pecan version sounds pretty tasty actually...as does a cherry and almond version or strawberry vanilla etc... etc... As long as you keep the cake recipe the same and the weight/measure of fruit about the same you can do what you like.

For this one I was given some apples, not sure what kind to be honest, I think they were a mixture of cooking apples and golden delicious and as they needed using up threw them in with some frozen berries I had. I kept the almond flavouring here as is in the Cranberry Loaf Cake as I simply love almond flavoured cakes, easily my favourite and it goes very well here.

Blackberry & Apple Almond Loaf Cake:

260g plain flour
120g caster sugar
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
180ml unsweetened almond milk
4 Tbsp cornstarch
110g vegan butter, melted
2 tsp almond extract
150g frozen blackberries
200g peeled and thinly sliced apple, toss in lemon juice to keep from browning

Glaze:
100g icing sugar
1 Tbsp unsweetened almond milk
¼ tsp almond extract
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 190C / 380F and grease a loaf tin.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl whisk together the milk and cornstarch. Whisk in the almond extract then slowly whisk in the melted butter. Toss the fruit in with the flour mixture then pour over the liquid and fold with a rubber spatula until mixed. Be careful not to over mix.

Scrape into prepared tin, level off the top and bake for 45 minutes. It should be risen, golden brown on top and make sure a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf cake comes out clean. (I have pulled this out too early before and had a doughy centre!) Cool in tin 15 minutes then remove cake from the tin to fully cool on a wire rack. I like to place it on it's side to cool.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients until thick but just pourable, add more milk or icing sugar as need be then pour and spread on top letting some drizzle over the sides.

♥

Blackberry & Lemon Version:

Cake:

Swap the almond extract with lemon extract

Omit the apple, can increase blackberries to 200g if you like.

Glaze:

omit the almond extract

increase vanilla extract to 1/2 tsp

add the zest of 1 lemon

Pear & Almond Version:

Make as per the Blackberry, Apple and Almond cake but omit the blackberries, swap the apple with diced pear and increase to 200g.

♥

Nutritional Information: (Blackberry, Apple and Almond version, per 100g)

Calories: 244

Protein: 2.8g

Fat: 7.4g

Sat Fat: 1.6g

Fibre: 1.7g

Carbs: 41.7g

Sugar: 19.1g

Sodium: 250mg

You Might Also Like:

Berry Almond
Muffins

Raspberry Bakewell
Tarts

Cheesy Parsnip & Sage Beer Bread

This is a variation on the Herbed Beer Bread already on the blog which I've been making for years (and it was always vegan!) The other day my father in law came up with some parsnips from his garden and truth be told they are not my favourite veg. I do love them maple roasted as part of the Christmas dinner but that's usually as far as I go with them. He brought so much I did make a curried parsnip and carrot soup which was good but not bloggable good.

I then decided to try something different altogether and was inspired by a Delia Smith recipe for Parsnip, Parmesan and Sage Bread. That flavour combination just sounded wonderful and as hers was also a quick bread recipe (baking soda/powder not yeast) I immediately thought of my Herbed Beer Bread and just decided to adapt that one.

....and I am so glad I did, this is SO good! The addition of nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavour has really added to this recipe, in fact, I don't think I'll make this beer bread now without adding some :-) The parsnips give a nice subtle flavour, you do taste them, this isn't like carrots or zucchini in cake where they are just adding moisture, but, it's subtle and the sage is just perfect in there.

Cheesy Parsnip and Sage Beer Bread:

2 ½ cups plain flour (350g)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup nutritional yeast (20g)
1 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
1 x 330ml can or bottle of lager of your choice, I used Grolsch
150g grated weight parsnips (about 2 small/medium parsnips)
• vegan butter to brush over crust and to serve

Note: I used my food processor to grate the parsnips as it was easier but you can just use a cheese grater.

Grease a 1.5 ltr loaf pan with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 375F / 180C.  Whisk everything but the beer and parsnips in a large bowl. Stir in the parsnips with a fork until well mixed then pour in the beer then stir and fold in with a rubber spatula until fully mixed. It will be very thick! Scrape this mixture into the loaf pan and even off the top. 

Pop into the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until risen and golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Optional - I like to now brush vegan butter all over the top while it is hot to melt in, it just adds a lovely flavour.  Leave it in the tin for 5 minutes then remove onto a wire rack to fully cool.

Not optional - TOAST the slices then slather in vegan butter. Seriously, toasting is essential here!! 

I mean look at that! :-)

♥