vegan baking

Extra chocolatey vegan banana bread

December 7, 2016 By Lara 11 Comments

I actually didn’t want to share this with you because I posted this recipe that is quite similar to what I made here.
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Fluffy Vegan Breakfast Waffles

April 11, 2016 By Lara 9 Comments

I had some overload of oatmeal for the past week, so I thought YES! Let’s make some waffles on the weekend. Fluffy Vegan Breakfast Waffles. For me, waffles are a weekend breakfast since they are more time consuming than oatmeal or granola with fruits.
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The best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 4, 2016 By Lara 14 Comments

Alright here’s the thing I’ve tried sooo many cookie recipes (see here, here and here) They all were good but finally I found my best vegan chocolate chip cookie.

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Peanut Butter Jelly Chocolate Jars

January 15, 2016 By Lara 3 Comments

Its….
PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME
PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME PEANUT BUTTER JELLY CHOCOLATE JAR TIME
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Raw orange infused Brownies

January 11, 2016 By Lara 1 Comment

I don’t know if you are familiar with raw brownies?
Brownies are like the perfect treat to make raw because their consistency anyway is very dense and gooey. Of course, I mean dense and gooey int he best way possible.

I LOVE gooey brownies when they are still a little bit warm, preferably combined with Icecream.

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Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

December 4, 2015 By Lara 10 Comments

I am afraid this is the next gingerbread post coming your way and I apologize for all coming until Christmas.

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Creamy chocolate- coconut Nicecream and how to improve your photos

November 13, 2015 By Lara 2 Comments

I always feel a little weird when posting smoothie or Nicecream recipes; I have to admit. I literally just smash all the stuff I can find in my mixer and then call it a NICECREAM 🙂

However I thought this decadent Nicecream creations needs to find its spot within this blog and has a right to be recreated by many many Chocolate obsessed people and foodporn seekeer.
If you are not into chocolate and coconut and nicecream and dessert and heaven and love (seriously?) then feel free to scroll down to my Tipps on how you can improve your food photography.

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“Nutella” filled pancakes

October 18, 2015 By Lara 1 Comment

What are you doing on a lazy Sunday? Half sick and half I am so tired, I decided to make some soul food. And what better soul food than pancakes! Even better when combined with Nutella.

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Top three recipes including superfoods to get you healthy through winter

September 22, 2015 By Lara 1 Comment

When I was a kid I used to be sick during winter between 3-4 times. Crazy thing is, I got kind of used to it and I persuaded myself that I might be born with a poor immun system. I tried really hard to get my daily dose of vitamins in and it made me almost mad that I still got sick on such a regular basis.

Anyway, when I started to sneak in superfoods like goji berries in my muesli, Spirulina in my Chai pudding, Chlorella over my salad I did not really expect something to change or happen. It was only after two year when i noticed that I just caught the flu one time last winter. I am not saying that these “superfoods” are kind of panacea (and if yes then hell yes how cool ;)) but I have to agree that I am feeling much more energized overall. I am not stressing myself to take in superfoods everyday, I just like to add them here and there whenever I am feeling like a little extra kick.

So listed below I have my top three recipes including superfoods. you can find all the recipes on my blog.

VEGAN BLUEBERRY PANCAKES

Simply sneaked in some Acai powder in the sauce.

RAW WHEATGRASS LIME CAKE

Have you already tried my raw Lime Wheatgrass Cake? Nathalie did and look how beautiful her cake turned out (@nathaliedaousader)

RAW BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE

Raw Cakes are a great way to sneak in Superfoods like powders such as Acai. Since you do not heat up anything in raw cakes it won’t destroy the nutrients within the superfoods.
Check out my Blueberry Raw Cake and also have a looka t the beautiful remakes of
@reneebourke @flywithcarola @rebeccas_vegan_journey (from left to right)

Hope you like these inspirations! Of course there are also much simpler methods such as just adding it to a smoothie or into a smoothie bowl but I guess you can experiment on your own when it comes to smoothies 😉

Raw Wheatgrass Lime Cake

September 13, 2015 By Lara 4 Comments

Lately I’ve been experimenting a lot with superfoods and cakes and I also like to use dried fruit powders. Powders other than fresh fruits makes the cakes stick together better and also the color is much more intensive. Another fact especially in winter is, that fresh fruits like strawberries and raspberries are expensive and are imported here in Switzerland.

It is autumn now so I am using my last frozen berries for the decoration of my Raw Wheatgras Lime Cake. Besides of looking so fancy it is actually a pretty easy cake to make and you can be sure that people will be delighted by the color. I agree that this might be more a “summer cake” but I thought why not bringing summer back one last time and share it with you! So enjoy and don’t forget to scroll down until the end as a little surprise is waiting there.

Ingredient
makes a 8-inch/9-inch springform pan

Crust
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
6 big medjool dates or 8 regular ones
2 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of fine sea salt

(Optional: Strawberries, halved)

Method
Process the almonds, oats and coconut to a coarse meal in a food processor. Add the dates, agave syrup, vanilla and salt and process until well combined.
Press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan.
Set aside.
(If you like you can place halved strawberries on the side of the pan on the crust.)

————————————————————————————————-

Filling
1 1/2 cups cashews (soaked overnight)
1 avocado
1/4 cup coconut cream (full-fat coconut milk works as well but cream makes the cake thicker)
4 tbsp lime juice and the zest of 2 limes
1 heaped tbsp wheatgrass powder (got mine from Organicburst)
4 tbsp Coconut Oil (melted)
1/4 cup agave syrup
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method
Place the cashews, coconut oil, vanilla extract, agave syrup, wheatgrass powder, coconut cream and lime juice into your food processor and process until mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the avocado and mix again for about 20 seconds or until combined. Last add the zest of one lime and combine with a spatula.
Scrape the filling from the food processor into the pan with the crust, and smooth out on top.
Decorate with the zest of the other lime and freeze for about 3 hours or overnight.

Are you not familiar with superfoods such as Wheatgrass and co? You always wanted to try Acai? Or you simply like to win? Take your change and win a bundle of three exclusive Organicburst superpowders!
All you need to do is to follow @organicburst and @vanillacrunnch and repost the picture on Instagram with the Hashtag #vanillacrunnchOB in the main caption and tell us why you want to win the bundle!

GOOD LUCK!

Vegan New York Cheesecake

September 2, 2015 By Lara 20 Comments

So I decided to jump on the train of Vegan foodblogger, who’ve tried the famous classical but never out of fashion traditional New York cheesecake.It is actually not that I completely re-invented the vegan cheesecake. There are so many bloggers out there who made their version. Most of the cake I’ve seen are made out of Cashews and sometimes with coconut milk or another non-dairy milk. I’ve tried a little different approach (to be honest also due to financial reasons and the costs of cashews 😉

I really hope you like the recipe for this Vegan New York Cheesecake. Don’t forget to tag me in your recreation (@vanillacrunnch)
Always makes me happy to see people giving the raw vegan baking approach a try.

Crust
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup rolled oats
5 medjool dates
3 tbsp almond milk
a pinch of fine sea salt

Method
Line a round pan with parchment paper or use a silicon pan and set aside.
Place the oats, pitted dates, coconut, raw almonds and salt in the food processor and pulse at high speed. Add the milk but now just pulse on medium speed to obtain a sticky mixture.
Spread the mixture into the pan and press it to evenly arrange. I did this with my fingers but feel free to use a spoon 🙂

Filling
1 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight or (quick soaked method if you are in a hurry*)
1/2 cup Semolina (cooked for 10 minutes)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup agave syrup

Method
First you need to cook the semolina for 10 minutes on medium heat or according to what your package says on how to cook the semolina. If you get any lumps, use a stick mixer to remove them.
Let it cool down a little.
Drain the cashews and place them in the food processor along with the almond milk, coconut oil and agave syrup.

Then add the cashew-coco-milk-syrup mixture to the semolina and whisk to combine.
Process until you see a smooth cream. (Seriously I could hardly hold myself back to not eat that good looking whitish thing right away!)

Pour the cashew mixture in the pan on top of the crust, and spread evenly.
Put in the freezer for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Place the raspberries (optional – add a teaspoon of agave nectar) in the food processor and pulse to obtain a puree.
Top the cheesecake with the puree and add some fresh raspberries and best serve while 15 minutes out of the freezer.

The PERFECT vegan chocolate chip cookie sandwiches

August 16, 2015 By Lara 3 Comments

Another rainy sunday in Switzerland. Some people are quite happy that the weather now finally has “normalized” after the heatwave. But for me, I am just wishing for an endless summer. Thinking that the last sunny days have now passed makes me sad. To overcome my sadness I wanted to give these vegan chocolate chip cookies another try. After fails and “they are ok- but not more” attempts, I perfected them now. So here is what I did. I added a mashed banana to the recipe and replaced the peanut butter in the recipe with the smoother sunflower seed butter.

and… I LOVE them now. I am perfectionist so this is quite a thing for me to say. I shared the original recipe just in my ebook but thought it would be a crime to not share these beauties with all of you. I kept the 6 cookie sandwiches under my bed without sharing. I could eat all of them in one sitting.

I might did but you are never going to know that 🙂

Makes 12 Cookies or 6 Cookie Sandwiches

Ingredients

1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup fine oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup sunflower seed butter (peanut butter works as well)
1 small ripe mashed banana
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of fine sea salt
1/2 cup dark vegan chocolate chips

Method

1. First you preheat your oven to 180° or (360F)

2. In the blender, blend the oats until you reach a fine consistency.

3. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients such as the flour, the blended oats, baking soda, salt.

4. In another bowl, mash the banana, add the sunflower seed butter, the coconut sugar and the vanilla extract and mix until well combined.

5. Add the almond milk and mix a little bit more.

6. Now at low speed add the bowl with the dry ingredients. (not all at once!).

7. Fold in the dark chocolate chips.

8. Now roll the dough into balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten them with a spoon and make sure you place them 3 inches apart from each other.

9. Finally, Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly brown, depends a little bit on your oven and how you like them.

Let them cool down, but not until entirely cool. Because now the fun part starts:

Stuff two cookies with a tsp of peanutbutter and one pieces of dark chocolate.
The chocolate and peanutbutter are starting to melt from the remaining warmth of the cookies.

Huge vegan skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

August 2, 2015 By Lara 5 Comments

Scrolling through Instagram I recently discovered that there are just 3 pictures for the hashtag “veganskilletcookies”

Since I love cookies and I love chocolate and I love a lot of cookies I though why not making a skillet cookie!
There are many recipes that require eggs or normal milk, so I tried to use peanut butter as a substitute for the egg. Now if you don’t have peanut butter at home or you want to use another replacements, I got you covered!
I found a really helpful table on Fablunch’s Instagram page.
I always experiment with this substitutes and it is amazing how they work out and in every case taste better than the original recipe! (Also approved by Non-Vegans!)

So here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup almond flour (or any other flour works as well)
1/2 cup fine oats
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil
½ cup coconut sugar
3 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup almond milk*
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
a pinch of fine sea salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

* this amount depends on the type of flour you are using, you want to add more when using a dry flour and maybe less when using another type. For consistency check my YouTube tutorial

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine oats, flour and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside
In another bowl mix coconut sugar, coconut oil, peanut butter, vanilla and salt until smooth.
Now combine the two mixes. After one minute add 1/4 of the milk and see how the mixture turns out. Depending on your flour you want to add the rest of the milk.

(For consistency check YouTube Video of recipe here)

Stir in chocolate chips until well combined.
Now press the dough into an iron skillet pan. Decorate with more chocolate drops, that it looks better for the picture afterwards. Put the pan in the oven (middle) and make sure the pan does not touch the oven from the inside.
Bake for approx. 25-30 minutes. Remove them from the oven when the cookie slowly begins to turn crispy and looks brownish.
Let cool a little and eat still a little bit warm!

Note 1: Flours like coocnut flour are very dry and therefore you will need more milk. Please adjust the amount until the consistency looks like the one in my YouTube video

Note 2: The cookie I made was pretty thick. If you are aiming for a thiner Cookie, aim for a larger pan. (I had no bigger iron pan available ;))

Raw Chocolate Brownie-Fudge Slices

July 25, 2015 By Lara Leave a Comment

This is an unusual twist, on two recipes I really like. There is nothing more indulging than a warm brownie combined with a hot almond milk on a rainy day. Yet a rich and creamy fudge piece can make me happy within minutes.
Well why not combining these two textures I thought, and making raw chocolate Brownie fudge slices!
The nuts in the chocolate-brownie base add a nice little crunch to it, the coconut cream is flavoured with cacao and pure coconut oil.

A combination you should not miss! The recipe is so simple and totally bulletproof.

Ingredients

Bottom
1/3 cup processed buckwheat flour
1/3 cup raw unsweetened cacao powder
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup shredded coconut
12 dates, pitted
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp warm water
a pinch of fine sea salt
1/2 tbs vanilla extract

Fudge Layer
1 can full-fat coconut cream (place the can in the fridge overnight, in order to get the white “creamy” consistency in the can)
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup carob powder
8 oz dark chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Bottom
For the bottom, simply blend the walnuts in a food processor (process as long as you think you want the size of nut pieces to be), add the dates and shredded coconut, the melted coconut oil, water, sea salt, cacao powder, flour & vanilla extract and process again until sticky and well combined.(Yes, you can use your hands :))

Press the mixture into a square/rectangle tin, firm and flat (I used a pancake flipper to press it down evenly and tightly)

Leave in freezer while making the next layer.

Fudge
Scrap the top layer (white, hard texture) above the coconut milk to a medium sized saucepan and bring to a simmer. (drink the remaining coconut milk, the liquid part :))

Add the coconut oil to the saucepan and stir until it melts. Add the carob powder, vanilla extract and the dark chocolate chips and stir until everything is melted.
Pour over the bottom and refrigerate until firm (up to 4 hours) or freeze if you cannot wait with eating and want to them to be ready in 30 minutes.

ENJOY!

Raw Chai-Beetroot Cake

May 24, 2015 By Lara 5 Comments

If there’s any organic vegetable that makes your food look pretty it is beetroot. It is a food photographers best friend.

Apart from this you can combine it with cashews and make a heavenly raw cake.
Is it my first try on beetroot in baking so please don’t judge.
I am happy for improvement recommendations and ideas.

Ingredients

Crust

6 dates soaked in water
1/2 cup of nuts, (I used cashews,soaked overnight!)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 tbsp agave syrup
a pinch of Chai spice (cinnamon works as well)

Filling

1 1/2 Cup cashews (soaked overnight)
2 medium-size beetroots (peeled,cooked and sliced)
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup agave syrup
1 tbsp Coconut oil (melted)
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method

For the crust blend the soaked nuts, add the rest of the ingredients into a food processor. Test the crust between your fingers. you should be able to press it into a prepared cake tin. If it doesn’t stick add some agave syrup and blend again. Press the nut and date mixture into the bottom of your dish. Put into the fridge until the filling is ready.

For the filling first mix the cashews very well until smooth (this amy take a while) put the rest of the ingredients in the food process (or whatever pulverizing machine you have) and blend. Blend for at least 5 minutes or more. Pour the cashew-beetroot filling into the cake tin on top of the crust. Cover with plastic wrap, press it down so it’s touching the surface.
Now put it in the freezer for at least 2 hours or if times allows overnight 😉
Take the raw cake out of the freezer 10 minutes before you want to eat it depending on the consistency you like to eat it.

Last, don’t forget to send me a picture or tag me on Instagram (@vanillacrunnch) of the colorful cake! I am waiting 🙂