♥ Vegan White Chocolate

Vegan white chocolate is impossible to find where we live, and it is an essential ingredient for true Man Gettin’ Cookies, so I was forced to make my own. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all. There are commercial vegan white baking chips out there (and lucky are those that live near stores that carry them) that I could mail order, but the required express shipping and additional charge for the shipping ice pack makes ordering them cost prohibitive: about 20 bucks for a 10 to 12 ounce bag!

It took me three tries: I attempted Hannah Kaminsky’s white chocolate  recipe–I love her idea of using vanilla paste rather than vanilla extract–but the results were a clumpy mess. I used a measuring cup rather than a kitchen scale for the cocoa butter. Doh! Next, I tried Veganbaking.net‘s recipe and I weighed the cocoa butter and ignored the measuring cup altogether (Eureka! you must sift the powdered sugar!) and everything was going great until I added the vanilla extract to the concoction and it turned into a clumpy mess the instant that the vanilla extract hit the bowl.

I finally arrived at a simple white chocolate recipe that works: 1) weighed–rather than measured–cocoa butter, 2) sifted powdered sugar, and 3) no vanilla extract. I may gather my courage and attempt to add vanilla paste (without alcohol) the next time that I make white chocolate, but this simple recipe is wonderful as-is. It isn’t overly sweet and it literally melts in your mouth. Bonus: it is kid-approved, and she knee-jerk rejects anything different than what she is used to. Hmph.

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White Chocolate

Makes an 8-ounce bar

Ingredients:

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons SIFTED powdered sugar

2 teaspoons plain soy milk powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

4-1/4 ounces food grade cocoa butter

Directions:

Using a digital kitchen scale, measure the cocoa butter into a small saucepan; set aside.

Sift the powdered sugar, soy milk powder and the salt into a medium mixing bowl; set aside.

Melt the cocoa butter over medium heat; it melts quickly so do not leave  the pan unattended!  Transfer the melted cocoa butter to the mixing bowl and quickly whisk the mixture together until it is smooth.

Pour the mixture into a chocolate mold (I use an 8-ounce candy bar mold).   If you don’t have a mold, paper cups or silicon bakeware will do in a pinch. Gently tap the mold on the counter top a few times to release any excess air bubbles.

Allow the white chocolate to sit for about 30 minutes before placing it in the refrigerator to cool thoroughly.  Store the cooled white chocolate in an air tight container; it will keep for several months (but it doesn’t last a week in this house!).

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♥ Tis The Sugar Season!

I thought it would be appropriate to begin this blog with the  cookie recipe that started it all. After all, it is December: the month of cookies and all things sugary.

The first few years of our life together,  J was gone (as in the ‘deployed halfway around the world’ kind of gone) more than he was home. While he was away, I mailed him bi-weekly care packages that always included his favorite cookies: white & semi-sweet chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. Over time, my cookies became world famous, literally! My sister Rachael dubbed the cookies  “Man Gettin’ Cookies”…and the name stuck.

But then we went vegan…and J went into cookie withdrawal. So, I began the task  (more like a labor of love, really) of “veganizing” our recipe collection. Life is uncertain, so we started with the sweet treats first.

My good friend, Karen ( a goddess in her own right), gave me this recipe that I  have tweaked over the years:  I swapped half of the semi-sweet chips for white chocolate chips and I used macadamia nuts, rather than walnuts. Lately, I have been using whole wheat pastry flour,  which has a bit more fiber than all-purpose flour, and it doesn’t seem to affect the flavor of the cookies. I reduced the oven temperature a bit, too, to accommodate the gooey nature of the homemade white chocolate chunks.

Here they are, the world-famous Man Gettin’ Cookies – the new and improved vegan version. This recipe is easily doubled–as Karen’s original recipe was–if you are baking for an entire squadron.

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Man Gettin’ Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) softened non-dairy butter (I prefer Earth Balance)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

EnerG Egg Replacer to equal 2 eggs (flax goop is a good substitute, too)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1-1/2 cups whole oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (true semi-sweet chocolate does not contain dairy)

6 ounces white chocolate chips or homemade white chocolate chunks

3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars, then beat in the egg replacer and the vanilla extract.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture; combine well.  Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts (it may be necessary to use your hands to really mix it all together).

Spoon 1/4 cup (or more for larger cookies) of the dough onto un-greased baking sheets and slightly press the dough flat.  Bake 12 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven to a wire rack and let the cookies rest a few minutes before removing them from the baking sheet to the wire rack to cool completely.  If necessary, use the spatula to gently re-shape the cookies while cooling (the homemade white chocolate chunks melt a bit more than  the commercial white chocolate chips).

Store the cooled cookies in a tightly sealed container.

♥