Vegan Peanut Butter Truffles

In addition to the previous Chocolate Cashew Cream Truffles I also made my husband peanut butter truffles for Valentine's Day. Boy did he get a lot of truffles, which I will gladly help him finish of course. These are just as simple to make as the cashew cream truffles and I can't decide which ones I like better. They are both so good!

Ingredients

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

Whatever toppings you so desire: Cocoa powder, crushed nuts, sprinkles, melted chocolate, etc.

Directions

Heat the soy milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once at a boil mix in the peanut butter and then remove from the heat. Immediately stir in the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted and the mixture is well blended stir in the maple syrup and vanilla. Pour the mixture into a flat pan and place in the fridge for 1.5 to 3 hours. The mixture should be firm like fudge. Before you start forming truffles make sure your toppings are ready to be rolled in. I used cocoa powder and placed it in a bowl.  Now it's time to get messy! Use a teaspoon or melon baller to scoop a small amount of the mixture out. Roll between your hands to form a ball and roll in whatever topping(s) you want. Place in a small muffin liner or whatever else you may have. Enjoy! Be sure to store in the fridge.

Peanut Ginger Soba Noodles

Ok, I seem to be using peanut butter a lot lately for some reason. Keeping up with the trend, I made these peanut soba noodles last night. It was pretty quick to make (maybe 15 minutes?). I followed a recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen  and didn't really need to change much. The original recipe called for steamed broccoli but my husband doesn't like broccoli so I used zucchini instead. He did offer to pick out the broccoli but that just seemed silly. This is how I did it:

Ingredients

1 package of soba noodles

1/3 cups soy sauce 

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

1 small clove of garlic minced or pressed

1/2 green pepper thinly sliced

1 medium zucchini sliced up 

sesame seeds and sliced green onions for garnish

Directions

Cook the soba noodles according the package. Saute the zucchini in some olive oil until tender (I did it until a few of them started to brown). Meanwhile, combine the sesame oil, peanut butter, water, garlic, and ginger. After it is thoroughly combined mix in the pepper. Once the noodles are finished and drained mix them in with the sauce. Finally, toss the cooked zucchini in. I sprinkled the sesame seeds and sliced green onions on top of each individual plate. 

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This has definitely become my default chocolate chip cookie recipe. They're chewy but not cake-like. Yum.  I found it on VegWeb but usually modify it slightly. Today I made a peanut butter version:

Ingredients

.75 cups raw sugar

.75 cups light brown sugar

1 cup vegan butter substitute

1 teaspoon butter

1/3 cups applesauce

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

1 cup white flour

1.25 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

12 oz bag of vegan chocolate chips (it's a lot of chips for the batter so less than 12 oz would be fine)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 370 degrees. Combine the sugars, butter substitute, applesauce, vanilla, and peanut butter. In a separate bowl mix the flours, baking soda, and salt together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. After the dough is well blended stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes. They should be golden brown. 

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Well, this is my first post!

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup of white flour and .5 cup of whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cups applesauce

1/4 cups canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup water

1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line or grease the cupcake pan.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Now add the applesauce, oil, vanilla, and water. Mix well. At this point the batter is going to be split up to make separate peanut butter and chocolate batters. Take about 1 cup of the batter and put it into another bowl. Mix the peanut butter into this batter. In the other batter, mix in the cocoa. Finally, add 2 teaspoons of the vinegar to the peanut butter batter and mix quickly. Then add the remaining 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of vinegar to the chocolate batter and mix quickly.

Divide the chocolate batter evenly into the cupcake pan. Then pour the peanut butter batter on top of the chocolate batter. Bake for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cups vegan butter substitute

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons water

Directions

Mix all ingredients well. Frost cooled cupcakes!