Oatmeal Date Cookies

Any recipe that involves dates, I'm down with. This recipe turned out great and I'm sure I will want to make them again, so committing the recipe to the blog.

Oatmeal Date Cookies

Original Recipe

Here is the original recipe I went by.

I made the following modifications.

• Instead of oats I used a mixture of oats, spelt and rye flakes.
• I substituted the 3 eggs for 3 tbsp flax and 9 tbsp water.
• I omitted the walnuts as we didn't have any on hand.

My Adapted Recipe

Mix:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In small bowl mix:
3 tbsp ground flax
9 tbsp water
Let sit 15 minutes to gel.

In mixer on medium speed cream together:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Slowly add in flax mixture. Continue mixing.

Add flour mixture to creamed mixture until combined. Then add:
2 cups mixed quick cooking oats, spelt & flour
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Drop by teaspoons onto baking sheet and bake 8 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Cookies cooling on a rack

This recipe got a seal of approval from both Laura and Missy. Worth noting that Laura said the ones that were cooked 9 minutes instead of 8 were better, crispier. The recipe made about 6 1/2 dozen cookies.

Carrot Cake

So, I am blogging this carrot cake because I made it and it tasted amazing and had a great texture. Since I don't want to lose the recipe, I shall blog it.

Vegan Carrot Cake

I followed this recipe but made some modifications. I didn't get a good pic of it because I didn't think to blog it until there was just this one tiny piece of it left. I used Laura's phone camera, which I'm not good at using.

Carrot Cake 

Wet Ingredients
2 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients
2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Combine the ground flax and chia seeds together with 1/2 cup of water and let set for 10 or 15 minutes until gelled and the texture of eggs. This is the egg replacement.

Mix wet ingredients in a bowl. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet and dry ingredients together. If it's too dry add water a couple tbsp at a time until it's the consistency you want, like cake batter. Mine was very thick and chunky, but pour-able.

Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13" pan and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees F. Let sit for about 15 minutes then transfer to a baking rack to cool. Transfer to a cake plate and frost when completely cool.

Icing

1/2 cup non-dairy butter, softened
8 oz non-dairy cream cheese, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup candied walnuts

Mix butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla with beaters or mixer until fluffy. Spread of cooled cake and top with walnuts.

Reviews

Two people besides Laura and I tried this cake and they both loved it. One said she would not have known the cream cheese was non-dairy. She asked for the recipe and also said I needed to make it again...and again. The other one was my sister, who is allergic to eggs, so she would appreciate that they were replaced with something else. There was no frosting on her piece because of her soy intolerance so no review on the frosting, but she did post this on my FB timeline:

Garden Berry Crisp

I called this "Garden Berry Crisp" because all the berries in it are from our 2015 garden. We were supposed to have made a couple batches of jam, but never did, so the berries will be useful for desserts and smoothies instead.

Garden berry crisp

Almost-Vegan Dessert

Everything in the recipe is vegan with the exception of the sugar. Booo. I hate that regular sugar isn't vegan, since it's strained through bone char or something in the processing of it. I don't plan to be that picky when eating other people's desserts, like at restaurants, potlucks, family dinners, etc. Some people are that strictly vegan, but it doesn't sound very practical for me, although I actually do avoid desserts and products made with dairy of any kind, at least 99% of the time.

Bubbling berry crisp

Frozen Coconut Milk

The crisp was really delicious, and very sweet since there was two cups of sugar in it, one in the berries on the bottom and one in the topping. We had it with So Delicious frozen coconut milk, which is similar to ice cream and I love it because it's soy-free as well as dairy-free. It's a decent ice cream substitute.

Frozen coconut milk & berry crisp

Our Berries

The berries included about 2 cups of blueberries, 1 cup haskap berries and 1-1/2 cups Alpine strawberries. Some of the strawberries were red outside but white inside. That doesn't mean they weren't sweet, as Alpine berries are sweet even when half ripened. The white ones turn a brownish color when cooked.

Hot berry crisp with coconut ice milk

Served with tea, it made a fabulous dessert.