Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic
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Vegan Black Bean Brownies + The New York Baking Company

Ever since my vegan chocolate beet muffin success, I’ve felt a little braver in the baking department. Rizzi from The New York Baking Company (Facebook page) asked me to review their brightly colored silicone baking cups, which you can buy on Amazon here. After doing some research, I decided to try baking vegan, gluten-free black bean brownies. I found a number of different recipes online, and adapted them to make our own unique blend (mainly adapted from The Minimalist Baker’s recipe here). Sasha and I devored them within minutes – they are that good (and we’ve made them multiple times in the past week!). Did I mention they are flourless and have no dairy products? It’s definitely seems too good to be true. I have included photos and the recipe below – I highly recommend you make these if you’re trying to satisfy a sweet tooth. 

The baking cups worked like a charm. They cost $9.95 and are worth every penny. Not only are these colorful cups BPA free, they are easy to clean – just rinse them and pop them into the dishwasher. The cupcakes came right (without any difficulty!) and into our mouths. Delicious! If you enjoy baking but hate peeling cupcakes, brownies, and muffins out of wrappers, I highly recommend you buy these cups.

Ingredients

  • 1 can black beans
  • 2.5 tablespoons flaxseed meal + 6 tablespoons water to create a flaxseed ‘egg’
  • 3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup of Truvia sugar blend
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 bar of vegan, gluten free chocolate (I love this one!)

Steps

  1. Turn oven to 350 degrees in the bake setting
  2. Mix 2.5 tablespoons of your flaxseed meal with 6 tablespoons of water and set aside to settle
  3. Add together all of your dry ingredients (sea salt, cocoa powder, sugar blend, baking powder) and mix
  4. Add the melted coconut oil and vanilla extract and stir well
  5. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and add to the bowl
  6. Add your flax egg – the batter should be icing-like texture at this point
  7. In a separate bowl, add the drained, clean black beans and grind them until they are a soft, blended texture (you can do this in a blender or food processor, but my parents don’t have one in their house in Durango – it works easily by hand too)
  8. Add the ground beans to the batter and mix well
  9. Line your muffin tray with the baking cups and add the batter to each cup – these don’t rise much, so you don’t need to leave space
  10. I added some almond butter to the batter for the last few muffins for a little extra kick – delicious!
  11. Allow the brownies to bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the outside is slightly crispy, then wait until they cool off and enjoy!

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Et voilà – the final product below!

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One happy mouth

Recipe adapted from The Minimalist Baker

Baking cups provided by The New York Baking Company – all opinions are my own

Photos by me!

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5 Ingredient Raw Vegan Brownies

I am not a baker. But seriously, every vegan dessert I try fails (except these beet muffins – yum!). So when I came across a recipe for a simple, raw vegan brownie bite recipe, I jumped at it. I made some slight adaptations to the version I found online, and both Sasha and I love the result! These have five ingredients – raw cashews, organic honey, pitted/chopped dates, coconut oil, and unsweetened cocoa powder. They take five minutes to prepare (minus recommended refrigeration time) – and they are healthy-ish (no refined sugars!). Perfect tiny snack to fill your sweet tooth cravings!

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Ingredients: 1 cup of plain cashews, 1 cup of pitted or chopped dates, 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil, 2 teaspoons of honey

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Step 1: Add 1 cup of raw, unsalted cashews to your blender and pulse until finely chopped

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Step 2: Add pitted or chopped dates to cashew powder and pulse until completely mixed (should get kind of solid)

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Step 3: Add 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

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Step 4: Add 1.5 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2 teaspoons of honey to the blended mixture – may have to stir with spoon vs. blend (depending on how strong your blender is!)

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Step 5: Lay down stick-free parchment paper or aluminum foil and make into small brownie bites

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Optional (but I recommend) Step 6: Add to fridge for an hour so the coconut oil hardens – then enjoy!

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If you try them, let me know how they turn out!

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Vegan Chocolate Beet Muffins

I think that everyone needs their signature baked good. Unfortunately for me, I’ve never had one, and as a health-focused vegan, it has been hard to find recipes that fit the bill for nutrition while tasting delicious. That is, until I came across Minimalist Baker. This blog is my everything! I found two chocolate beet muffin/cupcake recipes and have fallen in love (as has Sasha, my toughest vegan critic!). I slightly adapted this one – replacing the all purpose flour with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free flour, using Stevia vs. sugar, canned beets, and adding Attune bar chocolate crumbles. Sasha gave them two big thumbs up. I highly recommend you give this recipe a try! If you do, please let me know what you think.
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Beet-Puree
Roasted-Beet-Puree
Ingredients
  • 3/4 can of beets (pureed)
  • 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
  • 1 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
  • 
3/4 cup baking Stevia (or coconut sugar)
  • 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup + 1 heaping Tbsp gluten-free flour (or regular all-purpose if you don’t want them GF)
  • scant 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 3 vegan Attune bars (found at Central Market or Whole Foods next to probiotic yogurts)

 Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F
  2. Open can of beets and puree them until they are in liquid form. Measure out 1/2 cup and set aside.
  3. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
  4. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the Stevia, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup beets and beat until foamy.
  5. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a sifter and slowly sift it into the wet ingredients while mixing with a hand-held or standing mixer. Beat until no large lumps remain.
  6. Put vegan Attune bars (amazing chocolate filled with antioxidants!) into Ziplock bag and break into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Pour small chocolate crumbles into the mix.
  7. Pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Do not try and unwrap them or they’ll stick to the wrapper.
  8. Once cooled, store in an airtight container to keep fresh. Optional: Dust with cocoa powder.Vegan-Chocolate-Chocolate-Chip-Muffins-minimalistbaker.com-vegan-chocolate

Recipe adapted from The Minimalist Baker (obsessed with her recipes!), and pictures are from here and here. If you try them, please let me know what you think!

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