Vegan Mocha Stripes

Well that’s it kids, summer’s over! We had sunshine for a whole week and now it’s raining. Again. Here’s hoping the rain doesn’t last as long this time! I hope everyone managed to at least enjoy the sun while it lasted and didn’t get horrifically burnt like me! Having to aftersun eight times a day even when at work is not fun. I have quite a few summer recipes I really want to test so I’m hoping August will put me in the mood as today I really wasn’t feeling it so I made these cookies instead.

This is another recipe taken from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by Kris Holechek which you’ll know from reading my other vegan posts I’m blown away by! All the recipes are so accessible and if you don’t want to go out of your way to find what I consider to be unusual ingredients like flaxseeds or different oils, you don’t have to! Even if you’re not vegan, these recipes are so delicious it would be silly to disregard them purely for that. Also, eggs are often the most expensive part of baking so recipes that don’t require them must be a good thing!

Whenever I’ve made anything vegan I don’t generally tell people its vegan (unless they are actually vegan) until they’ve eaten it as I feel it can often colour their judgement. When I tell them the reaction I get is always ‘Wow, I had no idea!’ which I always find to be a slightly crazy reaction because why should the absence of dairy mean that its going to taste weird or completely different to a non vegan cookie?! But anyway, this recipe is another classic cookie recipe resulting in cookies that are almost crunchy round the edges and gooey/chewy on the inside with the added crispness of the drizzled chocolate on top, mouth-watering!

They are very simple, take minimal time in the oven and taste delicious! The dark chocolate balances the coffee flavour much more than milk chocolate would. However, if you are not a coffee fan then I’d think twice about putting 4 tbsps of coffee in as it is quite a strong flavour but as I’m a big coffee fan I love them and have eaten two already…

Here is the recipe:

2 cups flour

1tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

4 tbsp instant coffee

¼ cup warm milk

¾ cup margarine

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup chocolate chips melted (I used 50g chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, dissolve coffee in warm milk. In a large bowl, cream together margarine and sugar. Add vanilla and coffee mixture. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in batches until well mixed

Drop tablespoon-sized balls onto a baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes until the cookies spread and the edges are set. If you are baking more than one sheet at a time, rotate the sheets halfway through the baking time. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack

Once the cookies are cool, carefully spoon melted chocolate into a sandwich bag. Make a small snip off one of the bottom corners of the bag to create a very small opening. Pipe chocolate onto cookies in thin stripes, zigzagging across all the cookies until the chocolate is used up. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature


And don't forget to Lick Your Spoon!

Mocha Pecan Brownies

Happy Birthday Dad! I made these delicious brownies for my Dad’s birthday as he loves chocolate, coffee and nuts! Normally I buy him chocolate covered brazil nuts so I’m sure this was a nice change for him. This is a Waitrose recipe I found in store featuring Starbucks VIA. Now I love Starbucks, love everything in there with my all time favourite being their peach and raspberry muffin, so obviously this recipe appeals to me too and my hands still smell like coffee, yum!

For this recipe you have to prepare three elements separately before bringing them all together. First off is melting the chocolate and the butter together so you have time for it to cool while doing the other elements. Personally I prefer melting it in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water so you can keep and eye on the mixture the whole time but unfortunately I broke my big glass bowl so I had to use the microwave in this instance.

Next mix all the dry ingredients together and put to one side. Finally, whisk the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for ages! Basically until it’s grown in size and is thick and mousse like. The same technique as used to make Death by Chocolate. Then you add the chocolate, followed by the flour mixture and then the pecans and then you’re ready to bake! After reading the intro to my vegan baking book, it says to bake brownies in a glass dish to stop the outside getting too cooked. Don’t ask me how but if you can, use a glass dish just in case!

Personally I don’t really like pecans but when smothered in chocolatey coffee brownie goodness, it’s hard to remember why! Amazing brownies and I’ll definitely be making these again, maybe with white chocolate chunks instead of pecans next time…