Vegan MoFo Day 20: Peanut Butter Kisses

Peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's Kiss stuck in the middle are a holiday classic. Hershey's has come out with tons of different varieties of kisses in recent years, but unfortunately, none of them are vegan! This creates a bit of a conundrum. How can you have peanut butter kisses without the kisses?? I experimented with a bunch of different chocolates from pieces of dark chocolate bars to chocolate chips to round pieces of dark chocolate and it was a Goldilocks type problem -- this one was too hard, this one was too soft, this one was too small, that one just looked weird. Problem was solved with really cheap generic supermarket chocolate! In the candy isle, as well as in "candy they keep in produce near nuts" section of my grocery store ("Price Chopper") they have Dark Chocolate Nonpareils, what are basically gigantic Snow Caps chocolates. Not only are they accidentally vegan, they're also quite decorative as it looks like it snowed on your cookie! Sometimes they have seasonal varieties with little red white and green sprinkles for Christmas, or pastel colors for Easter. Regardless of color, they're the right size, right shape, and right thickness to make these cookies live again! Check out your local grocery store, you might be surprised! Cheap peanut butter is good in this recipe because it gives it the junky feel of the original recipe!

I made these for a party I had, hence the cute label

Peanut Butter "Kisses"
About 4 dozen Dark Chocolate Nonpareils
3/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy, your choice)
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp almond milk
1/4 cup nondairy yogurt, plain or vanilla flavored
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, peanut butter, and sugar.

3. Add the milk, yogurt, and vanilla and mix until combined.

4. Stir in the dry ingredients.

5. Roll 1 inch balls of dough and place them on a cookie sheet.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Jam a piece of chocolate into the center of each cookie immediately after removing from the oven. Allow to cool before removing from the cookie sheet so that the chocolate can set up again.

Super Peanut Butter Cookies

The boy asked me this week if I would make him "super peanut butter" cookies. I asked him what that meant, and he just said really peanut buttery peanut butter cookies. Sure, why not. These couldn't be your ordinary run-of-the-mill peanut butter crosshatch cookies though. Instead I created a crisp peanut butter cookie filled with a chewy, crunchy, slightly chocolately peanut butter filling. I mostly stole the filling from Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows from the ppk blog, only I added in some chocolate to the filling since the "crust" was also peanut butter. Needless to say, these went over VERY well in my household. I believe he ate about 8 of them last night when I mdae them. Very yum. This recipe yields about 30 cookies... which will probably all be gone by the end of the weekend.


Super Peanut Butter Cookies

Cookie:
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened margarine
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup soy yogurt, plain or vanilla

Filling:
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp rice milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 oz dark or ricemilk chocolate, chopped fine or grated

1. Cream together the margarine, peanut butter, and sugars. When it's light and fluffy, add the molasses, vanilla, and yogurt. Mix until combined.

2. Sift togther the dry ingredients, and then gradually add them to the wet until just mixed.

3. Cover and Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.


4. Make the filling by mixing together all the filling ingredients. Start with 2 tbsp of milk, adding more if the mixture is too dry and crumbly.

5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

6. (I used a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop and 2 tsp cookie scoop for the dough and filling respectively) Scoop the dough into ping-pong ball sized balls. Flatten the ball into a disc with your hand, then add a heaping tsp of the filling, and wrap the dough around it so it's sealed. Reroll into a ball and flatten slightly with your hand. Repeat for the rest of the dough.

7. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until the cookies are just slightly golden. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooking rack.

Peanut Butter Pasta and Peas

I love this recipe for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. It's from Vegetarian Express by Nava Atlas, which I believe is no longer in print. It's got a lot of great, easy, fast recipes though, and they're mostly vegan or easily veganized. The creamy peanut butter sauce is a nice balance of sweet and savory, and I like peas in just about anything. The suggested side is cinnamon-apple glazed baby carrots, which are delicious but I think a bit too sweet, so I've served it with some cauliflower and carrots sauteed in olive oil with garlic and vegetable broth.


Peanut Butter Pasta with Peas

10 oz rotini pasta (I use whole wheat)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use all natural crunchy)
3/4 cup vegetable stock (hot works best to help melt the peanut butter)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey, or rice syrup, or agave
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 cups frozen green peas

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Add the frozen peas in the last minute of cooking.

2. While the pasta was cooking, put all other ingredients in the blender or food processor and blend together until smooth.

3. Drain the pasta and peas, and toss with the peanut butter sauce. The sauce will thicken as it cools, so it will stick to the pasta better if you let it sit a few minutes before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

I got the idea for these from Paula Dean, believe it or not. I saw one of her candy shows and she made these weird butterscotch, caramel, peanut, chocolate things and I thought "Hmm.. If I sub out a few things, this could be good." They could theoretically be made into any shape, or rolled into balls for simplicity, but since it's Easter time, I thought I'd make them into eggs.



Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs
3/4 Cup Peanut Butter (No stir kind) - Creamy or Crunchy
1/2 cup Ricemellow Creme
1/4 cup powdered soymilk
2 tbsp powdered sugar

~1 cup chocolate chip

1. Melt the peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave. It should take between 30 seconds and a minute. (Alternately, melt it in a small saucepan over medium heat)

2. Stir in the powdered soymilk until well distributed.

4. Fold in the ricemellow creme and powdered sugar and just keep folding/kneading over and over until the mixture cools and becomes the consistency of play dough.

5. Take heaping tsps of dough and roll them into egg shapes. Sit them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for about an hour.

Naked Peanut Butter Eggs!

6. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove. Roll the peanut butter eggs in the melted chocolate and sit them back onto the wax paper to set up (you can put them back in the fridge to speed this process).

Classic Peanut Butter Crosshatch Cookies

I think everyone remembers making these cookies as a kid. A simple peanut butter cookie that you press down with a fork to make a crosshatch pattern. With these particular cookies, I used a potato masher to get a great big grid! Use any sort of kitchen object with an interesting texture to create patterns in the top of your peanut butter cookies. These are best eaten straight out of the oven with a nice cold glass of rice milk. If they've been sitting around a few days, microwave them for about 10 seconds to bring back that fresh out of the oven flavor. This is a morphed Betty Crocker recipe gone vegan!




Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup margarine, softened (I use earth balance)
1/4 cup pureed silken tofu
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cream together the sugars, peanut butter and margarine. Mix in tofu and molasses until smooth.

3. Add the dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly incorporated.

4. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place about 3 inches apart on your cookie sheets. Then flatten using a fork dipped in flour, pressing the top of the cooking down to make a cross-hatch pattern. (Or use your potato masher! Or any other object as recommended above)

5. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.



* Tip! Hate cleaning cookie sheets? Line them with aluminum foil! Hate wasting foil? Save the cookie-stained foil to line your cookie sheet next time your baking a pie to avoid a sticky mess in the bottom of your oven. Still think its a waste? Recycle it! It's aluminum.

* Other Note! What the heck happened to that first cookie?! I used PB&Co Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter! It makes a darker brown cookie, but not a whole lot of flavor difference. Ah well, had to try.