Category Archives: No-Bake

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

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Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

I miss primary school fêtes. I miss how the schoolyard looked and felt different when visited on the weekend in the sunshine, how the tables in the quadrangle adorned with homemade treats or “trash and treasure” seemed more alluring than any shopping mall ever could, and how much fun it was to run around wildly with friends without having to worry about a teacher yelling at us for going out of bounds.

I miss putting so much tomato sauce onto my sausage sizzle sausage that the flimsy white bread beneath grew soggy (but tangy!), and I miss buying a toffee cup for ten cents; I miss those toffee cups in muffin cases that were nothing more than caster sugar, water, and food colouring boiled together into discs then topped with sprinkles, ready to be sucked on for hours (or until accidentally dropped it in the dirt while playing tag).

Vegan Chocolate Coconut IceThere would always be at least one plate of coconut ice on the tables selling homemade goodies. A uniquely Australian treat, coconut ice is traditionally a pink and white layered confection made from coconut, copha, red food colouring, and either sweetened condensed milk or icing sugar and egg white.

Coconut ice is sweet, so sweet, and pretty, so pretty, and coconutty, so coconutty.

A few months ago, I remembered the existence of coconut ice and could suddenly think of naught but veganising it with the help of my enormous jar of coconut oil. In a vague nod towards being a Grown-Up rather than an seven-year-old girl with a sticky disc of half-licked toffee in her hand, I replaced the food colouring with cocoa powder and took the resulting gluten-free, dairy-free, definitely-not-sugar-free treat into work.

My colleagues may not have the same school fête memory associations with this vegan chocolate coconut ice as I do, but they seemed to love eating it all the same.

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Ice

Makes 16-20 squares, or more if you prefer teensy bites.
Adapted from Taste

  • 250g desiccated coconut
  • 500g pure icing sugar, sifted
  • 200g coconut oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  1. Line a 20cm (8 inch) square pan with non-stick baking paper, allowing paper to overhang the sides. In a large bowl, stir together the coconut and icing sugar.
  2. Melt the coconut oil in a medium saucepan over low heat, then add the vanilla extract. Immediately pour this over the coconut and sugar mixture, then stir stir stir stir stir! It may take a bit of elbow grease to get all the sugar and coconut incorporated into the coconut oil.
  3. Once the mixture is combined and cohesive, divide in half. Press one half smoothly and evenly into prepared pan. Add the cocoa to the remaining half, and mix well until the coconut is evenly coloured.
  4. Press the chocolate coconut mixture over the layer already in the pan, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour or until set.
  5. Remove the coconut ice from the pan, and use a sharp knife to cut into small squares. Store in the fridge. You can either serve this straight-crispy-hard-cold from the fridge, or let it soften a little at room temperature first.
  6. Are you done yet? Have you finished eating? Can we go play Red Light, Green Light in the schoolyard now, please?

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday, Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love and 5 Ingredient Monday.

Pumpkin Peanut Puff Pudding, Vegan and Gluten-free

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Pumpkin Peanut Puff Pudding, Vegan and Gluten-freeAt first glance, you may think that the above Pumpkin Peanut Puff Pudding is nothing more than an innocent sweet breakfast (or quick dessert) that ticks all the vegan, gluten-free, non-threatening, sweet yet healthful, delicious, moreish, and irresistible (particularly when topped with mini chocolate chips) boxes.

However, this breakfast/dessert is more than that. My peanut butter pumpkin pudding is a refutation, or perhaps proof positive (I haven’t quite decided yet), of Bourdieu’s theories of cultural capital and cultural hegemony, as defined and discussed in his seminal work La Distinction.

Pumpkin Peanut Puff Pudding, Vegan and Gluten-freeOn the one hand, we have ingredients liked organic canned pumpkin, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, coconut flour, and mesquite powder, all of which can be classified as luxury goods available predominately to the cultural elite: those with the money, knowledge, and leisure time to be aware of, value, and have access to products (and “tastes”) classified by society as Healthful, Prestigious and [often thereby] Tied To Moral Virtue (“you are what you eat… and what you eat should by organic/local/ethical/healthy/virtuous”).

On the other hand, I threw in peanut butter-flavoured sugary kids’ cereal, blended it all up, and topped the resulting thick and creamy pudding with chocolate chips. Which is less in line with the Eat Only Homegrown Sprouted Polka-Dot Chickpeas And Foraged-By-The-Light-Of-A-Crescent-Moon Maqui Berries strain of cultural capital, and more, well, trashy, perhaps?

Pumpkin Peanut Puff Pudding, Vegan and Gluten-freeOf course, you’re more than welcome to simply call this recipe “delicious” and have that be that. It is, after all, a tasty and nourishing creation, with the nutty maltiness of the cereal, mesquite, and coconut flour combining well with the roundness of pumpkin and your chosen extract and sweetener.

But, see, sometimes I miss academic life and how it felt to thread together the theories of Bourdieu, Veblen, Baudrillard, and Foucault in such a way as to cast light on the way our world shudders and moves around us.

So I’m calling this my Capital Pudding. Because it is both capital (ol’ chum!) and potentially reflective of class capital.

Though I still haven’t decided whether it’s more high or low culture.

Pumpkin Peanut Puff Pudding, Vegan and Gluten-free

Original recipe
Serves 1

  • 1/3 cup (heaping; 100g) pumpkin puree, canned or pureed
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, or any non-dairy milk
  • 1/2 cup (heaping; 25g) Peanut Butter Panda Puffs, or similar peanut butter cereal (*cough Reese’s Puffs cough*)
  • 1 tb coconut flour
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract (or vanilla extract)
  • 1/4 tsp mesquite powder (or cinnamon)
  • pinch salt
  • sweetener, to taste (coconut sugar, maple or agave syrup, or stevia)
  • chocolate chips, to garnish

1. Are you ready for this? PUREE EVERYTHING (except the chocolate chips) in a blender until gloriously smooth and thick. You can now enjoy this straightaway, or put in the fridge for an hour or so, at which point the pudding will thicken up gorgeously and you will be very happy. Garnish with chocolate chips before serving.

2. “Never resist a sentence you like, in which language takes its own pleasure and in which, after having abused it for so long, you are stupefied by its innocence.” - Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories, Volume One.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Friday, Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love, and 5 Ingredient Monday.

No-Bake Blondie Gems for Gems

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No-Bake Pecan Blondie BitesLast week, my two current housemates and I, plus the lass whose room I have been subletting, got together for a night of delicious food, laughter, and friendship.

I count myself truly lucky to have found at this sublet not only a bed to sleep in and a kitchen to dance around (ooh! and stairs to get concussed falling down on!), but also three inspiring, passionate, driven, and wonderful women to become friends with.

No-Bake Pecan Blondie BitesErin, thank you for sharing your career- and life-wisdom, and for the joy of playing duets together on the keyboard. Maíra, thank you for allowing me to borrow your room, for the Brazilian chocolate, and for always keeping an eye out for opportunities for me.

Sarah, thank you for everything that you are, for every late-night heart-talk and gigglefit, and for being someone I can’t conceive wasn’t always in my life.

Whole Foods TorontoWhole Foods, thank you for your contribution to our spread. Olives, thank you for hiding almonds within your depths; that was a delicious surprise. San Pellegrino, thank you for being so fizzy, both alone and as part of the cocktail I didn’t partake in because orange liqueur was involved.

Medjool dates, pecans, almonds, coconut sugar, and vanilla, thank you for being perfection. Thank you for joining together to create these no-bake vegan blondie gems for my housemate gems. Thank you for being delicious, and for providing a sweet ending to a night that was already very sweet.

No-Bake Pecan Blondie Bites

No-Bake Vegan Blondie Gems for Gems

Adapted from Amber’s Famous Five-Minute Raw Vegan Blondies

  • 1/2 cup raw pecans
  • 1/2 cup raw almonds
  • 2/3 cup rolled oats (certified gluten-free if need be)
  • 1 cup Medjool dates, gloriously squishy and sweet
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch sea salt

1. Process the pecans, almonds, and oats in a food processor until fairly finely chopped (but not a complete powder).

2. Add the dates, coconut sugar, vanilla extract, and salt, and process until the mixture is cohesive and sticks together when pressed between your fingers.

3. Roll into small balls and store in the fridge or freezer, or alternatively on a plate to wonderful friends, right now.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Fridays, and Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Squares, Vegan and No-Bake

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Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut SquaresI think there is a frenetic bumblebee stuck inside my chest. I think he is flying in circles around my sternum, breathless, whizzing, so fast as to be only a blur, so fast that even he, in his wild zooming, can’t be sure whether his movements are borne of excitement or terror.

I cannot feel still tonight. I can sit still, yes, but I cannot feel still. Something is coming. Change is coming. It is like the way the air smells before a thunderstorm hits on a stifling summer’s day: electric, fresh, new, dangerous. I am balanced on the balls of my feet, ready to spring, even as I sit here calmly, carefully, slowly typing these words.

Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut SquaresI want to dance madly in the moonlight and I want to collapse in a giggling heap of limbs on a Twister mat at 3am and I want to play Catch and Kiss in an empty school playground after walking precariously across the monkey bars with hands out for balance and I want to stand on the edge of a cliff dizzily carolling echoes into the abyss and I want I want I want I want I don’t know but I feel and it’s coming and I want I want I want.

Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut SquaresFor now, I will calm the whirling inside with these vegan no-bake chocolate peanut butter coconut squares. Enticingly sweet dates, rich peanut butter, dark cocoa, thrumming vanilla, white-bright coconut. Dairy-free, gluten-free, sweet but not cloying, chewy and soft and perfect and beckoning.

I can almost pretend that these are all I want.

And yet, and yet, can’t you smell the storm whispering through the air?

Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Squares

Makes 12 – 16
Original recipe

  • 1 cup (packed) Medjool dates, pits removed
  • 1 cup peanut butter (I used salted; add a pinch or two of salt if yours isn’t)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/3 cup desiccated coconut, plus more to sprinkle

1. Line a 20cm/8inch square tin with baking paper, extending the paper over the sides for easy removal later.

2. Place the dates, peanut butter, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder into a food processor, and process until everything is fully combined into a smooth dough/batter.

3. Add the 1/3 cup of coconut, and pulse until mixed through.

4. Tip the dough into the tin, and press down firmly until the mixture is smooth and evenly compressed. Sprinkle additional coconut on top, as much as your heart desires, and then place in the freezer for about half an hour. Cut into squares and serve, or store in the fridge or freezer for later.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Friday, Raw Foods Thursdays, and Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Caramel Rice Cake No Bake Balls

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Caramel Rice Cake No Bake BallsMy universe has tilted back onto its proper axis.

Thanks to the generosity of the luminescent Lisa and the radiant Ricki, two of my dearest Canadian friends, I have transitioned from being bereft of a food processor for over seven months to being the proud owner of both a medium-sized and a mini food processor.

I can finally make raw/vegan/no-bake balls/treat/snacks once more.

All is right in my world.

Caramel Rice Cake No Bake BallsToday’s no-bake treats are a curious yet delightful blend of “why yes of course I need to add a one kilogram box of Medjool dates to my shopping bag despite the fact that said bag is already so heavy that my shoulder may forevermore tilt to the right” and “I wish I hadn’t bought those stupid Quaker Caramel Rice Cakes purely because they were on sale because they’ve become nothing more than styrofoam-esque vehicles for increasing amounts of almond butter how can I use the rest of the dang package up” and “holy schmoly when did I forget that commas exist?”

In other words, these vegan treats are made from rice cakes, dates, nut butter, and oats. That’s all. Four ingredients; nothing more.

Caramel Rice Cake No Bake BallsI like these. I really do. They’re not super-gooey-sweet, as Medjool date-based treats often are, but instead pleasantly balanced between the nutty-malty-rice-y* flavour of the oats and rice cakes and the caramel tones of the dates and, well, the flavoured rice cakes. They’re a bit more restrained, a bit more mellow, than many of the treats I’ve made in the past.

Moreover, it simply gives my soul joy to know I have date-nut balls in my freezer again.

Vegan Caramel Rice Cake No-Bake Balls

Makes 12 – 20 (yep, I’m being that specific)
Adapted from my No-Bake Pear Hemp Rice Puff Treats

  • 3 (40g) Quaker Caramel Corn Rice Cakes (see note)
  • 1/3 cup (30g) whole rolled oats
  • 1 cup (150g) packed Medjool dates
  • 1-2 tablespoons nut butter (I used a cashew almond butter)
  1. Process the rice cakes and oats in a food processor to a fairly fine powder.
  2. Add the dates and nut butter, then keep processing until the mixture sticks together when pressed between your fingers.
  3. Make sure you’ve turned the food processor off before reaching in to check the consistency, yes? Yes. Good.
  4. Roll the mixture into balls, then store in the fridge or freezer (if stored in the freezer, let thaw a little before eating for maximum flavour winningness).

Note: If you don’t have access to caramel-flavoured rice cakes, then use plain rice cakes and throw in a tablespoon or so of golden syrup or maple syrup with the dates and nut butter, to taste.

* Yes, “rice-y”. How else would one describe the flavour of rice cakes?

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Healthy Vegan Friday.