Tested: Maple Walnut Blondie, Orange Chocolate Cookie, Molasses Cookie, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Cranberry Oatmeal, Double Chocolate Brownie.

Courser Farm Kitchen a little home based business located about 2 hours north of me in Warner, New Hampshire. I love supporting small local business and though they aren’t super local to me, they are local enough! I will definitely be placing orders in the future for these super awesome treats! They make cookies, brownies, bars, blondies and breads that are all gluten free and vegan! They also take special orders for cakes and cupcakes!

When I got the little box of heaven in the mail from Emma it may as well have been Christmas! I ripped it open and took a few nibbles of a few of the products but found the strength to wrap them back up (well, almost all of them…) and wait for my neighbor to be available to come taste test with me since he is gf. We had a blast eating them. The goodies we got to try were the Chocolate Chip Cookie, Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie, Orange Chocolate Cookie, Molasses Cookie, Double Chocolate Brownie and the Maple Walnut Blondie!

I am a sucker for Cranberry Oatmeal cookies so those were definitely my favorite, I just wish they had a little more cranberry in them. But then again, I always almost double the amount of cranberries in the recipe I use… The cookie was nice and chewy and perfectly spiced. The Chocolate Chip was pretty fantastic too, it reminded me of the Cookie Crisp cereal I used to eat when I was a kid. It would have been perfect dipped in an ice cold glass of almond milk. Molasses cookies rock my socks in general so it’s no surprise this one was another winner! Give me chewy cookies or give me death! The dark sweetness of the molasses with the gentle hint of ginger really made me wish I had a whole truckload of these bad boys.

Now, I am very against combining chocolate with fruit flavors like cherry, orange, raspberry, etc etc, but I was extremely surprised at how much I liked the Orange Chocolate Cookie. It is a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips with a touch of orange, which was the perfect amount for me. It actually has me rethinking my hatred (yeah, really) of fruit flavored chocolate. I wouldn’t say that I’m a convert, but I’m going to be more open minded about it. See what a good product can do?! Speaking of good products, Double Chocolate Brownies? Hell to the yes! Fudgy, chewy and wicked chocolatey? The brownie was so good it didn’t last long enough to be photographed!

New England is pretty awesome to begin with, but the fact that we have the best of the best maple syrups makes it that much better. And that is exactly what you get with the Maple Walnut Blondie. New Hampshire maple syrup in a cake like little bar sprinkled with walnut chunks. Are you salivating yet?

(Left: Maple Walnut Blondie. From Top to Bottom: Orange Chocolate Cookie, Molasses Cookie, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Cranberry Oatmeal. Not photographed: Double Chocolate Brownie. I inhaled it.)

Course Farm Kitchen sells there goods at a few local cafes and farmers markets, if you live in the New Hampshire area, or happen to be passing through, definitely stop by any of the places listed on their to grab some! If you don’t live in the area, get your butt over here and order some! What are you waiting for?!

Pros:

• Homemade.
• Local (sort of to me).
• Delicious!

Cons:

• None. Seriously.

Reviewed by Liz Whitaker

This is Halloween, this is Halloween. Halloween, Halloween!

Hi everybody, it’s Kristina again from spabettie, and I am here with a post themed on my favorite holiday. I have a few recipes to share, a cute pup, and some other fun shenanigans. A big thank you to the xgfx girls for having me here again!

Using the black quinoa is perfect for a jack o lantern.

First up, my carrot-ginger quinoa pepper jacks! These pepper jacks are always a big hit with everyone, and this year I am even more excited about the filling inside – a carrot ginger quinoa, and it’s SO good! 

This next one was all I needed last year for dessert on Thanksgiving. Couldn’t wait to make it again. Good thing the nog is back in shops already…

Pumpkin Ice Cream

From one pumpkin patch to another,

these treats are sweet!

Crispy Treat Pumpkin Patch (orange cardamom flavor).

Sometimes the spiders around here are big enough to scare the cats…

and that ice cream up there?

 Makes these:  Pumpkin Milkshakes!

My dachshund Basil loves Halloween, too. He is a turtle this year, and last year he was…

a submarine!

This time of year we just call him our Halloweenie. Now back to those pepper jacks. I let out a loud squeal when I found out that Pee-Wee Herman shared them!

I was pretty excited (I love Pee-Wee…) and have to admit I did his laugh a couple times when I saw this. ;) and the other fun thing that is happening with these pepper jacks right now…

These pepper jacks are a finalist in the Yummly Halloween recipe contest, and I would really love it if you helped a vegan and gluten free recipe win!! How cool would that be?

All you have to do is visit the site here and “like” the page. No signing up for anything, just “like”. I thank you in advance, and I hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Are you a Pee-Wee fan? What about dogs in costume?

*****

Thanks for another great post, Kristina!

Today’s treat is Spiced Chocolate Chia Pudding, a sweet and spicy Fall favorite of mine that’s yummy enough to be a dessert, but healthy enough to enjoy for breakfast.  In case you’ve been missing out on the chia goodness until now, they’re an easily digested, high fiber, nutrition-packed seed that form a gel when mixed with liquid and take on the taste of whatever you mix them with.  When left whole they remind me of tiny tapioca.  When mixed with chocolate they become a tasty and wholesome way to indulge your sweet tooth.  I love chia seeds almost as much as I love Fall.

Spiced Chocolate Chia Pudding

• 1/2 cup chia seeds
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 2 cups coconut milk beverage (or nut milk of your choice)
• 1/3 cup raw cashews
• 1/2 cup agave or maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• pinch sea salt

Stir together the chia seeds and shredded coconut in a mixing bowl.

In a high powered blender mix together the rest of the ingredients until completely smooth. Stir the wet mix into the seed mixture.

Let sit for 15 minutes and stir again. At this point the pudding can be divided into individual serving cups or left in the bowl to refrigerate. I like to put mine in 8 ounce juice glasses. Refrigerate at least 2-3 hours before serving. Makes about 4 servings.

Now, this recipe is super flexible so you can make this completely raw or less raw depending on your nut milk, sweetener and cacao vs. cocoa.  It’s just a little bit spicy.  Adding more cayenne will heat it up if you’re into that sort of thing.  Enjoy!

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Obviously, there are enough fabulous vegan websites and cookbooks to keep any cook inspired forever. Vegan MoFo proves that! However, almost any dish can be made vegan and made better. Just take a look at the Veganize It! Feature in VegNews if you have any doubts. This means that inspiration can come from anywhere; a menu at a restaurant, a dish a good friend has made or a non-vegan writer.

That happened to me when I was looking for an elegant treat to bring to a women’s party. The theme was a Red Tent Party, and our gracious hostess invited women from all parts of her life to come together to eat, drink, share experiences and just all-around celebrate the strong community that she has formed around her.

I wanted to bring something special, and something that fit with the theme. I found just what I was looking for on the smitten kitchen site. I needed to remake it, though, to make it Welcoming Kitchen-appropriate. On our blog and in our cookbook, all the recipes are not only vegan and gluten-free, but free of all the top 8 allergens.

Using pumpkin as the egg substitute, not only eliminated the cholesterol, but increased the fiber. Bonus! (Especially, since pumpkin is very autumnal, perfect for a red wine/spiced cake!) Using soy-free Earth Balance instead of butter provided scrumptious flavor without the cruelty. Another win! Then, I loved the spice idea and upped it just a little bit. The end result was a beautiful, sophisticated chocolate cake that was appropriate for everyone at the party to enjoy.

Chocolate Red Wine Cake Inspired by Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• ½ cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin is good, but not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder, divided
• 6 tablespoons soy-free Earth Balance
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup vegan white sugar
• ¾ cup vegan red wine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour (I used King Arthur brand.)
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon all-spice

• extra Earth Balance and cocoa to prepare the pan
• powdered sugar and cinnamon to dust on top

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Prepare pan by greasing with Earth Balance and dusting with cocoa. Shake out extra cocoa powder. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine pumpkin and ½ teaspoon baking powder.
4. Add Earth Balance and sugars, and cream together.
5. Add remaining ingredients, mix until thoroughly combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The top might still look pretty moist.
8. Cool in pan on cooling rack for 10 minutes, then out of pan until thoroughly cool.
9. Dust cake with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Happy Cooking!
Kim from Welcoming Kitchen

*****

Healthy, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Hi everyone and thank you for the opportunity to guest post on the amazing xgfx site! My name is Carrie and I’m the author of Carrie on Vegan, a blog for healthy, plant-based recipes.

This is me at the pumpkin patch last weekend. Clearly, I love pumpkins:

Before I get to today’s recipe, let me tell you a little about me. I’ve been vegan for just over a year for reasons of animal welfare, health and environmental protection. I am really passionate about using food to prevent and treat chronic disease, so much so that I am pursuing a career change to become a registered dietitian and earning my master’s degree in public health nutrition. For more about me, please click here.

My interest in gluten-free cooking began just this past summer when I developed food allergies and total body hives. Yikes! After about a month of itching I realized I better start avoiding common allergens including gluten. My allergic reaction symptoms immediately improved and my hives have steadily diminished. The more reading I did on gluten and grains in general, the more I learned how common these sensitivities are.

So, I am really at the beginning of a gluten-free diet, but I am looking at the experience as a creative challenge to learn to cook and eat a new way. Life without wheat and other foods I am avoiding is sad in some ways, but in other ways I am simply grateful to have my health back.

When I was deciding on a recipe to develop for this guest post I realized I was craving some muffins to serve along with all of the comforting soups and stews I’ve been making.

As mentioned, I visited my local farm stand last weekend where the pumpkins were rampant!

I love the transition from summer to fall and all of the wonderful squashes:

The recipe I developed is a Healthy, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Muffin. It’s healthy because, like all my recipes, it has no added sugar, salt or fat. In other words, it’s a whole-food recipe.

It’s also very simple to make!

First, you will need to preheat your oven to 350F degrees. Then, combine two cups of garbanzo bean flour, one tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice, 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds and ½ cup of raisins in a large bowl. If you like, you can also add ¼ cup of chopped walnuts for extra crunch.

Next, use a high-speed blender to combine 1 cup of unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used soy milk) with 10 pitted Medjool (large-sized) dates. Add ½ cup of unsweetened applesauce, ½ teaspoon of vanilla and ½ cup of pumpkin puree (I used canned).

You’ll get this aromatic mixture:

Stir or whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and divide into a lightly oiled muffin tin:

30-35 minutes later and you’ll have a delicately sweet muffin that has great texture and flavor.

Thanks again for the opportunity to guest post during VeganMoFo, and please come and say hi on my blog. You can also find me on Facebook, or on Twitter.

Sayward’s here today bringing us a raw Autumn awesomeness. Thanks so very much for sharing one fantastical recipe with us all!

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Autumn seems to be the favorite season among food bloggers, don’t you think? We all just sort of spring to life, like little squirrels, shaking off the vitamin-D hangover and taking stock of summers’ bounty. This is the season of stewing and storing; the return to the kitchen (goodbye barbecue – see you next year!). Farmer’s Markets are overflowing and inspiration is everywhere! The leaves turn and then fall, and the rain returns to wash them away, and everything begins to change. There’s nothing quite like a crisp cold wind, biting at your nose, to give you that push you’ll need to busy yourself buttoning down for winter.

So hello, xgfx! Let’s do some autumn uncooking!

Is there anything more quintessentially “autumn” than a good old fashioned pumpkin pie? And by “old fashioned”, of course I mean totally modern and unlike any traditional confection that any pilgrim ever ate (not that they actually ate pumpkin pie, but that’s a whole other story). So this is pumpkin pie redux:  the classic flavors combined with an unconventional preparation. A little bit of old and a little bit of new makes for a healthier treat that’s still a guaranteed to please.

Raw Pumpkin Pie with Chocolate-Kissed Pecan Crust

Ingredients:

Crust –

1 1/2 cups pecans
1 cup pitted dates, soaked at least an hour
1/2 shredded coconut
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon raw cacao powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Filling –

2 cups cashews, soaked at least 2 hours
1 cup fresh pumpkin juice + juice of 1 carrot
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Instructions:

Combine all crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse to blend, scraping down the sides as needed. Don’t over mix it; you want it a bit crumbly. Use a bit of coconut oil to grease a pie pan, and then press the crust mixture into the pan. There might be some extra. You can save it to sprinkle on top of the pie as a sort of “crumble”, but I highly recommend eating it immediately. Pie making is hard work and you’ll need to keep your strength up!

Place the crust in the freezer and allow it to ‘set up’ for at least an hour. In the meantime, juice the pumpkin (rind and all!) and carrot. Don’t forget to save the pulp, which will make an awesome base for soup or muffins or whatever other pumpkiny goodness you can imagine. Also, if you don’t have an electric juicer, no worries: all you need is a food processor or blender.

Combine all the filling ingredients in a food processor or blender and crank that sucker, pausing every so often to scrape down the sides. You want the filling to be as smooth as possible, so blend the bejeezus out of it.

Remove the crust from the freezer and carefully add the filling, then refreeze the whole thing for a minimum of 2 hours. After this initial freeze the pie can be stored in the refrigerator. It will keep in there, covered with plastic wrap, for about a week. But yeah right. It ain’t gonna last that long.

Happy autumn!

Nothing coloring that creamy filling except for ripe, ripe strawberries.

You know what’s more awesome than sunflowers shooting, fig trees figgin’ and dahlias spurting forth from the warm Spring ground?  Soaking all of this goodness up while eating chocolate chip cookies stuffed with local strawberry creme.   I know!

Dreena Burton sure knows how to bake. These were amazing.

The cookie recipe is Dreena Burton’s and since it’s already xgfx, there’s nothing to do except whip up some creme stuffin’ while you wait for these to bake.  I love that the recipe only makes 13 cookies, which I think is the perfect amount.  Especially if you have decadent plans for them like I did.

The only modification made to the cookies was the use of superfine brown rice flour.  The filling was made from a standard coconut oil cream cheeze frosting:  Tofutti, coconut oil, vanilla, powdered sugar and the ripest strawberries.

xo kittee

The double batch of brownies I just pulled from the oven are the third go I’ve had with this recipe in the last two weeks, I like ‘em that much. The first were developed as an experiment for a friend’s birthday and had great results, so the second were baked for our local World Wide Vegan Bake-sale (y’know to make sure there’d be enough xgfx stuff for the masses), and this last batch I made just for us–since my folks are visiting from far away. However, since it’s become apparent that my Dad is still stuck somewhere in the Stone Age, I had to make half special for him without the rocks, since he’s anti-keen on the marshies.

I’m inspired to share the recipe with you, since we were just discussing brownies over on Facebook. This was modified from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, which has remained one of my favorite cookbooks since I first went vegan over 20 years ago. I thought the method of the recipe was super unique, since I’d never heard of cooking flour and water together to make a thick brownie base before, but it seems other folks like The Cinamon Quill are having success with this method as well. Personally, I find my version works best if you use extra fine brown rice flour and allow the brownies a chance to set up in the fridge overnight or for a few hours, because otherwise I find they’re super gooey straight outta the oven, especially with the melted Dandies oozing all over the place.

Rocky Road Brownies

Makes an 8X8 brownie pan full.

What You Need:

• 1/3 cup teff flour
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup vegan margarine (you can sub a few tablespoons of coconut oil for a few of the margarine)
• 2/3 cup Fair Trade cocoa powder
• 1 cup unbleached granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, unpacked
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons finely ground flax meal
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/3 cups superfine brown rice flour
• ¼ cup tapioca flour
• ½ cup potato starch
• ½ bag Dandies marshmallows, each marshmallow cut in half
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

What You Do:

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the teff flour and water, then over medium heat, stir constantly until it turns into a thick, thick goo. Spoon into the bowl of your stand mixer and allow to sit while you work on step two (if you have guns, you can also do these by hand in a big bowl with a wooden spoon, but the stuff gets really thick).
2. Wash out the saucepan, place it over medium-high heat and melt the vegan margarine. Quickly whisk in the cocoa powder to combine, then dump this mixture on top of the teff mixture, and allow it all to cool.
3. Once the stuff has cooled, preheat your oven to 350F, and then beat the stuff until smooth.
4. Next beat in the baking powder, sugars, salt, vanilla and flax-seed. Then beat in the brown rice flour and starches until smooth, thick and batter-like. Last, toss in the marshmallows and nuts, and stir by hand to incorporate.
5. Scrape into a well greased square brownie pan (or line with parchment to get them out easier) and bake 35-40 minutes. When done the top will become crunchy and the brownies will have risen and become set, but still slightly soft in the center, without being jiggly.
6. Allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Cut into squares and declare yourself a master of xgfx brownies.

This biscotti is just like a chocolate chip cookie… except it won’t fall apart if you decide to dunk it into your cuppa Joe.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup organic granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 flaxeggs (2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 4 tbsp water)
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 1 cup sorghum flour
• 3/4 cup potato starch
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 °F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.

Combine olive oil, sugar, vanilla and flaxeggs together into smooth mixture.

In separate smaller bowl, combine the almond flour, sorghum flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, salt and baking powder. Sift together to mix all the flours together really well.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients until a stiff dough forms. It may appear crumbly at first, but keep mixing until you have a very thick dough.

Add in chocolate chips.

Divide dough into two balls and place onto parchment paper. Use your hands to shape each ball into a loaf, about 2″ x 10″ each.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Increase oven temp to 375 °F. Once loaves have cooled, carefully cut diagonally to make long cookies.

Place on opposite side that they were baking on as a loaf, and bake in preheated oven for about 8 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely. They will get nice and hard and biscotti-like.

Dunk!