It's Fall!

I love love love fall! Nothing is better than the cool crisp breeze after a hot summer, especially the muggy, can't breath summer days of Washington, DC. The second the weather gets into the low 80s and Labor Day has come and went it is our fall.

This past weekend I searched my cookbooks for a fall treat that I had the ingredients on hand for- Pumpkin Pie Brownies won. I hadn't made these before, but trust the cookbook "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" to the fullest Even if you aren't a vegan or have egg/dairy allergies, this is a fantastic cookbook, quickly followed up by "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World". Rumor has it that they have a pie cookbook coming out just in time for the holiday season which I will have to jump on.

For Brownie Layer:
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 cup canned or pureed pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

For pumpkin layer
3/4 cup canned or pureed pumpkin
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup (non-dairy) milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch ground allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan or a 9 inch square pan lined with parchment paper.

To make brownie layer:
Melt chocolate
In a large mixing bowl, mix together pumpkin, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine, then mix in melted chocolate.

To make pumpkin layer:
mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir til thoroughly combined.

To assemble:
*On my first run it all mixed together, so I don't have a full proof tip yet, but see below on what I am going to try on my next run
Use a spatula to spread the brownie layer mixture into the prepared baking pan, bring batter to edges of pan. Pour pumpkin layer over it, leaving a little room at the edges if you can. Bake for 30 minutes, until the pumpkin layer looks fairly firm- a little jiggling is ok- and has cracked at the edges a bit.

Let brownies cool for 20 minutes, then transfer pan to the fridge to set for at least an hour and a half. Once set you can decorate with chocolate chips, cut into wedges, and serve.

*I am going to put a greased pint glass or small bowl in the middle of my pan, then pour brownie in around it- that way my sides build up a little more. Remove glass allow brownie to come to middle enough to cover and pour pumpkin mixture into center.
Would love to hear your suggestions when you make these! They are delicious even if their presentation is not perfect.
Happy Fall!

Dairy-Free Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

As a fun treat after our (vegan) pizza & movie night I decided to make my kid some dairy-free ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert.

So I made a vegan chocolate chip oatmeal cookie

Put them on a cookie sheet and in the freezer to harden just enough to make it easy to spread the ice cream

 And using softened rice milk ice cream started to assemble the sandwiches

And wrapped them in some parchment and put them in a freezer safe, air tight container

But of course my Little Sous had to come in and guarantee quality right away

Success!

Easter Bunny Goes Hop Hop Hop

It's Easter. We've already had the school party where I have to dig through the candy that comes home to get all the dairy items out. I stress about my kid feeling like an outsider that he can't enjoy all the treats the other kids are. My heart breaks that he is so awesome about it. He sees a commercial for Chuck E Cheese and tells me he can't go there because he's allergic. He "checks" labels to see if there is dairy in them- he can't read yet, but he likes to think he knows what's up. I hide all the dairy items in the house, and they are very minimal, as I don't want to have anything in our home that he has to hear "no" to. The day I found ZPizza and that they made a vegan pizza was one of the happiest days ever. My kid could have a "normal" Friday night pizza delivery night.

I normally anticipate and am prepared for holiday treats. Ordering fun chocolate candies ahead of time, finding recipes to do a swap out for at parties, and this year I failed. I know I shouldn't take it as hard as I did today, but I did.

Let's back track to a few days ago to Tuesday at Target where we were strolling through the Easter aisles and my son saw those huge chocolate bunnies. He said "WOW, Mom! Do you think the Easter Bunny will bring me one of those!" Well, of course he will. I can make anything happen. Yes, I have gotten kind of cocky at this point in being able to prepare my son treats or finding them online from some of my favorite Allergy Safe resources. So Tuesday night I hopped online and discovered to get anything shipped in time for Easter would be at least an extra $35 in shipping. So I went to my next resource vegan bakeries...all who had vegan chocolate, but no bunnies. Panic set in and time was against me. No problem I would stop by Michaels and pick up a candy mold and some Enjoy Life chocolate chips...Michaels didn't have anything Easter left and was already set up for 4th of July.

It was in Bed and Bath's kitchen section (my fourth stop) that complete frustration and sadness came over me. I watched all of these people getting their milk chocolate bunnies for their Easter baskets and I had to wonder if their kids appreciated the awesomeness of a big chocolate bunny. All my kid wanted was a chocolate bunny...from the Easter Bunny. The most simple, purest childhood Easter Basket wish. Something that I took for granted, maybe eating an ear when I was a kid. I wanted him to have that luxury. To eat an ear and to feel too overwhelmingly full of chocolate that you don't feel like you could eat another sweet again. To just feel normal. To not hear "no, you can't have that you're allergic." I cried. I just broke down. The crazy woman surrounded by milk chocolate bunnies. Sobbing. I knew I didn't have time to go to Sur La Table- it was over 45 minutes away and my husband had to go to work. I sat in my car. Broken hearted. One last stop. One last try. I headed over to the party store. There I found candy molds for Easter lollipops. It wasn't going to be the big bunny my son wanted, but it was going to be chocolate and it was going to be in his Easter basket.

I will start looking for big bunny molds on Monday for next year, but for now I am going to make sure my son has a fantastic Easter morning.

So thankful these are stocked at my local grocery store!

melting those chips!

poured into the mold- yea, I added confetti sugar on the back

Easter Bunny!

Chick

Chocolate Lollies- don't worry that is edible Easter grass

Happy Easter, Bug!

***UPDATE***

It was all worth it for his excitement seeing his chocolate Easter Lollies. And...

This was my happiest moment of Easter